Halla (laughing). I did not know you were vain.

Kari. Nor am I any more, but I have grown stingy. The minutes are my gold-pieces. (Takes her hand.) When I hold your hand in mine, I am happy. Before I cared for you, I did not see the sun shining, and now when it rains, all the drops prattle about you.

Halla. You do love me!

Kari. I seem to be in a church. I hold a torch in my hand and light one taper after another. For every taper that is lighted, the church grows larger and more beautiful. But I am a thief. If I am caught I must be buried alive, and now the church-bells are ringing. I hear the crowd gathering outside.

Halla. You frighten me.

Kari (taking her face between his hands). I must have a long look at your face. If I were to become blind this moment, I should always remember it. Your soul is in your eyes. When you look at me, I feel an unseen hand fondling my face. Whenever the sun shines, I shall see your eyes. It is hard to tell you, but when the sky grows red to-morrow, I shall be on my way to the hills. I must flee this very night.

Halla. I knew it. (Sits down.) Tell me how you have planned your flight.

Kari. I must be off before the winter sets in, and besides the letter from the south may be here any day now.

Halla. I know all that.

Kari (sits down). When I come home to-night, I shall say that I have seen the tracks of a flock of sheep farther up in the hills than we usually go to look for them. I shall ask you for two horses. You won't refuse me them? (Halla shakes her head.) I shall say that I must start at once, this very night, before the tracks disappear. When I don't come back, they will think I have come across outlaws or have met with an accident.

Halla. And where shall you go?

Kari. To the mountain plain where the warm springs are. I lived there before I came to you.

Halla. How long will it take you to reach it?

Kari. Three days. It is about in the middle of the country.

Halla. And there you will build your hut?

Kari. No; last time I lived in a lava cave. I had brought with me some tools that my brother gave me, and I left them there. Something told me that I might need them again. (He is silent.)

Halla (taking his hand). You must tell me more, much more. I want to see the place where you will live (with a strange smile), so that I can come and visit you in my thoughts.

Kari. I forget what I have told you and what I have not told you. You may think that the hills are wild and forbidding, but that is not so at all. In the summer, when the sun is shining, they are beautiful. The glaciers lie like white untrodden land in a sea of sand, their lower rim flashing green and blue in the sunlight. When you come nearer, you see a chain of jagged sandhills like a dark surf, where the glacier and the sand waste meet. He is silent again. Halla has picked a flower and is pulling its petals. Why are you doing that? What are you asking about?

Halla. You love me!

Kari. Do you need to ask a flower about that? (Rising.) Are you not the least bit sorry that we must part?

Halla (rising). Would it make it easier for you, if I were to whine and weep like a child?

Kari. I don't know. (He is silent.) Yet you need not pity me. I am rich—I am king of the hills! The fire on my hearth never dies, day or night. The country is mine, as far as my eyes can reach. Mine are the glaciers that make the streams! When I get angry, they swell, and the stones gnash their teeth against the current. And I own a whole lake with a fleet of ice-ships and a choir of swans.

Halla. I never said that I pitied you.

Kari. But one thing you must promise me. You must not marry the bailiff.

Halla. But, dear man—

Kari. If you do, I shall come some night and kill you both, first him and then you.

Halla. Are you really jealous of the bailiff? He hates me.

Kari. Why should he be hounding me like a wild beast, if it were not for your sake? I have never done him any harm.

Halla. I promise you that I shall never marry the bailiff. (Puts her arms around his neck and tries to draw him to her.) Kiss me, Kari!

Kari (gently pushing her away). My name is not Kari. From this day on my name is Eyvind—"Eyvind of the Hills," they call me in the southland, my brother told me.

Halla. From my lips you shall never hear any other name than Kari. By that name I learned to love you. A man who is not loved has no name. (Takes his hands.)

Kari (in a sudden outburst, drawing her to him and kissing her forehead). God bless you, Halla! (With difficulty mastering his voice.) Now I am going to the fold. (Turns away from Halla.)

Halla (calling). Kari! (Kari turns back.) Must I ask you to marry me a second time? I thought we two were married.

Kari. So we are before God.

Halla. So far as I know, it is the custom that when a man moves from one place to another, he takes his wife with him.

Kari. Do you think there is anything in the world I would rather do than live with you?

Halla. Then ask me if I am willing.

Kari. Will you be my beloved wife and go with me through all suffering?

Halla. I will!

Kari. Will you take upon yourself half of my guilt and become an outcast like me?

