Then more genuine but less smooth. Giving ifications of the young men. the Pollock medal is thus described:- followed the archbishop, the comGentleman-cadet Lane," said the chair- mander-in-chief, and any other person man, holding out the case containing the of distinction who was disposed to medal, and addressing the head cadet, who make a speech. After which came dinstood blushing before him, "the inhab- ner for the cadets and lunch for the itants of Calcutta, in remembrance of the guests, then drill, a march past, and noble-" But no sooner did Gentleman- dismissal of the parade, when all went cadet Lane get his hold upon the prize than home. he gave evidence, by a violent tugging, that his desire to retire with his reward was in no way affected by any curiosity to learn the motives of the inhabitants of Calcutta in bestowing it. Had not the chairman, forewarned by past experience, kept a tight grip on the medal-case, it would have slipped from his grasp, and the customary address would have lost its point. As it was, the contention was so sharp between them as to stop the current of the chairman's words, and he had to get a new "purchase" before he was able to proceed with the descriptions of the heroism and success of General Pollock.1 Such was Addiscombe early in the fifties, and it remained much the same to the end. There were the usual escapades, none very serious; and occasionally the hares and rabbits at Addington, the archbishop's seat, were snared or otherwise caught. The occasion offered itself once a week, when there was an afternoon service, which some of the excellent among the cadets used to attend. Those whose sporting instincts prevailed, availed themselves of the opportunity, and it sometimes happened that their evil efforts were After the prizes had been given the crowned with success. The last raid chairman made his speech, and one on the archiepiscopal rabbits happened such oration was very much like an- thus: Two sporting cadets had been so other. He usually expressed a hope far favored by fortune that each had that the cadets on arrival in India caught a rabbit, with which they were would maintain the character they had anxious to escape. But how to conceal acquired at the institution, for by so the spoil was a difficult problem, for doing they would reflect the highest uniform was tight and the swallow-tail honor upon the establishment and the pocket scanty. However, after much company amongst their brother officers squeezing, each pocketed a rabbit, and in India. He desired his young friends they set out for home tired and dirty. to pursue the course in which they had When rounding a corner they suddenly embarked with undeviating rectitude, found themselves face to face with the and invited them to cultivate a fine faith highest dignitary of the Church, and as of reward in the justice of their supe- was right and proper, they saluted him riors, in the honorable and high char- respectfully. The archbishop, pleased acter which they would acquire, but with their politeness, kindly insisted above all in their own approving and that they should have tea with him, an grateful minds. Then he compli-invitation which, by reason of the inmented the lieut.-governor, the staff, sufficiency of their improvised gameand the professors; and finally, with bags, they accepted with fear and well-assumed modesty, he addressed trembling. The crucial test was sitting the public examiner, usually a senior down, a performance which the tightofficer of the royal engineers, praised ness of their garments rendered perhis well-known character and profes- ilous; and even when seated, the sional reputation, and assured him that greatest repose was necessary to prehis conduct was marked by the cordial vent disclosures which would show the and unanimous approbation of the court hospitality of the Church to have been at large, and that they relied with per- misplaced. The culprits suffered much; fect confidence on the justice and ability but their host, possibly attributing their of his judgment in respect to the qual-constraint to the awe inspired by his 1 In the Company's Service, p. 52. presence, did his best to set them at they were halted and dismissed inside the grounds, and when he returned the guard of honor had vanished. The young men enjoyed themselves amazingly; but the secret of their admission greatly puzzled the lieut.