that this is not
a matter for displeasure. He will not succeed while he is displeased at
what his people think sacred. When he is an older man, he will pity the
innocent for what they suffer from superstition; and this pity will
teach him how to speak of Providence to such as our Erica. But here are
my girls coming to seek me. I must meet them, to prevent their missing
Erica."

"Get them to rest early, madam."

"Certainly; and you will watch in this house, Peder, and I at home."

"Trust me for hearing the oar at a furlong off, madam."

"That is more than I can promise," said the lady; "but the owl shall not
be more awake than I."

CHAPTER FIVE.

THE WATER-SPRITES' DOINGS.

Erica now profited by her lover's industry in the morning. He had so
far advanced with the raft that, though no one would have thought of
taking it in its present state to the mouth of the fiord for shipment,
it would serve as a conveyance in still water for a short distance
safely enough.

And still, indeed, the waters were. As Erica and Oddo were busily and
silently employed in tying moss round their oars to muffle their sound,
the ripple of the tide upon the white sand could scarcely be heard, and
it appeared to the eye as if the lingering remains of the daylight
brooded on the fiord, unwilling to depart. The stars had, however, been
showing themselves for some time; and they might now be seen twinkling
below almost as clearly and steadily as overhead. As Erica and Oddo put
their little raft off from the shore, and then waited, with their oars
suspended, to observe whether the tide carried them towards the islet
they must reach, it seemed as if some invisible hand was pushing them
forth to shiver the bright pavement of constellations as it lay. Star
after star was shivered, and its bright fragments danced in their wake;
and those fragments reunited and became a star again as the waters
closed over the path of the raft, and subsided into perfect stillness.

The tide favoured Erica's object. A few strokes of the oar brought the
raft to the right point for landing on the islet. They stepped ashore,
and towed the raft along till they came to the skiff, and then they
fastened the raft with the boat-hook which had been fixed there for the
skiff. This done, Oddo ran to turn over the little boat, and examine
its condition: but he found he could not move it. It was frozen fast to
the ground. It was scarcely possible to get a fi