Absorbed in dramatic work of various kinds, a short story called _The Bridal March_, 1873, was Bjornson's only contribution to fiction for several years. When he reappeared as a novelist, a great change in his manner was discernible. In _Magnhild_, published in 1877, his exquisite purity and simplicity of style had disappeared; this book was more real, perhaps, but it was much more turbid and more speculative than his early mountain romances. Björnson had been touched by the "novel of experience," and had been troubled by it. _Captain Mansana_, a story of the Italian war, was slight in character. Everything seemed to point to the abandonment of prose fiction by Björnson, in favour of the drama, in which he had made and was still making a series of paradoxical successes. Quite in recent years, however, Björnson has returned to the novel, and has produced several works of extraordinary merit. Among these, the latest, _In God's Way_, which was originally published in 1889, has been universally received as the most remarkable. It is a book which combines the romantic colour and ideal glow of the author's early pastoral stories, with a deeper insight into life and a graver examination of the relations of impulse to duty. Björnson is a Radical in almost every department of thought. Within the last ten years he has been drawn more and more closely into the vortex of political life. From his farm at Aulestad, in the mountains, he sent forth in 1877, a drama, _The King_, the consequences of which were such as he probably never anticipated. The piece, which was far from being one of his most artistic creations, was looked upon as a manifestation of enmity to the throne, and since that time the poet has been driven further and further into opposition to the existing Sovereign of Sweden and Norway. But, fortunately for literature, no revolution has as yet given him that opportunity which so many advanced Norwegians yet hope may be placed in his way, of helping to administer the government of his country upon a Republican basis. He is probably able to do better service to Norway by writing those pure and manly stories of his, which thousands of young people read with enthusiasm, than if he were entrusted with the responsibilities of a portfolio. But it would be idle to speculate what triumphs, whether literary, social, or political, the future may not hold for one whose physical and intellectual health is superb, and who has not yet approached his sixtieth year. EDMUND GOSSE. SCHOOL-DAYS IN GOD'S WAY I. In the melting snow on the hill-side by the sea, in the last rays of the evening sun, stood a boy of fourteen, awestruck. He looked toward the west, out across the sea; he looked toward the east, over town and shore and the broad hills; in the background still higher peaks rose far away in the clear sky.