a position for him in the Department of Justice.
All had the most absurd theories about American
democracy, and indulged freely in prophecies
of coming disasters; but about their own
government they had no opinion whatever. If
Halfdan attempted to set them right, they at
once grew excited and declamatory; their
opinions were based upon conviction and a
charming ignorance of facts, and they were not
to be moved. They knew all about Tweed and
the Tammany Ring, and believed them to be
representative citizens of New York, if not of
the United States; but of Charles Sumner and
Carl Schurz they had never heard. Halfdan,
who, in spite of his misfortunes in the land of
his adoption, cherished a very tender feeling for
it, was often so thoroughly aroused at the foolish
prejudices which everywhere met him, that his
torpidity gradually thawed away, and he began
to look more like his former self.

Toward autumn he received an invitation
to visit a country clergyman in the North, a
distant relative of his father's, and there whiled
away his time, fishing and shooting, until winter
came. But as Christmas drew near, and the day
wrestled feebly with the all-conquering night,
the old sorrow revived. In the darkness which
now brooded over land and sea, the thoughts
needed no longer be on guard against themselves;