Two Little Finns │ Project Gutenberg

EARLY in the present century—that is to say, somewhere about the year 1816—there lived on the borders of a great forest in Finland a woodcutter and his two children. Their home was a log hut built in two storeys. On the lower floor was a kitchen, a tiny corner of which was screened off for a bedroom, while upstairs were two small chambers, one for the man, Grubert Reuss, and the other for his little daughter, Blonda, a girl eleven years of age. The boy, Anthony, commonly called Tonie, who was thirteen, slept downstairs, and made himself very useful, especially in the early mornings, by bringing in wood, filling the water-tub from the lake that bounded this part of the forest on one side, lighting the fire, and sweeping out the kitchen all ready for Blonda when she came down to prepare breakfast.

They were very poor—Grubert and his children—but this did not hinder them from being contented and happy. Their food was coarse and wanting in variety, consisting for the most part of black rye bread, barley porridge, vegetable soup, eggs, goat's milk, and the mushrooms, roots and berries that they found in the woods. But they had enough to eat, and their clothing was not of an expensive kind; so they managed to get along very well, especially now that Blonda was becoming quite a clever little housekeeper, and was able to make her father's earnings go almost as far as her mother had done in years gone by, before the fever which devastated that part of Finland swept her away, leaving the little home bereft.

Tonie was only five and his sister three when their mother died, and a hard struggle had it been for Grubert to bring up his little ones without his wife to help him. But he was a good and a brave man, with a firm and simple reliance on the love and justice of the Almighty, and the courage which comes from a good conscience, and from an earnest wish and effort to do right. And now the hardest time had passed, and his children were beginning to reward him for all his care by their love, their obedience, and their industry.

The woodcutter's cottage stood quite two miles away from any other dwelling, and three from the little village of Carfoos, where they went to church on Sunday morning. Their pastor's house was the nearest neighbour to theirs, and the pastor himself, old Bertholm Oshart, was their best and dearest friend—a man full of the spirit of his Master, and living only for Him and His service. In point of worldly goods, he was little better off than the woodcutter himself; but though silver and gold had he none for his little flock, such as he had, gave he them, and this was of his best—his very heart and soul and life; and he was justly revered and beloved by all the people to whom he ministered.

One family only in the village of Carfoos showed a dislike to the good old man. They were a lawless, unprincipled set, of the name of Valden, who had done much harm by their evil example, and whom the pastor had had occasion solemnly to warn and reprove. Bitterly resenting his faithfulness, the Valdens never forgave him. Several times, and in various ways, they had tried to injure him, and more than once they had succeeded, though of their personal animosity and unkindness Pastor Oshart took no heed.

But in this family, the youngest was a poor, half-witted youth, as much devoted to the good old minister as the rest were set against hum. The pastor, while others jeered at or despised the lad, had always treated him with gentleness, and poor Freskel's affection and gratitude were constantly being shown. Nor could his brothers keep him from following the old man about, and ministering to him in such ways as he could, these being by no means few. Half-witted though Freskel was, no one for many miles round knew as much as he did about the woods and the water, the animals and fish, the wild fruit and flowers and birds; and hardly ever a day passed without the lad bringing to the pastor's house some humble offering. Now it was a hare which he had snared, or some game-bird's eggs he had found, or a string of freshly caught salmon-trout, or a basket of mushrooms or wild strawberries. He chopped wood for the pastor, he fetched water, he weeded the little garden; he led the goats out to pasture in the summer, and cut up food for them in winter, when the whole land was covered with snow. A smile, a kindly word, a caressing touch from the old man was ample reward for all that he could do, and when he was near to the pastor his happiness was touching to see.

With Grubert, Tonie, and Blonda too, Freskel was very friendly, and the children liked nothing better than a day's expedition with this lad, to whom Nature was an open book, and the only one he was ever likely to be able to read.

One morning Grubert Reuss told his children that he would be obliged to set out that day for Klingengolf, the nearest town, to sell his stock of carved toys and other wooden articles made by him and Tonie during the long winter evenings, and to buy various things that were wanted for home use. The town was quite thirty-five miles distant, and as Grubert had no conveyance, he would be obliged to walk, and could not possibly get back for at least three days.

"So, my dears," said he, "you will be alone at all events for to-night and to-morrow night. Shall you be afraid?"

"No, father," replied Tonie; "what should harm us? It is summer time, and there are no wolves near us, as there are now and again in winter; though even if there were, they would only prowl about here at night, and then we are always safe at home. And there is nothing else to do us harm, as thou knowest well, dear father."

"Yes, all will be well," said Blonda; "fear not for us. And we promise to be such good children, and to take good care of the home till thou return to us again."

Then the little girl set about preparing a basket of provisions for Grubert to take with him, and in half an hour he was on his way.

The young folk had a busy morning. The house had to be swept and tidied; then there was dinner to prepare and to eat. After that they worked in the little garden, and then, later in the afternoon, they sallied out to pick wild berries for supper.

The long bright day passed pleasantly, and the shadows beginning to gather were making them think of going to bed, when just as they were about to lock up the house for the night, a hurried knock came at the front door of the cottage, which faced the wood.

Blonda opened it, and to her surprise Pastor Oshart, pale and panting, stepped across the threshold.

"Dear pastor," said Tonie, "he has gone away to Klingengolf, and will not be back for three days."

"That is indeed unfortunate," replied the old man, and he glanced down uneasily at a small leather bag he was carrying, and which now for the first time, he produced from under his cloak.

"Is there nothing in which we can help you, Pastor Oshart?" asked Tonie. "Blonda and I would be so glad to serve you."

"Yes, my children, it may be that you can," answered the old man. "Let me sit down, and I will tell you why I am come here to-night. But first, Tonie, close thou the shutters and the door, and make all safe, lest some one peep in, or come and surprise us."

Tonie and Blonda exchanged frightened glances. The thought of any possible danger to them in this home of theirs had never occurred to them before, and now, as their eyes sought once more the old man's face, they could see that he was anxious and troubled.

"Listen, little ones," said the pastor. "This morning Rolf Bresser, a friend of mine, came to me and begged me to take charge for a few days of a bag of money—gold and silver coin. It had been given him, he said, by a rich man, to distribute among the poor of the village where he lived. There has been an epidemic of small-pox in the place, and the villagers have been compelled in many cases to burn their clothes and bedding to get rid of the infection. This money is to help them to buy clothing before the cold weather returns.

"Rolf Bresser expected to start for home to-day," Pastor Oshart went on, "but he has been delayed by business, and this morning he told me he had reason to fear that the Valdens or some of their friends had got scent, somehow, of the matter, and he was in dread of being robbed of the money before he could get away. For this reason, my children, he brought the bag to me for safely, and I locked it up in my chest, and Rolf went away quite content. But scarcely had I sat down to my dinner, when the door opened softly, and Freskel Valden stole in.

"'Hush, my father!' he said, putting a finger to his lips. 'The brothers think that poor Freskel sees nothing—knows nothing; but my eyes are open, my ears are not stopped, if only they or I could do aught for thee, my father.'

"Then, Tonie and Blonda, he told me in his strange fashion that his brothers Dorlat and Hervitz had got wind of the money-bag, and had contrived to track Rolf Bresser to my door. This being so, of course I felt that my house was no longer a safe hiding-place for the treasure, and I feared lest the Valdens or their boon companions should break in at night and carry it away. So after dark I got out of my back door, hiding the bag under my cloak, and hurried hither to ask your father to take care of it till such time as Rolf is able to start for home. For truly no one could suspect that in a woodcutter's cottage there could be anything worth stealing."

"No, dear pastor," replied Blonda; "father has often said that after all we poor folk are the happiest, for none envy us or covet what we have."

"And this being so, my children—now I come to think of it—the bag is quite as safe here as it would be were your father at home, and I need have no fear of leaving it with you. Here, Blonda, my little maid, take and hide it away, and whenever my friend is ready to leave, he or I will come and claim it at thy hand.

"I hope and trust that those miscreants the Valdens have not tracked me hither as they tracked Rolf to my house. Indeed, I should hardly think it possible they could have done so, after all my care and precautions. And now, children, good-night, and God bless you. Lock and bolt the door after me, and let no one in on any pretext whatever."

Then the door opened, letting in a breath of cool air laden with the scent of pines—and Pastor Oshart was gone.

CHAPTER II

THE night passed quietly enough. Perhaps the old pastor's fears were groundless, and Freskel's brothers either had given up the idea of getting hold of the bag of coin, or suspected nothing of its change of quarters.

With the morning light came a sense of security, and the children were ready to laugh at their fears of the night before.

After their early meal of bread and goat's milk, they resolved to go and spend the day out of doors, taking dinner with them.

The time must pass slowly enough while their father was away from them; and the weather to-day was so fine that it seemed a pity for them to stay at home, when they had really nothing much to do.

So Blonda put up some dinner in a little basket, and Tonie took his fishing tackle, and carefully locking both doors of the house, they set out for a long day by the lake side.

On the shore, not far from the cottage, was a natural grotto formed by four great boulders of Finnish granite, which were so disposed as to make three rough walls and a roof, so that there was shelter within from sun and rain, and from wind too, unless this blew directly across the lake from the eastward, towards which the grotto was open, facing the rising sun.

In this pleasant resort the children established themselves. Blonda took out her knitting, while Tonie began to arrange his fishing tackle, and bait his hooks before embarking on the raft which Grubert had constructed from trunks of pine, and which served the children instead of a boat whenever they wanted to fish in deep water across the lake.

"The poor, dear pastor! How weary he looked and anxious too, last night!" said Blonda. "His sweet old face was quite white and drawn; didst thou remark it, Tonie?"

"Yes, surely," replied the boy; "and yet, Blonda, it may be that his fears were altogether groundless, after all. Freskel is but half-witted, and it is not impossible that he is mistaken, and that his brothers knew nothing of the bag, or even if they knew, perhaps they had no thought of so wickedly robbing the pastor of what his friend had entrusted to his care."

"I know not," rejoined Blonda thoughtfully, as she picked up a dropped stitch in her knitting. "But Freskel Valden—half-witted though he be—is, it seems to me, clear enough of vision and true of understanding in all matters which concern Pastor Oshart. Who knows, Tonie, whether such great love as his for our good minister may not make him wise, even as the very beasts and birds of the forest are wise through love, and cunning in their watchfulness over those for whom they care!"

"Thou may'st well be right, sister," said Tonie. "As our father has often told us, God has gifts for all, even the most simple among His creatures; and to one He gives wisdom of one sort, and to another of a different kind. But there, Blonda, I am ready now for my fishing; say, little sister, wilt thou come with me on the raft to the Isle of Ghosts, or stayest thou here?"

