Oct. 26, igoi.] 
"Well, what'll ye take to help dig theSe 'taters out 
here?" - . 
"T don't know." I replied. 
"If yOu don't, who does?" was his next question 
'"Mebbe you do?" I asked, insinuatingly. 
"Well, now, ru give ye five shillings to work from tiow 
CO dark." 
That meant two "house meals" and, perhaps, a bed 
for the night, 
"All ri.a-ht," I replied; "but I never dug "potatoes in mv 
life." 
He hesitated a moment, rubbed the small ol his back 
with, a gesture i soon understood; and then I put my 
pack in the hop house and went to work. It wasn't 
easy, nor did I make much progress, at first. I had to 
stop and see the proper stroke; and then to learn where 
to throw the tops back of me and not in front of him 
in his row. There was a place to init the potatoes — in the 
hill previously dug. But in five minutes I Avas going 
ahead without instructions. For twenty hills he kep! 
up with me, e^ven leading at times; then I hit the right 
swing for me. After that I did about a third more hills 
than he did. I judged from the way he looked at me that 
he was not displeased with my work. Noon came with a 
l)ig dinner, including apple pje. Then to hoe again. At 
4:.50 we stopped digging and began to pick up. Even 
at this T could do more than he and his wife, and I was 
glad of that — but if he had been 50 years younger I would 
have been far behind. 
That night he said that he would give me an even 
dollar to stay till noon the next daj-. I stayed; and the 
bed was large, soft and comfortable. I did not awaken 
(ince all that night. At 6 o'clock we were up; at 7:30 
the barn chores had been tended to, breakfast eaten, and 
I went at the patch again. While I hoed, the old man 
put out horses, fed pigs and did other things, including 
smoking by the kitchen stove. 
By and by a neighboring farmer clroA'e by. 
"Be they rotted much?"' he asked. 
-No," I said. 
"What kind are they?" 
"T don't know." 
"Are yoti workin' reg'lar for Mr. John-ston?" 
"No; my job's up at noon to-day." 
"Don't }'ou want a regular job as farm hand?" he 
asked. 
"I never worked on a farm in my life," I answered. 
"What!" -he said, looking at the potatoes that were 
turned out that morning. 
Then Mr, Johnston came up and took up the thread 
of the talk, and T finished the patch; and helped sort 
and carry twenty-odd bushels to the cellar bins. The 
rest, the old man, his wife and daughter thought they 
could manage, so I ate my dinner, received a silver dol- 
l;ir and at r o'clock started on again. 
Raymond S. Spk.\rs. 
[to be continued.] 
In the Faroe Islands. 
II, — Myggcnoes.* 
T MIGHT have waited at Bo for several weeks .for the 
right kind of weather in which to go to Myggenoes, but 
fortune smiled tipon me. After only two days of Western 
storm and fog, the wdnd changed to the northeast; the 
men of B. took counsel together, looked at the glass, 
■consulted the almanac, watched the surf line on the outer 
isl.inds, and decided that it was "Myggenoes six-man 
.weather," and I could go with the turn of the tide. 
Never, not even in Venice during my first ride in a 
•gondola, have I felt so much like a personage as when 
I started in a large eight-oared boat with six sturdy men, 
half the adult population of Bo. All were clad in golden- 
brown, homespun coats and mixed brown and gray knee 
1(.-eeches: these have a row of brass buttons on the outer 
leg seam, but are always left tmbuttoned, and display 
a bright, striped pair of garters and long, soft, bro\yn 
stockings. On the feet are moccasins of sheep skin, 
bound around the ankles with thongs of knitted white 
wool ; on their heads the Faroe "higoa," or long, soft 
cap. of hand-woven cloth, dark blue with red stripes, or 
stripes of black and blue. Thi,s has a soft, gathered 
crown which droops over the ear or rests on the brow. 
The men had that calm, far-seeing look in their blue 
eyes that one sees often in sailors and prairie dwellers, 
and full, fair beards. After the manner of Faroe folk, all 
talked together and all the time. 
