The Legend of the White Reindeer 
more careful to centre all power in himself, and 
even prepared to turn round to the king’s party 
if necessary to further his ambition. The be- 
trayal of his followers would purchase his own 
safety. But proofs he must have, and he set 
about getting signatures to a declaration of 
rights which was simply a veiled confession 
of treason. Many of the leaders he had de- 
luded into signing this before the meeting at 
Laersdalsoren. Here they met in the early 
winter, some twenty of the patriots, some of 
them men of position, all of them men of brains 
and power. Here, in the close and stifling 
parlor, they planned, discussed, and questioned. 
Great hopes were expressed, great deeds were 
forecast, in that stove-hot room. 
Outside, against the fence, in the winter 
night, was a Great White Reindeer, harnessed 
to a sled, but lying down with his head doubled 
back on his side as he slept, calm, unthought- 
ful, ox-like. Which seemed likelier to decide 
the nation’s fate, the earnest thinkers indoors, 
or the ox-like sleeper without? Which seemed 
more vital to Israel, the bearded council in 
King Saul’s tent, or the light-hearted shepherd- 
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