-governor and his staff, who were present. The only explanation ever given that they were marched in by some corporalwas, in default of anything more precise, admitted to be sufficient. ease. At last, however, the tea-party and no sooner was his back turned than ended, and the culprits hastened to Addiscombe, but arrived just late for parade. Being known to the orderly officer as having a natural aptitude for crime, he asked them roughly before the assembled cadets where they had been and why they were late. The audacity and improbability of the reply that they had been to tea with the Archbishop of Canterbury electrified the parade and nearly suffocated the irate officer, who, appreciating the delicacy of the situation, and seeing that laughter could no longer be suppressed, quickly ordered the delinquents to appear next morning at orderly-room, and dismissed the parade. Meantime he sent to the archbishop to ascertain the truth of the excuse tendered, and as the reply confirmed the cadets' story, next morning they were pardoned for being late and let off with the growling remark, “I did not know you kept such respectable company." Early in 1855 corporals of divisions were allowed to wear swords at parades and on other public occasions, and soon after the title of the institution was changed from "Military Seminary," which cadets disliked exceedingly, to "Military College," which they preferred, and gentlemen-corporals were hereafter known as sub-officers. These changes were moves in the right direction, tending towards the treatment of cadets as young men rather than schoolboys. And now the existence of the company was drawing to a close, and the mutiny in India sounded its death-knell. With it Addiscombe ceased to exist, the last batch of officers from it receiving their commissions in 1860 or 1861. Another story of that time evinced the high qualities of presence of mind, fertility of resource, and absence of fear of responsibility on the part of an unknown cadet. Some of our readers can recollect that when the emperor and the empress of the French were The quaint and curious ways of the staying with our queen the Crystal Pal- old place must seem strange to the ace was visited in state. The occasion present generation of young people at was naturally a great attraction to the our military colleges, where they are young men who wished to see the fed with comparative luxury, have show; but admission to the grounds smoking-rooms provided, and are under was restricted to the holders of season- reasonable rules. The course of educatickets, which cost a guinea each, and tion, too, may provoke a smile. Neverno money was forthcoming for such theless Addiscombe, as is well said in expenditure. So a number of them one of the books already quoted, “with walked over, and mingling with the all its shortcomings and with some outside crowd, enjoyed themselves as obvious faults, was yet an unriwell as they could. Soon, however, a valled nursery of military captains - the movement and gathering together of school of Eldred Pottinger and Henry the cadets became apparent, and the Lawrence, of Nicholson, 1 Outram, and order to "fall in" was given. They Durand." And to these we will add "fell in" promptly under the com- the names of the late Field-Marshal mand of a corporal, who "formed fours" and marched boldly in at the principal entrance, pausing for an instant to inquire from the policeman in charge if he could direct them to the position assigned to the cadet guard of not appear to have been at Addiscombe. honor. The policeman went to inquire, Lord Napier of Magdala, of the engi- 1 John Nicholson, the "tower of strength," does From Temple Bar. BY MRS. ALEC TWEEDIE. "Welcome, a thousand welcomes to Lysaker!" Nansen said, warmly shaking us by the hand; "but you have AUTHOR OF“ A GIRL'S RIDE IN ICELAND," "THE brought cold weather with you; I hope you will not suffer from it." OBERAMMERGAU PASSION PLAY," ETC. The air was so dry and still and we were so warmly clad we hardly noticed it, and yet our host added, "It is colder to-day than I ever had it during the daytime in my journey across Green A HOUSE is ofttimes the true reflex of its owner's mind. A man naturally surrounds himself with the things that most appeal to his tastes. The books he most loves are on their shelves. If he has travelled, relics from foreign land, but at night it was thirty or forty countries surround the room. Should degrees colder." he be musical, his best-loved instrument finds an honored place. If artistic, the walls will be covered with such art as most appeals to his intelligence. The home necessarily becomes the expression of its owner's taste, the reflex of his mind. It is an old saying, "you never know a man till you are married to him," and the words apply equally that you never know a man at all well until you have seen him in his own home. One must know him in the midst of his household gods, every one of which can unfold a page in the history of its owner's life. Lysaker Station is some half-dozen miles from Christiania. Our little engine, almost enveloped in its snowplough, had dragged us very slowly along, and even to accomplish that short distance had taken nearly twice its allotted time. "And yet you wear no top coat." "Oh no, I have given up such luxuries, like smoking and drinking, so that I may not miss them at the North Pole. If you don't mind the snow, and I see you are properly clad and shod for our country, we