"I think I will stay, Tonie, for I want to finish this pair of socks for father, and I have not too much time. Come thou back to me here by dinner-time, and perhaps if thou return to the island afterwards, we can then go together."

So Tonie pushed off on his raft towards the centre of the lake, where, rising abruptly out of deep water, stood a rocky islet formed of the grey stone boulders which are to be found strewn everywhere on land and in the water over a great part of Finland. There were trees on the island and underwood in great tangles everywhere. Wild raspberry bushes and other brambly growths had struggled up between the rocks, clothing the rough crags almost down to the water's edge, while tiny ferns nestled under the shelter of the overhanging stones, a contrast, in their delicate beauty, to the massive grandeur of their surroundings.

Blonda was still watching Tonie as he dexterously propelled the raft across the water, when she was startled to hear a man's voice behind her saying in Russian, of which she knew enough to understand conversation and herself speak a little,—

"The name of the island, sir general, is the Isle of Ghosts," replied a voice, which Blonda recognised as that of the head wood-ranger, Philip Bexal, a sort of steward who looked after the forest land for his master, and paid Grubert Reuss and the rest of the woodcutters their wages.

"And pray, why the Isle of Ghosts?" asked the deep rich voice of the first speaker. "Does not everybody know that there are no ghosts, at least in these enlightened days?"

Blonda glanced through the cracks between the boulders, and saw a tall young officer in a general's undress uniform. He was standing, with the steward by his side, close to the right wall of the grotto, and facing the lake.

"This has always been the name, so far as I know, sir general," replied Philip Bexal. "The whole story is too long to tell; but since, noble sir, you are visiting our country—or this part of it—for the first time, and would know all you can about it, I will tell you what I may in a few words."

"Good; commence then, my friend," said the officer; "and I will sit on this stone and listen."

"A great, great many years ago," began Philip, "all this part of Finland was quite wild. Rock, and forest, and water, but no living creature save wild beasts, such as the wolf, the fox, the wolverine, the lynx and the bear, with the weaker animals upon which they preyed. So then the beasts had it all their own way, till there settled here—so runs the legend—a band of marauders, from no one knows where, but it was thought that their own land was in the far south. Possibly this land may have grown too hot to hold them, and hence they emigrated northward in a large vessel of their own, as tradition says.

"Sailing up the Finnish Gulf, they landed on our coast, and came inland to the lake country. Here they built for themselves rude dwellings of wood. They hunted, they fished, they sowed, they reaped, and now and again they made raids into the country round about, and voyages to other parts of the coast, and under cover of night carried off from the villages and towns booty of all sorts. And not content with this, they even intercepted in their vessel, ships with valuable cargoes, and murdered the poor men who tried to protect their property.

"So that they became a terror to the whole land; for, as they multiplied and grew stronger, there was no force found that could withstand them; and what made matters worse, noble sir, many of the wild young scapegraces among the Finns joined the robber band; and since there were no police in those far-off days, these banditti had the whole land at their mercy."

"And what did they with the property that they wrested from the people of the country?" asked the stranger.

"Some of it," replied Philip, "was taken away by ship to distant parts and sold. But no one seems to know what the robbers did with their gold and silver, though there always were stories enough about of their having amassed quantities of treasure."

"But what about this island, my man?" questioned the officer, with a good-humoured imperiousness in his voice. "Restrain thine eloquence, and come to the point."

"I humbly beg the noble sir's pardon," replied the steward; "I come at once to this matter of the island. The reports at length appeared somehow to centre here, and rumour said that in this group of rocks the riches of several generations of robbers were hoarded."

"A safe enough rumour to circulate," laughed the young officer. "It is not likely that the robbers would suffer any outsider to prove for himself the truth of the report."

"That is true, sir general; but now hear the end of the story of this evil race. Mighty as the robbers had become, and a terror and scourge in the land, a force yet mightier had gone out against them."

"The arm of the God of Hosts, the sentence of the Most High," replied Phil solemnly.

"In the spring of one year," went on Philip Bexal, "there came from the east a terrible visitation, a pestilence such as had not been known there before. It swept through the land on the wings of the biting east wind, and men fell before it as the flies drop before the winter's breath. Right in among the lawless, godless band the black death leapt. Hard-drinking, foul-living men—what stand could they make against the awful scourge? To right and left they fell, smitten down, like Israel of old, by God's destroying angel. Only a few—so runs the tale—only a few escaped, and they took ship and fled away, leaving their goods behind, feeling, doubtless, that, like Achan, they were being punished for the possession of the accursed thing."

"It seems to me that thou art well versed in Holy Writ," remarked the stranger, his lip curling in a sarcastic smile.

"Sir, I am a Lutheran, and we of Luther's creed read our Bibles with diligence, finding in them the revelation of God's will and the chart for our guidance over life's sea."

"Indeed!" responded the officer dryly. "This is all very interesting, but now I will thank thee to proceed, my friend, for truth to say, thy tale is over long, and I ought to be moving on towards Klingengolf. My tarantass and post horses, as thou knowest, wait in the road not far from this."

"I have nearly finished," said Philip. "It is said that the great wave of death rolled on after a while, and this part of the land began to recover. Gradually the former haunts of the robbers became inhabited by peaceable people; a part of the denser forests were cut down, the wild beasts became scarce, and the country grew more civilized. Only that, following the bad example of the robber band, some of the people, having built ships, sailed forth to become pirates in their turn, and this did they till King Eric the Saint, of Sweden, weary of their evil practices, and of the danger to his own merchant vessels, in the twelfth century undertook a crusade against them, and compelled the people here, who were nothing better than pagans so far, to embrace Christianity. But from the time of the pestilence, every now and again rumour hath busied itself about the treasure of the robbers, though no one has ever seen a vestige of it; and to this present day, noble sir, that island is held to be the very heart of the golden mystery, and to hide somewhere in its rocky bosom the long-hoarded secret.

"Of late, especially, there has been a re-awakening of interest, since some of our villagers, while fishing at night, have seen (or so they declare) a shadowy form gliding in and out among the granite boulders, like some ghost about the tombs. And they are foolish enough to believe that the wraith of one of those dead men, more wicked perhaps than his companions, is doomed to haunt the place, ceaselessly searching, it may be, for treasure which he is never permitted to find. Great folly, sir general, such superstition," added Philip, shrugging his shoulders; "but you see—"

"I have heard it said," interrupted the stranger, silencing the steward with an impatient gesture, "that in a mountain and lake country the legends of the old days are more in number and live longer than in a flat land. This is perchance because nature has there no fastnesses wherein to store the things which make for tradition.

"Well good Philip Bexal, I thank thee for thy courtesy, and now I shall be moving on. But first, I will just peep round this singular pile of rocks; it looks, methinks, almost like a grotto."

Then Blonda heard a step, and in another moment the handsome face and lofty form of the young officer appeared in the opening.

"Her father is Grubert Reuss, one of the woodcutters on this estate," put in Philip, who had followed the stranger.

"No, sir, I have a brother, Tonie is his name; see, he is yonder, fishing from the raft by the island."

"No, kind sir; why should he? Our father says, that those who fear God and trust in Him need fear nothing else in heaven or hell, but may have confidence that He who made all things can keep in their right places (wherever these may be) both the good spirits and the bad."

"Well spoken, little one! Art ready to give an answer for the faith that is in thee?" cried the stranger, laying his white gloved hand on the child's shoulder. "And pray, Blondinka, what sayest thou to this story of treasure in the Isle of Ghosts?" And the keen eyes of the officer peered enquiringly into Blonda's fair, open face.

Her gaze met his frankly and fearlessly, as she replied, "For myself, good sir, what can I say? I am a child, and I know nothing. My father tells Tonie and me not to think of there being gold hidden away in some rocky fastness of the island, for fear we should give ourselves up to the thought of it and the search for it, and thus forget our everyday work and the duty that God puts near at hand for us to do. He says, moreover, that since Scripture tells us that 'the love of money is the root of all evil,' and since also our Saviour Himself has said, 'How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of heaven,' it is better and safer for us never to concern ourselves about hidden gold; and he, our father, himself believes that this island is no treasure house at all. But not so Freskel Valden."

"And who may Freskel Valden be?" asked the officer. "Some wise old grey-beard who can tell many a story of the long ago?"

Blonda laughed gleefully. "Nay, sir stranger," she said, "he is but a youth, and the good God in making his body left out—so they say—half his mind. Some call him a fool, but not I, for he knows many things that we know not, and where he loves, his heart makes him wiser than the wisest."

"Would that I had as kind an advocate, my little Blonda!" said the young man. "Give my respects to thy father, child, and say that General Nicolai is glad to have met thee, and that if at any future time I should be passing this way again, I would be glad to renew my acquaintance with his little daughter, and see him and thy brother in your own home. And now farewell, dear child. If thou and thy wise, half-witted friend should chance to find the robbers' treasure, remember that I put in a claim for at least half."

And laughing good-humouredly, the tall officer went away towards the road, accompanied by Philip Bexal.

CHAPTER III

"MY children, I have bad news for you from Klingengolf; your father will not be home for some time. He has had a fall, and has broken his right arm badly, so that now he is in the hospital, and must stay there till the bone is set. These sad tidings came by a man who was passing through Carfoos on business, and your father sent me the message by him, begging me also to come at once and tell you, my little ones."

Tonie and Blonda were eating their supper on the third evening after Grubert's departure when Pastor Oshart came in with his bad news, which made the children very down-hearted, for they had been looking forward with gladness to Grubert's return that night, and they grieved too over the suffering which they knew such an accident must cause him.

When the good pastor had answered all the questions that were put to him, so far as it was in his power to do so, Tonie said,—

"Well then, since we are likely to be alone for some time longer, and Master Rolf Bresser is not yet ready to claim his property, were it not wise, dear pastor, for you to take it back to your house? Would it not be safer there than here?"

"Nay, my boy, nay," replied the old man. "One or other of those fellows may well be lurking about my house still. Rolf Bresser is known to have been there more than once, so the money would be supposed to be there too. No, Tonie, since so far there seems no sign of the hiding-place of the bag having been discovered, better let it rest where it is. Where have you put it, my children?"

"Good, then leave it there. And now goodbye. I will try and run over to see you to-morrow, so that, in writing to the father at Klingengolf, I may give him the latest news of his dear ones. Forget not, Tonie, to use all care and diligence in shutting up the house; and once shut, see that thou open the door to none. In this lonely place, even when we look not for danger, it is well to take all possible precautions."

