his own folks at
home; but, on the other hand, another thought was now uppermost in his
mind, the thought, namely, that the Finns must be of an inferior stock,
with a taint of disgrace about them. Nevertheless, he could not very
well do without Zilla's society, and they were very much together as
before, especially at the time of their confirmation.

But when Eilert became a man, and mixed more with the people of the
parish, he began to fancy that this old companionship lowered him
somewhat in the eyes of his neighbours. There was nobody who did not
believe as a matter of course that there was something shameful about
Finn blood, and he, therefore, always tried to avoid her in company.

The girl understood it all well enough, for latterly she took care to
keep out of his way. Nevertheless, one day she came, as had been her
wont from childhood, down to their house, and begged for leave to go in
their boat when they rowed to church next day. There were lots of
strangers present from the village, and so Eilert, lest folks should
think that he and she were engaged, answered mockingly, so that every
one could hear him, "that church-cleansing was perhaps a very good thing
for Finnish sorcery," but she must find some one else to ferry her
across.

After that she never spoke to him at all, but Eilert was anything but
happy in consequence.

Now it happened one winter that Eilert was out all alone fishing for
Greenland shark. A shark suddenly bit. The boat was small, and the fish
was very big; but Eilert would not give in, and the end of the business
was that his boat capsized.

All night long he lay on the top of it in the mist and a cruel sea. As
now he sat there almost fainting for drowsiness, and dimly conscious
that the end was not far off, and the sooner it came the better, he
suddenly saw a man in seaman's clothes sitting astride the other end of
the boat's bottom, and glaring savagely at him with a pair of dull
reddish eyes. He was so heavy that the boat's bottom began to slowly
sink down at end where he sat. Then he suddenly vanished, but it seemed
to Eilert as if the sea-fog lifted a bit; the sea had all at once grown
quite calm (at least, there was now only a gentle swell); and right in
front of him lay a little low grey island, towards which the boat was
slowly drifting.

The skerry was wet, as if the sea had only recently been flowing over
it, and on it he saw a pale girl with such lovely eyes. She wore a gree