two litters, were now seen; and
Mrs. Astrid and Harald were each laid on one of these, and covered with
soft skins.

"Susanna," said Mrs. Astrid, "come and rest here by me!"

"Nay," answered Susanna, lifting aloft her torch; "I shall go on before
and light the way. Fear not for me; I am strong!"

But a strange sensation suddenly seized her, as if her heart would sink,
and her knees failed her. She stood now a moment, then made a step
forward as to go, then felt her breast, as it were, crushed together.
She dropped on her knees, and the torch fell from her hands. "Hulda!"
she whispered to herself, "my little darling ... farewell!"

"Susanna! gracious Heaven!" exclaimed now two voices at once; and,
strong with terror and surprise, sprang up Mrs. Astrid and Harald, and
embraced Susanna. She sank more and more together. She seized the hands
of her mistress and of Harald, and said with great difficulty, earnestly
praying--"My little Hulda! The fatherless ... motherless ... think of
her!"

"Susanna! my good, dear child!" exclaimed Mrs. Astrid, "thou wilt not,
thou shalt not now die!" And for the first time fell a beam of anxious
love from her dark eyes upon the young, devoted maiden. It was the first
time that Susanna had enjoyed such a glance, and she looked up as
joyfully as if she had gazed into the opened heaven.

"Oh, Harald!" said Susanna, while she gazed at him with inexpressible
tenderness and clearness, "I know that I could not make you happy in
life, but I thank God that I can die for you. Now--now despise not my
love!"--and seizing his hand and that of her mistress, she pressed them
to her bosom, saying, with a sobbing voice, "Pardon my fault, for--my
love's sake!"

A slight shiver passed through her frame, her head sank upon her breast.
Without a sign of life, they laid Susanna by her mistress, who held her
in her arms, and bathed with her tears the young, pallid countenance.

FOOTNOTES:

[18] "Lefse" are thin cakes of dough, which are cut in pieces and baked.

THE AWAKENING.

I woke, for life assumed victorious sway,
And found my being in its weakness lay.
There the beloved ones round my couch I saw.

REIN.

Months went on, and life was for Susanna merely a wild, uneasy dream. In
the delirious fantasies of fever she again lived over the impressions of
the mountain journey, but in darker colours. She saw the subterranean
spirits, how in terrible shapes they raged about in the now w