cows would starve in the winter, as they
are often snowed up for weeks at a time. Haymaking is, therefore, a
great business, and the amount of grass which the Norwegians contrive
to scrape off their land is marvellous. At the best of times it only
grows to a height of about six inches, but scythes and reaping-hooks
find their way into every nook and corner, and grass that no English
farmer would trouble to cut is all raked in with the greatest
care. Parties go up the mountain-sides to ledges of the cliffs, and
on to the tops of the mountains, to make sure that nothing is wasted,
the grass being brought down to the farms to be dried.

Long wires may be seen stretching from the valleys away up, thousands
of feet, to the tops of the mountains, and on these the bundles of
grass are tied, to come swirling down to the farmstead. There is no
time in the short Northern summer to make the hay as we make it, and
there is usually so much rain that the grass would never dry at all
if left lying on the ground; so long hurdles are put up in positions
where they will catch the sun and the wind, and on them the grass
is hung up to dry, there remaining until it has made itself into
hay. Afterwards it is stored in covered barns ready for winter use.

The corn, also, is dried in a peculiar manner. As it is cut it is made
up into small sheaves, a number of these being tied, ears downwards,
to a pole planted upright in the ground. This makes drying rapid,
and, if wet weather sets in, the rain runs off freely. A field of
these wheat-stacks has a very odd appearance at a little distance,
and near the woods one sees similar, though somewhat larger, stacks
of branches and leaves, on which the goats are fed in the winter.

Directly the snow has melted off the mountains the flocks and herds
are sent up to the highland pastures (saeters), usually in charge of the
younger women and girls of the farm, and there, throughout the summer,
the dairy work is carried on. As in all mountainous countries, rich
and sweet herbage follows the melting of the snow, and the cows and
goats give an abundance of good milk, which is turned into butter and
cheese, to be sold or consumed in the winter. Life at the saeter-hut,
or mountain farm, is healthy and delightful, though much hard work
has to be got through each day.

Children seldom go to the saeters until old enough to be able to do
real work, but one often sees a girl of fourteen or so looking after
a floc