All this was beautifully clean and tidy, for the Norse men and women keep

all their cleanliness for their ships and houses, and waste none of it on
their persons.

A strong aromatic smell pervaded the whole room, from the fresh sprigs of
fir and juniper with which it was strewn every morning, as old English
halls were with rushes; it might indeed have well passed muster for
an English hall in the olden times, but for the absence of the great
gaping fire-place with its cozy chimney-corner and fire-side benches; the
place of all this was ill supplied by the pride of Torgensen's heart,
which he pointed out before they had been in the room for five minutes,
and called his "pot-kakoluvne" - a great pyramidal heap of glazed tiles,
portraying Scripture subjects in Dutch costumes, and doing duty as a
stove. This being an importation from foreign parts was of course of
additional value; its pyramidal shape indicated Denmark as the country
of its manufacture, for in Sweden the corresponding piece of furniture
is cubical; and both are great improvements on the cast-iron stoves of
Norway, which get nearly red hot, dry and parch the skin, crack the
furniture, and fill the rooms with a description of gas, which, whatever
it may do to a native, ensures to the stranger a perpetual headache.

It is rare to find in Norway a farm, and consequently an establishment

of the size of Torgensen's, though in Sweden it is common enough. The