'Won't you go out-doors this fine day, dear?' said mother, as she sat in the porch, spinning. It was such a cheerful, sunny day, No rest indoors could I find; So I went in the birk, and down I lay, And sang what came in my mind: But snakes crept out to bask in the sun-- Snakes five feet long, so, away I run. 'In such beautiful weather one may go barefoot,' said mother, taking off her stockings. It was such a cheerful, sunny day, Indoors I could not abide; So I went in a boat, and down I lay, And floated away with the tide: But the sun-beams burned till my nose was sore; So I turned my boat again to the shore. 'This is, indeed, good weather to dry the hay,' said mother, putting her rake into a swath. It was such a cheerful, sunny day, In the house I could not be; And so from the heat I climbed away In the boughs of a shady tree: But caterpillars dropped on my face, So down I jumped and ran from the place. 'Well, if the cow doesn't get on to-day, she never will get on,' said mother, glancing up towards the slope. It was such a cheerful, sunny day, Indoors I could not remain: And so for quiet I rowed away To the waterfall amain: But there I drowned while bright was the sky: If you made this, it cannot be I. 'Only three more such sunny days, and we shall get in all the hay,' said mother, as she went to make my bed." Arne when a child had not cared much for fairy-tales; but now he began to love them, and they led him to the sagas and old ballads. He also read sermons and other religious books; and he was gentle and kind to all around him. But in his mind arose a strange deep longing: he made no more songs; but walked often alone, not knowing what was within him. Many of the places around, which formerly he had not even noticed, now appeared to him wondrously beautiful. At the time he and his schoolfellows had to go to the Clergyman to be prepared for confirmation, they used to play near a lake lying just below the parsonage, and called the Swart-water because it lay deep and dark between the mountains. He now often thought of this place; and one evening he went thither.