In their confusion and embarrassment, the trees fancied that all the rest were making fun of them.  The bumblebees came buzzingly up to mock at them, the magpies laughed them to scorn, while the other birds sang taunting ditties.

“Where shall we find something to put on?” asked the trees in despair; but they had not a leaf to their names on either twig or branch, and their distress was so terrible that it awakened them.

And glancing about, drowsy like, their first thought was:  “Thank God it was only a dream!  There is certainly no summer hereabout.  It’s lucky for us that we haven’t overslept.”

But as they looked around more carefully, they noticed that the streams were clear of ice, grass blades and crocuses beeped out from their beds of soil, and under their own ark the sap was running.  “Spring is here at all events,” said the trees, “so it was well we awoke.  We have slept long enough for this year; now it’s high time we were getting dressed.”

So the birches hurriedly put on some sticky pale green leaves, and the maples a few green flowers.  The leaves of the alder came forth in such a crinkly and unfinished state that they looked quite malformed, but the slender leave:  of the willow slipped out of their buds smooth and shapely from the start.

Gertrude smiled to herself as she walked along and thought this up.  She only wished she had been alone with Ingmar so she could have told it all to him.

They had a long way to go to get to the Ingmar Farm—­more than an hour’s tramp.  They followed the riverside; all the while Gertrude kept walking a little behind the others.  Her fancy had begun to play around the red glow of the sunset, which flamed now above the river, now above the strand.  Gray alder and green birch were enveloped by the shimmer, flashing red one instant, the next taking on their natural hues.

Suddenly Ingmar stopped, and broke off in the middle of something he was telling.

“What’s the matter, Ingmar?” asked Gunhild.

Ingmar, pale as a ghost, stood gazing at something in front of him.  The others saw only a wide plain covered with grain fields and encircled by a range of hills, and in the centre of the plain a big farmstead.  At that moment the glow of sunset rested upon the farm; all the window pans glittered, and the old roofs and walls had a bright red glimmer about them.

Gertrude promptly stepped up to the others, and after a quick glance at Ingmar, she drew Gunhild and Gabriel aside.

“We mustn’t question him about anything around here,” she said under her breath.  “That place over yonder is the Ingmar Farm.  The sight of it has probably made him sad.  He hasn’t been at home in two years—­not since he lost all his money.”

The road which they had taken was the one leading past the farm and down to Strong Ingmar’s cabin, at the edge of the forest.

Soon Ingmar came running after, calling, “Hadn’t we better go this way instead?” Then he led them in on a bypath that wound around the edge of the forest, and by which they could reach the cabin without having to cross the farm proper.