er his head, and peered through the dusky
night. The men spread through the highlands to search for the lost
maiden; Lage followed close in Vigfusson's footsteps. They had not
walked far when they heard the babbling of the brook only a few feet
away. Thither they directed their steps. On a large stone in the middle
of the stream the youth thought he saw something white, like a large
kerchief. Quick as thought he was at its side, bowed down with his
torch, and--fell backward. It was Aasa, his beloved, cold and dead;
but as the father stooped over his dead child the same mad laugh echoed
wildly throughout the wide woods, but madder and louder than ever
before, and from the rocky wall came a fierce, broken voice:

"I came at last."

When, after an hour of vain search, the men returned to the place whence
they had started, they saw a faint light flickering between the birches
not fifty feet away; they formed a firm column, and with fearful hearts
drew nearer. There lay Lage Kvaerk, their master, still bending down
over his child's pale features, and staring into her sunken eyes as if
he could not believe that she were really dead. And at his side stood
Vigfusson, pale and aghast, with the burning torch in his hand. The
footsteps of the men awakened the father, but when he turned his face on
them they shuddered and started back. Then Lage rose, lifted the maiden
from the stone, and silently laid her in Vigfusson's arms; her rich
yellow hair flowed down over his shoulder. The youth let his torch
fall into the waters, and with a sharp, serpent-like hiss its flame
was quenched. He crossed the brook; the men followed, and the dark
pine-trees closed over the last descendant of Lage Ulfson's mighty race.

Footnotes:

[1] "I am a Dane. I speak Danish."

[2] Examen artium is the entrance examination to the Norwegian
University, and philosophicum the first degree. The ranks given at these
are Laudabilis prae ceteris (in student's parlance, prae), laudabilis or
laud, haud illaudabilis, or haud, etc.

[3] Free translation of a Swedish serenade, the name of whose author I
have forgotten. H. H. B.

[4] Translation, from "Exotics. By J. F. C. & C. L."

[5] In the country districts of Norway Saturday evening is regarded as
"the wooer's eve."

[6] The saeter is a place in the mountains where the Norwegian peasants
spend their summers pasturing their cattle. Every large farm has its own
saeter, consisting of one or mor