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+Project Gutenberg Etext of Boyhood in Norway, by Hjalmar Boyesen
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+Boyhood in Norway
+
+by Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen
+
+January, 1997  [Etext #784]
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+Project Gutenberg Etext of Boyhood in Norway, by Hjalmar Boyesen
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+
+BOYHOOD IN NORWAY 
+
+STORIES OF BOY-LIFE IN THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN
+
+BY
+
+HJALMAR HJORTH BOYESEN
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+THE BATTLE OF THE RAFTS
+THE CLASH OF ARMS
+BICEPS GRIMLUND'S CHRISTMAS VACATION
+THE NIXY'S STRAIN
+THE WONDER CHILD
+"THE SONS OF THE VIKINGS"
+PAUL JESPERSEN'S MASQUERADE
+LADY CLARE  THE STORY OF A HORSE
+BONNYBOY
+THE CHILD OF LUCK
+THE BEAR THAT HAD A BANK ACCOUNT
+
+
+
+
+THE BATTLE OF THE RAFTS
+
+I. THE ORIGIN OF THE WAR
+
+A deadly feud was raging among the boys of Numedale.  The
+East-Siders hated the West-Siders, and thrashed them when they
+got a chance; and the West-Siders, when fortune favored them,
+returned the compliment with interest.  It required considerable
+courage for a boy to venture, unattended by comrades, into the
+territory of the enemy; and no one took the risk unless dire
+necessity compelled him.
+
+The hostile parties had played at war so long that they had
+forgotten that it was play; and now were actually inspired with
+the emotions which they had formerly simulated.  Under the
+leadership of their chieftains, Halvor Reitan and Viggo Hook,
+they held councils of war, sent out scouts, planned midnight
+surprises, and fought at times mimic battles.  I say mimic
+battles, because no one was ever killed; but broken heads and
+bruised limbs many a one carried home from these engagements, and
+unhappily one boy, named Peer Oestmo, had an eye put out by an
+arrow.
+
+It was a great consolation to him that he became a hero to all
+the West-Siders and was promoted for bravery in the field to the
+rank of first lieutenant. He had the sympathy of all his
+companions in arms and got innumerable bites of apples, cancelled
+postage stamps, and colored advertising-labels in token of their
+esteem.
+
+But the principal effect of this first serious wound was to
+invest the war with a breathless and all-absorbing interest.  It
+was now no longer "make believe," but deadly earnest.  Blood had
+flowed; insults had been exchanged in due order, and offended
+honor cried for vengeance.
+
+It was fortunate that the river divided the West-Siders from the
+East-Siders, or it would have been difficult to tell what might
+have happened.  Viggo Hook, the West-Side general, was a
+handsome, high-spirited lad of fifteen, who was the last person
+to pocket an injury, as long as red blood flowed in his veins, as
+he was wont to express it.  He was the eldest son of Colonel Hook
+of the regular army, and meant some day to be a Von Moltke or a
+Napoleon. He felt in his heart that he was destined for something
+great; and in conformity with this conviction assumed a superb
+behavior, which his comrades found very admirable.
+
+He had the gift of leadership in a marked degree, and established
+his authority by a due mixture of kindness and severity.  Those
+boys whom he honored with his confidence were absolutely attached
+to him.  Those whom, with magnificent arbitrariness, he punished
+and persecuted, felt meekly that they had probably deserved it;
+and if they had not, it was somehow in the game.
+
+There never was a more absolute king than Viggo, nor one more
+abjectly courted and admired.  And the amusing part of it was
+that he was at heart a generous and good-natured lad, but
+possessed with a lofty ideal of heroism, which required above all
+things that whatever he said or did must be striking.  He
+dramatized, as it were, every phrase he uttered and every act he
+performed, and modelled himself alternately after Napoleon and
+Wellington, as he had seen them represented in the old engravings
+which decorated the walls in his father's study.
+
+He had read much about heroes of war, ancient and modern, and he
+lived about half his own life imagining himself by turns all
+sorts of grand characters from history or fiction.
+
+His costume was usually in keeping with his own conception of
+these characters, in so far as his scanty opportunities
+permitted.  An old, broken sword of his father's, which had been
+polished until it "flashed" properly, was girded to a brass-
+mounted belt about his waist; an ancient, gold-braided, military
+cap, which was much too large, covered his curly head; and four
+tarnished brass buttons, displaying the Golden Lion of Norway,
+gave a martial air to his blue jacket, although the rest were
+plain horn.
+
+But quite independently of his poor trappings Viggo was to his
+comrades an august personage.  I doubt if the Grand Vizier feels
+more flattered and gratified by the favor of the Sultan than
+little Marcus Henning did, when Viggo condescended to be civil to
+him.
+
+Marcus was small, round-shouldered, spindle-shanked, and
+freckle-faced.  His hair was coarse, straight, and the color of
+maple sirup; his nose was broad and a little flattened at the
+point, and his clothes had a knack of never fitting him.  They
+were made to grow in and somehow he never caught up with them, he
+once said, with no intention of being funny.  His father, who was
+Colonel Hook's nearest neighbor, kept a modest country shop, in
+which you could buy anything, from dry goods and groceries to
+shoes and medicines.  You would have to be very ingenious to ask
+for a thing which Henning could not supply.  The smell in the
+store carried out the same idea; for it was a mixture of all
+imaginable smells under the sun.
+
+Now, it was the chief misery of Marcus that, sleeping, as he did,
+in the room behind the store, he had become so impregnated with
+this curious composite smell that it followed him like an
+odoriferous halo, and procured him a number of unpleasant
+nicknames.  The principal ingredient was salted herring; but
+there was also a suspicion of tarred ropes, plug tobacco, prunes,
+dried codfish, and oiled tarpaulin.
+
+It was not so much kindness of heart as respect for his own
+dignity which made Viggo refrain from calling Marcus a "Muskrat"
+or a "Smelling-Bottle."  And yet Marcus regarded this gracious
+forbearance on his part as the mark of a noble soul.  He had been
+compelled to accept these offensive nicknames, and, finding
+rebellion vain, he had finally acquiesced in them.
+
+He never loved to be called a "Muskrat," though he answered to
+the name mechanically.  But when Viggo addressed him as "base
+minion," in his wrath, or as "Sergeant Henning," in his sunnier
+moods, Marcus felt equally complimented by both terms, and vowed
+in his grateful soul eternal allegiance and loyalty to his chief.
+
+He bore kicks and cuffs with the same admirable equanimity; never
+complained when he was thrown into a dungeon in a deserted pigsty
+for breaches of discipline of which he was entirely guiltless,
+and trudged uncomplainingly through rain and sleet and snow, as
+scout or spy, or what-not, at the behest of his exacting
+commander.
+
+It was all so very real to him that he never would have thought
+of doubting the importance of his mission.  He was rather honored
+by the trust reposed in him, and was only intent upon earning a
+look or word of scant approval from the superb personage whom he
+worshipped.
+
+Halvor Reitan, the chief of the East-Siders, was a big, burly
+peasant lad, with a pimpled face, fierce blue eyes, and a shock
+of towy hair.  But he had muscles as hard as twisted ropes, and
+sinews like steel.
+
+He had the reputation, of which he was very proud, of being the
+strongest boy in the valley, and though he was scarcely sixteen
+years old, he boasted that he could whip many a one of twice his
+years.  He had, in fact, been so praised for his strength that he
+never neglected to accept, or even to create, opportunities for
+displaying it.
+
+His manner was that of a bully; but it was vanity and not malice
+which made him always spoil for a fight.  He and Viggo Hook had
+attended the parson's "Confirmation Class," together, and it was
+there their hostility had commenced.
+
+Halvor, who conceived a dislike of the tall, rather dainty, and
+disdainful Viggo, with his aquiline nose and clear, aristocratic
+features, determined, as he expressed it, to take him down a peg
+or two; and the more his challenges were ignored the more
+persistent he grew in his insults.
+
+He dubbed Viggo "Missy."  He ran against him with such violence
+in the hall that he knocked his head against the wainscoting; he
+tripped him up on the stairs by means of canes and sticks; and he
+hired his partisans who sat behind Viggo to stick pins into him,
+while he recited his lessons.  And when all these provocations
+proved unavailing he determined to dispense with any pretext, but
+simply thrash his enemy within an inch of his life at the first
+opportunity which presented itself.  He grew to hate Viggo and
+was always aching to molest him.
+
+Halvor saw plainly enough that Viggo despised him, and refused to
+notice his challenges, not so much because he was afraid of him,
+as because he regarded himself as a superior being who could
+afford to ignore insults from an inferior, without loss of
+dignity.
+
+During recess the so-called "genteel boys," who had better
+clothes and better manners than the peasant lads, separated
+themselves from the rest, and conversed or played with each
+other.  No one will wonder that such behavior was exasperating to
+the poorer boys.  I am far from defending Viggo's behavior in
+this instance.  He was here, as everywhere, the acknowledged
+leader; and therefore more cordially hated than the rest.  It was
+the Roundhead hating the Cavalier; and the Cavalier making merry
+at the expense of the Roundhead.
+
+There was only one boy in the Confirmation Class who was doubtful
+as to what camp should claim him, and that was little Marcus
+Henning.  He was a kind of amphibious animal who, as he thought,
+really belonged nowhere.  His father was of peasant origin, but
+by his prosperity and his occupation had risen out of the class
+to which he was formerly attached, without yet rising into the
+ranks of the gentry, who now, as always, looked with scorn upon
+interlopers.  Thus it came to pass that little Marcus, whose
+inclinations drew him toward Viggo's party, was yet forced to
+associate with the partisans of Halvor Reitan.
+
+It was not a vulgar ambition "to pretend to be better than he
+was" which inspired Marcus with a desire to change his
+allegiance, but a deep, unreasoning admiration for Viggo Hook. 
+He had never seen any one who united so many superb qualities,
+nor one who looked every inch as noble as he did.
+
+It did not discourage him in the least that his first approaches
+met with no cordial reception.  His offer to communicate to Viggo
+where there was a hawk's nest was coolly declined, and even the
+attractions of fox dens and rabbits' burrows were valiantly
+resisted.  Better luck he had with a pair of fan-tail pigeons,
+his most precious treasure, which Viggo rather loftily consented
+to accept, for, like most genteel boys in the valley, he was an
+ardent pigeon-fancier, and had long vainly importuned his father
+to procure him some of the rarer breeds
+
+He condescended to acknowledge Marcus's greeting after that, and
+to respond to his diffident "Good-morning" and "Good-evening,"
+and Marcus was duly grateful for such favors.  He continued to
+woo his idol with raisins and ginger-snaps from the store, and
+other delicate attentions, and bore the snubs which often fell to
+his lot with humility and patience.
+
+But an event soon occurred which was destined to change the
+relations of the two boys.  Halvor Reitan called a secret meeting
+of his partisans, among whom he made the mistake to include
+Marcus, and agreed with them to lie in ambush at the bend of the
+road, where it entered the forest, and attack Viggo Hook and his
+followers.  Then, he observed, he would "make him dance a jig
+that would take the starch out of him."
+
+The others declared that this would be capital fun, and
+enthusiastically promised their assistance.  Each one selected
+his particular antipathy to thrash, though all showed a marked
+preference for Viggo, whom, however, for reason of politeness,
+they were obliged to leave to the chief.  Only one boy sat
+silent, and made no offer to thrash anybody, and that was Marcus
+Henning.
+
+"Well, Muskrat," cried Halvor Reitan, "whom are you going to take
+on your conscience?"
+
+"No one," said Marcus.
+
+"Put the Muskrat in your pocket, Halvor," suggested one of the
+boys; "he is so small, and he has got such a hard bullet head,
+you might use him as a club."
+
+"Well, one thing is sure," shouted Halvor, as a dark suspicion
+shot through his brain, "if you don't keep mum, you will be a
+mighty sick coon the day after to-morrow."
+
+Marcus made no reply, but got up quietly, pulled a rubber sling
+from his pocket, and began, with the most indifferent manner in
+the world, to shoot stones down the river.  He managed during
+this exercise, which everybody found perfectly natural, to get
+out of the crowd, and, without seeming to have any purpose
+whatever, he continued to put a couple of hundred yards between
+himself and his companion.
+
+"Look a-here, Muskrat," he heard Halvor cry, "you promised to
+keep mum."
+
+Marcus, instead of answering, took to his heels and ran.
+
+"Boys, the scoundrel is going to betray us!" screamed the chief. 
+"Now come, boys!  We've got to catch him, dead or alive."
+
+A volley of stones, big and little, was hurled after the
+fugitive, who now realizing his position ran for dear life.  The
+stones hailed down round about him; occasionally one vicious
+missile would whiz past his ear, and send a cold shudder through
+him.  The tramp of his pursuers sounded nearer and nearer, and
+his one chance of escape was to throw himself into the only boat,
+which he saw on this side of the river, and push out into the
+stream before he was overtaken.
+
+He had his doubts as to whether he could accomplish this, for the
+blood rushed and roared in his ears, the hill-side billowed under
+his feet, and it seemed as if the trees were all running a race
+in the opposite direction, in order to betray him to his enemies.
+
+A stone gave him a thump in the back, but though he felt a
+gradual heat spreading from the spot which it hit, he was
+conscious of no pain.
+
+Presently a larger missile struck him in the neck, and he heard a
+breathless snorting close behind him. That was the end; he gave
+himself up for lost, for those boys would have no mercy on him if
+they captured him.
+
+But in the next moment he heard a fall and an oath, and the voice
+was that of Halvor Reitan.  He breathed a little more freely as
+he saw the river run with its swelling current at his feet. 
+Quite mechanically, without clearly knowing what he did, he
+sprang into the boat, grabbed a boat-hook, and with three strong
+strokes pushed himself out into the deep water.
+
+At that instant a dozen of his pursuers reached the river bank,
+and he saw dimly their angry faces and threatening gestures, and
+heard the stones drop into the stream about him.  Fortunately the
+river was partly dammed, in order to accumulate water for the
+many saw-mills under the falls.  It would therefore have been no
+very difficult feat to paddle across, if his aching arms had had
+an atom of strength left in them.  As soon as he was beyond the
+reach of flying stones he seated himself in the stern, took an
+oar, and after having bathed his throbbing forehead in the cold
+water, managed, in fifteen minutes, to make the further bank. 
+Then he dragged himself wearily up the hill-side to Colonel
+Hook's mansion, and when he had given his message to Viggo, fell
+into a dead faint.
+
+How could Viggo help being touched by such devotion?  He had seen
+the race through a fieldglass from his pigeon-cot, but had been
+unable to make out its meaning, nor had he remotely dreamed that
+he was himself the cause of the cruel chase.  He called his
+mother, who soon perceived that Marcus's coat was saturated with
+blood in the back, and undressing him, she found that a stone,
+hurled by a sling, had struck him, slid a few inches along the
+rib, and had lodged in the fleshy part of his left side.
+
+A doctor was now sent for; the stone was cut out without
+difficulty, and Marcus was invited to remain as Viggo's guest
+until he recovered.  He felt so honored by this invitation that
+he secretly prayed he might remain ill for a month; but the wound
+showed an abominable readiness to heal, and before three days
+were past Marcus could not feign any ailment which his face and
+eye did not belie.
+
+He then, with a heavy heart, betook himself homeward, and
+installed himself once more among his accustomed smells behind
+the store, and pondered sadly on the caprice of the fate which
+had made Viggo a high-nosed, handsome gentleman, and him--Marcus
+Henning--an under-grown, homely, and unrefined drudge.  But in
+spite of his failure to answer this question, there was joy
+within him at the thought that he had saved this handsome face of
+Viggo's from disfigurement, and--who could know?--perhaps would
+earn a claim upon his gratitude.
+
+It was this series of incidents which led to the war between the
+East-Siders and the West-Siders. It was a mere accident that the
+partisans of Viggo Hook lived on the west side of the river, and
+those of Halvor Reitan mostly on the east side.
+
+Viggo, who had a chivalrous sense of fair play, would never have
+molested any one without good cause; but now his own safety, and,
+as he persuaded himself, even his life, was in danger, and he had
+no choice but to take measures in self-defence.  He surrounded
+himself with a trusty body-guard, which attended him wherever he
+went.  He sent little Marcus, in whom he recognized his most
+devoted follower, as scout into the enemy's territory, and
+swelled his importance enormously by lending him his field-glass
+to assist him in his perilous observations.
+
+Occasionally an unhappy East-Sider was captured on the west bank
+of the river, court-martialed, and, with much solemnity,
+sentenced to death as a spy, but paroled for an indefinite
+period, until it should suit his judges to execute the sentence. 
+The East-Siders, when they captured a West-Sider, went to work
+with less ceremony; they simply thrashed their captive soundly
+and let him run, if run he could.
+
+Thus months passed.  The parson's Confirmation Class ceased, and
+both the opposing chieftains were confirmed on the same day; but
+Viggo stood at the head of the candidates, while Halvor had his
+place at the bottom.[1]
+
+[1] In Norway confirmation is always preceded by a public
+examination of the candidates in the aisle of the church.  The
+order in which they are arranged is supposed to indicate their
+attainments, but does, as a rule, indicate the rank and social
+position of their parents.
+
+
+During the following winter the war was prosecuted with much
+zeal, and the West-Siders, in imitation of Robin Hood and his
+Merry Men, armed themselves with cross-bows, and lay in ambush in
+the underbrush, aiming their swift arrows against any intruder
+who ventured to cross the river.
+
+Nearly all the boys in the valley between twelve and sixteen
+became enlisted on the one side or the other, and there were
+councils of war, marches, and counter-marches without number,
+occasional skirmishes, but no decisive engagements.  Peer Oestmo,
+to be sure, had his eye put out by an arrow, as has already been
+related, for the East-Siders were not slow to imitate the example
+of their enemies, in becoming expert archers.
+
+Marcus Henning was captured by a hostile outpost, and was being
+conducted to the abode of the chief, when, by a clever stratagem,
+he succeeded in making his escape.
+
+The East-Siders despatched, under a flag of truce, a most
+insulting caricature of General Viggo, representing him as a
+rooster that seemed on the point of bursting with an excess of
+dignity.
+
+These were the chief incidents of the winter, though there were
+many others of less consequence that served to keep the boys in a
+delightful state of excitement.  They enjoyed the war keenly,
+though they pretended to themselves that they were being ill-used
+and suffered terrible hardships.  They grumbled at their duties,
+brought complaints against their officers to the general, and
+did, in fact, all the things that real soldiers would have been
+likely to do under similar circumstances.
+
+
+II.
+
+THE CLASH OF ARMS
+
+When the spring is late in Norway, and the heat comes with a
+sudden rush, the mountain streams plunge with a tremendous noise
+down into the valleys, and the air is filled far and near with
+the boom and roar of rushing waters.  The glaciers groan, and
+send their milk-white torrents down toward the ocean.  The
+snow-patches in the forest glens look gray and soiled, and the
+pines perspire a delicious resinous odor which cheers the soul
+with the conviction that spring has come.
+
+But the peasant looks anxiously at the sun and the river at such
+times, for he knows that there is danger of inundation.  The
+lumber, which the spring floods set afloat in enormous
+quantities, is carried by the rivers to the cities by the sea;
+there it is sorted according to the mark it bears, showing the
+proprietor, and exported to foreign countries.
+
+In order to prevent log-jams, which are often attended with
+terrible disasters, men are stationed night and day at the
+narrows of the rivers.  The boys, to whom all excitement is
+welcome, are apt to congregate in large numbers at such places,
+assisting or annoying the watchers, riding on the logs, or
+teasing the girls who stand up on the hillside, admiring the
+daring feats of the lumbermen.
+
+It was on such a spring day, when the air was pungent with the
+smell of sprouting birch and pine, that General Viggo and his
+trusty army had betaken themselves to the cataract to share in
+the sport.  They were armed with their bows, as usual, knowing
+that they were always liable to be surprised by their vigilant
+enemy.  Nor were they in this instance disappointed, for Halvor
+Reitan, with fifty or sixty followers, was presently visible on
+the east side, and it was a foregone conclusion that if they met
+there would be a battle.
+
+The river, to be sure, separated them, but the logs were at times
+so densely packed that it was possible for a daring lad to run
+far out into the river, shoot his arrow and return to shore,
+leaping from log to log.  The Reitan party was the first to begin
+this sport, and an arrow hit General Viggo's hat before he gave
+orders to repel the assault.
+
+Cool and dignified as he was, he could not consent to skip and
+jump on the slippery logs, particularly as he had no experience
+in this difficult exercise, while the enemy apparently had much.
+Paying no heed to the jeers of the lumbermen, who supposed he was
+afraid, he drew his troops up in line and addressed them as
+follows:
+
+"Soldiers: You have on many previous occasions given me proof of
+your fidelity to duty and your brave and fearless spirit.  I know
+that I can, now as always, trust you to shed glory upon our arms,
+and to maintain our noble fame and honorable traditions.
+
+"The enemy is before us.  You have heard and seen his challenge. 
+It behooves us to respond gallantly.  To jump and skip like
+rabbits is unmilitary and unsoldierlike.  I propose that each of
+us shall select two large logs, tie them together, procure, if
+possible, a boat-hook or an oar, and, sitting astride the logs,
+boldly push out into the river.  If we can advance in a tolerably
+even line, which I think quite possible, we can send so deadly a
+charge into the ranks of our adversaries that they will be
+compelled to flee.  Then we will land on the east side, occupy
+the heights, and rout our foe.
+
+"Now let each man do his duty.  Forward, march!"
+
+The lumbermen, whose sympathies were with the East-Siders, found
+this performance highly diverting, but Viggo allowed himself in
+nowise to be disturbed by their laughter or jeers.  He marched
+his troops down to the river-front, commanded "Rest arms!" and
+repeated once more his instructions; then, flinging off his coat
+and waistcoat, he seized a boat-hook and ran some hundred yards
+along the bank of the stream.
+
+The river-bed was here expanded to a wide basin, in which the
+logs floated lazily down to the cataract below.  Trees and
+underbrush, which usually stood on dry land, were half-submerged
+in the yellow water, and the current gurgled slowly about their
+trunks with muddy foam and bubbles.  Now and then a heap of
+lumber would get wedged in between the jutting rocks above the
+waterfall, and then the current slackened, only to be suddenly
+accelerated, when the exertions of the men had again removed the
+obstruction.
+
+It was an exciting spectacle to see these daring fellows leap
+from log to log, with birch-bark shoes on their feet.  They would
+ride on a heap of lumber down to the very edge of the cataract,
+dexterously jump off at the critical moment, and after half a
+dozen narrow escapes, reach the shore, only to repeat the
+dangerous experiment, as soon as the next opportunity offered
+itself.
+
+It was the example of these hardy and agile lumbermen, trained
+from childhood to sport with danger, which inspired Viggo and his
+followers with a desire to show their mettle.
+
+"Sergeant Henning," said the General to his ever-faithful shadow,
+"take a squad of five men with you, and cut steering-poles for
+those for whom boat-hooks cannot be procured.  You will be the
+last to leave shore.  Report to me if any one fails to obey
+orders."
+
+"Shall be done, General," Marcus responded, with a deferential
+military salute.
+
+"The bows, you understand, will be slung by the straps across the
+backs of the men, while they steer and push with their poles."
+
+"Certainly, General," said Marcus, with another salute.
+
+"You may go."
+
+"All right, General," answered Marcus, with a third salute.
+
+And now began the battle.  The East-Siders, fearing that a
+stratagem was intended, when they saw the enemy moving up the
+stream, made haste to follow their example, capturing on their
+way every stray log that came along.  They sent ineffectual
+showers of arrows into the water, while the brave General Viggo,
+striding two big logs which he had tied together with a piece of
+rope, and with a boat-hook in his hand, pushed proudly at the
+head of his army into the middle of the wide basin.
+
+Halvor Reitan was clever enough to see what it meant, and he was
+not going to allow the West-Siders to gain the heights above him,
+and attack him in the rear.  He meant to prevent the enemy from
+landing, or, still better, he would meet him half-way, and drive
+him back to his own shore.
+
+The latter, though not the wiser course, was the plan which
+Halvor Reitan adopted.  To have a tussle with the high-nosed
+Viggo in the middle of the basin, to dislodge him from his
+raft--that seemed to Halvor a delightful project.  He knew that
+Viggo was a good swimmer, so he feared no dangerous consequences;
+and even if he had, it would not have restrained him.  He was so
+much stronger than Viggo, and here was his much-longed-for
+opportunity.
+
+With great despatch he made himself a raft of two logs, and
+seating himself astride them, with his legs in the water, put off
+from shore.  He shouted to his men to follow him, and they needed
+no urging. Viggo was now near the middle of the basin, with
+twenty or thirty picked archers close behind him.  They fired
+volley after volley of arrows against the enemy, and twice drove
+him back to the shore.
+
+But Halvor Reitan, shielding his face with a piece of bark which
+he had picked up, pushed forward in spite of their onslaught,
+though one arrow knocked off his red-peaked cap, and another
+scratched his ear.  Now he was but a dozen feet from his foe. He
+cared little for his bow now; the boat-hook was a far more
+effectual weapon.
+
+Viggo saw at a glance that he meant to pull his raft toward him,
+and, relying upon his greater strength, fling him into the water.
+
+His first plan would therefore be to fence with his own boat-
+hook, so as to keep his antagonist at a distance.
+
+When Halvor made the first lunge at the nose of his raft, he
+foiled the attempt with his own weapon, and managed dexterously
+to give the hostile raft a downward push, which increased the
+distance between them.
+
+"Take care, General!"  said a respectful voice close to Viggo's
+ear.  "There is a small log jam down below, which is getting
+bigger every moment. When it is got afloat, it will be dangerous
+out here."
+
+"What are you doing here, Sergeant?"  asked the General,
+severely.  "Did I not tell you to be the last to leave the
+shore?"
+
+"You did, General," Marcus replied, meekly, "and I obeyed.  But I
+have pushed to the front so as to be near you."
+
+"I don't need you, Sergeant," Viggo responded, "you may go to the
+rear."
+
+The booming of the cataract nearly drowned his voice and Marcus
+pretended not to hear it.  A huge lumber mass was piling itself
+up among the rocks jutting out of the rapids, and a dozen men
+hanging like flies on the logs, sprang up and down with axes in
+their hands.  They cut one log here and another there; shouted
+commands; and fell into the river amid the derisive jeers of the
+spectators; they scrambled out again and, dripping wet, set to
+work once more with a cheerful heart, to the mighty music of the
+cataract, whose thundering rhythm trembled and throbbed in the
+air.
+
+The boys who were steering their rafts against each other in the
+comparatively placid basin were too absorbed in their mimic
+battle to heed what was going on below.  Halvor and Viggo were
+fighting desperately with their boat-hooks, the one attacking and
+the other defending himself with great dexterity. They scarcely
+perceived, in their excitement, that the current was dragging
+them slowly toward the cataract; nor did they note the warning
+cries of the men and women on the banks.
+
+Viggo's blood was hot, his temples throbbed, his eyes flashed. 
+He would show this miserable clown who had dared to insult him,
+that the trained skill of a gentleman is worth more than the rude
+strength of a bully.  With beautiful precision he foiled every
+attack; struck Halvor's boat-hook up and down, so that the water
+splashed about him, manoeuvring at the same time his own raft
+with admirable adroitness.
+
+Cheer upon cheer rent the air, after each of his successful
+sallies, and his comrades, selecting their antagonists from among
+the enemy, now pressed forward, all eager to bear their part in
+the fray.
+
+Splash!  splash!  splash!  one East-Sider was dismounted, got an
+involuntary bath, but scrambled up on his raft again.  The next
+time it was a West-Sider who got a ducking, but seemed none the
+worse for it.  There was a yelling and a cheering, now from one
+side and now from the other, which made everyone forget that
+something was going on at that moment of greater importance than
+the mimic warfare of boys.
+
+All the interest of the contending parties was concentrated on
+the duel of their chieftains.  It seemed now really that Halvor
+was getting the worst of it.  He could not get close enough to
+use his brawny muscles; and in precision of aim and adroitness of
+movement he was not Viggo's match.
+
+Again and again he thrust his long-handled boat-hook angrily
+against the bottom (for the flooded parts of the banks were very
+shallow), to push the raft forward, but every time Viggo managed
+to turn it sideward, and Halvor had to exert all his presence of
+mind to keep his seat.  Wild with rage he sprang up on his
+slender raft and made a vicious lunge at his opponent, who warded
+the blow with such force that the handle of the boat-hook broke,
+and Halvor lost his balance and fell into the water.
+
+At this same instant a tremendous crash was heard from below,
+followed by a long rumble as of mighty artillery.  A scream of
+horror went up from the banks, as the great lumber mass rolled
+down into the cataract, making a sudden suction which it seemed
+impossible that the unhappy boys could resist.
+
+The majority of both sides, seeing their danger, beat, by means
+of their boat-hooks, a hasty retreat, and as they were in shallow
+water were hauled ashore by the lumbermen, who sprang into the
+river to save them.
+
+When the clouds of spray had cleared away, only three figures
+were visible.  Viggo, still astride of his raft, was fighting,
+not for his own life, but for that of his enemy, Halvor, who was
+struggling helplessly in the white rapids.  Close behind his
+commander stood little Marcus on his raft, holding on, with one
+hand to the boat-hook which he had hewn, with all his might, into
+Viggo's raft, and with the other grasping the branch of a
+half-submerged tree.
+
+"Save yourself, General!"  he yelled, wildly. "Let go there.  I
+can't hold on much longer."
+
+But Viggo did not heed.  He saw nothing but the pale, frightened
+face of his antagonist, who might lose his life.  With a
+desperate effort he flung his boat-hook toward him and succeeded
+this time in laying hold of the leather girdle about his waist. 
+One hundred feet below yawned the foaming, weltering abyss, from
+which the white smoke ascended.  If Marcus lost his grip, if the
+branch snapped no human power could save them; they were all dead
+men.
+
+By this time the people on the shore had discovered that three
+lives were hanging on the brink of eternity.  Twenty men had
+waded waist-deep into the current and had flung a stout rope to
+the noble little fellow who was risking his own life for his
+friend.
+
+"Keep your hold, my brave lad!"  they cried; "hold on another
+minute!"
+
+"Grab the rope!"  screamed others.
+
+Marcus clinched his teeth, and his numb arms trembled, mist
+gathered in his eyes--his heart stood still.  But with a clutch
+that seemed superhuman he held on.  He had but one thought--
+Viggo, his chief!  Viggo, his idol!  Viggo, his general!  He must
+save him or die with him.  One end of the rope was hanging on the
+branch and was within easy reach; but he did not venture to seize
+it, lest the wrench caused by his motion might detach his hold on
+Viggo's raft.
+
+Viggo, who just now was pulling Halvor out of the water, saw in
+an instant that he had by adding his weight to the raft,
+increased the chance of both being carried to their death.  With
+quick resolution he plunged the beak of his own boat-hook into
+Marcus's raft, and shouted to Halvor to save himself.  The
+latter, taking in the situation at a glance, laid hold of the
+handle of the boat-hook and together they pulled up alongside of
+Marcus and leaped aboard his raft, whereupon Viggo's raft drifted
+downward and vanished in a flash in the yellow torrent.
+
+At that very instant Marcus's strength gave out; he relaxed his
+grip on the branch, which slid out of his hand, and they would
+inevitably have darted over the brink of the cataract if Viggo
+had not, with great adroitness, snatched the rope from the branch
+of the half-submerged tree.
+
+A wild shout, half a cheer, half a cry of relief, went up from
+the banks, as the raft with the three lads was slowly hauled
+toward the shore by the lumbermen who had thrown the rope.
+
+Halvor Reitan was the first to step ashore.  But no joyous
+welcome greeted him from those whose sympathies had, a little
+while ago, been all on his side.  He hung around uneasily for
+some minutes, feeling perhaps that he ought to say something to
+Viggo who had saved his life, but as he could not think of
+anything which did not seem foolish, he skulked away unnoticed
+toward the edge of the forest.
+
+But when Viggo stepped ashore, carrying the unconscious Marcus in
+his arms, how the crowd rushed forward to gaze at him, to press
+his hands, to call down God's blessing upon him!  He had never
+imagined that he was such a hero.  It was Marcus, not he, to whom
+their ovation was due.  But poor Marcus--it was well for him that
+he had fainted from over-exertion; for otherwise he would have
+fainted from embarrassment at the honors which would have been
+showered upon him.
+
+The West-Siders, marching two abreast, with their bows slung
+across their shoulders, escorted their general home, cheering and
+shouting as they went.  When they were half-way up the hillside,
+Marcus opened his eyes, and finding himself so close to his
+beloved general, blushed crimson, scarlet, and purple, and all
+the other shades that an embarrassed blush is capable of
+assuming.
+
+"Please, General," he stammered, "don't bother about me."
+
+Viggo had thought of making a speech exalting the heroism of his
+faithful follower.  But he saw at a glance that his praise would
+be more grateful to Marcus, if he received it in private.
+
+When, however, the boys gave him a parting cheer, in front of his
+father's mansion, he forgot his resolution, leaped up on the
+steps, and lifting the blushing Marcus above his head; called
+out:
+
+"Three cheers for the bravest boy in Norway!"
+
+
+
+BICEPS GRIMLUND'S CHRISTMAS VACATION
+
+I.
+
+The great question which Albert Grimlund was debating was fraught
+with unpleasant possibilities. He could not go home for the
+Christmas vacation, for his father lived in Drontheim, which is
+so far away from Christiania that it was scarcely worth while
+making the journey for a mere two-weeks' holiday.  Then, on the
+other hand, he had an old great-aunt who lived but a few miles
+from the city.  She had, from conscientious motives, he feared,
+sent him an invitation to pass Christmas with her.  But Albert
+had a poor opinion of Aunt Elsbeth.  He thought her a very
+tedious person. She had a dozen cats, talked of nothing but
+sermons and lessons, and asked him occasionally, with pleasant
+humor, whether he got many whippings at school.  She failed to
+comprehend that a boy could not amuse himself forever by looking
+at the pictures in the old family Bible, holding yarn, and
+listening to oft-repeated stories, which he knew by heart,
+concerning the doings and sayings of his grandfather.  Aunt
+Elsbeth, after a previous experience with her nephew, had come to
+regard boys as rather a reprehensible kind of animal, who
+differed in many of their ways from girls, and altogether to the
+boys' disadvantage.
+
+Now, the prospect of being "caged" for two weeks with this
+estimable lady was, as I said, not at all pleasant to Albert.  He
+was sixteen years old, loved out-door sports, and had no taste
+for cats.  His chief pride was his muscle, and no boy ever made
+his acquaintance without being invited to feel the size and
+hardness of his biceps.  This was a standing joke in the Latin
+school, and Albert was generally known among his companions as
+"Biceps" Grimlund.  He was not very tall for his age, but
+broad-shouldered and deep-chested, with something in his glance,
+his gait, and his manners which showed that he had been born and
+bred near the sea.  He cultivated a weather-beaten complexion,
+and was particularly proud when the skin "peeled" on his nose,
+which it usually did in the summer-time, during his visits to his
+home in the extreme north.  Like most blond people, when
+sunburnt, he was red, not brown; and this became a source of
+great satisfaction when he learned that Lord Nelson had the same
+peculiarity.  Albert's favorite books were the sea romances of
+Captain Marryat, whose "Peter Simple" and "Midshipman Easy" he
+held to be the noblest products of human genius.  It was a bitter
+disappointment to him that his father forbade his going to sea
+and was educating him to be a "landlubber," which he had been
+taught by his boy associates to regard as the most contemptible
+thing on earth.
+
+Two days before Christmas, Biceps Grimlund was sitting in his
+room, looking gloomily out of the window.  He wished to postpone
+as long as possible his departure for Aunt Elsbeth's
+country-place, for he foresaw that both he and she were doomed to
+a surfeit of each other's company during the coming fortnight. 
