t much), and
endeavoured to look as if he knew a great deal more; but his speech
quickly degenerated into sounds which were quite unintelligible either
to his new friend or himself; at last he terminated in a mixture of bad
Norse and broad Scotch! Having dwelt many years in Scotland, Sam found
his knowledge of Lowland Scotch to be of use, for there is great
similarity between it and the Norwegian tongue.

For instance, they call a cow a _ko_ or a _coo_. _Bring me meen skoe_
(I spell as pronounced) is, Bring me my shoes. _Gae til land_ is, Go
ashore. _Tak place_ is, Take place, or sit down. If you talk of
bathing, they will advise you to _dook oonder_; and should a mother
present her baby to you she will call it her _smook barn_, her pretty
bairn or child, _smook_ being the Norse word for _pretty_. And it is a
curious fact, worthy of particular note, that _all_ the mothers in
Norway think their bairns smook, _very_ smook! and they never hesitate
to tell you so; why, I cannot imagine, unless it be that if you were
_not_ told, you would not be likely to find it out for yourself.

Well, Sam and his fat friend soon became very amicable on this system.
The Norseman told him no end of stories, of which he did not comprehend
a sentence, but, nevertheless, looked as if he did; smiled, nodded his
head, and said "Ya, ya," (yes, yes), to which the other replied "Ya,
ya," waving his arms, slapping his breast, and rolling his eyes as he
bustled along towards his dwelling.

The house was perched on a rock, close to the water's edge. It was very
small, quite like a bandbox with windows in it. Here the man found
another subject to rave about and dance round, in the shape of his own
baby, a soft, smooth copy of himself, which lay sleeping like a cupid in
its cradle. The man was evidently very fond--perhaps even proud--of
this infant. He went quite into ecstasies about it; now gazing into its
chubby face with looks of pensive admiration; anon starting and looking
at Sam with eager glance, as if to say, "Did you ever, in all your life,
see such a magnificent cherub?" His enthusiasm was quite catching. Sam
afterwards confessed that he actually began to feel quite a fatherly
interest in the cherub.

"Oh!" cried the father in rapture, "dat er _smook_ barn" (that's a
pretty baby).

"Ya, ya," said Sam, "_smook_ barn," though it must be confessed that if
he had called it a smoked bairn he would have been nearer the mark, for
it