THE HOMESTEAD WESTWARD IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS
There was once a farmer's son who was off to Moen for the annualmanoeuvres. He was to be the drummer, and his way lay right across themountains. There he could practise his drumming at his ease, and beathis tattoos again and again without making folks laugh, or having aparcel of small boys dangling about him like so many midges.
Every time he passed a mountain homestead he beat his rat-tat-tat tobring the girls out, and they stood and hung about and gaped after himat all the farmhouses.
It was in the midst of the hottest summer weather. He had beenpractising his drumming from early in the morning, till he had grownquite sick and tired of it. And now he was toiling up a steep cliff, andhad slung his drum over his shoulder, and stuck his drumsticks in hisbandoleer.
The sun baked and broiled upon the hills; but in the clefts there was acoolness as of a rushing roaring waterfall. The little knolls swarmedwith bilberries the whole way along, and he felt he must stoop down andpluck whole handfuls at a time, so that it took a long time to get tothe top.
Then he came to a hilly slope where the ferns stood high, and there werelots of birch bushes. It was so nice and shady there, he thought, and sohe couldn't for the life of him help taking a rest.
His drum he took off, his jacket he put beneath his head, and his capover his face, and off he went to sleep.
But as he lay dozing there, he dreamt that some one was tickling himunder the nose with a straw so that he could get no peace; and theinstant he awoke, he fancied he heard laughing and giggling.
The sun had by this time begun to cast oblique shadows, and far downbelow, towards the valleys, lay the warm steaming vapours, creepingupwards in long drawn-out gossamer bands and ribands of mist.
As he reached behind him for his jacket, he saw a snake, which lay andlooked at him with such shrewd quick eyes. But when he threw a stone atit, it caught its tail in its mouth, and trundled away like a wheel.
Again there was a giggling and a sniggering among the bushes.
And now he heard it among some birch trees which stood in such awonderful sunlight, for they were filled with the rain and fine drizzleof a waterfall. The water-drops glistened and sparkled so that he reallycouldn't see the trees properly.
But it was as though something were moving about in them, and he couldhave sworn that he had caught a glimpse of a fine bright slim damsel,who was laughing and making fun of him. She peeped at him from beneathher hand, because of the sun, and her sleeves were tucked up.
A little while afterwards a dark-blue blouse appeared above thebrushwood.
He was after it in an instant.
He ran and ran till he had half a mind to give up, but then a frock anda bare shoulder gleamed betwixt an opening in the leaves.
And off again he pelted as hard as he could, till he began to think thatit must have all been imagination.
Then he saw her right in a corner of the green bushes. Her hair had beentorn out of its plaits from the speed with which she had flown throughthe bushes. She stood still, and looked back as if she were terriblyfrightened.
But the lad thought to himself that if she had run away with hisdrumsticks, she should pay for it.
And off they ran again, she in front, and he behind.
Now and again she turned round and laughed and gibed, and gave a tossand a twist, so that it looked as if her long wavy hair were writhingand wriggling and twisting like a serpent's tail.
At last she turned round on the top of the hill, laughed, and held outhis drumsticks towards him.
But now he was determined to catch her. He was so near that he made grabafter grab at her; but just as he was about to lay hold of her hard by afence, she was over it, while he tumbled after her into the enclosure ofa homestead.
Then she cried and shouted up to the house, "Randi, and Brandi, andGyri, and Gunna!"
And four girls came rushing down over the sward.
But the last of them, who had a fine ruddy complexion and heavygolden-red hair, stood and greeted him so graciously with her downcasteyes, as if she was quite distressed that they should play such wantonpranks with a strange young man.
She stood there abashed and uncertain, poor thing! just like a child,who knows not whether it should say something or not; but all the whileshe sidled up nearer and nearer to him. Then, when she was so close tohim that her hair almost touched him, she opened her blue eyes wide, andlooked straight at him.
But she had a frightfully sharp look in those eyes of hers.
"Rather come with me, and thou shalt have dancing--or art thou tired, mylad?" cried a girl with blue-black hair, and a wild dark fire in hereyes. She tripped up and down, and clapped her hands. She had whiteteeth and hot breath, and would have dragged him off with her.
"Tie thyself up behind first, black Gyri!" giggled the others.
And immediately she let the lad go, and wobbled and twisted, and wentbackwards so oddly.
He couldn't help staring after the black lassie, who stood and writhedand twisted so uncomfortably, as if she were concealing something behindher, and had, all at once, become so meek.
But the fine bright girl with the slim slender waist, who had rushed onbefore him, and who seemed to him the loveliest of them all, began tolaugh at him again and tease him.
Run as he might, he shouldn't catch her, she jibed and jeered; nevershould he find his drumsticks again, she said.
But then her mood shifted right round, and she flung herself downheadlong, and began to cry. She had followed his drumming the whole day,she said, and never had she heard any fellow who could beat rat-tat-tatso well; nor had she ever seen a lad who was so handsome while he wasasleep. "I kissed thee then," said she, and smiled up at him sosorrowfully.
