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12 THROUGH NORWAY WITII A KNAPSACK.
the manner of old English tea-gardens; and among the
trees and hushes are sprinkled a few coloured lamps,
looking dull and sickly for want of darkness.
All classes of people are here, excepting the class
most numerous at our Cremorne. Servant-girls and
their mistresses, workmen and their masters,
merchants and their clerks, students and professors, meet
on common ground, and enjoy the merry-go-round
together. Among other caterers of refreshment is an
old woman with a basket of oranges. I inquire the
price, in the best Norsk I can muster, and understand
her to reply that they are 12 skillings each—about
fivepence halfpenny. In order to be satisfied, I take
one, and give a 24 skilling piece ; receiving 12 skillings
change. My companion protests that he shall return
by the next steamer; for his " governor" only allows
him 800/. a year for pocket-money, and such an income
is absurdly inadequate in a country where a penny
orange sells for sixpence. We carefully watch the old
woman’s proceedings, in order to ascertain what class
of persons are her customers, and our astonishment is
by no means diminished on finding that they are chiefly
working-men, who pay from 8 to 12 skillings for the
exotic luxury, according to its size. In every case that
we observed, the luxurious swain was accompanied by
a damsel, with whom the orange was shared; and from
the expression of aristocratic suavity assumed by the
features of the orange suckers, and maintained as
long-as the orange lasted, it was evident that half an orange
is " the thing" in Christiania.
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