Three in Norway

y 1

he window saw thence the four bad men who had taken the rooms before us and hung their socks out of

ay demeanour a weight of crime that would w

statement was correct. He had been sitting on the Skipper's bag for thirty-eight miles, and from the state of its interior we calculated his weight to be about twenty-two stone. He was very ill-tempered after his mere trifle of a journey and vigil, and asked for mor

r, and then put water into the canoes until they sank; while we sat on the shore watching the trout rising all over the rippled surface o

ns. Besides this we were hungry, and thought it a good opportunity for lunch, and had to make some previously arranged alterations in the baggage with a view to lightening it. As long as the land journey lasted, strength was the chief object to aim at, but now lightness was of more importance. About one o'clock, when we had got all

ce. Then we sallied forth in the canoes to fish. Esau was the last to leave the shore, and as he paddled off he noticed the Skipper's rod in the familiar Norwegian shape of a bow, and found him struggling with two on at the same time, both of which he landed, and found to be over 1 lb. each. 'First blood claimed and allowed,' to quote the ter

y 1

es, and pine woods down to the water's edge, and some small islands dotted about the upper end of it; but the lake is rather shallow, the pine trees rather stunted,

e fishing on their own account. To-day we saw a man engag

), 'We'd better be civil to these fellows; perhaps they could bring us some eggs, and they look pretty friendly.' The natives are all the time staring and saying nothing. Then Esau remarks in Norwegian, 'It is fine weather to-day; have you any eggs?' To this the chief native replies at great length in his own barbarous jargon, and Esau not having understood a single syllable answers, 'Ja! ja! (yes), but have you any eggs?' Then a

oining fjord; and found a small crowd of about fourteen or fifteen seafaring men, idly lounging round an open space between the cottages. He first went round and presented each of those men with two trout solemnly, without a wor

me silent; they did not laugh, but only looked at one another; and one of them shyly felt in h

not discouraged; and the men remained looking after us silent a

ly with tea, we think it wretched with coffee. After breakfast we each took our canoe, and went fishing wherever the spirit moved us, taking lunch with us. On a day of this sort, if the fish are rising we have a great time, and if they won't rise, we lie on the bank in the sun and smoke, or sketch, or kill mosquitoes, and have a great time in that case also, so that the hours pass in a blissful round of enjoyment, and all is peace. Having each one his own ship we are quite independent, only ta

eakfast at fi

n the foll

ssible to get them without a ripple until evening, when large white moths began to show on the water, and t

an uninterrupted view, with all the glorious colours of the sky reflected in the water; and we agreed that the effects about hal

y 1

such a wind down the lake that we were induced to strike the c

anged; we were in a smaller and narrower part of the valley; buildings had entirely disappeared; there was nothing to be seen but gloomy pine forests and black-looking mountains: the weather also was quickly changing, and evidently intending to be wet and stormy; so we pushed on rapidly, one coasting on each side of the lake till we reached its further extremity, where Esau was nearly swamped crossing the waves, as the wind began to blow harder every minute. Soon the rain was upon us, while we looked for a camping-ground but found none, as the shores were everywhere very swampy for a quarter of a mile inland. At length we came to a second rapid, where the natives have thrown a clumsy weir

magine from the dot that marks them on the Ordnance map, but generally only a

y, Ju

reakfast was a toilsome business, but at last we found some wood dry enough to burn. It continued raining in a nice keep-at-it-all-day-if-you-like kind of ma

s quite impracticable for canoes; the river simply running violently down a steep place till it perishes in the lake; about a mile of rapid with hardly enough decently behaved water in the whole of it to h