THREE FARMS: DALEN, HOMME, ÅE:

The family at Jusureid cabin shrank to seven members when Hæge married and left home, then returned to eight at the birth of Tarjei's son. During her sister-in-law's recovery from a hard childbirth, Gunnhild would rock her nephew's cradle with one foot while bent over her embroidery. But to her sorrow, the little boy died within the year.

Tarjei and his wife remained in the crowded cabin for several years longer as the whole family scrimped by. What they would have done without Gunnhild's earnings from embroidery, she didn't know. Far too often her father spent what little they had on liquor, to drown the pains of an unjust world.

Acting on information sent from Kristiania, the parish doctor ordered a shipment of limes and lemons, the British navy's front line against scurvy. But the mysteriously helpful fruit arrived too late to save Liv Torjusson at Homme. She died in 1824, a year after her sister. Her brother Jon neglected his fiddle practice, too grief-stricken for either music or humor. For months the Homme farmhouse sorrowed in silence.

Over the next two years, three babies died shortly after birth: a halfbrother of Gunnhild's at Jusureid cottage, her nephew at Huvestad, and at Breidalen in 1826, Longlegs Halvor Aslaksson's third child. Tall Såmund Aslaksson of Åe farm put an arm around his brother's shoulders as they grieved, and the words of an old song trickled into memory. "Up to heaven, Lord, help her find her way. Do you remember Mormor Liv singing those words, Halvor?"

Longlegs Halvor took a ragged breath, and after a few moments nodded. "She sang it to me when my puppy died. I must have been only seven or eight years old. I do remember bits and pieces of that song. Her face looked so sad, and yet calm and full of peace, and her voice – like an angel." He sighed. "Tell me the lyrics, if you remember them all. Don't try singing. You didn't inherit her ear for music."

Tall Såmund gave half a chuckle, and gathered the flitting remnants of song from the corners of his memory. "In the west, the sun is setting..."