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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13758 ***
+
+                        LITTLE PEOPLE EVERYWHERE
+
+                            GERDA IN SWEDEN
+
+             BY ETTA BLAISDELL McDONALD AND JULIA DALRYMPLE
+
+Authors of "Kathleen in Ireland," "Manuel in Mexico," "Umé San in Japan,"
+"Rafael in Italy," "Fritz in Germany," "Boris in Russia," "Betty in
+Canada," etc.
+
+                                 1910
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The Swedish people are a hospitable, peace-loving race, kindly and
+industrious, making the most of their resources. In the south of Sweden
+are broad farming-lands with well-tilled fields and comfortable red
+farmhouses; in the central portion are hills and dales, rich in mines of
+copper and iron which have been famous for hundreds of years. In the
+cities and towns are factories where thousands of workers are employed,
+making all sorts of useful articles, from matches to steam-engines. The
+rivers which flow down to the sea from the western chain of mountains
+carry millions of logs from the great dark forests. As soon as the ice
+breaks up in the spring, whole fleets of fishing boats and lumber vessels
+sail up and down the coast; sawmills whirr and buzz all day long; the hum
+of labor is heard all over the land.
+
+In this Northland the winter days are short and cold; but there are the
+long sunny summer days, when even in the south of Sweden midnight is
+nothing but a soft twilight, and in the north the sun shines for a whole
+month without once dipping below the horizon. This is a glorious time for
+both young and old. The people live out-of-doors day and night, going to
+the parks and gardens, rowing and sailing and swimming, singing and
+dancing on the village green, celebrating the midsummer festival with
+feasting and merry-making,--for once more the sun rides high in the
+heavens, and Baldur, the sun god, has conquered the frost giants.
+
+Just such a happy, useful life is found in this little story. Gerda and
+her twin brother take a trip northward across the Baltic Sea with their
+father, who is an inspector of lighthouses. On their way they meet Karen,
+a little lame girl. After going farther north, into Lapland, where they
+see the sun shining at midnight, and spend a day with a family of Lapps
+and their reindeer, Gerda takes Karen home to Stockholm with her so that
+the child may have the benefit of the famous Swedish gymnastics for her
+lameness. Then such good times as the three children have together! They
+go to the winter carnival to see the skating and skiing; they celebrate
+Yule-tide with all the good old Swedish customs; and there is a birthday
+party for the twins, when Karen also receives a gift,--the very best gift
+of all.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+
+       I. GERDA AND BIRGER
+
+      II. THE SURPRISE BOX
+
+     III. ON BOARD THE "NORTH STAR"
+
+      IV. GERDA'S NEW FRIEND
+
+       V. CROSSING THE POLCIRKEL
+
+      VI. THE MIDNIGHT SUN
+
+     VII. ERIK'S HOME IN LAPLAND
+
+    VIII. FOUR-FOOTED FRIENDS
+
+      IX. KAREN'S BROTHER
+
+       X. A DAY IN SKANSEN
+
+      XI. THROUGH THE LOCKS
+
+     XII. A WINTER CARNIVAL
+
+    XIII. YULE-TIDE JOYS
+
+     XIV. SPURS AND A CROWN
+
+      XV. THE MIDSUMMER FESTIVAL
+
+
+
+
+GERDA IN SWEDEN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+GERDA AND BIRGER
+
+
+If any one had stopped to think of it, the ticking of the tall clock that
+stood against the wall sounded like "Ger-da! Ger-da!"
+
+But no one did stop to think of it. Everyone was far too busy to think
+about the clock and what it was saying, for over in the corner beside the
+tall stove stood a wooden cradle, and in the cradle were two tiny babies.
+
+There they lay, side by side, in the same blue-painted cradle that had
+rocked the Ekman babies for over two hundred years; and one looked so
+exactly like the other that even dear Grandmother Ekman could not tell
+them apart.
+
+But the mother, who rocked them so gently and watched them so tenderly,
+touched one soft cheek and then another, saying proudly, "This is our
+son, and this is our daughter," even when both pairs of blue eyes were
+tightly closed, and both little chins were tucked under the warm blanket.
+
+There is always great rejoicing over the coming of new babies in any
+family; but there was twice as much rejoicing as usual over these babies,
+and that was because they were twins.
+
+Little Ebba Jorn and her brother Nils came with their mother, from the
+farm across the lake, to see the blue-eyed babies in the worn blue
+cradle; and after them came all the other neighbors, so that there was
+always some one in the big chair beside the cradle, gazing admiringly at
+the twins.
+
+It was in March that they were born,--bleak March, when snow covered the
+ground and the wind whistled down the broad chimney; when the days were
+cold and the nights colder; when the frost giants drove their horses, the
+fleet frost-winds, through the valleys, and cast their spell over lakes
+and rivers.
+
+April came, and then May. The sun god drove the frost giants back into
+their dark caves, the trees shook out their tender, green leaves, and
+flowers blossomed in the meadows. But still the tall clock ticked away
+the days, and still they questioned, "What shall we name the babies?"
+
+"Karen is a pretty name," suggested little Ebba Jorn, who had come again
+to see the twins, this time with a gift of two tiny knitted caps.
+
+"My father's name is Oscar," said Nils. "That is a good name for a boy."
+
+"It is always hard to find just the right name for a new baby," said
+Grandmother Ekman.
+
+"And the task is twice as hard when there are two babies," added the
+proud father, laying his hand gently upon one small round head.
+
+"Let us name the boy 'Birger' for your father," suggested his wife,
+kneeling beside the cradle; "and call the girl 'Anna' for your mother."
+
+But Grandmother Ekman shook her head. "No, no!" she said decidedly. "Call
+the boy 'Birger' if you will; but 'Anna' is not the right name for the
+girl."
+
+Anders Ekman took his hand from the baby's head to put it upon his wife's
+shoulder. "Here in Dalarne we have always liked your own name, Kerstin,"
+he said with a smile.
+
+"No maid by the name of Kerstin was ever handy with her needle," she
+objected. "It has always been a great trial to your mother that I have
+not the patience to stitch endless seams and make rainbow skirts. Our son
+shall be Birger; but we must think of a better name for the little
+daughter."
+
+"It is plain that we shall never find two names to suit everyone,"
+replied the father, laughing so heartily that both babies opened their
+big blue eyes and puckered up their lips for a good cry.
+
+"Hush, Birger! Hush, little daughter!" whispered their mother; and she
+rocked the cradle gently, singing softly:--
+
+"Hist, hist!
+Mother is crooning and babies list.
+Hist, hist!
+The dewdrop lies in the flower's cup,
+Mother snuggles the babies up.
+   Birdie in the tree-top,
+   Do not spill the dewdrop.
+Cat be still, and dog be dumb;
+Sleep to babies' eyelids come!"
+
+Nils and Ebba Jorn tiptoed across the room and closed the door carefully
+behind them. Anders Ekman took up some wood-carving and went quietly to
+work; while Grandmother Ekman selected a well-worn book from the
+book-shelf, and seated herself in the big chair by the window to look
+over the Norse legends of the gods and giants.
+
+She turned the pages slowly until she found the pleasant tale of Frey,
+who married Gerd, the beautiful daughter of one of the frost giants. This
+was her favorite story, and she began reading it aloud in a low voice,
+while the fire burned cheerfully on the hearth, and the cradle swayed
+lightly to and fro.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Njörd, who was the god of the sea, had a son, Frey, and a daughter,
+Freyja. Frey was the god of the seed-time and harvest, and he brought
+peace and prosperity to all the world.
+
+"In summer he gathered gentle showers and drove them up from the sea to
+sprinkle the dry grass; he poured warm sunshine over the hills and
+valleys, and ripened the fruits and grains for a bountiful harvest.
+
+"The elves of light were his messengers, and he sent them flying
+about all day,--shaking pollen out of the willow tassels, filling the
+flower-cups with nectar, sowing the seeds, and threading the grass with
+beads of dew.
+
+"But in the winter, when the frost giants ruled the earth, Frey was idle
+and lonely; and he rode up and down in Odin's hall on the back of his
+boar, Golden Bristles, longing for something to do.
+
+"One morning, as he wandered restlessly through the beautiful city of
+Asgard, the home of the gods, he stood before the throne of Odin, the
+All-father, and saw that it was empty. 'Why should I not sit upon that
+throne, and look out over all the world?' he thought; and although no one
+but Odin was ever allowed to take the lofty seat, Frey mounted the steps
+and sat upon the All-father's throne.
+
+"He looked out over Asgard, shining in the morning light, and saw the
+gods busy about their daily tasks. He gazed down upon the earth, with its
+rugged mountains and raging seas, and saw men hurrying this way and that,
+like tiny ants rushing out of their hills.
+
+"Last of all he turned his eyes toward distant Jötunheim, the dark,
+forbidding home of the frost giants; but in that gloomy land of ice and
+snow he could see no bright nor beautiful thing. Great black cliffs stood
+like sentinels along the coast, dark clouds hung over the hills, and cold
+winds swept through the valleys.
+
+"At the foot of one of the hills stood a barren and desolate dwelling,
+alone in all that dark land of winter; and as Frey gazed, a maiden came
+slowly through the valley and mounted the steps to the entrance of the
+house.
+
+"Then, as she raised her arms to open the door, suddenly the sky, and
+sea, and all the earth were flooded with a bright light, and Frey saw
+that she was the most beautiful maiden in the whole world."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Kerstin looked up at her husband and spoke quickly. "That is like the
+coming of our two babies," she said. "In the days of ice and snow they
+brought light and gladness to our hearts. Let us call the sweet daughter
+'Gerda' after the goddess of sunshine and happiness."
+
+So the two babies were named at last. When the children of the
+neighborhood heard of it, they flocked to the house with their hands full
+of gifts, dancing round and round the cradle and singing a merry song
+that made the rafters ring. The wheels of thin Swedish bread that hung
+over the stove shook on their pole, the tall clock ticked louder than
+ever, and the twins opened their blue eyes and smiled their sweetest
+smile at so much happiness.
+
+But they were not very strong babies, so Anders Ekman went off to his
+work in Stockholm and left them in Dalarne with their mother and
+grandmother, hoping that the good country air would make them plump and
+sturdy.
+
+Dalarne, or the Dales, is the loveliest part of all Sweden, and the Ekman
+farm lay on the shore of a lake so beautiful that it is often called the
+"Eye of Dalarne."
+
+It was in the Dales that Gerda and little Birger outgrew their cradle and
+their baby clothes, and became the sturdy children their father longed to
+have them.
+
+When they were seven years old their mother took them to live in
+Stockholm; but with each new summer they hurried away from the city with
+its schools and lessons, to spend the long vacation at the farm.
+
+"Gerda and Birger are here!" they would cry, opening the door and running
+into the living-room to find their grandmother.
+
+"Gerda and Birger are here!" The news always ran through the neighborhood
+in a twinkling, and from far and near the boys and girls flocked down the
+road to bid them welcome.
+
+"Ger-da! Ger-da!" the old clock in the corner ticked patiently, just as
+it had been ticking for eleven long years. But who could listen to it
+now? There were flowers and berries to pick, chickens to feed, and games
+to play, through all the long summer days in Dalarne. Surely, Gerda and
+Birger had no time to listen to the clock.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE SURPRISE BOX
+
+
+All day long the gentle breezes blowing through the city streets, and the
+bright sun shining on the sparkling water of Lake Mälar, called to the
+children that spring had come in Stockholm.
+
+Great cakes of ice went floating through the arches of the bridge across
+the Norrström, and gray gulls, sailing up from the bay, darted down to
+the swirling water to find dainty morsels for their dinner.
+
+The little steamers which had been lying idly at the quays all winter
+were being scraped and painted, and made ready for their summer's work;
+children were playing in the parks; throngs of people filled the
+streets;--spring was in the air!
+
+But in the Ekman household Gerda and Birger had been as busy as bees all
+day, with no thought for the dancing blue water and the shining blue sky.
+Their tongues had flown fast, their fingers faster; they had hunted up
+old clothes, old books, old games; and had added one package after
+another to the contents of a big box that stood in the corner of the
+pleasant living-room.
+
+"Perhaps I can finish this needle-book, if I hurry," said Gerda, drawing
+her chair up to the window to catch the light from the setting sun.
+
+"I wanted to send this work-box, too," added Birger; "but how can I carve
+an initial on the cover when I don't know who is going to have the box?"
+
+"Carve an 'F' for friend," suggested Gerda, stopping to thread her
+needle; but just then there was a sound of chattering voices on the
+stairs, and work-box and needle-book were forgotten.
+
+As Birger sprang to open the door, a little mob of happy boys and girls
+burst into the room with a shout of heartiest greeting. Their eyes were
+sparkling with fun, their cheeks rosy from a run in the fresh spring air,
+and their arms were filled with bundles of all sizes and shapes.
+
+"Ho, Birger! Oh, Gerda!" was their cry; "it took us an endless time to
+get past the porter's wife at the street door, and she made us answer a
+dozen questions. 'To what apartment were we going? Whom did we wish to
+see? Why did we all come together?'"
+
+"And did you tell her that you were coming to the third apartment to see
+the Ekman twins, and were bringing clothing and gifts to fill a surprise
+box?" asked Gerda, holding up her apron for the packages.
+
+"Yes," replied a jolly, round-faced boy whom the others called Oscar,
+"and we had to explain that we didn't know who was to have the box, nor
+why you telephoned to us to bring the gifts to-night, when you said only
+last week that you wouldn't want them until the first of June."
+
+"There has been a hard storm on the northern coast, and Father is
+going by train as far as Luleå, to see if it did much damage to the
+lighthouses," Gerda explained. "He thinks that the storm may have caused
+great suffering among the poor people, so we are going to send our box
+with him, instead of waiting to send it by boat in June. He has to start
+on his trip very early in the morning, so the box must be ready
+to-night."
+
+Everyone began talking at once, and a tall girl with pretty curly hair,
+who had something important to say, had to raise her voice above the din
+before she could be heard. "Let us write a letter and put it into the box
+with the gifts," she suggested.
+
+"Ja så! Yes, of course! That is good!" they all cried; and while Gerda
+ran to get pen and ink, the boys and girls gathered around a table that
+stood in the center of the room.
+
+"Dear Yunker Unknown:--" began a mischievous-looking boy, pretending to
+write with a great flourish.
+
+"Nonsense!" cried Sigrid Lundgren. "The box is filled with skirts and
+aprons and caps and embroidered belts, and all sorts of things for a
+girl. Don't call her Yunker. Yunker means farmer."
+
+"Well, then, 'Dear Jungfru Unknown:--'" the boy corrected, with more
+flourishes.
+
+"I wish we knew who would get the box, then we should know just what to
+say," said little Hilma Berling.
+
+"She is probably just your age, and is named Selma," said Birger; and
+everyone laughed over his choice of a name.
+
+"Yes," agreed Oscar, "and she lives in the depths of the white northern
+forests, with only a white polar bear and a white snowy owl for company."
+
+"I don't believe we shall ever be able to write a letter," said Birger,
+shaking his head. "How can we write to some one we have never seen?" and
+he sat himself down on a red painted cricket beside the tall stove and
+began carving the cover of the work-box.
+
+"We have made all the little gifts in that box for some one we have never
+seen," said Sigrid. "It ought to be just as easy to write her a letter."
+
+"No, Sigrid," Birger told her; "it is the hardest thing in the world to
+write a letter, especially if you have nothing to say. I would rather
+make a box and carve it, than write half of a letter."
+
+"Here comes Mother. She will tell us what to write," said Gerda.
+
+"Why not write about some of the good times you have together here in
+Stockholm," suggested her mother, and she took up the pen and waited for
+some one to start the letter.
+
+"Our dear Girl-friend in the North:--" said Hilma for a beginning; and as
+Fru Ekman wrote at their dictation, first one and then another added a
+message, until finally she leaned back in her chair and told them to
+listen to what she had written.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"We are a club of capital boys and girls because we live in Sweden's
+capital city," she began.
+
+"That was from Oscar," interrupted Gerda; but her mother continued,--"and
+we send you this box for a surprise.
+
+"We go to school and have to study very hard; but we find a little time
+for play every day. Sometimes we go to the park, but when it storms we
+are glad to stay in the house and work at sewing or sloyd. So, ever since
+Yule-tide, we have been making little gifts for you,--the girls with
+their needles, the boys with their saws and knives.
+
+"We hope you will enjoy wearing the caps and aprons as much as we have
+enjoyed making them; and if you have a brother, please give him the watch
+and the leather watch-chain. It is a gift from Oscar.
+
+"The rainbow skirt is one which Gerda wore last summer. She has outgrown
+it now, and will have to have a new one next year. She hopes it is not
+too small for you.
+
+"If you want to know what Stockholm is like, you must think of islands
+and bridges, because the city is built on eight islands, and they are all
+connected by bridges with each other and with the mainland. In summer,
+little steamers go around the city, in and out among the islands; but in
+winter the lake and all the bays are frozen over, and there is good
+skating everywhere.
+
+"Then you should see the twelve girls and boys who are writing this
+letter, holding fast to one another in a long line, and skimming across
+Djurgården bay or skating around Stadenholm, where the King's Palace
+stands.
+
+"Sometime, if you will come to visit us in Stockholm, we will have you
+join the line and skate with us under the bridges, and up and down the
+waterways; and we will show you what good times we can have in the city."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"So we did write a letter after all," sighed Birger, as Fru Ekman
+finished reading. "Now we must sign our names;" and after much discussion
+and laughter the twelve names appeared on the paper, written in a circle
+without any beginning or end,--Sigrid's and Hilma's and Oscar's and
+Gerda's and all.
+
+"Put it in the box and we'll nail on the cover," cried Oscar, picking up
+the hammer and pounding as if he were driving a dozen nails at once.
+
+"Can't a poor man read his newspaper in peace, without being disturbed by
+all this noise?" called Herr Ekman from the next room; but when he
+appeared in the doorway the merry twinkle in his eyes showed that he
+cared little about the noise and was glad to see the children having a
+good time.
+
+"I'd like to be going north with this box," said Magnus, as he took some
+nails and began nailing on the cover.
+
+"Father goes every summer to inspect the lighthouses along the coast,"
+said Birger, "and he has promised to take me with him sometime."
+
+"And me, too," added Gerda; "he wouldn't take you without me."
+
+"Is it very different in the far North?" asked Oscar.
+
+"Yes," replied Herr Ekman, "the winter is long and cold and dark; there
+are severe storms, and deep snow covers the ground; but the boys and
+girls find plenty to do, and seem to be just as happy as you are," and he
+pinched Oscar's ear as he spoke.
+
+"I don't see how they can be happy in the winter when it is dark all
+night and almost all day," said Olaf.
+
+Herr Ekman laughed. "Do you think they should go into a den, like the
+bears, and sleep through the winter?" he asked.
+
+"But think of the summer, when it is light all day and all night, too,"
+said Sigrid. "Then they have fun enough to make up for the winter."
+
+"I never could understand about our long nights in winter and our long
+days in summer," spoke Hilma Berling.
+
+"It is because we live so near the North Pole," Oscar told her. "Now that
+Commander Peary of the United States of America has really discovered
+the North Pole, perhaps the geographies will make it easier to understand
+how the sun juggles with the poles and circles.
+
+"I am sorry that it has been discovered," he added. "I always meant to do
+it myself, when I got old enough to discover anything."
+
+"If I could stand on the top of Mount Dundret and see the sun shining at
+midnight, I am sure I could understand about it without any geography,"
+Gerda declared.
+
+"If you should go north with Herr Lighthouse-Inspector Ekman this summer,
+you might meet the little girl who receives this box," said Sigrid.
+
+"I should know her the minute I saw her," Gerda said decidedly.
+
+"How would you know her?" questioned Birger. "You don't even know her
+name or where she lives. Father is going to give the box to the
+lighthouse-master at Luleå, and he will decide where to send it."
