his shoulder through shrubs and narrow mountain ways down into the
valley. His path was dark and difficult, and jutting rocks often
hemmed his footsteps; but his love for Anneli kept him from feeling
weary, and the thought of her joy always gave him new strength. Thus,
after hours of toil, he arrived at last in the village, and stood
before Anneli's door. Then he took a packet carefully out of his
shepherd's bag, and with the prettiest ribbons which his mother had
been able to find in the nearest town he adorned the tree; and that
Anneli's heart might make no mistake, he tied at the top a bunch of
alproses, such as he used to bring every evening when he was the
goat-herd and she a lovely little child. Then he planted the pole
firmly in the ground right before Anneli's window, and with a glance
at the bright ribbons fluttering gaily in the wind like the streamers
from a ship, he turned joyfully towards the mountain and his
slumbering herds.

It was evening, and the farewell sunbeams shed their gold on the
mountain meadows and the senner's dark flowing hair, as he went with
pail and stool to milk the herds just returning from the pasture. Well
he loved the mountain, the herds, and the evenings full of sunset
splendour and of peace. But to-day he had no eye for the glory around
him; he thought of the valley and of Anneli, who was to join to-day
for the first time in the village dance, and who would be led by some
richer hand. Hitherto, he had thought himself passing rich; to-day,
for the first time, he sighed over his poverty. He sat down beside his
favourite, Brownie, and began to milk; but in the middle of his work
his hands dropped on his lap, and he began to wonder who besides
himself had set up trees for Anneli, and whether she had known his
among them all. Surely she must have. The bunch of alproses at the top
would tell her, and he smiled to himself, and began again to milk.Then a well-known voice called to him from the cottage, "Hallo, Hans! where are you hiding? I have been searching the whole place for you."
Hans shouted back an answer, and there appeared above the hedge the face of Seppi, the only one of the farm-servants who did not grudge Hans his place in Anneli's favour, and who had always remained his firm and faithful friend.
"Well, Seppi, what good news do you bring?" asked Hans, with a feeling of presentiment. "What brings you so late to the mountain?"
"It is Anneli, self-willed girl," answered Seppi, laughing. "She will not go to the dance without you. Quick, quick, put on your best clothes. The fiddlers are ready, and the maidens waiting to be fetched. I 

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