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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Norse Tales and Sketches, by Alexander Lange
+Kielland, Translated by R. L. Cassie
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Norse Tales and Sketches
+
+Author: Alexander Lange Kielland
+
+Release Date: January 4, 2005  [eBook #14593]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NORSE TALES AND SKETCHES***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Clare Boothby, Jim Wiborg, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+NORSE TALES AND SKETCHES
+
+by
+
+ALEXANDER L. KIELLAND
+
+Translated by R. L. Cassie
+
+London
+
+1896
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+Encouraged by the great and growing popularity of Scandinavian
+literature in this country, I venture to submit to public judgment this
+humble essay towards an English presentment of some of the charming
+novelettes of Alexander L. Kielland, a writer who takes rank among the
+foremost exponents of modern Norse thought. Although these short stories
+do not represent the full fruition of the author's genius, they yet
+convey a fairly accurate conception of his literary personality, and of
+the bold realistic tendency which is so strikingly developed in his
+longer novels.
+
+Kielland's style is polished, lucid, and incisive. He does not waste
+words or revel in bombastic diffuseness. Every phrase of his narrative
+is a definite contribution towards the vivification of his realistic
+effects. His concise, laconic periods are pregnant with deep meaning,
+and instinct with that indefinable Norse essence which almost eludes the
+translator--that vague something which specially lends itself to the
+treatment of weird or pathetic situations.
+
+In his pre-eminence as a satirist, Kielland resembles Thackeray. His
+satire, although keen, is always wholesome, genial, and good-humoured.
+
+Kielland's longer novels are masterly delineations of Norwegian
+provincial life and character, and his vivid individualization of his
+native town of Stavanger finds few parallels in fiction.
+
+In conclusion, the writer hopes that this modest publication may help to
+draw the attention of the cultured British public to another of the
+great literary figures of the North.
+
+
+R.L.C.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+   A SIESTA
+
+   A MONKEY
+
+   A TALE OF THE SEA
+
+   A DINNER
+
+   TROFAST
+
+   KAREN
+
+   MY SISTER'S JOURNEY TO MODUM
+
+   LETTERS FROM MASTER-PILOT SEEHUS
+
+   OLD DANCES
+
+   AUTUMN
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A SIESTA.
+
+
+In an elegant suite of chambers in the Rue Castiglione sat a merry party
+at dessert.
+
+Senhor José Francisco de Silvis was a short-legged, dark-complexioned
+Portuguese, one of those who usually come from Brazil with incredible
+wealth, live incredible lives in Paris, and, above all, become notorious
+by making the most incredible acquaintances.
+
+In that little company scarcely anybody, except those who had come in
+pairs, knew his neighbour. And the host himself knew his guests only
+through casual meetings at balls, _tables d' hôte_, or in the street.
+
+Senhor de Silvis laughed much, and talked loudly of his success in life,
+as is the habit of rich foreigners; and as he could not reach up to the
+level of the Jockey Club, he gathered the best company he could find.
+When he met anyone, he immediately asked for the address, and sent next
+day an invitation to a little dinner. He spoke all languages, even
+German, and one could see by his face that he was not a little proud
+when he called over the table: Mein lieber Herr Doctor! Wie geht's
+Ihnen?'
+
+There was actually a live German doctor among this merry party. He had
+an overgrown light-red beard, and that Sedan smile which invariably
+accompanies the Germans in Paris.
+
+The temperature of the conversation rose with the champagne; the sounds
+of fluent and broken French were mingled with those of Spanish and
+Portuguese. The ladies lay back in their chairs and laughed. The guests
+already knew each other well enough not to be reserved or constrained.
+Jokes and _bons-mots_ passed over the table, and from mouth to mouth.
+'Der liebe Doctor' alone engaged in a serious discussion with the
+gentleman next to him--a French journalist with a red ribbon in his
+buttonhole.
+
+And there was one more who was not drawn into the general merriment. He
+sat on the right of Mademoiselle Adèle, while on the left was her new
+lover, the corpulent Anatole, who had surfeited himself on truffles.
+
+During dinner Mademoiselle Adèle had endeavoured, by many innocent
+little arts, to infuse some life into her right-hand neighbour. However,
+he remained very quiet, answering her courteously, but briefly, and in
+an undertone.
+
+At first she thought he was a Pole--one of those very tiresome specimens
+who wander about and pretend to be outlaws. However, she soon perceived
+that she had made a mistake, and this piqued Mademoiselle Adèle. For one
+of her many specialties was the ability to immediately 'assort' all the
+foreigners with whom she mingled, and she used to declare that she could
+guess a man's nationality as soon as she had spoken ten words with him.
+
+But this taciturn stranger caused her much perplexed cogitation. If he
+had only been fair-haired, she would at once have set him down as an
+Englishman, for he talked like one. But he had dark hair, a thick black
+moustache, and a nice little figure. His fingers were remarkably long,
+and he had a peculiar way of trifling with his bread and playing with
+his dessert-fork.
+
+'He is a musician,' whispered Mademoiselle Adèle to her stout friend.
+
+'Ah!' replied Monsieur Anatole. 'I am afraid I have eaten too many
+truffles.'
+
+Mademoiselle Adèle whispered in his ear some words of good counsel, upon
+which he laughed and looked very affectionate.
+
+However, she could not relinquish her hold of the interesting foreigner.
+After she had coaxed him to drink several glasses of champagne, he
+became livelier, and talked more.
+
+'Ah!' cried she suddenly; 'I hear it in your speech. You are an
+Englishman!'
+
+The stranger grew quite red in the face, and answered quickly, 'No,
+madame.'
+
+Mademoiselle Adèle laughed. 'I beg your pardon. I know that Americans
+feel angry when they are taken for Englishmen.'
+
+'Neither am I an American,' replied the stranger.
+
+This was too much for Mademoiselle Adèle. She bent over her plate and
+looked sulky, for she saw that Mademoiselle Louison opposite was
+enjoying her defeat.
+
+The foreign gentleman understood the situation, and added, half aloud:
+'I am an Irishman, madame.'
+
+'Ah!' said Mademoiselle Adèle, with a grateful smile, for she was easily
+reconciled.
+
+'Anatole! Irishman--what is that?' she asked in a whisper.
+
+'The poor of England,' he whispered back.
+
+'Indeed!'
+
+Adèle elevated her eyebrows, and cast a shrinking, timid glance at the
+stranger. She had suddenly lost much of her interest in him.
+
+De Silvis's dinners were excellent. The party had sat long at table, and
+when Monsieur Anatole thought of the oysters with which the feast had
+begun, they appeared to him like a beautiful dream. On the contrary, he
+had a somewhat too lively recollection of the truffles.
+
+Dinner was over; hands were reaching out for glasses, or trifling with
+fruit or biscuits.
+
+That sentimental blonde, Mademoiselle Louison, fell into meditation over
+a grape that she had dropped in her champagne glass. Tiny bright
+air-bubbles gathered all round the coating of the fruit, and when it was
+quite covered with these shining white pearls, they lifted the heavy
+grape up through the wine to the surface.
+
+'Look!' said Mademoiselle Louison, turning her large, swimming eyes upon
+the journalist, 'look, white angels are bearing a sinner to heaven!'
+
+'Ah! _charmant_, mademoiselle! What a sublime thought!' exclaimed the
+journalist, enraptured.
+
+Mademoiselle Louison's sublime thought passed round the table, and was
+much admired. Only the frivolous Adèle whispered to her obese admirer,
+'It would take a good many angels to bear you, Anatole.'
+
+Meanwhile the journalist seized the opportunity; he knew how to rivet
+the general attention. Besides, he was glad to escape from a tiresome
+political controversy with the German; and, as he wore a red ribbon and
+affected the superior journalistic tone, everybody listened to him.
+
+He explained how small forces, when united, can lift great burdens; and
+then he entered upon the topic of the day--the magnificent collections
+made by the press for the sufferers by the floods in Spain, and for the
+poor of Paris. Concerning this he had much to relate, and every moment
+he said 'we,' alluding to the press. He talked himself quite warm about
+'these millions, that we, with such great self-sacrifice, have raised.'
+
+But each of the others had his own story to tell. Numberless little
+touches of nobility--all savouring of self-denial--came to light from
+amidst these days of luxury and pleasure.
+
+Mademoiselle Louison's best friend--an insignificant little lady who sat
+at the foot of the table--told, in spite, of Louison's protest, how the
+latter had taken three poor seamstresses up to her own rooms, and had
+them sew the whole of the night before the _fête_ in the hippodrome. She
+had given the poor girls coffee and food, besides payment.
+
+Mademoiselle Louison suddenly became an important personage at table,
+and the journalist began to show her marked attention.
+
+The many pretty instances of philanthropy, and Louison's swimming eyes,
+put the whole company into a quiet, tranquil, benevolent frame of mind,
+eminently in keeping with the weariness induced by the exertions of the
+feast. And this comfortable feeling rose yet a few degrees higher after
+the guests were settled in soft easy-chairs in the cool drawing-room.
+
+There was no other light than the fire in the grate. Its red glimmer
+crept over the English carpet and up the gold borders in the tapestry;
+it shone upon a gilt picture-frame, on the piano that stood opposite,
+and, here and there, on a face further away in the gloom. Nothing else
+was visible except the red ends of cigars and cigarettes.
+
+The conversation died away. The silence was broken only by an occasional
+whisper or the sound of a coffee-cup being put aside; each seemed
+disposed to enjoy, undisturbed, his genial mood and the quiet gladness
+of digestion. Even Monsieur Anatole forgot his truffles, as he reclined
+in a low chair close to the sofa, on which Mademoiselle Adèle had taken
+her seat.
+
+'Is there no one who will give us a little music?' asked Senhor de
+Silvis from his chair. 'You are always so kind, Mademoiselle Adèle.'
+
+'Oh no, no!' cried Mademoiselle; 'I am too tired.'
+
+But the foreigner--the Irishman--rose from his corner and walked towards
+the instrument.
+
+'Ah, you will play for us! A thousand thanks, Monsieur--.' Senhor de
+Silvis had forgotten the name--a thing that often happened to him with
+his guests.
+
+'He is a musician,' said Mademoiselle Adèle to her friend. Anatole
+grunted admiringly.
+
+Indeed, all were similarly impressed by the mere way in which he sat
+down and, without any preparation, struck a few chords here and there,
+as if to wake the instrument.
+
+Then he began to play--lightly, sportively, frivolously, as befitted the
+situation. The melodies of the day were intermingled with fragments of
+waltzes and ballads; all the ephemeral trifles that Paris hums over for
+eight days he blended together with brilliantly fluent execution.
+
+The ladies uttered exclamations of admiration, and sang a few bars,
+keeping time with their feet. The whole party followed the music with
+intense interest; the strange artist had hit their mood, and drawn them
+all with him from the beginning. 'Der liebe Doctor' alone listened with
+the Sedan smile on his face; the pieces were too easy for him.
+
+But soon there came something for the German too; he nodded now and then
+with a sort of appreciation.
+
+It was a strange situation: the piquant fragrance that filled the air,
+the pleasure-loving women--these people, so free and unconstrained, all
+strangers to one another, hidden in the elegant, half-dark salon, each
+following his most secret thoughts--thoughts born of the mysterious,
+muffled music; whilst the firelight rose and fell, and made everything
+that was golden glimmer in the darkness.
+
+And there constantly came more for the doctor. From time to time he
+turned and signed to De Silvis, as he heard the loved notes of 'unser
+Schumann,' 'unser Beethoven,' or even of 'unser famoser Richard.'
+
+Meanwhile the stranger played on, steadily and without apparent effort,
+slightly inclined to the left, so as to give power to the bass. It
+sounded as if he had twenty fingers, all of steel; he knew how to unite
+the multitudinous notes in a single powerful clang. Without any pause to
+mark the transition from one melody to another, he riveted the interest
+of the company by constant new surprises, graceful allusions, and genial
+combinations, so that even the least musical among them were constrained
+to listen with eager attention.
+
+But the character of the music imperceptibly changed. The artist bent
+constantly over the instrument, inclining more to the left, and there
+was a strange unrest in the bass notes. The Baptists from 'The Prophet'
+came with heavy step; a rider from 'Damnation de Faust' dashed up from
+far below, in a desperate, hobbling hell-gallop.
+
+The rumbling grew stronger and stronger down in the depths, and Monsieur
+Anatole again began to feel the effects of the truffles. Mademoiselle
+Adèle half rose; the music would not let her lie in peace.
+
+Here and there the firelight shone on a pair of black eyes staring at
+the artist. He had lured them with him, and now they could not break
+loose; downward, ever downward, he led them--downward, where was a dull
+and muffled murmur as of threatenings and plaints.
+
+'Er führt eine famose linke Hand,' said the doctor. But De Silvis did
+not hear him; he sat, like the others, in breathless expectancy.
+
+A dark, sickening dread went out from the music and spread itself over
+them all. The artist's left hand seemed to be tying a knot that would
+never be loosened, while his right made light little runs, like flames,
+up and down in the treble. It sounded as if there was something uncanny
+brewing down in the cellar, whilst those above burnt torches and made
+merry.
+
+A sigh was heard, a half-scream from one of the ladies, who felt ill;
+but no one heeded it. The artist had now got quite down into the bass,
+and his tireless fingers whirled the notes together, so that a cold
+shudder crept down the backs of all.
+
+But into that threatening, growling sound far below there began to come
+an upward movement. The notes ran into, over, past each other--upward,
+always upward, but without making any way. There was a wild struggle to
+get up, as it were a multitude of small, dark figures scratching and
+tearing; a mad eagerness, a feverish haste; a scrambling, a seizing with
+hands and teeth; kicks, curses, shrieks, prayers--and all the while the
+artist's hands glided upward so slowly, so painfully slowly.
+
+'Anatole,' whispered Adèle, pale as death, 'he is playing Poverty.'
+
+'Oh, these truffles!' groaned Anatole, holding his stomach.
+
+All at once the room was lit up. Two servants with lamps and candelabra
+appeared in the _portière_; and at the same moment the stranger finished
+by bringing down his fingers of steel with all his might in a
+dissonance, so startling, so unearthly, that the whole party sprang up.
+
+'Out with the lamps!' shouted De Silvis.
+
+'No, no!' shrieked Adèle; 'I dare not be in the dark. Oh, that dreadful
+man!'
+
+Who was it? Yes, who was it? They involuntarily crowded round the host,
+and no one noticed the stranger slip out behind the servants.
+
+De Silvis tried to laugh. 'I think it was the devil himself. Come, let
+us go to the opera.'
+
+'To the opera! Not at any price!' exclaimed Louison. 'I will hear no
+music for a fortnight.'
+
+'Oh, those truffles!' moaned Anatole.
+
+The party broke up. They had all suddenly realized that they were
+strangers in a strange place, and each one wished to slip quietly home.
+
+As the journalist conducted Mademoiselle Louison to her carriage, he
+said: 'Yes, this is the consequence of letting one's self be persuaded
+to dine with these semi-savages. One is never sure of the company he
+will meet.'
+
+'Ah, how true! He quite spoiled my good spirits,' said Louison
+mournfully, turning her swimming eyes upon her companion. 'Will you
+accompany me to La Trinité? There is a low mass at twelve o'clock.'
+
+The journalist bowed, and got into the carriage with her.
+
+But as Mademoiselle Adèle and Monsieur Anatole drove past the English
+dispensary in the Rue de la Paix, he stopped the driver, and said
+pleadingly to his fair companion: 'I really think I must get out and get
+something for those truffles. You will excuse me, won't you? That music,
+you know.'
+
+'Don't mind me, my friend. Speaking candidly, I don't think either of us
+is specially lively this evening. Good-night.'
+
+She leant back in the carriage, relieved at finding herself alone; and
+this light, frivolous creature cried as if she had been whipped whilst
+she drove homeward.
+
+Anatole was undoubtedly suffering from the truffles, but yet he thought
+he came to himself as the carriage rolled away. Never in their whole
+acquaintance had they been so well pleased with each other as at this
+moment of parting.
+
+'Der liebe Doctor' had come best through the experience, because, being
+a German, he was hardened in music. All the same, he resolved to take a
+walk as far as Müller's _brasserie_ in the Rue Richelieu to get a decent
+glass of German beer, and perhaps a little bacon, on the top of it all.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A MONKEY.
+
+
+Yes, it was really a monkey that had nearly procured me 'Laudabilis'
+[Footnote: A second-class pass.] in my final law examination. As it
+was, I only got 'Haud'; [Footnote: A third-class pass.] but, after
+all, this was pretty creditable.
