They started off again, Sigrun sitting in the sledge, and the man on the side as before, with his legs hanging down. Then suddenly he slipped, and fell down in the road.
The horse stopped at once. The man picked himself up and climbed to his seat once more. But a little after, he slipped off again.
"Queer," he said. "I don't know what's the matter with me. My head seems going round."
Sigrun suggested he should sit in the sledge beside her. He did so, and they drove on again. A little later, the reins fell from his hands.
"I must be ill," he said confusedly. "Going the same way as Ruth, by the look of it."
But Sigrun hastened to reassure him.
"You have not slept all night," she said. "Sit there in the corner, and let me drive while you sleep a little."
Again something seemed to give her courage. "He is not ill," it whispered to her, "only tired out. There, he is asleep already."
When she had driven a little way, the horse stopped and refused to go farther.
Sigrun shook her companion by the arm.