eyes; my gun was light as a walking-stick in my hand. If I could win
her, I should become a good man, I thought. I reached the woods and
thought again: If I might win her, I would serve her more untiringly
than any other; and even if she proved unworthy, if she took a fancy to
demand impossibilities, I would yet do all that I could, and be glad
that she was mine... I stopped, fell on my knees, and in humility and
hope licked a few blades of grass by the roadside, and then got up
again.

At last I began to feel almost sure. Her altered behavior of late--it
was only her manner. She had stood looking after me when I went; stood
at the window following with her eyes till I disappeared. What more
could she do? My delight upset me altogether; I was hungry, and no
longer felt it.

Asop ran on ahead; a moment afterward he began to bark. I looked up; a
woman with a white kerchief on her head was standing by the corner of
the hut. It was Eva, the blacksmith's daughter.

"_Goddag_, Eva!" I called to her.

She stood by the big grey stone, her face all red, sucking one finger.

"Is it you, Eva? What is the matter?" I asked.

"Asop has bitten me," she answered, with some awkwardness, and cast down
her eyes.

I looked at her finger. She had bitten it herself. A thought flashed
into my mind, and I asked her: