through
the foaming breakers, speed they unterrified with their light sails,
that from the depths of the sea they may catch the silvery shoals of
herrings, the greatest wealth of the country. Many annually are
swallowed up of the deep; but more struggle with the elements, and
conquer. Thus amid the daily contest are many powers developed, many a
hero-deed achieved,[13] and people harden themselves against danger and
death, and also against the gentler beauty of life.

Yet it is in this severe region that the eider-duck has its home; it is
upon those naked cliffs where its nest is built, from feathers plucked
from its own breast, that silky soft down which is scattered abroad over
the whole world, that people in the North and in the South may lie warm
and soft. How many suffering limbs, how many aching heads, have not
received comfort from the hard cliffs of Norway.

Upon the boundaries between Nordland and Finmark lies the city of
Tromsoe, the now flourishing centre of these provinces. It was here that
Alette was to spend her life; it was here that affection prepared for
her a warm and peaceful nest, like the eider-duck drawing from its own
breast the means of preparing a soft couch in the bosom of the hard
rock. And after Alette had described to Susanna what terrified her so
much in her northern retreat, she concealed not from her that which
reconciled her so forcibly to it; and Susanna comprehended this very
well, as Alette read to her the following letter:

Tromsoe. May 28th.

Were you but here, my Alette! I miss you every moment whilst I am
arranging my dwelling for your reception, and feel continually the
necessity of asking, "How do you wish it? what think you of it?" Ah,
that you were here, my own beloved, at this moment! and you would be
charmed with this "ice and bear land," before which, I know, you
secretly shudder. The country around here is not wild and dark; as, for
example, at Helgoland. Leafy woods garland the craggy shores of our
island, and around them play the waves of the sea in safe bays and
creeks. Our well-built little city lies sweetly upon the southern side
of the island, only divided from the mainland by a narrow arm of the
sea. My house is situated in the street which runs along the large
convenient harbour. At this moment above twenty vessels lie at anchor,
and the various flags of the different nations wave in the evening wind.
There are English, German, and especially Russian, which