with unpleasant possibilities. He could not go home for the Christmas
vacation, for his father lived in Drontheim, which is so far away from
Christiania that it was scarcely worth while making the journey for
a mere two-weeks' holiday. Then, on the other hand, he had an old
great-aunt who lived but a few miles from the city. She had, from
conscientious motives, he feared, sent him an invitation to pass
Christmas with her. But Albert had a poor opinion of Aunt Elsbeth.
He thought her a very tedious person. She had a dozen cats, talked
of nothing but sermons and lessons, and asked him occasionally, with
pleasant humor, whether he got many whippings at school. She failed to
comprehend that a boy could not amuse himself forever by looking at
the pictures in the old family Bible, holding yarn, and listening to
oft-repeated stories, which he knew by heart, concerning the doings and
sayings of his grandfather. Aunt Elsbeth, after a previous experience
with her nephew, had come to regard boys as rather a reprehensible kind
of animal, who differed in many of their ways from girls, and altogether
to the boys' disadvantage.

Now, the prospect of being "caged" for two weeks with this estimable
lady was, as I said, not at all pleasant to Albert. He was sixteen years
old, loved out-door sports, and had no taste for cats. His chief pride
was his muscle, and no boy ever made his acquaintance without being
invited to feel the size and hardness of his biceps. This was a standing
joke in the Latin school, and Albert was generally known among his
companions as "Biceps" Grimlund. He was not very tall for his age, but
broad-shouldered and deep-chested, with something in his glance, his
gait, and his manners which showed that he had been born and bred near
the sea. He cultivated a weather-beaten complexion, and was particularly
proud when the skin "peeled" on his nose, which it usually did in the
summer-time, during his visits to his home in the extreme north. Like
most blond people, when sunburnt, he was red, not brown; and this became
a source of great satisfaction when he learned that Lord Nelson had
the same peculiarity. Albert's favorite books were the sea romances of
Captain Marryat, whose "Peter Simple" and "Midshipman Easy" he held to
be the noblest products of human genius. It was a bitter disappointment
to him that his father forbade his going to sea and was educating him
to be a "landlubber," which he had been taught by his boy asso