breathing any longer. The
only sound was a slight crackling in the fireplace, out of which a
stream of warmth issued.

Kari said very quietly: "Your mother is comfortable and happy now,
little Lisbeth; better off than she has ever been before. So you must
not cry."

And Lisbeth did not cry. She merely got up and went about the house
very, very quietly all that first day. Afterwards there were so many
preparations being made for some solemn festival that she did not seem
to get time to think about the great change that had taken place.

Lars Svehaugen came from the storekeeper's with ever so much fine
white, shining cloth,--she had never seen the like. Then a woman came
to help Kari cut out and sew, and they made pillows and a fine white
garment that mother was to have on when she lay upon the pillows. And
Lars Svehaugen began to make a new wooden bed for mother to lie in; and
Bliros had her calf, and the calf was slaughtered; and Lars Svehaugen
brought some small pine trees and nailed them at the gateposts and
outside the house door, one at each side, and he strewed pine branches
all the way from the door to the gate. And there came presents of
food--oh! so many good things--from Kjersti Hoel and others. Lisbeth
had never tasted such delicious food before.

Then came the day when mother was to be taken to the church and buried.
Many people came to the house that day,--among them Jacob in a bright
new suit of gray woolen homespun; and there was a feast for them all,
and everything was very still and solemn. Even the schoolmaster came;
and oh, how beautifully he sang when Lars Svehaugen and three other men
carried mother out through the door and set her couch upon a sledge.

Then they all went slowly away from the house, down the hill,--the
sledge first and the people walking slowly behind. But down at the
bottom of the hill, in the road, there stood two horses and wagons
waiting; and, just think! Lisbeth and Jacob were invited to sit up in
Kjersti Hoel's broad wagon and drive with her.

Then they came to the white church; and as they carried mother in
through the big gateway the church bells up in the tower rang, oh, so
beautifully!

After that Lisbeth did not see things quite so clearly, but they
lowered mother down into the earth in the churchyard and strewed
wreaths of green heather over her, and then the schoolmaster sang
again, and all the men took off their hats and held them a long time
before their face