When they came in sight of the tents, Ola said a few words more.
"She came here to us Samefolk to find her father and not to become my
foster-child. But if she doesn't find him, I shall be glad to keep her
in my tent."
The fisherman hastened all the faster.
"I might have known that he would be alarmed when I threatened to take
his daughter into the Lapps' quarters," laughed Ola to himself.
When the man from Kiruna, who had brought Osa to the tent, turned back
later in the day, he had two people with him in the boat, who sat close
together, holding hands--as if they never again wanted to part.
They were Jon Esserson and his daughter. Both were unlike what they had
been a few hours earlier.
The father looked less bent and weary and his eyes were clear and good,
as if at last he had found the answer to that which had troubled him so
long.
Osa, the goose girl, did not glance longingly about, for she had found
some one to care for her, and now she could be a child again.
HOMEWARD BOUND!
THE FIRST TRAVELLING DAY
_Saturday, October first_.
The boy sat on the goosey-gander's back and rode up amongst the clouds.
Some thirty geese, in regular order, flew rapidly southward. There was a
rustling of feathers and the many wings beat the air so noisily that one
could scarcely hear one's own voice.
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