[Illustration: JOHN I. HALS' SHINGLE MILL.] Round Florence are also other Scandinavians who have scattered light of melioration. Flowery meadows and royal dwellings join to pronounce their industry and rank of intelligence. Mr. Myro is an early pioneer and a thrifty Dane, Taral Larsen is a prosperous farmer, a native of Norway, who has shared the struggles of frontier life, Ed. Hanson, also a Norwegian by birth, has been a valuable factor in the community, especially in the promotion of education. As we proceed up the river we find an unbroken settlement of well-to-do Scandinavians, who sought the wilderness to make homes. Engebret and Sven Stenson, Sivert and Rasmus Knutson and S. Erickson were among the first. L. O. Stubb, a prominent farmer and a man of ability and influence, has given valuable service to the community. He has been one of the foremost men to look after the interest of education. He was born in Norway, came to Dogfish Bay, Washington, 1880, and the same year settled near Norman. [Illustration: THE NORMAN PUBLIC SCHOOL. The first public school in the Stillaguamish valley above Florence: built, 1882, burnt 1892.] Iver N. Prestlien, the pioneer of Prestlien Bluff, so named to perpetuate his memory, was born in Norway, and settled on his present location, 1885, when the inviting slope was a gloomy forest. He has done much for the upbuilding of the community, educationally and otherwise. [Illustration: PRESTLIEN'S BLUFF. The schoolhouse is behind the big stump.] John Furness, previously alluded to, an able business man, in company with Mr. Engdahl, at Norman, has spared no energy for the good of the public schools and the country in general. Andrew Estby, O. B. Lee, H. Hereim and others have also lent willing assistance. Cornelius N. Langsjoen, Elias Tangen, Julius Lund, Andrew Prestlien, John Ingebretson, and others have contributed heart and hand to better frontier gloom. Two fine Lutheran churches, one at Silvana and the other across the river, emphasize the moral and intellectual standard of the people. [Illustration: LOGGING FAMILY STANDING ON A CEDAR STUMP.] SCANDINAVIANS AT CEDARHOME. CHAPTER XI. Three miles east of Stanwood smiles a beautiful villa, which fifteen years ago received the baptism Cedarhome. It seems as though Nature in her wisdom long, long ago took special pains to prepare a plot for this smoothly sloping panorama. If it had been whittled out to order for a quiet, sober and intelligent people nothing more consistent could have been expected.