Please read the Transcriber's Notes at the end of the text.
'Round theYule-Log
Christmas in Norway
BY
P. CHR. ASBJÖRNSEN
TRANSLATED BYH. L. BRŒKSTAD.
BOSTONDANA ESTES AND CO.PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1895,
By Estes and Lauriat
All rights reserved
Colonial Press
Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co.
Boston, Mass., U. S. A.
[Page 5]
'ROUND THE YULE-LOG.
The wind was whistling through the old lime and mapletrees opposite my windows, the snow was sweeping downthe street, and the sky was black as a December sky canpossibly be here in Christiania. I was in just as black amood. It was Christmas Eve,—the first I was to spend awayfrom the cosey fireside of my home. I had lately received myofficer's commission, and had hoped that I should have gladdenedmy aged parents with my presence during the holidays,and had also hoped that I should be able to show myself in allmy glory and splendour to the ladies of our parish. But afever had brought me to the hospital, which I had leftonly a week before, and now I found myself in the much-extolledstate of convalescence. I had written home for ahorse and sledge and my father's fur coat, but my letter couldscarcely reach our valley before the day after Christmas, andthe horse could not be in town before New Year's Eve.
My comrades had all left town, and I knew no family withwhom I could make myself at home during the holidays. Thetwo old maids I lodged with were certainly very kind andfriendly people, and they had taken great care of me in thecommencement of my illness, but the peculiar ways and habitsof these ladies were too much of the old school to proveattractive to the fancies of youth. Their thoughts dweltmostly on the past; and when they, as often might occur,related to me some stories of the town, its people and itscustoms, these stories reminded me, not only by their contents,[Page 6]but also by the simple, unaffected way in which they wererendered, of a past age.
