The record-union., 1894-07-21

The first night we tarTled IN the nuts OF
i Helmenas; the second, Freda secured me
a couch on bonder's floor, near Styve;
+ the third night we were housed at the lit
/ tie inn of Dyrdal the fourth, we slept in
! the open boat moored 10 a jagged rock,
/ where | could see that the ford boatmen
had from time immemorlal sought the
some friendly shelter: and on the fifth
day and night began to realize Freda' s
wondrouS ford-cratt-an unconscious
cunning like the Indians wood-lore or
the coast sailors unexplainable added
sense of instructive pre-knowledge OF
location in fair weather or foul-which
made clearer to her than an ordnance
chart every hidden chaSm, sequestered
/ waterfall, saeter farm upon the mount
aims, cluster of peasants huts beside the
viks or tiny dals, or unseen home nest
among the crags above.
/ discovered also how the plodding, pa
tient soul was acquiring her meager store
of my language.
When opposite some tremendous
waterfall she would rest upon her oars,
point to the milling, Spumy mass and
utter the Morse word, 'Yanfald?' with d
bewitching smile of eager inquiry.
WATERFALL" would answer; and then,
as her long, steady strokes were resumed,
she would repeat the word aloud in those
| tones which were liquid music 10 my
ears.
Ii glacier was espied above the crags.
she would cali out, 'Isbrae?' An eagle
tapping along the preeipice edge would
bring the query 'Oern ?" Cattle,
like tiny specks in some pockety
hollow of stone and mist above
us, would be pointed out as 'Kvoeg ]"
y shadowy gorge would bring the ejacu-
| latlon, "SlrubeW But we came to one
of the pleasantest misunderstanding OF
the Journey over the word Jordboer.
She could not make me understand
! what she meant, and il worried US both
greatly. Turning a sharp angle of
a precipice, we came TO perhaps an acre
I GE level shore, where the SUMS rays beat
uown with torrid fervor between cloud
piercing walls. Driving the boat with
tremendous force upon the silvery
shingle, she took my hand impetuously
and leaped upon the shore.
Now !-now! Jofdboert jord6oer
herep'
Not an hundred feet from the shore she
! began parting the grass and pointing to
! the ground. 1t was crimSoned with the
/ tinieSt but sweetest straw berries L had
ever tasted.
STRAW berries ~ l shouted delightedly
| divining her meaning.
I'D, ga y ees, yees-.jordboer! Stro-
| bersn she answered as ecstatcally as
though every one Of the tiny red spheres
! had been diamond.
| We gathered quarts, pailfuls. of the de-
| licious wild fruit and resumed our jour
ney.
Though there was still a flood of sum
shine above the ford, its walls were con-
stantly growing closer, higher, more ap-
| palling from the frequency of cascades,
and the sense of Imprisonment. while
along the water, and for hundreds of feet
above, it was already becoming dark.
''Shall we sleep this night, Freda?" L
finally tiniidly inquired.
Greatly" she answered with little
gurgle OF laughter, and instantly turned
| the boats PROV squarely beneath the
nearly a mile of solid stone above our
heads.
The place into which Freda had guided
our boat was practically vertical tissure
thousands of feet high, and perhaps as
deep below the waters surface. One
edge was like rounded pillar for all its
mighty hight The other, correspond
! ingiy followed followed it to the clouds,
| But in behind the narrow opening whore
sight could not penetrate where whispers,
| murmurs and the hoarse callings of fall
! ing waters.
Not fifty feet from the entrance our
| boat grated against shelving rock.
| Above it, through some strange action OF
| the nature forces in previous centuries,
the wall had given way, or been eaten
away, forming a covered hollow like half
of truncated cone. Cayerns like this
| have been in use as resting places Tor
the night by the peasantry III their jour
neyings over their national highways,
the tiords, Ior more than thousand
years.
At Freda's bidding / helped her draw
our boat upon the strange hospice floor.
! Then, after a rouSing fire had been built,
torch in hand, she showed me the curious
| place-the paddock of few square yards
where goats and cattle, when being trans
ported by boat to new grazing grounds,
stir not the whole night long. knowing
as we'll as humans the danger of misstep
or roaming; the rock chamber where
food was stored and rude iron utensils
have remained through centuries Of peas
ant travellers uSe and the little niche
like tollbox, where those who will, may
deposit few ore for the nights housing;
and then, after hearty supper prepared
by Freda's dexterous hands, our couches
were spread. F'reda's in the Prov and my
own in the stern of the beached boat,
which we had wedged into upright posi-
ton by sticks of our fuel and loose stones
from the paddock, when. with the cheer
lest good nights ! had ever received or
gwen, and with the weird music of the
falling waters about us we sank into
peaceful slumber.
L Il
changed the moment we had entered the
cavernous gorge. [ humored her mood
at supper, at breakfast, and while some
| of our stores were being placed in the
cavern for convenience during the day,
but the moment we set out again upon
the ford, back came the sunshine into
her face, the elation into her splendid
form and TIE music INTO her thrllIlng
voice.
Then followed again, for half that day,
the enthrallment of the savagely majes-
tic scenery of the ford; the loiterings at
chasms, gorges and narrow valley open
ines where odd and fantastic hamlets
toppled at the edges of precipices, or
seemed trembling from the future oil
roaring torrents, and, above all, meetings
and partings OF and with quaint peasant
groups to whom the dark ford was the
only highway ever known, and their
shoutings and wayingS OF 'favels, "
strangely tender for folk who had never
before met and touchingly pathetic as il
with the voice tremor of those who are
never to meet again, until needless
| vagarous inquiry brought close to its enc
my idyllic days upon the somber Naero
ford.
''Freda' I asked, "have you a home?''
In an instant she seemed a changed be-
ing, stern, hard. grim as the cruel crags
above us there.
.'rhis boat" she answered slowly liz
her own tongue. 1.-THE cavern where We
slept and a-darker, harder home thar
that cavern, far above it among the
crags.''
'.Will you take me to the latter, Freda?'
YES
/ was startled by her manner, startled
with the wild energy with which she
bent to the oars and the swiftness with
which we flew over the silent waters, ano
still startled and alarmed by the strange
palior in her face as she urged me for
ward through the grewsone cavern be-
hind where we lett our boat, and led