und the wooded islands, you are
impressed by their picturesque beauty, which is seen to advantage from
the water. One is not surprised that this popular pastime comes first
with every Danish boy, who, whether swimming, rowing, or sailing, feels
perfectly at home on the water. Everybody cycles in Denmark.
Cycle-stands are provided outside every shop, station, office, and
college, so that you have no more difficulty in disposing of your cycle
than your umbrella.

[Illustration: WINTER IN THE FOREST.]

Football is a summer game here--spirited matches you would think
impossible at this season--but the Danes have them, and what is more,
they will inform you that they quite enjoy what appears to the spectator
a hot, fatiguing amusement. Cricket has few attractions for the Danish
lads, but that is because they cannot play, though their schoolmasters
and parents would have them try. All things English are much admired,
and when a Dane intends to do a thing he generally succeeds, so we can
only suppose he is too indifferent about cricket--although it is an
English game--to excel.

Golf and hockey are also played, and "bandy"--_i.e._, hockey on the
ice--is a favourite winter sport. A "bandy" match is quite exciting to
watch. The players, armed with a wooden club, often find the ice a
difficulty when rushing after the solid rubber ball. This exhilarating
game is known in some parts of the world as "shinty." The Danes are
proficient skaters, and of late years an artificial ground for winter
sport of all kinds has been made in the Ulvedal, near Copenhagen. Here
they have "bandy" matches, ski-ing, and tobogganing, as well as other
winter games. Fox-hunting is unknown in Denmark, but frequently foxes
are included in the sportsman's bag when shooting. These are shot
because it is necessary to keep Mr. Reynard's depredations under
control. Trotting-matches are held on Sunday on the racecourse near
Charlottenlund, and horse-racing takes place too. Lawn-tennis and
croquet are very popular, but the latter is the favourite pastime of the
Danish ladies.

CHAPTER XV

INGEBORG'S JOURNEY THROUGH SEELAND

Funen, the island which lies between the Great and Little Belts, is
known as the "Garden of Denmark," on account of its beauty and
fertility. In Odense, the capital, Ingeborg had lived happily all the
fifteen summers of her life. Now she was to have an unexpected treat.
Her grandfather intended taking her with him on the morrow