m the heights and dotted with villas and gards, surrounded by
hedges of trees and having avenues leading to them.

Farther on, the heights became mountains, and rose more abruptly from
the shore; here, too, they became more and more rugged, and at last had
no other growth than the pine forest, from the uppermost ridge all the
way down to the fjord, forest, forest, far as the eye could reach. This
belonged to Skogstad; the factory on the Skogstad River prepared the raw
material.

The Atlungs were of French descent, having settled here in the times of
the Huguenots, and were people of plain origin who had bettered their
condition by marrying into the once wealthy and influential Atlung
family, taking its name, which sounded not unlike their own.

I thoroughly enjoyed the drive. It had recently been snowing, and the
snow still lay on the trees; not a breath of wind had left its traces in
the wood. On the other hand, it had been thawing a little, which the
deciduous trees that here began to press forward farther down toward the
road could not tolerate; the sole covering they wore was the new-fallen
snow of the morning.

Between both the white landscape and the snow-laden air, the fjord
appeared black. It was not far to the opposite side, and there still
loftier mountains loomed up, now also white, but of that subdued tint
imparted by the atmosphere.

Where I was driving the sea lay close up to the edge of the snow, only a
few sea-weeds, some pebbles, and in some places not so much as these,
separated the two forms and hues of the same element--reality and
poetry, where the poetry is just as real as the reality, simply not so
enduring.

As soon as I had advanced as far as the forest, this attracted my
undivided attention. The fir-trees held great armfuls of snow; in some
places it had been showered around; nevertheless there was still so much
uncovered that a shimmer of dark green overspread the whiteness of the
entire forest. On a nearer view it could be seen that the single
uncovered branches were thrust forth, as it were, defiantly, and that
the red-tinted lower boughs had pierced the snow-drifts.

Higher up mighty trunks were visible, most of them dark, although some
of the younger ones were brighter: taken all together an assemblage of
well-laden giants, and this gave an air of solemnity to the thicket. The
foremost trees, which were low enough not to impede the view, and which
while growing had been disfigured