LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 
 
 Clia]Tr:___-l Copyright No. 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
A NORWAY SUMMER 
 
in 
 
 5 
 
 O 
 
 u 
 
 o 
 
A NORWAY SUMMER 
 
 BV / 
 
 LAURA D. NICHOLS 
 
 AUTHOR OF "UNDERFOOT," ETC. 
 
 Of 
 
 ^ 
 
 BOSTON 3 
 
 ROBERTS BROTHERS 
 
 1897 
 
 
Copyright, 1897, 
 By Roberts Brothers. 
 
 3) laV^ 
 
 v 
 
 Slnfocrmts Press: 
 John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. 
 
En 3Lo&mg jWnnorjj 
 
 OF 
 
 FRANK BOLLES, 
 
 The Students' Friend. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter. Page. 
 
 I. Northward Ho! i 
 
 II. The First Tidings 7 
 
 III. BlRKENGAARD 1 7 
 
 IV. Christiania 21 
 
 V. The Viking Ship 30 
 
 VI. St. Olaf's Bad 40 
 
 VII. Consequences . 49 
 
 VIII. Sarabraaten 60 
 
 IX. Throndhjem 67 
 
 X. In the Arctic Circle 79 
 
 XI. Sailing round Norway 91 
 
 XII. Bergen 104 
 
 XIII. Vestre Slidre 124 
 
 XIV. Sidney 135 
 
 XV. The S^ter 145 
 
 XVI. Back to Christiania 152 
 
 XVII. Halcyon Days 159 
 
 XVIII. The Last Letter 171 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Page 
 A Norway Contrast (Svartisen) . . . Frontispiece^ 
 
 The Viking Ship 31^"" 
 
 y 
 
 Throndhjem 67 
 
 The Cathedral at Throndhjem 73 
 
 Torghatten 7$^ 
 
 Troms# 82 ^ 
 
 North Cape 85^ 
 
 Group of Lapps 91 
 
 Bj^rn and Seven Sisters Mountains .... 95^ 
 
 Laatefos 121 r 
 
 Old Borgund Church 132 ^ 
 
A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 NORTHWARD HO ! 
 
 " WHAT do you think about it, Henry ? " said Mrs. 
 Marlow, laying down a letter which she had read 
 twice to herself and once aloud. 
 
 She took up her needle-work as she spoke, and 
 gave a soft little sigh, quickly checked ; but he 
 heard it, and said to himself, " Dear mother, it 
 hurts ; but she will say ' yes ' all the same." He 
 was a picture of indolent comfort, stretched his 
 full six feet of length on her sofa, one arm thrown 
 over his shaggy brown head, while in the hollow 
 of the other elbow nestled a little chinchilla- 
 colored kitten, sleeping profoundly after a long 
 frolic with the blue silken tassels of his dressing- 
 gown. 
 
 " Think ?" he lazily answered. " Oh, I think 
 one may as well have no sister, as have one so 
 popular as our Ellen." 
 
 Judging from his sleepy eyes, his idleness at 
 
2 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 ten o'clock in the morning, his quiet voice and 
 white hands, you would naturally condemn him 
 as a sybarite, and you would have been entirely 
 wrong. Henry Marlow was a hard-working young 
 physician, already high in the esteem of his elders 
 in the profession, and of whom they prophesied 
 certain and honorable success. He had been up 
 all night fighting against membranous croup for 
 the life of a poor woman's child, and, his victory 
 won, was allowing himself one hour of rest, after 
 bath and breakfast, before taking up the day's 
 round. 
 
 " Of course it will be a great pleasure and 
 advantage to her," he added ; " and there 's no 
 doubt that she deserves it — " 
 
 " No indeed ! " interpolated his mother, fervently. 
 
 " Or that the Harley girls deserve and need 
 her—" 
 
 " N-no." 
 
 " And, in short, mother, if you can bear to part 
 with her, I '11 give her my blessing and any need- 
 ful — " She thought that the last word was 
 " shekels," and, looking up to make sure, saw 
 that Henry was as soundly asleep as the kitten. 
 
 This made her wipe her eyes and murmur some- 
 thing about " best a mother ever had," and then 
 she read the letter again. 
 
NORTHWARD HO ! 3 
 
 It was an invitation for her only daughter to 
 spend the coming summer in Norway with two 
 girls who were going to visit an older sister who 
 had married there. 
 
 Ellen Marlow had the gift of making friends 
 wherever she went. 
 
 She was not a beauty; those who loved her 
 best never went beyond calling her pretty, or 
 sweet-looking, but her face rested and cheered 
 all who looked upon it. She was neither intel- 
 lectual nor witty, but had stood well in her 
 classes, and had a happy faculty of appreciating 
 the wit and wisdom of others. She was not 
 especially accomplished, though she sketched a 
 little from nature, and could sing in a chorus, or 
 if she had a child in her arms ; but, as the servants 
 said, " she had a way with her," and from her 
 babyhood had diffused sunshine wherever she 
 went. 
 
 Her guardian, Professor Willoughby, said, " It 
 was her power of sympathy ; " his wife, Ellen's 
 cousin Miranda, thought it was her unselfish- 
 ness; her mother ascribed it to her power of 
 loving ; while Henry declared that " Ellen was so 
 fond of lending a hand, that if she came upon a 
 housebreaker, her first impulse would be to -hold 
 the ladder for fear he would fall." 
 
4 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 She had made friends of the Harley girls a few 
 years before, at the Adirondacks, when they were 
 staying there for the health of their brother Hugh, 
 and Ellen was travelling with the Carruths. The 
 friendship had been kept up by correspondence, 
 ',and renewed in a New Hampshire excursion they 
 made together, just before Hugh and his sisters 
 went to Madeira. The brave, gentle fellow had 
 died there ; and the girls had but recently returned, 
 lonely and bewildered by the loss of the joy and 
 care of many years. 
 
 The letter was from Annie, the elder, and 
 though Mrs. Marlow had never seen her, she was 
 won by the love for Ellen, and the consideration 
 for herself, which was evident throughout. 
 
 " The more we want her with us, the more we 
 feel how much we are asking of you ; but sister 
 Eleanor begs us to bring a friend to be her guest 
 with us, as dear Hugh would have been, so she 
 will have no expenses except the voyage, and 
 such excursions from Christiania as you may 
 approve. " 
 
 " It is a great deal of hospitality to accept 
 from a family I have never seen," said Mrs. Mar- 
 low, later, to her niece, Mrs. Willoughby. " So 
 it is," answered Miranda ; " and yet I am sure that 
 they feel that the obligation will be on their side. 
 
NORTHWARD HO ! 5 
 
 Don't you see that if those two sisters make the 
 voyage by themselves, they will think and talk of 
 poor Hugh all the time ; whereas, if Ellen is with 
 them, they will make an effort to be cheerful for 
 her sake ; and the same when they get to Norway. 
 Depend upon it, they will go about and see and 
 do and enjoy ten times as much, if she is there to 
 give them a motive ; and this sister of theirs is 
 wise enough to know it." 
 
 "I believe you are right," responded the 
 mother ; " and here the dear child comes." 
 
 We need not dwell on Ellen's astonishment 
 when she heard the news, or on her half-remorse- 
 ful joy when she found that she was really going. 
 Her mother and Mrs. Willoughby were too busy 
 getting her ready, to think how they should miss 
 her; but the three families with which they were 
 intimate — the next neighbor Rays, the Boston 
 Carruths, and old Dr. Bonney and his wife — 
 were loud in their lamentations as well as con- 
 gratulations. 
 
 It was on the deck of the " Albatross " that Mrs. 
 Marlow first met the Harleys, and was instantly 
 confirmed in all the pleasant impressions she had 
 received from their letters. Annie was tall and 
 slight, with dark eyes and hair, and a peculiarly 
 sweet voice, while plump little Margaret was 
 equally winning in her own way. 
 
6 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 Ellen felt it a great compliment that old Dr. 
 Bonney was there too, though he was character- 
 istically growling at u the folly of letting those 
 children rush off to the North Pole by them- 
 selves," and at the same time slipping a roll of 
 gold pieces into her hand. 
 
 Jessie Carruth was the only one who really 
 cried ; though Mrs. Marlow did n't trust herself 
 to talk much, and Ellen's voice was decidedly 
 tremulous; but Jessie always did exactly what 
 she felt like doing, and did not hesitate to tell her 
 friend, between her hugs and tears, that she con- 
 sidered it " quite mean of the Harley girls to snap 
 you up, just when I 've come home from Europe 
 and wanted you for myself." 
 
 Her brother Sidney may have felt the same, but 
 he did not express it, though he was so silent and 
 grave that Ellen wondered if he thought her 
 wrong in leaving her mother; and instead of 
 walking out to Cambridge with Henry, as the 
 latter proposed, he chose to go home with his 
 sister, much to her discomfort, for he was cross 
 all the way, and took her severely to task for 
 " sniffing and sobbing like a baby, when you must 
 have seen that Ellen cares twice as much for those 
 other people as for you." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE FIRST TIDINGS. 
 
 Ellen's serene presence was sadly missed by 
 
 her family until her first letter came, but that 
 
 seemed to span the distance between them with 
 
 a bridge of love over which their imaginations 
 
 flitted easily and incessantly. It was only a 
 
 scrawly, scrappy journal of the voyage, but as 
 
 original and precious to her mother as if no 
 
 one had ever before crossed the sea. 
 
 May 2, 1 88— . 
 
 Dear Mother, — I suppose you think we are all in 
 the miseries of sea- sickness ; but we have been quite 
 comfortable so far. We did n't sleep much the first 
 night, and got up before six, and stayed on deck all 
 day. The sea was glorious, with white caps away out 
 to the horizon, and land only a deep-blue cloud be- 
 hind us. 
 
 To-day is so cold we are below. Margaret took out 
 her cards to play solitaire, and was horrified when we 
 told her it was Sunday. 
 
 3d day out. 
 
 We had a delightful surprise this morning when the 
 captain produced the letters and books you had told 
 
8 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 him to keep till now. How lovely of you to think of 
 it ! I read your letter over and over, and Annie has 
 been deep in " Emma," ever since. We begged for 
 more ; but he said the post-office had been robbed 
 and there was no more mail. 
 
 May 5th. 
 Rolling too much to write. 
 
 May 6th. 
 
 Day before yesterday we saw six icebergs ; and just 
 as I was getting into my berth at night, a crashing, 
 grinding sound was heard, and the steamer stopped, 
 went on slowly, stopped again, and started again. 
 We went up and saw ice, ice, in every direction, 
 with lines of black water between the blocks, but no 
 bergs, so we went below again, but not to bed. We 
 read and talked till some one said there was a big berg 
 ahead ; and we hurried up, and there it was ! A snow 
 mountain ! It seemed close to us, but must have 
 been farther than we thought. We retreated to the 
 chart-room. The steamer was slowly backing ; a few 
 moments of suspense, and then the captain came in 
 and quietly poured a cup of coffee for himself saying : 
 
 " We Ve got rid of that fellow." So we went to bed 
 and slept till breakfast-time undisturbed. 
 
 May 9th, not a cloud. 
 We lay mummy-like in our deck chairs all day. A 
 glorious sunset and many wheeling flocks of gulls ; some 
 so near that we could see their yellow beaks, black 
 bead-like eyes, and little feet tucked up under their 
 tails. 
 
THE FIRST TIDINGS. 9 
 
 We were signalled off Fastnet Light this morning ; 
 and when we went on deck could see shadowy out- 
 lines of Irish mountains, and have been near enough 
 the coast all day to see now and then a ruined tower 
 and the beauty of green grass. I tried to make a 
 sketch in water-color, but was driven below by a 
 sudden shower. Ever so many little fishing-boats are 
 dashing around, the sails often burnt sienna color. 
 
 Liverpool, May 13, 188 — . 
 
 We are safely here. Annie's cousin, Mr. Brooks, 
 met us and brought us to these lodgings in his carriage. 
 The landlady's name is Whittington. We have a 
 parlor and two bed-rooms for two and a half guineas 
 a week. A nice little supper by ourselves of chops 
 and toast, and then a walk. We are to stay here a 
 week, and make excursions, and then Mr. Brooks will 
 go with us to Hull, and see us off for Norway. Annie 
 needs the rest before another voyage. 
 
 Mrs. Brooks will call on us to-morrow, and then we 
 are to dine there, half an hour's ride out on the 
 Mersey road. 
 
 Two delightful days followed for our girls. It 
 was a joy to be on land once more, with green 
 fields and flowery hedgerows at hand. They 
 astonished their landlady by breakfasting at eight, 
 and prowling among the shops before other lodg- 
 ers were astir. Everything entertained them, — 
 queer faces, odd costumes, clumsy carts, hansoms 
 
IO A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 of brilliant colors ; but the visit to Mrs. Brooks 
 was best of all. 
 
 She proved to be a very agreeable companion. 
 The weather was delightful; they saw primroses 
 and broom beside the track, and pink-edged 
 daisies in the fields. 
 
 Tea was served under apple-trees in full bloom ; 
 hawthorn was in bud, forget-me-nots and wall- 
 flowers (bright yellow and rich dark red) in beds 
 near by. 
 
 They played tennis on a wonderfully smooth 
 lawn, and walked after dinner in a birch grove 
 near the river, beyond which faint outlines of 
 Welsh hills were seen. 
 
 One day was spent in Chester, of which Nelly's 
 note-book only said, " Quaint and interesting be- 
 yond words." In a letter to Jessie she wrote: 
 
 " You would revel in your favorite color here. 
 The gardens glow with laburnum, yellow pansies, 
 and wall-flowers; the fields with gorse, butter- 
 cups, and dandelions. I thought of Harry when 
 we had stewed rhubarb, very sweet and served 
 with whipped cream, called Devonshire cream. 
 That was at Mrs. Brooks's. Mrs. Whittington 
 seldom gets beyond bacon, eggs, and chops, so 
 we have bought a four-penny tin of Yarmouth 
 bloater, and a Turkish jam of figs and honey, 
 
THE FIRST TIDINGS. II 
 
 for a shilling, to add to our bread and butter 
 at tea." 
 
 Another day or two were spent at York, with 
 the hasty record, " Cathedral, window of five 
 sisters, see Nicholas Nickleby, chapter VI., ruins 
 of St. Mary's; boat-ride on the Ouse;" but a 
 pretty water-color sketch of quaint red-tiled roofed 
 houses, built on the old wall, went with the letter. 
 
 From York, they went by train to Hull, and 
 drove at once to the dock, engaged passage for 
 Norway, and then rambled about the town, visit- 
 ing an old church and then the birthplace of 
 Wilberforce. This was a quaint, prim, two-story 
 house, behind a high prison-like wall, with an 
 enormous gateway, its posts topped with huge 
 stone balls. 
 
 " No wonder he prized liberty, if he lived long 
 in that jail of a place," whispered Margaret, and 
 gladly turned to a still queerer house opposite, 
 with overhanging upper stories, where William 
 Penn stayed several weeks before he sailed for 
 America. In another part of the town they were 
 amused by the name of a street, — " Land of Green 
 Ginger," painted in large letters on the corner ; 
 but they could not learn the origin of so odd a 
 title. 
 
 An evening drive gave charming glimpses of 
 
12 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 the river Humber, of two pretty villages, — Kirk 
 Ella and West Ella, named after some Saxon 
 ruler of long ago ; and they never tired of admiring 
 the ivy-grown cottages, holly and box hedges, 
 and the hedgerow blossoms, — blue veronica, 
 herb robert, ragged robin, white mint, and 
 Wordsworth's celandine. 
 
 After supper, Mr. Brooks saw them safely on 
 board their steamer ; and as she did not sail until 
 two o'clock, they had several hours of quiet sleep 
 before daylight, which found them rising and 
 falling with unpleasant tumultuousness on the 
 rough waters of the North Sea. 
 
 They bravely dressed and went on deck, but 
 descended ignominiously about noon, and lay in 
 helpless misery the rest of that day and the 
 whole of the next, which was Sunday. Margaret, 
 naturally the liveliest of the three, lay limp as a 
 broken doll in her berth, occasionally murmuring : 
 
 "Why was I born? What fools we were to 
 come ! " and at last, " I don't care what you girls 
 do, / shall spend the rest of my life in Norway." 
 
 " If we live to get there," moaned Annie. 
 
 " Yes, but in any case, I will never set foot on 
 a steamer again ! " 
 
 "We might go back by way of Behring's 
 Straits," suggested Ellen, faintly; "I believe 
 
THE FIRST TIDINGS. 13 
 
 they're only forty miles wide, and IVe always 
 wanted to see Alaska." 
 
 " Oh, you horrid Cambridge thing ! How can 
 you remember any geography now!" but here 
 a dreadful plunge and sickening roll reduced 
 them all to despairing silence. 
 
 A kind and attentive stewardess was their only 
 consolation, until, on Monday morning, they 
 reached Christianssand, on the southeast coast 
 of Norway, where the sea was so much less rough, 
 that Ellen and Margaret succeeded in making 
 a staggering toilet, and went on deck, leaving 
 Annie in an exhausted sleep. 
 
 " We 're both the color of cheap window- 
 glass ! " cried Margaret, rashly glancing at the 
 mirror while she wound a Shetland cloud over her 
 old felt hat and tumbled hair. " Come, Nell ! " 
 and they reeled up the companion way, into the 
 keen, delicious air, which soon restored a natural 
 color to their blue lips and blanched cheeks. 
 Land, beloved land was in sight all the forenoon, 
 and in the afternoon they entered Christiania 
 Fiord. " Pinch yourself, Ellen Marlow," whis- 
 pered Margaret, now quite restored ; " can it be 
 really true that we see a fiord at last, or is this a 
 Stoddard lecture?" 
 
 11 It reminds me of the mouth of the Penobscot, 
 
A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 going to Castine," said Annie, who had joined 
 them ; but the others were indignant, and as the 
 lovely water-way grew narrower and narrower, 
 and the hills higher, and first red-roofed farm- 
 houses, and then whole villages were seen, she 
 had to own that all was unmistakably new and 
 foreign. 
 
 After so many hours of tossing and physical 
 anguish, the long tranquil twilight was delightful 
 indeed; and as bend after bend revealed new 
 beauties, they grew silent from very pleasure, 
 only occasionally exclaiming, " Oh, look ! look ! " 
 and once Annie whispered, " Oh, how Hugh would 
 have enjoyed this ! " 
 
 As they glided on, the hills grew deeper and 
 deeper purple against the gray and crimson sun- 
 set sky, which was still bright at half-past eleven, 
 when they reached the wharf at Christiania. 
 
 In the bustle that followed, they had only a 
 moment to feel themselves strangers in a foreign 
 land, when a friendly voice was heard calling, 
 " Annie ! Margaret ! " and there was a broad- 
 shouldered blonde-whiskered man, pushing 
 through the crowd, and greeting the Harleys and 
 then their friend, with such beaming cordiality, 
 that they felt at once shielded and safe, and all 
 possibility of homesickness was gone. 
 
THE FIRST TIDINGS. 1 5 
 
 Soon the four were rolling along the streets 
 of Christiania in an easy carriage, on their 
 way to Mr, Erlsen's house, two miles out in 
 the country. 
 
 Though nearly midnight, there was still day- 
 light enough for Ellen to read the signs over the 
 shops; while Annie and Margaret were busy 
 questioning their brother-in-law about " sister 
 Eleanor, and the children." 
 
 " They would have come to meet you too," he 
 said ; " but the steamer was late, and she sent the 
 children to bed, and I told her to go too ; but I 
 think we will not find her asleep, oh, no." 
 
 Just then they turned in at a gateway decorated 
 with American flags, whirled along between 
 tall fir-trees, reached a porch wreathed with 
 flowers, and in another moment Annie and 
 Margaret were embracing the sister they had 
 not seen for ten years. 
 
 She was tall like Annie, but fair and plump 
 and dimpled like Margaret; and she welcomed 
 Ellen with such cordial sweetness as to make her 
 feel at home at once. 
 
 " You 're all as tired as you can be, I know," 
 she cried, guiding them into a charming room 
 where supper was spread ; " have n't I been tum- 
 bled and jumbled in that dreadful voyage myself? 
 
1 6 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 Oh, yes ; but you must eat a little, and then you 
 shall go straight to bed and sleep just as long as 
 ever you please in the morning." 
 
 How delightful it was, an hour later, to undress 
 without staggering, and to creep into spacious 
 beds on firm land, with no hurry and no journey 
 for the morrow. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 BIRKENGAARD. 
 
 From Ellen's note-book. 
 
 BIRKENGAARD, May 25th. 
 
 HERE we are, well and happy, and very much 
 at home in this beautiful place. Mrs. Erlsen is 
 just as kind as mamma would be to any one far 
 away from her own people ; and Mr. Erlsen has 
 read all Cousin John's books, and admires them 
 very much, and says that he shall adopt me on 
 the strength of my connection with him. The 
 children call me Cousin Ellen, for they seem to 
 think I belong to the family. They are dear lit- 
 tle things, though very shy. Henrik is nine, 
 Clara six, and then comes Helen, the plumpest 
 and quietest baby I ever saw. Henrik has taken 
 me all about the grounds this morning ; and al- 
 ready there are violets, primroses, and anemones 
 all through the grass, and many trees in full leaf. 
 From all the windows there are lovely views of 
 near and distant hills ; and from mine I have a 
 
1 8 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 glimpse of the Christiania Fiord between dark firs 
 and pale-green birches. The house is large and 
 pleasant, and my room opens out of Annie and 
 Margaret's. I have just received mamma's first 
 letter, and now home does not seem half so far 
 away. Mr. Erlsen drove us in town this morning, 
 in a pretty double phaeton, and we got some 
 money at the Credit Bank ; and I have learned 
 that a hundred $re make a krone, or crown, and 
 that is worth about twenty-eight cents. In one 
 place we met a queer group of emigrants, which I 
 sketched. We had no trouble about our trunks 
 at the Custom House, and have been unpacking 
 and getting settled. Now I am sitting on the 
 veranda with Annie, and Margaret is rambling 
 under the fir-trees with the children. 
 
 Evening. 
 
 This afternoon we drove to see a hunting-lodge 
 of the king's, called Oscar's Hall. It is a cream- 
 colored tower, which I had noticed from the 
 piazza, against a dark background of firs. It is 
 surrounded by beautiful woods, through which 
 wind many drives and footpaths. From the ter- 
 race in front of the tower, we had a magnificent 
 view of the fiord and the city, surrounded by 
 hills; and we drove a long way through the 
 
BIRKENGAARD. 1 9 
 
 woods, which were of fir, pine, weeping birches, 
 and wild cherry in full bloom. 
 
 Underneath, the ground was fairly carpeted 
 with violets, anemones, hepaticas, cowslips, and 
 oxalis, and, as if that were not beauty enough, we 
 came suddenly out upon the shore of the fiord, 
 where waves were dashing upon the rocks. 
 The road followed a precipitous shore for a 
 while, and then we came out among green fields. 
 Some of the houses we passed were very pictur- 
 esque, like Swiss chalets, only larger. Many 
 were unpainted, and some had roofs of curved 
 red tiles. 
 
 Mr. Erlsen's buildings are all roofed in this 
 way, and the effect, among the dark pines and 
 delicate green birches, is wonderfully pretty. 
 The house forms one side of a large court, and 
 rises in the middle to a high tower. Right and 
 left, are stables and other buildings ; in front, a 
 beautiful lawn ; and behind, a garden with winding 
 paths among lime and maple trees, with plenty of 
 rustic seats. Beyond the garden comes the real 
 farm, and there is a lovely brook tumbling over 
 rocks, just like New Hampshire, and presently 
 it widens into a pretty pond, and beyond that are 
 fir woods, and rocky hills covered with birches, 
 and meadows full of marsh marigolds, or king- 
 
20 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 cups. Mrs. Erlsen says that we shall soon find 
 lilies of the valley blooming wild everywhere. 
 How I wish mamma were here to enjoy these de- 
 lights with me ! Cousin Miranda would be 
 sketching in every direction. 
 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CHRISTIANIA. 
 
 " WHO will walk into town with me, this lovely- 
 morning? " said Mr. Erlsen, at the breakfast-table, 
 on the girls* first Sunday. " English service is 
 held in the Fest-sal of the University, and the 
 chaplain of the consulate is to preach." 
 
 Ellen thought that this would seem delightfully 
 like Appleton Chapel at Harvard, so her hand 
 went up at once, and little Henrik, who had be- 
 come her devoted knight, immediately followed 
 suit. 
 
 " Nobody is obliged to walk/* said Mrs. 
 Erlsen ; " for I am going to drive in ; " and Annie 
 decided to go with her. 
 
 Margaret hesitated ; but a glance from the win- 
 dow showed her that the dust had been laid by a 
 shower in the night, that the sky was deeply 
 blue, with fleecy clouds chased over it by a brisk 
 breeze, and she enlisted with the walking party. 
 Henrik kept persistently beside Ellen, leaving 
 Margaret to his father; but as his favorite was 
 
22 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 intending to write to her brother Henry in the 
 afternoon, she kept near enough to question her 
 host about the University, while not neglecting 
 her little squire. She learned that it was estab- 
 lished by royal charter in 1811, Frederic VI. 
 being king, and began with a staff of only six 
 professors. 
 
 " But now there are five faculties," continued 
 Mr. Erlsen, " over fifty professors, and a thousand 
 students ; and instead of having the lectures — all 
 of which are free — in different parts of the town, 
 and the collections scattered about in Govern- 
 ment rooms, we now have a fine building of our 
 own, finished in 1853. The Library is open five 
 days in the week ; there are two hundred and fifty 
 thousand volumes ; and our Storthing — as you 
 say, Parliament or Congress — votes for it four 
 thousand specie dollars, year by year. Your 
 Cousin Willoughby would take great joy could 
 he see its richness in North Danish works of 
 most early periods. " 
 
 Here they came in view of the University, — a 
 substantial edifice of granite, brick and stucco, 
 with two wings at right angles to the main front, 
 thus enclosing a spacious court on three sides. 
 
 " The whole of this left wing is the library," 
 said Mr. Erlsen ; " the right contains the collec- 
 
CHRISTXANIA. 23 
 
 tions of Northern Antiquities. We have over forty 
 thousand coins and medals — some very rare 
 mediaeval — " Here a gentleman joined Mr. 
 Erlsen, and Ellen fell back to Henrik, who, in 
 his best English, tried to tell her of a Gamme 
 or Lapland hut which he would some day show 
 her, at the back of the building. 
 
 The service proved long, and the girls were taken 
 by surprise when prayer was offered for the Presi- 
 dent of the United States. 
 
 "That was in your honor, you must know/' 
 said Mr. Erlsen, as they came out. 
 
 "Not really ?" cried Margaret. 
 
 " Oh, yes, indeed : one of the prominent members 
 of the church told me that the rector, hearing that 
 some American ladies would probably come, con- 
 sulted him as to the proper way to make prayer 
 for their president." 
 
 " I must tell Harry that," said Ellen ; but her 
 letter was not written as soon as she intended, for 
 Mrs. Erlsen now asked them to go with her in the 
 carriage to call on some friends. They learned 
 that not only were visitors expected to make the 
 first call, but that Sunday after service was the 
 generally accepted time. 
 
 They were most cordially welcomed everywhere, 
 and found their new acquaintances very agreeable. 
 
24 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 In the afternoon, the largest carriage was 
 brought out, and the whole family went on a 
 long drive through beautiful forests of weeping 
 birches, hemlocks, and pines, the ground carpeted 
 with ferns and anemones. 
 
 " I never saw so many wild flowers/ ' cried 
 Annie, as they came out of the woods into mead- 
 ows glowing with kingcups. " These are fields 
 of the cloth of gold ! " 
 
 "And I think all the flowers are larger and 
 deeper colored than ours/' said Ellen. 
 
 " These glimpses of the blue fiord with all those 
 fascinating sail boats and rocky islands, please me 
 most," remarked Margaret; " but look, girls ! there 
 are some people playing croquet ! How very 
 strange ! " then fearing that she had been impolite, 
 she hastily added, " perhaps they are Jews, and 
 this is not their Sabbath." 
 
 " Oh, no, they are Norwegians and Protestants, 
 and good religious people, too," said Mr. Erlsen, 
 laughing ; " but Sunday is here a holiday, and after 
 church every one is free to play croquet, to dance, 
 to play card games, — anything that they would 
 do other days." 
 
 " It seemed very strange to me when I first 
 lived here," added his wife ; " but now I am so used 
 to it, that I forgot it would shock you." 
 
