the mere thought of losing Lady
Clare. So he took his chances; and, after having ordered blankets
of three different thicknesses for three different kinds of weather,
shipped the mare with the rest of his family for his new northern home.

As the weather proved unusually mild during the northward voyage Lady
Clare arrived in Sogn without accident or adventure. And never in all
her life had she looked more beautiful than she did when she came off
the steamer, and half the population of the valley turned out to see
her. It is no use denying that she was as vain as any other professional
beauty, and the way she danced and pirouetted on the gangplank, when
Erik led her on to the pier, filled the rustics with amazement. They
had come to look at the new captain and his family; but when Lady Clare
appeared she eclipsed the rest of the company so completely that no one
had eyes for anybody but her. As the sun was shining and the wind was
mild, Erik had taken off her striped overcoat (which covered her from
nose to tail), for he felt in every fibre of his body the sensation she
was making, and blushed with pleasure as if the admiring exclamations
had been intended for himself.

"Look at that horse," cried young and old, with eyes as big as saucers,
pointing with their fingers at Lady Clare.

"Handsome carcass that mare has," remarked a stoutish man, who knew what
he was talking about; "and head and legs to match."

"She beats your Valders-Roan all hollow, John Garvestad," said a young
tease who stood next to him in the crowd.

"My Valders-Roan has never seen his match yet, and never will, according
to my reckoning," answered John Garvestad.

"Ho! ho!" shouted the young fellow, with a mocking laugh; "that
black mare is a hand taller at the very least, and I bet you she's a
high-flyer. She has got the prettiest legs I ever clapped eyes on."

"They'd snap like clay pipes in the mountains," replied Garvestad,
contemptuously.

Erik, as he blushingly ascended the slope to his new home, leading Lady
Clare by a halter, had no suspicion of the sentiments which she had
aroused in John Garvestad's breast. He was only blissfully conscious of
the admiration she had excited; and he promised himself a good deal of
fun in future in showing off his horsemanship. He took Lady Clare to
the stable, where a new box-stall had been made for her, examined the
premises carefully and nailed a board over a crevice in the wall where
he suspected