of hay, and the _bedstemoder_, best mother or
grandmother, in every farmhouse can tell the children dozens of
interesting stories about the mischief or the kindness of Nissen.

He is invariably represented in pictures of farm life; he appears on
the illustrated advertisements of farm machinery; his figure carved
in wood is sold at all the curiosity stores, and he appears as a
prominent character in most of the fairy stories that deal with farm
life. He is represented as a short, fat, bow-legged man, with big
whiskers and long white hair, wearing a red hat like those worn by
clowns in circuses. He usually appears in his shirt sleeves, with an
open collar, a blue vest, and knickerbockers upon his legs, which are
as slim as those of a brownie. His circumference is greater than his
height, and his head is almost as large as his body.

Noek is the fairy of the waterfalls and is a sort of merman. You never
see more than half his body. He is very, very old, his hair and beard
are long and white, and his face is always pale and pensive. He
carries a harp and plays to amuse the spirits in the waterfall. A
statue of Ole Bull has recently been erected in his native city of
Bergen. He stands upon a pedestal which rises from a fountain, and the
water flows over the head and shoulders of a Noek at the base.

Norway offers a fine field for reformers to study the effects of
regulation upon the vice of drunkenness. Within the limits of the
kingdom are all grades of restriction, from prohibition to liberal
license. There are no pretensions about the Norwegians; there is no
affectation about their morals and no leniency in the administration
of their laws. The police and the magistrates are merciless and
inexorable, and crime is punished more severely perhaps than in any
other country. At the same time the people distinguish an important
difference between temperance and total abstinence. They give their
children beer in unlimited quantities, but absolutely prohibit the
sale of whisky, and send drunken men to prison with burglars and
assassins. Norwegian reformers hold that beer is the great promoter of
temperance, and encourage its use as a beverage, although every saloon
in the kingdom is closed on Sundays, on all holidays, and Saturday
afternoon, which is the regular pay day for the working classes. These
are practical regulations, devised for the purpose of restraining
those who are not capable of controlling their own appetites and