y timber goes--hauled
up from a dozen little paths either side--a score of loads sometimes,
one after another. And some of the men come singing, or whistling,
some talking and calling out to the rest; 'tis a merry business
carting down the timber loads to the river. And see there on the
slope--a couple of empty sledges on the way back--isn't it fine?

"And of course you say it is, and it was true all I told you about the
forest before. And it gets finer as we go on--you can hear the axe at
work all round about, echoing over across the valley. Now we must go
and say a word to the men.

"But you don't want to, but I say we must, and you can stay behind a
little if you like. And so off we go down the hillside--hey, what a
pace! And up the next, and there we are on the top. We can see them
at work down in the valley below. It looks like a lot of ants at work,
you think. And so it does. And we go across, and you've got to be
careful and show how nicely you can go. The snow's all frozen, and
creaks underfoot; the men look up, and the stupid ones stand staring
open-mouthed. And I bid them good-day, and go up to them a little
ahead, and they answer again, and some of them touch their caps, not
knowing quite what to do. All of them look astonished--what's this
come to see them now? And I tell them it's just a young lady from the
town, come out to see a bit of the country, and I'm showing her
round. They understand that all right. And then I tell them you're a
foreigner, and can't speak a word of their tongue, and that's why you
stay behind and won't come up. Then they're all surprised again at
that, and some of them won't believe there can be folk that don't
speak their language at all; but I tell them it's true all the same,
and they stare again, the stupid ones gaping wider than before.

"'She's put on country clothes so as not to be noticed,' I tell them;
'and if you saw her in her fine dresses, with a real hat on her head
and all--why, your eyes'd fall out of your heads, if you stare like
that now.' And they laugh at that, a roar of laugh that echoes all
round.

"Then I come back to you, and we go on again.

"But now you begin scolding me for playing silly tricks and telling
them all those wild tales--there's neither sense nor meaning in it,
you say. But then I simply ask you if you didn't see yourself what a
treat it was for the men. Simple woodcutter folk--it'll be something
to remember all their lives, how one day a