pale blue surface. Turning the eyes
inland, one sees clustered in lovely combinations fields of ripening
grain, gardens, lawns, cottages, and handsome villas, like a scene upon
the sunny shores of the Maritime Alps. An abundance of trees enliven the
view,--plane, sycamore, ash, and elm, in luxurious condition. Warmer
skies during the summer period are not to be found in Italy, nor
elsewhere outside of Egypt. As we stand upon the height of Egeberg on a
delicious sunny afternoon, there hangs over and about the Norwegian
capital a soft golden haze such as lingers in August above the Venetian
lagoons.

The summer is so short here as to give the fruits and flowers barely
time to blossom, ripen, and fade, and the husbandman a chance to gather
his crops. Vegetation is rapid in its growth, the sunshine being so
nearly constant during the ten weeks which intervene between seedtime
and harvest. Barley grows two inches, and pease three, in twenty-four
hours at certain stages of development. It is an interesting fact that
if the barley-seed be brought from a warmer climate, it has to become
acclimated, and does not yield a good crop until after two or three
years.

The flowers of the torrid and temperate zones, as a rule, close their
eyes like human beings, and sleep a third or half of the twenty-four
hours, but in Arctic regions, life to those lovely children of Nature is
one long sunny period, and sleep comes only with death and decay. It
will also be observed that the flowers assume more vivid colors and emit
more fragrance during their brief lives than they do in the south. The
long, delightful period of twilight during the summer season is seen
here in perfection, full of roseate loveliness. There is no dew to be
encountered or avoided, no dampness; all is crystal clearness.

In the rural districts women are generally employed in out-of-door
work, as they are in Germany and Italy, and there is quite a
preponderance of the sex in Norway and Sweden. As many women as men are
seen engaged in mowing, reaping, loading heavy carts, and getting in the
harvest generally. What would our American farmers think to see a woman
swing a scythe all day in the hayfields, cutting as broad and even a
swath as a man can do, and apparently with as little fatigue? Labor is
very poorly paid. Forty cents per day is considered to be liberal wages
for a man, except in the cities, where a small increase upon this amount
is obtained.

Norway has be