"Of course it was," said Ole. "Don't you think I know?"
"The king and queen then went around and spoke to all the other people, who began to take out long spyglasses and gaze in all directions and ask the name of everything.
"The county magistrate, as the highest of the local officials, stood near the king and queen and pointed things out to them.
"'See that group of distant white peaks,' said the magistrate; 'and there to the north is Snow-Cap, although I am not sure that you can distinguish it; and that little black thing farthest away' (Ole pointed as the magistrate had done) 'is the highest peak in Norway.'[15]
[15] The mountain referred to is Galdhoepiggen.
"After a while the company turned around, facing the south. When they saw the view in that direction,--with the great shining lake lying so far away down there, and the forests stretching farther and farther in the distance,--even the king himself was astonished. He thought that the forests must reach almost to Sweden. He had never seen so vast an extent of forest at one view, king though he was. When they had finished looking at the surrounding landscape, Nordrum went to that patch of reindeer moss over there and gathered a whole handful of it. A good many of the people wondered, of course, what he was going to do with it. He went over to the king, showed it to him, and then said, 'Should you like to see the moss that we mixed with birch bark to make bread during the war?'
"The king took a piece and chewed it. 'Yes, there is bird lime in it,' he said.
"Nobody else had moved or spoken since Nordrum picked the moss,--they were so surprised. At last father heard one of the officers say, 'It is astonishing how tactless these farmers can be!'"
"Oh, I don't know; but no doubt it is something pleasant, for the king clapped Nordrum on the shoulder and said: 'Thanks, my good man. We can all thank God that there are happier days in Norway now.'
"'That was what I was thinking of when I showed you the moss,' said Nordrum.
"Then they took the king to the great heap of stones that was piled up as a memorial of his visit, and asked him to scratch his name upon the stone slab beside it. And so he did, '_O. S._,' which stands for Oscar and Sophia; and then the number of the year, too,--see, here it is! It was all cut into the slab afterwards, exactly as the king himself had scratched it."