The old pastor trudged off homewards; he would gladly have remained and spent the night with the children at the woodcutter's cottage, for he did not like their being alone, but he knew that his old housekeeper at home would almost no die of fear if he did not return. And he felt now as if the cottage—even though the money was there—was safer from intruders than his own house, since he fondly believed that no one had a suspicion whither the bag had been conveyed.

As for Tonie and Blonda Reuss, they were tired and sleepy, for they had been out nearly all day, so they went to bed early. And by the time the night fairly closed in, they were both sound asleep—Tonie in his slip of a room screened off from the kitchen, and Blonda in her little bed-chamber upstairs.

Tonie had been asleep for about three hours or so when he was roused by a loud knock at the front door of the cottage, the door that faced the forest, from which the house was separated only by the road. Startled, breathless, he sat up in bed, hardly knowing as yet whether he was awake or dreaming. Then came the knock again, and he sprang out of bed, hurried on some clothes, and by a sort of natural instinct was running to open the door, when he remembered the pastor's words, "When the door is once shut, open to none."

"But what if some one should be ill or in trouble, or have lost his way?" said Tonie to himself. "Surely in such case it were cruelty not to open!"

And so thinking, he paused at the door, and called through it, "Who knocks? Who is there?"

"Open to us; we would speak with thee," said a gruff voice, which Tonie did not recognise.

"That may not be," replied the boy. "My father is from home, and we are only children here; go your way, I cannot open to you."

"Alas!" said another voice, shrill and sharp, which Tonie thought sounded like that of Hervitz Valden. "My companion here hath cut himself grievously with an axe, and is faint with loss of blood. He would fain lie down for an hour or two. Let us in, and suffer him to rest on a bed for a while, and after that we will go on our way."

Just at that moment, Blonda came down, roused by the noise, and stood at her brother's elbow, wrapped in an old dark cloak.

"A man wounded with an axe; shall I let him and the other in? How thinkest thou, Blonda?" said Tonie.

"No, brother, we can but obey the commands given to us by those who are wiser than we," replied the little girl. "If harm should come of our opening, we should be blamed, and rightly. If what the man says is true, that his fellow is wounded, and would fain lie down, that what doth hinder him from lying on the moss under the trees? It is warm weather, and the ground is not damp."

Then he called through the door once more—"Pass on, travellers; we cannot open to you."

"Now listen, thou young imp," said another voice, which Tonie knew could belong to none other than Dorlat Valden. "We have lately been robbed of a bag of coin, and we would get back our own. We have some reason to think that the money has found its way to this cottage. Let us in quietly, and we will take our own and depart. Refuse to admit us, and thou must take the consequences. We know that thy father is disabled and in the hospital at Klingengolf. There is not a soul within miles of this place, and therefore think not that you children will have help. And, moreover, we have an old grudge against thy father, Tonie, seeing that he is a friend of that meddling old pastor, Bertholm Oshart, and if thou do not our bidding, we are ready for revenge. But I waste time in parleying with thee. Once more, wilt thou open to us?"

"We have orders to open to none to-night, and we cannot choose but obey," replied Tonie firmly.

There was the sound of a muttered oath from Dorlat, and an impatient exclamation from Hervitz. Then the latter said,—

"By fair means or foul, ye obstinate brats, we purpose to enter; so understand this once for all. If you let us in without hindrance, no harm shall come to either of you, or to your father's goods; but if we have to break in and help ourselves, then beware, for in truth we will not spare you."

To this Tonie was about to reply, but Blonda whispered, "Answer him not; let us rather think what we shall do if the men find means to enter. The money must be saved at all costs."

"Ay, but how? There is not a place here in which we could hide it where the men will not search if once they get in. No; we must get it away somehow."

"Too far," rejoined Tonie; "besides, we might be overtaken and robbed. Yes; that cannot be thought of, but, perhaps—"

Just then came a thundering knock with an axe upon the door. The wood cracked; the iron of the lock rang again.

The children stood staring at each other, seeming rooted to the floor in their terror.

"The lock is broken," whispered Tonie. "If now the bolt hold not, they will be in directly."

"I will run up and fetch the bag," said Blonda, and she flew upstairs and was back again, with the bag in her hand, in a moment.

Meanwhile another heavy blow had fallen, which would have split the door in two had not the long bolt held it together.

"Oh, if but our dear father were here; he would tell us what to do!" sobbed Tonie, wringing his hands in an agony of fear.

"The Heavenly Father is near us, Tonie; He heareth ever. See, the bolt holds yet, and we will cry to God to help us, so that we may not betray our trust."

Amid the noise of the rude, angry voices and the heavy blows of the axe, Blonda's clear voice sounded strangely calm and sweet.

"Great Father, Thou knowest that we are in fear, and are sore beset this night. Our other father is away, and the evil men would steal this treasure, which is not ours, but meant only for Thy poor and hungry ones. We cry to Thee for help. Show us what to do; send Thine angel to deliver us; take care of us, and likewise of this bag, for Christ's sake, Amen."

As the children rose from their knees, a great crash of glass was heard. It seemed to come from Blonda's room upstairs.

"What is that?" cried Tonie. "Surely the men have not got in through thy window?"

But the words were scarcely spoken when flying down the steep, narrow staircase came the lithe form of Freskel Valden.

"Question me not," he muttered hoarsely. "We have but a moment. Hast thou got the money, Blonda? It is well; then follow me. If but we can win forth out of these four walls, Nature shall keep the treasure for us."

So saying, Freskel led the way to the back door, and, stooping, listened intently with his ear to the key-hole.

Tonie turned the key softly in the lock, removed the wooden bar that strengthened the defences of the door, and in an instant Freskel glided out, followed by the children. As Tonie drew the back door to behind him, a great crash and shout in the house announced that the front door had at last given way.

"Quick! In among the trees with you, or we may be seen from the windows!" said Freskel, in low, hissing tones. "Dorlat has eyes like a cat, and finding you not, he may come out to look for you in the open."

The children darted into the deep shadows of the pines, and in a minute or two had reached the margin of the lake, and crouched down behind a boulder.

"Nay, nay, that were a fool's corner indeed!" replied Freskel. "Rather let it make a voyage across the lake to the island, and there shall the ghosts guard it safely for us till the pastor ask for it again."

"Then, if thou wilt convey it thither, Freskel," said Blonda, "take the raft; Tonie can paddle it for thee."

"Nay, little one, see how the moon shines! The harvest moon too; and if she turned her big yellow face on yon raft, she would betray us. Nay, I go indeed—but it must be as the fish goes. Give me the bag, Blonda; see, I will sling it by this kerchief to my neck! So—now it is safe, and the sooner I go the better. Hide, both of you, but watch too, lest the enemy come upon you unawares even here. Kiss me for luck, little Blonda, for I am going—nay—I am gone!"

And, as the lad spoke, he joined his hands above his head, and dived down into the still, black water, and when the children next caught a glimpse of his dark head, he was well on his way towards the rocky, bush-grown shore of the Isle of Ghosts.

CHAPTER IV

FOR two long, weary hours Tonie and Blonda waited behind the boulder by the lake side. Once only, at the end of the first half-hour, Tonie stole into the pine wood at the back of the house, and, under the deep shadow of the trees, glanced up at the windows, and saw a light in one after another, as the men pursued their search for the money.

When the light flashed through the window of Blonda's little room, the boy noticed that the glass was broken away. Close to the casement, a tall birch tree reared its stately form, and Tonie understood at once how Freskel had contrived to get into the house, and wondered at his ingenuity and courage. To come to the help of the besieged children, he must have climbed the long, straight, silvery stem like a squirrel, and then swung out from a bough until he could grasp the window ledge, gain a footing there, and dash through the glass.

"Was it not bold of him, and clever too?" said Tonie, when he rejoined his sister in the niche where she was hiding, and told her how Freskel had managed to come to their assistance.

"Yes; and he came as God's answer to our prayer for help," said Blonda, with kindling eyes. "Tonie, surely thou and I can never doubt God again. How frightened we were! We knew not what to do, or whither to go, but no sooner had we cried to the good Lord to send us help than we heard the crash of the window, and down came Freskel like an angel from the skies. And knowest thou, Tonie, what was in my mind as we opened the door so quietly, so easily, and passed out? It seemed to me that, perchance, thus felt the apostle Peter when God sent the angel at night to strike off his chains, and open barred doors for him, and lead him forth out of prison, and from the death that threatened him."

Tonie gave a little chuckle. "I know not how Peter felt," said he, "but think you not, little sister, that Freskel Valden is rather a queer angel?"

"I know not—I care not!" replied the child, peering out earnestly across the water, while Tonie, standing up, watched, for fear of surprise, the bit of pine wood behind which stood the cottage. "Does it matter what an angel looks like, so long as he is the messenger of God, and comes to our help? Could one of the white-robed and flying ones do more?"

"Strange that this same angel of thine comes not back from the island!" remarked Tonie, in a matter-of-fact tone. "Only think, my Blonda, what it would be if, after all, he had played us false, and gone off with the—"

"Tonie! For shame! How canst thou?" said the little girl indignantly. "Think but how faithful, how loyal he has been for years to our pastor! And besides, Tonie, would God have sent us a bad angel in answer to our prayer? Nay—if our earthly parents, as Jesus says, could never give us a stone when we ask for bread, is it likely that the loving Father in Heaven would send us a curse instead of a blessing, when we cried to Him for help? Nay, Tonie, I have full faith in poor Freskel, and I would answer for his honesty with my life."

"Poor Freskel thanks and blesses thee for that, Blonda!" said a low voice in her ear, and turning quickly, she saw Freskel, who had approached unobserved and unheard.

The little girl looked up at him in wonder, for his face was full of excitement, with great eyes that shone like lamps under his streaming locks.

"Safe!" laughed the youth. "Oh yes! So safe that none save Freskel could ever find it; though, after all, a bag of treasure more or less—what matters it, when untold wealth lies ready for the finding."

"Thou wert absent a long time, Freskel," said Blonda gently. "Tell us, was it so hard to find a place wherein the bag could be hidden safely?"

But Freskel did not appear to hear. A strange, triumphant look lighted up his face, as he stood gazing out across the water at the Isle of Ghosts, which reared its rugged points under the moonlight, clothed in a weird and spectral splendour.

"Who said I could not keep a secret?" he murmured at last, in a strange, sing-song voice. "The winds of heaven say not whence they come nor whither they go; the flowers have no words to tell us who paints their cheeks, and tints their eyes, and unfolds their leaflets one by one. They keep their secrets, and Freskel keeps his."

"But surely thou wilt tell the dear pastor—wilt thou not—where his friend's money lies hidden?" questioned Tonie.

"Art thou mad, Freskel? What should it be but the bag of coin that thou hast just hidden lest the robbers steal it away."

