Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/273

Rh She did not stay there long, you may fancy, but hurried back home as quick as ever she could; and when her father asked her why she had come so soon, she told him what sort of a man her sweetheart was, and all that she had heard and seen.

A short time after her lover came passing by that way, and he looked so grand that his raiment shone again, and he came to ask, he said, why she had never paid him that visit, as she had promised.

"Oh!" said her father, "there came a man in the way with a sledge and scattered the peas, and she couldn't find her way; but now you must just put up with our poor house, and stay the night; for you must know we have guests coming, and it will be just a betrothal feast."

So when they had all eaten and drunk, and still sat round the table, the daughter of the house said she had dreamt such a strange dream a few nights before. If they cared to hear it she would tell it them, but they must all promise to sit quite still till she came to the end.

Yes; they were all ready to hear, and they all promised to sit still, and her sweetheart as well.

"I dreamt I was walking along a broad path, and it was strewn with peas."

"Yes, yes," said her sweetheart, "just as it will be when you go to my house, my love."

"Then the path got narrower and narrower, and it went far, far away through wood and waste."

"Just like the way to my house, my love," said her sweetheart.

"And so I came to a green field, in which stood a big grand house."