+
+But my friend the advocate, who had daily, with mingled feelings, to
+read the drafts of my work, found my process-paper so good that he hoped
+it might raise me into the 'Laud' list. And he did not wish me to suffer
+the injury and annoyance of being plucked in the _vivâ voce_
+examination, for he knew me and was my friend.
+
+But the monkey was really a coffee-stain on the margin of page 496 of
+Schweigaard's Process, which I had borrowed from my friend Cucumis.
+
+Going up to a law examination in slush and semi-darkness in mid-winter
+is one of the saddest experiences that a man can have. It may, indeed,
+be even worse in summer; but this I have not tried.
+
+One rushes through these eleven papers (or is it thirteen?--it is
+certainly the most infamous number that the college authorities have
+been able to devise)--like an unhappy _débutant_ in a circus. He stands
+on the back of a galloping horse, with his life in his hands and a silly
+circus smile on his lips; and so he must leap eleven (or is it
+thirteen?) times through one of these confounded paper-covered hoops.
+
+The unhappy mortal who passes--or tries to pass--his law examination,
+finds himself in precisely the same situation, only he does not gallop
+round a ring, under brilliant gaslight, to the music of a full band. He
+sits upon a hard chair in semi-darkness with his face to the wall, and
+the only sound he hears is the creaking of the inspectors' boots. For in
+all the wide, wide world there are no such creaky boots as those of law
+examination inspectors.
+
+And so comes the dreadful moment when the black-robed tormentor from the
+Collegium Juridicum brings in the examination-paper. He plants himself
+in the doorway, and reads. Coldly, impassively, with a cruel mockery of
+the horror of the situation, he raises aloft this fateful document--this
+wretched paper-covered hoop, through which we must all spring, or
+dismount and wend our way back--on foot!
+
+The candidates settle themselves in the saddle. Some seem quite unable
+to get firmly seated; they rock uneasily hither and thither, and one
+rider dismounts. He is followed to the door by all eyes, and a sigh runs
+through the assembled students. 'You to-day; I to-morrow.'
+
+Meanwhile one begins to hear a light trotting over the paper; they are
+leaping.
+
+Some few individuals sit firmly and gracefully through it all, and come
+out on the other side 'standing for Laud.' Others think that leaping
+straight is too easy; therefore, they turn in the air and alight with
+backs first. These also get through, but backwards; and it is said that
+their agility does not win from the judges its deserved meed of
+appreciation.
+
+Again, others leap, but miss the hoop. They spring underneath, to one
+side--some even high over the top, alighting safe and sound on the other
+side. These latter generally find the paper extremely simple, and
+continue the wild ride quite unconcernedly.
+
+But if one is not fond of riding, and has had no practice in leaping, he
+is much to be pitied--unless, indeed, he has a monkey on page 496.
+
+I do not know how many hoops I had passed when I found myself face to
+face with the process-paper.
+
+It was an unhealthy life that we then led: leaping by day and reading by
+night. I sat at midnight half-way through Schweigaard's Process,
+alternately putting my head out of the window and into the washhand
+basin, and, between whiles, rushing like a whirlwind through the
+withered leaves of the musty volume.
+
+However, even the most violent wind must eventually fall; and, indeed,
+this was my heartfelt wish. But the juridical momentum was strong
+within me. I sat stiffly, peering and reading for the eleventh time:
+'One might thus certainly assume'--'One--might--thus--certainly,'--
+combine the useful with the agreeable--and lean back--a little in the
+chair. I can read just as well; the lamp doesn't bother me in the least.
+'One--might--thus--'
+
+But all manner of non-juridical images rose up from the book, entwined
+themselves about the lamp, and threatened to completely overshadow my
+clear legal brain. I could yet dimly see the white paper. 'One--might--
+thus--'. The rest disappeared in a myriad of small dark characters that
+flowed down the closely-printed pages; in dull despair my eyes followed
+the stream, and then I saw, towards the bottom of the right-hand page, a
+face.
+
+It was a monkey that was drawn on the margin. It was excellently drawn,
+I thought, the brown colouring of the face being especially remarkable.
+I am ashamed to say that my interest in this work of art proved stronger
+than Schweigaard himself. I roused myself a little, and leant forward
+in order to see better.
+
+By turning the leaf, I discovered that the remarkable brown colouring of
+the face was due to the fact that the whole monkey, after all, was only
+a coffee-stain. The artist had merely added a pair of eyes and a little
+hair; the genial expression of the picture was really to be credited to
+the individual who had spilt the coffee.
+
+'Cucumis couldn't draw,' thought I; that I knew. 'But, by Jove! he
+_could_ do his process!'
+
+And now I came to think of Cucumis, of his handsome degree, of his
+triumphant home-coming, and of how much he must have read in order to
+become so learned. And, while I thought of all this, my consciousness
+awoke little by little, until my own ignorance suddenly stood clearly
+before me in all its horrible nakedness.
+
+I pictured to myself the shame of having to 'dismount,' or, still worse,
+of being that one unfortunate of whom it is invariably said with
+sinister anonymity, 'One of the candidates received _non contemnendus_'.
+And as it sometimes happens that people lose their reason through much
+learning, so I grew half crazy with terror at my ignorance.
+
+Up I jumped, and dipped my head in the wash-basin. Scarcely taking time
+to dry myself, I began to read with an energy that fixed every word in
+my memory.
+
+Down the left page I hurried, with unabated vigour down the right; I
+reached the monkey, rushed past him, turned the leaf, and read bravely
+on.
+
+I was not conscious of the fact that my strength was now completely
+exhausted. Although I caught a glimpse of a new section (usually so
+strong an incentive to increased effort), I could not help getting
+entangled in one of those artful propositions that one reads over and
+over again in illusory profundity.
+
+I groped about for a way of escape, but there was none. Incoherent
+thoughts began to whirl through my brain. 'Where is the monkey?--a spot
+of coffee--one cannot be genial on both sides--everything in life has a
+right and a wrong side--for example, the university clock--but if I
+cannot swim, let me come out--I am going to the circus--I know very well
+that you are standing there grinning at me, Cucumis--but I can leap
+through the hoop, I can--and if that professor who is standing smoking
+at my paraffin lamp had only conscientiously referred to _corpus juris_,
+I should not now be lying here--in my night-shirt in the middle of Karl
+Johan's Gade [Footnote: A principal street of Christiania.]--but--' Then
+I sank into that deep, dreamless slumber which only falls to the lot of
+an evil conscience when one is very young.
+
+I was in the saddle early next morning.
+
+I don't know if the devil ever had shoes on, but I must suppose he had,
+for his inspectors were in their boots, and they creaked past me, where
+I sat in my misery with my face to the wall.
+
+A professor walked round the rooms and looked at the victims.
+Occasionally he nodded and smiled encouragingly, as his eye fell on one
+of those miserable lick-spittles who frequent the lectures; but when he
+discovered me, the smile vanished, and his ice-cold stare seemed to
+write upon the wall over my head: 'Mene, mene! [Footnote: Dan. v. 25.]
+Wretch, I know thee not!'
+
+A pair of inspectors walked creakily up to the professor and fawned upon
+him; I heard them whispering behind my chair. I ground my teeth in
+silent wrath at the thought that these contemptible creatures were paid
+for--yes, actually made their living by torturing me and some of my best
+friends.
+
+The door opened; a glimmering yellow light fell upon the white faces; it
+called to mind 'The Victims of Terrorism' in Luxembourg. Then all again
+became dark, and the black-robed emissary of the College flitted through
+the room like a bat, with the famous white document in his claws.
+
+He began to read.
+
+Never in my life had I been less inclined for leaping; and yet I started
+violently at the first words. 'The monkey!' I had almost shouted; for he
+it was--it was evidently the coffee-stain on page 496. The paper bore
+precisely upon what I had read with so much energy the preceding night.
+
+And I began to write. After a short, but superior and assured preamble,
+I introduced the high-sounding words of Schweigaard, 'One might thus
+certainly assume,' etc., and hurried down the left page, with unabated
+vigour down the right, reached the monkey, dashed past him, began to
+grope and fumble, and then I found I could not write a word more.
+
+I felt that something was wanting, but I knew that it was useless to
+speculate; what a man can't do, he can't. I therefore made a full stop,
+and went away long before any of the others were half finished.
+
+He has dismounted, thought my fellow-sufferers, or he may have leaped
+wide of the hoop. For it was a difficult paper.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+'Why,' said the advocate, as he read, 'you are better than I thought.
+This is pure Schweigaard. You have left out the last point, but that
+doesn't matter very much; one can see that you are well up in these
+things. But why, then, were you so pitiably afraid of the process
+yesterday?'
+
+'I didn't know a thing.'
+
+He laughed. 'Was it last night, then, that you learned your process?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Did anyone help you?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'He must be a devil of a crammer who could put so much law into your
+head in one night. May I ask what wizard it was?'
+
+'A monkey!' I replied.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A TALE OF THE SEA.
+
+
+Once there lay in a certain haven a large number of vessels. They had
+lain there very long, not exactly on account of storm, but rather
+because of a dead calm; and at last they had lain there until they no
+longer heeded the weather.
+
+All the captains had gradually become good friends; they visited from
+ship to ship, and called one another 'Cousin.'
+
+They were in no hurry to depart. Now and then a youthful steersman might
+chance to let fall a word about a good wind and a smooth sea. But such
+remarks were not tolerated; order had to be maintained on a ship. Those,
+therefore, who could not hold their tongues were set ashore.
+
+Matters could not, however, go on thus for ever. Men are not so good as
+they ought to be, and all do not thrive under law and order.
+
+The crews at length began to murmur a little; they were weary of
+painting and polishing the cabins, and of rowing the captains to and
+from the toddy suppers. It was rumoured that individual ships were
+getting ready for sailing. The sails of some were set one by one in all
+silence, the anchors were weighed without song, and the ships glided
+quietly out of the harbour; others sailed while their captains slept.
+Fighting and mutiny were also heard of; but then there came help from
+the neighbour captains, the malcontents were punished and put ashore,
+and all moorings were carefully examined and strengthened.
+
+Nevertheless, all the ships, except one, at last left the harbour. They
+did not all sail with like fortune; one and another even came in again
+for a time, damaged. Others were little heard of. The captain of one
+ship, it was said, was thrown overboard by his men; another sailed with
+half the crew in irons, none knew where. But yet they were all in
+motion, each striving after its own fashion, now in storm, now in calm,
+towards its goal.
+
+As stated, only one ship remained in the harbour, and it lay safe and
+sound, with two anchors at the bottom and three great cables attached to
+the quay.
+
+It was a strange little craft. The hull was old, but it had been newly
+repaired, and they had given it a smart little modern figurehead, which
+contrasted strangely with the smooth sides and the heavy stern. One
+could see that the rigging had originally belonged to a large vessel,
+but had been very hastily adapted to the smaller hull, and this still
+further increased the want of proportion in the brig's whole appearance.
+Then it was painted with large portholes for guns, like a man-of-war,
+and always carried its flag at the main-mast.
+
+The skipper was no common man. He himself had painted the sketch of the
+brig that hung in the cabin, and, besides, he could sing--both psalms
+and songs. Indeed, there were those who maintained that he composed the
+songs himself; but this was most probably a lie. And it was certainly a
+lie that they whispered in the forecastle: that the skipper had not
+quite got his sea-legs. Young men always tell such stories to
+cabin-boys, in order to appear manly. And, besides, there was a
+steersman on the brig, who could, on a pinch, easily round the headlands
+alone.
+
+He had sailed as steersman for many years of our Lord, ever since the
+time of the skipper's late father. He had become as if glued to the
+tiller, and many could scarcely imagine the old brig with a new
+steersman.
+
+He had certainly never voyaged in distant waters; but as his trade had
+always been the same, and as he had invariably been in the company of
+others, the brig had sailed pretty fortunately, without special damage
+and without special merit.
+
+Therefore, both he and the skipper had arrived at the conviction that
+none could sail better than they, and hence they cared little what the
+others did. They looked up at the sky and shook their heads.
+
+The men felt quite comfortable, for they were not used to better things.
+Most of them could not understand why the crews of the other ships were
+in such a hurry to be off; the month went round all the same, whether
+one lay in port or sailed, and then it was better to avoid work. So long
+as the skipper made no sign of preparation for sailing, the men might
+keep their minds easy, for he must surely have the most interest in
+getting away. And besides, they all knew what sort of fellow the
+steersman was, and if such a capable and experienced man lay still, they
+might be quite sure that he had good and powerful reasons.
+
+But a little party among the crew--some quite youthful persons--thought
+it was a shame to let themselves be thus left astern by everybody. They
+had, indeed, no special advantage or profit to expect from the voyage,
+but at last the inaction became intolerable, and they conceived the
+daring resolve of sending a youth aft to beg the captain to fix a date
+for sailing.
+
+The more judicious among the crew crossed themselves, and humbly
+entreated the young man to keep quiet; but the latter was a rash
+greenhorn, who had sailed in foreign service, and therefore imagined
+himself to be a 'regular devil of a fellow.' He went right aft and down
+into the cabin, where the skipper and the steersman sat with their
+whisky before them, playing cards.
+
+'We would ask if the skipper would kindly set sail next week, for now we
+are all so weary of lying here,' said the young man, looking the skipper
+straight in the eyes without winking.
+
+The latter's face first turned pale blue, and then assumed a deep violet
+tint; but he restrained himself, and said, as was his invariable custom:
+
+'What think you, steersman?'
+
+'H'm,' replied the steersman slowly. More he never used to say at first,
+when he was questioned, for he did not like to answer promptly. But when
+he got an opportunity of speaking alone, without being interrupted, he
+could utter the longest sentences and the very hardest words. And then
+the skipper was especially proud of him.
+
+However short the steersman's reply might seem, the skipper at once
+understood its meaning. He turned towards the youth--gravely, but
+gracefully, for he was an exceedingly well-bred man.
+
+'You cursed young fool! don't you think I understand these things better
+than you? I, who have thought of nothing but being a skipper since I was
+knee-high! But I know well enough what you and the like of you are
+thinking about. You don't care a d---- about the craft, and if you could
+only get the power from us old ones, you would run her on the first
+islet you came to, so that you might plunder her of the whisky. But
+there will be none of that, my young whelp! Here we shall lie, as long
+as I choose.'
+
+When this decision reached the forecastle, it awoke great indignation
+among the young and immature, which, indeed, was only to be expected.
+But even the skipper's friends and admirers shook their heads, and
+opined that it was a nasty answer; after all, it was only a civil
+question, which ought not to compromise anybody.
+
+There now arose a growing ill-humour--something quite unheard-of among
+these peaceable fellows. Even the skipper, who was not usually quick to
+understand or remark anything, thought he saw many sullen faces, and he
+was no longer so well pleased with the bearing of the crew when he
+stepped out upon deck with his genial 'Good-morning, you rogues.'
+
+But the steersman had long scented something, for he had a fine nose and
+long ears. Therefore, a couple of evenings after the young man's
+unfortunate visit, it was remarked that something extraordinary was
+brewing aft.
+
+The cabin-boy had to make three journeys with the toddy-kettle, and the
+report he gave in the forecastle after his last trip was indeed
+disquieting.
+
+The steersman seemed to have talked without intermission for two hours;
+before them on the table lay barometer, chronometer, sextant, journal,
+and half the ship's library. This consisted of Kingo's hymn-book and an
+old Dutch 'Kaart-Boikje'; [Footnote: Chart-book.] for the skipper could
+do just as little with the new hymns as the steersman with the new
+charts.
+
+The skipper now sat prodding the chart with a large pair of compasses,
+while the steersman talked, using all his longest and hardest words.
+There was one word in particular that was often repeated, and this the
+boy learned by heart. He said it over and over again to himself as he
+went up the cabin stairs and passed along the deck to the forecastle,
+and the moment he opened the door he shouted:
+
+'Initiative! Mind that word, boys! Write it down--initiative!'
+
+_In-i-ti-a-tive_ was with much difficulty spelt out and written with
+chalk on the table. And during the boy's long statement all these men
+sat staring, uneasily and with anxious expectancy, at this long, mystic
+word.
+
+'And then,' concluded the cabin-boy at last--'then says the steersman:
+"But we ourselves shall take the--" what is written on the table.'
+
+All exclaimed simultaneously, 'Initiative.'
+
+'Yes, that was it. And every time he said it, they both struck the table
+and looked at me as if they would eat me. I now think, therefore, that
+it is a new kind of revolver they intend to use upon us.'
