by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XVII.
TO STOCKHOLM BY GOETA CANAL.
The Wadstena, in which the absentees had taken passage at Gottenburg,was a small steamer, but very well fitted up for one of her size.Forward was the saloon, in which meals were taken, and saloonpassengers slept. Aft was the cabin, on each side of which werestate-rooms, called "huette." They were not made with regular berths,but had a sofa on each side of the door, on which the beds were madeup at night, with a wash-stand between them. Between this cabin andthe forward saloon the main deck was raised about three feet, so as tocover the engine and boilers. On each side of this higher deck weremore "huette," which were the best rooms on board. The hurricane-deck,over the after cabin, was the favorite resort of the passengers.
It was two o'clock in the morning, and the independent excursionistswere tired and sleepy. They had taken first-class tickets, and two ofthem had been assigned to each "huette." As soon as they went on board,therefore, they retired, and most of them slept, in spite of the fleasand other vermin that revelled in their banquet of blood. None butvery tired boys could have slumbered under such unfavorablecircumstances, and it is a great pity that a steamer otherwise soneat and comfortable should be given up to the dominion of thesesleep-destroying insects.
At seven the party turned out, anxious to see the scenery on the banksof the canal. The steamer was still in the river, a stream not morethan a hundred and fifty feet wide, with occasional rapids, which arepassed by canals, with locks in them. The scenery was pleasant, withrocky hills on each side. Schooners and other craft were continuallymet, loaded with lumber and other articles from the lakes. The scenewas novel and interesting, and though the boys gaped fearfully, theyenjoyed the view.
Presently one of the women, who do all the work of stewards andwaiters, appeared with coffee on deck, passing the cups to thepassengers first, and then filling them. The coffee was delicious,served with the whitest of sugar and the richest of cream, with somelittle biscuits. It waked the boys up, and seemed to make new beingsof them.
"How's this, Sanford?" said Scott.
"First rate! That's the best coffee I ever drank in my life," repliedthe coxswain.
"Is it a free blow?"
"I don't know. How is it, Ole?"
"No; you pay at the end of the trip for all you have had," replied thewaif.
"But who keeps the account?" asked Scott.
"Nobody," laughed Ole. "On the boats from Christiania every passengertells what he has had, and pays for it."
"Do they think everybody is honest?"
"Certainly; everybody is honest."
"Not much," added Sanford, shaking his head. "Of course you don'tpretend to be honest, Norway."
"But I do."
"You didn't take a sovereign from me, and another from Burchmore--didyou?"
"I take what you give me."
"It may be honest, but I don't see it in that light, Norway."
"Never mind that now, Sanford," interposed Burchmore. "He sold out thelast time for the public good."
"Do you expect to find the ship in Stockholm when we get there?" askedScott.
"Of course I do," replied Sanford. "We shall not get there tillTuesday."
"Then our cruise is almost ended."
"I suppose so. I have been trying hard to join the ship ever since weleft her at Christiansand," continued the coxswain, solemnly.
"Over the left," chuckled Scott.
"Honor bright! I don't believe in running away."
"Nor I; but Laybold and I have put our foot into it. I suppose weshall have to spend a week in the brig, and make love to Peaks whilethe rest of the fellows are seeing Russia."
"You will find some way to get out of the scrape."
"I don't know. We have lost Copenhagen and Denmark already, and Isuppose we shall not see much of Russia."
"We will help you out."
"I don't think you can do it," added Scott, who had evidently come tothe conclusion that running away "did not pay."
The steamer stopped, and the captain informed the party thatpassengers usually walked three miles around the series of locks, bywhich they were enabled to see the Falls of Trollhaetten. The carryingof the canal around these falls was the most difficult problem inengineering in the construction of the work. It is cut through thesolid rock, and contains sixteen locks. The passage of the steameroccupies an hour and a half, which affords ample time for the voyagersto see the falls. The party immediately landed, and were promptlybeset by a dozen ragged boys, who desired to act as guides, where nosuch persons are needed. Not one of them spoke a word of English; butthey led the way to the path, each one selecting his own victims, andtrusting to the magnanimity of the passengers for their pay. A walk,covered with saw-dust, has been made by some public-spirited persons,and the excursion is a very pleasant one.
