ut what kind of little creature she could be.
Then they ran on again, and in an instant the whole herd had gone past.
Lisbeth could only hear the thunder of their hoofs as they galloped
into the path leading to the saeter.

But her animals! and the boys' flocks! Naturally the horses had
frightened them. Lisbeth could see no trace of them anywhere. She ran
from hill to hill, stopping to listen and then running again.

It was all of no use; she could not find them. The only wise course for
her was to go back to the saeter.

This was the first and only time that Lisbeth Longfrock went home
without taking her animals with her.

But when she reached the saeter there lay the whole flock peacefully
within the fold, chewing the cud. They had gone home of their own
accord. The horses that had given Lisbeth such a fright were there
also, walking about and licking up the salt which the milkmaid had
strewn for them.

In the afternoon the milkmaids from the other saeters came to inquire
after the boys, for their goats had also come home of themselves long
before the usual time.

It was not until much later that Ole and Peter arrived, dragging
Crookhorn between them.

When the milkmaids laughed at them the boys could not help feeling a
little chagrined. That they had let their flocks stray away could not
be denied; but no one could say that they had come home without any
animal at all,--although two big boys _did_ seem a rather liberal
number to be in charge of a single goat, however large that goat might
be.

Things had gone wrong for that day, Ole acknowledged; but Crookhorn was
not to think that she had seen the end of the struggle. They would take
her with them again the next day. She should get her deserts.

But it turned out otherwise. Crookhorn knew better than to let such a
thing happen. When they took off the willow band she stood still awhile
with her neck stretched up, looking at the horses which were at that
moment going out of the inclosure. Suddenly she kicked up her hind legs
in real horse fashion, and then away she went after the herd as fast as
she could go.

The milkmaids, as well as the boys, could do nothing but stand and gape
when they saw her join the horses.

"Probably she imagines now that she is a horse," thought they.

For a while they stood in silence watching the receding herd. Then Ole
said in his dry fashion, "If there had been any elephants here, it
would have been just like Crookhorn to