"Beware of the serpent's tongue, lest it bite thee, swain! Tis worst ofall when it licks thee first," whispered the bashful one with thegolden-red hair. She would fain have stolen between them so softly.
And all at once the swain recollected the snake, which was as slender,and supple, and quick, and sparkling as the girl who lay there on thehill-side, and wept and made fun at the same time and looked oddly alertand wary.
But a stooping, somewhat clumsy little thing now stuck her head quicklyin between, and smiled shamefacedly at him, as if she knew and couldtell him so much. Her eyes sparkled a long way inwards, and across herface there passed a sort of pale golden gleam, as when the last sunbeamslowly draws away from the grassy mountain slope.
"At my place," said she, "thou shalt hear such _Langelejk_[1] as noneelse has ever heard. I will play for thee, and thou shalt listen tothings unknown to others. Thou shalt hear all that sings, and laughs,and cries in the roots of trees, and in the mountains, and in all thingsthat grow, so that thou wilt never trouble thy head about anything elsein the world."
Then there was a scornful laugh; and up on a rock he saw a tall stronglybuilt girl, with a gold band in her hair and a huge wand in her hand.
She lifted a long wooden trumpet with such splendid powerful arms, threwback her neck with such a proud and resolute air, and stood firm andfast as a rock while she blew.
And it sounded far and wide through the summer evening, and rang backagain across the hills.
But she, the prettiest and daintiest of them all, who had cast herselfon the ground, stuck her fingers in her ears, and mimicked her andlaughed and jeered.
Then she glanced up at him with her blue eyes peeping through herashen-yellow hair, and whispered---
"If thou dost want me, swain, thou must pick me up."
"She has a strong firm grip for a gentle maiden," thought he to himself,as he raised her from the ground.
"But thou must catch me first," cried she.
And right towards the house they ran--she first, and he after her.
Suddenly she stopped short, and putting both arms akimbo, lookedstraight into his eyes: "Dost like me?" she asked.
The swain couldn't say no to that. He had now got hold of her, and wouldhave put
his arm round her.
"'Tis for thee to have a word in the matter, father," she shouted all atonce in the direction of the house; "this swain here would fain wed me."
And she drew him hastily towards the hut door.
There sat a little grey-clad old fellow, with a cap like a milk-can onhis head, staring at the livestock on the mountain-side. He had a largesilver jug in front of him.
"'Tis the homestead westward in the Blue Mountains that he's after, Iknow," said the old man, nodding his head, with a sly look in his eyes.
"Haw, haw! That's what they're after, is it?" thought the swain. Butaloud he said, "'Tis a great offer, I know; but methinks 'tis a littlehasty too. Down our way 'tis the custom to send two go-betweens first ofall to arrange matters properly."
"Thou _didst_ send two before thee, and here they be," quoth shesmartly, and produced his drumsticks.
"And 'tis usual with us, moreover, to have a look over the propertyfirst; though the lass herself have wit enough and to spare," added he.
Then she all at once grew so small, and there was a nasty green glitterin her eyes---
"Hast thou not run after me the livelong day, and wooed me right down inthe enclosure there, so that my father both heard and saw it all?" criedshe.
"Pretty lasses are wont to hold back a bit," said the swain, in awheedling sort of way. He perceived that he must be a little subtlehere; it was not all love in this wooing.
Then she seemed to bend her body backwards into a complete curve, andshot forward her head and neck, and her eyes sparkled.
But the old fellow lifted his stick from his knee, and she stood thereagain as blithe and sportive as ever.
She stretched herself out tall and stiff, with her hands in her silvergirdle; and she looked right into his eyes and laughed, and asked him ifhe was one of those fellows who were afraid of the girls. If he wantedher he might perchance be run off his legs again, said she.
Then she began tripping up and down, and curtseying and making fun ofhim again.
But all at once he saw on the sward behind her what looked like theshadow of something that whisked and frisked and writhed round andround, and twisted in and out according as she practised her wheedlingways upon him.
"That is a very curious long sort of riband," thought the drummer tohimself in his amazement. They were in a great hurry, too, to get himunder the yoke, he thought; but they should find that a soldier on hisway to the manoeuvres is not to be betrothed and married offhand.
So he told them bluntly that he had come hither for his drumsticks, andnot to woo maidens, and he would thank them to let him have hisproperty.
"But have a look about you a bit first, young man," said the old fellow,and he pointed with his stick.
And all at once the drummer saw large dun cows grazing all along themountain pastures, and the cow-bells rang out their merry peals. Bucketsand vats of the brightest copper shone all about, and never had he seensuch shapely and nicely dressed milkmaids. There must needs be greatwealth here.
"Perchance thou dost think 'tis but a beggarly inheritance I have herein the Blue Mountains," said she, and sitting down on a haycock, shebegan chatting with him. "But we've four such _saetar[2]_ as this, andwhat I inherit from my mother is twelve times as large."
But the drummer had seen what he had seen. They were rather too anxiousto settle the property upon him, thought he. So he declared that in soserious a matter he must crave a little time for consideration.