"Ach, yes; I remember now," answered Freskel, more quietly. "Fear not; the pastor shall know all about it. But now, go home, and to bed, you two, and Freskel will go to the pastor's house."

"But how know we that the robbers are not still lurking about near the cottage?" Tonie asked.

"They have gone," replied Freskel. "I caused them to hear strange voices and to see a strange face, and they were smitten with fear, and fled away, thinking perchance that the ghosts of the old, old robbers of the long ago were claiming them for fellows and mates."

"Now thou must be altogether mad!" remarked Tonie severely. "Thou! How couldst thou make them afraid with thy voices and faces, when thou wert in the island hiding the bag?"

"Hush Tonie, be not so harsh to him!" whispered Blonda. "Freskel dear," and she turned to the youth with a smile, "thou hast been good to us, and we thank and bless thee. Nay, but now I was saying to my brother that thou wert even as God's angel sent to us in our distress. But and if thou seek to deceive us thus with lying vanities, what, oh what must we think of thee? God's angels of help tell no falsehoods."

"Neither doth Freskel," replied the lad. "Listen, Blonda, for I would not that such a little white-souled thing as thou should think evil of me. Thinkest thou that I was all the time on the island? Nay; I hid away the bag, and also I found what I sought not, and suddenly possessed what I coveted not.

"Then, all at once, I remembered Dorlat and Hervitz, and wondered if they were still at the cottage, and I swam back to another part of the shore, and crept up through the wood, and opened the back door softly, listened, and heard them upstairs hunting, hunting for what was not there. So then, Tonie, I slipped into thy room, and wrapped myself in a sheet from thy bed, and stood in the passage by the back door, this being open and the moonlight coming in. There I stood, half in light and half in shadow, and howled grievously, and struck on the door handle with a knife that I took from the kitchen.

"Then Dorlat, my big brother, came down the stair, and spied the ghost, and he gave one cry, and fled out through the broken door, and after him came Hervitz, and also two others. And for a short space I followed them, gliding in my white robe through the wood, and howling to speed their flight. Then I returned, leaving the sheet in the house, and came hither to you. So, Blonda, I am no liar; nay, and if poor Freskel was God's angel to you when he led you forth, he is no less so now that he has chased the evil-doers from your home."

"Forgive me, my poor Freskel," cried Blonda, penitently. "Thou hast done nobly, and we can never thank thee enough."

"It is well; I go now to the pastor," said the youth, "and tell him all—all—save only one thing; but that is poor Freskel's secret. Poor Freskel? No, not poor! Rich Freskel—but a secret! A secret! Where did I hear those words: 'A bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter'? Did the pastor read them in the church? I know not—I know not, but I hope they are not true."

And the youth moved slowly away, a dreamy, absorbed expression in his face and a strange light in his eyes.

The children went home, and found the whole house in confusion, the intruders having turned everything upside down in their search for the money. But Tonie managed to barricade the broken door with some of the kitchen furniture, and Blonda hung an old quilt before her smashed window.

CHAPTER V

THE next day, the whole of Carfoos was up in arms, for though Freskel had told no one but Pastor Oshart that his brother were concerned in the night attack on the woodcutter's cottage, Dorlat and Hervitz were held in such ill repute, that as soon as the news reached the village that Grubert Reuss' house had been forcibly entered, suspicion had at once fallen upon them. Indeed, so vehement in their indignation were the villagers that the old pastor could hardly restrain them from making a raid upon the dwelling of the Valdens, and laying violent hands upon the two young men and upon their father also, for Jaspar Valden was accounted no better than his sons, though, being seldom abroad, he was not so well-known by sight.

"It is time that our village was rid of this family of evil-doers," said one of the men in council. "They are lawless enough to have descended in a direct line from the dreadful pirate band that are said to have settled here so long ago, and stored their treasure in the Isle of Ghosts."

"It is so," assented another; "and I propose that we take the law into our own hands, and punish these men as they deserve. But you, Pastor Oshart, it seems to us that you know more about them than you care to say. Why do you keep silence among us, when perhaps you have positive proof of the guilt of the brothers Valden, and possibly of old Jaspar also, in this matter of breaking forcibly into a man's homestead in search of plunder?"

"I have no proof that I should be justified in bringing forward at present," replied the old man, who could not suffer Freskel to witness against the members of his own family, and who had not yet heard the story of the siege of the cottage from the lips of Tonie and Blonda. "Nor, my people, would I counsel you to punish these men for violence with violence, however much they may seem to deserve such treatment at our hands. At the same time, I feel with you that a peaceful village and godly community cannot longer suffer in its midst the presence of such a family. Therefore my advice would be that you should depute one of your number on whose wisdom and self-control you can rely to go to the Valdens, and to tell them, in the name of the inhabitants of Carfoos, that we desire, nay, that we require them to leave this neighbourhood in the course, say, of a week, and that if they refuse to do as we wish, we must call in the aid of the police, and, collecting all possible evidence against them, have them punished by the law."

"Pastor Oshart, your counsel is wise. I propose that we do as you suggest," said the oldest villager present.

"And I would add," said another, "that our good pastor be elected to undertake to be our messenger and ambassador to the Valden family. We have no one amongst us in whom we have such confidence, or for whom we cherish so great esteem."

"It is true. So be it, then. Let the pastor be our ambassador!" shouted a score of voices.

"Yet bethink you a moment, my friends," said Rolf Bresser, who had arrived at Carfoos early that morning, and joined the little company collected at the pastor's house. "It is true that so far as you yourselves are concerned, it is well that the pastor should be your messenger. But none of you seem to have thought whether this mission would not be difficult and perhaps even dangerous, for the ambassador himself. Though I am not one of you, I have some right to speak now, since, innocently, I am the cause of the late disturbance which has brought things to a crisis; for it was I that entrusted the bag of money to Pastor Oshart's care, fancying—and probably not without reason—that the brothers Valden had come to know of it, and might rob me ere I could quit the neighbourhood. The pastor, in his turn, having the same feeling, and wishing to secure the safety of the property entrusted to him, stole away, under cover of night, to the woodcutter's cottage, and in that humble abode, where it might well be considered safe, left the bag of coin.

"Reuss himself was not at home, but the treasure was safely hidden away, and nothing occurred to disturb the little guardians that night. Two nights later, however, after the good pastor had brought the children news of their father's accident at Klingengolf, the cottage was broken into, and but for the courage and timely help of one whom I may not name here, the money entrusted to me for the poor of my village would have been carried away. In some fashion best known to themselves, the Valdens must have come to suspect that the bag of coin was no longer in the custody of the pastor; indeed, they may have followed him on his second visit to Grubert's cottage, mistaking the motive for it.

"Knowing of the woodcutter's absence from home, the men doubtless expected to have no trouble in effecting an entrance and seeing for themselves whether the money were there or no. Well, as we know, the robbers entered indeed, but the rest of their evil intent was frustrated. My friend, your pastor, tells me this morning that the money is hidden in a safe place, and as for the children of Grubert Reuss, they are no longer to stay alone in the cottage in the forest, but will remain with the pastor until their father's return. But now, to come back to the point from which I started," continued Rolf; "think you, indeed, that, after all that has passed, your pastor will be a welcome visitor at Jaspar Valden's home? Remember there are old grudges out against him for his faithful warnings in the past. And now there is this new trouble. What greeting, think you, he will receive?"

"You are right, Rolf Bresser!" cried several voices at once. "Our pastor shall not go. We will not expose him to insult or worse."

"Peace, children," said the old man tranquilly. "It is my duty, and I have no misgivings. I thank thee, Rolf, and you, my people, for your thought of me, but your kindness cannot alter the thing that is right. I accept the embassage, and this evening I go to the Valdens. And as for thee, Rolf, my friend, since thou dost not commence thy journey until the morrow, come thou and sup with Tonie and Blonda Reuss and me, and take care, during my absence afterwards, of these lambs of my flock, who must be left no longer unshepherded, a prey to the prowling wolf of the night."

After supper, good Pastor Oshart was about to set out on his unpleasant errand, when Blonda came down the stairs with her cloak and hood on.

"What is this, child?" asked the old man. "Whither goest thou so late? Why, it is time almost that all good little maids were asleep."

"And that is no place for thee, my lamb; stay here with Tonie and my good Rolf till I return. Go, take off thy things, Blonda."

"They said you might be in danger, dear pastor," sobbed Blonda, "and I thought I might perhaps help you. Or if I could not help—being so small—at least I could share your danger, as my dear father would have done had he been here. It is so hard you should go all alone."

"Little one, I am not alone," replied the old man, smiling. "Knowest thou not, Blonda, that they who are in the path of duty have ever with them the presence of Him, the Beloved, who said to His disciples in the old time, 'Lo, I am with you alway'?

"So, my child, fear not for me. What, must I pray for thee as Elisha prayed for his servant, that thine eyes may be opened, and that thou mayest see that they which are with me are more than those which are against me? Nay, my dear little maid, wipe away those tears, but pray that I, thine old pastor, may speak wise words and brave and true, giving a message, not only from the people of Carfoos, but from Him Whose I am and Whom I serve."

So saying, the good old minister laid a gentle hand in blessing on Blonda's little fair head, then he opened the door and passed out into the night.

CHAPTER VI

He had knocked several times at the door of the Valdens' cottage, but there was so much noise inside that he could not be heard. So at last he opened the door, and standing on the threshold, faced the three men, who turned toward him as he spoke.

"You here, Master Oshart! Truly, this is a day of marvels! Pray what will you with us?" asked Jaspar, with a frown.

"Ay," screamed the shrill, mocking voice of Hervitz, "what dealings can this saint of Carfoos have with us sinful Valdens?"

"I come on urgent business," replied the pastor, with grave gentleness. "Have I your permission to come in and tell my errand?"

"Oh, come in, come in, of course, most righteous prophet and teacher!" sneered Dorlat. "Think you that we could be so wanting in courtesy as to keep our best of friends outside our door? Why, bethink thee, father, and thou, brother Hervitz, what reason we have for loving and reverencing this holy man! We have not forgotten—have we—what we owed him in the past?"

"Nay, that have we not!" cried Hervitz, with a laugh. "And no one can say of us that we pay not our debts."

"Peace, Hervitz!" said Jaspar. "Let us hear the man's business; though, all the same, Pastor Oshart, you are somewhat over-bold to come thus into the lions' den."

The old minister smiled. "My God hath shut the lions' mouths ere this," he said quietly; "and what he did for His servant Daniel of old He could do now, if it so pleased Him. The Lord's arm is not shortened that it cannot save."

"There speaks the cant of your cloth!" piped the piercing voice of Hervitz. "Lucky for you if you need not to put your God to the test!"