+
+But none of the others thought so; it was surely not so bad as that. But
+something was impending, that was clear. And the relieved watchman went
+to his berth with gloomy forebodings, and the middle watch did not get a
+wink of sleep that night.
+
+At seven o'clock next morning both skipper and steersman were up on
+deck. No man could remember ever having seen them before so early in the
+day. But there was no time to stand in amazement, for now followed, in
+quick succession, orders for sailing.
+
+'Heave up the anchors! Let two men go ashore and slip the cables!'
+
+There was gladness and bustle among the crew, and the preparations
+proceeded so rapidly that in less than an hour the brig was under
+canvas.
+
+The skipper looked at the steersman and shook his head, muttering, 'This
+is the devil's own haste.'
+
+After a few little turns in the spacious harbour, the brig passed the
+headland and stood out to sea. A fresh breeze was blowing, and the waves
+ran rather high.
+
+The steersman, with a prodigious twist in his mouth, stood astride the
+tiller, for such a piece of devil's trumpery as a wheel should never
+come on board as long as _he_ had anything to say in the matter.
+
+The skipper stood on the cabin stairs, with his head above the
+companion. His face was of a somewhat greenish hue, and he frequently
+ran down into the cabin. The old boatswain believed that he went to look
+at the chart, the young man thought he drank whisky, but the cabin-boy
+swore that he went below to vomit.
+
+The men were in excellent spirits; it was so refreshing to breathe the
+sea air, and to feel the ship once again moving under their feet.
+Indeed, the old brig herself seemed to be in a good humour; she dived as
+deep down between the seas as she could, and raised much more foam than
+was necessary.
+
+The young sailors looked out for heavy seas. 'Here comes a whopper,'
+they shouted; 'if it would only hit us straight!' And it did.
+
+It was a substantial sea, larger than the others. It approached
+deliberately, and seemed to lie down and take aim. It then rose
+suddenly, and gave the brig, which was chubby as a cherub, such a
+mighty slap on the port cheek that she quivered in every timber. And
+high over the railing, far in upon the deck, dashed the cold salt spray;
+the captain had scarcely time to duck his head below the companion.
+
+Ah, how refreshing it was! It exhilarated both old and young; they had
+not had a taste of the cold sea-water for a long time, and with one
+voice the whole crew broke into a lusty 'Hurrah!'
+
+But at this moment the steerman's stentorian voice rang out: 'Hard to
+leeward!' The brig luffed up close to the wind, the sails flapped so
+violently that the rigging shook, and now followed in rapid succession,
+even quicker than before, orders to anchor. 'Let fall the port anchor!
+Let go the starboard one too!'
+
+Plump--fell the one; plump--went the other. The old chains rattled out,
+and a little red cloud of rust rose up on either side of the bowsprit.
+
+The men, accustomed to obey, worked rapidly without thinking why, and
+the brig soon rode pretty quietly at her two anchors.
+
+But now, after the work was finished, no one could conceal his
+astonishment at this sudden anchoring, just off the coast, among islets
+and skerries. And still more extraordinary seemed the behaviour of those
+in command. For they both stood right forward, with their backs to the
+weather, leaning over the railing and staring at the port bow. Some had
+even thought they had heard the captain cry, 'To the pumps, men,' but
+this point was never cleared up.
+
+'What the devil can they be doing forward?' said the rash young man.
+
+'They think she struck on a reef when we shipped the big sea,' whispered
+the cabin-boy.
+
+'Hold your jaw, boy!' said the boatswain.
+
+All the same, the cabin-boy's words passed from mouth to mouth; a little
+chuckle was heard here and there; the men's faces became more and more
+ludicrously uneasy, and their suppressed laughter was on the point of
+bursting forth. Then the steersman was seen to nudge the skipper in the
+side.
+
+'Yes; but then you must whisper to me,' said the latter.
+
+The steersman nodded, and then the skipper turned to the crew and
+solemnly spoke as follows:
+
+'Yes, this time, fortunately, everything went well; but now I hope that
+each of you will have learnt how dangerous it is to lend an ear to these
+juvenile agitators, who can never be quiet and let evolution, as the
+steersman says, pursue its natural course. I yielded to your wishes this
+time, it is true, but not because I approved of your insane rashness; it
+was simply that I might convince you by--by the logic of events. And
+see--how did things go? Certainly we have, as by a miracle, been spared
+the worst; but now we lie here, outside our safe haven, our old
+anchorage, which we have forsaken to be tossed about on the turbulent
+waters of the unknown and the untried. But, believe me, henceforth you
+will find both our excellent steersman and your captain at our post,
+guarding against such crude, immature projects. And if things go badly
+with us in days to come, you must all remember that it is entirely your
+own fault; we wash our hands of the matter.'
+
+Thereupon he strode through the men, who respectfully fell back to let
+him pass. The steersman, who had really whispered, dried his eyes and
+followed. They both disappeared in the cabin.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There was much strife in the forecastle that day, and it grew worse
+after.
+
+The brig's happy days were all over. Dissension and discontent,
+suspicion and obstinacy, converted the narrow limits of the forecastle
+into a veritable hell.
+
+Only skipper and steersman seemed to thrive well under all this. The
+general dissatisfaction did not affect them; for they, of course, were
+not to blame.
+
+None thought of any change. The crew had done what they could, and the
+skipper, on his part, had also been accommodating.
+
+Now they might keep their minds at rest. The brig lay in a dangerous
+place, but now she would have to lie--and there she lies to this day.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A DINNER.
+
+
+There was a large dinner-party at the merchant's. The judge had made a
+speech in honour of the home-coming of the student, the eldest son of
+the house, and the merchant had replied with another in honour of the
+judge; so far all was well and good. And yet one could see that the host
+was disquieted about something. He answered inconsequentially, decanted
+Rhine wine into port, and betrayed absence of mind in all manner of
+ways.
+
+He was meditating upon a speech--a speech beyond the scope of the
+regulation after-dinner orations. This was something very remarkable;
+for the merchant was no speaker, and--what was still more remarkable--he
+knew it himself.
+
+When, therefore, well on in the dinner, he hammered upon the table for
+silence, and said that he must give expression to a sentiment that lay
+at his heart, everybody instantly felt that something unusual was
+impending.
+
+There fell such a sudden stillness upon the table, that one could hear
+the lively chatter of the ladies, who, in accordance with Norse custom,
+were dining in the adjoining rooms.
+
+At length the silence reached even them, and they crowded in the doorway
+to listen. Only the hostess held back, sending her husband an anxious
+look. 'Ah, dear me!' she sighed, half aloud, 'he is sure to make a
+muddle of it. He has already made all his speeches; what would he be at
+now?'
+
+And he certainly did not begin well. He stammered, cleared his throat,
+got entangled among the usual toast expressions, such as 'I will not
+fail to--ahem--I am impelled to express my, my--that is, I would beg
+you, gentlemen, to assist me in--'
+
+The gentlemen sat and stared down into their glasses, ready to empty
+them upon the least hint of a conclusion. But none came. On the
+contrary, the speaker recovered himself.
+
+For something really lay at his heart. His joy and pride over his son,
+who had come home sound and well after having passed a respectable
+examination, the judge's flattering speech, the good cheer, the wine,
+the festive mood--all this put words into his mouth. And when he got
+over the fatal introductory phrases, the words came more and more
+fluently.
+
+It was the toast of 'The Young.' The speaker dwelt upon our
+responsibility towards children, and the many sorrows--but also the many
+joys--that the parents have in them.
+
+He was from time to time compelled to talk quickly to hide his emotion,
+for he felt what he said.
+
+And when he came to the grown-up children, when he imagined his dear son
+a partner in his business, and spoke of grandchildren and so on, his
+words acquired a ring of eloquence which astonished all his hearers, and
+his peroration was greeted with hearty applause.
+
+'For, gentlemen, it is in these children that we, as it were, continue
+our existence. We leave them not only our name, but also our work. And
+we leave them this, not that they may idly enjoy its fruits, but that
+they may continue it, extend it--yes, do it much better than their
+fathers were able to. For it is our hope that the rising generation may
+appropriate the fruits of the work of the age, that they may be freed
+from the prejudices that have darkened the past and partially darken the
+present; and, in drinking the health of the young, let us wish that,
+steadily progressing, they may become worthy of their sires--yes, let us
+say it--outgrow them.
+
+'And only when we know that we leave the work of our generation in abler
+hands, can we calmly look forward to the time when we shall bid adieu to
+our daily task, and then we may confidently reckon upon a bright and
+glorious future for our dear Fatherland. A health to the Young!'
+
+The hostess, who had ventured nearer when she heard that the speech was
+going on well, was proud of her husband; the whole company was in an
+exhilarated humour, but the gladdest of all was the student.
+
+He had stood a little in awe of his father, whose severely patriarchal
+principles he well knew. He now heard that the old man was extremely
+liberal-minded towards youth, and he was very glad to be enabled to
+discourse with him upon serious matters.
+
+But, for the moment, it was only a question of jesting; _à propos_ of
+the toast, there ensued one of those interesting table-talks, about who
+was really young and who old. After the company had arrived at this
+witty result, that the eldest were in reality the youngest, they
+adjourned to the dessert-table, which was laid in the ladies' room.
+
+But, no matter how gallant the gentlemen--especially those of the old
+school--may be towards the fair sex, neither feminine amiability nor the
+most _recherché_ dessert has power to stop them for long on their way to
+the smoking-room. And soon the first faint aroma of cigars, so great a
+luxury to smokers, announced the beginning of that process which has
+obtained for our ladies the fame of being quite smoke-dried.
+
+The student and a few other young gentlemen remained for a time with
+the young ladies--under the strict surveillance of the elder ones. But
+little by little they also were swallowed up in the gray cloud which
+indicated the way that their fathers had taken.
+
+In the smoking-room they were carrying on a very animated conversation
+upon some matter of social politics. The host, who was speaking,
+supported his view with a number of 'historical facts,' which, however,
+were entirely unreliable.
+
+His opponent, a solicitor of the High Court, was sitting chuckling
+inwardly at the prospect of refuting these inaccurate statements, when
+the student entered the room.
+
+He came just in time to hear his father's blundering, and, in his jovial
+humour, in his delight over the new conception of his father that he had
+acquired after the toast, he said, with a cheery bluntness:
+
+'Excuse me, father, you are mistaken there. The circumstances are not at
+all as you state. On the contrary--'
+
+He got no further: the father laughingly slapped him on the shoulder,
+and said:
+
+'There, there! are you, too, trifling with newspapers! But really, you
+must not disturb us; we are in the middle of a serious discussion.'
+
+The son heard an irritating sniff from the gray cloud; he was provoked
+at the scorn implied in his interposition being regarded as disturbing a
+serious conversation.
+
+He therefore replied somewhat sharply.
+
+The father, who instantly remarked the tone, suddenly changed his own
+manner.
+
+'Are you serious in coming here and saying that your father is talking
+nonsense?'
+
+'I did not say that; I only said that you were mistaken.'
+
+'The words are of little moment, but the meaning was there,' said the
+merchant, who was beginning to get angry. For he heard a gentleman say
+to his neighbour:
+
+'If this had only happened in my father's time!'
+
+One word now drew forth another, and the situation became extremely
+painful.
+
+The hostess, who had always an attentive ear for the gentlemen's
+conversation, as she knew her husband's hasty temper, immediately came
+and looked in at the door.
+
+'What is it, Adjunct [Footnote: Assistant-teacher.] Hansen?'
+
+'Ah,' replied Hansen, 'your son has forgotten himself a little.'
+
+'To his own father! He must have had too much to drink. Dear Hansen, try
+and get him out.'
+
+The Adjunct, who was more well-meaning than diplomatic, and who, besides
+(a rarer thing with old teachers than is generally supposed) was
+esteemed by his former pupils, went and took the student without
+ceremony by the arm, saying: 'Come, shall we two take a turn in the
+garden?'
+
+The young man turned round violently, but when he saw that it was the
+old teacher, and received, at the same time, a troubled, imploring
+glance from his mother, he passively allowed himself to be led away.
+
+While in the doorway, he heard the lawyer, whom he had never been able
+to endure, say something about the egg that would teach the hen to lay,
+which witticism was received with uproarious laughter. A thrill passed
+through him; but the Adjunct held him firmly, and out they went.
+
+It was long before the old teacher could get him sufficiently quieted to
+become susceptible to reason. The disappointment, the bitter sense of
+being at variance with his father, and, not least, the affront of being
+treated as a boy in the presence of so many--all this had to pour out
+for awhile.
+
+But at last he became calm, and sat down with his old friend, who now
+pointed out to him that it must be very painful to an elderly man to be
+corrected by a mere youth.
+
+'Yes, but I was right,' said the student, certainly for the twentieth
+time.
+
+'Good, good! but yet you must not put on an air of wanting to be wiser
+than your own father.'
+
+'Why, my father himself said that he would have it so.'
+
+'What? When did your father say that?' The teacher almost began to
+believe that the wine had gone to the young gentleman's head.
+
+'At the table--in his speech.'
+
+'At the table--yes! In his speech--yes! But, don't you see, that is
+quite another matter. People allow themselves to say such things,
+especially in speeches; but it is by no means intended that these
+theories should be translated into practice. No, believe me, my dear
+boy, I am old, and I know humanity. The world must wag like this; we are
+not made otherwise. In youth one has his own peculiar view of life, but,
+young man, it is not the right one. Only when one has arrived at the
+calm restfulness of an advanced age does one see circumstances in the
+true light. And now I will tell you something, upon the truth of which
+you may confidently rely. When you come to your father's years and
+position, your opinions will be quite the same as his now are, and, like
+him, you will strive to maintain them and impress them upon your
+children.'
+
+'No, never! I swear it,' cried the young man, springing to his feet. And
+now he spoke in glowing terms, to the effect that for him right would
+always be right, that he would respect the truth, no matter whence it
+came, that he would respect the young, and so on. In short, he talked as
+hopeful youths are wont to talk after a good dinner and violent mental
+disturbance.
+
+He was beautiful, as he stood there with the evening sun shining upon
+his blonde hair, and his enthusiastic countenance turned upward.
+
+There was in his whole personality and in his words something
+transporting and convincing, something that could not fail to work an
+impression--that is to say, if anybody but the teacher had seen and
+heard him.
+
+For upon the teacher it made no impression whatever; he was old, of
+course.
+
+The drama of which he had that day been a witness he had seen many
+times. He himself had successively played both the principal _rôles_; he
+had seen many _débutants_ like the student and many old players like the
+merchant.
+
+Therefore he shook his venerable head, and said to himself:
+
+'Yes, yes; it is all well enough. But just see if I am not right; he
+will become precisely the same as the rest of us.'
+
+And the teacher was right.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+TROFAST. [Footnote: Faithful.]
+
+     I.
+
+
+Miss Thyra went and called into the speaking-tube:
+
+'Will Trofast's cutlets be ready soon?'
+
+The maid's voice came up from the kitchen: 'They are on the window-sill
+cooling; as soon as they are all right, Stine shall bring them up.'
+
+Trofast, who had heard this, went and laid himself quietly down upon the
+hearthrug.
+
+He understood much better than a human being, the merchant used to say.
+
+Besides the people of the house, there sat at the breakfast-table an
+old enemy of Trofast's--the only one he had. But be it said that Cand.
+jur. [Footnote: Graduate in law.] Viggo Hansen was the enemy of a
+great deal in this world, and his snappish tongue was well known all
+over Copenhagen. Having been a friend of the family for many years, he
+affected an especial frankness in this house, and when he was in a
+querulous mood (which was always the case) he wreaked his bitterness
+unsparingly upon anything or anybody.
+
+In particular, he was always attacking Trofast.
+
+'That big yellow beast,' he used to say, 'is being petted and pampered
+and stuffed with steak and cutlets, while many a human child must bite
+its fingers after a piece of dry bread.'
+
+This, however, was a tender point, of which Dr. Hansen had to be rather
+careful.
+
+Whenever anyone mentioned Trofast in words that were not full of
+admiration, he received a simultaneous look from the whole family, and
+the merchant had even said point-blank to Dr. Hansen that he might one
+day get seriously angry if the other would not refer to Trofast in a
+becoming manner.
+
+But Miss Thyra positively hated Dr. Hansen for this; and although
+Waldemar was now grown up--a student, at any rate--he took a special
+pleasure in stealing the gloves out of the doctor's back pocket, and
+delivering them to Trofast to tear.
