Delighted as he was with his purchase, both he and his wife took that day a little more than was good for them, and Bernt, the son, also had a taste.
Their shopping done, they set out to sail the new boat home.

It had no other ballast than himself, his wife and children, and the Christmas fare.

His son Bernt sat in the fore-part, his wife, with the help of the second son, held the halliard, and Elias sat at the helm, while the two younger boys, twelve and fourteen years of age, were to take turns at baling.
They had eight miles [About thirty-eight English miles = eight Norwegian sea miles.] to sail, and when they got out to sea, it was pretty evident that they would come to prove the boat the first time she was used.

A storm was gradually rising, and the foam-crests began to break on the great waves.
Now Elias saw what sort of a boat he had; she cleared the waves like a sea-bird, without so much as a drop coming in, and he therefore judged that he did not need to take in a reef, which in an ordinary ten-oared boat he would be obliged to do in such weather.
Later in the day he noticed, not far off on the sea, another ten-oared boat fully manned and with four reefs in the sail, exactly as he had.
Her course was the same as his, and he thought it rather strange that he had not seen her before.

She seemed desirous of racing with him, and when Elias saw this he could not refrain from letting out another reef.
The boat now flew with the speed of an arrow past naze, island and rock, till Elias thought he had never been for such a splendid sail before, and the boat now showed herself to be, as she really was, the first boat in Ranen.
In the meantime the sea had grown rougher, and two considerable waves had already broken over them.