+At last he heaved a deep sigh and languidly began to pack his
+trunk.  He had just disposed the dear Marryat books on top of his
+starched shirts, when he heard rapid footsteps on the stairs, and
+the next moment the door burst open, and his classmate, Ralph
+Hoyer, rushed breathlessly into the room.
+
+"Biceps," he cried, "look at this!  Here is a letter from my
+father, and he tells me to invite one of my classmates to come
+home with me for the vacation.  Will you come?  Oh, we shall have
+grand times, I tell you!  No end of fun!"
+
+Albert, instead of answering, jumped up and danced a jig on the
+floor, upsetting two chairs and breaking the wash-pitcher.
+
+"Hurrah!"  he cried, "I'm your man.  Shake hands on it, Ralph! 
+You have saved me from two weeks of cats and yarn and moping! 
+Give us your paw!  I never was so glad to see anybody in all my
+life."
+
+And to prove it, he seized Ralph by the shoulders, gave him a
+vigorous whirl and forced him to join in the dance.
+
+"Now, stop your nonsense," Ralph protested, laughing; "if you
+have so much strength to waste, wait till we are at home in
+Solheim, and you'll have a chance to use it profitably."
+
+Albert flung himself down on his old rep-covered sofa.  It seemed
+to have some internal disorder, for its springs rattled and a
+vague musical twang indicated that something or other had
+snapped.  It had seen much maltreatment, that poor old piece of
+furniture, and bore visible marks of it.  When, after various
+exhibitions of joy, their boisterous delight had quieted down,
+both boys began to discuss their plans for the vacation.
+
+"But I fear my groom may freeze, down there in the street," Ralph
+ejaculated, cutting short the discussion; "it is bitter cold, and
+he can't leave the horses.  Hurry up, now, old man, and I'll help
+you pack."
+
+It did not take them long to complete the packing.  Albert sent a
+telegram to his father, asking permission to accept Ralph's
+invitation; but, knowing well that the reply would be favorable,
+did not think it necessary to wait for it.  With the assistance
+of his friend he now wrapped himself in two overcoats, pulled a
+pair of thick woollen stockings over the outside of his boots and
+a pair of fur-lined top-boots outside of these, girded himself
+with three long scarfs, and pulled his brown otter-skin cap down
+over his ears.  He was nearly as broad as he was long, when he
+had completed these operations, and descended into the street
+where the big double-sleigh (made in the shape of a huge white
+swan) was awaiting them.  They now called at Ralph's lodgings,
+whence he presently emerged in a similar Esquimau costume,
+wearing a wolf-skin coat which left nothing visible except the
+tip of his nose and the steam of his breath.  Then they started
+off merrily with jingling bells, and waved a farewell toward many
+a window, wherein were friends and acquaintances.  They felt in
+so jolly a mood, that they could not help shouting their joy in
+the face of all the world, and crowing over all poor wretches who
+were left to spend the holidays in the city.
+
+
+II.
+
+Solheim was about twenty miles from the city, and it was nine
+o'clock in the evening when the boys arrived there.  The moon was
+shining brightly, and the Milky Way, with its myriad stars,
+looked like a luminous mist across the vault of the sky.  The
+aurora borealis swept down from the north with white and pink
+radiations which flushed the dark blue sky for an instant, and
+vanished. The earth was white, as far as the eye could reach
+--splendidly, dazzlingly white.  And out of the white radiance
+rose the great dark pile of masonry called Solheim, with its tall
+chimneys and dormer-windows and old-fashioned gables.  Round
+about stood the tall leafless maples and chestnut-trees,
+sparkling with frost and stretching their gaunt arms against the
+heavens.  The two horses, when they swung up before the great
+front-door, were so white with hoar-frost that they looked shaggy
+like goats, and no one could tell what was their original color.
+Their breath was blown in two vapory columns from their nostrils
+and drifted about their heads like steam about a locomotive.
+
+The sleigh-bells had announced the arrival of the guests, and a
+great shout of welcome was heard from the hall of the house,
+which seemed alive with grownup people and children.  Ralph
+jumped out of the sleigh, embraced at random half a dozen people,
+one of whom was his mother, kissed right and left, protesting
+laughingly against being smothered in affection, and finally
+managed to introduce his friend, who for the moment was feeling a
+trifle lonely.
+
+"Here, father," he cried.  "Biceps, this is my father; and,
+father, this is my Biceps----"
+
+"What stuff you are talking, boy," his father exclaimed.  "How
+can this young fellow be your biceps----"
+
+"Well, how can a man keep his senses in such confusion?"  said
+the son of the house.  "This is my friend and classmate, Albert
+Grimlund, alias Biceps Grimlund, and the strongest man in the
+whole school.  Just feel his biceps, mother, and you'll see."
+
+"No, I thank you.  I'll take your word for it," replied Mrs.
+Hoyer.  "As I intend to treat him as a friend of my son should be
+treated, I hope he will not feel inclined to give me any proof of
+his muscularity."
+
+When, with the aid of the younger children, the travellers had
+divested themselves of their various wraps and overcoats, they
+were ushered into the old-fashioned sitting-room.  In one corner
+roared an enormous, many-storied, iron stove.  It had a picture
+in relief, on one side, of Diana the Huntress, with her nymphs
+and baying hounds.  In the middle of the room stood a big table,
+and in the middle of the table a big lamp, about which the entire
+family soon gathered.  It was so cosey and homelike that Albert,
+before he had been half an hour in the room, felt gratefully the
+atmosphere of mutual affection which pervaded the house.  It
+amused him particularly to watch the little girls, of whom there
+were six, and to observe their profound admiration for their big
+brother.  Every now and then one of them, sidling up to him while
+he sat talking, would cautiously touch his ear or a curl of his
+hair; and if he deigned to take any notice of her, offering her,
+perhaps, a perfunctory kiss, her pride and pleasure were charming
+to witness.
+
+Presently the signal was given that supper was ready, and various
+savory odors, which escaped, whenever a door was opened, served
+to arouse the anticipations of the boys to the highest pitch. 
+Now, if I did not have so much else to tell you, I should stop
+here and describe that supper.  There were twenty-two people who
+sat down to it; but that was nothing unusual at Solheim, for it
+was a hospitable house, where every wayfarer was welcome, either
+to the table in the servants' hall or to the master's table in
+the dining-room.
+
+
+III.
+
+At the stroke of ten all the family arose, and each in turn
+kissed the father and mother good-night; whereupon Mr. Hoyer took
+the great lamp from the table and mounted the stairs, followed by
+his pack of noisy boys and girls.  Albert and Ralph found
+themselves, with four smaller Hoyers, in an enormous low-ceiled
+room with many windows.  In three corners stood huge canopied
+bedsteads, with flowered-chintz curtains and mountainous
+eiderdown coverings which swelled up toward the ceiling. In the
+middle of the wall, opposite the windows, a big iron stove, like
+the one in the sitting-room (only that it was adorned with a
+bunch of flowers, peaches, and grapes, and not with Diana and her
+nymphs), was roaring merrily, and sending a long red sheen from
+its draught-hole across the floor.
+
+Around the big warm stove the boys gathered (for it was
+positively Siberian in the region of the windows), and while
+undressing played various pranks upon each other, which created
+much merriment. But the most laughter was provoked at the expense
+of Finn Hoyer, a boy of fourteen, whose bare back his brother
+insisted upon exhibiting to his guest; for it was decorated with
+a facsimile of the picture on the stove, showing roses and
+luscious peaches and grapes in red relief.  Three years before,
+on Christmas Eve, the boys had stood about the red-hot stove,
+undressing for their bath, and Finn, who was naked, had, in the
+general scrimmage to get first into the bath-tub, been pushed
+against the glowing iron, the ornamentation of which had been
+beautifully burned upon his back. He had to be wrapped in oil and
+cotton after that adventure, and he recovered in due time, but
+never quite relished the distinction he had acquired by his
+pictorial skin.
+
+It was long before Albert fell asleep; for the cold kept up a
+continual fusillade, as of musketry, during the entire night. 
+The woodwork of the walls snapped and cracked with loud reports;
+and a little after midnight a servant came in and stuffed the
+stove full of birch-wood, until it roared like an angry lion. 
+This roar finally lulled Albert to sleep, in spite of the
+startling noises about him.
+
+The next morning the boys were aroused at seven o'clock by a
+servant, who brought a tray with the most fragrant coffee and hot
+rolls.  It was in honor of the guest that, in accordance with
+Norse custom, this early meal was served; and all the boys,
+carrying pillows and blankets, gathered on Albert's and Ralph's
+bed and feasted right royally. So it seemed to them, at least;
+for any break in the ordinary routine, be it ever so slight, is
+an event to the young.  Then they had a pillow-fight, thawed at
+the stove the water in the pitchers (for it was frozen hard), and
+arrayed themselves to descend and meet the family at the nine
+o'clock breakfast. When this repast was at an end, the question
+arose how they were to entertain their guest, and various plans
+were proposed.  But to all Ralph's propositions his mother
+interposed the objection that it was too cold.
+
+"Mother is right," said Mr. Hoyer; "it is so cold that 'the chips
+jump on the hill-side.' You'll have to be content with indoor
+sports to-day."
+
+"But, father, it is not more than twenty degrees below zero," the
+boy demurred.  "I am sure we can stand that, if we keep in
+motion.  I have been out at thirty without losing either ears or
+nose."
+
+He went to the window to observe the thermometer; but the dim
+daylight scarcely penetrated the fantastic frost-crystals, which,
+like a splendid exotic flora, covered the panes.  Only at the
+upper corner, where the ice had commenced to thaw, a few timid
+sunbeams were peeping in, making the lamp upon the table seem
+pale and sickly.  Whenever the door to the hall was opened a
+white cloud of vapor rolled in; and every one made haste to shut
+the door, in order to save the precious heat.  The boys, being
+doomed to remain indoors, walked about restlessly, felt each
+other's muscle, punched each other, and sometimes, for want of
+better employment, teased the little girls.  Mr. Hoyer, seeing
+how miserable they were, finally took pity on them, and, after
+having thawed out a window-pane sufficiently to see the
+thermometer outside, gave his consent to a little expedition on
+skees[2] down to the river.
+
+[2] Norwegian snow-shoes.
+
+
+And now, boys, you ought to have seen them! Now there was life in
+them!  You would scarcely have dreamed that they were the same
+creatures who, a moment ago, looked so listless and miserable.
+What rollicking laughter and fun, while they bundled one another
+in scarfs, cardigan-jackets, fur-lined top-boots, and overcoats!
+
+"You had better take your guns along, boys," said the father, as
+they stormed out through the front door; "you might strike a
+couple of ptarmigan, or a mountain-cock, over on the west side."
+
+"I am going to take your rifle, if you'll let me," Ralph
+exclaimed.  "I have a fancy we might strike bigger game than
+mountain-cock.  I shouldn't object to a wolf or two."
+
+"You are welcome to the rifle," said his father; "but I doubt
+whether you'll find wolves on the ice so early in the day."
+
+Mr. Hoyer took the rifle from its case, examined it carefully,
+and handed it to Ralph.  Albert, who was a less experienced
+hunter than Ralph, preferred a fowling-piece to the rifle;
+especially as he had no expectation of shooting anything but
+ptarmigan. Powder-horns, cartridges, and shot were provided; and
+quite proudly the two friends started off on their skees, gliding
+over the hard crust of the snow, which, as the sun rose higher,
+was oversown with thousands of glittering gems.  The boys looked
+like Esquimaux, with their heads bundled up in scarfs, and
+nothing visible except their eyes and a few hoary locks of hair
+which the frost had silvered.
+
+
+IV.
+
+"What was that?"  cried Albert, startled by a sharp report which
+reverberated from the mountains. They had penetrated the forest
+on the west side, and ranged over the ice for an hour, in a vain
+search for wolves.
+
+"Hush," said Ralph, excitedly; and after a moment of intent
+listening he added, "I'll be drawn and quartered if it isn't
+poachers!"
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"These woods belong to father, and no one else has any right to
+hunt in them.  He doesn't mind if a poor man kills a hare or two,
+or a brace of ptarmigan; but these chaps are after elk; and if
+the old gentleman gets on the scent of elk-hunters, he has no
+more mercy than Beelzebub."
+
+"How can you know that they are after elk?"
+
+"No man is likely to go to the woods for small game on a day like
+this.  They think the cold protects them from pursuit and
+capture."
+
+"What are you going to do about it?"
+
+"I am going to play a trick on them.  You know that the sheriff,
+whose duty it is to be on the lookout for elk-poachers, would
+scarcely send out a posse when the cold is so intense.  Elk, you
+know, are becoming very scarce, and the law protects them.  No
+man is allowed to shoot more than one elf a year, and that one on
+his own property.  Now, you and I will play deputy-sheriffs, and
+have those poachers securely in the lock-up before night."
+
+"But suppose they fight?"
+
+"Then we'll fight back."
+
+Ralph was so aglow with joyous excitement at the thought of this
+adventure, that Albert had not the heart to throw cold water on
+his enthusiasm.  Moreover, he was afraid of being thought
+cowardly by his friend if he offered objections.  The
+recollection of Midshipman Easy and his daring pranks flashed
+through his brain, and he felt an instant desire to rival the
+exploits of his favorite hero. If only the enterprise had been on
+the sea he would have been twice as happy, for the land always
+seemed to him a prosy and inconvenient place for the exhibition
+of heroism.
+
+"But, Ralph," he exclaimed, now more than ready to bear his part
+in the expedition, "I have only shot in my gun.  You can't shoot
+men with bird-shot."
+
+"Shoot men!  Are you crazy? Why, I don't intend to shoot anybody.
+
+I only wish to capture them.  My rifle is a breech-loader and has
+six cartridges. Besides, it has twice the range of theirs (for
+there isn't another such rifle in all Odalen), and by firing one
+shot over their heads I can bring them to terms, don't you see?"
+
+Albert, to be frank, did not see it exactly; but he thought it
+best to suppress his doubts.  He scented danger in the air, and
+his blood bounded through his veins.
+
+"How do you expect to track them?"  he asked, breathlessly.
+
+"Skee-tracks in the snow can be seen by a bat, born blind,"
+answered Ralph, recklessly.
+
+They were now climbing up the wooded slope on the western side of
+the river.  The crust of the frozen snow was strong enough to
+bear them; and as it was not glazed, but covered with an inch of
+hoar-frost, it retained the imprint of their feet with
+distinctness.  They were obliged to carry their skees, on account
+both of the steepness of the slope and the density of the
+underbrush.  Roads and paths were invisible under the white pall
+of the snow, and only the facility with which they could retrace
+their steps saved them from the fear of going astray.  Through
+the vast forest a deathlike silence reigned; and this silence was
+not made up of an infinity of tiny sounds, like the silence of a
+summer day when the crickets whirr in the treetops and the bees
+drone in the clover-blossoms.  No; this silence was dead,
+chilling, terrible.  The huge pine-trees now and then dropped a
+load of snow on the heads of the bold intruders, and it fell with
+a thud, followed by a noiseless, glittering drizzle.  As far as
+their eyes could reach, the monotonous colonnade of brown
+tree-trunks, rising out of the white waste, extended in all
+directions.  It reminded them of the enchanted forest in
+"Undine," through which a man might ride forever without finding
+the end.  It was a great relief when, from time to time, they met
+a squirrel out foraging for pine-cones or picking up a scanty
+living among the husks of last year's hazel-nuts.  He was lively
+in spite of the weather, and the faint noises of his small
+activities fell gratefully upon ears already ap-palled by the
+awful silence.  Occasionally they scared up a brace of grouse
+that seemed half benumbed, and hopped about in a melancholy
+manner under the pines, or a magpie, drawing in its head and
+ruffling up its feathers against the cold, until it looked frowsy
+and disreputable.
+
+"Biceps," whispered Ralph, who had suddenly discovered something
+interesting in the snow, "do you see that?"
+
+"Je-rusalem!"  ejaculated Albert, with thoughtless delight, "it
+is a hoof-track!"
+
+"Hold your tongue, you blockhead," warned his friend, too excited
+to be polite, "or you'll spoil the whole business!"
+
+"But you asked me," protested Albert, in a huff.
+
+"But I didn't shout, did I?"
+
+Again the report of a shot tore a great rent in the wintry
+stillness and rang out with sharp reverberations.
+
+"We've got them," said Ralph, examining the lock of his rifle. 
+"That shot settles them."
+
+"If we don't look out, they may get us instead," grumbled Albert,
+who was still offended.
+
+Ralph stood peering into the underbrush, his eyes as wild as
+those of an Indian, his nostrils dilated, and all his senses
+intensely awake.  His companion, who was wholly unskilled in
+woodcraft, could see no cause for his agitation, and feared that
+he was yet angry.  He did not detect the evidences of large game
+in the immediate neighborhood.  He did not see, by the bend of
+the broken twigs and the small tufts of hair on the briar-bush,
+that an elk had pushed through that very copse within a few
+minutes; nor did he sniff the gamy odor with which the large
+beast had charged the air.  In obedience to his friend's gesture,
+he flung himself down on hands and knees and cautiously crept
+after him through the thicket.  He now saw without difficulty a
+place where the elk had broken through the snow crust, and he
+could also detect a certain aimless bewilderment in the tracks,
+owing, no doubt, to the shot and the animal's perception of
+danger on two sides.  Scarcely had he crawled twenty feet when he
+was startled by a noise of breaking branches, and before he had
+time to cock his gun, he saw an enormous bull-elk tearing through
+the underbrush, blowing two columns of steam from his nostrils,
+and steering straight toward them.  At the same instant Ralph's
+rifle blazed away, and the splendid beast, rearing on its hind
+legs, gave a wild snort, plunged forward and rolled on its side
+in the snow.  Quick as a flash the young hunter had drawn his
+knife, and, in accordance with the laws of the chase, had driven
+it into the breast of the animal.  But the glance from the dying
+eyes--that glance, of which every elk-hunter can tell a moving
+tale--pierced the boy to the very heart!  It was such a touching,
+appealing, imploring glance, so soft and gentle and unresentful.
+
+"Why did you harm me," it seemed to say, "who never harmed any
+living thing--who claimed only the right to live my frugal life
+in the forest, digging up the frozen mosses under the snow, which
+no mortal creature except myself can eat?"
+
+The sanguinary instinct--the fever for killing, which every boy
+inherits from savage ancestors--had left Ralph, before he had
+pulled the knife from the bleeding wound.  A miserable feeling of
+guilt stole over him.  He never had shot an elk before; and his
+father, who was anxious to preserve the noble beasts from
+destruction, had not availed himself of his right to kill one for
+many years.  Ralph had, indeed, many a time hunted rabbits,
+hares, mountain-cock, and capercaillie.  But they had never
+destroyed his pleasure by arousing pity for their deaths; and he
+had always regarded himself as being proof against sentimental
+emotions.
+
+"Look here, Biceps," he said, flinging the knife into the snow,
+"I wish I hadn't killed that bull."
+
+"I thought we were hunting for poachers," answered Albert,
+dubiously; "and now we have been poaching ourselves."
+
+"By Jiminy!  So we have; and I never once thought of it," cried
+the valiant hunter.  "I am afraid we are off my father's
+preserves too.  It is well the deputy sheriffs are not abroad, or
+we might find ourselves decorated with iron bracelets before
+night."
+
+"But what did you do it for?"
+
+"Well, I can't tell.  It's in the blood, I fancy.  The moment I
+saw the track and caught the wild smell, I forgot all about the
+poachers, and started on the scent like a hound."
+
+The two boys stood for some minutes looking at the dead animal,
+not with savage exultation, but with a dim regret.  The blood
+which was gushing from the wound in the breast froze in a solid
+lump the very moment it touched the snow, although the cold had
+greatly moderated since the morning.
+
+"I suppose we'll have to skin the fellow," remarked Ralph,
+lugubriously; "it won't do to leave that fine carcass for the
+wolves to celebrate Christmas with."
+
+"All right," Albert answered, "I am not much of a hand at
+skinning, but I'll do the best I can."
+
+They fell to work rather reluctantly at the unwonted task, but
+had not proceeded far when they perceived that they had a full
+day's job before them.
+
+"I've no talent for the butcher's trade," Ralph exclaimed in
+disgust, dropping his knife into the snow.  "There's no help for
+it, Biceps, we'll have to bury the carcass, pile some logs on the
+top of it, and send a horse to drag it home to-morrow.  If it
+were not Christmas Eve to-night we might take a couple of men
+along and shoot a dozen wolves or more.  For there is sure to be
+pandemonium here before long, and a concert in G-flat that'll
+curdle the marrow of your bones with horror."
+
+"Thanks," replied the admirer of Midshipman Easy, striking a
+reckless naval attitude.  "The marrow of my bones is not so
+easily curdled.  I've been on a whaling voyage, which is more
+than you have."
+
+Ralph was about to vindicate his dignity by referring to his own
+valiant exploits, when suddenly his keen eyes detected a slight
+motion in the underbrush on the slope below.
+
+"Biceps," he said, with forced composure, "those poachers are
+tracking us."
+
+"What do you mean?"  asked Albert, in vague alarm.
+
+"Do you see the top of that young birch waving?"
+
+"Well, what of that!"
+
+"Wait and see.  It's no good trying to escape.  They can easily
+overtake us.  The snow is the worst tell-tale under the sun."
+
+"But why should we wish to escape?  I thought we were going to
+catch them."
+
+"So we were; but that was before we turned poachers ourselves. 
+Now those fellows will turn the tables on us--take us to the
+sheriff and collect half the fine, which is fifty dollars, as
+informers."
+
+"Je-rusalem!"  cried Biceps, "isn't it a beautiful scrape we've
+gotten into?"
+
+"Rather," responded his friend, coolly.
+
+"But why meekly allow ourselves to be captured?  Why not defend
+ourselves?"
+
+"My dear Biceps, you don't know what you are talking about. 
+Those fellows don't mind putting a bullet into you, if you run. 
+Now, I'd rather pay fifty dollars any day, than shoot a man even
+in self-defence."
+
+"But they have killed elk too.  We heard them shoot twice. 
+Suppose we play the same game on them that they intend to play on
+us.  We can play informers too, then we'll at least be quits."
+
+"Biceps, you are a brick!  That's a capital idea!  Then let us
+start for the sheriff's; and if we get there first, we'll inform
+both on ourselves and on them.  That'll cancel the fine.  Quick,
+now!"
+
+No persuasions were needed to make Albert bestir himself.  He
+leaped toward his skees, and following his friend, who was a few
+rods ahead of him, started down the slope in a zigzag line,
+cautiously steering his way among the tree trunks.  The boys had
+taken their departure none too soon; for they were scarcely five
+hundred yards down the declivity, when they heard behind them
+loud exclamations and oaths.  Evidently the poachers had stopped
+to roll some logs (which were lying close by) over the carcass,
+probably meaning to appropriate it; and this gave the boys an
+advantage, of which they were in great need.  After a few moments
+they espied an open clearing which sloped steeply down toward the
+river.  Toward this Ralph had been directing his course; for
+although it was a venturesome undertaking to slide down so steep
+and rugged a hill, he was determined rather to break his neck
+than lower his pride, and become the laughing-stock of the
+parish.
+
+One more tack through alder copse and juniper jungle--hard
+indeed, and terribly vexatious--and he saw with delight the great
+open slope, covered with an unbroken surface of glittering snow. 
+The sun (which at midwinter is but a few hours above the horizon)
+had set; and the stars were flashing forth with dazzling
+brilliancy.  Ralph stopped, as he reached the clearing, to give
+Biceps an opportunity to overtake him; for Biceps, like all
+marine animals, moved with less dexterity on the dry land.
+
+"Ralph," he whispered breathlessly, as he pushed himself up to
+his companion with a vigorous thrust of his skee-staff, "there
+are two awful chaps close behind us.  I distinctly heard them
+speak."
+
+"Fiddlesticks," said Ralph; "now let us see what you are made of!
+
+Don't take my track, or you may impale me like a roast pig on a
+spit. Now, ready!--one, two, three!"
+
+"Hold on there, or I shoot," yelled a hoarse voice from out of
+the underbrush; but it was too late; for at the same instant the
+two boys slid out over the steep slope, and, wrapped in a whirl
+of loose snow, were scudding at a dizzying speed down the
+precipitous hill-side.  Thump, thump, thump, they went, where
+hidden wood-piles or fences obstructed their path, and out they
+shot into space, but each time came down firmly on their feet,
+and dashed ahead with undiminished ardor.  Their calves ached,
+the cold air whistled in their ears, and their eyelids became
+stiff and their sight half obscured with the hoar-frost that
+fringed their lashes.  But onward they sped, keeping their
+balance with wonderful skill, until they reached the gentler
+slope which formed the banks of the great river.  Then for the
+first time Ralph had an opportunity to look behind him, and he
+saw two moving whirls of snow darting downward, not far from his
+own track.  His heart beat in his throat; for those fellows had
+both endurance and skill, and he feared that he was no match for
+them.  But suddenly--he could have yelled with delight--the
+foremost figure leaped into the air, turned a tremendous
+somersault, and, coming down on his head, broke through the crust
+of the snow and vanished, while his skees started on an
+independent journey down the hill-side.  He had struck an exposed
+fence-rail, which, abruptly checking his speed, had sent him
+flying like a rocket.
+
+The other poacher had barely time to change his course, so as to
+avoid the snag; but he was unable to stop and render assistance
+to his fallen comrade.  The boys, just as they were shooting out
+upon the ice, saw by his motions that he was hesitating whether
+or not he should give up the chase.  He used his staff as a brake
+for a few moments, so as to retard his speed; but discovering,
+perhaps, by the brightening starlight, that his adversaries were
+not full-grown men, he took courage, started forward again, and
+tried to make up for the time he had lost.  If he could but reach
+the sheriff's house before the boys did, he could have them
+arrested and collect the informer's fee, instead of being himself
+arrested and fined as a poacher.  It was a prize worth racing
+for!  And, moreover, there were two elks, worth twenty-five
+dollars apiece, buried in the snow under logs. These also would
+belong to the victor!  The poacher dashed ahead, straining every
+nerve, and reached safely the foot of the steep declivity.  The
+boys were now but a few hundred yards ahead of him.
+
+"Hold on there," he yelled again, "or I shoot!"
+
+He was not within range, but he thought he could frighten the
+youngsters into abandoning the race.  The sheriff's house was but
+a short distance up the river.  Its tall, black chimneys could he
+seen looming up against the starlit sky.  There was no slope now
+to accelerate their speed.  They had to peg away for dear life,
+pushing themselves forward with their skee-staves, laboring like
+plough-horses, panting, snorting, perspiring.  Ralph turned his
+head once more.  The poacher was gaining upon them; there could
+be no doubt of it.  He was within the range of Ralph's rifle; and
+a sturdy fellow he was, who seemed good for a couple of miles
+yet.  Should Ralph send a bullet over his head to frighten him?
+No; that might give the poacher an excuse for sending back a
+bullet with a less innocent purpose.  Poor Biceps, he was panting
+and puffing in his heavy wraps like a steamboat!  He did not once
+open his mouth to speak; but, exerting his vaunted muscle to the
+utmost, kept abreast of his friend, and sometimes pushed a pace
+or two ahead of him.  But it cost him a mighty effort!  And yet
+the poacher was gaining upon him!  They could see the long
+broadside of windows in the sheriff's mansion, ablaze with
+Christmas candles. They came nearer and nearer!  The church-bells
+up on the bend were ringing in the festival.  Five minutes more
+and they would be at their goal.  Five minutes more!  Surely they
+had strength enough left for that small space of time.  So had
+the poacher, probably!  The question was, which had the most. 
+Then, with a short, sharp resonance, followed by a long
+reverberation, a shot rang out and a bullet whizzed past Ralph's
+ear.  It was the poacher who had broken the peace.  Ralph, his
+blood boiling with wrath, came to a sudden stop, flung his rifle
+to his cheek and cried, "Drop that gun!"
+
+The poacher, bearing down with all his might on the skee-staff,
+checked his speed.  In the meanwhile Albert hurried on, seeing
+that the issue of the race depended upon him.
+
+"Don't force me to hurt ye!"  shouted the poacher, threateningly,
+to Ralph, taking aim once more.
+
+"You can't," Ralph shouted back.  "You haven't another shot."
+
+At that instant sounds of sleigh-bells and voices were heard, and
+half a dozen people, startled by the shot, were seen rushing out
+from the sheriff's mansion.  Among them was Mr. Bjornerud
+himself, with one of his deputies.
+
+"In the name of the law, I command you to cease," he cried, when
+he saw down the two figures in menacing attitudes.  But before he
+could say another word, some one fell prostrate in the road
+before him, gasping:
+
+"We have shot an elk; so has that man down on the ice.  We give
+ourselves up."
+
+Mr. Bjornerud, making no answer, leaped over the prostrate
+figure, and, followed by the deputy, dashed down upon the ice.
+
+"In the name of the law!"  he shouted again, and both rifles were
+reluctantly lowered.
+
+"I have shot an elk," cried Ralph, eagerly, "and this man is a
+poacher, we heard him shoot."
+
+"I have killed an elk," screamed the poacher, in the same moment,
+"and so has this fellow."
+
+The sheriff was too astonished to speak.  Never before, in his
+experience, had poachers raced for dear life to give themselves
+into custody.  He feared that they were making sport of him; in
+that case, however, he resolved to make them suffer for their
+audacity.
+
+"You are my prisoners," he said, after a moment's hesitation. 
+"Take them to the lock-up, Olsen, and handcuff them securely," he
+added, turning to his deputy.
+
+There were now a dozen men--most of them guests and attendants of
+the sheriff's household--standing in a ring about Ralph and the
+poacher.  Albert, too, had scrambled to his feet and had joined
+his comrade.
+
+"Will you permit me, Mr. Sheriff," said Ralph, making the officer
+his politest bow, "to send a message to my father, who is
+probably anxious about us?"
+
+"And who is your father, young man?"  asked the sheriff, not
+unkindly; "I should think you were doing him an ill-turn in
+taking to poaching at your early age."
+
+"My father is Mr. Hoyer, of Solheim," said the boy, not without
+some pride in the announcement.
+
+"What--you rascal, you!  Are you trying to, play pranks on an old
+man?"  cried the officer of the law, grasping Ralph cordially by
+the hand. "You've grown to be quite a man, since I saw you last. 
+Pardon me for not recognizing the son of an old neighbor."
+
+"Allow me to introduce to you my friend, Mr. Biceps--I mean, Mr.
+Albert Grimlund."
+
+"Happy to make your acquaintance, Mr. Biceps Albert; and now you
+must both come and eat the Christmas porridge with us.  I'll send
+a messenger to Mr. Hoyer without delay."
+
+The sheriff, in a jolly mood, and happy to have added to the
+number of his Christmas guests, took each of the two young men by
+the arm, as if he were going to arrest them, and conducted them
+through the spacious front hall into a large cosey room, where,
+having divested themselves of their wraps, they told the story of
+their adventure.
+
+"But, my dear sir," Mr. Bjornerud exclaimed, "I don't see how you
+managed to go beyond your father's preserves.  You know he bought
+of me the whole forest tract, adjoining his own on the south,
+about three months ago.  So you were perfectly within your
+rights; for your father hasn't killed an elk on his land for
+three years."
+
+"If that is the case, Mr. Sheriff," said Ralph, "I must beg of
+you to release the poor fellow who chased us.  I don't wish any
+informer's fee, nor have I any desire to get him into trouble."
+
+"I am sorry to say I can't accommodate you," Bjornerud replied. 
+"This man is a notorious poacher and trespasser, whom my deputies
+have long been tracking in vain.  Now that I have him I shall
+keep him.  There's no elk safe in Odalen so long as that rascal
+is at large."
+
+"That may be; but I shall then turn my informer's fee over to
+him, which will reduce his fine from fifty dollars to twenty-five
+dollars."
+
+"To encourage him to continue poaching?"
+
+"Well, I confess I have a little more sympathy with poachers,
+since we came so near being poachers ourselves.  It was only an
+accident that saved us!"
+
+
+
+THE NIXY'S STRAIN
+
+Little Nils had an idea that he wanted to be something great in
+the world, but he did not quite know how to set about it.  He had
+always been told that, having been born on a Sunday, he was a
+luck-child, and that good fortune would attend him on that
+account in whatever he undertook.
+
+He had never, so far, noticed anything peculiar about himself,
+though, to be sure, his small enterprises did not usually come to
+grief, his snares were seldom empty, and his tiny stamping-mill,
+which he and his friend Thorstein had worked at so faithfully,
+was now making a merry noise over in the brook in the Westmo
+Glen, so that you could hear it a hundred yards away.
+
+The reason of this, his mother told him, according to the
+superstition of her people, was that the Nixy and the Hulder[3]
+and the gnomes favored him because he was a Sunday child.  What
+was more, she assured him, that he would see them some day, and
+then, if he conducted himself cleverly, so as to win their favor,
+he would, by their aid, rise high in the world, and make his
+fortune.
+
+[3] The genius of cattle, represented as a beautiful maiden
+disfigured by a heifer's tail, which she is always trying to
+hide, though often unsuccessfully.
+
+
+Now this was exactly what Nils wanted, and therefore he was not a
+little anxious to catch a glimpse of the mysterious creatures who
+had so whimsical a reason for taking an interest in him. Many and
+many a time he sat at the waterfall where the Nixy was said to
+play the harp every midsummer night, but although he sometimes
+imagined that he heard a vague melody trembling through the rush
+and roar of the water, and saw glimpses of white limbs flashing
+through the current, yet never did he get a good look at the
+Nixy.
+
+Though he roamed through the woods early and late, setting snares
+for birds and rabbits, and was ever on the alert for a sight of
+the Hulder's golden hair and scarlet bodice, the tricksy sprite
+persisted in eluding him.
+
+He thought sometimes that he heard a faint, girlish giggle, full
+of teasing provocation and suppressed glee, among the underbrush,
+and once he imagined that he saw a gleam of scarlet and gold
+vanish in a dense alder copse.
+
+But very little good did that do him, when he could not fix the
+vision, talk with it face to face, and extort the fulfilment of
+the three regulation wishes.
+
+"I am probably not good enough," thought Nils.  "I know I am a
+selfish fellow, and cruel, too, some-times, to birds and beasts. 
+I suppose she won't have anything to do with me, as long as she
+isn't satisfied with my behavior."
+
+Then he tried hard to be kind and considerate; smiled at his
+little sister when she pulled his hair, patted Sultan, the dog,
+instead of kicking him, when he was in his way, and never
+complained or sulked when he was sent on errands late at night or
+in bad weather.
+
+But, strange to say, though the Nixy's mysterious melody still
+sounded vaguely through the water's roar, and the Hulder seemed
+to titter behind the tree-trunks and vanish in the underbrush, a
+real, unmistakable view was never vouchsafed to Nils, and the
+three wishes which were to make his fortune he had no chance of
+propounding.
+
+He had fully made up his mind what his wishes were to be, for he
+was determined not to be taken by surprise.  He knew well the
+fate of those foolish persons in the fairy tales who offend their
+benevolent protectors by bouncing against them head foremost, as
+it were, with a greedy cry for wealth.
+
+Nils was not going to be caught that way.  He would ask first for
+wisdom--that was what all right-minded heroes did--then for good
+repute among men, and lastly--and here was the rub--lastly he was
+inclined to ask for a five-bladed knife, like the one the
+parson's Thorwald had got for a Christmas present.
+
+But he had considerable misgiving about the expediency of this
+last wish.  If he had a fair renown and wisdom, might he not be
+able to get along without a five-bladed pocket-knife?  But no;
+there was no help for it.  Without that five-bladed pocket-knife
+neither wisdom nor fame would satisfy him.  It would be the drop
+of gall in his cup of joy.
