refuse his services.
He would only be absent forty-eight hours at the longest, and he felt
confident that he should find Ole at Dal on his return, though, to
tell the truth, the kind-hearted youth was beginning to feel very
uneasy. Still, he started off early the next morning, though with a
heavy heart, we must admit.

On the following day, at precisely one o'clock, a loud rap resounded
at the door of the inn.

"It is Ole!" cried Hulda.

She ran to the door.

There, in a kariol, sat a man enveloped in a traveling-cloak, a man
whose face was unknown to her.

CHAPTER VI.

"Is this Dame Hansen's inn?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," answered Hulda.

"Is Dame Hansen at home?"

"No; but she will soon return, and if you wish to speak to her--"

"I do not. There is nothing I want to say to her."

"Would you like a room?"

"Yes; the best in the house."

"Shall we prepare dinner for you?"

"As soon as possible, and see to it that everything is of the very
best quality."

These remarks were exchanged between Hulda and the traveler before the
latter had alighted from the kariol, in which he had journeyed to
the heart of the Telemark across the forests, lakes, and valleys of
Central Norway.

Every one who has visited Scandinavia is familiar with the kariol,
the means of locomotion so dear to the hearts of her people. Two long
shafts, between which trots a horse wearing a square wooden collar,
painted yellow and striped with black, and guided with a simple rope
passed, not through his mouth, but around his nose, two large,
slender wheels, whose springless axle supports a small gay-colored,
shell-shaped wagon-body, scarcely large enough to hold one person--no
covering, no dash-board, no step--but behind, a board upon which the
_skydskarl_ perches himself. The whole vehicle strongly reminds one of
an enormous spider between two huge cobwebs represented by the wheels
of the vehicle.

At a sign from the traveler the _skydskarl_ sprung to the horse's
head, and the stranger rose, straightened himself out, and finally
alighted, though not without some difficulty, judging from two or
three muttered curses.

"Will they put my kariol under shelter?" he asked, curtly, pausing
upon the threshold.

"Yes, sir," replied Hulda.

"And find my horse?"

"I will have him put in the stable immediately."

"Have him well cared for."

"Certainly, sir. May I ask if you intend to remain in Dal several
days?"

"I don't know