ALFHEIM, 1913 195 



man, who was bound for his home at the foot of the 

 Dovre Fjeld, and a young cheery-looking Norwegian 

 with a knapsack, and his companion, a buxom girl of 

 about the same age, either his sister or his bride. 



On this occasion the flowers were nearly over. 

 It had been a forward year, and the harvest had been 

 early. Another new feature of the landscape was the 

 scarcity of snow. The fall in the winter had not 

 been a heavy one, and most of the snow had melted 

 early, to the great disgust of the fishermen, who had 

 found their autumn supply of water for the pools 

 lamentably short. A late fall in the beginning of 

 July had temporarily blocked the back door of the 

 mountain home for which I was bound, but of course 

 such unseasonable snow speedily disappears under 

 the hot rays of the summer sun. The steep road to 

 Suisdal, which " wound up hill all the way," seemed 

 to me more difficult to mount than on the former 

 occasion ; but perhaps the passage of eleven years 

 had affected not the road but the pedestrian ! It 

 speaks volumes for the tonic effect of mountain air, 

 three thousand feet above the sea, that although peri- 

 lously near threescore- and- ten I was able to manage 

 the four hours' climb without undue fatigue. 



I will not repeat my account of the scenery, 

 although perhaps I stopped oftener and longer to 

 look at it than on the former occasion. I saw nothing 

 new until I got within about a mile and a half of 

 Alfheim and passed the imposing new house, Vangen, 

 on an eminence above the east end of the large lake, 

 crossing the river by a fine new stone bridge just 

 below it which seemed to me really a triumph of 

 amateur engineering and construction. It impressed 



