Knut Hamsun

ove makes a fool of the wise. Isak felt he must do something grand himself, and overdid it. "What I was going to say; you've no need to bother with hoeing potatoes. I'll do it myself the evening, when I come home."
And he took his ax and went off to the woods.
She heard him felling in the woods, not so far off; she could hear from the crash that he was felling big timber. She listened for a while, and then went out to the potato field and set to work hoeing. Love makes fools wise.

thought it over. What a mind, to hit on that all at once, and save himself!

come nearer to her by treating her with indifference and scorn.

endure it, for I love the

hand that drags me.’

And then, again, he would go all through the week, from Sunday to Sunday, without a wash.

And in the morning, before the sun was up, and the evening, after it had gone, there was always a shiny drop hanging from the tip of his nose.