“When I see a young gentleman use the library as freely as you do, I am always tolerably confident that he will attain a high rank. We go on shore this forenoon, I believe.”
“I heard we were to make an excursion to-day, and another to-morrow.”
“You will see something of the interior of Norway, after all, though it is not quite possible to transport two hundred boys over a country where the facilities for travel are so meagre,” added the surgeon.
“For my part, I should like to walk, even a hundred miles.”
“That is not practicable. How could such a crowd be lodged and fed, in some of the small villages where you would be compelled to pass the night?”
“I suppose it would not be possible, and I shall be satisfied with whatever the principal thinks best,” replied the captain.
The students were called to muster, and Mr. Lowington explained that he proposed to spend the day, in picnic style, at Frogner Sæter, and that the party would walk. The boats were then prepared, and the crews of the several vessels went on shore. Captains Kendall and Shuffles procured carriages, for the ladies were not able to walk so far. Passing out of the more densely settled portions of the city, the excursionists came to a delightful region, abounding in pleasant residences, some of which were grand and lofty. For a time the landscape was covered with small cottages, painted white or yellow; but as they proceeded they came to a country very sparsely settled, and very similar to that of New England. The road lay through woods of pine and fir, and had been constructed by Mr. Heftye, a public-spirited citizen, who owned a large estate at the summit of the hill.
“This looks just like Maine,” said Captain Lincoln, who walked at the side of Dr. Winstock.
“Exactly like it. There is a house, however, which is hardly so good as those you see in Maine,” replied the doctor.
“It isn’t any better than a shanty, and the barn is as good as the house. I wonder what that is for;” and Lincoln pointed to a bunch of straw, on the top of a pole, at the entrance of the barn. “I have seen two or three of those here, and near Christiansand.”