in merry company, and all at once, becoming pale and disturbed, they
gaze absently before them into space. They see all kinds of things, and
sometimes an exclamation escapes them, such as: "A fire has broken out
in Merchant N.N.'s buildings in ----vaagen"! or "Trondhjem is burning
now"! Sometimes they see a long funeral procession passing, with such
distinctness that they can describe the place and appearance of every
man in it, the coffin and the streets through which the procession wends
its way. They will say: "A great man is being buried down in
Kristiania"; and when the news comes, it always corresponds with their
statement. It may happen, at sea, that such a man will say to the
captain that he will do well to go out of his course for a little while;
and he is always obeyed, for the crew are quite sure that he beholds in
front of the ship what none of them perceive, perhaps a goblin in his
half-boat, or a spectre, or something else that brings misfortune.

One of Komag-Nils' many stories of this kind had happened to an
acquaintance of his during the winter fishing. The weather had been very
stormy for two days, but on the third had so far lulled that one of the
boats' crews that had been lodging in the fishing hut, thought that it
would be quite possible to draw their nets. But the rest did not care to
venture. Now it is a custom that the different boats' crews shall give
each other a hand in launching the boats, and this was now to be done.
When they came down to the ten-oared boat, which was drawn a good way up
the beach, they found both oars and thwarts reversed, and, in addition
to this, it was impossible, even with their united efforts, to move it.
They tried once, twice, three times without avail. And then one of them,
who was known to have second sight, said that from what he saw, it was
better that they should not touch the boat that day: it was too heavy
for human power. In one of the crews that put up in the fishing-hut
there was a lively boy of fourteen, who entertained them the whole time