I noted with satisfaction their powerful sweep at the 
k.rg oars, and the perfect time they kept. But the big 
wave> soon reduced me to a humble frame of mind, and 
T clutched tight hold of the gunwale, and would gladly 
have exchanged my state for a flat-bottomed boat on a 
jjond. Once under the clifTs of an island, there was a 
cimllict of wind and tide called a "roost," a battering 
kind of squall beat down upon us from the summit, and 
ihc men called out to me that I was not to be afraid, and 
that it would soon be over. Then out into the open sea 
e passed with beautiful views of the mountains and 
precipices of Vaagoe, their bare rocks glowing in the 
iifternoon sun. The first Myggenoeses we met were 
Imndreds of puffins floating on the waves and walcliin.ir 
us with the utmost unconcern; then, as we reached them, 
in a twinkling, up flashed their little red feet, and not a 
pufiin was to be seen. 
It was not so long before we reached the eastern 
promontory of Myggenoes, but we had to go to the ex- 
treme western end, and in all that way thei^e was not one 
place wdiere a shipwrecked man could land and climlj 
the cliffs. A cruel-looking coast it was, of brown, red 
and ash-gray trap rock, from 150 to 1,300 feet in height, 
capped and wreathed with the cloud mists. Thousands 
(it auks, gulls and guillemots, puffins, kittiwakes and 
cormorants flashed back and forth, looking in the far 
distance like motes in a sunbeam. 
At last we reached the western end of the island, and 
made apparent^ for the face of a cliff; but it opened to a 
wide rift, with jagged ledges on either side, over which 
the surf was surging and falling back with an ugly, 
nicking sound. A line of green water lay between, and 
in we went on that line. There was no surf that day, and 
*For first paper see issue of March 2, 190L 
the wind was northeast, so we could come close to the 
rocks. Then one of my men took me out, gripped my 
hand fast and slowly towed me upward over the sea- 
weed-covered rocks, then the bare ones, then to rocky 
slopes, where the boats in summer are kept, then to 
higher ones to the winter boat houses, then to steps 
hewn from the solid rock, and so to the village path. I 
have never seen a more desolate place, or one which 
showed so forcibly the height and might of the winter 
seas. 
My.ggenoes Village, as I found, is not a cheerful 
place. It has perhaps 150 inhabitants, and there are no 
houses elsewhere on the island. Around the rocky bed 
of a brook the cabins are built, and sticks and stones 
and bones lie about in confusion. There is no attempt at 
gardening and grass plots. The summer is cold and 
short, the winds are strong; potatoes barely grow, and are 
small and soggy; the few little patches of barley never 
fully ripen. But wherever the ground is drained and 
cleared of stones, there the grjiss grows thick and long; 
the one sweet and gracious thing in Myggenoes — fra- 
grant as sweet clover and adorned with pink catch-Hy. 
daisies and saxifrage. Good grass and puffins arc the 
compensations which Mother Nature bestows upon her 
Myggenoes children. 
I am staying with Herr Abrahamsen, one of the chief 
men of the village. The first evening after mv arrival 
he and his brother Paol went with me to see the nearest 
bird cliffs; first to neighboring outfields, where thou- 
sands of puffins have their nests in burrows betvveen 
great boulders, and in grassy hummocks. Others live in 
grassy ledges on the cliffs, and in dattgcrous, grassy 
slopes, and a rope is necessary with which to reach 
their nests. I pointed to a hole, and asked Herr Paol if 
he thought there was a nest in it. "We will -soon see," 
he replied, and lying down flat he inserted a long arm. 
.V pulfin was at home. I heard tierr Paol's exclamation 
as he was bitten, and an instant later he wriggled up, 
holding a strugg"ling bird, the prettiest thing, with 
snow-white •brea.st, clean, little, shining feet, and a big 
bill, which was a "symphony" of violets and green-blues 
and soft reds.' I admired it much, and stroked its back, 
and was about to ask Herr Paol to put it back, when he 
wrung its neck before my horrified eyes. Of course I 
knew, it is a puflrn's fate to have its neck wrung, and I 
think T ate that one next day, and will probably eat 
thirty or forty more before I leave; but there is a senti- 
ment about one's first puffin. 