CHRISTIANIA. 25 
 
 " Yes, yes ; Eleanor is a very good Norwegian 
 now," said her husband, proudly; " and I, I am a 
 good American, am I not? You never would 
 suspect that I was not, would you ? " he eagerly 
 demanded of Ellen, much to her embarrassment; 
 for though she always understood him, his accent 
 was undeniable, and his choice of words some- 
 times quite comical. That very day he had 
 referred to the year in which Columbus detected 
 America, and had spoken of a manufactory as a 
 fabrication. 
 
 She colored deeply, and stammered out : " I — 
 I only wish I could hope ever to speak Norwegian 
 as well as you do English," and Annie came to 
 her aid by adding : — 
 
 "You are a shining example to us all, Her- 
 mann ; for you never use slang, or say ( ain't/ 
 or drop your g's." 
 
 Returning from the drive, they found callers at 
 Birkengaard, — a sweet old lady and her two sons, 
 one of whom was a learned astronomer, and the 
 younger a rising naturalist. 
 
 They were hospitably kept to tea, and all sat on 
 the lawn afterward, enjoying the sunset and talk- 
 ing over an expedition to the North Cape, which 
 Mr. Erlsen proposed making with the girls, and 
 which the brothers had already made. 
 
26 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 After the guests had gone, Annie said that she 
 was too tired for letter-writing, and asked Ellen 
 to join her in a walk in the grounds. 
 
 " It will rest us after the exertion of being agree- 
 able so long, and we can get some wild flowers to 
 put in our letters." 
 
 Ellen agreed ; but Mrs. Erlsen laughingly in- 
 quired if it were a Cambridge custom to go flower- 
 gathering at ten o'clock at night. Watches were 
 hastily consulted, and it was found to be indeed 
 so; but the girls persevered and succeeded in 
 filling their hands with great golden kingcups 
 before daylight had wholly faded. 
 
 The next morning Ellen rose early, and had 
 filled several pages of a letter to her brother be- 
 fore she was called to breakfast by little Clara, 
 whose English did not go much farther than, 
 " Good-morning. Please come down, mamma 
 says," uttered in a timid but earnest voice, with 
 cheeks rosy with bashful pride in her own achieve- 
 ment. After this and every meal, the children 
 shook hands with their parents, Norwegian fash- 
 ion, saying, " Tak for maden" or thanks for the 
 meal ; and Ellen delighted them by following their 
 example. She was not allowed to return to her 
 pen, but was carried off with the other girls for a 
 day in Christiania, Mr. Erlsen acting as cicerone, 
 
CHRISTIANIA. 2J 
 
 solemnly bidden by his wife not to let them get 
 too tired, as they were to go out to tea in the 
 evening. 
 
 As in loyalty bound, he took them first to the 
 royal palace, driving through a fine wide street 
 called Carl Johans Gade, after King Bernadotte. 
 Well-kept pleasure-grounds extended on one side, 
 and attractive buildings on the other, among which 
 the Storthing, or Parliament House, Saint Saviour's 
 Church, and the Stor Torv, or great market, 
 adorned with a statue of Christian IV., were the 
 most imposing. 
 
 The girls were at first disappointed by the fresh 
 and modern appearance of the town, having a 
 vague impression that everything in the Old World 
 must look ancient and timeworn ; but they were 
 told that, though founded in 1624, it had been 
 three times nearly destroyed by fire, and most of 
 its picturesque old wooden buildings replaced by 
 safer but prosaic material, — yellow brick, stone, 
 and stucco. 
 
 Oslo, now only a suburb, was the original settle- 
 ment, but that had been burned, and Christiania 
 founded in its stead. The palace, though sur- 
 rounded by beautiful grounds, and commanding 
 a most lovely view of the fiord, the cheerful city, 
 and background of wooded hills, was also " disap- 
 
28 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 pointingly modern and spick and spandy," Mar- 
 garet declared ; and Mr. Erlsen, to indulge her 
 preference for the antique, drove next to the for- 
 tress of Akershus, which though, no longer of 
 military importance, was sufficiently venerable 
 and charged with historic interest to satisfy the 
 most romantic. The date of its foundation is lost 
 in the past ; but it is known to have been besieged 
 as early as 1310, and to have successfully resisted 
 Charles XII. in 17 16. 
 
 As they strolled along the grassy ramparts, 
 now popular promenades, looking out upon the 
 sparkling waves and tranquil fields, and trying 
 in vain to realize the sanguinary struggles and 
 desperate deeds of long ago, they were joined 
 by a friend of Mr. Erlsen's, a dapper young 
 lieutenant in a becoming uniform of dark blue 
 and red, with silver cord trimmings. Margaret 
 found him a decidedly agreeable addition ; but 
 Ellen and Annie agreed apart that his stiff little 
 military bows, and carefully arranged English 
 sentences, made him the most distressingly unhe- 
 roic and modern feature of all. It did not add 
 any glamour of romance to the occasion, that he 
 was obliged to leave them to join his regiment, 
 which was on duty at the palace, there being 
 some fear of a riot, owing to a strike among the 
 tile-makers. 
 
CHRISTIANIA. 29 
 
 From the fortress they now drove to the Uni- 
 versity, where Mr. Erlsen's pride and enthusiasm 
 carried them from collection to collection till 
 poor Annie was ready to drop with fatigue, Mar- 
 garet became sleepy, bored, and hungry, and 
 Ellen felt as if her head must burst with all that 
 she was trying to store within it, for the sake of 
 Henry and her cousin, Professor Willoughby. At 
 last even their guide noticed their pale cheeks 
 and dragging feet, and remorsefully carried them 
 home, where he was received at the door by his 
 wife, crying, " O Hermann, Hermann, dinner has 
 been waiting an hour ! These poor girls are half 
 dead. Never, never, will I trust them to you 
 again ! " 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE VIKING SHIP. 
 
 A RAINY day followed this expedition, giving 
 the girls a welcome opportunity to rest and 
 make up their note-books and letters. Ellen 
 had been most of all interested in the remains 
 of the old Viking ship, and felt as if she must 
 share her pleasure with Amy Ray, her oldest and 
 dearest Cambridge friend, who was kept too busy 
 by domestic cares to read or travel much. " It 
 seems," she wrote, " that all over Norway there 
 are mounds which are known to be ancient burial- 
 places, and now and then one is opened, and 
 very interesting things are found ; but it costs so 
 much to do it, that the work goes on slowly. A 
 few years ago the University of Christiania opened 
 one at its own expense, and was rewarded by 
 finding one of the wonderful old Viking ships. 
 
 " It was at Sandefiord, a little town not far from 
 here, and we are to make an excursion there, 
 soon. 
 
 11 You know, in old, old times here, it was the 
 custom when a chieftain died to bury him in his 
 
THE VIKING SHIP. 
 
THE VIKING SHIP. 3 1 
 
 ship, with his horses and dogs, harness, gold and 
 silver ornaments, etc. They then dragged the 
 ship well up on the shore, covered it with moss 
 and then with clay ; and all this is what was found 
 at Sandefiord, and brought, with great difficulty 
 and care, to the University, where we saw it 
 yesterday. 
 
 " The ship was about seventy feet long, larger 
 than any found before ; and the bones of a man, 
 three horses, and several dogs were in it. 
 
 " The professor who showed us about, and who 
 is a very learned man, said that it was undoubt- 
 edly buried in the ninth century, and now, after 
 a thousand years of darkness, has come to light 
 once more, but not for the first time. There 
 are signs of its having been opened and robbed 
 of the gold and silver ornaments, which ought to 
 be there and are not. Probably this was done 
 soon after it was first buried. In spite of all 
 these years, there are traces of paint on the 
 outside of the ship, and its ornamentation con- 
 vinces the antiquaries that some Viking of great 
 importance found here his last resting-place. 
 
 " The nails which fasten the ship's timbers show 
 that it belonged to the first iron age; but some 
 of the parts were dovetailed together, just as 
 they would be to-day. It is supposed to have 
 
32 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 carried a hundred and twenty men, as the bosses 
 from that number of shields were found. 
 
 "The prow was very sharp, and must have 
 cut the water beautifully, urged by so many 
 rowers, and by the wind in its great sails. These 
 were of woollen material. The remains of a silk 
 mantle, which may have been brought from the 
 far East, was wrapped around the hero's bones. 
 
 "The rudder, a huge oar-shaped thing, was 
 fastened to the ship's side. Mr. and Mrs. Erlsen 
 saw all this at Sandefiord in 1880, the year it 
 was discovered. The excavating was done with 
 the utmost care, and some one gave Mrs. Erlsen 
 some little bits of wood, one of which she has 
 given me. It is of oak and still hard. The 
 shields had all crumbled away ; but we saw many 
 of the metal bosses with which they had been 
 ornamented. They were of gilt bronze, with 
 figures of dragons, and knights on horseback. 
 We also saw golden ornaments dug from other 
 mounds, — pendants, necklaces, rings, and coils, 
 the latter used as money, a little bit being broken 
 off for payment. But what pleased me most, was 
 learning that this wonderful relic was found on 
 the farm of a poor widow named Gokstad, who 
 was just going to sell her dear old home to pay 
 her debts, when, as a last hope, her sons decided 
 
THE VIKING SHIP. 33 
 
 to dig into this mound, which had always been 
 called Kongshougetiy or king's hill, from the belief 
 that a royal hero was buried there. They soon 
 found signs that it was so, and were sensible 
 enough to stop and carry the news to the Anti- 
 quarian Society in Christiania, who paid the 
 mother five hundred dollars for the ship itself; 
 and she took several hundred more in fees from 
 visitors who swarmed to see it. This, to her, was 
 a fortune, and let us hope that she and her sons 
 have been happy ever since. 
 
 " Now to change from Vikings of nine hundred 
 years ago, to your humdrum friend of present 
 days, I must tell you that we went last night to 
 a real Norwegian tea-party. There were the 
 Erlsens and ourselves, an artist, an English cler- 
 gyman, a pleasant married couple named Rosen, 
 and their daughter, and the Lieutenant Bonval 
 whom we had met before. Our hostess was an 
 aunt of Mr. Erlsen's, or Annie and Margaret 
 would not have felt like going ; and I really think 
 Annie would have preferred staying quietly at 
 home, but Hermann looked so distressed when 
 she spoke of it, that she could not bear to refuse 
 him. I had the honor of being taken out by the 
 artist, who spoke English tolerably well. The 
 clergyman took Annie, and Lieutenant Bonval 
 
 3 
 
34 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 Margaret. He is quite smitten with her, we 
 think ; but she only makes fun of him. Now, I 
 know that your dear housekeeperly mind is won- 
 dering what we had to eat. An abundance, I 
 assure you. Fricasseed chickens with pastry, 
 salmon trout, tongue, cauliflower, sweet-breads 
 or something in a rich mysterious sauce, shrimps, 
 cold sliced meat, dressed lettuce, tea, coffee, beer, 
 and wine, and several dishes I have forgotten. 
 Would n't even our omnivorous brothers have 
 been satisfied? After tea, we all shook hands 
 with our hostess and said, ' Tak for maden] and 
 she replied, ' Vel bekomme* which means, i I 
 hope it may agree with you/ Not an unnecessary 
 wish after such a table, you may think. Then 
 we looked at engravings and a fine album of 
 photographs (where I was pleased to see our 
 Longfellow), and some of us played cards. By 
 and by a magnificent cake was served, with fancy 
 frosting and macaroons on the outside, and fruit 
 and cream inside. 
 
 " The Lieutenant continued to devote himself 
 to Margaret, while Annie and Miss Rosen fell in 
 love with each other, and she told us of a young 
 man who will be glad to give us lessons in Nor- 
 wegian. We are to begin to-morrow, for we want 
 to learn as much as we can before we go to the 
 
THE VIKING SHIP. 35 
 
 North Cape. Be sure and tell Harry this, so that 
 he will not think I am frivolous all the time. I 
 wish every day that you were here to enjoy all 
 these lovely places with me," but even as Ellen 
 wrote these words, in all sincerity, a second and 
 inner self seemed to be saying, " and yet I am 
 glad you are at home, for I do hope that missing 
 me will make Harry see more of you, and that 
 perhaps — perhaps — " and a rosy glow went all 
 over her face at some happy possibility, though 
 she wrote steadily on. " We are reading aloud 
 Carlyle's * Early Kings of Norway/ Can't you 
 get it, and so be in a sympathetically Norse frame 
 of mind? I hope you are not wearing your dear, 
 unselfish fingers off, making spring suits for 
 Esther and Carol and Daisy and Grace, while I 
 am junketing about like the improvident grass- 
 hopper. Do go over often to see Mamma," again 
 her cheeks grew red. " But here come callers, 
 and I must jump into another gown." 
 
 Not long after this the promised excursion was 
 made to Sandefiord. 
 
 They started at half-past six, Margaret's sleepy 
 eyes still blinking comically. On the steamer 
 they met some new Norwegian friends, a Mr. and 
 Miss Rosen, who with Mr. and Mrs. Erlsen and 
 
36 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 the three girls made a pleasant party of seven, a 
 number, that Ellen and the Harleys had learned to 
 love in old Adirondack days, when Hugh, Sidney, 
 Harry, and Jessie had completed the group. 
 
 The boat was gayly trimmed with flags, for it 
 was the first day of the hotel season ; and it went 
 very fast, keeping up a vigorous whistling to warn 
 everything else to keep out of the way, as it 
 wound in and out between islands where the pas- 
 sage was often too narrow for two. 
 
 It was warm and sunny, and the fiord was as 
 smooth as glass. 
 
 Sandefiord is just beyond the entrance of Chris- 
 tiania Fiord, so they followed that beautiful water- 
 way its entire length. Stopping at Dr<£bak and 
 Moss on the eastern shore, a nice breakfast was 
 served on board, and the girls tried reindeer's 
 tongue for the first time ; but it was so smoked 
 and salted that there was no special taste to it. 
 Reaching Sandefiord about half-past one, they 
 took a drive about the pretty town, which is 
 a favorite watering-place. There are sulphur 
 springs and mud baths. The mud contained sul- 
 phur, iodine, and other things, and is dug up from 
 the bottom of the sea, and the patient is plastered 
 all over with it, and then it is scraped off and the 
 hose is played on him awhile. They dined at the 
 
THE VIKING SHIP. 37 
 
 hotel, and took the return steamer at five, Mr. 
 Rosen telling fascinating stories of old Vikings 
 and other heroes, as they glided along between 
 wild rocky shores and lonely islands, where every- 
 thing romantic seemed easily possible. 
 
 Then there was a Professor Frosch, who had 
 joined them, and was quite polite to Annie. He 
 had helped in digging up the wonderful old 
 Viking ship, and gave a most interesting account 
 of it to the attentive Ellen. 
 
 The sunset was beautiful, and the brightness 
 lasted all the way home, the water of a strange 
 coppery lustre where it reflected the yellow sky, 
 and steel blue in the shadow of the hills. Many 
 little boats, with all sails set, flitted around them, 
 wholly reflected in the clear water. 
 
 Tired but happy, they reached Birkengaard a 
 little before midnight, and were soon wrapped in 
 the deep sweet sleep that follows an out-door 
 day. 
 
 June had now begun, and the weather was 
 warm enough to call for cambric dresses and 
 summer silks, as Ellen duly recorded for her 
 mother's benefit ; and in her rambles on the fiord 
 shore, she found lilies of the valley, forget-me- 
 nots, and heart's-ease, all blooming freely and wild 
 among the grass. A generous cluster was pressed 
 
38 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 and sent to Jessie Carruth in a letter which 
 described a charming drive to Maridalen. " The 
 road led through dense woods, with glimpses of 
 the sea, and on the way home we went through 
 a factory village just as the mill-girls were coming 
 out. They all wore white kerchiefs with colored 
 borders (on their heads), and were generally 
 rosy-cheeked, plump, and contented-looking. 
 
 " Yesterday we went to a christening in the old 
 Akers Kirke in Christiania. It is eight hundred 
 years old, built of stone, with a square, pointed- 
 top tower. The guide-book calls it a ' three- 
 naved basilica in the Anglo-Norman Romanesque 
 style ; ' but you will not care for that. The baby 
 was named Ingeborg Katherine Grace. The 
 Lutheran minister wore a long, full, black gown, a 
 white ruff, and a little black skull cap. There were 
 two god-mothers and two god-fathers. First a 
 hymn was sung ; then there was a long address 
 and a prayer; then the baby's head was held 
 over the font, and the minister scooped up as 
 much water as he could in one hand, poured it 
 three times over the little head, and then scrubbed 
 it well with a stiff towel ; but Ingeborg was calm 
 through all. The Norwegian sound of Katherine 
 and Grace was very funny. 
 
 " In the afternoon we drove to a saeter, which 
 
THE VIKING SHIP. 39 
 
 is a place far up on the hills where the cattle are 
 kept during the summer. If you Ve read * Quits/ 
 you will remember similar places described. 
 
 "This one has been changed into a gentle- 
 man's country-seat, and though built in imitation 
 of a peasant's house, is much larger and has 
 plate-glass windows. It is of unpainted logs, 
 and entirely furnished in wood, some beautifully 
 carved. 
 
 "The view from the balconies was very fine, 
 looking down upon the tops of pine woods like 
 Adirondack Lodge, only instead of Clear Lake we 
 had a glimpse of Christiania Fiord, with the city 
 at its head. 
 
 " Annie and Margaret and I are constantly re- 
 minded of the dear Lake Placid days, and the 
 friends who made them so bright ; and when we 
 see anything unusually lovely, we feel as if Hugh 
 must be enjoying it too. We were told that 
 Prince Louis Napoleon once spent a night here, 
 and that General Grant came and was delighted 
 with the place. So you see we follow illustrious 
 steps. We were refreshed with currant sherbet 
 after our ramble, and drove home in the long 
 lovely twilight." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ST. OLAF'S BAD. 
 
 A FEW days after this the three girls went on a 
 two days' excursion with Mr. Erlsen, to visit a 
 watering-place called St. Olaf 's Bad or Baths. 
 
 After an early breakfast, the four started in a 
 char-a-banc drawn by two lively horses named 
 Askar and Sleipner. For a while they followed 
 the shore of the ever-beautiful Christiania Fiord 
 whose unruffled surface gave back every rocky, 
 fir-clad islet, flitting sail, and red-roofed farm- 
 house with mirror-like faithfulness, while a soft 
 mist veiled the distant hills. Leaving the sea, 
 they followed one river after another, each smaller 
 but swifter than the last, as they climbed upwards 
 towards their sources in the heights. 
 
 By and by a sudden turn brought to view an 
 exquisite sheet of water, of very irregular shape, 
 lying among hills whose tops were streaked with 
 snow. 
 
 " O ! O ! " cried the girls in chorus, " how 
 perfectly lovely! Is that our own fiord again?" 
 
 "No," said Mr. Erlsen; "it is called Thyri- 
 
4i 
 
 fiord, and yet is not an arm of the sea at all, but 
 a lake." 
 
 " It is as crooked as our Winnepesaukee, ,, said 
 Annie ; " but its mountain setting makes it far 
 more beautiful. " And now they all began to feel 
 that they needed a supply of new adjectives to 
 express the charms of the landscape unfolding 
 before their eager eyes as the road wound on 
 toward grand, snow-crowned mountains, the lovely 
 lake on their left, while fir-clads hills rose steeply 
 on the right. 
 
 The road itself was wonderful as an achieve- 
 ment in engineering, being in many places cut 
 through solid rock, yet always firm and smooth, 
 rising with almost imperceptible grade up the 
 rugged hillsides. 
 
 " How Harry and Sidney would enjoy this on 
 their bicycles," cried Ellen. 
 
 " Yes," said Annie ; " I was just thinking how 
 selfish it seems for us four to have all this beauty 
 to ourselves, when there is enough to satisfy 
 everybody we know." 
 
 "But you use it not all up," said Mr. Erlsen, 
 laughing at this new arithmetic. " A few crumbs 
 of beauty will be left for those who after come." 
 At noon they stopped at a posting-station called 
 Humledal, where Mr. Erlsen procured milk and 
 
42 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 bread to add to the generously filled hamper 
 which they had brought. 
 
 " I don't know why it is," said Margaret, as 
 they sat feasting under the trees ; " but the more 
 I enjoy, the hungrier I get ! " 
 
 " Who would not be hungry in such life-giving 
 air? " said her sister. 
 
 " The horses must have a sense of the beauti- 
 ful, too," remarked Ellen ; " see how they relish 
 their provender." 
 
 A two hours' rest gave her time to sketch a 
 beautiful curve of the road, while Annie filled her 
 pocket-press with ferns and wild flowers. After 
 they had been on the road again two or three 
 hours, Askar lost a shoe ; but fortunately a forge 
 was near, and the girls accepted a friendly invita- 
 tion from the blacksmith's wife to come into her 
 little parlor, where Annie took a nap, and the 
 others, with horror at their own appetites, partook 
 of a second luncheon of delicious cream and 
 crackers, urged upon them by the hospitable 
 woman. 
 
 " I shall be as wide as I am long, at this rate," 
 sighed Margaret; " dear Hugh always said I re- 
 minded him of a croquette." 
 
 " Lieutenant Bonval would perhaps leave out 
 the ' r ' ? " whispered Ellen. 
 
ST. OLAF S BAD. 43 
 
 No farther adventure befell them till they 
 reached Hc/>nefos, and were shown into neat and 
 comfortable rooms in Fru Glatved's Hotel. In 
 spite of their double lunch, they were not un- 
 appreciative of their dinner, which consisted of 
 hare, chicken, little unknown birds, pudding with 
 a sauce of cherries, and sponge cake. 
 
 After this they wandered down to the river 
 shore to see the fos, or falls, which give name to 
 the place. 
 
 The water came tumbling over ledges of rock, 
 gliding round some islands, and then over more 
 ledges, in a delightfully picturesque way, but was 
 useful as well as ornamental, serving as power for 
 several flour and saw mills, to which it is led 
 hither and thither by a system of troughs, and 
 comes splashing and foaming out in unexpected 
 places. Their long day in the open air had made 
 the girls very sleepy, however, and before nine 
 they voted unanimously to go to bed. 
 
 " There are limits even to enjoyment of lovely 
 scenery," said Ellen, trying to keep her eyes open. 
 
 " And I have reached mine," added Margaret, 
 stifling a yawn. 
 
 " Besides v/hich we must be up early to-mor- 
 row," said Annie, rising. 
 
 " Oh, pray do not apologize," said her brother- 
 
44 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 in-law, as he laughingly shook hands with them 
 at the foot of the stairs. Next morning, the 
 horses having been sent home, they took a train to 
 Vikersund. 
 
 "We are going southward and homeward 
 now," said Mr. Erlsen. " Hc/>nefos is at the 
 northern end of Thyrifiord, and to-day we shall 
 follow down its western shore ; and you can see 
 which you best like." 
 
 " Then we shall have been entirely round it? " 
 said Margaret. 
 
 "Yes, the lake really ends at Vikersund; 
 but the river Drammen issues from it, and runs 
 southward to Drammen Fiord, and that bears it 
 to the sea. Before we follow it, I show you 
 the most favorite watering-place in all Norway." 
 
 "More mud baths?" asked Margaret, with a 
 grimace. 
 
 " Yes, and chalybeate springs and conifer 
 forests. To read the prospectus, one thinks 
 that everybody can be cured of everything; no 
 one need ever die." A trembling of her lip 
 warned the impulsive man, and he hastily added, 
 " Now here we are at our station. Come, Mar- 
 garet, you shall choose our carriage. It is 
 pleasant to leave the railway, is it not? Ah, 
 your eye is upon those brown ponies ! You are 
 
ST. OLAFS BAD. 45 
 
 a judge, I see. Come, Miss Ellen, it is your 
 turn for the front seat; now away to St. Olaf 's ! " 
 
 A short drive brought them to the much- 
 praised spot, and all agreed that its charms had 
 not been over-stated. Scores of fanciful little 
 wooden houses with red-tiled roofs were scattered 
 about in a forest of fir and pine. Winding paths 
 led in and out ; rustic seats and tables invited to 
 rest and luncheon ; a pretty lake lay in one direc- 
 tion ; but loveliest of all, was the Kaggefos, where 
 the river came dashing down between high black 
 rocks, veiled by clouds of mist and spray. 
 
 " Oh, look ! look at that fascinating little mill ! " 
 cried Margaret, pointing to the top of the highest 
 cascade, where the picturesque building was well 
 relieved by a background of pine-covered hills. 
 
 " It 's just like a scene in an opera ! Do, do 
 sketch it, Annie !" 
 
 It was indeed too pretty to be left untried, and 
 as they were to stay till four, Annie made an 
 attempt in pencil, and Ellen one in water-color, 
 while Margaret wandered and climbed with her 
 brother-in-law. 
 
 About noon, the artists were rejoined by the 
 ramblers, who eagerly inspected their work. 
 
 "You have both done extremely well," cried 
 their genial host. " You have earned the treat 
 
46 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 we have provided," and he led the way to one of 
 the rustic tables where were placed four large 
 glasses of eggedoszs, a refreshing mixture of eggs 
 and sugar beaten to a stiff cream, and flavored 
 with a few drops of brandy. 
 
 The day had now grown very warm, and the 
 sisters were content to sit in the shade, listening 
 to the band and watching the crowd of patients 
 and tourists, while Ellen took a ramble, and 
 finally came to rest with them, and began a home- 
 letter, that being an unfailing method of filling all 
 spare moments ; for the desire to impart her en- 
 joyment to the friends at home was ever-present, 
 and mail steamers left every Wednesday and 
 Saturday. 
 
 " I never saw so much bowing in my life," re- 
 marked Margaret, at last. " How cordial and 
 polite people are to each other here ! They can- 
 not all be old friends or cousins, and yet you 
 would certainly think so." 
 
 " I have noticed it too," said Annie ; " and 
 more than that, there seems to be no class feeling, 
 no social barriers. Those richly dressed people 
 are neither arrogant nor condescending; and the 
 plainer ones, and even the waiters, have none of 
 that cringing sycophantic manner which was 
 often so unpleasant in English shops." 
 
ST. olaf's bad. 47 
 
 " It is true," said Mr. Erlsen ; " we are very 
 democratic. We have no aristocracy. Every- 
 body is here as good as his neighbor, and expects 
 to be so treated." 
 
 " I like it," said Margaret; " when I was walk- 
 ing this forenoon, all the boys took off their hats, 
 and the girls smiled and dropped courtesies, and 
 Hermann's hat was off half the time. When I 
 write a book, I shall say that Norway is the land 
 of good manners." 
 
 "And good hearts too," said Ellen. "That 
 blacksmith's wife yesterday was as anxious to 
 make us comfortable, as if we had been her 
 children." 
 
 After leaving St. Olaf's Bad, they took a train, 
 and for four hours followed the Drammen River 
 southward from its origin in lovely Thyrifiord to 
 the flourishing town of its own name. The car 
 was about twice as large as an English compart- 
 ment, with five windows on each side, giving good 
 views of the ever-beautiful landscape. Drammen 
 lies between high hills at the head of Drammen 
 Fiord, which carries its rushing river to the sea. 
 It is the fifth city in Norway in size, and the 
 second as to shipping importance, with many fine 
 churches and public buildings, three bridges 
 crossing its river, one a magnificent iron girder 
 
48 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 structure for the railroad, 3,800 feet long. 
 " Timber, zinc, and nickel ore are largely ex- 
 ported," read Ellen from her guide-book, while 
 Annie was inquiring about a tower with two flag- 
 staffs, on a high hill just outside the city. She 
 was told that it was the Brandposten, or fire- 
 alarm station; and Mr. Erlsen spoke with en- 
 thusiasm of the grand view of city, river, and 
 fiord he had once had from its veranda. Cannon 
 are fired there whenever a conflagration is dis- 
 covered in the city, which has suffered severely 
 from destructive ones in 1866 and 1870. 
 
 Leaving Drammen, the road bent sharply north- 
 east, climbing steep hills in a truly wonderful 
 way, the view ever-widening and the towns look- 
 ing more and more like toy-villages, as they were 
 left below. Christiania Fiord now appeared on 
 the right, then the city itself, and by nine o'clock 
 the travellers reached Birkengaard, having de- 
 scribed an irregular circle in their two days' 
 journey. 
 
 Mr. Erlsen beamed with pleasure, as the girls 
 exclaimed, " Oh, Eleanor, how beautiful Norway 
 is ; but how nice to be at home again ! " And the 
 evening passed happily as they recounted their 
 adventures over a bountiful tea-dinner. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 Meantime Ellen's gentle companionship was 
 greatly missed at home. 
 
