light and elastic bound, and
took hold of the horse, which by this time the three old men were
fumbling at to harness in the cariole, I unconsciously thought of
Diana Vernon. She had all the daring grace and delicacy of the Scotch
heroine--only in a rustic way. Seizing the horse by the bridle, she
backed him up in a jiffy between the shafts of the cariole, and
pushing the old gray-heads aside with a merry laugh, proceeded to
arrange the harness. Having paid the boy who had come over from the
last station, and put my name and destination in the day-book,
according to law, I refreshed myself by a glass of ale, and then came
out to see if all was ready. The girl nodded to me smilingly to get in
and be off.

I looked around for the boy who was to accompany me. Nobody in the
shape of a boy was to be seen. The three old men had returned to their
log by the stable, and now sat smoking their pipes and gossiping as
usual, and the good-natured old landlady stood smiling and nodding in
the doorway. Who was to take charge of the cariole? that was the
question. Was I to go alone? Suppose I should miss the road and get
lost in some awful wilderness? However, these questions were too much
for my limited vocabulary of Norsk on the spur of the moment. So I
mounted the cariole, resolved to abide whatever fate Providence might
have in store for me. The girl put the reins in my hand and off I
started, wondering why these good people left me to travel alone. I
thought that they would naturally feel some solicitude about their
property. Scarcely was I under way, when, with a bound like a deer,
the girl was up on the cariole behind, hanging on to the back of the
seat with both hands. Perfectly aghast with astonishment, I pulled the
reins and stopped. "What!" I exclaimed, in the best Norsk I could
muster, "is the _Jomfru_ going with me?" "_Ja!_" answered the laughing
damsel, in a merry, ringing voice--"_Ja! Ja! Jeg vil vise de
Veien!_--I will show you the way!"

Here was a predicament! A handsome young girl going to take charge of
me through a perfectly wild and unknown country! I turned to the old
lady at the door with something of a remonstrating expression, no
doubt, for I felt confused and alarmed. How the deuce was I, a
solitary and inexperienced traveler from California, to defend myself
against such eyes, such blooming cheeks, such honeyed lips and pearly
teeth as these, to say nothing of a form all grace and ability, a
voice that w