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said to be even better at stopping diarrhea. The problem
was, they had no dried mutton. Out in the storehouse were
several dried fish, and also a barrel of salted whale meat.
Martimann had been the anchorman in the Geil house even
since he and Betta had married. Many summers he had
sailed with the Scottish sloop
Glen Rose
, and much of that
income went to renovating the dilapidated house. He put
new pieces of bark on the roof and asked Ludda-Kristjan to
build a double window, which he himself installed. The
house was set on stony ground, and Martimann built a
chimney in the northwest corner. He placed stones on a
small piece of ground in front of the chimney, and that is
where he set the stove. The smoking parlor was converted
into a kitchen, and all the sunlight that streamed in through
the new window quite literally heralded brighter days.
The floor was finished, and the plan was to build a kitchen
table where Betta could sort clothes and attend to other
household tasks. Martimann was a driven soul, and during
the years he lived in the Geil house, there was no dearth.
By New Year’s, however, there was not much money left and
Old Tóvó could hardly go to country surgeon Regenburg or
Dr. Napoleon empty-handed and ask them to come and see
to Martimann.
Nonetheless, Old Tóvó spoke to Napoleon, and the doctor
told him that dedicated care was about the best they could