 " Nelly far away ! Baby wants Nelly ! " was 
 often the plaintive cry of little Marion, the only 
 child of Professor and Mrs. Willoughby, with 
 whom Mrs. Marlow and Ellen had lived ever 
 since Mr. Marlow's death. Every one who heard 
 the child's wistful cry would mentally if not 
 audibly echo it ; for it is not the lively or turbu- 
 lent members of a family who are most missed, 
 but the quiet ones who give a helping hand here, 
 a look of understanding or touch of sympathy 
 there, — small, silent things, but refreshing as dew, 
 in the dusty ways of life. 
 
 With her mother, it was a permanent sense of 
 loss, an abiding thirst. Mrs. Willoughby re- 
 marked of her, " Cousin Sarah looks older." 
 
 " She will grow young again when her little 
 shadow comes home," said the Professor. 
 
 4 
 
50 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 " Her sunshine you mean," said Harry, lifting 
 himself unexpectedly from a deep chair in the 
 bay-window. " Everybody 's sunshine, if you 
 come to that. When are you going to be big 
 enough to play my accompaniments, and copy 
 my rhymes, and mend my gloves, and stroke 
 my feathers when I 'm cross, hey, Miss May- 
 blossom ?" and he picked up the child and 
 carried her off into the garden. 
 
 By and by she came back alone. " Where 
 is Cousin Harry, dear ? " asked her mother. 
 
 " Gone to take Miss Amy a lovely bouquet and 
 to see if she 's had a letter from Cousin Ellen. 
 He cut this rose for me ; and I '11 give it to you, 
 Mamma." 
 
 "A very logical sequence," murmured the 
 Professor, apparently to his pen and ink. 
 " Nature abhors a vacuum; the sister absent, 
 the friend present." 
 
 Mrs. Willoughby smiled. It was not a new 
 thought to her. " Nothing would please Ellen 
 better," she responded. 
 
 " What, Mamma? To have me put my rose 
 in your dress? " 
 
 " To have us all comfort each other while she 
 is gone," was the answer, with a kiss ; " so let us 
 go and ask Cousin Sarah to take a walk, and 
 
CONSEQUENCES. 5 1 
 
 leave papa to finish his paper on — on cardiac 
 affections." 
 
 Marion was accustomed to hearing words that 
 she did not understand, in connection with papa's 
 writing, and reverenced him all the more for the 
 mystery. 
 
 Now it happened that Amy had received a 
 letter from Norway, which easily accounts for 
 the young doctor's remaining in Professor Ray's 
 garden to talk it over, and perhaps also for his 
 taking Amy out rowing on the pensive Charles 
 at twilight ; but it could hardly explain two more 
 evenings the same week (for his home was in 
 Boston with Dr. Bonney), unless he were help- 
 ing her write her reply, of which there was no 
 indication in the ten pages which Ellen received. 
 They gave a graphic account of the gayeties of 
 Class Day. All had gone well, except when 
 Alfred's friend from New Hampshire, a bashful 
 freshman, had ruined with salmon salad that old 
 pink silk of Amy's, which she had spent three 
 days in making over for poor Esther. It told of a 
 new engagement in their set; of a wedding where 
 Amy had met Ellen's Boston friends the Car- 
 ruths. " Jessie was radiantly lovely in white and 
 gold, as maid of honor. I could think of nothing 
 but the Georgian Maid in our Corbaux's illus- 
 
52 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 trations of Lalla Rookh, so orientally picturesque 
 was she, her eyes by turns roguish and dreamy. 
 Sidney was one of the ushers, but did n't seem 
 to enjoy the part. He looked bored, and devoted 
 himself to mamma and Mrs. Willoughby and 
 other married ladies. Perhaps he did not like 
 to have Vernon Hay so much with Jessie. None 
 of the men like him ; but he is excessively hand- 
 some, and Jessie certainly enjoys his devotion, 
 perhaps because the other girls envy her, perhaps 
 to plague her brother, who calls him that ' trou- 
 bador fellow.' He does look operatic. Your 
 brother was there, but went away early. Have 
 you heard how good your mother is in inviting me 
 to go to Lotus Bay with her and the Willoughbys ? 
 I shall sit in the ' mermaid's grotto ' of our 
 childhood, and miss you more than ever." 
 
 Miss her Amy doubtless did ; and yet it would 
 have been hard to find a happier face than was 
 hers, during the month she spent on Cape Cod 
 with the family of her friend. The eldest daugh- 
 ter in a family of three boys and five girls, with 
 a semi-invalid mother and a dreamy scholar 
 father, she had been head and hands and feet for 
 all, ever since she could remember. 
 
 Her vacations had been few, and most of them 
 had been arranged by the Willoughbys, so that 
 
CONSEQUENCES. 53 
 
 she slipped easily and naturally into Ellen's 
 place, helping the professor with his proof- 
 sheets, Mrs. Willoughby with her fruit-can- 
 ning, Mrs. Marlow with her fancy-work, Marion 
 with her doll-dressing and rock-rambling, and 
 Dr. Harry (who had suddenly given up a bach- 
 elor Adirondack-camp plan) in everything that 
 a sister-spoiled man could ask of a girl only too 
 well trained to brotherly exactions. 
 
 She had spent one summer in this place, when 
 she and Ellen and Harry were sand-digging, 
 shell-treasuring children, and another more re- 
 cently; but then her whole family had been 
 boarding in the village, and, as Harry said, " Amy 
 was dressmaker and nurse to the whole insati- 
 able crew." He intended that this summer 
 should be entirely different. Esther, the next 
 older sister left at home, certainly found it so, 
 and awoke to a remorseful appreciation of Amy's 
 virtues. Being an energetic and enthusiastic 
 character, just out of school, and casting about 
 for a mission in life, beginning to realize that 
 she was not, as two or three years ago she had 
 fondly dreamed, a second Corinne, she impul- 
 sively resolved to abandon all such personal and 
 selfish ambitions, and to fill her elder sister's 
 place, or perish in the attempt. 
 
54 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 " Yes, dear noble Amy should be free to marry 
 Dr. Marlow ! " whose intimacy romantic Esther 
 had quickly perceived, and at first resented ; 
 " and I — I, who am far too homely and awkward 
 to have a lover, will become all that she has been 
 at home." 
 
 These noble resolutions were not kept without 
 many failures, — sometimes in temper, sometimes 
 in desserts ; many spasms of rebellion from Grace, 
 Daisy, and Carol, whom she now dragooned with 
 far more than Amy's strictness; Alfred and 
 Charley, being older, were too much their own 
 masters to suffer from her sway, but indulged in 
 frequent jokes over her new role, while really 
 regretting that their old companion in pranks had 
 " fledged herself into a saint all unbeknownst." 
 But Esther persevered, and was so far success- 
 ful that Mrs. Ray wrote to Amy not to 
 hurry home, for the children were unusually 
 well and good, and Esther getting to be quite 
 womanly. 
 
 While Ellen's absence was thus working happy 
 results in her own family and the Rays', it was 
 quite otherwise with Sidney and Jessie Carruth, 
 her Boston friends, who, next to Amy, had been 
 her nearest and dearest friends. To her intimacy 
 with them she owed two notably delightful chap- 
 
CONSEQUENCES. 55 
 
 ters in her life, — a winter in Washington and a 
 summer in the Adirondacks. 
 
 Their parents had cordially fostered the inti- 
 macy, justly regarding Ellens influence as most 
 desirable for their more volatile daughter; and 
 Sidney had been like a true brother both to her 
 and Harry. 
 
 And now, her faithful balance-wheel gone, 
 Jessie was drifting farther and farther into an 
 ultra-fashionable current, where her beauty, her 
 liveliness, and her father's wealth made her dan- 
 gerously popular. Her only sister had recently 
 married and gone to live in another city ; Amy's 
 circle was exclusively a Cambridge one, so that 
 they seldom met ; and Sidney, in his well-meant 
 attempts to guard and restrain her, usually suc- 
 ceeded only in irritating and offending the wilful 
 little beauty, driving her into obstinate opposi- 
 tion, or reserve and concealment still more 
 dangerous. 
 
 In fact, Sidney was just then painfully engrossed 
 in his own affairs. He was bitterly grieved and 
 disappointed by Ellen's absence this summer, 
 having fully intended that, before its roses faded, 
 he would end a self-imposed probation, confess 
 his love for her, and, if possible, win hers in 
 return. For a long time he had known that she 
 
56 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 was the dearest thing in life to him, and he had 
 been very near telling her so the previous sum- 
 mer, but had been piqued into silence by the 
 frankness of her friendship, and her firmness in 
 telling him that it was his duty to go to Europe 
 with his family, instead of joining her party at 
 Lotus Bay. 
 
 And now, just as they were all at home again, 
 and he had found her more dear, more winning 
 than ever, she had dashed his hopes once more 
 by this sudden departure with the Harleys. 
 
 Did it not show that she wished to discourage 
 him? That, as he had often feared, her heart 
 had been given to Hugh?- — poor Hugh, who had 
 loved Ellen as dearly as hopelessly, knowing that 
 his days were numbered, that such joys could 
 never be his. He had been the only one in the 
 whole group who had from the first seen the 
 entire truth. Mrs. Marlow and the Willoughbys 
 had long seen Sidney's preference for Ellen ; but 
 her serene unconsciousness baffled them, when 
 they tried to decide whether he would succeed. 
 Harry, brother-like, thought his sister an uncom- 
 monly nice girl, but not the kind to bowl men 
 over, and had often enraged his friend by con- 
 triving to leave her out of their excursions, lest 
 he might seem to throw her in Sidney's way, or 
 
CONSEQUENCES. 57 
 
 that she should care too much for him. He fan- 
 cied that Sidney liked Amy (if any one), and was 
 strongly stimulated thereby in his own admiration 
 for the young lady. Amy knew Ellen's feelings 
 better than did the girl herself, but was not sure 
 of Sidney's ; and so it was Hugh alone who had 
 seen the two hearts slowly and surely turning 
 towards each other, and had unselfishly rejoiced 
 in the happiness he should not live to see. 
 
 And now, with a lover's perversity, Sidney was 
 stabbing himself with the belief that it was affec- 
 tion for Hugh which kept Ellen aloof from him ; 
 grief for Hugh which drew her to his sisters, and 
 with a deep and constant nature like hers, might 
 prove a life-long obstacle to his hopes. How 
 well he remembered when they were all young 
 and careless at Lake Placid, how she would drop 
 everything, forego any pleasure, if she could help 
 Hugh instead ; how many of Hugh's verses and 
 sketches he had found in her scrap-book when 
 he stole it, to tease her ; how overcome she had 
 been when the news of his death came from 
 Madeira, refusing all invitations ever since ; even 
 her travelling-dress he had noticed was gray, 
 trimmed with black. He thought Jessie very 
 stupid that she had not spoken of it; but, of 
 course, he would not refer to it unless she did. 
 
58 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 He would not even ask her if she had heard from 
 Ellen ; but, as it happened, that young lady was 
 anxious that he should escort her to a regatta, 
 and voluntarily brought the letter to his room, 
 and left it with him, so that he could read it as 
 often and carefully as he chose, without fear of 
 her mocking eyes. An affectionate allusion to 
 Adirondack days gave him throb of pleasure, 
 swiftly changed to pain when Hugh's name fol- 
 lowed ; yet he was consoled by the undeniable 
 cheerfulness of the letter, and the fact that she 
 had not forgotten Boston friends. He rose, after 
 a third perusal, with the soothed and comfortable 
 feeling he always experienced in Ellen's presence. 
 " The girl of girls ! " he muttered, touching his 
 lips reverently to her signature, and on his way 
 down town he bought a copy of " Quits," sat 
 up late several nights reading it, and then gave 
 it to Jessie, partly because he thought it would 
 be more wholesome than the Russian stuff she 
 was reading, and partly to propitiate and en- 
 courage her to show him her next Norway letter. 
 He also went to Cambridge and called on the 
 Willoughbys and Rays, which he had not done 
 since the " Albatross " sailed, and was richly 
 rewarded by hearing of a more recent letter of 
 Ellen's to her mother, and seeing the one to 
 
CONSEQUENCES. 59 
 
 Amy about Sandefiord. Finding that Miss Ray 
 had not succeeded in getting Carlyle's " Early 
 Kings " from the library, he sent her a copy next 
 day, and re-read his own with fresh interest, smil- 
 ing as he remembered how he used to guide 
 Ellen's reading, and now she was unwittingly 
 reversing the parts. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SARABRAATEN. 
 
 DURING the first three weeks of June, Ellen and 
 the Harley girls worked diligently at their Nor- 
 wegian lessons with Herr Schaben, and made 
 good progress, though disappointed in finding 
 the language less like German than they had 
 hoped. Instead of finding every letter sounded, 
 they discovered, with dismay, that in speaking, 
 the greater part of every word was neglected, so 
 that conversation proved bewildering, even when 
 they would have recognized the same words 
 in print. 
 
 The weather was now decidedly warm; but 
 Ellen walked in and out of the city almost every 
 morning to her teacher, while the afternoons were 
 spent in social engagements or short excursions. 
 One evening they attended the birthday party 
 of an aunt of Mr. Erlsen's, meeting many of their 
 new Norwegian acquaintances. The first hour 
 was spent in rowing on the tranquil fiord, after 
 which they returned to the house and a supper 
 
SARABRAATEN. 6 1 
 
 was served, consisting principally of smore-brod, 
 slices of bread and crackers with thin layers of 
 different kinds of meat, cut in fancy shapes, with 
 meat jellies and slices of boiled egg. Then there 
 was chicken, and eel in jelly. The English and 
 French consuls were there ; and Margaret had the 
 honor of being taken to the dining-room by the 
 latter ; but she was afraid to speak French, and 
 he spoke little English, so their conversation was 
 not very lively. Ellen went out with the English 
 clergyman, and had Miss Rosen on her other 
 side, so did better. Annie fell to a rosy little 
 man, very demure-looking, so that she was aston- 
 ished when told that he was one of the leading 
 artists of the place and painted bold mytholog- 
 ical subjects, Valkyries and spirits of the air 
 on wildly dashing horses. The girls saw one of 
 them a few days later, and it seemed to them full 
 of grace and power. After supper the guests 
 all wandered out into the beautiful grounds, and 
 amused themselves with an Eskimo dog, and went 
 into a small detached house where Mr. Carlen 
 reads and smokes, like Professor Ray's " brown 
 study," Ellen said. Opposite the wide door was 
 a mirror in a magnificently carved wooden frame, 
 which Mr. Carlen told them with pride, had 
 been seen and admired by the king. The tables 
 
62 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 and chairs were of carved wood too, and very 
 beautiful. They sat here sipping coffee, and 
 looking out at the distant hills and lovely fiord, 
 and afterwards climbed a tower and had a still 
 finer view, while others played tennis. At supper 
 Ellen asked for a glass of water ; but Mr. Carlen 
 said, "No, no, no ! Can't have that here; that 's 
 your New England fashion ! You shall have wine 
 and water. Bring some Bordeaux for this young 
 lady," and everybody looked at her, and she said 
 no more. It proved so embarrassing to decline 
 wine altogether, when drinking healths and giv- 
 ing toasts were so universal, that she learned to 
 touch her lips to her glass, and take as little as 
 possible. 
 
 Another day Mr. Erlsen gave a picnic at Sara- 
 braaten, an estate of his among the hills east of 
 Christiania. Ellen went in a carriage with her 
 new friend Thora Rosen, Lieutenant Bonval, and 
 the rosy artist. 
 
 The road lay through the oldest quarter of the 
 town, very picturesque, but also very dirty. 
 
 Sarabraaten is built in imitation of a peasant's 
 house, and stands on a cliff above a lovely lake, 
 surrounded by hills. After a lunch of reindeer's 
 tongue, and bread and butter, they climbed one of 
 the hills. Annie said she felt as if she were at 
 
SARABRAATEN. 63 
 
 Mt. Desert. After climbing a while, they came 
 to a pond over which they were rowed by the 
 cow-girl. On one side perpendicular cliffs rose 
 directly from the water, and gave back a perfect 
 echo. The company amused themselves, while 
 waiting for the second boat-load, singing and 
 shouting, every sound being faithfully given back. 
 Then came a steeper ascent, and all were pant- 
 ing and glowing when they reached the top, so 
 warm was the day, and without a breath of wind. 
 The view was very fine, however, and, as Ellen 
 wrote to her mother, " I assure you we were hun- 
 gry enough to enjoy dinner ; and such a sumptu- 
 ous one I never saw at a picnic. Lobster pates, 
 chicken cutlets, red and white wine-jellies, cakes, 
 and oranges. Then speeches and toasts ! Mr. 
 Rosen gave, ' The President of the United States/ 
 adding very flattering remarks on the ' fair repre- 
 sentatives of that country now present.' The 
 drive home in the cool of the day, facing a bril- 
 liant sunset, was the best of all, and there I found 
 Harry's letter. Do thank him for it. I enjoyed 
 every word. We are busy getting ready for our 
 northern trip. Our passage from Throndhjem 
 to North Cape and back is already engaged on 
 the * Michael Krohn/ which left here yesterday. 
 Our state-room is quite large, with four berths, a 
 
64 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 washstand and table, and is amidships. The 
 steamer carries about fifty passengers, and is very- 
 neat and nice, Mr. Erlsen says. We leave next 
 Wednesday, June 21, at nine, take a steamer 
 across Lake Mj^sen to Hamar, the railroad to 
 Koppang, and spend the night, reach Thrond- 
 hjem Thursday night, which will be St. John's 
 night, so we shall see bonfires and fireworks in- 
 numerable. 
 
 " Yesterday we had a delightful excursion, row- 
 ing to Hovedo, the largest island in the harbor, 
 about a mile from Christiania, to see the ruins of 
 an old abbey. The row across, and the view from 
 the island, were most delightful. Looking towards 
 Christiania, we had the fortress with its towers 
 and walls directly opposite on a projecting tongue 
 of land. On the curving shore to the eastward 
 was the old city of Oslo, and in a similar curve to 
 the west, the comparatively new city of Christiania, 
 and beyond that, villages half hidden in trees, 
 back of all, the hills. We went carefully through 
 the ruins, guided by a manuscript plan of Mr. 
 Rosen's, including church, abbot's room, refec- 
 tory, kitchen, hospitium, dormitories, etc. The 
 abbey was founded by Cistercian monks from 
 Lincoln, England, in 1147, and became im- 
 mensely wealthy, including farms and pastures 
 
SARABRAATEN. 6$ 
 
 now belonging to Birkengaard. Some of the 
 wild flowers are said to have been brought from 
 England by the monks ; but I did not have time 
 to explore as I wished. We had luncheon in a 
 grove, and then rowed home. To-day we went 
 shopping in Christiania, and paid a visit to the 
 Storthing, or Parliament House. The principal 
 room is semi-circular, like the Supreme Court in 
 Washington, and is lighted by beautiful long 
 windows. 
 
 " Of course we could not understand a word of 
 the speeches, but we liked the President's face. 
 I did not think that the majority of the members 
 had a foreign look. They might have been 
 Americans, perhaps a little more Western than 
 Eastern in appearance." 
 
 Another afternoon they drove to Ekeberg, a 
 wooded hill south of Oslo, going close to the 
 fort and the fiord, and over a pretty bridge 
 to an island, then left the carriage and were 
 ferried to another island, where they made a 
 call at a house in a beautiful pine grove. Most 
 of the family were in the woods or on the 
 water; but they gradually assembled from near 
 and far, and welcomed their guests cordially. 
 The lady was English, and her husband Nor- 
 wegian, the engineer of the wonderful Drammen 
 
 5 
 
66 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 railroad. They insisted upon the party stay- 
 ing to supper, after which they returned by 
 steamer to Christiania, the sky still glowing 
 with sunset hues, though it was nine o'clock. 
 Next morning the girls walked into town and 
 took their last Norwegian lesson, and called to 
 say good-bye to Hermann's aunt, Mrs. Carlen, 
 who treated them to wild strawberries, cherries, 
 and seltzer water. * The next day was devoted to 
 packing and letters, the latter written with un- 
 usual affection, as they remembered that three 
 weeks must now elapse before they could hear 
 from home. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THRONDHJEM. 
 
 June 25, 188—. 
 
 This was the heading of Ellen's first letter after 
 leaving Birkengaard, and she very naturally began 
 with the query, " Did you ever see a word of ten 
 letters with only two vowels? Can you realize 
 that your little Ellen is away up in this fine old 
 coronation city of the Norway kings? Thrond- 
 hjem means throne-home, and is in line with the 
 southern shore of Iceland. It is the most north- 
 ern of large European cities, and was first called 
 Nideros; for it is built at the mouth of the river 
 Nid, which makes a most curious twist before 
 emptying into its own fiord, so that the city is 
 built on a peninsula shaped like a properly cut 
 dress-pocket. The guide-book says * like a fig;' 
 but you and I are more familiar with dress- 
 pockets than with fresh figs. I have no doubt 
 that at this very moment you and your whole 
 family, in your festal garments, are seated in 
 Sander's Theatre, waiting to see Alfred march 
 
68 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 in with the graduating class ; and, being Harvard 
 Commencement Day, it is of course hot, and you 
 are all fanning and gasping, while here we are 
 feeling rather chilly, in a large room at the Bri- 
 tannia Hotel, scribbling away on home letters. 
 
 "We left Christiania on Wednesday, Mr. and 
 Miss Rosen, and we three girls. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Erlsen saw us off, and of course Mr. Bennett was 
 there too. Have I told you about him? He 
 has been for more than twenty years the ' guide, 
 philosopher, and friend ' of northern tourists — 
 for due consideration, of course. He is a walk- 
 ing bureau of information as to routes, trains, 
 boats, etc., besides keeping a shop where all 
 sorts of Norwegian curios and relics can be ob- 
 tained. They say that Bennett is not his real 
 name ; that he is a graduate of one of the English 
 universities, has a history, etc., etc. He is cer- 
 tainly a character, and very useful and obliging. 
 He requested permission to introduce an English 
 gentleman, and presently brought him forward, 
 slipping his card into Annie's hand, she being the 
 most dignified lady of the party. 
 
 " The stranger was grave and quiet, and, after 
 exchanging a few remarks, left us ; and we then 
 examined his card, finding, ' Rev. Johns Harley 
 Upton/ He soon returned, bringing a taller, 
 
THRONDHJEM. 69 
 
 older man, whom he presented as his cousin, Mr. 
 Vose. They had all their luggage in long white 
 canvas bags like bolsters, which they pushed 
 under their seats in the cars. 
 
 " They were rather stiff at first, as if they had 
 been warned against American girls ; and I never 
 shall forget their bewildered faces when Margaret 
 opened her bag and asked them if they liked 
 crackers and ginger. I verily believe they ex- 
 pected fireworks, they were so relieved to see 
 only s . biscuit and sweeties/ i 
 
 " Mr. Erlsen says that candied ginger is not as 
 common in England as with us ; but they both 
 condescended to partake and approve. 
 
 "We left the train at Eidsvold, noted as the 
 place where the Norwegian Assembly met in 
 1 8 14 and adopted their constitution. The Eids- 
 vold Baths are also near here, and a monument 
 to Henrik Wergeland, a poet, and the discoverer 
 of the springs. 
 
 "The road had been rather uninteresting so far, 
 and we were glad to embark at once on our 
 steamer on Lake Mj</>sen. This is the largest lake 
 in Norway, is four hundred feet above the sea 
 level, and said to be 11 14 feet deep! So that 
 if you dropped your ring or anything overboard, 
 it would sink a thousand feet lower than the level 
 
70 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 of the sea ! It made me dizzy when Mr. Vose 
 told me this; but the next fact was refreshingly- 
 prosaic: the best corn crops in Norway are 
 raised around this lake. 
 
 " Our Englishmen had held a little aloof during 
 the change from train to steamer, as if afraid that 
 we should need too much help ; but seeing that 
 we were perfectly able to take care of ourselves, 
 as to tickets, hand-luggage, seats, etc., and 
 wanted nothing of them, they took heart, sat 
 by us at dinner, became more and more ani- 
 mated, and in fact devoted themselves to us 
 from that moment. They are well educated and 
 gentlemanlike, and have travelled widely. We 
 all spent Wednesday night at Koppang, where, 
 as the guide-book says, are some of the finest 
 and sweetest views in Norway. It is very funny 
 how the trains stop at night, as if they were tired ; 
 but Mr. Upton thinks it is because the roads are 
 very narrow, and, being often cut through rocks, 
 are liable to slides and other obstacles for which 
 it is better to have daylight. But at this season 
 when it is hardly dark at all, it seems like over- 
 caution. 
 
 [Note of later date. Whether more bold or more 
 bad y we know not, but engineers now run night 
 trains.] 
 
THRONDHJEM. 7 1 
 
 " Next day we travelled from Koppang to R<£ros, 
 a mountain town two thousand feet above the 
 sea, and famous for its copper mines. We saw 
 great heaps of the ore ; and Mr. Vose got out and 
 took a piece, laying a copper penny in its place, 
 as a fair exchange. Tell Harry that the ore from 
 the best mine is said to have nearly eight per 
 cent of copper ; but the production has been lim- 
 ited by the difficulty of getting charcoal, the 
 woods having been cut away for fuel ; but now 
 the works are carried on with coal brought by 
 the railroad. Many hundred men are employed 
 here. We stopped to dine at R^ros, and after 
 seating ourselves in the dining-room, waited long 
 and impatiently for some one to come and attend 
 to us. At last Margaret could bear it no longer, 
 and, going over to a side-board discovered plenty 
 of dishes of salmon, cold meats, etc., from which 
 we helped ourselves, gallantly assisted by the 
 Englishmen. We afterwards learned that this 
 was the custom here, a regular price being 
 charged for a dinner ; and, as Annie said, we at 
 least had no fee to pay to a waiter. Between 
 Koppang and R<j6ros, and for some distance be- 
 yond, we were very high among mountains, fifteen 
 and twenty hundred feet above the sea level, and 
 on each side of the valley in which the railroad is 
 
72 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 built, the hills, many of them streaked with snow, 
 rose as many more feet above us. 
 
 " The road lay usually close to the river, follow- 
 ing its windings, so that whether looking forward 
 or back, we could follow the course of the valley, 
 with hills rising one behind another, bluer and 
 bluer as they receded. From Elverum to R^ros, 
 we followed the Glommen River, and beyond 
 R<£ros, almost to Throndhjem, the Gula. Some- 
 times we slowly climbed a hill, looking many hun- 
 dred feet down into a ravine, the stream brawling 
 at its base, and then a mountain stream would 
 flash over steep cliffs into the river. The Gula 
 was so clear that we could see every stone in its 
 bed, the water of a beautiful green color. 
 
 " Sometimes it was calm and deep, faithfully 
 reflecting every turf-roofed cottage at its side ; and 
 then of a sudden it would spread out its waters, 
 and rush and tumble over the stones in frolicsome 
 mood, until, just as suddenly, it seemed to remem- 
 ber its dignity and became as quiet as a lake. 
 
 " At many of the stations the train stopped sev- 
 eral minutes, so that we had time for a prome- 
 nade on the platform ; and once we went into a 
 field and gathered buttercups. 
 
 " Altogether it was a pleasant journey, and we 
 reached here at nine last evening. 
 
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 Z 
 
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 X 
 H 
 
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THRONDHJEM. 73 
 
 " A man from the hotel met us with a friendly- 
 greeting, Mr. Erlsen having written to engage 
 rooms for us ; but a party of English and Ameri- 
 cans had seized the carriage he ordered, and we 
 had to walk from the station, happily not very 
 far. We spent most of this morning at the 
 Cathedral, Mr. Upton and Mr. Vose with us, 
 quite as a matter of course ; and really they add 
 very much to our pleasure, having travelled so 
 much, and now that their stiffness has worn off, 
 they talk very well. 
 
 [Ellen wrote this sentence in all innocence, 
 little thinking of its results in Cambridge.] 
 
 "You must know that King Olaf Haroldsen, 
 who was killed in battle in 1030, was worshipped 
 as a martyr, and became the patron saint of Nor- 
 way. A well of pure water sprang up where he 
 was buried, and is still shown near the south wall 
 of the choir of this Cathedral. 
 
 " His bones were kept in a shrine there, but were 
 stolen, and no one now knows where they are. 
 
