Christmas morning Jan took the little girl along with him to
church; she was then just one year and four months old.
Katrina thought the girl rather young to attend church and feared
she would set up a howl, as she had done at the vaccination bee;
but inasmuch as it was the custom to take the little ones along to
Christmas Matins, Jan had his own way.
So at five o'clock on Christmas Morn they all set out. It was pitch
dark and cloudy, but not cold; in fact the air was almost balmy,
and quite still, as it usually is toward the end of December.
Before coming to an open highway, they had to walk along a narrow
winding path, through fields and groves in the Ashdales, then take
the steep winter-road across Snipa Ridge.
The big farmhouse at Falla, with lighted candles at every window,
stood out as a beacon to the Ruffluck folk, so that they were able
to find their way to Börje's hut; there they met some of their
neighbours, bearing torches they had prepared on Christmas Eve.
Each torch-bearer led a small group of people most of whom followed
in silence; but all were happy; they felt that they, too, like the
Wise Men of old, were following a star, in quest of the new-born
King.
When they came to the forest heights they had to pass by a huge
stone which had been hurled at Svartsjö Church, by a giant down in
Frykerud, but which, luckily, had gone over the steeple and dropped
here on Snipa Ridge. When the church-goers came along, the stone
lay, as usual, on the ground. But they knew, they did, that in the
night it had been raised upon twelve golden pillars and that the
_trolls_ had danced and feasted under it.
It was not so very pleasant to have to walk past a stone like that!
Jan looked over at Katrina to see whether she was holding the
little girl securely. Katrina, calm and unconcerned, walked along,
chatting with one of their neighbours. She was quite oblivious,
apparently, to the terrors of the place.
The spruce trees up there were old and gnarled, and their branches
were dotted with clumps of snow. As seen in the glow of the torch
light, one could not but think that some of the trees were really
trolls, with gleaming eyes beneath snow hats, and long sharp claws
protruding from thick snow mittens.
It was all very well so long as they held themselves still. But
what if one of them should suddenly stretch forth a hand and seize
somebody? There was no special danger for grown-ups and old people;
but Jan had always heard that the trolls had a great fondness for
small children--the smaller the better. It seemed to him that
Katrina was holding the little girl very carelessly. It would be no
trick at all for the huge clawlike troll hands to snatch the child
from her. Of course he could not take the baby out of her arms in a
dangerous spot like this, for that might cause the trolls to act.
Murmurs and whispers now passed from tree-troll to tree-troll; the
branches creaked as if they were about to bestir themselves.
Jan did not dare ask the others if they saw or heard what he did. A
question of that sort might be the very thing to rouse the trolls.
In this agony of suspense he knew of but one thing to do: he struck
up a psalm-tune. He had a poor singing-voice and had never before
sung so any one could hear him. He was so weak at carrying a tune
that he was afraid to sing out even in church; but now he had to
sing, no matter how it went. He observed that the neighbours were a
little surprised. Those who walked ahead of him nudged each other
and looked round; but that did not stop him; he had to continue.
Immediately one of the womenfolk whispered to him: "Wait a bit,
Jan, and I'll help you."
She took up the Christmas carol in the correct melody and the
correct key. It sounded beautiful, this singing in the night among
the trees, and soon everybody joined in.
"Hail Blessed Morn, by prophets' holy words foretold," rang out on
the air. A murmur of anguish came from the tree-trolls; they bowed
their heads so that their wicked eyes were no longer visible, and
drew in their claws under spruce needles and snow. When the last
measure of the first stanza died away, no one could have told that
there was anything besides ordinary old spruce trees on the forest
heights.
The torches that had lighted the Ashdales folk through the woods
were burned out when they came to the highroad; but here they went
on, guided by the lights from peasant huts. When one house was out
of sight, they glimpsed another in the distance, and every house
along the road had candles burning at all the windows, to guide the
poor wanderers on their way to church.
At last they came to a hillock, from which the church could be
seen. There stood the House of God, like acme gigantic lantern,
light streaming out through all Its windows. When the foot-farers
saw this, they held their breath. After all the little,
low-windowed huts they had passed along the way, the church looked
marvellously big and marvellously bright.
At sight of the sacred edifice Jan fell to thinking about some poor
folk in Palestine, who had wandered in the night from Bethlehem to
Jerusalem with a child, their only comfort and joy, who was to be
circumcised in the Temple of the Holy City. These parents had to
grope their way in the darkness of night, for there were many who
sought the life of their child.
The people from the Ashdales had left home at an surly hour, so as
to reach the church ahead of those who drove thither. But when they
were quite near the church grounds, sleighs, with foaming horses
and jingling bells, went flying past, forcing the poor foot-farers
to fake to the snow banks, at the edge of the road.
Jan now carried the child. He was continually dodging vehicles, for
the tramp along the road had become very difficult. But before them
lay the shining temple; if they could only get to it they would be
sheltered, and safe from harm.
Suddenly, from behind, there came a deafening noise of clanging
bells and clamping hoofs. A huge sledge, drawn by two horses, was
coming. On the front seat sat a young gentleman, in a fur coat and
a high fur cap, and his young wife. The gentleman was driving;
behind him stood his coachman, holding a burning torch so high that
the draft blew the flame backward, leaving in its wake a long trail
of smoke and flying sparks.
Jan, with the child in his arms, stood at the edge of the snowbank.
All at once his foot sank deep in the snow, and he came near
falling. Quickly the gentleman in the sledge drew rein and shouted
to the peasant, whom he had forced from the road:
"Hand over the child and it shall ride to the church with us. It's
risky carrying a little baby when there are so many teams out."
"Much obliged to you," said Jan Anderson, "but I can get along all
right."
"We'll put the little girl between us, Jan," said the young wife.
"Thanks," he returned, "but you needn't trouble yourselves!"
"So you're afraid to trust us with the child?" laughed the man in
the sledge, and drove on.
The foot-farers trudged along under ever-increasing difficulties.
Sledge followed sledge. Every horse in the parish was in harness
that Christmas morning.
"You might have let him take the girl," said Katrina. "I'm afraid
you'll fall with her!"
"What, I let _him_ have my child? What are you thinking of, woman!
Didn't you see who he was?"
"What harm would there have been in letting her ride with the
superintendent of the ironworks?"
Jan Anderson of Ruffluck stood stockstill. "Was that the
superintendent at Doveness?" he said, looking as though he had
just come out of a dream.
"Why of course! Who did you suppose it was?"
Yes, where had Jan's thoughts been? What child had he been
carrying? Where had he intended going? In what land had he
wandered? He stood stroking his forehead, and looked rather
bewildered when he answered Katrina.
"I thought it was Herod, King of Judea, and his wife, Herodias,"
he said.