Then the lass began to cry and take on, and asked him if he meant tobefool a poor innocent, ignorant, young thing, and pursue her and driveher out of her very wits. She had put all her hope and trust in him, shesaid, and with that she fell a-howling.
She sat there quite inconsolable, and rocked herself to and fro with allher hair over her eyes, till at last the drummer began to feel quitesorry for her and almost angry with himself. She was certainly mostsimple-minded and confiding.
All at once she twisted round and threw herself petulantly down from thehaycock. Her eyes spied all about, and seemed quite tiny and piercing asshe looked up at him, and laughed and jested.
He started back. It was exactly as if he again saw the snake beneath thebirch tree down there when it trundled away.
And now he wanted to be off as quickly as possible; he cared no longerabout being civil.
Then she reared up with a hissing sound. She quite forgot herself, and along tail hung down and whisked about from behind her kirtle.
He shouldn't escape her in that way, she shrieked. He should first ofall have a taste of public penance and public opinion from parish toparish. And then she called her father.
Then the drummer felt a grip on his jacket, and he was lifted right offhis legs.
He was chucked into an empty cow-house, and the door was shut behindhim.
There he stood and had nothing to look at but an old billy-goat througha crack in the door, who had odd, yellow eyes, and was very much likethe old fellow, and a sunbeam through a little hole, which sunbeam crepthigher and higher up the blank stable wall till late in the evening,when it went out altogether.
But towards night a voice outside said softly, "Swain! swain!" and inthe moonlight he saw a shadow cross the little hole.
"Hist! hist! the old man is sleeping at the other side of the wall," itsounded.
He knew by the voice that it was she, the golden-red one, who hadbehaved so prettily and been so bashful the moment he had come upon thescene.
"Thou need'st but say that thou dost know that serpent-eye has had alover before, or they wouldn't be in such a hurry to get her off theirhands with a dowry. Thou must know that the homestead westwards in theBlue Mountains is mine. And answer the old man that it was me, Brandi,that thou didst run after all the time. Hist! hist! here comes the oldman," she whispered, and whisked away.
But a shadow again fell across the little hole in the moonlight, and theduck-necked one stuck her head in and peeped at him.
"Swain, swain, art thou awake?"
"That serpent-eye will make thee the laughingstock of the neighbourhood.She's spiteful, and she stings. But the homestead westward in the BlueMountains is mine, and when I play there the gates beneath the highmountains fly open, and through them lies the road to the namelesspowers of nature. Do but say that 'twas me, Randi, thou wert runningafter, because she plays so prettily on the _Langelijk_.--"Hist, hist!the old man is stirring about by the wall!"--she beckoned to him and wasgone.
A little afterwards nearly every bit of the hole was darkened, and herecognised the Black one by her voice.
"Swain, swain!" she hissed.
"I had to bind up my kirtle to-day behind," said she, "so we couldn't godancing the _Halling-fling_[3] together on the green sward. But thehomestead in the Blue Mountains is my lawful property, and tell the oldman that it was madcap Gyri thou wast running after to-day, because thouart so madly fond of dancing jigs and _hallings_."
Then she clapped her hands aloud, and straightway was full of fear lestshe should have awakened the old man.
And she was gone.
But the lad sat inside there, and thought it all over, and looked up atthe thin pale summer moon, and he thought that never in his whole lifehad he been in such evil case.
From time to time he heard something moving, scraping, and snortingagainst the wall outside. It was the old fellow who lay there and keptwatch over him.
"Thou, swain, thou," said another voice at the peep-hole.
It was she who had planted herself so firmly on the rock with suchsturdy hips and such a masterful voice.
"For these three hundred years have I been blowing the _langelur[4]_here in the summer evenings far and wide, but never has it drawn any onewestward hither into the Blue Mountains. And let me tell thee that weare all homeless and houseless, and all thou seest here is but glitterand glamour. Many a man has been befooled hither time out of mind. But Iwon't have the other lasses married before me. And rather than that anyone of them should get thee, I'll free thee
from the mountains. Mark me,now! When the sun is hot and high the old man will get frightened andcrawl into his corner. Then look to thyself. Shove hard against the doorof the hayloft, and hasten to get thee over the fence, and thou wilt berid of us."
The drummer was not slow to follow this counsel. He crept out the momentthe sun began to burn, and cleared the fence with one good bound.
In less than no time he was down in the valley again.
And far, far away towards sunrise in the mountains, he heard the soundof her _langelur_.
He threw his drum across his shoulder, and hied him off to themanoeuvres at Moen.
But never would he play rat-tat-tat and beat the tattoo before thelasses again, lest he should find himself westwards in the BlueMountains before he was well aware of it.
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[1] A long slow dance, and the music to it.
[2] A _Saeter_ (Swed. _saeter_) is a remote pasturage with huts upon it,where the cows are tended and dairy produce prepared for market and homeuse during the summer.
[3] A country dance of a boisterous jig-like sort.
[4] A long wooden trumpet.
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"_IT'S ME_."
"IT'S ME."]