The entire fall of the river is one hundred and twelve feet; but it ismade in four principal cataracts, and three smaller ones. The sceneryin the vicinity is rather picturesque, and at one point the path goesthrough a grove, on the banks of a rivulet, where the water dashesover large cobble-stones, with an occasional pretty cascade. The walkleads to various eligible spots for examining the falls and therapids. On the way, the tourist passes _Kungsgrottan_, or King'sGrotto. It is a hole in the solid rock, in the shape of half aglobe, on the sides of which are inscribed the names of the varioussovereigns of Sweden, and other distinguished persons who have visitedthe spot. Near the village of Trollhaetten, which contains severalfounderies and saw-mills, the finest part of the falls is seen bycrossing an iron foot-bridge, at the gate of which stands a woman, whocollects a toll of fifty oere for the passage to the little island.
"I don't think much of these falls," said Scott, as he returned fromthe island.
"I think they are rather fine," replied Laybold.
"You could cut up the rapids of Niagara into about two hundred justsuch falls, to say nothing of the big cataract itself," added Scott."It is pleasant, this walk along the river, but you can't call theFalls of Trollhaetten a big thing."
"Of course they don't compare with Niagara."
"Certainly not."
The party walked through the yards of the manufactories, and came to asmall hotel on the bank of the canal. The place looked very much likemany American villages. The canal steamer did not appear for half anhour, and some of the boys strolled about the place. The regiment ofragged boys who had followed the tourists, or led the way, pointingout the various falls and other points of interest in an unknowntongue, begged lustily for the payment for their services. One ofthem, who had taken Scott and Laybold under his protection, wasparticularly urgent in his demands.
"Not a red, my hearty," replied Scott. "I didn't engage you, and Ishall not pay you."
The boy still held out his hand, and said something which no one ofthe party could understand.
"Exactly so," replied Scott. "You told me the names of all the places,but I did not understand a word you said. I say, my lad, when did youescape from the rag-bag?"
The boy uttered a few words in Swedish.
"Is that so?"
The boy spoke again.
"Stick to it, my hearty; but I don't believe a word of it."
"What does he say, Scott?"
"He says the moon is made of green cheese. Didn't you, my lad?"
The boy nodded, and spoke again.
"It is a hard case, Young Sweden; but I can't do anything for you."
"What's a hard case, Scott?" asked Laybold.
"Why, he says he has six fathers and five mothers, and he has tosupport them all by guiding tourists round the falls."
"Get out!"
"I am afraid they don't have roast beef for dinner every day."
"Here's the steamer," added Laybold.
The boy became more importunate as the time came to go on board, butScott was obstinate.
"Now, out of my way, my lad. Give my regards to your six fathers andfive mothers, and I'll remember you in my will; but I won
't give you asolitary red now, because I don't like the principle of the thing. Ididn't employ you, and I didn't want you. I told you so, and shook myhead at you, and told you to get behind me, Satan, and all that sortof thing; and now I'm not going to pay you for making a nuisance ofyourself. On the naked question of charity, I could do something foryou, on account of your numerous fathers and mothers. As it is, goodby, Sweden;" and Scott went on board of the steamer.
The boat started again, and soon the bell rang for breakfast. The boyshastened to the forward saloon, where they found two tables spread. Ata sideboard was the Swedish lunch, or snack, of herring, slicedsalmon, various little fishes, sausage, and similar delicacies, withthe universal decanter of "finkel," flanked with a circle of wineglasses. The tourists partook of the eatables, but most of them werewise enough to avoid the drinkable. The Swedish bread, which is agreat brown cracker, about seven inches in diameter, was consideredvery palatable. Ordinary white bread is served on steamers and athotels, and also a dark-colored bread, which looks like rye, and isgenerally too sour for the taste of a foreigner. The breakfast at thetables consisted of fried veal, and fish, with vegetables, and all theelements of the snack. When the boys had finished, one of the womenhanded Scott a long narrow blank book.
"Thank you, marm; I am much obliged to you," said he. "Will you havethe kindness to inform me what this is for?"
The woman laughed, and answered him in her native tongue.
"Precisely so," added Scott.
"What does she say?" asked Sanford.
"She wants me to write a love letter in this book to her; but as sheis rather ancient, I shall decline in your favor, Sanford."
"Don't do it, old fellow! Face the music."
"Not for Joseph!"
"What did she say, Ole?" inquired Sanford.
"She said you were to keep your account in that book," replied theinterpreter.
"Are we to keep our own reckoning?"
"Yes; every one puts down in this book what he has had."
"That means you, Burchmore. You are the cashier for the party."
"How many fellows had coffee this morning?" asked the cashier, as hetook the book.
"All of them, of course."
