by H. H. BOYESEN.
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES

 
 THE NORSELAND SERIES 
 
 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 BY 
 
 HJALMAR HJORTH BOYESEN 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 THIRD EDITION 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 1899
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1894, BY 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 TROW DIRECTORY 
 
 PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 
 NEW YORK
 
 N8 
 
 NOTE 
 
 THE author's acknowledgments are due to 
 the publishers of The Youth's Companion and 
 Harper's Young People, in which periodicals 
 three of the stories in this volume " Zuleika," 
 " The Adventures of a ' Dig,' " and " The Feud 
 of the Wildhaymen " first appeared. 
 
 7163O9
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ZULEIKA, I 
 
 / 
 
 THE SUNLESS WORLD, . 43 
 
 LIFE FOR LIFE, 58 
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF A " Drc," 85 
 
 THE RUNAWAY'S THANKSGIVING, . . . ' . . 102 
 
 A BORN CHIEFTAIN, 131 
 
 THE FEUD OF THE WILDHAYMEN, 171 
 
 t 
 
 THE LITTLE CHAP, 192 
 
 THE SUN'S SISTERS, 210 
 
 LITTLE ALVILDA, . . . 228
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 IN THE SULTAN'S STABLE YARD, .... Frontispiece 
 
 MAKING FRIENDS WITH ZULEIKA, 8 
 
 ZULEIKA RECOGNIZES HER MASTER, 40 
 
 THEODORE IN THE Fox TRAP, 98 
 
 THE ROBBING OF THE EAGLE'S NEST, * 186 
 
 REYNARD OFFERS HIMSELF AS A TRAVELLING COMPANION, 214 
 
 LARS AND THE PRINCESS DAWN, . . . . . 218
 
 ZULEIKA 
 
 A NORSEMAN IN STAMBOUL 
 
 COLONEL RING was a Norwegian officer who 
 had entered the Sultan's service. In the war of 
 1877-78, between Russia and Turkey, he distin 
 guished himself on many occasions, and won the 
 friendship and admiration of his general, Osman 
 Pasha. 
 
 After the retirement of the victorious Rus 
 sians, Colonel Ring desired to take his leave 
 and return to his own country ; but the Sultan 
 begged him to remain and detained him from 
 year to year, for he found great advantage in 
 the Colonel's services, and became attached to 
 him personally. The frank and open manner of 
 this blue-eyed Norseman, in whom he had com 
 plete confidence, was particularly pleasing to the 
 sombre and suspicious ruler of the Moslems, sur 
 rounded as he was by dangers and intrigues. 
 
 Colonel Ring soon had an opportunity to de 
 monstrate his good faith ; for it was he who
 
 2 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 discovered the formidable conspiracy of palace 
 officials, whose design it was to assassinate the 
 Sultan and proclaim his nephew Ishmael. 
 
 Prince Ishmael, who was the oldest son of the 
 harem and the heir to the throne, was a boy of 
 sixteen. He was quite innocent of any connec 
 tion with the conspiracy in his behalf. It was 
 owing to the Sultan's fondness for Colonel Ring 
 that the Prince was permitted to pass much of 
 his time in the company of the Colonel's son 
 Claude. 
 
 The Prince was a tall, slender lad, with a dark 
 complexion and large, inscrutable black eyes. 
 He looked sickly, and though he had tutors who 
 instructed him in many things, he was not over 
 burdened with learning. 
 
 The poor fellow was never allowed to do any 
 thing that he liked to do, and though he was to 
 be the ruler of the Ottoman Empire, he could 
 not have bought the liberty to play leap-frog, 
 run a foot-race, or turn hand-springs with all his 
 splendid possessions. 
 
 He was never left alone for a minute by day 
 or by night, and the elaborate mummery of bows 
 and prostrations and salutations which everyone 
 must go through who approached him, made his 
 life a burden to him. When Claude Ring, intro 
 duced for the first time, refused to kneel or to 
 perform any of the antics which Turkish custom
 
 ZULEIKA 3 
 
 required, the Prince was seized with a great lik 
 ing for him and asked him to come back often. 
 
 It was a great annoyance to Ishmael that he 
 could not learn to sit a horse well. Riding with 
 a master, in a ring strewn with tan-bark, was ex 
 ceedingly wearisome to him, and neither martial 
 music nor respectful praise nor blame could 
 make him hold his body erect and carry himself 
 like a warrior and the future ruler of an empire. 
 
 Prince Ishmael's bearing was listless and self- 
 conscious. His arms and legs were loosely hung 
 on their joints, and in spite of his gorgeous, 
 gold-embroidered uniform, he made an impres 
 sion of weakness rather than of strength. 
 
 Claude Ring, though by half a year his junior, 
 weighed ten pounds more than the Prince, and 
 with his broad chest, strong, wiry limbs and 
 well-knit frame, was greatly his physical supe 
 rior. 
 
 Claude's horsemanship was so good that it 
 occurred to Ishmael's head-tutor that the young 
 Norseman might perhaps be able to teach some 
 thing of his skill to the Prince. The Sultan 
 found the suggestion a good one, and gave his 
 consent. 
 
 From that time on a change came over the 
 Prince's behavior. 
 
 He copied, in innocent fashion, Claude's bear 
 ing and manner, particularly the fling of his head
 
 4 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 and his turns of speech. Little by little, as he 
 rode at Claude's side, in the parks and suburbs 
 of the city, along the smiling shores of the 
 Bosphorus, he began to open his heart to his 
 companion. 
 
 Claude told him about his childhood in Nor 
 way ; about the shells and conchs, with which he 
 played on the beach, making believe that they 
 were cows and horses ; about the fish he caught, 
 and the snares he set for thrush and ptarmigan, 
 and the little mill-wheels, made with his own 
 hands, which he set going in the little waterfalls 
 of brooks and runlets. 
 
 No tale of the Arabian Nights could have been 
 more wonderful to Ishmael than these simple 
 narratives of boyish sport. He longed with all 
 his heart to be a boy instead of a prince. 
 
 About a month after his engagement as Prince 
 Ishmael's companion, Claude was summoned 
 to an audience with the Sultan. He could not 
 imagine what the Commander of the Faithful 
 wanted of him, and feared that it meant some 
 thing unpleasant. He waited for half an hour in 
 an anteroom of the palace, and was then ushered 
 into the presence of a dark, sad-looking man of 
 about forty years, who wore a gold-embroidered 
 fez on his head, and the breast of whose coat 
 was ablaze with diamonds. 
 
 " I wish you to accept a reward for your kind-
 
 ZULEIKA 5 
 
 ness to Prince Ishmael," said the Sultan, having 
 nodded in response to Claude's respectful greet 
 ing. 
 
 " Kindness, your Majesty, ceases to be kind 
 ness when it is rewarded," answered the boy. 
 
 This answer seemed to please the Sultan. He 
 smiled in a sad but friendly way and said : 
 
 " When you are older, my boy, you will learn 
 that a Sultan cannot accept a kindness from any 
 man. He must spoil it by paying for it." 
 
 " If that is so, your Majesty, I submit. I will 
 accept whatever it may please your Majesty to 
 give me." 
 
 " You are an excellent horseman. How would 
 a fine horse please you?" 
 
 " Nothing would please me better." 
 
 " Then you may go to my stable to-morrow, 
 and there you shall select any horse you like, 
 except my saddle-horse, Noureddin." 
 
 " I thank your Majesty with all my heart." 
 
 The Sultan made a slight motion of dismissal 
 with his hand. Claude made a profound bow 
 and backed out of the audience room. 
 
 Mudir Pasha, the Sultan's Master of the Horse, 
 called on Claude the next day and conducted 
 him to the imperial stables. The boy spent the 
 entire forenoon examining one splendid horse 
 after another, as it was led out before him and 
 put through its paces. He had tried many fine
 
 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 horses, and was half-ashamed of his indecision, 
 when he caught sight of an exquisite animal in a 
 box-stall in a remote corner of the stable. 
 
 " Please open that window," he said to the 
 groom, " and have the kindness to lead that 
 horse out, so that I may look at it." 
 
 From the glance the groom exchanged with 
 the Master of the Horse he soon perceived that 
 there was some design in keeping this animal, as 
 far as possible, out of sight. 
 
 "Oh, you don't want that vixen," said the 
 equerry. " She is the most vicious beast in the 
 whole stable." 
 
 " Never mind," Claude replied. " I should 
 like to have a look at her any way. What is her 
 name ? " 
 
 " Zuleika." 
 
 Zuleika was led out into the court-yard before 
 the stable, and Claude's heart thrilled at the 
 sight of her. She was a dapple-gray Arabian 
 mare, not very large, but of noble shape, and with 
 a head so exceedingly beautiful that it was im 
 possible to look at it without being filled with 
 earnest admiration. There was fire and intel 
 ligence in her black eyes, and an alertness and 
 restrained vigor in the small, silky, forward- 
 pointed ears, which showed her mettle. 
 
 Her slender legs were absolutely faultless. 
 Claude fancied he could see them bearing him
 
 ZULEIKA 7 
 
 across the country at a graceful canter or a long, 
 striding trot. 
 
 He put his hand gently on her shoulder 
 and limbs, and she gave a quick start as if she re 
 sented it. Claude was greatly pleased with her. 
 She was a princess if ever there was one. Never 
 did noble blood declare itself more plainly in 
 shape and look and demeanor. 
 
 The shy, resentful glance she gave him, as he 
 ran his hand down along her hind-legs, did not 
 disturb him. She had a personality, this lovely 
 beast, not the mere passive docility of what is 
 called a good horse, but a sensitiveness like that 
 of an intelligent human being. 
 
 " I think this will be my choice," said Claude 
 to the Master of the Horse. " I'll ride her home 
 now, if you'll kindly lend me a saddle." 
 
 " Don't be rash, young man," the Turk re 
 plied, with a malicious laugh. " You'd better 
 try the mare before you make up your mind." 
 
 " All right," said the boy ; " but my mind is 
 made up already." 
 
 It made Claude a trifle uneasy to remark the 
 by-play of swift gesticulations and glances which 
 went on between Mudir Pasha and his under 
 lings when they supposed they were unob 
 served. It began to dawn upon him that he had 
 selected the most precious horse in the imperial 
 stables, and he knew enough of the Turkish
 
 8 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 character to be aware that a " Giaour," or Chris 
 tian, would not be permitted to carry off such a 
 prize if these men could prevent it. 
 
 He therefore took the precaution, when the 
 mare was returned to him, to examine the buck- 
 lings of the various straps and to push his hand 
 under the saddle. 
 
 He thought for a moment that his suspicion 
 had been groundless. But as he inserted his 
 finger under the saddle-lining, he felt a scratch, 
 as of a sharp metallic point. A steel rowel, 
 shaped like a burr, with a dozen keen needle 
 points, had been so placed that the very instant 
 he added his weight to the saddle the cruel 
 needles would pierce into the back of the horse. 
 
 Claude had been too long in Turkey to be as 
 tonished at this exhibition of treachery. He 
 knew, too, the folly of showing the manly wrath 
 which he felt. With the utmost coolness he 
 pulled out the rowel, and without the moving of 
 a muscle in his face, tossed it away. 
 
 Having tightened the saddle-girth, he then 
 mounted Zuleika, and raising his hat to the 
 Master of the Horse, was about to gallop away. 
 
 Scarcely had he turned his head, when the 
 riding-whip which the Turk held in his hand 
 whizzed through the air and cut with vicious 
 force across the haunches of the mare. 
 
 With a wild snort Zuleika reared, tossed her
 
 ZULEIKA 9 
 
 head in the air, whirled about the court with 
 furious swishing of tail and clatter of hoofs, and 
 struck out madly with her hind-legs ; but seeing 
 that her rider still held her with his powerful 
 knees as in a vise, she gave a bound that almost 
 wrenched him from his seat and then shot out 
 of the gate. 
 
 " He is a dead man," said Mudir Pasha to the 
 equerry, as he lighted a cigarette and flung the 
 match on the pavement. 
 
 " Allah is great," answered the groom. " He 
 will not let a Giaour carry off the pride of the 
 Moslems." 
 
 It looked for a while as if the Turk's prophecy 
 were to come true. 
 
 Zuleika dashed away through the narrow, 
 winding streets with a blind and headlong 
 speed, leaping over all obstacles. Now she up 
 set a peddler's cart, now she knocked down a 
 soldier, and now she made havoc in a pack of 
 street dogs that had congregated at a corner. 
 
 Like a continuous salvo of musketry sounded 
 the sharp, furious hoof -beats upon the stone 
 pavement, as with outstretched neck, ears laid 
 back, foaming bit, and distended nostrils the ex 
 cited animal darted away past shops and bazaars, 
 past gardens and villas, and out into the open 
 country. 
 
 Now Claude had the wide country before him,
 
 10 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 with broad avenues and little traffic. It was 
 simply a question of grit and endurance. He 
 seemed to perceive a slight slackening of Zu- 
 leika's speed, though she was yet rushing on at 
 a desperate pace. It was still impossible to 
 bring her to a stop. 
 
 On his left the shining Bosphorus expanded, 
 like a burnished mirror. From the villas along 
 the water-front piers ran out into the strait. 
 
 A daring thought flashed through Claude's 
 brain. What if he gave Zuleika a bath in the 
 Bosphorus ? That would cool her ardor and 
 bring her to her senses, before she had run her 
 self to death. With him to think was to do, and 
 in a moment Zuleika was headed for the water. 
 She beat a quick tattoo on the boards of a pier, 
 and then plunged with a tremendous splash into 
 the Bosphorus. 
 
 It was a stratagem for which she was wholly 
 unprepared, and she had not swum a dozen rods 
 before there was a sudden relaxation of effort, 
 and she quietly turned her head about toward 
 her rider, as if to see what manner of man he 
 was. 
 
 " Zuleika, my beauty," he said, leaning for 
 ward and patting her neck, " it was not I who 
 struck you, you lovely creature ; no, indeed, it 
 was not I." 
 
 In her effort to turn her head, Zuleika swal-
 
 ZULEIKA 1 1 
 
 lowed some salt water and began to cough. He 
 soothed her again and patted her, talking to her 
 as he would to a wilful child, and headed her 
 gently for the shore. But, unhappily, the strong 
 current through the strait was too much for the 
 exhausted animal. Claude perceived that the 
 shore, instead of drawing nearer, was moving 
 away from him. Was he being swept out to 
 sea? 
 
 With quick resolution he flung himself off Zu- 
 leika's back, and taking the rein between his 
 teeth, swam with powerful strokes at her side. 
 
 Claude began to repent of his recklessness. 
 He saw unmistakable evidence of exhaustion in 
 Zuleika. 
 
 There were no boats near by, though there 
 were some not very far away. One of these 
 seemed to have caught sight of him and to be 
 tacking toward him, for a slight wind had sprung 
 up and swept with light undulations over the 
 smooth strait. 
 
 The question now was whether Zuleika could 
 keep afloat until the boat overtook them. The 
 current which had dealt so treacherously with 
 them was now serving them well, for it was 
 carrying them in the very direction from which 
 the boat was coming. 
 
 But Zuleika's body settled deeper in the 
 water. She panted violently, and now and then
 
 12 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 a very human groan broke from the depth of 
 her powerful breast. 
 
 They drifted steadily toward the boat. Claude 
 was now near enough to decipher the crescent 
 moon in the imperial arms on the sails, which 
 were of yellow silk. That was odd, indeed. 
 There was no one in Turkey except the Sultan 
 and Prince Ishmael who had the right to display 
 those arms. 
 
 The yacht was presently within hailing dis 
 tance, and a young man, in whom he instantly 
 recognized the Prince, raised a field-glass to his 
 eyes and cried out : 
 
 " Why, it is Claude ! Claude, my friend, what 
 are you doing in the middle of the Bosphorus?" 
 
 " Swimming," said Claude. 
 
 " Do you want to be taken aboard ? " 
 
 " Should not object, if you can also take my 
 horse." 
 
 Prince Ishmael spoke to the sailing-master, 
 who was seen to shake his head. 
 
 " We can't get the horse aboard," he said to 
 Claude ; " but we can tow him ashore." 
 
 " Thank you." 
 
 " But you come aboard yourself." 
 
 " I can't. I prefer to keep my horse company." 
 
 Two ropes were now flung overboard and 
 Claude managed to attach one to the ring of 
 Zuleika's bit, while he secured the other under
 
 ZULEIKA 13 
 
 his own arms. The breeze freshened a trifle ; 
 the yacht again hoisted her sails, which she had 
 let fall. With gentle speed she towed the two 
 swimmers toward a bit of beach about a mile 
 below where they had taken their first plunge. 
 There they landed safely. 
 
 Claude forgot to express his thanks to Prince 
 Ishmael, so anxious was he about Zuleika's con 
 dition. She had won a place in his heart ; their 
 friendship had been cemented by danger. 
 
 Zuleika trembled like a leaf, as she stood 
 dripping at the roadside, and Claude did not 
 think it best to return to the city with her be 
 fore she had rested. He walked her slowly up 
 and down. Fortunately the day was warm and 
 sunny, and there was no danger of her catching 
 cold. 
 
 The exquisite beauty of her head, the slender- 
 ness and delicacy of her form, and the noble 
 proportions of her whole frame struck him 
 afresh, as his eyes lingered fondly at each detail 
 of her perfections. 
 
 She steamed, as the warm rays of the sun beat 
 upon her back and flanks, and in a short time 
 she was dry. Claude himself, too, steamed ; but 
 his underclothes remained uncomfortably moist, 
 even though his coat and trousers dried rapidly. 
 He spent the time in calling Zuleika pet names 
 ajid establishing himself in her friendship.
 
 14 NOKSELAND TALES 
 
 Claude, fearing to attract attention, led Zu- 
 leika into the shadow of a boat-house. Then he 
 began to cast about him for a safe means of re 
 turning to the city. Remembering that Gal- 
 braith Effendi, a Mohammedanized Englishman, 
 and a friend of his father, had his villa in this 
 neighborhood, he determined to avail himself of 
 his hospitality. He reached the Englishman's 
 dwelling and was cordially received. 
 
 A message was sent to Colonel Ring, with an 
 account of the morning's adventure, and Zuleika 
 was tended, waited upon, and cared for as if she 
 had been a princess of royal blood which, in 
 fact, she was. 
 
 II 
 
 CLAUDE AND HIS MARE IN GERMANY 
 
 NEITHER Claude nor Zuleika suffered any in 
 jury from their experience in the Bosphorus, but 
 both had to keep out of sight for a week, until 
 the excitement caused by the wild ride through 
 the city had subsided. 
 
 There was at one time a certain danger of a 
 riot, for Mudir Pasha, the Master of the Horse, 
 who was a fanatical Turk, did not lose this op 
 portunity to inflame the people against the hated 
 " Giaours," who had already, as he believed, too 
 much influence in the City of the Faithful.
 
 ZULEIKA 15 
 
 The Sultan, he said, was completely in their 
 power ; and now he had ventured to insult his 
 people by presenting the most precious horse in 
 the Turkish Empire to a dog of a Christian ! 
 
 Moreover, there was a law, always rigidly en 
 forced, which forbade the exportation of Arabian 
 mares. As long as this foreign youth, Claude 
 Ring, remained in Stamboul, his possession of 
 Zuleika might perhaps be tolerated ; but if he 
 attempted to take her beyond the borders of the 
 Empire, he must discover that he was engaged 
 in a dangerous business. 
 
 Colonel Ring, when the rumors of the people's 
 indignation reached his ears, made haste to re 
 late to the Sultan the true story of the affair; 
 and the Sultan, being satisfied that it was Mudir, 
 and not Claude, who was at fault, sternly com 
 manded the Pasha to refrain from exciting the 
 people. He refused to take Zuleika back, or to 
 force Claude to exchange her for another horse. 
 He had given his royal word, which he would 
 not break. 
 
 Colonel Ring, who found it hard to compre 
 hend why all this excitement should have arisen 
 about a horse, now took pains to inquire into the 
 history and pedigree of Zuleika. He learned 
 that she had been procured with infinite trouble 
 as a colt from the Gomussa tribe of Arabs, who 
 cherish their horses with especial pride, and that
 
 16 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 she came of the very choicest strain of the des 
 ert. Her pedigree had been scrupulously kept 
 for more than two centuries, and there was a 
 tradition that she was descended from the re 
 nowned stallion ridden by that scourge of na 
 tions, Genghis Khan, in all his battles. 
 
 The Gomussa tribe had never before been 
 willing to part with horses of this strain, because 
 they believed that the sale of a single colt would 
 bring bad luck. They had a superstitious faith 
 in the virtue and excellence of these beautiful 
 animals, and imagined that their own star would 
 be eclipsed when they lost exclusive possession 
 of them. 
 
 Claude knew the Turk well enough to be 
 aware that it was only a question of time when 
 he should lose his treasure if he remained in 
 Stamboul. Mudir Pasha, his declared enemy, 
 was as unscrupulous as he was powerful. 
 
 Claude begged his father to give up his com 
 mission in the Turkish army and return to the 
 lands of Christians ; but the Colonel had much 
 at heart certain reforms in the infantry drill 
 which he was trying to introduce, and would 
 not listen to his son's entreaties. 
 
 A- year, therefore, passed, during which Claude 
 devoted himself chiefly to guarding Zuleika and 
 keeping her from harm. He spent, to be sure, 
 three hours with his tutor every morning, and
 
 ZULEIKA 17 
 
 rode with Prince Ishmael three or four times a 
 week ; but Zuleika was his first thought when he 
 awoke and his last when he closed his eyes in 
 sleep. 
 
 He wisely hesitated to show off the mare be 
 fore the Prince. Strictly speaking, it was not 
 proper for him to be better mounted than the 
 heir to the throne of the Moslems. As long as 
 Ishmael had all he could do to keep in the sad 
 dle it did not matter much ; but now, thanks to 
 Claude's example and teaching, he had not only 
 acquired fair skill in riding, but there was a cer 
 tain military swing in his bearing, and he con 
 versed with perfect ease while cantering over 
 the smooth roads at a rattling pace. 
 
 The Prince's mother and head-tutor were de 
 lighted with the improvement in him, and his 
 mother sent Claude costly presents, which he was 
 obliged to accept. What to do with all the 
 jewelry he accumulated became, after a while, a 
 problem. He could not sell the gifts of a sul 
 tana, nor could he, according to European no 
 tions, wear them upon his person without mak 
 ing himself ridiculous. One day Prince Ishmael 
 met Claude as he was riding Zuleika on a re 
 tired road outside the capital. 
 
 " That's a fine raking mare you have got," 
 said the Prince. 
 
 He had never before appeared to be aware of
 
 1 8 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 Zuleika's existence, and as he was not very ob 
 serving-, this had not surprised his friend. 
 
 " I am glad you think so, Prince," was Claude's 
 careless reply. " I think myself she is a fine 
 beast. She has a good, light pace and easy 
 action." 
 
 " She is a trifle ragged-hipped," said Ishmael, 
 scanning the mare curiously. 
 
 " I beg your Highness's pardon ! " cried the 
 hot-headed Claude, forgetting all his prudence. 
 " She is as smooth as satin, and there isn't a flaw 
 in her whole beautiful body." 
 
 The words had scarcely escaped from his 
 mouth before he felt how foolish they were ; 
 but then he could not bear to have anyone find 
 fault with Zuleika, and the incautious praise 
 sprang to his lips before he could weigh its con 
 sequences. 
 
 " How much will you take for her?" inquired 
 the Prince, who was more impressed by the 
 ardor of Claude's speech than by the fine points 
 of the mare. 
 
 " If your Highness will pardon me," answered 
 Claude, " I should not willingly consent to sell 
 her, because I am very fond of her." 
 
 Ishmael's face darkened, and he looked away 
 with a cloudy brow. He was not accustomed to 
 being crossed in his wishes. Claude rode in 
 silent apprehension at his side.
 
 ZULEIKA 19 
 
 " It is not fair ! " began the Prince, moodily, 
 turning his swarthy face to his companion. " It 
 is not proper that you should have a better 
 mount than I. I will pay you any reasonable 
 price you may ask for your mare, but I want 
 you to make no difficulty about it. Do you 
 understand ? " 
 
 " I understand, Prince," murmured Claude. 
 
 He was about to add something more, but 
 happily restrained himself in time. 
 
 But the world looked no longer the same to 
 him. The brightness had gone out of the sun 
 shine, and the song of the birds beat upon his 
 ears with a weary and stale monotony. To op 
 pose the Prince, if he had really made up his 
 mind to possess Zuleika, was simply madness; 
 but to part with Zuleika in order to gratify an 
 idle whim of a pampered favorite of fortune was 
 more than he could bear. Claude rode home in 
 bad humor and told his father what had oc 
 curred. 
 
 " My dear boy," said Colonel Ring, " you'll 
 have to give up your mare or leave the Turkish 
 Empire. The Prince will be sure to get the 
 better of you." 
 
 " I would rather lose my life than lose Zu 
 leika ! " cried Claude, hotly. 
 
 " That is foolish talk, Claude," said his father, 
 with grave kindliness. " 1 can well understand
 
 2O NORSELAND TALES 
 
 your feelings for Zuleika, but you are old enough 
 now to consult your reason rather than a blind 
 impulse. You know I cannot leave the Sultan's 
 service at the present time, and you have always 
 refused to go without me, although I have urged 
 you again and again to enter the military acad 
 emy at Lichterfelde." 
 
 " I'll go now, if you'll let me take Zuleika with 
 me ! " ejaculated the boy, eagerly. 
 
 " Am I to understand that you care more for 
 your horse than you do for your father ? " asked 
 the Colonel. 
 
 " No, father," answered Claude, warmly. " But 
 it is not a question of losing you, as it is with 
 Zuleika. You'll join me soon, and then we shall 
 both be happier than we ever could be here, 
 where all foreigners are hated and despised." 
 
 Claude obtained his father's permission to 
 start that very night for Athens. The Colonel 
 knew well the captain of a Greek steamer which 
 sailed early the next morning, and he agreed to 
 assist his son in getting Zuleika aboard before 
 daylight. 
 
 Claude packed his trunk in haste, and rousing 
 his German groom, accompanied him to the 
 stable. 
 
 Zuleika, when she heard her master's voice, 
 greeted him with a friendly neigh. She was 
 standing quietly in her roomy box-stall, and her
 
 ZULEIKA 21 
 
 beautiful head was lifted over the railing, while 
 her dark eyes peered with eager surprise through 
 the dusk which the light of the lantern dimly 
 penetrated. 
 
 Claude found a lump of sugar in his pocket, 
 and in order not to excite the mare by his un 
 timely visit, stood by her and patted her on the 
 neck while she ate the sugar. 
 
 " We are going travelling, you and I, Zuleika 
 dear," he said, after a while, " and now I want 
 you to get on your hooded overcoat and your 
 whole travelling costume,." 
 
 He ordered the groom to draw the hood over 
 her head, and the blanket, which was of one piece 
 with the hood, covered all the rest of her body 
 except her legs below the knees. She was so 
 completely disguised that her own master would 
 not have recognized her if he had met her else 
 where. Only her black eyes were visible, gazing 
 through the eye-holes bordered with red. 
 
 " Now," said Claude to the groom, " you may 
 prepare a carriage, and as soon as my father and 
 I start, you will ride Zuleika slowly behind us." 
 
 The groom obeyed promptly. Within an 
 hour all the preparations for the journey were 
 completed. 
 
 It was about eleven o'clock in the evening, 
 and the weather was fair. There was still a little 
 traffic in the streets, and the inconspicuous car-
 
 22 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 riage and the hooded horse, therefore, attracted 
 no attention. It was a common thing for people 
 to drive in the evening, and for grooms to ex 
 ercise their horses in the cool night air. 
 
 In half an hour they had reached the quays, 
 and drove out on a pier to which the Greek 
 steamer was moored. A Turkish custom-house 
 officer who sat cross-legged, with a long pipe in his 
 mouth, close to the gangway, proved to be fast 
 asleep ; and Zuleika was led aboard without so 
 much as being challenged. 
 
 Luck had attended him so far, and Claude was 
 in high spirits. His father had spent the night 
 in the saloon of the steamer, giving his son good 
 advice, and writing letters of introduction to 
 some of his best friends in Germany. 
 
 At six o'clock in the morning, as the whistle 
 was blowing for the last time, the Colonel took 
 leave of his son. Claude and Zuleika reached 
 Athens in safety, and made their way thence by 
 steamer to Palermo and Marseilles, and thence 
 by rail to Paris. 
 
 No sooner had he appeared in the Bois de 
 Boulogne with Zuleika than he found himself a 
 personage of importance, and was approached 
 with a dozen offers of the most extravagant 
 kind for the mare. 
 
 Much embarrassed by the attention he at 
 tracted, and fearful that the Turkish embassy
 
 ZULEIKA 23 
 
 would hear of the mare, Claude hastened across 
 the Rhine into Germany, and to Lichterfelde. 
 There he passed his entrance examination to the 
 military academy. 
 
 He was now obliged to appear in the costume 
 of a Prussian cadet, and to submit himself to dis 
 cipline ; and to a boy of Claude's disposition 
 who had had his own way in most things, the 
 inflexible rules and the harsh tone of com 
 mand which prevailed in this school of Spar 
 tan simplicity and sternness were doubly hard 
 to bear. 
 
 He was thoroughly homesick, and in moments 
 of loneliness often wished that he had not so 
 rashly given up the companionship of his dear 
 and affectionate father. 
 
 The only consolation he had in his solitude 
 was Zuleika. Nearly all the time he could spare 
 from his duties he spent with her. Though he 
 was not a noble, like so many of his comrades, 
 he was by special permission granted leave to 
 keep a horse. 
 
 It was entirely owing to Zuleika that Claude 
 found himself again a person of distinction the 
 moment he appeared on horseback. People 
 stopped all along the sidewalks to gaze at him, 
 as he made Zuleika dance away over the ground 
 with a pace so light and dainty that it seemed the 
 very spirit of airy speed and grace.
 
 24 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 " What a beautiful creature ! " exclaimed the 
 ladies, enthusiastically. 
 
 " And how superbly the fellow rides," ejacu 
 lated others ; " he sits in the saddle as if he were 
 born in it." 
 
 " The young man is an Arab," an officious 
 person explained. " That is the reason he rides 
 so well. His father is an Arab sheik, and this 
 mare is his chief treasure ; and so to speak, a 
 friend of the family. For you know the Arabs 
 associate with their horses as we do with our 
 friends ; call upon them, invite them to tea, and 
 drink a glass with them." 
 
 Claude heard only part of this explanation, 
 and it amused him exceedingly. He did not 
 object particularly to being taken for an Arab ; 
 and that Zuleika was his friend he never would 
 have thought of denying. 
 
 Early in the morning, before eating his break 
 fast, he went to the stable to pet her, talk to her, 
 and inquire for her health. No sooner did Zu 
 leika hear his footsteps without than she whinnied 
 toward him her joyous greeting. Long before 
 he spoke, she felt by instinct his approach, and it 
 was touching to see the eagerness with which 
 she lifted her lovely head to catch the first 
 glimpse of him when he opened the stable door. 
 
 She sulked if she was neglected, and she was 
 extremely jealous. Once, when Claude, instead
 
 ZULEIKA 25 
 
 of going straight toward her, as was his wont, 
 stopped to speak to the groom and incidentally 
 patted another horse, she turned impulsively 
 about in her box-stall, and made no response to 
 his advances, except an angry whisking of her 
 tail. Two days passed before he regained her 
 favor. 
 
 Claude attached himself with his whole heart 
 to this beautiful and intelligent creature. His 
 fellow cadets called him " the Arab," because of 
 his devotion to Zuleika. 
 
 The story was told by some wag that he kissed 
 her good-morning and good-night, and had his 
 breakfast served in the stable with her. The 
 latter was, to be sure, a pure invention, but the 
 former had some slight foundation in fact. For 
 Zulieka had learned, whenever Claude said " Kiss 
 me," to touch his face with her soft nose, and 
 when he said, " Pat me," gently to rub her head 
 against his cheeks. 
 
 A year passed rapidly. Claude made many 
 friends in the military academy. He took good- 
 naturedly all the banter of his comrades. All the 
 extravagant offers he received for Zuleika he 
 refused, declaring freely that no money could 
 buy her. 
 
 A year after Claude's departure, Colonel Ring 
 resigned his commission in the Turkish army,
 
 26 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 receiving at the same time the honors due to his 
 service. He had taken good care not to divulge 
 Claude's place of residence, and had even had his 
 letters addressed to Galbraith Effendi. 
 
 He had found the separation very hard, and 
 was eager to see his son. As soon, therefore, as 
 he had made his farewell visit to the Sultan, he 
 started by rail for Vienna, and thence to Berlin, 
 where Claude had leave to meet him. 
 
 It seemed to him that, at a station where the 
 train stopped for dinner, he caught sight of the 
 squat figure and dark beard and features of 
 Mudir Pasha, the Sultan's Master of the Horse. 
 He wondered what this surly Turk was doing 
 in Germany, and concluded that he had been 
 sent abroad _o buy horses for the army. The 
 Colonel had no desire to renew his acquaintance 
 with him, and therefore appeared not to see him. 
 
 After the train was well under way, it occurred 
 to him as a curious thing that Mudir was dressed 
 in European costume, even dispensing with the 
 fez which in an orthodox, old-fashioned Turk 
 was rather extraordinary. 
 
 The Colonel soon fell into a pleasanter train of 
 thought, as he rolled northward toward Berlin. 
 
 There is no need of describing the happy 
 meeting between father and son. It was late 
 when they thought of retiring, and late when 
 they had finished breakfast the next morning.
 
 ZULEIKA 27 
 
 Claude rose with a sudden pang, before he 
 had finished his meal. It was the first time in 
 his life that he had forgotten Zuleika. 
 
 " Excuse me, father," he said, hurriedly ; " I'll 
 be back in five minutes." 
 
 He rushed, with a nameless oppression, to the 
 stable of the hotel. 
 
 Ah ! to be sure, there stood Zuleika, as usual. 
 But she was in a pet, of course, at having been 
 forgotten. She gave him no greeting, nor did 
 she even turn her head to look at him. Claude 
 did not wonder. 
 
 " Don't sulk now, Zuleika," he said, in his most 
 cajoling tones. " Come here and let me talk to 
 you. You know father has come " 
 
 The mare stood as stolid as a post, munching 
 her oats, and betrayed not even by a look or a 
 pricking up of her ears, or an extra whisking of 
 her tail, that she heard Claude's voice. 
 
 Claude's heart sank within him. He felt as if 
 a great calamity had overtaken him. He seized 
 a hay-fork and thrust open the two shutters 
 which covered the windows. The light poured 
 in. 
 
 Then with a slow, deliberate motion the mare 
 turned her head; but what was that? Surely 
 that was not Zuleika's head ! 
 
 Claude leaped over the railing, unhooked 
 the door, and pulled the mare out into the full
 
 28 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 glare of the daylight. He felt chilly and half- 
 benumbed. 
 
 He tied the mare to the stable door and stared 
 straight into her face. She made no response. 
 Could he trust his eyes? It was not Zuleika! 
 Someone had stolen his treasure in the night 
 and substituted this dull beast, which was out 
 wardly not unlike her, but lacked her airy grace, 
 her fiery spirit, and her perfect beauty. 
 
 Claude had still a vague hope that he might be 
 dreaming, and that he would presently wake and 
 find that it was all a horrible mistake. 
 
 But he was indeed awake. The dapple-gray 
 mare did not become Zuleika. His mare was 
 gone. 
 
 Ill 
 
 CLAUDE RECOVERS HIS OWN 
 
 IT was plain to anyone who knew Zuleika well 
 that the mare which stood before Claude was not 
 the splendid animal which he had brought from 
 Constantinople with so much trouble. In his 
 agitation he could form no idea how the substi 
 tution had taken place. 
 
 Without stopping to thrust the gray mare 
 back into her box, Claude ran out into the stable 
 yard, and, in a hoarse and unsteady voice, called 
 his groom.
 
 ZULEIKA 29 
 
 In a moment the man came running out of the 
 hotel, his absence even at that moment indicating 
 that he had not been very diligent in his at 
 tendance. 
 
 " Where is Zuleika ? " cried Claude. 
 
 The man stared stupidly at the mare, who had 
 not stirred from the spot where Claude left her. 
 
 " Surely, this is Zuleika, sir," answered the 
 groom. 
 
 " Don't dare to tell me that ! Have you no 
 eyes ? Who has been here since last night?" 
 
 " No one has been here that I know of." 
 
 " Do you mean to say that Zuleika has walked 
 off and left this substitute in her place without 
 your knowing it ? " 
 
 " I know nothing about it, sir." 
 
 Claude could not make out from the man's 
 manner whether he was telling the truth or not. 
 He had a suspicion that he had been bribed to 
 allow the exchange ; but if so, he was feigning 
 innocence very cleverly. 
 
 There were grooms in the stable during the 
 entire night ; there was no evidence that the 
 lock had been forced or picked. A skilful burg 
 lar might, however, have picked so simple a lock 
 without leaving any sign that it had been tam 
 pered with. 
 
 Dismayed and heartsick, Claude walked back 
 to the dining-room and told his father of Zu-
 
 30 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 leika's disappearance. The Colonel listened for 
 a while in silence ; then a ray of light suddenly 
 broke across his face. He jumped up with a 
 vehement gesture, and cried : 
 
 " That scoundrel, Mudir, has done it ! " 
 
 "Mudir Pasha?" 
 
 " Yes. He followed me northward. I saw 
 him on the train, but it did not occur to me then 
 that he was tracking me in order to find you. I 
 supposed he had gone north to buy horses. It is 
 Prince Ishmael who has sent him. You know 
 he was terribly angry when you left, and he 
 swore to get Zuleika, no matter where she was." 
 
 " Then Zuleika is now on the road to Constan 
 tinople ? " 
 
 " Undoubtedly." 
 
 " And I am going to Constantinople after her, 
 unless I can catch her on the way." 
 
 " Well, I am going with you. A fraud, a theft 
 like this, is more than I can stand. Such villany 
 must be punished." 
 
 It was a gratification to Claude to find his 
 father scarcely less incensed than he was him 
 self, for when the Colonel started to do a 
 thing, he seldom allowed any obstacle to defeat 
 him. 
 
