arply over at the man who was speaking.

Then he washed off the soot, and disappeared.

* * * * *

Silla had been down to the Valsets' cottage to fetch the customary
evening pint of milk, when at the gate she met Nikolai. He said he had
seen her go in, but she knew quite well that he had been watching for
her.

"You can't think what fun I had on Midsummer Eve, Nikolai!" she said,
holding out the can by the handle towards him. "If you only knew! No,
never in all my life!"

"Up on Grefsen ridge?"

"How did you know; tell me, how did you know?"

"Oh, I--one of the smiths was up there. But I can't understand how you
could get away from her at home."

"No, it was a near chance, too, I can tell you!" She looked round, and
said in a cautious whisper: "Mother doesn't know but that I lay and
turned over in my bed at home all Midsummer night. She went to eat St.
John's porridge with aunt out at Asker, and I was to stay at home, and
iron; but at nine o'clock, I said good-bye and went my way. Oh
Nikolai!"--she clapped her hands, laughing--"you should have heard how
she scolded yesterday morning when she came back, because I was still in
bed! Did you hear that we were treated to punch, too?"

"Who gave it you?"

"Ah, wouldn't you like to know! But, Nikolai, you won't tell. It was a
certain person who treated us."

"Indeed!"

"He came up to see that they did not light the bonfire too near the
wood. Yes, you must know, Nikolai, that it was no less a person than
young Veyergang! There was a Midsummer party at his father's, and they
were to see the fire from the stairs at exactly half-past eleven.

"And then he treated them to punch? You too?"

"It was just me! 'Her with the black eyes,' he said."

"Perhaps he has spoken to you before, too?"

"Yes, indeed; he knows perfectly well that my name is Silla. I meet him
every single day, you must know."

Nikolai made a movement as if he were bringing down a hammer on the
hillside. "Indeed!"

"Last Saturday in the office, when he had reckoned a _krone_ too much in
the pass-book, he said I could keep it and spend it on cakes."

"Ha! ha! Did he say that? Wonderful, how kind he is!" Nikolai said this
with something that was meant for laughter. "The cook is very kind, too,
when she feeds the goose so as to get hold of it!"

He stood with one arm round the gate-post, looking at her; she had grown
so pretty and elegant, and almost taller since