Birger and Moodie were stamping, and polking, and hurrahing, and kissing their partners with the best of them, and the Captain, also, was not altogether unsuccessful in his coup d’essai; as for the men, Tom and Piersen had altogether forgotten the inferiority of the Swedes to the true Norwegians, and Jacob’s long streaming coat tails had gone quite mad.
Torkel, alone, stung by some jest from his friend Tom, about the peculiar duties and system of self-denial proper for an engaged man, crept up rather discontentedly to the fire, at which the Parson was standing and talking over the events of the day with Bjornstjerna.
In Norway, which in reality is a republic, and not a monarchy, there is a great deal of independence and equality among all ranks, which is not by any means the case in Sweden; but even in Sweden, a skal is a time of saturnalia; and besides, Torkel, though in some measure acting in the capacity of a servant, was, in reality, the son and heir of a sufficiently wealthy proprietor; and the Englishmen, whom he ranked infinitely higher than he did the very first of Swedish nobility, having treated him all along more as a companion than anything else, he felt not the least shy of the Hof Ofwer Jagmästere, though he added the title of Count to his official honours,—and therefore entered very readily into conversation.
They were turning over the skins of those beasts the bodies of which were already undergoing a conversion into soup; most of these had been purchased by the party, and were laid aside for packing; but the lynxes and the filfras, and some others, which are not considered good for eating, were still hanging by their heels to the lower branches of the tree.
The filfras was a curious animal, about three feet long, but low in proportion to its length, with great splay feet, well calculated to form natural snow shoes—in fact, he leaves a track almost as large as that of a full-grown bear, and upon the whole, very like one, and climbs trees even better and quicker than his big brother. The present specimen had been detected on a tree, and being wounded while in the act of passing from one branch to the other, had come to the ground; but, wounded as he was, he had fought gallantly for his life, and had bitten so severely the first man who attempted to handle him, that he was obliged to leave the skal and go home. The filfras is a harmless beast enough, so far as sheep and cattle are concerned, and lives chiefly upon hares and such game, which, though his eyesight be not very quick, a remarkably keen scent enables him to tire down—he himself, in return, is even detected by his own scent, which is perfectly perceptible to human nostrils, and extremely disagreeable,—few dogs can be got to run him.[60]
The lynx, though of the tiger race, is a very harmless beast unless attacked; he may carry off a young lamb now and then, but very seldom kills his own mutton—it is not for want of spirit, for he fights like any tiger when driven into a corner; throwing himself on his back, he polishes off the dogs as fast as they come near him. A pack of English fox-hounds might settle his business, as they probably would that of his Bengal cousin himself; but there is not a dog in Sweden that would look him in the face.
“It is a great pity,” said Torkel; who was examining the shot-holes in the bear-skins.
“What is a great pity?” said the Parson.
“Why, to mob to death all these fine beasts, that might have given people no end of sport in the winter.”
“And eaten up no end of sheep and oxen,” said Bjornstjerna.