 " The Cathedral has suffered from three fires, and 
 little of the original building remains ; but there 
 are some exquisite bits of carving, and some 
 of the capitals of the columns were like stone 
 lace, or, as Annie said, * frozen feathers/ in their 
 delicacy. I send you a photograph of the east 
 
74 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 door, which is quite Norman. We tried to find 
 
 out how old the very oldest part is, but could 
 
 not, and I was really glad, but you need n't tell 
 
 Harry, for now I shall not have to remember it. 
 
 Restorations are going on, in the Gothic style, 
 
 and we are glad to have seen it before any more 
 
 is done. 
 
 " From the cathedral, we and our Englishmen 
 
 went to see a waterfall near Lerfos. The water 
 
 goes over rocks in one huge mass, and reaches 
 
 the base in a cloud of spray. Now I must say 
 
 good-bye. 
 
 " Your loving 
 
 u Ellen." 
 
 Ellens Journal. 
 
 Saturday, June 27. 
 Steamer " Michael Krohn." 
 
 Here we are seated on the steamer deck, follow- 
 ing a winding channel among snow-topped, rocky 
 islands. We left Throndhjem at midnight, our 
 devoted Englishmen escorting us on board. They 
 seem now to consider us under their care, and 
 almost resent it if we allow others to do anything 
 for us. After breakfast we came into a bit of 
 rough sea, and succumbed to forlornness below 
 for several hours. Fortunately, the scenery was 
 
w 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 H 
 
THRONDHJEM. 75 
 
 uninteresting just then ; but after awhile both we 
 and the landscape rallied and improved, the hills 
 growing steeper and snow-crowned; and about 
 nine in the afternoon, as the captain calls it, we 
 dropped anchor near the high mountain Torg- 
 hatten, where most of us crowded into a boat and 
 were rowed to the shore, where we began a rough 
 scrambling climb to the wonderful hole that goes 
 directly through the mountain. There were only- 
 four ladies to twelve gentlemen, so we had all 
 needful help. It is a square opening, four hun- 
 dred feet above the sea, over sixty feet high, with 
 the huge domelike top of the mountain above it. 
 A few of us walked through it, about five hun- 
 dred feet. In a crevice at the other side, we found 
 a bottle containing the names of a party, so ours 
 were written and added ; and thus we learned for 
 the first time the names and homes of our fellow- 
 passengers. There was a Boston physician, an 
 Italian count, a Norwegian reader, a London 
 barrister, an English student, two Scotchmen, our 
 charming captain, Margaret, Thora Rosen, and 
 myself. 
 
 It was very strange to stand at one end of the 
 cave and look through it. 
 
 First, you saw the rough stony sides and the 
 floor of the cave, scattered with granite blocks, 
 
?6 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 then a fringe of green on the farther side, and 
 down below, the sea, studded with islands, and 
 mountains rising along the horizon. 
 
 I found some interesting flowers, one or two 
 Ericaceae, an orchid, Pinguicula vulgaris, and had 
 quite a botanical talk with the Scotch doctor. 
 
 We had hardly exchanged a word with any one 
 before, but this little scramble broke up all 
 formality. Mutual interests and even mutual 
 friends were discovered, and all became easy and 
 friendly. 
 
 [It was with a happy smile that Ellen thus wrote ; 
 but a few weeks later her innocent words were 
 read by one of her friends with a stern face and 
 set teeth, and the hardly repressed demand of her 
 unsuspecting mother, " Are you mad to let that 
 little rosebud go fluttering about the world for 
 Tom, Dick, and Harry to win and wear?"] 
 
 The other ladies are Norwegian and Scotch. 
 We had rather scoffed at the Scotch one, because 
 she sat on deck and read David Copperfield no 
 matter how picturesque the landscape ; but Torg's 
 hat seemed to rouse her, and she was as enthusi- 
 astic as anybody. The Italian count was from 
 Bologna, and carried the big door-key of his 
 palace wherever he went. Cousin John will laugh 
 when I finish the list with a New York newspaper 
 
THRONDHJEM. 77 
 
 correspondent ; and Margaret begs Annie and me 
 not to say anything original or poetical lest he 
 put it in one of his letters. But, seriously, I think 
 that they will be worth reading ; because he will 
 tell so much that we are too lazy or too ignorant 
 to attempt. I will let you know when they begin. 
 He is very entertaining, and seems to have had 
 hair-breadth escapes from every conceivable 
 danger, in every known land. 
 
 Then there are two American youths ; but we 
 are not much interested in them. " Enough of 
 them at home," Margaret says. Our captain is a 
 paragon of thoughtful kindness for everybody. 
 
 We have had frequent showers, which give 
 most lovely effects as they pass by, hanging in 
 white draperies over the mountains, and followed 
 by rainbows forming perfect arches framing 
 lovely views of snow-crowned hills. 
 
 Sunday. 
 
 We had service on deck to-day, Mr. Upton 
 officiating, while we were gliding among rugged 
 mountains where innumerable little brooklets 
 came tumbling down over the cliffs into the sea. 
 I kept thinking, " The strength of the hills is His 
 also " and " The mountains shall give peace to 
 the people." About three o'clock we reached a 
 place called Mo, which is quite consoling in its 
 
78 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 brevity after Throndhjem, etc. We girls, and the 
 captain, and most of the other passengers went 
 ashore and wandered up to a little churchyard 
 and along a wood road ; and then the captain got 
 the key, and we went into the church. There 
 were some paintings of sacred subjects ; but the 
 most interesting thing was a carved and painted 
 reredos, probably many hundred years old, and 
 quaint and ugly in proportion. It was stored in 
 a loft. I longed to sketch it, but, oh, dear ! what 
 and when do I not long to sketch? We have 
 seen countless charming bits to-day : houses with 
 tiled or turfed roofs, and painted red or yellow ; 
 men with bright scarlet woollen caps ; women with 
 white kerchiefs, fleets of little boats, very high and 
 sharp at both prow and stern and a beautiful 
 curve between. We saw our first Lapp to-day; 
 but he must have been a very favorable speci- 
 men, as he was neither extremely short nor re- 
 markably ugly. It is too cold on deck to write 
 any more, and I cannot bear to go below. So 
 good-bye. I shall post this at Bodo. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 IN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. 
 
 On Sunday, June 29, Ellen and her friends in the 
 " Michael Krohn " crossed the Arctic Circle. 
 Though midnight, it was as light as day. They 
 left the supper table at eleven, for night was now 
 literally turned into day, and morning was their 
 usual bed-time. At the moment of crossing, the 
 sun was hidden by clouds, and just on the line was 
 a strange island called Hestmands<£, or horseman's 
 island. Approaching, the girls saw this horseman, 
 his heavy cloak flying out behind him. He is 
 supposed to have been turned into stone while 
 rushing to seek his beloved, the maiden of Leckc£. 
 The horse is left to the imagination; but the 
 man's helmeted head is very good. 
 
 They went up on the bridge of the steamer to 
 watch for the midnight sun, and to find, if pos- 
 sible, some trace of the polar circle. Everybody 
 was very lively; and the newspaper man said if 
 they were cold, they had only to double the North 
 Cape, and all would be comfortable. At about 
 
80 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 one, the sun shone on its upward way ; and after 
 watching the light on the hills for awhile, they 
 turned in and managed to sleep a few hours, 
 though Annie had to bandage her eyes with a 
 black veil to counterfeit darkness. 
 
 Monday was spent sailing among the Loffoden 
 Isles, and no one could think of words sufficient 
 to describe their wild beauty. The guide-book 
 says that they " rise along the horizon like the 
 jaws of antediluvian sharks ; " but that only gives 
 their shape ; no words can express the gradations 
 of color, — the spectral snowy cliffs against each 
 other and the sky. From Bodo the steamer 
 crossed the Vest Fiord, and, for a few hours, felt 
 the swell of the open sea. The captain invited 
 the girls up on the bridge, as the place most pro- 
 tected from the wind ; improbable as that sounds, 
 it was true, for the canvas around it sheltered 
 them completely. The unending succession of 
 mountains was as impossible to remember as to 
 describe. Ellen wrote, " We shall never believe 
 afterwards how wonderful and beautiful they 
 were; and now we have forgotten how level 
 ground looks. I can imagine a Chicagoan almost 
 losing his wits in such waves of amazement. The 
 only thing that holds us down to earth is the 
 occasional waft we get of most ancient and fish- 
 
IN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. 8 1 
 
 like odors from the huge piles of dried fish on 
 the shores we pass." 
 
 June 30. 
 Off Tromso. 
 
 Yesterday afternoon the captain gave the party 
 another little run on shore. Under overhanging 
 snow-mountains they walked through birch 
 woods and picked yellow violets, seeing several 
 Lapps, flat-faced dwarfish little creatures, in dingy 
 brown frocks. The gentlemen tried to talk with 
 them in Norwegian, and, failing utterly, sang 
 Pinafore songs to them and declaimed dialogues 
 in the most comical manner ; but nothing moved 
 them from their stolidity till the " Never ? what, 
 never ? " scene was given. They evidently thought 
 that a fight was to ensue, and were visibly disap- 
 pointed by a peaceful ending. In the evening 
 there was a concert on deck, one of the Scotch- 
 men singing Burns' ballads delightfully, and the 
 newspaper correspondent improvising some capi- 
 tal verses descriptive of his journey and fellow- 
 passengers, to the tune of " Marching through 
 Georgia," only they were " Sailing round Nor- 
 way." All joined in the chorus. The four girls 
 had the ladies' cabin to themselves that night, and 
 hoped to sleep unusually well ; but, alas ! about 
 three o'clock in the morning, the water came 
 
 6 
 
82 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 rushing through a porthole over Ellen's bed, leav- 
 ing her so thoroughly drenched and wakened 
 that she dressed and read " Quits " for an hour. 
 " I am enjoying it even more than the first time, 
 and it is thoroughly in accord with our out-of- 
 door adventurous summer." 
 
 Next morning they reached Tromso, went 
 ashore and walked about, attracting a crowd of 
 Lapps and Norwegians. A friendly little old 
 man escorted the party to the Museum and Art 
 Gallery. There was one amazing picture of the 
 " Hestmands^ " and the midnight sun, with ducks, 
 exactly like Marion's magnetic toys, and flaming 
 starfish on the rocks in the foreground. There were 
 also quaint carvings, Lapp dresses, etc. ; but best of 
 all they enjoyed a silver shop that Mr. Vose discov- 
 ered ; and, in return for Ellen's having mended his 
 gloves, he presented her with a souvenir of the 
 town, a silver-gilt ring, cost thirty-seven cents. 
 " Our pleasant party will be broken up at Ham- 
 merfest, where the Boston physician, Mr. Murray, 
 and the Bolognese (door-key and all) start overland 
 for the Gulf of Bothnia, — a long and severe jour- 
 ney. The doctor has promised to report to 
 Harry if he ever gets back to Boston. I have 
 spent a delightfully peaceful afternoon, sitting on 
 deck, writing home, and watching the exquisite 
 
IN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE, 83 
 
 changing lights on sea and shore, and the boats 
 constantly coming and going with sailing parties. 
 The blessed captain has been careering about in 
 his own little punt, and has now lent it to Mr. 
 Murray and Thora Rosen, who are rowing ashore. 
 We are conspiring to give the captain a telescope, 
 as a slight token of our grateful regard. " 
 
 Friday, July 2d, 7 a.m. 
 
 Here I am on deck, and here I have been all 
 night ! Yesterday we went ashore at Hammer- 
 fest, in search of reindeer. We walked for some 
 time along the bank of a snow river, crossed it 
 and climbed over stony hills which the Scotch- 
 men declared were exactly like their moors; the 
 ground was covered with moss, and here and there 
 prostrate willows and birches and pink heath-like 
 flowers made lovely patches of color. We only 
 saw the reindeer in the distance, though the cap- 
 tain and the " Times " correspondent ran gallantly 
 off to try and turn them towards us. A great 
 herd of them has come here, led by that strange 
 uncontrollable instinct of theirs to reach and 
 drink of the sea, of which we read so beautiful 
 an account last year in Crawford's "History of a 
 Cigarette Maker." 
 
 In many places we walked through snow which 
 
84 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 I have never but once before seen in July, and 
 that was in the deep cleft at Dixville Notch. 
 We were told that the snow was forty feet deep 
 here last winter. Going back, we crossed a bog. 
 You would have laughed to see the captain swing 
 me over the pools. I put one hand on his 
 shoulder, he grasped me by the elbow, and I 
 flew! 
 
 Wednesday night we saw the most beautiful 
 sight we have had yet. After our usual concert, 
 at which the captain and chief engineer sang 
 Norse songs, I came on deck with Doctor Strong 
 for a breath of air. 
 
 It had been cloudy, but just then the sun shone 
 out, lighting up the mountain peaks behind us, 
 and as the clouds lifted more and more, and the 
 steamer entered a broad fiord, the effects of light 
 and shade were fairly unearthly. " The light that 
 never was on sea or land." The water was per- 
 fectly calm, and reflected the golden gray clouds 
 and blue sky overhead, and the red bars of the 
 northwest. It was all so strange and beautiful 
 that I stayed on and on till two o'clock. It 
 seemed a sin to sleep amid such glories. 
 
 Of course the consequence was that I had to 
 spend the next afternoon in making up my lost 
 sleep, and in preparation for the North Cape, 
 
< 
 u 
 
 o 
 
IN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. 85 
 
 which we reached at half-past ten. We all went 
 ashore and began the ascent on the northwest 
 side of the cliff. It was very steep, and one after 
 another dropped from the ranks. I tried my 
 best to keep up courage, breath, and muscle by 
 remembrances of White Face and Chocorua, and 
 by thinking how proud I should be to write of 
 having stood upon the top ; but at last it seemed 
 to me a shame to keep Dr. Strong and the cap- 
 tain in attendance upon me, — the last lady left, — 
 and I begged them to leave me and go on. After 
 some protests, they consented, and I was almost 
 alone on that grim arctic steep. Not quite, for 
 three panting fellow-travellers were within hail- 
 ing distance below me. But I was quite free 
 to think my own thoughts, and follow my own 
 devices, as they did not see me. 
 
 I had not been so alone for weeks ; it was very 
 restful and very solemn. Below me lay the bay, 
 quiet and gray, no color anywhere, save in the 
 red hull of the " Michael Krohn," and the flags 
 flying from her masts. At my right, rose steep, 
 black, jagged cliffs, made more sombre by lines 
 of white, where snow still lingered in ravines ; and 
 near by, down dashing in foam, a little mountain 
 brook, its rush the only sound that broke the 
 solemn stillness. 
 
86 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 I am not sure that I did not enjoy that half 
 hour of solitude on the bleak cliffs more than I 
 should have the top, with everybody oh-ing and 
 ah-ing, and then having to hurry down. It 
 always hurts so to turn away from a grand 
 height ! I looked at my watch. It was half- 
 past one in the morning. I thought of you all, 
 and how little you dreamed that your Ellen 
 was perched alone at that uncanny hour on the 
 northernmost height in Europe. 
 
 By and by my botanical curiosity awoke, and I 
 explored every cranny and crevice in my down- 
 ward way, finding much that was new and inter- 
 esting, as you shall see some day. Just as I 
 reached the shore, I heard the triumphant shouts 
 of the eight who had gained the top, and pres- 
 ently returned in varying stages. They all gave 
 such vivid accounts of the dangers from snow 
 and precipices, that I was consoled for having 
 turned back. The captain and Dr. Strong came 
 laden with flowers and stones from the summit, 
 which they poured into my lap as I sat in the 
 boat ; and we rowed back to the steamer singing 
 "While we go sailing round Norway." Then 
 the " Michael Krohn " put out a little farther, and 
 anchored for fishing. Several large cod were 
 caught. Whenever the captain hooked a fish, he 
 
IN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. 87 
 
 would call one of us ladies to pull it in, that we 
 might seem to be having good luck ; and thus he 
 won our hearts more and more. You will trem- 
 ble for us when I add that he is only thirty-one, 
 and, as far as we know, unmarried. 
 
 By this time it was five o'clock, and as the 
 doctor and the others are to leave us at Ham- 
 merfest, where we were due at seven, it was voted 
 not to go to bed at all. Annie and Thora Rosen 
 went below to lie down awhile ; but Margaret and 
 I had been drinking coffee, and were very wide 
 awake, so stayed on deck with Mr. Rosen and 
 the others, and the time passed cheerfully in 
 singing, reciting poetry, and relating adventures. 
 
 We are still several hours from Hammerfest. 
 It is more beautiful than ever, and much less cold. 
 They say we have had an unusually quiet time 
 crossing this stretch of open sea. I cannot real- 
 ize that I have been up all night. There is no 
 time here. It is worse than Washington for that, 
 tell Sidney. 
 
 We have breakfast at about ten, dinner at four 
 or five, supper at ten again, and never think of 
 turning in before midnight. We are feeling sober 
 about parting with these pleasant companions ; 
 but Dr. Strong we surely hope to see in Boston 
 
88 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 on our return, and Mr. Murray we may meet in 
 Edinburgh. I am afraid you will have trouble in 
 reading all this, for the screw makes such jerks 
 that I can hardly form the letters. 
 
 There was indeed trouble, Ellen, but not to 
 your patient mother, who read with ease the most 
 blurred passages. It was Sidney who found, be- 
 tween their frank and artless lines, a firmly friendly 
 determination to hold him back and show him 
 that some one — was it Hugh or was it some one 
 of these impertinent strangers — had taken the 
 place he had foolishly hoped was his. Why had 
 he been so fearful of being precipitate last year? 
 Why had he spared her girlish shyness before he 
 went to Europe, deceiving himself with the hope 
 that she was growing gradually to a knowledge 
 of his love, and that, when he returned, absence 
 would have taught her to miss him, and he would 
 only need to show her his heart, to win hers in 
 return? O blindly foolish! Had she not even 
 then understood him, and urged his joining his 
 family abroad, for the purpose of discouraging 
 his advances? He had thought her an uncon- 
 scious child ; but it had not been so. Girls were 
 born women, it seemed ! She had consistently 
 held herself aloof; and the sweet response he had 
 
IN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. 89 
 
 fondly hoped he read in her shy eyes, faltering 
 voice, and fluttering color, in that crowded hour 
 last autumn, when she and Harry had met him 
 and Jessie on their incoming steamer, was only 
 her distress at seeing the more than brotherly joy 
 with which he had greeted her. 
 
 Then had come his sister Anna's wedding, and 
 he and Ellen had been much together as usher 
 and bride-maiden, but always in a crowd ; and she 
 had been so lovely in her bridal white that he had 
 resolved that not another day should pass, but 
 going — had found her weeping over the news of 
 Hugh Harley's death, and unable to speak of 
 anything else. 
 
 Then had followed his father's alarming illness 
 in Washington, calling and detaining the whole 
 family there for many weeks. 
 
 Why had he not written ? Half because he was 
 jealous of Hugh, half because, if Ellen's love were 
 to be his, he wished to see it in her eyes, her 
 cheeks, and not on paper. And when Mr. Car- 
 ruth's recovery brought them all back to Boston, 
 the first news he heard was that his treasure was 
 going away with Hugh's sisters ! He saw her 
 but once, and how cool and quiet had been her 
 farewell ! 
 
 And now — worst of all — he must believe that 
 
90 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 poor Hugh's shadow had not been between them ; 
 but he had let her go away fancy-free, to be 
 caught by the first attractive stranger who had 
 the sense to appreciate her, and in the kindness 
 of her heart she says, rt tell Sidney" and not 
 merely the surface joke about happy old times, 
 but that " of course she is to meet this paragon of 
 doctors again ! " Oh, kindly, cruel little hand, to 
 prepare her friend to be utterly supplanted ! 
 — and the flimsy foreign sheet was crushed in 
 a way that took the young man a long time to 
 repair. 
 
•T-- ~p* 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 hf ^ijjt'-'v-- - ^*y 
 
 1 
 
 ' 3>SbH • ISP? 
 
 • 
 
 i 
 . .lew .V 
 
 i i i<<> ii ^H It ^ •.*a 1 .: 
 
 s 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 SAILING ROUND NORWAY. 
 
 Ellen* $ Journal. 
 
 In Koenangen Fiord, 
 
 July 3, 188 — , 3 p. m. 
 
 We have been here since three o'clock this 
 morning, taking in a thousand barrels of herring. 
 We stopped at the extreme end of a long, narrow, 
 winding fiord, so narrow that in some places it 
 seemed as if our steamer could not find a channel. 
 
 Only very small steamers have come this way 
 before ; so whenever we approached a settlement, 
 out came men, women, and children in hot haste 
 to see the wondrous sight. We passed many 
 waterfalls, some mere threads on the mountain 
 side, others like masses of falling snow ; and we 
 saw one singular river bed with several terraces 
 rising on each side. 
 
 It had grown very cold ; but Annie and I sat near 
 the funnel, wrapped in a wolfskin coat of the cap- 
 tain's. When we came to Koenangen and saw a 
 Lapp hut among the birches on shore, we had a 
 
92 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 wild idea of landing, nipped in the bud by the 
 captain ; so we turned in, and, in spite of a donkey- 
 engine working over my head, I slept soundly till 
 ten. Now the mosquitoes are so thick that I 
 must stop writing and put my head under cover. 
 
 Oddvaer, July 5th. 
 (On one of the Loffoden Islands.) 
 
 Saturday was foggy and rainy, and after a good 
 walk up and down the deck with Mr. Rosen, I am 
 bundled up in rugs watching the fog wreaths on 
 the mountains, which threaten soon to shroud 
 them altogether. Yesterday we did not wake till 
 ten, having had a cloudy night; breakfasted at 
 noon, and going on deck, found flags flying and 
 the stars and stripes on the foremast in honor of 
 the day. One of the officers had spent most 
 of the night making an American flag, as they 
 had none on board. I examined it when they 
 took it down; the stars (only twelve!) were cut 
 out of cotton and sewed on. The captain shook 
 hands with Annie and Margaret and me, and con- 
 gratulated us. Sunday was cold and foggy, so 
 we had service below, and Mr. Upton gave us an 
 excellent sermon ; he also played the piano and 
 led the singing of hymns. It was so cold that 
 we girls sat close to the leeward side of the 
 
SAILING ROUND NORWAY. 93 
 
 funnel, piled over with rugs and the wolfskin coat 
 on top. 
 
 In the afternoon I put the coat on and went up 
 on the bridge, much to the amusement of the 
 sailors. The pilot insisted that I was the cap- 
 tain, and, taking my hand, made with it the signal 
 to the man at the wheel. This morning I was 
 awakened at 7.30 by the water pouring in at 
 my porthole. They were washing the deck. I 
 dressed and ran up, finding the bluest of fiords ; 
 and we were stopping at a quaint little fishing 
 town. 
 
 I did my best to make a sketch before we 
 started again. When I showed it to the captain, 
 and asked if he recognized it, he slowly answered : 
 " Yes — I know it ; but you have left out one 
 house." I thought if I had left out only one, I 
 had done well. We reached here at nine; and 
 after breakfast the captain took us ashore, one at 
 a time, in his punt, and joined us in a stroll. We 
 followed the shore, and were soon glad to rest in 
 the shade of a rock, the sun was so hot. 
 
 Before us lay the little fishing village, with its 
 red, turfed-roof houses, and the narrow channel 
 through which our steamer had made her way; 
 and all around us were jagged mountains, the 
 highest 4,200 feet. We were so charmed with 
 
94 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 the place that we half wanted to stay till the 
 " Michael Krohn " went northward again. Among 
 the rocks we found ferns and the lovely Andro- 
 meda polyfolia which Linnaeus mentions with 
 such affection in his " Tour in Lapland." I rowed 
 the captain back, much to his amusement; but 
 unfortunately I ran the bow plump against the 
 steamer, which took down my pride. We are 
 getting under weigh now, having taken in 17,000 
 pounds of dried fish. 
 
 Afternoon. 
 
 We stopped again a long time at Hopen, and 
 took in barrels on barrels more, and went on 
 board the " Johan Schonning," another boat of this 
 line; but we much prefer the " Michael Krohn/ 
 That night we saw the midnight sun for the last 
 time, and more free from clouds than ever before, 
 the kind captain going out of his course to give 
 us a favorable view of it. 
 
 July 7th. 
 
 Yesterday was windy and rainy ; but we stayed 
 on deck, well wrapped and well amused, for the 
 newspaper correspondent recited Scotch ballads 
 (he is a Scot), told Norse legends, quoted 
 Lowell, and narrated anecdotes of Coleridge 
 and the Kingsleys, whom he personally knew. 
 
 He is going to send us copies of his letters 
 
g 
 
 D 
 
 O 
 
 CO 
 
 (73 
 
 
SAILING ROUND NORWAY. 95 
 
 about this trip, and they are sure to be good ; 
 but I hope you will still value mine a little. 
 
 About ten we reached Bjorn, a small town in 
 great excitement over its annual fair. We landed 
 and walked through the narrow, muddy streets, 
 crowded with people, all on pleasure bent. 
 
 You would have laughed, could you have seen 
 me and the captain springing from ' stone to 
 stone to escape the mud, up hill and down, 
 now stopping to look for old silver, and now 
 to ask questions. In one place there was a well- 
 filled merry-go-round, spinning away to the tune 
 of "Die Wacht a,7n Rhein" The peasant cos- 
 tumes were not very striking ; but every woman 
 wore a kerchief on her head, usually white 
 with a colored border, sometimes of embroid- 
 ered muslin or lace, but more frequently of ordi- 
 nary cotton. Some faces were extremely pretty. 
 Altogether it was a most picturesque scene. 
 
 We had supper at midnight, and then sat on 
 the bridge with the others, watching a glorious 
 sunset, not fading but changing into a still more 
 gorgeous sunrise, the red of the first melting and 
 glowing into gold, while the hills took on wonder- 
 ful successions of color ; those farthest north were 
 golden green. Oh, it was unspeakably strange 
 and beautiful ! 
 
96 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 Annie had just given me the Nineteenth Psalm 
 to read, as the best expression of the glory of the 
 night; and I shall ever after behold this scene 
 when I read, " In them hath He set a tabernacle 
 for the sun, which cometh forth as a bridegroom 
 out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong 
 man to run a race. His going forth is from 
 the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the 
 ends of it, and there is nothing hid from the 
 heat thereof." 
 
 We stayed on deck till nearly three, refreshed 
 by coffee to keep our poor bodies up to concert 
 pitch with our spirits. To-day, we have all been 
 writing letters, hoping to reach Throndhjem 
 late to-night; and from there they can go by 
 train to Christiania. 
 
 We hope to get letters also, which will be 
 a joy indeed, as our last American date was 
 June 3d. 
 
 The ever-thoughtful captain has telegraphed 
 to a friend to get them for us, as we shall arrive 
 after the office is closed. Now for a few hours 
 of sleep. 
 
 The eleventh of July found our girls on land 
 once more, at Holdt's Hotel, Bergen, where, in 
 spite of two weeks of steamer life, they all 
 
SAILING ROUND NORWAY. 97 
 
 admitted feeling a little homesick for the sea, 
 the steamer " Michael Krohn," and the captain. 
 Ellen had two dearly welcome letters at Thrond- 
 hjem, — one from her mother and one from Amy ; 
 but she complained that nobody told her half 
 enough of the little home particulars. 
 
 " Do give me details : some of Marion's pretty 
 sayings, " she wrote to Harry. "Who inquires 
 for me? How is Captain Jerry? Have you shot a 
 snowy owl? Did Harvard win at New London?" 
 
 They lost one of their parsons at Throndhjem, 
 but were becoming better acquainted with the 
 Scotch students and the two Americans, and 
 found them very pleasant. 
 
 They reached Christiansund, Thursday: the 
 prettiest town they had seen, built on four 
 islands, with a narrow sea entrance between. It 
 was pretty to see the graceful way in which the 
 captain brought in the steamer, swinging round 
 into line with a long row of sailing vessels at the 
 wharf. The party went ashore and walked about, 
 passing a queer old church with a mosque-like 
 dome and 1725 on the vane. 
 
 At last they found a silversmith's, and Ellen 
 bought quite a large spoon for six kroner, — 
 about a dollar and thirty-seven cents. 
 
 The scenery after leaving Throndhjem was less 
 7 
 
98 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 interesting than before. In one place they passed 
 near a large rock, and each gentleman was given 
 a piece of coal to throw at it. At the first at- 
 tempt all fell short, it was so much farther off 
 than it looked ; but most of them succeeded the 
 second time. 
 
 Nearing Molde, the views became lovely, not 
 grand and awful like those within the Arctic 
 Circle, but very, very beautiful, — soft blue moun- 
 tains with a background of snow-capped ones. 
 
