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"I was tumbled out upon the shore, I don't know how," declared Hund: "found myself sprawling on a rock, while the creature's cries brought my heart into my mouth as I lay." "Alone? were you alone?" asked his mistress. "I had landed the pastor some hours before, madame; and I took nobody else with me, as Stiorna can tell; for she saw me go." "Stiorna is at the mountain," observed madame, coolly.
And Frolich pointed to a patch of verdure on a slope high up the mountain, where the gazer might just discern that there were haycocks standing, and two or three moving figures beside them. "Stiorna is there to-day, besides Jan. They hope to finish this evening," said Frolich; "and so here I am, all alone: and I am glad you have come to help me to have a good supper ready for them.
She turned towards the dairy when he was gone, instead of indulging herself with watching him down the mountain. She was busy skimming bowl after bowl of rich milk, when Frolich ran in to say that Stiorna had dressed herself, and put up her bundle, and was setting forth homewards, to see, as she said, the truth of things there; which meant, of course, to learn Hund's condition and prospects.
"You will change your mind, Miss Frolich, when you see them on the table," observed Ulla. "That is just what father said. And he asked how I thought Erica and Stiorna would like to have a den in their neighbourhood when they go up to the mountain for the summer. O, it will be all right when the hunt is well over, and all the bears dead.
Stiorna preferred making butter, and gazing southwards, to attending the wedding of Hund's rival; but every one else was glad to go. The summons arrived quite as soon as it could have been looked for; and the next day there was as pretty a boat procession on the still waters of the fiord as had ever before glided over its surface.
A consultation about the arrangements was held before the door by the four who were all in a good humour; for Stiorna remained aloof. This, like other mountain dwellings, was a mere sleeping and eating shed, only calculated for a bare shelter at night, at meals, and from occasional rain.
Just when a youth from the highest pasture on Sulitelma had come, running and panting, to present Frolich with a handful of fringed pinks and blue gentian, plucked from the very edge of the glacier, so that their colours were reflected in the ice, Stiorna appeared, in haste, to tell that a party, on horseback and on foot, were winding out of the ravine, and coming straight up over the pasture.
"There! let her go!" cried Frolich, looking after Stiorna, as she walked away slowly, trailing her lure after her. "She may knit all her ill-humour into her stocking, if she likes, as Hund is to wear it, and that is better than putting it into our cheese. Erica," said the kind-hearted girl. "You are worth a hundred of her.
His daughters knew what he was thinking about, and after a moment's consultation, Frolich asked whether she and the maid Stiorna might not be the rowers. Nobody would have objected if Hund had not. The girls could row, though they could not hunt bears; and the weather was fair enough; but Hund shook his head, and went on preparing the boat.
I will carry it myself, in token of good-will, if you will let me, Erica. Here, shift it upon my head." Erica would not hear of this, and began to walk away with her load, begging Stiorna to watch the cattle, not once to take her eye off them, till she should return to assume her watch for the night hours. "I know why you will not let me carry the cheese," said Frolich, smiling.
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