Storm Mists Over Beautiful Lake Loen

For a beautifully faithful portrayal of the life of Norwegian country people, such as is very probably being lived by this woman, read Bjornson's Arne, also Synnove Solbakken and A Happy Boy. Boyesen's Gunnar is admirable; so is his Norse Boyhood. It was his own boyhood life, in a Norse valley almost as lonely as this, that inspired those beautiful verses in Bjornson's celebrated story, Arne:

"What shall I see, if ever I go
Over the Mountains high?
Now I can see but the peaks of snow
Crowning the cliffs where the pine trees
grow,
Waiting and longing to rise
Nearer the beckoning skies."

These lake farms are not so isolated as they used to be, for every summer brings an influx of strangers from the outside world and these districts are becoming more and more popular with both European and New World tourists.

We are in the Nordfjord country overlooking Lake Loen, one of a group of beautiful lakes which drain off into the fiord. Those greenish waters go down nobody knows how fearfully deep between the mountains, while the walls that rise above the waters stand in many places more than a mile high.

The farm buildings before us are typical of this district. In the immediate foreground is a rack for drying hay. These long poles, connected by the many parallel rods, form a sort of trellis. The grass is gathered up in loose bunches and thrust between two rods, one tier after another. If there is no horse and cart for hauling the hay, very likely this woman and her husband will carry it on their own shoulders.