"See, little ones! I gave my last mark for Hansa, and knew not where I
should find bread for you all afterward; but the dear child has brought
only good to us since. I am getting old, and my arms grow too weak to
swing the heavy ax, and I thought, often, soon must my little ones go
hungry. But now we are rich, and my cares have all gone. So long as
they wish, therefore, shall Niels and Hansa be to me as my own
children; they shall live here with us, and we will love them well."

[Illustration: ON THE SPRING-BOARD.]

Then he kissed all the happy faces, and said: "Now go and play, little
ones, for grandmother and I must think quietly over these God-sent
gifts."

So the children, first putting Friska, the reindeer, carefully in the
little stable beside the cow (so that he should not run away from the
strange new home, Hansa said), hastened to their favorite
play-place,--a large pine board lying on the slope of the hill, whence
they could look far away across the fields and fjords to the Kilpis,
the great mountain peaks where, even in summer, the pure white snow lay
glistening in the sunlight.

"Ho!" cried Niels, "that is a fine board, but no good so; see what _I_
can do with it!" and lifted one end and put it across a great log that
lay near by.

"Now you little fellows," said he to Olaf and Erik, "I am strong as a
giant, but I cannot quite roll up this other log alone. Come you and
help."