- By the following week, all the snow has disappeared and spring has officially sprung.
- Miri faces an internal battle: she doesn't want to marry someone she doesn't know, but she also wants to be able to see the lowlands and give her father that beautiful house. And what about Peder?
- The girls are released to go home when the traders arrive, and Miri is nervous to see if her commerce skills will work.
- They get back and see that Os is setting terms with the traders, who are upset that the mountain people are asking for more.
- After a while though, the traders agree and end up trading three blocks for one gold coin, which is much more than they were giving before. Miri is so relieved, and excited that she's made a difference.
- Bizarrely enough, the traders seem to like them more—perhaps being called out for cheating the inhabitants of Mount Eskel has inspired a bit of respect in the traders.
- Peder walks by and acts like he doesn't even know Miri, but she gets him to laugh by telling the story of when he fell into an ice hole.
- After he leaves, Britta says that it's obvious that Miri likes Peder. Miri avoids the subject at first, but then admits that she really does like him; she's just afraid to tell him.
- Britta admits that she doesn't feel close to the relatives that she lives with, and Miri invites her to spend the week at her house instead.
- Miri heads over to the quarry to find her family, and watches in horror as some blocks of linder fall on Marda and she tumbles out of sight. When she tries to run into the quarry though, her father tells her to get out.
- Doter, Peder's mother, grabs Miri and tells her that Marda just has a hurt leg and will be okay.
- She also explains to Miri that there's a reason her father doesn't let her go into the quarry: Miri's mother died after being hurt in a quarry accident. She hung on to give birth to Miri, but Miri's father doesn't want to see his daughter working in the quarry ever—it's too painful for him, especially because Miri is the daughter who looks like her dead mother.
- When her father and Marda get home, Miri helps take care of her sister and hugs her father. Everything will be all right after all.