But there were more serious things to consider of. Frey was dead and in two halves, and how could they go without Frey? How could they go with him either? He did not know what had better be done.
But Sigrid knew very well. When Gunnar came back to her she told him. "We must go on," she said, "and it is for you now to be Frey. You are strikingly like him. You would do much greater miracles than ever he did—as," she said, "you have already done."
Gunnar thought about it. "It could be done, I dare say. But we have no wagoner. You would not have Frey drive his own team."
She said, "We shall easily find a teamster in the country. And until we have one I can drive the beasts."
Gunnar said that that would not suit him at all. But they settled it this way, that he should drive until they were nearing the village, which lay upon a shoulder of the mountain, not far from the pass on the further side. Then Sigrid would go and find a wagoner and return with him.
It was necessary to mend Frey's oak-leaf crown, which was in two pieces. Gunnar joined them neatly together, and gilded the edges of the fracture. The axe had been very sharp, the cut very clean. There was no trouble with Frey's clothing; Gunnar was happy to resume his cloak.
Scarlet paint to his nostrils was all that he needed to make him as like Frey as need be; but he did not need as yet to change his nature and attributes. There would be time enough for that when Sigrid was gone for the wagoner.
They took up the journey again through the fast-melting snow. It was hard work, but the sun was shining, the sky without a cloud; they made way and reached the top of the pass without serious delay. Thence they could see the village below them. They saw also that on that side of the mountain the snow had not drifted so much. It had been exposed to the full fury of the wind, which had blown the snow off as fast as it fell. Gunnar considered that this would be a good place to wait for the teamster; but Sigrid told him that a little way down there was a better. "There is a shelter there," she said, "and a little birch wood. You will be more concealed, and I shall not have so far to come back to you."
Gunnar laughed. "Now that you have me, you are glad of me."
Her answer was a long look, and a sigh from a full heart.