Happy Times in Norway

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THE ODOR OF NEW-MOWN HAY DRIFTED IN FROM ALL the meadows of the valley the afternoon that Mother and Hans drove up. Mowing machines clattered on every farm, and hayrakes jangled softly across the fields. The river flowed broad and full, flooding the fieldsin the bottoms—on the little isles out in the water only the tops of die alder trees and the roofs of barns and sheds showed—and the water was bluish-green now, for the thaw had started up on the snowfieldsof Jotunheimen. Wild ducks, each with its train of ducklings looking like puffs of down on the water, swam in the stream. It was true midsummer now. The light-green tipsof the spruce-fir branches were already long and from the woods came the smell of that little twinflower, the linnaea . From where the road lay through mountain passes, it could be seen flowering on the steep cliff 158 3 S U M M E R V A C A T I O N walls, and on every ledge grew spreading tufts of the white and yellow saxifrage, and in the cracks and crevices, bluebells nodded in a wealth of ferns. "Oh, mother, isn't it wonderful for people like us who are going to the mountains?" Mother thought of Tulla. It was always sad to leave her—but it was impossible for Mother to find the peace and quiet for work at home in the summertime. There were always so many visitors. But, Mother thought, Thea was there, and Thea cared for Tulla as if she were a lump of gold. Grandmother was there too, and Grandmother always thought of herself as in charge of Tulla and of Mother's house. Actually, it was Thea who was in charge of Grandmother, pampering her with all her favorite dishes and serving her tea and coffee in the garden many times a day. They had been driving along the river for an hour or so when Boe swung off the main road and the car began to climb toward the heights. This saeter road was narrow and steep, and they had not yet reached the top of the mountain when the water in the radiator began to boil and Boe had to stop beside a brook and refill the radiator with cold water. Mother and Hans gotout. Deep below them the valley widened out like a bowl, with Losna Lake at the bottom. Baklia, dark with evergreens, here and there a 159 H A P P Y TIMES IN N O R W A Y little patch of meadow and field around a little farmhouse , was already in deep shadow, but the tableland, above the hillside, wasfloodedwith afternoon sun that lighted up the little gray saeters with a light so strong the cattle that far away in the mountains were bright red and white dots and little lakes shone blue and bright. Far to the north one could glimpse gray mountains , their summits crowned with white snowfields. "Look, Hans. Do you think it is as beautiful anywhere in the world as in Norway?" But Hans had no time to gaze at the scenery. "Boy, oh, boy, what strawberries, mother! Oh, Boe, can't you wait a little while? I seesome solaig . . ." Hans wasscrambling over the rocks along the brook. Boe smiled. He could certainly wait a little while, he said, but they must remember they had the greater part of the way still ahead of them, and the people at the saeter would probably like to have their guests arrive before too late in the evening. "Here, mother.They're all foryou.Aren't theygood? Have you ever tasted such delicious strawberries?" The woods were turning sparse. Wind-fallen trees with roots in mid-air reminded one that winter storms take harsh toll up here. The spruce firs were either thin and stunted and bearded with moss, or they were pudgy little bushes that huddled together in little vales i 60 S U M M E R VACATION and sheltered places in the land. Moss and lichen covered the rockyground, broken here and there by brown tufts of heather and huckleberry bushes. Then the woods ended and before them lay the plain, the road looping around bright lakes and winding around bluffs and cragswhere the slopes were graywith rockfalls and the flat plateaulike tops white with reindeer moss. The sound of wind and rushing...