+
+Yes, the good-wife herself, although as mild and sweet as tea, was
+sometimes compelled to take the doctor to task, and seriously
+remonstrate with him for daring to speak so ill of the dear animal.
+
+All this Trofast understood very well; but he despised Dr. Hansen, and
+took no notice of him. He condescended to tear the gloves, because it
+pleased his friend Waldemar, but otherwise he did not seem to see the
+doctor.
+
+When the cutlets came, Trofast ate them quietly and discreetly. He did
+not crunch the bones, but picked them quite clean, and licked the
+platter.
+
+Thereupon he went up to the merchant, and laid his right fore-paw upon
+his knee.
+
+'Welcome, welcome, old boy!' cried the merchant with emotion. He was
+moved in like manner every morning, when this little scene was
+re-enacted.
+
+'Why, you can't call Trofast old, father,' said Waldemar, with a little
+tone of superiority.
+
+'Indeed! Do you know that he will soon be eight?'
+
+'Yes, my little man,' said the good wife gently; 'but a dog of eight is
+not an old dog.'
+
+'No, mother,' exclaimed Waldemar eagerly. 'You side with me, don't you?
+A dog of eight is not an old dog.'
+
+And in an instant the whole family was divided into two parties--two
+very ardent parties, who, with an unceasing flow of words, set to
+debating the momentous question:--whether one can call a dog of eight
+years an old dog or not. Both sides became warm, and, although each one
+kept on repeating his unalterable opinion into his opponent's face, it
+did not seem likely that they would ever arrive at unanimity--not even
+when old grandmother hurriedly rose from her chair, and positively
+insisted upon telling some story about the Queen-Dowager's lap-dog,
+which she had had the honour of knowing from the street.
+
+But in the midst of the irresistible whirl of words there came a pause.
+Some one looked at his watch and said: 'The steamboat.' They all rose;
+the gentlemen, who had to go to town, rushed off; the whole company was
+scattered to the four winds, and the problem--whether one can call a dog
+of eight an old dog or not--floated away in the air, unsolved.
+
+Trofast alone did not stir. He was accustomed to this domestic din, and
+these unsolved problems did not interest him. He ran his wise eyes over
+the deserted breakfast-table, dropped his black nose upon his powerful
+fore-paws, and closed his eyes for a little morning nap. As long as they
+were staying out in the country, there was nothing much for him to do,
+except eat and sleep.
+
+Trofast was one of the pure Danish hounds from the Zoological Gardens.
+The King had even bought his brother, which fact was expressly
+communicated to all who came to the house.
+
+All the same, he had had a pretty hard upbringing, for he was originally
+designated to be watch-dog at the merchant's large coalstore out at
+Kristianshavn.
+
+Out there, Trofast's behaviour was exemplary. Savage and furious as a
+tiger at night, in the daytime he was so quiet, kindly, and even humble,
+that the merchant took notice of him, and promoted him to the position
+of house-dog.
+
+And it was really from this moment that the noble animal began to
+develop all his excellent qualities.
+
+From the very beginning he had a peculiar, modest way of standing at the
+drawing-room door, and looking so humbly at anybody who entered that it
+was quite impossible to avoid letting him into the room. And there he
+soon made himself at home--under the sofa at first, but afterwards upon
+the soft carpet in front of the fire.
+
+And as the other members of the family learned to appreciate his rare
+gifts, Trofast gradually advanced in importance, until Dr. Hansen
+maintained that he was the real master of the house.
+
+Certain it is that there came a something into Trofast's whole demeanour
+which distinctly indicated that he was well aware of the position he
+occupied. He no longer stood humbly at the door, but entered first
+himself as soon as it was opened. And if the door was not opened for him
+instantly when he scratched at it, the powerful animal would raise
+himself upon his hind-legs, lay his fore-paws upon the latch, and open
+it for himself.
+
+The first time that he performed this feat the good-wife delightedly
+exclaimed:
+
+'Isn't he charming? He's just like a human being, only so much better
+and more faithful!'
+
+The rest of the family were also of opinion that Trofast was better than
+a human being. Each one seemed, as it were, to get quit of a few of his
+own sins and infirmities through this admiring worship of the noble
+animal; and whenever anybody was displeased with himself or others,
+Trofast received the most confidential communications, and solemn
+assurances that he was really the only friend upon whom one could rely.
+
+When Miss Thyra came home disappointed from a ball, or when her best
+friend had faithlessly betrayed a frightfully great secret, she would
+throw herself, weeping, upon Trofast's neck, and say: 'Now, Trofast, I
+have only you left. There is nobody--nobody--nobody on the earth who
+likes me but you! Now we two are quite alone in the wide, wide world;
+but you will not betray your poor little Thyra--you must promise me
+that, Trofast.' And so she would weep on, until her tears trickled down
+Trofast's black nose.
+
+No wonder, therefore, that Trofast comported himself with a certain
+dignity at home in the house. But in the street also it was evident that
+he felt self-confident, and that he was proud of being a dog in a town
+where dogs are in power.
+
+When they were staying in the country in summer, Trofast went to town
+only once a week or so, to scent out old acquaintances. Out in the
+country, he lived exclusively for the sake of his health; he bathed,
+rolled in the flower-beds, and then went into the parlour to rub himself
+dry upon the furniture, the ladies, and finally upon the hearthrug.
+
+But for the remainder of the year the whole of Copenhagen was at his
+disposal, and he availed himself of his privileges with much assurance.
+
+
+What a treat it was, early in the spring, when the fine grass began to
+shoot upon the public lawns, which no human foot must tread, to run up
+and down and round in a ring with a few friends, scattering the tufts of
+grass in the air!
+
+Or when the gardener's people had gone home to dinner, after having
+pottered and trimmed all the forenoon among the fine flowers and bushes,
+what fun it was to pretend to dig for moles; thrust his nose down into
+the earth in the centre of the flower-bed, snort and blow, then begin
+scraping up the earth with his fore-feet, stop for a little, thrust his
+muzzle down again, blow, and then fall to digging up earth with all his
+might, until the hole was so deep that a single vigorous kick from his
+hind-legs could throw a whole rose-bush, roots and all, high in the air!
+
+When Trofast, after such an escapade, lay quietly in the middle of the
+lawn, in the warm spring sunshine, and saw the humans trudge wearily
+past outside, in dust or mud, he would silently and self-complacently
+wag his tail.
+
+Then there were the great fights in Grönningen, or round the horse in
+Kongens Nytorv. [Footnote: King's Square.] From thence, wet and
+bedraggled, he would dash up Östergade [Footnote: East Street.] among
+people's legs, rubbing against ladies' dresses and gentlemen's
+trousers, overthrowing old women and children, exercising an unlimited
+right-of-way on both sides of the pavement, now rushing into a backyard
+and up the kitchen stairs after a cat, now scattering terror and
+confusion by flying right at the throat of an old enemy. Or Trofast
+would sometimes amuse himself by stopping in front of a little girl who
+might be going an errand for her mother, thrusting his black nose up
+into her face, and growling, with gaping jaws, 'Bow, wow, wow!'
+
+If you could see the little thing! She becomes blue in the face, her
+arms hang rigidly by her sides, her feet keep tripping up and down; she
+tries to scream, but cannot utter a sound.
+
+But the grown ladies in the street cry shame upon her, and say:
+
+'What a little fool! How _can_ you be afraid of such a dear, nice dog?
+Why, he only wants to play with you! See what a great big, fine fellow
+he is. Won't you pat him?'
+
+But this the little one will not do upon any account; and, when she goes
+home to her mother, the sobs are still rising in her throat. Neither her
+mother nor the doctor can understand, afterwards, why the healthy,
+lively child becomes rigid and blue in the face at the least fright, and
+loses the power to scream.
+
+But all these diversions were colourless and tame in comparison with
+_les grands cavalcades d'amour_, in which Trofast was always one of the
+foremost. Six, eight, ten, or twelve large yellow, black, and red dogs,
+with a long following of smaller and quite small ones, so bitten and
+mud-bespattered that one could scarcely see what they were made of, but
+yet very courageous, tails in the air and panting with ardour, although
+they stood no chance at all, except of getting mauled again and rolled
+in the mud. And so off in a wild gallop through streets, squares,
+gardens, and flower-beds, fighting and howling, covered with blood and
+dirt, tongues lolling from mouths. Out of the way with humans and
+baby-carriages, room for canine warfare and love! And thus they would
+rush on like Aasgaard's demon riders through the unhappy town.
+[Footnote: Aasgaard was the 'garth' or home of the gods. After the
+advent of Christianity, the Norse gods became demons, and it was the
+popular belief that they rode across the sky at night, foreboding evil.]
+
+Trofast heeded none of the people on the street except the policemen.
+For, with his keen understanding, he had long ago discerned that the
+police were there to protect him and his kind against the manifold
+encroachments of humanity. Therefore he obligingly stopped whenever he
+met a policeman, and allowed himself to be scratched behind the ear. In
+particular, he had a good, stout friend, whom he often met up in
+Aabenraa, where he (Trofast) had a _liaison_ of many years' standing.
+
+When Policeman Frode Hansen was seen coming upstairs from a cellar--a
+thing that often happened, for he was a jolly fellow, and it was a
+pleasure to offer him a half of lager-beer--his face bore a great
+likeness to the rising sun. It was round and red, warm and beaming.
+
+But when he appeared in full view upon the pavement, casting a severe
+glance up and down the street, in order to ascertain whether any
+evil-disposed person had seen where he came from, there would arise a
+faint reminiscence of something that we, as young men, had read about in
+physics, and which, I believe, we called the co-efficient of expansion.
+
+For, when we looked at the deep incision made by his strong belt,
+before, behind and at the sides, we involuntarily received the
+impression that such a co-efficient, with an extraordinarily strong
+tendency to expand, was present in Frode Hansen's stomach.
+
+And people who met him, especially when he heaved one of his deep, beery
+sighs, nervously stepped to one side. For if the co-efficient in there
+should ever happen to get the better of the strong belt, the pieces, and
+particularly the front buckle, would fly around with a force sufficient
+to break plate-glass windows.
+
+In other respects, Frode Hansen was not very dangerous of approach. He
+was even looked upon as one of the most harmless of police-constables;
+he very rarely reported a case of any kind. All the same, he stood well
+with his superiors, for when anything was reported by others, no matter
+what, if they only asked Frode Hansen, he could always make some
+interesting disclosure or other about it.
+
+In this way the world went well with him; he was almost esteemed in
+Aabenraa and down Vognmagergade. Yes, even Mam Hansen sometimes found
+means to stand him a half of lager beer.
+
+And she had certainly little to give away. Poverty-stricken and
+besotted, she had enough to do to struggle along with her two children.
+
+Not that Mam Hansen worked or tried to work herself forward or upward;
+if she could only manage to pay her rent and have a little left over for
+coffee and brandy, she was content. Beyond this she had no illusions.
+
+In reality, the general opinion--even in Aabenraa--was that Mam Hansen
+was a beast; and, when she was asked if she were a widow, she would
+answer: 'Well, you see, that's not so easy to know.'
+
+The daughter was about fifteen and the son a couple of years younger.
+About these, too, the public opinion of Aabenraa and district had it
+that a worse pair of youngsters had seldom grown up in those parts.
+
+Waldemar was a little, pale, dark-eyed fellow, slippery as an eel, full
+of mischief and cunning, with a face of indiarubber, which in one second
+could change its expression from the boldest effrontery to the most
+sheepish innocence.
+
+Nor was there anything good to say about Thyra, except that she gave
+promise of becoming a pretty girl. But all sorts of ugly stories were
+already told about her, and she gadded round the town upon very various
+errands.
+
+Mam Hansen would never listen to these stories; she merely waved them
+off. She paid just as little attention to the advice of her female
+friends and neighbours, when they said:
+
+'Let the children shift for themselves--really, they're quite brazen
+enough to do it--and take in a couple of paying lodgers.'
+
+'No, no,' Mam Hansen would reply; 'as long as they have some kind of a
+home with me, the police will not get a firm grip of them, and they will
+not quite flow over.'
+
+This idea, that the bairns should not quite 'flow over,' had grown and
+grown in her puny brain, until it had become the last point, around
+which gathered everything motherly that could be left, after a life like
+hers.
+
+And therefore she slaved on, scolded and slapped the children when they
+came late home, made their bed, gave them a little food, and so held
+them to her, in some kind of fashion.
+
+Mam Hansen had tried many things in the course of her life, and
+everything had brought her gradually downward, from servant-girl to
+waitress, down past washerwoman to what she now was.
+
+Early in the mornings, before it was light, she would come over
+Knippelsbro [Footnote: Bro, a bridge.] into the town, with a heavy
+basket upon each arm. Out of the baskets stuck cabbage-leaves and
+carrot-tops, so that one would suppose that she made a business of
+buying vegetables from the peasants out at Amager, in order to sell them
+in Aabenraa and the surrounding quarters.
+
+All the same, it was not a greengrocery business that she carried on,
+but, on the contrary, a little coal business: she sold coals
+clandestinely and in small portions to poor folk like herself.
+
+This evident incongruity was not noticed in Aabenraa; not even Policeman
+Frode Hansen seemed to find anything remarkable about Mam Hansen's
+business. When he met her in the mornings, toiling along with the heavy
+baskets, he usually asked quite genially: 'Well, my little Mam Hansen,
+were the roots cheap to-day?'
+
+And, if his greeting were less friendly than usual, he was treated to a
+half of lager later in the day.
+
+This was a standing outlay of Madam Hansen's, and she had one besides.
+Every evening she bought a large piece of sugared Vienna bread. She did
+not eat it herself; neither was it for the children; no one knew what
+she did with it, nor did anybody particularly care.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When there was no prospect of halves of lager, Policeman Frode Hansen
+promenaded his co-efficient with dignity up and down the street.
+
+If he then happened to meet Trofast or any other of his canine friends,
+he always made a long halt, for the purpose of scratching him behind the
+ear. And when he observed the great _nonchalance_ with which the dogs
+comported themselves in the street, it was a real pleasure to him to
+sternly pounce upon some unhappy man and note down his full name and
+address, because he had taken the liberty of throwing an envelope into
+the gutter.
+
+
+     II.
+
+It was late in the autumn. There was a dinner-party at the merchant's;
+the family had been back from the country for some time.
+
+The conversation flowed on languidly and intermittently, until the
+flood-gates were suddenly lifted, and it became a wild _fos_
+[Footnote: Waterfall, cataract.] For down at the hostess's end of the
+table this question had cropped up: 'Can one call a lady a fine
+lady--a real fine lady--if it be known that on a steam-boat she has
+put her feet up on a stool, and disclosed small shoes and embroidered
+stockings?' And, strangely enough, as if each individual in the
+company had spent half his life in considering and weighing this
+question, all cast their matured, decided, unalterable opinions upon
+the table. The opposing parties were formed in an instant; the
+unalterable opinions collided with each other, fell down, were caught
+up again, and thrown with ever-increasing ardour.
+
+Up at the other end of the table they took no part in this animated
+conversation. Near the host there sat mostly elderly gentlemen, and
+however ardently their wives might have desired to solve the problem
+once for all by expressing their unalterable opinion, they were
+compelled to give up the idea, as the focus of the animated conversation
+was among some young students right down beside the hostess, and the
+distance was too great.
+
+'I don't think I see the big yellow beast to-day,' said Dr. Viggo Hansen
+in his querulous tone.
+
+'Unfortunately not. Trofast is not here to-day. Poor fellow! I have been
+obliged to request him to do me a disagreeable service.'
+
+The merchant always talked about Trofast as if he were an esteemed
+business friend.
+
+'You make me quite curious. Where _is_ the dear animal?'
+
+'Ah, my dear madam, it is indeed a tiresome story. For, you know, there
+has been stealing going on out at our coal warehouse at Kristianshavn.'
+
+'Oh, good gracious! Stealing?'
+
+'The thefts have evidently been practised systematically for a long
+time.'
+
+'Have you noticed the stock getting less, then?'
+
+But now the merchant had to laugh, which he seldom did.
+
+'No, no, my dear doctor, excuse my laughing, but you are really too
+naive. Why, there are now about ten thousand tons of coal out there, so
+you will see that it wants some--'
+
+'They would have to steal from evening till morning with a pair of
+horses,' interjected a young business man, who was witty.
+
+When the merchant had finished his laugh, he continued:
+
+'No; the theft was discovered by means of a little snow that fell
+yesterday.'
+
+'What! Snow yesterday? I don't know anything about that.'
