agreed, and that was that Arne the blacksmith had been in the fray, and they had seen him belaboring the rest with a Spaniard. For this conduct Arne the blacksmith was fined one dollar, for which his wife, who had led him into the scrape, received a thrashing on the eleventh Sunday after Trinity, which she had good cause to remember. This was the sole judicial result of the battle.
But it had other results. The little town was no longer a peaceful town; the fisher maiden had thrown it into an uproar. The strangest rumors were set afloat,—at first from jealous resentment that she should have attracted the most talented man of the town and its two wealthiest matches and still have “several” in reserve; for Gunnar had gradually become “several young men.” Soon there arose a universal moral storm. The disgrace of a great street fight and sorrow in three of the best families of the town rested on the young girl who but half a year since had been confirmed. Three engagements at once, and one of them with her teacher, her life benefactor! Ah! indignation overflowed. Had she not been a scandal to the town from her childhood up, and had not the people nevertheless shown her how much they expected of her by
