The Argosy — page 147: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

132 Under Northern Skies. and clean, and we were in absolute possession. It was not very much more than a cottage upon a large scale, but the good people placed before us an unpretending meal that was yet far better than we had expected, was decently served, and dressed with that savoury cunning none possess better than those primitive cooks who, living in out-of-the-way places, are often thrown upon their resources, and have to make much out of little. Necessity is the mother of invention. One thing we often noticed in these remote little inns. The people, when asked for the bill, never seemed to know what to charge, but hesitated and demurred, and evidently went through some painful mental pro- blem. Whether considering how much they might ask, or how little ——— a = = = ——— a m\\ eANY n = \ —# “4 34 - 2 oie Ok S ah er " —_— — Y \ = — > —__- a —————— ne om - t -— vfots = —S——SSs P | NE = > —j-- = 9 a RTE Reve wpa) BAe = > “| ENP N ST te \ 1 = = = ; ——s AR Sa ra aT a ; ‘i CUMIN Re RTL, a —* RONNE. <== == _~- | would repay them, one never knew, but - “2-77 -— | as we were always satisfied with their ee FES, bE answers, we will give them the benefit 2 Se a of the doubt. This inn also had its garden, well stocked with fruit and flowers, but also a sort of cultivated wilder- ness. It sloped downwards to brown sheds and boathouses and the beach, where the quiet sea broke lazily over the stones with a lapping, soothing, sleepy sound. But we had a long walk before us to keep us in a state of con- sciousness. After leaving Hasle, the quiet little brown thoroughfares and all the brown people; after picking a rose in the garden and satisfying the hesitating but moderate claims of the inn people; Jehu came round at the appointed moment in great style; energy and vigour in man and horses. Evidently all their rest had not been spent in idleness. Away we went, followed by numerous gazers, brown-faced, brown-eyed, intensely serious: all with a silence of speech and attitude we chose to interpret into a benediction. Jehu drove to a certain point beyond which the carriage could not pass : a large white farmhouse, substantially built, with great barns CONMICLMOOOKS.(e©)