"Who was that, my dear?" asked the traveler. "She is the wife of the saddler down at yonder point," was the reply. In a little while they had advanced far enough to gain a view of the fjord and the first houses on the point. The skyds-girl reined in the horse and jumped down from the trunk. She first attended to the animal's appearance, and then busied herself with her own toilet. It had ceased raining, and she removed her kerchief, folded it, and stowed it away in a little pocket in front of the cariole. Then thrusting her fingers under her head-kerchief she tried to arrange her hair, which hung in matted locks over her cheeks. "She had such a singular look,"--he pointed over his shoulders. The girl fixed her eyes on him, and she began to hum. Presently she interrupted herself with,-- "Do you remember the land-slide you passed a few miles above here?" "I passed so many land-slides." She smiled. "Yes; but the one I mean is on the other side of a church." "It was an old land-slide?" "Yes; it happened long ago. But that is where once lay the gard belonging to her family. It was swept away when she was eight or nine years old. Her parents, brothers and sisters, and every living thing on the gard, perished. She alone was saved. The land-slide bore her across the stream, and she was found by the people who hastened to the spot,--she was insensible." The traveler became absorbed in thought. "She must be destined to something," said he, at last. The girl looked up. She waited some time, but their eyes did not meet. So she resumed her seat on the trunk, and they drove on. The valley widened somewhat in the vicinity of the point; farms were spread over the plain: to the right lay the church with the churchyard around it; a little farther on the point itself, a small town, with a large number of houses, most of which were but one story high and were either painted white and red or not painted at all; along the fjord ran the wharf. A steamer was just smoking there; farther down, by the mouth of the river, might be seen a couple of old brigs taking in their cargoes.