+
+After many days' pondering, it occurred to him, as a way out of
+the difficulty, that it would, perhaps, not offend the Hulder if
+he asked, not for wealth, but for a moderate prosperity.  If he
+were blessed with a moderate prosperity, he could, of course, buy
+a five-bladed pocket-knife with corkscrew and all other
+appurtenances, and still have something left over.
+
+He had a dreadful struggle with this question, for he was well
+aware that the proper things to wish were long life and happiness
+for his father and mother, or something in that line.  But,
+though he wished his father and mother well, he could not make up
+his mind to forego his own precious chances on their account. 
+Moreover, he consoled himself with the reflection that if he
+attained the goal of his own desires he could easily bestow upon
+them, of his bounty, a reasonable prospect of long life and
+happiness.
+
+You see Nils was by no means so good yet as he ought to be.  He
+was clever enough to perceive that he had small chance of seeing
+the Hulder, as long as his heart was full of selfishness and envy
+and greed.
+
+For, strive as he might, he could not help feeling envious of the
+parson's Thorwald, with his elaborate combination pocket-knife
+and his silver watch-chain, which he unfeelingly flaunted in the
+face of an admiring community.  It was small consolation for Nils
+to know that there was no watch but only a key attached to it;
+for a silver watch-chain, even without a watch, was a
+sufficiently splendid possession to justify a boy in fording it
+over his less fortunate comrades.
+
+Nils's father, who was a poor charcoal-burner, could never afford
+to make his son such a present, even if he worked until he was as
+black as a chimney-sweep.  For what little money he earned was
+needed at once for food and clothes for the family; and there
+were times when they were obliged to mix ground birch-bark with
+their flour in order to make it last longer.
+
+It was easy enough for a rich man's son to be good, Nils thought.
+
+It was small credit to him if he was not envious, having never
+known want and never gone to bed on birch-bark porridge.  But for
+a poor boy not to covet all the nice things which would make life
+so pleasant, if he had them, seemed next to impossible.
+
+Still Nils kept on making good resolutions and breaking them, and
+then piecing them together again and breaking them anew.
+
+If it had not been for his desire to see the Hulder and the Nixy,
+and making them promise the fulfilment of the three wishes, he
+would have given up the struggle, and resigned himself to being a
+bad boy because he was born so.  But those teasing glimpses of
+the Hulder's scarlet bodice and golden hair, and the vague
+snatches of wondrous melody that rose from the cataract in the
+silent summer nights, filled his soul with an intense desire to
+see the whole Hulder, with her radiant smile and melancholy eyes,
+and to hear the whole melody plainly enough to be written down on
+paper and learned by heart.
+
+It was with this longing to repeat the few haunting notes that
+hummed in his brain that Nils went to the schoolmaster one day
+and asked him for the loan of his fiddle.  But the schoolmaster,
+hearing that Nils could not play, thought his request a foolish
+one and refused.
+
+Nevertheless, that visit became an important event, and a
+turning-point in the boy's life.  For he was moved to confide in
+the schoolmaster, who was a kindly old man, and fond of clever
+boys; and he became interested in Nils.  Though he regarded
+Nils's desire to record the Nixy's strains as absurd, he offered
+to teach him to play.  There was good stuff in the lad, he
+thought, and when he had out-grown his fantastic nonsense, he
+might, very likely, make a good fiddler.
+
+Thus it came to pass that the charcoal-burner's son learned to
+play the violin.  He had not had half a dozen lessons before he
+set about imitating the Nixy's notes which he had heard in the
+waterfall.
+
+"It was this way," he said to the schoolmaster, pressing his ear
+against the violin, while he ran the bow lightly over the
+strings; "or rather it was this way," making another ineffectual
+effort.  "No, no, that wasn't it, either.  It's no use,
+schoolmaster:  I shall never be able to do it!"  he cried,
+flinging the violin on the table and rushing out of the door.
+
+When he returned the next day he was heartily ashamed of his
+impatience.  To try to catch the Nixy's notes after half a dozen
+lessons was, of course, an absurdity.
+
+The master told him simply to banish such folly from his brain,
+to apply himself diligently to his scales, and not to bother
+himself about the Nixy.
+
+That seemed to be sound advice and Nils accepted it with
+contrition.  He determined never to repeat his silly experiment. 
+But when the next midsummer night came, a wild yearning possessed
+him, and he stole out noiselessly into the forest, and sat down
+on a stone by the river, listening intently.
+
+For a long while he heard nothing but the monotonous boom of the
+water plunging into the deep.  But, strangely enough, there was a
+vague, hushed rhythm in this thundering roar; and after a while
+he seemed to hear a faint strain, ravishingly sweet, which
+vibrated on the air for an instant and vanished.
+
+It seemed to steal upon his ear unawares, and the moment he
+listened, with a determination to catch it, it was gone.  But
+sweet it was--inexpressibly sweet.
+
+Let the master talk as much as he liked, catch it he would and
+catch it he must.  But he must acquire greater skill before he
+would be able to render something so delicate and elusive.
+
+Accordingly Nils applied himself with all his might and main to
+his music, in the intervals between his work.
+
+He was big enough now to accompany his father to the woods, and
+help him pile turf and earth on the heap of logs that were to be
+burned to charcoal.  He did not see the Hulder face to face,
+though he was constantly on the watch for her; but once or twice
+he thought he saw a swift flash of scarlet and gold in the
+underbrush, and again and again he thought he heard her soft,
+teasing laughter in the alder copses.  That, too, he imagined he
+might express in music; and the next time he got hold of the
+schoolmaster's fiddle he quavered away on the fourth string, but
+produced nothing that had the remotest resemblance to melody,
+much less to that sweet laughter.
+
+He grew so discouraged that he could have wept.  He had a wild
+impulse to break the fiddle, and never touch another as long as
+he lived.  But he knew he could not live up to any such
+resolution. The fiddle was already too dear to him to be
+renounced for a momentary whim.  But it was like an unrequited
+affection, which brought as much sorrow as joy.
+
+There was so much that Nils burned to express; but the fiddle
+refused to obey him, and screeched something utterly discordant,
+as it seemed, from sheer perversity.
+
+It occurred to Nils again, that unless the Nixy took pity on him
+and taught him that marvellous, airy strain he would never catch
+it.  Would he then ever be good enough to win the favor of the
+Nixy?
+
+For in the fairy tales it is always the bad people who come to
+grief, while the good and merciful ones are somehow rewarded.
+
+It was evidently because he was yet far from being good enough
+that both Hulder and Nixy eluded him.  Sunday child though he
+was, there seemed to be small chance that he would ever be able
+to propound his three wishes.
+
+Only now, the third wish was no longer a five-bladed
+pocket-knife, but a violin of so fine a ring and delicate
+modulation that it might render the Nixy's strain.
+
+While these desires and fancies fought in his heart, Nils grew to
+be a young man; and he still was, what he had always been--a
+charcoal-burner. He went to the parson for half a year to prepare
+for confirmation; and by his gentleness and sweetness of
+disposition attracted not only the good man himself, but all with
+whom he came in contact.  His answers were always thoughtful, and
+betrayed a good mind.
+
+He was not a prig, by any means, who held aloof from sport and
+play; he could laugh with the merriest, run a race with the
+swiftest, and try a wrestling match with the strongest.
+
+There was no one among the candidates for confirmation, that
+year, who was so well liked as Nils.  Gentle as he was and
+soft-spoken, there was a manly spirit in him, and that always
+commands respect among boys.
+
+He received much praise from the pastor, and no one envied him
+the kind words that were addressed to him; for every one felt
+that they were deserved.  But the thought in Nils's mind during
+all the ceremony in the church and in the parsonage was this:
+
+"Now, perhaps, I shall be good enough to win the Nixy's favor. 
+Now I shall catch the wondrous strain."
+
+It did not occur to him, in his eagerness, that such a reflection
+was out of place in church; nor was it, perhaps, for the Nixy's
+strain was constantly associated in his mind with all that was
+best in him; with his highest aspirations, and his constant
+strivings for goodness and nobleness in thought and deed.
+
+It happened about this time that the old schoolmaster died, and
+in his will it was found that he had bequeathed his fiddle to
+Nils.  He had very little else to leave, poor fellow; but if he
+had been a Croesus he could not have given his favorite pupil
+anything that would have delighted him more.
+
+Nils played now early and late, except when he was in the woods
+with his father.  His fame went abroad through all the valley as
+the best fiddler in seven parishes round, and people often came
+from afar to hear him.  There was a peculiar quality in his
+playing--something strangely appealing, that brought the tears to
+one's eyes--yet so elusive that it was impossible to repeat or
+describe it.
+
+It was rumored among the villagers that he had caught the Nixy's
+strain, and that it was that which touched the heart so deeply in
+his improvisations.  But Nils knew well that he had not caught
+the Nixy's strain; though a faint echo--a haunting undertone--of
+that vaguely remembered snatch of melody, heard now and then in
+the water's roar, would steal at times into his music, when he
+was, perhaps, himself least aware of it.
+
+Invitations now came to him from far and wide to play at wedding
+and dancing parties and funerals.  There was no feast complete
+without Nils; and soon this strange thing was noticed, that
+quarrels and brawls, which in those days were common enough in
+Norway, were rare wherever Nils played.
+
+It seemed as if his calm and gentle presence called forth all
+that was good in the feasters and banished whatever was evil. 
+Such was his popularity that he earned more money by his fiddling
+in a week than his father had ever done by charcoal-burning in a
+month.
+
+A half-superstitious regard for him became general among the
+people; first, because it seemed impossible that any man could
+play as he did without the aid of some supernatural power; and
+secondly, because his gentle demeanor and quaint, terse sayings
+inspired them with admiration.  It was difficult to tell by whom
+the name, Wise Nils, was first started, but it was felt by all to
+be appropriate, and it therefore clung to the modest fiddler, in
+spite of all his protests.
+
+Before he was twenty-five years old it became the fashion to go
+to him and consult him in difficult situations; and though he
+long shrank from giving advice, his reluctance wore away, when it
+became evident to him that he could actually benefit the people.
+
+There was nothing mysterious in his counsel.  All he said was as
+clear and rational as the day-light.  But the good folk were
+nevertheless inclined to attribute a higher authority to him; and
+would desist from vice or folly for his sake, when they would not
+for their own sake.  It was odd, indeed: this Wise Nils, the
+fiddler, became a great man in the valley, and his renown went
+abroad and brought him visitors, seeking his counsel, from
+distant parishes.  Rarely did anyone leave him disappointed, or
+at least without being benefited by his sympathetic advice.
+
+One summer, during the tourist season, a famous foreign musician
+came to Norway, accompanied by a rich American gentleman.  While
+in his neighborhood, they heard the story of the rustic fiddler,
+and became naturally curious to see him.
+
+They accordingly went to his cottage, in order to have some sport
+with him, for they expected to find a vain and ignorant
+charlatan, inflated by the flattery of his more ignorant
+neighbors.  But Nils received them with a simple dignity which
+quite disarmed them.  They had come to mock; they stayed to
+admire.  This peasant's artless speech, made up of ancient
+proverbs and shrewd common-sense, and instinct with a certain
+sunny beneficence, impressed them wonderfully.
+
+And when, at their request, he played some of his improvisations,
+the renowned musician exclaimed that here was, indeed, a great
+artist lost to the world.  In spite of the poor violin, there was
+a marvellously touching quality in the music; something new and
+alluring which had never been heard before.
+
+But Nils himself was not aware of it.  Occasionally, while he
+played, the Nixy's haunting strain would flit through his brain,
+or hover about it, where he could feel it, as it were, but yet be
+unable to catch it.  This was his regret--his constant chase for
+those elusive notes that refused to be captured.
+
+But he consoled himself many a time with the reflection that it
+was the fiddle's fault, not his own.  With a finer instrument,
+capable of rendering more delicate shades of sound, he might yet
+surprise the Nixy's strain, and record it unmistakably in black
+and white.
+
+The foreign musician and his American friend departed, but
+returned at the end of two weeks. They then offered to accompany
+Nils on a concert tour through all the capitals of Europe and the
+large cities of America, and to insure him a sum of money which
+fairly made him dizzy.
+
+Nils begged for time to consider, and the next day surprised them
+by declining the startling offer.
+
+He was a peasant, he said, and must remain a peasant.  He
+belonged here in his native valley, where he could do good, and
+was happy in the belief that he was useful.
+
+Out in the great world, of which he knew nothing, he might indeed
+gather wealth, but he might lose his peace of mind, which was
+more precious than wealth.  He was content with a moderate
+prosperity, and that he had already attained.  He had enough, and
+more than enough, to satisfy his modest wants, and to provide
+those who were dear to him with reasonable comfort in their
+present condition of life.
+
+The strangers were amazed at a man's thus calmly refusing a
+fortune that was within his easy grasp, for they did not doubt
+that Nils, with his entirely unconventional manner of playing,
+and yet with that extraordinary moving quality in his play, would
+become the rage both in Europe and America, as a kind of
+heaven-born, untutored genius, and fill both his own pockets and
+theirs with shekels.
+
+They made repeated efforts to persuade him, but it was all in
+vain.  With smiling serenity, he told them that he had uttered
+his final decision.  They then took leave of him, and a month
+after their departure there arrived from Germany a box addressed
+to Nils.  He opened it with some trepidation, and it was found to
+contain a Cremona violin --a genuine Stradivarius.
+
+The moment Nils touched the strings with the bow, a thrill of
+rapture went through him, the like of which he had never
+experienced.  The divine sweetness and purity of the tone that
+vibrated through those magic chambers resounded through all his
+being, and made him feel happy and exalted.
+
+It occurred to him, while he was coaxing the intoxicating music
+from his instrument, that tonight would be midsummer night.  Now
+was his chance to catch the Nixy's strain, for this exquisite
+violin would be capable of rendering the very chant of the
+archangels in the morning of time.
+
+To-night he would surprise the Nixy, and the divine strain should
+no more drift like a melodious mist through his brain; for at
+midsummer night the Nixy always plays the loudest, and then, if
+ever, is the time to learn what he felt must be the highest
+secret of the musical art.
+
+Hugging his Stradivarius close to his breast, to protect it from
+the damp night-air, Nils hurried through the birch woods down to
+the river.  The moon was sailing calmly through a fleecy film of
+cloud, and a light mist hovered over the tops of the forest.
+
+The fiery afterglow of the sunset still lingered in the air,
+though the sun had long been hidden, but the shadows of the trees
+were gaunt and dark, as in the light of the moon.
+
+The sound of the cataract stole with a whispering rush through
+the underbrush, for the water was low at midsummer, and a good
+deal of it was diverted to the mill, which was working busily
+away, with its big water-wheel going round and round.
+
+Nils paused close to the mill, and peered intently into the
+rushing current; but nothing appeared. Then he stole down to the
+river-bank, where he seated himself on a big stone, barely out of
+reach of the spray, which blew in gusts from the cataract. He sat
+for a long while motionless, gazing with rapt intentness at the
+struggling, foaming rapids, but he saw or heard nothing.
+
+Then all of a sudden it seemed to him that the air began to
+vibrate faintly with a vague, captivating rhythm.  Nils could
+hear his heart beat in his throat.  With trembling eagerness he
+unwrapped the violin and raised it to his chin.
+
+Now, surely, there was a note.  It belonged on the A string.  No,
+not there.  On the E string, perhaps. But no, not there, either.
+
+Look!  What is that?
+
+A flash, surely, through the water of a beautiful naked arm.
+
+And there--no, not there--but somewhere from out of the gentle
+rush of the middle current there seemed to come to him a
+marvellous mist of drifting sound--ineffably, rapturously sweet!
+
+With a light movement Nils runs his bow over the strings, but not
+a ghost, not a semblance, can he reproduce of the swift,
+scurrying flight of that wondrous melody.  Again and again he
+listens breathlessly, and again and again despair overwhelms him.
+
+Should he, then, never see the Nixy, and ask the fulfilment of
+his three wishes?
+
+Curiously enough, those three wishes which once were so great a
+part of his life had now almost escaped him.  It was the Nixy's
+strain he had been intent upon, and the wishes had lapsed into
+oblivion.
+
+And what were they, really, those three wishes, for the sake of
+which he desired to confront the Nixy?
+
+Well, the first--the first was--what was it, now?  Yes, now at
+length he remembered.  The first was wisdom.
+
+Well, the people called him Wise Nils now, so, perhaps, that wish
+was superfluous.  Very likely he had as much wisdom as was good
+for him.  At all events, he had refused to acquire more by going
+abroad to acquaint himself with the affairs of the great world.
+
+Then the second wish; yes, he could recall that. It was fame.  It
+was odd indeed; that, too, he had refused, and what he possessed
+of it was as much, or even far more, than he desired.  But when
+he called to mind the third and last of his boyish wishes, a
+moderate prosperity or a good violin--for that was the
+alternative--he had to laugh outright, for both the violin and
+the prosperity were already his.
+
+Nils lapsed into deep thought, as he sat there in the summer
+night, with the crowns of the trees above him and the brawling
+rapids swirling about him.
+
+Had not the Nixy bestowed upon him her best gift already in
+permitting him to hear that exquisite ghost of a melody, that
+shadowy, impalpable strain, which had haunted him these many
+years?  In pursuing that he had gained the goal of his desires,
+till other things he had wished for had come to him unawares, as
+it were, and almost without his knowing it.  And now what had he
+to ask of the Nixy, who had blessed him so abundantly?
+
+The last secret, the wondrous strain, forsooth, that he might
+imprison it in notes, and din it in the ears of an unappreciative
+multitude!  Perhaps it were better, after all, to persevere
+forever in the quest, for what would life have left to offer him
+if the Nixy's strain was finally caught, when all were finally
+attained, and no divine melody haunted the brain, beyond the
+powers even of a Stradivarius to lure from its shadowy realm?
+
+Nils walked home that night plunged in deep meditation.  He vowed
+to himself that he would never more try to catch the Nixy's
+strain.  But the next day, when he seized the violin, there it
+was again, and, strive as he might, he could not forbear trying
+to catch it.
+
+Wise Nils is many years older now; has a good wife and several
+children, and is a happy man; but to this day, resolve as he
+will, he has never been able to abandon the effort to catch the
+Nixy's strain. Sometimes he thinks he has half caught it, but
+when he tries to play it, it is always gone.
+
+
+
+THE WONDER CHILD
+
+I.
+
+A very common belief in Norway, as in many other lands, is that
+the seventh child of the seventh child can heal the sick by the
+laying on of hands.  Such a child is therefore called a wonder
+child.  Little Carina Holt was the seventh in a family of eight
+brothers and sisters, but she grew to be six years old before it
+became generally known that she was a wonder child.  Then people
+came from afar to see her, bringing their sick with them; and
+morning after morning, as Mrs. Holt rolled up the shades, she
+found invalids, seated or standing in the snow, gazing with
+devout faith and anxious longing toward Carina's window.
+
+It seemed a pity to send them away uncomforted, when the look and
+the touch cost Carina so little.  But there was another fear that
+arose in the mother's breast, and that was lest her child should
+be harmed by the veneration with which she was regarded, and
+perhaps come to believe that she was something more than a common
+mortal.  What was more natural than that a child who was told by
+grown-up people that there was healing in her touch, should at
+last come to believe that she was something apart and
+extraordinary?
+
+It would have been a marvel, indeed, if the constant attention
+she attracted, and the pilgrimages that were made to her, had
+failed to make any impression upon her sensitive mind.  Vain she
+was not, and it would have been unjust to say that she was
+spoiled.  She had a tender nature, full of sympathy for sorrow
+and suffering.  She was constantly giving away her shoes, her
+stockings, nay, even her hood and cloak, to poor little invalids,
+whose misery appealed to her merciful heart.  It was of no use to
+scold her; you could no more prevent a stream from flowing than
+Carina from giving.  It was a spontaneous yielding to an impulse
+that was too strong to be resisted.
+
+But to her father there was something unnatural in it; he would
+have preferred to have her frankly selfish, as most children are,
+not because he thought it lovely, but because it was childish and
+natural.  Her unusual goodness gave him a pang more painful than
+ever the bad behavior of her brothers had occasioned.  On the
+other hand, it delighted him to see her do anything that ordinary
+children did.  He was charmed if she could be induced to take
+part in a noisy romp, play tag, or dress her dolls.  But there
+followed usually after each outbreak of natural mirth a shy
+withdrawal into herself, a resolute and quiet retirement, as if
+she, were a trifle ashamed of her gayety.  There was nothing
+morbid in these moods, no brooding sadness or repentance, but a
+touching solemnity, a serene, almost cheerful seriousness, which
+in one of her years seemed strange.
+
+Mr. Holt had many a struggle with himself as to how he should
+treat Carina's delusion; and he made up his mind, at last, that
+it was his duty to do everything in his power to dispel and
+counteract it.  When he happened to overhear her talking to her
+dolls one day, laying her hands upon them, and curing them of
+imaginary diseases, he concluded it was high time for him to act.
+
+He called Carina to him, remonstrated kindly with her, and
+forbade her henceforth to see the people who came to her for the
+purpose of being cured.  But it distressed him greatly to see how
+reluctantly she consented to obey him.
+
+When Carina awoke the morning after this promise had been
+extorted from her, she heard the dogs barking furiously in the
+yard below.  Her elder sister, Agnes, was standing half dressed
+before the mirror, holding the end of one blond braid between her
+teeth, while tying the other with a pink ribbon.  Seeing that
+Carina was awake, she gave her a nod in the glass, and, removing
+her braid, observed that there evidently were sick pilgrims under
+the window.  She could sympathize with Sultan and Hector, she
+averred, in their dislike of pilgrims.
+
+"Oh, I wish they would not come!"  sighed Carina.  "It will be so
+hard for me to send them away."
+
+"I thought you liked curing people," exclaimed Agnes.
+
+"I do, sister, but papa has made me promise never to do it
+again."
+
+She arose and began to dress, her sister assisting her, chatting
+all the while like a gay little chirruping bird that neither gets
+nor expects an answer.  She was too accustomed to Carina's moods
+to be either annoyed or astonished; but she loved her all the
+same, and knew that her little ears were wide open, even though
+she gave no sign of listening.
+
+Carina had just completed her simple toilet when Guro, the
+chamber-maid, entered, and announced that there were some sick
+folk below who wished to see the wonder child.
+
+"Tell them I cannot see them," answered Carina, with a tremulous
+voice; "papa does not permit me."
+
+"But this man, Atle Pilot, has come from so far away in this
+dreadful cold," pleaded Guro, "and his son is so very bad, poor
+thing; he's lying down in the boat, and he sighs and groans fit
+to move a stone."
+
+"Don't!  Don't tell her that," interposed Agnes, motioning to the
+girl to begone.  "Don't you see it is hard enough for her
+already?"
+
+There was something in the air, as the two sisters descended the
+stairs hand in hand, which foreboded calamity.  The pastor had
+given out from the pulpit last Sunday that he would positively
+receive no invalids at his house; and he had solemnly charged
+every one to refrain from bringing their sick to his daughter. 
+He had repeated this announcement again and again, and he was now
+very much annoyed at his apparent powerlessness to protect his
+child from further imposition.  Loud and angry speech was heard
+in his office, and a noise as if the furniture were being knocked
+about.  The two little girls remained standing on the stairs,
+each gazing at the other's frightened face.  Then there was a
+great bang, and a stalwart, elderly sailor came tumbling head
+foremost out into the hall.  His cap was flung after him through
+the crack of the door.  Agnes saw for an instant her father's
+face, red and excited; and in his bearing there was something
+wild and strange, which was so different from his usual gentle
+and dignified appearance.  The sailor stood for a while
+bewildered, leaning against the wall; then he stooped slowly and
+picked up his cap.  But the moment he caught sight of Carina his
+embarrassment vanished, and his rough features were illuminated
+with an intense emotion.
+
+"Come, little miss, and help me," he cried, in a hoarse,
+imploring whisper.  "Halvor, my son--he is the only one God gave
+me--he is sick; he is going to die, miss, unless you take pity on
+him."
+
+"Where is he?"  asked Carina.
+
+"He's down in the boat, miss, at the pier.  But I'll carry him up
+to you, if you like.  We have been rowing half the night in the
+cold, and he is very low."
+
+"No, no; you mustn't bring him here," said Agnes, seeing by
+Carina's face that she was on the point of yielding.  "Father
+would be so angry."
+
+"He may kill me if he likes," exclaimed the sailor, wildly.  "It
+doesn't matter to me.  But Halvor he's the only one I have, miss,
+and his mother died when he was born, and he is young, miss, and
+he will have many years to live, if you'll only have mercy on
+him."
+
+"But, you know, I shouldn't dare, on papa's account, to have you
+bring him here," began Carina, struggling with her tears.
+
+"Ah, yes!  Then you will go to him.  God bless you for that!" 
+cried the poor man, with agonized eagerness.  And interpreting
+the assent he read in Carina's eye, he caught her up in his arms,
+snatched a coat from a peg in the wall, and wrapping her in it,
+tore open the door.  Carina made no outcry, and was not in the
+least afraid.  She felt herself resting in two strong arms,
+warmly wrapped and borne away at a great speed over the snow. 
+But Agnes, seeing her sister vanish in that sudden fashion, gave
+a scream which called her father to the door.
+
+"What has happened?"  he asked.  "Where is Carina?"
+
+"That dreadful Atle Pilot took her and ran away with her."
+
+"Ran away with her?"  cried the pastor in alarm. "How?  Where?"
+
+"Down to the pier."
+
+It was a few moments' work for the terrified father to burst open
+the door, and with his velvet skull-cap on his head, and the
+skirts of his dressing-gown flying wildly about him, rush down
+toward the beach.  He saw Atle Pilot scarcely fifty feet in
+advance of him, and shouted to him at the top of his voice.  But
+the sailor only redoubled his speed, and darted out upon the
+pier, hugging tightly to his breast the precious burden he
+carried.  So blindly did he rush ahead that the pastor expected
+to see him plunge headlong into the icy waves.  But, as by a
+miracle, he suddenly checked himself, and grasping with one hand
+the flag-pole, swung around it, a foot or two above the black
+water, and regained his foothold upon the planks.  He stood for
+an instant irresolute, staring down into a boat which lay moored
+to the end of the pier.  What he saw resembled a big bundle,
+consisting of a sheepskin coat and a couple of horse blankets.
+
+"Halvor," he cried, with a voice that shook with emotion, "I have
+brought her."
+
+There was presently a vague movement under the horse-blankets,
+and after a minute's struggle a pale yellowish face became
+visible.  It was a young face--the face of a boy of fifteen or
+sixteen.  But, oh, what suffering was depicted in those sunken
+eyes, those bloodless, cracked lips, and the shrunken yellow skin
+which clung in premature wrinkles about the emaciated features! 
+An old and worn fur cap was pulled down over his ears, but from
+under its rim a few strands of blond hair were hanging upon his
+forehead.
+
+Atle had just disentangled Carina from her wrappings, and was
+about to descend the stairs to the water when a heavy hand seized
+him by the shoulder, and a panting voice shouted in his ear:
+
+"Give me back my child."
+
+He paused, and turned his pathetically bewildered face toward the
+pastor.  "You wouldn't take him from me, parson," he stammered,
+helplessly; "no, you wouldn't.  He's the only one I've got."
+
+"I don't take him from you," the parson thundered, wrathfully. 
+"But what right have you to come and steal my child, because
+yours is ill?"
+
+"When life is at stake, parson," said the pilot, imploringly,
+"one gets muddled about right and wrong.  I'll do your little
+girl no harm.  Only let her lay her blessed hands upon my poor
+boy's head, and he will be well."
+
+"I have told you no, man, and I must put a stop to this stupid
+idolatry, which will ruin my child, and do you no good.  Give her
+back to me, I say, at once."
+
+The pastor held out his hand to receive Carina, who stared at him
+with large pleading eyes out of the grizzly wolf-skin coat.
+
+"Be good to him, papa," she begged.  "Only this once."
+
+"No, child; no parleying now; come instantly."
+
+And he seized her by main force, and tore her out of the pilot's
+arms.  But to his dying day he remembered the figure of the
+heart-broken man, as he stood outlined against the dark horizon,
+shaking his clinched fists against the sky, and crying out, in a
+voice of despair:
+
+"May God show you the same mercy on the Judgment Day as you have
+shown to me!"
+
+
+II.
+
+Six miserable days passed.  The weather was stormy, and tidings
+of shipwreck and calamity filled the air.  Scarcely a visitor
+came to the parsonage who had not some tale of woe to relate. 
+The pastor, who was usually so gentle and cheerful, wore a dismal
+face, and it was easy to see that something was weighing on his
+mind.
+
+"May God show you the same mercy on the Judgment Day as you have
+shown to me!"
+
+These words rang constantly in his ears by night and by day.  Had
+he not been right, according to the laws of God and man, in
+defending his household against the assaults of ignorance and
+superstition?  Would he have been justified in sacrificing his
+own child, even if he could thereby save another's?  And,
+moreover, was it not all a wild, heathenish delusion, which it
+was his duty as a servant of God to stamp out and root out at all
+hazards?  Yes, there could be no doubt of it; he had but
+exercised his legal right.  He had done what was demanded of him
+by laws human and divine.  He had nothing to reproach himself
+for.  And yet, with a haunting persistency, the image of the
+despairing pilot praying God for vengeance stared at him from
+every dark corner, and in the very church bells, as they rang out
+their solemn invitation to the house of God, he seemed to hear
+the rhythm and cadence of the heart-broken father's imprecation. 
+In the depth of his heart there was a still small voice which
+told him that, say what he might, he had acted cruelly.  If he
+put himself in Atle Pilot's place, bound as he was in the iron
+bonds of superstition, how different the case would look?  He saw
+himself, in spirit, rowing in a lonely boat through the stormy
+winter night to his pastor, bringing his only son, who was at the
+point of death, and praying that the pastor's daughter might lay
+her hands upon him, as Christ had done to the blind, the halt,
+and the maimed.  And his pastor received him with wrath, nay,
+with blows, and sent him away uncomforted.  It was a hideous
+picture indeed, and Mr. Holt would have given years of his life
+to be rid of it.
+
+It was on the sixth day after Atle's visit that the pastor,
+sitting alone in his study, called Carina to him.  He had
+scarcely seen her during the last six days, or at least talked
+with her.  Her sweet innocent spirit would banish the shadows
+that darkened his soul.
+
+"Carina," he said, in his old affectionate way, "papa wants to
+see you.  Come here and let me talk a little with you."
+
+But could he trust his eyes?  Carina, who formerly had run so
+eagerly into his arms, stood hesitating, as if she hoped to be
+excused.
+
+"Well, my little girl," he asked, in a tone of apprehension,
+"don't you want to talk with papa?"
+
+"I would rather wait till some other time, papa," she managed to
+stammer, while her little face flushed with embarrassment.
+
+Mr. Holt closed the door silently, flung himself into a chair,
+and groaned.  That was a blow from where he had least expected
+it.  The child had judged him and found him wanting.  His Carina,
+his darling, who had always been closest to his heart, no longer
+responded to his affection!  Was the pilot's prayer being
+fulfilled?  Was he losing his own child in return for the one he
+had refused to save?  With a pang in his breast, which was like
+an aching wound, he walked up and down on the floor and marvelled
+at his own blindness.  He had erred indeed; and there was no hope
+that any chance would come to him to remedy the wrong.
+
+The twilight had deepened into darkness while he revolved this
+trouble in his mind.  The night was stormy, and the limbs of the
+trees without were continually knocking and bumping against the
+walls of the house.  The rusty weather-vane on the roof whined
+and screamed, and every now and then the sleet dashed against the
+window-panes like a handful of shot.  The wind hurled itself
+against the walls, so that the timbers creaked and pulled at the
+shutters, banged stray doors in out-of-the-way garrets, and then,
+having accomplished its work, whirled away over the fields with a
+wild and dismal howl.  The pastor sat listening mournfully to
+this tempestuous commotion.  Once he thought he heard a noise as
+of a door opening near by him, and softly closing; but as he saw
+no one, he concluded it was his overwrought fancy that had played
+him a trick.  He seated himself again in his easy-chair before
+the stove, which spread a dim light from its draught-hole into
+the surrounding gloom.
+
+While he sat thus absorbed in his meditations, he was startled at
+the sound of something resembling a sob.  He arose to strike a
+light, but found that his match-safe was empty.  But what was
+that?  A step without, surely, and the groping of hands for the
+door-knob.
+
+"Who is there?"  cried the pastor, with a shivering uneasiness.
+
+He sprang forward and opened the door.  A broad figure,
+surmounted by a sou'wester, loomed up in the dark.
+
+"What do you want?"  asked Mr. Holt, with forced calmness.
+
+"I want to know," answered a gruff, hoarse voice, "if you'll come
+to my son now, and help him into eternity?"
+
+The pastor recognized Atle Pilot's voice, though it seemed
+harsher and hoarser than usual.
+
+"Sail across the fjord on a night like this?"  he exclaimed.
+
+"That's what I ask you."
+
+"And the boy is dying, you say?"
+
+"Can't last till morning."
+
+"And has he asked for the sacrament?"
+
+The pilot stepped across the threshold and entered the room.  He
+proceeded slowly to pull off his mittens; then looking up at the
+pastor's face, upon which a vague sheen fell from the stove, he
+broke out:
+
+"Will you come or will you not? You wouldn't help him to live;
+now will you help him to die?"
+
+The words, thrust forth with a slow, panting emphasis, hit the
+pastor like so many blows.
+
+"I will come," he said, with solemn resolution. "Sit down till I
+get ready."
+
+He had expected some expression of gratification or thanks, for
+Atle well knew what he had asked. It was his life the pastor
+risked, but this time in his calling as a physician, not of
+bodies, but of souls.  It struck him, while he took leave of his
+wife, that there was something resentful and desperate in the
+pilot's manner, so different from his humble pleading at their
+last meeting.
+
+As he embraced the children one by one, and kissed them, he
+missed Carina, but was told that she had probably gone to the
+cow-stable with the dairy-maid, who was her particular friend. 
+So he left tender messages for her, and, summoning Atle, plunged
+out into the storm.  A servant walked before him with a lantern,
+and lighted the way down to the pier, where the boat lay tossing
+upon the waves.
+
+"But, man," cried the pastor, seeing that the boat was empty,
+"where are your boatmen?"
+
+"I am my own boatman," answered Atle, gloomily.  "You can hold
+the sheet, I the tiller."
+
+Mr. Holt was ashamed of retiring now, when he had given his word.
+
+But it was with a sinking heart that he stepped into the frail
+skiff, which seemed scarcely more than a nutshell upon the
+tempestuous deep.  He was on the point of asking his servant,
+unacquainted though he was with seamanship, to be the third man
+in the boat; but the latter, anticipating his intention, had made
+haste to betake himself away.  To venture out into this roaring
+darkness, with no beacon to guide them, and scarcely a landmark
+discernible, was indeed to tempt Providence.
+
+But by the time he had finished this reflection, the pastor felt
+himself rushing along at a tremendous speed, and short, sharp
+commands rang in his ears, which instantly engrossed all his
+attention.  To his eyes the sky looked black as ink, except for a
+dark-blue unearthly shimmer that now and then flared up from the
+north, trembled, and vanished.  By this unsteady illumination it
+was possible to catch a momentary glimpse of a head, and a peak,
+and the outline of a mountain.  The small sail was double-reefed,
+yet the boat careened so heavily that the water broke over the
+gunwale.  The squalls beat down upon them with tumultuous roar
+and smoke, as of snow-drifts, in their wake; but the little boat,
+climbing the top of the waves and sinking into the dizzy black
+pits between them, sped fearlessly along and the pastor began to
+take heart.  Then, with a fierce cutting distinctness, came the
+command out of the dark.
