she would be a little embarrassed, and say: "I was just going for a walk--
it's such a lovely evening--what are you doing here?" "Just sitting
here," say I, with innocent eyes, as if my thoughts had been far away. And
when she hears that I was just sitting there in the late of the evening,
she must realize that I am a dreamer and a soul of unknown depth, and then
she falls in love with me....

She was in the churchyard again the following evening, and a thought of
high conceit flew suddenly into my mind: it was myself she came to see!
But, watching her more closely, I saw that she was busy, doing something
about a grave, so it was not me she had come for. I stole away up to the
big ant-heap in the wood and watched the insects as long as I could see;
afterwards, I sat listening to the falling cones and clusters of rowan
berries. I hummed a tune, and whispered to myself and thought; now and
again I had to get up and walk a little to get warm. The hours passed, the
night came on, and I was so in love I walked there bare-headed, letting
myself be stared out of all countenance by the stars.

"How's the time?" Grindhusen might ask when I came back to the barn.

"Just gone eleven," I would say, though it might be two or three in the
morning.

"Huh! And a nice time to be coming to bed. _Fansmagt!_ Waking folk up
when they've been sleeping decently!"

And Grindhusen turns over on the other side, to fall asleep again in a
moment. There was no trouble with Grindhusen.

Eyah, it's over-foolish of a man to fall in love when he's getting on in