The courage which had prompted her appeal had died out before his fierce outburst of anger, and after telling the boys not to go near their father again, the poor woman returned to her lonely dwelling. Ah! not _all_ lonely, for little deformed Tronda was waiting there for her mother’s return. The tiny lassie had raked the fire together and swept the hearth, as well as her feeble hands could, and the bright face which she lifted to Doya’s shed light, warm as sunshine, on the leaden heart of her parent. “Mother, mother, how came you to be so forgetful as to leave me here alone on Yule e’en, and after day set?” A sweet ringing laugh followed Tronda’s words, and Doya caught its infection and smiled upon the bonnie-featured, crooked-backed child, whose infirmities had not prevented her from being (as the “one ewe lamb” always is) the most useful and most beloved member of the family. “Ah, bairn! I was indeed forgetful, but I have been so short a time away, that I cannot think the fairies have had leisure left them in which to do mischief to you.” “Don’t be too sure, mother; I did hear a noise of something hopping about by the churn, and may be you won’t get any butter to-morrow; and are you _quite_ sure I am just the same as when you left me? You know this,” touching her own twisted side, “came of my being left on Yule e’en by myself.” Tronda spoke jestingly, of course, but her light words carried a sad pang to the mother’s heart. Folding her arms about the little thin figure, Doya said, whisperingly, “If the fairies took my child that night, or if they brought this life-trouble to her, I dare not repine, for who could be to us what loving, patient, unselfish, sickly Tronda is?” Tronda knew that there were serious thoughts expressed in those words of pleasantry, so she let the Yule joke pass by, and nestling closer to the loving bosom above her, the child asked: “Tell me how it really happened, dear mother; I want so much to know, for although it’s all nonsense about the fairies or trows hurting me, still—I should—like to—know.”