+
+'It was not at the time of day when we are awake, madam, it is true; but
+yet, very early yesterday morning there fell a little snow, and when my
+folks arrived at the coal store, they discovered the footprints of the
+thief or thieves. It was then found that a couple of boards in the wall
+were loose, but they had been so skilfully put in place that nobody
+would ever notice anything wrong. And the thief crawls through the
+opening night after night; is it not outrageous?'
+
+'But don't you keep a watch-dog?'
+
+'Certainly I do; but he is a young animal (of excellent breed, by the
+way, half a bloodhound), and, whatever way these wretches go about
+their work, it is evident that they must be on friendly terms with the
+beast, for the dog's footprints were found among those of the thieves.'
+
+'That was indeed remarkable. And now Trofast is to try what he can do, I
+presume?'
+
+'Yes, you are quite right. I have sent Trofast out there to-day; he will
+catch the villains for me.'
+
+'Could you not nail the loose boards securely in position?'
+
+'Of course we could, Dr. Hansen; but I must get hold of the fellows.
+They shall have their well-merited punishment. My sense of right is most
+deeply wounded.'
+
+'It is really delightful to have such a faithful animal.'
+
+'Yes, isn't it, madam? We men must confess to our shame that in many
+respects we are far behind the dumb animals.'
+
+'Yes, Trofast is really a pearl, sir. He is, beyond comparison, the
+prettiest dog in all--'
+
+'Constantinople,' interrupted Dr. Hansen.
+
+'That is an old joke of Hansen's,' explained the merchant. 'He has
+re-christened the Northern Athens the Northern Constantinople, because
+he thinks there are too many dogs.'
+
+'It is good for the dog-tax,' said some one.
+
+'Yes, if the dog-tax were not so inequitably fixed,' snapped Dr. Hansen.
+'There is really no sense in a respectable old lady, who keeps a dog in
+a hand-bag, having to pay as much as a man who takes pleasure in
+annoying his fellow-creatures by owning a half-wild animal as big as a
+little lion.'
+
+'May I ask how you would have the dog-tax reckoned, Dr. Hansen?'
+
+'According to weight, of course,' replied Dr. Viggo Hansen without
+hesitation.
+
+The old merchants and councillors laughed so heartily at this idea of
+weighing the dogs, that the disputants at the lower end of the table,
+who were still vigorously bombarding each other with unalterable
+opinions, became attentive and dropped their opinions, in order to
+listen to the discussion on dogs. And the question, 'Can one call a lady
+a fine lady--a really fine lady--if it be known that on a steamboat she
+has put her feet up on a stool, and disclosed small shoes and
+embroidered stockings?' also floated away in the air, unsolved.
+
+'You seem to be a downright hater of dogs, Dr. Hansen!' said the lady
+next to him, still laughing.
+
+'I must tell you, madam,' cried a gentleman across the table, 'that he
+is terribly afraid of dogs.'
+
+'But one thing,' continued the lady--'one thing you must admit, and that
+is, that the dog has always been the faithful companion of man.'
+
+'Yes, that is true, madam, and I could tell you what the dog has learned
+from man, and man from the dog.'
+
+'Tell us; do tell us!' was simultaneously exclaimed from several
+quarters.
+
+'With pleasure. In the first place, man has taught the dog to fawn.'
+
+'What a very queer thing to say!' cried old grandmother.
+
+'Next, the dog has acquired all the qualities that make man base and
+unreliable: cringing flattery upward, and rudeness and contempt
+downward; the narrowest adhesion to his own, and distrust and hatred of
+all else. Indeed, the noble animal has proved such an apt pupil that he
+even understands the purely human art of judging people by their
+clothes. He lets well-dressed folks alone, but snaps at the legs of the
+ragged.'
+
+Here the doctor was interrupted by a general chorus of disapproval, and
+Miss Thyra bitterly gripped the fruit-knife in her little hand.
+
+But there were some who wanted to hear what mankind had learned from the
+dog, and Dr. Hansen proceeded, with steadily-growing passion and
+bitterness:
+
+'Man has learned from the dog to set a high price upon this grovelling,
+unmerited worship. When neither injustice nor ill-treatment has ever met
+anything but this perpetually wagging tail, stomach upon earth, and
+licking tongue, the final result is that the master fancies himself a
+splendid fellow, to whom all this devotion belongs as a right. And,
+transferring his experience of the dog into his human intercourse, he
+puts little restraint upon himself, expecting to meet wagging tails and
+licking tongues. And if he be disappointed, then he despises mankind
+and turns, with loud-mouthed eulogies, to the dog.'
+
+He was once more interrupted; some laughed, but the greater number were
+offended. By this time Viggo Hansen had warmed to his subject; his
+little, sharp voice pierced through the chorus of objections, and he
+proceeded as follows:
+
+'And, while we are speaking of the dog, may I be allowed to present an
+extraordinarily profound hypothesis of my own? Is there not something
+highly characteristic of our national character in the fact that it is
+we who have produced this noble breed of dogs--the celebrated, pure
+Danish hounds? This strong, broad-chested animal with the heavy paws,
+the black throat, and the frightful teeth, but so good-natured,
+harmless, and amiable withal--does he not remind you of the renowned,
+indestructible Danish loyalty, which has never met injustice or
+ill-treatment with anything but perpetually wagging tail, stomach upon
+earth, and licking tongue? And when we admire this animal, formed in our
+own image, is it not with a kind of melancholy self-praise that we pat
+him upon the head, and say: "You are indeed a great, good, faithful
+creature!"'
+
+'Do you hear, Dr. Hansen? I must point out to you that in my house there
+are certain matters which--'
+
+The host was angry, but a good-natured relation of the family hastened
+to interrupt him, saying: 'I am a countryman, and you will surely admit,
+Dr. Hansen, that a good farm watch-dog is an absolute necessity for
+_us_. Eh?'
+
+'Oh yes, a little cur that can yelp, so as to awake the master.'
+
+'No, thank you. We must have a decent dog, that can lay the rascals by
+the heels. I have now a magnificent bloodhound.'
+
+'And if an honest fellow comes running up to tell you that your
+outbuildings are burning, and your magnificent bloodhound flies at his
+throat--what then?'
+
+'Why, that would be awkward,' laughed the countryman. And the others
+laughed too.
+
+Dr. Hansen was now so busily engaged in replying to all sides, employing
+the most extravagant paradoxes, that the young folks in particular were
+extremely amused, without specially noting the increasing bitterness of
+his tone.
+
+'But our watch-dogs, our watch-dogs! You will surely let us keep them,
+doctor?' exclaimed a coal-merchant laughingly.
+
+'Not at all. Nothing is more unreasonable than that a poor man, who
+comes to fill his bag from a coal mountain, should be torn to pieces by
+wild beasts. There is absolutely no reasonable relation between such a
+trifling misdemeanour and so dreadful a punishment.'
+
+'May we ask how you would protect your coal mountain, if you had one?'
+
+'I should erect a substantial fence of boards, and if I were very
+anxious, I should keep a watchman, who would say politely, but firmly,
+to those who came with bags: "Excuse me, but my master is very
+particular about that. You must not fill your bag; you must take
+yourself off at once."'
+
+Through the general laughter which followed this last paradox, a
+clerical gentleman spoke from the ladies' end of the table:
+
+'It appears to me that there is something lacking in this
+discussion--something that I would call the ethical aspect of the
+question. Is it not a fact that in the hearts of all who sit here there
+is a clear, definite sense of the revolting nature of the crime we call
+theft?'
+
+These words were received with general and hearty applause.
+
+'And I think it does very great violence to our feelings to hear Dr.
+Hansen minimising a crime that is distinctly mentioned in Divine and
+human law as one of the worst--to hear him reduce it to the size of a
+trifling and insignificant misdemeanour. Is not this highly demoralizing
+and dangerous to Society?'
+
+'Permit me, too,' promptly replied the indefatigable Hansen, 'to present
+an ethical aspect of the question. Is it not a fact that in the hearts
+of innumerable persons who do not sit here there is a clear, definite
+sense of the revolting nature of the crime they call wealth? And must it
+not greatly outrage the feelings of those who do not themselves possess
+any coal except an empty bag, to see a man who permits himself to own
+two or three hundred thousand sacks letting wild beasts loose to guard
+his coal mountain, and then going to bed after having written on the
+gate: "Watch-dogs unfastened at dusk"? Is not that very provoking and
+very dangerous to Society?'
+
+'Oh, good God and Father! He is a regular _sans-culotte_!' cried old
+grandmother.
+
+The majority gave vent to mutterings of displeasure; he was going too
+far; it was no longer amusing. Only a few still laughingly exclaimed:
+'He does not mean a word of what he says; it is only his way. Good
+health, Hansen!'
+
+But the host took the matter more seriously. He thought of himself, and
+he thought of Trofast. With ominous politeness, he began:
+
+'May I venture to ask what you understand by a reasonable relation
+between a crime and its punishment?'
+
+'For example,' replied Dr. Viggo Hansen, who was now thoroughly roused,
+'if I heard that a merchant possessing two or three hundred thousand
+sacks of coal had refused to allow a poor creature to fill his bag, and
+that this same merchant, as a punishment, had been torn to pieces by
+wild beasts, then that would be something that I could very easily
+understand, for between such heartlessness and so horrible a punishment
+there is a reasonable relation.'
+
+'Ladies and gentlemen, my wife and I beg you to make yourselves at home,
+and welcome.'
+
+There was a secret whispering and muttering, and a depressed feeling
+among the guests, as they dispersed themselves through the salons.
+
+The host walked about with a forced smile on his lips, and, as soon as
+he had welcomed every one individually, he went in search of Hansen, in
+order to definitely show him the door once for all.
+
+But this was not necessary. Dr. Viggo Hansen had already found it.
+
+
+     III.
+
+There had really been some snow, as the merchant had stated. Although it
+was so early in the winter, a little wet snow fell towards morning for
+several days in succession, but it turned into fine rain when the sun
+rose.
+
+This was almost the only sign that the sun had risen, for it did not get
+much lighter or warmer all day. The air was thick with fog--not the
+whitish-gray sea mist, but brown-gray, close, dead Russian fog, which
+had not become lighter in passing over Sweden; and the east wind came
+with it and packed it well and securely down among the houses of
+Copenhagen.
+
+Under the trees along Kastelgraven and in Grönningen the ground was
+quite black after the dripping from the branches. But along the middle
+of the streets and on the roofs there was a thin white layer of snow.
+
+All was yet quite still over at Burmeister and Wain's; the black morning
+smoke curled up from the chimneys, and the east wind dashed it down upon
+the white roofs. Then it became still blacker, and spread over the
+harbour among the rigging of the ships, which lay sad and dark in the
+gray morning light, with white streaks of snow along their sides. At the
+Custom House the bloodhounds would soon be shut in, and the iron gates
+opened.
+
+The east wind was strong, rolling the waves in upon Langelinie, and
+breaking them in grayish-green foam among the slimy stones, whilst long
+swelling billows dashed into the harbour, broke under the Custom House,
+and rolled great names and gloomy memories over the stocks round the
+fleet's anchorage, where lay the old dismantled wooden frigates in all
+their imposing uselessness.
+
+The harbour was still full of ships, and goods were piled high in the
+warehouses and upon the quays.
+
+Nobody could know what kind of winter they were to have--whether they
+would be cut off for months from the world, or if it would go by with
+fogs and snow-slush.
+
+Therefore there lay row upon row of petroleum casks, which, together
+with the enormous coal mountains, awaited a severe winter, and there lay
+pipes and hogsheads of wine and cognac, patiently waiting for new
+adulterations; oil and tallow and cork and iron--all lay and waited,
+each its own destiny.
+
+Everywhere lay work waiting--heavy work, coarse work, and fine work,
+from the holds of the massive English coal-steamers, right up to the
+three gilded cupolas on the Emperor of Russia's new church in Bredgade.
+
+But as yet there was no one to put a hand to all this work. The town
+slept heavily, the air was thick, winter hung over the city, and it was
+so still in the streets that one could hear the water from the melting
+snow on the roofs fall down into the spouts with a deep gurgling, as if
+even the great stone houses yet sobbed in semi-slumber.
+
+A little sleepy morning clock chimed over upon Holmen; here and there a
+door was opened, and a dog came out to howl; curtains were rolled up and
+windows were opened; the servant-girls went about in the houses, and did
+their cleaning by a naked light which stood and flickered; at a window
+in the palace sat a gilded lacquey and rubbed his nose in that early
+morning hour.
+
+The fog lay thick over the harbour, and hung in the rigging of the great
+ships as if in a forest; rain and flakes of wet snow made it still
+thicker, but the east wind pressed it down between the houses, and
+completely filled Amalieplads, so that Frederick V. sat as if in the
+clouds, and turned his proud nose unconcernedly towards his
+half-finished church.
+
+Some more sleepy clocks now began to chime; a steam-whistle joined in
+with a diabolical shriek. In the taverns which 'open before the clock
+strikes' they were already serving early refections of hot coffee and
+schnapps; girls with hair hanging down their backs, after a wild night,
+came out of the sailors' houses by Nyhavn, and sleepily began to clean
+windows.
+
+It was bitterly cold and raw, and those who had to cross Kongens Nytorv
+hurried past Öhlenschläger, whom they had set outside the theatre,
+bare-headed, with his collar full of snow, which melted and ran down
+into his open shirt-front.
+
+Now came the long, relentless blasts of steam-whistles from the
+factories all round the town, and the little steamers in the harbour
+whistled for no reason at all.
+
+The work, which everywhere lay waiting, began to swallow up the many
+small dark figures, who, sleepy and freezingly cold, appeared and
+disappeared all round the town. And there was almost a quiet bustle in
+the streets; some ran, others walked--both those who had to go down into
+the coal steamers, and those who must up and gild the Emperor of
+Russia's cupolas, and thousands of others who were being swallowed by
+all kinds of work.
+
+And waggons began to rumble, criers to shout, engines raised their
+polished, oily shoulders, and turned their buzzing wheels; and little by
+little the heavy, thick atmosphere was filled with a muffled murmur from
+the collective work of thousands. The day was begun; joyous Copenhagen
+was awake.
+
+Policeman Frode Hansen froze even to his innermost co-efficient. It had
+been an unusually bitter watch, and he walked impatiently up and down in
+Aabenraa, and waited for Mam Hansen. She was in the habit of coming at
+this time, or even earlier, and to-day he had almost resolved to carry
+matters as far as a half lager or a cup of warm coffee.
+
+But Mam Hansen came not, and he began to wonder whether it was not
+really his duty to report her. She was carrying the thing too far; it
+would not do at all any longer, this humbug with these cabbage-leaves
+and that coal business.
+
+Thyra and Waldemar had also several times peeped out into the little
+kitchen, to see if their mother had come and had put the coffee-pot on
+the fire. But it was black under the kettle, and the air was so dark and
+the room so cold that they jumped into bed again.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When they opened the great gates of merchant Hansen's coalstore at
+Kristianshavn, Trofast sat there and shamefacedly looked askance; it was
+really a loathsome piece of work that they had set him to do.
+
+In a corner, between two empty baskets, they found a bundle of rags,
+from which there came a faint moaning. There were a few drops of blood
+upon the snow, and close by there lay, untouched, a piece of sugared
+Vienna bread.
+
+When the foreman understood the situation, he turned to Trofast to
+praise him. But Trofast had already gone home; the position was quite
+too uncomfortable for _him_.
+
+They gathered her up, such as she was, wet and loathsome, and the
+foreman decided that she should be placed upon the first coal-cart going
+into town, and that they could stop at the hospital, so that the
+professor himself might see whether she was worth repairing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About ten o'clock the merchant's family began to assemble at the
+breakfast-table. Thyra came first. She hurried up to Trofast, patted and
+kissed him, and overwhelmed him with words of endearment.
+
+But Trofast did not move his tail, and scarcely raised his eyes. He kept
+on licking his fore-paws, which were a little black after the coal.
+
+'Good gracious, my dear mother!' cried Miss Thyra; 'Trofast is
+undoubtedly ill. Of course he has caught cold in the night; it was
+really horrid of father.'
+
+But when Waldemar came in, he declared, with a knowing air, that Trofast
+was affronted.
+
+All three now fell upon him with entreaties and excuses and kind words,
+but Trofast coldly looked from one to the other. It was clear that
+Waldemar was right.
+
+Thyra then ran out for her father, and the merchant came in
+serious--somewhat solemn. They had just told him by telephone from the
+office how well Trofast had acquitted himself of his task, and, kneeling
+down on the hearthrug before Trofast, he thanked him warmly for the
+great service.
