"What shall I see if I ever go
Over the mountains high?
Now, I can see but the peaks of snow,
Crowning the cliffs where the pine-trees grow,
Waiting and longing to rise
Nearer the beckoning skies.
"Th' eagle is rising afar away,
Over the mountains high,
Rowing along in the radiant day
With mighty strokes to his distant prey,
Where he will, swooping downwards,
Where he will, sailing onwards.
"Apple-tree, longest thou not to go
Over the mountains high?
Gladly thou growest in summer's glow,
Patiently waitest through winter's snow:
Though birds on thy branches swing,
Thou knowest not what they sing.
"He who has twenty years longed to flee
Over the mountains high—
He who beyond them, never will see,
Smaller, and smaller, each year must be:
He hears what the birds, say
While on thy boughs they play.
"Birds, with your chattering, why did ye come
Over the mountains high?
Beyond, in a sunnier land ye could roam,
And nearer to heaven could build your home;
Why have ye come to bring
Longing, without your wing?
"Shall I, then, never, never flee
Over the mountains high?
Rocky walls, will ye always be
Prisons until ye are tombs for me?—
Until I lie at your feet
Wrapped in my winding-sheet?
"Away! I will away, afar away,
Over the mountains high!
Here, I am sinking lower each day,
Though my Spirit has chosen the loftiest way;
Let her in freedom fly;
Not, beat on the walls and die!
"Once, I know, I shall journey far
Over the mountains high.
Lord, is thy door already ajar?—
Dear is the home where thy saved ones are;—
But bar it awhile from me,
And help me to long for Thee."
Arne stood listening till the sound of the last verse, the last words died away; then he heard the birds sing and play again, but he dared not move. Yet he must find out who had been singing, and he lifted his foot and walked on, so carefully that he did not hear the grass rustle. A little butterfly settled on a flower at his feet, flew up and settled a little way before him, flew up and settled again, and so on all over the hill. But soon he came to a thick bush and stopped; for a bird flew out of it with a frightened "quitt, quitt!" and rushed away over the sloping hill-side. Then she who was sitting there looked up; Arne stooped low down, his heart throbbed till he heard its beats, he held his breath, and was afraid to stir a leaf; for it was Eli whom he saw.
After a long while he ventured to look up again; he wished to draw nearer, but he thought the bird perhaps had its nest under the bush, and he was afraid he might tread on it. Then he peeped between the leaves as they blew aside and closed again. The sun shone full upon her. She wore a close-fitting black dress with long white sleeves, and a straw hat like those worn by boys. In her lap a book was lying with a heap of wild flowers upon it; her right hand was listlessly playing with them as if she were in thought, and her left supported her head. She was looking away towards the place where the bird had flown, and she seemed as if she had been weeping.