with health and vitality, and delighted at the confusion
and astonishment of the strange gentleman she had taken in charge.

Can any body tell me what it is that produces such a singular
sensation when one looks over his shoulder and discovers the face of a
pretty and innocent young girl within a few inches of his own, her
beautiful eyes sparkling like a pair of stars, and shooting magic
scintillations through and through him, body and soul, while her
breath falls like a zephyr upon his cheek? Tell me, ye who deal in
metaphysics, what is it? There is certainly a kind of charm in it,
against which no mortal man is proof. Though naturally prejudiced
against the female sex, and firmly convinced that we could get along
in the world much better without them, I was not altogether insensible
to beauty in an artistical point of view, otherwise I should never
have been able to grace the pages of HARPER with the above likeness of
this Norwegian sylph. After all, it must be admitted that they have a
way about them which makes us feel overpowered and irresponsible in
their presence. Doubtless this fair damsel was unconscious of the
damage she was inflicting upon a wayworn and defenseless traveler. Her
very innocence was itself her chiefest charm. Either she was the most
innocent or the most designing of her sex. She thought nothing of
holding on to my shoulder, and talked as glibly and pleasantly, with
her beaming face close to my ear, as if I had been her brother or her
cousin, or possibly her uncle, though I did not exactly like to regard
it in that point of view. What she was saying I could not conjecture,
save by her roguish expression and her merry peals of laughter.

"_Jag kan ikke tale Norsk!_--I can't speak Norwegian"--was all I could
say, at which she laughed more joyously than ever, and rattled off a
number of excellent jokes, no doubt at my helpless condition. Indeed,
I strongly suspected, from a familiar word here and there, that she
was making love to me out of mere sport, though she was guarded enough
not to make any intelligible demonstration to that effect. At last I
got out my vocabulary, and as we jogged quietly along the road, by
catching a word now and then, and making her repeat what she said very
slowly, got so far as to construct something of a conversation.

"What is your name, _sken Jumfru_?" I asked.

"Maria," was the answer.

"A pretty name; and Maria is a very pretty girl."

She tossed her head a