"May I put them there again?" he asked shyly, picking up the flowers
from the ground.

The girl laughed; the blossom laughed.

"And then I must go--mother is waiting."

"Must you?"

They rose to their feet, and he fastened the blossoms at her breast.

"How good you are!" he said, with a sense of unspeakable joy and
thankfulness.

"And you too.... Good-bye, Olof."

"Good-bye--fairy!"

He stood in the clearing, watching her as she went, till the last
glimpse of her had vanished between the trees.

She turned round once, and the red flowers in her white blouse burned
like the glow of the setting sun on a white cloud.

"I'll fell no more to-day," said the youth, and sat down on a fallen
tree, with his head in his hands.