ut putting her
thoughts on anything in particular. She had no earthly possessions of
value, but she did have a small chest which she had received in the
second year of her stay at Hoel, and in this chest there was a tiny
side box and also a space in the lid where she had stored away the
little she owned that seemed worth keeping. She had pulled the chest
forward and opened it. To take the things out, look at each one, and
recall the memories connected with them was very pleasant.

There was a good-for-nothing old pocketknife that had been given to her
by Ole the first summer on the mountain. There was a letter from Ole,
too, that she had received the last autumn, and that no one knew about.
In it he had asked if he might send her and Jacob tickets to America
after she had been confirmed. She had not answered the letter yet, but
she would do it soon now, and thank him, and say that she was not
coming,--for she knew that she could never leave Norway.

And then she took out the goat horn that Peter had given her. She was
seized with a strong desire to play on it, but did not dare to, because
it would sound so strange in the house. Next to the place where the
goat horn had lain was a silk neckerchief that Peter had given her for
Christmas. He had sent it by Jacob. She herself had not seen or spoken
with Peter since that Sunday last year when he had found her on the
mountain, until to-day at the church.

And there was the letter she had received from Jacob in regard to their
meeting at Peerout Castle. It was the only letter she had ever had from
him,--Jacob was not one to write much; but she had a few small gifts
that he had sent her.

Down at the very bottom of the chest lay a kerchief that she had never
taken out before,--her mother's kerchief. It seemed to Lisbeth that now
was the first time she had really dared to think about her mother. She
took out the kerchief and spread it on the bed; and when, as she did
so, her eye caught sight of her old long frock hanging on the wall, she
spread that, too, on the bed. Then she seated herself and gazed upon
these simple objects. The time had arrived when it was possible for her
to look back without becoming hopelessly sorrowful; when she could
ponder over the rich memories which these poor relics hid,--the
memories from Peerout Castle not being the least precious. She sat
nourishing these thoughts a long time, beginning at the beginning, as
far back as she could remember, and