"But no sooner had they said this, than the thrush flew away. 'It was on your side, it was,' said the lad. 'Thank you,' answered the girl; 'but I clearly saw it was on your side.—But see! there it comes again!' 'Indeed, it's on my side,' the lad exclaimed. Then the girl got angry: 'Ah, well, I wish I may never stir if I go with you any longer!' and she went away.
"Then the thrush, too, left the lad; and he felt so dull that he called out to the girl, 'Is the thrush with you?'—'No; isn't it with you?'—'Ah, no; you must come here again, and then perhaps it will follow you.'
"The girl came; and she and the lad walked on together, hand in hand. 'Quitt, quitt, quitt, quitt!' sounded on the girl's side; 'quitt, quitt, quitt, quitt!' sounded on the lad's side; 'quitt, quitt, quitt, quitt!' sounded on every side; and when they looked there were a hundred thousand million thrushes all round them. 'Ah, how nice this is!' said the girl, looking up at the lad. 'Ah, God bless you!' said he, and kissed her."
All the girls thought this was such a nice tale.
Then Godfather said they must tell what they had dreamed last night, and he would decide who had dreamed the nicest things.
"Tell what they had dreamed! No; impossible!"
And then there was no end of tittering and whispering. But soon one after another began to think she had such a nice dream last night; and then others thought it could not possibly be so nice as what they had dreamed; and at last they all got a great mind for telling their dreams. Yet they must not be told aloud, but to one only, and that one must by no means be Godfather. Arne had all this time been sitting quietly a little lower down the hill, and so the girls thought they dared tell their dreams to him.
Then Arne seated himself under a hazel-bush; and Aasa, the girl who had told the first tale, came over to him. She hesitated a while, but then began,—
"I dreamed I was standing by a large lake. Then I saw one walking on the water, and it was one whose name I will not say. He stepped into a large water-lily, and sat there singing. But I launched out upon one of the large leaves of the lily which lay floating on the water; for on it I would row over to him. But no sooner had I come upon the leaf than it began to sink with me, and I became much frightened, and I wept. Then he came rowing along in the water-lily, and lifted me up to him; and we rowed all over the whole lake. Wasn't that a nice dream?"
Next came the little girl who had told the tale about the little lad,—