 Both packed their hand-trunks in haste and 
 drove to the Anhalt station. An express train 
 was to leave at ten o'clock, and Claude employed
 
 ZULEIKA 31 
 
 the fifteen minutes he had to spare before the 
 departure of this train in asking questions rela 
 tive to Zuleika of brakemen, conductors, and 
 freight agents. 
 
 He ascertained, beyond a doubt, that Mudir 
 Pasha had started with the Arabian mare by a 
 freight train which left at six o'clock, and which 
 would be overtaken by the express at Dresden 
 in the afternoon. Unless he had taken the pre 
 caution to get off at a way-station, or unless 
 some accident happened, they would therefore 
 be certain to catch him ; and they had no doubt 
 that they might rely upon German justice to do 
 its work surely, if slowly. 
 
 Both Claude and the Colonel, while speeding 
 southward, gathered all the information they 
 could from train-hands and station-masters, in 
 order not to lose track of the Turk. They be 
 came convinced before they reached Dresden 
 that Mudir had regarded extra precautions as 
 unnecessary, and was taking the straight road 
 southward to the Ottoman dominions. 
 
 At the great station in Dresden, where they 
 arrived at two o'clock, Colonel Ring and his son, 
 having obtained a permit, made their way with 
 difficulty among the network of tracks and the 
 puffing engines. 
 
 After five minutes' search they found a box 
 car with an open grating for ventilation at the
 
 32 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 top, and stopping to listen, they heard distinctly 
 the stamping of a horse's hoofs. 
 
 " Zuleika, my beauty ! " Claude cried, in a 
 cajoling and tender tone. Instantly there came 
 a wild whinny from within the car, followed by 
 plunging and stamping. 
 
 " Zuleika ! Zuleika, my beauty ! " he called 
 again, whereupon there was a fresh tattoo of 
 excited hoof-beats, and Zuleika's head appeared 
 at the grating. 
 
 A piercing whinny, which was rather a scream 
 of pain and impatience, echoed under the wide 
 rotunda of the station. 
 
 Claude felt as if his heart would break. With 
 a tremendous wrench he tried to pull the sliding 
 door aside ; but it was locked. 
 
 " Patience, my son, patience ! " said his father. 
 " Do nothing rash, or you'll spoil everything." 
 
 A surprised exclamation and a slam as of a 
 bench that was upset were heard from an ad 
 joining car, and in another moment Mudir 
 Pasha burst through the door and tumbled 
 down the steps, followed by two railroad em 
 ployees. 
 
 " Thieves ! " he yelled, in broken German, 
 as soon as he saw Claude and the Colonel. 
 "Thieves! Robbers! I demand their arrest 
 instantly ! " 
 
 His coarse face was scarlet with anger and
 
 ZULEIKA 33 
 
 alarm. Two or three of the officers at the station 
 came hastening up. 
 
 " It is I who demand this man's arrest," said 
 Colonel Ring, calmly. " He has stolen my son's 
 horse. And I tell you," he exclaimed, turning to 
 Mudir, " that you shall not escape from this place 
 until you have given up Zuleika! " 
 
 " You think to bully me," Mudir muttered in 
 Turkish, glowering at the Colonel, " but if you 
 dare interfere with me, I warn you it will go ill 
 with you ! " 
 
 Colonel Ring turned to the officials, and said, 
 frankly and calmly, in German : 
 
 " I demand of you, gentlemen, that you keep 
 this man in your custody until I can procure a 
 warrant for his arrest. He has stolen the dapple- 
 gray Arabian mare which is locked up in this 
 car, and I shall hold you responsible for the 
 safety both of the horse and the man until I re 
 turn, which will be in an hour." 
 
 He spoke politely, but as one who was accus 
 tomed to command. He wore now the uniform 
 of an officer in the Norwegian army, for he had 
 been allowed to retain his rank in the army of 
 his own country. This uniform, with the rib 
 bons of many orders on his breast, did not fail of 
 its effect upon the railroad officials. 
 
 Mudir, it was evident, was a coarse fellow, 
 who might be capable of anything, while his 
 3
 
 34 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 accuser's appearance showed that he was a man 
 of authority and rank. 
 
 They promised to keep Mudir for an hour, and 
 not to allow him to take the horse away. To 
 make assurance doubly sure, Claude remained at 
 the station, now and then speaking to Zuleika 
 through the grating, while his father went in 
 search of the police. 
 
 It occurred to Colonel Ring, when he had 
 sworn out a warrant for Mudir's arrest, that his 
 former acquaintance with the King of Saxony, 
 whose cicerone he had been during a visit to 
 Constantinople, might now stand him in good 
 stead. He therefore wrote a letter to the court 
 marshal, asking for an audience on the following 
 day. 
 
 Mudir, after fuming and storming in vain for 
 half an hour, telegraphed to the Turkish ambas 
 sador in Berlin, and then sat down to wait. He 
 was not treated as a common prisoner, but 
 forcibly detained, and kept under guard in a 
 hotel. 
 
 Zuleika was taken from the railroad car and 
 lodged in a stable under the custody of the 
 police. Claude, though he longed to pet her, 
 was not allowed to approach her, and he walked 
 about in a state of feverish impatience and 
 misery, knocking the scabbard of his sword 
 against the furniture, tracing faces and animals
 
 ZULEIKA 35 
 
 in the pattern of the wall-paper, and drinking 
 soda-water, which he did not want, from sheer 
 desperation. 
 
 The matter was taken before a magistrate, and 
 the examination of Mudir was set for the next 
 day. Knowing how slow and thorough German 
 justice is in its operations, Claude was prepared 
 to spend a week, if not a month, in Dresden 
 before Zuleika was restored to him. In the 
 meanwhile, in order to leave nothing to chance, 
 he telegraphed to his groom to come on with the 
 false Zuleika by the next train, and called upon 
 one of his classmates, Cadet Schwerin, who 
 knew Zuleika well, and might be valuable as a 
 witness. 
 
 The next day, as he was preparing to attend 
 the trial, the Colonel received a message from 
 the court marshal, stating that the king would 
 grant him an audience that very morning at 
 eleven o'clock. He hastened to the court, and 
 asked that the trial be postponed until the after 
 noon; but the Turkish ambassador had already 
 arrived from Berlin, and could not stay long. 
 Mudir insisted upon an immediate trial of his 
 case, and the magistrate denied the request for 
 delay. 
 
 The Colonel wished heartily that he had been 
 in less haste to renew his acquaintance with the 
 king, for now he was obliged to be absent from
 
 36 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 the trial, where his presence was greatly needed. 
 However, he could not break an engagement 
 with the king without damaging his case and 
 cutting off his chance of appeal in case of an un 
 favorable decision. 
 
 With a heavy heart he arrayed himself in his 
 gala uniform and went to the royal palace, 
 where the sentinels presented arms to him. 
 
 He waited a full hour in an anteroom, and was 
 not a little startled when the Turkish ambassador 
 was bowed out from the royal presence by two 
 gold-laced chamberlains. It was now his turn ; 
 but he felt, for the moment, that the Turk had 
 been too clever for him, and that his chances of 
 setting his case right were not promising. 
 
 The king received him kindly, and after the 
 usual polite formalities, gave him the desired 
 opportunity to mention his errand. 
 
 The Colonel described his son's affection for 
 Zuleika and Zuleika's love for him ; he referred 
 to Prince Ishmael's offer to buy the mare, and 
 his anger when Claude refused to sell her, and 
 finally expressed his conviction that Mudir had 
 been sent on by the Prince to steal the mare, or 
 what amounted to the same thing, exchange for 
 her an inferior animal, not pure Arabian. 
 
 The Colonel warmed up, as he proceeded in 
 his narrative, and the king became intensely 
 interested. He asked some questions about Zu-
 
 ZULEIKA 37 
 
 leika and her false double, and finally begged 
 the Colonel to accompany him on horseback, 
 and let him see the two mares. 
 
 " I have a good mind to play Haroun al 
 Raschid on a small scale," he said, laughing. " If 
 the decision of the court goes against you, you 
 must appeal, and I'll deliver myself of a Solo- 
 monian judgment." 
 
 Meanwhile, things had taken a bad turn in the 
 court-room. The judge reasoned with great 
 acuteness " in the air ; " but it did not occur to 
 him to look at the two mares and compare their 
 merits. Very likely the testimony of the ambas 
 sador, who swore to Mudir's high rank and ex 
 cellent character, outweighed with him all the 
 evidence on Claude's side. Moreover the groom, 
 when he was put on the stand, greatly damaged 
 his master's case by refusing to swear that any 
 exchange had taken place. He was in doubt, he 
 said ; he did not think anyone could take a 
 horse out of the stable without his knowing it. 
 
 This settled the matter, as far as the judge 
 was concerned ; and neither Claude's nor Cadet 
 Schwerin's testimony, which was equally posi 
 tive on the other side, could change his convic 
 tion. It was a case of hallucination, he thought, 
 or of mistaken identity. 
 
 He therefore determined to order the release 
 of Zuleika, give Mudir full liberty to proceed on
 
 38 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 his way, and apologize for having detained him. 
 He was about to pronounce this judgment, when 
 a messenger arrived from the king, bearing a 
 large envelope. The magistrate hastily broke 
 the seal and read the contents. 
 
 The letter commanded him to adjourn his 
 court, and irrespective of his decision, to pro 
 ceed, with the parties to the case and the wit 
 nesses, to the parade grounds outside the city. 
 
 With a solemn voice the judge read this mes 
 sage in the court-room, and expressed his aston 
 ishment to Mudir and the ambassador. But, he 
 said, immediate obedience to the king's wishes 
 was necessary. 
 
 Accordingly, the court, the officers, and the 
 witnesses proceeded in carriages to the parade 
 grounds, where they found Claude and Cadet 
 Schwerin, and a battalion of soldiers drilling. 
 
 At about three o'clock a royal carriage, pre 
 ceded by outriders, was seen approaching, and the 
 magistrate, Mudir, and the ambassador hastened 
 to pay their respects. 
 
 They were not a little surprised to see Colonel 
 Ring seated in the king's carriage, in conversa 
 tion with His Majesty. 
 
 " Your Excellency," said the king, turning to 
 the ambassador, " I think in a case of this kind 
 the horse is the better judge who is its master. 
 Let Mudir Pasha and Cadet Ring place them-
 
 ZULEIKA 39 
 
 selves about fifty yards apart, at the upper end 
 of the parade grounds. Then the two horses, 
 the ownership of which is in dispute, shall be led 
 up to within a distance of two hundred yards of 
 both, and loosed. I shall be much astonished if 
 Cadet Ring's does not seek its master." 
 
 The Turk did not dare to object to this plan, 
 though he disliked it exceedingly. Claude ac 
 cepted it eagerly. After the dreadful depres 
 sion and sense of outrage which had possessed 
 him in the court-room, his spirits suddenly re 
 vived. Zuleika would not fail to greet him ! 
 
 Zuleika came forward, led by a royal groom. 
 What spring there was in her step, what grace 
 in her motion, what nobility in the slight curve 
 of her neck and the shape of her head ! And 
 what a commonplace-looking animal the other 
 dapple-gray mare was, in spite of the outward 
 resemblance. She stepped well, to be sure, 
 and was handsomely shaped ; but all the finer 
 points which distinguished Zuleika her rival 
 lacked. 
 
 An officer of the royal guard received the two 
 horses from the groom, and for a while he had 
 very hard work to hold them. They pranced 
 and reared, and lifted him off the ground again 
 and again. 
 
 He managed at last to make a sign to Claude, 
 who stationed himself at the place which the
 
 4O NORSELAND TALES 
 
 king had designated. Mudir Pasha also dragged 
 himself forward with visible reluctance, and 
 came to a stop about fifty yards from where the 
 young cadet was standing. 
 
 The king gave a sign to the officer, and the 
 two horses trotted away over the parade ground 
 with a proud, elastic step. Presently both came 
 to a standstill ; the false Zuleika kicked up her 
 heels and lay down to roll ; but the true Zuleika 
 lifted her head, gazed to the right and to the left, 
 and then with a wild, joyous whinny ran straight 
 toward Claude. 
 
 She rubbed her nose against his face ; she 
 whisked her tail excitedly, and whinnied again, 
 and then, with a low and friendly neighing, laid 
 her head upon his shoulder. 
 
 The proof was absolute and unmistakable. 
 The spectators broke into a loud hurrah ; and 
 Claude, with tears in his eyes, patted Zuleika's 
 neck, and then swung himself lightly up on her 
 back. 
 
 She stood still like a lamb, until he had got his 
 seat ; whereupon, with a snort and a shake of 
 her head, she dashed across the wide parade 
 grounds, while the soldiers and officers cheered, 
 and the spectators waved their hats and clapped 
 their hands. 
 
 Mudir Pasha knew that he was utterly beaten ; 
 but he still had one means left of preventing this
 
 ZULEIKA 41 
 
 pride of the Ottoman stables from falling into 
 the hands of the Giaours. 
 
 He walked slowly to where the ambassador 
 stood talking with Colonel Ring and Cadet 
 Schwerin, and paused a few steps from them. 
 
 Just then Claude came dashing at full speed 
 toward the group, followed by the plaudits of 
 the crowd. Mudir, with an oath, pulled a pistol 
 from his pocket, and taking aim at Zuleika's 
 head, fired. 
 
 But Cadet Schwerin, who saw the quick mo 
 tion, struck his arm upward, so that the bullet, 
 whistling past Claude's ear, spent itself in the 
 air. 
 
 The king, startled at the report, ordered 
 Mudir to be disarmed and brought to him. 
 
 " How do you dare," he asked, sternly, " to 
 shoot in my presence ? " 
 
 " Your Majesty," answered Mudir, sullenly, 
 " I promised my prince to bring this horse back, 
 dead or alive. I have failed. Allah is great ! 
 His will be done ! " 
 
 Then, bowing low, he begged for permission 
 to depart, and seating himself in a carriage, 
 drove off under the protection of the ambassador. 
 
 Claude was now introduced to the king, to 
 whom he expressed his gratitude for his wise 
 judgment. Under the escort of his Majesty he 
 rode Zuleika back to the city ; and it was dif-
 
 42 NORSELAN6 TALES 
 
 ficult to tell which was the more admired, the 
 handsome, high-spirited youth, who sat so well 
 in the saddle, or the noble, proudly stepping 
 animal. 
 
 From that time forth no attempt was made 
 to separate Claude and Zuleika, and she is 
 yet Lieutenant Ring's dearest friend and com 
 panion.
 
 THE SUNLESS WORLD 
 
 BOM BOM! A ship in distress! The pilot, 
 Mons Larsen, heard it, and each shot gave him 
 a start, as if it had hit him. 
 
 " God ha' mercy on us ! " he murmured to 
 himself ; " human critters out in such a night ! " 
 
 Bom bom ! Mons threw his needle away, 
 with which he had been binding fishing-nets, and 
 stood at the window gazing at the storm. 
 
 " God ha' mercy on us ! " he murmured again ; 
 then went across the floor and pulled on his oil 
 clothes. 
 
 " You are not going out, father ? " cried little 
 Jetta, his twelve-year-old daughter. 
 
 " Easy, little lass, easy ! " said Mons, with 
 forced playfulness, as he gave her a pat on the 
 head, and started for the door. 
 
 " I am going with you, father I am going 
 with you," she cried, clinging anxiously to his 
 arm. 
 
 " And be blowed into eternity like a rocket," 
 Mons remarked, tranquilly, as he clapped the
 
 44 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 sou'wester on his head and tied it with a double 
 knot under his chin. " Good-by, little lass, 
 good-by." 
 
 He struggled for a moment with the door, 
 which the storm held glued to its frame, then 
 plunged into the night. He set his face res 
 olutely against the wind, but had to stop several 
 times, wrestling with the invisible foe. 
 
 " Why the Lord made such weather is more'n 
 I can make out," he muttered, " havin' sech a 
 fine stock on hand of all sorts. And why he 
 generally works off the nastiest kinds he has got, 
 up here wal, it's mighty curious." 
 
 On the beach, where the towering waves came 
 rolling in and broke with a hoarse roar, he saw 
 lanterns moving hither and thither, and heard 
 feeble shouts through the uproar of the waters. 
 
 Bom ! They were yet alive, though it was a 
 miracle how they managed to keep afloat. He 
 was just displaying his lantern when Barth, the 
 Alderman of the pilot guild, bumped against 
 him. 
 
 " It is well you came, Larsen," he shouted, 
 " though there is nothing to be done. They are 
 dead men." 
 
 " But they are God's critters like you and me, 
 Mr. Alderman," said Mons, in respectful remon 
 strance. 
 
 " Well, Larsen, you are free to save them if
 
 THE SUNLESS WORLD 45 
 
 you can," said the Alderman, " but I am not 
 going to order the men into the lifeboat on a 
 night like this." 
 
 " Do ye mean to say that ye'll give me com 
 mand ? " 
 
 " Yes, I give you command." 
 
 In five minutes Mons had seven pilots gathered 
 about him, and they were sending rocket after 
 rocket, with cords attached, out over the howl 
 ing and hissing sea. They could not see the ship 
 until the eighth rocket, as it fell, threw a mo 
 mentary gleam over a dismasted wreck which, 
 with its bow skyward, was tossing on the merci 
 less waves. Happily, the rocket fell beyond it, 
 and the cord, to which a stout rope was attached, 
 was hauled aboard, dragging the rope after it. 
 A cheer went up from the pilots, but did not 
 reach the survivors on the wreck. The tenth 
 and twelfth rockets sent cords which were con 
 nected with breeches-buoys,* and these too were 
 hauled aboard. Then the rope was well secured 
 both on the wreck and on the shore, and the 
 work of rescue was to begin. It was drawn as 
 
 *A breeches-buoy is a buoy made like a pair of trousers, or 
 a complete suit, made in one piece. The person to be rescued 
 steps into it, secures it about his waist, and is hauled ashore. The 
 buoy runs by means of a little wheel upon a tight rope, securely 
 fastened to the wreck and to the shore. It cannot be used to 
 advantage unless the wreck is aground and thus nearly station 
 ary.
 
 46 NORSELAND -TALES 
 
 tense as a violin string, and yet fell slackened 
 into the furious breakers as the wreck was 
 pushed shoreward. It was a terrible struggle ! 
 Sky and sea were jumbled together into one vast, 
 black, roaring expanse, from whose depth came 
 faint cries of distress, like voices in a dream. 
 
 " Steady, boys, steady ! " 
 
 It was Mons Larsen's voice rising above the 
 storm. 
 
 " That pull is the signal : haul in the buoy ! 
 Steady, boys, steady ! Down he goes ! Never 
 mind ! While there's life there's hope ! That 
 was a bad one ! O hoi-oi-oi-oi-o o-hoi ! " 
 
 He had himself taken hold of the slenderer 
 rope by which the life-buoys were connected 
 with the shore, while the others pulled with him, 
 " easy " or " hard," as he commanded. That 
 there was a human being in the buoy they felt 
 by its weight ; but it was more than doubtful 
 whether a spark of life would be left by the 
 time it reached the land. The breakers, rising 
 like black, angry mountains, hurled themselves 
 in a boiling, seething, foaming chaos against the 
 huge bowlders of the shore ; and it seemed as if 
 a human life was but a feather's weight in the 
 clutch of these terrible forces. It seemed, in 
 deed, as if Mons Larsen's labor had been in 
 vain, when, as the wave was receding, he pulled 
 out the limp form of a man bruised and bat-
 
 THE SUNLESS WORLD 4/ 
 
 tered and apparently lifeless. He was hastily 
 carried beyond the reach of the raging surf and 
 deposited on the floor of a sea-booth. Mons, 
 putting his lantern on the top of a barrel, tore 
 open his coat, when, lo ! the curly head of a boy 
 was revealed, and a slender body lashed to that 
 of the lifeless sailor. To cut the line and place 
 the boy upon a large outspread canvas was a 
 moment's work. He was rubbed and rolled 
 about ; a coil of rope was placed under his chest, 
 so that the water might run out of him ; brandy 
 was poured into his throat, and his arms were 
 moved up and down, so as to produce the mo 
 tion of breathing ; nay, Mons Larsen even put 
 his mouth to the boy's and blew his vigorous 
 breath into the inert little lungs. At the end of 
 half an hour the suspended functions of the 
 little boy gently resumed their activities ; first 
 slowly, scarcely perceptibly, then with gradu 
 ally increasing vigor. When at last the half- 
 closed eyelids opened, Mons Larsen gave a 
 shout of delight, seized the little boy in his 
 arms and kissed him. The men, who in the 
 meantime had been laboring to resuscitate the 
 elder sailor, grew discouraged, and a physi 
 cian who presently arrived pronounced him 
 dead. With a third man rescued from the 
 wreck they had better success ; he was a youth 
 of eighteen or twenty years, and responded
 
 48 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 readily to the efforts that were made to recall 
 him to life. 
 
 " Mercy on us, what a God-forsaken place ! " 
 he remarked, as with a clearing consciousness he 
 sat up and gazed about him in the empty sea- 
 booth. " How are you, gentlemen ? " he added, 
 nodding quizzically to the pilots, who stood 
 about him with astonished faces. He took a 
 deep, shuddering breath ; rubbed himself a little ; 
 then, after two vain attempts, succeeded in get 
 ting on his feet. With comic gravity, he shook 
 hands with each of his rescuers, saying, as he 
 finished the ceremony, " My name is Joel Macy, 
 gentlemen Joel Macy, of Marblehead, Massa 
 chusetts, United States of America. Glorious 
 country, gentlemen ! Common sailor before the 
 mast on the whaler Governor Winthrop, Cap 
 tain Starbuck." 
 
 His eyes fell at this moment upon the form of 
 the dead man outstretched upon the canvas, and 
 the cheery expression of his face changed to one 
 of sorrow. " There you are, old chap," he said, 
 stooping sadly over him, " dead as a door-nail. 
 You was rather rough on me, Captain, when 1 
 made that rumpus about them mouldy hard-tacks, 
 but I won't bear ye no grudge now."
 
 THE SUNLESS WORLD 49 
 
 II 
 
 THE town of Vardo is not a cheerful place 
 under the most favorable circumstances ; and in 
 the month of November, when the sun has made 
 his/./, c. call (intending not to show his genial 
 countenance again for three months), it is par 
 ticularly dreary. A couple of hundred one- 
 story wooden houses, huddled together on a 
 desolate island within the Arctic Circle that is 
 a fair description of the place. Yet the inhabi 
 tants of this unsightly shanty-town gave Captain 
 Starbuck, of the Governor Winthrop, a right 
 handsome funeral, and many of them shed tears 
 over his sad fate, as if he had been a personal 
 friend. Unhappily, the day was so dark and 
 stormy that the funeral procession had to carry 
 torches in order to find its way to the church, 
 yard ; and it was an impressive sight, as it mean 
 dered solemnly through the crooked streets 
 toward the little storm-beaten church, with its 
 low spire, which looked as if it were bracing it 
 self against the wind. The whole town had 
 turned out to do honor to the American captain ; 
 and merchants, fishermen, and tars thronged 
 about the open grave to listen to the words of 
 the pastor, who preached about those " who go 
 down to the sea in ships, that do business in 
 4
 
 5O NORSELAND TALES 
 
 great waters." Then they chanted a doleful 
 hymn in a dozen discordant keys, which the 
 hoarse undertone of the surf blended into some 
 thing resembling harmony. 
 
 In the afternoon the good people, feeling yet, 
 like a vague reverberation, the holiday mood of 
 the funeral, called en masse upon the little boy, 
 Tristam Starbuck, who had been so miracu 
 lously saved from the fury of the Polar Sea. It 
 was a perfect levee he had there, in Mons Lar- 
 sen's narrow little sitting-room ; and so strange 
 did it all seem to him that he sometimes scarcely 
 knew whether he was awake or dreaming. He 
 had a kind of Alice in Wonderland feeling a 
 general expectation of all sorts of strange hap 
 penings, and an absence of surprise at any sur 
 prising thing that might occur. When thirty 
 or forty unknown ladies came up and kissed 
 him (some quite beautiful and some quite the 
 reverse), he was half-prepared to see them turn 
 into rabbits or " mock-turtles," or something or 
 other, and when one of them presented him with 
 a piece of cake, of which he thoughtlessly took 
 a bite, he began to stare at his boots, being sure 
 that he would either shrink or grow inordinate-' 
 ly tall. 
 
 Joel Macy, who had borrowed a miscellaneous 
 costume of several natives while his own was 
 being dried and repaired, looked very odd in an
 
 THE SUNLESS WORLD 5 1 
 
 ancient dress coat, a flowered calico waistcoat, 
 leather -patched knee-breeches, top-boots, and 
 sou'wester. Though he looked more like a 
 wonderland figure than any of the rest of the 
 company, his honest, cheery face, which was 
 vainly trying to appear lugubrious, seemed to 
 Tristam the only thing in the room which was 
 undoubtedly real. In the evening the pastor, 
 who had delivered the funeral oration, called, 
 put Tristam upon his knee, and, with what little 
 English he could command, tried to get at the 
 facts of his history. With Joel's aid he learned 
 that the Governor Winthrop was a whaler, 
 belonging in Portland, Me., and that Captain 
 Starbuck's widow was yet living in that city. 
 He then begged Joel and Tristam to write, giv 
 ing an account of the shipwreck. As usual, 
 about Christmas time, a mail steamer came from 
 the south, bringing and taking messages be 
 tween the sunless and the sunny world. And 
 as Tristam's letters, which were written in the 
 shape of a diary, contain some curious things, 
 unfamiliar to those who have never been dwell 
 ers in darkness for three months at a time, it 
 may be worth while to make a few extracts. 
 
 " November 2ist. I have cryd all day becaus 
 papa is ded. I can not get used to be alone and 
 have no papa. I wish he had never gone waling 
 in this orful plas. I slepe in a box in the wal,
 
 52 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 becaus that is the way fokes slepe in this coun 
 try. It shuts up like a wardrob. Joel slepes 
 with me ; but he snors like a tornado. I like 
 Joel very much but not too slepe with. Jetta is 
 a litle gurl but she is sometims very nice. She 
 sits and looks at me, as if I was a whal. She 
 tawks a languidge which is very funy but ther 
 is no sens too it. We do not get much to eet 
 becaus the pylot is pur, and wee hav nothin too 
 pa him with except papa's cronometer, which 
 was in his pockit when he was ded. But I do 
 not want to sel it or give it awa for things to 
 eet. Sawlt herring is not nice for super when 
 you have had it for diner and brekfast too. 
 
 " November 3Oth. I am mixd up about evry- 
 thing becaus ther is nobody to kepe reconing of 
 the days when the son don't attend too it, be 
 caus the clocs in this country are too slo. The 
 fokes too are slo. I fele sorter topsy turvy be 
 caus the moon shins offtentims at noon, when it 
 is cleer, but when it is not cleer it is as blak as 
 pitsh. The moon has lost his reconing like me. 
 Joel he frets becaus ther is nothing too do ; and 
 then he makes orful faces at me to make me lat. 
 Yesterday he quoreled with a man in a stor and 
 nerly lade him out. It was the man's fawlt, be 
 caus he sad he did not like Americans. To-day 
 Joel cant go out becaus he ses the people dont 
 like him.
 
 THE SUNLESS WORLD 53 
 
 " December iOth. The pylot has a musik boks 
 which plas three tuns. When it gets too orful 
 lonsom then he sets it plaing. The pylot is a 
 good man. It is mostly dutsh tuns it plas. But 
 it also plas Yankee Doodel, and that is the sad- 
 est of all. It maks me almost cry. And Joel 
 he reglar boohood out when the musik boks 
 plad Yankee Doodel. It seems ten yeers sens 
 we cam here. 
 
 " December 22d. Ther is a gret glar from the 
 snow as if ther was lite under it. The water 
 smoks as if it was hot, but the smok maks you 
 crepe all over with cold. They cal it the frost 
 smok. Somethin like a hundred big whit snaks 
 craul up across the sky ; it is very ewer. The 
 snaks are a thousand tims biger than ratle snaks. 
 They are mad out of lite. I looked at them and 
 they seddenly busted, and the sky semd ful of red 
 and blu fyr works, a reglar forth of July bio out 
 but much biger. It is the Arora boralis. They 
 hav hens here and cats but they dont la egs now, 
 becaus it is so dark that they can't se wher to 
 la them. Jetta ses they dont like to la egs by 
 moonlite becaus it is so unsertin. 
 
 " December 25th. The precher cam yesterday 
 and invited me to him but he didnt invit Joel 
 nur Jetta. I didnt want to go but Joel mad me. 
 They had a real big Cristmas tre. His wif kist 
 me, and her fase was nice. We all danst litle
 
 54 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 and big about the tre holdin itch others hands. 
 We sang a jolly tun but I don't no what it was. 
 It was about Jesus. The precher had six chil 
 dren and a baby but she don't count. I got a 
 nife with handel mad out of whal tooth. It is 
 nicely carved. I got a hepe of other things 
 from other peple, but they wer shurts and nit 
 draurs and stokins and shus and things. I at a 
 lot. The precher was orful jolly and nice. He 
 tauked ewer Inglish. When he had prad he 
 said to me, I hop you are a Cristian. No, sed I, 
 I am an Episcopalin. Then he laffed and pated 
 my hed. It is wel my sun he sed. Joel cam too 
 tak me horn but the precher's wif she tuk a shin 
 too me and she wudnt let me. She kist me and 
 looked as she wud cry when she lookd at me. I 
 slept in a real bed and a boy namd Gustav slept 
 in the sam bed. He stud on his hed for me fiv 
 minits, and I wauked on my hands with my fet 
 up for him around the rum. We coudnt tauk 
 becaus he tauks the languidge of the other folks 
 here. 
 
 " January loth. You no now my dere mama 
 that I am aliv and not ded. For I sent you my 
 leter by the sterner which left last Monday. 
 Now I comens another leter. I cryd becaus I 
 cudnt go with that sterner to you dere mama. 
 But I hav no mony and Joel has only too dollars 
 and thirte sents. But you must send me mony
 
 THE SUNLESS WORLD 55 
 
 in time for the nekst sterner, and then I wil cum 
 to you. Joel he did an orful ewer thing. He 
 and I went huntin in a boat for polar bares we 
 had guns and huntin poutches and everythin. 
 The pylot was with us. Joel shot a polar bare 
 on the ice but we didnt tak him along becaus he 
 was not ded. He swum off and he shoed no fite. 
 We did't se another polar bare but Joel shot fore 
 sels for selskin saks, and them we got but ther fur 
 is very stif and not soft lik yurs. I shot fiv awks 
 and duks. hundreds and thousands of them was 
 siting on the roks in the moonlite skremin and 
 chaterin lik mad. The pylot didnt lik it and he 
 wudnt let me shute no mor. Joel he is stufin 
 the burds for me. they wer so fat that he stuk a 
 wik thro one of them and lited it and it burns 
 yet. I am ritin this leter by duk lite. Dere 
 mama did you ever hav a leter befor riten by 
 duk lite ? 
 
 " January i8th. We had a orful racket her to 
 day becaus the son had com. The shops was 
 shut. All the fokes war in the stretes yet many 
 fokes wer on the rufs of the houses and on the 
 hils outsid the town. It was tuylite in the 
 stretes, but ther was a big red bar of fir at the 
 edge of the sky upon the water. Som peple 
 acted as if they wer mad becaus they wer so 
 jolly. It was elevn o'cloc or mor. Papas cronom- 
 eter has stopt. I guess it neds clenin. A litle
 
 $6 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 ranbo no biger than a church dor stradled the 
 ridge of the hils wher it was redest. In a litle while 
 the edge of the sun peped up above the edge of 
 the hils, and it was so lite I had to rub my eyes 
 lik a bat. Then all the people went kracy. 
 They cryd and laffed and hugd itch other lik 
 blazes, even if they didnt no itch other. They 
 cryd to me the son the son hav you sen the son. 
 Joel he too went mad lik the rest for he hugd 
 and kist me and cryd lik a baby. The bels in 
 the church tours chimd and ratled out all the 
 nois ther was in them and the cannons of the fort 
 mad a forth of July racket as if they had bet 
 ther livs on beting the church bels. All the 
 ladis in the stretes kist me and cryd. I didnt lik 
 it much but I cudnt spek their languidge so I 
 had to let them. Som of them kist Joel too but 
 that was a mistak. Joel cudnt spek their lan 
 guidge ether. 
 
 " February I2th. A drumercam her overland 
 today and by ro-boat and he brawt me your 
 leter dere mama. The draft wil be al rite the 
 preacher ses becaus it is made out to Joel, and 
 he can draw it. Joel ses he is a furst klas hand at 
 it ; so ypu se he can do it and it is al rite. It is 
 too weks until the nekst sterner corns and dere 
 mama then I shal sale horn to you. If papa only 
 had not ben ded we shud al be hapy agin. 
 
 " Al the people are so glad to se the drumer
 
 THE SUNLESS WORLD 57 
 
 they run out into the strete to shak hands with 
 him and ask him to diner. Then they ask him 
 about poltiks and Gladstun and Bismark and 
 wors and things. He ses wor has brok out in 
 America and that Jef Davis is presdent of the 
 united stats. Joel ses that is a big yarn and 
 that them drumers are orful lyrs. Joel ses he 
 wil thrash that drumer within an inch of his lif 
 if he ses it agin. 
 
 " February 23d. Hura! The sterner is comin. 
 I se the smok of it. It is orful jolly. Joel has 
 gon to sa good by to al the ladis in town. We 
 are al paked. Jetta is cryin and sobbin like a litle 
 stem engine becaus she dont want me to go. I 
 am glad I liv in a country lik the united states, 
 wher the son has reglar bissines habits and dont 
 shut up shop for thre months in the year. 
 
 " February 24th. Steamer Ganger Rolf. 
 The -hul toun it semd cam on bord to sa good 
 by to us. The harbor was blak with boats. The 
 precher cam and was orful nice. He mad me 
 promis to rite to him. Thre ladis stood and cryd 
 becaus Joel was goin. It is tru becaus Joel sed 
 so. Joel was almost cryin himself. But he had 
 to go becaus now evrybody ses that ther is wor 
 in the united stats and Joel has got to tak a hand 
 in it. If I was big enuf I wud tak a hand too. 
 Joel did rong to thrash that drumer becaus he 
 was not a lyr."
 
 LIFE FOR LIFE 
 
 THE town of Vardo in Norway is situated on 
 an island within the Polar Circle, where there 
 is winter during nine months of the year and 
 chilly weather during the remaining three. 
 Still, Jetmund Tangen had no quarrel with Fate 
 for having deposited him in such a fierce and 
 barren corner of the earth. He had received 
 the cold gust from the Pole full in the face the 
 moment he was born, and he went through life, 
 as it were, facing it in the same uncomprom.'s- 
 ing manner. He had braced himself for the 
 fight ; and he stood like a rock. Nature had 
 meant him for a kindly man, no doubt ; but the 
 cold, somehow, shut him up, and made him 
 stern and silent. Only toward his son Paul did 
 he exhibit his gentler side, for Paul was a mis 
 erable little weakling, whose feeble life flickered 
 like a flame that was about to go out. He sat in 
 his bed, propped up by pillows, sometimes read 
 ing, sometimes dreamily gazing at pictures cut 
 from cigar-boxes or advertisements of groceries. 
 The sovereigns of Europe, drinking with ecstatic
 
 LIFE FOR LIFE 59 
 
 expressions a certain brand of chocolate, or the 
 black-eyed Cuban senoritas with their arch smiles 
 and beau catchers, kindled his imagination with 
 visions of beauty and splendor. He wandered 
 through palm-groves in sweet converse with 
 these fascinating damsels, and reposed with them 
 upon green hills overlooking the dimpling sum 
 mer seas. Now it was the dancing La Tarantella 
 who rejoiced in his favor (for Paul did not doubt 
 that the names were authentic); then came, the 
 next week, Donna Casilda and cut her out ; and a 
 week later it might be Flor de Habana to whom 
 he awarded the palm of loveliness. She had, as 
 her sweet serious eyes showed, a nobler charac 
 ter than the coquettish Donna Casilda; and as 
 for La Tarantella, Paul felt quite ashamed that 
 he had allowed himself to be taken in by her 
 charms. 
 
 Thus passed the days and nights of the inva 
 lid's life. For he waked and slept as nature 
 prompted, and kept no account of time. The 
 dim lamp burned always on the table before his 
 bed ; and outside the storm and the darkness 
 reigned. The house creaked in all its joints, 
 like a ship in a gale ; or, on still days, the walls 
 cracked and snapped from the cold ; but Paul 
 and his lovely sefioritas revelled in glorious sun 
 shine and played ball with golden oranges, while 
 the groves resounded with their laughter. Only
 
 6O NORSELAND TALES 
 
 when his father or his brother Narve came from 
 the store to trim the lamp for him and to give him 
 a little pat on the head was he reminded of the 
 grim reality. For Jetmund always left behind 
 him an atmosphere of tarred ropes, plug tobacco, 
 and salted cod, which put the senoritas to flight. 
 Narve's visits were less unwelcome ; because he 
 smelled merely of fish, and he brought, at least 
 once or twice a week, a new picture. Sometimes 
 it was a stout gentleman who had gone mad with 
 delight over a piece of soap (though he seemed 
 to have no special need of it), or a middle-aged 
 lady who had discovered that the secret of hap 
 piness consisted in the possession of a bottle of 
 quack medicine. These were welcome, by way 
 of variety, when the supply of senoritas ran 
 short, for they suggested all manner of specula 
 tions as to the character and previous history of 
 people who could go into rapture at so singular 
 a provocation. 
 
 When the brief summer blazed up on the hori 
 zon and the whole island was covered with in 
 numerable wild flowers, there came a change in 
 Paul's life. He was then every Sunday wrapped 
 up carefully and carried in his brother's arms 
 down to the beach, where a boat lay ready 
 to receive them. And all day long and far 
 into the golden night they would float idly 
 about on the shining mirror of the sea, tinder
 
 LIFE FOR LIFE 6 1 
 
 the cloudless sky, among the screaming hosts 
 of sea-birds. The enormous icebergs, glittering 
 like fairy palaces in the red rays of the mid 
 night sun, drifted past them, carrying their 
 freight of seal and occasionally a walrus or a polar 
 bear, all unconscious of their destination and even 
 of the fact that they were travelling. Paul, 
 lying with half-closed eyes in the stern of the 
 boat, took little note of these things: the clouds 
 that sailed above him, changing in the glow of 
 the sun into all sorts of fantastic shapes, inter 
 ested him far more ; for he saw in them faces 
 and forms of wondrous beauty pursued by threat 
 ening monsters of appalling ugliness. The pure 
 air did him good, and the gentle motion soothed 
 him. He broke out in querulous protest when, 
 long after midnight, Narve put up his oars and 
 sprang forward to ward off the bump against the 
 pier. He would have liked to drift on thus for 
 ever. 
 