Halla (exultantly). I will!

Kari. Will you face hunger and cold and all terrors for my sake?

Halla. Have you not always known that I would go with you? Could you believe me so low that I would keep you here with this dread hanging over you, if I had not meant to go with you? Every night I thought: To-morrow he will ask if you will go with him.

Kari. How beautiful you are! All the days we have had together live in your face!

Halla. Did you believe I could rest satisfied in thinking of you with the mountains between us? Then you don't know me yet. I will live! I will sail with you in your white ships!

Enter Bjørn.

Bjørn. Good day to you, Halla. I looked for you at the fold. It is a long time since we two neighbors have met.

Halla (confused). Yes, it is a long time.

Bjørn. Who sees to it that your sheep are taken out of the fold? Your cots seem to be standing empty.

Halla. Kari attends to that.

Bjørn. Then it is time you sent him about his work.

Kari. Perhaps the bailiff has come to lend a hand?

Bjørn (to Halla). I should like to have a few words with you.

Halla. We were just starting for the fold. Perhaps we could have our talk on the way up.

Bjørn. If it is the same to you, I prefer to stay here. It is a matter of some weight, which I do not care to discuss in the presence of your overseer or any one but yourself.

Halla (to Kari). Then you had better go up to the fold.

Kari. Don't forget to ask the bailiff if it is true that he has been rubbing his knee-joints with fat every night the whole summer through. Exit.

Bjørn. He's bold enough, that fellow. It is well we shall soon be rid of him.

Halla (roused). And what was it you wanted to see me about?

Bjørn. We were both somewhat angry when we met last. Shall we let it be forgotten?

Halla (relieved). I thought perhaps you had got your letter from the southland with the proofs that you had been wrong in your suspicions.

Bjørn. Everything in good time. Did you say anything to him?

Halla. I told you I wouldn't.

Bjørn. I might have known that, since he is still here. Do you think I am beginning to look old?

Halla (amazed). To me you look as you have always looked. (Watches him keenly.)

Bjørn. I admit you were right in some of the things you said to me when we met last, but we all have our failings, and since my mother died I have had no one who dared to speak plainly to me except you.

Halla. You may not often have wished to listen to others.

Bjørn. Perhaps you are right, but somehow there must be two different souls in every one of us.

Halla. Have you had a good hay crop this summer?

Bjørn. Fairly good. At least I have enough for myself. Don't you understand what I want to say to you, or don't you want to understand?

Halla. You said that it was a matter of weight. That is all I know.

Bjørn. I am not skilled in fine words. Could you think of becoming my wife? (Halla laughs. Bjørn flushes.) Is that so laughable?

Halla. You can't be in earnest.

Bjørn. In dead earnest. I shall soon be forty-eight years old, but you are not a child any longer either, and we are of equal standing. If we two marry and make our farms into one, I think we should have to look outside of this parish for a finer property.

Halla. So we two should marry in order to join our farms?

Bjørn. I will not deny that I should like to see the boundary line gone between the two farms, but that is not the reason why I have made up my mind to ask you to marry me. It is not good for a man to be alone, and you are the only woman in this parish whom I could think of taking for a wife. You are healthy and strong of body, and you are good-looking. What answer do you give?

Halla. I must have some time to think it over. This comes upon me unawares. Within three days you shall have my answer. Are you satisfied with that?

Bjørn. I think it is but natural that you should want some time to make up your mind, and all the more as we have not always been the best of friends. Perhaps you will now more readily understand why I did not wish you to have a thief as overseer of your farm, and I am sorry to say that my distrust was well founded. (Pulls from his pocket a letter with a large seal.) This letter came yesterday.

Halla (holding out her hand). May I see it?

Bjørn. It is an official letter, which I do not like to give out of my hands, but I am not afraid to trust you with it. (Halla takes the letter; reads.) I can lend you one of my men to drive your sheep home this evening, for you will have to do without your overseer. It is lucky that the judge is here to-day.

Halla. I shall keep this letter.

Bjørn. I can understand a joke.

Halla. Kari has been with me for more than a year. He has been a hard worker and an able man. I will not have any one lay hands on him so long as he is in my service. I want to give him a chance to get away. That is what you yourself advised, three months ago.

Bjørn. At that time the case was very different. There was no proof of his guilt then.

Halla (putting her hand to her forehead). I can't believe yet that he is a thief. (Hands the letter to Bjørn.) Bjørn, I beg of you to show me a great favor. You must let this matter rest, till we get home.