Burchmore made the entries for the coffee and the breakfasts of thewhole party.
"Well, that's one way to do the thing," said Scott. "Every man his ownbook-keeper. I'll bet everybody doesn't charge what he has had."
Ole was requested to ask the woman about the matter. She said theSwedes were honest, but the waiters were required to see thateverybody paid for what he had had before leaving the steamer. Thehaving of this book is certainly a better plan than that of theNorwegian steamers, by which the passenger, if he means to be honest,is compelled to recollect all he has had in a passage of thirty hours.
The Wadstena continued on her course through a rather flat country,just coming into the greenness and beauty of the spring time, till shecame to Wenersberg, a town of five thousand inhabitants, which islargely engaged in the lumber and iron trade. The boat stopped therea short time, and the party had an opportunity to examine the lakecraft at the wharves; but, after seeing them, it was difficult tobelieve they were not in some New England coast town. The steamers,however, were very different, all of them being very short, to enablethem to pass through the locks in the canal, and most of them havingthe hurricane deck forward and aft, to afford sufficient space for thecabins. All of them were propellers.
The Wadstena started again, the bridges opening to permit her passage.The great Wenern Lake lay before them, which is the third in size inEurope, Onega and Ladoga alone exceeding it in extent. It is about ahundred miles long by fifty in breadth, very irregular in shape, andportions of it are densely crowded with islands. Its greatest depthis three hundred and sixty feet near the Island of Luroe, but aconsiderable part of it is very shallow, and difficult of navigation.It is one hundred and forty-five feet above the level of the Baltic.Thirty rivers flow into it, and sometimes cause it to rise ten feetabove its ordinary level. But the Goeta River is its only outlet, andis always supplied with an abundant volume of water. The wind wasfresh when the Wadstena steamed out upon the broad expanse, and thelake had a decidedly stormy aspect.
"Will you be seasick?" asked the captain, as the little steamer beganto bob up and down with a very uncomfortable jerk.
"Seasick!" laughed Scott. "We are all sailors, sir, and we don'tintend to cave in on a fresh-water pond."
"But the lake is very rough to-day."
"If your little tub can stand it, captain, we can."
"I am very glad, for some people are very sick on this part of thepassage. It is sometimes very bad, the worst we have in the wholetrip."
"How long are we on the lake?" asked Scott.
"About seven hours; but not all of it is so bad as this. We go amongthe islands by and by."
Doubtless the Wenern Lake fully maintained its reputation on thepresent occasion, though none of the young salts were sick. The boatstood to the northward, and the short steamer and the short chop seawould have made the passage very trying to landsmen. Nothing but thedistant shores were to be seen, and the monotony of the passage wasthe only disagreeable circumstance to our tourists. For the want ofsomething better to do, they went below, and, lying down on the sofasin their state-rooms, went to sleep without much difficulty, forthe red-backs and fleas kept shady in the daytime. The boys wereaccustomed to being "rocked in the cradle of the deep;" but at theexpiration of three hours, the heavy motion ceased, and the changewaked them. Going on the hurricane deck again, they found the steamerwas among the islands, which were generally low, rocky, and coveredwith firs and pines. A crooked channel was carefully buoyed off, andthe boat was threading its tortuous way with no little difficulty.
Presently the Wadstena made a landing at a rude pier on an islandwhere only a rough shanty was in sight. Several row-boats at the wharfindicated that passengers came to this station from other islands.Again the steamer went out upon the open lake, and soon after enteredanother group of islands, among which she made a landing at a smalltown. Passing over another open space, the entrance to the canal wasdiscovered, marked by two low light-houses, in the form of the frustumof a pyramid. As the Wadstena entered a lock, the captain told theparty they might take a walk if they pleased, as there were severallocks to pass in the next three miles. This was a grateful relief tothe voyagers, and they gladly availed themselves of the opportunity.The country was a dead level, with an occasional small farm-house, andwith many groves and forests. But the walk was interesting, and theboys would gladly have continued it longer; but at the last lock ofthe series, the gate-man told them, through Ole, that they must waithere in order to go on board, for the steamer could not make a landingagain for several miles. The party remained on the hurricane deck tillthe cold and the darkness drove them below. Turning in at an earlyhour, they slept as well as the vermin would allow, until six o'clockthe next morning, when the steamer was approaching the Wettern Lake,the second in size in Sweden. The boat was on a broad arm of the lake,called the Viken, for the canal is built only across the narrowestsection of country, between two natural bodies of water.