 The older brother, on such occasions, was re 
 ceived with harsh rebukes on their arrival home. 
 He had been accustomed to harsh words from 
 his father as long as he could remember. 
 Though he was a kind-hearted and capable lad, 
 Jetmund seemed to cherish a deep-seated grudge 
 against him. By some obscure process of rea 
 soning he seemed to hold the older brother re 
 sponsible for the younger's feebleness. He,
 
 62 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 coming first, had appropriated more than his 
 share of strength, leaving nothing for the poor 
 little fellow who came after him. Jetmund never 
 uttered these sentiments in words, but, absurd as 
 they were, they nevertheless colored his whole 
 relation to Narve ; and the boy, who had sto 
 ically accepted this relation as something in 
 evitable, expended, like the father himself, what 
 ever love there was in his heart upon the 
 invalid brother. He never smelt Jetmund's 
 composite odor from afar without making haste 
 to vanish. As he grew to manhood, however, 
 he began to feel ashamed of his dislike of his 
 father's society, and compelled himself to stand 
 when he would have liked to run. He even con 
 sented to take his place behind the counter in 
 the store in order to save the hire of a clerk, 
 which Jetmund could ill afford to pay. But it 
 seemed to him a miserable life ; he chafed under 
 it like a polar bear shut up in a cage ; for Narve 
 was essentially an out-of-door character. He 
 was of large frame, powerfully built, and weather- 
 beaten like a whaler. From his earliest years he 
 had known no restraint upon his liberty, but had 
 ranged freely over land and sea as his fancy 
 prompted. He felt at home in the icy blast ; 
 amid the screaming host of sea-birds that swept 
 in the wake of the fishing-fleet ; among seal and 
 walrus upon the drifting ice-floes. He was a
 
 LIFE FOR LIFE 63 
 
 polar type. Generations of life within the Arctic 
 zone had made him what he was, every phase 
 of his mental and physical being adapted to 
 grapple with the hard conditions of Arctic ex 
 istence. Imagine, then, what a martyrdom the 
 daily confinement in a little low-ceiled and mal 
 odorous store must have been to such a nature. 
 And yet it was fortunate that he accepted the 
 yoke, heavy though it was. For one day, with 
 out a moment's warning, his father fell through 
 a trap-door in the sea-booth, and sustained so 
 serious an injury that he died the next day. 
 
 " Take care of the little one, Narve," he 
 gasped, with his expiring breath; "take care 
 of the little one." 
 
 Paul, strange to say, took his father's death 
 quite calmly perhaps because he had not vital 
 ity enough to feel anything keenly while Narve 
 wept as if his heart would break. The fact that 
 his relations with his father had not been of the 
 best seemed to make his loss only the harder to 
 bear. In the half-stunned condition in which the 
 calamity had left him, the discovery which he 
 soon made, that his father had died bankrupt, 
 had scarcely the power to impress him at all. 
 His first thought was that he might now escape 
 from the irksome routine of the store. The wide 
 world stretched out before him, and he might 
 now at last follow his inclinations and roam
 
 64 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 to his heart's content. He knew the haunts of 
 the whale better than any man in Vardoe; and 
 he had also made an invention in connection 
 with whale catching from which he expected 
 in time to realize a fortune. The only thing 
 needed to perfect the details was practical ex 
 periment. This a voyage in a whaler would 
 easily afford him ; and then the road to prosper 
 ity and happiness was plain sailing. There was 
 but one drawback to this beautiful plan. He 
 could not take Paul with him on a whaling expe 
 dition ; nor had he the heart to leave him be 
 hind. He thought and he thought, until his 
 brow was a net-work of wrinkles ; but all expe 
 dients that suggested themselves seemed cruel. 
 And so the end of it was that, with a heavy 
 heart, he resumed his place behind the counter, 
 as clerk to his father's successor, Mr. A. Grundt, 
 and the beautiful dream vanished in smoke. 
 
 Paul was far from suspecting the sacrifice 
 which his brother had made for him. He lived 
 in a world of his own imagining ; and as long as 
 he was free from pain, and new sefioritas with 
 new and fascinating names kept him company, 
 he allowed no other earthly concern to disturb 
 him. Only when winter came and his poor ema 
 ciated body was wrenched with pain did he lose 
 his patience and become fretful and exacting. 
 Narve saw him fade away, day by day and week
 
 iJFE FOR LIFE 6$ 
 
 by week ; and, strive as he might, he could not 
 chase away the thought that when these two 
 weary eyes should be closed forever, then he 
 would be free to live his own life and start in 
 quest of his own happiness. But in the next mo 
 ment he would remember his promise to his 
 father to care for him ; his love for his brother 
 would awake with renewed warmth, and he 
 would suffer an agony of remorse, because he 
 had for one moment harbored the wicked 
 thought. One night, as he was sitting at Paul's 
 bedside, doing penance for his yearning for lib 
 erty, his eyes fell upon the picture of the lady 
 who was exulting in the virtues of Brown's Pana 
 cea. A pang nestled at his heart, as he thought 
 that neither he nor his father, with all their love 
 for Paul, had consulted a physician in regard 
 to his ailment. They had looked upon it rather 
 as a heaven-sent calamity something that was 
 meant to be, and, as such, beyond the reach of 
 earthly aid. , 
 
 An overwhelming sense of tenderness for the 
 invalid took possession of Narve. 
 
 " You have no one in the world but me, you 
 poor boy," said he, as he let his large, cool hand 
 glide over Paul's hot forehead. " I will be faith 
 ful, faithful, faithful," he added, in a whisper, to 
 himself, " faithful unto the end." 
 
 The next day, rather to pacify his conscience 
 5
 
 66 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 than because he hoped for any result, he called 
 upon the resident physician and begged him to 
 visit his brother. Paul submitted fretfully to 
 being tapped on the back and having the various 
 functions of his body tested by scientific appli 
 ances. When the examination was at an end, 
 Narve stood waiting outside with an anxious 
 face. 
 
 " He needs the one thing which you cannot 
 give him," said the doctor "a temperate cli 
 mate. He has no constitution to grapple with 
 the perpetual winter of the North Pole." 
 
 " And will he then die ? " cried Narve, in an 
 agony of conflicting emotions. 
 
 " He may survive another winter. He will 
 not survive two." 
 
 II 
 
 THE great blue burnished shield of the Polar 
 Sea, the flaming sheen of the midnight sun, the 
 shrieking storm of sea-birds whirling about the 
 lonely crags, the huge whales blowing and 
 spouting against the sky, the great fishing-fleet, 
 with expanded sails, flying northward, and re 
 turning laden to the rim this is the North, the 
 beloved North ! So it presented itself, at least, 
 to Narve's mind, as he regretfully thought of the 
 possibility of leaving it. It was to him the most 
 favored, the most beautiful land under the sun.
 
 LIFE FOR LIFE 6/ 
 
 But it had not a temperate climate. At least 
 he inferred from the doctor's words that it had 
 not. He wrestled mightily with the Lord in 
 prayer, begging for light and guidance, and 
 hoping that some escape might be found from 
 the cruel duty. But each time the duty seemed 
 plainer, more inexorable. His brother's life was 
 in his hand. Should he refuse to save it? Had 
 he not promised his father to shield and protect 
 it ? Could he ever hope for peace upon the earth, 
 if he had to step over Paul's dead body to reach 
 his liberty ? Could he buy happiness by his 
 brother's death ? These importunate questions 
 haunted Narve by day and by night. He could 
 no longer, as of old, shirk the answer by saying 
 that if it was the Lord's will that Paul should live, 
 He would save him wherever he was. He had 
 a tender conscience, this great blue-eyed giant, 
 and its wakeful voice kept whispering in the 
 dark, through the long vigils of the night. 
 When at last the fateful resolution was taken, 
 Narve braced himself to lift his burden, and 
 wavered no longer. He would bend all his 
 energies to gathering money enough to take 
 Paul to a temperate climate. The eight dollars 
 a month which he received for his services in 
 the store, were all expended to provide the inva 
 lid with the necessaries of life ; and some extra 
 source of income had, therefore, to be provided.
 
 68 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 Happily, Narve had some knowledge of taxi- 
 dermy, and as English tourists paid good prices 
 for stuffed specimens of Arctic birds and beasts 
 he hoped within a year to save the hundred dol 
 lars which would be needed for the journey. 
 Long before the break of dawn he was seen 
 roaming, with his gun on his shoulder, over the 
 lonely cliffs or visiting the islands where the 
 birds were wont to brood ; and every time he re 
 turned laden with booty. It did not occur to 
 Paul, who watched with languid interest his 
 brother's midnight toil, flaying eider-ducks and 
 auks and cormorants, that it was his own life 
 which was at stake in these operations. But 
 from Narve's mind this reflection was never ab 
 sent. It sustained him when he was discour 
 aged, gave him strength when he was weary, 
 kept his drooping eyes open when they were 
 heavy with sleep. Dollar was added to dollar, 
 and slowly the little hoard grew, until, by the 
 end of a year, it counted fifty-six. But that was 
 forty-four less than was required. And, in the 
 meanwhile, the second winter would be com 
 ing on, which the doctor had said Paul could 
 not survive. For the first time he gained no 
 strength during the summer ; and with the first 
 cold days in September he failed so rapidly that 
 it seemed sometimes a question of hours when 
 he would breathe his last.
 
 LIFE FOR LIFE 69 
 
 Narve, to whom his task had become dearer, 
 the nearer it seemed to success, was in despair. 
 He tried to borrow the sum he needed from his 
 employer, but met with a gruff refusal. He in 
 vented a dozen ingenious plans, but they all re 
 quired time, and had therefore to be abandoned. 
 Every time he could find a pretext for leaving 
 the store, he rushed over to his brother's room, 
 and stood wringing his hands in helpless grief, 
 while gazing at the sallow and withered features, 
 in which a spark of life seemed scarcely to be 
 lingering. He walked about as in a trance, at 
 tending mechanically to his duties, but hardly 
 knowing what he did, always pursued by the 
 dread that, when he returned, he might find his 
 brother dead. 
 
 It so happened that, after a day spent in a tort 
 ure of apprehension, Narve was sent by his em 
 ployer on board an English schooner which was 
 buying fresh salmon to be taken to London in 
 refrigerators. There was much commotion on 
 board because one of the sailors had just been 
 killed by a fall from the rigging. The captain 
 was anxious to sail, but did not dare put to sea 
 with less than the legal number of men. Ob 
 serving Narve's sailor-like appearance, he offered 
 him on the spur of the moment two pounds and 
 free passage home again, if he would go with 
 him.
 
 7O NORSELAND TALES 
 
 " I shan't want the passage back," said Narve ; 
 " but if you'll allow me, instead, to take my 
 brother along, who is ill, I am your man." 
 
 " All right," said the captain. 
 
 And so it was settled. Narve felt as if his 
 body were as light as air. He tumbled down 
 into the boat, rowed ashore, and with feverish 
 anxiety hastened to Paul's room. Ah, there he 
 lay, his mouth pinched, as if in death, his cheeks 
 hollow, his eyes listlessly closed. Narve stood 
 fora moment paralyzed with dread. He bounded 
 across the floor and grasped his brother's hand. 
 God be praised, there was yet life in it. 
 
 " Brother," he cried, exultingly, " we are go 
 ing." 
 
 There came a spark of consciousness into the 
 invalid's half-quenched eyes, as he murmured, 
 " Yes I am going brother to God." 
 
 " No, child, no ! Not to God, but to Amer 
 ica." 
 
 Three days later a blond giant, carrying in his 
 arms a limp and apparently lifeless form, made a 
 sensation in the streets of London, and three 
 weeks later he repeated the sensation in the 
 streets of New York.
 
 LIFE FOR LIFE 
 
 III 
 
 AFTER a month of futile inquiry, Narve Tan- 
 gen got a position as clerk with Mr. Tulstrup, a 
 Norwegian merchant who dealt in fish-products 
 which he imported from Norway. Long experi 
 ence had made Narve a connoisseur in cod-liver 
 and whale oils, and enabled him to detect the 
 slightest adulteration. He thus made himself 
 valuable to his employer and gained a comfort 
 able livelihood. But for all that he was not 
 happy. He felt limp and depressed, and all his 
 former energy seemed to have deserted him. 
 It was only by a violent effort, and by the 
 thought of Paul's dependence upon him, that he 
 could arouse himself to attend to his duties. 
 The terrible uproar of Broadway bewildered 
 and oppressed him, and he yearned with a pas 
 sionate regret for the silence of the great Arctic 
 solitudes. The dear familiar sights amid which 
 he had grown up haunted his thoughts and 
 made him pine like a child to return to them. 
 But his homeward way seemed forever to be 
 cut off, and he would be obliged to spend his 
 whole life in this strange and bewildering land, 
 amid these alien sights and sounds. 
 
 There was but one consolation in these sor 
 rows : Paul was gaining strength. With every
 
 72 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 day his pleasure in life revived : he began in a 
 cautious way to study English, and Mr. Tul- 
 strup's daughter, Miss Ida, who had become in 
 terested in the strange career of the brothers, 
 came twice a week and talked with him for a 
 couple of hours. Paul, who in spite of his eigh 
 teen years was yet a child in mind, identified 
 her immediately with the noble and lovely Flor 
 de Habana, his favorite among his cigar-box 
 heroines. The jewelled rings on her fingers, the 
 laces and bright ribbons on her dress, the ostrich- 
 feathers on her hat, filled him with wonder and 
 delight. She appeared to him (though she was 
 in no wise extravagantly apparelled) like a figure 
 out of the " Arabian Nights " like a heaven 
 sent realization of the dreams he had dreamed 
 during his long solitude and misery. In Vardoe 
 he had only seen women dressed in wadmal and 
 coarse homespun ; and this exquisite creature, 
 with her sweet smile, her silken hair, and her 
 soft hands, seemed scarcely to belong to the 
 same species. If he could only have walked 
 with her through the palm-groves with which 
 his fancy surrounded the city, his cup of happi 
 ness would have been full. The gorgeous roses 
 she brought him grew, for aught he knew, on 
 palm-trees ; and he pictured to himself the mag 
 nificence of these enchanted groves, redolent 
 with perfume and ablaze with color.
 
 LIFE FOR LIFE 73 
 
 The summer following their arrival in New 
 York became fateful in the lives of the two 
 brothers. While the heat, which was often in 
 tense, brought a daily increase of strength to 
 Paul, it tortured Narve like purgatorial flames. 
 While Paul, assisted by Ida, was taking tenta 
 tive steps across the floor (for the two had en 
 tered into a friendly conspiracy to surprise 
 Narve), the elder brother sat at his desk, mop 
 ping the perspiration which dripped in a steady 
 shower from his brow, and feeling dizzy and un 
 done, as if he were wilted and withered in his 
 innermost being. Several times he was on the 
 point of fainting, and only saved himself by 
 grabbing a piece of ice from the water-cooler 
 and pressing it against his temples. It appeared 
 to him that the torture was less unendurable 
 when he moved than when he sat still ; and on a 
 Sunday afternoon in July he found himself stroll 
 ing through Central Park and pausing idly be 
 fore the open-air cages of the menagerie. His 
 glance fell upon a polar bear who was swaying 
 from one side to another in a demented fashion, 
 and pawing incessantly the floor of his cage, in 
 which his claws had worn deep grooves. The 
 tears blinded Narve's eyes, as he saw his forlorn 
 compatriot, his comrade in misery. 
 
 " You and I are in the same box, old chap," 
 he said, stretching his hand toward the caged
 
 74 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 beast. " You have gone mad and, unless God 
 sends help, I shall soon follow suit." 
 
 This fancy took sudden root in his mind and 
 rose up like a threatening spectre. 
 
 " I shall go mad, I shall go mad," he mur 
 mured, as he walked ; and he saw himself strug 
 gling in insane fury with a dozen men who were 
 trying to bind him. He doubled his speed, as if 
 to outrun the frightful thought. But the goblin 
 had come to stay : it sat down on his shoulder 
 and whispered shuddering things in his ear. 
 Breathlessly Narve hurried along, heedless of 
 the blazing sun ; people stopped and stared at 
 him, some imagining that he was running from 
 the police, others that he had gone mad. Dizzy, 
 exhausted, and drenched with perspiration, he 
 reached the door of his boarding-house. The 
 horror was yet in his mind ; his blood was surg 
 ing in his ears and beating with hammer-blows 
 in his temples. And yet the thought of Paul 
 the dread lest his condition might shock his 
 brother enabled him to gain control of his 
 whirling fancies: he smoothed his hair awk 
 wardly, and strove to put his features into their 
 accustomed folds. Then with unsteady steps he 
 stalked up the stairs, and opened the door. 
 Merciful God ! He was mad indeed ! There 
 stood Paul in the middle of the room, beaming 
 with happiness, and stretched out his arms to
 
 LIFE FOR LIFE 75 
 
 him. Narve tottered forward ; terror again 
 seized him. 
 
 " Paul," he cried, despairingly, " Paul my 
 brother ! " and fell prostrate at his feet. 
 
 IV 
 
 NARVE'S illness was long and dangerous. For 
 a week he alternated between a heavy stupor 
 and the wildest delirium. He talked incessantly 
 about the polar bear in the Park, and imagined 
 himself now walking arm in arm with him on 
 the Fifth Avenue, now travelling with him back 
 to his beloved North, now sharing his cage with 
 him in the Park, swaying from side to side and 
 pawing his bed in the same frantic fashion. 
 When Ida Tulstrup came to offer her services, 
 and brought a gorgeous bouquet, Narve hurled 
 her Jacqueminot roses against the wall. 
 
 " Take them away the leprous things ! " he 
 shouted : " they smell nasty ! But kelp kelp 
 oh, for a tangle of sea-weed and kelp, with the 
 briny smell of the sea ! Give me big black-backs 
 black-backs rising out of the water walrus 
 and whale gambolling among the icebergs ! See 
 how they spout! Hurrah! We have got 'em ! 
 The harpoon-gun where is it? Halloo ! That's 
 a bouncer ! Give it to him ! Fire ! Turn the 
 swivel ! Fire, I say ! Good ! He got it that
 
 76 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 time ! Next time he comes up we'll give him 
 another 'how do ye do* that'll be the end of 
 him." 
 
 In this strain he would rave by the hour. All 
 the suppressed hopes and longings which, out 
 of loyalty to 'his brother, he had imprisoned in 
 his bosom, now that the bars had been removed, 
 broke loose and rioted. If Paul, as he sat at the 
 bedside, had been less self-absorbed and more 
 lovingly observant, he might have read a heart 
 rending story in these wild fancies and exclama 
 tions. But the heaviest penalty of Paul's life 
 long invalidism was, perhaps, a certain inability 
 to return love for love and care for care a cer 
 tain obtuseness in regard to the feelings of others. 
 He had never in his life had a single responsi 
 bility of his own never known or recognized 
 any onerous duty never been conscious of an 
 energetic impulse or a generous desire. It is 
 easy to blame him for this ; but a low vitality, 
 perpetual helplessness, and the habit of accept 
 ing, but never giving all induced by his disease 
 had formed Paul's character as it was, and he 
 was now too old to make a radical change in it. 
 Thus it came to pass that Narve's illness made 
 no deep impression upon him. He regarded it 
 as a misfortune, but never dreamed of attribut 
 ing to himself any responsibility for it. It 
 seemed to him. at times, almost a blessing in dis-
 
 LIFE FOR LIFE 77 
 
 guise, as it brought him into more frequent con 
 tact with Ida. During his brother's convales 
 cence he was often invited to ride on the Avenue 
 and through the Park in the Tulstrup carriage, 
 and, although he looked in vain for the palm- 
 groves, he found wonders enough to compensate 
 him for their loss. He soon began cautiously to 
 explore the city on foot, and took a child-like 
 pleasure in everything he saw. Particularly the 
 ladies and the shop-windows were a never-fail 
 ing source of delight to him. Before long a cer 
 tain pretence of fashion became visible in his 
 attire ; and in an astonishingly short time he ac 
 quired the gait and manner of the native dandy. 
 Narve watched this transformation with the 
 melancholy amusement with which a father 
 watches the harmless follies of his child. The 
 question of Paul's future weighed heavily upon 
 him, now that he had discovered that his own 
 strength had its limit. He offered to give him 
 lessons in writing, arithmetic, and bookkeeping 
 (reading had so far been Paul's only accomplish 
 ment), but was always met with the cheerful re 
 joinder that there was no particular hurry. 
 
 The winter was half gone before Narve was 
 able to resume his position in the office. But 
 even then he was so weak that he had to limit 
 himself, at first, to a few hours' work. By his 
 accurate knowledge of the conditions in the ex-
 
 78 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 treme North, and by his unerring interpretation 
 of every commercial symptom, he had been of 
 incalculable service to Mr. Tulstrup and enabled 
 him largely to increase his business. The mer 
 chant was therefore disposed to be very liberal 
 in his dealings with him ; but Narve's uncom 
 promising self-respect scented beforehand every 
 plan for making him a beneficiary, and Mr. Tul- 
 strup's benevolence met with many discouraging 
 rebuffs. Paul, who was informed by Ida of his 
 brother's " ungracious behavior," was quite at a 
 loss to understand him. But he understood him 
 still less after having endeavored to call him to 
 account. 
 
 The winter was unusually cold, with two 
 months of alternating snow and frost, and Narve, 
 revelling in the sharp northeasters, felt his health 
 and spirits reviving. The goblin which dwelt in 
 the secret chamber of his soul held its peace, and 
 rarely showed its hideous countenance. But 
 with the first warm days of spring the ferment 
 of his blood returned. He began again to be 
 haunted by the thought of the polar bear, and, 
 much as he dreaded it, felt irresistibly driven to 
 pay it a visit. It was a warm Sunday in May 
 that he summoned courage for this resolution. 
 He purposely kept his glance averted until he 
 was right before the cage. Then with a jerk he 
 turned his head. The cage was empty. Narve
 
 LIFE FOR LIFE 79 
 
 started back with a half-suppressed exclamation. 
 He felt like a man who, calling upon a friend, 
 finds crape on the bell-handle. A mysterious tie 
 seemed to have bound him to this animal, and 
 a half-superstitious feeling that the same fate 
 would overtake both. He scarcely needed to 
 ask the keeper, who came along presently with a 
 trough full of meat, what had become of the 
 bear. He knew that he was dead. 
 
 On his homeward way the Norseman felt as if 
 he had received his death-warrant. He shud 
 dered at the fancies which rose from the depth 
 of his soul. His goblin was again awake and 
 had summoned a host of relatives to keep it 
 company. Narve knew that these wild imagin 
 ings were but symptoms of disease ; and he knew, 
 too, that the disorder of his brain was due to his 
 unfitness to cope with the climate. If he could 
 but leave his brother, the remedy would be simple 
 enough. But Paul was, even with his health re 
 gained, ignorant and helpless, and utterly un 
 equipped to grapple with the perplexities of life. 
 There was but one way out of the dilemma ; and 
 that was to accept a proposition, previously made 
 by Mr. Tulstrup, to become his agent and the 
 head of a branch of his business which he in 
 tended to establish in London. The moist and 
 even climate of the British Isles, with no ex 
 tremes of heat and cold, would preserve the
 
 8O NORSELAA'D TALES 
 
 lives of both brothers, and absolve the one from 
 the necessity of sacrificing himself for the other. 
 With this resolution fixed in his mind, Narve re 
 turned home, and found his brother stretched 
 out upon the sofa, reading a novel. 
 
 " Paul," he said, with a quiver in his voice, 
 " this climate is death to me." 
 
 Paul looked up from his book and knocked 
 the ashes from his cigarette with his little finger. 
 " It is life to me," he replied, and went on reading. 
 
 Narve began to pace the floor with long strides. 
 Beads of perspiration trickled down over his 
 large, pale face and hung in his tawny beard. 
 After a few minutes he stopped before the sofa 
 where Paul lay. " What would you do, Paul," 
 he asked, solemnly, " if I were dead ? " 
 
 "Ah, my dear brother," rejoined Paul, im 
 patiently (for his novel was absorbingly inter 
 esting), " what is the good of talking of such 
 absurd things ? When you are dead, it will be 
 time enough to discuss that." 
 
 " I am not joking, Paul. I am in deadly 
 earnest." 
 
 " Well, that is just your failing, brother. You 
 are always tormenting yourself with some such 
 unpleasant topic." 
 
 " I beg of you, do not joke. I feel death in 
 my heart; and I am much troubled to think 
 what is to become of you. I do not like to re-
 
 LIFE FOR LIFE 8 1 
 
 mind you that once I saved your life. Now it is 
 your turn to save mine." 
 
 Paul dropped his novel and rose into a half- 
 sitting posture. A sudden pallor overspread his 
 countenance ; his lips trembled. 
 
 " You you want to take me back to the 
 North Pole ! " he cried, with sudden terror. 
 
 " No, not to the Pole, child," answered Narve, 
 soothingly. " Mr. Tulstrup has offered me a 
 place in England, where both you and I can live 
 without danger to health. I want you to come 
 with me." 
 
 Paul listened intently, with fear and suspicion 
 depicted in his features. 
 
 " Ah, that is a foxy plan of yours," he ex 
 claimed, jumping up and darting across the 
 floor ; " don't you suppose I know how you are 
 pining for your delightful whale-hunts and eider- 
 ducks and fish-smell ? If you get me so far, you 
 will soon get me back into the very grip of 
 Death, from which, as you say, you saved me. 
 But I am not such a child as you think. I have 
 friends here, and I have found health and life 
 here, and I am not going away to accommodate 
 anybody." 
 
 He had worked himself up into such a passion 
 that he could not keep the tears back ; and, 
 being ashamed of his weakness, he sauntered 
 into the sleeping-room, flung himself on his bed,
 
 82 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 and buried his face in the pillows. Narve, cut 
 to the quick by his suspicion, stood long listen 
 ing to his half-choked sobs. All the tenderness 
 which he had felt for him from his earliest years 
 welled up from the depth of his heart ; and, full 
 of repentance for the grief he had caused him, 
 he sat down on the bed, and patiently endured 
 the pettish rebuffs with which his caresses and 
 overtures for peace were received. He re 
 proached himself for having so bluntly stated 
 his proposition, instead of gradually preparing 
 his brother for it ; and he resolved in future to 
 use more discretion. But his recollection of his 
 brother's tears and terror made him reluctant to 
 return to the subject again. It seemed a cowardly 
 thing for him as the stronger (he could never 
 quite realize the thought that he was now the 
 weaker) to inflict pain upon one who, in his 
 father's dying hour, had been commended to his 
 care. And so the days went by, summer ad 
 vanced, and the opportune moment for reopen 
 ing the subject never came. The Tulstrups 
 went to the country earlier than usual, and left 
 Paul in desolation. 
 
 It was about the middle of June. The heat 
 had come with a rush and scattered fashionable 
 New York toward all the points of the compass. 
 That part which remained on Manhattan Island 
 was decidedly uncomfortable. Only a few tropi-
 
 LIFE FOR LIFE 83 
 
 cal characters luxuriated in the burning sun. 
 Paul Tangen, airily and daintily clad, was saunter 
 ing down Broadway, smoking a cigarette. He 
 was in good spirits, because he had recently dis 
 covered a new novelist who pleased him and a 
 new brand of cigarettes which did not give him 
 a headache. In that concentrated bit of New 
 York between Union and Madison Squares there 
 were crowds of people and traffic, as usual, in 
 spite of the heat. Paul felt exhilarated at the 
 sight of it, and allowed himself to be carried 
 along by the current. He found himself pres 
 ently standing in a dense throng of people before 
 a druggist's window, and he obeyed the general 
 impulse in craning his neck to see what was 
 going on inside. 
 
 " What is it ? " he asked his neighbor in the 
 crowd. 
 
 " Nothing but a sunstroke," was the reply. 
 
 " A sunstroke ! " 
 
 Paul began to feel vaguely uneasy, and el 
 bowed his way to the front. Then, as some one 
 moved aside, he caught a glimpse of a large 
 blond head, with closed eyes, upon the marble 
 floor. With a cry he sprang forward and flung 
 himself upon his brother's breast. 
 
 " Narve, my brother! oh, my brother!" he 
 wailed, piteously. 
 
 Narve half opened his eyes. There was a
 
 84 NORSE 1, AND TALES 
 
 strange, remote look in them, then a fleeting 
 gleam as of joy. 
 
 " I took care of the little one father," he 
 murmured, in Norwegian, " took care of 
 the little one." 
 
 A convulsive shiver shook his great frame. 
 The doctor who had come with the ambulance 
 stooped and listened to his heart-beat. 
 
 " Nothing to be done," he said : " he is dead."
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF A "DIG" 
 
 I 
 
 THEODORE had the reputation of being a " dig," 
 and was not popular with his classmates. His 
 hands were soft, like those of a girl, his hair 
 was carefully brushed, and he was very partic 
 ular about his clothes. He had an aversion for 
 all kind of roughness, and retired to a safe dis 
 tance whenever any kind of noisy game was in 
 progress. 
 
 You will conclude from this that Theodore 
 was not very happy at school ; but that was not 
 exactly the case. He was happy enough when he 
 recited his lessons and was praised by his teachers. 
 It was only the recess he dreaded. It was quite 
 pitiful to see the tall, pale-faced lad promenading 
 up and down on the sidewalk, like an old gentle 
 man taking his exercise, and casting shy glances 
 at his boisterous classmates. And if by chance 
 the crowd approached him, he would take to his 
 heels, and not pause until he had gained a safe 
 distance. 
 
 There was one of his classmates of whom
 
 86 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 Theodore was more afraid than all the rest, and 
 that was saddler Nordrup's son Rudolf. He 
 had a pair of red, cracked, and scratched fists, 
 with which no one liked to come in hostile con 
 tact. Their owner was immensely proud of 
 them, and studiously kept them hard, horny, and 
 awe-inspiring. He also cultivated all kinds of 
 manly accomplishments, such as boxing, wrest 
 ling, fishing, and shooting, and his great popu 
 larity in the school was due to his skill with gun 
 and rod and cross-bow. In spite of his some 
 what rough appearance every boy in the class, 
 with the exception of Theodore, courted his 
 favor, and felt flattered and exalted if Rudolf 
 deigned to notice him. 
 
 I regret to say that this much-admired hero of 
 the class was not a brilliant scholar. He hated 
 studying, and would have made a complete fail 
 ure in his lessons if his natural quick wit and a 
 whispering neighbor had not somehow helped 
 him out. As it was, he barely managed to scrape 
 along without absolute disgrace. In zoology 
 and geography he made particularly wretched 
 recitations; while in these branches his rival, 
 Theodore, excelled. Rudolf knew on general 
 principles that America was red, Europe green, 
 and Africa blue ; but beyond these interesting 
 facts his perception could not be made to extend. 
 He felt a great animosity against Turkey be-
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF A "DIG" S/ 
 
 cause of its variable color (on the big wall map 
 it was pink, but in the geography it was green). 
 The Mississippi flowed through too many States 
 for his comfort ; it might easily have been con 
 tent with half the number ; and in pure malice 
 it wound itself into every nook and corner where 
 there was a shanty town whose name a poor boy 
 had to remember. Africa was, to his mind, a 
 much more agreeable continent, with only a few 
 names scattered along the coast, and all the rest 
 a great, delightful, easily remembered blank. 
 But there was danger that Stanley might in time 
 spoil Africa too. 
 
 As for zoology, Rudolf had always imagined 
 that he would like that very much. He had 
 roamed about in forest and field since he was old 
 enough to walk alone, and knew every bird and 
 beast that inhabited them. He had senses as 
 keen as those of an Indian, and could smell a fox or 
 a badger long before he saw him. He had traps 
 up in. the glens, two or three miles from town, 
 and lived in a state of perpetual warfare with 
 certain " Mickies " whom he had caught stealing 
 his game. He formed an alliance with the well- 
 disposed Markhus boys, who lived in the neigh 
 borhood of the traps, and these kept an eye on 
 the movements of the " Mickies," and reported to 
 headquarters. So well did Rudolf finally suc 
 ceed in establishing his authority that no one
 
 88 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 dared to touch his snares or traps. He had by 
 his masterful ways acquired a kind of chieftain 
 ship which no one thought of disputing. It was 
 a small state which this fourteen-year-old boy, 
 without knowing it, had established ; and in at 
 tending to its many concerns he found little time 
 to spare for his lessons. Compared to subjects 
 of such absorbing interest as the feud with the 
 " Mickies" and the defensive alliance with the 
 Markhus boys, the color of Africa and the boun 
 daries of Germany seemed trivial affairs. 
 
 II 
 
 IT is a curious thing how the same crazes will 
 attack boys in countries widely removed. Nor 
 wegian boys play at marbles and ball, as do 
 their American brothers. They dig for hidden 
 treasures and form mysterious fraternities with 
 secret grips and blood-curdling passwords. 
 
 Theodore, though he was born in Norway, 
 and had opportunities for sport which city-bred 
 American lads are deprived of, cultivated the 
 same indoor amusements which are prevalent on 
 this side of the ocean. 
 
 One day he was sitting in his handsomely 
 appointed room inspecting his collections ; for he 
 was a great collector. His first craze had been 
 postage-stamps, of which he had several thou-
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF A "DIG" 89 
 
 sands, all neatly arranged in an album, under the 
 appropriate countries. He had the flags of the 
 countries too, their coats of arms, and the pict 
 ures of their sovereigns pasted at the top of 
 the page. But after having for three years 
 expended his pocket-money on rare stamps, his 
 interest began to flag, and at last expired. He 
 then threw his affection upon cigarette pictures, 
 of which he accumulated a large and valuable 
 collection. But one year sufficed to put an end 
 to this fancy. Then a book fell into his hands 
 describing the delights of the woods in summer, 
 and recommending insects' and birds' eggs as 
 the most instructive objects upon which to ex 
 pend his collector's mania. And forthwith he 
 resolved to go out into the woods and gather 
 specimens for these new collections. 
 
 It was on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in 
 June that he started out, picking his way cau 
 tiously along the sidewalk, and putting on his 
 eye-glasses, so that he might keep a sharp look 
 out for rough boys. He walked along for half 
 an hour with, his nose in the air, swinging his 
 slender cane, spying anxiously to the right and 
 to the left for the dreaded Mickies. Now and 
 then he stopped to brush the dust off his fine 
 coat, or to whip it off his polished shoes with his 
 handkerchief. It seemed a very long distance. 
 The sun was shining warmly, and he was begin-
 
 9O NORSELAND TALES 
 
 ning to perspire. And there was nowhere a 
 bench nor anything to sit down upon. Nor did 
 he see any birds' eggs ; and of insects, only flies 
 and mosquitoes were visible, and they were vis 
 ible in uncomfortable numbers. Theodore had 
 determined first to secure some fine specimens 
 of ants, of whose habits and domestic arrange 
 ments he had read the most astonishing things. 
 " They belong to the family of the Formicaria" 
 he repeated to himself ; " live in communities, 
 have a triangular head, strong mandibles, long 
 geniculate antennae," etc. 
 
 The road was now becoming rougher; was, in 
 fact, nothing but a bridle-path that climbed, with 
 many hooks and crooks, up the steep glen, in the 
 bottom of which ran a creek. The recent rains 
 and the thaw on the mountains had swelled the 
 volume of water in this little stream, and it now 
 came plunging down over the rocks with a rush 
 and merry tumult which would have gladdened 
 any heart that was not choked up with the dust 
 of books. But Theodore was too intent upon his 
 ants and birds' eggs to listen to the brook. It 
 was not at all so pleasant in the woods, he 
 thought, as the book had said. In the first place, 
 he was in constant danger of tearing his clothes ; 
 and, secondly, the sharp stones nearly cut 
 through the thin soles of his boots. He was 
 growing very tired, and not a single specimen
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF A "DIG" 91 
 
 had he yet found. He could not go much fur 
 ther without resting ; anxiously he looked about 
 for a place where he might sit down. 
 
 Ah ! there was the very thing he was seeking 
 a curious elevation of the ground resembling a 
 broken cone, and, as far as he could see, per 
 fectly dry. Exhausted with his labor, Theodore 
 dropped unsuspiciously down upon this natural 
 seat. It gave way a little under his weight, but 
 not much. Ah ! how good it was to rest after 
 such a climb ! If he only had a drink of water 
 now he would be perfectly happy. But un 
 fortunately he had not brought a glass. How, 
 then, was he to get a drink? 
 
 But, good gracious ! what was that? Theodore 
 felt a violent pain in his arms and legs, and, cast' 
 ing his eyes upon his hands, he found them 
 covered with a perfect swarm of black creeping 
 things. He gave a scream of horror and tried 
 to rise ; but the slippery pine-needles gave him 
 no footing, and he fell back into the cone-shaped 
 elevation and lost his eye-glasses. Frantic with 
 pain, he rolled down to a tree, against which he 
 distractedly rubbed himself, and finally suc 
 ceeded in rising. What could that have been 
 that he had sat down upon? And those myriads 
 of busy little black fiends, what and who were 
 they? 
 
 It suddenly occurred to him while he was
 
 92 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 crying and rubbing himself against the pine-tree 
 that ants lived in communities. Could it be 
 possible that it was a community of ants he had 
 sat down upon ? Ants had strong mandibles, to 
 be sure, as he was experiencing to his grief, but 
 the book said nothing about their biting. But 
 now it burst upon Theodore like a great light 
 that that was what the strong mandibles were 
 for. But who could tell ? Perhaps they were 
 not ants, after all, for ants had such very inter 
 esting domestic habits, and the habits of these 
 vulgar little biting things were the most dis 
 agreeable he had ever come across. He did not 
 find them in the least interesting. It was all 
 very well to live in communities and have tri 
 angular heads and geniculate antennas, but if 
 this was the use they put them to they ought to 
 be ashamed of themselves. " That must be a 
 nice community," he thought to himself, " where 
 everybody bites. Why, they would in the end 
 eat each other up." 
 
