parsonage children was like a life in some other and happier, more
sunshiny part of the globe.




CHAPTER II

_ON THE SHORE_


The shore is an even more attractive playground for children in Nordland
than here in the south of Norway. At low-tide there is a much longer
stretch of beach than here.

The sandy bottom lies bare, with pools in it here and there, in which
small fish swim, while down by the sea there sits a solitary gull on a
stone, or a sea-fowl walks by the water's edge. The fine, wave-marked
sand is full of heaps, covered with lines, left by the large, much
sought after bait-worms, that burrow down into the earth. Hidden among
the stones, or in the masses of sea-weed, lie the quick, transparent,
shrimp-like sand-hoppers, which dart through the shallow water when they
are pursued. They are used by small boys as bait, upon a bent pin, to
catch young coal-fish.

Upon the high grassy hill above the beach, among some large stones, we
three children built our own warehouse of flat stone slabs, with
store-house, boat-house and quay below.

In the boat-house we had all kinds of boats, small and great, from the