ng ravens on our way:
We knew that Evil this to us did bode;
We made no off'rings, though, as on we rode,
To angry gods--the mild are fall of doubt.
Why should we care? One God to us feels kindly.
He is with us! And Him we follow blindly:--
We laugh at all the omens round about."

These little verses began to affect the party like a chorus of birds.

But a joy to which we are unattuned is apt to jar; and here, moreover,
the verses became prophetic, for the travelers had gone but a short
distance when they gained a view of the church steeple on the heights
where Magnhild's parents and brothers and sisters were buried, and of
the stony ground in the mountain to the left where the home of her
childhood had been situated.

This barren patch of stones always rose up distinctly in Magnhild's mind
when she thought of her own life, whose long desert wastes seemed to lay
stretched out before her like just such a heap of ruins. Here it faced
her once more. It was some time before the consolation she had newly
grasped could find expression, for she was haunted by so much that was
unsolved, so much that was doubtful. She was now approaching the
starting-point of the whole; from the brow of the hill the parsonage was
visible.

It had been agreed that they should stop here. The carriage rolled down
toward the friendly gard through an avenue of birch-trees. Roennaug was
giving Miss Roland a most humorous description of the family at the
parsonage when suddenly they were all terrified by having the carriage
nearly upset. Just by the turn near the house-steps the coachman had
driven against a large stone which lay with its lower side protruding
into the road. Both Roennaug and Miss Roland uttered a little shriek, but
when they escaped without an accident they laughed. To their delight
Magnhild joined in their laughter. Trifling as had been the occurrence,
it had served to rouse her. She was surprised to find herself at the
parsonage. And this stone? Ah, how many hundred vehicles had not driven
over it! Would it ever be removed, though? There stood old Andreas, old
Soeren, old Knut? There, too, was old Ane, looking out! From the
sitting-room came the sound of a dog's bark.

"Have they a dog?" asked Magnhild.

"If they have," replied Roennaug, "I will venture to say it came through
its own enterprise."

Old Ane took the luggage, Roennaug the child, and the whole party was
ushered through the pas