+
+"Pull out the reefs!"
+
+"Are you crazy, man?"  shouted the pastor.  "Do you want to sail
+straight into eternity?"
+
+"Pull out the reefs!"  The command was repeated with wrathful
+emphasis.
+
+"Then we are dead men, both you and I."
+
+"So we are, parson--dead men.  My son lies dead at home, though
+you might have saved him. So, now, parson, we are quits."
+
+With a fierce laugh he rose up, and still holding the tiller,
+stretched his hand to tear out the reefs.  But at that instant,
+just as a quivering shimmer broke across the sky, something rose
+up from under the thwart and stood between them.  Atle started
+back with a hoarse scream.
+
+"In Heaven's name, child!"  he cried.  "Oh, God, have mercy upon
+me!"
+
+And the pastor, not knowing whether he saw a child or a vision,
+cried out in the same moment:  "Carina, my darling!  Carina, how
+came you here?"
+
+It was Carina, indeed; but the storm whirled her tiny voice away
+over the waves, and her father, folding her with one arm to his
+breast, while holding the sheet with the other, did not hear what
+she answered to his fervent exclamation.  He only knew that her
+dear little head rested close to his heart, and that her yellow
+hair blew across his face.
+
+"I wanted to save that poor boy, papa," were the only words that
+met his ears.  But he needed no more to explain the mystery.  It
+was Carina, who, repenting of her unkindness to him, had stolen
+into his study, while he sat in the dark, and there she had heard
+Atle Pilot's message.  Even if this boy was sick unto death, she
+might perhaps cure him, and make up for her father's harshness. 
+Thus reasoned the sage Carina; and she had gone secretly and
+prepared for the voyage, and battled with the storm, which again
+and again threw her down on her road to the pier.  It was a
+miracle that she got safely into the boat, and stowed herself
+away snugly under the stern thwart.
+
+The clearing in the north gradually spread over the sky, and the
+storm abated.  Soon they had the shore in view, and the lights of
+the fishermen's cottages gleamed along the beach of the headland.
+Presently they ran into smoother water; a star or two flashed
+forth, and wide blue expanses appeared here and there on the
+vault of the sky.  They spied the red lanterns marking the wharf,
+about which a multitude of boats lay, moored to stakes, and with
+three skilful tacks Atle made the harbor.  It was here, standing
+on the pier, amid the swash and swirl of surging waters, that the
+pilot seized Carina's tiny hand in his big and rough one.
+
+"Parson," he said, with a breaking voice, "I was going to run
+afoul of you, and wreck myself with you; but this child, God
+bless her! she ran us both into port, safe and sound."
+
+But Carina did not hear what he said, for she lay sweetly
+sleeping in her father's arms.
+
+
+
+"THE SONS OF THE VIKINGS"
+I.
+
+When Hakon Vang said his prayers at night, he usually finished
+with these words:  "And I thank thee, God, most of all, because
+thou madest me a Norseman, and not a German or an Englishman or a
+Swede."
+
+To be a Norseman appears to the Norse boy a claim to distinction.
+
+God has made so many millions of Englishmen and Russians and
+Germans, that there can be no particular honor in being one of so
+vast a herd; while of Norsemen He has made only a small and
+select number, whom He looks after with special care; upon whom
+He showers such favors as poverty and cold (with a view to
+keeping them good and hardy), and remoteness from all the
+glittering temptations that beset the nations in whom He takes a
+less paternal interest.  Thus at least reasons, in a dim way, the
+small boy in Norway; thus he is taught to reason by his parents
+and instructors.
+
+As for Hakon Vang, he strutted along the beach like a
+turkey-cock, whenever he thought of his glorious descent from the
+Vikings--those daring pirates that stole thrones and kingdoms,
+and mixed their red Norse blood in the veins of all the royal
+families of Europe.  The teacher of history (who was what is
+called a Norse-Norseman) had on one occasion, with more patriotic
+zeal than discretion, undertaken to pick out those boys in his
+class who were of pure Norse descent; whose blood was untainted
+by any foreign admixture.  The delighted pride of this small band
+made them an object of envy to all the rest of the school. 
+Hakon, when his name was mentioned, felt as if he had added a
+yard to his height.  Tears of joy started to his eyes; and to
+give vent to his overcharged feelings, he broke into a war-whoop;
+for which he received five black marks and was kept in at recess.
+
+But he minded that very little; all great men, he reflected, have
+had to suffer for their country.
+
+What Hakon loved above all things to study--nay, the only thing
+he loved to study--was the old Sagas, which are tales, poems, and
+histories of the deeds of the Norsemen in ancient times.  With
+eleven of his classmates, who were about his own age and as Norse
+as himself, he formed a brotherhood which was called "The Sons of
+the Vikings."  They gave each other tremendously bloody surnames,
+in the style of the Sagas--names that reeked with gore and
+heroism.  Hakon himself assumed the pleasing appellation
+"Skull-splitter," and his classmate Frithjof Ronning was dubbed
+Vargr-i-Veum, which means Wolf-in-the-Temple.  One Son of the
+Vikings was known as Ironbeard, another as Erling the Lop-Sided,
+a third as Thore the Hound, a fourth as Aslak Stone-Skull.  But a
+serious difficulty, which came near disrupting the brotherhood,
+arose over these very names.  It was felt that Hakon had taken an
+unfair advantage of the rest in selecting the bloodiest name at
+the outset (before anyone else had had an opportunity to choose),
+and there was a general demand that he should give it up and
+allow all to draw lots for it.  But this Hakon stoutly refused to
+do; and declared that if anyone wanted his name he would have to
+fight for it, in good old Norse fashion.
+
+A holm-gang or duel was then arranged; that is, a ring was marked
+out with stones; the combatants stepped within it, and he who
+could drive his antagonist outside of the stone ring was declared
+to be the victor.  Frithjof, who felt that he had a better claim
+to be named Skull-Splitter than Hakon, was the first to accept
+the challenge; but after a terrible combat was forced to bite the
+dust.  His conqueror was, however, filled with such a glowing
+admiration of his valor (as combatants in the Sagas frequently
+are), that he proposed that they should swear eternal friendship
+and foster-brotherhood, and seal their compact, according to
+Norse custom, by the ceremony called "Mingling of Blood."  It is
+needless to say that this seemed to all the boys a most
+delightful proposition; and they entered upon the august rite
+with a deep sense of its solemnity.
+
+First a piece of sod, about twelve feet square, was carefully
+raised upon wooden stakes representing spears, so as to form a
+green roof over the foster-brothers.  Then, sitting upon the
+black earth, where the turf had been removed, they bared their
+arms to the shoulder, and in the presence of his ten brethren, as
+witnesses, each swore that he would regard the other as his true
+brother and love him and treat him as such, and avenge his death
+if he survived him; in solemn testimony of which each drew a
+knife and opened a vein in his arm, letting their blood mingle
+and flow together.  Hakon, however, in his heroic zeal, drove the
+knife into his flesh rather recklessly, and when the blood had
+flowed profusely for five minutes, he grew a trifle uneasy. 
+Frithjof, after having bathed his arm in a neighboring brook, had
+no difficulty in stanching the blood, but the poor
+Skull-Splitter's wound, in spite of cold water and bandages, kept
+pouring forth its warm current without sign of abatement.  Hakon
+grew paler and paler, and would have burst into tears, if he had
+not been a "Son of the Vikings."  It would have been a relief to
+him, for the moment, not to have been a "Son of the Vikings." 
+For he was terribly frightened, and thought surely he was going
+to bleed to death.  The other Vikings, too, began to feel rather
+alarmed at such a prospect; and when Erling the Lop-Sided (the
+pastor's son) proposed that they should carry Hakon to the
+doctor, no one made any objection.  But the doctor unhappily
+lived so far away that Hakon might die before he got there.
+
+"Well, then," said Wolf-in-the Temple, "let us take him to old
+Witch-Martha.  She can stanch blood and do lots of other queer
+things."
+
+"Yes, and that is much more Norse, too," suggested Thore the
+Hound; "wise women learned physic and bandaged wounds in the
+olden time.  Men were never doctors."
+
+"Yes, Witch-Martha is just the right style," said Erling the
+Lop-Sided down in his boots; for he had naturally a shrill voice
+and gave himself great pains to produce a manly bass.
+
+"We must make a litter to carry the Skull-Splitter on," exclaimed
+Einar Bowstring-Twanger (the sheriff's son); "he'll never get to
+Witch-Martha alive if he is to walk."
+
+This suggestion was favorably received, the boys set to work with
+a will, and in a few minutes had put together a litter of green
+twigs and branches.  Hakon, who was feeling curiously
+light-headed and exhausted, allowed himself to be placed upon it
+in a reclining position; and its swinging motion, as his friends
+carried it along, nearly rocked him to sleep.  The fear of death
+was but vaguely present to his mind; but his self-importance grew
+with every moment, as he saw his blood trickle through the leaves
+and drop at the roadside.  He appeared to himself a brave Norse
+warrior who was being carried by his comrades from the
+battle-field, where he had greatly distinguished himself.  And
+now to be going, to the witch who, by magic rhymes and
+incantations, was to stanch the ebbing stream of his life--what
+could be more delightful?
+
+
+II.
+
+Witch Martha lived in a small lonely cottage down by the river. 
+Very few people ever went to see her in the day-time; but at
+night she often had visitors.  Mothers who suspected that their
+children were changelings, whom the Trolds had put in the cradle,
+taking the human infants away; girls who wanted to "turn the
+hearts" of their lovers, and lovers who wanted to turn the hearts
+of the girls; peasants who had lost money or valuables and wanted
+help to trace the thief--these and many others sought secret
+counsel with Witch-Martha, and rarely went away uncomforted.  She
+was an old weather-beaten woman with a deeply wrinkled,
+smoky-brown face, and small shrewd black eyes.  The floor in her
+cottage was strewn with sand and fresh juniper twigs; from the
+rafters under the ceiling hung bunches of strange herbs; and in
+the windows were flower-pots with blooming plants in them.
+
+Martha was stooping at the hearth, blowing and puffing at the
+fire under her coffee-pot, when the Sons of the Vikings knocked
+at the door.  Wolf-in-the-Temple was the man who took the lead;
+and when Witch-Martha opened the upper half of the door (she
+never opened both at the same time) she was not a little
+astonished to see the Captain's son, Frithjof Ronning, staring up
+at her with an anxious face.
+
+"What cost thou want, lad?"  she asked, gruffly; "thou hast gone
+astray surely, and I'll show thee the way home."
+
+"I am Wolf-in-the-Temple," began Frithjof, thrusting out his
+chest, and raising his head proudly.
+
+"Dear me, you don't say so!"  exclaimed Martha.
+
+"My comrade and foster-brother Skull-Splitter has been wounded;
+and I want thee, old crone, to stanch his blood before he bleeds
+to death."
+
+"Dear, dear me, how very strange!"  ejaculated the Witch, and
+shook her aged head.
+
+She had been accustomed to extraordinary requests; but the
+language of this boy struck her as being something of the
+queerest she had yet heard.
+
+"Where is thy Skull-Splitter, lad?"  she asked, looking at him
+dubiously.
+
+"Right here in the underbrush," Wolf-in-the-Temple retorted,
+gallantly; "stir thy aged stumps now, and thou shalt be right
+royally rewarded."
+
+He had learned from Walter Scott's romances that this was the
+proper way to address inferiors, and he prided himself not a
+little on his jaunty condescension.  Imagine then his surprise
+when the "old crone" suddenly turned on him with an angry scowl
+and said:
+
+"If thou canst not keep a civil tongue in thy head, I'll bring a
+thousand plagues upon thee, thou umnannerly boy."
+
+By this threat Wolf-in-the-Temple's courage was sadly shaken.  He
+knew Martha's reputation as a witch, and had no desire to test in
+his own person whether rumor belied her.
+
+"Please, mum, I beg of you," he said, with a sudden change of
+tone; "my friend Hakon Vang is bleeding to death; won't you
+please help him?"
+
+"Thy friend Hakon Vang!"  cried Martha, to whom that name was
+very familiar; "bring him in, as quick as thou canst, and I'll do
+what I can for him."
+
+Wolf-in- the-Temple put two fingers into his mouth and gave a
+loud shrill whistle, which was answered from the woods, and
+presently the small procession moved up to the door, carrying
+their wounded comrade between them.  The poor Skull-Splitter was
+now as white as a sheet, and the drowsiness of his eyes and the
+laxness of his features showed that help came none too early. 
+Martha, in hot haste, grabbed a bag of herbs, thrust it into a
+pot of warm water, and clapped it on the wound.  Then she began
+to wag her head slowly to and fro, and crooned, to a soft and
+plaintive tune, words which sounded to the ears of the boys
+shudderingly strange:
+
+"I conjure in water, I conjure in lead,
+I conjure with herbs that grew o'er the dead;
+I conjure with flowers that I plucked, without shoon,          
+When the ghosts were abroad, in the wane of the moon.
+I conjure with spirits of earth and air
+That make the wind sigh and cry in despair;
+I conjure by him within sevenfold rings
+That sits and broods at the roots of things.
+I conjure by him who healeth strife,
+Who plants and waters the germs of life.
+I conjure, I conjure, I bid thee be still,
+Thou ruddy stream, thou hast flowed thy fill!
+Return to thy channel and nurture his life
+Till his destined measure of years be rife."
+
+
+She sang the last two lines with sudden energy; and when she
+removed her hand from the wound, the blood had ceased to flow. 
+The poor Skull-Splitter was sleeping soundly; and his friends,
+shivering a little with mysterious fears, marched up and down
+whispering to one another.  They set a guard of honor at the
+leafy couch of their wounded comrade; intercepted the green worms
+and other insects that kept dropping down upon him from the alder
+branches overhead, and brushed away the flies that would fain
+disturb his slumbers.  They were all steeped to the core in old
+Norse heroism; and they enjoyed the situation hugely.  All the
+life about them was half blotted out; they saw it but dimly. 
+That light of youthful romance, which never was on sea or land,
+transformed all the common things that met their vision into
+something strange and wonderful.  They strained their ears to
+catch the meaning of the song of the birds, so that they might
+learn from them the secrets of the future, as Sigurd the Volsung
+did, after he had slain the dragon, Fafnir.  The woods round
+about them were filled with dragons and fabulous beasts, whose
+tracks they detected with the eyes of faith; and they started out
+every morning, during the all too brief vacation, on imaginary
+expeditions against imaginary monsters.
+
+When at the end of an hour the Skull-Splitter woke from his
+slumber, much refreshed, Witch-Martha bandaged his arm carefully,
+and Wolf-in-the Temple (having no golden arm-rings) tossed her,
+with magnificent superciliousness, his purse, which contained six
+cents.  But she flung it back at him with such force that he had
+to dodge with more adroitness than dignity.
+
+"I'll get my claws into thee some day, thou foolish lad," she
+said, lifting her lean vulture-like hand with a threatening
+gesture.
+
+"No, please don't, Martha, I didn't mean anything," cried the
+boy, in great alarm; "you'll forgive me, won't you, Martha?"
+
+"I'll bid thee begone, and take thy foolish tongue along with
+thee," she answered, in a mollified tone.
+
+And the Sons of the Vikings, taking the hint, shouldered the
+litter once more, and reached Skull-Splitter's home in time for
+supper.
+
+
+III.
+
+The Sons of the Vikings were much troubled.  Every heroic deed
+which they plotted had this little disadvantage, that they were
+in danger of going to jail for it.  They could not steal cattle
+and horses, because they did not know what to do with them when
+they had got them; they could not sail away over the briny deep
+in search of fortune or glory, because they had no ships; and
+sail-boats were scarcely big enough for daring voyages to the
+blooming South which their ancestors had ravaged.  The precious
+vacation was slipping away, and as yet they had accomplished
+nothing that could at all be called heroic.  It was while the
+brotherhood was lamenting this fact that Wolf-in-the-Temple had a
+brilliant idea.  He procured his father's permission to invite
+his eleven companions to spend a day and a night at the Ronning
+saeter, or mountain dairy, far up in the highlands.  The only
+condition Mr. Ronning made was that they were to be accompanied
+by his man, Brumle-Knute, who was to be responsible for their
+safety.  But the boys determined privately to make Brumle-Knute
+their prisoner, in case he showed any disposition to spoil their
+sport.  To spend a day and a night in the woods, to imagine
+themselves Vikings, and behave as they imagined Vikings would
+behave, was a prospect which no one could contemplate without the
+most delightful excitement.  There, far away from sheriffs and
+pastors and maternal supervision, they might perhaps find the
+long-desired chance of performing their heroic deed.
+
+It was a beautiful morning early in August that the boys started
+from Strandholm, Mr. Ronning's estate, accompanied by
+Brumle-Knute.  The latter was a middle-aged, round-shouldered
+peasant, who had the habit of always talking to himself.  To look
+at him you would have supposed that he was a rough and stupid
+fellow who would have quite enough to do in looking after
+himself.  But the fact was, that Brumle-Knute was the best shot,
+the best climber--and altogether the most keen-eyed hunter in the
+whole valley.  It was a saying that he could scent game so well
+that he never needed a dog; and that he could imitate to
+perfection the call of every game bird that inhabited the
+mountain glens.  Sweet-tempered he was not; but so reliable,
+skilful, and vigilant, and moreover so thorough a woodsman, that
+the boys could well afford to put up with his gruff temper.
+
+The Sons of the Vikings were all mounted on ponies; and
+Wolf-in-the-Temple, who had been elected chieftain, led the
+troop.  At his side rode Skull-Splitter, who was yet a trifle
+pale after his blood-letting, but brimming over with ambition to
+distinguish himself.  They had all tied their trousers to their
+legs with leather thongs, in order to be perfectly "Old Norse;"
+and some of them had turned their plaids and summer overcoats
+inside out, displaying the gorgeous colors of the lining. 
+Loosely attached about their necks and flying in the wind, these
+could easily serve for scarlet or purple cloaks wrought on Syrian
+looms.  Most of the boys carried also wooden swords and shields,
+and the chief had a long loor or Alpine horn.  Only the valiant
+Ironbeard, whose father was a military man, had a real sword and
+a real scabbard into the bargain.  Wolf-in-the-Temple, and Erling
+the Lop-Sided, had each an old fowling-piece; and Brumle-Knute
+carried a double-barrelled rifle.  This, to be sure, was not;
+quite historically correct; but firearms are so useful in the
+woods, even if they are not correct, that it was resolved not to
+notice the irregularity; for there were boars in the mountains,
+besides wolves and foxes and no end of smaller game.
+
+For an hour or more the procession rode, single file, up the
+steep and rugged mountain-paths; but the boys were all in high
+spirits and enjoyed themselves hugely.  The mere fact that they
+were Vikings, on a daring foraging expedition into a neighboring
+kingdom, imparted a wonderful zest to everything they did and
+said.  It might be foolish, but it was on that account none the
+less delightful.  They sent out scouts to watch for the approach
+of an imaginary enemy; they had secret pass-words and signs; they
+swore (Viking style) by Thor's hammer and by Odin's eye.  They
+talked appalling nonsense to each other with a delicious
+sentiment of its awful blood-curdling character.  It was about
+noon when they reached the Strandholm saeter, which consisted of
+three turf-thatched log-cabins or chalets, surrounded by a green
+inclosure of half a dozen acres.  The wide highland plain, eight
+or ten miles long, was bounded on the north and west by throngs
+of snow-hooded mountain peaks, which rose, one behind another, in
+glittering grandeur; and in the middle of the plain there were
+two lakes or tarns, connected by a river which was milky white
+where it entered the lakes and clear as crystal where it escaped.
+
+"Now, Vikings," cried Wolf-in-the-Temple, when the boys had done
+justice to their dinner, "it behooves us to do valiant deeds, and
+to prove ourselves worthy of our fathers."
+
+"Hear, hear," shouted Ironbeard, who was fourteen years old and
+had a shadow of a moustache, "I am in for great deeds, hip, hip,
+hurrah!"
+
+"Hold your tongue when you hear me speak," commanded the
+chieftain, loftily; "we will lie in wait at the ford, between the
+two tarns, and capture the travellers who pass that way.  If
+perchance a princess from the neighboring kingdom pass, on the
+way to her dominions, we will hold her captive until her father,
+the king, comes to ransom her with heaps of gold in rings and
+fine garments and precious weapons."
+
+"But what are we to do with her when we have caught her?"  asked
+the Skull-Splitter, innocently.
+
+"We will keep her imprisoned in the empty saeter hut,"
+Wolf-in-the-Temple responded.  "Now, are you ready? We'll leave
+the horses here on the croft, until our return."
+
+The question now was to elude Brumle-Knute's vigilance; for the
+Sons of the Vikings had good reasons for fearing that he might
+interfere with their enterprise.  They therefore waited until
+Brumle-knute was invited by the dairymaid to sit down to dinner. 
+No sooner had the door closed upon his stooping figure, than they
+stole out through a hole in the fence, crept on all-fours among
+the tangled dwarf-birches and the big gray boulders, and
+following close in the track of their leader, reached the ford
+between the lakes.  There they observed two enormous heaps of
+stones known as the Parson and the Deacon; for it had been the
+custom from immemorial times for every traveller to fling a big
+stone as a "sacrifice" for good luck upon the Parson's heap and a
+small stone upon the Deacon's.  Behind these piles of stone the
+boys hid themselves, keeping a watchful eye on the road and
+waiting for their chief's signal to pounce upon unwary
+travellers.  They lay for about fifteen minutes in expectant
+silence, and were on the point of losing their patience.
+
+"Look here, Wolf-in-the-Temple," cried Erling the Lop-Sided, "you
+may think this is fun, but I don't.  Let us take the raft there
+and go fishing.  The tarn is simply crowded with perch and bass."
+
+"Hold your disrespectful tongue," whispered the chief, warningly,
+"or I'll discipline you so you'll remember it till your dying
+day."
+
+"Ho, ho!" laughed the rebel, jeeringly; "big words and fat pork
+don't stick in the throat.  Wait till I get you alone and we
+shall see who'll be disciplined."
+
+Erling had risen and was about to emerge from his hiding-place,
+when suddenly hoof-beats were heard, and a horse was seen
+approaching, carrying on its back a stalwart peasant lass, in
+whose lap a pretty little girl of twelve or thirteen was sitting.
+
+The former was clad in scarlet bodice, a black embroidered skirt,
+and a snowy-white kerchief was tied about her head.  Her blonde
+hair hung in golden profusion down over her back and shoulders. 
+The little girl was city-clad, and had a sweet and appealing
+face.  She was chattering guilelessly with her companion, asking
+more questions than she could possibly expect to have answered. 
+Nearer and nearer they came to the great stone heaps, dreaming of
+no harm.
+
+"And, Gunbjor," the Skull-Splitter heard the little girl say,
+"you don't really believe that there are trolds and fairies in
+the mountains, do you?"
+
+"Them as are wiser than I am have believed that," was Gunbjor's
+answer; "but we don't hear so much about the trolds nowadays as
+they did when my granny was young.  Then they took young girls
+into the mountain and----"
+
+Here came a wild, piercing yell, as the Sons of the Vikings
+rushed forward from behind the rocks, and with a terrible
+war-whoop swooped down upon the road.  Wolf-in-the-Temple, who
+led the band, seized the horse by the bridle, and flourishing his
+sword threateningly, addressed the frightened peasant lass.
+
+"Is this, perchance, the Princess Kunigunde, the heir to the
+throne of my good friend, King Bjorn the Victorious?" he asked,
+with a magnificent air, seizing the trembling little girl by the
+wrist.
+
+"Nay," Gunbjor answered, as soon as she could find her voice,
+"this is the Deacon's Maggie, as is going to the saeter with me
+to spend Sunday."
+
+"She cannot proceed on her way," said the chieftain, decisively,
+"she is my prisoner."
+
+Gunbjor, who had been frightened out of her wits by the small
+red- and blue-cloaked men, swarming among the stones, taking them
+to be trolds or fairies, now gradually recovered her senses.  She
+recognized in Erling the Lop-Sided the well-known features of the
+parson's son; and as soon as she had made this discovery she had
+no great difficulty in identifying the rest.  "Never you fear,
+pet," she said to the child in her lap, "these be bad boys as
+want to frighten us.  I'll give them a switching if they don't
+look out."
+
+"The Princess Kunigunde is my prisoner until it please her noble
+father to ransom her for ten pounds of silver," repeated
+Wolf-in-the-Temple, putting his arm about little Maggie's waist
+and trying to lift her from the saddle.
+
+"You keep yer hands off the child, or I'll give you ten pounds of
+thrashing," cried Gunbjor, angrily.
+
+"She shall be treated with the respect due to her rank,"
+Wolf-in-the-Temple proceeded, loftily.  "I give King Bjorn the
+Victorious three moons in which to bring me the ransom."
+
+"And I'll give you three boxes on the ear, and a cut with my
+whip, into the bargain, if you don't let the horse alone, and
+take yer hands off the child."
+
+"Vikings!"  cried the chief, "lay hands on her! Tear her from the
+saddle!  She has defied us!  She deserves no mercy."
+
+With a tremendous yell the boys rushed forward, brandishing their
+swords above their heads, and pulled Gunbjor from the saddle. 
+But she held on to her charge with a vigorous clutch, and as soon
+as her feet touched the ground she began with her disengaged hand
+to lay about her, with her whip, in a way that proved extremely
+unpleasant.  Wolf-in-the-Temple, against whom her assault was
+especially directed, received some bad cuts across his face, and
+Ironbeard was driven backward into the ford, where he fell, full
+length, and rose dripping wet and mortified.  Thore the Hound got
+a thump in his head from Gunbjor's stalwart elbows, and
+Skull-Splitter, who had more courage than discretion, was pitched
+into the water with no more ceremony than if he had been a
+superfluous kitten.  The fact was--I cannot disguise it--within
+five minutes the whole valiant band of the Sons of the Vikings
+were routed by that terrible switch, wielded by the intrepid
+Gunbjor.  When the last of her foes had bitten the dust, she
+calmly remounted her pony, and with the Deacon's Maggie in her
+lap rode, at a leisurely pace, across the ford.
+
+"Good-by, lads," she said, nodding her head at them over her
+shoulder; "ye needn't be afraid.  I won't tell on you."
+
+
+IV.
+
+To have been routed by a woman was a terrible humiliation to the
+valiant Sons of the Vikings.  They were silent and moody during
+the evening, and sat staring into the big bonfire on the saeter
+green with stern and melancholy features.  They had suffered
+defeat in battle, and it behooved them to avenge it.  About nine
+o'clock they retired into their bunks in the log cabin, but no
+sooner was Brumle-Knute's rhythmic snoring perceived than
+Wolf-in-the-Temple put his head out and called to his comrades to
+meet him in front of the house for a council of war.  Instantly
+they scrambled out of their alcoves, pulled on their coats and
+trousers; and noiselessly stole out into the night.  The sun was
+yet visible, but a red veil of fiery mist was drawn across his
+face; and a magic air of fairy-tales and strange unreality was
+diffused over mountains, plains and lakes.  The river wound like
+a huge, blood-red serpent through the mountain pastures, and the
+snow-hooded peaks blazed with fiery splendor.
+
+The boys were quite stunned at the sight of such magnificence,
+and stood for some minutes gazing at the landscape, before giving
+heed to the summons of the chief.
+
+"Comrades," said Wolf-in-the-Temple, solemnly, "what is life
+without honor?"
+
+There was not a soul present who could answer that conundrum, and
+after a fitting pause the chief was forced to answer it himself.
+
+"Life without honor, comrades," he said, severely, "life--without
+honor is--nothing."
+
+"Hear, hear!"  cried Ironbeard; "good for you, old man!"
+
+"Silence!"  thundered Wolf-in-the-Temple, "I must beg the
+gentlemen to observe the proprieties."
+
+This tremendous phrase rarely failed to restore order, and the
+flippant Ironbeard was duly rebuked by the glances of displeasure
+which met him on all sides.  But in the meanwhile the chief had
+lost the thread of his speech and could not recover it. 
+"Vikings," he resumed, clearing his throat vehemently, "we have
+been--that is to say--we have sustained----"
+
+"A thrashing," supplied the innocent Skull-Splitter.
+
+But the awful stare which was fixed upon him convinced him that
+he had made a mistake; and he shrunk into an abashed silence. 
+"We must do something to retrieve our honor," continued the
+chief, earnestly; "we must--take steps--to to get upon our legs
+again," he finished, blushing with embarrassment.
+
+"I would suggest that we get upon our legs first, and take the
+steps afterward," remarked the flippant Ironbeard, with a sly
+wink at Thore the Hound.
+
+The chief held it to be beneath his dignity to notice this
+interruption, and after having gazed for a while in silence at
+the blood-red mountain peaks, he continued, more at his ease:
+
+"I propose, comrades, that we go on a bear hunt.  Then, when we
+return with a bear-skin or two, our honor will be all right; no
+one will dare laugh at us.  The brave boy-hunters will be the
+admiration and pride of the whole valley."
+
+"But Brummle-Knute," observed the Skull-Splitter; "do you think
+he will allow us to go bear-hunting?"
+
+"What do we care whether he allows us or not?" cried
+Wolf-in-the-Temple, scornfully; "he sleeps like a log; and I
+propose that we tie his hands and feet before we start."
+
+This suggestion met with enthusiastic approval, and all the boys
+laughed heartily at the idea of Brumle-Knute waking up and
+finding himself tied with ropes, like a calf that is carried to
+market.
+
+"Now, comrades," commanded the chief, with a flourish of his
+sword, "get to bed quickly.  I'll call you at four o'clock; we'll
+then start to chase the monarch of the mountains."
+
+The Sons of the Vikings scrambled into their bunks with great
+despatch; and though their beds consisted of pine twigs, covered
+with a coarse sheet, and a bat, of straw for a pillow, they fell
+asleep without rocking, and slept more soundly than if they had
+rested on silken bolsters filled with eiderdown. 
+Wolf-in-the-Temple was as good as his word, and waked them
+promptly at four o'clock; and their first task, after having
+filled their knapsacks with provisions, was to tie Brumle-Knute's
+hands and feet with the most cunning slip-knots, which would
+tighten more, the more he struggled to unloose them.  Ironbeard,
+who had served a year before the mast, was the contriver of this
+daring enterprise; and he did it so cleverly that Brumle-Knute
+never suspected that his liberty was being interfered with.  He
+snorted a little and rubbed imaginary cobwebs from his face; but
+soon lapsed again into a deep, snoring unconsciousness.
+
+The faces of the Sons of the Vikings grew very serious as they
+started out on this dangerous expedition.  There was more than
+one of them who would not have objected to remaining at home, but
+who feared to incur the charge of cowardice if he opposed the
+wishes of the rest.  Wolf-in-the-Temple walked at the head of the
+column, as they hastened with stealthy tread out of the saeter
+inclosure, and steered their course toward the dense pine forest,
+the tops of which were visible toward the east, where the
+mountain sloped toward the valley.  He carried his fowling-piece,
+loaded with shot, in his right hand, and a powder-horn and other
+equipments for the chase were flung across his shoulder.  Erling
+the Lop-Sided was similarly armed, and Ironbeard, glorying in a
+real sword, unsheathed it every minute and let it flash in the
+sun.  It was a great consolation to the rest of the Vikings to
+see these formidable weapons; for they were not wise enough to
+know that grown-up bears are not killed with shot, and that a
+fowling-piece is a good deal more dangerous than no weapon at
+all, in the hands of an inexperienced hunter.
+
+The sun, who had exchanged his flaming robe de nuit for the rosy
+colors of morning, was now shooting his bright shafts of light
+across the mountain plain, and cheering the hearts of the Sons of
+the Vikings.  The air was fresh and cool; and it seemed a luxury
+to breathe it.  It entered the lungs in a pure, vivifying stream
+like an elixir of life, and sent the blood dancing through the
+veins.  It was impossible to mope in such air; and Ironbeard
+interpreted the general mood when he struck up the tune:
+
+"We wander with joy on the far mountain path,
+We follow the star that will guide us;"
+
+but before he had finished the third verse, it occurred to the
+chief that they were bear-hunters, and that it was very
+unsportsmanlike behavior to sing on the chase.  For all that they
+were all very jolly, throbbing with excitement at the thought of
+the adventures which they were about to encounter; and concealing
+a latent spark of fear under an excess of bravado.  At the end of
+an hour's march they had reached the pine forest; and as they
+were all ravenously hungry they sat down upon the stones, where a
+clear mountain brook ran down the slope, and unpacked their
+provisions.  Wolf-in-the-Temple had just helped himself, in old
+Norse fashion, to a slice of smoked ham, having slashed a piece
+off at random with his knife, when Erling the Lop-Sided observed
+that that ham had a very curious odor.  Everyone had to test its
+smell; and they all agreed that it did have a singular flavor,
+though its taste was irreproachable.
+
+"It smells like a menagerie," said the Skull-Splitter, as he
+handed it to Thore the Hound.
+
+"But the bread and the biscuit smell just the same," said Thore
+the Hound; "in fact, it is the air that smells like a menagerie."
+
+"Boys," cried Wolf-in-the-Temple, "do you see that track in the
+mud?"
+
+"Yes; it is the track of a barefooted man," suggested the
+innocent Skull-Splitter.
+
+Ironbeard and Erling the Lop-Sided flung themselves down among
+the stones and investigated the tracks; and they were no longer
+in doubt as to where the pungent wild odor came from, which they
+had attributed to the ham.
+
+"Boys," said Erling, looking up with an excited face, "a she-bear
+with one or two cubs has been here within a few minutes."
+
+"This is her drinking-place," said Ironbeard:  "the tracks are
+many and well-worn; if she hasn't been here this morning, she is
+sure to come before long."
+
+"We are in luck indeed," Wolf-in-the-Temple observed, coolly; "we
+needn't go far for our bear.  He will be coming for us."
+
+At that moment the note of an Alpine horn was heard; but it was
+impossible to determine how far it was away; for the echo took up
+the note and flung it back and forth with clear and strong
+reverberations from mountain to mountain.
+
+"It is Brumle-Knute who is calling us," said Thore the Hound. 
+"The dairymaid must have released him.  Shall we answer?"
+
+"Never," cried the chief, proudly; "I forbid you to answer.  Here
+we have our heroic deed in sight, and I want no one to spoil it. 
+If there is a coward among us, let him take to his heels; no one
+shall detain him."
+
+There were perhaps several who would have liked to accept the
+invitation; but no one did.  Skull-Splitter, by way of diversion,
+plumped backward into the brook, and sat down in the cool pool up
+to his waist.  But nobody laughed at his mishap; because they had
+their minds full of more serious thoughts.  Wolf-in-the-Temple,
+who had climbed up on a big moss-grown boulder, stood, gun in
+hand, and peered in among the bushes.
+
+"Boys," he whispered, "drop down on your bellies--quick."
