CHAPTER IV.

Ole Kamp had been absent a year; and as he said in his letter, his winter’s experience on the fishing banks of Newfoundland had been a severe one.  When one makes money there one richly earns it.  The equinoctial storms that rage there not unfrequently destroy a whole fishing fleet in a few hours; but fish abound, and vessels which escape find ample compensation for the toil and dangers of this home of the tempest.

Besides, Norwegians are excellent seamen, and shrink from no danger.  In the numberless fiords that extend from Christiansand to Cape North, among the dangerous reefs of Finland, and in the channels of the Loffoden Islands, opportunities to familiarize themselves with the perils of ocean are not wanting; and from time immemorial they have given abundant proofs of their courage.  Their ancestors were intrepid mariners at an epoch when the Hanse monopolized the commerce of northern Europe.  Possibly they were a trifle prone to indulge in piracy in days gone by, but piracy was then quite common.  Doubtless commerce has reformed since then, though one may perhaps be pardoned for thinking that there is still room for improvement.

However that may be, the Norwegians were certainly fearless seamen; they are to-day, and so they will ever be.  Ole Kamp was not the man to belie his origin; besides, he had served his apprenticeship under his father, who was the master of a Bergen coasting vessel.  His childhood had been spent in that port, which is one of the most frequented in Scandinavia.  Before he ventured out upon the open sea he had been an untiring fisher in the fiords, and a fearless robber of the sea-birds’ nests, and when he became old enough to serve as cabin-boy he made a voyage across the North Sea and even to the waters of the Polar Ocean.

Soon afterward his father died, and as he had lost his mother several years before, his uncle Harald Hansen invited him to become a member of his family, which he did, though he continued to follow the same calling.

In the intervals between his voyages he invariably spent his time with the friends he loved; but he made regular voyages upon large fishing vessels, and rose to the rank of mate when he was but twenty-one.  He was now twenty-three years of age.

When he visited Dal, Joel found him a most congenial companion.  He accompanied him on his excursions to the mountains, and across the highest table-lands of the Telemark.  The young sailor seemed as much at home in the fields as in the fiords, and never lagged behind unless it was to keep his cousin Hulda company.

A close friendship gradually sprung up between Joel and Ole, and quite naturally the same sentiment assumed a different form in respect to the young girl.  Joel, of course, encouraged it.  Where would his sister ever find a better fellow, a more sympathetic nature, a warmer and more devoted heart?  With Ole for a husband, Hulda’s happiness was assured.  So it was with the entire approval of her mother and brother that the young girl followed the natural promptings of her heart.  Though these people of the North are undemonstrative, they must not be accused of a want of sensibility.  No!  It is only their way; and perhaps their way is as good as any other, after all.