orth while to let the other boy know about everything they found); or
a ptarmigan nest with thirteen big eggs in it; or a ridge where
scouring rushes[12] grew unusually long and thick.

[12] A species of horsetail rush (_Equisetum hyemale_), having a
rough, flinty surface. It is used for scouring and polishing.

Each boy talked more with her, too, when by himself, and was less
boastful and rough. And the one boy would climb trees and get spruce
gum for her, while she would seek scouring rush for him. Scouring rush
is something that requires a special knack in the one who is to
discover it, and the boys had never seen Lisbeth's equal in spying it
out. Peter said that if there was a single spear growing anywhere, you
might be sure that she would find it; to which Ole jokingly responded
that, for his part, he believed she could find one even where there
wasn't any!

And how many, many things both boys thought of that they could make!
One day when it rained Ole made Lisbeth a hat out of birch bark, and
the next day Peter came with a pair of birch-bark shoes for her. The
milkmaid must have laughed when she saw Lisbeth coming home that second
day wearing the birch-bark hat and shoes, and carrying her ordinary
shoes in her hand. Another day Ole gave her a pocketknife. She ought to
have something to whittle with, he thought, and he did not need that
knife because he had one with a sheath that he always wore in his belt.
The next day Peter brought her a musical horn that he had made in the
evenings from a goat's horn. It had an unusually fine tone. You could
manage to play that funny tune, "Old Woman with a Stick," on it after a
fashion.

Ole speculated a while as to what he could do to beat that, and then he
hit upon an idea,--he would tame Crookhorn!

They had often seen Crookhorn going with the cows as if she were one of
them; and they knew that though she was Lisbeth's own goat there was no
use in trying to make her go with the other goats. The little girl had
told them how impossible it had been to manage the creature at the
farm, and that Kjersti had said the men would have to make an end of
her when winter came.

So Ole offered to tame Crookhorn. He was sure that he could teach her
to go with the others. There had never been a goat yet that had not
been forced to yield when he attempted to master it.

Yes, indeed, Lisbeth was more than willing for him to try. If he
succeeded, she would gladly give him