“Leave Torkel behind!” said Birger; “why should you? you do not think the Swedes will eat him, do you? I mean to take Piersen myself; these Norwegians, rascals as they are, all of them, are a great deal smarter and handier in forest work than our Swedes; their education fits them for Jacks-of-all-trades; they get kicked out of doors, with a pack on their back, at ten years of age, to earn their livelihood, and learn smartness and knowledge of the world,—and they do learn it, and precious scoundrels they grow up:—however, they answer our purpose, for they can turn their hands to anything.”
At that moment Torkel came up, looking a little confused and ashamed of himself, and not the less so that the Parson asked significantly for the latest news from the sœter of Aalfjer.
His love, however, did not prevent him from being wild to go, as soon as he heard of the change of plans—a sentiment in which the rest fully participated; indeed there was not a dissentient voice in the camp, except that of the boatmen, who were to be discharged at Christiansand, and whose fun was thus prematurely cut short. A small pecuniary gratification set matters right in that quarter also, and when the evening closed on the last day of the encampment, the hopes and eager anticipations of a brilliant future had already effaced all regrets for a happy past.
The sun was hardly above the horizon, when the whole camp was astir, and active preparations for departure were begun. These did not occupy any very great deal of time; they had not come up the river in very heavy marching order, and there were a good many hands at the work. The principal part of it was securing the smoked salmon, of which they had now a very fair cargo. This is a very acceptable present everywhere; for though salmon are plenty in Norway, the means of catching them are very imperfectly understood. There was also a goodly array of forest preserves, which, being too heavy for transport, and subject to a heavy duty into the bargain from jealous Sweden, were destined to swell the ample stores of Madame Ullitz.
While all this was going on, the Parson, rod in hand, took a melancholy farewell of his favourite throws, in the course of which he caught two fish—both grauls, though, as the Captain took care to remark. By ten o’clock everything was ready, and the boats shoved off on their downward voyage.
“Well, certainly it is much pleasanter to go with the stream than against it, in all the affairs of this life,” said the Captain, as the boats closed again, after racing down the upper rapids which had cost them so much time and so much trouble to ascend. “Here we have undone in half an hour and at our ease, what it took us half a day to do, and with harder work than I wish to meet with very often.”
“Not an uncommon thing in this wicked world of ours,” said the Parson. “Facilis descensus;—you know the rest. However, that which is pleasant is not always safe,—so look out. Here we are, at the head of the Oxea rapid, and a touch of these rocks, going down stream, you will find a very different thing from a touch going up. Give way, boys! let me have good steerage-way through the water.”
And he dashed into the very midst of the racing current—rocks, trees, and banks flying past him, till, before they seemed to be well in it, the three boats were floating side by side in the broad flat below, at the lower end of which the encampment had been made on the first night of the expedition. A short halt here, which they made, more for the pot than for sport, secured them a good catch of trout and a graul or two; and their rapid course down the deep, full-flowing stream was resumed, leisurely indeed—but so swift was the current under the deceitful show of its calm and quiet surface, that notwithstanding a little difficulty at the lower rapids, where there was not water enough in the boat canal to float them, the sun was still high when they rounded the dockyard point, and opened the harbour of Christiansand.
“Hullo, Tom, where is the steamer?”
Tom rubbed his eyes, for he could not believe them, but no amount of rubbing will produce a vision of that which is not, and the fact became indisputable as they pulled on—there was no steamer in the harbour. The Parson, who after all, had left very unwillingly, and rather in compliance with the wishes of his companions than in accordance with his own fancy or judgment, began to feel sulky; the Captain, who had proposed the change, began to feel anxious, and to labour under the weight of his responsibility; and even Birger, who had nothing to reproach himself for, was not entirely at his ease.