Which two sentences best show that Niels Lyhne welcomed time away from his studies? adapted from Niels Lyhne by Jens Peter Jacob
sen Jens Peter Jacobsen's "Niels Lyhnne" was published in Denmark in 1880. During this time period, social mobility increased, but there was still a large gap between social classes in terms of educational and economic opportunity. For about a year, Niels Lyhne had lived at Lön-borggaard, managing the farm as well as he knew how. He had learned to know the joy found in purely physical labor. He found joy in seeing the pile growing under his hand and in being able to get through with what he was doing so that he really was through. He also knew that the work would stand and not be eaten up by doubt in the night or dispersed by criticism on the morning after. There were no Sisyphus stones in agriculture. What joy it was, too, when he had worked till he was tired, to go to bed and gather strength in sleep and to spend it again, as regularly as day and night followed one upon the other. He was never hindered by the caprices of his brain and did not have to handle himself gingerly like a tuned guitar with loose pegs. He was really happy in a quiet way, and often he would sit, as his father had sat, on a stile or a boundary stone, staring out in a strange, vegetative trance. As yet he had not begun to seek the society of the neighboring families, except Councillor Skinnerup's in Varde, whom he visited quite frequently. The Skinnerups had come to town while his father was still living, and as the Councillor was an old university friend of Lyhne's, the two families had seen much of each other. Skinnerup, a mild, baldheaded man with sharp features and kind eyes, was now a widower, but his house was more than filled by his four daughters, the eldest seventeen, the youngest twelve years old. The Councillor had read much, and Niels enjoyed a chat with him on various subjects. Though Niels had learned to use his hands, that, of course, did not turn him into a country bumpkin all at once. He was rather amused sometimes at the almost absurd care he had to exercise whenever the conversation turned to a comparison between Danish and foreign literature. Caution was absolutely necessary, however, for the mild-mannered Councillor was one of the fierce patriots. He might grudgingly admit that Denmark was not the greatest of the world powers, but would not tolerate anyone saying anything that might place his country anywhere but in the lead.
