one blow of the axe and see if she'll hear."

The girl walked on--the axe was raised....

"Come, summer star...."

She turned round, and caught sight of him, started, and stopped,
blushing as she stood.

"Olof!"

"Annikki!"

He sprang down and hastened toward the girl.

She too came nearer.

"You here? And never said a word! How you frightened me!"

"I was just going to call when you turned round."

They shook hands, heartily, as comrades.

"Look!" he cried eagerly; "isn't it just like a palace all round--the
castle of Tapio, and I'm the lord of the castle, and you're the forest
fairy, come to visit me. And your clothes smell of the pine woods,
and there's a scent of birch in your hair, and you come playing on a
shepherd's pipe, music sweet as honey...."

The girl looked up in astonishment. "What--what makes you talk like
that?"

He stopped in some perplexity. "'Tis the forest talks so. But now you
must come in--right in to the palace."

They went through to the middle of the clearing.

"And have you felled all those, all by yourself?" She cast a warm
glance at his sunburnt neck and powerful shoulders. "How strong you
are!"

The boy stepped on more briskly.

"There! Now we're in the palace. And here's the seat of honour--isn't
it fine? And here's a bench at the side--but a guest must always have
the seat of honour."

"And what about the master of the house?" asked the girl, with a
laugh.

"He'll sit on the bench, of course."

They smiled at each other.

"And see, it's decked out all ready, with sprays of green and red fir
blossoms."

"Yes, indeed--a real palace. It's two years now since we had a talk
together, and now to meet in a palace...!"

"We've not seen much of each other, it's true," said he, with a ring
of remembrance in his voice. "And we used to be together whole summers
in the old days. Do you remember how you were mistress of the house,
with twenty-five milch cows in the shed, and as many sheep as Jacob at
the end of his last year's service?"

"Yes, yes, I remember." Her blue eyes sparkled, and the two young
people's laughter echoed over the hillside.

The forest woke from his dreams, and stopped to listen to the tale of
the children at play.

"And how we played snowballs on the way home from school? And your
hair was all full of snow, and I took it down--do you remember?--and
did it up again in the middle of the road."

"Yes, and did it all wrong; and the others laug