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THE AMERICAN-SC AN DIN AVI AN REVIEW 
towel-rack, nay, in the very pattern of the home-woven towel, in the 
mangles and beer bowls and even in the axe-handle. Everything has 
grown out of the same environment, has been shaped by the same 
standards, and tested by the usage of centuries. Though every gen¬ 
eration has added of its own, it has always built on the old founda¬ 
tions, and this has produced a sureness of taste which brooks no vaga¬ 
ries and no fumbling. As we pass from the peasant home to the 
The Beautifully Carved and Painted Cupboard and the Fine Iron-Studded Door in the 
Old People’s House at Bjornstad Are Examples of Peasant Art at Its Best 
parsonage, the sense of perfect unity and fitness is lost. English steel 
engravings and French mirrors on Norwegian timber walls seem out 
of place, and Dutch inlaid cabinets are not on speaking terms with 
ponderous log chairs. Nevertheless, these foreign objects meant an 
enrichment of cultural life, and in time they transformed their back¬ 
ground in their own image, as we may see in the more elegant of the 
rooms preserved at Maihaugen. 
To return to Oyrgaarden and the peasants again, I found there a 
small house that to me was one of the most fascinating places at Mai¬ 
haugen. It was the peripatetic schoolmaster’s room, where he lived 
when at home. When he went out to keep school in outlying districts, 
he carried the tools of his trade with him, and they made no light load. 
They included a collapsible reading-desk, a wooden box containing a 
score of ink-bottles, a long pointer, and several other things. Framed 
