cided long since, and
have not changed. I am not ashamed to tell you that I knew
more of you than you thought. I have followed your doings
and your movements from a distance, until you came home, and
determined to wait for you till it was past hoping for. I feel
I ought to tell you this at once, that you may know I am not
building up fair hopes on no foundation, but know what I am
doing, and what I can expect.

"You need not fear pity from me, Olof. I believe in fate, and
in life as a thing with some meaning. I have often wondered,
these last few years, if there could be any meaning in my
life, and why fate had brought us so strangely together. Was
it only to make us suffer? I came at last to the conclusion
that if there were any meaning in my life, it must be with
you; and if fate had any plan at all, it must be that you
should come back to me some day, even though the way were
hard. And you came, came with the very word I had been waiting
to hear from your lips for years--that _you had need of me_!
All is easy after that; no need to doubt or hesitate. I can
answer at once: I am ready.

"I do not think, or hope, that our way will be strewn with
roses. But it is right, I feel that; and in time we shall
reach our goal.

"Come, Olof, come soon. Four years I have waited--four years
of longing, all my life's longing.--Your

"WATER-WITCH.

"P.S.--Father is the same, but what you say about that is what
I say myself.

"One thing I would ask you--let me see you alone first, before
you meet my father. I could not bear to meet again after
all these years in that way. Come to our old meeting-place
beforehand, if you can, and let me know what day and time you
will be there.

"KYLLIKKI."

MOISIO

Olof walked up the steps to the homestead at Moisio.

A trifle pale, perhaps, but confident, ready to meet whatever might
chance, and determined to gain his end.

He opened the door and went in. There were two in the room: an old man
with bushy brows--who, unaware of the visitor's approach, was on the
point of going out himself--and a girl. She was waiting anxiously,
and as the door opened, her heart beat as if it would leap from her
breast.

All three stood for a moment in silence.

"Good-day to you," said Olof respectfully to the old man.

No one answered. Olof marked how the dar