CHAPTER X 



TO DAL AND LILLEDAL. 1903 



ANOTHER delightful place which I occupied with my 

 family one autumn, and afterwards visited as the 

 guest of Lort Phillips, was Todal, situated in a most 

 lovely valley upon the upper branch of the long fjord 

 which runs up from Christiansund to the north-west 

 of Hvilested, from which it can be easily reached by 

 pedestrians in a short day by crossing the mountain, 

 a lovely walk over the high fjeld by glaciers and snow- 

 clad peaks. Both places. belong to the same owner, 

 and there is telephonic communication between them. 

 When my family occupied Hvilested my sons walked 

 across to pay a visit, taking their guns, and shooting 

 ryper on the way. Engrossed by their sport and 

 novel surroundings, they miscalculated the time 

 necessary for the transit, and darkness had set in 

 while they were still on the high tops. Lort Phillips, 

 who was expecting them, telephoned to us to inquire 

 whether they had started, and seemed somewhat 

 perturbed when he heard that they were benighted 

 on unfamiliar ground. He assured us that they had 

 probably taken refuge for the night in some mountain 

 soater ; but there was anxiety in his tone, and it would 

 have been greater had he known that they were at that 

 moment making a bee-line down the hill towards the 

 guiding lights of his house, a somewhat risky perform- 



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