Of course, much of the snow which falls on the mountains does melt and run off in streams. Sometimes the rivers flow rapidly down steep slopes. Sometimes the water tumbles over a high rocky bank and falls hundreds of feet to land below.
The people of the north lands have put some of the falls to work. For years the falling water has turned wheels that have run mills to grind grain and to saw logs. But now the water of some of the great falls has been turned into electricity. High in the mountains are large houses where the water is made into the new power. From the power-houses electricity is sent for miles and miles to light homes and to run machines in factories. Norway has no coal. The Norwegians turn the water into heat and power such as coal makes. Sometimes people in Norway call the waterfalls their “white coal.” So waterfalls are also mountain giants.
People who visit Norway and its mountains are almost sure to come away believing in giants—but not fairy-tale giants.
In the Land of Evergreen Trees
Near the Christmas season the mountain forests of Norway and Sweden become a fairyland of ice and snow. Then the forest rings with the sounds of voices and the blows of the axes of boys cutting trees that will be decorated for the Yule-tide feasts in their homes. And thousands and thousands of pretty little trees are cut at that time of the year.
Eric and Hubert are Swedish boys who live in that land of evergreen trees. Their father owns a farm in the northern part of Sweden, but he works nearly all the year round in the forests. Eric, who is twelve years old, often helps his father in the forest. Hubert is only nine, and too young to work with the trees; but he goes with his father and Eric many times to play about in the woods and to watch the others at their work.
During the winter the men cut down the big trees and saw them into logs which are easy to handle. Then Eric helps stack the logs as they fall from the saws.
But when spring comes Eric is one of the busiest workmen. The strong woodcutters load big logs on to sleds to be hauled to the river bank a mile away. Eric drives the horse which hauls his father’s logs to the river. Often Hubert rides with Eric. The boys sit on the big logs on the sled as the horse pulls them along through the snow on the mountain road.
