Asathor's Vengeance by Hjalmar Hjorth Boysen

Aasa Kvaerk loved her father well, but especially in the winter. Then, / while she sat turning her spinning-wheel in the light of the crackling / logs, his silent presence always had a wonderfully soothing and calming / effect upon her. She never laughed then, and seldom wept; when she felt / his eyes resting on her, her thoughts, her senses, and her whole being / seemed by degrees to be lured from their hiding-place and concentrate on / him; and from him they ventured again, first timidly, then more boldly, / to grasp the objects around him. At such times Aasa could talk and / jest almost like other girls, and her mother, to whom "other girls" / represented the ideal of womanly perfection, would send significant / glances, full of hope and encouragement, over to Lage, and he would / quietly nod in return, as if to say that he entirely agreed with her. / Then Elsie had bright visions of wooers and thrifty housewives, and even / Lage dreamed of seeing the ancient honor of the family re-established. / All depended on Aasa. She was the last of the mighty race. But when / summer came, the bright visions fled; and the spring winds, which to / others bring life and joy, to Kvaerk brought nothing but sorrow. No / sooner had the mountain brooks begun to swell, than Aasa began to laugh / and to weep; and when the first birches budded up in the glens, she / could no longer be kept at home. Prayers and threats were equally / useless. From early dawn until evening she would roam about in forests / and fields, and when late at night she stole into the room and slipped / away into some corner, Lage drew a deep sigh and thought of the old / tradition.

Aasa was nineteen years old before she had a single wooer. But when she / was least expecting it, the wooer came to her.