 But, in the meantime, as they were now en 
 gaged in eating him up, his first task was to get 
 rid of them. So he crawled down to the creek, 
 took off his coat and trousers, and, seating him 
 self on a stone, began to pick off the ants and 
 drop them into the water. It was a long and 
 laborious task, and extremely unpleasant. It 
 gave him, however, a kind of vindictive enjoy-
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF A "DIG" 93 
 
 ment to see his tormentors squirming and writh 
 ing in the pools, whirling around and turning 
 somersaults in the eddies and darting headlong 
 down the tiny cascades. 
 
 He was in the midst of this labor, when sud 
 denly he heard a rustling in the underbrush on 
 the other side of the creek. What could that 
 be ? Surely not bears ! Now there came a 
 queer, hoarse sound, which chilled his blood 
 with horror. He jumped up quickly, and cast 
 anxious glances about him. A great, hairy, 
 rusty-brown beast stuck its head out among the 
 bushes ! Now he was lost. It was a bear in 
 deed. He stood spellbound with fear. It was 
 not one bear ; there was a full dozen of them. 
 Now they were coming right down upon him ! 
 With a wild cry Theodore took to his heels, tore 
 through the bushes, and ran and ran and ran as 
 fast as his legs would carry him. He did not 
 perceive that the supposed bears were quite as 
 frightened as he was, and were scampering away 
 down the glen in the opposite direction. 
 
 Theodore did not know how long he had been 
 running, when he stumbled over a stone and fell 
 at full length upon the ground. He was all out 
 of breath, his temples were throbbing furiously, 
 and his hands and neck were torn and bleeding. 
 He made a feeble exertion to rise, but tumbled 
 down again. For fifteen or twenty minutes he
 
 94 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 lay perfectly still, trembling lest the bears 
 should find him, but feeling too exhausted to 
 make any effort to escape them. But as he 
 neither heard nor saw anything to cause alarm, 
 his fears were gradually quieted, and his strength 
 returned to him. Cautiously he raised himself 
 on his elbow and peered about him. With con 
 sternation he remembered what in his fright he 
 had forgotten he had run away from his coat, 
 waistcoat, and trousers, and was now elegantly 
 arrayed in a torn shirt and a pair of drawers 
 that hung in tatters about his legs. If it were 
 only safe to retrace his steps, he might perhaps 
 find the indispensable garments where he had 
 left them. 
 
 With this resolution, he rose to his feet, and, 
 steadying himself against a tree, began to ex 
 plore the territory. He had not the faintest 
 idea of where he was, nor could he determine 
 from what direction he had come. Presently a 
 strange object attracted his attention. He saw 
 in every other tree a bent twig that had been 
 fastened with both ends in the bark, making a 
 round arch set sideways. In many of these 
 arches hung dead birds. Theodore was so as 
 tonished that he forgot all his fear. Shyly he 
 approached one of the trees, and touched the 
 little feathered corpse. The poor thing had evi 
 dently hanged itself, for it had a horse-hair noose
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF A "DIG" 95 
 
 about its neck. It was indeed most singular. 
 Theodore had never known before that birds 
 were in the habit of committing' suicide. 
 
 The boy hunted instinctively for his eye 
 glasses that he might inspect it more closely. 
 Alas ! he could not find them. But as his 
 glance fell upon the ground something still 
 more startling invaded his vision. There sat a 
 gray rabbit bolt-upright, staring at him. It did 
 not seem to be in the least frightened as he ap 
 proached it. With statuesque immobility it sat 
 in the heather, its bead-like eyes almost starting 
 out of its head with astonishment. Theodore, 
 seeing that it was so tame, determined to pick it 
 up and pet it. So he stepped boldly up to the 
 rabbit, when goodness gracious ! what was 
 that? An invisible pair of steel jaws snapped 
 on his leg, and he fell to the ground in an agony 
 of pain and terror. He screamed and shrieked, 
 but no one heard him. He felt the blood trick 
 ling down his ankle, and a set of sharp, cruel 
 teeth boring themselves into his flesh. 
 
 What could this dreadful monster be that had 
 caught him ? Was it a wild beast hidden in the 
 ground, or was it a fiendish sprite that roamed 
 invisible through the woods, destroying unwary 
 wanderers ? This latter fancy, as it flashed 
 through Theodore's brain, made his hair stand 
 on end. But, curiously enough, the monster,
 
 g6 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 whether natural or supernatural, kept still. The 
 steel jaws were locked on his leg two inches 
 above his ankle ; but though they held him with 
 a relentless grip, they were absolutely motion 
 less. The boy, after a few moments, began to 
 reflect upon this. 
 
 Fumbling with his hands, he felt something 
 soft and downy, and presently discovered that it 
 was the rabbit. But what a very odd rabbit it 
 was to keep so quiet ! It must have been en 
 chanted. Theodore pinched it cautiously, and 
 came to the conclusion that it was stuffed. 
 Would wonders never cease ? A stuffed rabbit 
 sitting in the most life-like position in the heath 
 er, and birds that had hanged themselves in the 
 trees ! There could be no doubt that this was 
 an enchanted forest, like the one described in 
 " Undine," and probably it had no beginning 
 and no end, and the paths crossed and inter 
 twined in an inextricable maze, from which he 
 could never hope to escape. 
 
 Theodore wept bitterly when he thought of 
 the terrible position he was in. He closed his 
 eyes and tried not to think ; but the pain in his 
 leg, which was swelling about the wound, kept 
 him awake. For an hour he lay thus, but it 
 seemed to him an eternity. Suddenly a shrill 
 unearthly whistle was heard. His heart beat 
 wildly. What could it be ? Steps were ap-
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF A "DIG" 9/ 
 
 preaching. A sharp report rent the air, and a 
 great brown bird came tumbling down through 
 the branches of the tree under which he was 
 lying. Then a loud cry of astonishment 
 struck his ear. It had a very human sound in 
 deed. 
 
 " Hi, there, you blockhead ! what are you do 
 ing in my fox-trap?" shouted a voice, which 
 Theodore recognized as that of his enemy Ru 
 dolf. 
 
 "Oh, help me," he whimpered, "or I shall 
 die." 
 
 " Well, you are a queer kind of coon, I must 
 say," Rudolf exclaimed, as he stooped down, 
 and with great caution unlocked the fox-trap. 
 " What on earth possessed you to walk into my 
 trap ? Did you mistake yourself for a fox ? If 
 it had been a donkey-trap, now, your mistake 
 would have been pardonable." 
 
 " 1 didn't see any trap," groaned Theodore. 
 
 " No ; but you saw the bait, didn't you ? " 
 
 " I only saw a rabbit." 
 
 " Precisely ; that rabbit was the bait." 
 
 His leg was now released, but it still hurt. It 
 was blue-black where the teeth of the trap had 
 pierced it, and much swollen. Rudolf stood re 
 garding it with a cool professional air ; then he 
 lifted his prostrate comrade in his arms, and car 
 ried him down to the brook. There he bathed 
 7
 
 98 NORSRLAND TALES 
 
 his wounded leg ; and when the swelling had 
 gone down, he cut a neat piece out of the sleeve 
 of his shirt, and bandaged the wound. 
 
 " Now tell me," said the amateur surgeon 
 when he had finished his operation, " what have 
 you done with your clothes ? " 
 
 " Well," answered Theodore, timidly, " you 
 know, I sat down on a community " 
 
 " Sat down on a community ! " ejaculated Ru 
 dolf. " How did you manage to do that ? " 
 
 " I mean, of course, a community of ants." 
 
 " A community of ants ! Well, if that don't 
 beat the Dutch ! I wouldn't sit down on a com 
 munity of my aunts for a mint of money." 
 
 " They were little, black, creeping things," ex 
 plained the victim. 
 
 " Oh, I see ! " cried Rudolf, flinging himself 
 down on the heather, and rolling and writh 
 ing with laughter ; " you sat down in an ant 
 hill." 
 
 " Ant-hill ? Is that what you call it ? " 
 
 " Yes. And did they eat up your clothes ? " 
 
 " No ; but I had to take them off, and while I 
 was sitting at the brook killing the little beasts, 
 there came a herd of bears " 
 
 " A herd of bears ! Who ever heard of such 
 a thing ? " 
 
 " Well, I surely saw them." 
 
 " How did they look ? "
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF A ff D7G" 99 
 
 " They were dusky brown or black, with long 
 shaggy hair " 
 
 " Oh, you innocent jackanapes ! " roared Ru 
 dolf, and burst out again into a ringing laugh. 
 " Those were sheep black sheep." 
 
 " But sheep are nice little soft white things, 
 like the Agnus Dei in the catechism." 
 
 " Oh no ! they are not a bit like that. What 
 next ? " 
 
 " Well, they frightened me very much, and I 
 ran till I came here. But tell me, please, why 
 all those birds have hanged themselves ? " 
 
 " Hanged themselves ? Well, I put up the 
 snares, and they did not have the sense to see 
 that it was a trap." 
 
 " Poor things ! " 
 
 The two boys talked on together, and Theo 
 dore was amazed at the things he learned. In 
 all his long poring over books he had never 
 gathered so much information as he obtained 
 from this boy whom he had always regarded 
 as vulgar and dull. He gazed at his former 
 foe with undisguised admiration, and secretly 
 wished he could be like him. Rudolf looked 
 the picture of manly vigor as he stood leaning 
 upon his gun, with the hawk he had shot slung 
 across his shoulder. 
 
 " Now we'll have to hunt for your clothes." 
 And putting two fingers into his mouth, he
 
 IOO NORSELAND TALES 
 
 sounded three piercing whistles which re-echoed 
 from the mountain. 
 
 " Why did you do that ? " asked Theodore. 
 
 " You'll see, presently." 
 
 Within five minutes two boys came running 
 up the glen and greeted their chieftain. 
 
 " Go and find the clothes of this boy," Rudolf 
 commanded ; " they are somewhere along the 
 course of the creek." The boys departed as 
 quickly as they had come. 
 
 " Who are they ? " cried Theodore, in amaze 
 ment. 
 
 " They are my Merry Men. They guard my 
 traps from the Mickies." 
 
 Within fifteen minutes the Merry Men re 
 turned, bringing Theodore's clothes, and as 
 sisted him in pulling them on. Then they made 
 a litter of branches, and at their chief's behest 
 carried the invalid back to town. It was quite 
 a triumphant entry Theodore made, and never 
 had he felt so much of a hero as when, under 
 Rudolf's protection, he was carried through the 
 streets, with his bandaged leg conspicuously 
 displayed. 
 
 From that time forth the two boys began to 
 cultivate each other's society, and soon became 
 friends. Theodore, though he never became a 
 sportsman, learned to use his eyes, and to de 
 light in that close observation of nature without
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF A "DIG" IOI 
 
 which books can teach us nothing, and Rudolf 
 learned by Theodore's aid and encouragement 
 to take more kindly to his studies and to over 
 come his antipathy to books.
 
 THE RUNAWAY'S THANKSGIVING 
 
 COLONEL LANDMARK was a very irascible and 
 yet a very kind-hearted gentleman. He loved 
 his son Fritz better than his life ; but, for all that, 
 there were times when they did not exactly get 
 along pleasantly. At such times the Colonel 
 was in the habit of referring pathetically to his 
 gray hairs (which, by the way, were not his own) 
 and intimating that his son's wickedness would 
 be sure, some day, to bring them with sorrow to 
 the grave. Fritz was quite familiar with this 
 phrase, and it had long ceased to affect him. 
 He did not believe that he was quite so bad as 
 his father asserted in his moments of anger. 
 And thus it came to pass that the next time the 
 Colonel rebuked him, he made a reply, which 
 was both disrespectful and unfilial, and which 
 brought with it a long train of evil consequences. 
 
 " You are a very disagreeable boy, Fritz," said 
 the Colonel. 
 
 " Excuse me, Papa ; but I don't think so," an- 
 swered Fritz, dauntlessly. 
 
 " You will bring your father's gray hairs with 
 sorrow to the grave," said the Colonel.
 
 THE RUNAWAY'S THANKSGIVING IO3 
 
 " No, I won't ! " replied Fritz. 
 
 The Colonel rose threateningly, and took two 
 long strides toward his son. 
 
 " Well, well I will, then. I will bring your 
 gray hairs with sorrow to the grave ! " cried the 
 boy, in alarm. 
 
 "Why, then, did you say you wouldn't?" 
 asked his father, angrily seizing him by his col 
 lar. 
 
 " Because you wear a wig, Papa. I will bring 
 your gray wig with sorrow to the grave, if you 
 like." 
 
 Fritz repented of the remark when he had 
 made it ; but it was then too late. The Colonel, 
 who was an old-fashioned man and believed in 
 old-fashioned methods of discipline, conducted 
 his son to a room at the top of the house, locked 
 him in, and commanded him to commit a hun 
 dred lines of Virgil to memory. Instead of din 
 ner he got a dish of dry bread and water, and 
 for supper he was served with a similar repast. 
 Finally, when after three trials he succeeded in 
 reciting the hundred lines about Dido correctly, 
 he was told to run down to the beach and take 
 some exercise before going to bed. It was then 
 nearly eight o'clock in the evening, and the long 
 gray beach looked lonely and deserted. The 
 surf beat monotonously against the black boul 
 ders and retreated again with a hushed whisper,
 
 104 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 only to rush forward again, with a long, thun 
 dering roar. 
 
 Fritz, while listening to this mighty commo 
 tion, which had been his lullaby since the day he 
 was born, walked up and down on the sand, and 
 gazed longingly out toward the misty horizon. 
 He was boiling over with rebellious feelings 
 toward his father, and was determined never to 
 see his face again. If he could only flee to some 
 happy land beyond the ocean where there were 
 no fathers ; or, better still, where boys had the 
 direction of things, and fathers were made to 
 obey. Then, he was convinced, he could make 
 some important improvements in the condition 
 of society. In Norway (I believe I forgot to 
 state that Fritz was a Norwegian boy) fathers 
 had altogether too much authority for anybody's 
 comfort but their own, and, as a general rebellion 
 of the boys would be difficult to organize, and 
 uncertain in its result, there was no choice left 
 but to emigrate to some country where youth 
 was held in honor, and age was held to be a 
 calamity, if not a disgrace. If Fritz had had a 
 mother, who could have comforted him when he 
 felt lonely and abused, I am sure he would soon 
 have been made aware that his father punished 
 him for his own good, and not for amusement. 
 
 While Fritz was ruminating these bitter 
 thoughts, he heard the splash of oars and the
 
 THE RUNAWAY'S THANKSGIVING IO5 
 
 click of row-locks, and soon saw a boat emerging 
 from the dusk and approaching the pier. He 
 ran out to meet it, and seized the rope which 
 the oarsman flung to him. The occupant of the 
 boat was a sailor, dressed in a complete suit of 
 yellow oilskin, and with a sou' wester of the same 
 material on his head. 
 
 " Got a plug ? " he asked, as he stepped up on 
 the pier and tied his boat. 
 
 " A plug ? " asked Fritz, doubtfully ; " is your 
 boat leaking ? " 
 
 " Greenhorn ! " growled the sailor, contemptu 
 ously. " I mean a plug of tobacker." 
 
 Fritz regretted exceedingly that he did not 
 happen to have any. 
 
 " Sail in the third watch," said the laconic 
 mariner. " No tobacker. Had to get some. 
 Couldn't start fur America without a plug." 
 
 " America ! " cried Fritz, delightedly. " Are 
 you going to America ? " 
 
 " You bet." 
 
 " And won't you take me along ? " 
 
 " Call day after to-morrow," remarked the 
 sailor, dryly. 
 
 " But then you'll be gone ! " said Fritz, inno 
 cently. 
 
 " Exactly," responded the sailor. 
 
 " Tell me one thing at least, before you go," 
 said Fritz, eagerly. " Isn't it true that in Amer-
 
 106 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 ica boys are of much more account than they 
 are here ? " 
 
 " True as Gospel," said the mariner. 
 
 " And I have been told, too, that American 
 fathers do very much what their sons tell them 
 to do." 
 
 " That's so," responded the mariner, with im 
 perturbable gravity. 
 
 " And boys do all the talking at table, and are 
 not forced to sit dumb as mummies, as they do 
 here?" 
 
 " Cor-rect you are. America is the land fur 
 boys. You may bet your hat on that. It is 
 the boys that run everything there even poli 
 tics." ' 
 
 " Isn't that glorious ! " ejaculated Fritz, slap 
 ping his leg ecstatically. " America is the place 
 for me. Papa says there are no homes and no 
 family life there ; and it is just that which makes 
 me want to go there. I have had quite my fill 
 of family life, thank you ; and now I mean to 
 shift for myself, and let the family go to the 
 dogs." 
 
 The sailor, who had seated himself on one of 
 the posts of the pier, listened attentively to 
 Fritz's indignant exclamations. 
 
 " Do you know," he said at last, " I rather like 
 you. You are a spunky little chap, and, if you 
 can get me a couple of plugs of tobacker to-
 
 THE RUNAWAY'S THANKSGIVING IO? 
 
 night, I'll take you on board, and stow you away 
 in the hull, until we are a day or two at sea. 
 Then you may come out. But mum is the 
 word, you understand. If you blab, I'll break 
 every bone in yer anatomy." 
 
 Fritz promised solemnly that he would never 
 betray his benefactor, and jumped with alacrity 
 into the boat. The sailor, with the same imper 
 turbable manner, took him by the arm, and, lift 
 ing him up, put him back again on the pier. 
 
 " The plugs, my friend ! " he said. " Without 
 plugs, no America." 
 
 " Oh ! I forgot ! " exclaimed Fritz, digging 
 desperately into his pockets. " Hello ! " he yelled 
 suddenly, hauling a coin from its cavernous 
 depths : " Here is my last week's pocket money. 
 It is one mark.* You can get half a dozen 
 plugs for that." 
 
 Fritz's nautical friend seized the coin eagerly, 
 tested it by dropping it upon the stones of the 
 pier, and vanished with the utmost speed in the 
 direction of the huckster's store, at the end of 
 the bay. Fritz, in the meanwhile, lay on his 
 back in the boat, and stared up into the dark 
 sky. Once he thought he heard a well-known 
 voice, calling him anxiously, and he heard rap 
 id military steps re-echoing from the rocks 
 along the beach. His resolution began to wav- 
 
 * About twenty-five cents.
 
 108 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 er, and he was on the point of rising and re 
 sponding to his father's call. But the recollec 
 tion of his sufferings in the lonely room, and 
 his struggles with "At pius ALncas" and so 
 on, steeled his heart again, and restrained his 
 tongue. 
 
 It was a little after nine o'clock that the sailor 
 returned, in a blissful state, with his mouth and 
 his pockets full of tobacco. In fifteen minutes 
 more they boarded the good ship, Harold the 
 Fair-haired, which landed them, within six weeks, 
 in New York. 
 
 II 
 
 NEW YORK is a perplexing place to a boy of 
 fourteen, especially if he has no money. Fritz 
 walked up Broadway from the Battery, and 
 stared, in a dazed sort of fashion, at the noisy 
 stages, the enormous trucks loaded with mer 
 chandise, and the dense crowds of people that 
 hurried along the huge thoroughfare. Not a 
 soul took any notice of him, except to give him 
 an occasional push into the gutter; and they did 
 not even say " Excuse me." They were terribly 
 rude folks, those Americans, thought Fritz. He 
 had half expected that, as soon as he made him 
 self known as a Norseman a descendant of the 
 ancient Vikings who were the first to discover
 
 THE RUNAWAY'S THANKSGIVING IOQ 
 
 America the boys of New York would turn out 
 in a procession, and give him a right royal wel 
 come. He had always been a person of consid 
 erable consequence among boys ; and when his 
 friend Magnus Thorson went to the United 
 States, a year ago, he had sent along with him 
 an address to the Boys of America, in which he 
 had expressed some very fine sentiments. He 
 began to wonder to whom Magnus had given 
 this international greeting, and where he should 
 betake himself to find the Boys of America. In 
 the little country village in Norway, where he 
 had spent his life, such a message would natur 
 ally be delivered to himself, as he was the ac 
 knowledged chieftain of the juvenile world 
 within his parish. Now, if he only could find 
 the boy who held a corresponding position in 
 New York ! He scanned curiously the face of 
 every boy he met ; but they were all shabbily 
 dressed, and of a dirty and unkempt appearance. 
 Some of them sold newspapers, others blacked 
 boots, and some, who were dressed in uniforms, 
 carried letters and telegraph dispatches. Fritz 
 was jostled about, as if he were a foot-ball ; and 
 whenever he stopped to address any of these 
 boys, the crowd pushed him on before he had 
 uttered a syllable. Finally, when he had reached 
 the City Hall Park, he found a group of boys 
 who seemed to have sufficient leisure to con-
 
 IIO NORSELAND TALES 
 
 verse. Respectfully approaching one of them, 
 he pulled off his cap and said : 
 
 " If you will excuse me, sir " 
 
 The boy, who carried a blacking-box on his 
 shoulder and wore a coat which was twice his 
 size, gazed at Fritz with challenging eyes, and 
 said : 
 
 " Hey ! what are ye givin' us ? Taffy ? " 
 
 " Oh ! not at all," answered Fritz, seriously. 
 He had no idea what taffy was ; but he con 
 cluded from the boy's challenging manner, that 
 it must be something disagreeable. 
 
 " But can you tell me," he continued, blush 
 ing and stammering with confusion, " which is 
 the the first, the king, the chieftain of the boys 
 of New York ? " 
 
 His English, which he had acquired in school 
 and from an English tourist, was perfectly 
 correct, but not fluent. The boot-black, at all 
 events, caught his meaning better than he had 
 expected. 
 
 " Does yer know," he said, eying the little 
 Norseman, quizzically, " that ye air a mighty 
 queer coon ? " 
 
 " No. I did not know it," answered Fritz, in 
 nocently. 
 
 " Ye want to know who is the king. Does 
 yer mean the Grand Sovereign Monarch of the 
 Mysterious Sixteen ? "
 
 THE RUNAWAY'S THANKSGIVING III 
 
 " Yes, I think he must be the one," said Fritz, 
 eagerly. 
 
 " I'll let him have a squint at yer ; an' if he 
 likes yer, he'll take yer in." 
 
 " Thank you." 
 
 " My name is Squintin' Jim, 'cause I is cross 
 eyed." 
 
 " My name is Fritz Landmark." 
 
 " Ye air a mighty onsafe kinder landmark, I 
 should say, scootin' about as ye does from one 
 country to another." 
 
 Fritz was unable to take in this joke, and 
 looked blank while Squintin' Jim laughed so 
 that his box bobbed up and down on his shoul 
 der. 
 
 " What's that ye've got in yer pockets ? " he 
 asked, viewing with interest the various pro 
 tuberances on Fritz's coat and trousers. 
 
 " Hard-tack." 
 
 " Gimme a sample ? " 
 
 Fritz, feeling quite honored by Jim's attention, 
 willingly emptied his pockets and deposited the 
 contents on a bench in the park. The boot 
 black sat down in a comfortable attitude, took a 
 biscuit, and devoured it with great despatch ; a 
 second went the same way as the first, and a 
 third and fourth disappeared mysteriously into 
 Jim's capacious coat pockets. 
 
 " Now ye air shoutin' ! " he exclaimed, with
 
 112 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 an unaccountable burst of glee, looking as if he 
 expected Fritz to make some demonstration of 
 hostility. 
 
 " No ; I am not shouting ! " replied Fritz, in 
 surprise. " I am as still as a mouse." 
 
 " Landmark," cried Jim, doubled up with 
 laughter, " I have ben a-playin' it rough on ye, 
 old man. But the boss, he kinder squeezes me, 
 and I hain't had no breakfast sence day before 
 yesterday." 
 
 " Who is the boss ? " 
 
 " The boss, eh ! Why, bless yer heart, he is 
 the Grand Sovereign Monarch of the Mysteri 
 ous Sixteen. We works for him, and gets half 
 o' what we makes. He ain't as rich as Jay 
 Gould ; but he is mighty well off, the boss is. 
 He owns sixteen cheers, and a lot of brushes, 
 and no end of blacking." 
 
 Fritz could not repress his ambition to make 
 the acquaintance of this magnificent person 
 age. 
 
 " Take me to him ! " he ejaculated, eagerly. 
 
 " Hold on, Mister. He is a-runnin' politics 
 now," said Jim ; " or he is at the bruisin' match 
 at Harry Hill's. But, ef you'll be here at ten, 
 sharp, to-night, I reckon ye'll have a squint at 
 him."
 
 THE RUNAWAY'S THANKSGIVING 
 
 III 
 
 FRITZ spent the remainder of the day drearily, 
 lounging about the streets, and munching his 
 last ship biscuit, which Jim had been kind 
 enough to leave him. It seemed to be true, 
 what his father had said that this was the land 
 of shops and not of homes. Wherever he 
 looked he saw goods piled up, goods carted 
 away, goods rumbling and rattling and creak 
 ing, filling the streets, the houses, nay, the very 
 hearts and souls of men. The only thing which 
 seemed valueless in this thronging mart of mer 
 chandise was his poor little Norwegian self, 
 which seemed to be made only to be pushed and 
 buffeted about with pitiless unconcern. As it 
 grew dark, and the turmoil of the streets was 
 quieted, his heart grew heavy within him, and 
 the tears rose to his eyes. He felt so inexpress 
 ibly forlorn and abandoned. He thought of his 
 father, who, though he was rash and excitable, 
 yet loved him so dearly, and was ready to make 
 every sacrifice for his welfare. Who was there 
 in this noisy foreign world who would lift a fin 
 ger to help him ? The warm and cosey fireside 
 corner at home, where he was wont to sit in the 
 long winter nights, listening to his father's 
 
 stories about his youth and his travels, came 
 8
 
 114 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 back to his memory. The raw November wind 
 swept up the street, and made him shiver to the 
 very bone. Alas ! he had lost his home by his 
 own fault. He had despised what was the most 
 precious blessing God had bestowed upon him. 
 As these thoughts thronged upon him the con 
 trast between the happy lot he had thrown away 
 and the miserable one which he had chosen rose 
 vividly before him. In a passion of despair he 
 flung himself down upon a bench and wept as if 
 his heart would break. He had run away from 
 his home. Would God ever forgive him so 
 great a sin? Would he ever lead him back and 
 restore to him the blessings which he had now 
 at last learned to value ? Should he ever see his 
 father again, and obtain his pardon for the 
 grievous wrong he had done him ? Oh ! upon 
 his knees he would implore him to take him 
 back ; nay, he would even entreat him to scold 
 him and punish him ; and he would bear it ail 
 patiently, so that he might do penance for his 
 wickedness. Then, suddenly, like a sharp sting, 
 the thought flashed through him, that perhaps 
 his father's grief at the loss of his only child 
 might really bring him to the grave, and the oft- 
 repeated and despised prophecy might be ful 
 filled. He sprang up with an agonized cry at 
 this thought, and found himself face to face with 
 Squinting Jim.
 
 THE RUNAWAY'S THANKSGIVING 115 
 
 " The Grand Sovereign Monarch is waitin' 
 fur ye," remarked Jim. 
 
 Fritz woke up as from a dream as the boot 
 black addressed him. He had almost forgot 
 ten both him and his Monarch. Nevertheless, 
 as he had nothing better to do, he concluded 
 to follow. He was almost faint with hunger, 
 and perhaps the magnificent sovereign might 
 have the power to supply him with something 
 to eat. They walked for half an hour in si 
 lence. 
 
 " Where is your house, Jim ? " asked Fritz, as 
 the gaslight fell upon Jim's sharp, grimy, and 
 prematurely old face. 
 
 " Don't be soft ! " said Jim, and hurried on. 
 " Keep yer shirt on." 
 
 " I mean, where do you sleep ? " 
 
 " Oh ! in winter I sleep at the lodging-house 
 of the Children's Aid, and when it is warm 
 out-o'-doors I snooze in a barrel in a lumber 
 yard." 
 
 " Then your home is a public lodging-house ? " 
 
 " No. My home is the barrel ! " replied the 
 bootblack, without a gleam of humorous inten 
 tion. 
 
 It must be true, absolutely true, thought Fritz, 
 that there are no homes in America. The 
 wealthy people probably slept in their shops ; 
 and here was a boy whose home was an empty
 
 Il6 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 barrel. If it hadn't been so sad, it certainly 
 would have been amusing. 
 
 After a long and wearisome march, they 
 stopped at a tall board fence, surrounding a 
 lumber-yard in close proximity to the East 
 River. 
 
 " Now, sling yer heels acrost that fence ! " 
 said Jim, putting his toes nimbly into a crevice 
 of the boards, and vaulting across the top with 
 the agility of a squirrel. 
 
 " Sling my heels ? I can't ! " retorted Fritz, 
 in dismay. 
 
 He was beginning to feel afraid, and was half- 
 minded to "sling his heels" in the very opposite 
 direction. But suddenly Jim put his grinning 
 face through a sort of trap-door, having loos 
 ened a plank on the inside, and hospitably invited 
 him to enter. Fritz was ashamed to acknowl 
 edge that he was afraid, and, with a quaking 
 heart, crept through the hole in the fence. 
 
 They made their way cautiously through the 
 gloom, dodging the boards which here and there 
 projected from the lumber piles. - By a dozen 
 crooked by-ways they at last reached a rude 
 shed, apparently used for the storing of lumber 
 men's tools. In a very small stove burned a few 
 sticks of wood, and a diminutive iron pipe con 
 ducted the smoke out through a hole in the 
 wall. A mysterious knock, thrice repeated, and
 
 THE RUNAWAY'S THANKSGIVING 
 
 the password, " Stand by your colors," gained 
 them admission to the shanty ; and a great, burly 
 fellow, with a red, pimpled face, received them 
 with a gruff greeting. He was sitting on an in 
 verted keg in the middle of the floor, while in 
 the shadow along the walls, a dozen ragged and 
 grimy-faced boys were lounging, all evidently 
 belonging to the boot-blacking fraternity. 
 
 " Pull down yer vest ! " whispered Jim, excit 
 edly, as they passed in front of the burly man on 
 the keg. " This yere is the boss." 
 
 " The Grand Sovereign," gasped Fritz, pull 
 ing desperately at his waistcoat, as directed. 
 
 " Ye bet yer boots ! " 
 
 " No, I thank you," retorted Fritz, who was 
 quite unversed in American slang. " I could 
 not spare them." 
 
 " Ye air a flat," said Jim, contemptuously. 
 
 " The Grand Sovereign," in the meanwhile, 
 had eyed the little Norseman critically ; and, to 
 judge by his expression, he was not quite satis 
 fied. 
 
 " Ye air a regular dude, ain't ye ? " he re 
 marked, puffing away at a rank weed, which he 
 held between his teeth. 
 
 " Oh ! no, sir ; I think not," answered Fritz, 
 tremulously. He did not know what a dude 
 was ; but he had a suspicion that it was some 
 thing very bad.
 
 Il8 NOKSELAND TALES 
 
 " Does ye want ter swear ter be faithful ter 
 death, and ter hand in the tin reg'larly ? " in 
 quired the Sovereign, with an ominous scowl. 
 
 " I should like to know what I have to swear 
 to ! " essayed Fritz, taking courage. 
 
 " Ter be faithful ter death," repeated the Sov 
 ereign. 
 
 " To whom ? " 
 
 " Ter me." 
 
 " But what am I to gain by that ? " 
 
 " Ye'll be taken inter our mysterious frater 
 nity." 
 
 Somehow to Fritz this inducement did not 
 seem so alluring, after the chance he had had to 
 inspect the members. His only desire now was 
 to extricate himself with tact and regain his lib 
 erty. 
 
 " If you please, sir," he said, courageously ad 
 dressing the pimpled individual, " I should be 
 much obliged if you would allow me to find my 
 way back to the street. I do not think I should 
 like to join your fraternity." 
 
 " Ye wouldn't like it, eh ? " sneered the Sover 
 eign, and rising, seized the boy's arm with a grip 
 as of iron. " Ye air too high-toned, eh ? " 
 
 " Oh, not at all, sir ; but I shouldn't like it ! " 
 retorted Fritz, with spirit, though his heart was 
 hammering in his throat. 
 
 " Now, lemme tell ye, ef ye scream, ye air a
 
 THE RUNAWAY'S THANKSGIVING 1 19 
 
 gone coon," remarked the other, coolly, but 
 with a look that was so vicious that it even 
 made Jim quake. 
 
 " Pull off yer coat ! " he demanded, gruffly. 
 
 Fritz stood immovable. 
 
 " Pull off yer coat, I say ! " growled his tor 
 mentor, more threateningly, " or I'll make ye 
 squirm ! " 
 
 Fritz still refused to stir. The tears trembled 
 under his eyelids, though he strove hard to keep 
 them back. He believed that his last hour had 
 come. With a whispered prayer, he thought of 
 his father, whom he had renounced, and of the 
 home which he had left. 
 
 At the beck of " the Sovereign " two rough- 
 looking boys now stepped forward, and tore the 
 coat from Fritz's back. He fought like a bear at 
 bay, dealing violent blows right and left. More 
 boys rushed forward to mingle in the fray, and 
 at last all except the chief of the gang seemed to 
 be engaged in pummelling the poor little Norse 
 man, who yet fought undismayed and with the 
 strength of despair. At last, however, he was 
 vanquished. Panting and bleeding he lay on the 
 floor, covered with cuts and bruises, while the 
 youthful rascals pulled off his boots and trousers 
 and ransacked his pockets. His senses were 
 reeling, and all the repulsive faces of his assail 
 ants whirled about him in a wild dance, now re-
 
 I2O NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 treating, now again returning with hideous yells 
 and howls. At last he saw and heard nothing. 
 His body seemed light as air and he seemed to 
 be floating blissfully through sunny skies, over 
 the tops of green forests. From far below, in 
 the golden distance, came glimpses of his dear, 
 beloved home. And there upon the pier stood 
 his father, with open arms and with a happy 
 smile upon his face, eager to receive and to for 
 give him. 
 
 IV 
 
 THERE had been a slight fall of snow during 
 the night, and Mr. Terry was in excellent humor. 
 It was a peculiarity of his that the first snow of 
 the year always put him in good humor. More 
 over, it was Thanksgiving Day, and it is peculi 
 arly appropriate that people should be in good 
 spirits on the day when they are to remember 
 all the blessings which God has showered upon 
 them. One could scarcely imagine a man giving 
 thanks in a surly and discontented mood. At 
 least, Mr. Terry could not; and Mr. Terry, who 
 was an artist, was something of an expert on the 
 subject of moods. I regret to state that he some 
 times was in a very bad humor, especially on the 
 first of the month, when he was subject to calls 
 from his butcher and his grocer ; and, as misfor-
 
 THE RUNAWAY'S THANKSGIVING 121 
 
 tunes never come singly, sometimes, also, from 
 his tailor. On such occasions, Mr. Terry would 
 sometimes pace up and down the floor, and call 
 upon all the gods of Pagan mythology to pro 
 tect him. Nevertheless, taking the year alto 
 gether, the good days and the bad, Mr. Terry 
 was of opinion that he had much to be thankful 
 for. His dear wife (than whom there never was 
 one dearer and lovelier) had been spared to 
 him, and his three beautiful children spread sun 
 shine in his life, even on the first of the month, 
 when he was looking for squally weather. He 
 had made both ends meet, though it had at times 
 seemed a delicate process, and he had done work 
 which had added quite a good deal to his repu 
 tation. No wonder, then, that Mr. Algernon 
 Terry felt an urgent need to do good to some 
 body on Thanksgiving Day. It seemed selfish 
 to him to keep all his happiness to himself when 
 there were so many in the world who had noth 
 ing but misery. Mr. Terry, therefore, concluded 
 to share his happiness with somebody he did 
 not know whom but with somebody who was 
 unhappy through no fault of his own ; or, per 
 haps is was not even fair to make this restric 
 tion ; he would share the blessings which he en 
 joyed with anyone who seemed to be in need or 
 in sorrow or distress, and leave God to judge of 
 worthiness or unworthiness. He had invited
 
 122 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 his old mother and all his sisters and brothers to 
 eat the Thanksgiving turkey with him, as they 
 had always done since he had married. But, as 
 they were not in any particular distress, and, 
 moreover, he enjoyed their company as much as 
 they did his, he could scarcely put his conscience 
 at rest by such a subterfuge. 
 
 It was a habit with Mr. Terry, whenever he 
 had a holiday, to devote it to his children. Usu 
 ally he went on some expedition with them, by 
 land or by water, exploring steamboats, factories, 
 saw-mills, mechanics' shops, etc., in order to 
 show them, by ocular demonstration, how the 
 business of life is carried on, and to teach them 
 habits of observation. To-day a story of pi 
 rates had stimulated their interest in ships, and 
 their father, accordingly, took them down to the 
 East River, where a number of large ships were 
 lying. They had spent an hour in boarding the 
 vessels and making delightful raids of discovery, 
 and were just on their homeward way, when 
 they saw a policeman emerging from a lumber 
 yard, carrying a half-naked boy in his arms. 
 Mr. Terry was in the midst of a discussion of 
 ships and their functions, when an exclamation 
 of pity from the children interrupted his narra 
 tive. He walked up to the policeman and put 
 his hand on the forehead of the unconscious boy. 
 
 " Is he dead, do you think ? " he asked.
 
 THE RUNAWAY'S THANKSGIVING 123 
 
 " I don't know, begorra ! " answered the police 
 man. " But I falehis little heart a-flutterin' now 
 an' thin ag'in me vest." 
 
 " Then he can't be dead," said Mr. Terry. 
 " Will you give him to me, if I promise to care 
 for him until he is well, and then to restore him 
 to his people ? " 
 
 " Sure, / don't want him ! " the Hibernian gen 
 tleman made answer. " If ye be a respictable 
 party, I reckon the jedge won't make no objec 
 tion." 
 
 To the police station, where a justice was hold 
 ing court, Mr. Terry and his children accom 
 panied the policeman ; and after a few formali 
 ties the custody of the half-frozen boy was 
 surrendered to him. The artist, wrapping his 
 foundling in his overcoat, carried the rigid form 
 out of the court-room, and, hailing a cab, drove 
 rapidly home. A physician was immediately 
 sent for, who, after a brief examination, declared 
 that the little stranger was alive and would prob 
 ably soon return to consciousness. 
 