+
+"Oh, there are ways!" replied Gerda. "And besides, she would have on my
+rainbow skirt."
+
+That night, after the children had trooped down the stairs and away to
+their homes, and after Gerda and Birger had said good-night and gone to
+their beds, the father and mother sat by the table, talking over plans
+for the summer.
+
+"I suppose we shall start for Dalarne the day after school closes,"
+suggested Fru Ekman.
+
+"No," answered her husband, "I have been thinking that the children are
+old enough now to travel a little; and I have decided to take them with
+me when I go north this summer. They ought to know more about the
+forests, and rivers, and shores of their good old Mother Svea."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ON BOARD THE "NORTH STAR"
+
+
+It was a sunny morning in late June. The waters of the Saltsjö rippled
+and sparkled around the islands of Stockholm, and little steamers puffed
+briskly about in the harbor. The tide had turned, and the fresh water of
+the lake, mingled with the salt water of the fjord, was swirling and
+eddying under the bridges and beating against the stone quays; for Lake
+Mälar is only eighteen inches higher than the Salt Sea, and while the
+incoming tide brings salt water up the river from the ocean, the outgoing
+tide carries fresh water down from the lake.
+
+Just as the great clock in the church tower began chiming the hour of
+nine, a group of children gathered on the granite pier opposite the
+King's Palace.
+
+A busy scene greeted their eyes. Vessels were being loaded and unloaded,
+passengers were arriving, men were hurrying to and fro, and boys selling
+newspapers were rushing about in the crowd.
+
+"Do you see the _North Star_?" Sigrid asked the others. "That is the name
+of the boat they are going to take."
+
+"There it is!" cried Oscar; "and there are Gerda and Birger on the deck."
+With a merry shout of greeting he ran on board the steam launch, followed
+by all the other girls and boys.
+
+"Oh, Gerda, how I wish I were going with you," said Hilma wistfully. "I
+should love to cross the Arctic Circle and see the sun shining all night
+long."
+
+Gerda, who was wearing a pretty blue travelling dress, with blue ribbons
+on her hat and in her hair, threw her arms around her friend. "I wish
+you were going, too," she answered. "Birger is the best brother any girl
+could have; but he isn't like a sister, and that is what you are to me,
+Hilma."
+
+At the same moment, Birger was confiding to his friend, "I wish you were
+going with us, Oscar. Gerda is a good sister; but she isn't like a
+brother."
+
+All the other boys and girls were talking and laughing together, telling
+of the strange sights that Birger and Gerda would see on their trip into
+Lapland; and what they would do if only they were going, too.
+
+Suddenly a warning whistle from the steamer sent them hurrying back to
+the quay, where they stood waving their handkerchiefs and shouting good
+wishes until the twins were out of sight.
+
+The vessel's course lay first between two islands, and Gerda lifted her
+eyes to the windows of the King's Palace, which stood near the quay of
+one; but Birger found more to interest him in the military and naval
+buildings on the other.
+
+"There is a ship from Liverpool, England," said Lieutenant Ekman,
+pointing to a vessel which was lying beside the quay in front of the
+palace.
+
+"It is hard to believe that we are forty miles from the ocean when we see
+such big ships in our harbor," said Birger. "How did it happen that
+Stockholm was built so far from the open sea? It would be easier for all
+these vessels if they didn't have to come sailing up among all the
+islands to find a landing-place."
+
+"Lake Mälar was the stronghold of the ancient Viking warriors," replied
+his father; "and it was just because there were forty miles of difficult
+sailing among narrow channels, that they chose to live at the head of the
+Saltsjö, and make this fjord their thoroughfare in going out to the
+Baltic Sea."
+
+"Did they like to make things as hard as possible for themselves?" asked
+Gerda with interest.
+
+"Not so much as they liked to make it as hard as possible for their
+enemies," said Herr Ekman. "Centuries ago, hunters and fishermen built
+their rude huts on the wooded islands at the outlet of Mälar Lake. They
+often found it convenient to slip away from their pursuers among these
+islands; but they were not always successful, for their settlements on
+the site of the present city were repeatedly destroyed by hostile
+tribes."
+
+"Why didn't they build fortifications on the islands and hold the enemy
+at bay?" questioned Birger.
+
+"They were too busy sailing off to foreign lands," answered his father.
+"Fleet after fleet of Viking ships sailed out of the bays of Sweden,
+manned by the bravest sailors the world has ever known; and they swooped
+down upon the tribes of Europe, fighting and conquering them with the
+strength of giants and the glee of children."
+
+"It was Birger Jarl who built the first walls and towers to protect the
+city," spoke Gerda. "I remember learning it in my history lesson."
+
+"Yes," her father replied; "good old Earl Birger, who ruled the Swedes in
+the thirteenth century, saw how important such fortifications would be,
+and so he locked up the Mälar Lake from hostile fleets by building walls
+and towers around one of the islands and making it his capital."
+
+"There is an old folk-song in one of my books which always reminds me of
+the Vikings," said Birger.
+
+"Let us hear it," suggested his father, and Birger repeated:--
+
+"Brave of heart and warriors bold,
+Were the Swedes from time untold;
+Breasts for honor ever warm,
+Youthful strength in hero arm.
+    Blue eyes bright
+    Dance with light
+For thy dear green valleys old.
+North, thou giant limb of earth,
+With thy friendly, homely hearth."
+
+"There is another stanza," said Gerda. "I like the second one best," and
+she added:--
+
+"Song of many a thousand year
+Rings through wood and valley clear;
+Picture thou of waters wild,
+Yet as tears of mourning mild.
+    To the rhyme
+    Of past time
+Blend all hearts and lists each ear.
+Guard the songs of Swedish lore,
+Love and sing them evermore."
+
+"Good," said Lieutenant Ekman; "isn't there a third stanza, Birger?"
+
+But Birger was at the other end of the boat. "Come here, Gerda," he
+called. "We can see Waxholm now."
+
+Then, as the boat slipped past the great fortress and began to thread its
+way in and out among the islands in the fjord, the twins stood at the
+rail, pointing out to each other a beautiful wooded island, a windmill, a
+rocky ledge, a pretty summer cottage nestling among the trees, a
+fisherman's hut with fishing nets hung up on poles to dry, an eagle
+soaring across the blue sky, or a flock of terns flying up from the rocks
+with their harsh, rattling cry.
+
+There was a new and interesting sight every moment, and the sailors in
+their blue uniforms nodded to each other with pleasure as Gerda flitted
+across the deck.
+
+"She is like a little bluebird," they said; and like a bird she chirped
+and twittered, singing snatches of song, and asking a hundred questions.
+
+"I like those old fancies that the Vikings had about the sea and the sky
+and the winds," she said at last, stretching her arms wide and dancing
+from end to end of the deck. "They called the sea the 'necklace of the
+earth,' and the sky the 'wind-weaver.'"
+
+"I wish I had the magic boat that Loki gave to Frey," answered Birger
+lazily, lying flat on his back and looking up into the "wind-weaver."
+"If I had it, I would sail over the whole long 'necklace of the earth,'
+from clasp to clasp."
+
+But Gerda was already out of hearing. She had gone to sit beside her
+father and watch the course of the boat through the thousands of rocky
+islands that stud the coast.
+
+"The captain says that the frost giants threw all these rocks out
+here when they were having a battle with old Njord, the god of the sea,"
+she said. Then, as she caught sight of a lighthouse on a low outer
+ledge,--"Why, Father!" she cried, "I thought we were going to stop at
+every lighthouse on the coast."
+
+"So we are, after we leave the Skärgård," replied Lieutenant Ekman. "I
+came down as far as this several weeks ago when the ice went out of the
+fjord. There are two or three months when all this water is frozen over
+and there can be no shipping; but as soon as the ice breaks up, the lamps
+are lighted in the lighthouses and I come down to see them. Now it is so
+light all night that for two months the lamps are not lighted at all
+unless there is a storm."
+
+Gerda ran to the rail to wave her handkerchief to a little girl on the
+deck of a lumber vessel which they were passing.
+
+"The lighthouse keepers have a good many vacations, don't they?" she said
+when she came back.
+
+"Yes," replied her father; "those on the east coast of Sweden have
+several months in the winter when the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia
+are covered with solid ice; but on the south and west coasts the
+lighthouses and even the lightships are lighted all winter."
+
+"Why is that?" questioned Birger, coming to join them.
+
+"There is a warm current which crosses the Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf
+of Mexico and washes our western coast. It is called the Gulf Stream.
+This current warms the air and makes the climate milder, and it keeps the
+water from freezing, so that shipping is carried on all winter,"
+Lieutenant Ekman explained.
+
+Just then a sailor came to tell them that their dinner was ready. While
+they were eating, the launch made a landing at the first of the
+lighthouses which the inspector had to visit.
+
+While their father was busy, the twins clambered over the rocks, hunting
+for starfishes and sea-urchins, and Gerda picked a bouquet of bright
+blossoms for their table on the boat.
+
+At the next stopping-place, which was Gefle, the captain took them on
+shore to see the shipyard where his own launch, the _North Star,_ was
+built; and so, all day long, there was something to keep them busy.
+
+As the boat steamed farther north, each new day grew longer, each night
+shorter, until Birger declared that he believed the sun did not set at
+all.
+
+"Oh, yes it does," his father told him. "It sets now at about eleven
+o'clock, and rises a little after one. You will have to wait until you
+cross the Polcirkel and get to the top of Mount Dundret before you have a
+night when the sun doesn't even dip below the horizon."
+
+"We must be pretty near the Arctic Circle now," exclaimed Gerda. "It is
+growing colder and colder every minute."
+
+"That is because the wind is blowing over an ice-floe," said her father,
+pointing to a large field of ice which seemed to be drifting slowly
+toward them.
+
+"Look, look, Birger!" cried Gerda, "there are some seals on the ice."
+
+"Yes," said Birger, "and there is a seal-boat sailing up to catch them."
+
+"I'm going to draw a picture of it for Mother," Gerda announced, and she
+sat still for a long time, making first one sketch and then another,--a
+seal on a cake of ice, a lighthouse, a ship being dashed against the
+rocks, and a steam-launch cutting through the water, with a boy and girl
+on its deck.
+
+"Oh dear!" she sighed after a while, "I wish something _enormous_ would
+happen. I'm tired of water and sky and sawmills and little towns with red
+houses just like the pictures in my geography."
+
+"What would you like to have happen?" questioned her father.
+
+"I should like to see some of my girl friends," replied Gerda quickly. "I
+haven't had any one to tell my secrets to for over a week."
+
+"Perhaps something enormous will happen tomorrow," her father comforted
+her. "We'll see what we can do about it."
+
+So Gerda went to sleep that night thinking of Hilma and Sigrid at home;
+and she slept through the beautiful bright summer night, little dreaming
+that the boat was bearing her steadily toward a new friend and a dearer
+friendship than any she had ever known.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+GERDA'S NEW FRIEND
+
+
+"Look, Gerda," said Lieutenant Ekman, as their launch steamed the next
+morning toward a barren island off the east coast of Sweden, "do you see
+a child on those rocks below the lighthouse?"
+
+Gerda looked eagerly where her father pointed. "Yes, I think I see her
+now," she said, after a moment.
+
+Birger ran to the bow of the boat. "Come up here," he called. "I can see
+her quite plainly. She has on a rainbow skirt."
+
+"Oh, Birger!" cried Gerda, "can it be the little girl who received our
+box? If it is, her name is Karen. Don't you remember the letter of thanks
+she wrote us?"
+
+As she spoke, the child began clambering carefully over the rocks and
+made her way to the landing-place. The twins saw now that she wore the
+rainbow skirt and the dark bodice over a white waist, which forms the
+costume of the Rättvik girls and women; but they saw, also, that she
+walked with a crutch.
+
+"Oh, Father, she is lame!" Gerda exclaimed. Then she stood quietly on the
+deck, waving her hand and smiling in friendly greeting until the launch
+was made fast to the wharf.
+
+"Are you Gerda?" asked the little lame girl eagerly, as Lieutenant Ekman
+swung his daughter ashore; and Gerda asked just as eagerly, "Are you
+Karen?" Then both children laughed and answered "Yes," together.
+
+"Come up to the house, Gerda, I want to show you my birds," said Karen at
+once; and she climbed up over the rocks toward the tiny cottage.
+
+Gerda followed more slowly, looking pityingly at the crutch and the poor,
+crooked back; but Karen turned and called to her to hurry.
+
+"I have ever so many things to show you, Gerda," she said. "There are no
+children for me to play with, so I have to make friends with the birds. I
+have four now, and I am trying to teach them to eat from my hand."
+
+As Karen spoke, she led the way around the corner of the house, and
+there, sheltered from the wind, was a collection of cages, mounted on a
+rough wooden bench. In each one was a bird which had been injured in some
+way.
+
+The largest cage held a snowy owl, and when Karen spoke to him he ruffled
+up his feathers and rolled his head from side to side, his great golden
+eyes staring at her without blinking.
+
+"He can't see when the sun shines," Karen explained; "but he seems to
+know my voice."
+
+"What a good time he must have in the long winter nights, when he can see
+all the time," said Gerda. "Where did you get him?"
+
+"Father found him in the woods with a broken wing; but he is nearly well
+now, and I shall soon set him free," Karen told her.
+
+"And here is a woodpecker, and a cuckoo, and a magpie," said Gerda,
+looking into the cages.
+
+"Yes," said Karen, "and last year I had an eider-duck, and I often have
+sea-gulls. Sometimes, when there is a big storm, the gulls are blown
+against the windows of the lighthouse and are hurt. I find them on the
+rocks in the morning with a broken leg or wing, and then I put them in a
+cage and take care of them until they can fly away. Father and I call
+this the Sea-gull Light."
+
+"What do you do with the birds in the winter?" asked Gerda.
+
+"The lighthouse is closed as soon as the Gulf freezes over, and then we
+go to live on the mainland," Karen replied. "One of my brothers built
+a bird-house near our barn, and if my birds are not strong enough to fly
+away, Father lets me take them with me in the cages, and I feed them
+all winter with crumbs and grain."
+
+"How many brothers have you?"
+
+"There are five, but they are all much older than I am. They work in the
+woods in the winter, cutting out logs or making tar; and in the summer
+they go off on fishing trips. I don't see them very often."
+
+"We met a great many vessels loaded with lumber on our way up the coast,"
+said Gerda, "and, wherever we stopped, the wharves were covered with
+great piles of lumber, and barrels and barrels of tar."
+
+"The lumber vessels sail past this island all summer," said Karen. "I
+often wonder where they go, and what becomes of all the lumber they
+carry. There is a sawmill near our house on the shore and it whirrs and
+saws all day long."
+
+"There were sawmills all along the coast," said Gerda. "Birger and I
+began to count them, and then there were so many other things to see that
+we forgot to count."
+
+Karen stooped down to open the door of the magpie's cage, and he hopped
+out and began picking up the grain which she held in her hand for him. "I
+think this magpie is going to stay with me," she said. "He is very tame
+and I often let him out of the cage. Mother says he will bring me good
+luck," she added rather wistfully.
+
+"It must be lonely for you here, with only the birds to play with," said
+Gerda. "You must be glad when the time comes to live on shore and go
+to school again."
+
+For answer, Karen looked at her crutch. "I can't go to school," she said
+soberly; "but my brothers taught me to read and write, and Mother has a
+piano which I can play a little."
+
+Then her face lighted up with a cheery smile. "When your box came this
+spring, it was the most exciting thing that ever happened to me.
+Everything in it gave me something new to think about. I often think how
+pretty the streets of Stockholm must look, with all the little girls
+going about in rainbow skirts, and none of them having to walk with a
+crutch."
+
+"Oh, dear me!" exclaimed Gerda quickly; "it is not often that you see a
+rainbow skirt in Stockholm. I never wear one there."
+
+Karen looked surprised. "Where do you wear it?" she asked.
+
+Then Gerda told about her summer home in Rättvik. "It is on Lake Siljan,
+in the central part of Sweden, in a province that is called Dalarne,"
+she explained. "It is a very old-fashioned place, and the people still
+wear the costumes which were worn hundreds of years ago."
+
+A wistful look had stolen into Karen's face as she listened. "I suppose
+there are ever so many children in Rättvik," she said.
+
+"Oh, yes," answered Gerda. "We play together every day, and go to church
+on Sundays; and sometimes I help to row the Sunday boat."
+
+"What is the Sunday boat?" was Karen's next question.
+
+"There are several parishes in Rättvik, and many of the people live so
+far away from the church that they row across the lake together in a long
+boat which is called the Sunday boat," Gerda told her.
+
+"And do you have girl friends in Stockholm?" asked Karen, envying this
+Gerda who came and went from city to country so easily.
+
+"Yes, indeed," answered Gerda. Then she smiled and said shyly, "I wish
+you would be my friend, too. When I go home I can write to you."
+
+Karen's face flushed with pleasure. "Oh, will you?" she cried. "But there
+will be so little for me to write to you," she added soberly. "After the
+snow comes, and my brothers have all gone into the woods for the winter,
+there are weeks at a time when I never see any one but my father and
+mother."
+
+"You can tell me all about your birds," Gerda suggested; "and the way the
+moon shines on the long stretches of snow; and about the animals that
+creep out from the woods sometimes and sniff around your door. And I will
+tell you about my school, and the parties I have with my friends. And I
+will send you some new music to play on the piano."
+
+But before they could say anything more, Lieutenant Ekman had returned
+from inspecting the lighthouse with Karen's father, and was calling to
+Gerda that it was time for them to start for Luleå.
+
+"Good-bye," the two little girls said to each other, and Karen went down
+to the landing-place to watch the launch steam away.
+
+Gerda stood quietly beside the rail, looking back at the island, long
+after Karen's rainbow skirt and the lighthouse had faded from sight.
+
+"I will give you two öre for your thoughts, if they are worth it," her
+father said at last.
+
+"I was thinking that it will make Karen sad to hear of my good times this
+winter," Gerda told him.
+
+"She will like to have your letters to think about," replied Lieutenant
+Ekman cheerfully. Then he pointed to a little town on the shore ahead.
+"There is Luleå," he said. "You will soon be travelling on the railroad
+toward Mount Dundret and the midnight sun."
+
+But although Gerda was soon speeding into the mysterious Arctic regions,
+she could not forget her new friend in the lonely lighthouse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CROSSING THE POLCIRKEL
+
+
+"Polcirkel, Birger, Polcirkel!" cried Gerda from her side of the car.
+
+"Polcirkel!" shouted Birger in answer, and sprang to Gerda's seat to look
+out of the window.
+
+The slow-running little train groaned and creaked; then came to a stop at
+the tiny station-house on the Arctic Circle.
+
+The twins, their faces smeared with vaseline and veiled in mosquito
+netting, hurried out of the car and looked around them. Close beside the
+station rose a great pile of stones, to mark the only spot where a
+railroad crosses the Arctic Circle. This is the most northerly railroad
+in the world, and was built by the Swedish government to transport iron
+ore to the coast, from the mines four miles north of Gellivare.
+
+As the two children climbed to the top of the cairn, Birger said, "This
+is a wonderful place; is it not, Gerda?"
+
+His sister looked back doubtfully over the immense peat bog through which
+the train had been travelling, and thought of the swamps and the forests
+of pine and birch which lay between them and Luleå, many miles away on
+the coast. Then she looked forward toward more peat bogs, swamps and
+forests that lay between them and Gellivare.
+
+"I suppose it is a wonderful place," she said slowly; "but it seems more
+wonderful to me that we are here looking at it. Do you remember how it
+looks on the map in our geography, and how far away it always seemed?"
+
+"Yes," replied her brother, "I always thought there was nothing but ice
+and snow beyond the Arctic Circle."
+
+"So did I," said Gerda. "I had no idea we should see little farms, and
+fields of rye, oats and barley, away up here in Lapland. Father says the
+crops grow faster because the sun shines all day and almost all night,
+too; and that it is only eight weeks from seed-time to harvest.