+
+All, crowding behind a rock, obeyed, pushing themselves into
+position with hands and feet.  With wildly beating hearts the
+Vikings gazed up among the gray wilderness of stone and
+underbrush, and first one, then another, caught sight of
+something brown and hairy that came toddling down toward them,
+now rolling like a ball of yarn, now turning a somersault, and
+now again pegging industriously along on four clumsy paws.  It
+was the prettiest little bear cub that ever woke on its mossy
+lair in the woods.  Now it came shuffling down in a boozy way to
+take its morning bath.  It seemed but half awake; and
+Skull-Splitter imagined that it was a trifle cross, because its
+mother had waked it too early.  Evidently it had made no toilet
+as yet, for bits of moss were sticking in its hair; and it yawned
+once or twice, and shook its head disgustedly.  Skull-Splitter
+knew so well that feeling and could sympathize with the poor
+young cub.  But Wolf-in-the-Temple, who watched it no less
+intently, was filled with quite different emotions.  Here was his
+heroic deed, for which he had hungered so long.  To shoot a
+bear--that was a deed worthy of a Norseman.  One step more--then
+two--and then--up rose the bear cub on its hind legs and rubbed
+its eyes with its paws.  Now he had a clean shot--now or never;
+and pulling the trigger Wolf-in-the-Temple blazed away and sent a
+handful of shot into the carcass of the poor little bear.  Up
+jumped all the Sons of the Vikings from behind their stones, and,
+with a shout of triumph, ran up the path to where the cub was
+lying.  It had rolled itself up into a brown ball, and whimpered
+like a child in pain.  But at that very moment there came an
+ominous growl out of the underbrush, and a crackling and creaking
+of branches was heard which made the hearts of the boys stand
+still.
+
+"Erling," cried Wolf-in-the-Temple, "hand me your gun, and load
+mine for me as quick as you can."
+
+The words were scarcely out of his mouth when the head of a big
+brown she-bear became visible among the bushes.  She paused in
+the path, where her cub was lying, turned him over with her paw,
+licked his face, grumbled with a low soothing tone, snuffed him
+all over and rubbed her nose against his snout.  But unwarily she
+must have touched some sore spot; for the cub gave a sharp yelp
+of pain and writhed and whimpered as he looked up into his
+mother's eyes, clumsily returning her caresses.  The boys, half
+emerged from their hiding-places, stood watching this
+demonstration of affection not without sympathy; and
+Skull-Splitter, for one, heartily wished that the chief had not
+wounded the little bear.  Quite ignorant as he was of the nature
+of bears, he allowed his compassion to get the better of his
+judgment.  It seemed such a pity that the poor little beast
+should lie there and suffer with one eye put out and forty or
+fifty bits of lead distributed through its body.  It would be
+much more merciful to put it out of its misery altogether.  And
+accordingly when Erling the Lop-Sided handed him his gun to pass
+on to the chief, Skull-Splitter started forward, flung the gun to
+his cheek, and blazed away at the little bear once more, entirely
+heedless of consequences.  It was a random, unskilful shot, which
+was about equally shared by the cub and its mother.  And the
+latter was not in a mood to be trifled with.  With an angry roar
+she rose on her hind legs and advanced against the unhappy
+Skull-Splitter with two uplifted paws.  In another moment she
+would give him one of her vigorous "left-handers," which would
+probably pacify him forever.  Ironbeard gave a scream of terror
+and Thore the Hound broke down an alder-sapling in his
+excitement.  But Wolf-in-the-Temple, remembering that he had
+sworn foster-brotherhood with this brave and foolish little lad,
+thought that now was the time to show his heroism.  Here it was
+no longer play, but dead earnest.  Down he leaped from his rock,
+and just as the she-bear was within a foot of the Skull-Splitter,
+he dealt her a blow in the head with the butt end of his gun
+which made the sparks dance before her eyes.  She turned suddenly
+toward her new assailant, growling savagely, and scratched her
+ear with her paw.  And Skull-Splitter, who had slipped on the
+pine needles and fallen, scrambled to his feet again, leaving his
+gun on the ground, and with a few aimless steps tumbled once more
+into the brook.  Ironbeard, seeing that he was being outdone by
+his chief, was quick to seize the gun, and rushing forward dealt
+the she-bear another blow, which, instead of disabling her, only
+exasperated her further.  She glared with her small bloodshot
+eyes now at the one, now at the other boy, as if in doubt which
+she would tackle first.  It was an awful moment; one or the other
+might have saved himself by flight, but each was determined to
+stand his ground.  Vikings could die, but never flee.  With a
+furious growl the she-bear started toward her last assailant,
+lifting her terrible paw.  Ironbeard backed a few steps, pointing
+his gun before him; and with benumbing force the paw descended
+upon the gun-barrel, striking it out of his hands.
+
+It seemed all of a sudden to the boy as if his arms were asleep
+up to the shoulders; he had a stinging sensation in his flesh and
+a humming in his ears, which made him fear that his last hour had
+come.  If the bear renewed the attack now, he was utterly
+defenceless.  He was not exactly afraid, but he was numb all
+over.  It seemed to matter little what became of him.
+
+But now a strange thing happened.  To his unutterable
+astonishment he saw the she-bear drop down on all fours and vent
+her rage on the gun, which, in a trice, was bent and broken into
+a dozen fragments.  But in this diversion she was interrupted by
+Wolf-in-the-Temple, who hammered away again at her head with the
+heavy end of his weapon.  Again she rose, and presented two rows
+of white teeth which looked as if they meant business.  It was
+the chief's turn now to meet his fate; and it was the more
+serious because his helper was disarmed and could give him no
+assistance.  With a wildly thumping heart he raised the butt end
+of his gun and dashed forward, when as by a miracle a shot was
+heard--a sharp, loud shot that rumbled away with manifold
+reverberations among the mountains.  In the same instant the huge
+brown bear tumbled forward, rolled over, with a gasping growl,
+and was dead.
+
+"O Brumle-Knute!  Brumle-Knute!" yelled the boys in joyous
+chorus, as they saw their resuer coming forward from behind the
+rocks, "how did you find us?"
+
+"I heard yer shots and I saw yer tracks," said Brumle-Knute,
+dryly; "but when ye go bear-hunting another time ye had better
+load with bullets instead of bird-shot."
+
+"But Brumle-Knute, we only wanted to shoot the little bear,"
+protested Wolf-in-the-Temple.
+
+"That may be," Brumle-Knute replied; "but the big bears, they are
+a curiously unreasonable lot--they are apt to get mad when you
+fire at their little ones.  Next time you must recollect to take
+the big bear into account."
+
+I need not tell you that the Sons of the Vikings became great
+heroes when the rumor of their bear hunt was noised abroad
+through the valley.  But, for all that, they determined to
+disband their brotherhood.  Wolf-in-the-Temple expressed the
+sentiment of all when, at their last meeting, he made a speech,
+in which these words occurred:
+
+"Brothers, the world isn't quite the same now as it was in the
+days when our Viking forefathers spread the terror of their name
+through the South.  We are not so strong as they were, nor so
+hardy.  When we mingle blood, we have to send for a surgeon.  If
+we steal princesses we may go to jail for it--or--or--well--never
+mind--what else may happen.  Heroism isn't appreciated as once it
+was in this country; and I, for one, won't try to be a hero any
+more.  I resign my chieftainship now, when I can do it with
+credit.  Let us all make our bows of adieu as bear hunters; and
+if we don't do anything more in the heroic line it is not because
+we can't, but because we won't."
+
+
+
+PAUL JESPERSEN'S MASQUERADE
+
+There was great excitement in the little Norse town, Bumlebro,
+because there was going to be a masquerade.  Everybody was busy
+inventing the character which he was to represent, and the
+costume in which he was to represent it.
+
+Miss Amelia Norbeck, the apothecary's daughter, had intended to
+be Marie Antoinette, but had to give it up because the silk
+stockings were too dear, although she had already procured the
+beauty-patches and the powdered wig.
+
+Miss Arctander, the judge's daughter, was to be Night, in black
+tulle, spangled with silver stars, and Miss Hanna Broby was to be
+Morning, in white tulle and pink roses.
+
+There had never BEEN a masquerade in Bumlebro, and there would
+not have been one now, if it had not been for the enterprise of
+young Arctander and young Norbeck, who had just returned from the
+military academy in the capital, and were anxious to exhibit
+themselves to the young girls in their glory.
+
+Of course, they could not afford to be exclusive, for there were
+but twenty or thirty families in the town that laid any claims to
+gentility, and they had all to be invited in order to fill the
+hall and pay the bills.  Thus it came to pass that Paul
+Jespersen, the book-keeper in the fish-exporting firm of Broby &
+Larsen, received a card, although, to be sure, there had been a
+long debate in the committee as to where the line should be
+drawn.
+
+Paul Jespersen was uncommonly elated when he read the invitation,
+which was written on a gilt-edged card, requesting the pleasure
+of Mr. Jespersen's company at a bal masque Tuesday, January 3d,
+in the Association Hall.
+
+"The pleasure of his company!"
+
+Think of it!  He felt so flattered that he blushed to the tips of
+his ears.  It must have been Miss Clara Broby who had induced
+them to be so polite to him, for those insolent cadets, who only
+nodded patronizingly to him in response to his deferential
+greeting, would never have asked for "the pleasure of his
+company."
+
+Having satisfied himself on this point, Paul went to call upon
+Miss Clara in the evening, in order to pay her some compliment
+and consult her in regard to his costume; but Miss Clara, as it
+happened, was much more interested in her own costume than in
+that of Mr. Jespersen, and offered no useful suggestions.
+
+"What character would you advise me to select, Mr. Jespersen?" 
+she inquired, sweetly.  "My sister Hanna, you know, is going to
+be Morning, so I can't be that, and it seems to me Morning would
+have suited me just lovely."
+
+"Go as Beauty," suggested Mr. Jespersen, blushing at the thought
+of his audacity.
+
+"So I will, Mr. Jespersen," she answered, laughing, "if you will
+go as the Beast."
+
+Paul, being a simple-hearted fellow, failed to see any sarcasm in
+this, but interpreted it rather as a hint that Miss Clara desired
+his escort, as Beauty, of course, only would be recognizable in
+her proper character by the presence of the Beast.
+
+"I shall be delighted, Miss Clara," he said, beaming with
+pleasure.  "If you will be my Beauty, I'll be your Beast."
+
+Miss Clara did not know exactly how to take this, and was rather
+absent-minded during the rest of the interview.  She had been
+chaffing Mr. Jespersen, of course, but she did not wish to be
+absolutely rude to him, because he was her father's employee,
+and, as she often heard her father say, a very valuable and
+trustworthy young man.
+
+When Paul got home he began at once to ponder upon his character
+as Beast, and particularly as Miss Clara's Beast.  It occurred to
+him that his uncle, the furrier, had an enormous bear-skin, with
+head, eyes, claws, and all that was necessary, and without delay
+he went to try it on.
+
+His uncle, feeling that this event was somehow to redound to the
+credit of the family, agreed to make the necessary alterations at
+a trifling cost, and when the night of the masquerade arrived,
+Paul was so startled at his appearance that he would have run
+away from himself if such a thing had been possible.  He had
+never imagined that he would make such a successful Beast.
+
+By an ingenious contrivance with a string, which he pulled with
+his hand, he was able to move his lower jaw, which, with its red
+tongue and terrible teeth, presented an awful appearance.  By
+patching the skin a little behind, his head was made to fit
+comfortably into the bear's head, and his mild blue eyes looked
+out of the holes from which the bear's eyes had been removed. 
+The skin was laced with thin leather thongs from the neck down,
+but the long, shaggy fur made the lacing invisible.
+
+Paul Jespersen practiced ursine behavior before the looking-glass
+for about half an hour.  Then, being uncomfortably warm, he
+started down-stairs, and determined to walk to the Association
+Hall.  He chuckled to himself at the thought of the sensation he
+would make, if he should happen to meet anybody on the road.
+
+Having never attended a masquerade before, he did not know that
+dressing-rooms were provided for the maskers, and, being averse
+to needless expenditure, he would as soon have thought of flying
+as of taking a carriage.  There was, in fact, but one carriage on
+runners in the town, and that was already engaged by half a dozen
+parties.
+
+The moon was shining faintly upon the snow, and there was a sharp
+frost in the air when Paul Jespersen put his hairy head out of
+the street-door and reconnoitred the territory.
+
+There was not a soul to be seen, except an old beggar woman who
+was hobbling along, supporting herself with two sticks.  Paul
+darted, as quickly as his unwieldly bulk would allow, into the
+middle of the street.  He enjoyed intensely the fun of walking
+abroad in such a monstrous guise.  He contemplated with boyish
+satisfaction his shadow which stretched, long and black and
+horrible, across the snow.
+
+It was a bit slippery, and he had to manoeuvre carefully in order
+to keep right side up.  Presently he caught up with the beggar
+woman.
+
+"Good-evening!"  he said.
+
+The old woman turned about, stared at him horror-stricken; then,
+as soon as she had collected her senses, took to her heels,
+yelling at the top of her voice.  A big mastiff, who had just
+been let loose for the night, began to bark angrily in a back
+yard, and a dozen comrades responded from other yards, and came
+bounding into the street.
+
+"Hello!"  thought Paul Jespersen.  "Now look out for trouble."
+
+He felt anything but hilarious when he saw the pack of angry dogs
+dancing and leaping about him, barking in a wildly discordant
+chorus.
+
+"Why, Hector, you fool, don't you know me?" he said, coaxingly,
+to the judge's mastiff.  "And you, Sultan, old man!  You ought to
+be ashamed of yourself!  Here, Caro, that's a good fellow! Come,
+now, don't excite yourself!"
+
+But Hector, Sultan, and Caro were all proof against such
+blandishments, and as for Bismarck, the apothecary's collie, he
+grew every moment more furious, and showed his teeth in a very
+uncomfortable fashion.
+
+To defend one's self was not to be thought of, for what defence
+is possible to a sham bear against a dozen genuine dogs?  Paul
+could use neither his teeth nor his claws to any purpose, while
+the dogs could use theirs, as he presently discovered, with
+excellent effect.
+
+He had just concluded to seek safety in flight, when suddenly he
+felt a bite in his left calf, and saw the brute Bismarck tug away
+at his leg as if it had been a mutton-chop.  He had scarcely
+recovered from this surprise when he heard a sharp report, and a
+bullet whizzed away over his head, after having neatly put a hole
+through the right ear.  Paul concluded, with reason, that things
+were getting serious.
+
+If he could only get hold of that blockhead, the judge's groom,
+who was violating the law about fire-arms, he would give him an
+exhibition in athletics which he would not soon forget; but,
+being for the moment deprived of this pleasure, he knew of
+nothing better to do than to dodge through the nearest
+street-door, and implore the protection of the very first
+individual he might meet.
+
+It so happened that Paul selected the house of two middle-aged
+milliners for this experiment.
+
+Jemina and Malla Hansen were just seated at the table drinking
+tea with their one constant visitor, the post-office clerk,
+Mathias, when, all of a sudden, they heard a tremendous racket in
+the hall, and the furious barking of dogs.
+
+With a scream of fright, the two old maids jumyed up, dropping
+their precious tea-cups, and old Mathias, who had tipped his
+chair a little backward, lost his balance, and pointed his heels
+toward the ceiling.  Before he had time to pick himself up the
+door was burst open and a great hairy monster sprang into the
+room.
+
+"Mercy upon us!"  cried Jemina.  "It is the devil!"
+
+But now came the worst of it all.  The bear put his paw on his
+heart, and with the politest bow in the world, remarked:
+
+"Pardon me, ladies, if I intrude."
+
+He had meant to say more, but his audience had vanished; only the
+flying tails of Mathias's coat were seen, as he slammed the door
+on them, in his precipitate flight.
+
+"Police!  police!"  someone shouted out of the window of the
+adjoining room.
+
+Police!  Now, with all due respect for the officers of the law,
+Paul Jespersen had no desire to meet them at the present moment. 
+To be hauled up at the station-house and fined for street
+disorder--nay, perhaps be locked up for the night, if, as was
+more than likely, the captain of police was at the masquerade,
+was not at all to Paul's taste.  Anything rather than that!  He
+would be the laughing stock of the whole town if, after his
+elaborate efforts, he were to pass the night in a cell, instead
+of dancing with Miss Clara Broby.
+
+Hearing the cry for police repeated, Paul looked about him for
+some means of escape.  It occurred to him that he had seen a
+ladder in the hall leading up to the loft.  There he could easily
+hide himself until the crowd had dispersed.
+
+Without further reflection, he rushed out through the door by
+which he had entered, climbed the ladder, thrust open a
+trap-door, and, to his astonishment, found himself under the
+wintry sky.
+
+The roof sloped steeply, and he had to balance carefully in order
+to avoid sliding down into the midst of the noisy mob of dogs and
+street-boys who were laying siege to the door.
+
+With the utmost caution he crawled along the roof-tree, trembling
+lest he should be discovered by some lynx-eyed villain in the
+throng of his pursuers.  Happily, the broad brick chimney
+afforded him some shelter, of which he was quick to take
+advantage.  Rolling himself up into the smallest possible
+compass, he sat for a long time crouching behind the chimney;
+while the police were rummaging under the beds and in the closets
+of the house, in the hope of finding him.
+
+He had, of course, carefully closed the trap-door by which he had
+reached the comparative safety of his present position; and he
+could not help chuckling to himself at the thought of having
+outwitted the officers of the law.
+
+The crowd outside, after having made night hideous by their
+whoops and yells, began, at the end of an hour, to grow weary;
+and the dogs being denied entrance to the house, concluded that
+they had no further business there, and slunk off to their
+respective kennels.
+
+The people, too, scattered, and only a few patient loiterers hung
+about the street door, hoping for fresh developments.  It seemed
+useless to Paul to wait until these provoking fellows should take
+themselves away.  They were obviously prepared to make a night of
+it, and time was no object to them.
+
+It was then that Paul, in his despair, resolved upon a daring
+stratagem.  Mr. Broby's house was in the same block as that of
+the Misses Hansen, only it was at the other end of the block.  By
+creeping along the roof-trees of the houses, which, happily,
+differed but slightly in height, he could reach the Broby house,
+where, no doubt, Miss Clara was now waiting for him, full of
+impatience.
+
+He did not deliberate long before testing the practicability of
+this plan.  The tanner Thoresen's house was reached without
+accident, although he barely escaped being detected by a small
+boy who was amusing himself throwing snow-balls at the chimney. 
+It was a slow and wearisome mode of locomotion--pushing himself
+forward on his belly; but, as long as the streets were deserted,
+it was a pretty safe one.
+
+He gave a start whenever he heard a dog bark; for the echoes of
+the ear-splitting concert they had given him were yet ringing in
+his brain.
+
+It was no joke being a bear, he thought, and if he had suspected
+that it was such a serious business, he would not so rashly have
+undertaken it.  But now there was no way of getting out of it;
+for he had nothing on but his underclothes under the bear-skin.
+
+At last he reached the Broby house, and drew a sigh of relief at
+the thought that he was now at the end of his journey.
+
+He looked about him for a trap-door by which he could descend
+into the interior, but could find none.  There was an inch of
+snow on the roof, glazed with frost: and if there was a
+trap-door, it was securely hidden.
+
+To jump or slide down was out of the question, for he would, in
+that case, risk breaking his neck.  If he cried for help, the
+groom, who was always ready with his gun, might take a fancy to
+shoot at him; and that would be still more unpleasant.  It was a
+most embarrassing situation.
+
+Paul's eyes fell upon a chimney; and the thought flashed through
+his head that there was the solution of the difficulty.  He
+observed that no smoke was coming out of it, so that he would run
+no risk of being converted into smoked ham during the descent.
+
+He looked down through the long, black tunnel.  It was a great,
+spacious, old-fashioned chimney, and abundantly wide enough for
+his purpose.
+
+A pleasant sound of laughter and merry voices came to him from
+the kitchen below.  It was evident the girls were having a
+frolic.  So, without further ado, Paul Jespersen stuffed his
+great hairy bulk into the chimney and proceeded to let himself
+down.
+
+There were notches and iron rings in the brick wall, evidently
+put there for the convenience of the chimney-sweeps; and he found
+his task easier than he had anticipated.  The soot, to be sure,
+blinded his eyes, but where there was nothing to be seen, that
+was no serious disadvantage.
+
+In fact, everything was going as smoothly as possible, when
+suddenly he heard a girl's voice cry out:
+
+"Gracious goodness!  what is that in the chimney?"
+
+"Probably the chimney-sweep," a man's voice answered.
+
+"Chimney-sweep at this time of night!"
+
+Paul, bracing himself against the walls, looked down and saw a
+cluster of anxious faces all gazing up toward him.  A candle
+which one of the girls held in her hand showed him that the
+distance down to the hearth was but short; so, to make an end of
+their uncertainty, he dropped himself down--quietly, as he
+thought, but by the force of his fall blowing the ashes about in
+all directions.
+
+A chorus of terrified screams greeted him.  One girl fainted, one
+leaped up on a table, and the rest made for the door.
+
+And there sat poor Paul, in the ashes on the hearth, utterly
+bewildered by the consternation he had occasioned.  He picked
+himself up by and by, rubbed the soot out of his eyes with the
+backs of his paws, and crawled out upon the floor.
+
+He had just managed to raise himself upon his hind-legs, when an
+awful apparition became visible in the door, holding a candle. 
+It was now Paul's turn to be frightened.  The person who stood
+before him bore a close resemblance to the devil.
+
+"What is all this racket about?"  he cried, in a tone of
+authority.
+
+Paul felt instantly relieved, for the voice was that of his
+revered chief, Mr. Broby, who, he now recollected, was to figure
+at the masquerade as Mephistopheles.  Behind him peeped forth the
+faces of his two daughters, one as Morning and the other as
+Spring.
+
+"May I ask what is the cause of this unseemly noise?"  repeated
+Mr. Broby, advancing to the middle of the room.  The light of his
+candle now fell upon the huge bear whom, after a slight start, he
+recognized as a masker.
+
+"Excuse me, Mr. Broby," said Paul, "but Miss Clara did me the
+honor----"
+
+"Oh yes, papa," Miss Clara interrupted him, stepping forth in all
+her glory of tulle and flowers; "it is Paul Jespersen, who was
+going to be my Beast."
+
+"And it is you who have frightened my servants half out of their
+wits, Jespersen?"  said Mr. Broby, laughing.
+
+"He tumbled down through the chimney, sir," declared the cook,
+who had half-recovered from her fright.
+
+"Well," said Mr. Broby, with another laugh, "I admit that was a
+trifle unconventional.  Next time you call, Jespersen, you must
+come through the door."
+
+He thought Jespersen had chosen to play a practical joke on the
+servants, and, though he did not exactly like it, he was in no
+mood for scolding.  After having been carefully brushed and
+rolled in the snow, Paul offered his escort to Miss Clara; and
+she had not the heart to tell him that she was not at all Beauty,
+but Spring.  And Paul was not enough of an expert to know the
+difference.
+
+
+
+LADY CLARE
+THE STORY OF A HORSE
+
+The king was dead, and among the many things he left behind him
+which his successor had no use for were a lot of fancy horses. 
+There were long-barrelled English hunters, all legs and neck;
+there were Kentucky racers, graceful, swift, and strong; and two
+Arabian steeds, which had been presented to his late majesty by
+the Sultan of Turkey.  To see the beautiful beasts prancing and
+plunging, as they were being led through the streets by grooms in
+the royal livery, was enough to make the blood dance in the veins
+of any lover of horse-flesh.  And to think that they were being
+led ignominiously to the auction mart to be sold under the
+hammer--knocked down to the highest bidder!  It was a sin and a
+shame surely!  And they seemed to feel it themselves; and that
+was the reason they acted so obstreperously, sometimes lifting
+the grooms off their feet as they reared and snorted and struck
+sparks with their steel-shod hoofs from the stone pavement.
+
+Among the crowd of schoolboys who followed the equine procession,
+shrieking and yelling with glee and exciting the horses by their
+wanton screams, was a handsome lad of fourteen, named Erik
+Carstens.  He had fixed his eyes admiringly on a coal-black,
+four-year-old mare, a mere colt, which brought up the rear of the
+procession.  How exquisitely she was fashioned!  How she danced
+over the ground with a light mazurka step, as if she were shod
+with gutta-percha and not with iron!  And then she had a head so
+daintily shaped, small and spirited, that it was a joy to look at
+her.  Erik, who, in spite of his youth, was not a bad judge of a
+horse, felt his heart beat like a trip-hammer, and a mighty
+yearning took possession of him to become the owner of that mare.
+
+Though he knew it was time for dinner he could not tear himself
+away, but followed the procession up one street and down another,
+until it stopped at the horse market.  There a lot of jockeys and
+coarse-looking dealers were on hand; and an opportunity was
+afforded them to try the horses before the auction began.  They
+forced open the mouths of the beautiful animals, examined their
+teeth, prodded them with whips to see if they were gentle, and
+poked them with their fingers or canes.  But when a loutish
+fellow, in a brown corduroy suit, indulged in that kind of
+behavior toward the black mare she gave a resentful whinny and
+without further ado grabbed him with her teeth by the coat
+collar, lifted him up and shook him as if he had been a bag of
+straw.  Then she dropped him in the mud, and raised her dainty
+head with an air as if to say that she held him to be beneath
+contempt.  The fellow, however, was not inclined to put up with
+that kind of treatment.  With a volley of oaths he sprang up and
+would have struck the mare in the mouth with his clinched fist,
+if Erik had not darted forward and warded off the blow.
+
+"How dare you strike that beautiful creature?" he cried,
+indignantly.
+
+"Hold your jaw, you gosling, or I'll hit you instead," retorted
+the man.
+
+But by that time one of the royal grooms had made his appearance
+and the brute did not dare carry out his threat.  While the groom
+strove to quiet the mare, a great tumult arose in some other part
+of the market-place.  There was a whinnying, plunging, rearing,
+and screaming, as if the whole field had gone mad.  The black
+mare joined in the concert, and stood with her ears pricked up
+and her head raised in an attitude of panicky expectation.  Quite
+fearlessly Erik walked up to her, patted her on the neck and
+spoke soothingly to her.
+
+"Look out," yelled the groom, "or she'll trample you to jelly!"
+
+But instead of that, the mare rubbed her soft nose against the
+boy's cheek, with a low, friendly neighing, as if she wished to
+thank him for his gallant conduct.  And at that moment Erik's
+heart went out to that dumb creature with an affection which he
+had never felt toward any living thing before.  He determined,
+whatever might happen, to bid on her and to buy her, whatever she
+might prove to be worth.  He knew he had a few thousand dollars
+in the bank--his inheritance from his mother, who had died when
+he was a baby--and he might, perhaps, be able to persuade his
+father to sanction the purchase.  At any rate, he would have some
+time to invent ways and means; for his father, Captain Carstens,
+was now away on the great annual drill, and would not return for
+some weeks.
+
+As a mere matter of form, he resolved to try the mare before
+bidding on her; and slipping a coin into the groom's hand he
+asked for a saddle.  It turned out, however, that all the saddles
+were in use, and Erik had no choice but to mount bareback.
+
+"Ride her on the snaffle.  She won't stand the curb," shouted the
+groom, as the mare, after plunging to the right and to the left,
+darted through the gate to the track, and, after kicking up a
+vast deal of tan-bark, sped like a bullet down the race-course.
+
+"Good gracious, how recklessly that boy rides!" one jockey
+observed to another; "but he has got a good grip with his knees
+all the same."
+
+"Yes, he sits like a daisy," the second replied, critically; "but
+mind my word, Lady Clare will throw him yet.  She never could
+stand anybody but the princess on her back: and that was the
+reason her Royal Highness was so fond of her.  Mother of Moses,
+won't there be a grand rumpus when she comes back again and finds
+Lady Clare gone!  I should not like to be in the shoes of the man
+who has ordered Lady Clare under the hammer."
+
+"But look at the lad!  I told you Lady Clare wouldn't stand no
+manner of nonsense from boys."
+
+"She is kicking like a Trojan!  She'll make hash of him if he
+loses his seat."
+
+"Yes, but he sticks like a burr.  That's a jewel of a lad, I tell
+ye.  He ought to have been a jockey."
+
+Up the track came Lady Clare, black as the ace of spades, acting
+like the Old Harry.  Something had displeased her, obviously, and
+she held Erik responsible for it.  Possibly she had just waked up
+to the fact that she, who had been the pet of a princess, was now
+being ridden by an ordinary commoner.  At all events, she had
+made up her mind to get rid of the commoner without further
+ceremony.  Putting her fine ears back and dilating her nostrils,
+she suddenly gave a snort and a whisk with her tail, and up went
+her heels toward the eternal stars--that is, if there had been
+any stars visible just then.  Everybody's heart stuck in his
+throat; for fleet-footed racers were speeding round and round,
+and the fellow who got thrown in the midst of all these trampling
+hoofs would have small chance of looking upon the sun again. 
+People instinctively tossed their heads up to see how high he
+would go before coming down again; but, for a wonder, they saw
+nothing, except a cloud of dust mixed with tan-bark, and when
+that had cleared away they discovered the black mare and her
+rider, apparently on the best of terms, dashing up the track at a
+breakneck pace.
+
+Erik was dripping with perspiration when he dismounted, and Lady
+Clare's glossy coat was flecked with foam.  She was not aware,
+apparently, that if she had any reputation to ruin she had
+damaged it most effectually.  Her behavior on the track and her
+treatment of the horse-dealer were by this time common property,
+and every dealer and fancier made a mental note that Lady Clare
+was the number in the catalogue which he would not bid on.  All
+her beauty and her distinguished ancestry counted for nothing, as
+long as she had so uncertain a temper.  Her sire, Potiphar, it
+appeared, had also been subject to the same infirmities of
+temper, and there was a strain of savagery in her blood which
+might crop out when you least expected it.
+
+Accordingly, when a dozen fine horses had been knocked down at
+good prices, and Lady Clare's turn came, no one came forward to
+inspect her, and no one could be found to make a bid.
+
+"Well, well, gentlemen," cried the auctioneer, "here we have a
+beautiful thoroughbred mare, the favorite mount of Her Royal
+Highness the Princess, and not a bid do I hear.  She's a beauty,
+gentlemen, sired by the famous Potiphar who won the Epsom
+Handicap and no end of minor stakes.  Take a look at her,
+gentlemen!  Did you ever see a horse before that was raven black
+from nose to tail?  I reckon you never did.  But such a horse is
+Lady Clare.  The man who can find a single white hair on her can
+have her for a gift.  Come forward, gentlemen, come forward.  Who
+will start her--say at five hundred?"
+
+A derisive laugh ran through the crowd, and a voice was heard to
+cry, "Fifty."
+
+"Fifty!"  repeated the auctioneer, in a deeply grieved and
+injured tone; "fifty did you say, sir? Fifty?  Did I hear
+rightly? I hope, for the sake of the honor of this fair city,
+that my ears deceived me."
+
+Here came a long and impressive pause, during which the
+auctioneer, suddenly abandoning his dramatic manner, chatted
+familiarly with a gentleman who stood near him.  The only one in
+the crowd whom he had impressed with the fact that the honor of
+the city was at stake in this sale was Erik Carstens.  He had
+happily discovered a young and rich lieutenant of his father's
+company, and was trying to persuade him to bid in the mare for
+him.
+
+"But, my dear boy," Lieutenant Thicker exclaimed, "what do you
+suppose the captain will say to me if I aid and abet his son in
+defying the paternal authority?"
+
+"Oh, you needn't bother about that," Erik rejoined eagerly.  "If
+father was at home, I believe he would allow me to buy this mare.
+
+But I am a minor yet, and the auctioneer would not accept my bid.
+
+Therefore I thought you might be kind enough to bid for me."
+
+The lieutenant made no answer, but looked at the earnest face of
+the boy with unmistakable sympathy.  The auctioneer assumed again
+an insulted, affronted, pathetically entreating or scornfully
+repelling tone, according as it suited his purpose; and the price
+of Lady Clare crawled slowly and reluctantly up from fifty to
+seventy dollars.  There it stopped, and neither the auctioneer's
+tears nor his prayers could apparently coax it higher.
+
+"Seventy dollars!"  he cried, as if he were really too shocked to
+speak at all; "seven-ty dollars! Make it eighty!  Oh, it is a sin
+and a shame, gentlemen, and the fair fame of this beautiful city
+is eternally ruined.  It will become a wagging of the head and a
+byword among the nations.  Sev-en-ty dollars!"--then hotly and
+indignantly--"seventy dollars!--fifth and last time, seventy
+dollars!"--here he raised his hammer threateningly--"seventy
+dollars!"
+
+"One hundred!"  cried a high boyish voice, and in an instant
+every neck was craned and every eye was turned toward the corner
+where Erik Carstens was standing, half hidden behind the broad
+figure of Lieutenant Thicker.
+
+"Did I hear a hundred?"  repeated the auctioneer, wonderingly. 
+"May I ask who was the gentleman who said a hundred?"
+
+An embarrassing silence followed.  Erik knew that if he
+acknowledged the bid he would suffer the shame of having it
+refused.  But his excitement and his solicitude for the fair fame
+of his native city had carried him away so completely that the
+words had escaped from his lips before he was fully aware of
+their import.
+
+"May I ask," repeated the wielder of the hammer, slowly and
+emphatically, "may I ask the gentleman who offered one hundred
+dollars for Lady Clare to come forward and give his name?"
+
+He now looked straight at Erik, who blushed to the edge of his
+hair, but did not stir from the spot.  From sheer embarrassment
+he clutched the lieutenant's arm, and almost pinched it.
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon," the officer exclaimed, addressing the
+auctioneer, as if he had suddenly been aroused from a fit of
+abstraction; "I made the bid of one hundred dollars, or--or--at
+any rate, I make it now."
+
+The same performance, intended to force up the price, was
+repeated once more, but with no avail, and at the end of two
+minutes Lady Clare was knocked down to Lieutenant Thicker.
+
+"Now I have gone and done it like the blooming idiot that I am,"
+observed the lieutenant, when Lady Clare was led into his stable
+by a liveried groom.  "What an overhauling the captain will give
+me when he gets home."
+
+"You need have no fear," Erik replied.  "I'll sound father as
+soon as he gets home; and if he makes any trouble I'll pay you
+that one hundred dollars, with interest, the day I come of age."
+
+Well, the captain came home, and having long had the intention to
+present his son with a saddle-horse, he allowed himself to be
+cajoled into approving of the bargain.  The mare was an exquisite
+creature, if ever there was one, and he could well understand how
+Erik had been carried away; Lieutenant Thicker, instead of being
+hauled over the coals, as he had expected, received thanks for
+his kind and generous conduct toward the son of his superior
+officer.  As for Erik himself, he had never had any idea that a
+boy's life could be so glorious as his was now.  Mounted on that
+splendid, coal-black mare, he rode through the city and far out
+into the country at his father's side; and never did it seem to
+him that he had loved his father so well as he did during these
+afternoon rides.  The captain was far from suspecting that in
+that episode of the purchase of Lady Clare his own relation to
+his son had been at stake.  Not that Erik would not have obeyed
+his father, even if he had turned out his rough side and taken
+the lieutenant to task for his kindness; but their relation would
+in that case have lacked the warm intimacy (which in nowise
+excludes obedience and respect) and that last touch of devoted
+admiration which now bound them together.
+
+That fine touch of sympathy in the captain's disposition which
+had enabled him to smile indulgently at his son's enthusiasm for
+the horse made the son doubly anxious not to abuse such kindness,
+and to do everything in his power to deserve the confidence which
+made his life so rich and happy.  Though, as I have said, Captain
+Carstens lacked the acuteness to discover how much he owed to
+Lady Clare, he acknowledged himself in quite a different way her
+debtor.  He had never really been aware what a splendid specimen
+of a boy his son was until he saw him on the back of that
+spirited mare, which cut up with him like the Old Harry, and yet
+never succeeded in flurrying, far less in unseating him.  The
+captain felt a glow of affection warming his breast at the sight
+of this, and his pride in Erik's horsemanship proved a
+consolation to him when the boy's less distinguished performances
+at school caused him fret and worry.
+
+"A boy so full of pluck must amount to something, even if he does
+not take kindly to Latin," he reflected many a time.  "I am
+afraid I have made a mistake in having him prepared for college. 
+In the army now, and particularly in the cavalry, he would make a
+reputation in twenty minutes."
