step. He advanced to meet her, and took her hand between both of his.
Her eyes were fixed on the ground, and so they stood.

"Thank you for all your letters," was the first thing he said; and when
she looked up a little and laughed, he felt that she was the most
roguish troll he could meet in a wood; but he was captured, and she,
too, was evidently caught.

"How tall you have grown," said she, meaning something quite different.

She looked at him more and more, laughed more and more, and he laughed,
too; but they said nothing. The dog had seated himself on the slope,
and was surveying the gard. Thore observed the dog's head from the
water, but could not for his life understand what it could be that was
showing itself on the cliff above.

But the two had now let go of each other's hands and were beginning to
talk a little. And when Oyvind was once under way he burst into such a
rapid stream of words that Marit had to laugh at him.

"Yes, you see, this is the way it is when I am happy--truly happy, you
see; and as soon as it was settled between us two, it seemed as if
there burst open a lock within me--wide open, you see."

She laughed. Presently she said,--

"I know almost by heart all the letters you sent me."

"And I yours! But you always wrote such short ones."