Some of the shops which Harold passed were on wide streets. Both the shops and the streets look much like shops and streets in American towns. Of course some shops sold raincoats, umbrellas, and rubbers. Other shops sold articles which the Norwegians think visitors from other lands will like. On the walls of those old shops hang bright-colored rugs woven on a hand loom. One day Harold saw girls dressed in old Norwegian costumes weaving a rug.
Harold bought a gift for his mother in one shop. It was a tiny Viking ship made of silver with a dragon’s head at its prow. Inside the ship was a little spoon. The shopkeeper said that the little ship was made to hold salt for the table. Harold bought himself some woolen mittens. They were very warm mittens made from the wool of the sheep of Norway—white sheep and black sheep. The mittens were white with black figures on them. The shopkeeper said that Norwegian women who live in the country knit or crochet the mittens and weave the rugs during the winter when they cannot work in the fields.
Sometimes Harold did not get home at the right time for meals. His grandmother thought that queer for any boy. She said that Harold’s father had always been ready for every meal when he was a boy. But at first Harold just couldn’t remember what were the right hours for meals at grandmother’s house. He was always on time for the first breakfast, which was served very early. He ate bread and butter and drank milk, while his grandmother, his mother, and his father ate bread and butter and drank coffee. But Harold often forgot the second breakfast, which grandmother served at ten o’clock. Then to grandmother’s surprise he would come into the house at twelve o’clock expecting lunch. He got a lunch of course, and then might forget that dinner was served at three o’clock. Grandmother did not scold one bit though, and in a few days Harold learned to be on time for every meal. He liked grandmother’s tea, which she served at eight o’clock each evening. He always asked for some thick brown goat’s cheese to eat with his bread and butter as he drank his tea.
How pleased grandmother was when Harold went over to her after a meal, kissed her on the cheek, and said, “Tak for maten.” He was saying, “Thank you for the food,” as his father had taught him to say it. All polite girls and boys in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark say, “Thank you for the food,” to their mothers after a meal.
In a City Built on Islands
One day Harold and his father left Bergen to visit Harold’s cousin Albert who lived in Stockholm, the capital city of Sweden. They traveled for a day and a night on a train.
The train crossed Norway on Norway’s longest railway which passed through the high mountains. The electric train climbed the mountains easily and Harold saw that part of Norway which his storybooks call “the home of the giants.”
Then the train left Norway and crossed Sweden. Harold thought the farms in Sweden looked much like the farms around his home in Minnesota. The fields were large. The houses were far apart. Sometimes the train went for miles before Harold saw a farmhouse.
When Harold reached Stockholm he saw a city which to him looked much like any other city. But his cousin Albert said, “You will get your best view of Stockholm from high above the city.” So he took them to the top of a tall tower and they looked down on the city. “What a queer city it is!” said Harold. “It is spread out over many islands.”