Then we went to see the homes of the "havhest" or 
gray gulls, climbing a long, steep, grassy slope, where 
Herr Paol thoughtfully walked below me so I could 
step by the side of his big feet; and we lay down and put 
our heads over a sharply sliced-off cliff and looked over 
and down ledges where the beautiful gray and white 
birds sat on their nests: The fog was milling up from the 
sea I don't know how far below, and the sun struggling 
through the clouds turned it into a glory of fantastic 
wreaths. Then to the guillemot and "rita" or kittiwake 
cliffs, .Avhere hundreds of guillemots sat bolt upright in 
rows like, china figures on a chimney piece. The dainty 
little kittiwakes, were nesting above them and inaking an 
astonishing noise, quite at variance with their pretty 
looks and manners. "He makes as much noise as a 
rita of ;th.e rocks," is an expressive Faroe proverb, ap- 
plied to a noi.s3'-, talkative man. Having taken a general 
survey of the neighboring bird clift's, so I could know 
where and how to go another day, we all returned to the 
village, and I. went to sleep under a feather puff con- 
taining ten pounds of puffin feathers, and had the most 
awful dreams of rolling down grassy slopes and going 
plop into the sea; of sitting on narrow ledges that 
crumbled and gave way beneath my weight; of catching 
at things that snapped in my hands, and having boulders 
whiz past my ears. Indeed every night I fall off of 
something in my dreams, and have come to dread these 
inevitable nightly adventures. After a week on Myg- 
genoes, one longs to be on a flat and flowery Western 
prairie and walk miles and miles in a straight line. I 
told my fears and dreams one day to an old sea dog of 
a r^fyggenoeser who was sitting on a cliff, and he as- 
sented sadly, and I fouiid afterward that I had better 
have confided in any other man, for this one had had 
one son killed on the cliffs a fortnight before, and an- 
other drowned at sea in April. 
A fine s.et of men are the Alyggenoesers ; hardy, ath- 
letic, brave .skilled cliff men. daring boatmen, proud 
and reserved to strangers, cheerful and very tallaativc 
among themselves. Their power of speech was a 
marvel to me; they had known each other intimately all 
their lives, are often W'ceks in the summer time "and 
months in the winter time without one new idea coming 
from the outside world, and yet the stream of words 
can flow unceasingly for eighteen hours out of the 
twenty-four. It was. to me, one' of the wonders of 
rvfyggenoes. 
The young girls, who work out of doors a good deal, 
are bright and healthy, but most of the married women 
look worn and sad. Their anxiety about the men must 
weigh upon them. Storms are sudden and violent; the 
coast and^ the landing dangerous. Boats have gone out 
for a day's fishing, have been obliged to take refuge in 
Bo or Sorvag, and for weeks and sometimes months 
Ihe women did not know if their men folk were alive or 
de.'id. Not long ago a boat's crew of men ;-tayed three 
months and a half in Sorvag ' before possible weather 
came, and the standard of a man of .Myggenoes regard- 
ing the weather is not yours or mine. Bodies of men 
drowned in these waters are seldom found. But last 
spiing when a boat was lo^t the fishing net drifted to 
the Vaa.g<"ie shore to tell the tale 
There is a little church here painted white, and sodded 
with turf on the roof. Service is held thrice a year, be- 
tween April and October. A winter visit is not to be 
expected. Tasl autumn a young Myggenoeser was so 
inconsiderate as to plan to be married in November, 
so the pastor ventured to go. But a great storm arose, 
the boat was crushed in landing, and the occupants had 
a narrow escape. As for the dead, the people sing a 
psalni or two at their graves, arftl there they lie until 
the pastor's next visit, when a funenal sermon is preached 
in the churchyard. A desolate place, even in June, is 
that graveyard. No attention whatever is paid to the 
graves; there are no flowers, no grass, no headstones — 
onlj' little posts with the numbers of their record in 
the church books. Over all, and growing high above 
the churchyard wall, is a horribly rank growth of Atl- 
gelica, and a bare spot, where it has been cut away, 
marks a new-made grave. Every Sunday the peopk 
meet in the church, and Herr Abrahamsen reads a sti 
mon, and the people sing the psalms. These serinons 
are appointed to last two years. At the end of that 
time it is supposed that the first sermons have been iot- 
.gotten, and Herr Abrahamsen begins over again. Bare 
floors,_ bare bench seats, a little white-covered altar, a 
beautiful antique brass basin, of fine repoussee work, 
large enough to hold triplets, two contribution boxes 
with handles, marked respectively, "For the school," and 
"For the poor of the land" — this is all the church con- 
tains. In the entry I saw a little shovel with long, carved 
handle, which the pastor uses in the burial service, cast- 
ing earth on the graves three times, and saying, "From 
earth art thou come; to earth shalt thau go; from earth 
shalt thou rise again." 
The school house is close to the church. We arc 
having the Jtine holidays of two weeks' duration, to 
enable the children to help in drying and bearing the, 
peat. But if it is a stormy day, from my window I see 
the school master (who keeps, bachelor's hall above 
the school room) open the' casement and toot on a 
nondescript tooter. Then, since the children cannot 
work, they must go to school and study. What would 
our young Americans think of such an arrangement? 