+
+And a cavalryman Erik might, perhaps, have become if his father
+had not been transferred to another post, and compelled to take
+up his residence in the country.  It was nominally a promotion,
+but Captain Carstens was ill pleased with it, and even had some
+thought of resigning rather than give up his delightful city
+life, and move far northward into the region of cod and herring. 
+However, he was too young a man to retire on a pension, as yet,
+and so he gradually reconciled himself to the thought, and sailed
+northward in the month of April with his son and his entire
+household.  It had long been a question whether Lady Clare should
+make the journey with them; for Captain Carstens maintained that
+so high-bred an animal would be very sensitive to climatic
+changes and might even die on the way.  Again, he argued that it
+was an absurdity to bring so fine a horse into a rough country,
+where the roads are poor and where nature, in mercy, provides all
+beasts with rough, shaggy coats to protect them from the cold. 
+How would Lady Clare, with her glossy satin coat, her slender
+legs that pirouetted so daintily over the ground, and her
+exquisite head, which she carried so proudly--how would she look
+and what kind of figure would she cut among the shaggy, stunted,
+sedate-looking nags of the Sognefiord district?  But the captain,
+though what he said was irrefutable, had to suspend all argument
+when he saw how utterly wretched Erik became at the mere thought
+of losing Lady Clare.  So he took his chances; and, after having
+ordered blankets of three different thicknesses for three
+different kinds of weather, shipped the mare with the rest of his
+family for his new northern home.
+
+As the weather proved unusually mild during the northward voyage
+Lady Clare arrived in Sogn without accident or adventure.  And
+never in all her life had she looked more beautiful than she did
+when she came off the steamer, and half the population of the
+valley turned out to see her.  It is no use denying that she was
+as vain as any other professional beauty, and the way she danced
+and pirouetted on the gangplank, when Erik led her on to the
+pier, filled the rustics with amazement.  They had come to look
+at the new captain and his family; but when Lady Clare appeared
+she eclipsed the rest of the company so completely that no one
+had eyes for anybody but her.  As the sun was shining and the
+wind was mild, Erik had taken off her striped overcoat (which
+covered her from nose to tail), for he felt in every fibre of his
+body the sensation she was making, and blushed with pleasure as
+if the admiring exclamations had been intended for himself.
+
+"Look at that horse," cried young and old, with eyes as big as
+saucers, pointing with their fingers at Lady Clare.
+
+"Handsome carcass that mare has," remarked a stoutish man, who
+knew what he was talking about; "and head and legs to match."
+
+"She beats your Valders-Roan all hollow, John Garvestad," said a
+young tease who stood next to him in the crowd.
+
+"My Valders-Roan has never seen his match yet, and never will,
+according to my reckoning," answered John Garvestad.
+
+"Ho!  ho!"  shouted the young fellow, with a mocking laugh; "that
+black mare is a hand taller at the very least, and I bet you
+she's a high-flyer.  She has got the prettiest legs I ever
+clapped eyes on."
+
+"They'd snap like clay pipes in the mountains," replied
+Garvestad, contemptuously.
+
+Erik, as he blushingly ascended the slope to his new home,
+leading Lady Clare by a halter, had no suspicion of the
+sentiments which she had aroused in John Garvestad's breast.  He
+was only blissfully conscious of the admiration she had excited;
+and he promised himself a good deal of fun in future in showing
+off his horsemanship.  He took Lady Clare to the stable, where a
+new box-stall had been made for her, examined the premises
+carefully and nailed a board over a crevice in the wall where he
+suspected a draught.  He instructed Anders, the groom, with
+emphatic and anxious repetitions regarding her care, showed him
+how to make Lady Clare's bed, how to comb her mane, how to brush
+her (for she refused to endure currying), how to blanket her, and
+how to read the thermometer which he nailed to one of the posts
+of the stall.  The latter proved to be a more difficult task than
+he had anticipated; and the worst of it was that he was not sure
+that Anders knew any more on the subject of his instruction at
+the end of the lesson than he had at the beginning.  To make sure
+that he had understood him he asked him to enter the stall and
+begin the process of grooming.  But no sooner had the unhappy
+fellow put his nose inside the door than Lady Clare laid back her
+ears in a very ugly fashion, and with a vicious whisk of her tail
+waltzed around and planted two hoof-marks in the door, just where
+the groom's nose had that very instant vanished.  A second and a
+third trial had similar results; and as the box-stall was new and
+of hard wood, Erik had no wish to see it further damaged.
+
+"I won't have nothin' to do with that hoss, that's as certain as
+my name is Anders," the groom declared; and Erik, knowing that
+persuasion would be useless, had henceforth to be his own groom. 
+The fact was he could not help sympathizing with that
+fastidiousness of Lady Clare which made her object to be handled
+by coarse fingers and roughly curried, combed, and washed like a
+common plebeian nag.  One does not commence life associating with
+a princess for nothing.  Lady Clare, feeling in every nerve her
+high descent and breeding, had perhaps a sense of having come
+down in the world, and, like many another irrational creature of
+her sex, she kicked madly against fate and exhibited the
+unloveliest side of her character.  But with all her skittishness
+and caprice she was steadfast in one thing, and that was her love
+for Erik.  As the days went by in country monotony, he began to
+feel it as a privilege rather than a burden to have the exclusive
+care of her.  The low, friendly neighing with which she always
+greeted him, as soon as he opened the stable-door, was as
+intelligible and dear to him as the warm welcome of a friend. 
+And when with dainty alertness she lifted her small, beautiful
+head, over which the fine net-work of veins meandered, above the
+top of the stall, and rubbed her nose caressingly against his
+cheek, before beginning to snuff at his various pockets for the
+accustomed lump of sugar, he felt a glow of affection spread from
+his heart and pervade his whole being.  Yes, he loved this
+beautiful animal with a devotion which, a year ago, he would
+scarcely have thought it possible to bestow upon a horse.  No one
+could have persuaded him that Lady Clare had not a soul which
+(whether it was immortal or not) was, at all events, as distinct
+and clearly defined as that of any person with whom he was
+acquainted.  She was to him a personality--a dear, charming
+friend, with certain defects of character (as who has not?) which
+were, however, more than compensated for by her devotion to him. 
+She was fastidious, quick-tempered, utterly unreasonable where
+her feelings were involved; full of aristocratic prejudice, which
+only her sex could excuse; and whimsical, proud, and capricious. 
+It was absurd, of course, to contend that these qualities were in
+themselves admirable; but, on the other hand, few of us would not
+consent to overlook them in a friend who loved us as well as Lady
+Clare loved Erik.
+
+The fame of Lady Clare spread through the parish like fire in
+withered grass.  People came from afar to look at her, and
+departed full of wonder at her beauty.  When the captain and his
+son rode together to church on Sunday morning, men, women, and
+children stood in rows at the roadside staring at the wonderful
+mare as if she had been a dromedary or a rhinoceros.  And when
+she was tied in the clergyman's stable a large number of the men
+ignored the admonition of the church bells and missed the sermon,
+being unable to tear themselves away from Lady Clare's charms. 
+But woe to him who attempted to take liberties with her; there
+were two or three horsy young men who had narrow escapes from
+bearing the imprint of her iron shoes for the rest of their days.
+
+That taught the others a lesson, and now Lady Clare suffered from
+no annoying familiarities, but was admired at a respectful
+distance, until the pastor, vexed at her rivalry with his sermon,
+issued orders to have the stable-door locked during service.
+
+There was one person besides the pastor who was ill pleased at
+the reputation Lady Clare was making.  That was John Garvestad,
+the owner of Valders-Roan.  John was the richest man in the
+parish, and always made a point of keeping fine horses. 
+Valders-Roan, a heavily built, powerful horse, with a tremendous
+neck and chest and long tassels on his fetlocks, but rather squat
+in the legs, had hitherto held undisputed rank as the finest
+horse in all Sogn.  By the side of Lady Clare he looked as a
+stout, good-looking peasant lad with coltish manners might have
+looked by the side of the daughter of a hundred earls.
+
+But John Garvestad, who was naturally prejudiced in favor of his
+own horse, could scarcely be blamed for failing to recognize her
+superiority.  He knew that formerly, on Sundays, the men were
+wont to gather with admiring comment about Valders-Roan; while
+now they stood craning their necks, peering through the windows
+of the parson's stable, in order to catch a glimpse of Lady
+Clare, and all the time Valders-Roan was standing tied to the
+fence, in full view of all, utterly neglected.  This spectacle
+filled him with such ire that he hardly could control himself. 
+His first impulse was to pick a quarrel with Erik; but a second
+and far brighter idea presently struck him.  He would buy Lady
+Clare.  Accordingly, when the captain and his son had mounted
+their horses and were about to start on their homeward way,
+Garvestad, putting Valders-Roan to his trumps, dug his heels into
+his sides and rode up with a great flourish in front of the
+churchyard gate.
+
+"How much will you take for that mare of yours, captain?"  he
+asked, as he checked his charger with unnecessary vigor close to
+Lady Clare.
+
+"She is not mine to sell," the captain replied.  "Lady Clare
+belongs to my son."
+
+"Well, what will you take for her, then?"  Garvestad repeated,
+swaggeringly, turning to Erik.
+
+"Not all the gold in the world could buy her," retorted Erik,
+warmly.
+
+Valders-Roan, unable to resist the charms of Lady Clare, had in
+the meanwhile been making some cautious overtures toward an
+acquaintance.  He arched his mighty neck, rose on his hind legs,
+while his tremendous forehoofs were beating the air, and cut up
+generally--all for Lady Clare's benefit.
+
+She, however, having regarded his performances for awhile with a
+mild and somewhat condescending interest, grew a little tired of
+them and looked out over the fiord, as a belle might do, with a
+suppressed yawn, when her cavalier fails to entertain her. 
+Valders-Roan, perceiving the slight, now concluded to make more
+decided advances.  So he put forward his nose until it nearly
+touched Lady Clare's, as if he meant to kiss her.  But that was
+more than her ladyship was prepared to put up with.  Quick as a
+flash she flung herself back on her haunches, down went her ears,
+and hers was the angriest horse's head that ever had been seen in
+that parish.  With an indignant snort she wheeled around, kicking
+up a cloud of dust by the suddenness of the manoeuvre.  A less
+skilled rider than Erik would inevitably have been thrown by two
+such unforeseen jerks; and the fact was he had all he could do to
+keep his seat.
+
+"Oho!"  shouted Garvestad, "your mare shies; she'll break your
+neck some day, as likely as not.  You had better sell her before
+she gets you into trouble."
+
+"But I shouldn't like to have your broken neck on my conscience,"
+Erik replied; "if necks are to be broken by Lady Clare I should
+prefer to have it be my own."
+
+The peasant was not clever enough to make out whether this was
+jest or earnest.  With a puzzled frown he stared at the youth and
+finally broke out:
+
+"Then you won't sell her at no price?  Anyway, the day you change
+your mind don't forget to notify John Garvestad.  If it's
+spondulix you are after, then here's where there's plenty of
+'em."
+
+He slapped his left breast-pocket with a great swagger, looking
+around to observe the impression he was making on his audience;
+then, jerking the bridle violently, so as to make his horse rear,
+he rode off like Alexander on Bucephalus, and swung down upon the
+highway.
+
+It was but a few weeks after this occurrence that Captain
+Carstens and his son were invited to honor John Garvestad by
+their presence at his wedding.  They were in doubt, at first, as
+to whether they ought to accept the invitation; for some
+unpleasant rumors had reached them, showing that Garvestad
+entertained unfriendly feelings toward them.  He was an intensely
+vain man; and the thought that Erik Carstens had a finer horse
+than Valders-Roan left him no peace.  He had been heard to say
+repeatedly that, if that high-nosed youth persisted in his
+refusal to sell the mare, he would discover his mistake when,
+perhaps, it would be too late to have it remedied.  Whatever that
+meant, it sufficed to make both Erik and his father uneasy.  But,
+on the other hand, it would be the worst policy possible, under
+such circumstances, to refuse the invitation.  For that would be
+interpreted either as fear or as aristocratic exclusiveness; and
+the captain, while he was new in the district, was as anxious to
+avoid the appearance of the one as of the other.  Accordingly he
+accepted the invitation and on the appointed day rode with his
+son into the wide yard of John Garvestad's farm, stopping at the
+pump, where they watered their horses.  It was early in the
+afternoon, and both the house and the barn were thronged with
+wedding-guests.  From the sitting-room the strains of two fiddles
+were heard, mingled with the scraping and stamping of heavy feet.
+
+Another musical performance was in progress in the barn; and all
+over the yard elderly men and youths were standing in smaller and
+larger groups, smoking their pipes and tasting the beer-jugs,
+which were passed from hand to hand.  But the moment Lady Clare
+was seen all interest in minor concerns ceased, and with one
+accord the crowd moved toward her, completely encircling her, and
+viewing her with admiring glances that appreciated all her
+perfections.
+
+"Did you ever see cleaner-shaped legs on a horse?"  someone was
+heard to say, and instantly his neighbor in the crowd joined the
+chorus of praise, and added: "What a snap and spring there is in
+every bend of her knee and turn of her neck and flash of her
+eye!"
+
+It was while this chorus of admiration was being sung in all keys
+and tones of the whole gamut, that the bridegroom came out of the
+house, a little bit tipsy, perhaps, from the many toasts he had
+been obliged to drink, and bristling with pugnacity to the ends
+of his fingers and the tips of his hair.  Every word of praise
+that he heard sounded in his ears like a jeer and an insult to
+himself.  With ruthless thrusts he elbowed his way through the
+throng of guests and soon stood in front of the two horses, from
+which the captain and Erik had not yet had a chance to dismount. 
+He returned their greeting with scant courtesy and plunged
+instantly into the matter which he had on his mind.
+
+"I reckon you have thought better of my offer by this time," he
+said, with a surly swagger, to Erik.  "What do you hold your mare
+at to-day?"
+
+"I thought we had settled that matter once for all," the boy
+replied, quietly.  "I have no more intention of selling Lady
+Clare now than I ever had."
+
+"Then will ye trade her off for Valders-Roan?" ejaculated
+Garvestad, eagerly.
+
+"No, I won't trade her for Valders-Roan or any other horse in
+creation."
+
+"Don't be cantankerous, now, young fellow, or you might repent of
+it."
+
+"I am not cantankerous.  But I beg of you kindly to drop this
+matter.  I came here, at your invitation, as a guest at your
+wedding, not for the purpose of trading horses."
+
+It was an incautious speech, and was interpreted by everyone
+present as a rebuke to the bridegroom for his violation of the
+rules of hospitality.  The captain, anxious to avoid a row,
+therefore broke in, in a voice of friendly remonstrance: "My dear
+Mr. Garvestad, do let us drop this matter.  If you will permit
+us, we should like to dismount and drink a toast to your health,
+wishing you a long life and much happiness."
+
+"Ah, yes, I understand your smooth palaver," the bridegroom
+growled between his teeth.  "I have stood your insolence long
+enough, and, by jingo, I won't stand it much longer.  What will
+ye take for your mare, I say, or how much do you want to boot, if
+you trade her for Valders-Roan?"
+
+He shouted the last words with furious emphasis, holding his
+clinched fist up toward Erik, and glaring at him savagely.
+
+But now Lady Clare, who became frightened perhaps by the loud
+talk and violent gestures, began to rear and plunge, and by an
+unforeseen motion knocked against the bridegroom, so that he fell
+backward into the horse-trough under the pump, which was full of
+water.  The wedding-guests had hardly time to realize what was
+happening when a great splash sent the water flying into their
+faces, and the burly form of John Garvestad was seen sprawling
+helplessly in the horse-trough.  But then--then they realized it
+with a vengeance.  And a laugh went up--a veritable storm of
+laughter--which swept through the entire crowd and re-echoed with
+a ghostly hilarity from the mountains.  John Garvestad in the
+meanwhile had managed to pick himself out of the horse-trough,
+and while he stood snorting, spitting, and dripping, Captain
+Carstens and his son politely lifted their hats to him and rode
+away.  But as they trotted out of the gate they saw their host
+stretch a big clinched fist toward them, and heard him scream
+with hoarse fury: "I'll make ye smart for that some day, so help
+me God!"
+
+Lady Clare was not sent to the mountains in the summer, as are
+nearly all horses in the Norwegian country districts.  She was
+left untethered in an enclosed home pasture about half a mile
+from the mansion.  Here she grazed, rolled, kicked up her heels,
+and gambolled to her heart's content.  During the long, bright
+summer nights, when the sun scarcely dips beneath the horizon and
+reappears in an hour, clothed in the breezy garments of morning,
+she was permitted to frolic, race, and play all sorts of
+improvised games with a shaggy, little, plebeian three-year-old
+colt whom she had condescended to honor with her acquaintance. 
+This colt must have had some fine feeling under his rough coat,
+for he never presumed in the least upon the acquaintance, being
+perhaps aware of the honor it conferred upon him.  He allowed
+himself to be abused, ignored, or petted, as it might suit the
+pleasure of her royal highness, with a patient, even-tempered
+good-nature which was admirable.  When Lady Clare (perhaps for
+fear of making him conceited) took no notice of him, he showed
+neither resentment nor surprise, but walked off with a sheepish
+shake of his head.  Thus he slowly learned the lesson to make no
+exhibition of feeling at the sight of his superior; not to run up
+and greet her with a disrespectfully joyous whinny; but calmly
+wait for her to recognize him before appearing to be aware of her
+presence.  It took Lady Clare several months to accustom Shag
+(for that was the colt's name) to her ways.  She taught him
+unconsciously the rudiments of good manners; but he proved
+himself docile, and when he once had been reduced to his proper
+place he proved a fairly acceptable companion.
+
+During the first and second week after John Garvestad's wedding
+Erik had kept Lady Clare stabled, having a vague fear that the
+angry peasant might intend to do her harm.  But she whinnied so
+pitifully through the long light nights that finally he allowed
+his compassion to get the better of his anxiety, and once more
+she was seen racing madly about the field with Shag, whom she
+always beat so ignominiously that she felt half sorry for him,
+and as a consolation allowed him gently to claw her mane with his
+teeth.  This was a privilege which Shag could not fail to
+appreciate, though she never offered to return the favor by
+clawing him.  At any rate, as soon as Lady Clare reappeared in
+the meadow Shag's cup of bliss seemed to be full.
+
+A week passed in this way, nothing happened, and Erik's vigilance
+was relaxed.  He went to bed on the evening of July 10th with an
+easy mind, without the remotest apprehension of danger.  The sun
+set about ten o'clock, and Lady Clare and Shag greeted its last
+departing rays with a whinny, accompanied by a wanton kickup from
+the rear--for whatever Lady Clare did Shag felt in honor bound to
+do, and was conscious of no disgrace in his abject and ape-like
+imitation.  They had spent an hour, perhaps, in such delightful
+performances, when all of a sudden they were startled by a deep
+bass whinny, which rumbled and shook like distant thunder.  Then
+came the tramp, tramp, tramp of heavy hoof-beats, which made the
+ground tremble.  Lady Clare lifted her beautiful head and looked
+with fearless curiosity in the direction whence the sound came. 
+Shag, of course, did as nearly as he could exactly the same. 
+What they saw was a big roan horse with an enormous arched neck,
+squat feet, and long-tasselled fetlocks.
+
+Lady Clare had no difficulty in recognizing Valders-Roan.  But
+how big and heavy and ominous he looked in the blood-red
+after-glow of the blood-red sunset.  For the first time in her
+life Lady Clare felt a cold shiver of fear run through her. 
+There was, happily, a fence between them, and she devoutly hoped
+that Valders-Roan was not a jumper.  At that moment, however, two
+men appeared next to the huge horse, and Lady Clare heard the
+sound of breaking fence-rails.  The deep hoarse whinny once more
+made the air shake, and it made poor Lady Clare shake too, for
+now she saw Valders-Roan come like a whirlwind over the field,
+and so powerful were his hoof-beats that a clod of earth which
+had stuck to one of his shoes shot like a bullet through the air.
+
+He looked so gigantic, so brimming with restrained strength, and
+somehow Lady Clare, as she stood quaking at the sight of him, had
+never seemed to herself so dainty, frail, and delicate as she
+seemed in this moment.  She felt herself so entirely at his
+mercy; she was no match for him surely.  Shag, anxious as ever to
+take his cue from her, had stationed himself at her side, and
+shook his head and whisked his tail in a non-committal manner. 
+Now Valders-Roan had cleared the fence where the men had broken
+it down; then on he came again, tramp, tramp, tramp, until he was
+within half a dozen paces from Lady Clare.  There he stopped, for
+back went Lady Clare's pretty ears, while she threw herself upon
+her haunches in an attitude of defence.  She was dimly aware that
+this was a foolish thing to do, but her inbred disdain and horror
+of everything rough made her act on instinct instead of reason. 
+Valders-Roan, irritated by this uncalled-for action, now threw
+ceremony to the winds, and without further ado trotted up and
+rubbed his nose against hers.  That was more than Lady Clare
+could stand.  With an hysterical snort she flung herself about,
+and up flew her heels straight into the offending nose,
+inflicting considerable damage.  Shag, being now quite clear that
+the programme was fight, whisked about in exactly the same
+manner, with as close an imitation of Lady Clare's snort as he
+could produce, and a second pair of steel-shod heels came within
+a hair of reducing the enemy's left nostril to the same condition
+as the right.  But alas for the generous folly of youth!  Shag
+had to pay dearly for that exhibition of devotion.  Valders-Roan,
+enraged by this wanton insult, made a dash at Shag, and by the
+mere impetus of his huge bulk nearly knocked him senseless.  The
+colt rolled over, flung all his four legs into the air, and as
+soon as he could recover his footing reeled sideways like a
+drunken man and made haste to retire to a safe distance.
+
+Valders-Roan had now a clear field and could turn his undivided
+attention to Lady Clare.  I am not sure that he had not made an
+example of Shag merely to frighten her.  Bounding forward with
+his mighty chest expanded and the blood dripping from his
+nostrils, he struck out with a tremendous hind leg and would have
+returned Lady Clare's blow with interest if she had not leaped
+high into the air.  She had just managed by her superior
+alertness to dodge that deadly hoof, and was perhaps not prepared
+for an instant renewal of the attack.  But she had barely gotten
+her four feet in contact with the sod when two rows of terrific
+teeth plunged into her withers.  The pain was frightful, and with
+a long, pitiful scream Lady Clare sank down upon the ground, and,
+writhing with agony, beat the air with her hoofs.  Shag, who had
+by this time recovered his senses, heard the noise of the battle,
+and, plucking up his courage, trotted bravely forward against the
+victorious Valders-Roan.  He was so frightened that his heart
+shot up into his throat.  But there lay Lady Clare mangled and
+bleeding.  He could not leave her in the lurch, so forward he
+came, trembling, just as Lady Clare was trying to scramble to her
+feet.  Led away by his sympathy Shag bent his head down toward
+her and thereby prevented her from rising.  And in the same
+instant a stunning blow hit him straight in the forehead, a
+shower of sparks danced before his eyes, and then Shag saw and
+heard no more.  A convulsive quiver ran through his body, then he
+stretched out his neck on the bloody grass, heaved a sigh, and
+died.
+
+Lady Clare, seeing Shag killed by the blow which had been
+intended for herself, felt her blood run cold.  She was strongly
+inclined to run, for she could easily beat the heavy Valders-Roan
+at a race, and her fleet legs might yet save her.  I cannot say
+whether it was a generous wrath at the killing of her humble
+champion or a mere blind fury which overcame this inclination. 
+But she knew now neither pain nor fear.  With a shrill scream she
+rushed at Valders-Roan, and for five minutes a whirling cloud of
+earth and grass and lumps of sod moved irregularly over the
+field, and tails, heads, and legs were seen flung and tossed
+madly about, while an occasional shriek of rage or of pain
+startled the night, and re-echoed with a weird resonance between
+the mountains.
+
+It was about five o'clock in the morning of July 11th, that Erik
+awoke, with a vague sense that something terrible had happened. 
+His groom was standing at his bedside with a terrified face,
+doubtful whether to arouse his young master or allow him to
+sleep.
+
+"What has happened, Anders?"  cried Erik, tumbling out of bed.
+
+"Lady Clare, sir----"
+
+"Lady Clare!"  shouted the boy.  "What about her? Has she been
+stolen?"
+
+"No, I reckon not," drawled Anders.
+
+"Then she's dead!  Quick, tell me what you know or I shall go
+crazy!"
+
+"No; I can't say for sure she's dead either," the groom
+stammered, helplessly.
+
+Erik, being too stunned with grief and pain, tumbled in a dazed
+fashion about the room, and scarcely knew how he managed to
+dress.  He felt cold, shivery, and benumbed; and the daylight had
+a cruel glare in it which hurt his eyes.  Accompanied by his
+groom, he hastened to the home pasture, and saw there the
+evidence of the fierce battle which had raged during the night. 
+A long, black, serpentine track, where the sod had been torn up
+by furious hoof-beats, started from the dead carcass of the
+faithful Shag and moved with irregular breaks and curves up
+toward the gate that connected the pasture with the underbrush of
+birch and alder.  Here the fence had been broken down, and the
+track of the fight suddenly ceased.  A pool of blood had soaked
+into the ground, showing that one of the horses, and probably the
+victor, must have stood still for a while, allowing the
+vanquished to escape.
+
+Erik had no need of being told that the horse which had attacked
+Lady Clare was Valders-Roan; and though he would scarcely have
+been able to prove it, he felt positive that John Garvestad had
+arranged and probably watched the fight.  Having a wholesome
+dread of jail, he had not dared to steal Lady Clare; but he had
+chosen this contemptible method to satisfy his senseless
+jealousy.  It was all so cunningly devised as to baffle legal
+inquiry.  Valders-Roan had gotten astray, and being a heavy
+beast, had broken into a neighbor's field and fought with his
+filly, chasing her away into the mountains.  That was the story
+he would tell, of course, and as there had been no witnesses
+present, there was no way of disproving it.
+
+Abandoning, however, for the time being all thought of revenge,
+Erik determined to bend all his energies to the recovery of Lady
+Clare.  He felt confident that she had run away from her
+assailant, and was now roaming about in the mountains.  He
+therefore organized a search party of all the male servants on
+the estate, besides a couple of volunteers, making in all nine. 
+On the evening of the first day's search they put up at a saeter
+or mountain chalet.  Here they met a young man named Tollef
+Morud, who had once been a groom at John Garvestad's.  This man
+had a bad reputation; and as the idea occurred to some of them
+that he might know something about Lady Clare's disappearance,
+they questioned him at great length, without, however, eliciting
+a single crumb of information.
+
+For a week the search was continued, but had finally to be given
+up.  Weary, footsore, and heavy hearted, Erik returned home.  His
+grief at the loss of Lady Clare began to tell on his health; and
+his perpetual plans for getting even with John Garvestad amounted
+almost to a mania, and caused his father both trouble and
+anxiety.  It was therefore determined to send him to the military
+academy in the capital.
+
+Four or five years passed and Erik became a lieutenant.  It was
+during the first year after his graduation from the military
+academy that he was invited to spend the Christmas holidays with
+a friend, whose parents lived on a fine estate about twenty miles
+from the city.  Seated in their narrow sleighs, which were drawn
+by brisk horses, they drove merrily along, shouting to each other
+to make their voices heard above the jingling of the bells. 
+About eight o'clock in the evening, when the moon was shining
+brightly and the snow sparkling, they turned in at a wayside
+tavern to order their supper.  Here a great crowd of lumbermen
+had congregated, and all along the fences their overworked, half-
+broken-down horses stood, shaking their nose-bags.  The air in
+the public room was so filled with the fumes of damp clothes and
+bad tobacco that Erik and his friend, while waiting for their
+meal, preferred to spend the time under the radiant sky.  They
+were sauntering about, talking in a desultory fashion, when all
+of a sudden a wild, joyous whinny rang out upon the startled air.
+
+It came from a rusty, black, decrepit-looking mare hitched to a
+lumber sleigh which they had just passed.  Erik, growing very
+serious, paused abruptly.
+
+A second whinny, lower than the first, but almost alluring and
+cajoling, was so directly addressed to Erik that he could not
+help stepping up to the mare and patting her on the nose.
+
+"You once had a horse you cared a great deal for, didn't you?" 
+his friend remarked, casually.
+
+"Oh, don't speak about it," answered Erik, in a voice that shook
+with emotion; "I loved Lady Clare as I never loved any creature
+in this world--except my father, of course," he added,
+reflectively.
+
+But what was the matter with the old lumber nag?  At the sound of
+the name Lady Clare she pricked up her ears, and lifted her head
+with a pathetic attempt at alertness.  With a low, insinuating
+neighing she rubbed her nose against the lieutenant's cheek.  He
+had let his hand glide over her long, thin neck, when quite
+suddenly his fingers slid into a deep scar in the withers.
+
+"My God!"  he cried, while the tears started to his eyes, "am I
+awake, or am I dreaming?"
+
+"What in the world is the matter?"  inquired his comrade,
+anxiously.
+
+"It is Lady Clare!  By the heavens, it is Lady Clare!"
+
+"That old ramshackle of a lumber nag whose every rib you can
+count through her skin is your beautiful thoroughbred?" 
+ejaculated his friend, incredulously.  "Come now, don't be a
+goose."
+
+"I'll tell you of it some other time," said Erik, quietly; "but
+there's not a shadow of a doubt that this is Lady Clare."
+
+Yes, strange as it may seem, it was indeed Lady Clare.  But oh,
+who would have recognized in this skeleton, covered with a
+rusty-black skin and tousled mane and forelock in which chaff and
+dirt were entangled--who would have recognized in this drooping
+and rickety creature the proud, the dainty, the exquisite Lady
+Clare?  Her beautiful tail, which had once been her pride, was
+now a mere scanty wisp; and a sharp, gnarled ridge running along
+the entire length of her back showed every vertebra of her spine
+through the notched and scarred skin.  Poor Lady Clare, she had
+seen hard usage.  But now the days of her tribulations are at an
+end.  It did not take Erik long to find the half-tipsy lumberman
+who was Lady Clare's owner; nor to agree with him on the price
+for which he was willing to part with her.
+
+There is but little more to relate.  By interviews and
+correspondence with the different parties through whose hands the
+mare had passed, Erik succeeded in tracing her to Tollef Morud,
+the ex-groom of John Garvestad.  On being promised immunity from
+prosecution, he was induced to confess that he had been hired by
+his former master to arrange the nocturnal fight between Lady
+Clare and Valders-Roan, and had been paid ten dollars for
+stealing the mare when she had been sufficiently damaged.  John
+Garvestad had himself watched the fight from behind the fence,
+and had laughed fit to split his sides, until Valders-Roan seemed
+on the point of being worsted.  Then he had interfered to
+separate them, and Tollef had led Lady Clare away, bleeding from
+a dozen wounds, and had hidden her in a deserted lumberman's shed
+near the saeter where the searchers had overtaken him.
+
+Having obtained these facts, Erik took pains to let John
+Garvestad know that the chain of evidence against him was
+complete, and if he had had his own way he would not have rested
+until his enemy had suffered the full penalty of the law.  But
+John Garvestad, suspecting what was in the young man's mind,
+suddenly divested himself of his pride, and cringing dike a
+whipped dog, came and asked Erik's pardon, entreating him not to
+prosecute.
+
+As for Lady Clare, she never recovered her lost beauty.  A pretty
+fair-looking mare she became, to be sure, when good feeding and
+careful grooming had made her fat and glossy once more.  A long
+and contented old age is, no doubt, in store for her.  Having
+known evil days, she appreciates the blessings which the change
+in her fate has brought her.  The captain declares she is the
+best-tempered and steadiest horse in his stable.
+
+
+
+BONNYBOY
+
+I.
+
+"Oh, you never will amount to anything, Bonnyboy!"  said
+Bonnyboy's father, when he had vainly tried to show him how to
+use a gouge; for Bonnyboy had just succeeded in gouging a piece
+out of his hand, and was standing helplessly, letting his blood
+drop on an engraving of Napoleon at Austerlitz, which had been
+sent to his father for framing.  The trouble with Bonnyboy was
+that he was not only awkward--left-handed in everything he
+undertook, as his father put it--but he was so very good-natured
+that it was impossible to get angry with him.  His large blue
+innocent eyes had a childlike wonder in them, when he had done
+anything particularly stupid, and he was so willing and anxious
+to learn, that his ill-success seemed a reason for pity rather
+than for wrath.  Grim Norvold, Bonnyboy's father, was by trade a
+carpenter, and handy as he was at all kinds of tinkering, he
+found it particularly exasperating to have a son who was so
+left-handed.  There was scarcely anything Grim could not do.  He
+could take a watch apart and put it together again; he could mend
+a harness if necessary; he could make a wagon; nay, he could even
+doctor a horse when it got spavin or glanders.  He was a sort of
+jack-of-all-trades, and a very useful man in a valley where
+mechanics were few and transportation difficult.  He loved work
+for its own sake, and was ill at ease when he had not a tool in
+his hand.  The exercise of his skill gave him a pleasure akin to
+that which the fish feels in swimming, the eagle in soaring, and
+the lark in singing.  A finless fish, a wingless eagle, or a dumb
+lark could not have been more miserable than Grim was when a
+succession of holidays, like Easter or Christmas, compelled him
+to be idle.
+
+When his son was born his chief delight was to think of the time
+when he should be old enough to handle a tool, and learn the
+secrets of his father's trade.  Therefore, from the time the boy
+was old enough to sit or to crawl in the shavings without getting
+his mouth and eyes full of sawdust, he gave him a place under the
+turning bench, and talked or sang to him while he worked.  And
+Bonnyboy, in the meanwhile amused himself by getting into all
+sorts of mischief.  If it had not been for the belief that a good
+workman must grow up in the atmosphere of the shop, Grim would
+have lost patience with his son and sent him back to his mother,
+who had better facilities for taking care of him.  But the fact
+was he was too fond of the boy to be able to dispense with him,
+and he would rather bear the loss resulting from his mischief
+than miss his prattle and his pretty dimpled face.
+
+It was when the child was eighteen or nineteen months old that he
+acquired the name Bonnyboy.  A woman of the neighborhood, who had
+called at the shop with some article of furniture which she
+wanted to have mended, discovered the infant in the act of
+investigating a pot of blue paint, with a part of which he had
+accidentally decorated his face.
+
+"Good gracious! what is that ugly thing you have got under your
+turning bench?" she cried, staring at the child in amazement.
+
+"No, he is not an ugly thing," replied the father, with
+resentment; "he is a bonny boy, that's what he is."
+
+The woman, in order to mollify Grim, turned to the boy, and
+asked, with her sweetest manner, "What is your name, child?"
+
+"Bonny boy," murmured the child, with a vaguely offended
+air--"bonny boy."
+
+And from that day the name Bonnyboy clung to him.
+
+
+II.
+
+To teach Bonnyboy the trade of a carpenter was a task which would
+have exhausted the patience of all the saints in the calendar. 
+If there was any possible way of doing a thing wrong, Bonnyboy
+would be sure to hit upon that way.  When he was eleven years old
+he chopped off the third joint of the ring-finger on his right
+hand with a cutting tool while working the turning-lathe; and by
+the time he was fourteen it seemed a marvel to his father that he
+had any fingers left at all.  But Bonnyboy persevered in spite of
+all difficulties, was always cheerful and of good courage, and
+when his father, in despair, exclaimed:  "Well, you will never
+amount to anything, Bonnyboy," he would look up with his slow,
+winning smile and say:
+
+"Don't worry, father.  Better luck next time."
+
+"But, my dear boy, how can I help worrying, when you don't learn
+anything by which you can make your living?"
+
+"Oh, well, father," said Bonnyboy, soothingly (for he was
+beginning to feel sorry on his father's account rather than on
+his own), "I wouldn't bother about that if I were you.  I don't
+worry a bit.  Something will turn up for me to do, sooner or
+later."