Bjørn. In that I cannot serve you.

Halla. Perhaps I can do something for you in return.

Bjørn. I don't understand how you can pity a felon and a thief.

Halla. Nor do I understand it myself, but somehow I do. You have just asked me if I would be your wife. Surely you will grant me the first thing I ask of you!

Bjørn. One would think you were pleading for your best friend.

Halla. I may have cared more for him than I knew myself. If you will let him get away, I shall have no objection to making our two farms into one.

Bjørn. I never thought your overseer would be the means of my getting you for a wife, but I yield on those terms. Once we are married, you will surely forget him. But he must be gone from here within twenty-four hours, and I want you to know that if he ever shows himself in these parts again, he will have to take his punishment.

Halla. You need have no fear that he will ever come back here.

Bjørn. Then let us forget all about him. You have saved him from jail for a time, but he's sure to end there any way. (Goes to her.) Who would have thought that you should become my little wife! (Tries to put his arm around her waist.)

Halla (draws back). So many things happen that we do not look for.

Enter Kari.

Bjørn. You are just in time. It will surely please you to hear that your mistress is to marry me within a short time.

Kari (turning to Halla). What does this mean?

Bjørn (laughing). You hadn't expected this. (Goes to Halla.) My sweetheart might give me a kiss.

Halla (warding him off). No, no!

Kari (grasping Bjørn's arm). That man lies! She is mine. To Halla. If you two get married to-morrow, still you are mine.

Bjørn. Has my brother's wife become a harlot? Exit.

Halla. What have you done, Kari? It was to save you I promised to be his wife. I hoped to get a chance to speak to you. He has the letter and is going to give you up to the judge to-day.

Kari. I could not bear that man to touch you.

Halla. You must run for the horses and flee!

Kari. That would be madness. The others have just as good horses. We must take what comes. I shall deny everything.

Halla. What good would that do? It is impossible to mistake the description. I have read it myself.

Kari. Did you really mean to marry the bailiff to save my life?

Halla. I lied to him, so that I could flee with you. I hate him.

Kari. I love you, Halla.

Halla (in rising fear). What shall we do? (Wrings her hands.) It is all my fault for holding you back. (On the point of weeping.) I am an unhappy woman.

Kari. You must not cry. Even if I faced the death warrant, I should not be sorry that I stayed. (Kisses her hands.) These summer days we have had together—in all eternity no one can take them from us.

Halla (withdraws her hands excitedly). Don't you know of any way? Say that the bailiff is your enemy and has had the letter framed up.

Kari. You know yourself that it would be no use. (Goes to her.) I believe it is God's will that you should not flee with me. I have told you how beautiful it can be in the hills, but all the terrors I have not told you of—the sand-storms, when the whole plain seems to be on fire, the nights as long as a whole winter, and the hunger stealing close to you like an evil mist. You might have come to hate me.

Halla. I will hear nothing of all that. (Under her breath in terror.) They are coming!

Enter Bjørn and the District Judge, followed by a crowd of peasants and farm hands. Others come in as the action proceeds.

Bjørn (pointing). There stands the man.

The Judge (goes to Kari). You say your name is Kari. (Shows the letter.) According to this letter, your name is Eyvind, and you are an escaped thief.

Kari. That is a lie.

Bjørn. Read the letter.

(The Judge gives him a sharp look. He opens the letter and reads to himself, now and then raising his eyes from the letter to Kari's face.)

A Peasant (in a low voice). What does the judge say?

Bjørn. In the early spring, a man came here who knew him (pointing) as an escaped thief. I wrote to have the case looked up, and yesterday I got the answer.

The Judge. The description fits you. It is my duty under the law to take you into custody.

(Murmuring among the peasants.)

First Peasant. I never should have believed it.

Kari. It is the bailiff to whom this letter was sent. May I be allowed to ask where it came from?

Bjørn. From the southland where you were born.

Kari. I was born in the east and have never been south.

Bjørn. Will the judge look at the seal?

The Judge. The seal is correct. (To Halla.) He is in your service. Have you found this man to be a thief?

Halla. No. He has shown himself a trustworthy and an able man. (To the people.) Don't you believe, as I do, that Kari is innocent?

The Crowd (murmuring). Yes, yes!

The Judge. I cannot judge this case. I must send him to the district where Eyvind's home is. (To Halla.) Can you vouch for him a few days? At present I cannot well spare two men for the journey.

Halla. I am not afraid to do that.

