HABITS -CLOTH ING. 123 



so ashamed of myself in my life. The Swedes have an ex- 

 cellent plan, they always wear goloshes, which they slip off 

 their boots in the hall before entering the room. 



The country houses are often very prettily built, and the 

 grounds very tastefully laid out, but the rooms are generally 

 too large, and have too many windows in them to suit my 

 ideas of snugness; for nothing looks barer than a large 

 half-furnished room without a carpet, an article which, 

 strange to say, you rarely see in the north. 



A hint to the sportsman. The warmest and best cloth- 

 ing for your feet here in winter are double-soled knee-boots 

 to pull on over your trousers, large enough to hold two pair 

 of thick stockings. If you sledge much in the winter, you 

 must have a fur-lined cloak or ' ' pels," and a pair of lined 

 outer boots to go over your inner ones. For the forests 

 in the winter, a good sou'-wester with ear flaps, flannel 

 overalls next the skin, a long waistcoat, and good pea-jacket 

 and gloves, like mittens, with only one trigger-finger, will 

 stand any degree of cold I ever met with. My thermometer 

 in the winter was my gun-barrel. To ascertain the degree 

 of freezing I just put my tongue on it, and if the skin stuck 

 I knew that the cold was something severe. 



