n
slowly and systematically:

"Kaffee!"

"Ja."

"Oegg!"

"Ja."

"Fisk!"

"Ja."

"Smor og Brod!"

Here the landlord is staggered, and scratches his head again. _Smor_
he gets a glimmering of, but the bread stuns him. You try it in a
dozen different ways--broad, breyd, breed, brode, braid. At length a
light flashes upon his mind. You want bread! Simple as the word is,
and though he pronounces it precisely according to one of your own
methods, as you suppose, it is difficult to get the peculiar
intonation that renders it intelligible.

"Ja!" And thus you lay the foundation of your breakfast; after which,
having progressed so far in the language, there is no great difficulty
in asking for a "Heste og Cariole" [a horse and cariole].

A little practice in this way soon enables the traveler to acquire a
sufficient knowledge of the language for the ordinary purposes of
communication along the road. With a smattering of the German it comes
very readily to one who speaks English, being something of a mixture
between these two languages. I was really astonished to find how well
I could understand it, and make myself understood, in the course of a
few days, though candor obliges me to say that if there is any one
thing in the world for which nature never intended me it is a
linguist.

I was in hopes of finding at Lillehammer a party of tourists bound
over the Dovre Fjeld to Trondhjem, of whom I had heard in Christiania.
In this I was disappointed. They had started a few days previously. An
omnibus was advertised to run as far as Elstad, some thirty-five miles
up the valley of Gudbransdalen, which would be so much gained on my
route. It seemed, however, that it only ran whenever a sufficient
number of passengers offered--so I was obliged to give up that
prospect.

CHAPTER XXIX.

HOW THEY TRAVEL IN NORWAY.

Nothing can be more characteristic of Norwegian seclusion from the
world than the rude means of inland communication between the
principal cities. Here was a public highway between two of the most
important sea-ports in the country--Christiania and Trondhjem--without
as much as a stage to carry passengers. Every traveler has to depend
upon his own vehicle, or upon such rude and casual modes of conveyance
as he can find at the stations by the wayside. I asked the reason of
this backward state of things, and was informed that the amount of
travel is insufficient to support any regular stage line. The s