"Are you out walking so late?" said the priest, and stood still in front of him. "Ah, yes! it is late," said Thord, and took a seat. The priest sat down also, as though waiting. A long, long silence followed. At last Thord said,-- "I have something with me that I should like to give to the poor; I want it to be in vested as a legacy in my son's name." He rose, laid some money on the table, and sat down again. The priest counted it. "It is a great deal of money," said he. "It is half the price of my gard. I sold it to-day." The priest sat long in silence. At last he asked, but gently,-- "What do you propose to do now, Thord?" "Something better." They sat there for a while, Thord with downcast eyes, the priest with his eyes fixed on Thord. Presently the priest said, slowly and softly,-- "I think your son has at last brought you a true blessing." "Yes, I think so myself," said Thord, looking up, while two big tears coursed slowly down his cheeks. THE EAGLE'S NEST. The Endregards was the name of a small solitary parish, surrounded by lofty mountains. It lay in a flat and fertile valley, and was intersected by a broad river that flowed down from the mountains. This river emptied into a lake, which was situated close by the parish, and presented a fine view of the surrounding country. Up the Endre-Lake the man had come rowing, who had first cleared this valley; his name was Endre, and it was his descendants who dwelt here. Some said he had fled hither on account of a murder he had committed, and that was why his family were so dark; others said this was on account of the mountains, which shut out the sun at five o'clock of a midsummer afternoon. Over this parish there hung an eagle's nest. It was built on a cliff far up the mountains; all could see the mother eagle alight in her nest, but no one could reach it. The male eagle went sailing over the parish, now swooping down after a lamb, now after a kid; once he had also taken a little child and borne it away; therefore there was no safety in the parish as long as the eagle had a nest in this mountain. There was a tradition among the people, that in old times there were two brothers who had climbed up to the nest and torn it down; but nowadays there was no one who was able to reach it. Whenever two met at the Endregards, they talked about the eagle's nest, and looked up. Every one knew, when the eagles reappeared in the new year, where they had swooped down and done mischief, and who had last endeavored to reach the nest. The youth of the place, from early boyhood, practiced climbing mountains and trees, wrestling and scuffling, in order that one day they might reach the cliff and demolish the nest, as those two brothers had done.