Happy Times in Norway

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"WINTER-SPRING" is THE NAME PEOPLE IN NORWAY give to that odd season that begins in February. When day after day the sun beams down from a high and cloudless deep-blue sky and every morning the whole world is encrusted with glistening frost crystals—but later in the day all the eaves are dripping. The sun licks the snow from the trees, and one sees the topsof the birches beginning to turn a shiny brown and the bark of the aspens taking on the greenish tinge that betokens spring. Snowdrifts still lie high along the roads and fences and on the fields the snowcrust shines like silver in the sun, the ski tracks drawing bright lines in crisscross. Crows and magpies fly about with twigs in their bills. They have moreor lessbegun to repair lastyear's nests, and once in a while they pierce the stillness of the winter day with their squawks and chatter. 73 I HAPPY TIMES I N NORWAY As soon asthe sun goesdown there isbiting cold. But a reflection of the daylight remains, a fringe of flame, along the black-forested ridge to the southwest. For many hours afterward a light, the color of old green glass, lingers on the horizon. In the morning long icicles hang from all the eaves, but in the course of the forenoon shining drops begin to fall. And every day is a little longer and little lighter than the day before. It is a glorious time of year for the children and the young people. The boys came home from school and bolted their food—they were going over on the hill for ski training. And they did not come home until the first stars began to twinkle in the sky.After the evening meal there was coasting on the long roadways that wind with many a hairpin curve down from the mountain and straight across the town. These roads were far from safe for coasting. There was a great deal of traffic on them—cars and buses and trucks—and moreover they cut across Main Street, which also is the main road leading into the valley. Mothers could do nothing but warn: "Now do be careful!"And the sons pointed out that they certainly did not need to be told that! No one would go coasting and get killed for the fun of it. When and how those same boys ever studied their lessons and wrote their exercises was hard to conceive. 74 THE SEVENTEENTH OF MAY But they must have done so,somehowor other, for their grades at school were no lower than for the fall semester . Perhaps the teachers were more lenient at ski time. Every school had a ski tournament during the winter, and in place of physical training courses the boys were allowed to go with the physical training teacher on skiing trips up through the forest. And it was possible to "glance" at the lessons in the morning, before one had to start, for on skis or Swedish "kick-sled" it took only five minutes to get to school. So the boys did not leave home until after they really should have been at their desks. "Kick-sledding" is a Swedish invention, but it had become tremendously popular in Norway in the course of a few years. It sounded disrespectful when Anders offered to kick Mother downtown, if she had some errands to do, and strange when Thea kicked Tulla a long way out in the sun every morning. Thea sought vainly to get her to keep her sunglasses on—Tulla took them off every time she sawher chance and slung them in the snow at the roadside. There was always some accident or other. Little by little the ski courses and skiing roads became worn down tobare ice. It hurt to fall now. In homes all about the countryside were boys lying abed who had fallen and had water on the knee or a slight concussion of the 75 HAPPY TIMES IN N O R W A Y brain. It wasonly strange that no one got seriously hurt more frequently. On those hills owned by the various ski clubs, where the real training took place, fresh snow was, of course, hauled in, and the snow on the slope below the jump was kept from getting packed and hard. But the slopes in the forests were frightful; many of them were...