 " Now, children," said the father to the little 
 curly-headed boys who stood about the lounge, 
 seriously watching the doctor and his patient, 
 " you must all promise me to be good to the 
 strange little boy, so that he may spend a happy 
 Thanksgiving Day with us. Because God has 
 made us happy, we must try to share our happi-
 
 124 NORS ELAND TALES 
 
 ness with those who are miserable. It was there 
 fore I took pity on this homeless little waif, and 
 I want you all to promise me that, as long as 
 you live, you will remember this incident, and 
 never let a Thanksgiving Day pass without do 
 ing at least one good and charitable deed." 
 
 The children, taking the limp hand of Fritz 
 (for of course it was he whom the policeman had 
 found in the lumber-yard), promised solemnly 
 that they would devote this day, throughout 
 their lives, to giving happiness, by word or deed, 
 to those who were in need of help and comfort. 
 But, behold, as their warm hands touched that 
 of the strange boy, a thrill of life seemed to 
 shoot through his limbs. He opened his eyes 
 slowly, and gazed about him in bewilderment. 
 
 " Where am I ? " he whispered, in an unknown 
 tongue. 
 
 " My dear child," said Mrs. Terry, holding his 
 hands within hers and stroking the hair from his 
 bruised forehead, " do not try to think now. 
 Only drink this. It will strengthen you. And 
 then go to sleep ; and when you are rested and 
 strong, we will come back and eat Thanksgiving 
 dinner with you." 
 
 He yielded passively to her caressing touch, 
 drank the warm drink which she gave him, and 
 half closed his eyes, in blissful bewilderment. 
 
 " I must be dead," he thought. " And this is
 
 THE RUNAWAY'S THANKSGIVING 125 
 
 my dear mother, whom I lost when I was a 
 baby." 
 
 There was a silence in the room and Fritz 
 soon fell into a deep, refreshing sleep. In two 
 hours he awoke, and felt a delicious sense of 
 well-being steal through his wounded and stiff 
 ened limbs. He had no sooner opened his eyes 
 than all the family returned, now reinforced by 
 a venerable old lady and three very pretty young 
 ones, and they all took their seats about the 
 lounge in the studio, and talked together merrily, 
 while regarding him with kind and sympathetic 
 glances. Fritz lay for a while listening, and he 
 watched with glowing wonder the beautiful pic 
 tures, the bright, gently blending colors of the 
 rugs and draperies of the room, and the animated 
 group of happy people. 
 
 " Where am I ? " he asked at last in English, 
 which he soon perceived to be the language of 
 his entertainers. " Please tell me where I am." 
 
 " You are in an American home," said Mrs. 
 Terry, smiling affectionately at him. 
 
 " An American home ! " he repeated, wonder- 
 ingly. " But there are no American homes." 
 
 The children laughed loudly at this ; and the 
 mother, taking two of them on her lap, and kiss 
 ing them, could scarcely help laughing too. 
 
 " Who told you that there are no homes in 
 America ? " she asked, sweetly.
 
 126 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 " The sailor, I think," said Fritz. " I have 
 read it, too, in Norwegian books." 
 
 " Norwegian ! Then you are from Norway ! " 
 
 " Yes. I ran away from my home because my 
 father punished me. And I thought there were 
 no homes here." 
 
 A delicious smell of roast turkey here stole 
 in through the opened door. The children 
 jumped up, clapping their hands, and poor little 
 Fritz would have done the same if his weakness 
 had not prevented him. A delightful vision of 
 winged roast pigs, flying about with knives and 
 forks sticking in their backs, rose before his 
 fancy, and doubly whetted his appetite. Roast 
 sucking-pig was the best thing he had ever 
 tasted, and all good smells naturally recalled to 
 him the blissful dinners, in which little pigs, 
 with apples in their mouths, had played the 
 principal part. His hunger, stimulated by these 
 savory recollections, became terribly acute, and 
 he gazed longingly through the opened door at 
 the heavily laden table in the adjoining room. 
 He had not had a well-cooked dinner since the 
 day he left home ; for the eternal salt pork and 
 beans on ship-board had at last become so re 
 pulsive to him that he rather went hungry or 
 ate musty biscuits with little worms in them. 
 The tears rose to his eyes at the sight of the 
 pretty dishes, the polished knives and forks, and
 
 THE RUNAWAY'S THANKSGIVING 
 
 the clean table-cloth. It seemed an age since he 
 had seen these little refinements of life, which, 
 to one who has had the good fortune to be 
 brought up in a happy and orderly home, are as 
 indispensable as the food itself. It had never 
 occurred to him, when he sat down daily to a 
 good and well-served dinner, that he had any 
 thing in particular to be thankful for. But his 
 six weeks on ship-board and his adventures in 
 the streets of New York had taught him a les 
 son which he would not be likely to forget. 
 
 Mr. Terry offered his arm to his old mother, 
 and headed the little procession which now en 
 tered the dining-room. The door was left open, 
 and Fritz saw them take their places, bend their 
 heads while the father asked the blessing, and 
 eagerly watch his not very skilful dissection of 
 the turkey. Advice was offered from all quar 
 ters, and a great deal of joking and laughing 
 followed, until Dr. Terry, Mr. Terry's younger 
 brother, was called in for consultation, and suc 
 cessfully dismembered the superb fowl. Then 
 one of the children exclaimed that Fritz must 
 be very lonely in the studio, and by common 
 consent the lounge upon which he was lying 
 was lifted into the dining-room, and he was 
 served first of all with a second joint and a heap 
 of cranberry sauce, which would have suited the 
 appetite of a Goliath.
 
 128 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 " With your permission," interposed the doc- 
 tor, addressing his sister-in-law ; " unless you 
 want to kill your young Norseman, you must 
 lemember that it would not be well for him, in 
 his present condition, to gratify, to its full ex 
 tent, his Norse appetite." 
 
 Mrs. Terry then reluctantly cut off one-half of 
 the joint and put the plate in Fritz's lap. He 
 did not need an urgent invitation to fall to. He 
 ate ; I am really afraid to tell you how he ate ; 
 but it seemed as if he never had eaten before in 
 all his life. If he had not been afraid of the doc 
 tor, he would have asked for more ; and when 
 the time came for the mince-pie (a dish which 
 he had never tasted before), he was inclined 
 to hide his piece under the coverlid, lest the 
 medical tyrant should again interfere. He 
 vowed in his heart that, if he ever returned to 
 his native land, he would make himself famous 
 as a public benefactor by teaching the Norse 
 men to eat mince-pie. Mrs. Terry would, no 
 doubt, be kind enough to teach him the secret 
 of its composition. In fact, they were all so 
 kind to him, they perfectly overwhelmed him 
 with kindness. He felt himself quite a hero as 
 he told them his strange adventures with the 
 bootblack and in the den of " the Mysterious 
 Sixteen." It was a marvel, indeed, that he 
 could have recovered so rapidly from such mal-
 
 THE RUNAWAY'S THANKSGIVING 129 
 
 treatment and exposure ; and it was only the 
 centuries of hardening to which his race had 
 been subjected, in its distant home under the 
 North Pole, which preserved his life and re 
 stored him so quickly to health and vigor. The 
 doctor was quite enthusiastic when he felt his 
 pulse after the dinner he had eaten, and jocosely 
 congratulated his profession that there were few 
 such constitutions to be found on this side of the 
 Atlantic. 
 
 I shall not attempt to describe the happy 
 evening which Fritz spent with his new friends 
 in the studio. The next morning, when he was 
 well rested, Mr. Terry made him tell once more 
 his story with minute details, and he sat listen 
 ing intently while Fritz poured out his heart to 
 him, shedding tears of remorse at the thought 
 of his father, and tears of joy at the prospect 
 of seeing him again and imploring his forgive 
 ness. 
 
 " I will telegraph to your father to-day," said 
 Mr. Terry. " In the meanwhile you will stay 
 with us." 
 
 Two weeks later there was a knock at the 
 door of the studio, and a large man, with a full, 
 gray-sprinkled beard, entered. 
 
 " Is this Mr. Terry ? " he inquired, with a 
 marked foreign accent. 
 
 " Fritz ! " cried Mr. Terry, joyously. 
 9
 
 130 NORSELAKD TALES 
 
 The door from the next room now burst open, 
 and the son lay sobbing- in his father's arms. 
 
 As Mr. Terry stood looking at the group, he 
 thought it was the most beautiful sight he had 
 ever beheld. He made a mental note of it; and 
 determined to make a picture of it for the next 
 Academy exhibition. If he had done a good 
 deed, by way of thanksgiving, it had indeed 
 brought its own reward.
 
 A BORN CHIEFTAIN 
 I 
 
 THERE was a great commotion in the church 
 yard. The service was over, and the parson 
 had returned to the parsonage. But the people 
 still lingered, the women to gossip, the men to 
 trade watches and jackknives, or, perhaps, even 
 horses. Some who came from long distances 
 sat on the graves and ate their luncheons out of 
 boxes painted with blue and red flowers. The 
 young girls, in clusters of five or six or a dozen, 
 stood pressing themselves up against the church 
 wall, and giggled when anyone spoke to them, 
 and when somebody passed by without speak 
 ing they giggled too. Whatever anybody did or 
 did not do seemed to them excruciatingly funny. 
 If two dogs met and smelled each other's noses, 
 they writhed with suppressed laughter. But 
 suddenly something attracted their attention 
 which occasioned no merriment. They ceased 
 to nudge each other and giggle, but stood cran 
 ing their necks and straining their eyes. A man 
 had climbed up on the stone fence and was mak-
 
 132 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 ing a speech. All the people flocked together 
 about him and listened. He was a tall, pale- 
 complexioned fellow, with a shrewd, vulgar face. 
 He was dressed in broadcloth, and wore a lot of 
 cheap imitation jewelry. " Friends," he said, 
 " I reckon you don't know me, though I know 
 you. It isn't so very many years since I ran 
 barefooted among you and as ragged as a scare 
 crow. Look at me now, lads ; I don't want to 
 brag, but I ask you to look at me. I don't look 
 much like what I used to, do I ? You remem 
 ber little James Forest or Jens Skoug, I mean 
 as frowsy and dirty a little ragamuffin as ever 
 you clapped eyes on. You remember him ? 
 Yes, I see you do. Well, lads, you can all dress 
 in fine store clothes and carry a gold watch and 
 chain " (here the emigration agent dangled his 
 elegant gilt brass chain), " and be as well off as 
 I am if you only want to. You have heard of 
 California, I reckon. Well, you would scarcely 
 believe me, but I have picked up gold nuggets 
 there as big as my fist, and worth thousands of 
 dollars. In one hour you may gain more money 
 there than here you would by toiling and slav 
 ing for a lifetime. I reckon you will take it 
 that I am lying when I tell you there is no win 
 ter there, so that you can raise two and some 
 times three crops off the same piece of ground 
 in one year."
 
 A BORN CHIEFTAIN 133 
 
 James Forest continued in this strain for a 
 full hour, and the peasants stood gaping with 
 wonder at the marvellous tales he told. They 
 would have doubted his stories, perhaps, if he 
 had not himself in a way been a confirmation of 
 their truth. For they well remembered him as a 
 forlorn little half-frozen urchin, whose rags never 
 sufficed to cover his nakedness. And now Solo 
 mon in all his glory could, according to their 
 notions, scarcely hold a candle to him. It was 
 obvious he had been picking up gold some 
 where, and as they had heard that gold was 
 plentiful in California, they thought it very 
 likely that he had found a chance to fill his 
 pockets there ; and they naturally yearned for 
 the opportunity to follow his example. 
 
 Among those who listened with the deepest 
 interest to James Forest's speech were a house 
 man, or tenant, named Thor Framness, and his 
 two sons, Finn and Magnus. Thor had long 
 thought of emigrating to the United States, but 
 had lacked the means, and now the luminous 
 idea flashed through his brain that perhaps this 
 rich emigration agent who carried gold nuggets 
 in his pocket might lend him enough to pay the 
 passage of himself and his children. He did not 
 like to talk openly to Forest about such a sub 
 ject, but determined to wait until the rest of the 
 people had gone, and then cautiously beat about
 
 134 NOKSELAND TALES 
 
 the bush until he should find out what chances 
 there were of procuring such a loan. But, un 
 happily, there were at least twenty others who 
 had the same idea, and thus half the afternoon 
 passed, and it was nearly evening when Thor 
 found his opportunity. It is needless to report 
 the conversation, which lasted more than two 
 hours ; the end of it was that James agreed to 
 pay the passage of Thor and his sons to New 
 York, and thence to California, if Thor would 
 sign a contract pledging himself and his chil 
 dren to work for one year for the sum advanced. 
 The tenant thought these were rather hard 
 terms ; but when Forest agreed to provide 
 them with board during this period, he was fin 
 ally induced to sign. 
 
 Three weeks later he found himself with about 
 four hundred countrymen in the steerage of a 
 transatlantic steamer, and about the middle of 
 May the whole company landed at Castle Gar 
 den. 
 
 II 
 
 THE emigrant train which carried Thor and 
 his sons across the continent, had a very un 
 pleasant habit of switching off on a side track 
 every hour or so, and standing still while other 
 trains passed. It was so crowded with men,
 
 A BORN CHIEFTAIN 135 
 
 women, and children that there was scarcely 
 elbow-room, far less sleeping- room, for anybody; 
 and the attitudes the poor tortured creatures 
 assumed in their efforts to obtain sleep were 
 both ludicrous and distressing. Some had seat 
 ed themselves on the floor with their backs 
 against the wall, others rested their legs on the 
 shoulders of the sleeper in the seat in front of 
 them. Men and women who had never seen 
 each other before bumped their heads together 
 as they nodded, overcome with weariness, and 
 glided into each other's laps with unconscious 
 familiarity. The smoke and soot and dust that 
 poured in through windows and doors nearly 
 choked them ; and there were a variety of un 
 pleasant smells besides, which no one can dream 
 of who has not spent a night in an emigrant 
 train. 
 
 After two weeks of such misery the four hun 
 dred Norsemen arrived, under the guidance of 
 James Forest, at a village called Metropolis- 
 ville, consisting of about thirty shanties, of 
 which twelve were saloons and the remainder 
 real estate offices. Magnificent avenues were 
 laid out in all directions, and conspicuous signs 
 were put up on posts bearing the names Wash 
 ington Avenue, Jefferson Avenue, Garfield 
 Square, etc., but there were no houses except 
 in the imagination of the real estate speculators
 
 136 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 who sold corner lots and boomed the town. 
 One signpost on the imaginary square bore the 
 inscription " The Hancock Opera-House," and a 
 railing of unplaned laths hedged in an imagina 
 ry soldiers' monument. Thor Framness and his 
 sons were too simple-hearted to be amused at 
 this exhibition of Yankee enterprise. They 
 were so bewildered at everything they saw that 
 they scarcely knew whither to turn or what to 
 marvel at the most. What interested them par 
 ticularly in this queer place was that it was' the 
 terminus of the railroad, and that, accordingly, 
 if they were not to remain there, they would 
 have to continue their journey with ox trains. 
 The weather was insufferably hot, and the grass 
 on the dusty foot-hills skirting the plain was 
 burnt yellow. To their horror, they discovered 
 that they were expected to walk, carrying their 
 luggage, across the sun-scorched prairie. They 
 were slowly coming to the conclusion that they 
 had been duped, and that the emigration agent 
 had some deep-laid scheme which he was afraid 
 of divulging. 
 
 It was Finn Framness who was the first to 
 utter this suspicion. He was a blond, curly- 
 headed lad of sixteen, square built and not 
 very tall, but with a face full of determination 
 and spirit. He had called a meeting of all the 
 boys in the emigrant party, about forty in all,
 
 A BORN' CHIEFTAIN- 
 
 on an open lot which was marked " The Edison 
 Electric Light Co." 
 
 " Now, fellows," he said, standing upon a 
 soap-box and addressing his dejected comrades, 
 " I guess we all agree that we are in a bad 
 scrape. All those who agree that we are in a 
 bad scrape will please raise their hands." 
 
 All raised their hands in a slow, drooping 
 fashion, and Finn, delighted at their unanimity, 
 continued : " We can't walk in this heat across 
 the prairie ; we have got to get horses or oxen 
 for the baggage. Now, what I mean to do is to 
 compel Jens Skoug* to scare up some oxen and 
 wagons. But I need three boys to help me. 
 My brother Magnus makes one ; and now, who 
 will be the other two ? " 
 
 Half a dozen boys jumped up eagerly and 
 cried, " I ; " and Finn, being anxious to secure 
 the right persons, picked out, with much delib 
 eration, a little sunburned, black-eyed fellow, 
 named Knute Volden, who looked like a gypsy, 
 and a big, stalwart lad of fifteen, with a bovine 
 face, named Gudmund Lian. 
 
 " Now, lads," Finn continued, " if we are to 
 succeed in this, I must be sure that you will all 
 back me, whatever I do. Remember, I am your 
 chief, and I shall do nothing except what I 
 believe is necessary to get us out of our scrape. 
 
 * Jens Skoug is the Norwegian for James Forest.
 
 138 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 Now, will you swear to stand by me like good 
 men and true ? All those who swear to stand 
 by me, through thick and thin, will please raise 
 their hands." 
 
 All the boys again raised their hands, and this 
 time without reluctance, for they now knew 
 what was expected of them. They were greatly 
 impressed with Finn's skill in conducting the 
 meeting, and were proud of his leadership. He 
 had once or twice been present at a session of 
 the Common Council in his native parish, and 
 with his natural quick-wittedness had caught the 
 order of proceedings. 
 
 The two boys, Knute Volden and Gudmund 
 Lian, whom he had selected for his lieutenants, 
 were as unlike as any two boys about the same 
 age could be. The former was lithe, eager, and 
 alert like a weasel, while the latter was slow, 
 honest, a little bit stupid, but tremendously 
 strong. These two and his brother Magnus, 
 Finn called aside after having dismissed the 
 meeting, and, retreating into a clump of bushes 
 which covered the site of the imaginary town 
 hall, he revealed to them his plan of attack. 
 They also agreed to form a secret brotherhood, 
 to be called " The Rescuers," whose object it 
 was to be to protect the Norse emigrants and 
 take care of their interests.
 
 A BORN CHIEFTAIN' 139 
 
 III 
 
 THE people of Metropolisville went to bed 
 late, and Finn and his fellow-conspirators had to 
 wait until four o'clock in the morning before 
 they could carry out their plan. Then they 
 started on tiptoe for the emigrant agent's tent ; 
 and their long black shadows, with legs like 
 those of giraffes and gigantic heads, hastened on 
 after them, like a bad conscience, and made them 
 afraid to look behind. The moon was shining 
 by fits and starts, being now covered by clouds 
 and now again, with startling suddenness, sailing 
 out into the clear blue. If it had not been for 
 the fact that each was afraid of the other's ridi 
 cule, those four " Rescuers " would surely have 
 backed out of their venturesome undertaking, 
 for the unpleasant thought was humming in the 
 brain of everyone of them that Forest carried 
 a revolver, and would, if he awoke, shoot, while 
 they were only armed with ropes. However, 
 they were in for it now, and would have to make 
 the best of a bad bargain. Finn put his finger 
 on his lip as he cautiously untied the flaps of the 
 tent, but his heart beat in his throat, and he felt 
 anything but jolly. It was a consolation to him 
 to hear Forest's heavy snoring, which sounded 
 like the rumble of a log being hauled up a slope,
 
 I4O NORSELAND TALES 
 
 and then suddenly rolling down again. He put 
 his head through the opening he had made and 
 beckoned to his comrades to follow. With his 
 cords looped, he stealthily approached the sleep. 
 er, who lay on the ground, half undressed, cov 
 ered by an army blanket. He was lying on his 
 back with his arms and legs extended toward 
 the four points of the compass. Finn signalled 
 to his friends, and each selected an arm or a leg 
 toward which he crawled, Indian fashion, push 
 ing himself noiselessly forward on his belly. At 
 the same instant, at a sign from the chief, each 
 flung the looped cord about the limb which 
 pointed toward him, and in the twinkling of an 
 eye had secured it tightly. But even then For 
 est did not immediately awake. He struggled 
 and rolled in his sleep as if he had a nightmare, 
 tried to rub his eyes and to pull up one leg, but 
 failed to accomplish either purpose ; then slow 
 ly the mists of slumber cleared away from his 
 boozy brain, and he opened first one wonder 
 ing eye and then another. In the moonlight he 
 saw four crouching figures, which seemed to be 
 tugging away at his arms and legs as if they 
 meant to pull them off. With a tremendous 
 oath he started to rise, but found himself the 
 next moment stretched flat on his back, with a 
 sensation in his limbs as if he were being pulled 
 to pieces. His first thought was that he must
 
 A BORN CHIEFTAIN 141 
 
 be dreaming ; but the second, which made his 
 hair rise on his head, suggested that the emi 
 grants whom he had maltreated had come to 
 lynch him. In that case, he thought, they were 
 cleverer than he had given them credit for. 
 They had become Americanized in a surpris 
 ingly short time. 
 
 " Look look-a-here, . gentlemen," he stam 
 mered, for his tongue was thick and his teeth 
 chattered ; " what's up now, I should like to 
 know ? " 
 
 " We want you to promise to engage wagons 
 and oxen to take all of us across the plains," an 
 swered Finn. " And we'll keep you tied here 
 until you have made all your arrangements to 
 do this and paid for them." 
 
 A great relief was visible in Forest's face 
 when he heard the voice of a boy answer, in 
 stead of, as he had expected, that of a man. His 
 courage came back to him instantly, and he 
 started up again with great vim, and fell again 
 with a thud on the ground. For, the moment 
 he began to struggle, Finn commanded " Pull," 
 and with a tremendous jerk the four " Rescuers" 
 nearly dislocated every joint in his body. When 
 he had with renewed fury tried this experiment 
 three times, his wrath began to cool, and he be 
 gan to realize that by force he would accomplish 
 nothing.
 
 142 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 " Look-a-here, boys," he said, " this is a very 
 nice joke, no doubt, and I appreciate it. I as 
 sure you it is the funniest thing that ever hap 
 pened to me since the day I was born. But 
 don't carry the joke too far ; that spoils the fun 
 of it. Now you untie them ropes, and then we'll 
 sit down and talk this thing over quiet and gen 
 tlemanlike. See ? " 
 
 " I am glad you find it funny," Finn retorted, 
 " but the fun is thrown in gratis. It wasn't in 
 tended. We mean to keep you tied here until 
 you have given orders for oxen and wagons or 
 horses, and paid for them." 
 
 The agent lay still for a while and pondered. 
 
 " All right, boys," he said at last, " I promise. 
 Now run home and get some sleep before we 
 start ; you'll need it after such an exciting 
 night." 
 
 " When do you suppose we cut our eye- 
 teeth ? " Finn replied, laughing. " Day before 
 yesterday, eh?" 
 
 At this witticism the other boys had to laugh, 
 and as laughing diminishes for the moment one's 
 strength, the prostrate man made a jerk with his 
 left hand, which little Magnus held, and almost 
 pulled him over. Then with a swift movement 
 he fumbled for his revolver which was under his 
 pillow, and would have caught it, if Gudmund 
 Lian had not seized the cord with his disengaged
 
 A BORN CHIEFTAIN' 143 
 
 hand, and flung himself backward. Forest 
 ground his teeth and growled like an angry dog, 
 and subsided again into a sullen silence. 
 
 " Well, boys, how long do you propose to keep 
 this up?" he asked, at length. 
 
 " Until you have done what we have told you," 
 answered Finn. " You know as well as I that 
 women and children accustomed to the cool 
 Norwegian summer cannot walk in the swelter 
 ing heat over these brown, sun-scorched prairies. 
 It would be death to most of us. Now, you 
 give orders, as I have said, for oxen, or give us 
 the money and we'll attend to it ourselves. It 
 is nearly five o'clock now, and these people will 
 soon be up ; until then we'll take care of you and 
 see that you don't come to harm." 
 
 " Yes, I bet you will, you young rascals ! " 
 cried Forest, in a fresh fit of rage. " I'll make 
 it hot for you, you scoundrels ! You think you 
 can do with me as you like, but I'll teach you 
 manners. You shall pay dearly for this." 
 
 And with all his might he began to yell 
 "Help! murder! murder!" 
 
 It would have been easy for the boys to stop 
 his outcry with the revolver, the handle of 
 which was visible under the pillow. But they 
 were so confident of the justice of their cause 
 that they were not afraid to submit it to arbitra 
 tion. Scarcely a minute had passed before they
 
 144 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 heard footsteps outside, and two men burst into 
 the tent, one with a bowie-knife in his hand and 
 the other with a cocked revolver. They had 
 expected to find some one dead or wounded, and 
 were not a little surprised at the spectacle which 
 presented itself. The first, who was an Ameri 
 can, and had much sympathy with boyish sport, 
 burst into an unfeeling laugh ; and the second, 
 who was an Americanized Swede, had a good 
 mind to join him. 
 
 " What are you up to, boys ? " he asked in 
 Swedish. " What has this fellow done to you? " 
 
 Finn repeated his story with all the eloquence 
 which his indignation inspired, and the Swede, 
 who readily understood his Norwegian, trans 
 lated it briefly to the American. 
 
 " That is right, boys," the latter exclaimed, 
 breaking into another laugh. " You are plucky 
 chaps. You know what you want. Don't let 
 that slippery Dick get away till you have got 
 your teams and wagons all hitched up and paid 
 for." 
 
 And he sauntered out, chuckling at what he 
 regarded as a capital joke. A dozen more peo 
 ple had in the meanwhile arrived, and Forest 
 in lachrymose tones complained to them of the 
 ill-treatment he had sustained. But his reputa 
 tion in Metropolisville was none of the best, 
 apparently, and public opinion declared itself
 
 .4 BORN CHIEFTAIN 14$ 
 
 against him. Everybody thought the boys were 
 right in compelling him to procure teams, as a 
 march on foot over the prairies must result in 
 sunstrokes and much needless suffering. Find 
 ing so little sympathy, the emigration agent was 
 forced to yield. He gave orders for the teams ; 
 directed a man present to count out the required 
 money from a roll of bills found in the inside 
 pocket of his waistcoat, and was then released 
 from his bonds. He glowered savagely at the 
 boys when once more he stood upon his legs, 
 and the culprits knew that they would have to 
 be prepared for revenge on his part, whatever 
 form it might take. But it was nevertheless a 
 great satisfaction to them when the long pro 
 cession of ox teams with canvas-covered wagons 
 was set in motion across the plains, and the 
 women and children sat or lay within, sheltered 
 from the scorching rays of the sun, while the 
 men took turns in walking and riding. The four 
 " Rescuers " felt that they had earned their 
 name, for they had been rescuers indeed, having 
 saved many from death and misery. 
 
 IV 
 
 IT was nearly a fortnight before the Norse em 
 igrants reached the end of their journey. Then 
 they found themselves lodged for the night in a 
 
 10
 
 146 NORSELAND 7 'ALES 
 
 large wooden shanty, where there were no beds, 
 and not a single article of furniture. They had 
 no idea of where they were, but noticed that the 
 people they had met during the last two days 
 looked very different from those whom they 
 had previously encountered. They were black- 
 haired, and of swarthy complexion ; many wore 
 wide-brimmed sombreros, embroidered waist 
 coats, and shawls or blankets thrown about their 
 shoulders, and they spoke a language which was 
 not English. A vague anxiety and apprehen 
 sion filled the breasts of the Norsemen, and it 
 became plain to them that they had been in some 
 way imposed upon. For though they were not 
 sure of it, they had a feeling that they were no 
 longer in the United States. They no longer 
 believed Forest, who assured them that they 
 were in California, and that their gold-digging 
 was now about to commence. What particular 
 ly alarmed them was a company of swarthy, 
 fierce-looking soldiers, armed with rifles and 
 carrying revolvers in their belts. There were 
 twenty or twenty-five of them, and they were 
 commanded by an officer with a big black mus 
 tache, who wore a yellow silk sash about his 
 waist. It seemed scarcely probable that these 
 armed men were there to assist them in their 
 gold-digging ; they needed no guns with bay 
 onets for that. But if, as was more likely, they
 
 A BORN' CHIEFTAIN 
 
 had been summoned to compel the emigrants to 
 do something which they had not agreed to do, 
 then, indeed, they might have need of their bay 
 onets. 
 
 This riddle was soon to be solved. The morn 
 ing after their arrival at the big wooden shanty, 
 all the emigrants were made to stand in a row, 
 facing the soldiers, while James Forest ex 
 plained to them in their mother-tongue that the 
 gold was in the great hill yonder, and that they 
 would have to set to work and dig at once in a 
 straight line within the stakes which they saw 
 planted on the hillside. He said this with a 
 malicious smile, and no great knowledge of hu 
 man nature was needed to see that he was mak 
 ing a brazen effort to impose upon the credulity 
 of his poor countrymen. -The four " Rescuers," 
 who were standing together at the end of the 
 line, felt their blood boil when they heard this 
 bold announcement. 
 
 " He's lying, ain't he?" asked Gudmund Lian. 
 
 " He can lie as fast as a horse can trot," re 
 plied little Magnus Framness, clenching his 
 brown fist. 
 
 "What do you think he's up to?" inquired 
 Knute Volden. 
 
 " I tell you what he's up to, chaps," Finn an 
 swered. " There ain't no gold in that hill yon 
 der. If there was, they wouldn't need no sol-
 
 148 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 diers. It's a railroad they are going to build ; 
 and we have been brought here to build it. I 
 saw exactly that kind of stakes when they built 
 the railroad through our valley at home." 
 
 " What are you going to do about it ? " quer 
 ied Knute. " We ain't no match for them sol 
 dier chaps ; and they look as if they would shoot 
 us down as soon as wink." 
 
 " I don't know yet what we are to do," Finn 
 observed ; " but just for the present I would ad 
 vise every man to hold his tongue and do as he 
 is told to. I can see through this game, if you 
 can't. Forest went to Norway to get laborers 
 for this road, and he has sold us outright to 
 these foreigners." 
 
 " What kind of foreigners do you take them 
 to be, Finn ? " little Magnus queried, anxiously. 
 
 " That's more'n I can tell," Finn replied. " I 
 never was good at geography. All I know is 
 that there is a green-colored country on the map 
 south of the United States, and that is where we 
 are. Mustico, I think, was the name of it." 
 
 "I've got it!" cried Knute, holding up his 
 hand as if he were sitting on a school -bench. 
 " Mexico was the name, Mexico ! " 
 
 " That's a fact," the chief retorted, with an ap 
 proving nod ; " you are right, we are in Mex 
 ico." 
 
 Knute was so elated at this indorsement that
 
 A BORN" CHIEFTAIN' 149 
 
 only his fear of the soldiers restrained him from 
 turning a somersault. 
 
 " Keep quiet, Gypsy," Finn commanded. 
 " This evening we'll have a secret meeting of 
 the ' Rescuers.' Then we can talk of what we 
 ought to do." 
 
 Spades and pickaxes were now distributed 
 among the Norsemen. They were divided into 
 squads of twenty, each under the guard of two 
 soldiers. Even the boys and the women were 
 pressed into service, and, in order to prevent 
 the former from playing or teasing each other, 
 they were separated and made to work in differ 
 ent squads. It was of no use that the outraged 
 emigrants protested ; the stolid Mexican soldiers 
 had no patience with argument, which more 
 over they did not understand, but prodded the 
 rebellious ones mercilessly with their bayonets. 
 If that did not subdue them, they presented the 
 muzzles of their big navy revolvers to their 
 heads and fired a bullet or two within an inch of 
 their scalps. This was found to have the de 
 sired effect, putting an end to argument and 
 silencing opposition. Women's tears and men's 
 oaths were equally futile ; and as for the threats 
 and clenched fists of the boys, they were thought 
 to be more amusing than dangerous. 
 
 The sun was broiling hot, and more than one 
 poor Norseman was, during the first day's work,
 
 150 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 overcome by the heat, and was carried away un 
 conscious. Two died before noon from sun 
 stroke, and the next day a woman lost her 
 reason and became a raving maniac. Of gold 
 they found, of course, not a trace ; nor did they 
 expect to find any. For there was scarcely one 
 of them who was not by this time aware that he 
 had been entrapped by Forest, and was burn 
 ing to pay him back for his cruel and heartless 
 deceit. 
 
 At the end of a week fever broke out in the 
 camp, and one after another was stricken down, 
 lay for three or four days raving, without care 
 or medical aid, and then died in hopeless misery. 
 But the soldiers had no compassion on anyone, 
 and would scarcely permit the able-bodied to 
 absent themselves from their labor long enough 
 to attend to the most pressing wants of the sick. 
 One man whose wife lay dying was shot down in 
 cold blood by a soldier, because he broke away 
 and ran toward the shanty with a pail of water 
 to give to the sick woman, whose piteous cries 
 reached him where he was digging. 
 
 James Forest kept prudently out of sight 
 while this state of things lasted, and never ap 
 peared to the emigrants except under the escort 
 of two soldiers. Evidently things had turned 
 out worse than he had foreseen ; and, unscrup 
 ulous though he was, he was not hardened
 
 A BORN CHIEFTAIN \^\ 
 
 enough to look without twinges of remorse at 
 the misery of which, for the sake of some thou 
 sand paltry dollars, he had been the cause. But 
 to give back the money and release the emi 
 grants did not occur to him ; and it is, indeed, 
 doubtful whether he could have done it now, 
 even if he had had the inclination. 
 
 THREE or four times the meeting of the " Res 
 cuers " had to be postponed, because it was found 
 that the big shanty, or the barracks, as it was 
 called, was guarded by sentinels, and no one was 
 allowed to leave the building except under the 
 escort of a soldier. Another obstacle to the 
 meeting was the excessive weariness of the boys 
 when, after a day of hard labor, they sought 
 shelter in this unattractive caravansary. Even 
 Finn, who was usually a wide-awake fellow, 
 often fell asleep over his supper, consisting of 
 moldy bread and a horrible black liquid which 
 was said to be tea ; and Gudmund Lian, who 
 had lost all his spirit, crept into a corner on the 
 floor the moment he had been permitted to drop 
 his pickaxe, and fell into a slumber from which 
 nothing short of the last trump would have 
 awakened him. The groans of the sick and the 
 dying had no power to rouse him, and the centi-
 
 152 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 pedes and tarantulas crawled calmly over his 
 neck and face, leaving sometimes the red marks 
 of their track, but never disturbing his deep, 
 trance-like slumber. Happily, the nights were 
 cool, and the sea-breeze blew through the rick 
 ety clapboarding of the barracks, bringing relief 
 after the oppressive heat of the day. In fact, it 
 was sometimes so cool that snakes and other 
 vermin, being uncomfortable without, sought 
 the shelter of the shanty ; and many a time the 
 boys woke up with horror at the touch of some 
 green lizard or dangerous-looking snake, which, 
 allured by the warmth of their bodies, had 
 coiled itself up under their very noses, within 
 reach of their breath. Another terror, which 
 was, however, confined to the day, was the so- 
 called Texan fly a black, shining, metallic-look 
 ing little monster, which bit like fire and poison, 
 and particularly attacked their eyelids, which 
 swelled up and became red and inflamed. And 
 last, but not least, in the list of their hardships 
 was the quality of the water they had to drink. 
 Awful it was to those free and hardy Norsemen, 
 accustomed to the cool glacial breezes and the 
 delicious chill of their mountain springs, to have 
 to fill their mouths with this lukewarm, whitish 
 liquid, charged with alkaline dust, which pro 
 duced nausea and serious disorders, and finally, 
 at the end of some weeks, caused their teeth to
 
 A BORN CHIEFTAIN I $3 
 
 loosen and fall out. With despairing hearts 
 they saw their comrades, one after another, suc 
 cumb to the fever and diseases of the stomach ; 
 and as rebellion was not to be thought of unless 
 they could, by some means, procure arms, there 
 was only this one fearful prospect left to them, 
 viz., to lie down and die far away from home 
 and kindred, and be buried like a dog in the 
 nearest pile of railroad dirt. 
 
 It took Finn Framness three weeks to dis T 
 cover that this was to be the inevitable fate of 
 everyone of them, and he resolved to risk his 
 own life in an attempt to rescue his countrymen 
 from such a doom. If die he must, better die 
 like a brave man and a Norseman than like a 
 chicken -livered poltroon! For three days he 
 pondered his plan of rescue, and was repeatedly 
 prodded by the bayonet of the Mexican guard 
 when he stopped to rest on the handle of his 
 spade while struggling with some knotty point. 
 
 " Dog of a heretic," cried the guard again and 
 again, giving him a vicious punch with his gun, 
 " stir not my gall, or, by the saints, I'll send a 
 bullet through your brain ! " 
 
 But, happily, this threat was lost on Finn, for 
 he understood but a few words of Spanish 
 which he had picked up since coming to Mex 
 ico. He managed, in the course of the next few 
 days, to communicate his plan to his faithful
 
 154 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 followers and to appoint a meeting of the Res 
 cuers in a corner of the barracks, when all the 
 rest were asleep. On the appointed evening he 
 had his hands full in keeping the Rescuers 
 awake, for they were so exhausted with weari 
 ness that the only thing in the world that 
 seemed desirable to them was rest, unconscious 
 ness, oblivion. But Finn knew the danger of 
 this dull indifference, and he would give them 
 no respite or peace. His heart was afire with 
 heroic resolution ; and, come what might, this 
 time he was resolved to act. About ten o'clock 
 all the emigrants were asleep, and a chorus of 
 snores, in all keys, rose and fell upon the air 
 with depressing regularity. Knute, the Gypsy, 
 was sitting, with eyes as big as saucers, in his 
 corner, clasping his knees with his hands, and 
 Magnus, proud of having been taken into the 
 confidence of his older brother, was leaning 
 against the wall with his hands in his pockets, 
 trying to look as manly as his size would permit. 
 Finn had almost to drag Gudmund Lian along, 
 and once or twice he stuck a pin into him, in 
 order to make sure that he was awake. When 
 they were all seated together in the corner, 
 Finn struck out with his right hand and said, in 
 an excited whisper : 
 
 " Boys, now it is the time to prove what stuff 
 there is in us."
 
 A BORN- CHIEFTAIN 155 
 
 " Right, you are, captain," echoed the Gypsy. 
 " I am with you, whatever you mean to do." 
 
 " And I, too," said Magnus. 
 
 " And me, too," murmured Gudmund, drow 
 sily. 
 
 " Yes, but you won't be much good unless you 
 can keep awake," said Finn, sternly. 
 
 " I am awake now," the big boy declared, with 
 an injured air. " I don't know what is the matter 
 with me. I never was this way in Norway ; but 
 then in Norway no man was ever made to do 
 the work of two horses." 
 
