VOYAGE THROUGH THE KARA SEA i8l 



hardest row I ever had. Slept well for a little, but am 

 now lying tossing about in my berth, unable to sleep. 

 Is it the coffee I drank after supper .f* or the cold tea I 

 drank when I awoke with a burning thirst? I shut my 

 eyes and try again time after time, but to no purpose. 

 And now memory's airy visions steal softly over my 

 soul. Gleam after gleam breaks through the mist. I 

 see before me sunlit landscapes — smiling fields and 

 meadows, green, leafy trees and woods, and blue moun- 

 tain ridges. The singing of the steam in the boiler-pipe 

 turns to bell-ringing — church bells — ringing in Sab- 

 bath peace over Vestre-Aker on this beautiful summer 

 morning. I am walking with father along the avenue 

 of small birch-trees that mother planted, up towards the 

 church, which lies on the height before us, pointing up 

 into the blue sky and sending its call far over the 

 country-side. From up there you can see a long way. 

 Ncesodden looks quite close in the clear air, especially on 

 an autumn morning. And we give a quiet Sunday 

 greeting to the people that drive past us, all going our 

 way. What a look of Sunday happiness dwells on their 

 faces ! 



" I did not think it all so delightful then, and would 

 much rather have run off to the woods with my bow and 

 arrow after squirrels — but now — how fair, how wonder- 

 fully beautiful that sunlit picture seems to me ! The 

 feeling of peace and happiness that even then no doubt 

 made its impression, though only a passing one, comes 



