Read Ebook: Forest Scenes in Norway and Sweden: Being Extracts from the Journal of a Fisherman by Newland Henry

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Ebook has 1619 lines and 144097 words, and 33 pages

"Well," said Birger, "no one can appreciate a blessing until he has been deprived of it. I declare, it is a luxury in itself to be able to go where one pleases, after having been cribbed and cabined and confined as we have been, and to plant one's feet on the solid earth once more, instead of balancing our steps on a dancing plank."

"Pretty well, to call this solid earth," said the Captain; "I should call it decidedly marine."

"Something like the Christiansanders themselves," said Birger, "who, as all the world knows, are neither fish nor flesh, nor good red-herring; but I dare say Purgatory would be Paradise to those who arrived at it from the other way. Well, what is the matter? what are you stopping about?"

These last words were addressed to the Parson, who having been sent forward on the previous summer to spy out this Land of Promise, had volunteered to act as guide.

"If there is one thing more puzzling than another," said he, "it is this rectangular arrangement of streets. I wish those utilitarian Yankees, who claim the invention, had it all to themselves. It is fit only for them."

"The English of that is, you have lost your way," said the Captain.

"No, not lost my way," said the Parson, who piqued himself on his organ of locality; "but the fact is, I cannot remember, in the dark, which of all these rectangular crossings is the right one. I wish I could see that great lump of a church they are so proud of. I say, Birger, knock up some one, and ask 'if Monsieur Tonson lodges there.'"

"Not I," said Birger. "You are the guide; besides, they must be coming ashore, some of them, from the steamer by this time; and, in good truth, here are a couple of them."

This couple, much to their relief, turned out to be Ullitz and Torkel, who pointed out the road at once, but looked rather grave at the Captain's pipe, which was now sending forth a bright red glow through the darkness, and occasionally illuminating a budding moustache which he was cultivating on the strength of being a military man.

Had the acquaintance been of longer standing, they possibly would have spoken out; as it was, they contented themselves with a muttered dialogue in their own language, in which the Parson soon made out the words, "Tobacco" and "Police," both of which being modern inventions, bear nearly the same name in every language in Europe.

"Not smoke! why not?"

"For fear you should set fire to the town," said the Parson,--"that is all. You need not laugh; the law is very strict about it, I can tell you."

The Captain did burst out laughing; and, in truth, where they were standing, it seemed a ridiculous law enough, though it is pretty general both in Norway and Sweden. The street was one of unusual width, being one expanse of sand from side to side, and the houses, none of which boasted a storey above the ground floor, seemed absurdly distant,--almost indistinct in the darkness.

The Captain, however, obediently put his pipe into its receptacle, and resumed his route, muttering something about Warner and the long range--his estimate of the Norwegian legislative capacity being in no way raised by the sight of certain small tubs of very dirty water standing by the side of every house door, which the Parson informed him was another precaution against fire.

"Whether there really is to be found any one, well authenticated instance of a town being set on fire by a pipe of tobacco," said Birger, "I will not take it upon myself to say, nor whether legislating upon pipes and leaving kitchen fires to take care of themselves, be not like guarding the spigot and forgetting the bung; but the fires here, when they do occur, are really awful. You talk in your country of twenty or thirty houses as something; we burn a town at a time. Everything here is of deal, every bit of this deal is painted, and in a season like this, everything you meet with is as dry as tinder, and heated half-way to the point of combustion already. Hark to that!" as a sharp, startling crack sounded close by them; "that is the wood strained and expanded by the roasting heat of a long summer's day, yielding now to the change of temperature; we shall have plenty of these towards morning. Light up but one of these little bonfires of houses in a moderate breeze, and see how every house in the town will be burning within half-an-hour. Six months ago, the capital of my own province, Wenersborg, contained 10,000 inhabitants, and I believe now the church and the post-house are the only two buildings left in it."

Here Ullitz, who was leading, came to a dead halt before a substantial porch containing wood enough to build a ship, from the open door of which a bright light was streaming across the street. Taking off his hat--every Norwegian is continually taking off his hat to everybody and everything--he made a profound bow to the party in general, and with the words, "Vaer saa artig," ushered them into the house.

Neither Marie nor her mother could speak one word of English--few of their women can--but their deeds spoke for them; for the hospitable board--and in this case it was literally a board, placed upon trestles, and removed when the supper was over--groaned under the weight of the good cheer. There were fish, not only in every variety, but in every variety of cookery; there was lobster-soup, and plok fiske, and whiting cakes, and long strips of bright red salmon, highly dried in juniper smoke and served up raw; enormous bowls of gr?d,--a name which signifies everything semi-liquid, from rye-stirabout to gooseberry-fool;--with cream, as if the whole dairy was paraded at once,--some of it pure, some tinged with crimson streaks, from the masses of cranberry jelly that floated about it.

