Three in Norway

July 8.-

At ten P.M. on the platform of the Hull station might have been seen the disconsolate form of Esau, who had arrived there a few minutes before. To him entered suddenly an express train, with that haste which seems to be inseparable from the movements of express trains, adorned as to the roof of one of its carriages by a Canadian canoe. From that carriage emerged the lanky body of the Skipper, and general joy ensued.

Then in the hotel the Skipper related his perilous adventures; how he had crossed London in a four-wheeler with the canoe on the quarter-deck, and himself surrounded by rods, guns, rugs, tents, and ground-sheets in the hold, amid the shouts of 'boat ahoy!' from the volatile populace, and jeers from all the cabs that they met (there are many cabs in London); how the station-master at King's Cross-may his shadow never be less!-had personally superintended the packing of the canoe on a low carriage which he put on to the train specially; and how the G.W. charged four times as much as the G.N. He had seen John the day before, and on being asked to 'wander about, and get some things with him,' the Skipper had replied that it was quite impossible, as his time was occupied for the whole day: but when John said, 'I wanted your advice chiefly about flies, and a new rod that I am thinking of buying,' he replied, 'Sir, I have nothing of the slightest importance to do; my time is yours; name the moment, and place of meeting, and I will be there.' Then they twain had spent a happy day; for decidedly the next best thing to using your own rod is buying one for another man-at his expense.

Poor Esau had no charming experiences to relate: he was a little depressed because an intelligent tyke at Doncaster had looked into the horse-box in which his canoe was travelling, hoping no doubt to see some high-mettled racer, and had asked if 'yon thing were some new mak o' a coffin.'

July 9.-

We walked about Hull and made a few last purchases. In the course of our wanderings we chanced to come to a shop, in the window of which many strawberries, large and luscious, were exposed for sale. We immediately entered that shop without exchanging a word, and the Skipper said to the proprietress, 'This gentleman wants to buy a quantity of strawberries for a school feast;' while Esau remarked, as he fastened on to the nearest and largest basket, 'My friend has been ordered to eat strawberries by his doctor.' After this a scene ensued over which it were best to draw a veil.

At six o'clock we were safely aboard the good ship 'Angelo,' and saw our baggage stowed. It consisted of three huge boxes of provisions, weighing more than 100 lbs. each, two portmanteaus, two smaller bags, a tent, a large waggon-sheet intended to form another tent, a bundle of rugs and blankets, a large can containing all cooking utensils, four gun-cases, seven rods, a bundle of axes, a spade and other necessary tools, and the canoes with small wheels for road transport. Those wheels were the only things in the whole outfit that turned out to be not absolutely necessary. We did use them, but only once, and might have managed without them.

When the aforesaid was all on board, there did not appear to be much room for anything else in the steamship 'Angelo;' registering 1,300 tons; yet this vast pile was destined to travel many miles over a desperately rough country in the two little canoes.

We were warped out of dock about eight o'clock, and steamed down the Humber with a west wind and a smooth sea. It was showery up to the moment of our departure, but as Hull faded from our sight it became fine, and with the shores of England we seemed to leave the cloud and rain behind.

July 10.-

The day passed as days at sea do when the weather is all that can be wished, and the treacherous ocean calmly sleeps. The passengers were as sociable as any collection of English people ever are, and we spent the time very pleasantly chatting, smoking, eating enormously, and playing the ordinary sea games of quoits and horse-billiards.

The Skipper was much exercised in spirit because Esau had told him that he believed a certain passenger to be an acquaintance of a former voyage, named, let us say, Jones, and that he was a capital fellow. So the Skipper went and fraternised with Jones, and presently, trusting to the 'information received,' remarked, 'I believe your name is Jones?' and was a little annoyed when Jones replied, 'No, it's not Jones; it's Blueit, and I never heard the name of Jones as a surname before.' Then the Skipper arose and remonstrated with his perfidious friend, who with great good temper said, to make it all right, 'You see that man by the funnel? That is a Yankee going to see the midnight sun; go and talk to him.' Now the Skipper has been in America a good deal, and likes to talk to the natives of those regions, so he sailed over to the funnel and tackled the Yankee. Presently, with that admirable tact which is his most enviable characteristic, he observed, 'I understand that you have come all the way from America to see the midnight sun: it is a very extraordinary phenomenon. Imagine a glorious wealth of colour glowing over an eternal sunlit sea, and endowing with a fairy glamour a scene which Sappho might have burned to sing; where night is not, nor sleep, but Odin's eye looks calmly down, nor ever sinks in rest.' As he paused for breath the Yankee saw his opportunity, and said, 'No, I was never in America in my life. I am a Lincolnshire man, and am going over to Arendahl to buy timber. I have seen the midnight sun some dozen times, and I call it an infernal nuisance.' Here the Skipper hastily left, and came over and abused Esau until he made an enemy of him for life.