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CHAPTER XIV.

WE returned to Eidsvold in the same way that we had come; and I must say that I found the passage of the lake tiresome enough. On board the boat I had seen a little carriole packed up in such a complete manner, that I stood looking at it, and seeking for a derivation of the name from our English words

carry all," I believe an existing Americanism. To my great surprise I found it was destined also to carry Herr Y.

"Are you going to travel in that?" I asked. "Yes, I must follow him. The carriage would not be quick enough."

"And what am I to do ?"

Herr Y. assured me he had understood that I meant to stop at the Baths of Eidsvold. "All ladies do so."

I went to the Baths, or to the hotel, rather, at the Baths, to see if I could stay there. I found sixty women in all degrees of dress, from the best one of the peasant to the best one of the lady, and one man, a teacher of music. I suppose he had sixty lessons to give a day; there were several performers at once about the piano; I saw no walks, no other sort of amusements. I found Herr Y. again, and said to him—

"I want to see the sun at Christiania, how can I go on there ?"

"If you wish to go to the capital," said Herr Y., "there is a man here who has brought down a lady in a gig, and wishes to get another to bring back."

"I will go," I said; "tell him to be ready in half an hour."

"And I will go on before and order your dinner."

"Oh! I do not want dinner."

"Well, tea then; yes, it is tea the English ladies take, and eggs and mutton-chops. But you cannot get to the capital to-night, with one horse; no, that is impossible."

He called the driver of the gig, and gave him his instructions, told him where he was to stop for the night, and that he himself was going to act as my avant courier, and to order my room, and my tea, and chops, and eggs.

"I must get to the capital," said Herr Y., "before him; we must make preparations there; but as I go along I will order all for you, and tell them you are coming."

“Oh! the people will make too great preparation!" I said. Herr Y. waved his hand, as if to say that were impossible, and repeating to the driver that I must have tea and eggs for breakfast the next morning, and tea and eggs and meat for supper that evening, and above all to order the tea to be very strong, as he knew English customs, he set off to give the same directions en route.

It was past five o'clock; the dinner hour at the hotel was long past, and with such a liberal prospect before me, I could not give them the trouble of preparing one for me. I set off without having eaten anything but my breakfast, thinking I would do justice to the preparations made for me on the road.

The evening sun was troublesome, and the poor

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horse, after giving unequivocal signs of fatigue before he had gone very far with his present load, fell lame, stumbled at every second step, and exhibited a tendency to tumble down. The driver insisted on standing on the board behind, so that the heavy blows of his whip always descended on the splash-board, instead of on the poor steed, to its infinite relief, but to the great damage of my aching head. I met a little girl with some wild-strawberries, for which I gave her a piece of silver that threw her into such consternation, she ran away, and left the cup in my hand, without knowing what she was about. This was the only incident of the way. I began to wish for the station-house where I was to stop; but to every question, as well as to each request that he would sit down, the driver pulled off his hat, and said "Nay, nay."

The horse went stumbling on, the amble fell to a dead walk, and the walk seemed likely to come to a stand. Herr Y. told me we should reach the station-house at eight o'clock, and now it was nearly midnight. My heart and hopes were sinking, when, with something like a sound of joy, my driver pointed to a dark silent object, a little withdrawn from the road, and said that was the station for the night.

Truly glad was I to see it; but its darkness and silence did not make it look like an inn. The driver pulled the latch, and the door opened. I entered a wide, dark place-a sort of outer court, neither room nor kitchen, which is always left open in these Northern receptacles for stray humanity.

Round and round it went my conductor, knocking at doors, and feeling at walls. At last he threw open one door, from which a quarter dressed woman appeared, staring and half asleep. What words passed between them, I did not care to hear; but I said these for myself, "A light, and my room." She brought me out the fragment of a candle, laid it down on a great chest, went back to where she came from, and shut the door. The driver went round and round, still wringing his hands, and crying, "Ack! ack!"

I went and knocked again at the woman's door, and knocked until I made her get up and let me in. It was a small kitchen, with a sort of open chest on the floor, in which the girl had been reposing. Such beds are general in this country, and are something between a chest and a coffin, without lids. There was a hearth, and some live embers still upon it; I made her give me some