In August they will have another two weeks of these 
so-called holiday.s, when hay-making begins. 
As I stand by the churchyard gate I can see the 
small boys and girls climbing and descending the hills 
Avith the peat racks on their shoulders; their chattering 
sounds like a chorus of titlarks. They will grow up and 
emulate the conversational powers of their forbears. 
They are sturdy little men and women, and as they wear 
the same costume as the grown-ups, I am often deceived 
while watching the fjelds, thinking that a little boy not 
far away is a grown man at a greater distance. I would 
gladly spend much time on the peat moors, but there 
ranges a bull — an ungracious animal, quick to note and 
disapprove a "fremmed folk" or stranger. It is silly to 
be afraid of Faroe bulls, so my Faroe friends tell me, 
and then they forget me in talk among themselves. 
"Do you remember that time Sigmund was chased to 
the edge of that precipice, and hunp- on as long as he 
could and then dropped?'' 
"Wasiie killed?" I ga.sp. 
"No, not quite; he did live, but he was pretty badly 
smashed." And then they go on. "Was it last year that 
man was killed on Fugloe?" 
"No;, you're thinking of that case on Kunoe; Fug- 
loe's was year before last," etc. 
- It was a beautiful, calm morning at 8 o'clock to-day. 
and eight boats went to sea for fishing. Then in about 
two hours. a great surf arose; no wind, but probably the 
after _cff,ects of a storm at sea. Back came the boats, 
hurrying to .get to shore before it grew too strong; but 
ir was too quick for them, and they retreated to the 
open sea beyond the reefs of the rift. And there, while 
v.'aiting for a lull, the men sang the home-coming song. 
I could hefir. their voices rising above the roar of the sea: 
"Praise be to God, 
Father in Hesven, 
■Who all things ha.s created, 
And praise His Son forevermore, 
Who saves us all from danger; 
And praise be to the Holy Ghost, 
Who gives us of His Grace; 
This praise has been before all time, 
And shall be without end, 
(jod us His njeiey send!" 
Then the first boat charged in, neared the rocks, found 
It could not land, whirled back to the lea of a cliff; 
there watched the waves and rushed in once more. Men 
on shore were waiting to help, the crew sprang out. 
all seized the boat, some being, carried from their feet 
and dragged in the water, and it was swept on and over 
a ledge into a pool just as a mighty wave crashed 
down. One after another of the boats came in, the surf- 
increasing, all <m shore helping, watching the seas and 
.giving the signal when to dash for the rocks. Then the 
women came trooping dow-n with hot coffee, and the 
men sat down quietly, drenched as they were, and 
cleaned the fish they had caught. Elizabeth Taylor. 
Brigands and Their Ways. 
The abduction of Miss Ellen .M. Stone, the American 
missionary, by brigands for a ransom, has turned the 
attention of the entire civilized world to the brigands and 
their ways. The follow-ing account of .Creek brigands, 
written by a ransomed captive, gives an insight into 
brigandage as |)racticed throughout the East. 
With the green leaves of spring, the brigands, who have 
been skulking in holes and corners all the winter, begin 
their season. The difficulties of movement in winter, the 
facility with which their steps might be traced in the 
snow, or their camps upon a bare hillside detected by the 
smoke, are over. Wood cutters, charcoal burners, herds- 
men, and shepherds, who keep to the lower grounds in 
winter, now commence to spread over the hills in pursuit 
of their several callings, and become available as confed- 
erates and purveyors. "For the next eight months the 
nv-rauding bands have it all their own way on the moun- 
tains — not. as in former days, in small parties of five or 
six, indift'erently armed, but numbering thirty, sixty or a 
hundred, armed with the best modern weapons. ' They 
sweep over the country, requisitioning the villages for 
provision.s and money, and carrying oft' and holding to 
ransom any one whom they m.ay ascertain to have the 
means of buying his life at their hands. 
The connection of political ends with the savage ex- 
cesses of brigandages must always be kept in mind. It 
was under the guise of supportitif insurrection that 
filibtisteriiig parties landed on the cdA.st and ravaged the 
district lying around Mount Olympu.s in 1878. distributed 
arms and ammunition among the peasantry, forced them 
from their homes, and finally left the worst of their numr 
bers to form the nuclei of the bands which now devastate 
the country. 
