he
succeeded in making his escape.

The East-Siders despatched, under a flag of truce, a most insulting
caricature of General Viggo, representing him as a rooster that seemed
on the point of bursting with an excess of dignity.

These were the chief incidents of the winter, though there were many
others of less consequence that served to keep the boys in a delightful
state of excitement. They enjoyed the war keenly, though they pretended
to themselves that they were being ill-used and suffered terrible
hardships. They grumbled at their duties, brought complaints against
their officers to the general, and did, in fact, all the things that
real soldiers would have been likely to do under similar circumstances.

II. THE CLASH OF ARMS

When the spring is late in Norway, and the heat comes with a sudden
rush, the mountain streams plunge with a tremendous noise down into the
valleys, and the air is filled far and near with the boom and roar of
rushing waters. The glaciers groan, and send their milk-white torrents
down toward the ocean. The snow-patches in the forest glens look gray
and soiled, and the pines perspire a delicious resinous odor which
cheers the soul with the conviction that spring has come.

But the peasant looks anxiously at the sun and the river at such times,
for he knows that there is danger of inundation. The lumber, which
the spring floods set afloat in enormous quantities, is carried by the
rivers to the cities by the sea; there it is sorted according to
the mark it bears, showing the proprietor, and exported to foreign
countries.

In order to prevent log-jams, which are often attended with terrible
disasters, men are stationed night and day at the narrows of the rivers.
The boys, to whom all excitement is welcome, are apt to congregate in
large numbers at such places, assisting or annoying the watchers, riding
on the logs, or teasing the girls who stand up on the hillside, admiring
the daring feats of the lumbermen.

It was on such a spring day, when the air was pungent with the smell
of sprouting birch and pine, that General Viggo and his trusty army
had betaken themselves to the cataract to share in the sport. They were
armed with their bows, as usual, knowing that they were always liable
to be surprised by their vigilant enemy. Nor were they in this instance
disappointed, for Halvor Reitan, with fifty or sixty followers, was
presently visible on the east side, and it was a foregone concl