“You may swear to that, and Tom also; I saw him very near his end an hour ago.”
“Well I do not care, for one,” said the Parson; “my bed is here,” and he pulled out of his cariole his trusty mackintosh, and folding one of the sails to his own length, he spread the mackintosh upon it. “I shall sleep here luxuriously; and Torkel, bring me the cushion of the cariole seat. I will not forget to tell Lota how faithful you have been to her this day. Good night, all of you; we have work before us to-morrow.”
And so they had,—for the sun was not yet far above the horizon, when the carioles were bumping along the forest roads to the southward.
At Amal, Torkel, with good wishes from all, and presents from some of the party, took his leave to prepare for what Tom called the amending of his life, and parted on his separate road through Fjall, and laid under contribution a market boat from Wagne to Frederickshald, where he hoped to find a vessel to Tonsberg, or Larvig, on the Norwegian coast. The party proceeded leisurely along the western coast of the lake, to enjoy for some time longer the hospitalities of Gäddebäck.
But the days began to shorten, and the joyous Scandinavian summer to come to its close. It was necessary to think of the homeward passage, in time to allow fine weather and sunny days for a leisurely cariole journey along that most picturesque of countries, the southern coast of Norway. Torkel’s wedding day, too, was approaching, and the party were under a half engagement to old Torgensen, which tallied very well with the necessity of reaching Christiansand for their homeward passage. “Time and tide wait for no man,” and a forebud having been laid to Strömstad, the carioles, accompanied as far as Wenersborg by Moodie, rolled away on the road to Uddevalla.
One piece of luck attended them,—they were not yet to part from Birger, for it so happened that his royal highness the Crown Prince, was to pay his usual state visit to Christiania, on which occasion he was to be attended by Count Birger, our young scamp’s father, whose daughter, Birger’s sister, held also some appointment in the establishment of the Princess. Birger, therefore, was able to consult his pleasure and his duty at once, in going to Norway; to enjoy the coasting journey with his friends, and then to meet his family at Christiania after their departure.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE WEDDING.
When he came into the house at nightfall,
She was angry with him—his old mother—