dy yellow hair,
which hung over his eyes, and a face as round as a moon, on which the
nose looked like a little button; when he laughed, his wide thin-lipped
mouth and large jaws gave him almost the expression of a death's-head.
His small, watery eyes blinked at you mysteriously, but showed plainly
that he was not wanting in common sense. It was he, in fact, who could
tell the greatest number of stories, but still more was it he who could
get a stranger to tell stories of the visible or the invisible world
just as they occurred to him.

A third man went by a nickname, which, however, they never gave him
within his hearing; Anders Lead-head, was so called, because he now and
then had bad fits of drinking, and nearly lost his place in consequence.
And yet in his way he was extremely capable. In any real dilemma--in a
storm--he rose at once to the responsible post of captain in the boat;
for there was but one opinion of his capability as a sailor. When the
danger was over, he fell back again into the insignificant man.

A girl of twenty years of age, whom we called French Martina, was also
one of the regular servants of the house. She seemed of a totally
different race of beings from the ordinary Nordlander, was quick and
lively, with thick, curly black hair, round a brown oval face with
strikingly regular features. She was slenderly built, of middle height,
and had a good figure. Her eyes, beneath strongly marked, black
eyebrows, were as black as coal; and when she was angry, they could
flash fire. She was in love with the silent Jens, and was extremely
jealous, without the slightest cause. It was said that these two would
make a match when he had been on two or three more fishing expeditions,
but the matter was not officially announced at any rate, I think because
Jens made a passive resistance as long as he could, and never actually
proposed to her. French Martina was, by birth, one of the illegitimate
children of those fishing districts, whose fathers are foreign skippers
or sailors. Her father was said to have been a French sailor.

I was strictly forbidden by my father to go into the servants' hall in
the evening; he knew very well that a good many things were said there
that were not fit for children's ears. But then, on the other hand, it
was just down there that the most interesting things in the world were
talked about. The consequence was that I used to steal down secretly. I
remember how, one dark autumn even