is oar."

"Have you seen him? Where? What is he doing?" asked one and another.

Before Oddo could answer, Madame Erlingsen desired that he would go home
with his grandfather, and tell Ulla about the deer, while he warmed
himself. She did not wish her daughters to hear what he might have to
tell of Hund. Stiorna too was better out of the way. Oddo had not half
told the story of the deer to his grandmother, when his mistress and
Erica entered.

"Did you not see M. Kollsen in the boat with Hund?" she inquired.

"No. Hund was quite alone, pulling with all his might down the fiord.
The tide was with him, so that he shot along like a fish."

"How do you know that it was Hund you saw?"

"Don't I know our boat? And don't I know his pull? It is no more like
Rolf's than Rolf's is like master's."

"Perhaps he was making for the best fishing-ground as fast as he could."

"We shall see that by the fish he brings home."

"True. By supper-time we shall know."

"Hund will not be home by supper-time," said Oddo, decidedly.

"Why not? Come, say out what you mean."

"Well, I will tell you what I saw. I watched him rowing as fast as his
arm and the tide would carry him. It was so plain that there was a plan
in his head, that I forgot the deer in watching him; and I followed on
from point to point, catching a sight now and then, till I had gone a
good stretch beyond Salten heights. I was just going to turn back when
I took one more look, and he was then pulling in for the land."

"On the north shore or south?" asked Peder.

"The north--just at the narrow part of the fiord, where one can see into
the holes of the rocks opposite."

"The fiord takes a wide sweep below there," observed Peder.

"Yes; and that was why he landed," replied Oddo. "He was then but a
little way from the fishing-ground, if he had wanted fish. But he drove
up the boat into a little cove, a narrow dark creek, where it will lie
safe enough, I have no doubt, till he comes back: if he means to come
back."

"Why, where should he go? What should he do but come back?" asked
Madame Erlingsen.

"He is now gone over the ridge to the north. I saw him moor the boat,
and begin to climb; and I watched his dark figure on the white snow,
higher and higher, till it was a speck, and I could not make it out."

"That is the way you will lose your eyes," exclaimed Ulla. "How often
have I warned you,--and many others as giddy as you! When you have lo