from the stove, and told all kinds of tales about shipwrecks and ghosts.

On the bench in the space between the stove and the wall, sat the
strong, handsome man Jens with his carpentering and repairs; he used to
do his work, and listen in silence to the others. By the stove
"Komag-Nils" busied himself with greasing komags [Komag--a peculiar kind
of leather boot used by the Fins.] or skins--he had this name, because
he made komags. Komag-Nils was a little fellow, with untidy yellow hair,
which hung over his eyes, and a face as round as a moon, on which the
nose looked like a little button; when he laughed, his wide thin-lipped
mouth and large jaws gave him almost the expression of a death's-head.
His small, watery eyes blinked at you mysteriously, but showed plainly
that he was not wanting in common sense. It was he, in fact, who could
tell the greatest number of stories, but still more was it he who could
get a stranger to tell stories of the visible or the invisible world
just as they occurred to him.

A third man went by a nickname, which, however, they never gave him
within his hearing; Anders Lead-head, was so called, because he now and
then had bad fits of drinking, and nearly lost his place in consequence.
And yet in his way he was extremely capable. In any real dilemma--in a
storm--he rose at once to the responsible post of captain in the boat;
for there was but one opinion of his capability as a sailor. When the
danger was over, he fell back again into the insignificant man.

A girl of twenty years of age, whom we called French Martina, was also
one of the regular servants of the house. She seemed of a totally
different race of beings from the ordinary Nordlander, was quick and
lively, with thick, curly black hair, round a brown oval face with
strikingly regular features. She was slenderly built, of middle height,