kept her eyes on the
ground. Walking along the narrow paths where she had wandered in
the dream, even the flowers by the wayside looked the same as in
the dream. In her strange state of semi-wakefulness, she could
hardly distinguish between what she actually saw and what she only
seemed to see in fancy.

When she reached the pasturage, there were no cows to be seen. And
she began to search for them, as she had done in the dream--looking
down by the brook, under the birches, and behind the brushwood. She
could not find them, yet she felt quite certain that they must be
thereabout, and that she would probably see them were she only wide
awake. Presently she came upon an opening in the hedge, and knew at
once that the cows had made their escape through this.

Gertrude straightway started in search of the strayed cattle,
following the track which their hoofs had made in the soft earth
of the forest. It was plain that they had turned in on a road
leading to a remote Saeter. "Ah!" she said, "now I know where they
are. I remember that the folks down at Luck Farm were going to
drive their cattle to the Saeter this morning. Our cows, on hearing
the tinkle of their cowbells, must have broken loose and followed
the others."

Gertrude's anxiety had for the moment made her wide awake. So she
determined to go up to the Saeter, and fetch the cows herself;
otherwise there was no telling when they would come back. Now she
walked briskly along the steep and rocky road.

After going uphill for a time there was an abrupt turn in the road,
and she suddenly came upon smooth and even ground that was thick
with pine needles. She recognized it as the road of her dream.
There stood the selfsame towering pines, and on the moss were the
selfsame yellow sun spots.

At sight of the road Gertrude lapsed into the dreamy state in which
she had been most of the day. She moved along, half expecting that
something wonderful would happen to her. She looked under the fir
trees to see if any of the mysterious beings who wander about in
the depths of the forest would suddenly appear to her. However,
none appeared. But in her mind new thoughts were awakened. "What if
I should really take revenge on Ingmar, would that still my fears?
Would I then escape the horrors of insanity? If he were to suffer
what I am suffering, would that be any relief to me?"

The beautiful road seemed interminably long. She walked there a
whole hour, astonished that nothing