+
+This mollified Trofast a good deal.
+
+Still kneeling, with Trofast's paw in his hand, the merchant now told
+his family what had occurred during the night. That the thief was a
+hardened old woman, one of the very worst kind, who had even--just
+imagine it!--driven a pretty considerable trade in the stolen coal. She
+had been cunning enough to bribe the young watch-dog with a dainty piece
+of bread; but, of course, that was no use with Trofast.
+
+'And that brings me to think how often a certain person, whom I do not
+wish to name, would rant about it being a shame that a beast should
+refuse bread, for which many a human being would be thankful. Do we not
+now see the good of that? Through that--ahem!--that peculiarity, Trofast
+was enabled to reveal an abominable crime; to contribute to the just
+punishment of evildoers, and thus benefit both us and society.'
+
+'But, father,' exclaimed Miss Thyra, 'will you not promise me one
+thing?'
+
+'What is that, my child?'
+
+'That you will never again require such a service of Trofast. Rather let
+them steal a little.'
+
+'That I promise you, Thyra; and you, too, my brave Trofast,' said the
+merchant, rising with dignity.
+
+'Trofast is hungry,' said Waldemar, with his knowing air.
+
+'Goodness, Thyra! fetch his cutlets!'
+
+Thyra was about to rush down into the kitchen, but at that moment Stine
+came puffing upstairs with them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Presumably, the professor did not find Mam Hansen worth repairing. At
+any rate, she was never seen again, and the children 'flowed quite
+over.' I do not know what became of them.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+KAREN. [Footnote: The scene of this tale is laid in Denmark.]
+
+
+There was once in Krarup Kro [Footnote: Kro, a country inn.] a girl
+named Karen. She had to wait upon all the guests, for the innkeeper's
+wife almost always went about looking for her keys. And there came
+many to Krarup Kro--folk from the surrounding district, who gathered
+in the autumn gloamings, and sat in the inn parlour drinking
+coffee-punches, usually without any definite object; and also
+travellers and wayfarers, who tramped in, blue and weather-beaten, to
+get something hot to carry them on to the next inn.
+
+But Karen could manage everything all the same, although she walked
+about so quietly, and never seemed in a hurry.
+
+She was small and slim, quite young, grave and silent, so that with her
+there was no amusement for the commercial travellers. But decent folks
+who went into the tavern in earnest, and who set store on their coffee
+being served promptly and scalding hot, thought a great deal of Karen.
+And when she slipped quietly forward among the guests with her tray, the
+unwieldy frieze-clad figures fell back with unaccustomed celerity to
+make way for her, and the conversation stopped for a moment. All had to
+look after her, she was so charming.
+
+Karen's eyes were of that large gray sort which seem at once to look at
+one and to look far, far beyond, and her eyebrows were loftily arched,
+as if in wonder.
+
+Therefore strangers thought she did not rightly understand what they
+asked for. But she understood very well, and made no mistakes. There was
+only something strange about her, as if she were looking for something
+far away, or listening, or waiting, or dreaming.
+
+The wind came from the west over the low plains. It had rolled long,
+heavy billows across the Western Sea; [Footnote: German Ocean.] salt
+and wet with spray and foam, it had dashed in upon the coast. But on
+the high downs with the tall wrack-grass it had become dry and full of
+sand and somewhat tired, so that when it came to Krarup Kro it had
+quite enough to do to open the stable-doors.
+
+But open they flew, and the wind filled the spacious building, and
+forced its way in at the kitchen-door, which stood ajar. And at last
+there was such a pressure of air that the doors in the other end of the
+stable also burst open; and now the west wind rushed triumphantly right
+through the building, swinging the lantern that hung from the roof,
+whisking the ostler's cap out into the darkness, blowing the rugs over
+the horses' heads, and sweeping a white hen off the roost into the
+watering-trough. And the cock raised a frightful screech, and the ostler
+swore, and the hens cackled, and in the kitchen they were nearly
+smothered with smoke, and the horses grew restless, and struck sparks
+from the stones. Even the ducks, which had huddled themselves together
+near the mangers, so as to be first at the spilt corn, began quacking;
+and the wind howled through the stable with a hellish din, until a
+couple of men came out from the inn parlour, set their broad backs
+against the doors and pressed them to again, while the sparks from their
+great tobacco-pipes flew about their beards.
+
+After these achievements the wind plunged down into the heather, ran
+along the deep ditches, and took a substantial grip of the mail-coach,
+which it met half a mile from the town.
+
+'He is always in a devil of a hurry to get to Krarup Kro!' growled
+Anders, the postboy, cracking his whip over the perspiring horses.
+
+For this was certainly the twentieth time that the guard had lowered the
+window to shout something or other up to Anders. First it was a friendly
+invitation to a coffee-punch in the inn; but each time the friendliness
+became scantier, until at last the window was let down with a bang, and
+out sped some brief but expressive remarks about both driver and horses,
+which Anders, at all events, could not have cared to hear.
+
+Meanwhile the wind swept low along the ground, and sighed long and
+strangely in the dry clusters of heather. The moon was full, but so
+densely beclouded that only a pale hazy shimmer hovered over the night.
+
+Behind Krarup Kro lay a peat moss, dark with black turf-stacks and
+dangerous deep pits. And among the heathery mounds there wound a strip
+of grass that looked like a path; but it was no path, for it stopped on
+the very brink of a turf-pit that was larger than the others, and deeper
+also.
+
+In this grassy strip the fox lay and lurked, quite flat, and the hare
+bounded lightly over the heather.
+
+It was easy for the fox to calculate that the hare would not describe a
+wide circle so late in the evening. It cautiously raised its pointed
+nose and made an estimate; and as it sneaked back before the wind, to
+find a good place from which it could see where the hare would finish
+its circuit and lie down, it self-complacently thought that the foxes
+were always getting wiser and wiser, and the hares more foolish than
+ever.
+
+In the inn they were unusually busy, for a couple of commercial
+travellers had ordered roast hare; besides, the landlord was at an
+auction in Thisted, and Madame had never been in the habit of seeing to
+anything but the kitchen. But now it unfortunately chanced that the
+lawyer wanted to get hold of the landlord, and, as he was not at home,
+Madame had to receive a lengthy message and an extremely important
+letter, which utterly bewildered her.
+
+By the stove stood a strange man in oilskins, waiting for a bottle of
+soda-water; two fish-buyers had three times demanded cognac for their
+coffee; the stableman stood with an empty lantern waiting for a light,
+and a tall, hard-featured countryman followed Karen anxiously with his
+eyes; he had to get sixty-three öre change out of a krone. [Footnote:
+A krone contains 100 öre, and is equal to 1 S. 1-½ d.]
+
+But Karen went to and fro without hurrying herself, and without getting
+confused. One could scarcely understand how she kept account of all
+this. The large eyes and the wondering eyebrows were strained as if in
+expectation. She held her fine little head erect and steady, as if not
+to be distracted from all she had to think of. Her simple dress of blue
+serge had become too tight for her, so that the collar cut slightly into
+her neck, forming a little fold in the skin below the hair.
+
+'These country girls are very white-skinned,' said one of the
+fish-buyers to the other. They were young men, and talked about Karen as
+connoisseurs.
+
+At the window was a man who looked at the clock and said: 'The post
+comes early to-night.'
+
+There was a rumbling of wheels on the paving-stones without, the
+stable-door was flung open, and the wind again rattled all the doors and
+drove smoke out of the stove.
+
+Karen slipped out into the kitchen the moment the door of the parlour
+was opened. The mail-guard entered, and said 'good-evening' to the
+company.
+
+He was a tall, handsome man, with dark eyes, black curly hair and beard,
+and a small, well-shaped head. The long rich cloak of King of Denmark's
+magnificent red cloth was adorned with a broad collar of curled dogskin
+that drooped over his shoulders.
+
+All the dim, sickly light from the two paraffin lamps that hung over
+the table seemed to fall affectionately upon the red colour, which
+contrasted so strikingly with the sober black and gray tints of all else
+in the room. And the tall figure with the small curly head, the broad
+collar, and the long purple folds, became, as he walked through the
+low-roofed, smoky room, a marvel of beauty and magnificence.
+
+Karen came hurriedly in from the kitchen with her tray. She bent her
+head, so that one could not see her face, as she hastened from guest to
+guest.
+
+She placed the roast hare right in front of the two fish-buyers,
+whereupon she took a bottle of soda-water to the two commercial
+travellers, who sat in the inner room. Then she gave the anxious
+countryman a tallow candle, and, as she slipped out again, she put
+sixty-three öre into the hand of the stranger by the stove.
+
+The innkeeper's wife was in utter despair. She had, indeed, quite
+unexpectedly found her keys, but lost the lawyer's letter immediately
+after, and now the whole inn was in the most frightful commotion. None
+had got what they wanted--all were shouting together. The commercial
+men kept continuously ringing the table bell; the fish-buyers went into
+fits of laughter over the roast hare, which lay straddling on the dish
+before them. But the anxious countryman tapped Madame on the shoulder
+with his tallow candle; he trembled for his sixty-three öre. And, amid
+all this hopeless confusion, Karen had disappeared without leaving a
+trace.
+
+Anders the post-boy sat on the box; the innkeeper's boy stood ready to
+open the gates; the two passengers inside the coach became impatient, as
+did also the horses--although they had nothing to look forward to--and
+the wind rustled and whistled through the stable.
+
+At length came the guard, whom they awaited. He carried his large cloak
+over his arm, as he walked up to the coach and made a little excuse for
+having kept the party waiting. The light of the lantern shone upon his
+face; he looked very warm, and smilingly said as much, as he drew on his
+cloak and climbed up beside the driver.
+
+The gates were opened, and the coach rumbled away. Anders let the horses
+go gently, for now there was no hurry. Now and then he stole a glance at
+the guard by his side; he was still sitting smiling to himself, and
+letting the wind ruffle his hair.
+
+Anders the post-boy also smiled in his peculiar way. He began to
+understand.
+
+The wind followed the coach until the road turned; thereupon it again
+swept over the plain, and whistled and sighed long and strangely among
+the dry clusters of heather. The fox lay at his post; everything was
+calculated to a nicety; the hare must soon be there.
+
+In the inn Karen had at last reappeared, and the confusion had gradually
+subsided. The anxious countryman had got quit of his candle and received
+his sixty-three öre, and the commercial gentlemen had set to work upon
+the roast hare.
+
+Madame whined a little, but she never scolded Karen; there was not a
+person in the world who could scold Karen.
+
+Quietly and without haste Karen again walked to and fro, and the air of
+peaceful comfort that always followed her once more overspread the snug,
+half-dark parlour. But the two fish-buyers, who had had both one and two
+cognacs with their coffee, were quite taken up with her. She had got
+some colour in her cheeks, and wore a little half-hidden gleam of a
+smile, and when she once happened to raise her eyes, a thrill shot
+through their whole frames.
+
+But when she felt their eyes following her, she went into the room where
+the commercial men sat dining, and began to polish some teaspoons at the
+sideboard.
+
+'Did you notice the mail-guard?' asked one of the travellers.
+
+'No, not particularly; I only got a glimpse of him. I think he went out
+again directly,' replied the other, with his mouth full of food.
+
+'He's a devilish fine fellow! Why, I danced at his wedding.'
+
+'Indeed. So he is married?'
+
+'Yes; his wife lives in Lemvig; they have at least two children. She was
+a daughter of the innkeeper of Ulstrop, and I arrived there on the very
+evening of the wedding. It was a jolly night, you may be sure.'
+
+Karen dropped the teaspoons and went out. She did not hear them calling
+to her from the parlour. She walked across the courtyard to her chamber,
+closed the door, and began half-unconsciously to arrange the bedclothes.
+Her eyes stood rigid in the darkness; she pressed her hands to her head,
+to her breast; she moaned; she did not understand--she did not
+understand--
+
+But when she heard Madame calling so piteously, 'Karen, Karen!' she
+sprang up, rushed out of the yard, round the back of the house, out--out
+upon the heath.
+
+In the twilight the little grassy strip wound in and out among the
+heather, as if it were a path; but it was no path--no one must believe
+it to be a path--for it led to the very brink of the great turf-pit.
+
+The hare started up; it had heard a splash. It dashed off with long
+leaps, as if mad; now contracted, with legs under body and back arched,
+now drawn out to an incredible length, like a flying accordion, it
+bounded away over the heather.
+
+The fox put up its pointed nose, and stared in amazement after the hare.
+It had not heard any splash. For, according to all the rules of art, it
+had come creeping along the bottom of a deep ditch; and, as it was not
+conscious of having made any mistake, it could not understand the
+strange conduct of the hare.
+
+Long it stood, with its head up, its hindquarters lowered, and its great
+bushy tail hidden in the heather; and it began to wonder whether the
+hares were getting wiser or the foxes getting more foolish.
+
+But when the west wind had travelled a long way it became a north wind,
+then an east wind, then a south wind, and at last it again came over the
+sea as a west wind, dashed in upon the downs, and sighed long and
+strangely among the dry clusters of heather. But then a pair of
+wondering gray eyes were lacking in Krarup Kro, and a blue serge dress
+that had grown too tight. And the innkeeper's wife whined and whimpered
+more than ever. She could not understand it--nobody could understand
+it--except Anders the post-boy--and one beside.
+
+But when old folks wished to give the young a really serious admonition,
+they used to begin thus: 'There was once in Krarup Kro a girl named
+Karen--
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MY SISTER'S JOURNEY TO MODUM.
+
+
+My sister was going to Modum. It was before the opening of the Drammen
+Railway, and it was a dreadfully long carriole drive from Christiania to
+Drammen.
+
+But everything depended upon getting off--hyp--getting to Drammen--hyp,
+hyp--in time to catch the train which left for Modum at two o'clock.
+Hyp--oh, dear, if the train should be gone--to wait until next
+day--alone--in Drammen!
+
+My sister stimulated the post-boys with drink-money, and the horses with
+small pokes of her umbrella; but both horses and post-boys were numerous
+upon this route, and much time was lost at the stopping-places.
+
+First, the luggage had to be transferred to the new carriole. There
+were the big trunk and the little one, and the plaids with loosened
+strap, the umbrella, the _en-tout-cas_, the bouquet, and the book.
+
+Then there was paying, and reckoning, and changing; and the purse was
+crammed so extraordinarily full that it would shower three-skilling
+pieces, [Footnote: Skilling, a halfpenny.] or a shining half-dollar
+would swing itself over the side, make a graceful curve, like a
+skater, round the floor, and disappear behind the stove. It had to be
+got out before it could be changed, and that nobody could do.
+
+As soon as the fresh horses appeared in the yard, my sister would spring
+resolutely out, and swing herself into the carriole.
+
+'Thanks; I am ready now. Let us be off. Good-bye.'
+
+Yes, then they would all come running after her--the umbrella, the
+_en-tout-cas_, the plaids with loosened strap, the bouquet, and the
+book, everything would be thrown into her lap, and she would hold on to
+them until the next station was reached, while the station-master's
+honest wife stood and feebly waved the young lady's pocket-handkerchief,
+in a manner which could not possibly attract her attention.
+
+Although she thus lost no time, the drive was, nevertheless, extremely
+trying, and it was a great relief to my sister when she at length
+rattled down the hill from Gjelleboek, and saw Drammen extended below
+her. There were not many minutes left.
+
+At last she was down in the town. 'In Drammen, in Drammen!' muttered my
+sister, beginning to triumph. Like a fire-engine she dashed along the
+streets to the station. Everything was paid. She had only to jump out of
+the carriole; but when she looked up at the station clock, the
+minute-hand was just passing the number twelve.
+
+Undismayed, my sister collected her knick-knacks and rushed into the
+waiting-room, which was quite empty. But the young man who had sold the
+tickets, and who was in the act of drawing down the panel, caught a
+glimpse of this belated lady, and was good-natured enough to wait.
+
+'A ticket--for Heaven's sake! A ticket for Drammen! What does it cost?'
+
+'Where are you going, miss?' asked the good-natured young man.
+
+'To Drammen--do you hear? But do make haste. I am sure the train will be
+gone.'
+
+'But, miss,' said the young man, with a modest smile, 'you _are_ in
+Drammen.'
+
+'Ah! I beg your pardon. Yes, so I am; it is to Modum, to Modum that I
+want to go.'
+
+She received her ticket, filled her lap with her things, and, purse in
+mouth, hurried out upon the platform.
