akening was on now. The springtime had already reached the
woods; the valleys were a-throb with life; new birds coming from the
south, winter sleepers reappearing, and the Reindeer that had wintered
in the lower woods should soon again be seen on the uplands.

Not without a fight do the Frost Giants give up the place so long their
own; a great battle was in progress; but the Sun was slowly, surely
winning, and driving them back to their Jotunheim. At every hollow and
shady place they made another stand, or sneaked back by night, only to
suffer another defeat. Hard hitters these, as they are stubborn
fighters; many a granite rock was split and shattered by their blows in
reckless fight, so that its inner fleshy tints were shown and warmly
gleamed among the gray-green rocks that dotted the plain, like the
countless flocks of Thor. More or less of these may be found at every
place of battle-brunt, and straggled along the slope of Suletind was a
host that reached for half a mile. But stay! these moved. Not rocks
were they, but living creatures.

They drifted along erratically, yet one way, all up the wind. They
swept out of sight in a hollow, to reappear on a ridge much nearer, and
serried there against the sky, we marked their branching horns, and
knew them for the Reindeer in their home.

The band came drifting our way, feeding like Sheep, grunting like only
themselves. Each one found a grazing-spot, stood there till it was
cleared off, then trotted on crackling hoofs to the front in search of
another. So the band was ever changing in rank and form. But one there
was that was always at or near the van--a large and well-favored
Simle', or Hind. However much the band might change and spread, she was
in the forefront, and the observant would soon have seen signs that she
had an influence over the general movement--that she, indeed, was the
leader. Even the big Bucks, in their huge velvet-clad antlers, admitted
this untitular control; and if one, in a spirit of independence,
evinced a disposition to lead elsewhere, he soon found himself
uncomfortably alone.

The Varsimle', or leading Hind, had kept the band hovering, for the
last week or two, along the timber-line, going higher each day to the
baring uplands, where the snow was clearing and the deer-flies were
blown away. As the pasture zone had climbed she had followed in her
daily foraging, returning to the sheltered woods at sundown, for the
wild things fear the cold n