"Well," said he, "I didn't think you were so vain as all that."
"Can't a person look at the pebbles and fish at at the bottom of the lake without being vain?" and she laughed her confusion away. "Say, Hagbert, is your boat close by?"
"Yes, just down by the north landing."
"Oh, that's good. I thought I would have to wait until father came this evening to get home. You'll row me across, won't you?"
"Why, certainly; but I thought you had gone to the saeter to stay, at least a week."
"Yes, but—but, I've come home again, you see."
"Yes, I see," and he looked oddly at her. He had also seen Hr. Bogstad set out for the mountains two days before, and now he wondered.
Hagbert fetched the boat, took in his passenger, and his strong arms soon sent the light craft to the other bank.
"A thousand thanks, Hagbert," she said, as she sprang out, and then climbed up the steep path, and watched him pull back. He was a strong, handsome fellow, too, a poor fisherman, yet somehow, she felt easier in his company than in Hr. Bogstad's.
Signe found no one at home. Her mother and the children had, no doubt, gone to the mainland to pick blueberries; so she went out into the garden to finish her book. She became so absorbed in her reading that she did not see her mother's start of surprise when they came home with their baskets full of berries.