“‘Surely you don’t intend to go up to Black’s Ridge, do you?’ laughed the dean, who knew that was one of the highest peaks in Haelsingland.

“During the ride he discovered that he and the horse were not the only ones who were out that night.  He heard stones roll down and branches crackle, as if animals were breaking their way through the forest.  He remembered that wolves were plentiful in that section and wondered if the horse wished to lead him to an encounter with wild beasts.

“They mounted up and up, and the higher they went the more scattered were the trees.  At last they rode on almost bare highland, where the dean could look in every direction.  He gazed out over immeasurable tracts of land, which went up and down in mountains and valleys covered with sombre forests.  It was so dark that he had difficulty in seeing any orderly arrangement; but presently he could make out where he was.

“‘Why of course it’s Black’s Ridge that I’ve come to!’ he remarked to himself.  ’It can’t be any other mountain, for there, in the west, I see Jarv Island, and to the east the sea glitters around Ag Island.  Toward the north also I see something shiny.  It must be Dellen.  In the depths below me I see white smoke from Nian Falls.  Yes, I’m up on Black’s Ridge.  What an adventure!’

“When they were at the summit the horse stopped behind a thick pine, as if to hide.  The dean bent forward and pushed aside the branches, that he might have an unobstructed view.

“The mountain’s bald plate confronted him.  It was not empty and desolate, as he had anticipated.  In the middle of the open space was an immense boulder around which many wild beasts had gathered.  Apparently they were holding a conclave of some sort.

“Near to the big rock he saw bears, so firmly and heavily built that they seemed like fur-clad blocks of stone.  They were lying down and their little eyes blinked impatiently; it was obvious that they had come from their winter sleep to attend court, and that they could hardly keep awake.  Behind them, in tight rows, were hundreds of wolves.  They were not sleepy, for wolves are more alert in winter than in summer.  They sat upon their haunches, like dogs, whipping the ground with their tails and panting—­their tongues lolling far out of their jaws.  Behind the wolves the lynx skulked, stiff-legged and clumsy, like misshapen cats.  They were loath to be among the other beasts, and hissed and spat when one came near them.  The row back of the lynx was occupied by the wolverines, with dog faces and bear coats.  They were not happy on the ground, and they stamped their pads impatiently, longing to get into the trees.  Behind them, covering the entire space to the forest border, leaped the foxes, the weasels, and the martens.  These were small and perfectly formed, but they looked even more savage and bloodthirsty than the larger beasts.

“All this the dean plainly saw, for the whole place was illuminated.  Upon the huge rock at the centre was the Wood-nymph, who held in her hand a pine torch which burned in a big red flame.  The Nymph was as tall as the tallest tree in the forest.  She wore a spruce-brush mantle and had spruce-cone hair.  She stood very still, her face turned toward the forest.  She was watching and listening.