Bjørn. It seems to me unwise to set a woman to watch a thief. If the judge wishes it, I will take him into safe-keeping myself.

Halla. Does the bailiff think he can give counsel to the judge? I offer my farm as surety for Kari.

The Judge (interrupting Bjørn, who is about to reply). Silence! (To Halla.) Then you are responsible. Exit.

Bjørn. I must say that the former judge was not wont to delay the law.

Halla (to the peasants). You came here to listen to false charges, but you shall have a better pastime. You shall see the bailiff himself play at glima with the man he calls thief.

Bjørn. You must be crazy! I won't touch him.

Halla. My dear brother-in-law made me a promise last spring that he would wrestle with Kari here at the folds. It was a wager, and now he is backing out of it. What do you say to that?

Bjørn. An honest man does not play with a thief.

Halla. He is no more thief than you are. Should you be a thief, because I said so? (To the people.) He is only too glad to get out of the glima. He is a coward! He is a coward!

(Loud or suppressed laughter all around.)

Bjørn. Never before has Bjørn Bergsteinsson been called a coward. (Takes off his coat.)

(Kari throws off his coat. The crowd draws back, leaving an open space. The "glima" begins. Bjørn pushes Kari out to the back, and the people follow. The heads of the wrestlers are seen; then they disappear to the left. A moment of silence, then a sudden outcry.)

All. Kari has won! Kari has won! (Silence again.) Bjørn is hurt! Exeunt some of the crowd.

Kari. I think he has had enough. (Goes to Halla.)

A Peasant. Bjørn had his leg broken. We must help him.

Jon. I told them to look out for the rocks.

Halla. It was the bailiff who drew Kari out on the rocks. Exeunt the rest of the peasants.

Bjørn's voice is heard, threatening. You shall pay me back for this, Halla!

Arnes. I am glad he got it.

Arngrim. "Hard upon hard," said the old woman; she sat down on a stone.

The Boy (goes to Kari, almost weeping). You are not a thief!

Kari (patting him on the head). No, no!

Halla (to Arnes). Will you do me the favor to see that my sheep are driven home to-night? I don't want Kari to stay here any longer.

Arnes. I will do it gladly. (To Kari.) I meant to warn you against what has overtaken you now.

Kari. I know it. You meant well.

The Boy. May I go home with Kari?

Halla. No, you must stay here and help Arnes. I will go home with Kari myself. (Laughs.) You know I must watch my prisoner. You may bring the horses, the black and the sorrel. Exit the Boy.

Gudfinna. Why all this hurry?

Halla (goes to her). You always had a liking for the little box where my husband kept his money. When we get home, I want you to have that box and all that is in it.

Gudfinna. But you keep your own money there!

Halla. Not all. I meant to buy quite a number of sheep here to-day.

Gudfinna (on her way out). I must be getting old. I don't understand anything any more.

Halla. You need not tell them up at the folds that I am going home.

Gudfinna (taking Halla's hand). God bless you! (Her voice breaks.) Exit.

Arnes (to Arngrim). We had better be off, too.

Arngrim (goes to Kari). If you should happen to ride astray, take care you don't lose her in the mist. Exeunt.

Kari (to Halla). What do you mean by riding home now?

Halla. Thank God, we have good horses! The folks won't get home with the sheep before nightfall, and they will not begin to look for us until to-morrow. By that time we shall have a good start.

Kari. You must not flee with me, Halla. You don't know the life you are going to.

Halla. You are a great child. Don't you think that I have weighed it all? (Smiles.) If you won't let me come and live with you, I will marry the bailiff.

Kari (kneeling before her). Halla!

Halla (stands for a moment in silence; takes a long breath). To-night we two shall ride alone in the hills!

ACT III

A small grass-grown plot. In the foreground, to the right, a fantastic lava formation, a hollow cone five yards in height and three yards in circumference, once an enormous lava bubble produced by gases in the liquid lava. In course of time, the roof has crumbled, also the nearest wall. The farther wall is still standing, but there is a hole in it, through which the sky can be seen. Farther back and somewhat to the left, the wall of a small hut is seen, though partly hidden by the lava formation. The hut is built of stone, the walls of small stones chinked with sod, the roof of large lava slabs. To the left, a deep gorge, the farther wall of which is so much higher than the one near by that it completely shuts off the view to the left. At the bottom of the gorge, a stream. Farther up, the gorge makes a turn to the left, and here the upper part of a waterfall is seen. Behind this, the glacier. On the grass plot is a hearth with a smouldering fire. Some rocks covered with skins serve as seats. From the gorge comes the murmuring sound of the waterfall.

