ders and me to bring along the ponies with the loads.
I'll help you drive your beasts."

Without trouble the lads got the animals out of the byres and headed
them up the road. Norway is so sharply divided by precipitous mountain
ranges and deeply-penetrating fiords, that it may be but a few miles
from a farm near sea level to the high grassy pastures three or four
thousand feet above it where the cattle are pastured in summer. The
saeter maidens live there in their cottages from June to September,
making butter and cheese, tending the herds and doing such other work as
they can. The saeter belonging to Ormgard and its neighbors was the one
chosen by Mother Elle as a refuge for her flock.

The forest of magnificent firs through which the road passed presently
grew less somber, beginning to be streaked with white birches whose
bright leaves twinkled in the sun. Then it reached the height at which
evergreens cease to grow. The birches were shorter and sparser, and
through the thinning woodland appeared glimpses of a treeless pasture
dotted with scrubby low bushes and clumps of rushes. A glint of clear
green water betrayed a small lake in a dip of the hills. And now were
heard sounds most unusual in that lonely place, the high sweet voices of
children.

Birch trees, little trees, dwarfed by sharp winds and poor soil,
encircled a level space perhaps ten feet across, carpeted with new soft
grass, reindeer moss and cupped lichens. Here sat seven or eight
children eagerly listening to a story told by an older child as she
divided the ration of fladbrod,[3] wild strawberries from a small basket
of birchbark, and brown goat's-milk cheese.

"And Freya came from Asgard in her chariot drawn by two cats--"

Nikolina the daughter of Sven Larsson of the Trolle farm was known
through all the valley, not only as the sole child of its richest
farmer, but for the bright blonde hair that covered her shoulders with
its soft abundance and hung to her waist. Her father would not have it
cut or braided or even covered save by such a little embroidered cap as
she wore now. Her scarlet bodice, and blue-black skirt bordered with
bright woven bands, were of the finest wool; the full-sleeved white
linen under-dress had been spun and woven and embroidered by skilful and
loving fingers. Nikolina had lost the roof from over her head, and a
great deal more than that. Now she was giving her whole mind to the
little ones of all ages from four to eigh