DISASTER.
_August 31._--We have got quite tired of writing 'Another beautiful
day,' and in future shall bring notebooks to Norway with these words
ready printed at the top of each page.
The Skipper paddled away to Gjendebod, to bring home the deerskin which
he had left there to dry. He returned with a splendid bag of the best
trout that ever came out of Gjendin, and that means the best in the
world; but he was in a state of great indignation because he had been
charged 5s. 6d. for beds, dinners, and breakfasts for himself and Öla
when they stayed there a few nights ago. This is the result of living in
a cheap country for two months: to the ordinary Englishman it would not
appear an exorbitant hotel bill, especially when the hotel (!) is fifty
miles from a town, and only open for two months in the year.
Just at bedtime Esau crawled into the tent saying that he had strained
his back in lifting a stone: he was in such pain that he could hardly
stand, and was white and shivering. We undressed him and put him to bed,
and then produced the liniment from the 'medicine chest,' by which name
we dignify the cigar-box which contains our little stock of drugs. Then
John spent an hour viciously rubbing remedies into his victim's back, as
one rubs oil into a bat, so that Esau presently groaned out, 'Thanks,
John, I think that will do, I feel a great deal better now;' and
certainly he did seem to experience a kind of relief as soon as the
rubbing stopped. After this we turned in.
_September 1._--Esau spent a sleepless night, and this morning could not
move. Thereupon John nobly closed with him for another half-hour's
rubbing, which had a decided effect, and after giving him some
breakfast, we carried him out and made a comfortable bed for him under
the Sycamine tree, and there left him with the library and all his
belongings in easy reach.
At midday John returned from fishing to lunch with the invalid, and we
wondered how all our friends in England were getting on with the
partridges, and almost wished we were there for a few minutes, as we
pictured to ourselves Eddie and Jack both talking sixteen to the dozen
at lunch over beefsteak pie and beer (fancy beer, John!); old Blank,
with two young dogs tied to him, perspiring over the downs; and the
Major sitting with his cigar aboard the yacht at Cowes, and thinking how
snug his birds were lying down Gorseham way, not to be disturbed till
his return next month to shoot at them, while all the time the Furzely
boys were walking them up, and making them as wild as hawks.
After lunch, John accomplished what has long been his great desire, the
ascent of the sugar-loaf mountain across the Memurua; and after boiling
a thermometer at the topmost peak, burying a pocket handkerchief
(thoughtfully borrowed from Esau, who was too unwell to refuse him
anything), and 'carving his name on the Newgate Stone with his Tollekniv
fine tra la,' he returned in raptures about the view, and overcome with
sublime and poetical emotions, which did not subside until he had poured
forth his soul to his two friends at dinner.
The Skipper stalked without success, though he found the tracks of a
good herd that had only just passed over the ground. Though the day was
so pleasant, he had not exactly enjoyed his walk, for he could not help
being filled with gloomy forebodings about Esau; picturing to himself
the difficulties that would arise in getting men to carry the invalid
down to Christiania in a litter, with him yelling at every step. But
behold, how untrustworthy a thing is imagination! when the Skipper
arrived in camp, he was agreeably surprised to find the object of his
solicitude sitting up and actually stirring the rice for the curry, so
marvellous had been the effect of John's lubrication; assisted by the
support to his back of a kind of splint composed of birch bark, a towel,
and two straps.
_September 2._--John ate new bread again for dinner yesterday, and the
Skipper was aroused in the middle of the night by a claw reaching out
from the adjoining bed, which clutched his pillow and rug and tried to
drag them away; the whole of this being accompanied by blood-curdling
groans and hideous yells. He became more peaceful after a short time,
but the Skipper is now in mortal fear lest John should again suffer from
indigestion, and again stretch out that gruesome claw, and grabbing him
by the hair, drag him forth from the tent, and with demoniac shrieks
stamp the life out of his frail body, while he makes the quiet valley
re-echo to his triumphant mocking laughter. This, the Skipper asserts,
would be only one step beyond his conduct of last night.
The latest scientific observations have caused us to re-classify the
different altitudes thus:--First, the country of high cultivation and
wild strawberries; above that the zone of uncleared pine forests and
most of the berries; then the belt of stunted birches and black game;
higher still, that of cows and goats; and above that, the country where
reindeer flourish and snow lies all the year round. This takes us to the
summit of all things earthly, and in this zone there is hardly any
vegetation. Beyond it is the region of eagles, but in the present
incomplete state of human knowledge we have been content to explore this
highest zone by letting our spirits soar aloft without our bodies.
Gjendin is just at the highest point of the stunted-birch belt, and when
the wind gets into the N.W. the thermometer, without waiting to reflect,
falls a great distance very hurriedly. John, having no sheepskin,
suffers a good deal from the cold at night; and the haughtiness of his
spirit is so far broken that he now sleeps in two pairs of trousers,
three shirts, and a coat, besides all his rugs. A few short weeks ago he
turned from us with an air of aristocratic nausea when we were getting
into bed clothed in a single shirt and pair of trousers, donning for his
part a linen nightshirt, an effeminacy previously unheard of in camp
life.
These things are changed now, and it is difficult to persuade him not to
go to bed with his boots on; but it has to be prevented on account of
the new bread.
The monotony of an uneventful day was only broken by the occasional
rubbing of Esau's back, amidst the victim's agonised appeals for mercy,
as he thinks it is rubbed away to the bone. However, the effect is
magnificent, and he can now hobble about camp and be useful to a certain
extent.
MENU.--September 2.
_Vins._ Truite à l'Irlandais. _Légumes._
Onion Sauce. Salmi of Ryper. Crumpets.
Woodcock à l'Oven.
Compote of Rice and Wimberries.
After dinner we dug a small hole in the floor of the outer tent, in
which we placed a spadeful of red-hot embers from the fire. This is a
capital device for obtaining warmth in a tent, as there is no smoke, and
the embers keep glowing for a very long time; possibly it might be
dangerous in a very close-fitting tent, but ours is airy, not to say
hurricany.
Round this fire we sat and talked and smoked until bedtime, hoping
against hope for a few more days of sunshine; but when we turned in, the
wind was howling and moaning along the hill-side in a very ominous and
unpleasant manner.