es
were offered her, and Madame Erlingsen had thought herself very
fortunate in obtaining her services. But, since then, Erica had
sustained a shock which hurt her spirits, and increased a weakness which
she owed to her mother. Her mother, a widow, had brought up her child
in all the superstitions of the country, some of which remain in full
strength even to this day, and were then very powerful; and the poor
woman's death at last confirmed the lessons of her life. She had stayed
too long one autumn day at the Erlingsen's; and, being benighted on her
return, and suddenly seized and bewildered by the cold, had wandered
from the road, and was found frozen to death in a recess of the forest
which it was surprising that she should have reached. Erica never
believed that she did reach this spot of her own accord. Having had
some fears before of the Wood-Demon having been offended by one of the
family, Erica regarded this accident as a token of his vengeance. She
said this when she first heard of her mother's death; and no reasonings
from the zealous pastor of the district, no soothing from her mistress,
could shake her persuasion. She listened with submission, wiping away
her quiet tears as they discoursed; but no one could ever get her to say
that she doubted whether there was a Wood-Demon, or that she was not
afraid of what he would do if offended.

Erlingsen and his wife always treated her superstition as a weakness;
and when she was not present, they ridiculed it. Yet they saw that it
had its effect on their daughters. Erica most strictly obeyed their
wish that she should not talk about the spirits of the region with Orga
and Frolich; but the girls found plenty of people to tell them what they
could not learn from Erica. Besides what everybody knows who lives in
the rural districts of Norway,--about Nipen, the spirit that is always
so busy after everybody's affairs,--about the Water-sprite, an
acquaintance of every one who lives beside a river or lake,--and about
the Mountain-Demon, familiar to all who lived so near Sulitelma; besides
these common spirits, the girls used to hear of a multitude of others
from old Peder, the blind houseman, and from all the farm-people, down
to Oddo, the herd-boy. Their parents hoped that this taste of theirs
might die away if once Erica, with her sad, serious face and subdued
voice, were removed to a house of her own, where they would see her
supported by her husband's unfearin