Project Gutenberg's Tales From Two Hemispheres, by Hjalmar Hjorth Boysen

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Title: Tales From Two Hemispheres

Author: Hjalmar Hjorth Boysen

Posting Date: July 12, 2008 [EBook #299]
Release Date: July, 1995

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM TWO HEMISPHERES ***

Produced by Charles Keller

TALES FROM TWO HEMISPHERES

By Hjalmar Hjorth Boysen

1877

CONTENTS

THE MAN WHO LOST HIS NAME
THE STORY OF AN OUTCAST
A GOOD-FOR-NOTHING
A SCIENTIFIC VAGABOND
TRULS, THE NAMELESS
ASATHOR'S VENGEANCE

TALES FROM TWO HEMISPHERES.

THE MAN WHO LOST HIS NAME.

ON the second day of June, 186--, a young Norseman, Halfdan Bjerk
by name, landed on the pier at Castle Garden. He passed through the
straight and narrow gate where he was asked his name, birthplace, and
how much money he had,--at which he grew very much frightened.

"And your destination?"--demanded the gruff-looking functionary at the
desk.

"America," said the youth, and touched his hat politely.

"Do you think I have time for joking?" roared the official, with an
oath.

The Norseman ran his hand through his hair, smiled his timidly
conciliatory smile, and tried his best to look brave; but his hand
trembled and his heart thumped away at an alarmingly quickened tempo.

"Put him down for Nebraska!" cried a stout red-cheeked individual
(inwrapped in the mingled fumes of tobacco and whisky) whose function it
was to open and shut the gate.

"There ain't many as go to Nebraska."

"All right, Nebraska."

The gate swung open and the pressure from behind urged the timid
traveler on, while an extra push from the gate-keeper sent him flying in
the direction of a board fence, where he sat down and tried to realize
that he was now in the land of liberty.

Halfdan Bjerk was a tall, slender-limbed youth of very delicate frame;
he had a pair of wonderfully candid, unreflecting blue eyes, a smooth,
clear, beardless face, and soft, wavy light hair, which was pushed back
from his forehead without parting. His mouth and chin were well cut, but
their lines were, perhaps, rat