ain. Hurriedly a few strawberries were put
into the basket, and off she disappeared into the wood.

"I hope she can find her way back again," said Miss Asta looking
after her with dreaming eyes.

Ditte certainly found her way home. It was fortunate that in her
longing to be there, she entirely forgot what was in the basket.
Otherwise old Maren would have gone to her grave without ever having
tasted strawberries.

After that Ditte often ran deep into the forest, in the hope that
the adventure would repeat itself. It had been a wonderful
experience, the most wonderful in her life. Old Maren encouraged her
too. "You just go right into the thicket," she said. "Naught can
harm you, for you're a Sunday child. And when you get to the charmed
house, you must ask for a pair of cloth boots for me too. Say that
old Granny has water in her legs and can hardly bear shoes on her
feet."

The river was easily found, but she did not meet the beautiful
ladies again, and the footbridge with the gate had disappeared.
There were woods on the other side of the river just as on this, the
Lord's face she could no longer find either, look as she might;
Fairyland was no more.

"You'll see, 'twas naught but a dream," said old Maren.

"But, Granny, the strawberries," answered Ditte.

Ay, the strawberries--that was true enough! Maren had eaten some of
them herself, and she had never tasted anything so delicious either.
Twenty times bigger than wild strawberries, and satisfying too--so
unlike other berries, which only upset one.

"The dream goblin, who took you to Fairyland, gave you those so that
other folks might taste them too," said the old one at last.

And with this explanation they were satisfied.

CHAPTER X

DITTE GETS A FATHER

On getting up one morning, Maren found her tenants had gone, they
had moved in the middle of the night. "The Devil has been and
fetched them," she said cheerfully. She was not at all sorry that
they had vanished; they were a sour and quarrelsome family! But the
worst of it was that they owed her twelve weeks' rent--twelve
crowns--which was all she had to meet the winter with.

Maren put up a notice and waited for new tenants, but none offered
themselves; the old ones had spread the rumor that the house was
haunted.

Maren felt the loss of the rent so much more as she had given up her
profession. She would no longer be a wise woman, it was impossible
to bear the curse. "Go to those who are