The stage is empty. A horn is heard, first a short call, then a longer.

Enter Kari and Arnes. They are weather-beaten, bareheaded, dressed in knitted jerkins and knitted knee-breeches. Their feet are bare in their shoes. Both have ram's horns hanging at their side. Kari carries a swan, Arnes a bunch of ptarmigans, some faggots, and a few tufts of bearberry.

Kari (looking into the hut). Halla! No, she is not here.

Arnes. She may have gone for water.

Kari (lays down the swan). It is quite heavy.

Arnes. You might have let me carry it. I had not tired myself with running.

Kari. As I had caught it, I wanted to carry it. (Smiles.) The old pride, you see.

Arnes. The honor would have been yours just the same.

Kari. This is the first swan this fall. (Stroking it fondly.) I am glad the feathers didn't get blood-stained.

Arnes. It would be lonesome up here if we were only two.

Kari. Indeed it would, but you have tried the loneliness before. Was it not two years you had been alone before you met us?

Arnes. Two and a half.

Kari (pleased). Do you know what we'll do? We'll hide the swan and say that we've come home empty-handed. (Takes the swan.) Hand me the ptarmigans. (Hides them behind the hut.) Now I wish Halla would come soon. (Walks to the back and blows his horn.)

Halla (is heard answering). Hello!

Kari. Here she comes.

Arnes. You are a happy mortal.

Kari. Yes, I am happy, and it is good to be here. We are free. We have enough to eat. We have sunshine, water, and shelter. What more do you want? (Arnes is silent.) I know you are brooding over something you don't want to tell me. You seem more gloomy every day. Are you longing to get away from here?

Arnes. Don't let us talk about such things to-day.

Kari. Perhaps it would do you good to unburden yourself to me or, better still, to Halla. She is wiser than I am, and she cares a good deal for you, I tell you.

Arnes. There are not many like Halla.

Kari (hastily). We won't tell Halla about the mist. It might frighten her.

Arnes. I'll hold my peace.

Enter Halla, carrying a pail of water. The pail is of plaited willow twigs chinked with clay. With the other hand she leads a little girl about three years old. Halla is dressed in a white jerkin and black skirt, both of knitted wool. She wears her silver girdle around her waist. The child has on white knitted clothes. They are bare-headed, and their foot-wear is the same as that worn by the men.

Halla. Did you have good luck to-day?

Kari (dolefully). We have caught nothing but trouble and weariness. The ptarmigans made themselves scarce to-day. We saw a flock of six, but they flew away before we could get our snares out.

Halla (to Arnes). Is it true, what he says?

Arnes. It's true enough. We saw six ptarmigans, but they got away from us.

Halla. I am sorry. We must hope for better luck next time.

Kari (laughing). I fooled you that time! (Runs toward the hut.) Look here! Five big, fat ptarmigans!

Halla. Well, well!

Kari (holding up the swan). And that's all.

Halla. What a lovely surprise! How did you catch it?

Kari. I ran it down.

Arnes. I don't believe there are many who can beat him at that. I know I can't.

Tota. May Tota pat it?

Halla. Tota may do anything she wants to. I should like to make you a jacket of swan's down.

Kari (cuts off the feet of the swan). You would like these, wouldn't you?

Tota. Yes.

Kari. Some day when I have time I will skin them and make little bags for you to keep your pebbles in.

Halla. You've got lovely playthings there! (Squats down on the ground.) Where are mother's eyes? (Hiding her eyes with the swan's feet.)

Tota (takes them away from her eyes). Here!

Halla (rising). Did you eat all your food?

Kari. Every bite.

Halla. Then you can't be hungry.

Kari. No.

Halla. And it is too early for the evening meal, but I can make you some tea.

Kari. Yes, do. (To Arnes.) Let us carry the swan to the cave. Exeunt Kari and Arnes.

Halla. Now Tota must be tied, so the waterfall can't take her, while mother is making tea. (Takes a rope that is fastened to a rock and ties it around Tota's waist. Brings some of her playthings.) Here are all your horses. (Puts a kettle of water over the fire; places some earthenware cups on the rocks by the hearth; takes a handful of dried herbs from a bag, rinses them in cold water, and portions them out in the cups. The faggots Arnes has brought, she throws on the fire. As she works, she sings.)

There! Now we must get the water to boil. (Picks up the tufts of bearberry and goes to Tota.) See what Arnes brought you!