can go across the fjord to the house; it is much the shortest way." So over the fjord we went. Dr. Nansen had walked backwards and forwards over the ice so often, he had made quite a little road of his own, but branching off to the left were some deep imprints in the snow. "Where do these lead to ?" we asked. Up a steep little bit of hill and we were on the road, a few minutes' walk along which brought us to an open "Nowhere. When I came home last night it was so absolutely dark that, as I had not got my lantern, I missed my way on the fjord and walked a hundred yards in the wrong direction before I There, on the platform awaiting our discovered my mistake. It can be very arrival, stood Dr. Fridtjof Nansen. It dark at night sometimes, and then withwas a bitterly cold day—the thermome-out a lantern it is almost impossible to ter registered nine degrees below zero find the way." Fahrenheit, or forty-one degrees of frost, and there he stood without even an overcoat, merely wearing the grey ski uniform so well suited to his lithe- gate. some figure. His hands were enveloped in a pair of the usual Norwegian knitted baby" gloves, without any fingers, only a thumb. These curious gloves are also worn in Iceland; but there they have two thumbs, so that by an inside-out process they can get another pair of gloves when the palm becomes worn out. All Northern nations know the advisability of keeping the extremities covered, and consequently always wear gloves, even when fishing. As we entered between the posts, half-a-dozen dogs began to bark, and we turned to the right to look at the kennels. That "I am very fond of my dogs. one is an Eskimo sledge dog, and sometimes he pulls my wife over the ice in a sledge coupled with a Gordon setter. That dog with the little sharp ears is a Fin, and the one next is an English setter. My dogs and I are very good friends, and I generally take them all with me when I go out." The house itself was built by Dr. Nansen about two years ago, and had | wegian, with all the strength of the been finished since our last visit to Viking race in his manly bearing and Norway; hence our desire to penetrate earnest face. His very name — Fridtits mysteries. It is a copy of the old jof- means a Viking, or, more propNorwegian style. It is entirely made erly speaking, a "thief of peace." He of pine-trees, not of laths and planks, is very proud of his name, and it is a but of whole trees laid one on top of very uncommon one even in Norway. the other, so that outside and inside it She is a jolly, bright little woman, with is brown pine wood. The roof is orna- dark hair, and all the merriment and mented with the allegorical carvings of warm coloring of a more southern peoserpents' and dragons' heads, so spe-ple, although she too is pure Norwecially Norwegian. A small balcony gian. She is able to accompany Nansen projects from the front door, and an- on all his sports. She is very fond of other one runs along in front of the sailing, of which they do a great deal in drawing-room. As we entered the little the summer, for the fjord of Christiania hall, we paused to look at the assort- almost surrounds the house, which is ment of snowshoes (ski) leaning against built on a promontory. In winter they the wall. ski together, for Nausen thinks no sport or anything else perfect unless accompanied by his wife. He is very fond of joking and chaffing her too, and when speaking about a visit we contemplated "Those long ones are mine," said our host, "the shorter ones are my wife's. We have each two or three pairs. Most of them are Norwegian, but the straight ones are Fin. Accord-up Nora Fjeld on ski, a mountain about ing to the condition of the snow we five thousand feet above the sea, and choose which ski to wear, the same as lying between Christiania and Bergen, you choose your boots for fine or wet he said, "My wife knows Nora Fjeld weather." well, because there it was that I saw her dead-beat for the first and only time. Nothing tires her as a rule; so when I want to make her very angry I tell this story. "It was New Year's day, a couple of A wolf-skin coat hanging on a peg arrested our attention. It was one of the coats made for the expedition. The hair was outside as well as inside. To put it on, it was necessary to pass the head through a hole, on the prin-years ago, that we decided to cross ciple of a knitted jersey, only it was made very much larger, and when once properly on, it was tied tightly round the neck so that no cold air could enter from its buttoning across the chest, and it had a large hood which projected well over the face. Each man will have a wolf-skin coat (by far the most durable) as well as a reindeer one, and two or three extra ones will also be provided. Furs are only to be worn out of doors on this perilous journey; for the cabins, woollen clothing is preferable, and much healthier. Nora Fjeld from Hallingdal, and enjoy a little holiday