Ole was requested to ask the woman about the matter. She said the
Swedes were honest, but the waiters were required to see that
everybody paid for what he had had before leaving the steamer. The
having of this book is certainly a better plan than that of the
Norwegian steamers, by which the passenger, if he means to be honest,
is compelled to recollect all he has had in a passage of thirty hours.

The Wadstena continued on her course through a rather flat country,
just coming into the greenness and beauty of the spring time, till she
came to Wenersberg, a town of five thousand inhabitants, which is
largely engaged in the lumber and iron trade. The boat stopped there
a short time, and the party had an opportunity to examine the lake
craft at the wharves; but, after seeing them, it was difficult to
believe they were not in some New England coast town. The steamers,
however, were very different, all of them being very short, to enable
them to pass through the locks in the canal, and most of them having
the hurricane deck forward and aft, to afford sufficient space for the
cabins. All of them were propellers.

The Wadstena started again, the bridges opening to permit her passage.
The great Wenern Lake lay before them, which is the third in size in
Europe, Onega and Ladoga alone exceeding it in extent. It is about a
hundred miles long by fifty in breadth, very irregular in shape, and
portions of it are densely crowded with islands. Its greatest depth
is three hundred and sixty feet near the Island of Luroe, but a
considerable part of it is very shallow, and difficult of navigation.
It is one hundred and forty-five feet above the level of the Baltic.
Thirty rivers flow into it, and sometimes cause it to rise ten feet
above its ordinary level. But the Goeta River is its only outlet, and
is always supplied with an abundant volume of water. The wind was
fresh when the Wadstena steamed out upon the broad expanse, and the
lake had a decidedly stormy aspect.

"Will you be seasick?" asked the captain, as the little steamer began
to bob up and down with a very uncomfortable jerk.

"Seasick!" laughed Scott. "We are all sailors, sir, and we don't
intend to cave in on a fresh-water pond."

"But the lake is very rough to-day."

"If your little tub can stand it, captain, we can."

"I am very glad, for some people are very sick on this part of the
passage. It is sometimes very bad, the worst we have in the whole
trip."

"How lon