he
had found in him one whom he regarded as a dear son, as well as a
first-class mine-hand. Also Ulla's regard for him became more and more
unmistakeable. Often, when he was going to his work, and there was any
prospect of danger, she would enjoin him to be sure to take care of
himself, with tears in her eyes. And she would come running to meet him
when he came back, and always had the finest of Aehl, or some other
refreshment, ready for him. His heart danced for joy one day when
Pehrson said to him that as he had brought a good sum of money with
him, there could be no doubt that--with his habits of economy and
industry--he would soon have a 'Hemmans,' or perhaps even a 'Fraelse';
and then not a mineowner in all Falun would say him nay if he asked for
his daughter. Fain would Elis have told him at once how unspeakably he
loved Ulla, and how all his hopes of happiness were based upon her.
But unconquerable shyness, and the doubt whether Ulla really liked
him--though he often thought she did--sealed his lips.

"One day it chanced that Elis was at work in the lowest depths of the
mine, shrouded in thick, sulphurous vapour, so that his candle only
shed a feeble glimmer, and he could scarcely distinguish the run of the
lode. Suddenly he heard--as if coming from some still deeper cutting--a
knocking resounding, as if somebody was at work with a pick-hammer. As
that sort of work was scarcely possible at such a depth, and as he knew
nobody was down there that day but himself--because the Captain had got
all the men employed in another part of the mine--this knocking and
hammering struck him as strange and uncanny. He stopped working, and
listened to the hollow sounds, which seemed to come nearer and nearer.
All at once he saw, close by him, a black shadow and--as a keen draught
of air blew away the sulphur vapour--the old miner whom he had seen in
Goethaborg.

"'Good luck,' he cried, 'good luck to Elis Froebom, down here among the
stones! What think you of the life, comrade?'

"Elis would fain have asked in what wonderful way the old man had got
into the mine; but he kept striking his hammer on the rocks with such
force that the fire-sparks went whirling all round, and the mine rang
as if with distant thunder. Then he cried, in a terrible voice:

"'There's a grand run of trap just here; but a scurvy, ignorant
scoundrel like you sees nothing in it but a narrow streak of 'Trumm'
not worth a beanstalk. Down here you're a sight