e firmament.

"Let us not go unarmed," he continued, "for there are wolves and bears;
and the nightly destruction of our flocks gives us need of men who love
the chase like you. I, myself, will bear you company. Come, let us go."

The intimation that bears and wolves congregated on the level lands
above was quite sufficient to decide our wavering mood; and ordering the
crew to return with the gig to the yacht, and bring our rifles, we wiled
away the intermediate time by sitting at a window that opened upon the
waters of the Fiord, and afforded us a splendid view of the limitless
range of mountains on the opposite shore, called the Reenfjeld.

The morning was sometimes bright and clear, and sometimes the sky was
dimmed by large, dark, solid masses of clouds. It was very beautiful to
see the mountains glittering with their white summits in the strong
sunlight, while their bases were blackened with a shower of rain. These
showers were partial, and all things around so still, that we could hear
the rain drops pattering among the leaves of the trees that grew on the
sides of the mountains two miles from the spot where we sat rejoicing in
the warmth and cheerfulness of a summer's sun.

At eleven o'clock the boat returned with rifles, and powder enough to
blow up the village of Auron. Our host, who had disappeared for some
little time, now came back decked out like a chamois-hunter. His hat had
been exchanged for a red cap that fitted exactly to his skull, and a
velvet jacket buttoned up to his throat, defined a tolerable expanse of
chest. Across his back, from the right shoulder towards the left heel,
his trusty gun was slung, muzzle downwards. A leathern belt went
entirely round his waist, and pressing a brace of horse-pistols and a
wonderfully large knife to his left hip-bone, was clasped in front with
an embossed silver buckle. A red handkerchief, spotted white, hung by a
knowing loop from the right arm, contained provender and a flask of
liquor for the inward man. This last piece of accoutrement had the
evident impress of a woman's clear-sightedness; for while our friend
fortified the outward walls of his person with guns, pistols, and
knives, his wife, knowing how useless all these preparations were
without suitable attention to the repletion of the cisterns and stores
of the citadel, had suggested, with affectionate devotion no doubt, this
trifling bundle as being necessary to the conquest of present labour and
futur