The Wettern Lake is ninety miles long and fifteen miles wide,surrounded by hills, from which sudden gusts of wind come, producingviolent squalls on the water. This lake is noted for big trout. Aftercrossing the Wettern, the steamer approached Wadstena, which containsan ancient church and convent, and a castle built by Gustavus Vasa,and often occupied by his family. Ten miles farther brought thesteamer to Motala, which contains several iron founderies andmanufactories. Many iron steamers and steam engines are built at thisplace. The scenery on this portion of the canal is very beautiful,though not grand. Going through another portion of the artificialcanal, the boat enters the Roxen Lake, perhaps the most beautiful inSweden, and makes a landing at Linkoeping. There are half a dozen townswith this termination in the country, as Norrkoeping, Soederkoeping,Joenkoeping, the last two syllables being pronounced li
ke _chepping_;as, Lin-chep-ping.
Leaving the Roxen Lake, the steamer passes through more canals into anarm of the Baltic, and then into the sea itself, voyaging among athousand small islands, stopping at Soederkoeping and Nykoeping,important commercial and manufacturing towns. Night came, and ourtourists did not stay up to see the lights on the way. The steamerleaves the Baltic, and passing another piece of canal, enters thewaters of the Maeler Lake, seventy-five miles long, and containingfourteen hundred islands. The boys were up in season to see thebeauties of this lake. Many of the islands rise to a considerableheight above the water, and are so thick that one hardly believes heis sailing on a large lake. For quiet beauty and "eternal stillness,"the Maeler can hardly be surpassed. In the middle of the forenoon,the spires of Stockholm were to be seen, and the tourists were allattention. From the lake the city presents a fine appearance. Indeed,Stockholm, seen from either of its water approaches, is hardlyexcelled in beauty by any city in Europe.
The Wadstena made her landing at the Island of Riddarholm. As theparty were not burdened with any baggage, they decided to walk to thehotel. Ole inquired the way to the Hotel Rydberg, where they hadagreed to go; and crossing a bridge to the largest of the threeislands of the city, called Stadeholm, they arrived at the palace,beyond which is the quay. Between this island and the main land, onwhich the greater portion of the town is built, is the passage fromthe Baltic to the Maeler Lake, and in the middle of it is the Island ofHelgeandsholm, or Holy Ghost's Island, with two bridges connecting itwith either side. On it are the king's stables, and a semicirculargarden, improved as a _cafe_, with a handsome face wall on the waterside.
"This isn't bad," said Scott, as the party paused to look down intothe garden.
"Not at all," replied Sanford. "I suppose they have music here in theevening, and it would be a capital place to loaf."
"See the steamers!" exclaimed Laybold, as a couple of the miniaturecraft, which abound in the waters of Stockholm, whisked up to thequay.
"A fellow could put half a dozen of them into his trousers pocket,"laughed Scott. "We must go on a cruise in some of them, as soon as weget settled."
"Well, where's the hotel?" asked Sanford.
It was in plain sight from the bridge, which they crossed to theSquare of Gustavus Adolphus, on which the hotel faced.
"Good morning, young gentlemen. I am happy to see you," said Mr.Blaine, the head steward of the ship, who was the first person togreet them as they entered the hotel.
"Ah, Mr. Blaine!" exclaimed Sanford, his face glowing with apparentsatisfaction. "I am delighted to see you; for I was afraid we shouldnever find the ship."
"Were you, indeed? Well, I had the same fear myself. I have beenlooking for you ever since the ship sailed."
"We have done our best to find the ship, Mr. Blaine," added Sanford.
"O, of course you have; but of course, as you didn't find her, youwere not so babyish as to sit down and cry about it."
"Certainly not; still we were very anxious to find her."
"Mr. Peaks says you came down from Christiania before he did."
"Yes, sir."
"And you were so anxious to find the ship, that you took a train tothe interior of the country, expecting, no doubt, to come across heron some hill, or possibly on some of these inland lakes," continuedMr. Blaine.
"We were looking for the ship's company. We met Scott and Laybold, whowere going into the interior, and we concluded to join them, as theywanted to find their shipmates," replied Sanford, who was now notentirely confident that "the independent excursion without runningaway" was a success.
"Ah! so you have picked up those two young gentlemen, who ran away,"added the head steward, glancing at Scott and Laybold.
"Not exactly, sir; they picked us up," answered the coxswain.
"I think it was a mutual picking up, and we picked each other up,"laughed Scott. "We knew that Sanford and his crew were extremelyanxious to find the ship's company, and if we joined them we should besure to come out right."
