pear and taught
him how to throw it. He made him a boat and taught him how to sail it.
He got him a pony and taught him how to ride it. Once they found a
baby seal whose mother had been shot, and the child kept it at
Snorro's house. There also he had a dozen pet rabbits, and three Skye
terriers, and a wild swan with a broken wing, and many other
treasures, which would not have been so patiently tolerated in the
cleanliness and order of his own home.

So the time went pleasantly and profitably by for two years. Again the
spring joy was over the land, and the town busy with the hope of the
fishing season. Snorro's plans were all made, and yet he felt
singularly restless and unsettled. As he sat one evening wondering at
this feeling, he said to himself: "It is the dreams I have had lately,
or it is because I think of Jan so much. Why does he not write? Oh,
how I long to see him! Well, the day will come, by God's leave."

Just as this thought crossed his mind, Dr. Balloch stepped across his
threshold. Snorro rose up with a face of almost painful anxiety. He
always associated a visit from the doctor with news from Jan. He could
scarcely articulate the inquiry, "Hast thou any news?"

"Great news for thee, Snorro. Jan is coming home from Africa. He is
broken down with the fever. He wants thee. Thou must go to him at
once, for he hath done grand work, and proved himself a hero, worthy
even of thy true great love."

"I am ready--I have been waiting for him to call me. I will go this
hour."

"Be patient. Every thing must be done wisely and in order. The first
thing is supper. I came away without mine, so now I will eat with
thee. Get the tea ready; then I will tell thee all I know."

As Snorro moved about, the doctor looked at his home. Every piece of
furniture in it was of Snorro's own manufacture. His bed was a
sailor's bunk against the wall, made soft with sheep-fleeces and
covered with seal-skins. A chair of woven rushes for little Jan, a
couple of stools and a table made from old packing boxes, and a big
hearth-rug of sheep-skins, that was all. But over the fireplace hung
the pictured Christ, and some rude shelves were filled with the books
Jan had brought him. On the walls, also, were harpoons and seal
spears, a fowling-piece, queer ribbons and branches of sea weeds,
curiosities given him by sailors from all countries, stuffed birds and
fish skeletons, and a score of other things, which enabled the doctor
to underst