"Master Jasper Valden," said the pastor, looking past the sharp, weasel face of Hervitz, and speaking to the old father, "have I your leave to sit? I am an old man, and, moreover, very weary to-night."

Jaspar rose and silently pushed a stool across the floor, and Pastor Oshart sat down.

"Master Jasper Valden, and you, Dorlat and Hervitz," said he, "I am sent to you with a message from all the people of Carfoos. And the message is this. You are requested to move away from this place and to return no more. We give you one week in which to make your preparations, and if at the end of that time you are still here, information against you will be lodged at the Klingengolf police-station, and the law must be suffered to take its course."

"And pray why should we thus be driven forth?" questioned Jaspar, his stern, rugged face flushing angrily. "Have we not as good a right to be here as you or any one else?"

"All peaceable and law-abiding folk have an equal right," replied the old pastor, with mild firmness. "And whose fault is it, my masters, that ye are not of such?"

"Yet know I not what charges could be brought against us," said Jaspar; "nor yet," he added fiercely, "why the whole village should band together to hound us out of the place."

"If you are wise, Jaspar Valden," answered Pastor Oshart, "you will not ask me to name and count up the misdeeds which have brought you and yours into disfavour with all Carfoos and its neighbourhood. But I tell you this, that should you be taken up for trial at Klingengolf, evidence will not be wanting to bring home to you some of these misdeeds. We would—to say truth—spare ourselves and you the disgrace of a public trial; but your lawlessness and the terror with which you have filled our quiet village cannot longer be suffered. This, then, is my message from my people your neighbours. What answer am I to take back to those who sent me?"

At this, the father and his two sons sullenly rose and went to the other end of the long low room, and there held a discussion in muttered tones, the meaning of which did not reach the pastor's ears.

"Since the people of Carfoos are unjust and cruel," said he, "we willingly quit so unpleasant a neighbourhood. But mind you, sir pastor, let it clearly be understood that we do this, not because we acknowledge the truth of the accusations, or the right of our neighbours to dictate to us what we shall do, but because we care not to remain among those who hate us, and who do us an injustice."

"It is well," said the old pastor. "So now that I have spoken on behalf of my people, and received your answer, I have yet something to say that concerns more particularly myself. It is about Freskel. I love the boy; he is fond of me; we understand one another. To you, with his wavering mind, his wayward will, his strange, wild ways, he can be of little use, and of no comfort. My wife is dead, I have no child; leave Freskel with me, and I pledge myself to be all to him that a father can."

There was a pause, broken only by a contemptuous snort from Dorlat and a shrill exclamation from Hervitz. Old Jaspar said nothing, but looked gloomily down, and clenched his great knotted right hand on the table. The pastor waited patiently for a minute or two; at last he said gently,—

The old man roused himself. Shaking back the masses of grey hair that overhung his brow, he straightened his mighty form to its full height and said, "Had it been any one but you, Pastor Oshart, that asked me this, I would have said, 'Take the boy and welcome'; but to you I say, 'No.' If I care not for the brat myself, none the more would I have him beloved by my enemy. For think not, sir pastor, that I have forgotten your impudent interference in speaking to us years ago. Who are you that you should presume to remonstrate with us? Who asked you to concern yourself with our affairs? I tell you—"

"One word, Master Valden," said the old pastor. "You surely forget that it is my duty in the sight of God, to warn and admonish in the home of sin, as much as it is my privilege to comfort in the house of mourning, or to speak a word in season to him that is weary. In all ways, and to all men, Christ's gospel of repentance and salvation must be preached by me; yea, woe is me if I preach not the Gospel. And woe is me, likewise, if respect of persons, or fear of violence, or even a desire not to offend, makes me to hold my peace, keeping back the word of truth that the Lord hath given me to speak.

"Jaspar Valden, I have no ill-feeling towards you in my heart. Would to God that I needed not to say unto you aught but comfortable words. Would to God that ye were seekers after truth, would-be followers of the loving and gracious One, whose servant I am."

Jasper was about to speak, but Pastor Oshart rose from his seat and held up his hand, and the old man kept silence.

"Oh, my friends (suffer me to call you so this once)," cried the pastor, "my mouth is open unto you, my heart is enlarged. This night I have been sent to you in God's providence with a message from man, and now I stand before you having also a message from the Lord Himself. He only knows if the Gospel invitation will ever be spoken to you again. He only can tell whether or no for any or all of you the day of grace, the accepted time, ends to-night. I beseech you, flee from the wrath to come while yet you may. I pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. I earnestly plead with you to turn from your evil ways, from the love of money which causes you to sin, and to come, just as you are, to the open arms of Jesus. For are we not told that 'when the wicked man turneth away front his wickedness and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive'?

"And since He is faithful that hath promised, no word shall fail of all that the Lord hath spoken, if you will but come as penitents to Him and cry, 'God be merciful to me a sinner, for Jesus, Thy Son's, dear sake.'"

Here the old pastor's voice broke in a sob; the inspired light died out of his eyes, and tears rolled down his furrowed cheeks.

Once he seemed on the point of replying impulsively, but a hard, scornful look from his son Dorlat silenced him.

Again there was silence, and Pastor Oshart turned towards the door and waited there. Presently he said very gently, "I pray you, Master Valden, to re-consider that matter of your son Freskel. Give him to me, and before God I promise that you shall not repent it."

Jaspar passed his great hand across his brow; the expression of his face was troubled and irresolute. "I know not what answer to give you," he said at length.

"Indeed, father, this foolish weakness is unworthy of thee," said Dorlat, scowling from under his shaggy brows at the pastor.

"Yes, why should the impertinent old preacher have his way with us after all?" yelled Hervitz, in his shrill falsetto. "If we let him hence with a whole skin and an unbruised head, surely that is more than he deserves who comes thus a-meddling."

"And as for Freskel," added Dorlat, "we can make use of him yet, fool though he be; but even if not, better get rid of him in some other way than give him to be turned against his own flesh and blood, and become their enemy."

"Jaspar Valden, it was to you that I appealed, and for your answer I wait," said the pastor, taking no notice of what the young men said, and not even glancing in their diction.

"You hear what these, my sons say?" asked the old man, with an uneasy look at the two evil faces beside him. "Well, as you know that we are a united family," (here he gave a hard, bitter laugh), "of course what they speak, I must stand to."

"God help you then!" sighed Pastor Oshart. "And the boy Freskel remains with you?"

For one moment he paused with the door open, but there was no response to his farewell from either Jaspar or his sons; so he gave them one last sad look, then shut himself out into the darkness and plodded wearily home, cast down in even that brave heart of his, and murmuring, as he gazed up to the silent stars, "'O Lord, I have laboured in vain, and I have spent my strength for nought.'"

CHAPTER VII

SUMMER had passed; autumn too, with its crisp, frosty nights and sunshiny days, and its forest foliage glowing with a glory of crimson and gold, the dress put on by all the trees save the solemn pines and firs, which still kept to the sombre hues of their evergreen.

Yes, winter had come; not as it comes here, with an occasional short spell of frost and fall of snow alternating with south-west winds and rain, but stern, white, and still, with unbreaking frost, and trees ghost-clad, and grand, polished, gleaming snow-roads, over which the Finnish sledge-carts glided smoothly, the bells on the horses tinkling bravely.

The whole wide lake was one sheet of glass, out of which, in solemn, solitary grandeur, rose the island, bare now of green,—a great giant with a hoary head, and with his mantle lined and furred here and there with pure white snow.

In the cottage of Grubert Reuss there was once more the happiness of reunion, for the father had returned to his home. But the family were poorer than ever before, for the man's right arm was disabled by his injury, and was unfit for a woodcutter's work; and Tonie, whom Philip Bexal had taken on instead, had neither strength nor experience as yet to do a full day's work, and therefore only earned half-pay.

Still Grubert was not idle. Though his right arm had not power to wield the axe, his hand had not lost its cunning, and now that he could not employ himself in felling timber in the forest, he set to work to make use of his time at home. Many were the ingenious toys, the pretty carved boxes and useful vessels, which he made out of wood. Some he polished, others he painted, and when he had completed a goodly number, he carried or sent them to Klingengolf, where a dealer was willing to take all he could make.

Tonie and Blonda, too, were fully occupied, and were never idle a moment. The former was out in the woods all day, helping to fell timber and cart it down to the river bank some miles away, while the latter, when not busy with sweeping, cooking, washing, or mending, sat down to her loom and wove yard after yard of coarse linen towelling, which Grubert took to sell in the town when he had goods of his own of which to dispose.

Almost the only recreation that the children had was to bind on their skates, and hand in hand to fly off and explore the lake. Like swallows they skimmed the surface, fearless and sure of their footing. Now and again a solitary wolf, or even a pair of wolves, might be seen skulking across the ice, but the animals seemed to pay no heed to the little skaters, and they in their turn did not trouble their heads about them. One or two wolves were not dangerous, and the young folks never went so far from home as to run the risk of encountering these creatures in any numbers.

The good pastor was working away among his people as hard as ever. With the autumn came illness to the village, and the old man's strength had been sorely tried by the demands made upon it; and even now, when the condition of Carfoos was healthy once more, he had hardly recovered his usual vigour.

As for the Valdens, they had indeed moved away; but they had not gone far; and though just at first they kept quiet, and nothing was heard of them, now again there had begun to be circulated rumours that spoke of quantities of wood mysteriously stolen, snares robbed that had been set for hares and birds. Birch trees were being despoiled of, their bark, and even frozen venison, frozen pigs and game and poultry, had been stolen out of the sheds where the villagers stored their marketable provisions to be in readiness for taking to town to sell.

As for Freskel, he still haunted the home of the pastor, though not as much as he had done before his father and brothers left Carfoos. But there was a great change in the lad, which the pastor could not but see, and which, he felt assured, dated back to that night when Freskel had been of such signal service to the children at the woodcutter's cottage, and in saving from the covetous hands of Dorlat and Hervitz, Rolf Bresser's bag of money.

Pastor Oshart knew not what to make now of the boy's strange moods, for Freskel went about as one in a dream, sometimes seeming quite unreasonably elated, and at others downcast and shrinking guiltily, as though conscious of doing wrong. To all questions the youth returned evasive replies, and even his love for the pastor could not induce him to make a confidant of his old friend. Some strange spell seemed to be about Freskel, some bad influence was slowly but surely undermining his happiness and dragging him down.

And now, at this time, once more it was reported that the Isle of Ghosts was haunted, and the glimmer of a ghostly light and the flitting of a shadowy form had been seen at night from the shores of the lake.

