By nine o’clock, P.M., to my great relief, as I was miserably foot-sore, my boots not having been properly greased, we arrived at Garatun, one of half a dozen small farmsteads that lay on the small grassy slopes by the side of the dark Eidsfjord. An old crone showed me upstairs into a room, round which were ranged eight chests or boxes with arching tops, painted in gaudy colours, with the name of Niels Garatun and his wife inscribed thereon. Round the wooden walls I counted twenty cloth dresses of red, green, and blue, suspended from wooden pegs. No beer being procurable, I slaked my raging thirst, while coffee was preparing, with copious draughts of prim, a sort of whey.
Before long, two or three peasants stalked in, hands in pockets, and forthwith, according to custom, commenced squirting tobacco-juice from their mouths with all the assiduity of Yankees.
“Who are you? Are you going up to the Foss to-morrow? Will you have a horse and a man? Many gentlemen give one dollar for the horse and one for the man. It’s meget brat (very steep); Slem Vei (bad road).”
To all which observations I replied that I was very tired, and could answer no questions at all that night. Upon which the spitters retired with an air of misgiving about me, as they had evidently calculated on nailing the foreigner to a bargain at the first blush of the thing; and, when the news of my arrival got wind, their market was sure to be lowered by competition. One of them, after closing the door, popped his head in again, and said—
“He thought he could do it cheaper; but I had better say at once, else he should be up to the sæter in the morning before I got up.”
“I would say nothing till nine o’clock the next morning,” was my reply, and I was left to rest undisturbed; the men apparently thinking me an odd individual.
Long before nine o’clock my slumbers were disturbed by the entrance of a sharp-looking individual, who asked if I would have coffee? He did not belong to the house even; but by this ruse it was evident he intended to steal a march on the others.
“For four orts” (three shillings and fourpence), said he, “I’ll guide you up to the Foss, and then row you across the lake to Vik on the Hardanger.” The bargain was concluded at once; not a little to the consternation of the two dollar men, who, when they presented themselves at 9 o’clock, found that they were forestalled.