and laughed with him than went on to cry with his children.

One day when Astrid was in her daughter-in-law's house, she noticed
how little Mildrid went about quite alone; it seemed as if her mother
hardly dared to touch her. When the father came in, she saw the same
mournful sort of reserve towards his own, only child. She concealed
her thoughts, but when she got home to her own dear Knut, she told him
how things stood at Tingvold, and added: "Our place is there now.
Little Mildrid needs some one that dares to love her; pretty, sweet
little child that she is!" Knut was infected by her eagerness, and the
two old people packed up and went home.

Mildrid was now much with her grandparents, and they taught her
parents to love her. When she was five years old her mother had
another daughter, who was called Beret; and after this Mildrid lived
almost altogether with the old people. The anxious parents began once
more to feel as if there might yet be pleasure for them in life, and a
change in the popular feeling towards them helped them.

After the loss of the second child, though there were often the
traces of tears on their faces, no one had ever seen them weep--their
grief was silent. There was no changing of servants at Tingvold, that
was one result of the peaceful, God-fearing life there; nothing but
praise of master and mistress was ever heard. They themselves knew
this, and it gave them a feeling of comfort and security. Relations
and friends began to visit them again; and went on doing so, even
though the Tingvold people made no return.

But they had not been at church since their wedding-day! They partook
of the Communion at home, and held worship there. But when the second