Read "Martin Birck's Youth" by Hjalmar Soderberg online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Home was quieter and more empty than before. Maria, Martin's sister, had been married a year ago to a doctor who lived far away in the country, and grandmother was no longer there.
In the evening Martin and his companions were to have a supper at Hasselbacken. Martin's father gave him five crowns to offer to the joy of youth, and his mother took him aside and said: "Martin, Martin, you must promise me to be careful tonight and not be led into any foolishness. Don't make a point of emptying your glass every time anyone drinks a toast with you, or you'll lose your head. The best thing would be just to pretend you drank. And I must tell you, Martin, that there is a class of dreadful women who do nothing else but try to lead young men to their destruction. You must beware of them especially. Dear Martin, if I only knew you had given yourself to the Lord and had your thoughts fixed on Him, I shouldn't be anxious about you; but I know you don't do that. Their very breath is poisonous; if you only stand on the street and talk to such a woman, you may catch the most frightful diseases that no doctor in the world can cure."