shield a
_barn_."

"Is he a farmer?" said I, much puzzled.

"Oh dear, no! He is a lawyer like me."

"Then what does he want with a barn?"

"Every couple [pronounced copol] wants _burn_," he replied.

"What is it they want?" I asked. "What do you call _burn_?"

"Burn," he explained, "is _pluriel_ for barn. _Eight_ barn, two
_burn_."

"What?" I cried, "eight barns to burn! Why do they want to burn eight
barns? They must be crazy!"

All this will sound to you as idiotic as it did to me, but you will get
the explanation at the end of the chapter, as I did--on the drive
home--the two hours of which were entirely taken up in laughing at the
mistakes of the good lawyer, who did his best.

Our conversation languished after this. My brain could not bear such a
strain. Suddenly he got up from his chair. I thought that he was going
to take himself and his English away, but after he had quaffed a whole
glass of wine, at one swallow, bowed over it, and pointed his empty
glass at Johan, he resumed his seat, and conversation flowed again.

It seems that Johan had honored him with a friendly nod and an uplifted
glass, which obliged him to arise and acknowledge the compliment.

In Denmark there is a great deal of _skaal_-drinking (_skaal_, in
Danish, means drinking a toast). I think there must be an eleventh
commandment--"Thou shalt not omit to _skaal_." The host drinks with
every one, and every one drinks with every one else. It seems to me to
be rather a cheap way of being amiable, but it looks very friendly and
sociable. When a person of high rank drinks with one of lower the
latter stands while emptying his glass.

When we left the table I did not feel that my Danish had gained much,
and certainly my partner's English had not improved. However, we seemed
to have conversed in a very spirited manner, which must have impressed
the lookers-on with a sense of my partner's talent for languages.

On our return to the _salon_ we found more petroleum-lamps, and the
candelabra lighted to exaggeration with wax candles. The lamp-shades,
which I thought were quite ingenious, were of paper, and contained
dried ferns and even flattened-out butterflies between two sheets of
shiny tissue-paper. The _salon_ had dark walls on which hung a
collection of family portraits. Ladies with puckered mouths and
wasp-like waists had necks adorned with gorgeous pearls, which had
apparently gone to an early grave with their wearers. I saw no simila