 " That's true, Gudmund," Finn broke in ; "but 
 we won't stand that any more, and that's the rea 
 son I have called you to-night. Our only chance 
 is in getting the better of the sentry. I have my 
 suspicions that he sometimes goes to sleep, and if 
 we could catch him napping and disarm him, I 
 think we could manage the whole job." 
 
 " How many men will you need ? " asked the 
 Gypsy. 
 
 " I need you four ; but it wouldn't do any harm 
 if I had a dozen more. I am going to select the 
 rest to-morrow. I have noticed that every even 
 ing the guns are stacked outside the captain's 
 tent ; and if a dozen of us can get there before 
 the sentry can make an outcry, we can capture 
 the rifles and arm all our men. Two hundred 
 Norsemen with twenty-five rifles would sell their
 
 156 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 lives dearly. They would be more than a match 
 for the soldiers." 
 
 For more than an hour they sat and talked 
 in whispers, and finally agreed upon a plan of at 
 tack. 
 
 VI 
 
 IT was a dark and stormy night. The emig 
 rants, who had all been notified that an attempt 
 was to be made to rescue them, were lying about 
 on the floor of the barracks, pretending to be 
 asleep; but every now and then an emaciated 
 face would be lifted from the sack that served 
 for a pillow, a trembling hand would strike a 
 match, and a pair of excited blue eyes would 
 peer anxiously through the dark. About mid 
 night, when the storm was at its height without, 
 four shadowy figures rose at the sound of a soft 
 whistle which could scarcely be heard above the 
 monotonous chorus of snores. 
 
 " I am afraid you are overdoing the snoring 
 business, dad," said Finn, stooping over his 
 father, who was snoring an artistic solo all by 
 himself. 
 
 " Well, lad, it don't matter, for the storm is 
 snoring louder than all of us," Thor Framness 
 replied. 
 
 " Keep your eye peeled, dad," Finn continued,
 
 A BORN CHIEFTAIN 157 
 
 " and if you hear me jell or hear a shot fired, 
 you'll have a dozen or twenty men in readiness 
 and rush up to the camp." 
 
 " But hadn't you better take me along at 
 once ? " his father asked. " I am stronger than 
 you are, and I might be of service to you." 
 
 " You can be of more service to us here," his 
 son answered. " We need a reliable man, with 
 a head on his shoulders, to take command here 
 and bring us help when we shall need it." 
 
 " You are a brave lad, Finn," said Thor, grasp 
 ing his son's hand and pressing it warmly. 
 " You are more of a man than any of us. May 
 God hold his hand over you and bless you and 
 keep you ! " 
 
 He brushed a tear from the corner of his eye, 
 and, lying down again with a heavy heart, re 
 sumed his solo. He heard vaguely the move 
 ments of the " Rescuers," who were cautiously 
 forcing a couple of boards in the clapboarding of 
 the wall, and he expected every minute to hear 
 the dreaded challenge of the sentry and the shot 
 that would be sure to follow. But one, two, 
 three minutes elapsed, and no sound except the 
 howling of the wind broke the silence. 
 
 The " Rescuers " had in the meanwhile suc 
 ceeded in crawling out, and they were at first so 
 completely covered by the darkness that they 
 banished all fear of discovery. It was no longer
 
 158 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 raining, but the wind was driving the clouds 
 with tremendous speed across the sky, and was 
 rapidly clearing a blue space above the zenith. 
 Finn was leading the way, keeping close to the 
 wall, carrying, as on a former occasion, a looped 
 cord in his hand. Close on his heels came big 
 Gudmund Lian, and behind him Knute, the 
 Gypsy, and Magnus. They trod as noiselessly 
 as possible, fearing lest the breaking of a twig 
 under their feet or the click of their heels on a 
 stone would arouse the suspicion of a sentry. 
 Then there was the additional danger in the 
 clearing sky, which was rapidly dispelling the 
 darkness or changing it into dusk. Finn was the 
 first to reach the corner at which the soldier was 
 stationed. Breathlessly he craned his neck and 
 saw a stalwart form with a gun on his shoulder 
 outlined in the twilight. Happily, the clearing 
 space in the sky seemed to be absorbing the at 
 tention of the Mexican ; he was standing motion 
 less, watching the fantastic clouds, and he was 
 turning his back toward the barracks. A slight 
 uneasiness suddenly took possession of him ; he 
 grabbed hold of the barrel of his rifle and was 
 about to turn, when something flew at him out 
 of the dusk, his throat was contracted with a 
 strangling sensation, and he was flung upon his 
 back, with a company of demons on the top of 
 him. He tried to scream, but not a sound could
 
 A BORN CHIEFTAIN I 59 
 
 he produce. Red and blue sparks danced before 
 his eyes. 
 
 " Silencio ! " someone whispered in his ear, 
 with startling distinctness ; " silencio o morto / " 
 
 That was not very elegant Spanish, perhaps, 
 but for all that its meaning was unmistakable. 
 When this sentence had been twice repeated he 
 felt the lasso about his neck loosening a trifle, so 
 that he was in no immediate danger of strangula 
 tion. But the grip of the fellow that sat upon 
 his chest and held his hands, while in the act of 
 tying them, was like a vise of steel. The revol 
 vers were quickly pulled out of his belt and his 
 rifle removed. In two minutes he was as helpless 
 as a new-born babe nay, more so, for he had lost 
 even the faculty of screaming. With great des 
 patch he was picked up and carried inside the 
 barracks, where two men sat down, one on each 
 side of him, holding the muzzle of a revolver to 
 his temples. 
 
 Encouraged by their success, the boys started 
 out to secure the sentry at the other end of the 
 barracks, who, much to their relief, was sound 
 asleep and boozy from drink. He was quickly 
 lassoed, disarmed, gagged, and bound, and con 
 veyed in safety inside the building. Everything 
 had so far been done with the greatest noiseless- 
 ness and despatch ; Finn had flung the lasso, Gud- 
 mund pulled down the man, and Knute and Mag-
 
 I6O NORSELAND TALES 
 
 nus pounced upon him and gagged him. But 
 the most important part of their undertaking 
 was yet to be accomplished. They had to se 
 cure the rifles stacked before the captain's tent. 
 The camp, which was scarcely two hundred feet 
 distant, was pitched on a little hill overgrown 
 with palmettos and enormous cacti, which 
 stretched their prickly arms toward all the points 
 of the compass. But there was a patch cleared 
 through this underbrush which, particularly at 
 night, was infested with poisonous snakes and 
 reptiles. And of these the four " Rescuers " were 
 now more afraid than they were of the sleeping 
 soldiers. Step by step they advanced, peering 
 through the twilight, and when they saw a pair 
 of glowing points sparkling in the path, they 
 struck at it promptly with their sticks, until it 
 slipped into the underbrush or the two red sparks 
 flickered and went out. The wind was yet 
 blowing fiercely, and wild voices filled the air, 
 making the sound of their progress inaudible. 
 Without accident they reached the camp, and 
 while Gypsy stood guard with a cocked revolver, 
 the others carried the twenty-three rifles first in 
 to the brush and thence to the barracks. They 
 were just struggling with the last load when, as 
 ill-luck would have it, Magnus stumbled over a 
 stone and fell, knocking the lock of a rifle against 
 the ground. Instantly the sharp report of a shot
 
 A BORN CHIEFTAIN' l6l 
 
 rang out upon the air. The wind seemed to hold 
 its breath, and through the calm that followed 
 sounded the rousing call of bugle and drum. 
 But the emigrants, too, had heard that shot, and 
 had, at Thor's command, marched out in closed 
 phalanx. Twenty armed men, led by Finn's fath 
 er, started up the hillside and joined the boys, 
 who were retreating as fast as their burden would 
 permit. Through the dusk they could see the 
 frightened Mexicans run hither and thither in 
 search of the rifles which they could not find ; 
 and they could hear them swearing and calling 
 upon the saints for help against the accursed here 
 tics. The boys could scarcely help laughing, in 
 spite of their anxiety. But they were well aware 
 that their task was, as yet, but half accomplished. 
 The soldiers had yet their revolvers, and they 
 would surely not abandon the field without a 
 fight. As rapidly as possible Finn and his father 
 distributed the captured rifles to those of the 
 emigrants who had served in the Norwegian 
 army, and with these as a rear-guard, the phalanx 
 was set in motion along the road leading north 
 ward, by which they had come. 
 ii
 
 l62 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 VII 
 
 THEY had advanced scarcely a quarter of a 
 mile, when a vague, rosy flush broke through the 
 clouds in the east, and a saffron glow began 
 to spread along the horizon. It seemed strange 
 that they had not yet been overtaken; and 
 they began to fear that the soldiers had slipped 
 away unobserved, and were lying in ambush 
 somewhere along the road. Their progress, 
 therefore, had to be slow and cautious ; and the 
 armed men had to be divided between the van 
 and the rear, so as to guard against unforeseen 
 attacks. What still further retarded the march 
 was the number of sick and children, which the 
 others had to take turns in carrying. It took a 
 long time before the golden edge of the sun 
 showed above the ridge of the mountains; and 
 every moment was charged with anguish to 
 the poor fugitives ; for the inhuman maltreat 
 ment which they had suffered had weakened 
 the majority of them in body and in spirit ; and 
 they had so long brooded over their hopeless 
 misery that they found it impossible to believe 
 that now the hour of deliverance had really 
 struck. Only the " Rescuers," who insisted on 
 walking in front in spite of all warnings, kept 
 stout hearts in their breasts, and found relief in
 
 A BORN" CHIEFTAIN 163 
 
 action after the weary months of passive endur 
 ance. 
 
 They had marched a full hour, and had reached 
 a hill from which there was a superb view into 
 the valley below. It struck Finn, as he noticed 
 the lay of the land, that the narrow pass, where 
 the hills on both sides sprang forward, afforded 
 a fine chance for an ambush. He called his fath 
 er's attention to the mysterious disappearance of 
 the soldiers, and suggested that very likely they 
 were hiding in the shrubbery at that point, and 
 were preparing for an attack. Thor immediately 
 ordered a halt ; nothing seemed to him more prob 
 able than such a manoeuvre. The question was 
 now how to avoid falling into the trap. Three 
 hundred people, of whom but twenty-nine were 
 armed, might easily be massacred at close quar 
 ters by twenty-five, in a narrow pass, where their 
 numbers would be a hindrance rather than an 
 advantage. And, again, the soldiers were well 
 provided with ammunition, while the Norsemen 
 had no cartridges beyond the twelve which each 
 rifle contained. It was a serious situation, and 
 for a good while no one had any advice to offer. 
 
 " I think I see a way out of the difficulty," said 
 Finn, modestly, when he saw that no one else had 
 anything to suggest. 
 
 " Let us hear it, Finn ; let us hear it," cried the 
 " Rescuers," eagerly.
 
 1 64 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 " Well," observed the boy, viewing the valley 
 as a general might a field of battle, " we've got 
 to divide that's all." 
 
 " Divide?" they exclaimed ; "but how are we 
 to find each other again ? " 
 
 " The valley is open, and we shall find no diffi 
 culty in signalling to each other," Finn replied. 
 
 " Let one party with twelve rifles take the 
 eastern side, and another with the same number 
 of rifles the western side. If the soldiers pursue 
 either party, the other will attack their rear, and 
 with our long-range rifles we can pick them off, 
 one by one, before they can get at us with their 
 short-range revolvers." 
 
 This plan was briefly discussed and adopted. 
 It was bright daylight when the party divided, 
 and, leaving the bridle-path which they had hith 
 erto followed, climbed up the brambly hillside, 
 where cacti in gorgeous bloom and fan-like pal 
 mettos at every step retarded their march. If 
 the soil had been fertile and the underbrush 
 dense, it would have been impossible to make 
 headway against the innumerable barriers of a 
 tropical vegetation; but, happily, the soil was 
 sterile, supporting but a scant vegetation, and 
 the dust-brown, sun-scorched hills offered no in 
 superable obstacles to their progress. Finn, who 
 went with the party that took the eastern side of 
 the valley, kept his eye on the narrow path ;
 
 A BORN CHIEFTAIN 
 
 while Gudmund Lian cut down cacti with his 
 knife to clear the path, and Knute, the Gypsy, 
 was commissioned to keep a sharp lookout for 
 rattlesnakes. It was slow and laborious work; 
 but the sense of danger fired their blood and 
 buoyed up their spirits. 
 
 They had advanced half a mile or more in 
 this manner, when Finn suddenly noticed a com 
 motion in the underbrush some hundred feet be 
 low, and he plainly saw the glinting of arms 
 among the leaves and heard the click of metal 
 scabbards knocking against the stones. His 
 father, whose attention was called to these sus 
 picious sounds, ordered a halt, and each man 
 who carried a gun knelt down and made ready 
 to fire. Several minutes elapsed in breathless 
 silence. Only a buzzard that soared high in the 
 morning air gave a hoarse scream, and the lo 
 custs whirred away in the tree-tops. 
 
 " There ! " cried Finn, " look there ! " 
 
 Slowly, in the shelter of bowlders and scrubby 
 underbrush, a human figure was seen crawling 
 forward, followed by another and another. 
 
 " Don't let them get within range, father," 
 whispered Finn ; " I should hate to see even one 
 of those rascals killed. They are doing what 
 they think is their duty." 
 
 " Without shedding of blood we shall scarcely 
 escape," Thor replied. " Those fellows would
 
 1 66 NORSELAXD TALES 
 
 just as soon kill us as wink ; and to save our 
 lives we've got to treat them as they would 
 treat us." 
 
 " A dose of cold lead is the only medicine for 
 such fellows as they," said the Gypsy, clenching 
 his fist, for he had many insults to avenge ; 
 " if nobody else will shoot, give me a rifle, and 
 I'll put a hole in the first skull that shows itself 
 above the bowlders." 
 
 One of the men took this advice seriously, and, 
 without awaiting the word of command, blazed 
 away at a prostrate figure that was wriggling 
 forward among the stones. Where he hit he 
 could not tell, but that he had hit was evident 
 from the commotion which the shot occasioned. 
 With a shout the Mexicans broke from their 
 ambush and rushed up the hillside toward the 
 emigrants. But if they had had any idea of the 
 marksmanship of the Norsemen, they would 
 have seen the risks of so bold a manoeuvre. Be 
 fore they had come close enough to use their 
 revolvers, half a dozen had received wounds 
 which compelled them to drop down among the 
 stones. And when they had advanced near 
 enough they found, to their horror, that the 
 bullets that whizzed so unpleasantly in their 
 ears were coming from the rear as well as from 
 the front. For at the first sound of fighting the 
 western division of the emigrants had rushed
 
 A BORN CHIEFTAIN- l6/ 
 
 down toward the pass and arrived in the nick of 
 time, just as Mexican bullets were beginning to 
 take effect in the ranks of the Norsemen. Finn 
 had got a pistol ball in the fleshy part of his arm, 
 and Gudmund was sitting on the ground trying 
 to stanch the blood that flowed from a wound in 
 his leg. For five minutes there was dire confu 
 sion. The Mexicans yelled and broke into a run, 
 stopping now and then to pick up a wounded 
 comrade ; and the Norsemen, who had no desire 
 to capture them, shouted no less lustily while 
 cracking away with their rifles, to speed the 
 parting foe. 
 
 One Mexican soldier they found lying dead 
 under a shrub, and they recognized in him one 
 of the most cruel and heartless of their guard 
 ians, who had caused them much needless suffer 
 ing. Nevertheless the sight of him saddened 
 them, and they dug a grave for him and buried 
 him in the shadow of a huge blood-red cactus. 
 Of their own number about a dozen were 
 wounded, but no one dangerously. They had 
 now no fear of returning to the road ; and their 
 march was continued for five hours without 
 exceptional hardship. Toward evening they 
 reached a small stream which they had to ford. 
 Here the vegetation was fresher, and game was 
 found to be abundant. Several dozen wild tur 
 keys were killed, and a couple of deer of a kind
 
 1 68 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 which the Norsemen had never seen before. 
 And it was high time that provisions were se 
 cured, as they had fasted during the entire day 
 while marching in the oppressive heat. 
 
 Of the adventures of the emigrants during the 
 next three days there is nothing of importance 
 to relate, but on the fourth day they crossed the 
 Rio Grande at a ferry place, and fell in with a 
 company of United States soldiers. The sur 
 geon of the company volunteered to examine 
 the injuries of the wounded ones ; and it was 
 high time. Poor Finn's arm had swollen until 
 it was twice its natural size, and Gudmund's leg 
 was so sore that it was agony to use it. Now 
 the wounds were cleansed and properly band 
 aged, the bullets were extracted, and the inva 
 lids were cared for as if they had been princes. 
 One evening, while the two wounded boys lay 
 in their cots in the tent which had been assigned 
 them, Captain Fingall, the officer in command of 
 the company, entered, and began to talk with 
 them. Unfortunately, they did not know enough 
 English to answer the questions he asked, and 
 as the officer was interested in them, he sent for 
 a subaltern who was a Norseman by birth, and 
 asked him to act as interpreter. What Finn's 
 modesty made him reluctant to tell, Gudmund 
 was eager to supply, and at the end of an hour 
 Captain Fingall had received a correct and tol-
 
 A BORN CHIEFTAIN 169 
 
 erably complete account of the history of the 
 emigrants and the deeds of the " Rescuers " since 
 their departure from Norway. 
 
 " But, my dear lad ! " he exclaimed, seizing 
 Finn's hand and pressing it warmly, " you are a 
 regular Xenophon. It would be a pity if the 
 army of the United States were to lose a mili 
 tary genius of such promise." 
 
 He was so much impressed with the resolution 
 and courage of the boy that he told his story re 
 peatedly in Washington during the following 
 winter. And one of those who heard how one 
 brave boy had saved the lives of nearly four 
 hundred, sent money to educate Finn Framness, 
 who within two years received an appointment 
 as a West Point cadet, and within six years a 
 lieutenancy in the United States Army. And, if 
 I am correctly informed, he is regarded by his 
 comrades as one of the most brilliant and prom 
 ising officers who wear that honored uniform. 
 
 The emigrants whom Finn and his " Rescu 
 ers " had led out of the Mexican bondage settled 
 later on railroad land in Texas, and founded one 
 of the most prosperous communities in that large 
 and fertile State. Gudmund Lian is now the 
 owner of a big house and some five hundred 
 acres of rich wheat land ; and there is no better 
 American in the whole State of Texas than he. 
 Little Magnus has taken to trade, and has a pop-
 
 170 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 ular store, where all the Norsemen buy their 
 farm tools and agricultural machinery ; and they 
 like Magnus none the less because they think he 
 is a little bit inclined to brag of his brother the 
 lieutenant. " Only think of it," he is apt. to say, 
 " the captain called him a ' regular Xenophon '- 
 a born chieftain ! " 
 
 And the farmers, though they have not the re 
 motest idea of what " a regular Xenophon " 
 means, are nevertheless proud of belonging to 
 the same nationality as so distinguished a char 
 acter.
 
 THE FEUD OF THE WILDHAYMEN 
 
 PEER LANGELEIK was the son of a wildhay- 
 man, who was also named Peer Langeleik ; and 
 as they had already names in common, it seemed 
 but natural that they should have the same 
 trade too. And thus it happened that old Peer 
 began early to train young Peer for his perilous 
 occupation. 
 
 There are but two countries in Europe, that I 
 know of, where the wildhayman flourishes, viz., 
 Switzerland and Norway. Meadow land is there 
 so scarce, and the fodder is so expensive, that it 
 becomes worth one's while to gather it, wher 
 ever it may happen to be found. During the 
 summer there is an abundance of free pasture 
 for the cattle on the great mountain plains ; and 
 everybody can keep as many cows and horses as 
 he has money to pay for or as many, rather, as 
 he can feed through the winter. It becomes a 
 great question then to scrape together, by hook 
 or by crook, as much hay as possible for the 
 snowy season. And this is the business of the 
 wildhayman. Often a beautiful patch of rich, 
 juicy grass will be growing midway down a
 
 1 7 "2 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 steep, rocky slope under an overhanging preci 
 pice, where it would have to go to waste with 
 out benefiting anybody, if it were not for the 
 wildhayman. He lets himself down over the 
 edge of the beetling rock by a rope, cuts the 
 grass with a sickle, stuffs it into a bag which 
 he carries suspended from his waist, and, when 
 his bag is full, he gives a signal to his compan 
 ion to pull him up again. When, by long and 
 hard labor, he has got a sufficient quantity to 
 gether, he goes to some peasant proprietor and 
 sells it, or to the merchant and exchanges it for 
 flour, coffee, and sugar. 
 
 The first thing Peer Langeleik thought of, when 
 a son was born to him, was that he would now soon 
 be able to dispense with his partner, who, for the 
 very unimportant help he rendered in pulling him 
 up, devoured half his profits. And, truth to tell, 
 the very first thing his partner, Ulf Fannivold, 
 thought of, when, about the same time, he found 
 himself father to a sturdy boy, was that now he 
 would soon be able to dispense with Peer. They 
 frequently quarrelled, and had never gotten on 
 very well together. I fancy that more than 
 once it had occurred to either of them to stum 
 ble or slip, quite accidentally, of course, when he 
 held the other suspended over the dizzy abysses. 
 But somehow neither had acted on any such 
 impulse ; and on the day when their two sons
 
 THE FEUD OF THE WILDHAYMEN 173 
 
 were carried to church to be christened, they 
 shook hands and congratulated each other like 
 the best of friends. 
 
 Peer Langeleik was in such a hurry to have 
 his son grow up, that he used playfully to grab 
 him by the legs and stretch him every morning, 
 before he started out and every evening on re 
 turning. It may have been due to this opera 
 tion that little Peer regularly added a couple of 
 inches to his height every year ; and when he 
 was twelve years old his father concluded that he 
 was old enough to help him in his business. It 
 was of no use that Gudrid, the boy's mother, 
 made objections and tearfully declared that he 
 would grow dizzy and tumble headlong into the 
 abyss the first time he was let down over a 
 precipice. Peer pronounced such words " fool's 
 talk," and asked if she didn't know wKat the 
 rope was for. For all that, Gudrid insisted that 
 such business was too dangerous for a child, and 
 that Peer, instead of making a wildhayman of 
 his son, should train him to be a fiddler. The 
 fact was, Peer Langeleik was a wildhayman 
 only in the summer. In the winter, when there 
 was no grass to cut, he made his living as a 
 fiddler. 
 
 When the rumor spread in the valley that 
 Peer Langeleik had made a wildhayman of his 
 twelve-year-old son, there was much wagging of
 
 1/4 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 tongues and many prophecies of disaster. But 
 it was never known by any one how near these 
 prophecies came to fulfilment, for during the 
 second week of the boy's apprenticeship, when, 
 sickle in hand, he was lowered to a long strip 
 of grass which covered a rocky ledge, scarce 
 ly a yard wide, his foot slipped and he swung 
 out into space, like a pendulum, dashing back 
 against the wall of the rock, dropping the sickle 
 and cutting his head fearfully. 
 
 His father, who was holding on to the rope 
 above, grew white with fear when he felt the 
 sudden weight of the boy thus suspended ; 
 and with trembling hands and his heart in his 
 throat he began cautiously to pull up the pre 
 cious burden. But when, having fastened the 
 rope about a stout tree-root, he leaned out over 
 the precipice, so as to prevent the child from 
 bumping against the edge of the rock, his blood 
 ran cold with horror. For there, on the ledge 
 below, sat an imp-like little chap, with a red 
 peaked cap, and grinned up at him. He thought 
 surely it must be a small troll or a brownie, who 
 had pushed little Peer ; and he knew that if his 
 son had incurred the ill-will of such creatures, it 
 would be useless to try to make a wildhayman 
 out of him. But just as he was reconciling him 
 self to this idea, he discovered a waving of tree- 
 tops in the underbrush far below, and presently
 
 THE FEUD OF THE WILDHAYMEN 1/5 
 
 caught sight of Ulf Fannivold, his old partner, 
 who was signalling up to the little fellow on the 
 ledge. Then it became plain to him that Ulf, 
 too, had made a wildhayman of his son, and that 
 the old feud was bound to last until the one or 
 the other bit the dust. 
 
 Never had Peer Langeleik felt more miser 
 able than when he lifted his son over the brink 
 of the rock, and saw the blood drip from an 
 ugly wound in his forehead. He carried him 
 to a brook near by, and bathed his head in 
 the icy water, until at last he opened his eyes 
 and slowly recovered consciousness. And so 
 glad was his father when he saw recognition in 
 his eyes, that he could not contain himself, but 
 clasped little Peer in his arms and cried like a 
 child. But when his feelings were relieved, his 
 face grew suddenly dark, and he vowed to him 
 self that Ulf Fannivold and his brat should pay 
 dearly for the dangerous trick they had played 
 
 ' 
 
 him. 
 
 For three or four years after this incident the 
 parish was full of rumors about the feud of the 
 wildhaymen. Little Ulf, it was said, was bound 
 sooner or later to beat little Peer ; for he could 
 climb like a goat, and there was not a mountain 
 wall in the whole valley too steep for him to 
 scale. He was small and wiry, had a pert nose, 
 queer, oldish little face, not at all handsome, but
 
 176 NOKSELAND TALES 
 
 with a pair of wonderfully lively and alert eyes. 
 He needed no rope like his rival ; for he could 
 wedge his tiny toes into a crevice scarcely big 
 enough for a beetle to enter ; and he could run 
 and wriggle and wind himself through and 
 around the most incredible obstacles, and nab 
 a tuft of grass which you would have sworn 
 no creature without wings could ever have 
 reached. No wonder Peer Langeleik was 
 alarmed ; there would soon be no wild hay left 
 for him and his son to gather. Wherever they 
 went, that red-capped little imp had always been 
 before them. Every slope and every ravine was 
 stripped of its herbage before it was full-grown ; 
 and the following summer little patches of oats 
 and barley and timothy and clover were found 
 to have been sown in all sorts of inaccessible 
 places, where the attempt to harvest would seem 
 to be sure death. But harvested they still were; 
 and remarkably rich was the crop, and very 
 good prices it brought. People who, the first 
 time they saw it, would have screamed with 
 horror, became quite familiar with the sight of 
 an impish little figure with a red peaked cap, 
 crawling like a fly or skipping like a weasel, up 
 and down the beetling cliffs that held a scrap of 
 earth large enough to produce a few hundred 
 barley-stalks or a bag full of clover. 
 
 It went down hill with Peer Langeleik during
 
 THE FEUD OF THE WILDHAYMEN 1 77 
 
 these years ; and if he had not been able to earn 
 a few dollars with his fiddle during the winter, 
 both he and his family would have starved or 
 gone to the poor-house. Many a day they had to 
 grind birch-bark and mix it with the bran out of 
 which Gudrid made porridge ; and many a time 
 during the all-too-brief summer they were obliged 
 to spend the night walking up and down along 
 their little field of rye, dragging a rope over the 
 tops of the grain, so as to keep them in motion 
 and protect them from the frost. If there was a 
 wedding or a funeral at which music was re 
 quired, it was a godsend to them ; for then they 
 could eat porridge without bark for a week or 
 more ; and sometimes they could even indulge 
 in salted herring and smoked goat's flesh. 
 
 When little Peer was in his fifteenth year it 
 was high time to have him prepared for confirma 
 tion ; and it so happened that little Ulf Fanni- 
 vold went to the parson * during the same year. 
 The two lads looked askance at each other from 
 the first, and sought to avoid each other as 
 much as possible. But the other boys, knowing 
 of the hostility between their fathers, could not 
 allow such an opportunity for sport to pass un 
 noticed. And so they teased the two wildhay- 
 
 * It was formerly required by law in Norway that every child 
 should "go to the parson" for about six months and receive relig 
 ious instruction, preparatory to the first communion. 
 
 12
 
 178 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 men, as they were called, early and late, and 
 would give them no peace until they .had shown 
 their mettle. It would, indeed, at first blush, 
 seem a most unequal match ; for little Peer 
 (though he was yet named " little " in order to 
 distinguish him from his father, who was " Big 
 Peer ") was really quite a large boy for his age, 
 while little Ulf was, as to size, exactly what his 
 name indicated. While Peer was blond, blue- 
 eyed, and fair-complexioned, Ulf was dark, 
 black-eyed, and of swarthy complexion. There 
 was a yellow pallor in his cheeks, and in his 
 glance something hidden, evasive, and crafty. 
 He never looked you straight in the face, as his 
 rival did ; but his eager and wide-awake weazel 
 eyes seemed to be lying in ambush, trying to 
 catch you at unawares. But for all that, Ulf, 
 though he was, perhaps, distrusted, was not 
 exactly disliked by his comrades. Among boys 
 the admiration for pluck and daring is apt to 
 outweigh all other considerations ; and it was 
 not to be denied that there was something about 
 this agile and self-contained little imp which in 
 spired respect. Peer, on the other hand, was 
 what most boys are, at his age, and seemed to 
 none of them particularly remarkable. He 
 quarrelled, fought, and made up again ; dealt 
 and received honest blows, and bore no man 
 any grudge, if he had thrashed him or been
 
 THE FEUD OF THE WILDHAYMEN 179 
 
 thrashed by him. But somehow it seemed a 
 pretty risky undertaking to thrash little Ulf 
 (though on general principles he might need it) ; 
 and every lad preferred, on the whole, to have 
 somebody else make the first experiment. And 
 the boy who appeared to be singled out by 
 general agreement for this mission was little 
 Peer. 
 
 It cannot be said that Peer relished this dis 
 tinction, or that he was at all eager for the en 
 counter. He came to dread the homeward walk 
 from the parsonage, and would have taken a 
 path over the fields by himself, if he had not 
 dreaded still more the derisive jeers that would 
 have followed him, and the charge of cowardice 
 which would have clung to him, and to rid him 
 self of which he would have been compelled to 
 fight whether he would or not. Nevertheless, 
 the chances are that he would have succeeded in 
 keeping neutral, if an incident had not occurred 
 which promptly brought matters to a climax. 
 
 Peer and Ulf were, by common consent, the 
 cleverest pupils the parson had that year ; and 
 (as there were no " gentlefolks " among the can 
 didates) it was taken for granted that the one or 
 the other would have the first place in the 
 aisle during the public examination which pre 
 cedes the confirmation ceremony. This is held 
 to be a great honor and reflects credit, not
 
 ISO NORSELAND TALES 
 
 only upon the scholar himself, but upon his 
 parents and kindred. It was supposed that the 
 parson was inclined to give the preference to 
 Peer, whose open and candid face and intelli 
 gent replies had greatly prepossessed him in 
 his favor. But there were not a few among the 
 boys who thought that Ulf ran him a close race, 
 and that he was fully his match as regards 
 scholarship. 
 
 It was thus matters stood, one Saturday early 
 in April, when the candidates for confirmation 
 were, leaving the parson's study. The clergy 
 man had dismissed the class, but had detained 
 Peer and Ulf, in order to determine by a little 
 private examination which of the two was en 
 titled to precedence in the aisle ; and, as it hap 
 pened, he had struck a lesson which Peer knew 
 better than his rival ; and it seemed clear to Ulf, 
 as he descended the stairs, that he had been 
 beaten. There was an ugly gleam in his eyes 
 as he fixed them upon Peer, and he clenched his 
 fists in his pockets, while an unwonted flush 
 tinged his pale cheeks. Just as he emerged 
 from the door (Peer being but a few steps ahead) 
 he caught sight of a magnificent Cochin China 
 cock which the parson, who was a great poultry 
 fancier, had recently imported from Holland. 
 Quick as a flash he stooped down, picked up a 
 stone and the cock gave a flap with his wings,
 
 THE FEUD OF THE WILDHAYMEN l8l 
 
 and fell dead. Instantly there was a tremen 
 dous commotion among the hens ; the parson 
 came running out in high dudgeon, and, seeing 
 the precious cock dead, he was almost beside him 
 self with wrath. The two boys were summoned 
 back to the study, where Ulf unblushingly af 
 firmed that he had seen Peer throw the stone 
 that killed the fowl. Peer, on the other hand, 
 though he stoutly denied the charge, could not 
 declare that he had seen Ulf throw the stone ; 
 and the parson, who was easily imposed upon 
 by the smaller boy's innocent airs and plausible 
 manner, while the larger one blushed and stam 
 mered, adjudged Peer the culprit, and gave his 
 place in the aisle to Ulf. 
 
 The other boys, who entertained a sneaking 
 hope that a fight might be arranged, had waited 
 at the bend of the road, under the cemetery 
 hill, in order not to miss the sport. When they 
 saw Peer and Ulf walking as far apart as the 
 width of the highway would permit, they ran 
 to meet them and began their pestiferous teas 
 ing. 
 
 " Sick 'im, gypsy ! " they cried to Ulf. 
 "You're afraid he'll lick you, aren't you ?" 
 
 " Go for him, Peer ! " they yelled to the latter. 
 " Don't be a milksop now ! You show him 
 you've cut your eye-teeth." 
 
 To the astonishment of all, Peer stepped for-
 
 1 82 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 ward, pulled off his coat, which he flung by the 
 road-side, and said : 
 
 " Yes, I'll have it out this time. I can stand 
 it no longer. If you want to fight me, Ulf, I am 
 ready. We have a long score to settle, you and 
 I." 
 
 Ulf heard the challenge, but he did not im 
 mediately accept it. He stood for a minute or 
 more, blinking uneasily with his eyes, while the 
 mocking jeers of his comrades rang in his ears. 
 Then, all of a sudden, he tore off his jacket, and 
 before Peer had time to turn about, he leaped at 
 his throat like a panther. The attack was so 
 swift, so utterly unexpected, that Peer tottered 
 in the collision and was on the point of falling ; 
 but he recovered himself, and, grabbing his as 
 sailant by the shoulders with both his strong 
 fists, he gave him a violent wrench sidewise, 
 which tingled through Ulf's arms like an elec 
 tric shock. He was forced to release his clutch, 
 and he seemed about to be flung, head foremost, 
 against the stony road-bed. But by an unfore 
 seen manoeuvre he wedged his head between his 
 opponent's knees, and by a marvellous feat of 
 agility landed upon his feet. His black eyes 
 snapped and were fairly aglow ; but the light of 
 shrewd calculation seemed yet to be lying in 
 wait behind the apparent anger, and, when he 
 struck a blow, it was swift, sure, and effective.
 
 THE FEUD OF THE WILDHAYMEN 183 
 
 From Peer's vigorous left-handers, which were 
 aimed straight from the shoulder, and which 
 would have demolished him if they had hit him 
 squarely, he writhed and wriggled away by the 
 most surprising turns and dodges ; and it soon 
 became evident to the spectators, who formed a 
 dense ring about the combatants, that dexterity 
 counted for more than strength, and that the 
 ability to dodge was fully as valuable as the 
 ability to strike. 
 
 When ten minutes had passed Peer stood, 
 half-dazed, and fought blindly, while Ulf was 
 yet in full possession of his powers and his cool 
 presence of mind. He drew back for an instant, 
 as if to compose himself, and when Peer, grate 
 ful for the respite, relaxed his vigilance, he 
 made a sudden vicious lunge at him which bore 
 him down, with his foe on the top of him. The 
 boys cheered wildly ; and some in their enthu 
 siasm lifted the victor on their shoulders and 
 carried him in triumph along the road. But 
 three or four remained with the vanquished, 
 trying to comfort him in his defeat, and offer 
 ing their services for any future encounter, if 
 he should ever desire to get even. But Peer, 
 though he felt moved by their sympathy, de 
 clared that he would accept his defeat as final, 
 and would not try to renew the battle. 
 
 " lie beat me fairly enough," he said, " wheth-
 
 1 84 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 er it was by dodging or by striking. Each man 
 has a right to use whatever faculties that may 
 serve him best. It was I who was the chal 
 lenger, and I am served rightly. For all that, I 
 am glad I did it. I feel better for it." 
 
 It was a very bitter disappointment both to 
 Peer and his parents that he was at the last mo 
 ment deprived of the first place in the aisle ; 
 and still bitterer did it seem when they saw 
 the black-eyed little " gypsy " march in at the 
 head of the procession. The loss of the rooster 
 must have affected the parson even more than 
 he admitted, for Peer was not even put number 
 two ; but was (as a punishment for his supposed 
 mendacity) placed far down, about the middle of 
 the aisle. 
 
 Confirmed he was, however ; and he would 
 have borne his grief bravely enough, if the an 
 cient feud between his father and Big Ulf Fanni- 
 vold had not blazed forth anew, and prepared 
 him no end of trouble. He was on the lookout 
 early and late for patches of " wild grass " which 
 had no owner ; but regularly, as it grew tall 
 enough to cut, little Ulf Fannivold anticipated 
 him, and bagged the coveted prize. Fees for 
 fiddling were also few and far between now, and 
 dire want reigned in the little cottage up under 
 the mountain. It was while in the midst of 
 these tribulations that Peer, one day in June, dis-
 
 THE FEUD OF THE WILDHAYMEN 185 
 
 covered a beautiful patch of grass, which grew 
 with long nodding tufts on a ledge of rock in a 
 ravine about four miles from his home. He 
 hastened to apprise his father, and early the 
 next morning the two started out together with 
 sickles and ropes, and reached the ravine while 
 the dew was yet wet and the morning mist hung 
 over the meadows. Little Peer cheerfully fast 
 ened the stout rope to the broad leather belt 
 which was buckled around his waist, and was 
 about to let himself down, when suddenly he 
 heard a chorus of wild, hoarse screams from un 
 der the brow of the cliff. 
 
 " It is eagles," said his father, " you had better 
 not go down." 
 
 " But there is a human voice, too, father. 
 Don't you hear? They have stolen a child." 
 
 In the same instant there came a heart-rend 
 ing shriek, as of one in mortal distress. 
 
 " Let me down quick, father. Grab the rope 
 here ! " 
 
 " No, no, my son ! It isn't human. It is some 
 sort of witchcraft or deviltry. Don't go down, 
 I beg of you, or you may never come up 
 again." 
 
 " Very well, if you won't help me, I shall go 
 alone ! " 
 
 And with a resolute motion he fastened the 
 rope around the stump of a tree, and, leaning
 
 1 86 NO RS EL AND TALES 
 
 out over the precipice, lowered himself down 
 into the chasm. 
 
