to Moen
for one and a half marks, and will not take us to Bolkesjo for less than
five?" "It was my turn," he answered, "to furnish post-horses. I am
bound by law to bring you here at the price fixed by the law; but now I
can make my own bargain, and I want a price that will leave me some
profit." This was reasonable enough; and we finally agreed to retain two
of the horses, taking the postmaster's for a third.

The region we now traversed was almost a wilderness. There were
grazing-farms in the valley, with a few fields of oats or barley; but
these soon ceased, and an interminable forest enclosed us. The road,
terribly rough and stony, crossed spurs of the hills, slowly climbing to
a wild summit-level, whence we caught glimpses of lakes far below us,
and the blue mountain-ranges in the west, with the pyramidal peak of the
Gousta Fjeld crowning them. Bolkesjo, which we reached in a little more
than two hours, is a small hamlet on the western slope of the mountain,
overlooking a wide tract of lake and forest. Most of the inhabitants
were away in the harvest-fields; but the _skyds-shaffer_, a tall
powerful fellow, with a grin of ineffable stupidity on his face, came
forward as we pulled in our horses on the turfy square between the rows
of magazines. "Can we get horses at once?" "Ne-e-ey!" was his drawling
answer, accompanied with a still broader grin, as if the thing were a
good joke. "How soon?" "In three hours." "But if we pay fast prices?" He
hesitated, scratched his head, and drawled, "In a _liten stund_" (a
"short time"), which may mean any time from five minutes to as many
hours. "Can we get fresh milk?" "Ne-e-ey!" "Can we get butter?"
"Ne-e-ey!" "What can we get?" "Nothing." Fortunately we had foreseen
this emergency, and had brought a meal with us from Kongsberg.

We took possession of the kitchen, a spacious and tolerably clean
apartment, with ponderous benches against two sides of it, and two
bedsteads, as huge and ugly as those of kings, built along the third.
Enormous platters of pewter, earthen and stone ware, were ranged on
shelves; while a cupboard, fantastically painted, contained the smaller
crockery. There was a heavy red and green cornice above the bed, upon
which the names of the host and his wife, with the date of their
marriage, were painted in yellow letters. The worthy couple lay so high
that several steps were necessary to enable them to reach the bed, in
which process their eyes encountered word