.

The little guide knew of none excepting in the village, and in the
public-house there they could obtain everything, "whatever they wished,"
said the child; to be sure it was a good way there, but she knew a
footpath through the wood by which they might soon reach it.

Petrea did not stop thinking for a moment; and after she had encouraged
Sara to courage and hope, she set out most speedily with the little
nimble maiden on the way to the village.

The girl went first: her white head-kerchief guided Petrea through the
duskiness of the wood. But the footway which the girl trod so lightly
and securely, was an actual way of trial for Petrea. Now and then
fragments of her clothes were left hanging on the thick bushes; now a
branch which shot outwards seized her bonnet and struck it flat; now she
went stumbling over tree-roots and stones, which, on account of the
darkness and the speed of her flight, she could not avoid; and now bats
flew into her face. In vain did the wood now elevate itself more
majestically than ever around her; in vain, did the stars kindle their
lights, and send their beams into the deep gullies of the wood; in vain
sang the waterfalls in the quiet evening as they fell from the rocks.
Petrea had now no thought for the beauty of nature; and the lights which
sparkled from the village were to her a more welcome sight than all the
suns and stars in the firmament.

More lights than common streamed in pale beams through the misty windows
of the public-house as Petrea came up to it. All was fermentation within
it as in a bee-hive; violins were playing; the _polska_ was being
danced; women's gowns swung round, sweeping the walls; iron-heeled shoes
beat upon the floor; and the dust flew up to the ceiling. After Petrea
had sought in vain for somebody outside the dancing-room, she was
compelled to go in, and then she saw instantly that there was a wedding.
The gilded crown on the head of the bride wavered and trembled amid the
attacks and the defence of the contending parties, for it was precisely
the hot moment of the Swedish peasant wedding, in which, as it is said,
the crown is danced off the head of the bride. The married women were
endeavouring to vanquish and take captive the bride, whilst the girls
were, on their part, doing their utmost to defend and hold her back. In
the other half of the great room, however, all went on more noisily and
more violently still, for there the married men strove to dance