+
+"No doubt there is plenty of ice and snow in winter; but just here there
+seems to be nothing but swamps and forests."
+
+"And swarms of mosquitoes," added Birger. "Don't forget the mosquitoes!"
+
+In a moment more the children were back in their seats, and the train was
+creeping slowly northward, on its way toward Gellivare and Mount Dundret,
+where, from the fifth of June to the eleventh of July, the sun may be
+seen shining all day and all night.
+
+Birger took a tiny stone from his pocket and showed it to his sister,
+saying, "See my souvenir of Polcirkel." But Gerda paid little attention
+to his souvenir, and slipped over to her father's seat to ask a question.
+
+"Father," she said softly.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman looked up from the maps and papers in his lap. "What do
+you wish, little daughter?" he asked.
+
+"Will you please make me a promise?" she begged.
+
+"If it won't take all my money to keep it," he answered with a smile.
+
+But Gerda seemed in no hurry to tell what it was that she wanted, and
+began looking over the papers in his lap. "What is this?" she asked,
+taking up a small blue card.
+
+"That is my receipt from the Tourist Agency," he answered. "When I give
+it to the station master at Gellivare, he will give me a key which will
+open the hut on Mount Dundret, and let us see the midnight sun in
+comfort."
+
+"How much did you pay for it?" was Gerda's next question.
+
+"I paid about four kronor for the card and all the privileges that go
+with it," was the answer.
+
+"Have you plenty of money left?" asked the little girl.
+
+Her father laughed. "Enough to get us all three back to Stockholm, at
+least," he said. "Why do you ask?"
+
+"Because--" said Gerda slowly, and then stopped.
+
+"Because what?" Lieutenant Ekman asked again.
+
+"Because I wondered if we could stop at the lighthouse on our way home
+and ask Karen Klasson to go to Stockholm and live with us;" and Gerda
+held her breath and waited for her father to speak.
+
+"Perhaps she would not like to leave her father and mother for the sake
+of living with us," he said at last.
+
+"I think she would, if it would make her back well," persisted Gerda.
+
+Herr Ekman laughed. "If living with us would cure people's backs, we
+might have all the lame children in Sweden to care for," he said.
+
+"But I want only Karen," said Gerda; "and I thought it would be good for
+her to take the Swedish medical gymnastics at the Institute in Stockholm,
+where so many people are cured every year."
+
+Lieutenant Ekman looked thoughtfully at his daughter. "That is a good
+idea and shows a loving heart," he said. "But are you willing to give up
+any of your pleasures in order to make it possible?"
+
+Gerda looked at him in surprise, and he continued, "I am not a rich man.
+If we should take Karen into our family and send her to the gymnasium, it
+would cost a good many kronor, and your mother and I would have to make
+some sacrifices. Are you willing to make some, too?"
+
+Gerda gazed thoughtfully across the stretches of bog-land to the forest
+on the horizon. "Yes," she said at last; "I will go without the furs
+Mother promised to buy for me next winter."
+
+Lieutenant Ekman knew well that Gerda had set her heart on the furs, and
+that it would be a real sacrifice for her to give them up; but if she
+were willing to do so cheerfully, it meant that she was in earnest about
+helping her new friend.
+
+"Yes," he said, after a moment; "if you will give up the furs, we will
+see what can be done. On the way home we will stop at the lighthouse and
+ask Hans Klasson to lend Karen to us for a little while."
+
+Gerda clapped her hands. "Oh, a promise! A promise!" she cried joyously.
+"What a good souvenir of Polcirkel!" and she ran to tell Birger the news.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE MIDNIGHT SUN
+
+
+"What time is it, Father?" asked Gerda, as they reached the top of Mount
+Dundret, and Lieutenant Ekman took the key out of his pocket to open the
+door of the Tourists' Hut.
+
+"It is half past eleven," replied her father, looking at his watch.
+
+"At noon or at night?" questioned Gerda.
+
+"Look at the sun, and don't ask such foolish questions," Birger told her.
+"When the sun is high up in the heavens it is noon; but when it is down
+on the horizon it is night."
+
+Gerda looked off at the sun which hung like a huge red moon on the
+northern horizon. "Then I suppose it is almost midnight," she said, "and
+time to go to bed. I was wishing it was nearer noon and dinner-time."
+
+"You'll have to wait for dinner-time and bedtime, too, until we get back
+to Gellivare," her father told her.
+
+"When you have travelled so far just to see the sun shining at midnight,
+you should spend all your time looking at it," said Birger, opening his
+camera to take some pictures.
+
+Gerda looked down into the valleys below, where a thick mist hung over
+the lakes and rivers; then turned her eyes toward the sun, which was
+becoming paler and paler, its golden glow shedding a drowsy light over
+the hills.
+
+"How still it is!" she said softly. "All the world seems to have gone to
+sleep in the midst of sunshine."
+
+"It is exactly midnight," said her father, looking at the watch which he
+had been holding in his hand.
+
+Birger closed his camera and slipped it into his pocket. "There," he
+said, "I have a picture of the sun shining at midnight, to prove to Oscar
+that it really does shine. Now I am going to gather some flowers to press
+for Mother;" and he ran off down the side of the hill.
+
+Gerda found a seat on a rock beside the hut, and sat down to watch the
+beginning of the new day. The sun gradually brightened and became a
+magnificent red, tinging the clouds with gold and crimson, and gilding
+the distant hills. A fresh breeze sprang up, the swallows in their nests
+under the eaves of the hut twittered softly,--all nature seemed to be
+awake again.
+
+"I've been thinking," said Gerda, after a long silence, "that I told
+Hilma I should understand about the midnight sun if I should see it; but
+I'm afraid I don't understand it, after all."
+
+"It is this way," Lieutenant Ekman began. "The earth moves around the sun
+once every year, and turns on its own axis once every twenty-four hours."
+
+"That is in our geography," Gerda interrupted. "The path which the earth
+takes in its trip around the sun is called its orbit. The axis is a
+straight line that passes through the center of the earth, from the North
+Pole to the South Pole."
+
+"That is right," said her father; "and if old Mother Earth went whirling
+round and round with her axis perpendicular to her orbit, we should have
+twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of darkness all over the earth
+every day in the year."
+
+"I suppose she gets dizzy, spinning around so fast, and finds it hard to
+stand straight up and down," suggested Gerda.
+
+"No doubt of it," answered her father gravely. "At least she has tipped
+over, so that in summer the North Pole is turned toward the sun, but in
+winter it is turned away from the sun."
+
+"Let me show you how I think it is," said Gerda eagerly. She was always
+skillful at drawing pictures, and now she took the paper and pencil
+which her father gave her, and talked as she worked. "This is the sun and
+this is the earth's orbit," and she drew a circle in the center with a
+great path around it.
+
+"This is Mother Earth in the summer with the sun shining on her head at
+the North Pole," and a grandmotherly-looking figure in a Rättvik costume
+was quickly hung up on the line of the orbit, her head tipped toward the
+sun.
+
+"Here she is again in winter, with the sun shining on her feet at the
+South Pole," and Gerda drew the figure on the opposite side of the orbit
+with her head tipped away from the sun.
+
+"That is exactly how it is," said her father. "But do you understand
+that, when she is slowly moving round the sun, she is always tipped in
+the same direction, with the North Pole pointing toward the north star;
+so there comes a time, twice a year, when her head and her feet are both
+equally distant from the sun, which shines on both alike?"
+
+"No," said Gerda. "When does that happen?"
+
+"It happens in March and September, when Mother Earth has travelled just
+half the distance between summer and winter."
+
+"Oh, I see! This is where she would be;" and Gerda made two dots on the
+orbit, each half-way between the two grandmothers.
+
+"Good," said her father. "Now when she is in that position, day and
+night, all over the earth, are each twelve hours long. We call them the
+'Equinoxes.' It is a Latin word which means 'equal nights.'"
+
+"In March and September do we have a day when it is twelve hours from
+sunrise to sunset, and twelve hours from sunset to sunrise?" questioned
+Gerda.
+
+"Yes, and it is the same all over the earth the very same day," repeated
+Lieutenant Ekman. "If you will look in the almanac when you go home, you
+will see just which day it is."
+
+Gerda studied her drawing for a few minutes in silence. "I think I
+understand it now," she said at last.
+
+"It is easy to understand after a little study," her father told her;
+"but everyone has to see it for himself, just like the midnight sun.
+
+"When the North Pole, or Fru Earth's head, is turned toward the sun we
+have the long summer days in Sweden. When it is turned away from the sun
+we have the long winter nights. The nearer we go to the pole, the longer
+days and nights we have. If we could be directly at the pole, we should
+have six months of daylight and six months of darkness every year."
+
+"What did you say?" asked Birger, who came around the corner of the hut
+just in time to hear his father's last words.
+
+"We were explaining how it is that the farther north we go in summer, the
+longer we can see the sun each day," said Gerda.
+
+"Let me hear you explain it," suggested Birger, trying to find a
+comfortable seat on the rocky ground.
+
+But Gerda drew a long breath of dismay. "Oh, Birger, you should have come
+sooner!" she exclaimed. "I understand it perfectly now; but if we go
+through it again I shall get all mixed up in my mind."
+
+Lieutenant Ekman laughed. "I move that we stay up here and watch the
+midnight sun until we understand the whole matter and can stand on our
+heads and say it backwards," he suggested.
+
+"I'm willing to stay all summer, if we can drive off in the daytime and
+see some Lapp settlements," said Birger, who had made friends with a
+young Laplander that morning at the Gellivare station.
+
+"But it is daytime all the time!" cried Gerda. "When should we get any
+sleep?"
+
+"I must be back in Stockholm by the middle of July," said Lieutenant
+Ekman; "but if your friend knows where there are some Laplanders not too
+far away, perhaps we can spare time to go and see them."
+
+"Yes, he does," said Birger eagerly. "The mosquitoes have driven most of
+the herds of reindeer up into the mountains, but Erik's family are still
+living only a few miles north of Gellivare."
+
+"What is Erik doing in Gellivare?" questioned Herr Ekman.
+
+"He is working in the iron mines," Birger explained. "He wants to save
+money so that he can go to Stockholm and learn a trade. He doesn't want
+to stay here in Lapland and wander about with the reindeer all his life."
+
+"So?" said Lieutenant Ekman in surprise. "Your friend Erik seems to have
+ambitions of his own."
+
+"Look at Gerda!" whispered Birger suddenly.
+
+Gerda sat on the ground with her back against the hut, and she was fast
+asleep. "Poor child," said her father, as he carried her into the hut and
+put her on a cot, "she has been awake all night. When she has had a
+little rest we will go back to Gellivare and look up your friend Erik.
+After we have all had a good night's sleep, we shall be ready to make a
+call on his family and their reindeer."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+ERIK'S HOME IN LAPLAND
+
+
+"This is the best part of our trip," Gerda said, two days later,
+as she was standing in the shade of some fir trees at one of the
+posting-stations a few miles from Gellivare, waiting for fresh horses
+to be put into the carts. "I have been reading about Laplanders and their
+reindeer ever since I can remember, and now I am going to see them in
+their own home."
+
+"Perhaps you will be disappointed," Birger told her. "Erik says that his
+father's reindeer may wander away any day to find a place where there is
+more moss, and if they do, the whole family will follow them."
+
+"Where do they go?" asked Gerda.
+
+"There is a treaty between Norway and Sweden, more than one hundred and
+fifty years old, which provides that Swedish Lapps can go to the coast of
+Norway in summer, and Norwegian Lapps can go inland to Sweden in winter,"
+Lieutenant Ekman told the children.
+
+"Yes," said Erik, "when the moss is scanty or the swarms of mosquitoes
+too thick, the reindeer hurry off to some pleasanter spot, without
+stopping to ask permission. Perhaps we have been in camp a week, perhaps
+a month, just as it happens; but when we hear their joints snapping and
+their hoofs tramping all together, we know it is time to take down the
+tent, pack up everything and follow the herd to a new pasture."
+
+"I am glad we are out of sight of the photograph shops in Gellivare,
+anyway," Birger told Erik, when they were seated in the light carts and
+were once more on their journey. "If I could take such good pictures
+myself, I shouldn't care; but all my pictures of the midnight sun make it
+look like the moon in a snow-bank."
+
+Just then Gerda, who was riding with her father, called to Birger, "Stop
+a moment and listen!" So the two posting-carts halted while the children
+listened to the music of a mountain stream not far away. Mingled with the
+sound of the rushing water was the whirr of a busy sawmill in the depths
+of the woods, while from the tree-tops could be heard the call of a
+cuckoo and the harsh cry of a woodpecker.
+
+Soon they were on their way again, pushing deeper and deeper through the
+Lapland forest; their road bordered with green ferns and bright
+blossoming flowers, their path crossed now and again by fluttering
+butterflies.
+
+"This is just the right kind of a carriage for such a road, isn't it?"
+said Gerda, as the track led through a shallow brooklet.
+
+"Yes," answered her father; "a few of the roads in these northern forests
+are excellent; but many of them are only trails, and are rough and rocky.
+If the cart were not so light, with only one seat and two wheels, we
+should often get a severe shaking-up."
+
+"How does it happen that we can get such a good horse and cart up here
+among the forests?" asked Gerda.
+
+"As there is no railroad in this part of Lapland, the Swedish government
+very thoughtfully arranges for the posting-stations, and guarantees the
+pay of the keepers for providing travellers with fresh horses," her
+father explained. "The stations are from one to two Swedish miles apart,
+and everyone who hires a horse is expected to take good care of him."
+
+"I'm afraid we shall have to make this horse go faster, or we shall be
+caught in a thunder-storm," said Gerda, looking up through the trees at
+the sky, which was growing dark with clouds.
+
+"You are right," answered her father; and at the same moment Erik looked
+back and shouted, "We must hurry. Perhaps we can reach my father's tent
+before the rain comes."
+
+Then, glancing up again at the black clouds, he said to Birger, "We shall
+soon hear the pounding of Thor's hammer."
+
+"How do you happen to know about the old Norse gods?" questioned Birger.
+
+"I have been to school in Jockmock, and I read books," replied Erik,
+urging on his horse to a race with the clouds; but the clouds won, for
+the little party had gone scarcely an English mile before they were in
+the midst of a thunder-storm. Over rocks and rills, under low-hanging
+boughs of pine and birch trees rattled the carts along the rough woodland
+road. The rain poured down in sheets, zigzag lightning flashed across the
+sky, and a peal of thunder crashed and rumbled through the forest.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman threw his coat over Gerda, covering her from head to
+foot, and called to Erik that they must stop. As he spoke, a second flash
+of lightning showed a great boulder beside the road and Erik answered,
+"Here we are at my father's tent. It is just beyond that rock."
+
+Another moment, and with one last jounce and jolt, the two carts had
+rounded the turn in the road and stopped in a small clearing beside a
+lake. The arrival of the carts, or kärra, as they are called in Sweden,
+had brought the whole family of Lapps to the door of the tent. There
+they stood, huddled together,--Erik's father, mother, brother and
+sisters,--looking out to see who was arriving in such a downpour.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman jumped down, gathered Gerda up in his arms, coat and
+all, and ran toward the tent. Birger followed, while Erik waited to tie
+the horses to a tree.
+
+Immediately the group at the doorway disappeared inside the tent, making
+way for the strangers to enter, and when Gerda had shaken herself out of
+her father's coat, a scene of the greatest confusion greeted her eyes.
+
+The frame of the tent was made of poles driven into the ground and drawn
+together at the top. It was covered with a coarse woolen cloth which is
+made by the Lapps and is very strong. A cross-pole was fastened to the
+frame to support the cooking-kettle, under which wood had been placed
+for a fire.
+
+An opening had been left at the top of the tent to allow the smoke to
+escape. Birger had often made such a tent of poles and canvas when he was
+spending the summer with his grandmother in Dalarne.
+
+At the right of the entrance was a pile of reindeer skins, and there,
+huddled together with the three children, were four big dogs. The dogs
+stood up and began to growl, but Erik's father, who was a short,
+thick-set man with black eyes and a skin which was red and wrinkled from
+exposure to the cold winds, silenced them with a word. He then helped
+Erik spread some dry skins for the visitors on the left side of the tent.
+
+The Lapp mother immediately busied herself with lighting the fire,
+putting some water into the kettle to boil, and grinding some coffee.
+As she moved about the tent, Gerda saw that a baby, strapped to a
+cradle-board, hung over her back.
+
+The baby's skin was white and soft, her cheeks rosy, her hair as yellow
+as Gerda's. She opened her blue eyes wide at the sight of the strangers,
+but not a sound did she make. Evidently Lapp babies were not expected to
+cry.
+
+The coffee was soon ready, and was poured into cups for the guests, while
+Erik and his brother and sisters drank theirs in turn from a big bowl.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman talked with Erik's father, who, like many of the Lapps,
+could speak Swedish; but the children were all silent, and the dogs lay
+still in their corner, their gleaming eyes watching every motion of the
+strangers.
+
+When Gerda had finished drinking the coffee, which was very good, she
+took two small packages from her pocket and put them into her father's
+hand. "They are for Erik's family," she whispered. "Birger and I bought
+them in Gellivare."
+
+"Don't you think it would be better for you to give them out yourself?"
+he asked; but Gerda shook her head as if she had suddenly become dumb,
+and so Lieutenant Ekman distributed the gifts.
+
+There was a string of shells for the youngest child; a silver ring, a
+beaded belt, a knife and a cheap watch for the older children; a box of
+matches and some tobacco for the father, and some needles and bright
+colored thread for the mother.
+
+"We should like to give you something in return," said Erik's father;
+"but we have nothing in the world except our reindeer. If we should give
+you one of them you might have some trouble in taking it home," and he
+laughed loudly at the idea.
+
+"If you wish to please me, you can do so and help your son at the same
+time," replied Lieutenant Ekman. "Erik is a good lad. He can read well,
+and has studied while he has been working in the mines. Now he wishes to
+learn a trade, and we can take him with us to Stockholm if you will let
+him go."
+
+Erik's father did not speak for a few moments; then he rose and opened
+the door of the tent, motioning for the others to follow him out into
+the forest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+FOUR-FOOTED FRIENDS
+
+
+The brief thunder-storm was over, the high noonday sun was shining down
+into the clearing, and the rumble of Thor's hammer could be heard only
+faintly in the distance. In the trees overhead the birds were calling to
+one another, shaking the drops of rain from many a twig and leaf as they
+flitted among the green branches.
+
+Erik's father took up a stout birch staff which was leaning against the
+tent, and led the way to the reindeer pasture, followed by his dogs.
+
+These dogs are the useful friends of the Lapps. They are very strong and
+brave, and watch the reindeer constantly to keep them together. When the
+herd is attacked by a pack of wolves, the frightened animals scatter in
+all directions, and then the owner and his dogs have hard work to round
+them up again.
+
+Now, as the dogs walked along behind their master, they stopped once in a
+while to sniff the air, and their keen eyes seemed to see everything.
+
+The country was wild and desolate. As far as the eye could reach, there
+was nothing but low hills, bare and rocky, with dark forests of fir and
+birch. It was cold and the wind blew in strong gusts. Tiny rills and
+brooks, formed by the melted snow and the frequent rains, chattered
+among the rocks; and in the deepest hollows there were still small
+patches of snow.
+
+Birger gathered up some of the snow and made a snowball. "Put it in your
+pocket, and take it home to Oscar as a souvenir of Lapland," Gerda
+suggested.
+
+"No," he replied, taking out his camera, "I'll set it up on this rock and
+take a picture of it,--snowball in July."
+
+"You'd better wait until you see the reindeer before you begin taking
+pictures," called Gerda, hurrying on without waiting for her brother.
+In a few moments more they came in sight of the herd, and saw animals of
+all sizes, many of them having superb, spreading antlers.
+
+"Look," said Erik's father, pointing to the reindeer with pride, "there
+are over three hundred deer,--all mine."