Nor were the liquors forgotten, which, in Norway, at least, are considered indispensable to qualify such delicacies. There was the corn brandy of the country, diffusing round it a powerful flavour of aniseed, without which no meal of any kind takes place; there, too, was French brandy, freely partaken of, but so light both in colour and taste, that it suggested ideas of a large qualification of water; there was English beer, and a light sort of clarety wine, that was drunk in tumblers. Madame Ullitz, indeed, presided over a marshalled array of tea-cups, of which she was not a little proud, for it is not every house that can boast of its tea equipage; but this was as an especial compliment to the English strangers. The tea-cups and saucers might be Staffordshire,--they had a most English look about them; but the tea was unquestionably of native growth, being little else than a decoction of dried strawberry leaves, not at all unpleasant, but by no means coming up to English ideas of tea.

"Vaer saa artig," said the lady of the house, with an inviting smile and a general bow, intimating that supper was ready; and the whole household and guests of various degrees, including Torkel the hunter, and Jacob the courier, and two or three stout serving-girls, and half-a-dozen hangers-on of one sort or other, placed themselves round the table, as indiscriminately as the viands upon it.

The house of Ullitz made a feast that day.

"Vaer saa artig," said Marie, handing to the Captain a plate heaped up with brown, crisp, crackling whiting cakes.

The Captain did his best to look his thanks as he took the plate. "What on earth do they all mean by that eternal 'Vaer saa artig?'" said he to the Parson, aside. "I have heard nothing else ever since we dropped our anchor. First, I thought it meant 'Get out of the boat,' or 'Go up the street,' or 'Come in-doors,' or 'Sit down to supper,' or something of that sort; but then those drunken porters on board were shoving and elbowing one another about with the very same words in their mouths; and, now I recollect, this was the very speech Birger made to the Professor on the day of the wreck, when he gave him that slippery hitch."

"In that case," said the Parson, laughing, "'vaer saa artig' must mean two black eyes and a bloody nose, for that, as you know, is what the Professor got by it. But the fact is, 'Vaer saa artig,' with variations, is the general passport throughout all Scandinavia. Some writers ascribe a mystic force to the words, 'Vackere lilla flycka'--pretty little girl; and I am sure I am not going to deny the force of flattery. But among the natives, certainly, no one ever thinks of telling you what they want you to do. 'Have another slice of beef?' 'Come in?' 'Take off your hat?' 'Take a seat?' or whatever it is; all that is dumb show, preceded by the universal formula, 'Vaer saa artig,' 'Be so polite.' All the rest is understood."

"Vaer saa artig," said Ullitz, unconsciously, from the other end of the table, holding up a bottle of claret, from which he had just extracted the cork.

"Jag har ?ran drikka er till," replied the Parson, who had picked up some of the formularies during his former visit. "There," he said, "that is another instance: an Englishman would have said, 'Take a glass of wine,' in plain English. He holds me a bottle, and tells me to 'be polite.' My belief is, that when Jack Ketch goes to hang a man in Norway, he is not such a brute as to tell him to put his head into the halter; he merely holds it up to him, and, with a bow, requests him 'Att vaere saa artig.'"

"Yes," said Birger, breaking in, "that is very true; it used to be the case; but the Storthing has abolished that piece of politeness, and capital punishment along with it. The fact is, the Norwegians are so virtuous now, as everybody knows, that they never want hanging."

This sarcasm, which was spoken in a little louder tone than the conversation which preceded it, threatened rather to interfere with the harmony of the evening, which it probably would have done had the language been generally understood. But the Parson acted as peace-maker.

"Now, Ullitz," said he, not giving that worthy time to reply, "tell us what arrangements you have been making for us. Shall we be able to start to-morrow?"

"I have done everything according to the instructions transmitted to me," said Ullitz, speaking like a secretary of state, and with the solemnity warranted by the importance of his subject. "There are two boats now lying at the bridge quay, with their oars and sails in my porch, and we can easily get another for the foreign gentleman" . "As for boat furniture, we have everything you can possibly want, in the shop; you have but to choose. And as for provisions, we may trust Madame Ullitz for that."

"Yes," said the Parson, "I know Madame Ullitz and her provision-baskets of old."

Madame smiled, and looked pleased; making a guess that something was said about her, and that that something must be complimentary.

"Very well," said the Parson; "I suppose we must have a cook, so we will try your friend Mr. Jacob in our expedition up the Torjedahl, and see how we like him. And what says Torkel? are we to have the benefit of his experience?"

Torkel looked as if earth could afford no higher pleasure, for, in his way, he was a mighty hunter--he was not only great at the L?ngref, and skilled in circumventing the Tj?der in his lek, but he had followed the Fjeld Ripa to the very tops of the snowy mountains, had prepared many a pitfall for the wolf and fox, and had been more than once in personal conflict with the great Bruin himself.

