One December evening, when the wind howled dismally among the forest trees and piled up snow in great drifts across the roadway, little Harald, chilled and shivering, returned home from a hard day’s work. To keep up a brave heart he whistled as he walked, looking earnestly at the flashing flames of light which people now call the “Northern Lights,” but which, to him, was the flickering of the helmets and shields and spears of Odin’s maidens; for so had he been taught.
Just as he turned into the dark forest he heard a faint moan, as of a human being in distress. Hastening to the spot whence it came, he found an ugly Dwarf lying in the snow nearly frozen. Although Harald was quite numb himself from cold, he began briskly to rub the Dwarf’s hands and face, and after a little while helped him to his feet, and Harald then asked the Dwarf to go home with him where he might get warm and have some supper.
“Why should you befriend a poor wretch such as I am, who cannot repay you?” whined the Dwarf as he leaned heavily on Harald’s young shoulders.
“I don’t ask to be repaid,” replied Harald. “Have you not heard the proverb, ‘Do good and throw it into the sea. If the fishes don’t know it, Odin will.’”
“Yes; Odin shall know about this, you may be sure of that, and although I am only a poor deformed wretch, I know how to be grateful, and would like to do you a favor,” replied the Dwarf. “I wonder if you have happened to notice a little green ash tree somewhere near here.”
“A green ash tree in winter!” exclaimed Harald.
“It is an unusual sight, indeed,” said the Dwarf, “but in one of my rambles, the other night, I saw one in this vicinity. Oh, here it is, right before our eyes!”
There, sheltered by a cluster of evergreen trees, was a small ash sapling, with green leaves on its branches as in summer, while the other forest trees stood about nodding in their slumber, their leaves all gone and their hearts frozen within them.
When Harald went and touched its branches, the little tree came right up out of the ground.
“Take home the little ash and plant it beside your window,” said the Dwarf, and when Harald turned about to thank him he was gone out of sight.