Nevertheless she went along to
avoid being left without human companionship.
"When they reached the highlands the boy pitched a tent for the girl on
a pretty hill that sloped toward a mountain brook.
"In the evening he lassoed and milked the reindeer, and gave the girl
milk to drink. He brought forth dried reindeer meat and reindeer cheese,
which his people had stowed away on the heights when they were there the
summer before.
"Still the girl grumbled all the while, and was never satisfied. She
would eat neither reindeer meat nor reindeer cheese, nor would she drink
reindeer milk. She could not accustom herself to squatting in the tent
or to lying on the ground with only a reindeer skin and some spruce
twigs for a bed.
"The son of the mountains laughed at her woes and continued to treat her
kindly.
"After a few days, the girl went up to the boy when he was milking and
asked if she might help him. She next undertook to make the fire under
the kettle, in which the reindeer meat was to be cooked, then to carry
water and to make cheese. So the time passed pleasantly. The weather was
mild and food was easily procured. Together they set snares for game,
fished for salmon-trout in the rapids and picked cloud-berries in the
swamp.
"When the summer was gone, they moved farther down the mountains, where
pine and leaf forests meet.
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