"It just happened so," said the mother. Presently she added, "I am after all most fortunate," and then she wept. But Arne hastened out, and he felt drawn toward the Kamp gorge. He sat down to look into it, and while he was sitting there, he too wept. "If I only knew what I was crying for," mused Arne. Above him, in the new-plowed field, Upland Knut was singing his song:-- "Ingerid Sletten of Willow-pool Had no costly trinkets to wear; But a cap she had that was far more fair, Although it was only of wool. "It had no trimming, and now was old, But her mother who long had gone Had given it her, and so it shone To Ingerid more than gold. "For twenty years she laid it aside, That it might not be worn away; 'My cap I'll wear on that blissful day When I shall become a bride.' "For thirty years she laid it aside Lest the colors might fade away. 'My cap I'll wear when to God I pray A happy and grateful bride.' "For forty years she laid it aside, Still holding her mother as dear; 'My little cap, I certainly fear I never shall be a bride.' "She went to look for the cap one day In the chest where it long had lain; But ah! her looking was all in vain,-- The cap had moldered away."[12] Arne sat and listened as though the words had been music far away up the slope. He went up to Knut. "Have you a mother?" asked he. "No." "Have you a father?" "Oh, no; I have no father." "Is it long since they died?" "Oh, yes; it is long since." "You have not many, I dare say, who care for you?" "Oh, no; not many." "Have you any one here?" "No, not here." "But yonder in your native parish?" "Oh, no; not there either." "Have you not any one at all who cares for you?" "Oh, no; I have not." But Arne went from him loving his own mother so intensely that it seemed as though his heart would break; and he felt, as it were, a blissful light over him. "Thou Heavenly Father," thought he, "Thou hast given her to me, and such unspeakable love with the gift, and I put this away from me; and one day when I want it, she will be perhaps no more!" He felt a desire to go to her, if for nothing else only to look at her. But on the way, it suddenly occurred to him: "Perhaps because you did not appreciate her you may soon have to endure the grief of losing her!" He stood still at once. "Almighty God! what then would become of me?" He felt as though some calamity must be happening at home. He hastened toward the house; cold sweat stood on his brow; his feet scarcely touched the ground. He tore open the passage door, but within the whole atmosphere was at once filled with peace. He softly opened the door into the family-room. The mother had gone to bed, the moon shone full in her face, and she lay sleeping calmly as a child. CHAPTER VI.