on ski. At three o'clock in the afternoon the sun set, and we were not even on the top. However, my wife would not turn back; so on we went. It became very dark and very steep, and at last the snow was frozen so hard the ski would not bite at all. Then I had to take mine off and cut steps in the snow up the mountainside with the end of the ski. For nearly two hours I did this before we reached the top. It became absolutely dark, and a bitter wind blew, and it was ten o'clock before we reached the first inhabited hut down the mountain-side. Here an old woman gave us milk and bade us welcome; but my wife would not stay the night, declaring she was not tired, and quite able to go on anWhat a strange contrast the Nansens other hour to the saeter where we origare! He is a great, big, tall, fair Nor-inally intended to remain. So on we While we were talking, a door opened and the smiling face of Fru Nansen welcomed us to her home. "I am so glad to see you, and now you are really here we must show you everything that you care to see." skied again. It was so hopelessly dark | life. I have many times been nearly that every now and then the point of killed, but never so nearly as by that our ski would strike a tree and upset grand old bear; but I came off victorius, and we had continually to call out ous, and keep him there in rememto make sure of the other's where- brance of a fine battle. There are abouts. several more skins in the house, about a dozen, but this is certainly the finest." "At last, almost on the strike of midnight, we reached the little saeter, and, entering the door, my wife dropped In one corner of the room was a down on a chair. I went to find some splendid bust of our host by the Gerone and make some arrangements for man Lessing. In another corner was sleeping, but when I returned I found Ernest Sars, Fru Nansen's brother, the my wife had forestalled me; she was great Norwegian historian; and on a already sound asleep bolt upright in a shelf in one of the alcoves was another chair. Asleep? Yes; and she slept bust-of Welhaven - one of Norway's for hours we couldn't wake her so greatest poets, and an uncle of Fru we just left her alone. That was the Nansen's. Several fine old cabinets, only time I ever saw her completely some Norwegian and some German, done up." stood about the room, and the walls were hung with pictures by the most famous Norwegian artists. Entering the drawing-room, we were struck with its originality and quaintness. Facing us were three huge windows, Gothic fashion, but with such large panes of plate-glass we forgot they were windows at all, and looked right away over the seventy mile stretch of Christiania Fjord-now solidly frozen to the open sea beyond. The room had a smaller room adjoining and an alcove. Large openings almost as large as the walls themselves divided them from the main saloon. The arches were gracefully curved at the top, and artistically draped with rich deep-colored curtains of plain material, bordered by embroidery about a foot wide, worked by Fru Nansen after some of the old Norwegian embroideries in the Christiania Museum. Quaintly standing crossway between the main room and the smaller offshoot was an English fireplace. "Yes, it is English, and so are the armchairs. I got both ideas from England, but as your fireplace is not warm enough for us with wood fires, I have arranged a stove behind." And sure enough hidden away was the unsightly stove, kept lighted day and night in the fashion of Norwegian stoves. It did the warming, while the English hearth imparted a cosy look to the room. A magnificent Polar bear-skin lay on the floor. "I shot that but not before the bear had nearly cost me my "That is by Werenskjold," Nansen said; "he is our finest artist, to my mind, and that is by Svending, and this by Eilif Petersen. I love my pictures, and am very proud of modern Norwegian art. Yes, that is Watts' 'Hope.' I bought it the last time I was in England, I liked it so much; and I think Watts and Whistler your most wonderful artists in modern times." Several more interesting pictures hung upon the walls, some of which have been given by the painters themselves, for the Nansens are very friendly with all the artists, with whom they have so much in common. In the smaller room low seats with high, carved backs of wood ran round the walls. This severe, wooden style is old Norwegian, and the quaint Runic carvings are very interesting. Nansen can explain how this is Irish and that is Norwegian, and this piece is a combination of both, while that inscription is purely Runic. Thrown over these otherwise hard seats were rugs of bear or seal which had fallen to Nansen's gun, and some warm-colored Turkey rugs strewed the floor. It was not like any ordinary drawing-room; it was more like an artist's studio, with its rich colorings, artistic draperies, and quaint odds and ends. In effect it is charming and very original. |