When, after an hour of vain search, the men returned to the place whence they had started, they saw a faint light flickering between the birches not fifty feet away; they formed a firm column, and with fearful hearts drew nearer. There lay Lage Kvaerk, their master, still bending down over his child’s pale features, and staring into her sunken eyes as if he could not believe that she were really dead. And at his side stood Vigfusson, pale and aghast, with the burning torch in his hand. The footsteps of the men awakened the father, but when he turned his face on them they shuddered and started back. Then Lage rose, lifted the maiden from the stone, and silently laid her in Vigfusson’s arms; her rich yellow hair flowed down over his shoulder. The youth let his torch fall into the waters, and with a sharp, serpent-like hiss its flame was quenched. He crossed the brook; the men followed, and the dark pine-trees closed over the last descendant of Lage Ulfson’s mighty race. Footnotes: [1] “I am a Dane. I speak Danish.” [2] Examen artium is the entrance examination to the Norwegian University, and philosophicum the first degree. The ranks given at these are Laudabilis prae ceteris (in student’s parlance, prae), laudabilis or laud, haud illaudabilis, or haud, etc. [3] Free translation of a Swedish serenade, the name of whose author I have forgotten. H. H. B. [4] Translation, from “Exotics. By J. F. C. & C. L.” [5] In the country districts of Norway Saturday evening is regarded as “the wooer’s eve.” [6] The saeter is a place in the mountains where the Norwegian peasants spend their summers pasturing their cattle. Every large farm has its own saeter, consisting of one or more chalets, hedged in by a fence of stone or planks. [7] Katzenjammer is the sensation a man has the morning after a carousal. [8] A stave is an improvised responsive song. It is an ancient pastime in Norway, and is kept up until this day, especially among the peasantry. The students, also, at their social gatherings, throw improvised rhymes to each other across the table, and the rest of the company repeat the refrain. [9] “The red cock crew” is the expression used in the old Norwegian Fagas for incendiary fire. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales From Two Hemispheres, by Hjalmar Hjorth Boysen