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11 KRISTINA IS NOT AFRAID

--------- XI --------KRISTINA IS NOT AFRAID - 1 ALONG THE SHORES ofLake Chisago runs a path that has been trod by Indians and deer; here the Indians hunted the deer as the animals sought their way to the lake to drink ofits water. The path goes in sharp twists and bends around fallen tree trunks, leaves the lakeshore at moors and bogs where the ground sinks under foot, penetrates brambles and bushes, turns sharply away from holes, steep cliffs, and disappears in the undergrowth with its thorny, pricking spikes. Winding , wriggling its way, it never leaves the shore; as the wanderer least expects it he is met by the glittering water before him and his path lightens. This path is without beginning or for it runs around the whole Indian lake Ki-Chi-Saga with its hundreds ofinlets and bays and points and promontories , islands, and islets. Of old it was tramped only by the deer and the hunter people's light feet, shod in the skin of the deer. Now the redskins are seldom seen on the road they themselves trampled our through the wilderness. Ir is used by another people, who have come from far away, of another hue: The whites now wear away the bared roots with their heavy footgear, wooden shoes, iron-shod boots, crunching, crushing heels. These people also break their own roads through the forest, straight roads, cutting through the grave mounds of the Indians. These people are in a hurry and cannot waste their time on the meandering Indian paths. On an evening in June, one of the immigrant women walks on this path. It is near sunset yet she walks slowly. Her steps are short, perhaps tired. She doesn't tramp heavily on the Indian path and she is in no hurry. Kristina is out in the forest, looking for a cow, Jenny, named after a Swedish singer with this name who has recently been to America, and about whom Hemlandet has had much to report. Jenny did not come home with the other cows this evening; she is ready to calve almost any day now, and that is why Kristina was concerned when she was missing this evening. Once before Jenny 100 KRISTINA IS NOT AFRAID 101 has had her calf out in the woods; Johan and Harald had found her then, far out in a bog, and had managed to get the cow home with the calf uninjured. Perhaps Jenny was repeating her forest calving. Or had she been caught between some boulders, unable to free herself? All this wilderness is full of crevices and holes where grazing cattle might easily break their legs. Kristina stops now and then, calls the name of the lost cow, calls until she is hoarse, but the only replies are her own calls, echoing back from the tree trunks. The cows know their milkmaid's voice and will answer with a soft lowing when she calls them. She stops short on the path, listens intently, but no sound from Jenny reaches her ears. It is already growing dark among the trees. Should she turn back without having fulfilled her errand? No, she must look a little bit farther. She is not afraid of losing her way after dark, for she knows the lake path well-she has only to follow it back the same way she came. In a clearing where grow tall, lush raspberry bushes she stops to eat of the berries. The wild raspberries are already ripe, although it is only June. She crouches near one bush and enjoys the sweet fruit. She loves to go out in the woods in summertime to pick all the wild, edible berries that grow here. To her it is a means ofliberation and ofbeing alone, a welcome change in the monotony ofdaily chores. And in fall she likes to pick cranberries that abound on the tussocks in low-lying places. But no lingonberries grow here, as in Sweden; instead of lingonberries she preserves the somewhat sourer cranberries; in fact, they do have a taste ofsweetness ifpicked afrer the frost has set in. Darkness falls, yet she is not aware of it. Kristina will never cease to be surprised at the urgency ofthe twilight in America; it rushes by. Tonight it seems to last only five short minutes. In her childhood in Sweden she had been afraid of the dark. This feeling had remained with her through youth, and she had been terribly afraid of the dark during...