A FARM-STEADING. 
45 
mind, and equally eager to be free, the divorce is 
granted, and each is at liberty to marry again. 
The next day it had been arranged that we were to 
take an experimental trip on our new ponies, under the 
guidance of the learned and jovial Rector of the College. 
Unfortunately the weather was dull and rainy, but we 
were determined to enjoy ourselves in spite of every¬ 
thing, and a pleasanter ride I have seldom had. The 
steed Segurdr had purchased for me was a long-tailed, 
hog-maned, shaggy, cow-houghed creature, thirteen hands 
high, of a bright yellow colour, with admirable action, 
and sure-footed enough to walk downstairs backwards. 
The Doctor was not less well mounted; in fact, the 
Icelandic pony is quite a peculiar race, much stronger, 
faster, and better bred than the Highland shelty, and 
descended probably from pure-blooded sires that scoured 
the steppes of Asia, long before Odin and his paladins 
had peopled the valleys of Scandinavia. 
The first few miles of our ride lay across an undu¬ 
lating plain of dolorite, to a farm situated at the head 
of an inlet of the sea. At a distance, the farm-steading 
looked like a little oasis of green, amid the grey stony 
slopes that surrounded it, and on a nearer approach,— 
