elp me, I shall have
nothing ready, for Stiorna does not like the news."

Never had Frolich dressed more quickly. She thought it very hard that
the bishop should see her when she had nothing but her dairy dress to
wear; but she was ready all the sooner for this. Erica consoled her
with the belief that the bishop was the last person who could be
supposed to make a point of a silk gown for a mountain maiden.

A consultation about the arrangements was held before the door by the
four who were all in a good humour; for Stiorna remained aloof. This,
like other mountain dwellings, was a mere sleeping and eating shed, only
calculated for a bare shelter at night, at meals, and from occasional
rain. There was no apartment at the seater in which the bishop could
hold an audience, out of the way of the cooking and other household
transactions. It could not be expected of him to sit on the bench
outside, or on the grass, like the people of the establishment; for,
unaccustomed as he was to spend his days in the open air, his eyes would
be blinded and his face blistered by the sun. The young people cast
their eyes on the pine-wood as the fittest summer parlour for him, if it
could be provided with seats.

Erica sprang forward to prevent any one from entering the wood till she
should have seen what state the place was in on this particular morning.
No trees had been felled, and no branches cut since the night before,
and the axes remained where they had been hung. The demon had not
wanted them, it seemed, and there was no fear of intruding upon him now.
So the two young men set to work to raise a semicircular range of turf
seats in the pleasantest part of the shady grove. The central seat,
which was raised above the rest, and had a footstool, was well cushioned
with dry and soft moss, and the rough bark was cut from the trunk of the
tree against which it was built; so that the stem served as a
comfortable back to the chair. Rolf tried the seat when finished; and
as he leaned back, feasting his eyes on the vast sunny landscape which
was to be seen between the trees of the grove, he declared that it was
infinitely better to sit here than in the bishop's stall in Tronyem
cathedral.

"Surely," said Erica, whom he had summoned to see the work, "when God
plants a lofty mountain overlooking the glorious sea, with the heavens
themselves for a roof, He makes a temple with which no church built by
men can compare. I suppose men bu