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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: miles farther on, we reached the first station, a comfortable old
farmhouse, with a great array of wooden outbuildings. Here we had a
chance to try our luck with the Norwegian language in demanding "en
hest, saa straxt som muligt." This was what the guide-book told us
to say when we wanted a horse.
There is great fun in making a random cast on the surface of a
strange language. You cannot tell what will come up. It is like an
experiment in witchcraft. We should not have been at all surprised,
I must confess, if our preliminary incantation had brought forth a
cow or a basket of eggs.
But the good people seemed to divine our intentions; and while we
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