 It was after midnight, and very cloudy and 
 dark, when they reached Molde, and the captain 
 sent up Roman candles and golden rain with 
 charming effect. As if in response, a bridal pro- 
 cession came singing down to the shore as they 
 were leaving, and the captain gallantly set off 
 more fireworks, and the steamer departed amid 
 the waving of many handkerchiefs. 
 
 All this festivity delayed breakfast till twelve, 
 after which all hurried on deck to see the cliffs 
 of Hornelen, which rise two thousand four hun- 
 dred feet directly from the water. In some 
 places their faces are as smooth as if cut with a 
 knife. The Scots compared the vistas of hills 
 here, and the winding fiords, to their own loch 
 country, though on a larger scale. 
 
 A succession of showers greeted the approach 
 
SAILING ROUND NORWAY. 99 
 
 to Bergen; and scores of gulls followed the 
 steamer, swooping for the bits of hardtack 
 thrown them, uttering their hoarse cries. 
 
 Ellen's Journal. 
 
 We turned in before reaching our pier, and, 
 coming on deck before six next morning, found 
 more rain, in spite of which we lost our hearts, at 
 first sight, to the quaint old town, its red roofs 
 clustered at the bases of its seven hills, the houses 
 looking fairly toy-like beside the grandeur of 
 their mountain framing. Very soon a man came 
 on board with a note for Mr. Rosen, saying that 
 our rooms were engaged; and we bade a sad 
 farewell to our devoted captain and were rowed 
 ashore. 
 
 It was lively work threading our way through 
 a maze of flying boats, large and small, scudding 
 steamers, and puffing tugs ; but all too soon we 
 were in a prosaic carriage, our eyes alert for silver- 
 smith shops, furriers, and carved-wood dealers. 
 So many of our fellow-passengers dropped in to 
 breakfast, that we felt quite " Michael Krohn-y," 
 and the next duty was to go with them to select 
 the marine glass for our Captain Bjornstadt. We 
 had money enough for a binocular and a small 
 
100 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 telescope, and sent several on board from which 
 he was to choose. 
 
 We three girls were then going back to our 
 hotel, when we spied a case of old silver, and go- 
 ing in at the nearest doorway, squeezed through 
 a passage so narrow that we had to go edgewise, 
 arriving at last in a kitchen where bowls of cream 
 stood curdling on a stove, and beyond that was 
 a sitting-room with one or two show-cases and an 
 old man with spectacles and a black skull-cap. 
 Such a funny figure ! On our asking for gamle 
 solv, he brought out some very handsome rings 
 and one or two pins and clasps. I bought a fasci- 
 nating pin with gilt dangles, and each of the girls 
 bought rings. Thora Rosen understands how to 
 bargain with these people; so we paid a krone 
 less for each than the man at first asked. 
 
 These streets are dangerously tempting. We 
 had hardly escaped Scylla, when we fell into Cha- 
 rybdis and bought more rings, and then shut our 
 eyes resolutely and fled to our hotel. A brother 
 of Mr. Rosen soon called and welcomed us kindly 
 to Bergen. In the afternoon his daughter came 
 and took us to drive, and invited us to dinner. 
 We spent the rest of the morning sitting out on a 
 charming balcony surrounded by flowers, study- 
 ing, and trying to sketch the quaint houses and 
 the passers-by. 
 
SAILING ROUND NORWAY. IOI 
 
 Our drive was delightful in spite of several 
 showers, which are a Bergen specialty. We are 
 told that the mean temperature of the whole year 
 is 45 Fahrenheit, and even in winter it rarely 
 falls below fifteen ; but the average rainfall is 72 
 inches, that of Christiania only 20 ! Our even- 
 ing with the Rosens was very pleasant. Miss 
 Anna speaks English well, but very shyly. One 
 of her sisters was named Inga. After dinner we 
 took another drive, and had another shower, but 
 persevered, winding up beautiful hills, and fol- 
 lowing branches of the fiord, and finally leaving 
 the carriage and climbing steeps fairly blue with 
 harebells. 
 
 One charming custom here is to put turf on 
 top of the stone walls, so that they are often 
 waving with ferns, grasses, and daisies. The air 
 was sweet with newly mown hay drying on the 
 fence-like frames they use here. With so much 
 rain, I suppose it would never dry on the ground. 
 At last we reached our destination, a farm of 
 the new Mr. Rosen's, far, far up among the 
 mountains, but with still higher steeps beyond. 
 The view through long vistas of hills to red- 
 roofed Bergen, and in another direction over a 
 fiord dotted with islands and out to the open sea, 
 was poetically beautiful. 
 
102 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 Margaret made all laugh by exclaiming. " No 
 wonder Ole Bull was born here, and all those 
 poets the guide-book told about ! " 
 
 We had supper with these hospitable Rosens 
 on returning from this expedition, and were really 
 ashamed of our appetites. It was a blow on 
 reaching our hotel, to find that Mr. Upton and 
 Mr. Vose had left for the Hardanger Fiord in our 
 absence. 
 
 This morning the Bergen-Rosen girls came and 
 took us to walk. It was raining of course ; but off 
 we went to the Museum, and feasted our eyes 
 upon gold ornaments and beautiful old wood 
 carvings, church doors, cabinets, beds, and a 
 desk which it broke my heart not to get for 
 Cousin John. 
 
 We rejoiced to see some rings just like those 
 we had bought, and there was a fine altar-piece 
 in carved oak, with wings, said to be of Cologne 
 workmanship, of the sixteenth century. 
 
 The old tankards and drinking horns would 
 have made your mouth water, and the china — 
 but I forbear. 
 
 We are talking with the Bergen-Rosens about 
 making up a party with us for the Hardanger 
 Fiord next week ; and the father has already en- 
 gaged a courier, and is to send his own carriage 
 
SAILING ROUND NORWAY. 103 
 
 to meet us when we leave the steamer, so we shall 
 travel " en prince." 
 
 The sun is actually trying to shine ; but I fear 
 that precedent will be so much against him that 
 he will be discouraged. 
 
 In spite of all these clouds, the people here are 
 remarkably cheerful and lively ; and I have felt as 
 merry as a grig ever since I came. Do you 
 suppose it is the exhilarating effect of so much 
 ammonia in the incessant rain ? I offer the sug- 
 gestion to Cousin John as the basis of an article 
 for the " Pop. Sci." 
 
 Tell dear Dr. Bonney that one of his gold 
 pieces is going into this Hardanger excursion, and 
 another in old spoons, one of which (you need n't 
 say) is for Mrs. Bonney. 
 
 To-morrow we drive again with these dear 
 Rosens, and go up the Bolstad Fiord in a little 
 steamer. This afternoon we plan a prowl among 
 the shops. You see we keep busy ; but the air is 
 so fine we are never over-tired. I never felt better 
 in my life ; and Margaret does not dare to be 
 weighed any more, she is so afraid that she is gain- 
 ing. Even Annie is getting rosy, and has learned 
 to laugh again, and to sleep soundly at night. 
 
 It would please you to see how kindly the 
 people here feel towards Americans. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BERGEN. 
 
 Mid-July found Ellen and her companions still 
 in merry-moisty Bergen ; and for a few days the 
 hills put off their veils, and blue skies and clear 
 sunshine prevailed. 
 
 Their new friends, the Rosens of Bergen, spared 
 no pains to make their stay pleasant. A second 
 dinner with them was followed by a second 
 excursion to their hill farm, which was doubly 
 attractive in fair weather. 
 
 The next day our five travellers and three of 
 the Rosen cousins embarked at six in the morning 
 on a little steamer bound for a narrow water-way 
 called Bolstad Fiord. The weather was fine as 
 they puffed away from the wharf, soft misty streaks 
 upon the hills the only traces of past showers. 
 The view of the town from the harbor was most 
 lovely, its red roofs clustered on each side of the 
 fiord, and sheltered by the seven hills whose 
 names Margaret was reciting, not without stum- 
 bling, to her favorite Inga Rosen. 
 
BERGEN. IO5 
 
 " Sandvigsf jeld, Floif jeld, Ulriken, Levstakken, 
 Damsgaardsf jeld, Lyderhorn, and Askefjeld." 
 
 " They are worse than our Elizabeth Islands, 
 Cuttyhunk, Naushon, Pennikese, and the rest," 
 said Ellen, when the lesson was over; "you 
 might tell Inga of them in return ; but, oh, dear ! 
 how those mists are creeping down again ! " It was 
 even so. A soft fog curtain was descending over 
 the picturesque landscape, gradually enveloping 
 town, hills, and mountains, and hugging the steamer 
 closely, save when now and then a thin place in 
 its folds would reveal tantalizing glimpses of dis- 
 tant heights, golden in sunlight and backed with 
 blue skies. 
 
 " It will not last ; have no fear," said Anna 
 Rosen ; and as they were now summoned below 
 to breakfast, Ellen cheerfully remarked that it 
 was quite as well not to have to leave too lovely 
 a landscape for the baser joys of the table. And, 
 sure enough, when they came on deck after a 
 hearty meal, the mists had dispersed entirely, and 
 the world seemed all the fairer for their fears. 
 
 " Dear little Bergen," said Annie Harley, as a 
 twist in the winding fiord hid it from view, " can 
 it be only a week since we first saw you from the 
 'Michael Krohn'?" On and on went the little 
 steamer, pursuing the fiord on its winding way 
 
106 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 into the land, now stopping at a settlement of two 
 or three houses, then at a manufacturing town 
 surprisingly neat and prosperous-looking, and 
 then at a wharf where only one house was in 
 sight. 
 
 " What do they make here?" asked Ellen, at 
 one of the larger towns ; and the captain told her 
 " woollen jackets for fishermen, " which she stored 
 mentally for her next home letter, wishing that 
 she had money or trunk space enough to carry 
 back a bale of them to give to Cap'n Jerry and 
 her other Cape Cod friends. 
 
 Mr. Rosen meanwhile had been gathering infor- 
 mation too, and presently came to impart it to 
 the girls. 
 
 " They tell me that a railroad is being built 
 along the shores of this fiord, from Bergen to 
 Voss," he began. " How does that strike you 
 by way of courageous enterprise? Could you 
 Americans do more?" 
 
 " No, indeed ! " cried they all. " Why, where 
 is there level enough for even a beginning, much 
 less a going on? " 
 
 "It is indeed a succession of tunnels," said 
 Mr. Rosen ; " the openings are the exception, the 
 tunnels the rule ; and fifty men were killed during 
 the first fifty miles." 
 
BERGEN. 107 
 
 " Oh, how terrible ! " said Annie. " How can it 
 be wise to carry on a work so difficult and so 
 dangerous, when there is so little traffic, and 
 Nature has given this fiord to travel upon and 
 carry freight ?" 
 
 " And not rocks alone to contend with," said 
 Ellen, " but all these streams to cross. Just look 
 at that one tearing and tumbling and roaring 
 down into the fiord ! And we have passed a 
 dozen such ; would not they have to be bridged, 
 and would that not be very expensive? " 
 
 " Certainly," said Mr. Rosen; " but think of all 
 the tourists who will patronize the road, to say 
 nothing of the produce of these rich farms and 
 marble quarries which can then go swiftly to 
 market." 
 
 " Oh, who would choose a railroad when there is 
 a steamer to be had ! " cried Margaret. " Who 
 had not rather glide softly around these wonderful 
 bends, than go screaming through choky smoky 
 tunnels?" 
 
 " People who have but a week or two to see all 
 Norway," answered her sister, quietly. " Every- 
 body is not as idle and as fortunate as we are ; 
 and do you not remember finding the railroad 
 through Crawford Notch quite as picturesque as 
 the old stage route ; and how glad Hugh was to 
 go so quickly and smoothly? " 
 
108 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 " And how many people prefer the railroad up 
 Mt. Washington, to the bridle-path or the stage," 
 added Ellen ; " but all the same I rejoice that we 
 are on the water, and have plenty of time to go 
 sailing through lovely Norway. How exquisite 
 the view is just here ; and how comical it is to be 
 on salt water, and yet far inland and close to 
 woods and pastures and cottages all the time ! " 
 
 The hours went sunnily on till three o'clock 
 brought them to Bolstadtsoren, the end of the 
 fiord; and after a brief stop, they turned and 
 came back to Garnaes, where the Rosen carriages 
 were to meet them. 
 
 Margaret was more than ever glad that they 
 were not travelling by rail, when she was told 
 that there were nine tunnels between this place 
 and the next station. 
 
 As the steamer approached the pier, a waving 
 handkerchief informed them that their friends 
 were already there; and soon Mrs. Rosen and 
 Inga were distinguished, and in half an hour all 
 were together and speeding away, amid joyful 
 greetings, on their twenty-one mile drive back to 
 Bergen. Up-hill and down-dale, beside lonely 
 streams and placid lakes, through quaint little 
 villages where all the dogs ran out to bark and 
 the children to gaze ; on and on they gayly 
 rolled. 
 
BERGEN. 109 
 
 " How lovely this Bergen peasant dress would 
 be for a fancy party ! " said Ellen, as they passed 
 a group of girls wearing red bodices, white 
 waists, embroidered stomachers, and black skirts, 
 to which some added a long white apron. " I 
 am going to get a photograph of one to send to 
 Jessie Carruth. Would she not be captivating in 
 it? See that tall girl with her hair rolled with 
 red worsted ! It makes a rosy aureole around 
 her head ! " 
 
 " That shows that she is unmarried, " said Mrs. 
 Rosen; "the married women's head-dress is of 
 white cotton stretched over a wooden frame; 
 there is one now, at that cottage door." 
 
 " I must have a photograph like that, too," 
 said Ellen. 
 
 " How pretty most of the girls here are ! " re- 
 marked Margaret ; " and how many have that fas- 
 cinating combination of dark eyes with fair hair 
 and rosy cheeks ! " She was looking at a peas- 
 ant girl as she spoke, but receiving no answer, 
 glanced up to realize that both Mrs. Rosen and 
 her two daughters could claim her admiration for 
 the same charms. 
 
 They were all smiling and blushing at each 
 other. 
 
 " Bergen ladies have always been noted for 
 
110 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 their lovely complexions," said Mr. Rosen of 
 Christiania, coming to their aid ; " so perhaps 
 the perpetual mists and rains have their compen- 
 sations after all." 
 
 And now the beautiful day came to an end in 
 the still more delightful evening, and the liveliness 
 of the girls was gradually changed to a more 
 pensive and dreamy mood, and finally to actual 
 drowsiness, for it was midnight when at last they 
 returned to Holdt's Hotel, where they gladly 
 tumbled into beds and dreams in almost the 
 same moment. 
 
 The next day w r as spent in rambling through 
 the Bergen shops ; especially did they linger at a 
 famous fur store, feasting their eyes on much, and 
 buying a little. Ellen chose a muff of eider-down 
 for herself, and several pounds of it for pillows 
 for Cousin Miranda. Annie Harley secured a 
 dark gray squirrel cloak-lining, while Margaret 
 and Miss Thora Rosen preferred grebe muffs. 
 
 The next day they bade a reluctant farewell to 
 pretty Bergen, their comfortable hotel, and the 
 kind Rosens. Their farewell walk was up one of 
 the seven hills, by a zigzag road between neat and 
 cosy peasant houses, the windows decked with 
 white lace curtains and gay with plants; and 
 they also visited one of the ware-houses on the 
 
BERGEN. 1 1 1 
 
 Tydske Brygge or German wharf, unchanged 
 since the time of the Hanseatic acceptance of 
 Bergen, hundreds of years ago. This part of the 
 town was kept entirely distinct, surrounded by a 
 wall, and only the members of the league lived 
 there. No woman was allowed within their 
 limits, and marriage with a native was strictly 
 forbidden. 
 
 " Good-bye, dear Bergen," said Ellen, as they 
 steamed up the Hardanger Fiord. " Oh, girls, 
 don't you hope we shall come again some day ! " 
 
 " Yes, indeed I do," cried Margaret, impulsively. 
 " I will make it a condition, if I am ever mar- 
 ried, that my wedding journey shall be through 
 Norway." 
 
 " That would be easily arranged with Lieutenant 
 Bonval," whispered Miss Rosen to the others ; but 
 Margaret pretended to be entirely engrossed in 
 watching the pretty little villages they were pass- 
 ing, nestled at the base of endlessly successive 
 mountains, each with its dashing waterfall, its 
 fluttering birches, and sombre evergreens. 
 
 As they neared the pier at Eide, two sunburned 
 young men came quickly on board, and made 
 their way towards our party. 
 
 " Look ! It is Mr. Murray and Mr. McLean ! " 
 cried Margaret; and the next moment all were 
 
112 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 shaking hands with their pleasant North Cape 
 comrades, and exchanging accounts of adventures 
 met with since they parted. The girls assured 
 them that they had missed a great deal in Bergen. 
 " The prettiest girls in Norway," Margaret in- 
 formed them. 
 
 " Ah, then we have escaped a great danger ! " 
 retorted Mr. Murray ; " it is far safer for us to lose 
 our hearts to waterfalls and mountain peaks." 
 
 " But the old silver spoons and the furs ! " said 
 Ellen. 
 
 " What a mercy to our pockets ! " persisted 
 Mr. McLean, gallantly adding, " no, no, we re- 
 gret nothing but your company ; " and then the 
 bell rang, and with friendliest wishes they parted 
 once more. 
 
 " What a pity there are so many nice people 
 in the world ! " said Mr. Rosen, " we are always 
 bidding them farewell." 
 
 But the girls would not agree to this. 
 
 " Just think," said Ellen, " we have not only 
 enjoyed all these pleasant acquaintances at the 
 time ; but we shall have the remembrance of them 
 as long as we live, and the sorrow of parting is 
 soon over." 
 
 " That depends," said Mr. Rosen ; but now they 
 were entering the beautiful Sor Fiord, and though 
 
BERGEN. 113 
 
 night was falling, they lingered on deck another 
 hour, enjoying its wild shores in the cool twilight. 
 At ten, it was quite dark, and, finding that they 
 should not reach Odde before three, Annie went 
 down to see what the ladies' saloon might offer in 
 the way of rest. 
 
 She soon came back, shaking her head. " It 
 is crowded and stuffy and hot. We can never 
 sleep there. I shall stay here all night." 
 
 "And so shall I," said Ellen, who, though 
 quiet, was always ready for anything new and 
 adventurous, especially in the evening ; and very 
 soon they had contrived a fairly comfortable 
 couch among the bags and bundles on top of the 
 saloon skylight, where she and Annie stretched 
 themselves, while Margaret and Miss Rosen curled 
 themselves on coils of rope in the stern, and all 
 secured several hours of sleep. Now and again, 
 the hardness of the bed would rouse them ; but 
 even when rubbing an aching arm or stretching a 
 cramped foot, there would be a happy look at 
 the winking stars overhead, a delicious sense of 
 freedom in the pure air, and a sigh of content 
 that they were still " sailing through Norway." 
 
 Ellen woke as the day dawned, and found the 
 heavens overcast with clouds, mountains looming 
 darkly around, ghostly streams gliding down their 
 
114 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 sides from the snowfields, and glaciers on their 
 summits. 
 
 She lay still, drinking in the solemn beauty of 
 the scene, storing it in her memory for the never- 
 forgotten friends at home, and careful not to 
 wake Annie, who yet slept. Suddenly a turn of 
 her head towards the west gave her the first view 
 of something so beautiful that she barely re- 
 pressed a cry of wonder and delight. 
 
 Far, far above, seen only in fragments between 
 nearer peaks, stretched the great Folgefond 
 glacier, which covers the tops of a remoter range, 
 and can be seen far out at sea. 
 
 For fifty miles this great mantle of spotless 
 snow extends, with an average width of seven 
 miles. It covers a plateau from three to five 
 thousand feet in height, which rises from the 
 Hardanger Fiord on the west, the Aakre Fiord on 
 the south, and the Sor Fiord on the east. From the 
 latter fiord, which narrows at its upper end to but 
 a few hundred yards, the mountain rises almost 
 perpendicularly to its greatest height (5,420 ft.), 
 and from its main roof-like top descend lesser 
 glaciers, like flying buttresses, in every direction. 
 Whether glittering in the sunlight, or coldly 
 gleaming under the moon-beams, or as Ellen saw 
 it now, a cold, vast wall of awful opaque white- 
 
BERGEN. 115 
 
 ness against a gray sky, it is most solemnly beau- 
 tiful and impressive. 
 
 The other girls still slumbered ; and Ellen, ris- 
 ing gently to her feet, stood gazing spell-bound, 
 alone, hardly breathing in her rapture of surprise 
 and admiration. It was like her solitary vigil on 
 the North Cape, a moment never to be forgotten. 
 At first her mind found no words ; but presently 
 the color rushed to her cheeks, her eyes filled 
 with tears, and her lips involuntarily breathed: 
 
 " Oh, if Sidney could see this ! " Her heart 
 had spoken at last ; and she was as much startled 
 as if a real veil had been torn away. Instantly her 
 hands covered her face, as if to hide her secret 
 from the shaggy hemlocks and splintered rocks 
 between which the boat was gliding; and it was 
 an actual relief when the other girls awoke and 
 broke into cries of astonished admiration. 
 
 Odde, at the southern end of Sor Fiord, was 
 now reached, and comfortable rooms found at a 
 small hotel. They were small but very clean, and 
 had two beds in each. 
 
 " Oh, how good a real bed is after a coil of 
 rope !" exclaimed Margaret, as she and Ellen were 
 undressing very early that night ; " and to take 
 our clothes off and comb our hair respectably." 
 
 " Yes, indeed, " said Ellen ; " but it was worth 
 
Il6 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 being cramped and stiff to have such a waken~ 
 ing;" and then came a recollection, stifled all 
 day, which dyed her cheeks, and attracted Mar- 
 garet, who chanced to look out from her heavy 
 masses of hair at that moment. " I do believe 
 you are sunburned, Nelly, in spite of the cloudy 
 day," she said. 
 
 After the room was dark, and Margaret asleep, 
 Ellen's thoughts would no longer be controlled, 
 but rose in rebellion against some inner object- 
 ing voice, telling her again and again that it was 
 Sidney first and Sidney most, for whom, in each 
 ecstasy of enjoyment, her heart had called. In 
 vain she strove to believe that her mother was 
 the one she would soonest summon to her side, 
 her brother or Amy whose sympathy she most 
 desired ; that new consciousness repulsed them 
 all, and when, as a last resort, she cried shame on 
 herself for an unsought preference, the traitorous 
 whisper said, " Not so, not so ! He loves you, he 
 has always loved you ! " In swift, bewildering 
 succession words and looks came back to justify 
 her love, to soothe her pride, to thrill her with 
 terrifying joy and conviction. But why, why 
 had he made no sign? Before she could decide 
 this, she was fast asleep. 
 
 They slept late next morning, but woke at last 
 
BERGEN. 117 
 
 remorseful over lost hours amid such beauty, 
 and, as soon as breakfast was over, started with 
 Mr. Rosen and a guide, in two wagons, for an 
 out-door day. 
 
 " How prosaic to drive after fiord floating ! " 
 said Annie, as they were going up a long hill. 
 
 " On that very account I have ordered a lake 
 for the next relay," said Mr. Rosen ; and, behold, 
 as they gained the summit, a lovely sheet of 
 water lay below, clear and green as an emerald 
 in the cool shadow of the heights. 
 
 " How perfectly delightful ! " Annie declared, 
 with unusual animation in her dark eyes, as 
 Mr. Rosen handed her into the boat provided, 
 " this is even better than our beloved ' Michael 
 Krohn.' " 
 
 " Treason ! Treason ! " cried Ellen and Mar- 
 garet. 
 
 " Oh, you know that steam can never be as 
 romantic as oars or sails ! " 
 
 " But throw in Captain Bjornstadt and the 
 scale turns, hey?" said Mr. Rosen. 
 
 All too soon the lake was crossed ; and, behold, 
 another change, for here were ponies. 
 
 " Oh, this is best of all ! " cried Margaret, as 
 she sprang nimbly into her saddle. " How de- 
 lightful to be on horseback once more ! " 
 
Il8 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 " And how sure-footed and wise-like they are ! " 
 said Ellen. " I am not guiding mine at all. He 
 is taking the whole responsibility of this rocky 
 path." 
 
 " He knows that you are a tourist, and feels a 
 national pride in having you give your whole 
 mind to the scenery of his beautiful land," said 
 Mr. Rosen. 
 
 " How comfortable these cloth-covered saddles 
 are ! " said Annie ; " much better than those we 
 had at Mt. Desert, Margaret." 
 
 Their path lay close to the edge of a stream 
 that came dashing down from the glacier, cold 
 and gray, but bordered by the greenest of grass 
 and the bluest of bluebells. 
 
 Ellen slipped off her pony, and gathered 
 enough for belt bouquets for her friends, and a 
 few for her little pocket-press; and before she 
 remounted, spied some great spikes of deeply 
 pink foxgloves which were even more irresistible. 
 
 "Do you remember the spray in Landseer's 
 'Twins'?" said Annie, as Mr. Rosen amiably 
 filled two of his pockets with great bunches 
 rolled in some of the dozen handkerchiefs which 
 the girls declared he always carried for possible 
 emergencies. 
 
 " One of my strongest foxglove associations is 
 
BERGEN. 119 
 
 with Sarah Tytler's story of ' The Bride's Pass/ " 
 said Ellen ; " but I believe they were white ones 
 that decided the heroine's fate." 
 
 And now they were so near the glacier that 
 even the ponies were given up, and a short rough 
 scramble on their own feet, carried the travellers 
 to the very throne of the ice king. Over huge 
 rocks and earth deeply ploughed by the tremen- 
 dous force of the ice, they struggled up to a 
 little stony hillock, and stood silent before the 
 majestic presence, looking up beyond the blue- 
 ness of the nearer ice masses, over the gray of 
 the middle distance, to the pure whiteness of the 
 snowy tops that seemed to melt away into the 
 mists which hung over all. But no words could 
 really describe the wonderful color of that glacier. 
 " No blue cavern of Capri was ever bluer than 
 these ice grottos. Clear, transparent cobalt 
 toward the edge, and deepest Prussian in the 
 innermost recesses," so Ellen tried later to 
 convey some idea of its magical beauty to her 
 Cousin Miranda, who had taught her to sketch. 
 At the moment words were felt to be useless; 
 and, after a long survey, they turned and looked 
 down the valley, past picturesque farmhouses, at 
 whose side a mountain torrent fell in clouds of 
 spray to the emerald green lake, beyond which 
 
120 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 rose mountains again, in varying shades of blue. 
 It was all wonderful. Close to the glacier were 
 fields of barley and wild roses growing luxu- 
 riantly; but the guide now hurried them back to 
 their ponies, who picked their way so carefully 
 and surely down the splintered rocky path, that 
 even Annie felt no fear, though a mishap would 
 there have been most serious. 
 
 When they reached the village, the women 
 were sitting about in picturesque groups in their 
 Sunday best, — red bodices, embroidered stom- 
 achers, dark skirts, and wonderful caps. 
 
 After a short rest, they took boat again, and 
 were rowed back to the wagons, each of which 
 held two besides the driver, and had a most pecu- 
 liar side-to-side motion which made poor Annie 
 too sick to enjoy the scenery, though she strug- 
 gled bravely not to dishearten the others. Mr. 
 Rosen and his daughter were in the stol-kjcerre 
 with her; and the former, not noticing her pallor, 
 was imparting some interesting tatistics on the 
 subject of the advance of the Folgefond which he 
 had collected for their benefit. 
 
 "Two hundred and fifty feet, in 1870, and no 
 less than twelve feet in one week in 1871," he 
 assured them. 
 
 11 Wonderful ! terrible ! " murmured poor Annie, 
 
BERGEN. 121 
 
 gladly taking a strong sniff of the smelling salts 
 which Miss Rosen offered with silent sympathy. 
 
 Margaret and Ellen meanwhile were so far 
 ahead with the guide as to have no suspicion of 
 her suffering, and enjoyed to the uttermost the 
 ten-mile drive through an ever-narrowing valley, 
 coming at last to their object, the Laatefos, — a 
 most beautiful waterfall formed by two streams 
 which came thundering down over the rocks in 
 clouds of foam and spray, to unite near the road, 
 then rush away under it through an arched bridge. 
 
 " I have no words left, have you, Ellen? " asked 
 Margaret, when they had first been blinded by the 
 spray, and then made dizzy by looking up the 
 cliffs, which rise two or three thousand feet on one 
 side of the road, the river rushing swiftly on the 
 other, and the road-way itself cut out of the solid 
 rock. 
 
