WITH CARL OF THE HILL 7 



northern birds, the brilliance of the rowan berries — 

 on signs like these he grounds his belief. 



Carl, his preparations over, finds me awaiting him 

 in the opening of one of the little forest paths that 

 radiate from the clearing. " Not that way," he says, 

 " I do not go that way." He spoke these words with 

 a shiver as of cold ; I did not know it until afterwards 

 for the involuntary shudder of a sudden pain. 



The left barrel of Carl's gun is rifled for an express 

 bullet; the right may be used either as a i6-bore shot 

 gun or for a spherical ball, "because," as he says, 

 " sometimes you can get fairly close to your elk and 

 then the big bullet is best." My own rifle is a 450 

 Express. Carl takes old Rappe in a lead, while the 

 young dog, Talle, is entrusted to me. Rappe, the best 

 elk-hound to-day in the centre of Sweden, won a 

 reputation in the forests of Norrland that still keeps 

 his memory green. In a land where a man's life hangs 

 on the intelligence of his dog, the dog that is perfect is 

 never bought or sold, for it cannot be valued in terms 

 of money. But it chanced on a day that the old Lapp, 

 Rappe's master, overreached himself in schemes and 

 cunning, and Rappe passed to Carl in payment of a 

 debt; and Rappe in that kind companionship does 

 not regret the change, and, without Rappe, Carl would 