"Exactly so," laughed Mr. Blaine. "Let me see; after our first day'srun on shore, by some mistake you neglected to come on board at night,with the others."
"That was the case exactly. The fact is, we were too drunk to go onboard with the others."
"Drunk!" exclaimed Mr. Blaine.
"Such was our melancholy condition, sir," added Scott, shaking hishead. "We were invited, in a restaurant, to drink 'finkel,' and notknowing what finkel was, we did drink; and it boozed us exceedingly."
"You are very honest about it, Scott."
"We are about everything, sir. We slept at a hotel, and when we wentdown to the wharf to go on board, we learned that the ship's companyhad gone to Trolldoldiddledy Falls. As we felt pretty well, we thoughtwe would take a train, see a little of the inside of Sweden, and meetthe ship's company at Squozzlebogchepping."
"Where's that?" asked Mr. Blaine.
"I can't give you the latitude and longitude of the jaw-breaker, butit was at the junction of the two railways, where the party came downfrom the canal. We were sure we should find our fellows there, butthe Swedish figures bothered us, and we made a mistake in the hour thetrain was due."
"But the Swedish figures are the same as ours," suggested the headsteward.
"Are they? Well, I don't know what the matter was, except that we werefive minutes too late for the train. That's what's the matter."
"How very unfortunate it was you lost that train!"
"It was, indeed; I couldn't have felt any worse if I had lost mygreat-grandmother, who died fifty years before I was born. Thesehonest fellows felt bad, too."
"Of course they did."
"We took the next train to Gottenburg; but when we arrived, the shiphad sailed for Copenhagen, which I was more anxious to see than anyother place in Northern Europe."
"And for that reason you came on to Stockholm."
"No, sir; you are too fast, Mr. Blaine. Your consequent does not agreewith the antecedent. There was no steamer for Copenhagen for a coupleof days."
"There was a steamer within an hour after you reached Gottenburg inthat train, and an hour before the sailing of the canal steamer; andMr. Peaks went down in her," said Mr. Blaine.
"We didn't know it."
"Certainly you did not."
"We knew of no steamer till Monday, and we were afraid, if we went inher, that we should be too late to join the ship in Copenhagen; andwith heroic self-denial, we abandoned our fondly-cherished hope ofseeing the capital of Denmark, and hastened on to Stockholm, so asto be sure and not miss the ship again. These honest fellows," saidScott, pointing to Sanford and his companions, "agreed with us thatthis was the only safe course to take."
"I see that you struggled very violently to join your ship, and I onlywonder that such superhuman efforts should have failed."
"They have not failed, sir," protested Scott. "The ship will comehere, and we will join her then, or perish in the attempt."
"Are you not afraid some untoward event will defeat your honestintentions?"
"If they are defeated it will not be our fault."
"No, I suppose not; but whom have you there?" inquired the headsteward, for the first time observing Ole, who had pressed forward tohear Scott's remarks. "Ole?"
"Yes, sir; that's the valiant Ole, of Norway," replied the joker.
His presence was satisfactorily explained by the coxswain.
"Why did you desire to leave the ship, Ole? Didn't we use you well?"asked Mr. Blaine.
"Very well indeed, sir; but I was bashful, and did not wish to seesome people in Christiansand," replied the waif.
"What people?"
Ole evaded all inquiries, as he had a dozen times before, and declinedto explain anything relating to his past history. Mr. Blaine said hehad heard the party had taken the canal steamer, and he immediatelyproceeded to Stockholm by railroad. He at once telegraphed to Mr.Lowington at Copenhagen, that he had found all the absentees, andasked for instructions.
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p; "Here's a go, and the game is up," said Sanford, in a whisper, when hemet Stockwell alone.
"That's so; what will he do with us?"
"I don't know; I rather like this mode of travelling. But we arecaught now."
"Perhaps not; we may find some way out of it. According to Blaine'scue we are to be regarded as runaways. If that is the case, I don'tjoin the ship this summer," said Stockwell, very decidedly.
"Nor I either," added Sanford.
Before dark, Mr. Blaine received a despatch from the principal,directing him to take the next train to Malmoe, which is the town inSweden opposite Copenhagen. The head steward did not communicate itscontents to his charge that night, but he called all of them at fouro'clock the next morning, and by good management on his part, theywere on the train which left Stockholm at six o'clock. AtKatherineholm, where the party ate an excellent breakfast, Mr. Blaineunhappily missed three of his company.