The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-07-14


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 "Freda." I asked, have you home?"
 In an instant she seemed a changed being: stern. hard. grim as the cruel crags above us there.
 This boat" she answered slowly in her own tongue. "the cavern where We slept and a-darker. harder home than that cavern. far above it among the erass."
 "wili you take me to the latter. Ere da?"
 "Yes!
 was startled by her manner: star tied with the wild energy with which with which We flew over the silent wa ters; and still startled and alarmed by the strange pallor in her face as she urged me forward through the grew some cavern behind where We lsft our boat. and led. dragged. even at times boldly carried. me up. up. up. a path which seemingly trailed to the clouds; all in an unaccountable desperate sav- agery which had in it almost the im- petuosity and restlessness of some crazed and ferocious brute.
 Having for days been accustomed to the darkness of the ford. could at first scarcely see for the dazzling light in the upper region where we finally stood.
 To the left was misty line above the ford. Beside 1t low walls of stone. To the right and behind. a scraggy. rag ged vale. deeply ploughed by thun- derous stream. Beyond. field of shapeless rock. Then. an impenetrable forest of stunted fir. Further, jagged lines of stone, their pits and hollows streaked with dingy snow. And at last. far toward the frozen north. the glittering ice peaks of the Dyrdal Field in the unbroken silences beyond.
 It was like suddenly stepping from earth to the edge of some planet where utter and eternal desolation reigned supreme. But there were human be- ings even here.
 "See!-seew exclaimed Freda, her face the very incarnation of hate. One, two, three, four-five"
 My eyes following her excited ges- turing finally discerned five low, gray stone structures which had at first seemed but as many huge boulders in the repulsive landscape.
 'The fifth Is mine! They would take 1t from me. They shall not. will kill them first! That is the home of mine. you would see! Come back!- quick, quick!-or I will go and tear them in pieces now!'
 It Is all like dream to me how we descended that wild path to the ford side: how she rocked upon the boat edge, moaning and laughing fiercely at times; and how at last gently brought her half wandering mind back to its brightness and light.
 Still like a dream Is all the sad trag- edy that came to me, little by little, through my tenderest conjurings: Of father. hard as the frozen stone around him. driving this maiden from his door for the love she bore a boat man lad of Fejos; of this father dying with the curse for the outcast still upon his ashen lips; of those that were left behind, soddenly following on, and even endeavoring to wrest the laws little wise heritage from the homeless creature, who had haunted the ford for years, living like beast in caves and toiling gladly like beast for the pittance which would enable her at last to demand and secure her own. Standing in the presence of such nature, I was appalled, by it's dogged bravery, its unfaltering purpose its he roic sacrifice. it's desperate though still lofty hopefulness. Fool that I was, and enmeshed in dreams, that I could not see the lifeful force of unfaltering love behind. ''
 Yet 50 little would change this sweet, this fierce and glorious creatures whole life vision! But few hundred kruner, she had falteringly said. Less than I would pay for a fine lady's Christmas box, or for horse or dog How placed bank-bills for that sum in her clutching hand and how she ca ressed me like g. glad animal for the lit tie gift, no one could rightly tell But 1t still seemed and was dream as pictured her my own. Dream 1t seemed as lay in my boat-couch and listened to the plaints and sobbing voices of the wind through the ghostly cavern; to the mighty diapasons of the falling wa ters, until the mythologic heroes of Norseland chanted there their sagas of love, of the chase. of revenge or of war.
 Was it still dream when one stood threateningly beside me; one giant Norseman with familiar form and face?
 He held a stone mightier than his huge, curly head above me. Then he looked again at Freda, in her couch in the prov of the boat, where she still lay clutching the bank-notes with smil- ing, radiant face. He flung the stone from him and rushed upon me. Dreaming or waking I was powerless to move or speak. His great hands closed upon me crushingly. I was raised into the air, high, high above the giants head like a babe. He strode with me over the shelving rock to the ford edge. In another instant-unless 1t was all the horrible phantasy of a dream-I should have been hurled into the black and soundless depths below.
 Then wonlan's piercing shriek; rushing like a wild tempest; mo- ment's oblivion; crash of Morse giant, of Freda and of senseless traveller back upon the shelving rock;-and when I awoke, my own head tenderly pillowed upon Peter ,Zachariasen's breast, Ere da's arms about his shaggy neck and head, and these hysteric, ecstatic words from Freda of the Naero ford:
 Ak Gud! Home-come Peter, love! In your jealous madness, you would have murdered our only friendv
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