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FINERY AND DIRT.—A LOG CIIAIR. 317
the bowl before me, his immersed thumb was
surrounded by an aura, or dark halo of dirt particles,
suspended in the beverage. By skilful management,
drinking from the opposite side of the bowl, and
avoiding any agitation of its contents, I contrived to
drink some of the milk without reaching the portion
thus beclouded.
The room had the usual dirty floor and pasted paper
windows; half a dozen people were eating cement, but
there was 110 Juno or Vesta here. Besides the kitchen,
or common room, there was a little second room, in
which I slept in a very dirty bed, and breathed a cheesy
atmosphere, produced by two very large tubs filled
with stale milk in a state of putrescent, caseous
fermentation, and covered with a thick mouldy film, from
which arose an intensely sour odour of rotten cheese.
In this room were two specimens of a curious chair,
such as is occasionally met with in those parts of
Norway where the largest pine-trees abound. They
are made by simply cutting a log about three feet long
from the thickest part of a large pine trunk; one side
of one half of this log is adzed out to form a seat,
the other side being left in the rough for the back,
which is curved inside, and thus a solid seat, a block
with a back, is formed.
When I arose the next morning, the housemen had
all departed and were working in the fields, but the
bonder and his wife were waiting at home to take
breakfast with me. This was quite a state repast,
consisting of coffee and rye-bread and butter. The loaf
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