80 TEN YEARS IN SWEDEN. 



in this wild spot which told that this day was different to 

 any other. The loud laugh and the coarse jest which too 

 often garnishes the ordinary discourse of the bushman, were 

 seldom heard on the Sunday ; or if one more hardened than 

 his comrades attempted it, his mates would be more ready 

 to turn away than to laugh. But all over the continent the 

 Sabbath is regarded as a day of pleasure,, and not of sacred 

 rest ; and although individually there may be quite as good 

 foreigners as Englishmen, the moral tone of the inhabitants, 

 generally speaking, of every foreign land which I have 

 visited, is very, very different from that of old England. 



You never hear in Sweden, as you do in England, or in 

 many continental countries, a merry peal of bells. Some 

 of the bells in the town churches are deep and finely-toned, 

 but their measured, solemn toll, always struck a chill into my 

 heart, for I never could make out whether they were tolling 

 for church service or for a burial. The deep solemn sound 

 of the church bell in the north, is in perfect unison with the 

 stern, rugged features of the country, just as the sweet chime 

 from a little English country church, is in keeping with the 

 quiet rural scenery which usually surrounds it. 



It is now many years (although I have never forgotten 

 the time) since I sat on the garden terrace of the old house 

 at home, in the calm twilight of the summer evening, and 

 listened to the soft, sweet peal of bells from the tall spire 

 of a neighbouring church, as the sound came floating down 

 the river, mellowed by the water, and the stillness which 

 then reigned over all. 



Strange to say in all my wanderings since, I have only 

 once heard a peal of bells which to my fancy could equal them, 

 and this was of all places in the world, at Melbourne, Victoria. 

 The gold fever was just then at its height, and the town was 

 one continual scene of riot, and dissipation. I was then 

 a " new chum," and like many others being out of luck, I 

 had but little heart to join in the boisterous revelry with 

 which I was surrounded. It was a lovely evening, and I 

 had strolled about two miles from the town on the banks of 

 the Yarra, to moralize, like the sentimental Jaques, upon my 



