The Visionary: Pictures From Nordland

dren in Nordland than here in the south of Norway. At lo

ine, wave-marked sand is full of heaps, covered with lines, left by the large, much sought after bait-worms, that burrow down into the earth. Hidden among the stones, or in the masses of sea-wee

e stones, we three children built our own warehouse of fla

hat was constantly being fitted out for the Bergen market-was still not the best; and I can remember how I many a time sat in church and made believe that we owned the splendid, full-rigged ship, with cannon, that hung under the chancel arch, [A ship, symbolical of the ch

nd hung them over the drying poles standing in the field over by our own warehouse for the preparation of dried fish, and we let the liver stand in small tubs to rot until it became train-oil. Both products were then duly put away in our store-house, re

e moved-which, as already said, she constantly did with a toss of her head, to keep her hair off her forehead. Both had alike a fair, brilliant complexion, and beautiful blue eyes. I do not know whether Susanna at

ing. Susanna walked along the sand-strewn path to church in a white or blue dress, with a dark shepherdess hat on her head, a little white pocket-handkerchief folded behind a very

he pulpit, and we-my father and I-a few pews behind; and we childre

mns in the simple country fashion, very loud; but-what I and many others considered very effective-at the end of each verse he added a peculiar turn to the last note, which did not belong to the tune, a

ar-school in Bergen, and the "expensive" tutor w

re my learning from the clerk, a good-natured old man, who himself knew very little more tha

preferred this kind of entertainment to learning lessons-three whole years, in other words,

unfortunately put into my own power, and I laid the foundation of fancies which afterwards gained the mastery over my life, to a ruinous extent. Some strongly impressionable natures require that the divid

or meeting as before, Susanna and I were, notwithstanding,

ched by the gate that crossed the road by the parsonage l

in her blue-checked frock and straw hat, on the steps by the side of the gate. She looked

ittle more quickly than she liked, she asked me in an irritated tone if it were t

censorious remarks at the parsonage, and that Susanna had been a party to it. Had I known that she now sat there as my defeated ad

ister, who was a commissioner of that court, had said that he thought my father went too quickly forward in a certain ca

en us children, and I remember that at first I was even afraid to

limpse of her blue-checked frock I always went a long way round, throug

ked the rode [Rode-a length of road. The high-road is divided into rodes, and the division between these is marked by posts, on which stand the n

ver again. It was Susanna in a new character; I saw her in thought behind the letters as behind a balustrade. In th

arden when I passed, but pretended not to see me; she p

off; they never, except on special occasions and in response to a solemn invitation, set foot within one another's door. This again gave a k

atchful eye, and in my dreary home I always had a feeling of cold and fright, and as if all gladness were ov

the moments we could spend together gradually acquired, unknown to us, another than the old childish character. To t

beckoned to me, and handed me a flower over the wall, and then she hastily ra

nd for many a day I thought of her as she stood there in the ga