Nothing, certainly, could have been more fitting than that a ruler of Vikingland should be educated for the sea.  Nor could anything have been devised better calculated to knock the nonsense out of a princeling than apprenticeship in the Danish navy.  Hrolf Wisby, who messed with Prince Karl when he was a naval cadet, says that the lad was at first little more than a piece of court furniture.  Any one who is familiar with the appalling frankness and unvarnished brusquerie of grown-up Danes can judge whether the hazing and horse-play on a Danish man-of-war was agreeable, and whether it was medicinal in a case of congenital self-esteem.  Prince Karl lived the life of an ordinary middy, scrubbed decks, mended his own clothes, slept in a hammock, and ate provender which was anything but fit to set before a king.  It is recorded of him that he was an expert in polishing a certain brass binnacle lantern.  We wonder if he ever thinks now of a certain line in Pinafore, “I polished that handle so care-ful-lee, that now—­”

As ensign, second lieutenant, first lieutenant, and finally captain of a frigate, the young man acquitted himself well, earning the reputation of a capital officer, hardworking, careful, no martinet towards his men, though by no means to be trifled with.  In practical seamanship, he excels any other prince of his age, and can command any kind of naval craft from torpedo boat to battleship, and lead in actual battle.

In forming their court, King Haakon and Queen Maud are gathering about them the literary, artistic, and musical people of the realm, for they are devoted to the companionship of gifted folk.  The queen has herself written plays under the pseudonym “Graham Irving,” and the king paints a little in aquarelles, and plays the piano almost too well to be termed an amateur.  Both are accomplished linguists, speaking with discrimination French, German, Russian, English, Norwegian, Swedish, and, naturally, Danish.  There is no barrier of speech in their intercourse with members of the diplomatic corps.

The little heir apparent, Alexander, rechristened Olaf, has already done much toward ingratiating himself with the Norwegian people, although but a half dozen years old.  On the day when the royal couple entered Christiania, the boy was but two and a half years old, but he was very much interested in the decorations, and seemed to catch the enthusiasm of the crowd, for he waved his little hand spontaneously.  In counting up the merits of the king, the promising little heir must by no means be left out.

Trondhjem Cathedral, where all the kings and queens of Norway for centuries have been crowned, and where the coronation of King Haakon VII and Queen Maud occurred, stands on the site of what was undoubtedly the first Christian church in the country—­that erected by Olaf Trygvason in 996.  Within its confines bubbles the spring which sprang from the tomb of that later Olaf who is the patron saint of Norway, and