one long accustomed to
sharp dealing and unscrupulous trickery, it is really refreshing their
confidence in the integrity of a stranger. Usually they left the
settlement of accounts to myself, merely stating that I must determine
what I owed by adding up the items according to the tariff; and,
although my knowledge of the language was so limited, I nowhere had
the slightest approach to a dispute about the payment of expenses. On
one occasion, not wishing to forfeit this confidence, I was obliged to
ride back half a mile to pay for two cigars which I had forgotten in
making up the reckoning, and of which the inn-keeper had not thought
proper to remind me, or had forgotten to keep any account himself. No
surprise was manifested at this conscientious act--the inn-keeper
merely nodding good-naturedly when I handed him the money, with the
remark that it was "all right."

In the districts remote from the sea-ports, the peasants, as may well
be supposed, are extremely ignorant of the great outside world. Sweden
and Denmark are the only countries known to them besides their own
"Gamle Norge," save such vague notions of other lands as they pick up
from occasional travelers. To them "Amerika" is a terra incognita. A
letter once or twice a year from some emigrant to the members of his
family goes the rounds of the district, and gives them all the
knowledge they have of that distant land of promise; and when they
listen, with gaping eyes and open mouths, to the wonderful stories of
adventure, life, enterprise, and wealth detailed by the enthusiastic
rover, it is no wonder they shake their heads and say that Christian,
or Hans, or Ole (as the case may be), "always was a capital fellow at
drawing a long bow." They firmly believe in ghosts and supernatural
visitations of all sorts, but are very incredulous about any country
in the world being equal to "Gamle Norge." Naturally enough, they
consider their climate the most genial, their barren rocks the most
fertile, their government the best and most liberal on the face of the
earth, and themselves the most highly favored of the human race.
Goldsmith must have had special reference to the Norwegians when he
sang of "that happiest spot below:"

"The shuddering tenant of the frigid zone
Boldly proclaims the happiest spot his own."

And why should they be otherwise than contented--if such a thing as
contentment can exist upon earth? They have few wants and many
children; a coun