"They would not let me keep it; grandfather is sitting up there,
waiting."
While the boy stood looking at her, he heard a sharp voice from the road
above call out, "Now!"
Then she remembered what she was to do; she rose, went over to Oeyvind,
put one of her muddy hands into his, and, turning her face away,
said,--
"I beg your pardon!"
But then her courage was all gone; she threw herself over the goat, and
wept.
"I think you had better keep the goat," said Oeyvind, looking the other
way.
"Come, make haste!" said grandpapa, up on the hill; and Marit rose, and
walked with reluctant feet upward.
"You are forgetting your garter," Oeyvind called after her. She turned
round, and looked first at the garter and then at him. At last she came
to a great resolution, and said, in a choked voice,--
"You may keep that."