aristocracy and the oldest families of Scandinavia. Numerous proofs of this fact, indeed, are to be found in the ancestral names which are identical in both countries. There is no aristocracy in

n the least because it has sprung up anew in humble soil; and the walls are adorned w

English peers created after Rollo's invasion of Normandy, and though rank and wealth had both dep

s simply a village inn-keeper. The house had come down to him from his father and from his grandfather, who were widely

also been brought up like one of his own children. But for his uncle Harald, this orphan child would doubtless have been one of those poor creatures who come into the world only to leave it; and Ole Kamp e

is was especially true of late, for the seasons had been remarkably unpropitious, and agriculture of every kind had suffered greatly, even the pastures. There had been many of those "iron ni

unicative-a fact that pained Hulda and Joel not a little. But with that respect for the head of the family innate in Northern lands, they made no attempt to break down a reserve which was e

nor had it dimmed the brightness of her dark-blue eyes, whose azure was reflected in the clear orbs of her daughter; bu

wn bodice appeared the long full sleeves of an unbleached cotton chemise. On her shoulders she wore a small dark-colored fichu that crossed upon her breast, which was also covered by the la

stess neglected her spinning-wheel only to enjoy a small b

ed very gloomy had it not been fo

powerful shoulders, his broad chest, in which his lungs had full play, and stalwart limbs which never failed him even in the most difficult mountain ascents. His dark-blue jacket, fitting tightly at the waist, was adorned on the shoulders with epaulets, and in the back with designs in colored embroidery

arger than that found in the Hebrides, and the jerpir, a partridge much more delicate in its flavor than the grouse of Scotland. When winter came, the hunting of wolves engrossed his attention, for at that season of the year these fierce animals, emboldened by hunger, not unfrequently venture out upon the surface of the frozen lake. Then there was bear hunting in summer, when that a

Joel devoted his attention to the soetur, the little mountain farm where a young shepherd kept g

ved in every village in the Telemark; but two persons for whom he

ad been accustomed to the sea, he would certainly have gone in his cousin's place. But money was needed to start them in housekeeping, and as Dame Hansen had offered no assistance

g embrace, he wished him a pleasant journey and a speedy return, and then returned to console his sist

under a thin linen cap projecting in the back to give room for the long plaits of hair! What a lovely form incased in this tightly fitting bodice of red stuff, ornamented with green shoulder-straps and surmounted by a snowy chemisette, the sleeves of which were fastened a

hters of the North softening her smiling face; and on seeing her one instantly thought of Hulda

and it was not one of the smallest attractions of the inn to be greeted by that cordial shake of the hand that Hulda bestowed on one and all. And after having said