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240 THROUGH NORWAY WITII A KNAPSACK.
Sunday means. I do not, of course, allude to the dreary
Sabbath of the modern puritan, but the bright, happy,
soul-refreshing Christian holiday. Those who talk so
much about the fourth commandment frequently forget
its first and fundamental injunction, " Six days shalt
thou labour;" for without the six days’ labour, there
can be no seventh day of rest. Daily labour is as
necessary to man’s happiness as daily food is to his
physical health. I have never met a single example
of an idle man who was not a miserable man; and one
of the greatest of all our popular delusions is that of
considering a forced vocation an evil. The man who
spends his life merely in seeking enjoyment, soon finds
that enjoyment is an irksome labour—a labour without
holiday or any refreshing rest. So with the man who
has claret every day with dinner; he can form no idea
whatever of the enjoyment I had of that particular
bottle of St. Jullien, and the ham and eggs at the Ronnei
station, after the invigorating hardships of the previous
week or two. It was a mighty feast—a furious
dissipation—which I shall remember for a whole lifetime.
I determined to stop here a whole day, for rest,
luxury, and letter-writing. There is something like a
village here; there are gardens and fruit-trees; and
my dessert after last night’s ham and eggs was a
branch of a cherry-tree served with the leaves and
fruit upon it. I resolved that if ever I have a
garden and a wife, and give a dinner-party in the
summer, the dessert shall be served in this fashion—
well-laden branches of fruit-trees arranged as a centre
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