Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive Transcriber's Notes: 1. Page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/fishergirl00bjgoog THE FISHER GIRL BY BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON. TRANSLATED FROM THE NORWEGIAN BY SIVERT AND ELIZABETH HJERLEID. (_Translators of Ovind._) LONDON: TRÜBNER AND CO. 1871. [_Entered at Stationers' Hall._] TRANSLATORS' PREFACE. Encouraged by the general appreciation with which our former translation "Ovind" was received last winter, we now offer to the English reader what we believe to be a faithful re-production of Herr Björnson's latest work. The poems are rendered in the metre of the original, and as in "Ovind" we have taken the liberty of adding headings to the chapters. North Ormesby, Middlesbrough, December, 1870. CONTENTS. CHAP. I. PEER, PETER, AND PEDRO. CHAP. II. "SOME OTHER BOYS." CHAP. III. READY FOR CONFIRMATION. CHAP. IV. ONE AND ANOTHER. CHAP. V. A MISTAKE. CHAP. VI. THE SOUND OF THE CLOCK. CHAP. VII. THE FIRST ACT. CHAP. VIII. AT THE RURAL DEAN'S. CHAP. IX. APPREHENSIONS. CHAP. X. IS MUSIC LAWFUL? CHAP. XI. RECONCILIATION. CHAP. XII. THE SCENE. CHAPTER I. PEER, PETER, AND PEDRO. When the herring has for a long time frequented a coast, by degrees, if other circumstances admit of it, there springs up a town. Not only of such towns may it be said, that they are cast up out of the sea, but from a distance they look like washed-up timber and wrecks, or like a mass of upturned boats that the fishermen have drawn over for shelter some stormy night; as one draws nearer, one sees how accidentally the whole has been built, mountains rising in the midst of the thoroughfare, or the hamlet separated by water into three, four divisions, while the streets crook and crawl. One condition only is common to them all, there is safety in the harbour for the largest ship; there is shelter and calm, and the ships find these enclosures grateful, when with torn sails and broken bulwarks, they come driving in from the North Sea to seek for breathing space.