y
least, and made both sharp and supple, so as to bend before and cut
through the waves at the same time, and then a fellow would have a
chance of steering a boat smartly.

He thought of this day and night. The only relaxation he had was a chat
with the Finn girl of an evening.

He couldn't help remarking that this Seimke had fallen in love with him.
She strolled after him wherever he went, and her eyes always became so
mournful when he went down towards the sea; she understood well enough
that all his thoughts were bent upon going away.

And the Finn sat and mumbled among the ashes till his fur jacket
regularly steamed and smoked.

But Seimke coaxed and wheedled Jack with her brown eyes, and gave him
honeyed words as fast as her tongue could wag, till she drew him right
into the smoke where the old Finn couldn't hear them.

The Gan-Finn turned his head right round.

"My eyes are stupid, and the smoke makes 'em run," said he; "what has
Jack got hold of there?"

"Say it is the white ptarmigan you caught in the snare," whispered she.

And Jack felt that she was huddling up against him and trembling all
over.

Then she told him so softly that he thought it was his own thoughts
speaking to him, that the Finn was angry and muttering mischief, and
_joejking_,[4] against the boat which Jack wanted to build. If Jack were
to complete it, said she, the Gan-Finn would no longer have any sale for
his fair-winds in all Nordland. And then she warned him to look to
himself and never get between the Finn and the Gan-flies.

Then Jack felt that his boat might be the undoing of him. But the worse
things looked, the more he tried to make the best of them.

In the grey dawn, before the Finn was up, he made his way towards the
sea-shore.

But there was something very odd about the snow-hills. They were so many
and so long that there was really no end to them, and he kept on
trampling in deep and deeper snow and never got to the sea-shore at all.
Never before had he seen the northern lights last so long into the day.
They blazed and sparkled, and long tongues of fire licked and hissed
after him. He was unable to find either the beach or the boat, nor had
he the least idea in the world where he really was.

At last he discovered that he had gone quite astray inland instead of
down to the sea. But now, when he turned round, the sea-fog came close
up against him, so dense and grey that he could see neither hand nor
foot before