Connecting these reports with Freskel Valden's frequent and unaccounted for absences, the good pastor came to the conclusion that the poor, half-witted lad had become possessed by a mad passion for the ill-gotten gold which tradition said still lay hidden in some corner of the island, and that the ghost which haunted that lonely pile of rock was none other than Freskel himself. Pastor Oshart, however, said nothing to any one about his suspicions, for he hoped gradually to bring some better influence to bear upon the poor youth's heart and life,—some strong motive which would overcome the greed of riches which he inherited from his father and shared with his wicked brothers, Dorlat and Hervitz.

The good old man did not for one moment believe that any treasure existed at all on the island, save in the imagination of a few foolish or idle people. But he dreaded—and rightly—the strength of an absorbing, covetous passion on such a mind as that of poor Freskel, which was only too apt to lend itself to delusions of all sorts.

"Father," said Blonda to Grubert one afternoon as she sat down to her loom, "Father, hadst thou any special need for some of this linen last night or this morning?"

"Because I see that quite a long piece of it is gone," replied the girl. "When I put away my work last evening, at supper-time, I had two rolls of linen, and had begun a third, and now I see that one of them is not here."

"Hast thou taken a roll of my towelling, Tonie?" asked Blonda, for her brother came in just at that moment.

"I? No, little sister; what should I want with it?" replied the boy, in great surprise.

"It is quite impossible that it should have been stolen," said Grubert, "for no one comes here but our dear pastor and poor Freskel Valden."

"Yes," answered his father. "He came just after breakfast, when thou wert one out into the forest and Blonda to the goat shed."

"What could he want at so early an hour, I wonder!" said Tonie. "Why, he must have risen at about three o'clock in the morning to come all the way from where the Valdens live now. What could have been his purpose?"

"Who can tell?" said Grubert. "Thou knowest how strange he is, with his whims and his fancies. He sat down here in the kitchen by the fire, and warmed himself, and presently I left him, for I had promised to see Pastor Oshart as early as I could. When we all returned to dinner, as thou knowest, Blonda, Freskel was no longer here."

But as there was no accounting for her loss, the subject was dropped, and nothing more was said about it.

That evening our two little Finns strapped on their skates, and set out for an hour's exercise and recreation on the lake. It was a glorious night; there was no wind, the moon rode high and clear in a cloudless sky, and the stars, like ten thousand luminous eyes, peered down upon the little skaters, as with long, easy sweeps they glided, hand in hand, across the beautiful sheet of ice that reflected the moonlight like a mirror.

"I wonder," said Tonie, "if there is any truth in the old tradition about this place! Think, Blonda, what it would be if thou and I could but light upon the treasure hidden so long! How rich we should be, and how happy! And—"

"Hush, hush, Tonie; speak not so," cried Blonda. "If gold lies buried in that island, there let it lie for me! After all, it was all ill-gotten booty, if the story of the robber band be true, and such treasure will bring a curse, and not a blessing. No, Tonie, father is right when he tells us not to suffer our minds to dwell on such matters, lest the longing after filthy lucre come between us and God. For thou knowest what our Lord saith in His word:

Tonie did not reply, but suddenly digging the heel of his skate into the ice, he stopped short, and his sister, rather startled, did the same. Then he whispered eagerly, as he pointed towards the island, which was now close to them, "Hush, Blonda; didst thou see that?"

"Didst thou not see that light? It flashed an instant and was gone. Up there it was, just between those two peaks. There, there it is again! Oh, Blonda, can it be the ghost after all?"

"Nonsense, Tonie!" replied the little girl stoutly. "Thou knowest that there are no ghosts; has not our father told us so again and again?"

"Then what sayest thou—and what would our father say—to that?" muttered Tonie under his breath, as from behind a huge rock there came in sight a strange, shapeless white as the snow around.

For a moment it stood motionless; then, with a doleful, unearthly cry, it vanished as suddenly as though the rock had opened and swallowed it up.

For some minutes the children waited to see if the ghost re-appeared, but their waiting was in vain, and presently they turned homeward, too full of their adventure to care to prolong their skating expedition.

They were, however, scarcely half-way back to the shore, when they met two men muffled up in sheep-skin coats, and wearing huge felt boots, which prevented their slipping on the ice.

"Yes; I wonder what brings them out here!" answered Blonda. "Thinkest thou, Tonie, that they are going to brave the ghost of the island—or the thing that pretends to be a ghost—and to make a search for the treasure?"

"How can I tell, Blonda? But one thing I know, little sister, whether a ghost be a dangerous neighbour or no, Dorlat and Hervitz Valden are dangerous enough, as we know by experience. I glanced over my shoulder but now, and saw those evil brothers standing and looking after us. Come, let us get home!"

Once more taking hands, the children glided swiftly away, and when they next looked back, Dorlat and Hervitz were nowhere to be seen, and the whole wide expanse of frozen water lay bathed in moonlight, save only where the Isle of Ghosts cast a black shadow, its tall, jagged peaks seeming to form upon the clear ice the long fingers of a giant hand, feeling about for something to clutch and to destroy.

CHAPTER VIII

EARLY the next morning, Freskel opened the door of Grubert's cottage, and found only Tonie in the kitchen.

"What is it, Freskel?" asked Tonie, who was lighting the fire and getting things ready for Blonda to prepare the breakfast.

"There is to be a great hunt in the forest, Tonie; some fine people from the Tzar's city came to Klingengolf yesterday, and they are all driving down to Carfoos in their Russian troika sledges, and here they will put on snow shoes, and go on foot into the wood and round among the hills, to look for beasts to slay; and Freskel will guide the hunters and find them a bear, and for that Freskel will have money—silver money!" And the lad's eyes gleamed avariciously.

"And what use hast thou for money?" asked Blonda, who at that moment entered the kitchen and heard Freskel's words.

"I want it to hoard; to hoard and to look at sometimes, so that I may hug myself to think how rich Freskel—the poor, foolish Freskel is," replied the youth, his whole full of a covetous greed, which gave it a strangely repulsive appearance.

"Then beware, my lad!" said Grubert's deep voice, for the woodman too had come downstairs, and now joined the little group. "For hark ye, Freskel Valden, the devil baits some of his deadliest traps with silver and gold, and the miser's heart is his very throne. Yes, beware, Freskel, for thou art in danger."

The lad looked from one to another of his friends with a half-puzzled, half-cunning look, which they could not understand. Then he was turning sulkily away, when Grubert said—

"Leave us not, Freskel, until thou hast broken thy fast. Come and share our meal; there is plenty for all."

And while they were eating, Blonda, suddenly remembering the disappearance of the linen, and thinking that Freskel might perhaps throw some light upon her loss, said, "By the bye, Freskel, such a strange thing has happened to me; I have lost some linen towelling I had woven. Did any beggar or stranger chance to come in while thou wert alone here a day or two ago, or didst thou perchance leave the door open when thine errand here was done? The roll could not have disappeared by itself, yet gone it most surely is."

Freskel gave no reply for a minute, but he put down the wooden spoon with which he was eating his barley porridge, and glanced round the table quickly, furtively.

"No," he said, at last, "Freskel knows nothing; how should a poor fool like Freskel know?" Then he gulped down his mug of milk, stuffed a bunch of rye bread into his pocket, and rose abruptly from the table.

"The hunt will be out," he said, "and I must go, for how will the grand city people find their way without Freskel to guide them?"

And seemingly glad to get away, he opened the door, and sprang across the threshold, and into the forest, to meet the party who had bespoken his services as leader.

Grubert and Tonie went out soon after breakfast, but shortly returned, saying that Philip Bexal had given all the woodmen a holiday on account of the hunt, so that no felling or carting of timber should disturb the game, or interfere with the sportsmen, who, he had heard, were some very grand people from the Court of St. Petersburg.

Thinking, however, that they might be of service in some way, and wishing, at all events, to see the sport, if they could do so without going too far from home, the father and son soon set forth again, asking Blonda to bring their dinner to them, and promising to meet her, as near one o'clock as possible, at a place known by the name of the Grey Cave, a deep, rocky hollow in a sort of cliff, at the back of which a chain of hills, full of boulders and fragments of stone, skirted the eastern side of the forest.

Blonda had plenty to do all the morning, and by noon she was quite glad to set her kitchen in order, pack up the dinner in a basket, and dress herself for going out. It was a cold day, and she was clothed even more warmly than usual, adding to her accustomed wraps a large, thick scarlet shawl, which she folded corner-wise and put round her head, crossing it over her chest, and loosely looping together the ends behind at the waist.

As she trotted away with her sheep-skin capote, her high over-all felt boots, her red shawl, her basket on her arm, and a stout stick in her hand, she looked like a very comfortable, substantial "Little Red Riding Hood," going forth to see the world, but far too sensible and experienced to be taken in by any sort of wolf which Finland could produce.

Blonda did not go into the wood at all, but kept along at the foot of the range of hills, wending her way in and out among the great blocks of stone, and avoiding the deep snowdrifts, which her practised eye easily detected. Arrived at the cave, she set down her basket on a flat stone, and creeping just within the arch of the cavern, for shelter from the keen wind, she sat down to rest a bit, for she had been on her feet all the morning, and now she was a little weary with her walk.

Suddenly she heard in the distance a baying of dogs; then there was silence, then again the barking quite near, and a minute after, two great, powerful hounds sprang out of the forest. For one instant they paused opposite the cave, eying Blonda curiously, their handsome heads erect, their hair bristling. She rose from her seat on the stone and made a step towards them; but that moment they put their noses to the snow once more, seemed to recover the scent, and dashed past her into the inner recesses of the Grey Cave.

For a minute or two, there was a great noise at the back of the cavern: eager scratching up of snow, barking and growling, and angry grunts.

By this time Blonda had left the cave, and now stood outside, and well to the left. It was a good thing that she did so, for all at once, there was a strange, shuffling, scrambling noise, and out of the cave there rushed a huge brown bear, followed by the dogs, which were worrying him, and trying to bite through his shaggy fur. At the same moment, from among the trees, there stepped a tall, commanding form, which the little girl recognised at once as that of General Nicolai.

The bear had shuffled by him and was in full retreat, when the young officer raised his gun and fired. The bullet wounded the beast without disabling it, and, furious with pain, the animal turned before the sportsman had time to load again. Shouldering one of the hounds aside and half stunning the other with a cuff, Bruin rushed back, reared up on his hind legs, and seizing the gun, bit and crushed it out of shape with his teeth, while he fixed the claws of one great paw in the fur-covered shoulder of his assailant.

It must have fared badly indeed with General Nicolai had not Blonda at that moment, seeing his peril, thought of a way to help him. She suddenly tore off her red shawl, and coming close up behind the bear, she dexterously threw the soft, clinging folds right over the great beast's head and face. In the same instant, the dogs attacked him once more, and poor Bruin, bewildered, blinded, and entangled, rolled over backwards, madly clawing the air.

