nd the anecdotes upon which she
had often placed false interpretations, until, exhausted by the
thoughts, emotions, and yearnings of the day, with an aching void within
and a dull feeling of resignation, she feel asleep.

In the evening Roennaug, with whom they had become acquainted during the
confirmation instructions, made her appearance; she was out at service
in the neighborhood and had a holiday in honor of the occasion. She
brought with her a whole budget of gossip concerning the love affairs of
the parish, and the inexperienced girls sat with wondering eyes
listening. It was she who caused the youngest girl to tear her new silk
dress. Roennaug could roll down hill with such incomprehensible speed
that she was induced to repeat the feat several times, and this finally
led the priest's daughter to try her skill.

Hereafter Roennaug often dropped in of an evening when her work was done.
They all took delight in her wild exuberance of spirits. She was as
hearty and as plump as a young foal; she could scarcely keep the clothes
on her back because she was all the time tearing them to tatters, and
she had never-ceasing trouble with her hair, which would keep falling
over her face because she never had it done up properly. When she
laughed, and that was nearly all the time, she tossed back her head, and
through two rows of pearly teeth, white as those of a beast of prey,
could be seen far down her throat.

In the autumn Skarlie came again. There was a difference between the
reception now given him and the former one. The three girls surrounded
his sledge, they carried in his luggage, notwithstanding his laughing
resistance, their laughter accompanied him as he stood in the passage
taking off his furs.

Questions without number were showered like hail upon him the first
time they sat with him in the work-room; the girls had an accumulation
of treasured-up doubts and queries about things he had told them on his
previous visit, and many other perplexing themes which they considered
him able to solve. On very few topics did Skarlie hold the prevailing
opinions of the parish, but he had a way of deftly turning the subject
with a joke when pressed too closely for his precise views. When alone
with Magnhild he expressed himself more freely; at first he did so
cautiously, but gradually increased his plainness of speech.

Magnhild had never viewed her surroundings with critical eyes; she would
now laugh heartily with Skarlie