week after this occurrence, Maurice was walking along the
beach, watching some peasant lads who were spearing trout in a brook
near by. The sun had just dipped below the western mountain peaks, and
a cool, bluish twilight, which seemed the essence of atmospheric
purity, purged of all accessory effects, filled the broad, placid
valley, and made it a luxury to breathe. The torches of the fishermen
flitted back and forth between the slender stems of the birches, and
now and then sent up a great glare of light among the foliage, which
shone with a ghostly grayish green. The majestic repose of this scene
sank deeply into Fern's mind; dim yearnings awoke in him, and a
strange sense of kinship with these mountains, fjords, and glaciers
rose from some unknown depth of his soul. He seemed suddenly to love
them. Whenever he thought of Norway in later years, the impression of
this night revived within him. After a long ramble over the sand, he
chanced upon a low, turf-thatched cottage lying quite apart from the
inhabited districts of the valley. The sheen of the fire upon the
hearth-stone fell through the open door and out upon the white beach,
and illuminated faintly the middle portion of a long fishing-net,
which was suspended on stakes, for drying. Feeling a little tired, he
seated himself on a log near the door, and gazed out upon the gleaming
glaciers in the distance.

While he was sitting thus, he was startled at the sound of a voice,
deep, distinct, and sepulchral, which seemed to proceed from within
the cottage.

"I see a book sealed with seven seals," the voice was saying. "Two of
them are already broken, and when the third shall be broken--then it
is all black--a great calamity will happen."

"Pray don't say that, Gurid," prayed another voice, with a touching,
child-like appeal in it (and he instantly recognized it as Elsie's).
"God is so very strong, you know, and He can certainly wipe away that
black spot, and make it all bright again. And I don't know that I have
done anything very wrong of late; and father, I know, is really very
good, too, even if he does say some hard things at times. But he
doesn't mean anything by it--and I am sure--"

"Be silent, child!" interrupted the first voice. "Thou dost not
understand, and it is well for thee that thou dost not. For it is
written, 'He shall visit the sins of the fathers upon the children,
even unto the third and fourth generation.'"

"How terrible!"

"Hush! Now I