The Old Crofter

The crofter is a lonely old man, a former farmhand living by himself, who takes the wandering peddler in for the night. Starved of companionship, he is warmly hospitable, sharing his food, his tobacco and his card-playing, and confiding with childlike pride that his cow has earned him thirty kronor. His trusting openness — even showing his guest exactly where his money is kept — makes him vulnerable, and the peddler betrays that trust by robbing him. The crofter's warmth and loneliness both set the plot in mot …