+
+She was instantly seized by powerful hands, lifted off the ground, and
+tenderly deposited in a _coupé_.
+
+'Puff,' said the locomotive impatiently, beginning to strain at the
+carriages.
+
+My sister leant back on the velvet sofa, happy and triumphant; she had
+been in time. Before her, upon the other sofa, she had all her dear
+little things, which seemed to lie and smile at her--the bouquet and the
+book, the _en-tout-cas_ and the umbrella, and the very plaids, with the
+strap completely unfastened.
+
+Then, as the train slowly began to glide out of the station, she heard
+the footstep of a man--rap, rap--of a man running--rap, rap,
+rap--running on the platform alongside the train; and although, of
+course, it did not concern her, still she would see what he was running
+for.
+
+But no sooner did my sister's head become visible than the running man
+waved his arms and cried:
+
+'There she is, there she is--the young lady who came last! Where shall
+we send your luggage?'
+
+Then my sister cried in a loud and firm voice:
+
+'To Drammen!'
+
+And with these words she was whirled away.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LETTERS FROM MASTER-PILOT SEEHUS.
+
+
+KRYDSVIG FARM,                              January 1, 1889.
+
+MR. EDITOR,
+
+Referring to our talk of last December, when I said I was not unwilling
+to send you occasional letters, if anything important should happen, I
+do not know of anything that I could think worthy of being published or
+made public in your paper except the weather, which always and ever
+gives cause for alternate praise and blame, when one is living, so to
+speak, out among the sea's breakers, where there is no quietness to
+expect on a winter's day, but storms and rough weather as we had in the
+last Yule-nights, with a violent storm from the east and with such
+tremendous gusts of wind that the pots and pans flew about like birds.
+And there is much damage done by the east wind and nothing gained,
+because it only drives wreckage out to sea. But it was not quite so bad
+as it was in the great storms in the last days of November, which
+culminated or reached their highest point on Monday, the 26th November,
+when it was rougher than old folk can remember it to have ever been,
+with such a tremendous sea that it seemed as if it would reach the
+fields that we here at Krydsvig have owned from old times; it almost
+touched the cowhouses. After that time we had light frosts with
+changeable weather and a smoother sea, which was not covered, but richly
+sown, with many sad relics of the storm, mostly deck cargo, which is not
+so great a loss, as it is always lying, so to speak, upon expectancy or
+adventure; and when it goes, it is a relief to the ship and a great and
+especial blessing to these treeless coasts, particularly when it comes
+ashore well split up and distributed, a few planks at each place, so
+that the Lensmand [Footnote: Sheriff's officer.] cannot see any greater
+accumulation at any one place than that he can, with a good conscience,
+abandon an auction and let the folk keep what they have been lucky
+enough to find or diligent enough to garner in from the sea in their
+boats; but this time it did not repay the trouble, because of frost and
+an easterly land-wind, which kept the wreck from land for some time. But
+now the most of it has come in that is to come at this time, and it may
+be long to another time, as we must hope, for the seaman's sake,
+although I, for my part, have never been able to join with any
+particular devotion in prayers and supplications that we may be free
+from storms and foul weather; for our Lord has made the sea thus and not
+otherwise, so that there must come storms and tumults in the atmosphere
+of the air, and, as a consequence, towering billows. And it seems to me,
+further, that we cannot decently turn to the Lord and ask Him to do
+something over again or in a different way; but we can well wish each
+other God's help and all good luck in danger, and especially good gear
+for our own ones, who sail with wit and canniness, while the Englishman
+is mostly a demon to sail and go with full steam on in fogs and driving
+rain-storms, of which we can expect enough in Januarius month at the
+beginning of the new year, which I hope may be a good year for these
+coasts, with decent weather, as it may fall out, and something
+respectable in the way of wreckage.
+
+Yours very truly,
+LAURITZ BOLDEMANN SEEHUS,
+Late Master-Pilot.
+
+
+
+
+KRYDSVIG,                                  January 22, 1889.
+
+MR. EDITOR,
+
+I take up my pen to-day to inform you that I, the undersigned, address
+you for the last time, as I will not write more because of my sore eyes,
+which are not to be wondered at, after all that they have seen in bitter
+weather and in a long life of trouble and hardship from my youth up,
+mostly at sea in spray and driving snow-storms at the fishing, which is
+all over and past, as everything old is past. But things new are coming
+to the front, and here I sit alone like Job, though he, to be sure, had
+some friends, but loneliness is a sore thing for old folk, and idleness
+which they are not used to, so that the Sheriff might as well have given
+me back my post as master-pilot on my return from America. But he would
+not do it, because I was not cunning enough to agree with him, when he
+did not understand anybody, but it is given out officially that I am too
+old, and thus I sit here without having shaved for a week, because I am
+angry and my hand trembles, but not owing to old age. And I don't think,
+either, that anybody is much to be envied for having friends like Job's,
+and I am not stricken with boils and sitting among potsherds, but am
+quite hale and strong, if I am rather dried-up and stiff, but I would
+undertake to dance a reel and a Hamburg schottische if I could only get
+a girl with a fairly round waist to take hold of, but it seems to me
+that they are shrinking in and becoming flatter than they were in my
+young days; but then I think that it is surely the sore eyes that are
+cheating me, for I have always held this belief, that girls are girls in
+all times, but old folks should be quiet and mind what they understand,
+which is nothing that relates to the young. But a man should not get
+sour _in finem_, for all that, and I have found that it is a dangerous
+thing to grow old, for this reason, that one becomes so surly before
+one's time, and that is against my inner construction, and I have now
+sat here awhile and gazed out on the sea through rain and mist, and then
+I straightened my old back and spat out my quid, which in all truth
+smacked more of the brass box than of tobacco, because it had been
+chewed several times, but I have cut myself a new one with my knife, as
+I can no longer bite it off, for the reason that there are hardly any
+teeth, but I have still a few front ones, and I have one good tooth,
+which is hidden and is no ornament, but it is useful when I eat tough
+things like dried ham. And I take up the pen again because I want to let
+you know that I am not so ill but that I may hold out for a while yet;
+and, if I keep my health, you shall hear from me soon, but I have
+nothing to say about the weather, because we have not had any weather
+for a long time, and I am wondering whether this winter will come to
+anything, or if it will pass over in damp and wet and loose wind.
+
+Yours very truly,
+LAURITZ BOLDEMANN SEEHUS,
+Late Master-Pilot.
+
+
+
+
+KRYDSVIG,                                   April 13, 1889.
+
+MR. EDITOR,
+
+About the rotten feet on the sheep, which animal I by nature despise, on
+account of its cowardice and a tremendous silliness, the one running
+after the other, but if a man _will_ plague himself with farming who has
+been a sailor from his mother's apron-string, he must keep these beasts
+and others like his neighbours, although he understands nothing, or very
+little, about the whole tribe. So I have upon my small patch of ground
+two good ewes, with little wit, but wool, and I sent them long before
+Yule to a ram at Börevig, one of the fine kind from Scotland, as folk
+bothered me that I must do it, because of the breed and the wool and
+many things, but not a rotten foot did I hear of until after much
+jangling among folk and a great to-do among the learned and such like,
+which is nothing new to me in that kind of folk, who always and always
+stand behind each other's backs, crying with a loud cry, 'It was not my
+fault,' but, faith, it was. So I say to myself, 'What shall I do with
+these rotten feet from Scotland, if I get the disease ingrafted, and
+likewise upon the innocent offspring,' who are already toddling about
+all three, because there were two in the one ewe. But foreign sickness
+is not a thing to be afflicted with, at a time when we have scab among
+our sheep and much else, and more than I know of, and thus I turned my
+look again and again to that Government, to see if it will ever gather
+sense. But yet the Government had not so very rotten feet in that other
+important matter of a Sheriff, whom we got with unexpected smartness and
+promptness, much to our gain and the reverse, when we think of what the
+man now is, but there must be a skipper all the same. And now it is
+growing light all over the world; that is, in our hemisphere, for spring
+has come upon us with extraordinary quickness, and the ice, it went with
+Peder-Varmestol, [Footnote: February 22nd.] and the lapwing, she came
+one morning with her back shining as if she had been polished out of
+bronze, with her crest erect, and throwing herself about in the air like
+a dolphin in the sea, with her head down and her tail up, crying and
+screaming. But the lark is really the silliest creature, to sing on
+without ceasing the livelong day, and the sea-pie has come, and stands
+bobbing upon the same stone as last year, and the wild-goose and the
+water-wagtail. So we are all cheered up again, all the men of Jæderen,
+and the cod bites, too, for those who have time, but folk are mostly
+carting sea-weed, and ploughing and sowing, not without grumbling in
+some places, but the work must be done.
+
+Yours very truly,
+L.B. SEEHUS.
+
+
+
+
+KRYDSVIG,                                          July 1, 1889.
+
+MR. EDITOR,
+
+Your letter of the 20th ult. received, and contents noted, and I now beg
+to reply that it is not very convenient, for the reason that old folk's
+talk is mostly about winter storms and seldom about summer, when the sun
+shines, and the lambs frisk and throw their tails high in the air. But,
+you see, they were tups all three, which was not unlooked-for after such
+a ram, and consequently no letter can be expected from me before autumn,
+when the sea gets some life in it and a grown man's voice, so to speak,
+for now it lies--God bless me--like a basin of milk, to the inward
+vexation of folk who know what the sea should be in Nature's household
+with ships and storms and wreckage, and a decent number of wrecks at
+those places where the structure of the coast permits the rescue of men
+and a distribution of the wreck if it be of wood, but some trash are now
+of iron. And I am now as parched in the hide as I was that time in
+Naples when the helmsman sailed the brig on to the pier-head because a
+hurricane had risen, and Skipper Worse and I stood on the quay and
+cried, though he swore mostly, and I had a basket on my arm with
+something that they called bananas, which they fry in butter. And it is
+not very nice nowadays, when the sun rises and sets in nothing but blue
+sky, and not a cloud to be seen, as if it were the Mediterranean of my
+young days, and I smell the bananas, but we here have no other stinking
+stuff, that I know, than ware and cods' heads. But, Mr. Editor, the
+young are dull and heavy with the sunshine; I myself went about singing,
+and wanted to show the flabby wenches of Varhaug how one once danced a
+real _molinask_, as it was Sunday and the young folk hung round the
+walls like half-dead flies in the heat. But there had been grease burnt,
+which made it more slippery than soft soap on the deck, and there lay
+the whole master-pilot in the middle of the _molinask_, and bit off the
+stalk of his clay pipe, but he kept his tooth, which has already been
+spoken about, and to his shame had to be lifted by four firm-handed
+fellows with much laughing, wherefore I have sat myself down in my chair
+to wait for the autumn, because I cannot speak or write about the
+drought, but only get angry and unreasonable.
+
+Yours very truly,
+LAURITZ BOLDEMANN SEEHUS.
+
+
+
+
+KRYDSVIG,                                   October 20, 1889.
+
+MR. EDITOR,
+
+I could have continued my silence a very long time yet, for it has not
+been a great autumn either on land or sea, but little summer storms, as
+if for frolic, with small seas and loose wreckage, but unusually far
+out, about three miles from land. But the long, dark lamp-lit evenings
+are come, and this shoal of fish which I must write to you about and ask
+what the end is going to be; for now we almost think that the sea up
+north Stavanger way must be choke-full, as it was of herrings in the
+good old days that are no more, but it is now big with coal-fish, mostly
+north by the Reef, they say, but the undersigned and old Velas, who is a
+still older man, got about four boxes of right nice coal-fish yesterday,
+a little to the south-east. But half Jæren [Footnote: Jæderen, the coast
+district near Stavanger.] was on the sea, boat upon boat, for the double
+reason of the coal-fish and that they had not an earthly thing to do
+upon the land, for this year the earth has yielded us everything well
+and very early, but the straw is short, which, if the truth must be
+told, is the only thing to complain of. But the farmers are making wry
+faces, like the merchants in Östersöen when they complain of the
+herrings, for they must always complain, except about the sheep, which
+are going off very well to the Englishman, and I can't conceive what
+there will be left of this kind of beast in Jæren, but it is all the
+same to me, seeing that I have never liked the sheep at all until last
+year, when he paid taxes for all Jæren, which was more than was expected
+of him. And it would be well if any one were able to put bounds upon
+this burning of sea-ware, which the devil or somebody has invented for
+use as a medicine in Bergen--they say, but I do not believe it, because
+it has a stink that goes into the innermost part of your nostrils and
+into your tobacco besides. But then the east wind is good for something,
+at least, for it sends the heaps of ware out to sea, and I can imagine
+how it will surprise the Queen of England when she knows how we stink.
+And I have a grievance of my own, viz., boys shooting with blunderbusses
+and powder, and with so little wit that my eyes flash with anger every
+time I see them creeping on their stomachs towards a starling or a
+couple of lean ring-plovers, and I shout and cast stones to warn the
+innocent creatures, since the farmer of Jæren is, as it were, his
+thrall's thrall, and lets the servant-boys make a fool of him and play
+the concertina all night, which might be put up with, but no powder and
+shooting should be allowed, so that Jæren may not become a desert for
+bird-life, and only concertinas left and rascals of boys on their
+stomachs as above.
+
+Yours very truly,
+LAURITZ BOLDEMANN SEEHUS.
+
+
+
+
+KRYDSVIG,                                 December 25, 1889.
+
+MR. EDITOR,
+
+After having, in the course of a long and very stormy life, given heed
+to the clouds of the sky and the various aspects of the sea, which can
+change before your eyes as you look, like a woman who discovers another
+whom she likes better, and you stand forsaken and rejected, because a
+girl's mind is like the ocean above-mentioned, and full of storms as the
+Spanish Sea, and I early received my shock of that kind for life, of
+which I do not intend to speak, but the weather is of a nature that I
+have never before observed in this country, with small seas, rare and
+moderate storms, and on this first Yule-day a peace on the earth and
+such a complacent calm on the sea that you might row out in a trough.
+The wreckage that came in on the 8th and 9th December last was the only
+extravagance, so to speak, of the sea this year, for there was too much
+in some places, and this will probably give the Lensmand a pretext for
+holding an auction, to the great ruination of the people, for the planks
+were rare ones, both long and good-hearted timber. But at an auction
+half the pleasure is lost, besides more that is very various in
+kind--for instance, brandy: and the town gentlemen who sell such liquor
+to the farmer must answer to their consciences what substances and
+ingredients such a drink is cooked out of, as it brings on mental
+weakness and bodily torment, proof of which I have seen numberless times
+in strong and well-fabricated persons, especially during the Yule-days.
+But this is not my friendship's time, for they say at the farm that the
+Oldermand [Footnote: Master-pilot] is haughty, and will not swallow
+their devil's drink at any price. But I sit alone before a bottle of old
+Jamaica, which is part of what Jacob Worse brought home from the West
+Indies in 1825, and I think of him and Randulf and the old ones, and the
+smell of the liquor seems to call up living conversations, which you can
+hear, and you must laugh, although you are alone, and you have such a
+desire to write everything down as it happened; but no more to the
+newspapers for this reason, that they have been after me with false
+teeth and a nice, neat widow, of whom nothing more will be said. And
+this extraordinarily mild winter has in some way kept the rheumatism out
+of my limbs; besides, I am strong by nature and no age to speak of; but,
+of course, it must be admitted that youth is better and more lively, of
+which, as above, nothing more will be said.
+
+As the years go on, Mr. Editor, disappointments bite fast into us, like
+barnacles and mussels under ships; but we ourselves do not feel that our
+speed is decreasing, and that we are dropping astern, and, as already
+hinted, old age does not protect us against folly.
+
+Yours very truly,
+LAURITZ BOLDEMANN SEEHUS.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+OLD DANCES.
+
+
+We really strove honestly, swung ourselves and swung our ladies,
+although many were stiff enough to get round. We were not invited to a
+ball; this dance was merely a surprise frolic.
+
+We had dined in all good faith--at least, the stranger cousin had; and
+while I stood thinking of coffee, and dreading no danger, the house
+began to swarm with young folks who had dined upstairs or downstairs, or
+at home, or not at all, or God knows where. The dining-room doors were
+thrown open again, the floor was cleared as if by magic, partners caught
+hold of each other, two rushed to the piano, and--one, two, three, they
+were in the middle of a galop before I could recover my wits.
+
+They immediately forsook me again, when I received a frightful blow in
+the region of the heart. It was Uncle Ivar himself, who shouted:
+
+'Come, boy; inside with you, and move your legs. Don't stand there like
+a snivelling chamberlain, but show what kind of fellow you are with
+those long pipe-stalks that our Lord has sent you out upon.'
