actly eighteen years of age. She was not the
_piga_, as the servant in a Norwegian inn is called, but rather the
_froken_, the young lady of the house, as her mother was the madame.
What a charming face was hers, framed in a wealth of pale golden hair,
under a thin linen cap projecting in the back to give room for the
long plaits of hair! What a lovely form incased in this tightly
fitting bodice of red stuff, ornamented with green shoulder-straps and
surmounted by a snowy chemisette, the sleeves of which were fastened
at the wrist by a ribbon bracelet! What grace and perfect symmetry
in the waist, encircled by a red belt with clasps of silver filigree
which held in place the dark-green skirt, below which appeared the
white stocking protected by the dainty pointed toed shoe of the
Telemark!

Yes, Ole's betrothed was certainly charming, with the slightly
melancholy expression of the daughters of the North softening her
smiling face; and on seeing her one instantly thought of Hulda the
Fair, whose name she bore, and who figures as the household fairy in
Scandinavian mythology.

Nor did the reserve of a chaste and modest maiden mar the grace with
which she welcomed the guests who came to the inn. She was well
known to the world of tourists; and it was not one of the smallest
attractions of the inn to be greeted by that cordial shake of the
hand that Hulda bestowed on one and all. And after having said to her,
"_Tack for mad_" (Thanks for the meal), what could be more delightful
than to hear her reply in her fresh sonorous voice: "_Wed bekomme_!"
(May it do you good!)

CHAPTER IV.

Ole Kamp had been absent a year; and as he said in his letter, his
winter's experience on the fishing banks of Newfoundland had been
a severe one. When one makes money there one richly earns it. The
equinoctial storms that rage there not unfrequently destroy a whole
fishing fleet in a few hours; but fish abound, and vessels which
escape find ample compensation for the toil and dangers of this home
of the tempest.

Besides, Norwegians are excellent seamen, and shrink from no danger.
In the numberless fiords that extend from Christiansand to Cape North,
among the dangerous reefs of Finland, and in the channels of the
Loffoden Islands, opportunities to familiarize themselves with the
perils of ocean are not wanting; and from time immemorial they have
given abundant proofs of their courage. Their ancestors were intrepid
mariners at an