All who had been long on the place thought the building next in age to the stone huts was the old larder that stood on posts. It had not been built by the first settler, but was erected some hundred years after his time, when Mårbacka had become a regular farmstead.
The peasants then living there had hurriedly put up a post-larder, it being the rule that every farm of any pretension must have one. It was a crude structure. The door was so low one had to stoop to enter; but the lock and key were conspicuously large and strong. There were no windows, only small openings, with trap-shutters. In summer there were fly-screens at the openings made of woven splints, through which very little light could penetrate.
The larder had two stories. The upper story being better finished than the lower, it was probably there the peasants stored their valuables.
In Lieutenant Lagerlöf's time the building was as in olden days. It may have had a new roof, perhaps, but the steps were never changed. They were so nar-
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