+
+"All the needs of the mountain Lapps are supplied by the reindeer,"
+Lieutenant Ekman told the children. "These useful animals furnish their
+owners with food, clothing, bedding and household utensils. They are
+horse, cow, express messenger and freight train. In summer they carry
+heavy loads on their backs; in winter they draw sledges over the snow."
+
+Some of the reindeer were lying down, but others were eating the short,
+greenish-white moss which grows in patches among the rocks, tearing it
+off with their forefeet. They showed no signs of fear at the approach of
+the strangers, and did not even stop to look up at them.
+
+Two or three moved slowly toward Erik when he spoke to them, but not one
+would touch the moss which he held out in his hand.
+
+"This is my own deer," Erik told Birger, showing a mark on the ear of a
+reindeer which had splendid great antlers. "He was given to me when I was
+born, to form the beginning of my herd. I have ten deer now, but I would
+gladly give them all to my father if he would let me go to Stockholm with
+you."
+
+Lieutenant Ekman turned to the father. "It shall cost him nothing," he
+said. "Are you willing that he should go?"
+
+"Yes, if he does not want to stay here," replied the father, who had
+hoped that the sight of the reindeer would make his son forget his
+longing to leave home.
+
+Erik nodded his head. "I want to go," he said.
+
+"Then it is settled," said Lieutenant Ekman, "and I will see that he
+learns a good trade."
+
+"Yes, it is settled," agreed Erik's father; "but I had hoped that my son
+would live here in Lapland and become an owner of reindeer. There are not
+so many owners as there should be."
+
+"Why, I thought that all Laplanders owned reindeer!" exclaimed Birger.
+
+"No," said his father, "there are about seven thousand Lapps in Sweden,
+but only three or four hundred of them own herds. There are the fisher
+Lapps who live on the coast; and then there are the field Lapps who live
+on the river-banks and cultivate little farms. It is only the mountain
+Lapps who own reindeer and spend all their lives wandering up and down
+the country, wherever their herds lead them."
+
+"What do the reindeer live on in the winter when the snow covers the
+moss?" questioned Birger.
+
+"The Lapps have to find places where the snow is not more than four or
+five feet deep, and then the animals can dig holes in the snow with their
+forefeet until they reach the moss," replied his father. "The reindeer
+are never housed and seem to like cold weather. They prefer to dig up the
+moss for themselves, and will not eat it after it has been gathered and
+dried."
+
+Just then the Lapp mother came to speak to her husband, and in a few
+minutes all the rest of the family arrived.
+
+"They are going to milk the reindeer," Erik explained to Gerda.
+
+"How often do you milk them?" she asked.
+
+"Twice a week," was the answer. "They give only a little milk, but it is
+very thick and rich."
+
+Erik and his brother Pers went carefully into the herd and threw a lasso
+gently over the horns of the deer, to hold them still while the mother
+did the milking. The twins looked on with interest; but to their great
+astonishment not one of the reindeer gave more than a mug of milk. They
+had been used to seeing brimming pails of cow's milk at the Ekman farm in
+Dalarne.
+
+"How do they ever get enough cream to make butter?" questioned Gerda.
+
+"We never make butter, but we make good cheese," Erik's mother explained,
+as she brought a cup of milk for them to taste.
+
+"What do these people eat?" Gerda asked her father, when the woman went
+back to her milking.
+
+"The reindeer furnish them with milk, cream, cheese and meat; and when
+they sell an animal they buy coffee, sugar, meal, tobacco, and whatever
+else they need. Then they catch a few fish and kill a bear once in a
+great while."
+
+"I have killed two bears in my life," Erik's father said with pride.
+"Look," and he showed his belt, from which hung a fringe of bears' teeth.
+
+"Do all the Lapps know how to speak Swedish?" Birger questioned.
+
+"And do they all know how to read and write?" added Gerda.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman nodded. "Most of them do," he replied. "Our government
+provides teachers and ministers for the largest settlements, so that the
+Laplanders may become good Swedish subjects."
+
+"My brother and I went to school in Jockmock last winter," said Erik, who
+had overheard the conversation. "It is a Lapp village near Gellivare, and
+my father goes there sometimes to sell toys that we carve from the
+antlers of the reindeer."
+
+A little five-year-old girl, who had hardly taken her eyes from Gerda's
+face, suddenly put up her hand and took off a leather pouch which hung
+around her neck. Opening the pouch, she took from it a tiny bag made of
+deerskin.
+
+Gerda had noticed that each one of the family wore just such a pouch, and
+she had seen the mother open hers, when she was making the coffee, and
+take from it a silver spoon.
+
+From the deerskin bag the child next took a small box made of bone, and
+by this time Birger and all the others were watching her with interest.
+Off came the cover of the box. Out of the box came a tiny package wrapped
+carefully in a bit of woolen cloth, and out of the wrappings came a
+precious treasure.
+
+"Look," exclaimed Gerda when she saw what it was; "it is a perfect little
+reindeer!"
+
+And so, indeed, it was,--a tiny animal made from a bit of bone, with
+hoofs, head and antlers all perfectly carved.
+
+The child held it out toward Gerda, nodding her head shyly to show that
+she wished to have her take it. But Gerda hesitated to do so until Erik
+said, "My father will make her another. You gave her the string of
+shells, and she will not like it if you refuse her gift."
+
+So Gerda took the little reindeer, and many a time in Stockholm, the next
+winter, she looked at it and thought of the child who gave it to her, and
+of the curious day she spent with the Lapps in far away Lapland.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+KAREN'S BROTHER
+
+
+"How would you like to spend a whole summer here in the forest, watching
+the reindeer?" Lieutenant Ekman asked Gerda, after the milking was over
+and the Lapp mother had gone back to the tent with her children.
+
+"Not very well, if I had to live in that tent," Gerda answered. Then
+suddenly something attracted her attention, and she held up her hand,
+saying, "Listen!"
+
+A faint call sounded in the distance,--a call for help.
+
+"This way," cried Erik, and dashed off down a path which led toward the
+river.
+
+All the others followed him. "It must be one of the lumbermen," said
+Erik's father. "They often get hurt in the log jams."
+
+He was right. When they reached the riverbank they found several men
+trying to drive some logs out into the current, so as to release a man
+who had slipped and was pinned against a rock.
+
+The bed of the river was rilled with rocks, over which the water was
+rushing with great force, in just such a torrent as may be found on
+nearly all the rivers of northern Sweden. Starting from the melting snow
+on the mountains, these rivers flow rapidly down to the sea, and every
+summer millions of logs go sailing down the streams to the sawmills along
+the eastern coast.
+
+Thousands of these logs are thrown into the water to drift down to the
+sea by themselves; but on some of the slower rivers the logs are made
+up into rafts which are guided down the stream by men who live on the
+raft during its journey.
+
+It was one of the log-drivers who had been caught while he was trying to
+push the logs out into the channel; and now his leg was broken.
+
+"We can take him to Gellivare in one of our kärra," said Lieutenant
+Ekman, when, with the help of Erik and his father, the man had finally
+been rescued and carried ashore.
+
+Accordingly, he was lifted into the cart with Erik, while Gerda snuggled
+into the seat between Birger and her father; and the journey over the
+rough woodland road was made as carefully as possible.
+
+Several interesting things were discovered while the doctor from the
+mines was setting the broken leg. The most important of all was that this
+stalwart lumberman had a father who was a lighthouse keeper.
+
+"Ask him if it is the Sea-gull Light," begged Gerda, when she heard of
+it; "and find out if Karen is his sister."
+
+And it was indeed so. The young man had been in the woods all winter, and
+was on his way to the lighthouse, which he had hoped to reach in a few
+days, for the river current was swift and the logs were making good
+progress down to Luleå.
+
+"You shall reach home sooner than you expected," said Lieutenant Ekman
+the next morning, "for you shall go with us this very day."
+
+"Fine! Fine! Fine!" cried Gerda joyously when she heard of it. "Pack your
+bundle, Erik, for you are going with us, too."
+
+While their clothes, and all the little keepsakes of the trip, were being
+hurried into the satchels, Gerda's tongue flew fast with excitement, and
+her feet flew to keep it company.
+
+"What do you suppose Karen will say, when she sees us bringing her
+brother over the rocks?" she ran to ask Birger in one room, and then ran
+to ask her father in another.
+
+At nine o'clock the injured man was moved into the train, the children
+took their last look at the mining town, and then began their return over
+the most northerly railroad in the world, back through the swamps and
+forests, across the Polcirkel, and out of Lapland.
+
+Luleå was reached at last and Josef Klasson was transported from the
+train to the steamer, "Just as if he were a load of iron ore from the
+mines," Birger declared.
+
+"Not quite so bad as that," said his father, and took the twins to see
+the great hydraulic lift that takes up a car loaded with ore, as easily
+as a mother lifts her baby, and dumps the whole load into the hold of a
+vessel.
+
+The children were so full of interest in all the new life around them
+that Josef Klasson almost forgot his pain in telling them about his
+winter in the lumber camp, and the long dark night, when for over a month
+there was not even a glimpse of the sun, and no light except that of the
+moon and the frosty stars.
+
+It seemed but a very short time before Gerda was crying, "I can see the
+Sea-gull Light, and Karen is out on the rocks."
+
+Then came all the excitement of landing. The twins told Karen about
+finding her brother, and the reindeer, and the midnight sun, and the logs
+in the river, all in one breath; while Lieutenant Ekman explained Josef's
+accident to the lighthouse keeper and his wife, who had both hurried down
+to the wharf to find out the meaning of the return of the government
+boat.
+
+Then, after Josef had been welcomed with loving sorrow because of his
+injury, and they had carried him up to the house and made him
+comfortable, Gerda told about her desire to take Karen home with her.
+
+At first the father and mother would not hear of such a thing; but when
+Herr Ekman told of the medical gymnastic exercises that might cure her
+lameness, Josef spoke from his cot.
+
+"Let her go," he said. "It is a terrible thing to be lame. These few days
+that I have been helpless are the worst I have ever known. If there is a
+chance to make Karen well, let her go."
+
+And so Karen and Erik both went to Stockholm on the boat with Herr Ekman
+and the twins.
+
+"You know I told you that I never see my brothers very long at one time,"
+Karen said to Gerda, after the children had been greeted and gladly
+welcomed by Fru Ekman, and they had all tried to make the strangers feel
+at home among them.
+
+"Yes," said Gerda; "but when you next see Josef you may be so well and
+strong that you can go off to the lumber camp with him and help him saw
+down the trees."
+
+Karen shook her head sadly. She could not believe that she would ever
+walk without a crutch, and it was the first time that she had been away
+from her mother in all her life. She turned to the window so that Gerda
+might not see the tears that came into her eyes, and looked down at the
+strange city sights.
+
+Just then Lieutenant Ekman came into the room. "Oh, Father, may we take
+Erik to the Djurgård to-morrow?" Birger asked. "I want to show him the
+Lapp tent and the reindeer out there. He seems to be rather homesick for
+the forest, and says that we live up in the air like the birds in their
+nests."
+
+When the four children were asleep for the night, and the father and
+mother were left alone, they laughed softly together over the situation.
+
+"Who ever heard of bringing a Lapp boy to Stockholm!" exclaimed Herr
+Ekman; and his wife added, "Who but Gerda would think of bringing a
+strange child here, to be cured of her lameness?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A DAY IN SKANSEN
+
+
+It was in the Djurgård that poor Erik first learned that he was a
+Lapp,--a dirty Lapp.
+
+Of course he knew that his ancestors had lived in Lapland for hundreds of
+years; but before he went to the Djurgård that day with Birger and Gerda,
+he had never heard himself called a Lapp in derision.
+
+The Djurgård, or Deer Park, is a beautiful public park on one of the
+wooded islands near Stockholm. There one finds forests of gigantic oaks,
+dense groves of spruce, smiling meadows, winding roads and shady paths.
+Through the tree-branches one catches a glimpse of the blue waters of the
+fjord, rippling and sparkling in the sun; little steamers go puffing
+briskly to and fro; and great vessels sail slowly down to the sea.
+
+In summer, steamers and street cars are constantly carrying people back
+and forth between the Deer Park and other parts of the city. It is not
+a long trip; from the quay in front of the Royal Palace it takes only ten
+minutes to reach the park, and day and night the boats are crowded
+with passengers.
+
+People go there to dine in the open-air restaurants and listen to the
+bands; they go to walk along the beautiful, tree-shaded paths; or they
+go to visit Skansen, one of the most interesting museums in the world.
+
+It was to look at the Lapp encampment in Skansen that Birger and Gerda
+took Erik to the Djurgård. It was to see the birthday celebration in
+honor of Sweden's beloved poet, Karl Bellman, that they took Karen, for
+Gerda had already discovered that Karen knew many of Bellman's verses and
+songs.
+
+The happy little party started early in the afternoon, and as they walked
+through the city streets, many were the curious glances turned upon the
+Lapp boy.
+
+Erik wore a suit of Birger's clothes, and although he was five years
+older, they fitted him well. He was short, as all Lapps are, and his face
+was broad, with high cheek-bones; but he had a pair of large, honest,
+black eyes which looked at everybody and everything in a pleasant, kindly
+way.
+
+"What is that great, upward-going box?" he asked, as he caught sight of
+the Katarina Hissen, on the quay at the south side of the fjord.
+
+"That is an elevator which will take you up to the heights above, where
+you can look over the whole city," was Birger's answer. Then he whispered
+to Gerda to ask if she thought they might go up in the elevator before
+going to the Deer Park.
+
+Gerda shook her head. "It costs five öre to go up in the lift, and three
+öre to come down," she replied. "That would be thirty-two öre for us all,
+and we must save our money to spend in the Djurgård. There is the boat
+now," and she led the way to the little steamer.
+
+"I have heard you say so much about Skansen," said Karen, when they had
+found seats on the deck together, "that I'd like to know what it is
+all about."
+
+"It is all about every old thing in Sweden," laughed Gerda. "The man
+who planned it said that the time would come when gold could not
+buy a picture of olden times--the old homes and costumes and ways of
+living--and then people would wish they could know more about them.
+
+"So he travelled all over Sweden, from one end to the other, making a
+collection of all sorts of old things to put in a museum in Stockholm.
+Then he thought of showing the real life of the country people, so he
+bought houses and set them up in Skansen, and hired the peasants to come
+and live in them.
+
+"When he finished his work, there was an example of every kind of Swedish
+dwelling, from the Laplander's tent and the charcoal burner's hut, to the
+farmhouse in Dalarne and the fisherman's cot in Skåne. And people were
+living in all the houses just as they had lived at home,--spinning,
+weaving, baking, and celebrating all the holidays in the same old way."
+
+"And there are cages of wild animals and birds too," added Birger, "polar
+bears and owls and eagles and reindeer--"
+
+"That is what I want to see,--the reindeer," interrupted Erik; so when
+the steamer reached the quay at the Deer Park, the children went at once
+to find the Laplander's tent in Skansen.
+
+Erik stood still for a long time, looking at the rocks, and the Lapps and
+reindeer; and the twins waited for him to speak. Gerda expected that he
+would say it was just like home; but, instead, he turned to her at last
+and asked, "Do you think it is like Lapland?"
+
+The little girl was rather taken aback at his question. "Well, you know,
+Erik," she stammered, "they have done the best they could."
+
+Erik shook his head. "They could not move the forest, with the rivers and
+mountains and wild birds," he said. "Without them it is not a real
+Lapland home."
+
+His whole face said so plainly, "It is only an imitation," that Birger
+could not help laughing.
+
+"There is no museum in all Europe like Skansen," he said at last, quite
+proudly; "and there are many people who come here to see it, because
+they cannot travel, as Gerda and I did, and see the real homes in the
+country."
+
+"I am one of them," said Karen. "This is the only way I shall ever see a
+Laplander's tent and reindeer."
+
+"I will show you a house that is just like my grandmother's home in
+Rättvik," suggested Gerda, and they walked slowly through the woodland
+paths, so that Karen would not get tired with her crutch.
+
+In a few minutes they came upon a place where some peasants, dressed in
+their native costumes, were dancing folk-dances; for that is one of the
+pleasant Skansen ways of saving the old customs.
+
+"Oh, let us stop and look at the dancers!" cried Karen in delight. "I
+wonder what they are doing," she added, watching their graceful movements
+forward and back and in and out.
+
+"They are 'reaping the flax,'" said Gerda, who knew all the different
+dances because she often went to Skansen with her mother and father on
+sunny summer evenings.
+
+After the flax dance was finished, a company of boys took the platform,
+and made everyone laugh with a queer, half-comical, half-serious dance
+which Gerda called the "ox-dance."
+
+"I should like to dance with them," said Erik suddenly.
+
+"Yes, it is a great deal more fun to dance than to watch others," said
+Gerda kindly; but she moved away from the sight at once, lest Erik should
+push in among the dancers.
+
+"This is just the time to go over to the Bellman oak," she suggested. "It
+is the poet's day, and there will be wreaths and garlands hanging on his
+tree, and a band of music playing some of his songs."
+
+Erik walked along slowly, his eyes looking back longingly toward the
+dancing, and finally Gerda looked back, too.
+
+"See, Erik," she said, "the boys have finished, and now the girls are
+going to dance alone. You would not like to dance with the girls;" and
+then he followed her willingly to the other side of the island.
+
+Crowds of people were gathering under the Bellman oak, and the four
+children found a seat near-by, where they could see and hear everything
+that went on around them.
+
+"We must keep Erik here, or else he will insist on going to blow in the
+band," Gerda whispered to her brother, as she saw the Lapp boy watching
+the man with the trombone. Then she began to talk about Karl Bellman, the
+songs and poems he wrote, and how much the people loved him.
+
+"He is one of our most famous poets," she said earnestly, and Erik looked
+at her and repeated solemnly:--
+
+"Cattle die,
+Kinsmen die,
+One's self dies, too;
+But the fame never dies,
+Of him who gets a good name."
+
+"Why, Erik!" exclaimed Karen in surprise; "that is from 'The Song of the
+High' by Odin, the king of the gods. How did you happen to know it?"
+
+"I know many things," said Erik with an air of importance. But there were
+some things which Erik did not know. One was, how to play the trombone;
+and it was his strongest trait that he liked to investigate everything
+that was new and strange.
+
+Now, when Karen spoke in such a tone of admiration, Erik felt that he
+must find out at once about that queer instrument which made such loud
+music; and before Gerda knew what he was doing, he had jumped up from the
+ground and walked to the stand where the musicians were playing.
+
+"Let me try it," he said, and held out his hand for the trombone.
+
+Gerda was in an agony of distress. "Run and get him, Birger," she urged.
+"Oh, run quick!"
+
+"Erik, Erik, come here!" cried Birger, running after his friend. But
+before Birger's voice reached his ears, the trombonist had said very
+plainly and harshly, "Get away from here, you dirty Lapp!" and poor Erik
+was looking at him with shame and anger in his eyes, when Birger took
+hold of his clenched hand and led him away from the bandstand.
+
+It was a hard moment for the twins. People were looking at them and
+laughing, and the words, "Lapp! Lapp!" spoken in a tone of ridicule,
+could be heard on every side.
+
+"Let us go home," suggested Gerda, her face scarlet with shame at so much
+unpleasant attention.
+
+"No," said Birger stoutly, "let us stay right here and show that we don't
+care."
+
+But Karen all at once felt very tired, and when she told Gerda about it,
+the little party went sadly through the crowd and took their places in
+silence on the return steamer.
+
+Neither Birger nor Gerda had any heart to tell their friends the names of
+the different buildings which they saw from the deck of the boat,
+although Gerda said once, with a brave little effort to make Erik forget
+his shame, "We will go home through Erik-gatan."
+
+But Erik looked at her with troubled eyes and made no answer. Not until
+they were safely within the walls of home did he speak, and then it was
+to ask, "Why did he call me a dirty Lapp?"
