hands towards
the water's edge from a rocky cave, that jutted upon the Fjord, and,
full of curiosity, he stepped towards the arched entrance, when,--all
suddenly and unexpectedly,--a girl sprang out from the dark interior,
and standing erect in her boat, faced the intruder. A girl of about
nineteen, she seemed, taller than most women,--with a magnificent
uncovered mass of hair, the color of the midnight sunshine, tumbled over
her shoulders, and flashing against her flushed cheeks and dazzlingly
fair skin. Her deep blue eyes had an astonished and certainly indignant
expression in them, while he, utterly unprepared for such a vision of
loveliness at such a time and in such a place, was for a moment taken
aback and at a loss for words. Recovering his habitual self-possession
quickly, however, he raised his hat, and, pointing to the boat, which
was more than half way out of the cavern, said simply--

"May I assist you?"

She was silent, eyeing him with a keen glance which had something in it
of disfavor and suspicion.

"I suppose she doesn't understand English," he thought, "and I can't
speak a word of Norwegian. I must talk by signs."

And forthwith he went through a labored pantomime of gesture,
sufficiently ludicrous in itself, yet at the same time expressive of his
meaning. The girl broke into a laugh--a laugh of sweet amusement which
brought a thousand new sparkles of light into her lovely eyes.

"That is very well done," she observed graciously, speaking English with
something of a foreign accent. "Even the Lapps would understand you, and
they are very stupid, poor things!"

Half vexed by her laughter, and feeling that he was somehow an object of
ridicule to this tall, bright-haired maiden, he ceased his pantomimic
gestures abruptly and stood looking at her with a slight flush of
embarrassment on his features.

"I know your language," she resumed quietly, after a brief pause, in
which she had apparently considered the stranger's appearance and
general bearing. "It was rude of me not to have answered you at once.
You can help me if you will. The keel has caught among the pebbles, but
we can easily move it between us." And, jumping lightly out of her boat,
she grasped its edge firmly with her strong white hands, exclaiming
gaily, as she did so, "Push!"

Thus adjured, he lost no time in complying with her request, and, using
his great strength and muscular force to good purpose, the light little
craft was soon