Edla is the modest, kind, considerate kind of a girl. She has more persuasive powers than her father. When the peddler refuses ironmaster’* request for the Christmas, he sends his daughter. She introduces herself and requests to come for Christmas. She feels sorry for his hard time. She assures the captain that he will be allowed to leave just as freely as he comes. Her manners, attitude and openness create confidence in the peddler. He accompanies her because she has better insight of human understanding.
At the manor’* house, the young girl pleads for the stranger saying, ‘‘I think he ought to stay with us today.’’ She closes the door and takes the stranger by the hand to the dining table. She further says ‘‘where he turns, he is chased away. I would like to have him a day of peace with us just once in the whole year.’’ We should not chase him away when we have asked to come and have a Christmas cheer.
Her deep kindness and sympathy have a magic effect on the peddler. It awakens essential goodness in the stranger. So he rises above the evils of greed and cheating because of a young girl. He thanks her for saving him from falling into the world’* rattrap.
