forwards between the other two as he walked down the path; but he didn't walk exactly, he appeared to be gliding down the side of the mountain, till he vanished in one of the darkest caves down in the valley. I was not the only one who had seen him, because directly afterwards a grey hen came creeping out from behind a tussock, with her head on one side and her neck stretched out, looking cautiously in the direction of the old man, but then, you may guess, in another moment I had the gun up, and bang, there she lay flapping her wings.
"So much for that; but another time at home in Laskerud,—it wasn't very long after I had seen the huldre walking over the bog, a Christmas eve, it was—my brothers and I were at play on the side of a hill, making snow-men and sliding down the slope on sledges. They used to say there were fairies in that hill, I must tell you! Well, we were playing and running about as you know children can do. My youngest brother was only four or five years old, but he romped about and shouted and enjoyed himself thoroughly. It was getting very late, when all of a sudden somebody in the hill shouted: 'Go home now." But we did not go; we thought it was still very early. Before long, however, we heard another shout, 'Go home at once now.' 'Just listen,' said my youngest brother,—he hadn't sense enough to know that he shouldn't take notice of their shouting,—'they are shouting to us over in the hill to go home.' We did not stop playing, however, but kept on sliding down the hill on our sledges, when we suddenly heard a shout which made our ears ring: 'If you don't go home this moment, I'll ' We didn't hear any more, for we took to our heels and ran as fast as our legs could carry us, and didn't stop till we were outside our own door.
"Some time after this,—we were all grown up by that time,—I and my brother were coming home one Sunday morning, after having been out all night fishing, when we all at once heard some hounds giving tongue over in the Solberg Wood. It sounded fine, I can tell you! Well, I was tired and went in to lie down, but my brother thought it was such a fine morning, that he would stay up and listen to the dogs. All at once they ceased, so he went over there,
