"Let us go down here, then Caroline will avoid freckles, and we, very likely, tourists."
The road was so overgrown with long grass that the wheel tracks were obliterated. A fine moss of tiny green stars, in which drops of the morning dew were still sparkling, covered the ditches, and a whole hedge of different kinds of ferns bent over the olive-brown moss-cushions, which swelled out on the margin of the other side.
"Just look how pretty!" Minna exclaimed, and pointed to some ferns that only consisted of one single stem with lancet-shaped fronds. As a rule they were not higher than a span's length, but some of these were quite a foot high. "I wish I could have one or two of those, roots and all. I have already got several ferns. Here, too, is a beautiful one."
She pulled off her silk gloves and knelt down. In the meantime I succeeded in jumping over to the other side.
"If only we can get them properly! Have you got a knife?"
"No, but we say in Danish: 'Five fingers are just as good as a boat hook.'"
She laughed and shook the loose hair from her face; then we began to dig and scratch away the earth. At last we got the plants out of the ground, and as I recrossed the ditch I succeeded in wetting one of my feet. Minna carefully bound her handkerchief round the ferns, so that she should not lose any of the mould that was hanging to the roots. We showed our earth-begrimed hands to each other and laughed like a couple of children as we hurried after the little girls, who had nearly gone out of sight and were now beginning to call for us.
Above the tops of the dark fir-trees the arched sky was of a reddish blue. Into the deep brown shadows