 " Words and pencils would seem almost pro- 
 fane," sighed Ellen ; " but, oh, let us be thankful 
 that we can buy photographs of such unspeakable, 
 unsketchable places as this ! " 
 
 An inn, a little farther on, furnished them with 
 refreshing coffee; for " such draughts upon one's 
 powers of admiration are as exhausting as skating 
 or tennis," as Margaret declared, and Annie's 
 headache was much relieved thereby. 
 
122 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 The next morning was less ecstatically spent 
 in exploring Odde, which they found to consist 
 of some two dozen houses and a church. 
 
 Making friends with one of the peasant women, 
 she invited them into her best room, and showed 
 them her store of homespun blankets and gar- 
 ments, carved chests, a bedstead built into the 
 wall, and the silver ornaments she had received as 
 a bride. 
 
 At noon they took the boat back along the 
 lovely SSr Fiord till it rejoins the wide Hardanger 
 Fiord. This they crossed, landing at Eide, on its 
 northern shore, about four o'clock. 
 
 " Behold the ever-faithful ! " said Mr. Rosen, 
 as Murray and McLean stepped forward to hand 
 the ladies ashore. Mr. Murray, as usual, was soon 
 beside grave Annie, whose dark eyes and dignified 
 manners had long ago made her his favorite, while 
 his friend gayly led the others to some benches he 
 had arranged in a neighboring hay-field, with a 
 little refreshment of cakes and coffee, of which 
 they cheerfully partook while waiting for the 
 carriages to pursue their journey. 
 
 " It is just like a picture on a Watteau fan," 
 declared Margaret, as the three gentlemen passed 
 the cups, and then reclined upon the hay-heaps at 
 their feet. 
 
BERGEN. 123 
 
 She was not unlike a pretty shepherdess herself, 
 having brightened her dark gray flannel suit with 
 bunches of wild roses ; and Ellen was even prettier 
 in blue, with a bright bordered Norwegian neck- 
 erchief as a fichu, and another twisted Havelock- 
 wise over her hat. 
 
 All too soon the carriages were ready, and they 
 rolled away, leaving the friendly Scots waving and 
 calling, "Au revoir — Edinburgh," as they took 
 the road to Vossevangen. A charming way it 
 proved, climbing up and up among the hills, follow- 
 ing the courses of streams, through spicy smelling 
 woods of pine and fir, then down the other side till 
 they gained their inn at ten, with hearty appetites 
 for the excellent supper awaiting them. 
 
 The next morning was what Margaret called a 
 providential letter-day ; for it rained in such tor- 
 rents that walking was not to be dreamed of; and 
 pens flew fast all the forenoon. Consciences were 
 much relieved when, at one o'clock, they started 
 for Gudvangen, leaving their letters to the slow 
 course of Vossevangen postal facilities. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 VESTRE SLIDRE. 
 
 The last week in July found our three girls again 
 with Mrs. Erlsen, comfortably settled in her sum- 
 mer retreat among the mountains at Vestre 
 Slidre, in the Valders district. 
 
 The journey from Vossevangen was delightful ; 
 but minds and bodies were both glad to rest after 
 many hours of incessant enjoying and admiring, 
 " on one ecstatic tiptoes," as Margaret said. 
 
 The weather had been wonderfully clear and 
 bright ever since the morning they left Vossevan- 
 gen; then it poured for two hours, and water- 
 proofs and umbrellas rather dimmed the glories 
 around them ; but on reaching Opheim, where 
 they stopped for coffee, it began to clear, and 
 only the mountain-tops were veiled. 
 
 Beyond Opheim, they came through magnifi- 
 cent scenery in the Nsero Valley, the descent to 
 which is by sixteen or eighteen zigzags, with a 
 beautiful waterfall on each side of the ravine in 
 which they came down. 
 
VESTRE SLIDRE. 125 
 
 " Unceasing thunder and eternal foam." The 
 spray and mist from one rises to the very top of 
 the mountain. The girls walked down this part 
 of the road eating wild strawberries. 
 
 " If it were not for these fleshly joys, I fear we 
 should fairly soar away on the wings of aesthetic 
 rapture/* said Ellen. 
 
 First, they would stop to look at one cascade, 
 as the road bent that way, and then at the other, 
 as it curved again. Down in the valley, the wild 
 waters met ; and they drove beside the new stream, 
 under the shadow of mountains some of which 
 were five thousand feet high. 
 
 Many had domelike summits, and between 
 them waterfalls came tumbling apparently from 
 the sky. 
 
 The water was very clear, the stones beneath it 
 white, the road white too, and wherever there had 
 been a recent slide, or where spring freshets had 
 brought down fresh stones, there were white 
 patches. It made Ellen think of Mark Twain's 
 account of the glare of Bermuda walks, where it 
 gave him a refreshing sense of shade and coolness 
 to meet a colored man and his shadow. 
 
 Reaching Gudvangen at nine in the evening, the 
 travellers found only a few miserable huts and two 
 or three painted houses, which were the hotels. 
 
126 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 To their dismay, they were told that all the 
 rooms were taken. The family, however, kindly 
 offered to give up their own, which was grate- 
 fully accepted ; but when the girls went in, their 
 noses were assailed by such a combination of dis- 
 agreeable odors, that they walked out as fast as 
 possible, and begged permission to sleep on the 
 parlor floor. The people nobly forgave their 
 contempt for the rooms, and made two beds, one 
 on the floor, where Annie and Ellen did their best 
 to sleep, while Miss Rosen and Margaret were 
 equally uncomfortable on a combination of a sofa 
 with a row of chairs ; and poor Mr. Rosen betook 
 himself to some shed. 
 
 Before nightfall, they had all taken a stroll 
 through the village, and were greatly impressed 
 by three old women whom they saw in one little 
 house. They were as weirdly ugly as Macbeth's 
 witches. 
 
 They were also shown a huge rock behind the 
 hotel which had fallen from the cliff above, some 
 months before, and now forms a cool cave where 
 they keep milk, etc. 
 
 " A few feet more, and where would the house 
 have been?'' said Annie. 
 
 All were abroad early next day, as you may 
 suppose, and took another ramble with Mr. 
 
VESTRE SLIDRE. 1 27 
 
 Rosen, who looked jaded indeed. When asked 
 as to his night's rest, he shrugged his shoulders 
 and said, " You see me here ; it is enough, let 
 us forget the past." In the course of this walk 
 they saw a house, or hut rather, with 1782 over 
 the door. Within was a room not more than ten 
 feet square, the door so low that even Ellen must 
 have stooped to enter ; but she had no such desire. 
 The whole village was malodorous; but Annie 
 and Ellen each made a pretty sketch, for even 
 these turf or red roofed hovels made a charming 
 water-color, wedged in between grand cliffs and 
 steeps of brown rock, or soft green herbage, or 
 exquisite shadings of violet and blue on the more 
 distant slopes. 
 
 But no one was sorry to leave on the steamer 
 for Laerdal ; and after enjoying for a while the 
 narrow fiord winding through very steep cliffs, 
 fatigue overcame them, and they slept profoundly 
 in the cabin. 
 
 One of the beautiful peaks which they saw, 
 as they came down the zigzags of the Nserodal, 
 was Jordalsnut, three thousand six hundred feet 
 high, and composed of pale gray felspar. 
 
 Reaching Lserdal at four, they were shown to 
 delightfully clean rooms, but even there suffered 
 as usual from large and numerous fleas. Mr. and 
 
128 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 Mrs. Erlsen were awaiting them, and " You may 
 imagine," wrote Ellen, in her journal letter, " how 
 homelike and delightful it was to see their bright 
 faces beaming welcome. 
 
 "The next morning we all started together 
 in two carriages, the ponies climbing steadily, 
 patiently, up and up, hill after hill ; clear cold 
 rivers rushing down to meet us, so clear that 
 we could see fish lurking in their pools. Oh, 
 how Cousin John would have been tempted to 
 stop ! 
 
 " The valley was fertile and the grain golden ; 
 but the hills above were utterly bare and rocky. 
 We stopped several times for lunch and dinner, 
 and to rest the horses; and each time met an 
 English couple, a Mr. and Mrs. Ford, who were 
 very pleasant. 
 
 " We found silver ornaments and carved spoons 
 for sale at each station ; and I bought two of the 
 latter, which was great moderation, as I would 
 have liked a dozen. We saw one beautiful tan- 
 kard for seventy-five dollars; and there were 
 some very odd candlesticks, which we resisted 
 only because it was so impossible to carry them. 
 
 " At Maristuen, we were on the Fille Fjeld ; and 
 from there to Nystuen, where we spent the night, 
 we were really on the mountains, snow lying not 
 
VESTRE SLIDRE. 1 29 
 
 far from us, and the only trees being a silvery 
 green mountain willow and the dwarf birch. 
 
 " Near Maristuen, we passed a saeter, and saw 
 many cows, sheep, goats, and horses. These last 
 two stations are established by government for 
 the convenience of travellers, and men are paid 
 to live there. 
 
 "At Nystuen, there were three long narrow 
 buildings parallel to the valley, as otherwise they 
 could not withstand the violence of the winter 
 tempests. 
 
 " Here we had good rooms and a nice supper, 
 principally of fish, as most meals here are, wind- 
 ing up with some of the goodies which Mrs. 
 Erlsen had sent to Laerdal. 
 
 " The Fords were there too, and we had a jolly 
 time with a due number of ' skaals.' Then we 
 walked by the lake by the light of a full moon ; 
 the air delicious, though cold, for we are three 
 thousand feet above the sea. 
 
 " The pigs here are very funny, with long tails 
 curling along their backs, and their ears looking 
 like large curled wigs. Margaret is sketching 
 one, but having so hard a time with such a rest- 
 less subject that I think I shall not attempt it. 
 
 " But to return to our journey. We started 
 early next morning, hoping to reach Fagernaes by 
 
 9 
 
130 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 eight in the evening, and there meet the Erlsens. 
 This day's driving was all down-hill, so we made 
 good speed and arrived at our dining-place about 
 two. As we drove up to the station, we beheld a 
 familiar group by the roadside, and, staring in 
 bewildered joy, recognized Mrs. Erlsen's lit- 
 tle maid, Henrik, and Ingeborg in her baby- 
 carriage. 
 
 " We tumbled out of our carioles, and rushed 
 towards them, and soon learned that they had 
 come from Fagernaes that morning, having heard 
 that they could be accommodated at the parson- 
 age here; and they were already comfortably 
 established. 
 
 " The parsonage is a large white house sepa- 
 rated from the main road by a garden full of 
 roses. The pastor died this summer; but his 
 widow and six daughters consented to take 
 boarders as usual. 
 
 " Annie is there with her sister ; but Margaret 
 and I are at the station hotel, having a large airy 
 room, though not very clean. 
 
 " The Rosens left us to-day, hoping to meet us 
 again in Christiania. Our windows look on a 
 lovely lake, with wooded islands, and hills all 
 around, those to the northwest wearing patches 
 of snow, which remind us of the beautiful north- 
 
VESTRE SLIDRE. 131 
 
 land, which I at least constantly long to see 
 again. 
 
 " The pastor's family are very pleasant, and we 
 are with them much of the time ; but we miss the 
 Rosens sadly. 
 
 " Annie and I went to church, and were much 
 interested. The building is of stone, white- 
 washed within ; windows only at one side and 
 end ; no ornament except the altar and a sort of 
 choir screen separating the chancel from the 
 body of the church. These were elaborately 
 carved and beautifully painted. The pastor wore 
 first a white and then a black gown, and an 
 Elizabethan ruff. The singing was by the con- 
 gregation, very slow and melancholy, led by one 
 or two men inside the screen. The altar w r as 
 very Romish looking, with a crucifix and candles 
 lighted for a christening, which followed the 
 sermon. 
 
 " The congregation consisted principally of 
 peasants, the men sitting on one side, the women 
 on the other, the latter with kerchiefs of many 
 colors. A girl in front of me wore a cotton one 
 printed with Kaulbach's ' Lili ' ; but most of the 
 designs were flowery. 
 
 "The church walls, nearly five feet thick, made 
 the windows look prison-like. I could understand 
 
132 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 the Lord's Prayer, and part of the New Testament 
 reading, but little else. The vane on the steeple 
 bears the date 1706; and that reminds me to tell 
 you of a wonderful old church we saw at Bor- 
 gund, on our way here, which in the scroll-work 
 of its klock-stapely or belfry, has the date 1133. 
 It is remarkably well preserved, but is not used 
 now, services being held in a new edifice near by, 
 the old one being the property of the Antiquarian 
 Society of Christiania. Here again we noticed 
 that strange impress of the East, which is con- 
 stantly amazing us in this northern land. The 
 archways over the doors are carved in scroll- 
 work almost exactly like what we see in pictures 
 of mosques in Cairo ; the walls, as well as the 
 roofs, are shingled ; and the outside effect is like 
 a card-house, one roof above another, many 
 gables, and each ending in a curly prolongation, or 
 dragon's head, decidedly Japanesque, — or is it 
 Byzantine? There is a narrow, cloister-like walk 
 all around outside; one door is very high and 
 elaborately ornamented with entwining snakes, 
 and over another is a Runic inscription. Inside, 
 it is very dark, the windows are so few and small ; 
 but the pillars look as strong at if set up yester- 
 day. Who built it, or why, in this remote little 
 valley of few houses, we cannot learn. I have 
 
OLD BORGUND CHURCH. 
 
VESTRE SLIDRE. 1 33 
 
 bought a photograph of it ; for my words cannot 
 make you understand how quaintly curious it is. 
 
 " There is one somewhat like it in Thelemarken, 
 and there was a third which was carried to Ger- 
 many. The new one at Borgund is a half imita- 
 tion of the original. The bell towers are almost 
 always separate structures, another resemblance 
 to Southern countries. ,, 
 
 July 27th. 
 
 This is a very pretty place, but we feel even 
 more out of the world than we did at the North 
 Cape; for though telegraph wires stretch over 
 our heads, there is no telegraphic station within 
 two days' journey ; and we have but two mails a 
 week. I fancy I hear Cousin John say, " How 
 delightful ! " 
 
 This house is shockingly dirty. Pigs, geese, 
 and dogs running about the yard, and, alas ! 
 smaller life within ; but there are pleasant people, 
 — a Swedish baroness and two daughters, one of 
 whom speaks English ; another Swedish lady and 
 her daughter, a pretty blonde who dresses in 
 pink and wears conch-shell ornaments. This 
 evening she plucked up courage to say a few 
 words to me in English. 
 
 Then there is a Miss Nordenskjold, related to 
 the Arctic explorer. You see we are quite a la 
 
134 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 New England summer boarding-places, in our 
 feminine majority. Miss Nordenskjold started 
 this afternoon on horseback, on a queer saddle 
 like an arm-chair, to go with a daughter of the 
 house to a sseter, two and a half Norwegian miles 
 from here ; but as it soon began to rain, I fear her 
 trip will be far from pleasant. 
 
 We have also two or three young men, who 
 bow politely, but say nothing. 
 
 Yesterday the Harleys and their sister and I 
 walked up to a sunny hillside, and lay a long time 
 flat in the grass, watching the ever-changing lights 
 and shadows on the opposite hill, and the lake 
 below, which is called Strandefiord. It seems to 
 me that I love you all better than ever, now that 
 I am so far away. 
 
 Good-bye — do write often to your absent 
 
 Ellen. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SIDNEY. 
 
 AMONG the rainy day letters which our travellers 
 left to be mailed at Vossevangen was a little 
 package for Jessie Carruth, containing two col- 
 ored photographs, — one of a pretty Bergen peas- 
 ant girl in her holiday costume, and one of a 
 married woman with her quaint head-dress. 
 
 It happened (if anything does merely happen) 
 that Jessie opened it at the breakfast-table, and 
 that, for a wonder, she was early enough to find 
 Sidney still in the room. 
 
 Perhaps he had noticed a foreign stamp in the 
 pile of mail matter beside her plate, and lingered 
 over his newspaper on that account. If so, he 
 preserved his patience admirably, while she tore 
 open half-a-dozen envelopes in the intervals of 
 coffee and chops, commenting on each, in her 
 usual lively fashion, to her mother opposite. 
 
 " How perfectly absurd of Leila Gray to be 
 married in August ! " she cried. " Does she really 
 think that any one in their senses is coming up 
 
136 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 from the seashore to simmer through a noon-day 
 wedding and reception ! I shall not even send a 
 wedding present to such an inconsiderate thing ; 
 would you, Mamma?" 
 
 " It is just possible that Ben Brown cannot 
 take a vacation at any other time," responded 
 Mrs. Carruth, placidly. 
 
 "And here is Marjorie Monks quite as bad," 
 pursued Jessie, tossing down the pale-blue billet 
 and opening a green one. "Think of her au- 
 dacity in asking me to come in fancy dress to a 
 lawn party on the tenth, for the benefit of the 
 Fresh Air Fund ! When it 's all I can do to keep 
 good-natured at home in my coolest tea-gown, 
 and to struggle down to the beach at bathing- 
 time." 
 
 " Perhaps Marjorie remembers that there are 
 hundreds of girls who never had a cool tea-gown, 
 or saw a sea-beach," said her brother, gravely. 
 
 " Oh, come, Sidney ! Don't be so painfully 
 high-minded in dog-days ! Or, if you 're made so, 
 and can't help it, just give me five dollars to send 
 to Marjorie, and that '11 make everybody happy. 
 Now that you 're a regular partner in papa's law 
 firm, I know you must have more than you know 
 what to do with, and you have n't even taken a 
 vacation this summer." 
 
SIDNEY. 137 
 
 "Why haven't you, dear boy?" asked his 
 mother, as Jessie returned to her billets. 
 
 " It is very nice having you coming down to 
 us every night ; but we don't want to be selfish ; 
 and sometimes I fancy you look tired, and as if 
 a change would do you good." 
 
 " I believe I am rather stupid," answered Sid- 
 ney, with a grateful smile at his mother. " I 
 think I shall take a leave soon." 
 
 He had not thought of it before ; but all in a 
 moment a great longing possessed him to leave 
 clients, courts, and city cares far behind, to get 
 away to some cool mountain height, to hear 
 the wind rushing among pine branches, to ex- 
 plore primeval forests or float on some lonely 
 lake at twilight, — ah, how good it would be ! 
 Surely thus he might for a time forget a gentle, 
 haunting face, conquer this weary craving for that 
 low, clear voice, and be himself once more ; and 
 yet how much sweeter it would be to enjoy those 
 free lonely wilds with her, had that been possible ; 
 and just then Jessie's careless fingers tore open 
 her last packet and cried out : — 
 
 " From Nelly Marlow ! Look, Mamma ! Look 
 at these Bergen peasant costumes ! Are n't they 
 charming? Could anything be more opportune? 
 I'll go, of course. It'll suit my style exactly; 
 
138 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 and, with the photograph as a guide, Pauline can 
 get it up in no time ; and I '11 make Anna wear 
 the matron's dress. I must write to Marjorie at 
 once. I believe I can get the ten-o'clock boat if 
 I skurry." 
 
 She fell upon her breakfast with celerity, lan- 
 guor and heat forgotten ; while her mother smiled 
 indulgently, quite accustomed to her volatile little 
 daughter's changes of mood. 
 
 " They are certainly very picturesque," she 
 said, studying the photographs which Jessie had 
 passed over to her. 
 
 " And what is this?" asked Sidney, picking up 
 a printed strip which had fallen to the floor. 
 
 " Oh, only some time-table thing ! You 're wel- 
 come to it, Sidney. Just like Nelly to put it in. 
 She and you are a pair on statistics ! " And she 
 fluttered out of the room, looking in a minute 
 later to say : — 
 
 " Oh, Sidney, you can give me that five dollars 
 all the same ; I shall want it for the stuffs, you 
 know. Leave it with the photographs, and, 
 Mamma — be sure and give them to me the last 
 thing before I go." She was really gone this 
 time ; and, Mrs. Carruth being called out by some 
 household matter, Sidney was left alone to ex- 
 amine his treasure. Treasure it must have been, 
 
 
SIDNEY. 139 
 
 for he raised it to his lips ; yet it looked prosaic 
 enough, a little eight-page leaflet, hardly as long 
 as his hand, with these words on the outside : — 
 
 Summer Tour 
 
 to the North Cape. 
 
 188— 
 
 The 
 
 Bergen- Nordland Steamship Co/s 
 
 line of steamers between 
 
 Christiania 
 
 AND 
 
 The North Cape 
 in June, July, and August, 
 
 Comprising the following first-class steamers, all being 
 
 excellently furnished for the accommodation of 
 
 passengers. 
 
 John Schonning, Jonas Lie, 
 
 Capt. Bentzon. Capt. Falch. 
 
 President Christie, Michael Krohn, 
 
 Capt. Lund. Capt. Bjornstadt. 
 
 Bergen — Norway, 
 
 C. J. Schonning, 
 
 Manager. 
 
 Bergen : 
 Printed by H. J. Geelmuyden's Widow, J. A. Ring. 
 
I40 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 On the back were diagrams of the four steam- 
 ers, and — yes — a little pencilled "E," on one 
 of the state-rooms of the " Michael Krohn." It 
 was almost as if he heard Ellen's footstep ! He 
 turned one leaf and read : — 
 
 " There are four routes from England to Nor- 
 way in the excellent steamers of Messrs. Wilson 
 & Co., first from London to Christiania, on alter- 
 nate Thursdays," etc. etc. He perused the whole 
 page with close attention, a strong purpose grow- 
 ing in his mind with every line. The aimless 
 longing of months changed into bold decision 
 faster than he read; and when, within the last 
 fold of the circular, he came upon a little spray 
 of bluebells pressed between two birch leaves, 
 his brown eyes flashed with hope, then suddenly 
 filled with tears. The next moment, the precious 
 pages carefully placed in his pocket-book, he was 
 running upstairs, singing under his breath : — 
 
 " He either fears his fate too much, 
 Or his desert is small, 
 Who dares not put it to the touch 
 And win or lose it all." 
 
 As he passed Jessie's door, he tapped, and on 
 her answering, " Come in," opened the door far 
 enough to twist a five-dollar bill round the head 
 
SIDNEY. 141 
 
 of a bronze Psyche on her table, and the next 
 moment was on his way to the steamer-landing. 
 
 In the course of the day, finding himself alone 
 in the office with his father, he inquired : — 
 
 " Would it inconvenience you, sir, if I should 
 go away for a month or six weeks? " 
 
 " No, indeed, my boy, you have fairly earned 
 it. Another yachting party of Pelham's ? " 
 
 " No, sir, I had thought of going alone to — to 
 Norway." Something in his voice made Mr. 
 Carruth look up ; their eyes met and held each 
 other for an instant, one pair eloquent with earnest 
 inquiry, the other with honest assent. Then, as 
 a step was heard in the outer room, the father 
 quietly said, " You could not please me more; " 
 and there was not another word said on the 
 subject, then or afterward. Sidney sailed three 
 days later ; but, in the mean time, he had spent 
 an afternoon at Lotus Bay. When he left the 
 train at the little station, he had a choice of 
 two ways leading to Professor Willoughby's, — 
 the shorter one, a dusty road ; the other, a ram- 
 bling footpath through fields, following the curve 
 of the shore. He chose the latter, for it was 
 full of old-time sunny memories of Ellen. 
 
 It was here, just below this wind-twisted old 
 cedar-tree, that he first saw her, playing on the 
 
142 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 beach with Jessie. A little farther, where the 
 brook crosses the pebbly shore, he first spoke to 
 her, as she was pacing along alone, singing to 
 her doll. How clearly he could recall the half- 
 frightened, half-pleased look on her face, and the 
 glad surprise with which she accepted his sym- 
 pathy when Cecelia Estella (the doll's name 
 flashed back into his memory so suddenly that 
 he almost laughed aloud) fell out of her carriage 
 and grazed her pink waxen cheek on a stone ! 
 Harry used to laugh at that doll; but Sidney had 
 a finer sense of the owner's feelings; and their 
 friendship had begun when he repaired Cecelia's 
 face from his best paint-box. Now he comes to 
 a pile of rocks which the girls used to call the 
 Mermaid's Grotto. Many a pretty shell and 
 pebble had he contributed to its decoration. 
 
 Next came the bathing houses, recalling a 
 charming picture of recent date, when he had 
 surprised Ellen painting her own particular door 
 Harvard crimson, and so startled her that she 
 had fallen from the tippy saw-horse on which 
 she stood, and spattered his cuff with her brush 
 as he caught her. That was the day they went 
 sailing with Nick Farr, and she had been so firm 
 in telling him it was his duty to go abroad with 
 his father. What a resolute little creature she 
 
SIDNEY. I43 
 
 was, with all her gentleness ! How she had re- 
 buked him once ! — that was on the Potomac, 
 coming up from Mt. Vernon, and he had spoken 
 slightingly of Jessie. Should he ever forget the 
 two bright tears that rolled down and were lost 
 in her muff when she thought he was angry? 
 but she stood her ground all the same. In the 
 thrill of this memory he walked very fast, and 
 soon came to the house, where Mrs. Marlow was 
 embroidering in the porch. She greeted him 
 cordially, and would have called Mrs. Willoughby, 
 who was sketching not far away; but Sidney 
 said, " Please don't — I really came to see you ; " 
 and as he sat down on the step below her, he 
 added, " I came to say good-bye, and to ask your 
 good wishes; for I am going to Europe Sat- 
 urday." She looked up with friendly interest, 
 and something in his eyes held hers as he went 
 on : " To Norway — to see Ellen. " Then the 
 bright color flew to her cheeks, her eyes fell, and 
 her lips trembled ; but she looked so much like 
 her daughter that Sidney went on : " I have 
 loved her all my life, I think ; but lately I have 
 learned that I cannot be happy without her. 
 May I tell her so?" For a few moments, Mrs. 
 Marlow remained silent, visibly agitated; and 
 Sidney was shocked at his own abruptness. He 
 
144 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 had meant to lead up to his errand gradually ; but 
 his beach reminiscences had filled his whole 
 mind, and out of the fulness of his heart he had 
 spoken. At last she looked up and faltered, 
 " Yes, Sidney, you have my full consent. There 
 is no one I love and trust more ; but I do not 
 know her feelings, and, oh ! she seems still my 
 little girl ; I had not thought anything like this 
 would come so soon." Her tears flowed freely, 
 and Sidney began to feel like a robber. 
 
 " It is true, Mrs. Marlow," he stammered. 
 " She is but a child in all innocence and sweet- 
 ness ; but I did not dare to wait. Think of all 
 these fellows she is travelling with now ! I can- 
 not bear it, you see ; I must tell her how I feel at 
 least, and — and — you do not know that any one 
 else — " he broke off half ashamed ; but she 
 understood and answered clearly, " No, Sidney, 
 I am sure of that." Then Mrs. Willoughby came 
 up, and the rest of the visit was unimportant. 
 
CHAPTER XV, 
 
 THE S^ETER. 
 
 Ellen's Journal. 
 
 Vestre Slidre, July 28, 188-. 
 We have just come in from a walk in fields full 
 of flowers : bluebells, daisies, grass of Parnassus, 
 and a dark-red strawberry-like flower. Then 
 we would come to great patches of juniper, along 
 the edges of which grew delicious wild straw- 
 berries. Annie made a good sketch of some 
 dark-red clover-blossoms, which are very rich in 
 color here. I read Norwegian an hour or two 
 every day, and analyze and press a few flowers ; 
 and then I spend the rest of the day rambling 
 about the roads and fields, steeping myself, as it 
 were, in the lovely scenery, but longing more 
 and more to see again the snowclad mountains 
 of the far north, under the bewitching light of 
 the midnight sun. The girls say I am under a 
 spell ; and indeed my fancy does go back to 
 those wildly beautiful places whenever I am 
 quiet and alone. 
 
I46 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 Mother would delight in the horses here, they 
 are so gentle and fond of being petted, though 
 they will not accept the sugar we offer them. 
 
 July 31st. 
 
 Still at Olken, but in a few days we go back 
 to Christiania. We have had several rainy days, 
 which we spent in writing and reading and try- 
 ing to sketch wild flowers. One fair day we 
 made a saeter tour. A saeter is a pasture away 
 up on the mountains, where all the cattle are sent 
 for the summer, it being easier to send them to 
 the grass than to bring the hay down to them, 
 besides which these high pastures are too stony 
 and marshy to be easily mown. Annie remem- 
 bers reading about them in Miss Martineau's 
 "Feats on the Fiord;" and I must get it for 
 mother. The parsonage family here have a 
 saeter, a Norwegian mile from here (about seven 
 English miles), on a mountain called Syndin 
 Fjeld, from which there is a beautiful view; and 
 I was invited to go up there for the day with 
 their boarders. The Harleys did not care to 
 go, so I found myself in an entirely Norwegian 
 party. I was rather scared, but sure that it 
 would be all the more new and interesting. We 
 started at half -past seven, seven ladies and three 
 
X 
 
 
 THE S^TER. 147 
 
 gentlemen an<jl three horses, one horse with well- 
 filled panniers, the others with side-saddles to be 
 shared between four of us. Of course my great 
 trouble was the language ; but I plunged boldly 
 into conversation, and talked a shocking mixture 
 of Norwegian, German, and English. It really 
 would have turned Cousin John gray. 
 