+
+"But you'll do it badly, Bonnyboy, and then you won't get a
+second chance.  And then, who knows but you may starve to death. 
+You'll chop off the fingers you have left; and when I am dead and
+can no longer look after you, I am very much afraid you'll manage
+to chop off your head too."
+
+"Well," observed Bonnyboy, cheerfully, "in that case I shall not
+starve to death."
+
+Grim had to laugh in spite of himself at the paternal way in
+which his son comforted him, as if he were the party to be
+pitied.  Bonnyboy's unfailing cheerfulness, which had its great
+charm, began to cause him uneasiness, because he feared it was
+but another form of stupidity.  A cleverer boy would have been
+sorry for his mistakes and anxious about his own future.  But
+Bonnyboy looked into the future with the serene confidence of a
+child, and nothing under the sun ever troubled him, except his
+father's tendency to worry.  For he was very fond of his father,
+and praised him as a paragon of skill and excellence.  He
+lavished an abject admiration on everything he did and said.  His
+dexterity in the use of tools, and his varied accomplishments as
+a watch-maker and a horse-doctor, filled Bonnyboy with ungrudging
+amazement.  He knew it was a hopeless thing for him to aspire to
+rival such genius, and he took the thing philosophically, and did
+not aspire.
+
+It occurred to Grim one day, when Bonnyboy had made a most
+discouraging exhibition of his awkwardness, that it might be a
+good thing to ask the pastor's advice in regard to him.  The
+pastor had had a long experience in educating children, and his
+own, though they were not all clever, promised to turn out well. 
+Accordingly Grim called at the parsonage, was well received, and
+returned home charged to the muzzle with good advice.  The pastor
+lent him a book full of stories, and recommended him to read them
+to his son, and afterward question him about every single fact
+which each story contained.  This the pastor had found to be a
+good way to develop the intellect of a backward boy.
+
+
+III.
+
+When Bonnyboy had been confirmed, the question again rose what
+was to become of him.  He was now a tall young fellow,
+red-checked, broad-shouldered, and strong, and rather
+nice-looking.  A slow, good-natured smile spread over his face
+when anyone spoke to him, and he had a way of flinging his head
+back, when the tuft of yellow hair which usually hung down over
+his forehead obscured his sight.  Most people liked him, even
+though they laughed at him behind his back; but to his face
+nobody laughed, because his strength inspired respect.  Nor did
+he know what fear was when he was roused; but that was probably,
+as people thought, because he did not know much of anything.  At
+any rate, on a certain occasion he showed that there was a limit
+to his good-nature, and when that limit was reached, he was not
+as harmless a fellow as he looked.
+
+On the neighboring farm of Gimlehaug there was a wedding to which
+Grim and his son were invited.  On the afternoon of the second
+wedding day--for peasant weddings in Norway are often celebrated
+for three days--a notorious bully named Ola Klemmerud took it
+into his head to have some sport with the big good-natured
+simpleton.  So, by way of pleasantry, he pulled the tuft of hair
+which hung down upon Bonnyboy's forehead.
+
+"Don't do that," said Bonnyboy.
+
+Ola Klemmerud chuckled, and the next time he passed Bonnyboy,
+pinched his ear.
+
+"If you do that again I sha'n't like you," cried Bonnyboy.
+
+The innocence of that remark made the people laugh, and the
+bully, seeing that their sympathy was on his side, was encouraged
+to continue his teasing.  Taking a few dancing steps across the
+floor, he managed to touch Bonnyboy's nose with the toe of his
+boot, which feat again was rewarded with a burst of laughter. 
+The poor lad quietly blew his nose, wiped the perspiration off
+his brow with a red handkerchief, and said, "Don't make me mad,
+Ola, or I might hurt you."
+
+This speech struck the company as being immensely funny, and they
+laughed till the tears ran down their cheeks.  At this moment
+Grim entered, and perceived at once that Ola Klemmerud was
+amusing the company at his son's expense.  He grew hot about his
+ears, clinched his teeth, and stared challengingly at the bully. 
+The latter began to feel uncomfortable, but he could not stop at
+this point without turning the laugh against himself, and that he
+had not the courage to do.  So in order to avoid rousing the
+father's wrath, and yet preserving his own dignity, he went over
+to Bonnyboy, rumpled his hair with both his hands, and tweaked
+his nose.  This appeared such innocent sport, according to his
+notion, that no rational creature could take offence at it.  But
+Grim, whose sense of humor was probably defective, failed to see
+it in that light.
+
+"Let the boy alone," he thundered.
+
+"Well, don't bite my head off, old man," replied Ola.  "I haven't
+hurt your fool of a boy.  I have only been joking with him."
+
+"I don't think you are troubled with overmuch wit yourself,
+judging by the style of your jokes," was Grim's cool retort.
+
+The company, who plainly saw that Ola was trying to wriggle out
+of his difficulty, but were anxious not to lose an exciting
+scene, screamed with laughter again; but this time at the bully's
+expense.  The blood mounted to his head, and his anger got the
+better of his natural cowardice.  Instead of sneaking off, as he
+had intended, he wheeled about on his heel and stood for a moment
+irresolute, clinching his fist in his pocket.
+
+"Why don't you take your lunkhead of a son home to his mother, if
+he isn't bright enough to understand fun!"  he shouted.
+
+"Now let me see if you are bright enough to understand the same
+kind of fun," cried Grim.  Whereupon he knocked off Ola's cap,
+rumpled his hair, and gave his nose such a pull that it was a
+wonder it did not come off.
+
+The bully, taken by surprise, tumbled a step backward, but
+recovering himself, struck Grim in the face with his clinched
+fist.  At this moment.  Bonnyboy, who had scarcely taken in the
+situation; jumped up and screamed, "Sit down, Ola Klemmerud, sit
+down!"
+
+The effect of this abrupt exclamation was so comical, that people
+nearly fell from their benches as they writhed and roared with
+laughter.
+
+Bonnyboy, who had risen to go to his father's assistance, paused
+in astonishment in the middle of the floor.  He could not
+comprehend, poor boy, why everything he said provoked such
+uncontrollable mirth.  He surely had no intention of being funny.
+
+So, taken aback a little, he repeated to himself, half
+wonderingly, with an abrupt pause after each word,
+"Sit--down--Ola--Klemmerud--sit--down!"
+
+But Ola Klemmerud, instead of sitting down, hit Grim repeatedly
+about the face and head, and it was evident that the elder man,
+in spite of his strength, was not a match for him in alertness. 
+This dawned presently upon Bonnyboy's slow comprehension, and his
+good-natured smile gave way to a flush of excitement.  He took
+two long strides across the floor, pushed his father gently
+aside, and stood facing his antagonist.  He repeated once more
+his invitation to sit down; to which the latter responded with a
+slap which made the sparks dance before Bonnyboy's eyes.  Now
+Bonnyboy became really angry.  Instead of returning the slap, he
+seized his enemy with a sudden and mighty grab by both his
+shoulders, lifted him up as if he were a bag of hay, and put him
+down on a chair with such force that it broke into splinters
+under him.
+
+"Will you now sit down?"  said Bonnyboy.
+
+Nobody laughed this time, and the bully, not daring to rise,
+remained seated on the floor among the ruins of the chair. 
+Thereupon, with imperturbable composure, Bonnyboy turned to his
+father, brushed off his coat with his hands and smoothed his
+disordered hair.  "Now let us go home, father," he said, and
+taking the old man's arm he walked out of the room.  But hardly
+had he crossed the threshold before the astonished company broke
+into cheering.
+
+"Good for you, Bonnyboy!"  "Well done, Bonnyboy!" "You are a
+bully boy, Bonnyboy!"  they cried after him.
+
+But Bonnyboy strode calmly along, quite unconscious of his
+triumph, and only happy to have gotten his father out of the room
+safe and sound.  For a good while they walked on in silence. 
+Then, when the effect of the excitement had begun to wear away,
+Grim stopped in the path, gazed admiringly at his son, and said,
+"Well, Bonnyboy, you are a queer fellow."
+
+"Oh, yes," answered Bonnyboy, blushing with embarrassment (for
+though he did not comprehend the remark, he felt the approving
+gaze); "but then, you know, I asked him to sit down, and he
+wouldn't."
+
+"Bless your innocent heart!"  murmured his father, as he gazed at
+Bonnyboy's honest face with a mingling of affection and pity.
+
+
+IV.
+
+When Bonnyboy was twenty years old his father gave up, once for
+all, his attempt to make a carpenter of him.  A number of
+saw-mills had been built during the last years along the river
+down in the valley, and the old rapids had been broken up into a
+succession of mill-dams, one above the other.  At one of these
+saw-mills Bonnyboy sought work, and was engaged with many others
+as a mill hand.  His business was to roll the logs on to the
+little trucks that ran on rails, and to push them up to the saws,
+where they were taken in charge by another set of men, who
+fastened and watched them while they were cut up into planks. 
+Very little art was, indeed, required for this simple task; but
+strength was required, and of this Bonnyboy had enough and to
+spare.  He worked with a will from early morn till dewy eve, and
+was happy in the thought that he had at last found something that
+he could do.  It made the simple-hearted fellow proud to observe
+that he was actually gaining his father's regard; or, at all
+events, softening the disappointment which, in a vague way, he
+knew that his dulness must have caused him.  If, occasionally, he
+was hurt by a rolling log, he never let any one know it; but even
+though his foot was a mass of agony every time he stepped on it,
+he would march along as stiffly as a soldier.  It was as if he
+felt his father's eye upon him long before he saw him.
+
+There was a curious kind of sympathy between them which expressed
+itself, on the father's part, in a need to be near his son.  But
+he feared to avow any such weakness, knowing that Bonnyboy would
+interpret it as distrust of his ability to take care of himself,
+and a desire to help him if he got into trouble.  Grim,
+therefore, invented all kinds of transparent pretexts for paying
+visits to the saw-mills.  And when he saw Bonnyboy, conscious
+that his eye was resting upon him, swinging his axe so that the
+chips flew about his ears, and the perspiration rained from his
+brow, a dim anxiety often took possession of him, though he could
+give no reason for it.  That big brawny fellow, with the frame of
+a man and the brain of a child, with his guileless face and his
+guileless heart, strangely moved his compassion.  There was
+something almost beautiful about him, his father thought; but he
+could not have told what it was; nor would he probably have found
+any one else that shared his opinion.  That frank and genial gaze
+of Bonnyboy's, which expressed goodness of heart but nothing
+else, seemed to Grim an "open sesame" to all hearts; and that
+unawakened something which goes so well with childhood, but not
+with adult age, filled him with tenderness and a vague anxiety. 
+"My poor lad," he would murmur to himself, as he caught sight of
+Bonnyboy's big perspiring face, with the yellow tuft of hair
+hanging down over his forehead, "clever you are not; but you have
+that which the cleverest of us often lack."
+
+
+V.
+
+There were sixteen saw-mills in all, and the one at which
+Bonnyboy was employed was the last of the series.  They were
+built on little terraces on both banks of the river, and every
+four of them were supplied with power from an artificial dam, in
+which the water was stored in time of drought, and from which it
+escaped in a mill-race when required for use.  These four dams
+were built of big stones, earthwork, and lumber, faced with
+smooth planks, over which a small quantity of water usually
+drizzled into the shallow river-bed.  Formerly, before the power
+was utilized, this slope had been covered with seething and
+swirling rapids--a favorite resort of the salmon, which leaped
+high in the spring, and were caught in the box-traps that hung on
+long beams over the water.  Now the salmon had small chance of
+shedding their spawn in the cool, bright mountain pools, for they
+could not leap the dams, and if by chance one got into the mill-
+race, it had a hopeless struggle against a current that would
+have carried an elephant off his feet.  Bonnyboy, who more than
+once had seen the beautiful silvery fish spring right on to the
+millwheel, and be flung upon the rocks, had wished that he had
+understood the language of the fishes, so that he might tell them
+how foolish such proceedings were.  But merciful though he was,
+he had been much discouraged when, after having put them back
+into the river, they had promptly repeated the experiment.
+
+There were about twenty-five or thirty men employed at the mill
+where Bonnyboy earned his bread in the sweat of his brow, and he
+was, on the whole, on good terms with all of them.  They did, to
+be sure, make fun of him occasionally; but sometimes he failed to
+understand it, and at other times he made clumsy but good-humored
+attempts to repay their gibes in kind.  They took good care,
+however, not to rouse his wrath, for the reputation he had
+acquired by his treatment of Ola Klemmerud made them afraid to
+risk a collision.
+
+This was the situation when the great floods of 188- came, and
+introduced a spice of danger into Bonnyboy's monotonous life. 
+The mill-races were now kept open night and day, and yet the
+water burst like a roaring cascade over the tops of dams, and the
+river-bed was filled to overflowing with a swiftly-hurrying tawny
+torrent, which filled the air with its rush and swash, and sent
+hissing showers of spray flying through the tree-tops.  Bonnyboy
+and a gang of twenty men were working as they had never worked
+before in their lives, under the direction of an engineer, who
+had been summoned by the mill-owner to strengthen the dams; for
+if but one of them burst, the whole tremendous volume of water
+would be precipitated upon the valley, and the village by the
+lower falls and every farm within half a mile of the river-banks
+would be swept out of existence.  Guards were stationed all the
+way up the river to intercept any stray lumber that might be
+afloat.  For if a log jam were added to the terrific strain of
+the flood, there would surely be no salvation possible.  Yet in
+spite of all precautions, big logs now and then came bumping
+against the dams, and shot with wild gyrations and somersaults
+down into the brown eddies below.
+
+The engineer, who was standing on the top of a log pile, had
+shouted until he was hoarse, and gesticulated with his cane until
+his arms were lame, but yet there was a great deal to do before
+he could go to bed with an easy conscience.  Bonnyboy and his
+comrades, who had had by far the harder part of the task, were
+ready to drop with fatigue.  It was now eight o'clock in the
+evening, and they had worked since six in the morning, and had
+scarcely had time to swallow their scant rations.  Some of them
+began to grumble, and the engineer had to coax and threaten them
+to induce them to persevere for another hour.  The moon was just
+rising behind the mountain ridges, and the beautiful valley lay,
+with its green fields, sprouting forests, and red-painted
+farm-houses, at Bonnyboy's feet.  It was terrible to think that
+perhaps destruction was to overtake those happy and peaceful
+homes, where men had lived and died for many hundred years. 
+Bonnyboy could scarcely keep back the tears when this fear
+suddenly came over him.  Was it not strange that, though they
+knew that danger was threatening, they made not the slightest
+effort to save themselves?  In the village below men were still
+working in their forges, whose chimneys belched forth fiery
+smoke, and the sound of their hammer-blows could be heard above
+the roar of the river.  Women were busy with their household
+tasks; some boys were playing in the streets, damming up the
+gutters and shrieking with joy when their dams broke.  A few
+provident souls had driven their cattle to the neighboring hills;
+but neither themselves nor their children had they thought it
+necessary to remove.  The fact was, nobody believed that the dams
+would break, as they had not imagination enough to foresee what
+would happen if the dams did break.
+
+Bonnyboy was wet to the skin, and his knees were a trifle shaky
+from exhaustion.  He had been cutting down an enormous mast-tree,
+which was needed for a prop to the dam, and had hauled it down
+with two horses, one of which was a half-broken gray colt, unused
+to pulling in a team.  To restrain this frisky animal had
+required all Bonnyboy's strength, and he stood wiping his brow
+with the sleeve of his shirt.  Just at that moment a terrified
+yell sounded from above: "Run for your lives!  The upper dam is
+breaking!"
+
+The engineer from the top of the log-pile cast a swift glance up
+the valley, and saw at once from the increasing volume of water
+that the report was true.
+
+"Save yourselves, lads!"  he screamed.  "Run to the woods!"
+
+And suiting his action to his words, he tumbled down from the log
+pile, and darted up the hill-side toward the forest.  The other
+men, hearing the wild rush and roar above them, lost no time in
+following his example.  Only Bonnyboy, slow of comprehension as
+always, did not obey.  Suddenly there flared up a wild resolution
+in his face.  He pulled out his knife, cut the traces, and leaped
+upon the colt's back.  Lashing the beast, and shouting at the top
+of his voice, he dashed down the hill-side at a break-neck pace.
+
+"The dam is breaking!" he roared.  "Run for the woods!"
+
+He glanced anxiously behind him to see if the flood was
+overtaking him.  A great cloud of spray was rising against the
+sky, and he heard the yells of men and the frenzied neighing of
+horses through the thunderous roar.  But happily there was time. 
+The dam was giving way gradually, and had not yet let loose the
+tremendous volume of death and desolation which it held enclosed
+within its frail timbers.  The colt, catching the spirit of
+excitement in the air, flew like the wind, leaving farm after
+farm behind it, until it reached the village.
+
+"The dam is breaking!  Run for your lives!" cried Bonnyboy, with
+a rousing clarion yell which rose above all other poises; and up
+and down the valley the dread tidings spread like wildfire.  In
+an instant all was in wildest commotion.  Terrified mothers, with
+babes in their arms, came bursting out of the houses, and little
+girls, hugging kittens or cages with canary-birds, clung weeping
+to their skirts; shouting men, shrieking women, crying children,
+barking dogs, gusty showers sweeping from nowhere down upon the
+distracted fugitives, and above all the ominous, throbbing,
+pulsating roar as of a mighty chorus of cataracts.  It came
+nearer and nearer.  It filled the great vault of the sky with a
+rush as of colossal wing-beats.  Then there came a deafening
+creaking and crashing; then a huge brownish-white rolling wall,
+upon which the moonlight gleamed for an instant, and then the
+very trump of doom--a writhing, brawling, weltering chaos of
+cattle, dogs, men, lumber, houses, barns, whirling and struggling
+upon the destroying flood.
+
+
+VI.
+
+It was the morning after the disaster.  The sun rose red and
+threatening, circled with a ring of fiery mist.  People encamped
+upon the hill-side greeted each other as on the morn of
+resurrection.  For many were found among the living who were
+being mourned as dead.  Mothers hugged their children with
+tearful joy, thanking God that they had been spared; and husbands
+who had heard through the night the agonized cries of their
+drowning wives, finding them at dawn safe and sound, felt as if
+they had recovered them from the very gates of death.  When all
+were counted, it was ascertained that but very few of the
+villagers had been overtaken by the flood.  The timely warning
+had enabled all to save themselves, except some who in their
+eagerness to rescue their goods had lingered too long. 
+Impoverished most of them were by the loss of their houses and
+cattle.  The calamity was indeed overwhelming.  But when they
+considered how much greater the disaster would have been if the
+flood had come upon them unheralded, they felt that they had
+cause for gratitude in the midst of their sorrow.  And who was it
+that brought the tidings that snatched them from the jaws of
+death? Well, nobody knew.  He rode too fast.  And each was too
+much startled by the message to take note of the messenger.  But
+who could he possibly have been?  An angel from Heaven, perhaps
+sent by God in His mercy.  That was indeed more than likely.  The
+belief was at once accepted that the rescuer was an angel from
+heaven.  But just then a lumberman stepped forward who had worked
+at the mill and said:  "It was Bonnyboy, Grim Carpenter's son.  I
+saw him jump on his gray colt."
+
+Bonnyboy, Grim Carpenter's son.  It couldn't be possible.  But
+the lumberman insisted that it was, and they had to believe him,
+though, of course, it was a disappointment.  But where was
+Bonnyboy?  He deserved thanks, surely.  And, moreover, that gray
+colt was a valuable animal.  It was to be hoped that it was not
+drowned.
+
+The water had now subsided, though it yet overflowed the banks;
+so that trees, bent and splintered by the terrific force of the
+flood, grew far out in the river.  The foul dams had all been
+swept away, and the tawny torrent ran again with tumultuous
+rapids in its old channel.  Of the mills scarcely a vestige was
+left except slight cavities in the banks, and a few twisted beams
+clinging to the rocks where they had stood.  The ruins of the
+village, with jagged chimneys and broken walls, loomed out of a
+half-inundated meadow, through which erratic currents were
+sweeping.  Here and there lay a dead cow or dog, and in the
+branches of a maple-tree the carcasses of two sheep were
+entangled.  In this marshy field a stooping figure was seen
+wading about, as if in search of something.  The water broke
+about his knees, and sometimes reached up to his waist.  He stood
+like one dazed, and stared into the brown swirling torrent.  Now
+he poked something with his boat-hook, now bent down and purled
+some dead thing out of a copse of shrubbery in which it had been
+caught.  The sun rose higher in the sky, and the red vapors were
+scattered.  But still the old man trudged wearily about, with the
+stony stare in his eyes, searching for him whom he had lost.  One
+company after another now descended from the hill-sides, and from
+the high-lying farms which had not been reached by the flood came
+wagons with provisions and clothes, and men and women eager and
+anxious to help.  They shouted to the old man in the submerged
+field, and asked what he was looking for.  But he only shook his
+head, as if he did not understand.
+
+"Why, that is old Grim the carpenter," said someone.  "Has
+anybody seen Bonnyboy?"
+
+But no one had seen Bonnyboy.
+
+"Do you want help?"  they shouted to Grim; but they got no
+answer.
+
+Hour after hour old Grim trudged about in the chilly water
+searching for his son.  Then, about noon, when he had worked his
+way far down the river, he caught sight of something which made
+his heart stand still.  In a brown pool, in which a
+half-submerged willow-tree grew, he saw a large grayish shape
+which resembled a horse.  He stretched out the boat-hook and
+rolled it over.  Dumbly, fearlessly, he stood staring into the
+pool.  There lay his son--there lay Bonnyboy stark and dead.
+
+The cold perspiration broke out upon Grim's brow, and his great
+breast labored.  Slowly he stooped down, drew the dead body out
+of the water, and tenderly laid it across his knees.  He stared
+into the sightless eyes, and murmuring a blessing, closed them. 
+There was a large discolored spot on the forehead, as of a
+bruise.  Grim laid his hand softly upon it, and stroked away the
+yellow tuft of hair.
+
+"My poor lad," he said, while the tears coursed down his wrinkled
+cheeks, "you had a weak head, but your heart, Bonnyboy--your
+heart was good."
+
+
+
+THE CHILD OF LUCK
+
+I.
+
+A sunny-tempered little fellow was Hans, and his father declared
+that he had brought luck with him when he came into the world.
+
+"He was such a handsome baby when he was born," said Inga, his
+mother; "but you would scarcely believe it now, running about as
+he does in forest and field, tearing his clothes and scratching
+his face."
+
+Now, it was true, as Hans's mother said, that he did often tear
+his clothes; and as he had an indomitable curiosity, and had to
+investigate everything that came in his way, it was also no
+uncommon thing for him to come home with his face stung or
+scratched.
+
+"Why must you drag that child with you wherever you go, Nils?" 
+the mother complained to Hans's father, when the little boy was
+brought to her in such a disreputable condition.  "Why can't you
+leave him at home? What other man do you know who carries a
+six-year-old little fellow about with him in rain and shine,
+storm and quiet?
+
+"Well," Nils invariably answered, "I like him and he likes me. 
+He brings me luck."
+
+This was a standing dispute between Nils and Inga, his wife, and
+they never came to an agreement.  She knew as well as her husband
+that before little Hans was born there was want and misery in
+their cottage.  But from the hour the child lifted up its tiny
+voice, announcing its arrival, there had been prosperity and
+contentment.  Their luck had turned, Nils said, and it was the
+child that had turned it.  They had been married for four years,
+and though they had no one to provide for but themselves, they
+scarcely managed to keep body and soul together.  All sorts of
+untoward things happened.  Now a tree which he was cutting down
+fell upon Nils and laid him up for a month; now he got water on
+his knee from a blow he received while rolling logs into the
+chute; now the pig died which was to have provided them with salt
+pork for the winter, and the hens took to the bush, and laid
+their eggs where nobody except the rats and the weasels could
+find them.  But since little Hans had come and put an end to all
+these disasters, his father had a superstitious feeling that he
+could not bear to have him away from him.  Therefore every
+morning when he started out for the forest or the river he
+carried Hans on his shoulder.  And the little boy sat there,
+smiling proudly and waving his hand to his mother, who stood in
+the door looking longingly after him.
+
+"Hello, little chap!"  cried the lumbermen, when they saw him. 
+"Good-morning to you and good luck!"
+
+They always cheered up, however bad the weather was, when they
+saw little Hans, for nobody could look at his sunny little face
+without feeling something like a ray of sunlight stealing into
+his heart.  Hans had a smile and a wave of his hand for
+everybody.  He knew all the lumbermen by name, and they knew him.
+
+They sang as they swung the axe or the boat-hook, and the work
+went merrily when little Hans sat on the top of the log pile and
+shouted to them.  But if by chance he was absent for a day or two
+they missed him.  No songs were heard, but harsh words, and not
+infrequently quarrels.  Now, nobody believed, of course, that
+little Hans was such a wizard that he could make people feel and
+behave any better than it was in their nature to do; but sure it
+was--at least the lumbermen insisted that it was so--there was
+joy and good-tempered mirth wherever that child went, and life
+seemed a little sadder and poorer to those who knew him when he
+was away.
+
+No one will wonder that Nils sometimes boasted of his little son.
+
+He told not once, but a hundred times, as they sat about the
+camp-fire eating their dinner, that little Hans was a child of
+luck, and that no misfortune could happen while he was near. 
+Lumbermen are naturally superstitious, and though perhaps at
+first they may have had their doubts, they gradually came to
+accept the statement without question.  They came to regard it as
+a kind of right to have little Hans sit on the top of the log
+pile when they worked, or running along the chute, while the
+wild-cat strings of logs shot down the steep slide with lightning
+speed.  They were not in the least afraid lest the logs should
+jump the chute, as they had often done before, killing or maiming
+the unhappy man that came too near.  For was not little Hans's
+life charmed, so that no harm could befall him?
+
+Now, it happened that Inga, little Hans's mother, came one day to
+the river to see how he was getting on.  Nils was then standing
+on a raft hooking the floating logs with his boat-hook, while the
+boy was watching him from the shore, shouting to him, throwing
+chips into the water, and amusing himself as best he could.  It
+was early in May, and the river was swollen from recent thaws. 
+Below the cataract where the lumbermen worked, the broad, brown
+current moved slowly along with sluggish whirls and eddies; but
+the raft was moored by chains to the shore, so that it was in no
+danger of getting adrift.  It was capital fun to see the logs
+come rushing down the slide, plunging with a tremendous splash
+into the river, and then bob up like live things after having
+bumped against the bottom.  Little Hans clapped his hands and
+yelled with delight when a string of three or four came tearing
+along in that way, and dived, one after the other, headlong into
+the water.
+
+"Catch that one, papa!"  he cried; "that is a good big fellow. 
+He dived like a man, he did.  He has washed the dirt off his
+snout now; that was the reason he took such a big plunge."
+
+Nils never failed to reach his boat-hook after the log little
+Hans indicated, for he liked to humor him, and little Hans liked
+to be humored.  He had an idea that he was directing his father's
+work, and Nils invented all sorts of innocent devices to flatter
+little Hans's dignity, and make him think himself indispensable. 
+It was of no use, therefore, for poor Inga to beg little Hans to
+go home with her.  He had so much to do, he said, that he
+couldn't.  He even tried to tear himself away from his mother
+when she took him by the arm and remonstrated with him.  And then
+and there the conviction stole upon Inga that her child did not
+love her.  She was nothing to him compared to what his father
+was.  And was it right for Nils thus to rob her of the boy's
+affection? Little Hans could scarcely be blamed for loving his
+father better; for love is largely dependent upon habit, and Nils
+had been his constant companion since he was a year old.  A
+bitter sense of loneliness and loss overcame the poor wife as she
+stood on the river-bank pleading with her child, and finding that
+she annoyed instead of moving him.
+
+"Won't you come home with mamma, little Hans?"  she asked,
+tearfully.  "The kitten misses you very much; it has been mewing
+for you all the morning."
+
+"No," said little Hans, thrusting his hands into his pockets, and
+turning about with a manly stride; "we are going to have the
+lumber inspector here to-day? and then papa's big raft is going
+down the river."
+
+"But this dreadful noise, dear; how can you stand it? And the
+logs shooting down that slide and making such a racket.  And
+these great piles of lumber, Hans--think, if they should tumble
+down and kill you!"
+
+"Oh, I'm not afraid, mamma," cried Hans, proudly; and, to show
+his fearlessness, he climbed up the log pile, and soon stood on
+the top of it, waving his cap and shouting.
+
+"Oh, do come down, child--do come down!" begged Inga, anxiously.
+
+She had scarcely uttered the words when she heard a warning shout
+from the slope above, and had just time to lift her eyes, when
+she saw a big black object dart past her, strike the log pile,
+and break with a deafening crash.  A long confused rumble of
+rolling logs followed, terrified voices rent the air, and, above
+it all, the deep and steady roar of the cataract.  She saw, as
+through a fog, little Hans, serene and smiling as ever, borne
+down on the top of the rolling lumber, now rising up and skipping
+from log to log, now clapping his hands and screaming with
+pleasure, and then suddenly vanishing in the brown writhing
+river.  His laughter was still ringing in her ears; the poor
+child, he did not realize his danger.  The rumbling of falling
+logs continued with terrifying persistence.  Splash!  splash! 
+splash!  they went, diving by twos, by fours, and by dozens at
+the very spot where her child had vanished.  But where was little
+Hans?  Oh, where was he?  It was all so misty, so unreal and
+confused.  She could not tell whether little Hans was among the
+living or among the dead.  But there, all of a sudden, his head
+popped up in the middle of the river; and there was another head
+close to his--it was that of his father!  And round about them
+other heads bobbed up; for all the lumbermen who were on the raft
+had plunged into the water with Nils when they saw that little
+Hans was in danger.  A dozen more were running down the slope as
+fast as their legs could carry them; and they gave a tremendous
+cheer when they saw little Hans's face above the water.  He
+looked a trifle pale and shivery, and he gave a funny little
+snort, so that the water spurted from his nose.  He had lost his
+hat, but he did not seem to be hurt.  His little arms clung
+tightly about his father's neck, while Nils, dodging the bobbing
+logs, struck out with all his might for the shore.  And when he
+felt firm bottom under his feet, and came stumbling up through
+the shallow water, looking like a drowned rat, what a welcome he
+received from the lumbermen!  They all wanted to touch little
+Hans and pat his cheek, just to make sure that it was really he.
+
+"It was wonderful indeed," they said, "that he ever came up out
+of that horrible jumble of pitching and diving logs.  He is a
+child of luck, if ever there was one."
+
+Not one of them thought of the boy's mother, and little Hans
+himself scarcely thought of her, elated as he was at the welcome
+he received from the lumbermen.  Poor Inga stood dazed,
+struggling with a horrible feeling, seeing her child passed from
+one to the other, while she herself claimed no share in him. 
+Somehow the thought stung her.  A sudden clearness burst upon
+her; she rushed forward, with a piercing scream, snatched little
+Hans from his father's arms, and hugging his wet little shivering
+form to her breast, fled like a deer through the underbrush.
+
+From that day little Hans was not permitted to go to the river. 
+It was in vain that Nils pleaded and threatened.  His wife acted
+so unreasonably when that question was broached that he saw it
+was useless to discuss it.  She seized little Hans as a tigress
+might seize her young, and held him tightly clasped, as if daring
+anybody to take him away from her.  Nils knew it would require
+force to get his son back again, and that he was not ready to
+employ.  But all joy seemed to have gone out of his life since he
+had lost the daily companionship of little Hans.  His work became
+drudgery; and all the little annoyances of life, which formerly
+he had brushed away as one brushes a fly from his nose, became
+burdens and calamities.  The raft upon which he had expended so
+much labor went to pieces during a sudden rise of the river the
+night after little Hans's adventure, and three days later Thorkel
+Fossen was killed outright by a string of logs that jumped the
+chute.
+
+"It isn't the same sort of place since you took little Hans
+away," the lumbermen would often say to Nils.  "There's no sort
+of luck in anything."
+
+Sometimes they taunted him with want of courage, and called him a
+"night-cap" and a "hen-pecked coon," all of which made Nils
+uncomfortable.  He made two or three attempts to persuade his
+wife to change her mind in regard to little Hans, but the last
+time she got so frightened that she ran out of the house and hid
+in the cow stable with the boy, crouching in an empty stall, and
+crying as if her heart would break, when little Hans escaped and
+betrayed her hiding-place.  The boy, in fact, sympathized with
+his father, and found his confinement at home irksome.  The
+companionship of the cat had no more charm for him; and even the
+brindled calf, which had caused such an excitement when he first
+arrived, had become an old story.  Little Halls fretted, was
+mischievous for want of better employment, and gave his mother no
+end of trouble.  He longed for the gay and animated life at the
+river, and he would have run away if he had not been watched.  He
+could not imagine how the lumbermen could be getting on without
+him.  It seemed to him that all work must come to a stop when he
+was no longer sitting on the top of the log piles, or standing on
+the bank throwing chips into the water.
+
+Now, as a matter of fact, they were not getting on very well at
+the river without little Hans.  The luck had deserted them, the
+lumbermen said; and whatever mishaps they had, they attributed to
+the absence of little Hans.  They came to look with
+ill-suppressed hostility at Nils, whom they regarded as
+responsible for their misfortunes.  For they could scarcely
+believe that he was quite in earnest in his desire for the boy's
+return, otherwise they could not comprehend how his wife could
+dare to oppose him.  The weather was stormy, and the mountain
+brook which ran along the slide concluded to waste no more labor
+in carving out a bed for itself in the rock, when it might as
+well be using the slide which it found ready made.  And one fine
+day it broke into the slide and half filled it, so that the logs,
+when they were started down the steep incline, sent the water
+flying, turned somersaults, stood on end, and played no end of
+dangerous tricks which no one could foresee.  Several men were
+badly hurt by beams shooting like rockets through the air, and
+old Mads Furubakken was knocked senseless and carried home for
+dead.  Then the lumbermen held a council, and made up their minds
+to get little Hans by fair means or foul.  They thought first of
+sending a delegation of four or five men that very morning, but
+finally determined to march up to Nils's cottage in a body and
+demand the boy.  There were twenty of them at the very least, and
+the tops of their long boat-hooks, which they carried on their
+shoulders, were seen against the green forest before they were
+themselves visible.
+
+Nils, who was just out of bed, was sitting on the threshold
+smoking his pipe and pitching a ball to little Hans, who laughed
+with delight whenever he caught it.  Inga was bustling about
+inside the house, preparing breakfast, which was to consist of
+porridge, salt herring, and baked potatoes.  It had rained during
+the night, and the sky was yet overcast, but the sun was
+struggling to break through the cloud-banks.  A couple of
+thrushes in the alder-bushes about the cottage were rejoicing at
+the change in the weather, and Nils was listening to their song
+and to his son's merry prattle, when he caught sight of the
+twenty lumbermen marching up the hillside.  He rose, with some
+astonishment, and went to meet them.  Inga, hearing their voices,
+came to the door, and seeing the many men, snatched up little
+Hans, and with a wildly palpitating heart ran into the cottage,
+bolting the door behind her.  She had a vague foreboding that
+this unusual visit meant something hostile to herself, and she
+guessed that Nils had been only the spokesman of his comrades in
+demanding so eagerly the return of the boy to the river.  She
+believed all their talk about his luck to be idle nonsense; but
+she knew that Nils had unwittingly spread this belief, and that
+the lumbermen were convinced that little Hans was their good
+genius, whose presence averted disaster.  Distracted with fear
+and anxiety, she stood pressing her ear against the crack in the
+door, and sometimes peeping out to see what measures she must
+take for the child's safety.  Would Nils stand by her, or would
+he desert her? But surely--what was Nils thinking about? He was
+extending his hand to each of the men, and receiving them kindly.