Just then loud shouts, cries, and exclamations announced the arrival on the scene of the rest of the hunting party, who had been led off by Freskel and their dogs for some distance on a new trail, before they missed the general. By them, the poor bear was shortly despatched; and no sooner was he dead, than one of the newly-arrived gentleman, an elderly man, approached the young officer, and with respectful anxiety enquired if he were hurt. But, happily, the general's fur coat was thick, and the cloth of firm, close texture, so that the bear's claws had not penetrated far.

"So calm thine anxiety, my friend," said the young officer, laughing. "In no way do I find myself the worse for this encounter, though, without doubt, I must have been but for my little deliverer. See, there she stands, my brave little maid with the blue eyes. By my faith, that was something like presence of mind! Just at the critical moment she turned the fortunes of the fight in my favour. And now I look closer at this child," continued the young man, "methinks I have seen those innocent eyes and flaxen locks before. Is it so, little one?"

"It is even so, sir general," replied Blonda. "I am Blonda, daughter of Grubert Reuss."

"Last summer, sir, in the grotto by the lake, just after Philip Bexal told you the story of the Isle of Ghosts."

"Ah, yes!" laughed the young man. "I cannot but remember thee now; thou hast once more chapter and verse for everything, even as thou hadst then. And said I not that I hoped one day to see thee again, and also make the acquaintance of thy father and brother, and visit you all in your home?"

"Yes, sir, you did indeed," replied Blonda; "and there are my father and brother, sir general; they are standing with Freskel Valden behind your friends of the hunt."

"Come forward, Grubert Reuss, and thy son too," said the young man, raising his voice a little. "Here, my good fellows, you have a daughter and a sister to be proud of. And thou also, thou strange lad, who shrinkest away out of sight, I would speak with thee," he added, beckoning to Freskel. "So Freskel Valden is thy name?"

"Thou, too, art no stranger to me," said the officer; "long ago this little maid spoke of thee, saying how wise love made thee in many ways. Thou seest, Blondinka, I have not forgotten thy words. Nay, Freskel, hang not thy head. If thou think that thou art scarce deserving of all the kind things our little friend hath spoken of thee, see to it that at least thou deserve them in the future. And now, Grubert Reuss," continued the general, "lead on and show me the way to thy house. Many things have I seen in this part of my—of Finland, but the inside of a woodman's cottage is still to me an undiscovered country. And beside, I would have some further talk with my little friend here."

The elderly gentleman, who seemed to be the next in rank to the general, now ventured a few words of expostulation, which the young man did not take very well.

"Your im—I beg pardon, general, I forgot; you scarce need to be told that I am always your servant to command."

"Then please to remember that in future," said the young officer sternly. "And now thou and the rest of my company return to Carfoos, unpack the provisions we brought with us, and order the sledges for Klingengolf. There will be no more sport to-day, and to-morrow we go in a different direction. I will join you at Carfoos later. My good friends here will accompany me, and show the way through the forest."

So saying, the young general turned from his own companions, and with Grubert, Tonie and Blonda walked to the cottage.

Arrived here, he sat by the kitchen stove and warmed himself, and learning, by some remark of Tonie's, that the family had not yet dined, he declared himself extremely hungry, and asked permission to join them in their repast. The dinner basket was accordingly unpacked, and the food shared among the four hungry people, Blonda adding some barley coffee and goat's milk as a treat in honour of the special occasion. The young general ate up his hunch of black bread to the last crumb, and thanked his host for the most delightful repast he had enjoyed for long enough.

Then he sat and chatted with the family for some time, asking many questions and showing a real interest in the replies given. At last, pulling out his watch, he declared it as time for him to go.

"But first, Grubert Reuss," said he, "I have a very pleasant duty to perform. In remembrance of thy little daughter's service to me this day, I ask thee to accept this pocket-book of Russian notes. The banker at Klingengolf will readily change them for thee into Finnish money. And as for my little maid with the forget-me-not eyes, let me give thee, child, something which may be of use to thee some day. I am much at the Court in St. Petersburg, and have some little influence there. If ever thou or thine, or any in whom thou mayest be interested, should be in trouble, apply to me, and I pledge myself to help thee, granting thee any boon thou dost ask, if it be but in my power."

So saying, the young general wrote a few words on a piece of paper (which he tore out of a memorandum-book), folded it small, then asked for a candle, and producing a bit of red wax, he proceeded to seal the letter, leaving upon the hot wax the impression of his great signet-ring. Lastly, he addressed it to General Nicolai, Winter Palace, St. Petersburg, and handing it to Blonda, told her to keep it safely, as she might want it some day. Then he took a kindly leave of her, and, accompanied by Grubert and Tonie, he started for Carfoos to join his party.

CHAPTER IX

FRESKEL VALDEN did not return with the hunting party to Carfoos, nor did he go home with Grubert, his children and his guest. He managed to slip away unobserved, and betook himself to several different places in the forest where he had set traps and snares. In one of these he found a cock-of-the-woods, in another a hare, which he hid away in some secret nook known only to himself, there to await his convenience in the matter of carrying them home or to Pastor Oshart.

He had some food in his pocket, with which to satisfy the cravings of hunger. And as soon as it was dark, (which at this season was before four o'clock in the afternoon), he turned his steps towards the lake, and reaching its margin, took a long, careful look round, then crossed over at a rapid run, and was soon hidden in the shadow of the rocky island.

As for Grubert, Tonie and Blonda, they spent the rest of the day very happily, the two former making and carving things out of wood, the latter mending her father's and brother's garments. But they had much to talk over, much to plan, for the present General Nicolai had given them amounted to 200 roubles—about £20 of our money—a very large sum to people accustomed to handle only a small weekly wage, barely sufficient for the simplest daily requirements.

They were still discussing the important matter, and offering suggestions to each other, when supper-time came. And after eating their frugal meal, they were about to resume work till it was time to go to bed, when they fancied they heard a little noise just outside the front door.

Blonda ran and opened it and looked out. She could see no one, however, and was about to shut out the keen night air, when she caught sight of a queer-looking bundle in the corner, close to the lowest hinge of the door.

And closing the door, she brought the bundle back into the room under the light of the lamp. And as she unrolled it, she gave a little cry of satisfaction, for there, soiled and crumpled, was her lost piece of towelling, not a yard of it missing.

"Well, if a ghost borrowed it," said Blonda merrily, "a ghost has brought it back."

"It would have been more civil," said Tonie, "if that same ghost had washed and ironed out the linen before returning it, but I suppose we must not expect too much of ghostly courtesy and good nature."

But while these light-hearted children were talking thus, the ghost himself—as wretched and miserable as ever a ghost could be—was gliding noiselessly over the snow through the woods, looking up now and again to the moon and starlit heaven, and showing two great dark eyes wild and reckless, full of misery and despair. Yet this face so sadly contorted, these eyes so terribly changed, belonged to the one light-hearted, simple-natured Freskel Valden.

The lad's laggard steps were not like the light, swift stride of former days, and it took longer than usual to reach the pastor's dwelling. Yet when he did so, he hesitated irresolutely for some minutes before knocking, and muttered to himself in muffled tones. At last, taking courage, he knocked. The door was at once opened by the good pastor himself.

"Ah, Freskel, so it is thou?" he said. "Come in and have some supper with me. I was just sitting down to mine."

The lad did not seem to hear what the old man said. He staggered in, feeling his way almost as a blind man might do. Then suddenly looking up, he found Pastor Oshart's kind, anxious eyes fixed upon his face.

"My father," said he, making a step forward and catching hold of the pastor's arm, "it is all over—Freskel has lost all—and—and—" Here the lad's voice broke in a hard, dry sob.

"Why, what is this, my son?" questioned the good old man tenderly. "I understand thee not; thou speakest in riddles. Surely such as thou and I, my Freskel, have nothing to lose, and therein lies one comfort of being poor."

"My secret, my great secret!" cried the boy, his eyes gleaming wildly. "And now it is all of no use. Some one has found out its hiding-place and stolen it away, and poor Freskel no longer cares to live."

"Hush! Oh, hush, my child!" said the old man. "These are wild and wicked words. Try to tell me the whole story quite simply, and let me judge of thy loss. It may be that I can help and comfort thee."

But Freskel shook his head. "No, no," he said, "no one can help. But I will tell you, my father—tell you all. My father knows the story of the Isle of Ghosts and of the treasure there?"

"Yes, surely, Freskel. Has not every child heard this fable and in his turn believed it?"

"But what if it be no fable, dear pastor?" cried the lad, his eyes kindling and a sudden colour flushing his pale cheeks. "What if it were true, my father? And what—Oh, pastor, the story is no fable—the treasure is real, not fairy gold. I found it—I, Freskel—myself, the night I swam across the lake to hide Rolf Bresser's bag of money."

"The robbers' treasure," whispered the lad. "I looked for some safe place wherein to hide the bag, and a stone rolled over, and underneath was a hollow like a basin—a large basin—and in the hollow a round box of iron, open and full of gold and silver money that shone in the moonlight. I lifted some in my hand and poured it back like a gold and silver fountain. And then—"

"Then I feared to tell any one, lest I should not be suffered to keep all the money; and I could not bear to think of parting with one little coin. So I kept silence. But as oft as I could, I went to the island, and uncovered my treasure, and tried to count the pieces, and played with them. And lest any should come and search and find my money, I acted the ghost to frighten them away, wrapping myself in a length of white stuff which I took from the house of Grubert Reuss when no one was at hand.

"Oh, my pastor, look not on me so sternly; I returned the linen cloth to-night, for poor Freskel's treasure is gone, and what need is there any longer for a ghost?"

"My poor lad, thou hast greatly sinned," said the old man. "This evil spirit of covetousness and greed is one of Satan's messengers, and see into what sins that spirit hath led thee! Tell me, my child, would it have been possible to thee in former times to have stolen from dear little Blonda the fruit of her hard toil, so that thou mightest more readily deceive others? And again, Freskel, hast thou not also lied to cover thy fault?"

"Covetousness, theft, lying, deceit—a terrible list of sins, my child! I know that it is not easy for thee always to choose between right and wrong, and far be it from me to judge thee too hardly in this matter. But before I speak to thee further about thine own faults, Freskel, I would ask what makes thee think that thou hast found the ancient treasure of the legend? Were the coins very old and barbarous looking?"

"Not one, my father. All were beneath the stone, and all have gone. And yet I was there only last night, and from the island I saw Blonda and Tonie skating on the lake. And when they stopped (seeing, perhaps, the light I had with me), I wrapped myself in the white linen and cried out, and then vanished quickly, even as a ghost should. After that they went away, and I ran back by a path that would cross theirs and so home. But oh, my father, I must tell you that now my beautiful, shining hoard is gone, I care for nothing any more."

