"Oh, cry on!" said the cruel father, who we must hope hardly knew what
he was saying, "for never will I take you back to my tent and to Niels.
I brought you here to-day that some one else may have you. You shall be
my child no longer. I will give you for a pipe, that I may smoke and
drink my finkel in peace. Who'll buy?"

Just then, good Peder Olsen came by, and his kind heart ached for the
little maid.

"See!" said he to the angry Lapp. "Give me the child, and I will give
you a pipe and these thirty marks as well. They are my year's earnings,
but I give them gladly."

"Strike hands! She is yours!" said Haakon, who, without one look at his
weeping child, turned away; while the wood cutter led Hansa, all
trembling and frightened, toward his home.

At first, she longed to tell her kind protector of Niels, and beg him
to take her back. But she was a wise little maid, and curious withal.
So she said to herself: "Who knows? It may be a beautiful home, and the
kind people may send me back for Niels. I will go on now, for I have
never been but one road in all my life, and surely I can find it
again."

So she walked quietly on beside father Peder, till at last his little
cottage appeared in sight.

"This is your new home, dear child," said he, and they stepped quickly
up to the door, opened it softly, and entered the little room.