wandered over the broad valley which was stretched out below, and she could see the red roofs of the Blakstad mansion peeping forth between the fir-trees. And she wondered what they were doing down there, whether Grimhild had done milking, and whether her father had returned from the ford, where it was his habit at this hour to ride with the footmen to water the horses. As she sat thus wondering, she was startled by a creaking in the dry branches hard by, and lifting her eye, she saw a tall, rather clumsily built, young man emerging from the thicket. He had a broad but low forehead, flaxen hair which hung down over a pair of dull ox-like       eyes; his mouth was rather large and, as it was half open, displayed two massive rows of shining white teeth. His red peaked cap hung on the back of his head and, although it was summer, his thick wadmal vest was buttoned close up to his throat; over his right arm he had flung his jacket, and in his hand he held a bridle.     

       “Good evening,” said Brita, “and thanks for last meeting;” although she was not sure that she had ever seen him before.     

       “It was that bay mare, you know,” stammered the man in a half apologetic tone, and shook the bridle, as if in further explanation.     

       “Ah, you have lost your mare,” said the girl, and she could not help smiling at his helplessness and his awkward manner.     

       “Yes, it was the bay mare,” answered he, in the same diffident tone; then, encouraged by her smile, he straightened himself a little and continued rather more fluently: “She never was quite right since the time the wolves were after her. And then since they took the colt away from her the milk has been troubling her, and she hasn’t been quite like herself.”      

       “I haven’t seen her anywhere hereabouts,” said Brita; “you may have to wander far, before you get on the track of her.”      

       “Yes, that is very likely. And I am tired already.”      

       “Won’t you sit down and rest yourself?”      

       He deliberately seated himself in the grass, and gradually gained courage to look her straight in the face; and his dull eye remained steadfastly fixed on her in a way which bespoke unfeigned surprise and admiration. Slowly his mouth broadened into a smile; but his smile 

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