more
agreeable route that prolongs the journey only a few hours, and you,
too, are familiar with it, my boy, though you failed to mention it."

"What route do you refer to?"

"To the one that passes through Bamble."

"Through Bamble?"

"Yes, through Bamble. Don't feign ignorance. Yes, through Bamble,
where Farmer Helmboe and his daughter Siegfrid reside."

"Monsieur Sylvius!"

"Yes, and that is the route we are going to take, following the
northern shore of Lake Fol instead of the southern, but finally
reaching Kongsberg all the same."

"Yes, quite as well, and even better," answered Joel smiling.

"I must thank you in behalf of my brother, Monsieur Sylvius," said
Hulda, archly.

"And for yourself as well, for I am sure that you too will be glad to
see your friend Siegfrid."

The boat being ready, all three seated themselves upon a pile of
leaves in the stern, and the vigorous strokes of the boatsmen soon
carried the frail bark a long way from the shore.

After passing Hackenoes, a tiny hamlet of two or three houses, built
upon a rocky promontory laved by the narrow fiord into which the Maan
empties, the lake begins to widen rapidly. At first it is walled in by
tall cliffs whose real height one can estimate accurately only when a
boat passes their base, appearing no larger than some aquatic bird in
comparison; but gradually the mountains retire into the background.

The lake is dotted here and there with small islands, some absolutely
devoid of vegetation, others covered with verdure through which peep
a few fishermen's huts. Upon the lake, too, may be seen floating
countless logs not yet sold to the saw-mills in the neighborhood.

This sight led Sylvius Hogg to jestingly remark--and he certainly must
have been in a mood for jesting:

"If our lakes are the eyes of Norway, as our poets pretend, it must
be admitted that poor Norway has more than one beam in her eye, as the
Bible says."

About four o'clock the boat reached Tinoset, one of the most primitive
of hamlets. Still that mattered little, as Sylvius Hogg had no
intention of remaining there even for an hour. As he had prophesied
to Joel, a vehicle was awaiting them on the shore, for having decided
upon this journey several weeks before, he had written to Mr. Benett,
of Christiania, requesting him to provide the means of making it with
the least possible fatigue and delay, which explains the fact that a
comfortable carriage was in attendance, wit