in movement were an immense number of huge purple lobsters, and enormous live crabs, and a vast quantity of horrible, wriggling eels,— crawling, twisting, working, in the midst of the circle formed by the spectators. Outside the spot occupied by the living creatures lay many slaughtered fowls, having their bones more visible than their flesh; some large cucumbers, a basket of small cherries, and a sack full of green peas. The rest of the items may be summed up in the word with which ladies usually conclude their accounts-sundries. Herr Y. politely informed me that now we should set out as soon as the carriage was packed. "Will they pack it with these creatures ?" I thought. The doubt was

resolved by one of the many lookers-on seizing a handful of great eels and cramming them, notwithstanding their violent contortions and frantic resistance, into a basket of hay.

"Hay, of all things, to put live eels into!" I exclaimed.

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That is the best for them," said Herr Y., with the air of a prescribing doctor.

Curiosity was certainly stimulated in me by the Northern air; no native could have yielded to it more readily than I did, in asking my good

host-that was going to be, what on earth he could do with all these creatures. A natural fear of being fed upon them perhaps beset me. But Herr Y. gravely and briefly replied, "He will eat them."

That there was some sort of animal which the personal pronoun masculine was intended to represent, I now began to suspect; but as the eels, &c., were not for me, I inquired no further. And Herr Y., looking at his auditory with an air of superior knowledge, added, "That is nothing to the English; I know that they eat well." A cordial assent was given.

"And fish," said one of the men; (6 yes, they like that. Do they not come over here and risk their lives, and spend heaps of gold, for nothing else but to catch a fish? Englishmen do nothing more. To eat, to drink, to fish; that is all the life of Englishmen."

My country! I heard this said, truly, and word for word spoken, in Norway! And yet the persons who give rise to an idea so preposterous imagine they are admired or envied by the simple people whom they astonish.

"Your judgment is not a fair one, " I remarked to Herr Y., as he assisted me in placing

my little boxes and baskets out of the way of the lobsters and crabs. "These people have only seen a few of our rich idlers, or perhaps even of our poor idlers; they conclude that the specimen is a national one. Now, they will have soon another means of judging. Englishmen, I am told, are coming to Norway for other purposes than to catch a salmon and bear it in triumph up the Thames; yes, or even to shoot a bear! They are coming," I added, with emphasis and laudable pride, "they are coming to make a railroad!"

"I know that," said Herr Y., with meaning. "We know that," added the others.

"But I know also that Englishmen like to eat and drink, whether they fish or not," the former pertinaciously added. "I know what HE will like, and I must provide accordingly."

"Yes, yes," responded the others, "that is necessary." And they packed in the sundries, including Herr Y. and myself. I suspect a live crab was my footstool, and I am sure I felt a lobster crawling at my back; but with the first motion of the carriage-wheels my spirits revived, and happy to leave No. 13, I started joyously for Gulbrandsdalen.

The beauty of the environs, the prospects, and

the better state of the road immediately about Christiania, at first kept up this temper; but at the second station matters began to change.

The road was already beginning to get very bad; but it was not the road alone that agitated Herr Y. He came out of the post-house, which he entered alone, in a state of excitement; the delay in bringing fresh horses from the plough for our carriage seemed to torment his tranquil temper. When at last the reeking things were galloped up, and the terrible operation of harnessing concluded, he offered a good drink-penny to the driver for making a rapid stage. Away then we flew; they drive fast enough at all times in Norway; so on we went, up hill and down hill, over hillocks, into ruts and out of them; now bouncing high from our seats, now swinging from side to side, to the infinite detriment of my bonnet against Herr Y.'s hat. Imagination can scarcely depict such a highway as that which the first railway made in Norway is now about to supersede. English words,-dreadful, shocking, and others, do not sound so expressive of it as the native one skräcklig. Sometimes it is true we had a few minutes' rest by getting locked in a cart-wheel; the Norse drivers of such vehicles seem to like to

try whose wheels are the strongest; you may keep out of their way if you will, but they will not keep out of yours. Herr Y. on these occasions lost his national calm; what could be the cause of our wild speed, I was at a loss to make out, and all his ejaculations were self-addressed. At last, from the top of a hill up which the panting horses had been vehemently urged, the driver, pointing his whip forwards and downwards, said gravely and earnestly the words, "They are there;" and Herr Y., who had been leaning over his shoulders to look out in the same direction, fell back on his seat with something like a sigh of relief.

In fact a forbud, or luggage-cart, travelling in company with five or six carriages, appeared at the door of the next post-station; and as we drew nearer we plainly saw a number of small stout bottles come out of the cart and go into the house after the travellers.

"It is HE!" sighed Herr Y., drawing a long breath.

"HE! in five carriages and a cart?"

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"They follow him," he responded, by way of explanation, but leaving me as much in the dark

as ever.