+
+"Because many Lapps _are_ dirty," replied Birger, feeling just as
+miserable as Erik looked. "They don't bathe, nor eat from dishes, nor
+sleep in beds, as good Swedish people do."
+
+"I shall bathe, and eat from dishes, and sleep in beds all the rest of my
+life," said Erik, his face very white, his eyes very angry. "And I shall
+learn to use that strange tool that makes loud music," he added.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman stood in the doorway, listening to his words. "Good," he
+said heartily; "that is the way for you to talk. And you shall learn to
+use many other tools, too. I have made arrangements to-day for you to
+work in the ironworks at Göteborg, where they make steamers, engines and
+boilers. I have a friend there who will look after you, and see that you
+are taught a good trade."
+
+"But, Father," cried Birger, "Göteborg is a long way from Stockholm! How
+can Erik go so far alone?"
+
+"I am going over to Göteborg myself next month," replied Inspector Ekman,
+"and he can go with me. A new lightship is ready to be launched, and I
+shall have to inspect it and give the certificate before it is accepted
+by the government."
+
+"Let us go with you! Let us go, too!" begged the twins, dancing round and
+round their father.
+
+"But what will become of Karen?" he asked.
+
+Gerda and Birger stopped short and looked at their new friend. It was
+plain to be seen that she was not strong enough to take such a trip.
+
+Fru Ekman put her arm tenderly around the little lame girl. "Karen will
+visit me," she said kindly.
+
+So it was decided that the twins should go to Göteborg with their father
+by way of the Göta Canal. When the day for the journey arrived, the
+satchels were packed once more, and Gerda showed Karen how to water her
+plants and feed her pet parrot in her absence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THROUGH THE LOCKS
+
+
+"What do you think of a girl who goes off on two journeys in one summer?"
+and Gerda leaned over the railing of the canal-boat to look at her
+friends on the quay below.
+
+It was the middle of August, and the same group of boys and girls who had
+seen the twins off to the North in June were now speeding them to the
+West.
+
+"I think you don't care for Stockholm any longer," called Hilma; while
+Oscar added, "And you can't care for your friends either, or you wouldn't
+be leaving them again so soon."
+
+"I shall be home in just seven days," said Gerda, "and if you will all be
+here on the quay to welcome me, I will tell you the whole story of the
+wonderful Göta Canal, and our sight-seeing in Göteborg."
+
+"Your friends will have to meet you at the railroad station," her father
+told her. "We shall come back by train. It is much the quickest way."
+
+"At the railroad station then, one week from to-day," called Gerda, as
+the steamer backed away from the quay, and swung slowly out into the
+Mälar Lake.
+
+"Gerda and Birger are the luckiest twins I know," exclaimed Olaf, taking
+off his cap and swinging it around his head, as he caught sight of
+Gerda's fluttering handkerchief.
+
+"That boy Erik seems to be very fond of Birger," said Oscar. "And now
+that the little girl from the lighthouse is going to live with the Ekmans
+this winter, I suppose the twins will forget all the rest of us."
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Sigrid loyally. "They will never forget their
+friends. Besides, I like Karen myself. Let's go and see her now. She must
+be lonely without Gerda."
+
+In the meantime the little party of four--Lieutenant Ekman, with Erik and
+the twins--were sailing across the eastern end of Lake Mälar toward the
+Södertelje Canal.
+
+Birger and Gerda explored the boat, making friends with some of the
+passengers, and then found seats with Erik on the forward deck, where
+they could see the wooded shore of the lake. They passed many an island
+with its pretty villas peeping out among the green trees, and saw gay
+pleasure parties sailing or rowing on the quiet water.
+
+In a short time the boat sailed slowly into the peaceful waters of the
+Södertelje Canal. This is the first of the short canals which form links
+between the lakes and rivers of Southern Sweden, thus making a shorter
+waterway from Stockholm to Göteborg; and while the trip is about three
+hundred and seventy miles long, only fifty miles is actual canal, more
+than four-fifths of the distance being covered by lakes and rivers, with
+a fifty-mile sail on the Baltic Sea.
+
+The principal difficulty in making this waterway across Sweden lay in the
+fact that the highest of the lakes is about three hundred feet above the
+sea level, and the boats have to climb up to it from the Baltic Sea, and
+then climb down to Göteborg. This climbing is accomplished by means of
+locks in the canals between the different lakes. In some canals there is
+only one lock, but in others there are several together, like a flight of
+stairs. There are seventy-six locks in all.
+
+The boat sails into a lock and great gates are closed behind it. Then
+water pours in and lifts the boat slowly higher and higher until it is on
+a level with the water in the lock above. The gates in front of the boat
+are opened, it sails slowly into the next lock, the gates close behind
+it; and that lock in turn is filled to the level of the one above.
+
+The boat now wound along between the high green banks of the
+Södertelje Canal until it entered the first of the locks. Birger and
+Erik ran to the rail to watch the opening and closing of the gates, and
+the lowering of the boat to the level of the Baltic Sea; but Gerda
+preferred to talk with some old women who came on board with baskets full
+of kringlor,--ring-twisted cakes.
+
+The cakes looked so good, and everyone who bought them seemed to find
+them so delicious, that at last she ran to ask her father for some money;
+and when the boat had passed the lock and was once more on its way, she
+presented a bagful of cakes to Birger and Erik.
+
+"The Vikings had no such easy way as this of getting from Lake Mälar out
+into the Baltic Sea," said Lieutenant Ekman, coming up to find the
+children, and helping himself generously to the kringlor.
+
+Gerda looked at the gnarled and sturdy oaks that lined the banks of the
+canal like watchful sentinels. "The Vikings must have loved the lakes and
+bays of the Northland," she said. "Perhaps they begged All-father Odin to
+let their spirits come back and make their homes in these trees."
+
+"No doubt they did," replied her father, gravely enough. "I suppose when
+the trees wave their arms and shake themselves so violently they are
+saying to each other something like this: 'See how these good-for-nothing
+children go in good-for-nothing boats over this good-for-nothing
+ditch.'"
+
+"With their good-for-something father," cried Gerda, throwing her arms
+around his neck and giving him a loving kiss.
+
+"Am I really good for something?" he asked, as soon as he could
+speak. "Well then, you must be good for something, too. In olden
+times the Vikings sailed the seas and brought home many a treasure
+from foreign shores. See that you take home some treasures from your
+journey,--something that will remind you of the towns we visit and the
+sights we see," and he put his hand into his pocket and took out three
+coins.
+
+"The Vikings had a fashion of taking what they wanted without paying for
+it," suggested Birger.
+
+"You'd better not try it now, my son," replied Herr Ekman; and he gave
+each one of the children a krona.
+
+"Here's a kringla to remind me of Södertelje," said Gerda, slipping one
+of the cakes into her pocket; and then the three children went off to
+the forward deck to watch the boat sail out into the ocean.
+
+For fifty miles they sailed among wooded islands and rocky ledges, and
+then entered the canal which connects the Baltic Sea with Lake Roxen. On
+the way the boat stopped at two or three ports, and each tune the
+children went ashore to buy a souvenir.
+
+"Show me your treasures, and I will show you mine," Gerda said to Erik,
+after the first stop.
+
+The boy shook his head. "I bought something useful," he said, "and I
+shall send it to my father;" but even with coaxing he would not tell what
+it was, until they were all ready to show their treasures to Lieutenant
+Ekman. So all three of the children agreed to keep their souvenirs a
+secret, and had great fun slipping off alone to buy them.
+
+All day and all night, and all the next day, the boat steamed across the
+open lakes, glided noiselessly into the quiet canals, or climbed slowly
+step by step up the locks.
+
+Toward night of the second day Birger suddenly announced, "This is Lake
+Viken, and it is the highest lake on the way between the two ends of the
+canal route. The captain says that it is more than three hundred feet
+above the level of the sea."
+
+"Have we seen the prettiest part of the route?" asked Gerda.
+
+"Far from it," was the answer. "The best part of the canal is still
+before us, at Trollhättan, although the next lake that we enter, Lake
+Vener, is a lovely sheet of water. It is the largest lake in Sweden, and
+I must visit one of the lighthouses."
+
+"And I must call upon one of the trolls when we get to Trollhättan," said
+Gerda, shaking her head with an air of importance.
+
+"I shall walk up the locks," said Birger.
+
+"You mean that you will walk down the locks," Erik corrected him. "After
+this the boat will go downstairs until we reach the Göta River."
+
+And when, on the last morning of the journey, they reached Trollhättan,
+with its famous waterfalls and rapids, the children went ashore and left
+the boat to walk down the steep hillside by itself, while they ran along
+beside the canal, or took little trips through the groves to get a better
+view of the falls. Gerda peered under the trees and bushes for a glimpse
+of the water witches, but she saw not one.
+
+"And now for your treasures," said Lieutenant Ekman, when they were once
+more on the boat and it was steaming down the Göta River to Göteborg.
+
+"I bought post-cards," Birger announced, and took a handful from his
+pocket. "Here are pictures of the giant staircase of locks at
+Trollhättan, Lake Vener at sunset, the fortress at Karlsborg, the castle
+at Vettersborg, and the great iron works at Motala."
+
+While Herr Ekman was examining the cards and asking Birger all sorts of
+questions about them, Gerda was busy spreading out her souvenirs on one
+of the deck chairs; and such a variety as she had! There was a box of
+soap, a bag filled with squares of beet-sugar, a tiny hammer made in
+the shape of the giant steam-hammer "Wrath" at Motala, a package of paper
+made at one of the great paper-mills, lace collars, a lace cap and some
+beautiful handkerchiefs from Vadstena.
+
+When her father turned his attention to her collection, he held up his
+hands in amazement. "Are all these things made in Sweden?" he asked.
+"And did you buy them all with one krona?"
+
+"They are all made in the towns and cities which we have visited," Gerda
+replied; "but they cost more than one krona. Mother gave me five kronor
+before we left home and asked me to buy handkerchiefs and laces at
+Vadstena. They are the best to be found anywhere in Sweden."
+
+"And how about your treasures, Erik?" asked Lieutenant Ekman, after he
+had admired Gerda's.
+
+Erik put his hand into his coat pocket and took out a box of matches.
+"These are from Norrköping," he said.
+
+From another pocket he took another box of matches. "And these are from
+Söderköping," he added. Then from one pocket and another he took boxes of
+matches of all sizes and kinds, each time naming the town where they were
+manufactured; while the twins and their father gazed at him in surprise.
+
+"But why so many matches?" asked Lieutenant Ekman, when at last the
+supply seemed to be exhausted. "You have matches enough there to light
+the whole world."
+
+"My father will use them to light his fires," replied Erik. "Matches are
+a great luxury in Lapland.
+
+"And besides," he added, "Sweden manufactures enough matches to light the
+whole world. The captain told me that they are made in twenty-one
+different cities and towns, and that they have taken prizes everywhere."
+
+"That is true," said Herr Ekman. "Swedish matches are famous the world
+over. My young Vikings have each made a good collection of souvenirs."
+
+At that moment a pretty little maid curtsied before them, saying,
+"Göteborg, if you please."
+
+"Oh dear," sighed Gerda, gathering up her treasures, "here's the end of
+our long journey over the wonderful canal!"
+
+But Erik looked down the river to the tall chimneys of the iron-works and
+said to himself, "And here's the beginning of my work in the world."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A WINTER CARNIVAL
+
+
+"Abroad is good but home is better," quoted Birger, as the railroad train
+whizzed across the country, bearing the twins toward home once more after
+four happy days of sight-seeing in Göteborg.
+
+"Vacation will soon be over and we shall be back again in our dear old
+school," exclaimed Gerda, with a comical expression on her face.
+
+"I feel as if we had been going to the best kind of a school all summer,"
+said her brother, looking out of the window at the broad fields and
+little red farmhouses cuddling down in the green landscape. "We have been
+learning about the largest cities, and the canals and railroads, the
+lakes and rivers, and that is what we have to do when we study geography
+in school."
+
+"If I ever make a geography," and Gerda gave a great sigh, "I shall have
+nothing but pictures in it. That is the way the real earth looks outside
+of the geographies. There are just millions and millions of pictures
+fitted together, and not a single word said about them."
+
+Birger laughed. "I will study your geography," he said, "if I am not too
+busy making one of my own."
+
+"What kind of a geography shall you make?" asked Gerda.
+
+"I shall put in my book all my thoughts about the sights I see," he
+answered. "It will read like this, 'The harbor at Göteborg made me think
+of Stockholm harbor, with all the different ships that sail away to
+foreign lands; and of the great world beyond the sea.'"
+
+"Your geography would never please the children half so much as mine,"
+said Gerda; "because we don't all think alike. It makes some people
+sea-sick when they think of ships."
+
+"Here we are in Stockholm," said Lieutenant Ekman, gathering up the bags
+and bundles and helping the children out of the train. "Before we write a
+geography we must see about putting little Karen Klasson under the
+doctor's care."
+
+But they found that Fru Ekman had already taken Karen to see the doctor,
+and had made arrangements for her treatment at the Gymnastic Institute.
+
+"The doctor says that I shall be able to walk without a crutch by
+springtime, if I take the gymnastics faithfully every day," said Karen
+happily.
+
+"Oh, Gerda," she added, "ever so many of your friends have been to see
+me. They are such kind boys and girls!"
+
+"Of course they are! They are the best in the world," Gerda declared, and
+it seemed, indeed, as if there could be no kinder children anywhere than
+those who filled all the autumn days with the magic of their fun and
+good-will for the little lame Karen.
+
+Bouquets of flowers, and plants with bright blossoms, simple games, and
+new books found their way to her room. There was seldom a day when one or
+another of the friends did not come to tell her about some of their good
+times, or plan a little pleasure for her; and Karen seemed to find as
+much enjoyment in hearing of the fun as if she, herself, could really
+take part in it.
+
+"What is the carnival?" she asked Gerda one evening in late November,
+when the last of the friends had clattered down the stairs, and the two
+little girls were sitting beside the tall porcelain stove which filled
+the room with a comfortable heat. "I have heard you all talking about it
+for days; but I don't know just what it is."
+
+"It is a day for winter sports, and all kinds of fun, and you shall sit
+in the casino at the Deer Park and see it for yourself," said Gerda,
+giving Karen a loving hug.
+
+When the day of the carnival arrived at last, and Karen sat in the
+casino, cosily wrapped in furs, and looked out over the Djurgård, she
+knew that she had never dreamed of so much fun and beauty.
+
+There had been heavy hoar frosts for several nights, and the trees had
+become perfectly white,--the pines standing straight as powdered
+sentinels, the birches bending under their silvery covering like frozen
+fountains of spray. The ice was covered with skaters, their sharp steel
+shoes flashing in the sun, their merry laughter ringing out in the cold,
+crisp air.
+
+It seemed as if everyone in Stockholm were skating, or snow-shoeing, or
+skimming over the fields of snow on long skis. Even Fru Ekman, after
+making Karen comfortable in the casino, strapped a pair of skates on her
+own feet and astonished the little girl with the wonderful circles and
+figures she could cut on the ice.
+
+There was no place for beginners in such a company. And indeed, it almost
+seemed as if Swedish boys and girls could skate without beginning, for
+many little children were darting about among the crowds of grown people.
+
+Of course Karen's eyes were fixed most often upon the twins, and as they
+chased each other over the hurdles, or wound in and out among the
+sail-skaters and long lines of merry-makers, for the first time in her
+life she had a feeling of envy.
+
+When Gerda left the skaters at last, to sit for a while beside her
+friend, she saw at once the thought that was in Karen's mind. So, instead
+of speaking about the fun of skating, she began to talk about the
+doctor's promise that the lame back would be entirely cured before
+summer.
+
+"And there is really just as much fun in the summer-time," she said, "for
+then we can swim, and bathe, and row boats on the lake. You can go to
+Rättvik with us, too, and then you shall dance and be gayer than any one
+else."
+
+"Oh, see, there are some men on skis!" cried Karen suddenly, forgetting
+her feeling of envy in watching the wonderful speed made by the party
+of ski-runners who came into sight on the crest of the long hill opposite
+the ice-basin.
+
+The skis, or snow-skates, are a pair of thin strips of hard wood about
+four inches wide and eight or nine feet long, pointed and curved upward
+in front. The snow-skater binds one on each foot and glides over the
+snowy fields, or coasts down the hills as easily as if he were on a
+toboggan.
+
+"That is the best way in the world to travel over the snow," said Birger,
+who had come to find Gerda. "See how fast they go!"
+
+Suddenly one of the men darted away from the others, balanced himself for
+a moment with his long staff, and then shot down the hill like an arrow.
+A mound of snow six feet high had been built up directly in his path, and
+as he reached it, he crouched down, gave a spring, and landed thirty or
+forty feet below, plowing up the light snow into a great cloud, and then
+slipping on down the hill and out upon the frozen bay.
+
+Many others tried the slide and jump: some fell and rolled over in the
+snow, others lost off their skis, which came coasting down hill alone
+like runaway sleds, while others made a long leap with beautiful grace
+and freedom.
+
+"This method of travelling across country on skis, when there is deep
+snow, is hundreds of years old," said Fru Ekman, who had come to send the
+twins away for more fun, while she took her place again beside Karen.
+
+"Men were skiing in Scandinavia as long ago as old Roman times, and
+Magnus the Good, who defeated the Roman legions, had a company of
+ski-soldiers. Gustav Vasa organized a corps of snow-skaters, and Gustavus
+Adolphus used his runners as messengers and scouts."
+
+At that moment there was a sudden commotion outside the door, and a crowd
+of the skaters came into the casino for some hot coffee, their merry
+voices and laughter filling the room. Seldom is there gathered together a
+company of finer men and women, boys and girls, than Karen saw before
+her. Descendants of the Vikings these were,--golden-haired, keen-eyed and
+crimson-cheeked.
+
+"Look at that great fellow, taller than all the others," Fru Ekman
+whispered to Karen. "He is the champion figure-skater of Europe."
+
+"He looks like Baldur, the god of the sun," Karen whispered in reply; and
+then forgot everything else in watching the gay company.
+
+"I have never seen so many people having such a good time before," she
+explained to Fru Ekman after a little while. "At the Sea-gull Light there
+was never anything like this. It is more like the stories of the
+gathering of the gods, than just plain Sweden.
+
+"I suppose Birger is going to try for a skating prize some day," she
+added rather wistfully.
+
+Fru Ekman bent and kissed the little girl. "Yes," she answered, "that is
+why he puts on his skates every day and practices figure-skating on the
+ice in the canals. But keep a brave heart, little Karen. You, too, shall
+wear skates some day."
+
+Karen's face lighted up with a happy smile, and a fire of hope was
+kindled in her heart which made the long hours shorter, and the hard work
+at the gymnasium easier to bear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+YULE-TIDE JOYS
+
+
+It was the day before Christmas,--such a busy day in the Ekman household.
+In fact, it had been a busy week in every household in Sweden, for before
+the tree is lighted on Christmas Eve every room must be cleaned and
+scrubbed and polished, so that not a speck of dirt or dust may be found
+anywhere.
+
+Gerda, with a dainty cap on her hair, and a big apron covering her red
+dress from top to toe, was dusting the pleasant living-room; and Karen,
+perched on a high stool at the dining-room table, was polishing the
+silver. The maids were flying from room to room with brooms and brushes;
+and in the kitchen Fru Ekman and the cook were preparing the lut-fisk and
+making the rice pudding.
+
+The lut-fisk is a kind of smoked fish--salmon, ling, or cod--prepared in
+a delicious way which only a Swedish housewife understands. It is always
+the very finest fish to be had in the market, and before it reaches the
+market it is the very finest fish that swims in the sea. Every fisherman
+who sails from the west coast of Sweden--and there are hundreds of
+them--gives to his priest the two largest fish which he catches during
+the season. It is these fish which are salted and smoked for lut-fisk,
+and sold in the markets for Christmas and Easter.