+
+Thus the dance began; and although I did not at all like uncle's way of
+arranging matters, I good-naturedly set to work, and we strove honestly,
+that I can say, with the cousins as well as the lighter of the aunts.
+
+By degrees we even became lively; and everything might have passed off
+in peace and joy if uncle had not taken it into his head that we were
+not doing our utmost in the dance, especially we gentlemen.
+
+'What kind of dancing is that to show to people?' he exclaimed
+contemptuously. 'There they go, mincing and tripping, as spindle-shanked
+as pencils and parasols. No, there was another kind of legs in my time!
+Pooh, boys, that was dancing, that was!'
+
+We held up our heads and footed it until our ears tingled. But every
+time that Uncle Ivar passed the ball-room door, his jeers became more
+aggravating, until we were almost exhausted, each one trying to be
+nimbler than another.
+
+But what was the use? Every time uncle came back from his round through
+the smoking-room, where he cooled his head in an enormous ale-bowl, he
+was bolder and bolder, and at last he had aled so long in the cooling
+bowl that his boldness was not to be repressed.
+
+'Out of the way with these long-shanked flamingoes!' he cried. 'Now,
+boys, you are going to see a real national dance. Come, Aunt Knoph, we
+two old ones will make these miserable youngsters of nowadays think
+shame.'
+
+'Oh, no, my dear, do let me alone,' begged respectable Mrs. Knoph;
+'remember, we are both old.'
+
+'The devil is old,' laughed uncle merrily; 'you were the smartest of the
+lasses, and I was not the greatest lout among the boys, that I know. So
+come along, old girl!'
+
+'Oh no, my dear Ivaren; won't you excuse me?' pleaded Mrs. Knoph. But
+what was the use? The hall was cleared, room had to be made, and we
+miserable flamingoes were squeezed up against the walls, so that we
+might be out of the way, at all events.
+
+All the young ladies were annoyed at the interruption, and we gentlemen
+were more or less sulky over all the affronts that we had endured. But
+the lady who had to play was quite in despair. She had merely received
+orders to play something purely national; and no matter how often she
+asked what dance it was to be, uncle would only stare politely at her
+over his spectacles, and swear that this would be another kind of dance.
+
+As far as Uncle Ivar was concerned, 'Sons of Norway' was no doubt good
+enough for any or every dance; and as to the dance itself, the music was
+really not so very important; for, you see, it happened in this way:
+
+Uncle Ivar came swinging in with one arm by his side, and tall,
+respectable Mrs. Knoph on the other. He placed her with a chivalrous
+sweep in the middle of the floor, bowed in the fashion of elderly
+gallants, with head down between his legs and arms hanging in front, but
+quickly straightened himself up again and looked about with a provoking
+smile.
+
+Uncle Ivar, without a coat and with vest unbuttoned, was a sight to see
+in a ball-room. A flaming red poll, one of the points of his collar up
+and one down, his false shirtfront thrust under a pair of home-made
+braces, which were green, two white bands of tape hanging down, a tuft
+of woollen shirt visible here and there.
+
+But one began to respect the braces when one saw what they carried--a
+trousers-button as big as a square-sail, and another behind--I am sure
+that one could have written 'Constantinople' in full across it in a
+large hand.
+
+'Tush, boys!' cried uncle, clapping his hands, 'now, by Jove, you shall
+see a dance worth looking at!' And then it began--at least, I _think_
+that it began here, but, as will presently appear, this is not quite
+certain. It happened in this way:
+
+The pianist struck up some national tune or other; uncle swung his arms
+and shuffled a little with his feet, amorously ogling old Mrs. Knoph
+over his spectacles.
+
+All attention was now concentrated upon Uncle Ivar's legs; it was clear
+that after the little preliminary steps he would let himself go! I stood
+and wondered whether he would spring into the air clear over Mrs. Knoph,
+or only kick the cap off her head.
+
+That would have been quite like him, and it is not at all certain
+whether he himself did not think of performing some such feat, for, as
+will presently appear, we cannot know; it happened, you see, in this
+way:
+
+As Uncle Ivar, after some little pattering, collected his energies for
+the decisive _coup_, he violently stamped his feet upon the floor.
+
+But, as if he had trodden upon soft soap, like lightning his heels
+glided forward from under him. The whole of Uncle Ivar fell backward
+upon Constantinople, his legs beat the air, and the crown of his head
+struck the floor with a boom that resounded through the whole house.
+
+Yes, there he lay stretched in all his _rondeur_, with the square-sail
+just in front of the feet of respectable Mrs. Knoph, who resembled a
+deserted tower in the desert.
+
+I was irreverent enough to let the others gather him up. Of course he
+would not fall to pieces; I knew the Constantinople architecture. I
+slipped out into the corridor and laughed until I was quite exhausted.
+
+But since then I have often wondered what kind of dance it could have
+been.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+AUTUMN.
+
+
+AARRE,                                        October 7, 1890.
+
+I had intended to send a few observations upon the wild-goose to
+_Nature_, but since they have extended to quite a long letter, they go
+to _Dagbladet_. It is not because I believe that they represent anything
+new that no one has observed before; but I know how thoughtlessly most
+of us let the sun shine, and the birds fly, without any idea of what a
+refreshment it is for a man's soul to understand what he sees in Nature,
+and how interesting animal life becomes when we have once learned that
+there is a method and a thought in every single thing that the animal
+undertakes, and what a pleasure it is to discover this thought, and
+trace the beautiful reasoning power which is Nature's essence.
+
+And thus most of us go through life, and down into a hole in the ground
+like moles, without having taken any notice of the bird that flew or the
+bill that sang. We believe that the small birds are sparrows, the larger
+probably crows; barndoor fowls are the only ones we know definitely.
+
+I met a lady the other day who was extremely indignant about this. She
+had asked the man at whose house she was staying--a very intelligent
+peasant--what kind of bird it was that she had seen in the fields. It
+was evident that it was a thrush--merely a common thrush--and she
+described the bird to him: it was about half as large as a pigeon, gray
+and speckled with yellow; it hopped in the fields, and so on.
+
+'Would it be the bird they call a swallow?' suggested the man.
+
+'Not at all,' replied the lady angrily. 'I rather think it was a kind of
+thrush.'
+
+'Oh! then you had better ask my wife.'
+
+'So she understands birds, does she?' exclaimed the lady, much
+mollified.
+
+'Yes, she is mad with them, they do so much mischief among the
+cherries.'
+
+With this my lady had to go. But the story is not yet finished; the
+worst is to come.
+
+For when, indignant at the countryman's ignorance of the bird-world, she
+told all this in town, there was one very solemn gentleman who said:
+
+'Are you sure that it was not a gull?'
+
+This went beyond all bounds, thought my lady, and she came and
+complained bitterly to me.
+
+When wild-geese fly in good order, as they do when in the air for days
+and nights together, the lines generally form the well-known plough,
+with one bird at the point, and the two next ones on either side of him
+a little way behind.
+
+Hitherto I have always been content with the explanation that we
+received and gave one another as boys, viz., that the birds chose this
+formation in order to cleave the air, like a snow-plough clearing a way.
+
+But it suddenly occurred to me the other day that this was pure
+nonsense--an association of ideas called forth by the resemblance to a
+plough, which moves in earth or snow, but which has no meaning up in the
+air.
+
+What _is_ cloven air? And who gets any benefit by it?
+
+Yes, if the geese flew as they walk--one directly behind the
+other--there might perhaps, in a contrary wind, be some little shelter
+and relief for the very last ones. But they fly nearly side by side in
+such a manner that each one, from first to last, receives completely
+'uncloven' air right in the breast; there can be no suggestion that it
+is easier for the last than for the first bird to cut a way.
+
+The peculiar order of flight has quite another meaning, viz., to keep
+the flock together on the long and fatiguing journey; and if we start
+from this basis, the reasoning thought becomes also evident in the
+arrangement itself.
+
+Out here by the broad Aarre Water there pass great flights of
+wild-geese; and in bad weather it may happen that they sit in thousands
+on the water, resting and waiting.
+
+But even if the flock flies past, there is always uneasiness and noise
+when they come over Aarre Water. The ranks break, for a time the whole
+becomes a confused mass, while they all scream and quack at the same
+time.
+
+Only slowly do they form again and fly southward in long lines, until
+they shrink to thinner and thinner threads in the gray autumn sky, and
+their last sound follows them upon the north wind.
+
+Then I always believe that there has been a debate as to whether they
+should take a little rest down on Aarre Water. There are certainly many
+old ones who know the place again, and plenty of the young are
+tender-winged, and would fain sit on the water and dawdle away a
+half-day's time.
+
+But when it is eventually resolved to fly on without stopping, and the
+lines again begin to arrange themselves, it has become clear to me that
+each seeks his own place in the ranks slanting outwards behind the
+leaders, so that by this means he may be conducted along with the train
+without being under the necessity of troubling about the way.
+
+If these large, heavy birds were to fly in a cluster for weeks, day and
+night, separation and confusion would be inevitable. They would get in
+each other's way every minute with their heavy wings, there would be
+such a noise that the leader's voice could not be distinguished, and it
+would be impossible to keep an eye upon him after dark. Besides, over
+half the number are young birds, who are undertaking this tremendous
+journey for the first time, and who naturally, at Aarre Water, begin to
+ask if it be the Nile that they see. Time would be lost, the flock would
+be broken up, and all the young would perish on the journey, if there
+were not, in the very disposition of the ranks, something of the
+beautiful reasoning thought binding them together.
+
+Let us now consider the first bird, who leads the flock--presumably an
+old experienced gander. He feels an impulse towards the south, but he
+undoubtedly bends his neck and looks down for known marks in the
+landscape. That is why the great flocks of geese follow our coast-line
+southward until the land is lost to view.
+
+But the birds do not look straight forward in the direction of their
+bills: they look to both sides. Therefore, the bird next to the leader
+does not follow right behind him in the 'cloven' air, but flies nearly
+alongside, so that it has the leader in a direct line with its right or
+left eye at a distance of about two wing-flaps.
+
+And the next bird does the same, and the next; each keeps at the same
+distance from its fore-bird.
+
+And what each bird sees of its fore-bird are the very whitest feathers
+of the whole goose, under the wings and towards the tail, and this, in
+dark nights, is of great assistance to the tired, half-sleeping
+creatures.
+
+Thus each, except the pilot himself, has a fore-bird's white body in a
+line with one eye, and more they do not need to trouble about. They can
+put all their strength into the monotonous work of wing-flapping, as
+long as they merely keep the one eye half open and see that they have
+the fore-bird in his place. Thus they know that all is in order, that
+they are in connection with the train, and with him at the head who
+knows the way.
+
+If from any cause a disturbance arises, it is soon arranged upon this
+principle; and when the geese have flown a day or two from the
+starting-point, such rearrangement is doubtless effected more rapidly
+and more easily. For I am convinced that they soon come to know one
+another personally so well that each at once finds his comrade in
+flight, whom he is accustomed to have before his eye, and therefore they
+are able to take their fixed places in the ranks as surely and
+accurately as trained soldiers.
+
+We can all the more readily imagine such a personal acquaintance among
+animals, as we know that even men learn with comparative ease to
+distinguish individuals in flocks of the same species of beasts. If we
+townspeople see a flock of sheep, it presents to us the same ovine
+face--only with some difference between old and young. But a
+peasant-woman can at once take out her two or three ewes from the big
+flock that stands staring by the door--indeed, she can even recognise
+very young lambs by their faces.
+
+Thus I believe I understand the reason for the wild-goose's order of
+flight better than when I thought of a plough that 'clove' the air; and,
+as already stated, it may well be that many have been just as wise long
+ago. But I venture to wager that the great majority of people have never
+thought of the matter at all, and I fear that multitudes will think of
+it somewhat in this fashion: 'What is it to me how those silly geese
+fly?'
+
+I often revert to the strangely thoughtless manner in which knowledge of
+animal life is skipped over in the teaching of the young. The rude and
+wild conception of animals which the clergy teach from the Old Testament
+seems to cause only deep indifference on the part of the girls, and, in
+the boys, an unholy desire to ramble about and blaze away with a gun.
+
+Here there has been a shooting as on a drill-ground all the summer,
+until now only the necessary domestic animals are left. Among the cows,
+the starlings were shot into tatters, so that they crawled wingless,
+legless, maimed, into holes in the stone fences to die. If a respectable
+curlew sat by the water's edge mirroring his long bill, a rascal of a
+hunter lay behind a stone and sighted; and was there a water-puddle with
+rushes that could conceal a young duck, there immediately came a
+fully-armed hero with raised gun. Even English have been here! They had
+some new kind of guns--people said--that shot as far as you pleased, and
+round corners and behind knolls. They murdered, I assure you; they laid
+the district bare as pest and pox! I must stop, for I am growing so
+angry.
+
+I have had thoughts of applying for a post as inspector of birds in the
+Westland. I should travel round and teach people about the birds,
+exhibit the common ones, so that all might have the pleasure of
+recognising them in Nature; accustom people to listen to their song and
+cry, and to take an interest in their life, their nests, eggs, and
+young.
+
+Then I should inflame the peasants against the armed farm-boys,
+day-labourers, and poachers, and against the sportsmen from town, who
+stroll around without permission and crack away where they please. It
+only wants a beginning and a little combination, for the peasant, in his
+heart, is furious at this senseless shooting.
+
+Perhaps some day, when not a single bird is left, my idea of an
+inspector may come to be honoured and valued. Would that a godly
+Storthing [Footnote: Parliament.] may then succeed in finding a pious
+and well-recommended man, who can instruct the people in a moral manner
+as to where the humid Noah accommodated the ostriches in the ark, or
+what he managed to teach the parrots during the prolonged rainy weather.
+
+We, too, have recently had a deluge. The lakes and the river have risen
+to the highest winter-marks. But the soil of this blessed place is so
+sandy that roads and fields remain firm and dry, the water running off
+and disappearing in a moment.
+
+It has also blown from all quarters, with varying force, for three
+weeks. We press onward over the plain, and stagger about among the
+houses, where the gusts of wind rush in quite unexpectedly with loud
+claps. The fishing-rod has had to be carried against the wind, and the
+water of the river has risen in the air like smoke.
+
+And the sea, white with wrath, begins to form great heavy breakers far
+out in many fathoms of water, rolls them in upon the strand, inundates
+large tracts, and carries away the young wrack-grass and what we call
+'strandkaal' [Footnote: Sea-kale.]--all that has grown in summer and
+gathered a little flying sand around it as tiny fortifications; the
+sea has washed the beach quite bare again, and fixed its old limits
+high up among the sand-heaps, where they are strong enough to hold out
+for the winter.
+
+I have now been here four months to a day, and have seen the corn since
+it was light-green shoots until now, when it is well secured in the
+barns,--where there was room. For the crop has been so heavy--not in the
+memory of man has there been such a year on this coast--that rich stacks
+of corn are standing on many farms, and the lofts are crammed to the
+roof-trees.
+
+Inland there is corn yet standing out; it is yellowing on the fields,
+which are here green and fresh as in the middle of spring.
+
+We have had many fine days; but autumn is the time when Jæderen is seen
+at its best.
+
+As the landscape nowhere rises to any great height, we always see much
+sky; and, although we do not really know it, we look quite as much at
+the magnificent, changeful clouds as at the fine scenery, which recedes
+far into the distance and is never strikingly prominent.
+
+And all day long, in storm and violent showers, the autumn sky changes,
+as if in a passionate uproar of wrath and threatenings, alternating with
+reconciliation and promise, with dark brewing storm-clouds, gleams of
+sunshine and rainbows, until the evening, when all is gathered together
+out on the sea to the west.
+
+Then cloud chases cloud, with deep openings between, which shine with a
+lurid yellow. The great bubbling storm-clouds form a framework around
+the western sky, while everywhere shoot yellow streaks and red beams,
+which die away and disappear and are pressed down into the sea, until we
+see only one sickly yellow stripe of light, far out upon the wave.
+
+Then darkness rolls up from the sea in the west and glides down from the
+fjelds in the east, lays itself to rest upon the black wastes of
+heather, and spreads an uncanny covering over the troubled Aarre Waters,
+which groan and sob and sigh among rushes and stones. A stupendous
+melancholy rises up from the sea and overflows all things, while the
+wakeful breakers, ever faithful, murmur their watchman-song the livelong
+night.
+
+
+
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