When the sea is rather rough, and the fishermen are coming home in

 When the sea is rather rough, and the fishermen are coming home in

their great boats, it is wonderful to see how they cross the reefs.

One of them stands upright in the bow of the boat, and the others

watch him sitting with the oars in their hands. Outside the reef it

looks as if the boat was not approaching land but going back to sea;

then the man who is standing up gives them the signal that the great

wave is coming which is to float them across the reef. The boat is

lifted high into the air, so that the keel is seen from the shore; the

next moment nothing can be seen, mast, keel, and people are all

hidden- it seems as though the sea had devoured them; but in a few

moments they emerge like a great sea animal climbing up the waves, and

the oars move as if the creature had legs. The second and third reef

are passed in the same manner; then the fishermen jump into the

water and push the boat towards the shore- every wave helps them-

and at length they have it drawn up, beyond the reach of the breakers.

    A wrong order given in front of the reef- the slightest

hesitation- and the boat would be lost,

    "Then it would be all over with me and Martin too!"

    This thought passed through Jurgen's mind one day while they

were out at sea, where his foster-father had been taken suddenly

ill. The fever had seized him. They were only a few oars' strokes from

the reef, and Jurgen sprang from his seat and stood up in the bow.

    "Father-let me come!" he said, and he glanced at Martin and across

the waves; every oar bent with the exertions of the rowers as the

great wave came towards them, and he saw his father's pale face, and

dared not obey the evil impulse that had shot through his brain. The

boat came safely across the reef to land; but the evil thought

remained in his heart, and roused up every little fibre of

bitterness which he remembered between himself and Martin since they

had known each other. But he could not weave the fibres together,

nor did he endeavour to do so. He felt that Martin had robbed him, and

this was enough to make him hate his former friend. Several of the

fishermen saw this, but Martin did not- he remained as obliging and

talkative as ever, in fact he talked rather too much.

    Jurgen's foster-father took to his bed, and it became his

death-bed, for he died a week afterwards; and now Jurgen was heir to

the little house behind the sand-hills. It was small, certainly, but

still it was something, and Martin had nothing of the kind.

    "You will not go to sea again, Jurgen, I suppose," observed one of

the old fishermen. "You will always stay with us now."

    But this was not Jurgen's intention; he wanted to see something of

the world. The eel-breeder of Fjaltring had an uncle at Old Skjagen,

who was a fisherman, but also a prosperous merchant with ships upon

the sea; he was said to be a good old man, and it would not be a bad

thing to enter his service. Old Skjagen lies in the extreme north of

Jutland, as far away from the Hunsby dunes as one can travel in that

country; and this is just what pleased Jurgen, for he did not want

to remain till the wedding of Martin and Else, which would take

place in a week or two.

    The old fisherman said it was foolish to go away, for now that

Jurgen had a home Else would very likely be inclined to take him

instead of Martin.

    Jurgen gave such a vague answer that it was not easy to make out

what he meant- the old man brought Else to him, and she said:

    "You have a home now; you ought to think of that."

    And Jurgen thought of many things.

    The sea has heavy waves, but there are heavier waves in the

human heart. Many thoughts, strong and weak, rushed through Jurgen's

brain, and he said to Else:

    "If Martin had a house like mine, which of us would you rather

have?"

    "But Martin has no house and cannot get one."

    "Suppose he had one?"