The juniper had half raised itself to look at the heather, and continued to keep this position, until at length it stood upright.  It scratched its head and set forth again, taking such a vigorous foothold that it seemed as though the mountain must feel it.  “If you will not have me, then I will have you.”  The fir crooked its toes a little to find out whether they were whole, then lifted one foot, found it whole, then the other, which proved also to be whole, then both of them.  It first investigated the ground it had been over, next where it had been lying, and finally where it should go.  After this it began to wend its way slowly along, and acted just as though it had never fallen.  The birch had become most wretchedly soiled, but now rose up and made itself tidy.  Then they sped onward, faster and faster, upward and on either side, in sunshine and in rain.  “What in the world can this be?” said the mountain, all glittering with dew, as the summer sun shone down on it.  The birds sang, the wood-mouse piped, the hare hopped along, and the ermine hid itself and screamed.

Then the day came when the heather could peep with one eye over the edge of the mountain.  “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!” said the heather, and away it went.  “Dear me! what is it the heather sees?” said the juniper, and moved on until it could peer up.  “Oh dear, oh dear!” it shrieked, and was gone.  “What is the matter with the juniper to-day?” said the fir, and took long strides onward in the heat of the sun.  Soon it could raise itself on its toes and peep up.  “Oh dear!” Branches and needles stood on end in wonderment.  It worked its way forward, came up, and was gone.  “What is it all the others see, and not I?” said the birch; and lifting well its skirts, it tripped after.  It stretched its whole head up at once.  “Oh,—­oh!—­is not here a great forest of fir and heather, of juniper and birch, standing upon the table-land waiting for us?” said the birch; and its leaves quivered in the sunshine so that the dew trembled.  “Ay, this is what it is to reach the goal!” said the juniper.

THE FATHER

The man whose story is here to be told was the wealthiest and most influential person in his parish; his name was Thord Overaas.  He appeared in the priest’s study one day, tall and earnest.

“I have gotten a son,” said he, “and I wish to present him for baptism.”

“What shall his name be?”

“Finn,—­after my father.”

“And the sponsors?”

They were mentioned, and proved to be the best men and women of Thord’s relations in the parish.

“Is there anything else?” inquired the priest, and looked up.

The peasant hesitated a little.

“I should like very much to have him baptized by himself,” said he, finally.

“That is to say, on a week-day?”

“Next Saturday, at twelve o’clock noon.”

“Is there anything else?” inquired the priest.