 I managed to make myself understood, and I 
 guessed at their replies. One lady spoke Ger- 
 man, and several knew a little English, but it 
 was all very funny. 
 
 After a short walk on the high road, we were 
 ferried across the lake, and the ascent began. 
 We had clouds at first ; but they soon parted, and 
 we had beautiful sun and shadow on the sur- 
 rounding hills, as we went higher and higher and 
 could look up and down the valley in which 
 is Vestre Slidre, and over its enclosing heights 
 to ranges upon ranges of mountains beyond. 
 The way was very steep; but we went slowly, 
 taking turns on the horses. 
 
 First, we went through cultivated fields, then 
 through fir woods, then out upon open moors, 
 where the only trees were dwarf birches and a 
 kind of willow which grows flat upon the 
 ground, and is imbedded in moss and juniper. 
 
 About noon we reached the saeter. There 
 
V 
 
 148 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 were several log buildings, — one for the saeter 
 girls, the others for the animals. I went into 
 the former, where several of the party were 
 already eating and drinking. 
 
 A wooden porringer filled with rich milk was 
 instantly offered me, and passed from one to the 
 other all around. 
 
 Then we sat at a table, in the centre of which 
 was a shallow, wooden tub filled with sour milk 
 called tyk melk. A wooden spoon was given 
 me; and we all dipped in, skimming off the 
 cream. It was not at all bad, but a few spoons- 
 ful satisfied me. We also had flad-brod and 
 musost with nice butter. 
 
 After appeasing my appetite I looked around. 
 We were sitting in one corner of a small room 
 that took up nearly the whole house. In another 
 corner were two beds built into the wall, one 
 above the other, like berths, only wider. 
 
 In a third corner was the fireplace. Two sides 
 of the house were of stone for about four feet, 
 and the floor was of flat stones upon which the 
 fire was built. From above, hung a crane and 
 / pot-hooks ; on one of the latter hung a pot in 
 which our coffee was boiling. There were two 
 windows, each with four small panes of glass, 
 and two doors, — one by which we had entered, 
 
THE S^ETER. 149 
 
 and the other leading into a small room where 
 the milk and cheeses are kept. There were 
 rows of tubs of all sizes, containing milk in all 
 stages of sourness and sweetness. After drink- 
 ing our coffee, we started to climb to the top of 
 the fjeld, for the saeter house stood in a depres- 
 sion beside a lake. 
 
 Alas ! the clouds had come down and entirely 
 hidden the distant mountains and even the nearer 
 hills. We persisted in going to the top, how- 
 ever, and sat there under our umbrellas, eating 
 chocolate and gazing at the dreary wastes of 
 moorland and the ponds which filled every 
 hollow. / 
 
 Herr Musnau, who has a beautiful voice, sang 
 for us, and we tried to be cheerful. Then we 
 went back to the house and watched the making 
 of flode-grod, or cream porridge, which Nor- 
 wegians consider a great delicacy. I should call 
 it flour gruel made with cream instead of water. 
 The milk was boiling away on the fire, stirred 
 with a stick ending in five strongly reflexed 
 points, like the anchor, called killick. Then 
 the flour was scattered in by one damsel, while 
 another twirled the stick rapidly between her 
 hands. After it had boiled a long time, and the 
 fatty part had been skimmed off and pressed out 
 
150 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 as it separated from the rest, we ate it with 
 cream and sugar. It was not bad ; but I could 
 not be as enthusiastic as the elder Miss Winsnaes, 
 who went into ecstasies over it. Then we had 
 more coffee, and more singing and talking and 
 laughing. We also fed some of the goats, and 
 a cunning little kid that climbed over the gate 
 into the barn and came running to us to be 
 petted and fed. 
 
 All this time the rain poured down. At six 
 we started on our homeward way, despairing of 
 clear weather. Nothing could have been wetter 
 than the grass and bushes through which we 
 walked, except the brooks through which we 
 waded. 
 
 It was well that some of the party knew the 
 way, for the first part lay across moors crossed 
 by many paths, and we might easily have gone 
 astray. When we reached the beaten track, two 
 of the ladies and I walked on very fast to keep 
 warm, and as the road was wholly downhill we 
 got over the ground swiftly, though slippery 
 rocks often obliged us to be careful. Such drip- 
 ping creatures as we were when at nine we 
 reached the parsonage ! My boots seemed to be 
 made of paper ; and my stockings, which started 
 gray, were a mixture of black, green, and brown. 
 
THE S^TER. ISI 
 
 However, I am none the worse to-day, and my 
 clothes came out better than I had dared to 
 hope. Although it was a pity to have missed 
 the view, which they say is exceedingly fine, I 
 had a great deal of fun and enjoyment on the 
 trip. 
 
 That little cup mother gave me was much 
 admired, and proved very useful. It was used 
 for water at the spring, for coffee at the saeter, 
 and for cognac on the homeward wade, just a 
 thimbleful. 
 
 We are to stay here another week, and I hope 
 to make a few sketches. Some of our experi- 
 ences here are very funny. I have had a very 
 shallow wash-basin, which I sportively called 
 the soup-plate. Yesterday it had gone, and a 
 very deep bowl replaced it. Margaret laughed 
 and said, " You have the tureen instead of the 
 plate, that is all." At dessert I nudged her 
 and signed to her to look at the pie dish. 
 
 We had seen it before. 
 
 Wednesday, we all received letters and papers, 
 — a jubilee, indeed, — and probably the last we 
 shall have before we return to Birkengaard. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 BACK TO CHRISTIANIA. 
 
 Ellen's Journal. 
 
 BlRKENGAARD, August. 
 
 We are safely here once more. Our last week 
 at Vestre Slidre was too showery for long expe- 
 ditions; but it was beautiful to see the rain- 
 clouds as they came slowly marching upon us, 
 while the sun was still shining. One afternoon 
 we had coffee at the Manse Prastegaard, and 
 then walked with the party there to a fir-crowned 
 cliff that rises on the shore of the lake. After 
 sitting sketching and talking awhile in this 
 lovely place, we returned to the parsonage, and 
 were shown a most beautiful christening robe 
 which was nearly two hundred years old. It 
 was of silver brocade, lined with rose-colored 
 satin, and trimmed with heavy silver fringe. 
 There were also a brocaded silver-fringed cap, 
 pink swathing band, pillow-case, and satin bib, 
 all richly laden with silver fringe. I hoped that 
 
BACK TO CHRISTIANIA. 153 
 
 the poor baby did not have to wear them very 
 often. Another afternoon we drove — Mrs. 
 Erlsen in a cariole and we girls in a rickety old 
 cart — to the farm of a rich peasant, the richest 
 in the district. 
 
 As we approached, we were disappointed by 
 finding the same tokens of shiftlessness and dirt 
 which characterize all the farms of the region. 
 Pigs by the dozen were rooting around in the 
 courtyard, and the woman kept us at the door 
 while she swept the living-room. Finally, we 
 were invited in, and after a few flattering words 
 from Mrs. Erlsen, we were shown a few pieces 
 of old silver, two fine drinking-cups, and some 
 ornaments. Then we were treated to gooseberry 
 wine, cake, and preserves. The latter were 
 served in true Norwegian peasant style, being 
 accompanied by a tumbler of water, in which 
 stood many spoons. Each guest was expected 
 to take a spoon, dip into the preserve-dish, and 
 then wash it in the tumbler. To my regret, 
 none of the party approved of this custom, but 
 used their cakes as preserve-plates, so I followed 
 their example. 
 
 We went upstairs and admired the huge logs 
 of which the house was built, and saw some 
 nice cloth in the loom, but on the whole were 
 
154 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 disappointed. There were no signs of great 
 wealth or unusual comfort. 
 
 The day before we left, we sketched in the 
 morning, dined at the parsonage, and went with 
 the whole party to an island in the lake, where 
 coffee was made and served with little cakes, 
 which were very nice, though made at Whitsun- 
 tide. The island was delightful, carpeted with 
 beautiful moss and covered with a growth of fir 
 and pine. 
 
 After coffee, three or four of us were rowed to 
 a tiny island which they call Iceland. It was 
 not more than fifteen feet by eight, but had two 
 or three little fir-trees, a few birches and alders, 
 and a huge ant-hill upon it. The ants swarmed 
 over us, driving us to the rocky edge. On the 
 lake shore opposite our boarding-place the hills 
 are high and precipitous; and as we were look- 
 ing at their steep cliffs, one of the gentlemen 
 told us a tale of the olden time. In the days of 
 St. Olaf, there were many fierce quarrels between 
 the King of Valders and the King of the valley 
 to the westward. Once the King of Valders 
 was overpowered and retreated to his valley. 
 His enemy came in pursuit with his horsemen, 
 led through the woods and over the hills by a 
 peasant guide carrying a lantern. 
 
BACK TO CHRISTIANIA. 1 55 
 
 As they approached the cliffs, the guide sud- 
 denly extinguished his light, and telling them 
 that the path led straight on, abandoned them to 
 their fate. 
 
 On they rode, and horses and riders plunged 
 over the cliffs and were dashed to pieces on the 
 rocks below, where to this day horse-shoes and 
 bits of harness are to be found. 
 
 Another grewsome tale of these heights re- 
 lates that a murderer of one of the kings was 
 rolled over them in a barrel filled with spikes. 
 
 The morning after this island picnic, we began 
 our journey home to Christiania, following for 
 hours a fiord sometimes narrowing to rapids, 
 then widening into a lake dotted with islands. 
 The farther south and east we went, the neater 
 and more fertile grew the farms. We were in 
 a comfortable carriage, with a fat and jolly coach- 
 man, who asked numberless questions about 
 America and our travels; but he was very care- 
 ful of his horses, and drove so slowly that it 
 seemed as if we should never reach our journey's 
 end. Most of the day we were gradually ascend- 
 ing until the figures, cut at intervals in the 
 rocks at the roadsides, told us that we were 
 twenty-three hundred and forty feet above sea 
 level. I wish this could be adopted at home; 
 
156 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 among the White Mountains, for instance, how 
 it would add to the interest and information of 
 travellers. 
 
 From this height we looked down into fertile 
 valleys, and on to the tops of seas of firs and 
 pines. The distant mountains were hazy, and 
 only a gleaming spot, almost in the clouds, told 
 us where the sun shone on the snow of the 
 Jotunfjeldene. We passed a saeter where six 
 ladies are spending the summer. They had 
 trimmed their house with birch-trees and flags, 
 and were sitting cosily in their porch, reading 
 and working as we drove by. 
 
 Our driver said he had seen them starting off 
 with their fishing rods, or, with big aprons on, 
 doing their housework. 
 
 At last, about ten o'clock, we reached Odnaes, 
 the end of our long day's journey. We were 
 tired and hungry, I assure you, glad to eat 
 supper and hasten to our beds. At half-past 
 eight next morning we were off again on a little 
 steamer that plies up and down the lake, called 
 "Randsfjord," connecting with a railway station 
 at its southern end. We made ourselves com- 
 fortable with our rugs on a pile of ropes at the 
 stern, and watched the shores with their many 
 large farms. The hills were now much lower, 
 
BACK TO CHRISTIANIA. 1 57 
 
 the valleys broader, and everything had a more 
 civilized look. We had dinner on the boat; and 
 there ate our first raspberries, with rich cream. 
 Since our return we have revelled in abundance 
 of gooseberries, raspberries, and currants. All 
 over Norway fruits and jellies are served in 
 large soup-plates, and you are expected to take 
 as much cream as you like to fill them, a privi- 
 lege we are not slow in improving. At the 
 railroad station great red gooseberries were for 
 sale, and farther on were strawberries, showing us 
 that we had returned to a land of plenty. After 
 two weeks of karvari7iger and musost (rusks and 
 goat's-milk cheese), a little variety was welcome. 
 
 From three till ten we steamed along in the 
 railway train, and then we reached Christian ia, 
 which seemed delightfully homelike, especially 
 when we saw Mr. Erlsen and Henrik awaiting 
 us. It was good to get back; but very strange 
 to find it so dark, the days have grown so much 
 shorter since we left. The night before at 
 Odnaes, we had had our first experience of arriv- 
 ing anywhere when it was too dark to see what 
 it looked like. 
 
 Sleipner took us out to Birkengaard at his 
 accustomed speed, and we found precious letters 
 and a nice supper awaiting us. 
 
158 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 Yesterday, we were very lazy, sitting out on 
 the Altan most of the morning, relating our 
 adventures and reading accumulated newspapers. 
 At noon we went down to the fiord and took 
 a sea-bath in the bathing-house, finding it so 
 delightful that we mean to take one every day. 
 We had tyk melk for breakfast, — a dish of 
 bonny-clabber, over which crumbs and sugar are 
 sprinkled, and we skim off the creamy top. The 
 eggs here are twice the size of those we have 
 had on our journeyings, looking fairly gigantic, 
 like duck's eggs. The raspberries are enormous 
 too ; and as melons, peas, and beans are now in 
 season, we find the table a great contrast to the 
 meagre fare of our mountain abode. The weather 
 too is so different, so much warmer, that we are 
 wearing our thinnest clothing, and have to sit on 
 the north side of the house. Now I must stop 
 writing, for we are to drive into town to meet 
 the steamer, as Mr. Erlsen is expecting his 
 sister, who has been visiting in England for 
 several months. He has told us so much about 
 "dear Bertha " that we are almost as eager as 
 he, especially as her photographs represent a 
 very winning girl. Moreover, there will prob- 
 ably be letters from home, and though I have 
 just had two, I am still greedy for more. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 HALCYON DAYS. 
 
 Warm-hearted Hermann Erlsen was so im- 
 patient to welcome his sister and to introduce 
 her to the other girls, that he hurried them off 
 far earlier than was needful, and drove at a pace 
 that made Ellen and Margaret look at each other 
 in astonishment, while they exchanged whispers 
 of congratulation that the more timid Annie 
 had decided to remain at home to help Mrs. 
 Erlsen arrange flowers in every room, dress the 
 porch with flags, and prepare a specially tempt- 
 ing luncheon for the beloved Bertha. 
 
 When they reached the wharf, and learned 
 that the steamer could not be in for an hour, 
 he looked first indignant, then blank, and 
 finally radiant with a new plan. 
 
 " You have never seen our fish-market ! It is 
 there we go; it is quite near and most amusing. " 
 The girls willingly agreed, and the panting 
 horses were left to cool, while they all walked 
 to a square by the water-side, where the fisher- 
 
160 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 women were coming up the fiord in their boats, 
 fastening them in rows to the wharf, spreading 
 out their wares, and calling loudly on the passers- 
 by. There were great tubs of water with flounders 
 still alive, broad trays of silvery herring; sal- 
 mon, cod, and whiting were also recognized; but 
 many other kinds were new and strange. The 
 fresh breeze, the eager, sunburned women, the 
 odd dresses and the foreign tongue, were so 
 interesting to Ellen that she would gladly have 
 spent the whole hour there; but impatient Her- 
 mann now remembered some friends at the 
 Britannia hotel, on whom they would just have 
 time to call, and Margaret much preferring this 
 prospect, away they went. 
 
 The Carlens were found breakfasting on a 
 flowery piazza overlooking an inner courtyard 
 full of plants, and their old acquaintance, Lieu- 
 tenant Bonval, was there too. 
 
 "Now is not this far better than that fishy- 
 smelling market ?" whispered Margaret, in the 
 confusion of welcomes and re-arranging of chairs. 
 
 Half an hour passed very cheerfully, and then 
 they returned to the wharf, accompanied by the 
 gallant lieutenant. The steamer had come. 
 Mr. Erlsen darted on in advance, waving his 
 hat; a fluttering handkerchief answered from the 
 
HALCYON DAYS. l6l 
 
 deck. In an instant he was lost in the crowd. 
 The lieutenant and Margaret had lingered on 
 the pier, and Ellen was left alone. 
 
 Only for a moment, while her sympathizing 
 eyes were searching for the brother and sister in 
 the throng before her, and her mind was going 
 back to her own arrival here not two months 
 ago, she felt a gentle touch on her arm, 
 heard a strangely familiar voice saying, "Ellen ! 
 Ellen !" and looked straight up into Sidney's 
 face. 
 
 Ordinarily it was a quiet face, strong, sincere, 
 intelligent, but reserved, not apt to betray the 
 owner's emotions. 
 
 Now, however, it was fairly beaming, radiant 
 with joy, with tenderness. His eyes were so 
 full of love that Ellen, meeting them, and irre- 
 sistibly held by their power, felt as if he had 
 actually kissed her. Blushing, trembling, un- 
 consciously reflecting joy for joy and love for 
 love, she could not look away. 
 
 Her sweet shy face bloomed into glad response 
 beneath that gaze, as a water lily opens to the 
 sun. 
 
 She did not know that he was holding both 
 her hands in his; she forgot the surging crowd, 
 the noisy teams around them. She only knew 
 
1 62 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 that the dearest friend of her life was with her, 
 and claiming her for his own, though not one 
 word had been spoken but that low-breathed 
 " Ellen ! Ellen ! " This rapturous moment was 
 suddenly clouded by fear. 
 
 "Oh, Sidney! There is no bad news, is 
 there ?" she cried, her face growng white with 
 a sharp pang of self-reproach and anxiety. She 
 faltered visibly; and in an instant his arm was 
 around her, and he held her closely while he 
 whispered : — 
 
 "No, no, no, my darling! Everybody is 
 well. I only came because I could not live 
 without you any longer. Your mother gave me 
 leave, Ellen. May I stay, dear?" 
 
 Back came the rosy red to her cheeks, the 
 shy gladness to her eyes; but she slipped from 
 his clasping arms just in time, for now Hermann 
 and his pretty sister made their way through 
 the chattering crowd, and Margaret and the 
 lieutenant appeared on the other side. Mutual 
 introductions and congratulations now made a 
 pleasant confusion, which was most welcome as 
 a shield to our Ellen in the bewilderment of her 
 new happiness. 
 
 Hermann began by insisting that Sidney 
 should go with the rest at once to Birkengaard, 
 
HALCYON DAYS. 1 63 
 
 but this being declined, made him promise to 
 come to tea and spend a long evening, an invi- 
 tation satisfactorily though silently indorsed by 
 Ellen. She was really glad to look forward to 
 a brief interval in which to question and com- 
 pose her throbbing heart. 
 
 On the homeward drive she left the conversa- 
 tion almost wholly to the others; but Hermann 
 and Bertha were so bubbling over with pleasure, 
 and Margaret so well able to share it all, that 
 Ellen's silence was unnoticed; her happy, 
 cordial face was enough. 
 
 The four girls had time for a sea-bath before 
 dinner, and spent the afternoon with the Erlsens 
 in the linden alley and fruit garden, exchanging 
 their summer adventures and experiences. Two 
 New York ladies drove out and made a long 
 call, one of them amazing our girls by remark- 
 ing that she " soon tired of scenery, and liked to 
 come back to cities and shops." Ellen slipped 
 away after this, and had a quiet hour alone, 
 sitting in her balcony; but it is to be feared that 
 even her beloved blue fiord and softly waving 
 woods were for once unnoticed by her dreamy 
 eyes. Her inner vision was fixed upon the 
 yellow, sandy beaches of Cape Cod, the solemn 
 forests of Lake Placid, the sunny parks and 
 
1 64 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 marble corridors of Washington, the winding 
 river and leafy gardens of Cambridge, in all of 
 which Sidney the boy and Sidney the man had 
 been her ever-congenial, ever-thoughtful, and, as 
 she now perceived, the ever-loved and preferred 
 companion. Once she started up and took her 
 portfolio and tried to write to her mother, but 
 ended by destroying her attempts. One said too 
 much, the next too little, and she said to her- 
 self, "To-morrow will be better, ,, and then 
 gave her whole thought to choosing and donning 
 her very prettiest dress for tea. 
 
 The evening was one of unmixed happiness. 
 She was very proud of her lover. His manner, 
 his words, so shielded and calmed her that she 
 soon lost the agitating sense of the newness of 
 their relations, and ceased wondering how and 
 when the others must know. After leaving the 
 table, he stood aside with her by a window, and 
 gently asked her permission to tell Mrs. Erlsen 
 that they were, by her mother's approval, 
 engaged. 
 
 * For we are, are we not, darling? " he added, 
 leading her out upon the shaded piazza; "and 
 we ought to tell her, as your present chaperone, 
 ought we not ? " 
 
 Ellen's reply was not very audible; so he 
 
HALCYON DAYS. 1 65 
 
 made assurance doubly sure by taking her blush- 
 ing face between his hands and giving her his 
 first kiss. Then he left her among the vines, 
 and had a quiet talk with Mrs. Erlsen, after 
 which he carried off his beloved, without apology, 
 for a long happy ramble in the garden and woods. 
 She went directly to her own room when he left; 
 and there the Harleys found her, and hugged 
 her to their hearts' content, declaring that they 
 had always known, since the old Adirondack 
 days, that Sidney loved the ground she walked 
 on. 
 
 The next day, leaving Bertha to unpack, 
 Hermann drove the other three girls into Chris- 
 tiania to pay a promised visit to their beloved 
 " Michael Krohn. " It is needless to state that Mr. 
 Carruth met and accompanied them. They found 
 a great wash going on, — blankets flapped in the 
 noontide breeze, and the decks were undergoing 
 a thorough scrubbing. Annie and Margaret felt 
 sorry to have Sidney see it under such unroman- 
 tic conditions; but everything was right to him 
 that day, and he felt the deepest interest in 
 being shown Ellen's state-room and all her 
 favorite nooks on deck. It was a blow, how- 
 ever, to learn that Captain Bjornstadt was not on 
 board; but they consoled themselves by leaving 
 
1 66 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 an invitation for him to take tea at Birkengaard 
 the next day, to meet Sidney and Bertha. 
 
 Then they turned reluctantly away, but had 
 gone but a few steps, when a familiar figure, 
 with evident "sea-legs," hove in sight, and bore 
 down upon the party. A great bowing and 
 handshaking ensued. After receiving the cap- 
 tain's promise to come the next day, they did a 
 little shopping (including a certain ring) and 
 returned to Birkengaard. 
 
 The afternoon was spent in the garden, look- 
 ing for the coolest spot, Margaret said; and 
 Ellen seemed to find it finally in her room, 
 where she succeeded in writing to her mother 
 and to Amy. Sidney had promised to tell their 
 news to his family, and Ellen had a happy 
 assurance that they would all be pleased. 
 
 Both Sidney and Captain Bjornstadt came to 
 tea the next day, the latter bringing each of the 
 girls a picture of the " Michael Krohn " at anchor 
 in Bergen harbor, and to Ellen, his favorite, the 
 American flag, made in their honor on the 
 Fourth of July. It smelled rather fishy, and was 
 not exactly clean; but she was much gratified, 
 and accepted it as a precious souvenir. 
 
 The weather continued extremely warm, and 
 the morning sea-baths were greatly enjoyed by 
 
HALCYON DAYS. 1 67 
 
 all, in spite of the numerous crabs, which were 
 often too attentive. 
 
 One morning was devoted to the National 
 Gallery, with Sidney as escort. They were 
 most interested in Libermann's pictures of peas- 
 ant life, and Arbo's mythological subjects, one 
 representing Asgaard's hosts, with the Valky- 
 ries bearing the slain to Valhalla, and the rush- 
 ing multitude between heaven and earth, the 
 moon below them, lurid clouds behind, and 
 Thor, with uplifted hammer, towering over all. 
 
 One lovely afternoon Sidney went with them 
 to their favorite island, Hoved<£. Mr. Erlsen 
 borrowed Ellen's flag, and hoisted it at the stern 
 of the boat. They rowed first to the "Michael 
 Krohn," hoping to take the captain with them; 
 but he was not on board, so greetings were left 
 for him, and they steered for the island. While 
 the others arranged their picnic supper, Ellen 
 took Sidney to the highest point, where they 
 had a most beautiful view of the city, its towers 
 and spires rising against a background of hills 
 on one hand, while on the other, the fiord, with 
 its green islands and flitting sails, was more 
 lovely still. 
 
 " This whole summer has seemed like a dream, " 
 said Ellen, after they had stood a long time in 
 
1 68 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 silent enjoyment. " I have been fearing all the 
 time that I should wake up and find it so; and 
 now this is most wonderful, most unreal of all, 
 — that we should both be here; that I should be 
 showing you Norway, just as you used to show 
 me Washington, and everybody so kind; and I 
 so much, so much — " she stopped, her voice 
 ending in a little sob. 
 
 "Go on, dear," he pleaded. "Let me hear 
 you say it ; you have only let me guess it before, 
 you know." 
 
 " So much happier than I have ever been 
 before," she whispered; and presently they went 
 down to a pretty feast of fruits and cakes, after 
 which the ruins were explored by the whole 
 party, and then came the tranquil rowing home, 
 while the sunset glow was fading, mists soften- 
 ing the details of the city, the spires blue and 
 purple against a yellow and rose-colored sky. 
 
 The days were now so much shorter, that for 
 the first time they saw the streets lighted as 
 they drove out to Birkengaard, and had lamps 
 on the eight-o'clock supper-table. The days 
 went by all too swiftly, for it had been decided 
 that the three girls should sail for Leith with 
 Sidney, the first week in September, in the 
 Copenhagen steamer, and thence travel through 
 
HALCYON DAYS. 1 69 
 
 Scotland and the English Lake Country to 
 Liverpool. 
 
 The morning after their island picnic, Ellen 
 and Annie walked into town with Mr. Erlsen, 
 and meeting Sidney took him to the Christiania 
 Botanic Gardens, beautifully situated on a south- 
 west slope towards the fiord, ot which and the 
 old town, there were lovely glimpses through 
 graceful trees. Mr. Erlsen spoke to Professor 
 Schribehr, the resident professor, and he joined 
 them in his garden attire, pruning scissors and 
 knife hanging to his belt. In one hot-house 
 they saw begonias only, and of one species, but 
 a wonderful variety of shape and color. Another 
 contained the most beautiful colored leaves they 
 had ever seen; but most interesting of all was a 
 room so hot that Annie could not remain in it. 
 
 It was in one sense a royal palace, or rather 
 the prison of an exiled queen, the Victoria 
 Regia. Her broad green shield rested on the 
 surface of the water, and in the middle was a 
 brownish, hairy thing which they were told 
 would within a day or two burst into beauty and 
 reveal her face. 
 
 Brilliant leaved plants from the tropics, that 
 should remind the imprisoned queen -when she 
 awoke of her far-off African home, were grouped 
 
170 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 around her. The ladies of her court were blue 
 and pink and white water-lilies. In the west 
 room were magnificent Gloxinias. 
 
 " Oh, how Cousin Miranda would enjoy this ! " 
 cried Ellen. " I feel as if I had more than my 
 share. I must write to her this afternoon. " 
 
 Here Professor Schribehr came up and pre- 
 sented her with a pretty branch of birch, with 
 deeply cut leaves. Ellen's face was so full of 
 happy, genuine enjoyment that every one near 
 her felt cheered and attracted; and Sidney, as he 
 watched her, felt more and more astonished at 
 his own good fortune in having won her love. 
 Every evening he appeared at Birkengaard, 
 where he was already a favorite with the whole 
 family, and every forenoon was spent in explor- 
 ing the city or suburbs with his beloved, — 
 halcyon days indeed for both. He took great 
 credit to himself for leaving her to her friends 
 and herself in the afternoons ; and it was in one 
 of these that she wrote the following letter, her 
 last from sunny Birkengaard. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE LAST LETTER. 
 
 BlRKENGAARD, August, l88-. 
 
 Dear Cousin Miranda, — We are so busy 
 showing Sidney all we can of our dear Norwegian 
 haunts, that it is hard to write even a short 
 letter. Sunday afternoon, we sat in the linden 
 walk and read Longfellow's version of the " Saga 
 of King Olaf." It is doubly interesting now 
 that I know more about these times. Monday, 
 we rowed to Lagersoen, where Oscar's Hall, the 
 king's hunting lodge, is situated. We were 
 shown the dining-hall furnished in oak, and with 
 large frescos on the walls representing Nor- 
 wegian scenery, and as a sort of frieze, medal- 
 lions by Lidermann of peasant life, very 
 beautiful. 
 
