‘You duffer!’ said the Skipper; ‘it’s Norwegian for the frying-pan and tea-kettle: do you mean to say you’ve been all this time in the country without learning that?’
‘Oh, all right,’ grunted Esau, ‘go on.’
‘Well, I put them into the boat and sculled the seven miles back to this hut, as I did not feel inclined to remain alone in that little stone hutch for the night.
‘Three days passed before they let Jens return to me; and during that time I was certainly rather dull, and at night felt a trifle creepy, but the days did not pass as slowly as you might have imagined; for being without assistance my time was fully occupied in catching my daily supply of fish, chopping firewood, cooking, washing, and so on. At night the wind howled dismally round the cabin walls, but after the hard work of the day I soon fell asleep, and at last began almost to like the solitary life. Still I longed for Jens to come back, as I could not go out stalking alone; the season was far advanced, and the weather very cold.
‘How I cursed that Englishman’ (gentle murmurs of ‘Bet you did’ from the other two) ‘as I cleaned out the tea-pot and scoured the frying-pan! and how I pictured him to myself wandering with my faithful Jens over the best reindeer-fjeld, and scaring away all the deer with his loud-sounding Bond Street express!’
‘I say, Skipper,’ put in Esau, ‘did his Bond Street express make any more row than yours? because if——’
‘My dear fellow,’ said the Skipper, ‘you always put that kind of expression into narrative; it’s Homeric; an educated man would be pleased with it.
‘I was always expecting Jens; every sound, real or imaginary, caused me to look up over the deserted lake, and hold my breath while I listened to make out his voice in the distance; and when I went down the river I heard his cheery shout in the rush of every rapid and the roar of every fall.
‘After all it was only three days, and then one afternoon I found him waiting for me at the hut. I was glad to see him—gladder than I am to hear the dinner-bell at home, as glad as a bee is to get into the open air after bunting its head against a window-pane for three days’ (‘Beautiful simile!’ from John), ‘and especially glad to see how pleased old Jens was to return to me again. I was also not particularly sorry to hear that he had found a herd of deer and taken Lord —— within shot; and the only result was a calf, which Jens himself shot after the Englishman had missed.
‘After this I had a good time with grand fishing and more deer, but we did not stay much longer at Rus Vand; as you know, I was back in England by the end of September.’