Norway's history, met at Eidsvold in the spring of' 1814, and here a constitution was drafted, declaring: Norway to be free, independent, indivisible, thus defying the Kings Sweden and Denmark and setting nought the decree of the Great Powers. The framing of the Constitution thus marked the complete: re-awakening of Norway. The day jon which the constitution was passed, when Norway roused herself and shook off the shackles of centuries, May 17, has therefore become the national' fete day, celebrated every year over the whole country and among Norwegians abroad! wherever a sufficient gathering can be collected—a day falling appro-' priately in the spring when Norway' wakes up after the slumber of winter, throwing off the soft covering: lof deep snow.
The main feature of the day in Norway is a procession in the morning, in every town and hamlet, of school children marching, with their own bands, through the streets, leach boy and each girl little flag. In Christiani JOslo as it now is, the procession ses the Roala Castle where the King and the Queen and the Crown Prince, he also in his younger years with a little flag, receive ovations.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.