 " Peer, little Peer," cried his father after him, 
 "for God's sake, come back, come back ! " 
 
 But Little Peer was already far down the 
 rocky wall. What he saw there was enough to 
 curdle his blood. Two enormous eagles, who 
 had their nest on the shelf of the cliff, were at 
 tacking with beaks and claws some crouching 
 figure which lay on the narrow ledge, clinging 
 with a desperate clutch to a tiny birch-tree 
 which was growing out of a crevice in the ra 
 vine. Swinging his sickle about his head, Peer 
 yelled with all his might in order to frighten 
 the birds of prey. But when he saw a big, 
 ugly crop-heavy fledgling in the nest and one 
 blindly sprawling on the outside, he instantly 
 took in the situation. This foolish intruder, 
 whoever he was, had, in the absence of the old 
 birds, tried to rob the nest, and they had unex 
 pectedly returned to interfere with his pur 
 pose. 
 
 Little Peer was a brave lad, but his heart 
 quailed for an instant, when he saw the bloody 
 beaks and talons of the huge winged creatures, 
 and heard their savage screams of wrath and 
 alarm, as they made onset after onset against the 
 cowering figure under the birch-tree. It was 
 plain that he could not hold on much longer ; he
 
 THE ROBBING OF THE EAGLE'S NEST.
 
 THE FEUD OF THE WILDHAYMEN l8/ 
 
 was bleeding from a dozen wounds and his 
 clothes were torn in tatters. 
 
 " Hold on tight ! Don't give up ! " Peer 
 yelled frantically. " I'll help you ! " 
 
 And swinging right in between the two 
 eagles, he gave the nearest one a tremendous 
 cut across the wing-bone with his sickle. The 
 royal bird, having expected no attack from that 
 quarter, wheeled around, flapped its other wing, 
 made two somersaults in the air, and with a 
 terrible, hoarse screech tumbled down into the 
 abyss. Then the figure on the rock cautiously 
 turned his head to look up, and Little Peer 
 gazed into the face of Ulf Fannivold. 
 
 The surprise was awful paralyzing. He had 
 not once thought of his enemy ; and now his 
 first impulse was to signal to his father to pull 
 him up. The anger, the hatred, the sense of 
 outrage, which the mere mention of Ulf's name 
 aroused, had been smouldering long in his heart 
 and now blazed up with uncontrollable fury. 
 
 The female eagle which yet remained had 
 apparently been waiting for the chance to 
 get at the face of the nest-robber ; for the very 
 instant he stirred she swooped down upon his 
 exposed countenance and struck her claws into 
 it. Ulf gave a shriek so wild and piteous that it 
 would have touched a heart of a stone. And 
 Peer's heart, which was a very soft and compas-
 
 1 88 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 sionate one, was moved in its very depth. He 
 could not afford to leave a human creature, 
 whether friend or foe, in such a terrible plight. 
 Striking out with his sickle, he bent the top of 
 the birch toward him and pulled himself down 
 on the rocky ledge, planting his feet within a 
 few inches of the nest. The eagle, thinking that 
 it had to deal with another nest-robber, rushed 
 furiously at him, beating with its big wings and 
 scratching with its talons. If Peer had not 
 clutched the birch so tightly with his left hand, 
 he would have been knocked down and would 
 have swung out into the air, where the eagle 
 could have whirled him about, until he grew too 
 dizzy to fight. But now he had a fairly good 
 foothold, and his back was shielded by the cliff 
 against which he was leaning. With his sharp 
 sickle he guarded his face and eyes right man 
 fully ; but his clothes were torn into shreds, and 
 he felt the warm blood trickling down his right 
 leg, in which the bird's claws had made an ugly 
 gash. 
 
 Fully ten minutes the combat had lasted, 
 when he heard an anxious voice calling his 
 name from above, and saw his father's face 
 hanging out over the edge of the precipice. 
 
 " Don't pull up yet," he cried ; " for God's 
 sake, don't ! " 
 
 At that very instant, the eagle dashed for-
 
 THE FEUD OF THE WILDHAYMEN 189 
 
 ward and made a lunge at the arm which held 
 the birch -tree. Quick as lightning, the boy 
 plunged the point of his weapon deep into its 
 breast. The huge bird gave a long, plaintive 
 croak, and tumbled, with feebly flapping wings, 
 down into the dark ravine. 
 
 Peer, as soon as he had collected his senses, 
 brushed the dirt and bloody feathers from his 
 face, and cautiously crept along the edge of the 
 cliff to where his enemy was lying. He stooped 
 over him and gently shook him by the shoulder. 
 Ulf gave a groan, but did not stir. Once more 
 he touched him ; but Ulf only buried his face 
 more deeply in the grass, and moaned. 
 
 " You needn't be afraid ! I don't want to hurt 
 you ! " 
 
 Then, quivering like an aspen leaf, the wound 
 ed boy timidly raised his head ; but oh, the pity 
 of it ! Peer had to turn away from the sicken 
 ing sight ! Where Ulf's right eye had been, 
 there was but a bloody hollow. His rescuer, 
 however, pulled himself quickly together, doffed 
 his belt, and buckled it about Ulf's waist. Then 
 he gave the signal to his father, and up went his 
 foe, slowly, slowly, until he was warily lifted 
 over the edge of the precipice. Then a loud 
 shout was heard, and the sound of terror or of 
 impotent rage. Peer was, indeed, half afraid 
 that he might see Ulf come spinning through
 
 IQO NORSELAND TALES 
 
 the air and vanish among the pines at the bot 
 tom of the gulch. 
 
 A few minutes sufficed, however, to reassure 
 him on this point. But the gash in his leg now 
 began to pain him, and his boot was full of 
 blood. He felt a trifle light-headed, and con 
 cluded it was high time to bandage the wound. 
 The odor of decayed bones and offal about the 
 eagle's nest nauseated him ; but, as there was no 
 other secure place on the ledge, he had no 
 choice but to sit down right in the nest, having 
 first killed with his sickle the remaining eaglet. 
 As it would have to starve without the old 
 birds, it seemed more merciful to despatch it 
 now. Tearing the lining out of his waistcoat, he 
 made a bandage which he tied tightly about the 
 bleeding wound. He had scarcely finished this 
 operation, when a strange faintness seized him. 
 His head was in a whirl. He seemed to see the 
 rope, with the belt attached, dangling a couple of 
 feet beyond him, but he did not dare rise, feel 
 ing sure that he would plunge straight into the 
 abyss. After awhile there were two ropes and 
 two belts, and a queer sound of rushing wing- 
 beats filled the air. Then earth and sky flowed 
 together, and all things were blurred by a lumi 
 nous mist, through which aerial voices broke, 
 calling his name, with a wonderful echoing res 
 onance. 

 
 THE FEUD OF THE WILDHAYMEN" IQI 
 
 He fancied he must have slept for a long 
 while. When he woke up his father was bend 
 ing over him, fastening the belt about his waist ; 
 and presently he felt himself rising rising, and 
 at last lifted bodily up, whereupon a woman, 
 who seemed to be his mother, flung herself over 
 him, crying ; and hot tears dripped upon his face. 
 In a few minutes his father was also there, with 
 two strange men ; but Ulf, whom he had res 
 cued, he could discover nowhere. 
 
 It was one evening about three weeks after 
 the battle, that Peer, now fully restored to 
 health, was rambling over the fields in the neigh 
 borhood of his father's cottage. Suddenly at 
 the edge of the forest, Little Ulf, with his right 
 eye bandaged, stepped out of the underbrush, 
 and grabbed him by the hand. 
 
 " Peer," he said, huskily, " I've behaved like a 
 skunk to you ; and I know it. I sha'n't be in your 
 way any more. A one-eyed chap ain't much 
 good, I reckon, for a wildhayman. But I would 
 rather lose the eye I've got left than I would for 
 get one thing that I owe my life to you, whose 
 life I did my best to ruin."
 
 THE LITTLE CHAP 
 
 THE Little Chap had been humored from 
 the time he was born, but then he was such 
 a fascinating Little Chap that nobody could 
 help humoring him. He was stubborn, he was 
 headstrong, he was naughty, if you like the 
 Little Chap ; but in his very naughtiness there 
 was something captivating which won your 
 heart, and played the mischief with your dig 
 nity. When he stood before you with his legs 
 far apart, his hands in the pockets of his much- 
 patched trousers, and the magnitude of his de 
 fiance so out of proportion to that of his tiny 
 body, you were altogether at a disadvantage, 
 and I am not sure but that the Little Chap in 
 the innocent slyness of his heart felt that you 
 were at his mercy. A little patched cherub 
 like him, with tousled blond hair and an enor 
 mous sense of his own importance, would have 
 been no mean antagonist to Hercules himself; 
 and, what is more, so secure was he in the con 
 sciousness of his valor that he would not have 
 been afraid to tackle Hercules. 
 
 The Little Chap's father, Amund Myra, was a
 
 THE LITTLE CHAP 193 
 
 carpenter by trade, and lived in one of the lone 
 liest mountain valleys of Norway. His wife, 
 Kari, had presented him with five daughters, be 
 fore it occurred to her to present him with a 
 son, and his joy at the last arrival had only been 
 equalled by his disappointment at the five previous 
 ones. The Little Chap took instant possession of 
 his father's heart, which had been kept purpose 
 ly vacant for his reception. When the nurse 
 brought him on the evening of his arrival, upon 
 a pillow, and placed him across Amund's knees, 
 the carpenter freely forgave his wife her five 
 past delinquencies in consideration of the Little 
 Chap. For this was not the usual infantile vege 
 table that simply fed and slept. It was a quaint 
 and sturdy little personality, that took in the 
 world, his father included, with a slow, wonder 
 ing gaze, and seemed to do a vast deal of pro 
 found and solemn thinking. Amund could not 
 rid himself of the impression that his son viewed 
 him rather critically, as if he were debating with 
 himself whether, on the whole, he liked his ap 
 pearance and found him a fairly satisfactory 
 parent. He was very much afraid that he did 
 not come up to Little Chap's standard ; he was 
 absurdly anxious to make as favorable an im 
 pression as possible. There was something pe 
 culiarly wise and venerable in the Little Chap's 
 aspect as he lay there upon the pillow. 
 13
 
 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 And thus it happened that from the hour of 
 his arrival the Little Chap came to be regarded 
 as a person of tremendous consequence. It was 
 impressed upon him from the time he lay in the 
 cradle that he was a boy, and that a boy was a su 
 perior kind of creature, who had nothing except 
 certain accidental points of anatomy in common 
 with girls, which latter species had been wisely 
 created by the Lord to wait upon him. He was 
 not very big before Amund, who could not bear 
 to be separated from him, got into the habit of 
 taking him along, when he went out into the val 
 ley to do a job. There the Little Chap would 
 sit proudly perched upon his father's shoulder, 
 bundled up in scarfs, and with a fur cap that 
 was much too big for him pulled down over his 
 ears. He was not a talkative child ; but there 
 was a slow and old-fashioned kind of gravity 
 about him which made everything he said in 
 finitely droll. He took himself very seriously, 
 and allowed no trifling with his dignity. He 
 took much satisfaction in the thought that he 
 was helping his father; and Amund rather en 
 couraged the idea, giving him a hammer with 
 which he pounded nails into a piece of board, 
 and occasionally mashed his fingers. And all 
 day long, while the carpenter worked, whether 
 indoors or out-of-doors, the Little Chap bustled 
 about him, sat in the shavings whittling sticks,
 
 THE LITTLE CHAP 195 
 
 or chipped the edge of the plane by running it 
 into the heads of the nails which he drove in 
 wherever a convenient place presented itself. 
 But whatever mischief he got into, whatever 
 tools he ruined, Amund regarded only as a 
 fair price which he paid for his company. And 
 never once did he scold the Little Chap, but 
 gravely explained to him why he must not do 
 such and such things, as if he had been a grown 
 up man. And the Little Chap would listen 
 gravely, with a quivering underlip ; and when 
 the kindly homily was at an end, he would lie 
 very still, with his head buried in the shavings, 
 feeling terribly humiliated at the thought of his 
 delinquency. The next day, when Amund 
 started out, carrying his tools in a bag on his 
 back, the Little Chap would meet him at the 
 door, and, with a dubious and anxiously expect 
 ant look, would ask, 
 
 " May I help you to-day, dad ? " 
 
 " Yes, Little Chap, you shall help me to-day," 
 Amund would answer, heartily, as he lifted him 
 up on his shoulder. " How could dad get along 
 without his Little Chap ? " 
 
 Many a time, too, when his comrades whistled 
 for him under the window, and he was sorely 
 tempted to accept the invitation to join in their 
 games, the thought would occur to him that his 
 dad needed his help ; and gravely he would go
 
 196 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 to the door, and, with a droll sense of responsi 
 bility, explain to them that he had to help his dad. 
 
 Thus winters passed, and summers, until the 
 Little Chap was eight years old. He tyrannized 
 over his sisters, as usual, and accepted their 
 worship as nothing but his due. He was a sore 
 trial to his mother on account of his stubborn 
 ness, and because he was " so hard on his 
 clothes." But to his father he was a stanch and 
 loyal friend ; I could almost say an older friend, 
 for he began early to feel a kind of responsibil 
 ity for Amund, and a droll kind of protector 
 ship. He made him go back and put on his coat 
 when he started out in his shirt-sleeves in chilly 
 weather ; he would send him back to shave, of a 
 Sunday morning, when he proposed to go to 
 church with a two days' beard ; and he would 
 take his dad's part at table when (as sometimes 
 happened) the mother would scold him, or makf 
 unpleasant remarks implying disrespect. 
 
 " Mother always thinks that everybody can do 
 things better than my dad," he would observe 
 in his slow drawl, when his dad had been un* 
 lucky enough to arouse his wife's displeasure ; 
 and straightway dad would feel a little horny 
 paw under the table groping for his own. That 
 was his way of consoling his dad. 
 
 He believed fully that his dad was the wisest, 
 the cleverest, and the best of men ; and how-
 
 THE LITTLE CHAP 1 97 
 
 ever unworthy he might feel himself, what 
 comfort, what happiness it was to this poor 
 overworked carpenter to have one creature 
 on earth who reposed this touchingly unques 
 tioning trust in him ! What " my dad " said, 
 that was law ; and what " my dad " did was 
 always admirable ; and though dad was con 
 scious of many failings, he would not for the 
 life of him have the Little Chap suspect them. 
 He strove manfully to live up to the Little 
 Chap's idea of him. People said he spoiled the 
 boy ; and the mother, particularly, who was a 
 trifle jealous of their intimacy, declared that it 
 was time the Little Chap was sent to school, and 
 learned something besides whittling and cutting 
 his fingers. This seemed so perfectly rational 
 that, out of consideration for the Little Chap, 
 Amund was at last persuaded to send him to 
 school. It was of no use that the boy wept, and 
 declared that he wanted to be with his dad. 
 How was his dad to get on without his help ? 
 What would become of dad if he did not look 
 out for him? This idea that he was helping 
 dad had become so rooted in his mind that he 
 harped upon it early and late, and grieved him 
 self thin and pale for fear that his dad might 
 come to harm without him. 
 
 Somehow, life was no more the same to 
 Amund after his loss of the Little Chap's com.
 
 198 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 panionship. There was no joy any more in his 
 work ; and it seemed, too, that his luck had de 
 serted him. Once he ran a file, the handle of 
 which broke, into his hand, and another time he 
 nearly split his kneepan with an adze. Then he 
 was laid up for three weeks. Provisions ran 
 very low in the house. Kari, his wife, began to 
 talk about applying for help to the guardians of 
 the poor. It was then the plan matured in 
 Amund's mind to cross the ocean and begin life 
 afresh in the New World, where a man of his 
 skill certainly could accomplish something more 
 than to keep out of the poorhouse. 
 
 Accordingly, though it nearly broke his heart 
 to part from the Little Chap, he crossed the At 
 lantic, promising to send for the family as soon 
 as he had founded a home for them in the great 
 West. He begged hard to be allowed to take 
 the Little Chap with him, but Kari would not 
 listen to that, because to her the Little Chap was 
 a kind of a pawn a guarantee that her husband 
 meant to keep his word, and send for her and 
 the girls as soon as his circumstances warranted. 
 Her conscience was not quite easy in regard to 
 her treatment of him, and she could afford to 
 take no chances. 
 
 Amund arrived in Chicago at a time when 
 skilled carpenters were scarce and wages high. 
 There was a great deal of building going on,
 
 THE LITTLE CHAP 1 99 
 
 and he had no difficulty in obtaining work. He 
 was a master in his trade, thoroughly honorable, 
 frugal, and industrious. It is not to be denied, 
 however, that life is a dreary affair to one who 
 "toils and toils from morning till night, and 
 whose starved heart cries out every hour and 
 minute of the day for one who is far away. 
 Where is the Little Chap now ? What is the 
 Little Chap doing now ? How does he look ? 
 Does he care so much for his dad as he did ; and 
 is he as eager as ever to help his dad ? These 
 were Amund's constant reflections, whenever a 
 little respite from labor afforded him a chance 
 to think. Sitting with his dinner-pail, leaning 
 against his work-bench, he would shut his eyes 
 and fancy he saw the Little Chap standing be 
 fore him, with his grimy little fists in his patched 
 trousers, and his tousled yellow head a little on 
 one side, as he looked up into his dad's face and 
 said, " How would you ever get on without me, 
 dad ? " Or he would lose himself in the thought 
 of the oft-repeated scene at the dinner-table, 
 when the little chap stood up for his dad so 
 manfully, and the little hand, with its sweetly 
 comforting touch, stole into his under the table. 
 And then the tears would gather in his eyes 
 and roll slowly down his cheeks, leaving a 
 grimy track like that of a rain-drop on a dusty 
 window-pane.
 
 2OO NORSELAND TALES 
 
 " My Little Chap, my dear Little Chap," he 
 would murmur, as he arose and returned to his 
 toil, " when shall I ever see you again ? " 
 
 It was this burning heart-hunger for his boy 
 which made him turn every penny many times 
 before he could persuade himself to spend it. 
 He grew positively stingy, denying himself the 
 necessary food and clothes, always trying to do 
 with a little less, in the hope of hastening the 
 day when he should be able to send for the Lit 
 tle Chap. He worked surreptitiously after time, 
 in order to earn some extra pennies, and he got 
 the reputation among his fellow-workmen of be 
 ing a mean, penurious skinflint, who hoarded his 
 wages with a view to becoming a boss, some day, 
 and lording it over them. He was accordingly 
 excessively unpopular, and only succeeded in 
 escaping injury by keeping scrupulously out of 
 everyone's way, and ignoring insults which 
 made his blood boil. Fearless as he was, and 
 tremendously strong, he could have ground 
 his assailants to powder, and often itched in 
 every nerve to show them the stuff he was 
 made of. But that would lead to difficulties 
 and expense, and retard the day of the Little 
 Chap's arrival. 
 
 At the end of one year Amund had saved 
 $550 from his wages; but having no confidence 
 in the banks, he carried the entire amount in
 
 THE LITTLE CHAP 2OI 
 
 gold eagles in a leather belt about his waist. 
 The consciousness of carrying so much money 
 made him, however, very uneasy, and disturbed 
 his sleep. Four or five times every night he 
 started up in terror, having dreamed that his 
 money was stolen. It then occurred to him that 
 the only safe way to dispose of it would be to 
 invest it in a cottage and lot on the West Side, 
 where land was yet cheap. Land could not run 
 away, and a house not even the most daring 
 thief could steal. Distrusting everyone in this 
 bewilderingly strange land, he was in no haste 
 to solicit advice. But one day an advertisement 
 in a Scandinavian paper caught his eye and set 
 him thinking. It read as follows : 
 
 " THE POOR MAN'S FRIEND. 
 
 "The Fidelity Real Estate Investment Com 
 pany sell choice City Lots, improved and unim 
 proved, on the Instalment Plan. West Side 
 Property a Specialty." 
 
 Amund cut this out, read it at least twenty 
 times a day, and carried it in his pocket for 
 weeks, before he summoned courage to call at 
 the address designated. But his hoard kept in 
 creasing week by week, and his anxiety grew 
 apace. Why should he not call upon the Fidel 
 ity Real Estate Investment Company ? It was
 
 2O2 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 the poor man's friend, the advertisement said, 
 and might offer him some good advice as to the 
 best way of acquiring a home in the shortest 
 possible time ; for he was growing eagerer 
 every day for the sight of the Little Chap. A 
 burning unrest possessed him, a half-supersti 
 tious fear lest something should happen to pre 
 vent the ardently desired meeting. 
 
 Finally, one day in the early spring, he called 
 upon the Fidelity Real Estate Investment Com 
 pany. He had fancied from the advertisement 
 something very complicated and magnificent, and 
 was somewhat disappointed at being confronted 
 with a sandy-haired and very pimpled young 
 man, who sat in his shirt -sleeves in a scantily 
 furnished back office, chewing a toothpick. 
 
 " Is this the the office of the Fidelity Real 
 Estate Investment Company ? " queried Amund, 
 respectfully. 
 
 " Yes," the young man replied, taking his feet 
 down from the table. " What can I do for 
 you ? " 
 
 " I I should like to see the the president 
 of the company, if if you would be so very 
 kind as to call him," Amund remarked, apolo 
 getically. 
 
 " I regret to say the president is out of town 
 at present," said the plausible youth ; " but won't 
 you sit down, please ? I think, perhaps, I can
 
 THE LITTLE CHAP 2O3 
 
 give you all the information you require ; and I 
 need not say I shall be very happy if I can be of 
 service to you." 
 
 There was something so insinuating in the 
 young fellow's manner that Amund, though he 
 had resolved to be very cautious, soon found 
 himself talking freely with him. 
 
 The next day the young man Farley was his 
 name dropped in upon him, by pure chance, it 
 seemed, while he was having his noon rest ; and 
 they became better acquainted. The following 
 Sunday they met again ; and Farley took Amund 
 about in a buggy, and showed him all the prop 
 erty he had for sale on the West Side. He in 
 vited him to lunch with him in his little cottage 
 on West Indiana Street, where he was living ; 
 and the upshot of many interviews and conver 
 sations was that he offered to sell this cottage, 
 with lot, to Amund for $2,000, possession to be 
 granted when $1,200 had been paid, and a mort 
 gage to be given for the remaining amount. It 
 seemed all so perfectly fair and square that 
 Amund, after having got the price down to 
 $1,800 and the furniture thrown in, had no hesi 
 tation in closing the bargain. He paid over to 
 Farley the $800 which he had then accumulated, 
 and received an acknowledgment of the amount 
 from him, with promise of deed on payment of 
 $400 more.
 
 2O4 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 Then he picked out the room which was to be 
 long to the Little Chap ; and all day long, during 
 his work, he hummed to himself or broke into 
 snatches of unmelodious song at the thought of 
 the Little Chap's pleasure in that room, and the 
 furniture which he would make with his own 
 hands for the Little Chap's comfort. He worked 
 with a will now, and would scarcely grant him 
 self time for sleep ; for every blow of his ham 
 mer and every whiz of his saw brought the Lit 
 tle Chap nearer. 
 
 Then another year passed. Month by month 
 Amund handed over his savings to Farley, who 
 pocketed them in a cool, business-like manner; 
 arid at last, when the $1,200 had been paid, he 
 kept his word, and gave a deed of the property 
 to the carpenter. Joyously then Amund wrote 
 to his wife, telling her to make no delay in com 
 ing, for he had now a home of his own in which 
 to receive her and the children. And it was all 
 furnished, and there was a separate room for the 
 Little Chap God bless him ! where he could 
 keep all his funny little traps, so that his sisters 
 wouldn't annoy him. Much he wrote in this 
 strain, for his heart was overbrimming with joy, 
 and life seemed brighter and more beautiful to 
 him than ever before. The only thing that 
 troubled him a little was the fact that the family 
 who lived in the house had not yet moved out.
 
 THE LITTLE CHAP 2O$ 
 
 But Farley explained that their lease did not ex 
 pire until April ist, and that, in the meanwhile, he 
 would have to be patient. On April 2d they 
 would be gone, and then he could take posses 
 sion. 
 
 I shall not attempt to describe the meeting 
 between the Little Chap and his dad. It was 
 just the 2d of April when the family arrived in 
 Chicago, and were put, like so much baggage, 
 into an express wagon and driven to West Indi 
 ana Street. Amund ran up the front steps with 
 the Little Chap in his arms to show off his cot 
 tage ; and the wife and the five girls, all bundled 
 up with scarfs and kerchiefs until they looked 
 like walking hay-stacks, scrambled out of the 
 wagon as best they could. Farley had. prom 
 ised to be there with the keys, and formally 
 put the new owner in possession. It annoyed 
 Amund a good deal when his first and second 
 ring at the door-bell remained unanswered, and 
 still more annoyed was he when, at the third, a 
 man who bore not the least resemblance to Far 
 ley opened the door and asked him, in language 
 more vigorous than polite, what he wanted. 
 
 " I I have bought this house," Amund said, 
 with an air of righteous indignation, " and I was 
 told by Mr. Farley that you were to move out 
 on the ist of April." 
 
 The occupant of the house smiled an extreme-
 
 2O6 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 ly unpleasant smile, and asked, coldly, " Whom 
 did you buy it of ? " 
 
 " Mr. Farley." 
 
 " That is a great pity, for he never owned it." 
 
 " But where is he? He promised me the keys 
 last night." 
 
 " He has gone West." 
 
 " Gone West?" An icy terror clutched at the 
 Norseman's heart, and he reeled backward as if 
 he had been struck. " Good God ! " he groaned, 
 sinking down upon the steps. " Good God ! " 
 
 The Little Chap, seeing his distress, wound his 
 arms tightly about his neck and rubbed his cheek 
 against his face. He sat thus for five or ten 
 minutes, while the five blond bundled-up girls 
 stood on the sidewalk, staring at him with inno 
 cent stupidity. Then the man of the house re 
 appeared, and ordered them in harsh language 
 to move on. And when they only continued to 
 stare in uncomprehending wonder, two police 
 men were sent for, and the whole family were 
 huddled into a patrol wagon and driven to the 
 nearest police station. There Amund, under the 
 stress of answering the required questions, was 
 aroused sufficiently from his dumb misery to 
 send for a Norwegian lawyer, who presently 
 made his appearance. He listened to the car 
 penter's story, and then shook his head mourn 
 fully.
 
 THE LITTLE CHAP 2O/ 
 
 " You have been swindled, my friend," he said. 
 " You ought to have been more cautious." 
 
 " But but, lawyer," the poor fellow went on, 
 gazing into his face with an anguished expect 
 ancy, " he he sold me the house and here 
 I've got the papers. It's all right, surely. Ain't 
 it, lawyer?" 
 
 The lawyer looked at the paper which was 
 handed him, and then dropped it contemptuous 
 ly on the floor. 
 
 " A very clumsy trick," he said. 
 
 " But but he couldn't surely sell me what 
 what didn't belong to him, lawyer ? " 
 
 " Yes, he could, if anyone was fool enough to 
 buy." 
 
 " But, lawyer I say, lawyer do you mean to 
 say now, that that I have worked and slaved 
 nigh on to three years, and often starved and 
 skimped myself for the Little Chap's sake do 
 you mean to say that that man is to have it, and 
 not my Little Chap ? " 
 
 Beads of cold perspiration burst out upon his 
 brow, and the pained wonder and stunned be 
 wilderment in his face were pitiful to behold. 
 His slow wits could not yet grasp the situation, 
 and he was obviously hoping against hope that 
 there was some terrible misunderstanding at the 
 bottom of it all, and that sooner or later it would 
 be cleared up.
 
 2O8 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 The lawyer had in all his practice never en 
 countered so heart-rending a case. He weighed 
 his words well before he answered : 
 
 " My dear friend, you have paid dearly for 
 your first experience in the New World." 
 
 Amund, taking in slowly the bearings of this 
 remark, stood staring before him with a vacant 
 look of dawning terror; then tremblingly he 
 raised his hands toward the ceiling, and cried : 
 "Oh, God, what shall I do? What shall I 
 do?" 
 
 There was a hush as of death in the station- 
 room. In the presence of so monstrous a wrong 
 every one stood helpless, and a little awed. 
 After the terrible explosion of despair Amund's 
 head drooped upon his breast, his knees tottered, 
 and he fell in a heap upon the floor. 
 
 The Little Chap, who had stood with his hands 
 in his pockets, a puzzled frown upon his face, 
 during this strange scene, grew suddenly alarmed 
 as his father fell. He strove bravely to dis 
 guise his distress, which he held to be unmanly ; 
 but his lips quivered and his eyes were full of 
 tears. 
 
 " Dad," he said, stooping over the prostrate 
 form of his father with a touching air of loving 
 protectorship " Dad, I wouldn't take on so if I 
 was you." He waited anxiously for a response, 
 and when none came, he continued, in a sooth-
 
 THE LITTLE CHAP 2OQ 
 
 ingly comforting tone : " Dad, dear dad, don't 
 you worry. I'll help you, dad." 
 
 The sweet, old, well - remembered phrase 
 aroused the stricken man from his despair. He 
 raised himself suddenly on his knees, stared with 
 a wakening wonder at the child ; then, closing 
 him in his arms, he burst into tears. 
 
 " Yes, my Little Chap," he cried, " you will 
 help me. And may God forgive me for despair 
 ing as long as I have you ! " 
 
 And he rose with the Little Chap in his arms, 
 and the two began bravely the battle of life 
 anew.
 
 THE SUN'S SISTERS* 
 
 THERE was once a young Prince who had no 
 playmates except a peasant lad named Lars. 
 The King, of course, did not like to have his son 
 play with such a common boy ; but as there 
 were no princes or kings in the neighborhood, 
 he had no choice but to put up with Lars. One 
 day the Prince and Lars were shooting at 
 marks together. Lars hit the bull's-eye again 
 and again, while the Prince's arrows flew rattling 
 among the tree-trunks, and sometimes did not 
 even hit the target. Then he grew angry and 
 called Lars a lout and a clod-hopper. Lars did 
 not mind that much, for he knew that princes 
 were petted and spoiled, and could not bear to 
 be crossed. 
 
 " Now, Prince," he said, " let us shoot up into 
 the air and see who can shoot the highest." 
 
 The Prince, who had a beautiful gilt bow and 
 polished silver-tipped arrows, had no doubt but 
 that he could shoot much higher than Lars, 
 
 * The central theme of this story is borrowed from a fairy tale, 
 told to Prof. J. A. Fries, by the Lapps in Tanen. H. H. B.
 
 THE SUN'S SISTERS 211 
 
 whose bow was a juniper branch which he had 
 himself cut and cured. So he accepted the offer. 
 
 " Let us aim at the sun," he cried, gayly. 
 
 " All right," shouted Lars ; and at the same 
 moment they let fly two arrows, which cleft the 
 air with a whiz and vanished among the fleecy 
 clouds. 
 
 The boys stood looking up into the sun- 
 steeped air until their eyes ached ; and after a 
 moment or two, the Prince's arrow fell at his 
 side, and he picked it up. Nearly fifteen min 
 utes elapsed before Lars's arrow returned, and 
 when he picked it up, he was astonished to find 
 a drop of blood on the tip of it, to which clung a 
 dazzlingly beautiful golden feather. 
 
 " Why look at that ! " cried the boy, with 
 delight. " Isn't it wonderful ? " 
 
 " Yes, but it is mine," replied the Prince ; " it 
 was my arrow." 
 
 " It was no such thing," said Lars ; " I made 
 the arrow myself and ought to know it. Yours 
 are silver-tipped and polished." 
 
 " I tell you it is my arrow," cried the Prince, 
 in great anger ; " and if you don't give me the 
 feather, it will go ill with you." 
 
 Now, Lars would have been quite willing to 
 part with the feather, if the Prince had asked 
 him for it, but he was a high-spirited lad, and 
 would not consent to be bullied.
 
 212 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 " You know as well as I do that the arrow 
 is mine," he said, scowling ; " and the feather is 
 mine, too, and I won't give it to anybody." 
 
 The Prince said nothing ; but, pale with rage, 
 he hurried back to the castle and told his father, 
 the King, that his arrow had brought down a 
 beautiful golden feather and that Lars had taken 
 it from him. 
 
 Now, if you have any acquaintance with 
 kings, you may perhaps imagine how the old 
 gentleman felt, when he heard that his son and 
 heir had been thus wronged. It was to no pur 
 pose that Lars showed him the drop of blood on 
 the rude whittled arrow ; he insisted that the 
 feather was the Prince's, and that Lars was a 
 thief and a robber. But Lars was not to be 
 frightened even by that. He stuck to his story 
 and refused to give up the feather. 
 
 " Well, then," said the King, with a wicked 
 grin, " we'll say that it is yours. But in that 
 case you must be prepared to prove it. When 
 you bring me the golden hen from whose tail 
 this feather has been shot, then I'll admit that 
 it is yours. But if you fail, you will be burned 
 alive in a barrel of tar." 
 
 Now, to be burned alive in a barrel of tar is 
 not a pleasant thing ; and Lars, when he heard 
 that such a fate was in store for him, wished he 
 had never seen the golden feather. But it
 
 THE SUN'S SISTERS 21$ 
 
 would be disgraceful to back down now ; so he 
 accepted the terms, stuffed into his luncheon-bag 
 a leg of smoked mutton and a dozen loaves of 
 bread, which the cook at the castle gave him, 
 and started on his journey. But the question 
 now arose, where should he go ? Golden hens 
 were not such every-day affairs that he might 
 expect to find them in any barn-yard. And 
 barn-yard hens, moreover, were not in the habit 
 of flying aloft; and the golden feather had come 
 down to him from some high region of the air. 
 He became heavy-hearted when he thought of 
 these things, and imagined, whenever he saw a 
 farmer burning stumps and rubbish at the road 
 side, that it was the barrel of tar in which he 
 was to end his days. For all that, he kept 
 trudging on, and when evening came, he found 
 himself on the outskirts of a great forest. Be 
 ing very tired, he put his luncheon-bag under 
 his head, and soon fell asleep. But he had not 
 been sleeping long, when he was waked up by 
 somebody trying to pull the bag away from 
 under him. He raised himself on his elbow, 
 rubbed his eyes, and to his astonishment saw a 
 big fox sitting on his haunches and staring 
 at him. "Where are you going?" asked the 
 fox. 
 
 " I wasn't going anywhere," said Lars. " I 
 was sleeping."
 
 214 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 " Well, I am aware of that," observed Rey 
 nard ; " but when you are not sleeping, where 
 are you then going ? " 
 
 " Oh, well," said Lars, " the fact is, I am in a 
 bad scrape. I have got to find the golden hen 
 that has lost a tail-feather." 
 
 And he told the fox his story. 
 
 " Hm," said the fox ; " that is pretty bad. 
 Let me look at the feather." 
 
 The boy pulled out the feather from his inside 
 vest pocket, where he kept it carefully wrapped 
 up in birch-bark. 
 
 " Ah," said Reynard, when he had examined 
 it; "you know I have a large acquaintance 
 among hens. In fact, I am very fond of them. 
 I shouldn't wonder if I might help you find the 
 one which has lost this feather." 
 
 Lars, who had been quite down in the mouth 
 at the prospect of the barrel of tar, was delight 
 ed to hear that. 
 
 " I wish you would bear me company," said 
 he. " If you'll do me a good turn, I'll do you 
 another." 
 
 The fox thought that was a fair bargain ; and 
 so they shook hands on it, and off they started 
 together. 
 
 " Do you know where we are going ? " asked 
 Reynard, after a while. 
 
 " No," said Lars ; " but I supposed you did."
 
 REYNARD OFFERS HIMSELF AS A TRAVELING COMPANION.
 
 THE SUN'S SISTERS 21$ 
 
 " I do. We are going to the Sun's Sister.* 
 She has three golden hens. It was one of those 
 you hit with your arrow." 
 
 " But will she be willing to part with any of 
 them ? " asked the boy. 
 
 " Leave that to me," answered Reynard ; " you 
 know I have had some experience with hens." 
 
 Day after day they walked up one hill and 
 down another until they came to the castle of 
 the Sun. It was a gorgeous castle, shining with 
 silver and gold and precious stones. The boy's 
 eyes ached when he looked at it. Even the 
 smoke that curled up into the still air from 
 the chimneys was radiant like clouds at sun 
 set. 
 
 " That's a nice place," said Lars. 
 
 " So it is," said Reynard. " It is best, I think, 
 to have me sneak into the poultry-yard, where 
 the three golden hens are, and then I'll bring 
 out the one that has lost its tail-feather." 
 
 Lars somehow didn't like that plan. He 
 didn't quite trust Reynard in the matter of 
 hens ; he knew the fox had a natural weakness 
 for poultry ; but, of course, he was too polite to 
 say so. 
 
 " No, Reynard," he began, blushing and hesi 
 tating ; " I am really afraid you might come to 
 harm. And you might make too much of a 
 
 * The Lappish words Baeivas oabba mean " the Dawn."
 
 2l6 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 racket, you know, setting the whole poultry-yard 
 in commotion." 
 
 " Well, then, you go yourself," said Reynard, 
 somewhat offended ; " but take heed of this warn 
 ing. Look neither to the right nor to the left, 
 and go straight to the poultry-yard, seize the 
 hen that has lost one of the three long tail- 
 feathers, and then hasten out as quick as you 
 can." 
 
 Lars promised that he would obey in all par 
 ticulars. The gate was wide open ; the sentries, 
 who stood dozing in their boxes, did not seem to 
 mind him as he entered. It was high noon ; the 
 watch-dogs slept in their kennels, and a noonday 
 drowsiness hung over the whole dazzling palace. 
 So the boy went straight to the poultry-yard, as 
 he had been directed, spied the three golden 
 hens, the splendor of which nearly blinded him, 
 grabbed the one of them that had lost a tail- 
 feather, and started again in hot haste for the 
 gate. But as he passed by the wing of the pal 
 ace he noticed a window, the shutters of which 
 were ajar. A great curiosity to see what was 
 behind these shutters took possession of him. 
 " It would be a pity to leave this beautiful place 
 without looking about a little," he thought ; " I 
 can easily catch that hen again if I let her go 
 now, for she is as tame as a house-chicken." 
 
