with him.

In a little while she called, "Do not outrun me, Fair Brother!" But he
seemed not to hear her, for not a bit did he slacken the speed of his
running.

Presently she cried again, "Rest with me a while, Fair Brother! Do
not outrun me!" But Fair Brother's feet were fleet after their long
idleness, and they only ran the faster. "Ah, ah!" she cried, all out of
breath. "Come back to me when you have done running, Fair Brother." And
as he disappeared among the trees, she cried after him, "How will you
know the way, since you were never here before? Do not get lost in the
wood, Fair Brother!"

She lay on the ground and listened, and could hear the white birch shoes
carrying him away till all sound of them died.

When, next morning, he had not returned, she searched all day through
the wood, calling his name.

"Where are you, Fair Brother? Where have you lost yourself?" she cried,
but no voice answered her.

For a while she comforted her heart, saying, "He has not run all these
years--no wonder he is still running. When he is tired he will return."

But days and weeks went by, and Fair Brother never came back to her.
Every day she wandered searching for him, or sat at the door of the
little wattled hut and cried.

One day she cried so much that the ground became quite wet with her
tears. That night was the night of the full moon, but weary with grief
she lay down and slept soundly, though outside the woods were bright.

In the middle of the night she started up, for she thought she heard
somebody go by; and, surely, feet were running away in the distance. And
when she looked out, there across the doorway was the print of the birch
shoes on the ground she had made wet with her tears.

"Alas, alas!" cried Little Sister. "What have I done that he comes to
the very door of our home and passes by, though the moon shines in and
shows it him?"

After that she searched everywhere through the forest to discover the
print of the birch shoes upon the ground. Here and there after rain she
thought she could see traces, but never was she able to track them far.

Once more came the night of the full moon, and once more in the middle
of the night Little Sister started up and heard feet running away in the
distance. She called, but no answer came back to her.

So on the third full moon she waited, sitting in the door of the hut,
and would not sleep.

"If he has been twice," she said to herself, "he will come again, a