whom, first and foremost, was the
"good minister and his family." Several besides myself noticed that my
father left his glass untouched at this toast.

In the meantime the courses went round, and as the level of the wine in
the bottles sank, the gaiety rose. Many a quick, sharp brain that here
found its own ground now came to the fore, and the falling hail of jests
and witty and amusing sayings--the last generally in the form of stories
with a point that was sometimes, perhaps, rather coarse--gave a lively
impression of the peculiar Nordland humour.

It was only what, at that time, usually happened at parties, when the
company leave the table, that there were a few who could not rise from
their chairs, and others who, as a result of the attempt, were
afterwards missing. Among the latter I was unfortunately classed.

The impression of the moment has always had a great power over me, and,
unaccustomed as I was both to this kind of gaiety and to strong drink, I
had surrendered myself without a thought to the mirth that buzzed around
me. I think I never laughed so much in my whole life together as I did
at that dinner-table. Nearly opposite to me sat the red-haired merchant
Wadel, with his long, dryly comical face, firing off one witticism after
another, and at my side whispered the hump-backed clerk Gram, who was
famed for his cleverness, and feared for his biting tongue. His sharp
remarks upon the different people who sat at the table, grew in
ill-nature as he drank, and if his words had been heard, the expression
of many a beaming face would certainly have changed. I believe, also,
that he took a secret pleasure in trying to make me intoxicated; at any
rate he was unwearied in filling my glass, especially when the heating
wines began to go round. His quick, sharp snake's-eyes and a few
whispered words directed my now thoroughly beclouded attention to many a
comical scene around me.

At length it seemed to me that the room and the table were going up and
down, as if we were sitting in a large cabin in rough weather. I also
remember indistinctly that afterwards in the moving room we squeezed
past each other, round the table, between the wall and the chairs, in
two opposite streams, and thanked our hosts for the dinner. [It is a
Norwegian custom to shake hands with and thank the host and hostess,
after a meal, for the hospitality of which one has partaken. Children in
the same way always thank their parents.]

After a