stories. There in front stood, in the old days, the pillory and the post where the offenders were tied to be publicly whipped. It was here amongst others that the famous brigands from the big woods north of the fjord expiated part of their punishment, when at last, after committing numberless crimes, they were caught by the soldiers and the peasants of the countryside. The band consisted of an old woman, her seven reprobate sons, and a beautiful young girl, who was the sweetheart of the eldest brother, Eric, 'hook-finger.' Robberies, abductions, and fires were the least of their crimes. They had various murders on their consciences, and tortures of the most gruesome kind. According to my nurse, they enjoyed themselves by tying little children to burning hot ovens, when they left a farm they had plundered, after having killed the grown-up inhabitants. It was a fête for the town and countryside when they were whipped, naked to the waist, in front of the town-hall, and the following morning taken to gallows-hill and beheaded. Only 'Erik hook-finger's' sweetheart created a certain amount of pity; she was so very beautiful, and so young, and she wept bitterly when she was whipped. But mercy was out of the question, for she had been the most cruel of all in roasting the little children.
Round the square lie all the old merchant houses and inns, where the peasants put up on market days, and where there are the most wonderful places for children's games. Old houses with
