ng day isn't put off too long,' I warned.
'We are to be married in a month,' she answered.

"But before Brita and I parted company, it struck me that the
Ingmarssons had had a poor harvest, so I said it was not likely
that they would have a wedding that year. 'In that case I shall
have to jump into the river,' she declared.

"A month later I was told that the wedding had been put off and,
fearing that this would not end well, I went straight to Bergskog
and had a talk with Brita's mother. 'They are certainly making a
stupid blunder down at the Ingmar Farm,' I told her. 'We are
satisfied with their way of doing things,' she said. 'Every day we
thank God that our daughter has been so well provided for.'"

"Mother needn't have given herself all this bother," Ingmar was
thinking, "for no one from this farm is going to fetch Brita. There
was no reason for her being so upset at the sight of the arch: that
is only one of those things a man does so that he can turn to our
Lord and say: 'I wanted to do it. Surely you must see that I meant
to do it.' But doing it is another matter."

"The last time I saw Brita," Kaisa vent on, "was in the middle of
the winter after a big snowfall. I had come to a narrow path in the
wild forest, where it was heavy walking. Soon I came upon some one
who was sitting in the snow, resting. It was Brita. 'Are you all by
yourself up here?' I asked. 'Yes, I'm out for a walk.' she said. I
stood stockstill and stared at her; I couldn't imagine what she was
doing there. 'I'm looking round to see if there are any steep hills
hereabout,' she then said. 'Dear heart! are you thinking of casting
yourself from a cliff?' I gasped, for she looked as if she was
tired of life.

"'Yes,' she said. 'If I could only find a hill that was high and
steep I'd certainly throw myself down.' 'You ought to be ashamed to
talk like that, and you so well cared for.' 'You see, Kaisa, I'm a
bad lot.' 'I'm afraid you are.' 'I am likely to do something
dreadful, therefore I might better be dead.' 'That's only silly
gabble, child.' 'I turned bad as soon as I went to live with those
people.' Then, coming quite close to me, with the wildest look in
her eyes, she shrieked: 'All they think about is how they can
torture me, and I think only of how I can torture them in return.'
'No, no, Brita; they are good people.' 'All they care about is to
bring shame upon me.' 'Have you said so to them?' 'I never speak to
them. I only think and wo