And many a time I fell asleep where I lay, fully clad, in my togs, just as I was, and didn’t awake
until the sea birds had started crying. Then, when I looked out the window, I
could catch a glimpse of the large white buildings of the trading center, the
piers of Sirilund, and the general store where I used to buy my bread, and I
would lie there awhile, surprised to find myself in a hut at the edge of a
forest in Nordland.
Then Aesop would shake
his long, spare body over by the hearth, jingling his collar, yawning and
wagging his tail, and I would jump up after my three or four hours’ sleep,
refreshed and rejoicing in everything, everything.
Thus passed many a night. 
But if the wind veered about, the mountains in the
distance would almost disappear, we were in for rough weather, a southwester, a
drama to which I was a spectator. Spindrift veiled the horizon, earth and sky
were confounded, the sea tossed in tortuous dances, forming men, horses and
slashed banners in the air. I stood in the lee of a cliff thinking of all sorts
of things, my soul was excited. God knows, I thought, what I’m witnessing today
and why the sea opens before my eyes! Maybe at this moment I behold the
interior of the earth’s brain, how it labors, everything seething!
A hushed stillness all
around. I lie there looking out of the window till well into the evening. A
faery light hovered over field and forest at that hour, the sun had set and
colored the horizon with a rich red light, motionless as oil. The sky was
everywhere open and pure; gazing into that clear sea, I felt as if I lay face
to face with the very bedrock of the world, my heart beating warmly against
that naked bedrock and being at home there. God knows, I thought to myself, why
the horizon decks itself out in violet and gold tonight, whether some
celebration isn’t taking place up there in the world, a celebration in grand
style, with music from the stars and boating parties down broad streams. It
looks that way! And I closed my eyes and went along on the boating party, and
thought upon thought sailed through my brain…
Thus passed more than
one day. 