"There I am welcome!" returned she.



CHAPTER XVII

"Look at the calming sea. The waves still tremble in the depths,
and stem to fear the gale.--Over my head is hovering the shadowy
mist.--My curls are wet with the filling dew."--OSSIAN.

Otto had not as yet visited the sand-hills on the strand, the
fishermen, or the peasants, among whom formerly he had spent all
his spare time.

The beautiful summer's day drove him forth, his heart yearned to
drink in the summer warmth.

Only the roads between the larger towns are here tolerable, or
rather as tolerable as the country will allow. The by-ways were
only to be discerned by the traces of cart-wheels, which ran on
beside each other; at certain places, to prevent the wheels sinking
into the deep sand, ling had been spread; where this is not the
case, and the tracks cross each other, a stranger would scarcely
find the way. Here the landmark places its unseen boundary between
neighboring possessions.

Every farm, every cottage, every hill, was an old acquaintance to
Otto. He directed his steps toward Harbooere, a parish which, one
may say, consists of sand and water, but which, nevertheless, is