f five hours through a
forest of pine, fir, and birch, in which deer and elk are frequently
met with; while the wolf and the bear haunt its remoter valleys. The
ground was but slightly undulating, and the scenery in general was as
tame as it was savage.

Landbobyn was a wretched hamlet on the banks of a stream, with a few
cleared fields about it. As the sun had not yet set, we determined to
push on to Kettbo, eight or ten miles further, and engaged a boy to
pilot us through the woods. The post-station was a miserable place,
where we found it impossible to get anything to eat. I sat down and
talked with the family while our guide recruited himself with a large
dish of thick sour milk. "Why do you travel about the earth?" asked his
mother: "is it that you may spy out the poverty of the people and see
how miserably they live?" "No," said I, "it is that I may become
acquainted with the people, whether they are poor or not." "But," she
continued, "did you ever see a people poorer than we?" "Often," said I;
"because you are contented, and no one can be entirely poor who does not
complain." She shook her head with a sad smile and said nothing.

Our guide poled us across the river in a rickety boat, and then plunged
into the woods. He was a tall, well grown boy of fifteen or sixteen,
with a beautiful oval face, long fair hair parted in the middle and
hanging upon his shoulders, and a fine, manly, resolute expression. With
his jacket, girdle, knee-breeches, and the high crowned and broad
brimmed felt hat he wore, he reminded me strongly of the picture of
Gustavus Vasa in his Dalecarlian disguise, in the cathedral of Upsala.
He was a splendid walker, and quite put me, old pedestrian as I am, out
of countenance. The footpath we followed was terribly rough; we
stumbled over stock and stone, leaped fallen trees, crossed swamps on
tussocks of spongy moss, and climbed over heaps of granite boulders:
yet, while we were panting and exhausted with our exertions to keep pace
with him, he walked onward as quietly and easily as if the smoothest
meadow turf were under his feet. I was quite puzzled by the speed he
kept up on such a hard path, without seeming to put forth any extra
strength. At sunset he pointed out some clearings on a hill side over
the tree tops, a mile or two ahead, as our destination. Dusk was
gathering as we came upon a pretty lake, with a village scattered along
its hilly shore. The post-station, however, was beyond it,