one of the stewards, and requested him to see the
new comer clothed in the uniform of the ship. Peaks was directed to
keep an eye on the victim while the crew were on shore.

All hands were soon seated in the boats, and in half an hour all
the students in the squadron were turned loose in the streets of
Christiansand. Though the instructors were of the party, they were not
required to exercise any particular supervision over their pupils.
There was hardly anything to be seen, and as a large number of the
students had never crossed the Atlantic before, they wanted to know if
they had come so far to see such a town. Most of the houses were of
wood, but they were neat and well kept. As the capital of the province
of Christiansand, the town was the residence of the Stift Amtmand, or
governor, and of the bishop of the diocese. It was founded in 1641,
and having an excellent harbor, it is a place of considerable
commercial importance, having a population of about ten thousand.

The boys visited the cathedral, which is a fine building of gray
stone, and being the first which most of them had seen, it had a
considerable interest to them. They observed the people, and their
manners and customs, so far as they could, with more interest than the
buildings, which differed in no important respect from those in the
United States. Passing across the water front of the town, they came
to the Torrisdal River, over which there is an excellent bridge. They
crossed the stream, and walked to an antiquated church. Some of the
houses on the way were very neat, pretty structures, not unlike the
one-story dwellings seen all over New England.

"Here's a Runic stone," said Dr. Winstock, as the captain and several
of the officers followed him into the burying-ground connected with
the ancient church.

"What is a Runic stone?" asked Lincoln, the third lieutenant.

"A stone with Runic characters upon it."

"I haven't the least idea what the word means, though Poe sings, in
the 'Bells,'----

'Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme!'

Runic is derived from a word which means secret; and a Runic stone
is any memorial, table, or column, on which Runic characters are
inscribed, as a tombstone, a boundary mark. There are sixteen of
these characters, forming an alphabet, which were used by the ancient
Scandinavians, and were thought by them to possess magical properties,
and willow wands inscribed with them were used by the