"Torkel shall be my man, then," said the Parson, who had a pretty good eye to his own interest.

"And English Tom, who speaks the language so well, will be just the man for the highborn Captain," said Ullitz.

"Very good," said the Parson, "so be it; and whenever we have to do with lakes and sailing, Tom shall be our admiral, and shall put in practice all the science he has learned in the British navy."

"Tom is as proud of belonging to the English navy, as if it were the Legion of Honour," said Ullitz, whose father had belonged to the French faction, and who was rather suspected of holding French politics himself.

In fact, Birger had been practising the language a good deal already, and not a little to the Captain's envy, by making fierce love to the daughter of the house; an amusement with which guardsmen, Swedish as well as English, do occasionally beguile their leisure moments; and, to the Captain's infinite disgust, Marie did not seem to lend by any means an unfavourable ear to his soft speeches.

"Oh," said Ullitz, "we shall have no difficulty whatever in finding a man; if there is anything these people love better than gain, it is pleasure, and here we have both combined. My only difficulty lies in making the selection. I have reckoned that each of the highborn gentlemen will want a boatman besides his own man; but I have engaged these only for the trip to Wigeland, as you will no doubt like to change them there for men who are acquainted with the upper river; but you can keep them if you like, they will be but too happy to go."

"All right, then, we will start to-morrow afternoon, and get as far as Oxea before we sleep. The morning, I suppose, must be devoted to hearing Tom's report from the Custom-house, making our selections for the trip, arranging our heavy baggage that we are to leave here, and seeing that our outfit is all right. I like to make a short journey the first day, in order that if anything is forgotten, it may be sent back for."

"Not at all a bad general maxim," said the Captain: "and now to bed; for the broad daylight is already putting out the blaze even of Madame Ullitz's candles."

"With all my heart," said the Parson, "it is high time;" and rising from his seat and going round to where Madame Ullitz sat, he took her hand, and bowing low, said, "Tak for mad"--thanks for the meal.

"Vel de bekomme," said the lady,--well may it agree with you.

In this ceremony he was followed by the whole party, who, shortly after separating, sought their respective sleeping-places.

Little, however, did the travellers reck of mattress or feather-bed, Madame Ullitz's past conquests, or her daughter's present bright eyes--a sea-voyage, four or five restless nights, a long day's work, and a plentiful supper at the end of it, equalize all those things; and, though the sun was shining brightly through the shutterless and curtainless windows, five minutes had not elapsed before it was indifferent to them whether they had sunk to rest on eider-down or poplar leaves; or whether their beds had been strewed for them by the fair hands of the bright-eyed Marie, or by those of the two lumps of girls who had assisted at the grand supper.

THE TORJEDAHL.

"Foresight is needful To the far traveller: Each place seems home to him: Least errs the cautious."

"And now for work," said the Parson, as, somewhat late on the following morning they rose from a breakfast as substantial and plentiful as had been the supper of the night before. The ordinary meals of a Norwegian are, in fact, three good substantial dinners per diem, with their proportionate quantity of strong drink: one at nine or ten, which they call "Fr?kost"; one at two or three, which is termed "Middagsmad"; and one in the evening, called "Afton." But, whatever they call them, the fare is precisely the same in all; the same preliminary glass of brandy, the same very substantial hot joints, the same quantity of sweetmeats, and, at Christiansand at all events, the same liberal supply of fish. Tea and coffee are not seen at any of them, but generally form an excuse for supernumerary meals an hour or so after the grand ones.

The strangers were not yet acclimated; they lounged over their morning's meal as if the recollections of their yesterday's supper were yet green in their memories. Not so the natives. No one would suppose that they had supped at all--they ate as if they had been fasting for a week.

All things, however, come to an end,--even a Norwegian's breakfast; and the Parson stood in the porch receiving English Tom's report from the custom-house, and cataloguing the packages as they arrived. These included two dogs; one a very handsome brindled bay retriever, called "Grog," belonging to the Captain; the other an extremely accomplished poaching setter, his own friend and constant companion. These, wild with joy at their newly regained liberty and restoration to their respective masters, from whose society they had been separated during the whole voyage, were grievously discomposing the economy of Madame Ullitz's well-ordered house.

A small assortment of necessaries was packed in deal covered baskets or boxes,--for they looked as much like the one as the other. This manufacture is peculiar to the country, and is equally cheap and convenient. These, with the rods, guns, ammunition, and boat furniture, including the sails which were to form tents on the occasion, together with Madame Ullitz's liberal supply of provisions , were arranged in the porch, and one by one were transferred by the boatmen to the bridge quay, where the boats were lying. The weightier articles were consigned to the keeping of Ullitz, and were lodged in his ample store rooms.

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