LILLEDAL, 1913 215 



the skyds station an excellent meal of soup, salmon, 

 veal cutlets, compote of fruit, and coffee, which we 

 thoroughly enjoyed after our long fast. There was 

 some further delay at the driver's house, next door 

 to the post-office, where his delightful little son, a 

 baby a little more than a year old, ran about nursing 

 and sometimes hurling about a small kitten, to the 

 delight of a throng of sightseers assembled to see 

 the start. I wish I could have photographed the scene, 

 but it was too late in the evening for an instantaneous 

 exposure. The rest of the journey was pure enjoy- 

 ment, as well-known scene after well-known scene 

 " swam into my ken." I did not note much change 

 except the bare bank and blasted trees on the height 

 where dear Hvilested formerly stood, and a certain 

 amount of new building, including a bran new Tourist 

 Hotel next to the store at Grodal, where our little Nor- 

 wegian companion left us with as many smiles and ex- 

 pressions of regret as if we had been her benefactors 

 instead of the unwilling causes of a delay of some hours 

 on her journey. Norwegians really take no count of 

 time, and are never in a hurry. On my return journey 

 from Alfheim along the same route the motor pulled 

 up with a jerk just as we approached Ottem bridge, 

 and while I was speculating whether a tyre had burst 

 or the petrol given out, I saw our chauffeur deliberately 

 cut a stick, and go back some hundred yards to kill 

 a small viper which his quick eye had marked 

 crawling by the side of the road. We reached 

 Sundalsoren soon after nine, and found our old 

 friend Ole, Miss Cole's boatman, waiting to row us 

 across the fjord ; and in spite of the lateness of the 

 hour our kind hostess was waiting by the boathouse 