Tota. They are berries.

Halla. Yes, but you must not eat them or you will get a pain in your little stomach. (Rises and finds a long, stiff straw.) Now I'll show you what you can do. (Threading the berries on the straw, she counts.) One, two—four—six, seven—so many years your father and mother have been in the hills. (Strokes Tota's hair.) When you are sixteen, we shall have lived here for twenty years, and then we shall be free again. On that day, Tota shall wear snow-white clothes and shoes of colored leather, and mother will clasp her silver girdle around your waist. And when we come down to the lowlands, the first one we meet is a young man with silver buttons in his coat. He stops and turns his horse and stands looking after you ever so long. Then your mother has grown old and wrinkled, and her hair is almost as white as snow. Your father, too, has grown old. But you are straight as a silver-weed, and when you run, you lift your feet high!

Enter Kari and Arnes.

Kari (laughing). Ah, now it's steaming. I nearly fell headlong into the cave, when we lifted the cover from the entrance.

Halla. Did you? (Gives the straw to Tota.) Now you can go on by yourself. (Rises.) Is there any need of closing the cave every time? When it's not raining, it might be left open.

Kari. No harm in being careful. If they should come upon us suddenly, we surely should not have time to close the entrance, and they would find the cave and destroy all our stores, as they did five years ago. Do you remember when we came back to the old place and found nothing but ashes?—and winter setting in. Not a single piece of mutton did they leave us.

Halla. I don't easily forget.

Kari. Whenever I think of it, I feel like doing something wicked. After all, we are human too.

Halla (laughing coldly). We're only the foxes who take their sheep.

Kari (to Arnes). How did you hide your stores when you were alone?

Arnes. I had many hiding-places. Once I stole some twenty-eight pounds of butter. I stuffed it down into a fissure in a rock.

Kari. That was pretty shrewd.

(They are silent.)

Halla. Did you have a clear outlook from the mountain this afternoon?

Kari. Yes. There was a little mist far to the southward.

Halla. It was from the south that the cloud came in my dream.

Kari. You can never forget about that dream.

Halla. I counted fourteen men who came riding out of the cloud. (Silent for a moment.) You are quite sure the two men whose tracks you saw a month ago did not get on our trail?

Kari. Quite sure. If they had, they would have come closer.

Halla. Just think if they had seen smoke and told about it down in the parish!

Kari. They have done nothing of the kind; for if they had, they would have been up here with many men long ago. Ah, the water is boiling.

(Halla lifts the kettle from the fire and pours water over the herbs.)

Kari. Your tea will soon be giving out.

Halla. Yes, I must take a day and gather enough for the winter. I will go down to the Sun Valley. Nowhere else are the herbs so fine.

(They drink their tea.)

Kari. Don't forget to lay in a store of herbs for your salve. You know how troublesome a little scratch can be, when the cold gets into it. You kept the honey I found?

Halla. I did.

Kari. That is good for wounds, too. And you must gather cotton grass for lamp wicks. (Goes to Tota and gives her tea.) Tota must have a taste, too.

Arnes (has been looking at Halla). Your hair was quite black before, but now there has come a sheen of red into it.

Kari. I have not noticed it, but your freckles are all gone, I have seen that. (Patting her cheek.) Are you going to give us more tea?

Halla. As much as you want.

Kari (rises and goes into the hut; returns with three wooden pipes and two pouches, one large and one small) You need not be saving of the leaves, but the tobacco I shall have to dole out to you.

(They fill their pipes.)

Halla (smiling). It was foolish of you to teach me to smoke.

Kari. Why shouldn't you have that boon as well as I? (Shakes his bag.) You need not be shy, I have more in the cave, and when winter sets in and the snow is fit for skiing, we'll take Arnes down to my brother's. He promised to lay in good stores of tobacco and salt, and I will pay him with wool, as I did last time.

Halla. If only you don't end by being caught on one of those journeys!

Kari. Never! (They sit smoking in silence.) Now I am just in the mood to listen to a good story. Have you one to tell us?

Arnes (rising). No, I have not. (Goes toward the gorge.)

Kari. It does not matter if you have told it before.

Halla. Arnes may be saving them for the winter.

Kari (rises; lays down his pipe). Do you know what you should do? Have a good talk with Arnes. I believe he is getting restless and thinks of leaving us.

Halla. I hope not.

Kari. I will go and take a bath. You can speak better to him alone, and I need to wash off the sweat. (Sings on his way out.)