+
+When Gerda ran out into the kitchen to get some water for her plants, she
+stopped to taste the white gravy which her mother was making for the
+lut-fisk.
+
+Then as she danced back through the dining-room to tell Karen about the
+pudding she sang:--
+
+"Away, away to the fishers' pier,
+Many fishes we'll find there,--Big salmon,
+Good salmon:
+Seize them by the neck,
+Stuff them in a sack,
+And keep them till Christmas and Easter."
+
+"Hurry and finish the silver," she added, "and then we will help Mother
+set the smörgåsbord for our dinner. We never had half such delicious
+things for it before. There is the pickled herring your father sent us,
+and the smoked reindeer from Erik's father in Lapland; and Grandmother
+Ekman sent us strawberry jam, and raspberry preserve, and cheese, and oh,
+so many goodies!" Gerda clapped her hands so hard that some of the water
+she was carrying to her plants was spilled on the floor. "Oh, dear me!"
+she sighed, "there is something more for me to do. We'd never be ready
+for Yule if it wasn't for the Tomtar."
+
+The Tomtar are little old men with long gray beards and tall pointed red
+caps, who live under the boards and in the darkest corners of the chests.
+They come creeping out to do their work in the middle of the night, when
+the house is still, and they are especially helpful at Christmas time.
+
+The two little girls had been talking about the Tomtar for weeks.
+Whenever Karen found a mysterious package lying forgotten on the table,
+Gerda would hurry it away out of sight, saying, "Sh! Little Yule Tomten
+must have left it."
+
+And one day when Gerda found a dainty bit of embroidery under a cushion,
+it was Karen's turn to say, "Let me have it quick! Yule Tomten left it
+for me." Then both little girls shrieked with laughter.
+
+Birger said little about the Tomtar and pretended that he did not believe
+in them at all; but when Gerda set out a dish of sweets for the little
+old men, he moved it down to a low stool where they would have no trouble
+in finding it.
+
+But now the Tomtar were all snugly hidden away for the day, so Gerda had
+to wipe up the water for herself, and then run back to her dusting; but
+before it was finished, Birger and his father came up the stairs,--one
+tugging a fragrant spruce tree, the other carrying a big bundle of oats
+on his shoulder.
+
+"Here's a Christmas dinner for your friends, the birds," Birget told
+Karen, showing her the oats.
+
+For a moment Karen's chin quivered and her eyes filled with tears, as she
+thought of the pole on the barn at home where she had always fastened her
+own bundle of grain; but she smiled through her tears and said
+cheerfully, "The birds of Stockholm will have plenty to eat for one day
+at least, if all the bundles of grain in the markets are sold."
+
+"That they will," replied Birger. "No one in Sweden forgets the birds on
+Christmas day. You should see the big bundles of grain that they hang
+up in Rättvik."
+
+"Come, Birger," called his father from the living-room, "we must set up
+the tree so that it can be trimmed; and then we will see about the
+dinner for the birds."
+
+Gerda and Karen helped decorate the tree, and such fun as it was! They
+brought out great boxes of ornaments, and twined long ropes of gold and
+gleaming threads of silver tinsel in and out among the stiff green
+branches. They hung glittering baubles upon every sprig, and at the tip
+of each and every branch of evergreen they set a tiny wax candle, so that
+when the tree was lighted it would look as if it grew in fairyland.
+
+But not a single Christmas gift appeared in the room until after all
+three children had had their luncheon and gone to their rooms to dress
+for the afternoon festivities. Even then, none of the packages were hung
+upon the tree. Lieutenant Ekman and his wife sorted them out and placed
+them in neat piles on the table in the center of the room, stopping now
+and then to laugh softly at the verses which they had written for the
+gifts.
+
+"Will the daylight never end!" sighed Gerda, looking out at the red and
+yellow sky which told that sunset was near. Then she tied a new blue
+ribbon on her hair and ran to help Karen.
+
+"The postman has just left two big packages," she whispered to her
+friend. "I looked over the stairs and saw him give them to the maid."
+
+"Perhaps one is for me," replied Karen. "Mother wrote that she was
+sending me a box."
+
+"Come, girls," called Birger at last; "Father says it is dark enough now
+to light the tree." And so it was, although it was only three o'clock,
+for it begins to grow dark early in Stockholm, and the winter days are
+very short.
+
+All the family gathered in the hall, the doors were thrown open, and a
+blaze of light and color met their eyes from the sparkling, shining tree.
+With a shout of joy the children skipped round and round it in a merry
+Christmas dance, and even Karen hopped about with her crutch.
+
+The cook in her white apron, and the maids in their white caps, stood in
+the doorway adding their chorus of "ohs!" and "ahs!" to the general
+excitement; and then, after a little while, the whole family gathered
+around the table while Herr Ekman gave out the presents.
+
+It took a long time, as there were so many gifts for each one, and with
+almost every gift there was a funny rhyme to be read aloud and laughed
+over. But no one was in a hurry. They wondered and guessed; they peeped
+into every package; they admired everything.
+
+When the last of the gifts had been distributed, there was the dinner,
+with the delicious lut-fisk, the roast goose, and the rice pudding. But
+before it could be eaten, each one must first taste the dainties on the
+smörgåsbord,--a side-table set out with a collection of relishes.
+
+There was a tiny lump in Karen's throat when she ate a bit of her
+mother's cheese; but she swallowed them both bravely, and was as gay as
+any one at the dinner table.
+
+All the boys and girls in Sweden are sent to bed early on Christmas Eve.
+They must be ready to get up the next morning, long before daylight, and
+go to church with their parents to hear the Christmas service and sing
+the Christmas carols. So nine o'clock found Karen and the twins gathering
+up their gifts and saying good-night.
+
+"Thanks, thanks for everything!" cried the two little girls, throwing
+their arms around Fru Ekman's neck; and Karen added rather shyly,
+"Thanks for such a happy Christmas, dearest Tant."
+
+"But this is only Christmas Eve," Gerda told her, as they scampered off
+to bed. "For two whole weeks there will be nothing but fun and merriment.
+No school! No tasks! Nothing to do but make everyone joyous and happy
+everywhere. Yule-tide is the best time of all the year!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+SPURS AND A CROWN
+
+
+  "Rida, rida, ranka!
+   The horse's name is Blanka.
+Little rider, dear and sweet,
+Now no spurs are on your feet;
+When you've grown and won them,
+Childhood's bliss is done then.
+
+  "Rida, rida, ranka!
+   The horse's name is Blanka.
+Little one with eyes so blue,
+A kingly crown will come to you,
+A crown so bright and splendid!
+Then youthful joy is ended."
+
+Fru Ekman sang the words of the old Swedish lullaby as she had sung them
+many times, years before, when the twins lay in their blue cradle at
+Grandmother Ekman's farm in Dalarne; but now the boy stood proudly in a
+suit of soldier gray, and the girl made a pretty picture in a set of soft
+new furs.
+
+It was the morning of the twins' twelfth birthday, and a March snow-storm
+was covering the housetops and pavements with a white fur coat, "Just
+like my own pretty coat," Gerda said, turning slowly round and round so
+that everyone might see the warm white covering.
+
+"The snow will soon be gone," she added, "but my furs will wait for me
+until next winter."
+
+"You may wear them to school to-day in honor of your birthday," said her
+mother; "but Birger's soldier suit seems a little out of season."
+
+Birger had taken a fancy to have a suit of gray with black trimmings,
+such as the Swedish soldiers wear, and it had been given to him with
+a new Swedish flag, as a match for Gerda's furs.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman turned his son around in order to see the fit of the
+trim jacket. "When you get the gun to go with it," he told the lad, "you
+will be a second Gustavus Adolphus."
+
+"If I am to be as great a man as Gustavus Adolphus, I shall have to go to
+war," replied Birger; "and there seems to be little chance for a war
+now."
+
+"There are many peaceful ways by which a man may serve his country,"
+Lieutenant Ekman told his son; "but King Gustavus II had to fight to keep
+Sweden from being swallowed up by the other nations."
+
+"I could never understand how Sweden happened to have such a great
+fighter as Gustavus Adolphus," said Karen; but Gerda shook a finger at
+her.
+
+"Sh!" she said, "that isn't the way to talk about your own country. And
+have you forgotten Gustav Vasa? He was the first of the Vasa line of
+kings; and he and Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII made the name of Vasa
+one of the most illustrious in Swedish history."
+
+"Karen will never forget Gustav Vasa," said Birger, "after she has been
+to Dalarne and seen all the places where he was in hiding before he
+was a king."
+
+"Yes," said Gerda, "there's the barn where he worked at threshing grain,
+and the house where the woman lowered him out of the window in the night,
+and the Stone of Mora, on the bank of the river, where he spoke to the
+men of Dalarne and urged them to fight for freedom."
+
+"And there's the stone house in Mora over the cellar where Margit Larsson
+hid him when the Danish soldiers were close on his track," added Birger.
+"The inscription says:--
+
+"'Gustav Eriksson Vasa, while in exile and wandering in Dalarne with a
+view of stirring up the people to fight for Fatherland and Freedom, was
+saved by the presence of mind of a Dalecarlian woman, and so escaped the
+troops sent by the Tyrant to arrest him.
+
+"'This monument is gratefully erected by the Swedish people to the
+Liberator.'"
+
+Karen laughed. "How can you remember it so well?" she asked. "It sounded
+as if you were reading it."
+
+"That is because I have read it so often," replied Birger. "Gustav Vasa
+is my favorite hero. He drove the Danes out of the country and won
+freedom for the Swedish people."
+
+"He was the Father of his Country," said Gerda, and she seized Birger's
+new flag and waved it over her head.
+
+"Come, children, it is time for you to go to school," Fru Ekman told
+them; and soon Karen was trudging off to her gymnastic exercises, and
+the twins were clattering down the stairs with their books.
+
+"That was a good song that Mother was singing this morning," Birger told
+his sister. "I'd like to wear spurs on my feet. How they would rattle
+over these stone pavements!"
+
+"I'd rather have 'a crown so bright and splendid,'" said Gerda; "but I'll
+have to be contented with my cooking-cap to-day instead." Then she bade
+her brother good-bye and ran up the steps of the school-house, where,
+after her morning lessons, she would spend an hour in the cooking-class.
+
+At five o'clock the three children were all at home again, and dressed
+for the party which the twins had every year on their birthday.
+
+"It is time the girls and boys were here," said Gerda, standing before
+the mirror in the living-room to fasten a pink rose in the knot of ribbon
+at her throat.
+
+"Here they come!" cried Birger, throwing open the door, and the twelve
+children who had come before, bringing packages for the surprise box,
+came again,--this time with little birthday gifts for the twins.
+
+For an hour there was the greatest confusion, with a perfect babel of
+merry voices and laughter. The gifts were opened and admired by everyone.
+Gerda put on her fur coat and cap, Birger showed a fine new pair of
+skates which his father had given him, and Karen brought out a box of
+little cakes which her mother had sent for the party.
+
+But when the children formed in a long line and Fru Ekman led the way to
+the dining-room, their excitement knew no bounds.
+
+The table was a perfect bower of beautiful flowers. There was a bouquet
+of bright blossoms at every plate, and long ropes of green leaves and
+blossoms were twined across the table, in and out among the dishes. At
+Gerda's place there was a wreath of violets, with violet ribbons on
+knife, fork and spoon; a bunch of violets was tucked under her napkin,
+and a big bow of violet ribbon was tied on her chair.
+
+Birger's flowers were scarlet pinks, with scarlet ribbons and a scarlet
+bow; and at the two ends of the table were the two birthday cakes, almost
+hidden among flowers and wreaths, with Birger's name on one and Gerda's
+on the other, done in colored candies set in white frosting.
+
+Another happy hour was spent at the table, and then the guests trooped
+away to their homes, leaving the twins to look over their gifts once
+more.
+
+But the best gift was still to come,--a never-to-be-forgotten gift that
+came on that wonderful night of their twelfth birthday.
+
+All day there had been a strange feeling in the air. When the girls
+brushed their hair in the morning it was full of tiny sparkles and stood
+out from their heads like clouds of gold, and Birger had found, early in
+the day, that if he stroked the cat's fur it cracked and snapped like
+matches, much to Fru Kitty's surprise.
+
+Now, when Gerda went to look out of the window, she called to the others
+to come quickly to see the northern lights; for out of the north there
+had come a gorgeous illumination, filling the heavens with a marvellous
+radiance such as only the aurora borealis can give.
+
+Banners of crimson, yellow and violet flamed and flared from horizon to
+zenith; sheets of glimmering light streamed across the sky, swaying back
+and forth, and changing from white to blue and green, with once in a
+while a magnificent tongue of red flame shooting higher than the others.
+
+"It is a carnival of light," said Gerda, in a tone of awe. She had often
+seen the northern lights, but never any so brilliant as these.
+
+Everyone seemed charged with the electricity, and little Karen said
+softly, "I never felt so strange before. The lights go up and down my
+back to the tip of my toes."
+
+"It is the elves of light dancing round the room," said Birger with a
+laugh.
+
+"No," said Gerda, "it is the Tomtar playing with the electric wires."
+
+Then, as they all stood watching the wonderful display in the heavens,
+the door opened and Lieutenant Ekman came into the room. "Here is a
+letter for Karen from her mother," he said; "I have had it in my pocket
+all day."
+
+"Oh, let me see it," said Karen, and she turned and ran across the room.
+Yes, ran,--with her crutch standing beside the chair at the window, and
+her two feet pattering firmly on the floor.
+
+"Look at Karen," cried Gerda. "She has forgotten her crutch!"
+
+Karen held her mother's letter in her hand, and her two eyes were shining
+like stars. "I feel as if I should never need my crutch again," she said.
+Then she turned to Fru Ekman and asked breathlessly, "Do you believe that
+I will?"
+
+"I am sure that you won't," replied Fru Ekman, stooping to kiss the happy
+child. "I have noticed for a long time that your back was growing
+straighter and stronger, and you were walking more easily."
+
+Gerda clapped her hands and ran to throw her arms around her friend. "Oh,
+Karen," she exclaimed, "this is the best birthday gift of all! The Tomtar
+sent it on the electric wires."
+
+"No," said Birger, "it was the elves of light dancing across the room."
+
+But Karen looked at the little family clustered so close around her. "It
+is my crown of joy and is from each one of you," she said; "but from
+Gerda most of all."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE MIDSUMMER FESTIVAL
+
+
+It was the middle of June. School was over and vacation had begun. Gerda
+and Birger were on their way to Rättvik, taking Karen with them so that
+she might see the great midsummer festival before going to spend the
+summer at the Sea-gull Light.
+
+"Isn't this the best fun we ever had,--to be travelling alone, without
+any one to take care of us?" asked Birger, as the train whizzed along
+past fields and forests, lakes and rivers.
+
+"It feels just as if we were tourists," replied Gerda, straightening her
+hat and nestling close to Karen.
+
+Karen dimpled and smiled. "I don't see your wonder-eyes, such as tourists
+always have," she said.
+
+"That is because we have been to Rättvik so many times that we know every
+house and tree and rail-fence along the way," answered Birger. "We have
+stopped at Gefle and seen the docks with their great piles of lumber and
+barrels of tar; and we have been to Upsala, the ancient capital of
+Sweden, and seen the famous University which was founded fifteen years
+before Columbus discovered America."
+
+"Last summer Father took us to Falun to visit the wonderful copper
+mines," added Gerda; "but I never want to go there again," and she
+shivered as she thought of the dark underground halls and chambers.
+
+"We saw a fire there, which was lighted hundreds of years ago and has
+never once been allowed to go out," said Birger. "The miners light their
+lamps and torches at the flame."
+
+"Look, there are the chimneys of Falun now," cried Gerda, pointing out of
+the car window; and a half-hour later the children found themselves at
+the neat little Rättvik station.
+
+"Six o'clock, and just on time," said Grandmother Ekman's cheerful voice,
+and the next moment all three were gathered in a great hug.
+
+"Is there room for triplets in your house?" asked Gerda. "We have
+outgrown our twinship now, and there are three of us, instead of two."
+
+"There is enough of everything, for Karen to have her good share," said
+the grandmother heartily; and they were soon driving along the pleasant
+country road, toward the red-painted farmhouse and the quiet living-room
+where the tall clock was still ticking cheerfully.
+
+The next morning, and the next, the twins were up bright and early to
+show Karen all their favorite haunts; and the days flew by like minutes.
+
+"Don't you love it, here in Rättvik, Karen dear?" asked Gerda, on the
+third day, as the two little girls were busily at work in the pleasant
+living-room.
+
+"Yes," replied Karen; "but you never told me half enough beautiful things
+about it. Surely there can be no lovelier place in the whole world than
+the mill-pool where we went yesterday with Linda Nilsson."
+
+Karen was coloring the letters in a motto to hang on the wall: and Gerda,
+who was weaving a rug on her grandmother's wooden loom, crossed the room
+to admire her friend's work. She leaned against Karen's chair and read
+the words of the motto aloud: "To read and not know, is to plow and not
+sow."
+
+"That is Grandmother Ekman's favorite motto," she said. "She believes
+that a burning, golden plowshare was dropped from heaven ages ago, in the
+beginning of Sweden's history, as a symbol of what the gods expected of
+the people; and she says that a well-kept farm and a well-read book are
+the most beautiful things in the world."
+
+Birger looked up from the door-step where he was whittling out a mast for
+one of his boats. "If I didn't intend to be an admiral in the navy when I
+am a man," he said, "I should come here and take care of the farm. It
+really is the prettiest farmhouse and the best farm in Dalarne."
+
+"It certainly will be the prettiest by night, when we have it dressed up
+for the midsummer festival," Gerda declared. "Come, Birger! Come, Karen!
+We must go and gather flowers and birch leaves to decorate the house."
+
+"But we must put away our work first," said orderly Karen, gathering up
+her paints and brushes.
+
+Gerda ran to push the loom back into the corner. As she did so, she said
+with a smile, "The first rug I ever made was very ugly. It had a great
+many dark strips in it. That was because my grandmother made me weave in
+a dark strip every time I was naughty."
+
+Karen laughed. "How I would like to see it," she said.
+
+"Oh, I have it now. I will show it to you," and Gerda crossed the room
+and opened one of the chests which were ranged against the wall.
+
+"This is my own chest, where my grandmother keeps everything I make," she
+said, as she lifted the cover and took out a bundle. Opening the bundle,
+she unrolled a funny little rug.
+
+Pointing to a wide black stripe in the middle, Gerda said, "That was for
+the time I broke the vinegar jug, and spoiled Ebba Jorn's dress."
+
+"Oh, tell me about it!" cried Karen.
+
+"No," replied Gerda, "it was too naughty to tell about;" and she put the
+rug quickly back into the chest.
+
+"I didn't know you were ever naughty," said Karen, laughing merrily.
+Then, as the two little girls put on their caps and took up their baskets
+to go flower-hunting, she asked, "Who is Ebba Jorn?"
+
+"She lives across the lake, and she is going to be married to-morrow,"
+answered Gerda. "We can walk in her procession."
+
+Karen gave a little gasp of pleasure. "Oh, what fun!" she exclaimed. Then
+she stopped and looked down at her dress. "But I have nothing to wear,"
+she said. "All my prettiest dresses went home on the steamer with your
+father."
+
+"We shall wear our rainbow skirts," Gerda told her. "And you can wear one
+of mine."
+
+Just then she caught sight of a crowd of boys and girls in a distant
+meadow, and ran to join them; calling to Birger and Karen to come, too.
+"They are gathering flowers to trim the Maypole for the midsummer
+festival," she cried.
+
+It is small wonder that the people of the Northland joyously celebrate
+the bright, sunny day of midsummer, after the cold days and long dark
+nights of winter. It is an ancient custom, coming down from old heathen
+times, when fires were lighted on all the hills to celebrate the victory
+of Baldur, the sun god, who conquered the frost giants and the powers of
+darkness.
