Hulda’s tears were her only reply, and Siegfrid pressed her friend fondly to her heart.
Ah! what joy would have reigned in Farmer Helmboe’s household if they could but have heard of the safe return of the absent one, and have felt that they really had a right to be happy.
“So you are going direct to Christiania?” inquired the farmer.
“Yes, Monsieur Helmboe.”
“To be present at the drawing of the great lottery?”
“Certainly.”
“But what good will it do now that Ole’s ticket is in the hands of that wretch, Sandgoist?”
“It was Ole’s wish, and it must be respected,” replied the professor.
“I hear that the usurer has found no purchaser for the ticket for which he paid so dearly.”
“I too have heard so, friend Helmboe.”
“Well, I must say that it serves the rascal right. The man is a scoundrel, professor, a scoundrel, and it serves him right.”
“Yes, friend Helmboe, it does, indeed, serve him right.”
Of course they had to take supper at the farmhouse. Neither Siegfrid nor her father would allow their friends to depart without accepting the invitation, but it would not do for them to tarry too long if they wished to make up for the time lost by coming around by the way of Bamble, so at nine o’clock the horses were put to the carriage.
“At my next visit I will spend six hours at the table with you, if you desire it,” said Sylvius Hogg to the farmer; “but today I must ask your permission to allow a cordial shake of the hand from you and the loving kiss your charming Siegfrid will give Hulda to take the place of the dessert.”
This done they started.
In this high latitude twilight would still last several hours. The horizon, too, is distinctly visible for a long while after sunset, the atmosphere is so pure.
It is a beautiful and varied drive from Bamble to Kongsberg. The road passes through Hitterdal and to the south of Lake Fol, traversing the southern part of the Telemark, and serving as an outlet to all the small towns and hamlets of that locality.
An hour after their departure they passed the church of Hitterdal, an old and quaint edifice, surmounted with gables and turrets rising one above the other, without the slightest regard to anything like regularity of outline. The structure is of wood—walls, roofs and turrets—and though it strongly resembles a motley collection of pepper-boxes, it is really a venerable and venerated relic of the Scandinavian architecture of the thirteenth century.
Night came on very gradually—one of those nights still impregnated with a dim light which about one o’clock begins to blend with that of early dawn.
Joel, enthroned upon the front seat, was absorbed in his reflections. Hulda sat silent and thoughtful in the interior of the carriage. But few words were exchanged between Sylvius Hogg and the postilion, and these were almost invariably requests to drive faster. No other sound was heard save the bells on the harness, the cracking of the whip, and the rumble of wheels over the stony road. They drove on all night, without once changing horses. It was not necessary to stop at Listhus, a dreary station, situated in a sort of natural amphitheater, surrounded by pine-clad mountains. They passed swiftly by Tiness, too, a picturesque little hamlet, perched on a rocky eminence. Their progress was rapid in spite of the rather dilapidated condition of their vehicle, whose bolts and springs rattled and creaked dolorously, and certainly there was no just cause of complaint against the driver, though he was half asleep most of the time. But for all that, he urged his horses briskly on, whipping his jaded steeds mechanically, but usually aiming his blows at the off horse, for the near one belonged to him, while the other was the property of a neighbor.
About five o’clock in the morning Sylvius Hogg opened his eyes, stretched out his arms, and drank in huge draughts of the pungent odor of the pines.
They had now reached Kongsberg. The carriage was crossing the bridge over the Laagen, and soon it stopped in front of a house near the church, and not far from the waterfall of the Larbrö.
“If agreeable to you, my friends,” remarked Sylvius Hogg, “we will stop here only to change horses, for it is still too early for breakfast. I think it would be much better not to make a real halt until we reach Drammen. There we can obtain a good meal, and so spare Monsieur Benett’s stock of provisions.”
This being decided the professor and Joel treated themselves to a tiny glass of brandy at the Hotel des Mines, and a quarter of an hour afterward, fresh horses being in readiness, they resumed their journey.
On leaving the city they were obliged to ascend a very steep hill. The road was roughly hewn in the side of the mountain, and from it the tall towers at the mouth of the silver mines of Kongsberg were distinctly visible. Then a dense pine forest suddenly hid everything else from sight—a pine forest through which the sun’s rays never penetrate.
The town of Hangsund furnished fresh horses for the carriage. There our friends again found themselves on smooth level roads, frequently obstructed by turnpike gates, where they were obliged to pay a toll of five or six shillings. This was a fertile region, abounding in trees that looked like weeping willows, so heavily did the branches droop under their burden of fruit.
As they neared Drammen, which is situated upon an arm of Christiania Bay, the country became more hilly. About noon they reached the city with its two interminable streets, lined with gayly painted houses, and its wharves where the countless rafts left but