+
+Next he would be inviting them to come in and take little Hans. 
+She saw one of the men--Stubby Mons by name--step forward, and
+she plainly heard him say:
+
+"We miss the little chap down at the river, Nils.  The luck has
+been against us since he left."
+
+"Well, Mons," Nils answered, "I miss the little chap as much as
+any of you; perhaps more.  But my wife--she's got a sort of
+crooked notion that the boy won't come home alive if she lets him
+go to the river.  She got a bad scare last time, and it isn't any
+use arguing with her."
+
+"But won't you let us talk to her, Nils?"  one of the lumbermen
+proposed.  "It is a tangled skein, and I don't pretend to say
+that I can straighten it out.  But two men have been killed and
+one crippled since the little chap was taken away.  And in the
+three years he was with us no untoward thing happened.  Now that
+speaks for itself, Nils, doesn't it?"
+
+"It does, indeed," said Nils, with an air of conviction.
+
+"And you'll let us talk to your wife, and see if we can't make
+her listen to reason," the man urged.
+
+"You are welcome to talk to her as much as you like," Nils
+replied, knocking out his pipe on the heel of his boot; "but I
+warn you that she's mighty cantankerous."
+
+He rose slowly, and tried to open the door.  It was locked. 
+"Open, Inga," he said, a trifle impatiently; "there are some men
+here who want to see you."
+
+
+II.
+
+Inga sat crouching on the hearth, hugging little Hans to her
+bosom.  She shook and trembled with fear, let her eyes wander
+around the walls, and now and then moaned at the thought that now
+they would take little Hans away from her.
+
+"Why don't you open the door for papa?"  asked little Hans,
+wonderingly.
+
+Ah, he too was against her!  All the world was against her!  And
+her husband was in league with her enemies!
+
+"Open, I say!"  cried Nils, vehemently.  "What do you mean by
+locking the door when decent people come to call upon us?"
+
+Should she open the door or should she not? Holding little Hans
+in her arms, she rose hesitatingly, and stretched out her hand
+toward the bolt.  But all of a sudden, in a paroxysm of fear, she
+withdrew her hand, turned about, and fled with the child through
+the back door.  The alder bushes grew close up to the walls of
+the cottage, and by stooping a little she managed to remain
+unobserved.  Her greatest difficulty was to keep little Hans from
+shouting to his father, and she had to put her hand over his
+mouth to keep him quiet; for the boy, who had heard the voices
+without, could not understand why he should not be permitted to
+go out and converse with his friends the lumbermen.  The wild
+eyes and agitated face of his mother distressed him, and the
+little showers of last night's rain which the trees shook down
+upon him made him shiver.
+
+"Why do you run so, mamma?"  he asked, when she removed her hand
+from his mouth.
+
+"Because the bad men want to take you away from me, Hans," she
+answered, panting.
+
+"Those were not bad men, mamma," the boy ejaculated.  "That was
+Stubby Mons and Stuttering Peter and Lars Skin-breeches.  They
+don't, want to hurt me."
+
+He expected that his mamma would be much relieved at receiving
+this valuable information, and return home without delay.  But
+she still pressed on, flushed and panting, and cast the same
+anxious glances behind her.
+
+In the meanwhile Nils and his guests had entirely lost their
+patience.  Finding his persuasions of no avail, the former began
+to thump at the door with the handle of his axe, and receiving no
+response, he climbed up to the window and looked in.  To his
+amazement there was no one in the room.  Thinking that Inga might
+have gone to the cow-stable, he ran to the rear of the cottage,
+and called her name.  Still no answer.
+
+"Hans," he cried, "where are you?"
+
+But Hans, too, was as if spirited away.  It scarcely occurred to
+Nils, until he had searched the cow- stable and the house in
+vain, that his wife had fled from the harmless lumbermen.  Then
+the thought shot through his brain that possibly she was not
+quite right in her head; that this fixed idea that everybody
+wanted to take her child away from her had unsettled her reason. 
+Nils grew hot and cold in the same moment as this dreadful
+apprehension took lodgement in his mind.  Might she not, in her
+confused effort to save little Hans, do him harm?  In the blind
+and feverish terror which possessed her might she not rush into
+the water, or leap over a precipice?  Visions of little Hans
+drowning, or whirled into the abyss in his mother's arms, crowded
+his fancy as he walked back to the lumbermen, and told them that
+neither his wife nor child was anywhere to be found.
+
+"I would ask ye this, lads," he said, finally: "if you would help
+me search for them.  For Inga--I reckon she is a little touched
+in the upper story--she has gone off with the boy, and I can't
+get on without little Hans any more than you can."
+
+The men understood the situation at a glance, and promised their
+aid.  They had all looked upon Inga as "high-strung" and "queer,"
+and it did not surprise them to hear that she had been frightened
+out of her wits at their request for the loan of little Hans. 
+Forming a line, with a space of twenty feet between each man,
+they began to beat the bush, climbing the steep slope toward the
+mountains.  Inga, pausing for an instant, and peering out between
+the tree trunks, saw the alder bushes wave as they broke through
+the underbrush.  She knew now that she was pursued.  Tired she
+was, too, and the boy grew heavier for every step that she
+advanced.  And yet if she made him walk, he might run away from
+her.  If he heard his father's voice, he would be certain to
+answer.  Much perplexed, she looked about her for a hiding-place.
+
+For, as the men would be sure to overtake her, her only safety
+was in hiding.  With tottering knees she stumbled along, carrying
+the heavy child, grabbing hold of the saplings for support, and
+yet scarcely keeping from falling.  The cold perspiration broke
+from her brow and a strange faintness overcame her.
+
+"You will have to walk, little Hans," she said, at last.  "But if
+you run away from me, dear, I shall lie down here and die."
+
+Little Hans promised that he would not run away, and for five
+minutes they walked up a stony path which looked like the
+abandoned bed of a brook.
+
+"You hurt my hand, mamma," whimpered the boy, "you squeeze so
+hard."
+
+She would have answered, but just then she heard the voices of
+the lumbermen scarcely fifty paces away.  With a choking
+sensation and a stitch in her side she pressed on, crying out in
+spirit for the hills to hide her and the mountains to open their
+gates and receive her.  Suddenly she stood before a rocky wall
+some eighty or a hundred feet high.  She could go no farther. 
+Her strength was utterly exhausted.  There was a big boulder
+lying at the base of the rock, and a spreading juniper half
+covered it.  Knowing that in another minute she would be
+discovered, she flung herself down behind the boulder, though the
+juniper needles scratched her face, and pulled little Hans down
+at her side.  But, strange to say, little Hans fell farther than
+she had calculated, and utterly-vanished from sight.  She heard a
+muffled cry, and reaching her hand in the direction where he had
+fallen, caught hold of his arm.  A strong, wild smell beat
+against her, and little Hans, as he was pulled out, was enveloped
+in a most unpleasant odor.  But odor or no odor, here was the
+very hiding-place she had been seeking.  A deserted wolf's den,
+it was, probably--at least she hoped it was deserted; for if it
+was not, she might be confronted with even uglier customers than
+the lumbermen.  But she had no time for debating the question,
+for she saw the head of Stubby Mons emerging from the leaves, and
+immediately behind him came Stuttering Peter, with his long boat-
+hook.  Quick as a flash she slipped into the hole, and dragged
+Hans after her.  The juniper-bush entirely covered the entrance. 
+She could see everyone who approached, without being seen. 
+Unhappily, the boy too caught sight of Stubby Mons, and called
+him by name.  The lumberman stopped and pricked up his ears.
+
+"Did you hear anybody call?"  he asked his companion.
+
+"N-n-n-n-aw, I d-d-d-d-didn't," answered Stuttering Peter. 
+"There b-be lots of qu-qu-qu-qu-eer n-noises in the w-w-w-woods."
+
+Little Hans heard every word that they spoke, and he would have
+cried out again, if it hadn't appeared such great fun to be
+playing hide-and-go-seek with the lumbermen.  He had a delicious
+sense of being well hidden, and had forgotten everything except
+the zest of the game.  Most exciting it became when Stubby Mons
+drew the juniper-bush aside and peered eagerly behind the
+boulder.  Inga's heart stuck in her throat; she felt sure that in
+the next instant they would be discovered.  And as ill-luck would
+have it, there was something alive scrambling about her feet and
+tugging at her skirts.  Suddenly she felt a sharp bite, but
+clinched her teeth, and uttered no sound.  When her vision again
+cleared, the juniper branch had rebounded into its place, and the
+face of Stubby Mons was gone.  She drew a deep breath of relief,
+but yet did not dare to emerge from the den.  For one, two, three
+tremulous minutes she remained motionless, feeling all the while
+that uncomfortable sensation of living things about her.
+
+At last she could endure it no longer.  Thrusting little Hans
+before her, she crawled out of the hole, and looked back into the
+small cavern.  As soon as her eyes grew accustomed to the
+twilight she uttered a cry of amazement, for out from her skirts
+jumped a little gray furry object, and two frisky little
+customers of the same sort were darting about among the stones
+and tree-roots.  The truth dawned upon her, and it chilled her to
+the marrow of her bones.  The wolf's den was not deserted.  The
+old folks were only out hunting, and the shouting and commotion
+of the searching party had probably prevented them from returning
+in time to look after their family.  She seized little Hans by
+the hand, and once more dragged him away over the rough path.  He
+soon became tired and fretful, and in spite of all her entreaties
+began to shout lustily for his father.  But the men were now so
+far away that they could not hear him.  He complained of hunger;
+and when presently they came to a blueberry patch, she flung
+herself down on the heather and allowed him to pick berries.  She
+heard cow-bells and sheep-bells tinkling round about her, and
+concluded that she could not be far from the saeters, or mountain
+dairies.  That was fortunate, indeed, for she would not have
+liked to sleep in the woods with wolves and bears prowling about
+her.
+
+She was just making an effort to rise from the stone upon which
+she was sitting, when the big, good-natured face of a cow broke
+through the leaves and stared at her.  There was again help in
+need.  She approached the cow, patted it, and calling little
+Hans, bade him sit down in the heather and open his mouth.  He
+obeyed rather wonderingly, but perceived his mother's intent when
+she knelt at his side and began to milk into his mouth.  It
+seemed to him that he had never tasted anything so delicious as
+this fresh rich milk, fragrant with the odor of the woods and the
+succulent mountain grass.  When his hunger was satisfied, he fell
+again to picking berries, while Inga refreshed herself with milk
+in the same simple fashion.  After having rested a full hour, she
+felt strong enough to continue her journey; and hearing the loor,
+or Alpine horn, re-echoing among the mountains, she determined to
+follow the sound.  It was singular what luck attended her in the
+midst of her misfortune.  Perhaps it was, after all, no idle tale
+that little Hans was a child of luck; and she had done the
+lumbermen injustice in deriding their faith in him.  Perhaps
+there was some guiding Providence in all that had happened,
+destined in the end to lead little Hans to fortune and glory. 
+Much encouraged by this thought, she stooped over him and kissed
+him; then took his hand and trudged along over logs and stones,
+through juniper and bramble bushes.
+
+"Mamma," said little Hans, "where are you going?"
+
+"I am going to the saeter," she answered; "where you have wanted
+so often to go."
+
+"Then why don't you follow the cows? They are going there too."
+
+Surely that child had a marvellous mind!  She smiled down upon
+him and nodded.  By following the cows they arrived in twenty
+minutes at a neat little log cabin, from which the smoke curled
+up gayly into the clear air.
+
+The dairy-maids who spent the summer there tending the cattle
+both fell victims to the charms of little Hans, and offered him
+and his mother their simple hospitality.  They told of the
+lumbermen who had passed the saeter huts, and inquired for her;
+but otherwise they respected her silence, and made no attempt to
+pry into her secrets.  The next morning she started, after a
+refreshing sleep, westward toward the coast, where she hoped in
+some way to find a passage to America.  For if little Hans was
+really born under a lucky star--which fact she now could scarcely
+doubt--then America was the place for him.  There he might rise
+to become President, or a judge, or a parson, or something or
+other; while in Norway he would never be anything but a lumberman
+like his father.  Inga had a well-to-do sister, who was a widow,
+in the nearest town, and she would borrow enough money from her
+to pay their passage to New York.
+
+
+It was early in July when little Hans and his mother arrived in
+New York.  The latter had repented bitterly of her rashness in
+stealing her child from his father, and under a blind impulse
+traversing half the globe in a wild-goose chase after fortune. 
+The world was so much bigger than she in her quiet valley had
+imagined; and, what was worse, it wore such a cold and repellent
+look, and was so bewildering and noisy.  Inga had been very
+sea-sick during the voyage; and after she stepped ashore from the
+tug that brought her to Castle Garden, the ground kept heaving
+and swelling under her feet, and made her dizzy and miserable. 
+She had been very wicked, she was beginning to think, and
+deserved punishment; and if it had not been for a vague and
+adventurous faith in the great future that was in store for her
+son, she would have been content to return home, do penance for
+her folly, and beg her husband's forgiveness.  But, in the first
+place, she had no money to pay for a return ticket; and,
+secondly, it would be a great pity to deprive little Hans of the
+Presidency and all the grandeur that his lucky star might here
+bring him.
+
+Inga was just contemplating this bright vision of Hans's future,
+when she found herself passing through a gate, at which a clerk
+was seated.
+
+"What is your name?"  he asked, through an interpreter.
+
+"Inga Olsdatter Pladsen."
+
+"Age?"
+
+"Twenty-eight a week after Michaelmas."
+
+"Single or married?"
+
+"Married."
+
+"Where is your husband?"
+
+"In Norway."
+
+"Are you divorced from him?"
+
+"Divorced--I!  Why, no!  Who ever heard of such a thing?"
+
+Inga grew quite indignant at the thought of her being divorced. 
+A dozen other questions were asked, at each of which her
+embarrassment increased.  When, finally, she declared that she
+had no money, no definite destination, and no relatives or
+friends in the country, the examination was cut short, and after
+an hour's delay and a wearisome cross-questioning by different
+officials, she was put on board the tug, and returned to the
+steamer in which she had crossed the ocean.  Four dreary days
+passed; then there was a tremendous commotion on deck: blowing of
+whistles, roaring of steam, playing of bands, bumping of trunks
+and boxes, and finally the steady pulsation of the engines as the
+big ship stood out to sea.  After nine days of discomfort in the
+stuffy steerage and thirty-six hours of downright misery while
+crossing the stormy North Sea, Inga found herself once more in
+the land of her birth.  Full of humiliation and shame she met her
+husband at the railroad station, and prepared herself for a
+deluge of harsh words and reproaches.  But instead of that he
+patted her gently on the head, and clasped little Hans in his
+arms and kissed him.  They said very little to each other as they
+rode homeward in the cars; but little Hans had a thousand things
+to tell, and his father was delighted to hear them.  In the
+evening, when they had reached their native valley, and the boy
+was asleep, Inga plucked up courage and said, "Nils, it is all a
+mistake about little Hans's luck."
+
+"Mistake!  Why, no," cried Nils.  "What greater luck could he
+have than to be brought safely home to his father?"
+
+Inga had indeed hoped for more; but she said nothing. 
+Nevertheless, fate still had strange things in store for little
+Hans.  The story of his mother's flight to and return from
+America was picked up by some enterprising journalist, who made a
+most touching romance of it.  Hundreds of inquiries regarding
+little Hans poured in upon the pastor and the postmaster; and
+offers to adopt him, educate him, and I know not what else, were
+made to his parents.  But Nils would hear of no adoption; nor
+would he consent to any plan that separated him from the boy. 
+When, however, he was given a position as superintendent of a
+lumber yard in the town, and prosperity began to smile upon him,
+he sent little Hans to school, and as Hans was a clever boy, he
+made the most of his opportunities.
+
+And now little Hans is indeed a very big Hans, but a child of
+luck he is yet; for I saw him referred to the other day in the
+newspapers as one of the greatest lumber dealers, and one of the
+noblest, most generous, and public-spirited men in Norway.
+
+
+
+THE BEAR THAT HAD A BANK ACCOUNT
+
+I.
+
+You may not believe it, but the bear I am going to tell you about
+really had a bank account!  He lived in the woods, as most bears
+do; but he had a reputation which extended over all Norway and
+more than half of England.  Earls and baronets came every summer,
+with repeating-rifles of the latest patent, and plaids and
+field-glasses and portable cooking-stoves, intent upon killing
+him.  But Mr. Bruin, whose only weapons were a pair of paws and a
+pair of jaws, both uncommonly good of their kind, though not
+patented, always managed to get away unscathed; and that was
+sometimes more than the earls and the baronets did.
+
+One summer the Crown Prince of Germany came to Norway.  He also
+heard of the famous bear that no one could kill, and made up his
+mind that he was the man to kill it.  He trudged for two days
+through bogs, and climbed through glens and ravines, before he
+came on the scent of a bear, and a bear's scent, you may know, is
+strong, and quite unmistakable.  Finally he discovered some
+tracks in the moss, like those of a barefooted man, or, I should
+rather say, perhaps, a man-footed bear.  The Prince was just
+turning the corner of a projecting rock, when he saw a huge,
+shaggy beast standing on its hind legs, examining in a leisurely
+manner the inside of a hollow tree, while a swarm of bees were
+buzzing about its ears.  It was just hauling out a handful of
+honey, and was smiling with a grewsome mirth, when His Royal
+Highness sent it a bullet right in the breast, where its heart
+must have been, if it had one.  But, instead of falling down
+flat, as it ought to have done, out of deference to the Prince,
+it coolly turned its back, and gave its assailant a disgusted nod
+over its shoulder as it trudged away through the underbrush.  The
+attendants ranged through the woods and beat the bushes in all
+directions, but Mr. Bruin was no more to be seen that afternoon. 
+It was as if he had sunk into the earth; not a trace of him was
+to be found by either dogs or men.
+
+From that time forth the rumor spread abroad that this Gausdale
+Bruin (for that was the name by which he became known) was
+enchanted.  It was said that he shook off bullets as a duck does
+water; that he had the evil eye, and could bring misfortune to
+whomsoever he looked upon.  The peasants dreaded to meet him, and
+ceased to hunt him.  His size was described as something
+enormous, his teeth, his claws, and his eyes as being diabolical
+beyond human conception.  In the meanwhile Mr. Bruin had it all
+his own way in the mountains, killed a young bull or a fat heifer
+for his dinner every day or two, chased in pure sport a herd of
+sheep over a precipice; and as for Lars Moe's bay mare Stella, he
+nearly finished her, leaving his claw-marks on her flank in a way
+that spoiled her beauty forever.
+
+Now Lars Moe himself was too old to hunt; and his nephew
+was--well, he was not old enough.  There was, in fact, no one in
+the valley who was of the right age to hunt this Gausdale Bruin. 
+It was of no use that Lars Moe egged on the young lads to try
+their luck, shaming them, or offering them rewards, according as
+his mood might happen to be.  He was the wealthiest man in the
+valley, and his mare Stella had been the apple of his eye.  He
+felt it as a personal insult that the bear should have dared to
+molest what belonged to him, especially the most precious of all
+his possessions.  It cut him to the heart to see the poor wounded
+beauty, with those cruel scratches on her thigh, and one stiff,
+aching leg done up in oil and cotton.  When he opened the
+stable-door, and was greeted by Stella's low, friendly neighing,
+or when she limped forward in her box-stall and put her small,
+clean-shaped head on his shoulder, then Lars Moe's heart swelled
+until it seemed on the point of breaking.  And so it came to pass
+that he added a codicil to his will, setting aside five hundred
+dollars of his estate as a reward to the man who, within six
+years, should kill the Gausdale Bruin.
+
+Soon after that, Lars Moe died, as some said, from grief and
+chagrin; though the physician affirmed that it was of rheumatism
+of the heart.  At any rate, the codicil relating to the enchanted
+bear was duly read before the church door, and pasted, among
+other legal notices, in the vestibules of the judge's and the
+sheriff's offices.  When the executors had settled up the estate,
+the question arose in whose name or to whose credit should be
+deposited the money which was to be set aside for the benefit of
+the bear-slayer.  No one knew who would kill the bear, or if any
+one would kill it.  It was a puzzling question.
+
+"Why, deposit it to the credit of the bear," said a jocose
+executor; "then, in the absence of other heirs, his slayer will
+inherit it.  That is good old Norwegian practice, though I don't
+know whether it has ever been the law."
+
+"All right," said the other executors, "so long as it is
+understood who is to have the money, it does not matter."
+
+And so an amount equal to $500 was deposited in the county bank
+to the credit of the Gausdale Bruin.  Sir Barry Worthington,
+Bart., who came abroad the following summer for the shooting,
+heard the story, and thought it a good one.  So, after having
+vainly tried to earn the prize himself, he added another $500 to
+the deposit, with the stipulation that he was to have the skin.
+
+But his rival for parliamentary honors, Robert Stapleton, Esq.,
+the great iron-master, who had come to Norway chiefly to outshine
+Sir Barry, determined that he was to have the skin of that famous
+bear, if any one was to have it, and that, at all events, Sir
+Barry should not have it.  So Mr. Stapleton added $750 to the
+bear's bank account, with the stipulation that the skin should
+come to him.
+
+Mr. Bruin, in the meanwhile, as if to resent this unseemly
+contention about his pelt, made worse havoc among the herds than
+ever, and compelled several peasants to move their dairies to
+other parts of the mountains, where the pastures were poorer, but
+where they would be free from his depredations.  If the $1,750 in
+the bank had been meant as a bribe or a stipend for good
+behavior, such as was formerly paid to Italian brigands, it
+certainly could not have been more demoralizing in its effect;
+for all agreed that, since Lars Moe's death, Bruin misbehaved
+worse than ever.
+
+
+II.
+
+There was an odd clause in Lars Moe's will besides the codicil
+relating to the bear.  It read:
+
+"I hereby give and bequeath to my daughter Unna, or, in case of
+her decease, to her oldest living issue, my bay mare Stella, as a
+token that I have forgiven her the sorrow she caused me by her
+marriage."
+
+It seemed incredible that Lars Moe should wish to play a
+practical joke (and a bad one at that) on his only child, his
+daughter Unna, because she had displeased him by her marriage. 
+Yet that was the common opinion in the valley when this singular
+clause became known.  Unna had married Thorkel Tomlevold, a poor
+tenant's son, and had refused her cousin, the great
+lumber-dealer, Morten Janson, whom her father had selected for a
+son-in-law.
+
+She dwelt now in a tenant's cottage, northward in the parish; and
+her husband, who was a sturdy and fine-looking fellow, eked out a
+living by hunting and fishing.  But they surely had no
+accommodations for a broken-down, wounded, trotting mare, which
+could not even draw a plough.  It is true Unna, in the days of
+her girlhood, had been very fond of the mare, and it is only
+charitable to suppose that the clause, which was in the body of
+the will, was written while Stella was in her prime, and before
+she had suffered at the paws of the Gausdale Bruin.  But even
+granting that, one could scarcely help suspecting malice
+aforethought in the curious provision.  To Unna the gift was
+meant to say, as plainly as possible, "There, you see what you
+have lost by disobeying your father! If you had married according
+to his wishes, you would have been able to accept the gift, while
+now you are obliged to decline it like a beggar."
+
+But if it was Lars Moe's intention to convey such a message to
+his daughter, he failed to take into account his daughter's
+spirit.  She appeared plainly but decently dressed at the reading
+of the will, and carried her head not a whit less haughtily than
+was her wont in her maiden days.  She exhibited no chagrin when
+she found that Janson was her father's heir and that she was
+disinherited.  She even listened with perfect composure to the
+reading of the clause which bequeathed to her the broken-down
+mare.
+
+It at once became a matter of pride with her to accept her
+girlhood's favorite, and accept it she did!  And having borrowed
+a side-saddle, she rode home, apparently quite contented.  A
+little shed, or lean-to, was built in the rear of the house, and
+Stella became a member of Thorkel Tomlevold's family.  Odd as it
+may seem, the fortunes of the family took a turn for the better
+from the day she arrived; Thorkel rarely came home without big
+game, and in his traps he caught more than any three other men in
+all the parish.
+
+"The mare has brought us luck," he said to his wife.  "If she
+can't plough, she can at all events pull the sleigh to church;
+and you have as good a right as any one to put on airs, if you
+choose."
+
+"Yes, she has brought us blessing," replied Unna, quietly; "and
+we are going to keep her till she dies of old age."
+
+To the children Stella became a pet, as much as if she had been a
+dog or a cat.  The little boy Lars climbed all over her, and
+kissed her regularly good-morning when she put her handsome head
+in through the kitchen-door to get her lump of sugar.  She was as
+gentle as a lamb and as intelligent as a dog.  Her great brown
+eyes, with their soft, liquid look, spoke as plainly as words
+could speak, expressing pleasure when she was patted; and the low
+neighing with which she greeted the little boy, when she heard
+his footsteps in the door, was to him like the voice of a friend.
+
+He grew to love this handsome and noble animal as he had loved
+nothing on earth except his father and mother.
+
+As a matter of course he heard a hundred times the story of
+Stella's adventure with the terrible Gausdale bear.  It was a
+story that never lost its interest, that seemed to grow more
+exciting the oftener it was told.  The deep scars of the bear's
+claws in Stella's thigh were curiously examined, and each time
+gave rise to new questions.  The mare became quite a heroic
+character, and the suggestion was frequently discussed between
+Lars and his little sister Marit, whether Stella might not be an
+enchanted princess who was waiting for some one to cut off her
+head, so that she might show herself in her glory.  Marit thought
+the experiment well worth trying, but Lars had his doubts, and
+was unwilling to take the risk; yet if she brought luck, as his
+mother said, then she certainly must be something more than an
+ordinary horse.
+
+Stella had dragged little Lars out of the river when he fell
+overboard from the pier; and that, too, showed more sense than he
+had ever known a horse to have.
+
+There could be no doubt in his mind that Stella was an enchanted
+princess.  And instantly the thought occurred to him that the
+dreadful enchanted bear with the evil eye was the sorcerer, and
+that, when he was killed, Stella would resume her human guise. 
+It soon became clear to him that he was the boy to accomplish
+this heroic deed; and it was equally plain to him that he must
+keep his purpose secret from all except Marit, as his mother
+would surely discourage him from engaging in so perilous an
+enterprise.  First of all, he had to learn how to shoot; and his
+father, who was the best shot in the valley, was very willing to
+teach him.  It seemed quite natural to Thorkel that a hunter's
+son should take readily to the rifle; and it gave him great
+satisfaction to see how true his boy's aim was, and how steady
+his hand.
+
+"Father," said Lars one day, "you shoot so well, why haven't you
+ever tried to kill the Gausdale Bruin that hurt Stella so badly?"
+
+"Hush, child!  you don't know what you are talking about,"
+answered his father; "no leaden bullet will harm that wicked
+beast."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I don't like to talk about it--but it is well known that he is
+enchanted."
+
+"But will he then live for ever? Is there no sort of bullet that
+will kill him?"  asked the boy.
+
+"I don't know.  I don't want to have anything to do with
+witchcraft," said Thorkel.
+
+The word "witchcraft" set the boy to thinking, and he suddenly
+remembered that he had been warned not to speak to an old woman
+named Martha Pladsen, because she was a witch.  Now, she was
+probably the very one who could tell him what he wanted to know. 
+Her cottage lay close up under the mountain-side, about two miles
+from his home.  He did not deliberate long before going to seek
+this mysterious person, about whom the most remarkable stories
+were told in the valley.  To his astonishment, she received him
+kindly, gave him a cup of coffee with rock candy, and declared
+that she had long expected him.  The bullet which was to slay the
+enchanted bear had long been in her possession; and she would
+give it to him if he would promise to give her the beast's heart.
+
+He did not have to be asked twice for that; and off he started
+gayly with his prize in his pocket.  It was rather an odd-looking
+bullet, made of silver, marked with a cross on one side and with
+a lot of queer illegible figures on the other.  It seemed to burn
+in his pocket, so anxious was he to start out at once to release
+the beloved Stella from the cruel enchantment.  But Martha had
+said that the bear could only be killed when the moon was full;
+and until the moon was full he accordingly had to bridle his
+impatience.
+
+
+III.
+
+It was a bright morning in January, and, as it happened, Lars's
+fourteenth birthday.  To his great delight, his mother had gone
+down to the judge's to sell some ptarmigans, and his father had
+gone to fell some timber up in the glen.  Accordingly he could
+secure the rifle without being observed.  He took an affectionate
+good-by of Stella, who rubbed her soft nose against his own,
+playfully pulled at his coat-collar, and blew her sweet, warm
+breath into his face.  Lars was a simple-hearted boy, in spite of
+his age, and quite a child at heart.  He had lived so secluded
+from all society, and breathed so long the atmosphere of fairy
+tales, that he could see nothing at all absurd in what he was
+about to undertake.  The youngest son in the story-book always
+did just that sort of thing, and everybody praised and admired
+him for it.  Lars meant, for once, to put the story-book hero
+into the shade.  He engaged little Marit to watch over Stella
+while he was gone, and under no circumstances to betray him--all
+of which Marit solemnly promised.
+
+With his rifle on his shoulder and his skees on his feet, Lars
+glided slowly along over the glittering surface of the snow, for
+the mountain was steep, and he had to zigzag in long lines before
+he reached the upper heights, where the bear was said to have his
+haunts.  The place where Bruin had his winter den had once been
+pointed out to him, and he remembered yet how pale his father
+was, when he found that he had strayed by chance into so
+dangerous a neighborhood.  Lars's heart, too, beat rather
+uneasily as he saw the two heaps of stones, called "The Parson"
+and "The Deacon," and the two huge fir-trees which marked the
+dreaded spot.  It had been customary from immemorial time for
+each person who passed along the road to throw a large stone on
+the Parson's heap, and a small one on the Deacon's; but since the
+Gausdale Bruin had gone into winter quarters there, the stone
+heaps had ceased to grow.
+
+Under the great knotted roots of the fir-trees there was a hole,
+which was more than half-covered with snow; and it was noticeable
+that there was not a track of bird or beast to be seen anywhere
+around it.  Lars, who on the way had been buoyed up by the sense
+of his heroism, began now to feel strangely uncomfortable.  It
+was so awfully hushed and still round about him; not the scream
+of a bird --not even the falling of a broken bough was to be
+heard.  The pines stood in lines and in clumps, solemn, like a
+funeral procession, shrouded in sepulchral white.  Even if a crow
+had cawed it would have been a relief to the frightened boy--for
+it must be confessed that he was a trifle frightened--if only a
+little shower of snow had fallen upon his head from the heavily
+laden branches, he would have been grateful for it, for it would
+have broken the spell of this oppressive silence.
+
+There could be no doubt of it; inside, under those tree-roots
+slept Stella's foe--the dreaded enchanted beast who had put the
+boldest of hunters to flight, and set lords and baronets by the
+ears for the privilege of possessing his skin.  Lars became
+suddenly aware that it was a foolhardy thing he had undertaken,
+and that he had better betake himself home.  But then, again, had
+not Witch-Martha said that she had been waiting for him; that he
+was destined by fate to accomplish this deed, just as the
+youngest son had been in the story-book.  Yes, to be sure, she
+had said that; and it was a comforting thought.
+
+Accordingly, having again examined his rifle, which he had
+carefully loaded with the silver bullet before leaving home, he
+started boldly forward, climbed up on the little hillock between
+the two trees, and began to pound it lustily with the butt-end of
+his gun.  He listened for a moment tremulously, and heard
+distinctly long, heavy sighs from within.
+
+His heart stood still.  The bear was awake! Soon he would have to
+face it!  A minute more elapsed; Lars's heart shot up into his
+throat.  He leaped down, placed himself in front of the entrance
+to the den, and cocked his rifle.  Three long minutes passed. 
+Bruin had evidently gone to sleep again.  Wild with excitement,
+the boy rushed forward and drove his skee-staff straight into the
+den with all his might.  A sullen growl was heard, like a deep
+and menacing thunder.  There could be no doubt that now the
+monster would take him to task for his impertinence.
+
+Again the boy seized his rifle; and his nerves, though tense as
+stretched bow-strings, seemed suddenly calm and steady.  He
+lifted the rifle to his cheek, and resolved not to shoot until he
+had a clear aim at heart or brain.  Bruin, though Lars could hear
+him rummaging within, was in no hurry to come out, But he sighed
+and growled uproariously, and presently showed a terrible,
+long-clawed paw, which he thrust out through his door and then
+again withdrew.  But apparently it took him a long while to get
+his mind clear as to the cause of the disturbance; for fully five
+minutes had elapsed when suddenly a big tuft of moss was tossed
+out upon the snow, followed by a cloud of dust and an angry
+creaking of the tree-roots.
+
+Great masses of snow were shaken from the swaying tops of the
+firs, and fell with light thuds upon the ground.  In the face of
+this unexpected shower, which entirely hid the entrance to the
+den, Lars was obliged to fall back a dozen paces; but, as the
+glittering drizzle cleared away, he saw an enormous brown beast
+standing upon its hind legs, with widely distended jaws.  He was
+conscious of no fear, but of a curious numbness in his limbs, and
+strange noises, as of warning shouts and cries, filling his ears.
+
+Fortunately, the great glare of the sun-smitten snow dazzled
+Bruin; he advanced slowly, roaring savagely, but staring rather
+blindly before him out of his small, evil-looking eyes. 
+Suddenly, when he was but a few yards distant, he raised his
+great paw, as if to rub away the cobwebs that obscured his sight.
+
+It was the moment for which the boy had waited.  Now he had a
+clear aim! Quickly he pulled the trigger; the shot reverberated
+from mountain to mountain, and in the same instant the huge brown
+bulk rolled in the snow, gave a gasp, and was dead!  The spell
+was broken!  The silver bullet had pierced his heart.  There was
+a curious unreality about the whole thing to Lars.  He scarcely
+knew whether he was really himself or the hero of the fairy-tale.
+
+All that was left for him to do now was to go home and marry
+Stella, the delivered princess.
+
+The noises about him seemed to come nearer and nearer; and now
+they sounded like human voices.  He looked about him, and to his
+amazement saw his father and Marit, followed by two wood-cutters,
+who, with raised axes, were running toward him.  Then he did not
+know exactly what happened; but he felt himself lifted up by two
+strong arms, and tears fell hot and fast upon his face.
+
+"My boy! my boy!"  said the voice in his ears, "I expected to
+find you dead."
+
+"No, but the bear is dead," said Lars, innocently.
+
+"I didn't mean to tell on you, Lars," cried Marit, "but I was so
+afraid, and then I had to."
+
+The rumor soon filled the whole valley that the great Gausdale
+Bruin was dead, and that the boy Lars Tomlevold had killed him. 
+It is needless to say that Lars Tomlevold became the parish hero
+from that day.  He did not dare to confess in the presence of all
+this praise and wonder that at heart he was bitterly
+disappointed; for when he came home, throbbing with wild
+expectancy, there stood Stella before the kitchen door, munching
+a piece of bread; and when she hailed him with a low whinny, he
+burst into tears.  But he dared not tell any one why he was
+weeping.
+
+This story might have ended here, but it has a little sequel. 
+The $1,750 which Bruin had to his credit in the bank had
+increased to $2,290; and it was all paid to Lars.  A few years
+later, Martin Janson, who had inherited the estate of Moe from
+old Lars, failed in consequence of his daring forest
+speculations, and young Lars was enabled to buy the farm at
+auction at less than half its value.  Thus he had the happiness
+to bring his mother back to the place of her birth, of which she
+had been wrongfully deprived; and Stella, who was now twenty-one
+years old, occupied once more her handsome box-stall, as in the
+days of her glory.  And although she never proved to be a
+princess, she was treated as if she were one, during the few
+years that remained to her.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext of Boyhood in Norway, by Hjalmar Boyesen
+
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