asants, or rather small farmers, further
north, they are exposed to the risk of seeing their summer's labours
rendered fruitless by a single night of frost. Such a catastrophe, which
no amount of industry and foresight can prevent, recurring frequently
(perhaps once in three years on an average), makes them indifferent, if
not reckless; while that patience and cheerfulness which is an integral
part of the Scandinavian as of the Saxon character, renders them
contented and unrepining under such repeated disappointments. There is
the stuff here for a noble people, although nature and a long course of
neglect and misrule have done their best to destroy it.

The Norrlanders live simply, perhaps frugally, but there seems to be
little real destitution among them. We saw sometimes in front of a
church, a representation of a beggar with his hat in his hand, under
which was an iron box, with an appeal to travellers to drop something in
for the poor of the parish; but of actual beggars we found none. The
houses, although small, are warm and substantial, mostly with double
windows, and a little vestibule in front of the door, to create an
intermediate temperature between the outer and inner air. The beds, even
in many of the inns, are in the family room, but during the day are
either converted into sofas or narrow frames which occupy but little
space. At night, the bedstead is drawn out to the required breadth,
single or double, as may be desired. The family room is always covered
with a strong home-made rag carpet, the walls generally hung with
colored prints and lithographs, illustrating religion or royalty, and as
many greenhouse plants as the owner can afford to decorate the windows.
I have seen, even beyond Umea, some fine specimens of cactus,
pelargonium, calla, and other exotics. It is singular that, with the
universal passion of the Swedes for flowers and for music, they have
produced no distinguished painters or composers--but, indeed, a Linnaeus.

We spent the evening cosily in the stately inn's best room, with its
white curtains, polished floor, and beds of sumptuous linen. The great
clipper-plows were out early in the morning, to cut a path through the
drifts of the storm, but it was nearly noon before the road was
sufficiently cleared to enable us to travel. The temperature, by
contrast with what we had so recently endured, seemed almost
tropical--actually 25 deg. above zero, with a soft, southern breeze, and
patches