the
best; and I can remember how I many a time sat in church and made
believe that we owned the splendid, full-rigged ship, with cannon, that
hung under the chancel arch, [A ship, symbolical of the church, often
hangs in Norwegian churches.] and how, while the minister was preaching,
I pictured to myself all kinds of sailing-tours, which Carl and Susanna,
but especially Susanna, should look on at in wonder. That ship was the
only thing that was wanting to my happiness.

In the bay, by father's quay, there was a deep, shelving bank, where, at
the end of the summer, came shoals of young cod-fish and other small
fry; and there we boys carried on our fishing, each with his linen
thread and bent pin. We cut the fish open, and hung them over the drying
poles standing in the field over by our own warehouse for the
preparation of dried fish, and we let the liver stand in small tubs to
rot until it became train-oil. Both products were then duly put away in
our store-house, ready "to go to Bergen" later on, in the yacht; and
Heaven knows we worked and slaved as eagerly and earnestly at our work
as the grown-up people did at theirs, yet the only real return we had for
it was the sunshine we got over our sunburnt, happy faces.

Carl was a slenderly-built boy, who generally followed his more
energetic sister in everything. Both children had thick yellow hair;
Susanna's curled in ringlets that seemed to twinkle round her head every
time she moved--which, as already said, she constantly did with a toss
of her head, to keep her hair off her forehead. Both had alike a fair,
brilliant complexion, and beautiful blue eyes. I do not know whether
Susanna at that time was tall or short for her age--I only know I
thought her at least of the same height as myself, though she must
really have been half a head shorter; the difference was probably made
up by my admiration.

I remember her, as she went to church on Sundays with her mother, a
little, pale, soberly-clad, busy woman, who was always, except on Sunday
mornings, knitting a long, dreary stocking. Susanna walked along the
sand-strewn path to church in a white or blue dress, with a dark
shepherdess hat on her head, a little white pocket-handkerchief folded
behind a very large old hymn-book, and white stockings, and shoes with a
band crossed over the instep. I did not think there could be a prettier
costume in the world than Susanna's Sunday dress.

In church the minister's family sat i