a threatening sky.
The aspect of the country gradually became wilder, though, wherever
there was cultivation, it bore the same evidence of thrift and
prosperity. After a steady walk of four hours, we reached the village of
Rada, where our road left the beautiful Klar Elv, and struck northwards
towards Westerdal, in Dalecarlia. We procured a dinner of potatoes and
bacon, with excellent ale, enjoying, meanwhile, a lovely view over a
lake to the eastward, which stretched away for ten miles between the
wooded hills. The evening was cold and raw: we drove through pine-woods,
around the head of the lake, and by six o'clock reached Asplund, a
miserable little hamlet on a dreary hill. The post-station was a forlorn
cottage with a single room, not of the most inviting appearance. I asked
if we could get quarters for the night. "If you _will_ stay, of course
you _can_," said the occupant, an old woman; "but there is no bed, and I
can get you horses directly to go on." It was a distance of thirteen
miles to the next station, but we yielded to the old woman's hint, and
set forward. The road led through woods, which seemed interminable. We
were jammed together into a little two-wheeled cart, with the boy
between our knees. He seemed much disinclined to hurry the horse, but
soon fell asleep, and one of us held him by the collar to prevent his
tumbling out, while the other took the lines, and urged on our slow
beast. The night was so dark that we had great difficulty in keeping the
road, but towards eleven o'clock we emerged from the woods, and found,
by shaking the boy, that we were approaching the station at last. This
was a little place called Laggasen, on the northern frontier of
Wermeland.

Everybody had gone to bed in the hut at which we stopped. We entered the
kitchen, which was at the same time the bedroom, and aroused the
inmates, who consisted of a lonely woman, with two or three children.
She got up in a very scanty chemise, lit a wooden splinter, and
inspected us, and, in answer to our demand for a bed, informed us that
we would have to lie upon the floor. We were about to do this, when she
said we could get good quarters at the _Nore_, on the top of the hill.
Her earnestness in persuading us to go made me suspect that she merely
wanted to get rid of us, and I insisted that she should accompany us to
show the way. After some hesitation she consented, and we set out. We
first crossed a broad swamp, on a road made of loose