 We strolled through the woods, went up on 
 the roof, read Scott on the veranda, and rowed 
 back to Birkengaard in time for dinner. 
 
172 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 Wednesday. 
 
 Yesterday, we took Sidney to see the Vik- 
 ing ship at the Museum, and Professor Rugg 
 opened many of the cases, and let us handle the 
 golden ornaments. They were so heavy that I 
 had no desire to wear them. To-day, we did 
 shopping, and bought photographs, and had our 
 photographs taken. I am so plump and brown 
 you will hardly know me. 
 
 Friday. 
 
 Yesterday, the Harleys and Erlsens, Sidney 
 and I started for a tour in Ringerike. We took 
 a little steamer from Christiania to Sandviken. 
 The boat went in and out among the islands, 
 stopping here and there. From Sandviken, we 
 drove to Sundvolden, over the beautiful road along 
 the Thyrifiord, which I described in my letter 
 about Honefos. We took a cariole for Annie 
 and Margaret (Margaret on behind where the 
 skydsgut, or driver, usually sits), and Sidney and 
 I had one byerre, and Mr. and Mrs. Erlsen 
 another. 
 
 A cariole always reminds me of the end of a 
 canoe on wheels, and you sit as in a canoe, with 
 your feet straight out before you. We changed 
 once or twice before we reached Humledal ; and 
 
THE LAST LETTER. 1 73 
 
 from there we rode in a char-a-banc, which, 
 though less novel, is more comfortable and 
 sociable. We had two nice little horses, and 
 they trotted swiftly and smoothly along, the 
 views of lake and distant mountains most 
 beautiful. 
 
 ["Oh, can't you see that child's sweet, happy 
 face?" cried her mother, wiping away her tears 
 of pleasure, when Mrs. Willoughby read this 
 aloud at the breakfast-table. 
 
 " Indeed I can," answered Cousin John. " It 's 
 as good as the * Strange Adventures of a Phaeton, ' 
 and the dear little maiden deserves it all." 
 
 "And Sidney, too," said Miranda. "Can't 
 you imagine his honest brown eyes first drink- 
 ing in his little sweetheart and then the land- 
 scape? What a comfort it is not to have it a 
 stranger coming into the family, but one of our 
 own boys whom we know all about ! " 
 
 Then she resumed : — ] 
 
 We pointed out everything to Sidney with the 
 pride of old residents, but missed the snow 
 crowns on the peaks which were there in June. 
 
 We reached Sundvolden about eight, and after 
 supper walked for awhile on the shores of the 
 fjord (it seems more Norwegian to spell it so) 
 and across a little bridge, the full moon shining 
 
174 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 brightly on the water, and a large bonfire was 
 flashing and glowing on a distant island. The 
 air was cool and clear. We girls had a large 
 room with three beds curtained with white and 
 looking very clean and comfortable; but, alas! 
 "things are not what they seem. ,, Next morn- 
 ing we were up early and off for a climb up the 
 mountain called Krog Kieven, which was near 
 by. 
 
 ["Now what a convenient word we is," inter- 
 posed Cousin John, demurely. " It may mean 
 six or it may mean two/'] 
 
 The road was very pretty, with firs and rocks, 
 and steep cliffs overgrown with moss and ferns, 
 deep ravines, in whose cool depths we heard 
 waters gurgling, and at the top a view which 
 well repaid us. In the afternoon we started on 
 our return journey with a driver who fell asleep 
 and almost smashed us against another wagon, 
 whose driver was asleep too. At Humledal, we 
 had again the nice horses of the day before, and 
 reached Sandviken so quickly that we had an 
 hour before the boat left, which we spent in a 
 pine grove reading Whittier aloud. 
 
 ["Mr. Erlsen, of course," murmured the 
 professor. 
 
 "Hush, John," said his wife, and read on.] 
 
THE LAST LETTER. 1 75 
 
 Sunday. 
 
 We went to church this morning, and in the 
 afternoon sat in a fir grove; and Sidney read us 
 one of Mr. Brooks's sermons, and I could almost 
 believe myself in Appleton Chapel, his words 
 are so suggestive of his looks and manner. 
 While sitting there, we heard a great commotion 
 in the bird world, and down came a dead dove, 
 evidently killed by a hawk. The hawk came 
 swooping down several times to recover his prey; 
 but we carried it home, and the children buried 
 it with much solemnity. 
 
 In the evening Mr. Arbo came, and we planned 
 an excursion to Birkengaard saeter, which we 
 carried out next day. Sidney and Mr. Arbo 
 came out to a nine o'clock breakfast, and started 
 with us on the walk. In the early morning it 
 had been so misty that all the hills were hidden; 
 but one after another lost its veil, and when we 
 left home the sun was shining brightly, and only 
 a soft haziness lay over the distance. We soon 
 turned from the dusty road into a fascinating 
 little foot-path which followed the windings of a 
 brook. The ground was green with moss and 
 ferns, except where the path made a ribbon of 
 rich brown. 
 
176 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 Above us rose tall, slender firs against a deep 
 blue sky. The brook danced at our side, now 
 dark in shadow, now golden in sunshine. We 
 walked slowly, stopping often to enjoy the 
 beauty of the day. Mr. Arbo busied himself 
 with his sketch-book when we halted, and Sidney 
 read aloud from Burns. At the sseter house, we 
 had luncheon, and then encamped in the woods 
 near by. 
 
 Annie had brought needle and thread, and 
 devoted herself to mending her sun-umbrella, 
 while Mr. Arbo sketched her. Margaret and I 
 reclined in sleepy but graceful attitudes, and 
 were sketched also. When finished, the two 
 were inscribed " Penniless Daughter of Toil " 
 and "Luxurious Children of Ease. " Mrs. 
 Erlsen and Sidney did not keep still long 
 enough to be added. When it was cooler, 
 we all went to a higher part of the hill, where 
 there is a tower, from which we counted seven 
 ranges of hills, one behind another. We 
 reached home about eight, after a most happy 
 day. 
 
 Tuesday, we went into town for final shopping. 
 Sidney has bought exquisite gifts for his mother 
 and sisters, and been very extravagant for me, 
 in spite of all my scolding. I do not dare to 
 
THE LAST LETTER. 177 
 
 show a liking for anything. We all dined at 
 the Rosens, a thoroughly Norwegian meal. 
 First, sausages served in a dish with cauliflower 
 and drawn butter, and surrounded by a wreath 
 of ham ; second, boiled flounder ; third, chicken 
 and mushrooms; fourth, game; fifth, ice-cream; 
 sixth, apricots, apples, gooseberries, and wine. 
 After dinner we wandered about the garden, 
 picking flowers, eating cherries, and drinking 
 coffee. In the evening Miss Hegerdahl played, 
 and her mother sang some very quaint and amus- 
 ing Greenland songs. Then came supper; and 
 soon after we took our leave. To-morrow, we 
 go to Mr. Arbo's studio, and then by steamer 
 to Sandviken, and thence to Tahum Church for 
 a lovely view and a picnic. The next day, we 
 pack ; and Friday, we leave dear, beautiful Nor- 
 way in the "Angelo." This is my last letter 
 from Birkengaard. Our summer has been de- 
 lightful from beginning to end. 
 
 You will be glad to see how well Annie and 
 Margaret are. 
 
 We agree that we have enjoyed far, far more 
 than we anticipated; and we should be quite 
 heart-broken in leaving the Erlsens, if they 
 had not promised to come to America next 
 summer. 
 
 12 
 
178 A NORWAY SUMMER. 
 
 It is hard enough to leave this dear Norway; 
 but I must some time come again and bring 
 you all. - n v 
 
 Sidney sends love to everybody, and so does 
 
 Ellen. 
 
 the END. 
 
BOOKS OF TRAVEL 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 Messrs. ROBERTS BROTHERS. 
 
 It is a very good office one man does another when 
 
 he tells him the manner of his being pleased. 
 
 Sir Richard Steele. 
 
 ALCOTT (Louisa M.). 
 
 Shawl-Straps. A Voyage to Brittany, France, Switzerland, Italy, 
 and London. i6mo. #1.00. 
 
 APPLETON (Thomas G.). 
 
 A Nile Journal. With Illustrations by Eugene Benson. i2mo. 
 
 #2.25. 
 
 Easy and delightful reading, carrying one along the whole course of the " river 
 of Egypt," from Cairo to the waters above the cataract, —a distance of more than 
 eight hundred miles. It is the flowing journal of a poet with a constant inspiration 
 beiore his eyes. — ZiotCs Herald. 
 
 Syrian Sunshine. Notes of Travel. i6mo. #1.00. 
 
 ^ A bright and pleasant sketch of six weeks' travel in Palestine, abounding in 
 picturesque descriptions of Eastern scenery and life. The Turkish problem is 
 discussed at some length, adding not a little to the keen and observant interest of 
 the book. — Hartford Post. 
 
 ARNOLD (Sir Edwin), 
 
 India Revisited. With thirty-two full-page Illustrations. i2mo. 
 #2.00. 
 
 BATES (Henry Walter). 
 
 The Naturalist on the River Amazons. A Record of Adven- 
 tures, Habits of Animals, Sketches of Brazilian and Indian Life, and 
 Aspects of Nature under the Equator, during Eleven Years of Travel. 
 With forty Illustrations. Post 8vo. $2.50. 
 
 BLANC (Madame [Th* Bentzon])* 
 
 The Condition of Woman in the United States. A Travellers 
 
 Notes. With a Portrait, and a short Biographical Sketch by Mario 
 
 Bertaux. Translated by Abby L. Alger. i6mo. $1.25. 
 
 In addition to a critical sketch of our noted women, Madame Blanc gives us 
 her impressions of women's colleges, university extension, women's clubs and 
 societies, and popular fads in Boston, New York, Chicago, Bryn Mawr, Galesburg, 
 and other cities, gleaned during her recent visit to America. 
 
BOOKS OF TRAVEL. 
 
 CHANEY (George L.). 
 
 Aloha (A Hawaiian Salutation). Travels in the Sandwich Islands. 
 
 With Illustrations and Map. i6mo. $1.50. 
 
 It is an account of a minister's trip to the Hawaiian Islands. The scenery, the 
 people, the productions, and the grand results of missionary labors are told with 
 such simplicity and enthusiasm that you almost seem to see and share the pleasure 
 of his experiences. It is an excellent book for Sunday-school libraries or the 
 family circle. — Detroit Christian Advocate. 
 
 DALL (Caroline H*). 
 
 Letters Home from Colorado, Utah, and California. i2mo. #1.50. 
 
 It is refreshing to get hold of a book of travel that is written in a spirit of 
 honesty and common-sense. — Boston Post. 
 
 DRAKE (Samuel Adams). 
 
 Old Landmarks and Historic Personages of Boston. With 
 
 ninety-three illustrations. i2mo. #2.00. 
 
 This volume contains a vast fund of information and anecdotes about old 
 Boston, its notable buildings, markets, streets, and most memorable characters. 
 The numerous illustrations represent many objects of curious historical interest 
 which are remembered only by the oldest citizens, and others that are known only 
 by tradition. The great fire of 1872 lends peculiar interest to several chapters of 
 this work. 
 
 Old Landmarks and Historic Fields of Middlesex. With thirty- 
 nine Illustrations and Maps. i2mo. #2.00. 
 
 It is another successful effort to put into imperishable form for us and coming 
 generations traditions, places, and objects associated with the great men and 
 events of the past, which otherwise would soon be lost forever. The author, with 
 his inexhaustible historic lore and his keen appreciation of every item, anecdote, 
 relic, and place which belongs to the olden times, takes the reader by hand, and 
 traversing old Middlesexshire, stops at every dwelling, hill, valley, river, or port, 
 and brings back the men and events of colonial and revolutionary years. — Watch- 
 man and Reflector. 
 
 Around the Hub. A Boy's Book about Boston. Profusely illus- 
 trated. Square i6mo. $1.25. 
 
 Beginning with some accounts and anecdotes of the Indians in Boston, he 
 proceeds to state who the first settlers in Boston were ; describes the ancient 
 landmarks ; and gives an idea of the government as it then existed, and from this 
 point gives a rapid sketch of the important part sustained by Boston in the War 
 of the Revolution. — Chicago Saturday Evening Herald. 
 
 FULLER (Margaret)* 
 
 At Home and Abroad ; or, Things and Thoughts in America and 
 Europe. (Including u Summer on the Lakes.") 121110. #1.50. 
 
BOOKS OF TRAVEL. 
 
 
 GOWER (Lord Ronald, FAS.), 
 
 My Reminiscences. With Portrait. i2mo. $2.00. 
 
 Lord Gower gives a bright description of Stafford House, where he was born ; 
 of Cliveden and Trentham, the English family seats; and of Dunrobin, the 
 Scottish castle of the Sutherlands. Then he gives brief histories of his father's 
 family, "the Gowers," and of his mother's, "the Carlisle Howards." Thus 
 having introduced his family and himself, the author begins to jot down his own 
 recollections. — Grand Rapids Post. 
 
 GREELY (A* W.). 
 
 Handbook of Arctic Discoveries. i6mo. #1.00. 
 
 This book, written by the Chief Signal Officer of the United States Army, sets 
 off clearly the origin, progress, and extent of Arctic discoveries, confining itself as 
 far as possible to the original discoveries made by successful expeditions, and 
 avoiding repetition of experiences over well-known ground. Instead of the usual 
 chronological treatment, the book is divided into a series of sketches, under sepa- 
 rate chapters, devoted to special lines of exploration ; in this manner are treated 
 distinctly Bering Strait, Spitzbergen, the Northwest Passage, the Franklin 
 Search, Smith's Sound, the Northeast Passage, Greenland, and Dr. Nansen's 
 Novel and Dangerous Voyage in the ship " Fram." 
 
 While detailed Arctic explorations are, as a general rule, avoided, yet in several 
 instances, such as those of Peary and the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, the 
 experiences of the explorers are dwelt on. — Preface- 
 
 HALE (Rev. E. E.). 
 
 Gone to Texas; or, The Wonderland Adventures of a Pullman. 
 
 i6mo. #1.00. 
 
 There are few books of travel which combine in a romance of true love so many 
 touches of the real life of many people, in glimpses of happy homes, in pictures of 
 scenery and sunset, as the beautiful panorama unrolled before us from the windows 
 of this Pullman car. — Exchange. 
 
 Seven Spanish Cities, and the Way to them. i6mo. #1.25. 
 
 " Spanish Cities" is in the author's most lively style, full of fun, with touches 
 of romance, glimpses of history, allusions to Oriental literature, earnest talk about 
 religion, consideration of Spanish politics, and a rapid, running description of 
 everything that observant eyes could possibly see. Mr. Hale makes Spain more 
 attractive and more amusing than any other traveller has done, and he lavishes 
 upon her epigram and wit. — Boston A dvertiser. 
 
 The New Harry and Lucy. A Story of Boston in the Summer of 
 1891. By Edward E. Hale and Lucretia P. Hale. With illus- 
 trations by Herbert D. Hale. i6mo. $1.25. 
 
 It will give young readers who have never visited Boston a good idea of its 
 notable features; and the familiar way in which the information is conveyed, in 
 the form of letters, is one of the chief charms of the story. The title was suggested 
 by one of Miss Edgeworth's famous tales for children, and the use of the names 
 Sanford and Merton will recall another literary favorite of by-gone times. 
 
 Stories of War. Told by Soldiers. Collected and edited by E. E. 
 Hale. i6mo. #1.00. 
 
BOOKS OF TRAVEL. 
 
 HALE (Rev* E, E.) - {continued). 
 
 Stories of the Sea. Told by Sailors. Collected and edited by E. E. 
 Hale. i6mo. $1.00. 
 
 Stories of Adventure. Told by Adventurers. Collected and edited 
 by E. E. Hale. i6mo. #1.00. 
 
 Stories of Discovery. Told by Discoverers. Collected and edited by 
 E. E. Hale. i6mo. #(.oo. 
 
 HAMERTON (Philip G.)- 
 
 A Summer Voyage on the River Saone. With one hundred and 
 
 fifty-two Illustrations by Joseph Pennell and the Author, i vol. 
 
 4to. Gilt. #2.50. 
 
 A Painter's Camp. Book I. In England. Book II. In Scotland. 
 
 Book III. In France. i2mo. $2.00. 
 
 Like the "Adventures of Robinson Crusoe," or the " Swiss Family Robinson," 
 it brought to maturer minds, as those do to all, the flavor of breezy, out-of-door 
 experiences, — an aroma of poetry and adventure combined. It was full of art, 
 and art discussions, too ; and yet it needed no rare technical knowledge to under- 
 stand and enjoy it. — Joel Benton. 
 
 Round My House. Notes of Rural Life in France, in Peace and 
 War. i2mo. #2.00. 
 
 After describing this tempting place, the author goes on to give his readers just 
 that full record of what he saw in his daily life which is most interesting and useful 
 to an outsider. The merit of this part is, that it so exactly resembles the talk of 
 a sensible man whose tact enables him to know just what his hearers would like 
 to hear. — A tlantic Monthly. 
 
 The Sylvan Year, and the Unknown River. The two in one vol- 
 ume. i2mo. #2.00. 
 
 JACKSON (Helen), 
 
 Bits of Travel. Illustrated. Square i8mo. #1.25. 
 The style is fresh and invigorating, quite out of the grimly geographical and 
 statistical vein of the conventional tourist. Mrs. Hunt has a woman's keen per- 
 ception, and a certain brightness and ease of expression which lends a charm to 
 the narration of incidents which in themselves would be of little intrinsic interest. 
 It is a thoroughly delightful and entertaining book. — Boston Journal. 
 
 Bits of Travel at Home. Square i8mo. $1.50. 
 
 Surely the Switzerland of America has heretofore had no more devoted admirer 
 of its wonderful scenery, which is portrayed with a felicity of description well 
 suited to the grandness of the subject. A view of Colorado Springs, the home 
 of the author, drawn by Moran, enriches the volume, which is of uniform size 
 with " Bits of Travel." 
 
 I Glimpses of Three Coasts. i2mo. $1.50. 
 
 These are " Bits of Travel " in California and Oregon, Scotland and England, 
 and Norway, Denmark, and Germany, partly new and partly reprinted from the 
 "Atlantic Monthly " and " Century Magazine." 
 
 iv 
 
BOOKS OF TRAVEL. 
 
 JEBB (Mrsjohn Gkdwin), 
 
 Life and Adventures of John Gladwin Jebb. A Strange Career. 
 With an Introduction by H. Rider Haggard, and a Portrait of Mr. 
 Jebb. i2mo. #1.25. 
 
 A remarkable romance of modern life. — Daily Chronicle. 
 
 A better told and more marvellous narrative of a real life was never put into the 
 covers of a small octavo volume. — To-Day, 
 
 As fascinating as any romance. . . . The book is of the most entrancing inter- 
 est. — St. James's Budget. 
 
 LOOMS (Eben J.). 
 
 An Eclipse Party in Africa. Chasing Summer across the Equator 
 in the U. S. S. " Pensacola." By Eben J. Loomis, of the U. S. Sci- 
 entific Expedition to West Africa, 1889-90, Senior Assistant U. S. 
 Nautical Almanac Office. With an Introduction by Prof. David P. 
 Todd, M. A., Ph.D., Chief of the Expedition. Eighty-four Illustrations. 
 8vo. Gilt top. #4.50. 
 
 An exceedingly well-written book. It compares favorably with some of the 
 best books of travel. After the " Pensacola " reaches Africa, the story of the 
 expedition and the preparations made for the eclipse are full of interest. The 
 accounts of the working of the great diamond mines in South Africa are full of 
 interesting incidents, and bits of folk-lore are introduced pleasantly through the 
 book. The chapter devoted to St. Helena has an especial interest at the present 
 time. There is nothing technical in the book. It is distinctly popular in its 
 character. The photographs are charming. 
 
 MACGREGOR (John, NLA.). 
 
 A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe on Rivers and Lakes of 
 Europe. Map and Illustrations. i6mo. $1.25. 
 
 The author built his canoe, named her the " Rob Roy," and the log of his 
 charming cruise in her he here narrates. He traversed the rivers Thames, Rhine, 
 Danube, Seine, and many others, besides various lakes and canals, and the British 
 Channel, and the record forms one of the most delightful books of adventure and 
 travel of the day. The book is full of characteristic engravings descriptive of the 
 voyage. 
 
 The Rob Roy on the Baltic. A Canoe Cruise through Norway, 
 Sweden, Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein, the North Sea, and the Baltic. 
 With Maps and Illustrations. i6mo. $1.25. 
 
 The Voyage alone in the Yawl Rob Roy, from London to Paris, 
 and back by Havre, the Isle of Wight, South Coast, etc. i6mo. $1.25. 
 
 The Rob Roy Canoe. The above three books complete in one vol- 
 ume. i2ino. #2.00. 
 
 v 
 
BOOKS OF TRAVEL. 
 
 MOLLOY ( J, U). 
 
 Our Autumn Holiday on French Kivers. With Illustrated Title- 
 page. i6mo. #1.00 ; paper covers, 50 cents. 
 
 A quite fascinating book for idle days. Mr. Molloy has the true gift of narrat- 
 ing. He is a charming chronicler of the voyage of " The Marie " on the tumultu- 
 ous Seine and on the solemn Loire. . . . A bright, sunny book, so full of pleasant 
 fun and refined enjoyment. — Boston Advertiser. 
 
 MONTAGU (Lady Mary Wortley). 
 
 Letters. Edited, with a Memoir, by Mrs. Sarah J. Kale. 121110. 
 
 J&1.50. 
 
 These letters breathe the sweet fragrance of young love, strengthened and 
 enriched by thoughts at once profound and fresh. They hold the mirror up to 
 life in those cities, showing the reader just what he most wants to see. We hazard 
 nothing in saying that from these letters one may get a better insight into the 
 Europe of that period than from the same amount of reading in anything else. 
 Lady Montagu will always live in literature as the most pleasing and instructive 
 of letter-writers. — Chicago Journal. 
 
 MOULTON (Louise Cnandler), 
 Random Rambles. iSmo. $1.25. 
 
 English thought is touched with a delicate and graphic hand. French liveliness 
 and Italian weather, Rome, Florence and Venice, the Passion Play and Munich, 
 a French watering-place, Westminster Abbey, London literary life, the streets 
 and shops of Paris, — these are the things about which Mrs. Moulton writes, and 
 which she tells of in that delightful and sparkling manner that one cannot grow 
 tired of. — Thomas S. Collier. 
 
 Lazy Tours in Spain and Elsewhere. 121x10. Cloth. #1.50. 
 
 The laziness referred to begins and ends in the title ; it does not exist in the 
 mind or pen of the "lazy tourist." The charge may not be brought against Mrs. 
 Moulton's book, as it may against so many volumes of a nature similar, that it is, 
 unfortunately, not illustrated. The word-painting is sufficient ; and whether Mrs. 
 Moulton is in Spain, France, or England, we are always willing to accompany her. 
 The volume may be read with profit and pleasure, not only by those who have 
 enjoyed the treat of European travel, but also by those who have been less fortu- 
 nate. The style is at all times vivid, refined, and full of charming imagery. — 
 Public Opinion. 
 
 NICHOLS (Laura D.). 
 
 A Norway Summer. Illustrated. i6mo. #1.25. 
 
 NIERIKER (MayAlcott), 
 
 Studying Art Abroad, and How to do it Cheaply. i6mo. 50 cents. 
 
 Practical advice for lady students desirous of studying art in England, France, 
 or Italy; points out the best and cheapest route to take, the cheapest and most 
 advantageous way to live, to shop, to study, etc. 
 
BOOKS OF TRAVEL. 
 
 PELLICO (Silvio). 
 
 My Prisons. Memoirs of Silvio Pellico. With a Prefatory Notice 
 by Epes Sargent, and fifty Illustrations by Hammatt Billings. 
 i6mo. #1.25. Square i2mo, gilt edges, #2.25 ; paper covers, 50 cents. 
 Cheaper edition, i6mo, 75 cents. 
 
 Not for many a day have we read so delightful a book, — a tale of actual suffering 
 and sorrow so irradiated with the light of genius and love that every page increases 
 in interest to the very close. We had long heard of Silvio Pellico, the young 
 Italian poet and patriot, imprisoned in the dungeons of Austria, but never sup- 
 posed that a theme so sombre as prison life could be made to possess the attrac- 
 tions of this simple story. It well deserves its world-wide celebrity. — Chicago 
 Evening Journal. 
 
 PENNELL (Joseph and Elizabeth Robins). 
 
 Two Pilgrims' Progress from Fair Florence to the Eternal City of 
 
 Rome. Delivered under the Similitudes of a Ride, wherein is discovered 
 
 the Manner of their Setting Out, their Dangerous Journey, and Safe 
 
 Arrival at the Desired City. With Illustrations by Joseph Pennell. 
 
 121110. $2.00; paper covers, 50 cents. 
 
 They were sprightly and good-humored pilgrims who made this unconventional 
 excursion, laughing at the annoyances of the road and taking all its pleasures with 
 zest, looking at the beauties of the country and the picturesqueness of old towns. 
 In short, they have made a very pleasant little book ; and their jovial friend, 
 Charles G Leland, has added to it a characteristic " Apology," which we are glad 
 to have, though surely no apology was needed. — N. Y. Tribune. 
 
 ROBERTS (Edwards). 
 
 Santa Barbara and Around There. With sixteen Illustrations. 
 
 i6mo. 75 cents. 
 
 A choice little volume, conveying just the information which a traveller or 
 invalid wants before visiting what is now called the Nice of America. — Utica 
 Herald. 
 
 ROBINSON (Phil). 
 
 Sinners and Saint3. A Tour across the States and around them, 
 with Three Months among the Mormons. i6mo. #1.50. 
 
 SLOCUM (Captain Joshua). 
 
 Voyage of the Liberdade. Small 4to. Illustrated. #1.00. 
 
 Perhaps there is nothing in the realm of fact or fiction pertaining to marine 
 adventure more exciting or absorbing than the story Captain Slocum has hnd 
 prepared in a handy little volume, which it is safe to assume no reader will lay 
 down until the last word, and then only with a regret that the narrative was not 
 longer. — Boston Globe. 
 
BOOKS OF TRAVEL. 
 
 SMITH (Mary P. Wells). 
 
 Their Canoe Trip. Square i6mo. #1.25. 
 
 A story founded on the actual experiences of two Roxburyboys during a canoe- 
 trip on the Concord, Merrimac, Piscataquog, and other rivers. The book abounds 
 in incidents, and some of them quaint and curious. 
 
 STEVENSON (Robert Louis)* 
 
 Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes. With a Frontispiece 
 
 Illustration by Walter Crane. i6mo. #1.00; paper cover, 50 cents. 
 
 Mr. Stevenson's journey in the Cevennes is a bright and amusing book for 
 summer reading. The author set out alone, on foot, for a twelve days' journey 
 over the mountains, with a donkey to carry his luggage. He was deplorably 
 ignorant, neither knowing how to pack his load nor drive his donkey, and his 
 early experience forms a ridiculous record of disaster. — Providence Journal, 
 
 An Inland Voyage. i6mo. $1.00 ; paper, 50 cents. 
 
 Unlike Captain Macgregor of "Rob Roy" fame, Mr Stevenson does not make 
 canoeing itself his main theme, but delights in charming bits of description that, 
 in their close attention to picturesque detail, remind one of the work of a skilled 
 "genre" painter. Nor does he hesitate, from time to time, to diverge altogether 
 from his immediate subject, and to indulge in a strain of gently humorous reflection 
 that furnishes some of the pleasantest passages of the book. — Good Literature. 
 
 The Silverado Sqnatters. With a Frontispiece by Walter Crane. 
 
 i6mo. $1.00; paper, 50 cents. 
 
 Mr. Stevenson is an invalid; and in search of health he went to Mount Saint 
 Helena, in California, and high up in its sides took possession of a miner's cabin 
 fast falling to ruin, — one of the few remnants of the abandoned mining village of 
 Silverado. There, with his wife and a single servant, considerable time was spent. 
 The interest of the book centres in the graphic style and keen observation of the 
 author. — New York World. 
 
 For sale by all 'Booksellers. Mailed, postpaid, 
 on receipt of price, by 
 
 ROBERTS BROTHERS, Publishers, 
 
 3 SOMERSET STREET, 
 
 BOSTON. 
 
 viii 
 
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