"Listen, Freskel," cried the old man, sitting down and drawing the poor lad nearer to him, "listen. Once in the very long ago, when our Lord Jesus Christ was on earth and taught the people, mingling with the poor and sinful and working miracles among them, there came to him a rich young ruler, and asked him what he must do to inherit eternal life. It was a great question, Freskel, one which we should all ask in our turn. Wouldst thou know what the Master answered?"

The old man continued: "Our Lord spake to the young ruler, reminding him of the commandments which were part of God's law to Israel. And he answered, 'All these have I kept from my youth up. What lack I yet?'

"Then Jesus said unto him, 'If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow Me.'"

"And what did that young man?" asked Freskel, fixing eager eyes on the pastor's face.

"He did as too many people do whom Christ calls to make sacrifices for His sake," replied the old man. "'He went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.'

"Ah, Freskel, this love of money—this clinging to wealth—makes it very hard to follow Jesus. Our Lord goes before us, and the path is often rugged, and hills are steep, and the snares and pitfalls of the way are many; and yet we try to toil along after Him, dragging with us our heavy chains of gold and our burden of precious things, and we see not that while we are greedily clutching what we already have, or are eagerly searching for fresh treasure, the Lord passes on and is no more seen of us, the example of Jesus is forgotten, His love and favour are no longer the one thing needful for us.

"My boy, we cannot serve God and mammon, and unless we are willing to give up all for His sake, we are not worthy of Him and we are none of His."

"I have nothing left to give up," replied Freskel sadly. "All that I had is gone."

"Child," answered Pastor Oshart tenderly, "Perhaps the Lord saw that so long as thy heart and mind were set upon this treasure of thine, there was room for nothing else; and so, in His providence, He has suffered it to be taken from thee. Dost thou understand? Let me put it plainer. Suppose that in the garden of some tender earthly father grew a certain tree, the fruit of which, though sweet to the taste, made the children loathe the wholesome food needful to keep them in health. Should we count that father worthy of blame, Freskel, or think him cruel, if he cut down the tree and removed temptation from his little ones?"

"And thus it is with God, my son. If He takes from us that which we love, why is it, but that our hearts may cling to Him rather than to that which cannot help us. Tell me, Freskel, hast thou been happy all this time since the secret hoard became thine?"

"But the real treasure," said Pastor Oshart, "the blessing of God, maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow—no, nor fear which hath torment. Oh, my poor child, hear to-day, if never before, the tender voice of Jesus, who saith, 'Follow Me, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.'

"Hear Him who calls the weary and the heavy laden and the sorrowful, and gives them rest, and who says to all who will hearken to His word, 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust do corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, . . . for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.'"

"O pastor! O my father!" cried Freskel, throwing himself on his knees at the old man's feet, in a passion of contrite tears. "Pray to the Good Lord for Freskel that Satan have him not. Dear pastor, does not Jesus know that poor Freskel is like a child, and foolish? And if He knows, will He not forgive? Tell me the truth, my father; though I have sinned and forgotten Him, will Jesus pardon?"

The good old man drew the weeping lad to his heart, and while his own tears fell thick and fast, he said, "Be comforted, my son! Thy sorrow for the sin which thou hast sinned is the pledge of God's forgiveness. Come, let us unburden our hearts before Him, and those hearts, emptied of all earthly treasure, shall be filled by Him; yes, henceforth, through His grace, by Him alone."

CHAPTER X

THINGS went on very quietly for some weeks at Carfoos and in its neighbourhood after the events we have just recorded.

Blonda was too glad to get her roll of linen back to trouble herself as to how it had disappeared or how been returned to her. She washed, and ironed, and put it away, quite content that her work had not been wasted, but that she should still get something by the sale of it in the Klingengolf market when her father next paid the town a visit.

Blonda often thought of the young general, and of his goodness to them all, and wondered if the time would ever come when she should need to make use of his sealed paper, and claim his promise of help. Tonie and she had many earnest conversations upon this subject, and he especially was always building upon the small foundation of the general's promise all sorts Of castles in the air.

As for Freskel, Pastor Oshart had so far kept entirely to himself the lad's confidences, seeing no use in telling others, and perhaps setting the whole neighbourhood talking, and exciting the lad afresh just as he was beginning to be reconciled to his loss, and was growing more like the innocent-hearted, boyish Freskel of old. But the pastor had seen but little of him lately, as for some reason the lad had been kept more at home.

Of the Valdens as a family not much was heard now-a-days. Except on that night when Tonie and Blonda had met Dorlat and Hervitz on the ice, no one in the neighbourhood had seen the brothers for some time.

"The Valdens are flying at higher game, I fancy, just now," said Philip Bexal to Grubert one day. "They have been seen with some strangers at a town twenty miles beyond Klingengolf, and I am told they seemed to have plenty of money, and were swaggering about with the bravest. But so long as they come not hither, I care not what they do. One is only thankful to be well quit of them."

But one day, not more than a week later, most astonishing news reached Carfoos. The police at Klingengolf, acting upon special information received, had made a raid upon the Valdens' home, and had arrested, all at once, the old man Jaspar, and his three sons, Dorlat, Hervitz, and Freskel. Rolf Bresser was the bearer of the tidings, for he was on his way from Klingengolf to St. Petersburg on business, and coming to spend a few days at Pastor Oshart's house, he gave him a full account of the capture.

"For fraudulent dealing and the circulation of base money," replied Rolf. "It seems that some two years ago, the brother Dorlat and Hervitz were thought to be mixed up in some way with a gang of coiners, but before any proof could be got against them, the gang took fright, and made off, bag and baggage, one night, and no one knew whither they went. But it appears that they left behind them, stored in some corner of the Isle of Ghosts, a quantity of their false money, and lately they must have communicated this fact, and the whereabouts of the coin, to the brothers Valden, who lost no time in securing it.

"They then proceeded to various towns, buying all sorts of cheap wares with the counterfeit money, receiving in change for false gold as much real silver as possible, and for their spurious silver money good copper. For a time their evil trade prospered, but at last the trick was found out, and traced home to the Valdens. Whereupon, not content with securing the prime movers in the matter—Dorlat and Hervitz—the police have also got hold of old Jaspar and poor, foolish Freskel."

"Jaspar is without doubt in the secret," said Pastor Oshart; "but as for Freskel, how should he know false money from true? Indeed, I am certain he does not," added the old man, remembering Freskel's story, which he now thoroughly understood for the first time. "If the base coin has passed through his hands at all, he has handled it in all good faith, and has only been a tool in the grasp of his brothers."

"Yes, Oshart," said Rolf Bresser, "something must assuredly be done for the poor boy. They say he is broken-hearted, and does nothing but sob and cry for his pastor father."

"My poor, foolish boy!" said the old man, wiping his eyes. "I will go down to Klingengolf this very day, and represent his case to the head of police there, and see what can be done for him. Meanwhile, thou wilt remain here, Rolf, and take care of my house for me?"

"Another matter, Rolf! If I start, as I should, at once, I shall not have time to let Grubert Reuss and his family know about Freskel. Wilt thou go and carry the news to them? It will comfort little Blonda (who loves the poor lad) to know that I have gone to do what I could for him."

It was three days before the pastor returned from Klingengolf, and when he did, he brought only bad news. After half an hour spent at his own house, the old man walked over to Grubert's cottage.

And in answer to Blonda's, and Tonie's anxious enquiries, he replied, "My children, everything I could say for the lad went for nothing. He is one of a family long suspected of all sorts of misdemeanours. The base money—or some of it—had passed through his hands, as well as through those of his brothers, and he has been associated with them. I saw the head inspector at the police-station, and he was most courteous and even friendly, and heard me with patience.

"'But,' said he, 'nothing but a special order signed by the Tzar could effect Freskel Valden's release. In default of such an order, he must go for trial with the rest, and I should think you have but little chance of obtaining it.'"

Blonda was very grave and thoughtful for a minute or two after Pastor Oshart had ceased speaking, but all at once her face lighted up.

"Pastor, dear pastor!" she cried. "We will save poor Freskel yet and set him free!"

And before the old man had time to reply, she rushed up to her room, and presently returned holding in her hand the sealed paper General Nicolai had given her.

"See, dear pastor," she said, "the good general told me that if ever I was in trouble or needed anything I was to send or take him this. He is at Court and has influence there, and he promised to give me anything I asked, if it were in his power. Oh, if I could but go to St. Petersburg!"

"But my friend, Rolf Bresser, is going," said Pastor Oshart; "confide thy paper to him, and I will add a full account of the circumstances, telling the general all about poor Freskel. And thou too, Blonda, shalt send a few lines (thou canst muster Russian enough for that), reminding General Nicolai of his promise to thee."

It took Rolf Bresser a long while to get to the great city, and the patience of Freskel's friends was sorely tried before the news came for which they were longing and waiting. But it was Rolf himself who, on his return journey, was the bearer of a full and free pardon for Freskel Valden, and also of a special sealed packet for Blonda from her friend General Nicolai.

On opening this packet, it was found to contain the title deeds of a property consisting of a fine piece of land, and a farm with house and out-buildings, furniture, and live stock, all complete. And this was to be Blonda's own; a wonderful gift indeed! But yet more wonderful were the few lines that accompanied these papers, and which ran thus:—

"To Blondinka, my little heroine of the scarlet shawl! May God have thee in His holy keeping, child with the forget-me-not eyes. May He give thee a long, happy and useful life, with thy good father and brother, in the new home whither it is my pleasure that you move in the spring. And since, my little maid, thy faith in One above is so strong, and thy vision of the right is so clear, pray sometimes for him who to thee is known only as General Nicolai, but who here, in his own city, is thy friend at Court,—

"NICOLAI 1st, Emperor of all the Russias."

The rest of our story may be told in a few words. Grubert and his family went to live on Blonda's farm, and prospered exceedingly. Freskel Valden came to reside with Pastor Oshart, and growing in all things good, was called the pastor's son. As for Jasper, Dorlat, and Hervitz, they were sent off with a convict band to work in the Siberian mines.

With regard to the legend of the Isle of Ghosts, we believe that the idea of its being a sort of Treasure Island has just about died out. And probably, were we now to visit the neighbourhood, we should hardly find any one who could point out that particular island, or tell the story that Philip Bexal told by the lake side on that memorable day that first introduced General Nicolai to the simple-hearted, old-fashioned Blonda Reuss, one of our—

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Two little Finns

TWO LITTLE FINNS.

CHAPTER I