The Girl from the Marsh Croft

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Lagerlöf Selma. The Girl from the Marsh Croft

The Girl from the Marsh Croft

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VI

The Silver Mine

The Airship

The Wedding March

The Musician

The Legend of the Christmas Rose

A Story from Jerusalem

Why the Pope Lived to be so Old

The Story of a Story

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It took place in the court room of a rural district. At the head of the Judges' table sits an old Judge – a tall and massively built man, with a broad, rough-hewn visage. For several hours he has been engaged in deciding one case after another, and finally something like disgust and melancholy has taken hold of him. It is difficult to know if it is the heat and closeness of the court room that are torturing him or if he has become low-spirited from handling all these petty wrangles, which seem to spring from no other cause than to bear witness to people's quarrel-mania, uncharitableness, and greed.

He has just begun on one of the last cases to be tried during the day. It concerns a plea for help in the rearing of a child.

.....

The Judge turns once more to the poor girl. "It shall be as you wish," he says. "The case shall be stricken from the Calendar," – this to the recording clerk.

The defendant makes a move, as though he wished to interpose an objection. "Well, what now?" the Judge bellows at him. "Have you anything against it?"

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