wife and the sheriff's two ladies, and outside, one on each side, the
minister and the sheriff, smoking their silver-mounted meerschaum pipes,
and chatting comfortably: they were college-friends. Susanna and I,
together with the housemaid from Trondhjem, who was adorned for the
occasion, had a place in the roomy bow. The minister's wife wanted to
keep that part of the boat in which she had an immense provision
basket--a regular portable larder--under her own eye. The big basket and
the little lady entirely occupied one bench, while the two other ladies,
with their starched dresses, quite filled up the rest of the narrow
cabin.

There was not a breath stirring, and the West Fjord heaved in long,
smooth swells. The fjord lay like a giant at rest, sunning itself. The
wonderfully clear air allowed the eye to see over the mountain ranges,
almost into eternity, while an aërial reflection--an inverted mountain,
with a house under it and a couple of spouting whales--built up a
fairytale for us over the blue stretch of sea. Now and then we met a
sea-fowl, floating on the smooth water; and in our wake gambolled a
porpoise or two.

A little before midday we got in among the Vætte Rocks, and set about
fishing; for first, without considering the provision basket, we had to
procure our own dinner.

On the outer side of the rocks the surf broke noisily in the still day,
and sent up great white jets, or retreated with a long sucking sound, as
if the ocean drew deep, regular, breaths. Restless as Susanna was, she
bent over the gunwale, until her hair almost dipped in her own image in
the water, to look through the transparent sea at the fish, which, at a
depth of fifteen or twenty fathoms, glided in and out among the seaweed