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A LUXURIOUS INN AND LADY ATTENDANTS. 175
fess that my method of conversing in an unknown
tongue works better in rural than in polite society.
In the morning I had coffee brought to my bedside,
as at the Guldbrandsdal, with the addition of white
biscuits ; and afterwards a breakfast of veal and tea, with
wheaten bread again, which I had not seen since leaving
Trondhjem. At breakfast the courtly attendance of the
two elegant young ladies was repeated; there was a
servant, but the ladies only waited at the table. It is the
old Norwegian custom, that the lady of the house, or her
daughters, of whatever rank, shall wait upon the guest:
this is the very climax and perfection of hospitality;
though rather embarrassing to an Englishman, who feels
it his duty to attend upon the ladies. The contrast of
the straw and sheepskin bed with the romancementivora
of the night before was very curious.
Crossing another branch of the fiord to Angvik, I
walked for some miles through the rain over a dreary
moor. The people here make hay, not only while the
sun shines, but in the midst of the rain: they place a
long rail on a series of legs about six feet high, a sort of
hay-horse, and throw the grass or hay across it;
evidently to keep it from soaking on the ground, which is
swampy hereabouts.
At the station of Haegheim I encountered the first
example I have met with in Norway of an attempt at
petty imposition. I called for a bowl of milk, for which
the hostess demanded four skillings, or nearly
twopence ; the usual charge being two skillings, and
sometimes only one. I threw two skillings on the table,
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