Brekke farm fell into the hands of creditors. Shocked by her eldest son's suicide and dazed at the sudden change in her situation, Guro moved in with her son Sveinung at Byggland.

Andres found a place at a neighboring farm for himself, Kari, and their five children. At the ages of sixteen and fourteen, his two oldest, Knut the firstborn and Bjørn the second, had finished their schooling, passed confirmation, and now worked all day in the fields like other grown men. Their sisters Gold-Guro and Anniken helped with housework and tending their toddler brother.

At Homme, Jon's parents Torjus and Tone cracked down on expenses, determined not even to begin the downward slide into debt. When their next-youngest son Sveinung got married to a young woman from Håtveit, the celebration was a simple one, with only an hour of music and dancing. Torjus played the first number then handed the fiddle over to Jon despite his protests. "I just can't handle the fretting any more," Torjus said, rubbing his swollen knuckles. They cracked like dice rattling. "It's about time you took my place."

Jon and his brother Halvor Lamefoot worked long hours in the fields. Birgit took toddler Halvor along while she herded the sheep or wandered through the forest gathering nuts and berries.

Whenever he got caught up on tasks at home, Jon helped out with the unending toil at the farms of neighbors and kin. He spent a week at his cousins' farm at Breidalen during harvest season of 1834. His eighty-five-year-old widowed Aunt Margit was doing poorly, aching from several recent sprains and falls, including a cracked tailbone. Then one morning she didn't wake up.

Jon returned home to Homme, somber with loss. His father Torjus, the youngest of Liv Steinarsdotter's children, had only one sibling left, Fair Anne at Loupedalen. The nearly constant work and worry was taking its toll on Torjus, now just short of seventy years old. Tone fretted over his health.

But then it was Tone who took ill. Jon's mother,only sixty-seven, caught pneumonia, and despite the vigilant care of her family, died a few weeks after Margit's funeral. Torjus' graying hair turned completely white, and the fiddle hung silent on the wall until spring.

.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Tone: "TOE-neh"

This chapter has two Sveinungs, two Halvors, two Guros, and two Annes (including Anniken), another example of Norse naming patterns!

In the farmhouse at Brekke there still stands today a wardrobe carved with the names "Såve Vetleson and Gunhild Olavsdotter." This couple bought Brekke farm in 1870, but twelve years later emigrated to the United States, leaving the wardrobe behind.

Reminder: This saga began with Liv Steinarsdotter (1722-1803).  Jon's father Torjus was her youngest child. Here's a glimpse back at her family chart from 1771: