Vordingborg--Mariebo and traditions--Legend of Borre Island--Phanefjord and Gronsund--Legends of Phane and Gron--The pilgrim stone--Drive to Moen's Klint--The Underjordiske--Margrethe Skaelvig's wedding-dress--The twenty pigs and Gamle Erik--Praesto--Stevn's Klint--Hoierup--The termination "rup" explained--Copenhagen to Aarhus CHAPTER XXVI. Pastor Lindal's views as to his parish--His daughter's as to her wedding-dress--The marriage--John Hardy and his wife's arrival at Hardy Place--With the Pastor--A daughter-in-law's duty--Pastor Lindal's strong opinions on the English church system-- ARGUMENT The Viking, _tenax propositi_, if he planned an expedition, carried it out, through all obstacles, or died in the attempt. The descendants, softened in manner and cast of thought by centuries of time, retain the same singleness of purpose. There is no other thought of the duty of life except to do it. If self has to be sacrificed, it is done without reserve. The result is that there are men and women who are the reflection of duty, and although this occurs in all lands, yet nowhere does it exist in greater purity than in the descendants of the Viking. A DANISH PARSONAGE CHAPTER I. "_Piscator_. Oh, sir! doubt not but that Angling is an art. Is it not an art to deceive a Trout with an artificial fly?--a Trout that is more sharp-sighted than any Hawk you have named, and more watchful and timorous than your high-mettled Merlin is bold. And yet I doubt not to catch a brace or two to-morrow for a friend's breakfast." --_The Complete Angler._ John Hardy had lived with his mother at Hardy Place. His father had died when he was six years of age, and there was consequently a long minority of fifteen years. The greatest influence in John Hardy's life was a trout stream that ran winding through an English landscape for four miles in the Hardys' property. John Hardy fished it as a schoolboy, and it was the greatest triumph he experienced as a lad, to catch more trout in it with a fly than the numerous fly-fishers to whom Mrs. Hardy's kindness gave permission. When college days came, John Hardy, ever intent on fishing, went to Norway in the vacation with the checkered result of getting an occasional salmon, and in the smaller streams on the fjelds a quantity of small trout. The grand scenery in the fjords, and the kindly nature of the people, led John Hardy to more remote districts, where sport was better, the fare and quarters worse, but some acquisition of Scandinavian language a necessity.