 So he let the hen go, opened the shutter, and
 
 THE SUN'S SISTERS 217 
 
 peeped into the room. And what do you think 
 he saw ? Well, he could scarcely have told you 
 himself, for he was so completely overwhelmed 
 that he stood gazing stupidly, like a cow at a 
 painted barn-door. But beautiful oh, beauti 
 ful, beyond all conception, was that which he 
 saw. That was the reason he stood speechless, 
 with open mouth and staring eyes. Of course, 
 now you can guess what it was. It was none 
 other than the Sister of the Sun. She was lying 
 upon her bed, sleeping sweetly, like a child that 
 is taking an after-dinner nap. Goodness and 
 kindness were shining from her features, and 
 Lars was filled with such ineffable joy at the 
 mere sight of her that he forgot all about the 
 hen and the barrel of tar, and his playmate the 
 Prince, and the fox's warning. He did not know 
 that this was her great charm every one who 
 looked upon her was instantly filled with glad 
 ness unspeakable. Sorrow, and care, and malice, 
 and hatred instantly fled from the heart of every 
 one who came into her presence. No wonder 
 Lars couldn't think of hens, when he had so 
 lovely a creature to look upon. For several 
 minutes he stood at the window, lost in the 
 rapturous sight. Then stealthily, and without 
 thinking of what he was doing, he climbed over 
 the window-sill, and step by step drew nearer. 
 " Oh, how beautiful ! how beautiful ! how beau-
 
 2l8 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 tiful ! " he whispered, with bated breath. " Oh, I 
 must kiss her before I go, or I shall never have 
 peace so long as I live." 
 
 And down he stooped and kissed the Sun's 
 Sister. You would have supposed now that she 
 would have wakened. But, no ! She lay per 
 fectly still ; her bosom heaved gently, and the 
 red blood went meandering busily under her 
 soft, transparent skin, and her dazzling hair bil 
 lowed in a golden stream over the silken pillow, 
 and down upon the floor. Lars would have 
 been content to spend all his life gazing at her. 
 But a strange uneasiness came over him his 
 errand, the golden hen, the barrel of tar, and all 
 the rest of it came back to his memory slowly, 
 as if emerging from a golden mist, and, with a 
 sudden determination, he covered his eyes with 
 his hands, jumped out of the window, and started 
 again in search of the hen. But, somehow, the 
 whole world had now a different look to him. 
 Everything had changed, and the golden hen, 
 too. When he tried to catch her, this time, she 
 flapped with her wings, gave a hoarse shriek, 
 and ran as fast as she could. Lars plunged 
 ahead, reaching out with both his hands to catch 
 her, but she slipped from his grasp, and yelled 
 and screamed worse than ever. Instantly her 
 two companions set up a sympathetic cackle, 
 and in another minute the entire poultry-yard
 
 THE SUN'S SISTERS 219 
 
 geese, ducks, peacocks, and hens joined the 
 chorus, making an ear-splitting racket, the like 
 of which had scarcely been heard since the 
 world was made. The Sun's Sister, aroused by 
 this terrible commotion, rubbed her beautiful 
 eyes, and started in alarm for the poultry-yard. 
 The dogs came rushing out of their kennels, 
 barking furiously ; the sentries who had been 
 dozing at the gates drew their swords and flour 
 ished them savagely, and everybody in the whole 
 castle was astir. 
 
 " What are you doing here ? " asked the Sun's 
 Sister, when she saw the boy chasing her favor 
 ite golden hen. 
 
 " Oh, well," said Lars, feeling rather bashful ; 
 " I was only amusing myself." 
 
 " Well," said the Sun's Sister, gently (for she 
 was as good as she was beautiful), "you can't 
 amuse yourself catching my hens unless un 
 less " 
 
 " Unless what ? " asked Lars. 
 
 " Unless " (and here the face of the Sun's Sis 
 ter grew very sad), " unless you can rescue my 
 sister Afterglow * from the Trolds, who carried 
 her off far behind the western mountains, many 
 years ago." 
 
 * The Lappish word means "the Evening Red" the flush that 
 follows the sunset as Baeivas oabba is literally "the Morning 
 Red."
 
 22O NORSELAND TALES 
 
 Lars scarcely knew what to answer to that; 
 he would have liked to consult his friend Rey 
 nard before saying anything-. But the Sun's 
 Sister looked so beautiful that he had not the 
 heart to say her nay, and so he rashly promised. 
 Then he took his leave reluctantly, and the mo 
 ment he was outside the gate and could no more 
 see the radiant face, his heart seemed ready to 
 break with longing and sadness. 
 
 " Well, didn't I tell you you would get into 
 mischief?" said Reynard, when he heard the 
 story of Lars's exploits. " So now we shall have 
 to rescue this Afterglow too. Well, that'll be no 
 easy matter ; and if you can't behave any better 
 than you have done to-day, then there's really 
 no use in our attempting it." 
 
 Lars had to coax and beg for a full hour, and 
 promise that his behavior should be the very 
 pink of propriety and discretion, if Reynard 
 would only forgive him and help him in his next 
 enterprise. Reynard held out long, but at last 
 he took pity on Lars and gave his consent. 
 
 Day after day, and night after night, they trav 
 elled toward the far mountains in the west, and 
 at last arrived at the castle of the Trolds. 
 
 " Now," said the fox, " I shall go in alone, and 
 when I have induced the girl to follow me, 1 
 shall hand her over to you, and then you must 
 rush away with her as fast as you can ; and leave
 
 THE SUN'S SISTERS 221 
 
 me to detain the Trolds by my tricks, until you 
 are so far away that they cannot overtake you." 
 
 Lars thought that was a capital plan, and sta 
 tioned himself outside the gate, while the fox 
 slipped in. It was early in the evening, and it was 
 almost dark ; but there shot up a red blaze of light 
 from all the windows of the castle of the Trolds. 
 Reynard, who had been there many a time be 
 fore, and was an old acquaintance of the Trolds, 
 soon perceived that something unusual was going 
 on. So far as he could see they were having a 
 ball ; and the Trolds were all taking turns at 
 dancing with Afterglow for she was the only 
 girl in the whole company. When they saw the 
 fox one of them cried out : 
 
 " Hallo, old Reynard, you have always been 
 a light-footed fellow. Won't you come in and 
 have a dance ? " 
 
 " Thanks," said Reynard, " I am never loath to 
 dance." 
 
 And he placed his paw upon his breast and 
 made his bow to Afterglow, who was darker 
 than her sister Dawn, and more serious, but 
 scarcely less beautiful. She filled the heart of 
 everyone who looked upon her, not with buoy 
 ant joy and hope, but meditation and gentle sad 
 ness. She was sad herself, too, because she 
 hated the ugly Trolds who held her in captivity, 
 and longed to go back to the beautiful palace
 
 222 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 of her brother, the Sun. So when Reynard 
 asked her to dance, she scarcely looked at him, 
 but with a wearied listlessness allowed him to 
 put his arm about her waist and swing her 
 about to the measure of the music. And Rey 
 nard was a fine dancer. Swiftly and more swift 
 ly he gyrated about, and every time he passed a 
 candle he managed to whisk it out with his tail. 
 One two three! before anybody knew it, it 
 was pitch-dark in the hall ; and before the Trolds 
 had recovered from their astonishment, Rey 
 nard had danced out through the door into the 
 hall, from the hall into the court-yard, and from 
 the court-yard into the open field, outside the 
 gate. 
 
 " Lars," he cried to the boy, " here is After 
 glow. Now take her and hurry away as fast as 
 you can." 
 
 Lars did not have to be told that twice ; but, 
 taking Afterglow by the hand, ran as fast as his 
 feet could carry him. 
 
 Reynard instantly slipped in again and pre 
 tended to help the Trolds to light the candles. 
 But it took him a long time to strike fire with 
 the flint, because the tinder was damp ; and if the 
 Trolds had not been so stupid, they would have 
 seen that the fox was making them trouble instead 
 of helping them. After a long while, however, 
 they succeeded in getting the candles lighted,
 
 THE SUN'S SISTERS 22$ 
 
 and then they perceived that Afterglow was 
 gone. 
 
 " Where is Afterglow ? Where is After 
 glow ? " they all roared in chorus, and some of 
 them wept with anger, while others tore their 
 beards and hair with rage. 
 
 " Oh, you sly old fox, it is you who have let 
 her escape," shouted one great, fat, furious 
 Trold, " but you shall suffer for it. Just let me 
 get hold of you, and you sha'n't have another 
 chance to play tricks again." 
 
 Instantly they all made a rush for Reynard, 
 yelling and weeping, and stamping and threaten 
 ing. But Reynard, as you know, is no easy cus 
 tomer to catch ; and the Trolds were no match 
 for him in running. He led them a dance over 
 fields, and moors, and mountains, keeping just in 
 front of them, so that they always supposed they 
 were on the point of catching him, but yet elud 
 ing them by his agility and unexpected turns 
 and leaps. He took good care to lay his course 
 in the direction opposite to that which Lars and 
 Afterglow had taken ; and thus, the farther the 
 Trolds ran, the slighter were their chances of re 
 covering her. After a while, however, Reynard 
 grew tired of this game, and then he remem 
 bered that there was a big swamp near by, and 
 thither he hastened. But while he sprang lightly 
 from hillock to hillock, the heavy Trolds in their
 
 224 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 wrath plunged ahead, and before they knew it, 
 they sank down in the marsh up to their very 
 waists. The more they struggled to get out, the 
 deeper they settled in the mud ; and a chorus of 
 angry roars and shouts and hoarse yells rose 
 from the floundering company in that swamp 
 and swept across the sky like a fierce, discord 
 ant storm. But shouting did not do them any 
 good. The night passed, and when the Dawn 
 flushed the east, the fox, sitting on his hillock, 
 called out : 
 
 " Look, there comes the Sun's Sister." 
 
 The Trolds, supposing it was Afterglow, 
 turned with one accord toward the east, and in 
 stantly, as the first rays of the Dawn struck 
 them, they turned into stone. For the Trolds 
 only go abroad in the night, and cannot endure 
 the rays of the Sun. And the huge stones, 
 vaguely retaining their shapes, can yet be seen 
 in the marsh in Lapland where they perished. 
 
 Now, Reynard lost no time in seeking Lars 
 and Afterglow, and toward evening he found 
 their tracks, and before morning came he had 
 overtaken them. When they arrived at the cas 
 tle of the Sun they were received with great de 
 light, and Dawn and Afterglow, after their long 
 separation, kissed and embraced each other, and 
 wept with joy. 
 
 Now Lars was at liberty to take the golden
 
 THE SUJV'S SISTERS 22$ 
 
 hen and depart for the King's castle ; but the 
 f trouble with him now was that he did not 
 want to depart. He could not tear himself 
 away from Dawn's radiant presence, but sat as 
 one bewitched, staring into her lovely face. 
 And so it came to pass that they were engaged, 
 and Lars promised to come back and marry her, 
 as soon as he had made his peace with his mas 
 ter the King, and presented him with the golden 
 hen. Now, that seemed to Dawn a nice arrange 
 ment, and she let him depart. Lars invited his 
 good friend Reynard to bear him company, but 
 when they came to the place of their first meet 
 ing Reynard refused to go any farther. So Lars 
 fell upon his neck, thanked him for his good ser 
 vice, and they embraced and kissed each other. 
 The King received Lars pretty well, and was 
 delighted to get the golden hen. But when he 
 heard about the Sun's Sister, whom no one 
 could look upon without being filled with glad 
 ness, his brow became clouded, and it was easy 
 to see that he was much displeased. So he told 
 Lars that, unless he brought the Sun's Sister in 
 stantly to the court and gave her as a bride to 
 the young Prince, he would have to be burned 
 in the barrel of tar after all. Now, that was the 
 most unpleasant thing Lars had heard for a good 
 while, and he wished he could have had the 
 counsel of his good friend Reynard ; for other- 
 is
 
 226 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 wise he saw no way out of the scrape. Then it 
 occurred to him that the Sun had two sisters, 
 and that possibly he might induce Afterglow to 
 marry the Prince. He made haste accordingly 
 to be off on his journey, and when he saw the 
 tar-barrels being made ready on the hill-top 
 behind the castle, he vowed that, unless he was 
 successful in his errand, he would be in no haste 
 to come back again. When he arrived at the 
 palace of the Sun, Dawn was overjoyed to see 
 him. But when he told his story and mentioned, 
 in passing, the tar-barrel, then she was not quite 
 so well pleased. However, she went to consult 
 Afterglow ; and Afterglow, after her experience 
 with the ugly Trolds, was not at all averse to 
 marrying a handsome young Prince. So she 
 rode away on a splendid charger with Lars, and 
 the Prince, when he heard she was coming, rode 
 out to meet her, and even the old King himself 
 vowed that he had never seen anyone so beau 
 tiful. He grew so gentle, and courteous, and 
 affectionate as he looked at her, that he forgot 
 all about his threats ; and when Afterglow asked 
 him what that great pile of tar-barrels was for, 
 he felt quite ashamed of himself, and answered : 
 " Oh, I was going to burn a wretch there ; 
 but as I suppose you don't like the smell of 
 burnt wretch on your wedding-day, I'll give 
 orders to have it removed."
 
 THE SUN'S SISTERS 22/ 
 
 The next day the wedding was celebrated 
 with great magnificence ; and the feasting and 
 the dancing and rejoicing lasted for an entire 
 week. When it was all over, Lars asked the 
 King's permission to go on a long journey. He 
 had no fear of a refusal, for the King had be 
 come so nice and gentle, since his daughter-in- 
 law came into the family, that even his best 
 friends scarcely recognized him. So he readily 
 granted Lars's request. With a light heart and 
 bounding steps Lars went eastward, day after 
 day, and night after night, until he came to the 
 palace of the Sun. And there he celebrated his 
 wedding with Dawn, and lived in joy ineffable 
 in her sweet presence, until the end of his days. 
 If he is not dead, he is probably living there yet.
 
 LITTLE ALVILDA * 
 
 THERE was once a clergyman who lived some 
 where in the interior mountain valleys of Nor 
 way. He had five children, all of whom were 
 dear to him ; but there was one among them 
 who was nearer to his heart than all the rest ; 
 and that was a little girl, five years old, named 
 Alvilda. It may have been because she was the 
 youngest of the five ; for the youngest child, 
 especially if it is a girl, is always likely to be 
 the father's pet ; or it may have been be 
 cause she was a very sweet and lovable child, 
 who drew all hearts toward her as the sun draws 
 the flowers. When her mother took her to 
 church on Sunday morning, she slipped like a 
 sunbeam among the sombre congregation, and all 
 faces brightened and a softer look stole into the 
 eyes of old and young, when she passed by. In 
 her quaint little poke-bonnet and her old-fash- 
 
 * This story, or rather the principal incident in it, I heard as a 
 child, and have an impression that it is found in one of the Norweg 
 ian school-readers. I do not remember who is its author, if I ever 
 knew ; but it is known to every Norwegian boy and girl, and is re 
 garded as a kind of classic by the Norse childhood.
 
 LITTLE ALVILDA 
 
 ioned gown, and with her chubby little hands 
 folded over her mother's hymn-book, she did, in 
 deed, look so bewitching that it seemed a hard 
 ship not to stop and kiss her. " Bless the child," 
 said the matrons, with heartfelt unction, when 
 her bright smile beamed upon them. " Bless her 
 dear little heart," ejaculated the young girls ad 
 miringly, as they knelt down in the road to pat 
 Alvilda, to kiss her, or only to touch her in pass 
 ing. 
 
 When Alvilda's fifth birthday came it hap 
 pened to be right in the middle of the berry sea 
 son ; and it was determined to celebrate it by 
 a berrying party to which a dozen children of 
 the neighborhood were invited. Fritz, Alvilda's 
 fourteen-year-old brother, whom she abjectly ad 
 mired, magnanimously undertook the duty of 
 sending out the invitations ; and he consulted his 
 own sovereign fancy in inviting those whom he 
 liked and leaving out those who had had the mis 
 fortune to incur his displeasure. It was found, 
 when all the children gathered in front of the par 
 sonage, about nine o'clock in the morning, that it 
 was indeed Fritz's party rather than Alvilda's. 
 But Alvilda, who always thought that whatever 
 Fritz did was well done, was perfectly content. 
 She liked big boys, she said, because they were 
 not half the trouble that little girls were. First 
 there was her brother Charles, twelve years old,
 
 23O NORSELAND TALES 
 
 who was the proud possessor of a drum which 
 had been presented to him at Christmas ; the 
 judge's Albert, thirteen years old, who was, to be 
 sure, a great tease, and inclined to run off with 
 Fritz on all sorts of mysterious errands ; and there 
 was the lawyer's Frederick, who never spoke to 
 girls in public for fear of being thought frivo 
 lous. Of girls there were but two : Sophy, Al- 
 vilda's fifteen-year-old sister, who was almost 
 grown up, and carried a novel in her pocket 
 which she read at odd moments in the garden, 
 in the kitchen, and, most of all, in the woods ; 
 and Albert's sister, Ingeborg, who had so 
 many delightful secrets which she would never 
 share with anybody except her bosom friend 
 Sophy. 
 
 Fritz, who had provided himself with a tin 
 trumpet, marshalled his forces in the yard, and, 
 having arranged them in rank and file like sol 
 diers, gave the command, " Forward, march ! " 
 
 The girls followed as best they could, the 
 two elder ones leading Alvilda by the hand be 
 tween them. The father, who was reluctant to 
 send her into the woods, fearing that she might 
 become overtired, charged them not to leave 
 her for a moment, and to see that she had an op 
 portunity to rest whenever she wished all of 
 which Sophy and Ingeborg promised. 
 
 The weather was glorious ; the sunshine was
 
 LITTLE ALVILDA 
 
 just warm enough to be agreeable, and the light 
 clouds which sailed over the blue vault of the 
 sky seemed to be having a happy time of it. 
 The woods which grew in the rugged glens, on 
 the slope of the mountain, were filled with the 
 fragrance of birch and pine and lilies of the val 
 ley ; and the brooks, swollen by the melting ice 
 of the glaciers, danced gayly down through the 
 ravines, with a constant gurgling rush which 
 fell pleasantly upon the ear. 
 
 When the boys left the highway for the moun 
 tain-plains, they broke ranks, and each scram 
 bled up the rocks as best he could. It was in 
 vain that Fritz blew his trumpet and Charles 
 beat his drum. To climb the great moss-grown 
 rocks was too inviting ; and to stand on the top 
 of them and shout against the mountain wall, 
 which gave such a splendid echo, was a delight 
 which made the heart leap in one's bosom. 
 Fritz himself was not proof against such temp 
 tations, and finding his commands ignored, he 
 gracefully surrendered his dignity and joined 
 with a will in the sports of the rest. There 
 were squirrels to be stoned not a very nice 
 sport, I admit and later Fritz was ashamed of 
 having engaged in it. But there was much of 
 the savage about him, when he found himself in 
 the woods, and he made it a point to act out the 
 character and suppress whatever gentle emo-
 
 232 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 tions may have stirred in his bosom. Happily, 
 the squirrels were too nimble and alert for the 
 boys, and sat chattering at them from the upper 
 branches of the pines, where the stones, if they 
 reached at all, went wildly amiss. They then 
 found a toad, and would, I fear, have pitched it 
 skyward from the end of a board, if the girls 
 had not caught up with them ; and Alvilda, in 
 consideration of its being her birthday, was per 
 mitted to save the condemned miscreant. For 
 these boys, whoever and whatever they were, 
 were never themselves. They were by turns 
 robbers, pirates, mediaeval knights, Norse vik 
 ings, everything under the sun they could think 
 of, except nice, country boys sons, respectively, 
 of a lawyer, a judge, and a clergyman. A toad, 
 in their hands, became a captured merchant, or 
 an enchanted princess, or a thief condemned to 
 death, as the case might be. But it never, by 
 any possibility, remained a toad. 
 
 When they had climbed for an hour, Alvilda 
 began to grow tired ; and Fritz, seeing that 
 there was no likelihood of reaching the enchant 
 ed territory he had in view without carrying 
 her, undertook, with the aid of his comrades, to 
 make a litter of soft pine branches which was 
 quite comfortable to repose upon. The boys 
 then took turns carrying Alvilda, addressing her 
 all the while as the Princess Kunigunde, who
 
 LITTLE ALVILDA 233 
 
 was betrothed to the King of Andalusia, and 
 was now being borne by her faithful knights to 
 meet her royal bridegroom. Alvilda laughed 
 heartily at their deferential speeches ; a'nd her 
 clear voice rang through the woods, startling 
 now a covey of partridges which broke with a 
 frightened hum through the underbrush, now 
 a hare which scooted away with long leaps 
 over the heather, now a wild duck which, with 
 a great flapping of wings, darted away in a 
 straight line over the water, leaving its young 
 in the lurch among the sedges. But, although 
 she found it ridiculous, Alvilda enjoyed im 
 mensely being a princess and having her devot 
 ed knights kiss her hand and bend their knees, 
 when they spoke to her. 
 
 It was about eleven o'clock when the party 
 reached Fritz's berrying-grounds, which he had 
 discovered a few days ago, when on an expedi 
 tion with Albert in search of adventures. It 
 was just then toward the end of the strawberry 
 season and the beginning of the blueberry sea 
 son. The sweet wild strawberry, than which 
 there is nothing more delicious under the sun, 
 betrayed itself by its fragrance under the heath 
 er, and when the boys found an open patch, 
 about the roots of a tree, where the berries grew 
 in big bunches, they shouted aloud and danced 
 an Indian war-dance from excess of joy, before
 
 234 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 beginning to fill their mouths, their pails, and 
 their baskets. Fritz and Albert, who were the 
 champion pickers, had soon filled the tin pails 
 they had brought with them, and set to work 
 with great despatch to make baskets of birch- 
 bark wherewith to carry off their surplus. There 
 were the great blueberry fields still to be rav 
 aged ; and it seemed a pity not to pick some of 
 the fragrant sweet-brier and lilies of the valley 
 that grew so abundantly among the birches and 
 alders. Sophy and Ingeborg went into ecstasy 
 over the nodding clusters of pretty, bell-shaped 
 flowers which, in Norway, grow wild in the 
 woods ; and they picked their aprons full, again 
 and again, emptying them into one of Fritz's 
 birch-bark baskets. Of maiden-hair, too, and the 
 delicate little wood-stars, there was no lack ; and 
 in the open glades they found some belated vio 
 lets with a shy little ghost of a perfume that 
 stole into one's nostrils as a kind thought steals 
 into the heart. 
 
 Fritz and his manly comrades protested, of 
 course, against this " tomfoolery " with the flow 
 ers ; but as some indulgence must be granted to 
 the foibles of girls, they consented to assist in 
 the undignified task. A big heap of variegated 
 color pink, white, blue, and green was piled 
 up under a large, wide-spreading pine, where 
 Alvilda sat, like a fairy queen, glorying in her
 
 LITTLE ALVILDA 235 
 
 perishable treasures. It was then Fritz lost his 
 patience, and demanded to know whether it was 
 not time now to stop this nonsense and go in 
 quest of something' worth wearying one's limbs 
 for. As he had brought fishing tackle and bait, 
 he would propose a little fishing expedition on a 
 tarn, close by, and if the girls didn't care to ac 
 company him, he would go alone with his trusty 
 friends, Robin Hood and the Gray Friar, and 
 catch enough to provide luncheon for the whole 
 army. This proposition was too tempting to be 
 resisted, and presently all the boys scampered 
 away through the underbrush, leaving the three 
 girls under the pine-tree. Sophy spread a shawl 
 upon the ground for Alvilda to lie down upon ; 
 and herself drew a favorite novel from her pock 
 et, which she discussed in whispers with Inge- 
 borg. There were, indeed, the most delightful 
 things in this book : dreadful, black-hearted vil 
 lains, with black mustaches, who prowled about 
 in all sorts of disguises and lay in wait for un 
 suspecting innocence ; splendid, high - spirited 
 heroes, with blonde mustaches and nodding 
 white plumes on their helmets, who rescued 
 guileless innocence from the wiles of the vil 
 lains, and subsequently married it and no end 
 of glorious things besides. Sophy soon lost 
 all thought of her sister during this absorbing 
 discussion, and Alvilda, finding herself neglect-
 
 236 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 ed, pouted a little and dozed away into a sweet 
 sleep. 
 
 In the meanwhile the boys were having great 
 fun down on the tarn ; and being seized with a 
 ravenous appetite, as their usual hour for lunch 
 eon passed, they resolved to have a little im 
 promptu feast all by themselves before return 
 ing to the girls. They had caught a dozen fine 
 trout and no end of perch, and their mouths 
 watered to test the flavor of the former on the 
 spot. They accordingly built an improvised 
 stove of flat stones, made a fire in it, split the 
 fish, and broiled them over the flame. 
 
 The trout in particular proved to have a su 
 perb flavor, and Fritz, as a generous and mag 
 nanimous freebooter, was dispensing the hospi 
 tality of the woods with a royal hand. He for 
 got all about his dear little sister in whose honor 
 he was feasting, and he forgot, too, that he had 
 promised to return in half an hour with his 
 catch of fish. Sophy and Ingeborg, having ex 
 hausted the delights of the novel, began to 
 grow hungry ; and when an hour had passed, 
 they became impatient and, at last, angry. 
 They could hear Fritz's shouts of laughter in 
 the distance, and they began to suspect that the 
 boys were lunching without them. Now and 
 then the blare of a trumpet was vaguely audible, 
 and the rumble of Charles's drum.
 
 LITTLE ALVILDA 237 
 
 " I really think, Ingeborg," said Sophy, " that 
 those wretched boys have forgotten all about 
 us." 
 
 " I never could understand why boys were 
 created," observed Ingeborg. 
 
 " Well, anyway, I am hungry," ejaculated 
 Sophy. 
 
 " And I am ravenous ! that is, I am not averse 
 to something to eat," echoed her friend. 
 
 " Suppose we go and find those graceless 
 scamps," suggested Sophy. 
 
 " Very well ; but what shall we do with Al- 
 vilda?" 
 
 Alvilda to be sure what were they to do 
 with her ? Sophy felt a little pang of guilt, as 
 her eyes fell upon the sweet, chubby face of her 
 sleeping sister. 
 
 " She is sleeping so soundly. It would be a 
 pity to wake her up," she remarked, doubtfully. 
 " What do you say ? " 
 
 " Why, nothing can happen to her here," said 
 Ingeborg ; " we shall only be gone fifteen min 
 utes, you know, and then we shall be back with 
 the boys." 
 
 " But suppose there were bears about here ; 
 then it might be dangerous to leave her ! " 
 
 " Yes, and suppose there were lions and 
 crocodiles," laughed Ingeborg. 
 
 This sally disposed of Sophy's scruples ; and
 
 238 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 having thrown a jacket over Alvilda's feet and 
 kissed her on the cheek, she flung one arm about 
 her friend's waist and wandered away with her 
 in the direction from which the boys' laughter 
 was heard. It was not difficult to find those 
 young gentlemen, for they were engaged in a 
 lively wrangle as to which was the rightful 
 owner of the surplus quantity of fish which they 
 could not devour. Fritz maintained that he, as 
 the chieftain, had a just claim to the proceeds 
 of the labor of his vassals and slaves, and the 
 vassals and slaves loudly rebelled and declared 
 that they would never submit to such injustice ; 
 whereupon the chieftain magnanimously declared 
 that he would renounce his rights and surrender 
 the booty to be divided by lot among his men- 
 at-arms. It was at this interesting point that the 
 girls appeared upon the scene, and the gallant 
 freebooters dropped their quarrel and undertook, 
 somewhat shamefacedly, to wait upon their fair 
 guests. And as the fair guests had rather un 
 fashionable appetites, after their long fast and 
 vigorous exercise, the fifteen minutes became 
 half an hour, and the half-hour began to round 
 itself out to a whole hour, before their con 
 sciences smote them and they thought of Al- 
 vilda who was asleep under the big pine-tree. 
 
 And now let us see what befell little Alvilda. 
 She slept quietly for about twenty minutes after
 
 LITTLE ALVILDA 
 
 her sister left her ; and she would have slept 
 longer if something very extraordinary had not 
 happened. She was dreaming that the big mas- 
 tiff, Hector, at home in the parsonage, was in- 
 sisting upon kissing her, and she was struggling 
 to get away from his cold, wet nose, but could 
 not. A strange, wild odor was filling the air, 
 and it penetrated into Alvilda's dream and 
 made her toss uneasily. There was Hector 
 again, with his cold, wet nose, and he was blow 
 ing his warm breath into her face. She tried 
 to scold him, but not a sound could she pro 
 duce. In her annoyance she struck out with 
 her hand and hit something warm and furry. 
 But here consciousness broke through the filmy 
 webs of slumber ; she opened her eyes wide and 
 raised herself on her elbow. There stood Hec 
 tor, indeed, and stared straight into her eyes. 
 But how big he was ! And how his ears had 
 shrunk and his fur grown ! Alvilda rubbed her 
 eyes to make sure that she was awake. She 
 stared once more with a dim apprehension, and 
 saw yes, there could be no doubt of it she 
 saw that it was not Hector. It was an enor 
 mous, big brown beast, that stood snuffing at 
 her ; it was, perhaps, even a dangerous beast, 
 which might take it into its head to hurt her. 
 It was yes, now she was quite sure of it it 
 was a big brown bear !
 
 240 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 The little girl's first impulse was to cry out 
 for help. But it was so strangely still about 
 her. Where were her brothers and sister, Fritz 
 and his freebooters, Sophy and her friend Inge- 
 borg ? It could not be possible that they had 
 left her alone here in the forest. She threw 
 frightened glances about her ; but wherever she 
 looked she saw nothing but the long, solemn 
 colonnades of brown pine trunks. And there, 
 right in front of her, stood the bear, staring at 
 her with his small black eyes. It occurred to 
 her, even in her fright, that she must try to 
 make friends with this bear, in which case, per 
 haps, he might consent not to eat her. She 
 knew from her fairy-tales that there were good 
 bears and bad bears, and she devoutly hoped 
 that her new acquaintance might prove to be 
 long to the order of good bears. So, with a 
 quaking heart and a voice that shook, she arose, 
 and putting her hand on the bear's neck, she 
 exclaimed, with coaxing friendliness : " I know 
 you very well, Mr. Bear, but you don't know 
 me. I know you from my picture-book. You 
 are the good bear who carried the Princess on 
 your back, away from the Trold's castle." 
 
 The bear was apparently not displeased to 
 know that he had made so favorable an impres 
 sion, though he wished to make it plain that he 
 couldn't be bamboozled by flattery. For he
 
 LITTLE ALVILDA 24 1 
 
 shook 'his great shaggy head and gave a low, 
 good-naturpd grumble. And just at that mo 
 ment he caught sight of the big basket of straw 
 berries that stood under the tree. And turning 
 toward it, he slowly lifted his right fore-paw, 
 and, putting it straight into the basket, deliber 
 ately upset it. 
 
 " Why, Bear, what have you been doing ? " 
 cried Alvilda, half forgetting her fear. " Why, 
 don't you know those are Fritz's berries? and 
 he will be so angry when he gets back. For 
 Fritz, you know, is quite high-tempered. Now, 
 if you'll eat my berries, you may have them, 
 and welcome ; but, dear Mr. Bear, do let Fritz's 
 alone." 
 
 It may be surmised that the bear was not 
 greatly moved by this argument. He calmly 
 went on eating Fritz's berries, which were scat 
 tered all over the ground, and grumbled now 
 and then contentedly, as if to say that he found 
 the flavor of the berries excellent. He paid no 
 attention whatever to Alvilda's own little bas 
 ket, which she had placed invitingly before his 
 nose ; but, when he had finished Fritz's berries, 
 he selected the next biggest basket and upset 
 that in the same deliberate fashion in which he 
 had overturned the first one. 
 
 " Why, now, Mr. Bear, I don't think you are 
 good, at all," said Alvilda, when she saw her 
 
 16
 
 242 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 friend make havoc among the berry baskets. 
 " Don't you know you'll get a stomach-ache, if 
 you eat so many berries ? and then you'll have 
 to go to bed in your den and take nasty medi 
 cine." 
 
 But, seeing that the bear was no more affected 
 by self-interest than he was by regard for other 
 people's property, Alvilda, in her zeal, put her 
 arms about his neck and tried to drag him away. 
 She found, however, that she was no match for 
 Bruin in strength, and therefore sorrowfully 
 made up her mind to abandon him to his own 
 devices. " Now, Bear," she said, seating herself 
 again under the tree, and quite forgetting that 
 she had been frightened, " if you'll behave 
 yourself, I am going to make you a pretty 
 wreath of flowers. Then, Mr. Bear, won't you 
 look handsome, when you get home to your fam 
 ily?" 
 
 And, delighted at this vision of the bear re 
 turning to his astonished family decorated with 
 a wreath, she clapped her hands, emptied a bas 
 ket of wild flowers in her lap, and began to tie 
 them together. Lilies of the valley, she feared, 
 Bruin would scarcely appreciate ; but brier- 
 roses, violets, and columbines, she thought, 
 would not be beyond his taste ; and adding here 
 and there a sprig of whortleberries and of flowery 
 heather to give solidity to her wreath, she tied
 
 LITTLE ALVILDA 243 
 
 it securely about the bear's neck and laughed 
 aloud with joy at his appearance. Bruin had 
 obviously a notion that this was a kindly act, for 
 he suddenly rose up on his hind legs and, with a 
 pleased grumble, made an attempt to look at 
 himself. 
 
 " Oh, my dear Bruin," cried Alvilda, " you 
 look perfectly lovely ! Your family won't recog 
 nize you, when they see you again." 
 
 The bear lifted up his head and, as his eyes 
 met Alvilda's, there was a gleam in them of mild 
 astonishment, and, as the little girl imagined, of 
 gratitude. She laughed and talked on merrily 
 for some minutes, while her friend sat down on 
 his haunches and continued to gaze at her with 
 the same stolid wonder. But then, suddenly, 
 while Alvilda was making another wreath for 
 Bruin to take home to his wife, the blare of a 
 trumpet re-echoed through the woods, and 
 laughing voices were heard approaching. The 
 bear pricked up his ears, sniffed the air suspi 
 ciously, and waddled slowly away between the 
 tree-trunks. 
 
 " Why, no, Bear," Alvilda cried after him ; 
 " why don't you stay and meet Fritz and Sophy 
 and the judge's Albert ? " 
 
 But the bear, instead of returning, broke into 
 a gentle trot, and she heard the dry branches 
 creak beneath his tread as he vanished in the
 
 244 NORSELAND TALES 
 
 underbrush. And just as she lost the last 
 glimpse of him, Fritz and Sophy and the whole 
 party of children came rushing up to her, excus 
 ing themselves for their absence, calling her all 
 manner of pet names, and saying that they had 
 hoped she had not been frightened. " Oh, no, 
 not at all," answered Alvilda ; " I have had such 
 a nice bear here, who has kept me company. 
 But I am so sorry he has eaten up all your ber 
 ries." 
 
 The children thought, at first, that she must 
 be joking ; but seeing all the baskets upset, and 
 smelling the strong, wild odor that was yet lin 
 gering in the air, they turned pale, and stood 
 gazing at each other in speechless terror. But 
 Sophy burst into tears, hugged her little sister 
 to her bosom, and cried : 
 
 " Oh, how can you ever forgive me, Alvilda ? 
 It is all my fault ! I promised papa not to leave 
 you." 
 
 It was of no use that Alvilda kept repeating : 
 " But, Sophy, he was not a bad bear. He was 
 a nice bear, and he didn't hurt me at all." 
 
 There could be no more berrying after that. 
 The girls were in haste to be gone, and the val 
 iant freebooters had no desire to detain them. 
 They picked up their belongings as fast as they 
 could, and hurried down through the forest, each 
 taking his turn, as before, in carrying Alvilda.
 
 LITTLE ALVILDA 245 
 
 But they were neither knights nor princesses 
 nor freebooters any more. They were only 
 frightened boys and girls. 
 
 When they arrived at the parsonage about 
 five o'clock in the afternoon, they were too 
 tired, breathless, and demoralized to care much 
 what became of them. Sophy took upon her 
 self to tell her father what had happened. She 
 was prepared for the worst, and in her remorse 
 would have accepted cheerfully any punishment. 
 But imagine her astonishment, when her father 
 uttered no word of reproach, but folded Alvilda 
 in his arms and thanked God that he had his 
 little girl once more, safe and sound. 
 
 Now, if my story had ended here, nobody 
 would have been astonished ; but the most as 
 tonishing part of it is what remains to be told. 
 Six months after Alvilda's encounter with the 
 good bear, when a foot of snow covered the 
 ground, two of the parson's lumbermen, who 
 were famous hunters, returned from a week's 
 sojourn in the woods. Fritz, Albert, and Alvilda, 
 bundled up to their ears in scarfs and overcoats, 
 were sliding down the hill, behind the stables, 
 when they saw the two lumbermen, sitting as 
 tride of some big, dark object, coasting down 
 toward them. " Hurrah ! " cried Fritz, waving 
 his cap, " there are Nils and Thorstein ! And 
 they have killed something, too."
 
 246 NORSE LAND TALES 
 
 Nils and Thorstein, returning the greeting of 
 the young master, slackened their speed and 
 stopped beside the children. It was a big, 
 brown he-bear they had on their sled a regular 
 monster; and they were not a little proud of 
 having killed him. His tongue was hanging out 
 of his mouth, and there was a small hole in his 
 breast from which the blood was trickling down 
 on the snow. 
 
 " Je-miny," exclaimed Fritz admiringly, plung 
 ing his fist into the beast's dense fur, " ain't he 
 a stunner? But what is this? I declare! He 
 has a wreath of withered flowers about his 
 neck ! " 
 
 Alvilda, who had timidly drawn near, started 
 forward at these words and, letting her sled go, 
 stared at the dead animal. 
 
 " Why, it is my bear ! " she cried, bursting 
 into tears, " it is my dear, good bear ! " 
 
 And before anyone could prevent her, she 
 had flung her arms about the bear's neck and 
 buried her face in his fur ; and there she lay 
 weeping as if her heart would break. 
 
 " Oh, they have been bad to you," she sobbed ; 
 " and you were so good to me ; and you have 
 worn my wreath all this time." 
 
 The two hunters pulled the sled down into 
 the court-yard, Alvilda still weeping over her 
 dead playmate. And when her father came out
 
 LITTLE ALVILDA 247 
 
 and lifted her up in his arms, she yet remained 
 inconsolable, lamenting the fate of her good 
 bear. But from the animal's neck the pastor cut 
 the withered wreath ; and it hangs now on the 
 wall in Alvilda's room, as a memento of her 
 ursine friend and the love she bore him.
 
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