NORWEGIAN SPOUT. 05 



lighter or more clastic up the mountain, none steadier 

 or more iron-like when he bounded down the steep : to 

 him was given strength, activity, and endurance of 

 fatigue, beyond the common lot of man ; he knew his 

 superiority and was proud of showing it ; but intent as he 

 was in making a grand display to astonish the artist, he 

 found himself totally discomfited. " The de'il was in the 

 inon ; he skelped awa quite aisy, with a wee bit knapsack 

 and umbrella to boot ;" and although Mac very cannily slip- 

 ped a few stones into his knapsack, he was beat the whole 

 way ; and it was a laugh against him to his dying day. 



The artist having hinted that these sorts of encounters 

 had chanced to him before, Tortoise drew from him the 

 following account of one of them : 



He had walked over Norway on a sketching tour, and 

 once joined a party of Norsemen who were ringing the 

 bear. He carried no fire-arms, he said, like the rest of 

 the party, always preferring close combat; nothing but 

 his sketching stool. This, when produced, was found to 

 l>c a circular piece of heavy oak timber, divided into three 

 parts, fitting closely, so as to unite, and riveted together 

 in the centre ; but when detached by a sort of twist, the 

 extremities were spread, the lower ones forming feet, 

 and the upper ones a seat, by hitching some sort of 

 sacking on their points. The thing is a sketching stool 

 in common use, his only differed from others by being 

 made of the most solid oak, so that in good hands it was a 

 very effective weapon ; and it was with this that he had 

 been attacking the stag. 



" I was on skidor," said he, " which you know is a sort 

 of long wooden skait, that enables you to get over the 



