CHAP. I.
[THE LOST GOAT.]
They called him Ovind, and he cried when he was born. But when he could sit upon his mother's lap he smiled, and when they lit the candle in the dusk, he laughed and laughed again, but cried when he couldn't come to it.
"This child will be something rare," said the mother.
There, where he was born, the wild rocks overhung. From the top of the ridge, the firs and birch looked down upon the cottage; the bird cherry strewed its flowers on the roof. And up on the roof grazed Ovind's little goat; they kept him there that he mightn't stray, and Ovind gathered leaves and grass for him. One fine morning the goat leapt down, and skipped among the rocks, away where he had never been before. When Ovind came out in the afternoon, the goat was gone. He thought at once of a fox, and grew hot and listened--"Billy, Billy, Billy, Bil-ly goat!" "Ba-a-a!" he answered up from the ridge, laid his head to one side, and looked down.
By the side of the goat sat a little girl. "Is the goat yours?" said she.
Ovind stood with open eyes and mouth, and stuck both his hands in his pocket. "Who are you?" said he.
"I am Marit, my mother's pet, my father's darling, the fairy in the house, granddaughter to Ole Nordistuen at Heidegaard, four years old in Autumn, two days after the frosty nights!"
"Oh! are you that!" said he, as he drew a long breath, for he had not stirred while she spoke.
"Is the goat yours?" said the little girl again.
"Why, yes," said he, and looked up.
"I have taken such a fancy to this goat;--you won't give it to me?"
"No, that I won't."
She twisted herself, looked down upon him, and said: "But if I give you a butter biscuit, can I get the goat?"
Ovind was of poor folk, he had only eaten butter biscuit once in his life, that was when his grandfather came, and the like he had never tasted before or since. "Let me first see the biscuit," said he.
She held up a large one--"Here it is!"--and tossed it down.
"Oh! it's broken!" said the boy, and he carefully gathered up every crumb;--the smallest bit he must taste, and it was so good that he must take just another, and another, till before he knew it, the whole biscuit was gone.
"Now the goat is mine," said the little girl.
The boy stopped with the last bit in his mouth. The girl sat and smiled, the goat standing by her side, with his white breast and dark brown shaggy hair.
"Couldn't you wait for a while?" begged the boy, and his heart began to beat.
Then the little girl laughed the more, and rose up on her knees. "No--the goat is mine," said she, and threw her arm round his neck, untied her garter, and bound it round.
Ovind looked on. She rose and began to pull at the goat, but he wouldn't go, and stretched his neck over towards Ovind. "Baa-a," said he. She took hold of him by the hair with one hand, and drawing the cord in with the other, said coaxingly,--"Come now, goaty, come, you shall come to the kitchen and I'll give you nice milk and bread,"--then she sang:
"Come calf from my mother,
Come goat from the lad,
Come pussy mew kitty,
Oh! I am so glad!
Come ducklings so yellow,
Go each with your fellow,
Come chickens and run,
Haste to join in the fun,
Come little doves cooing,
Your feathers are fine--
The grass may be wet,
But the sun will still shine,
Early, early, early, in the summer sky,
Calling unto autumn that her days are nigh!"
There stood the boy. He had tended the goat since winter when he was born, and the idea of losing him had never entered his mind, but now he was gone all in a minute, and he should never see him more.
The mother came singing up from the well. She saw the boy sitting in the grass crying, and went over to him. "What are you crying for?"
"Oh! the goat,--the goat."
"Yes, where is the goat?" said the mother, as she looked up to the roof.
"He won't come any more!" said the boy.
"Dear, how can that be?"
Ovind wouldn't tell about it.
"Has the fox taken it?"
"Oh! I wish it was the fox!"
"Now what have you been doing?" said the mother. "Where is the goat?"
"Oh! oh! oh!... I ... I ... sold the goat for a biscuit!"
Just as he said the words, he felt what it was to sell the goat for a biscuit, he had not thought about it before. The mother said, "And what do you say now the little goat thinks of you, that you could sell him for a biscuit?"
Now the boy fully understood it, and he felt sure he could never more be happy here,--not even with God, he thought again.
He felt so grieved, that he made an agreement with himself that he would never do wrong any more,--he wouldn't cut the spinning thread, and he wouldn't lose the sheep, nor go down to the sea alone. And as he lay, he fell asleep, and dreamt that the goat had gone to heaven; the Lord sat there with a great beard as in the catechism, and the goat stood and nibbled the leaves from a shining tree, but Ovind sat alone upon the roof and couldn't come up.
Suddenly he felt something wet against his ear, and started up. "Ba-a-a!" it said. It was the goat come back again.
"Oh, are you come again!" He sprang up, took both the goat's forelegs, and danced with him as a brother; he pulled him by the beard, and was just going in with him when he heard something behind, and turning, he saw the little girl sitting on the greensward. Now he understood it, and let the goat loose. "Is it you who have brought him back?"
She sat and pulled the grass up. "They wouldn't let me keep him. My grandfather's up there waiting."
Just then they heard a shrill voice calling,--"Now!" Then she remembered what she had to do. She rose and went to Ovind, put one hand in his, looked down, and said: "Forgive me." But then her courage failed her; she cast herself over the goat, and wept.
"You shall keep the little goat," said Ovind, and turned away.
"Be quick!" said the grandfather up from the hill.
Marit rose and walked slowly on.
"You've forgotten your garter," cried Ovind.
She turned herself, looked first on the garter and then on him, and at last mumbled--"You can keep that."
He went and took her by the hand,--"Thank you!" he said.
"Oh, nothing to thank me for," she replied, heaved a deep sigh, and went away.
But Ovind wasn't so happy with the goat as he had been before.