Hogg's face seemed to have become more serene
since his departure from the inn, though it is not improbable that
his cheerfulness was a trifle forced, so anxious was he that this trip
should divert Joel and Hulda from their sorrowful thoughts.

It took them only about two hours and a half to reach Moel, which is
situated at the end of Lake Tinn. Here they were obliged to leave the
kariol and take a small boat, for at this point a chain of small lakes
begins. The kariol paused near the little church, at the foot of a
water-fall at least five hundred feet in height. This water-fall,
which is visible for only about one fifth of its descent, loses itself
in a deep crevasse before being swallowed up by the lake.

Two boatmen were standing on the shore beside a birch-bark canoe, so
fragile and unstable that the slightest imprudence on the part of its
occupants would inevitably overturn it.

The lake was at its very best this beautiful morning. The sun had
absorbed all the mist of the previous night, and no one could not have
asked for a more superb summer's day.

"You are not tired, my good Joel?" inquired the professor, as he
alighted from the kariol.

"No, Monsieur Sylvius. You forget that I am accustomed to long tramps
through the Telemark."

"That is true. Tell me, do you know the most direct route from Moel to
Christiania?"

"Perfectly, sir. But I fear when we reach Tinoset, at the further end
of the lake, we shall have some difficulty in procuring a kariol, as
we have not warned them of our intended arrival, as is customary in
this country."

"Have no fears, my boy," replied the professor: "I attended to that.
You needn't be afraid that I have any intention of making you foot it
from Dal to Christiania."

"I could easily do it if necessary," remarked Joel.

"But it will not be necessary, fortunately. Now suppose we go over our
route again."

"Well, once at Tinoset, Monsieur Sylvius, we for a time follow the
shores of Lake Fol, passing through Vik and Bolkesko, so as to reach
Mose, and afterward Kongsberg, Hangsund, and Drammen. If we travel
both night and day it will be possible for us to reach Christiania
to-morrow afternoon."

"Very well, Joel. I see that you are familiar with the country, and
the route you propose is certainly a very pleasant one."

"It is also the shortest."

"But I am not at all particular about taking the shortest route,"
replied Sylvius Hogg, laughing. "I know another and even