by the blushing Erica, whose
master was her partner. It had never occurred to her that she was not
to take her usual place, and she was greatly embarrassed, not the less
so that she knew that her mistress was immediately behind, with Rolf for
her partner. Erica might, however, have led the dance in any country in
Europe. All the women in Norway dance well, being practised in it from
their infancy, as an exercise for which the leisure of their long
winter, and the roominess of their houses, afford scope. Every woman
present danced well, but none better than Erica.

"Very well!" "very pretty!" "very good!" observed the pastor, M.
Kollsen, as he sat, with his pipe in his mouth, looking on. M. Kollsen
was a very young man; but the men in Norway smoke as invariably as the
women dance. "Very pretty, indeed! They only want double the number to
make it as pretty a dance as any in Tronyem."

"What would you have, sir?" asked old Peder, who sat smoking at his
elbow. "Are there not eleven couple? Oddo told me there were eleven
couple; and I think I counted so many pairs of feet as they passed."

"Let me see:--yes, you are right, Peder; there are eleven couples."

"And what would you have more, sir? In this young man's father's
time--"

"Rolf's father's?"

"No, sir,--Erlingsen's. Ah! I forgot that Erlingsen may not seem to
you, or any stranger, to be young, but Ulla and I have been used to call
him so, and I fear I always shall, as I shall never see the furrows in
his face. It will be always smooth and young to me. My Ulla says there
is nothing to be sorry for in that, and she does not object to my
thinking so of her face. But, as I was saying, in the elder Erlingsen's
time we thought we did well when we set up nine couples at Yule: and
since then, the Holbergs and Thores have each made out a new farm within
ten miles, and we are accustomed to be rather proud of our eleven
couples. Indeed, I once knew it twelve, when they got me to stand up
with little Henrica,--the pretty little girl whose grave lies behind,
just under the rock. But I suppose there is no question but there are
finer doings at Tronyem."

"Of course--of course," said the young clergyman. "But there are many
youths in Tronyem that would be glad of so pretty a partner as M.
Erlingsen has, if she would not look so frightened."

"Pretty she is," said Peder. "As I remember her complexion, it looks as
if it was made by the reflection of our s