s on a drum-head aroused the Orange army,
it is said, and ended the Stuart reign in Britain. Little wonder, then,
that to a noble Reindeer Buk should be committed the fate of Norway:
that the Troll on the wheel should have reason in his rhyme.

These were troublous times in Scandinavia. Evil men, traitors at heart,
were sowing dissension between the brothers Norway and Sweden. "Down
with the Union!" was becoming the popular cry.

Oh, unwise peoples! If only you could have been by Sveggum's wheel to
hear the Troll when he sang:

The Raven and the Lion
They held the Bear at bay;
But he picked the bones of both
When they quarrelled by the way.

Threats of civil war, of a fight for independence, were heard
throughout Norway. Meetings were held more or less secretly, and at
each of them was some one with well-filled pockets and glib tongue, to
enlarge on the country's wrongs, and promise assistance from an outside
irresistible power as soon as they showed that they meant to strike for
freedom. No one openly named the power. That was not necessary; it was
everywhere felt and understood. Men who were real patriots began to
believe in it. Their country was wronged. Here was one to set her
right. Men whose honor was beyond question became secret agents of this
power. The state was honeycombed and mined; society was a tangle of
plots. The king was helpless, though his only wish was for the people's
welfare. Honest and straightforward, what could he do against this
far-reaching machination? The very advisers by his side were corrupted
through mistaken patriotism. The idea that they were playing into the
hands of the foreigner certainly never entered into the minds of these
dupes--at least, not those of the rank and file. One or two, tried,
selected, and bought by the arch-enemy, knew the real object in view,
and the chief of these was Borgrevinck, a former lansman of Nordlands.
A man of unusual gifts, a member of the Storthing, a born leader, he
might have been prime minister long ago, but for the distrust inspired
by several unprincipled dealings. Soured by what he considered want of
appreciation, balked in his ambition, he was a ready tool when the
foreign agent sounded him. At first his patriotism had to be sopped,
but that necessity disappeared as the game went on, and perhaps he
alone, of the whole far-reaching conspiracy, was prepared to strike at
the Union for the benefit of the foreigner.

Plans were being p