Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - The Beggar
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a child; as he was a living shame on earth, he must
relieve the earth of the burden of so much wretchedness.
He must free his soul and let it return to
God.
As he lay half stupefied on the bench, he passed
sentence upon himself. “Gösta Berling, disgraced
clergyman, charged with stealing the sustenance of
a hungry child, is sentenced to death. What death?—Death
in the snowdrifts.”
He clutched his cap and staggered out. He was
not quite awake, nor was he sober, and he wept,
thinking of his degraded soul which he was going to
set at liberty. He did not go far, nor did he leave
the highway. A deep drift lay close at hand; he cast
himself into it and tried to sleep again.
None knew how long he lay there, but life still
dwelt within him when, later in the evening, the
parson’s little daughter ran down the road with a
light in her hand and found him lying there. She
had expected him hours ago, and at last ran down
to the village to find him. She recognized him at
once, and tried to shake him, screaming loudly.
She must know what he had done with her sack
of flour. He must revive, if only to tell her what had
become of the sledge and meal-sack. Her father
would kill her if the sledge were not forthcoming.
She bit the hand of the sleeping man, scratched his
face, and screamed as if crazy.
Just then some one drove by.
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