from fright and lies there,
stunned.]

[Enter Lisa.]

LISA. [Runs up to Pehr.] There he is! Ah--he sleeps! [Sees something
that glitters.] What is that? [Picks up ring, which Pehr dropped when he
fell.] A ring! He is sleeping in the snow! What can have happened? He
is hurt! What can I do? In the very heart of the forest and right in
the snow! Not a human being comes this way. He'll freeze to death if he
cannot get away. The good fairy sent me here to look up that boy, but
she did not tell me that I should find him half dead in a snow drift! If
only it were summer, with the sun shining on the green grass-carpet--

[Lisa fingers ring. Transformation: Landscape is changed from winter
into summer; brook loses ice-cake and runs forth between the stones; sun
shines on the whole.]

LISA. What can be the meaning of this! [Amazed, glances in all
directions. Pehr awakens.]

PEHR. [Rubbing his eyes.] Why, what is this--I fly from the church
tower, come into a forest of snow, throw snowballs, skate, bump my head
on the ice, lose my senses--then I wake up and find that it is summer!
Have I been lying here under the snow six months? No, it doesn't seem
likely. [Looks at himself in the brook.] I'm as red as a rose. [Bends
over water.] But what do I see down in the deep--A blue sky, green
trees, white water-lilies, and right in their midst--a girl!--just like
the one the youth had his arm around in the Christmas-home: flowing
hair, a mouth like a song, eyes like the dove's!--Ah! she nods to
me--I'm coming, I'm coming! [About to plunge into the brook, when Lisa
gives a cry. He turns.] There she is! A moment ago she was down here.

LISA. So it seems, but do not always believe your eyes.

PEHR. A strange world, this! But let me see if it is the same girl?
[Stares at her.] Yes, it is she. [Starts to run toward her, then catches
sight of ring.] What! my ring? You robbed me while I lay senseless!
Oh, do not believe your eyes, you said. No! for now I have my first
lesson--I wanted to embrace an angel, and I find a thief.

LISA. Do not always believe your eyes, Pehr; investigate before you
judge.

PEHR. You are right. I shall do so. Girl, who are you? What is your
name?

LISA. Lisa is my name, but who I am you must not know until the time is
fulfilled. I came here and found you senseless--on the ice I found your
ring, the powers of which I did not know.

PEHR. You have saved me from certain death in the snow. Forgive me!
Lisa,