+
+On Midsummer's Eve, the twenty-third of June, a majstång is erected in
+every village green in Sweden. The villagers and peasants, young and old,
+gather from far and near, and dance around the May-pole all through the
+long night, which is no night at all, but a glowing twilight, from late
+sunset till early dawn.
+
+There was a great deal of work to be done in preparation for this
+festival, and such a busy day as the children had! They gathered
+basketfuls of flowers, and long streamers of ground pine, which they made
+into ropes and wreaths. They cut great armfuls of birch boughs, and
+decorated the little farmhouse, inside and out; placing the graceful
+branches with their tender green leaves wherever there was a spot to hold
+them. Over the doors and windows, up and down the porch, along the fence,
+and even around the well, they twined the long ropes and fastened the
+green wreaths and boughs.
+
+After a hasty lunch they rowed across the lake and spent the afternoon at
+the village green, helping to dress the tall majstång; and when their
+supper of berries and milk and caraway bread was eaten, they were glad
+enough to tumble into bed, although the sun was till shining and would
+not set until nearly eleven o'clock.
+
+"Wait until to-morrow," murmured Gerda drowsily; "then you will see the
+happiest day of the whole year."
+
+Karen tried to tell her that every day was happy, now that she could run
+and play like other children; but she fell asleep in the middle of the
+sentence, and Gerda hadn't even heard the beginning of it.
+
+"The sun has been dancing over the hills for hours," called Grandmother
+Ekman at five o'clock the next morning. "It is time for everyone to be
+up and making ready for church."
+
+All the festival days in Sweden begin with a church service, and everyone
+goes to church. In the cities the people walk or ride in street-cars
+or carriages; but in Dalarne some ride on bicycles, some drive, some sail
+across the lake in the little steamer, and others row in the Sunday boat.
+
+Grandmother Ekman always followed the good old custom of rowing with her
+neighbors in the long boat, and six o'clock found her at the wharf with
+the three children, all carrying a beautiful branch of white birch with
+its shining green leaves.
+
+"This is just what I have wanted to do, ever since you told me about it
+at the Sea-gull Light," whispered Karen, as they found seats in the boat
+and began the pleasant journey across the peaceful, shining water.
+
+Gerda was in a great state of excitement. She discovered so many things
+to chatter about that Grandmother Ekman said at last, "Hush, child!
+You must compose yourself for church and the Bible reading."
+
+Then Gerda became sober at once, and sat quietly enough during the
+service, until she fell to thinking how lovely the May-pole would look
+in its gala dress of green, red, yellow and white.
+
+"It will be wearing a rainbow skirt, like all the girls in the village,"
+she thought; and surprised her grandmother by smiling in the midst of the
+sermon, at the thought of how very tall this Maypole maiden would be.
+
+The May-pole is always the tallest, slenderest tree that can be found,
+and the one which Gerda and Karen had helped to decorate was at least
+sixty feet from base to tip. It had been brought from the forest by the
+young men of the village, and trimmed of its bark and branches until it
+looked like the mast of a vessel. Hoops and crosspieces reaching out in
+every direction were fastened to the pole, and it was then decorated with
+flowers, streamers, garlands and tiny flags.
+
+Now it was leaning against the platform in the village green, not far
+from the church, where it was to be raised after the service.
+
+When Gerda and Karen reached the green they found a group of young people
+gathered about the pole, tying strings of gilded hearts, festoons of
+colored papers, and fluttering banners to its yard-arms.
+
+"Now it is ready to be raised!" shouted Nils Jorn at last, and everybody
+fell away to make room for the men who were to draw it into its place
+with ropes and tackle.
+
+"Suppose it should break!" gasped Karen, and held her breath while it
+rose slowly in the air. As it settled into the deep hole prepared for it,
+Nils Jorn waved his cap and shouted. Then some one else shouted, and soon
+everybody was shouting and dancing, and the festival of the green leaf
+had begun.
+
+All day and all night the fun ran high, with singing and dancing and
+feasting.
+
+When there was a lull in the merriment, it was because a long procession
+had formed to accompany the bride and bridegroom to the church. After the
+ceremony was over, and the same procession had accompanied them to the
+shore of the lake, some one called out, "Now let us choose a queen and
+crown her, and carry her back to the May-pole where she shall decide who
+is the best dancer."
+
+Oh, it was a hard moment for many of them then, for every maiden hoped
+that she would be the one to be chosen. But Nils Jorn caught sight of
+Gerda's merry smile, and nodded toward her.
+
+"Gerda Ekman has seen plenty of dancing in Stockholm," he said. "Let her
+be our queen."
+
+"Yes, yes!" shouted the others; and for a moment it looked as if Gerda
+would, indeed, have her wish to wear a crown. But when she saw Karen's
+wistful look, she turned quickly to her friends and said, "Let me,
+instead, choose the queen; and I will choose Karen Klasson. I want this
+to be the happiest day of all the year for her."
+
+"One queen is as good as another," said Nils Jorn cheerfully; so they led
+Karen back to the May-pole and she was made queen of the festival and
+crowned with green leaves.
+
+After a few minutes Gerda found a seat beside her under the canopy of
+birch boughs, and the two little girls watched the dancing together.
+
+Everyone was happy and jolly. The fiddler swept his bow across the
+strings until they sang their gayest polka. The accordion puffed and
+wheezed in its attempt to follow the merry tune. The platform was crowded
+with dancers, whirling and stamping, turning and swinging, laughing and
+singing.
+
+The tall pole quivered and shook until all the streamers rustled, all the
+flags fluttered, and all the birch leaves murmured to each other that
+summer had come and the sun god had conquered the frost giants.
+
+"This is truly the happiest day of all my life," Karen said; "and it is
+you, Gerda, who have made it so. I was lame and lonely in the cold
+Northland, and you came, bringing me health and happiness."
+
+"Mother says I must never forget that I was named for the goddess who
+shed light and sunshine over the world," replied Gerda soberly. Then she
+drew her friend closer and whispered, "But think, Karen, of all the good
+times we shall have next year, when you can go to school with me, and we
+can share all our happiness with each other;" and she clapped her hands
+and whirled Karen off into the crowd of dancers,--the gayest and happiest
+of them all.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Gerda in Sweden, by Etta Blaisdell McDonald
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13758 ***
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Gerda in Sweden, by Etta Blaisdell McDonald
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Gerda in Sweden
+
+Author: Etta Blaisdell McDonald
+
+Release Date: October 15, 2004 [EBook #13758]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GERDA IN SWEDEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Curtis Weyant and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                        LITTLE PEOPLE EVERYWHERE
+
+                            GERDA IN SWEDEN
+
+             BY ETTA BLAISDELL McDONALD AND JULIA DALRYMPLE
+
+Authors of "Kathleen in Ireland," "Manuel in Mexico," "Umé San in Japan,"
+"Rafael in Italy," "Fritz in Germany," "Boris in Russia," "Betty in
+Canada," etc.
+
+                                 1910
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The Swedish people are a hospitable, peace-loving race, kindly and
+industrious, making the most of their resources. In the south of Sweden
+are broad farming-lands with well-tilled fields and comfortable red
+farmhouses; in the central portion are hills and dales, rich in mines of
+copper and iron which have been famous for hundreds of years. In the
+cities and towns are factories where thousands of workers are employed,
+making all sorts of useful articles, from matches to steam-engines. The
+rivers which flow down to the sea from the western chain of mountains
+carry millions of logs from the great dark forests. As soon as the ice
+breaks up in the spring, whole fleets of fishing boats and lumber vessels
+sail up and down the coast; sawmills whirr and buzz all day long; the hum
+of labor is heard all over the land.
+
+In this Northland the winter days are short and cold; but there are the
+long sunny summer days, when even in the south of Sweden midnight is
+nothing but a soft twilight, and in the north the sun shines for a whole
+month without once dipping below the horizon. This is a glorious time for
+both young and old. The people live out-of-doors day and night, going to
+the parks and gardens, rowing and sailing and swimming, singing and
+dancing on the village green, celebrating the midsummer festival with
+feasting and merry-making,--for once more the sun rides high in the
+heavens, and Baldur, the sun god, has conquered the frost giants.
+
+Just such a happy, useful life is found in this little story. Gerda and
+her twin brother take a trip northward across the Baltic Sea with their
+father, who is an inspector of lighthouses. On their way they meet Karen,
+a little lame girl. After going farther north, into Lapland, where they
+see the sun shining at midnight, and spend a day with a family of Lapps
+and their reindeer, Gerda takes Karen home to Stockholm with her so that
+the child may have the benefit of the famous Swedish gymnastics for her
+lameness. Then such good times as the three children have together! They
+go to the winter carnival to see the skating and skiing; they celebrate
+Yule-tide with all the good old Swedish customs; and there is a birthday
+party for the twins, when Karen also receives a gift,--the very best gift
+of all.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+
+       I. GERDA AND BIRGER
+
+      II. THE SURPRISE BOX
+
+     III. ON BOARD THE "NORTH STAR"
+
+      IV. GERDA'S NEW FRIEND
+
+       V. CROSSING THE POLCIRKEL
+
+      VI. THE MIDNIGHT SUN
+
+     VII. ERIK'S HOME IN LAPLAND
+
+    VIII. FOUR-FOOTED FRIENDS
+
+      IX. KAREN'S BROTHER
+
+       X. A DAY IN SKANSEN
+
+      XI. THROUGH THE LOCKS
+
+     XII. A WINTER CARNIVAL
+
+    XIII. YULE-TIDE JOYS
+
+     XIV. SPURS AND A CROWN
+
+      XV. THE MIDSUMMER FESTIVAL
+
+
+
+
+GERDA IN SWEDEN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+GERDA AND BIRGER
+
+
+If any one had stopped to think of it, the ticking of the tall clock that
+stood against the wall sounded like "Ger-da! Ger-da!"
+
+But no one did stop to think of it. Everyone was far too busy to think
+about the clock and what it was saying, for over in the corner beside the
+tall stove stood a wooden cradle, and in the cradle were two tiny babies.
+
+There they lay, side by side, in the same blue-painted cradle that had
+rocked the Ekman babies for over two hundred years; and one looked so
+exactly like the other that even dear Grandmother Ekman could not tell
+them apart.
+
+But the mother, who rocked them so gently and watched them so tenderly,
+touched one soft cheek and then another, saying proudly, "This is our
+son, and this is our daughter," even when both pairs of blue eyes were
+tightly closed, and both little chins were tucked under the warm blanket.
+
+There is always great rejoicing over the coming of new babies in any
+family; but there was twice as much rejoicing as usual over these babies,
+and that was because they were twins.
+
+Little Ebba Jorn and her brother Nils came with their mother, from the
+farm across the lake, to see the blue-eyed babies in the worn blue
+cradle; and after them came all the other neighbors, so that there was
+always some one in the big chair beside the cradle, gazing admiringly at
+the twins.
+
+It was in March that they were born,--bleak March, when snow covered the
+ground and the wind whistled down the broad chimney; when the days were
+cold and the nights colder; when the frost giants drove their horses, the
+fleet frost-winds, through the valleys, and cast their spell over lakes
+and rivers.
+
+April came, and then May. The sun god drove the frost giants back into
+their dark caves, the trees shook out their tender, green leaves, and
+flowers blossomed in the meadows. But still the tall clock ticked away
+the days, and still they questioned, "What shall we name the babies?"
+
+"Karen is a pretty name," suggested little Ebba Jorn, who had come again
+to see the twins, this time with a gift of two tiny knitted caps.
+
+"My father's name is Oscar," said Nils. "That is a good name for a boy."
+
+"It is always hard to find just the right name for a new baby," said
+Grandmother Ekman.
+
+"And the task is twice as hard when there are two babies," added the
+proud father, laying his hand gently upon one small round head.
+
+"Let us name the boy 'Birger' for your father," suggested his wife,
+kneeling beside the cradle; "and call the girl 'Anna' for your mother."
+
+But Grandmother Ekman shook her head. "No, no!" she said decidedly. "Call
+the boy 'Birger' if you will; but 'Anna' is not the right name for the
+girl."
+
+Anders Ekman took his hand from the baby's head to put it upon his wife's
+shoulder. "Here in Dalarne we have always liked your own name, Kerstin,"
+he said with a smile.
+
+"No maid by the name of Kerstin was ever handy with her needle," she
+objected. "It has always been a great trial to your mother that I have
+not the patience to stitch endless seams and make rainbow skirts. Our son
+shall be Birger; but we must think of a better name for the little
+daughter."
+
+"It is plain that we shall never find two names to suit everyone,"
+replied the father, laughing so heartily that both babies opened their
+big blue eyes and puckered up their lips for a good cry.
+
+"Hush, Birger! Hush, little daughter!" whispered their mother; and she
+rocked the cradle gently, singing softly:--
+
+"Hist, hist!
+Mother is crooning and babies list.
+Hist, hist!
+The dewdrop lies in the flower's cup,
+Mother snuggles the babies up.
+   Birdie in the tree-top,
+   Do not spill the dewdrop.
+Cat be still, and dog be dumb;
+Sleep to babies' eyelids come!"
+
+Nils and Ebba Jorn tiptoed across the room and closed the door carefully
+behind them. Anders Ekman took up some wood-carving and went quietly to
+work; while Grandmother Ekman selected a well-worn book from the
+book-shelf, and seated herself in the big chair by the window to look
+over the Norse legends of the gods and giants.
+
+She turned the pages slowly until she found the pleasant tale of Frey,
+who married Gerd, the beautiful daughter of one of the frost giants. This
+was her favorite story, and she began reading it aloud in a low voice,
+while the fire burned cheerfully on the hearth, and the cradle swayed
+lightly to and fro.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Njörd, who was the god of the sea, had a son, Frey, and a daughter,
+Freyja. Frey was the god of the seed-time and harvest, and he brought
+peace and prosperity to all the world.
+
+"In summer he gathered gentle showers and drove them up from the sea to
+sprinkle the dry grass; he poured warm sunshine over the hills and
+valleys, and ripened the fruits and grains for a bountiful harvest.
+
+"The elves of light were his messengers, and he sent them flying
+about all day,--shaking pollen out of the willow tassels, filling the
+flower-cups with nectar, sowing the seeds, and threading the grass with
+beads of dew.
+
+"But in the winter, when the frost giants ruled the earth, Frey was idle
+and lonely; and he rode up and down in Odin's hall on the back of his
+boar, Golden Bristles, longing for something to do.
+
+"One morning, as he wandered restlessly through the beautiful city of
+Asgard, the home of the gods, he stood before the throne of Odin, the
+All-father, and saw that it was empty. 'Why should I not sit upon that
+throne, and look out over all the world?' he thought; and although no one
+but Odin was ever allowed to take the lofty seat, Frey mounted the steps
+and sat upon the All-father's throne.
+
+"He looked out over Asgard, shining in the morning light, and saw the
+gods busy about their daily tasks. He gazed down upon the earth, with its
+rugged mountains and raging seas, and saw men hurrying this way and that,
+like tiny ants rushing out of their hills.
+
+"Last of all he turned his eyes toward distant Jötunheim, the dark,
+forbidding home of the frost giants; but in that gloomy land of ice and
+snow he could see no bright nor beautiful thing. Great black cliffs stood
+like sentinels along the coast, dark clouds hung over the hills, and cold
+winds swept through the valleys.
+
+"At the foot of one of the hills stood a barren and desolate dwelling,
+alone in all that dark land of winter; and as Frey gazed, a maiden came
+slowly through the valley and mounted the steps to the entrance of the
+house.
+
+"Then, as she raised her arms to open the door, suddenly the sky, and
+sea, and all the earth were flooded with a bright light, and Frey saw
+that she was the most beautiful maiden in the whole world."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Kerstin looked up at her husband and spoke quickly. "That is like the
+coming of our two babies," she said. "In the days of ice and snow they
+brought light and gladness to our hearts. Let us call the sweet daughter
+'Gerda' after the goddess of sunshine and happiness."
+
+So the two babies were named at last. When the children of the
+neighborhood heard of it, they flocked to the house with their hands full
+of gifts, dancing round and round the cradle and singing a merry song
+that made the rafters ring. The wheels of thin Swedish bread that hung
+over the stove shook on their pole, the tall clock ticked louder than
+ever, and the twins opened their blue eyes and smiled their sweetest
+smile at so much happiness.
+
+But they were not very strong babies, so Anders Ekman went off to his
+work in Stockholm and left them in Dalarne with their mother and
+grandmother, hoping that the good country air would make them plump and
+sturdy.
+
+Dalarne, or the Dales, is the loveliest part of all Sweden, and the Ekman
+farm lay on the shore of a lake so beautiful that it is often called the
+"Eye of Dalarne."
+
+It was in the Dales that Gerda and little Birger outgrew their cradle and
+their baby clothes, and became the sturdy children their father longed to
+have them.
+
+When they were seven years old their mother took them to live in
+Stockholm; but with each new summer they hurried away from the city with
+its schools and lessons, to spend the long vacation at the farm.
+
+"Gerda and Birger are here!" they would cry, opening the door and running
+into the living-room to find their grandmother.
+
+"Gerda and Birger are here!" The news always ran through the neighborhood
+in a twinkling, and from far and near the boys and girls flocked down the
+road to bid them welcome.
+
+"Ger-da! Ger-da!" the old clock in the corner ticked patiently, just as
+it had been ticking for eleven long years. But who could listen to it
+now? There were flowers and berries to pick, chickens to feed, and games
+to play, through all the long summer days in Dalarne. Surely, Gerda and
+Birger had no time to listen to the clock.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE SURPRISE BOX
+
+
+All day long the gentle breezes blowing through the city streets, and the
+bright sun shining on the sparkling water of Lake Mälar, called to the
+children that spring had come in Stockholm.
+
+Great cakes of ice went floating through the arches of the bridge across
+the Norrström, and gray gulls, sailing up from the bay, darted down to
+the swirling water to find dainty morsels for their dinner.
+
+The little steamers which had been lying idly at the quays all winter
+were being scraped and painted, and made ready for their summer's work;
+children were playing in the parks; throngs of people filled the
+streets;--spring was in the air!
+
+But in the Ekman household Gerda and Birger had been as busy as bees all
+day, with no thought for the dancing blue water and the shining blue sky.
+Their tongues had flown fast, their fingers faster; they had hunted up
+old clothes, old books, old games; and had added one package after
+another to the contents of a big box that stood in the corner of the
+pleasant living-room.
+
+"Perhaps I can finish this needle-book, if I hurry," said Gerda, drawing
+her chair up to the window to catch the light from the setting sun.
+
+"I wanted to send this work-box, too," added Birger; "but how can I carve
+an initial on the cover when I don't know who is going to have the box?"
+
+"Carve an 'F' for friend," suggested Gerda, stopping to thread her
+needle; but just then there was a sound of chattering voices on the
+stairs, and work-box and needle-book were forgotten.
+
+As Birger sprang to open the door, a little mob of happy boys and girls
+burst into the room with a shout of heartiest greeting. Their eyes were
+sparkling with fun, their cheeks rosy from a run in the fresh spring air,
+and their arms were filled with bundles of all sizes and shapes.
+
+"Ho, Birger! Oh, Gerda!" was their cry; "it took us an endless time to
+get past the porter's wife at the street door, and she made us answer a
+dozen questions. 'To what apartment were we going? Whom did we wish to
+see? Why did we all come together?'"
+
+"And did you tell her that you were coming to the third apartment to see
+the Ekman twins, and were bringing clothing and gifts to fill a surprise
+box?" asked Gerda, holding up her apron for the packages.
+
+"Yes," replied a jolly, round-faced boy whom the others called Oscar,
+"and we had to explain that we didn't know who was to have the box, nor
+why you telephoned to us to bring the gifts to-night, when you said only
+last week that you wouldn't want them until the first of June."
