CHAPTER XIV.

A port-wine pilgrimage--The perfection of a landlady--Old superstitious customs--Levelling effects of unlevelled roads--A blank day--Sketch of an interior after Ostade--A would-be resurrectionist foiled--The voices of the woods--Valuable timber--A stingy old fellow--Unmistakeable symptoms of civilization--Topographical memoranda--Timber-logs on their travels--The advantages of a short cut--A rock-gorge swallows a river--Ferry talk--Welcome--What four years can do for the stay-at-homes--A Thelemarken manse--Spæwives--An important day for the millers--How a tailor kept watch--The mischievous cats--Similarity in proverbs--“The postman’s knock”--Government patronage of humble talent--Superannuated clergymen in Norway--Perpetual curates--Christiania University examination--Norwegian students--The Bernadotte dynasty--Scandinavian unity--Religious parties--Papal propagandists at Tromsö--From fanaticism to field-sports--The Linnæa Borealis pp. 242-276