s landed property, and his views and intentions in life.

John Hardy had, however, heard he must expect this, and answered
simply and frankly.

When at length the little Danish parsonage was reached, with its
whitewashed garden wall, with poplar trees and lilac bushes, John
Hardy felt it was a relief to escape the close cross-examination to
which he had been so long subjected, and to see the Pastor's two boys
running out with eager curiosity to inspect the Englishman, and assist
in taking his luggage to the room apportioned to him.

"We shall have dinner shortly," said the Pastor. "Helga is not here to
meet us, and that is a sign that we shall not wait long. Karl and Axel
will show you your room and bring anything you may want, and help you
to unpack your portmanteaus."

John Hardy went to his room--a room with little furniture, but adapted
as a sitting-room or bedroom. The two boys, with the desire that all
boys have to be useful to a guest, assisted in undoing his luggage,
and John Hardy was soon ready to follow them to the little dining-room
of the parsonage.

The table was laid with a little bunch of wild flowers and grasses
here and there, but with little else. The Pastor received Hardy in a
more friendly manner than he had exhibited before, and his daughter
Helga appeared from a door leading from the kitchen, and was
introduced by her father. John Hardy saw a tall woman of twenty, with
fair hair and violet eyes, and bowed. The dinner was borne in by two
women-servants, and Helga signed to John Hardy where he should sit.

There was little conversation at dinner. John Hardy, for his part, was
hungry, and also knew little Danish; but gradually, as the more
substantial dishes disappeared, conversation arose, and John Hardy
turned its direction to the fishing in the Gudenaa.

"Your frank letters to me," said Hardy, "would not lead me to expect
much; but there are trout in the Gudenaa, and it might be that a few
might be caught."

"You will not catch them with a fly, after the English fashion," said
Karl. "An Englishman that came from Randers has been here, and he
caught three only in a whole day."

"I fear Karl is right," said the Pastor. "There is such an abundance
of fish-food in the Gudenaa, that a means of catching them that leaves
no option to the fish is apparently the only successful method."

"That is the very position that interests me," replied Hardy. "The
difficulty is the only pleasure in the sp