28 WITH CARL OF THE HILL 



message from her throne; no star that looks over 

 the top of the mountains but tells him something 

 wonderful and new. The falling leaf, the rushing 

 stream, the mist that writhes over the mosses at 

 evening, speak straight to him in accents that he 

 knows. 



Carl's father was the penniless pastor of a 

 neighbouring cure. Having educated his boy in the 

 High School and finished him off at the University 

 of Upsala, he married him at the age of nineteen to 

 the only child of a Garlstad timber merchant. He 

 felt then that he had done his duty, and preached 

 the next Sunday with fuller grace. 



Carl himself raised no objection. The girl was 

 pretty, he loved her, and loved a forest life. But her 

 father, who had not been consulted, and had always 

 schemed that she should marry the Jagmastare, was 

 beside himself with rage. He vowed that if any man 

 thought he was going to get money by marrying 

 his daughter he was very much mistaken. All of 

 which was fair enough. However, he had sulificient 

 penetration to be conscious of Carl's worth and made 

 him foreman and manager in the forest. By-and-by 

 he relented somewhat : and presently — having made 

 a will in which he left to Carl the farm-holding with 



