Fredrika had determined.

This good-hearted girl was a genuine specimen of the Northern Swedish
female. Of medium height, plump, but not stout, with a rather slender
waist and expansive hips, and a foot which stepped firmly and nimbly at
the same time, she was as cheerful a body as one could wish to see. Her
hair was of that silky blonde so common in Sweden; her eyes a clear,
pale blue, her nose straight and well formed, her cheeks of the delicate
pink of a wild-rose leaf, and her teeth so white, regular and perfect
that I am sure they would make her fortune in America. Always cheerful,
kind and active, she had, nevertheless, a hard life of it: she was alike
cook, chambermaid, and hostler, and had a cross mistress to boot. She
made our fires in the morning darkness, and brought us our early coffee
while we yet lay in bed, in accordance with the luxurious habits of the
Arctic zone. Then, until the last drunken guest was silent, towards
midnight, there was no respite from labour. Although suffering from a
distressing cough, she had the out-door as well as the in-door duties to
discharge, and we saw her in a sheepskin jacket harnessing horses, in a
temperature 30 deg. below zero. The reward of such a service was possibly
about _eight_ American dollars a year. When, on leaving, I gave her
about as much as one of our hotel servants would expect for answering a
question, the poor girl was overwhelmed with gratitude, and even the
stern landlady was so impressed by my generosity that she insisted on
lending us a sheepskin for our feet, saying we were "good men."

There is something exceedingly primitive and unsophisticated in the
manners of these Northern people--a straight-forward honesty, which
takes the honesty of others for granted--a latent kindness and good-will
which may at first be overlooked, because it is not demonstrative, and a
total unconsciousness of what is called, in highly civilised circles,
"propriety." The very freedom of manners which, in some countries, might
denote laxity of morals, is here the evident stamp of their purity. The
thought has often recurred to me--which is the most truly pure and
virginal nature, the fastidious American girl, who blushes at the sight
of a pair of boots outside a gentleman's bedroom door, and who requires
that certain unoffending parts of the body and articles of clothing
should be designated by delicately circumlocutious terms, or the
simple-minded Swedish women, who come in