perhaps by a little crowding we might make room for you?"

"No, no, I have my legs, sir--a guide's legs. They are as good as any
wheels."

Joel placed himself at the horse's head, and the little party started
for Dal. The return trip was a gay one, at least on the part of the
traveler, who already seemed to consider himself an old friend of
the Hansen family. Before they reached their destination they found
themselves calling their companion M. Silvius; and that gentleman
unceremoniously called them Hulda and Joel, as if their acquaintance
had been one of long standing.

About four o'clock the little belfry of Dal became visible through the
trees, and a few minutes afterward the horse stopped in front of
the inn. The traveler alighted from the kariol, though not without
considerable difficulty. Dame Hansen hastened to the door to receive
him, and though he did not ask for the best room in the house, it was
given to him all the same.

CHAPTER IX.

Sylvius Hogg was the name that the stranger inscribed upon the
inn register, that same evening, directly underneath the name of
Sandgoist, and there was as great a contrast between the two names
as between the men that bore them. Between them there was nothing
whatever in common, either mentally, morally, or physically. One was
generous to a fault, the other was miserly and parsimonious; one was
genial and kind-hearted, in the arid soul of the other every noble and
humane sentiment seemed to have withered and died.

Sylvius Hogg was nearly sixty years of age, though he did not appear
nearly so old. Tall, erect, and well built, healthy alike in mind and
in body, he pleased at first sight with his handsome genial face, upon
which he wore no beard, but around which clustered curling locks of
silvery hair; eyes which were as smiling as his lips, a broad forehead
that bore the impress of noble thoughts, and a full chest in which
the heart beat untrammeled. To all these charms were added an
inexhaustible fund of good humor, a refined and liberal nature, and a
generous and self-sacrificing disposition.

Sylvius Hogg, of Christiania--no further recommendation was needed.
That told the whole story. And he was not only known, appreciated,
loved and honored in the Norwegian capital, but throughout the entire
country, though the sentiments he inspired in the other half of the
Scandinavian kingdom, that is to say in Sweden, were of an entirely
different character.

This