+
+"There has been a hard storm on the northern coast, and Father is
+going by train as far as Luleå, to see if it did much damage to the
+lighthouses," Gerda explained. "He thinks that the storm may have caused
+great suffering among the poor people, so we are going to send our box
+with him, instead of waiting to send it by boat in June. He has to start
+on his trip very early in the morning, so the box must be ready
+to-night."
+
+Everyone began talking at once, and a tall girl with pretty curly hair,
+who had something important to say, had to raise her voice above the din
+before she could be heard. "Let us write a letter and put it into the box
+with the gifts," she suggested.
+
+"Ja så! Yes, of course! That is good!" they all cried; and while Gerda
+ran to get pen and ink, the boys and girls gathered around a table that
+stood in the center of the room.
+
+"Dear Yunker Unknown:--" began a mischievous-looking boy, pretending to
+write with a great flourish.
+
+"Nonsense!" cried Sigrid Lundgren. "The box is filled with skirts and
+aprons and caps and embroidered belts, and all sorts of things for a
+girl. Don't call her Yunker. Yunker means farmer."
+
+"Well, then, 'Dear Jungfru Unknown:--'" the boy corrected, with more
+flourishes.
+
+"I wish we knew who would get the box, then we should know just what to
+say," said little Hilma Berling.
+
+"She is probably just your age, and is named Selma," said Birger; and
+everyone laughed over his choice of a name.
+
+"Yes," agreed Oscar, "and she lives in the depths of the white northern
+forests, with only a white polar bear and a white snowy owl for company."
+
+"I don't believe we shall ever be able to write a letter," said Birger,
+shaking his head. "How can we write to some one we have never seen?" and
+he sat himself down on a red painted cricket beside the tall stove and
+began carving the cover of the work-box.
+
+"We have made all the little gifts in that box for some one we have never
+seen," said Sigrid. "It ought to be just as easy to write her a letter."
+
+"No, Sigrid," Birger told her; "it is the hardest thing in the world to
+write a letter, especially if you have nothing to say. I would rather
+make a box and carve it, than write half of a letter."
+
+"Here comes Mother. She will tell us what to write," said Gerda.
+
+"Why not write about some of the good times you have together here in
+Stockholm," suggested her mother, and she took up the pen and waited for
+some one to start the letter.
+
+"Our dear Girl-friend in the North:--" said Hilma for a beginning; and as
+Fru Ekman wrote at their dictation, first one and then another added a
+message, until finally she leaned back in her chair and told them to
+listen to what she had written.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"We are a club of capital boys and girls because we live in Sweden's
+capital city," she began.
+
+"That was from Oscar," interrupted Gerda; but her mother continued,--"and
+we send you this box for a surprise.
+
+"We go to school and have to study very hard; but we find a little time
+for play every day. Sometimes we go to the park, but when it storms we
+are glad to stay in the house and work at sewing or sloyd. So, ever since
+Yule-tide, we have been making little gifts for you,--the girls with
+their needles, the boys with their saws and knives.
+
+"We hope you will enjoy wearing the caps and aprons as much as we have
+enjoyed making them; and if you have a brother, please give him the watch
+and the leather watch-chain. It is a gift from Oscar.
+
+"The rainbow skirt is one which Gerda wore last summer. She has outgrown
+it now, and will have to have a new one next year. She hopes it is not
+too small for you.
+
+"If you want to know what Stockholm is like, you must think of islands
+and bridges, because the city is built on eight islands, and they are all
+connected by bridges with each other and with the mainland. In summer,
+little steamers go around the city, in and out among the islands; but in
+winter the lake and all the bays are frozen over, and there is good
+skating everywhere.
+
+"Then you should see the twelve girls and boys who are writing this
+letter, holding fast to one another in a long line, and skimming across
+Djurgården bay or skating around Stadenholm, where the King's Palace
+stands.
+
+"Sometime, if you will come to visit us in Stockholm, we will have you
+join the line and skate with us under the bridges, and up and down the
+waterways; and we will show you what good times we can have in the city."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"So we did write a letter after all," sighed Birger, as Fru Ekman
+finished reading. "Now we must sign our names;" and after much discussion
+and laughter the twelve names appeared on the paper, written in a circle
+without any beginning or end,--Sigrid's and Hilma's and Oscar's and
+Gerda's and all.
+
+"Put it in the box and we'll nail on the cover," cried Oscar, picking up
+the hammer and pounding as if he were driving a dozen nails at once.
+
+"Can't a poor man read his newspaper in peace, without being disturbed by
+all this noise?" called Herr Ekman from the next room; but when he
+appeared in the doorway the merry twinkle in his eyes showed that he
+cared little about the noise and was glad to see the children having a
+good time.
+
+"I'd like to be going north with this box," said Magnus, as he took some
+nails and began nailing on the cover.
+
+"Father goes every summer to inspect the lighthouses along the coast,"
+said Birger, "and he has promised to take me with him sometime."
+
+"And me, too," added Gerda; "he wouldn't take you without me."
+
+"Is it very different in the far North?" asked Oscar.
+
+"Yes," replied Herr Ekman, "the winter is long and cold and dark; there
+are severe storms, and deep snow covers the ground; but the boys and
+girls find plenty to do, and seem to be just as happy as you are," and he
+pinched Oscar's ear as he spoke.
+
+"I don't see how they can be happy in the winter when it is dark all
+night and almost all day," said Olaf.
+
+Herr Ekman laughed. "Do you think they should go into a den, like the
+bears, and sleep through the winter?" he asked.
+
+"But think of the summer, when it is light all day and all night, too,"
+said Sigrid. "Then they have fun enough to make up for the winter."
+
+"I never could understand about our long nights in winter and our long
+days in summer," spoke Hilma Berling.
+
+"It is because we live so near the North Pole," Oscar told her. "Now that
+Commander Peary of the United States of America has really discovered
+the North Pole, perhaps the geographies will make it easier to understand
+how the sun juggles with the poles and circles.
+
+"I am sorry that it has been discovered," he added. "I always meant to do
+it myself, when I got old enough to discover anything."
+
+"If I could stand on the top of Mount Dundret and see the sun shining at
+midnight, I am sure I could understand about it without any geography,"
+Gerda declared.
+
+"If you should go north with Herr Lighthouse-Inspector Ekman this summer,
+you might meet the little girl who receives this box," said Sigrid.
+
+"I should know her the minute I saw her," Gerda said decidedly.
+
+"How would you know her?" questioned Birger. "You don't even know her
+name or where she lives. Father is going to give the box to the
+lighthouse-master at Luleå, and he will decide where to send it."
+
+"Oh, there are ways!" replied Gerda. "And besides, she would have on my
+rainbow skirt."
+
+That night, after the children had trooped down the stairs and away to
+their homes, and after Gerda and Birger had said good-night and gone to
+their beds, the father and mother sat by the table, talking over plans
+for the summer.
+
+"I suppose we shall start for Dalarne the day after school closes,"
+suggested Fru Ekman.
+
+"No," answered her husband, "I have been thinking that the children are
+old enough now to travel a little; and I have decided to take them with
+me when I go north this summer. They ought to know more about the
+forests, and rivers, and shores of their good old Mother Svea."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ON BOARD THE "NORTH STAR"
+
+
+It was a sunny morning in late June. The waters of the Saltsjö rippled
+and sparkled around the islands of Stockholm, and little steamers puffed
+briskly about in the harbor. The tide had turned, and the fresh water of
+the lake, mingled with the salt water of the fjord, was swirling and
+eddying under the bridges and beating against the stone quays; for Lake
+Mälar is only eighteen inches higher than the Salt Sea, and while the
+incoming tide brings salt water up the river from the ocean, the outgoing
+tide carries fresh water down from the lake.
+
+Just as the great clock in the church tower began chiming the hour of
+nine, a group of children gathered on the granite pier opposite the
+King's Palace.
+
+A busy scene greeted their eyes. Vessels were being loaded and unloaded,
+passengers were arriving, men were hurrying to and fro, and boys selling
+newspapers were rushing about in the crowd.
+
+"Do you see the _North Star_?" Sigrid asked the others. "That is the name
+of the boat they are going to take."
+
+"There it is!" cried Oscar; "and there are Gerda and Birger on the deck."
+With a merry shout of greeting he ran on board the steam launch, followed
+by all the other girls and boys.
+
+"Oh, Gerda, how I wish I were going with you," said Hilma wistfully. "I
+should love to cross the Arctic Circle and see the sun shining all night
+long."
+
+Gerda, who was wearing a pretty blue travelling dress, with blue ribbons
+on her hat and in her hair, threw her arms around her friend. "I wish
+you were going, too," she answered. "Birger is the best brother any girl
+could have; but he isn't like a sister, and that is what you are to me,
+Hilma."
+
+At the same moment, Birger was confiding to his friend, "I wish you were
+going with us, Oscar. Gerda is a good sister; but she isn't like a
+brother."
+
+All the other boys and girls were talking and laughing together, telling
+of the strange sights that Birger and Gerda would see on their trip into
+Lapland; and what they would do if only they were going, too.
+
+Suddenly a warning whistle from the steamer sent them hurrying back to
+the quay, where they stood waving their handkerchiefs and shouting good
+wishes until the twins were out of sight.
+
+The vessel's course lay first between two islands, and Gerda lifted her
+eyes to the windows of the King's Palace, which stood near the quay of
+one; but Birger found more to interest him in the military and naval
+buildings on the other.
+
+"There is a ship from Liverpool, England," said Lieutenant Ekman,
+pointing to a vessel which was lying beside the quay in front of the
+palace.
+
+"It is hard to believe that we are forty miles from the ocean when we see
+such big ships in our harbor," said Birger. "How did it happen that
+Stockholm was built so far from the open sea? It would be easier for all
+these vessels if they didn't have to come sailing up among all the
+islands to find a landing-place."
+
+"Lake Mälar was the stronghold of the ancient Viking warriors," replied
+his father; "and it was just because there were forty miles of difficult
+sailing among narrow channels, that they chose to live at the head of the
+Saltsjö, and make this fjord their thoroughfare in going out to the
+Baltic Sea."
+
+"Did they like to make things as hard as possible for themselves?" asked
+Gerda with interest.
+
+"Not so much as they liked to make it as hard as possible for their
+enemies," said Herr Ekman. "Centuries ago, hunters and fishermen built
+their rude huts on the wooded islands at the outlet of Mälar Lake. They
+often found it convenient to slip away from their pursuers among these
+islands; but they were not always successful, for their settlements on
+the site of the present city were repeatedly destroyed by hostile
+tribes."
+
+"Why didn't they build fortifications on the islands and hold the enemy
+at bay?" questioned Birger.
+
+"They were too busy sailing off to foreign lands," answered his father.
+"Fleet after fleet of Viking ships sailed out of the bays of Sweden,
+manned by the bravest sailors the world has ever known; and they swooped
+down upon the tribes of Europe, fighting and conquering them with the
+strength of giants and the glee of children."
+
+"It was Birger Jarl who built the first walls and towers to protect the
+city," spoke Gerda. "I remember learning it in my history lesson."
+
+"Yes," her father replied; "good old Earl Birger, who ruled the Swedes in
+the thirteenth century, saw how important such fortifications would be,
+and so he locked up the Mälar Lake from hostile fleets by building walls
+and towers around one of the islands and making it his capital."
+
+"There is an old folk-song in one of my books which always reminds me of
+the Vikings," said Birger.
+
+"Let us hear it," suggested his father, and Birger repeated:--
+
+"Brave of heart and warriors bold,
+Were the Swedes from time untold;
+Breasts for honor ever warm,
+Youthful strength in hero arm.
+    Blue eyes bright
+    Dance with light
+For thy dear green valleys old.
+North, thou giant limb of earth,
+With thy friendly, homely hearth."
+
+"There is another stanza," said Gerda. "I like the second one best," and
+she added:--
+
+"Song of many a thousand year
+Rings through wood and valley clear;
+Picture thou of waters wild,
+Yet as tears of mourning mild.
+    To the rhyme
+    Of past time
+Blend all hearts and lists each ear.
+Guard the songs of Swedish lore,
+Love and sing them evermore."
+
+"Good," said Lieutenant Ekman; "isn't there a third stanza, Birger?"
+
+But Birger was at the other end of the boat. "Come here, Gerda," he
+called. "We can see Waxholm now."
+
+Then, as the boat slipped past the great fortress and began to thread its
+way in and out among the islands in the fjord, the twins stood at the
+rail, pointing out to each other a beautiful wooded island, a windmill, a
+rocky ledge, a pretty summer cottage nestling among the trees, a
+fisherman's hut with fishing nets hung up on poles to dry, an eagle
+soaring across the blue sky, or a flock of terns flying up from the rocks
+with their harsh, rattling cry.
+
+There was a new and interesting sight every moment, and the sailors in
+their blue uniforms nodded to each other with pleasure as Gerda flitted
+across the deck.
+
+"She is like a little bluebird," they said; and like a bird she chirped
+and twittered, singing snatches of song, and asking a hundred questions.
+
+"I like those old fancies that the Vikings had about the sea and the sky
+and the winds," she said at last, stretching her arms wide and dancing
+from end to end of the deck. "They called the sea the 'necklace of the
+earth,' and the sky the 'wind-weaver.'"
+
+"I wish I had the magic boat that Loki gave to Frey," answered Birger
+lazily, lying flat on his back and looking up into the "wind-weaver."
+"If I had it, I would sail over the whole long 'necklace of the earth,'
+from clasp to clasp."
+
+But Gerda was already out of hearing. She had gone to sit beside her
+father and watch the course of the boat through the thousands of rocky
+islands that stud the coast.
+
+"The captain says that the frost giants threw all these rocks out
+here when they were having a battle with old Njord, the god of the sea,"
+she said. Then, as she caught sight of a lighthouse on a low outer
+ledge,--"Why, Father!" she cried, "I thought we were going to stop at
+every lighthouse on the coast."
+
+"So we are, after we leave the Skärgård," replied Lieutenant Ekman. "I
+came down as far as this several weeks ago when the ice went out of the
+fjord. There are two or three months when all this water is frozen over
+and there can be no shipping; but as soon as the ice breaks up, the lamps
+are lighted in the lighthouses and I come down to see them. Now it is so
+light all night that for two months the lamps are not lighted at all
+unless there is a storm."
+
+Gerda ran to the rail to wave her handkerchief to a little girl on the
+deck of a lumber vessel which they were passing.
+
+"The lighthouse keepers have a good many vacations, don't they?" she said
+when she came back.
+
+"Yes," replied her father; "those on the east coast of Sweden have
+several months in the winter when the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia
+are covered with solid ice; but on the south and west coasts the
+lighthouses and even the lightships are lighted all winter."
+
+"Why is that?" questioned Birger, coming to join them.
+
+"There is a warm current which crosses the Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf
+of Mexico and washes our western coast. It is called the Gulf Stream.
+This current warms the air and makes the climate milder, and it keeps the
+water from freezing, so that shipping is carried on all winter,"
+Lieutenant Ekman explained.
+
+Just then a sailor came to tell them that their dinner was ready. While
+they were eating, the launch made a landing at the first of the
+lighthouses which the inspector had to visit.
+
+While their father was busy, the twins clambered over the rocks, hunting
+for starfishes and sea-urchins, and Gerda picked a bouquet of bright
+blossoms for their table on the boat.
+
+At the next stopping-place, which was Gefle, the captain took them on
+shore to see the shipyard where his own launch, the _North Star,_ was
+built; and so, all day long, there was something to keep them busy.
+
+As the boat steamed farther north, each new day grew longer, each night
+shorter, until Birger declared that he believed the sun did not set at
+all.
+
+"Oh, yes it does," his father told him. "It sets now at about eleven
+o'clock, and rises a little after one. You will have to wait until you
+cross the Polcirkel and get to the top of Mount Dundret before you have a
+night when the sun doesn't even dip below the horizon."
+
+"We must be pretty near the Arctic Circle now," exclaimed Gerda. "It is
+growing colder and colder every minute."
+
+"That is because the wind is blowing over an ice-floe," said her father,
+pointing to a large field of ice which seemed to be drifting slowly
+toward them.
+
+"Look, look, Birger!" cried Gerda, "there are some seals on the ice."
+
+"Yes," said Birger, "and there is a seal-boat sailing up to catch them."
+
+"I'm going to draw a picture of it for Mother," Gerda announced, and she
+sat still for a long time, making first one sketch and then another,--a
+seal on a cake of ice, a lighthouse, a ship being dashed against the
+rocks, and a steam-launch cutting through the water, with a boy and girl
+on its deck.
+
+"Oh dear!" she sighed after a while, "I wish something _enormous_ would
+happen. I'm tired of water and sky and sawmills and little towns with red
+houses just like the pictures in my geography."
+
+"What would you like to have happen?" questioned her father.
+
+"I should like to see some of my girl friends," replied Gerda quickly. "I
+haven't had any one to tell my secrets to for over a week."
+
+"Perhaps something enormous will happen tomorrow," her father comforted
+her. "We'll see what we can do about it."
+
+So Gerda went to sleep that night thinking of Hilma and Sigrid at home;
+and she slept through the beautiful bright summer night, little dreaming
+that the boat was bearing her steadily toward a new friend and a dearer
+friendship than any she had ever known.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+GERDA'S NEW FRIEND
+
+
+"Look, Gerda," said Lieutenant Ekman, as their launch steamed the next
+morning toward a barren island off the east coast of Sweden, "do you see
+a child on those rocks below the lighthouse?"
+
+Gerda looked eagerly where her father pointed. "Yes, I think I see her
+now," she said, after a moment.
+
+Birger ran to the bow of the boat. "Come up here," he called. "I can see
+her quite plainly. She has on a rainbow skirt."
+
+"Oh, Birger!" cried Gerda, "can it be the little girl who received our
+box? If it is, her name is Karen. Don't you remember the letter of thanks
+she wrote us?"
+
+As she spoke, the child began clambering carefully over the rocks and
+made her way to the landing-place. The twins saw now that she wore the
+rainbow skirt and the dark bodice over a white waist, which forms the
+costume of the Rättvik girls and women; but they saw, also, that she
+walked with a crutch.
+
+"Oh, Father, she is lame!" Gerda exclaimed. Then she stood quietly on the
+deck, waving her hand and smiling in friendly greeting until the launch
+was made fast to the wharf.
+
+"Are you Gerda?" asked the little lame girl eagerly, as Lieutenant Ekman
+swung his daughter ashore; and Gerda asked just as eagerly, "Are you
+Karen?" Then both children laughed and answered "Yes," together.
+
+"Come up to the house, Gerda, I want to show you my birds," said Karen at
+once; and she climbed up over the rocks toward the tiny cottage.
+
+Gerda followed more slowly, looking pityingly at the crutch and the poor,
+crooked back; but Karen turned and called to her to hurry.
+
+"I have ever so many things to show you, Gerda," she said. "There are no
+children for me to play with, so I have to make friends with the birds. I
+have four now, and I am trying to teach them to eat from my hand."
+
+As Karen spoke, she led the way around the corner of the house, and
+there, sheltered from the wind, was a collection of cages, mounted on a
+rough wooden bench. In each one was a bird which had been injured in some
+way.
+
+The largest cage held a snowy owl, and when Karen spoke to him he ruffled
+up his feathers and rolled his head from side to side, his great golden
+eyes staring at her without blinking.
+
+"He can't see when the sun shines," Karen explained; "but he seems to
+know my voice."
+
+"What a good time he must have in the long winter nights, when he can see
+all the time," said Gerda. "Where did you get him?"
+
+"Father found him in the woods with a broken wing; but he is nearly well
+now, and I shall soon set him free," Karen told her.
+
+"And here is a woodpecker, and a cuckoo, and a magpie," said Gerda,
+looking into the cages.
+
+"Yes," said Karen, "and last year I had an eider-duck, and I often have
+sea-gulls. Sometimes, when there is a big storm, the gulls are blown
+against the windows of the lighthouse and are hurt. I find them on the
+rocks in the morning with a broken leg or wing, and then I put them in a
+cage and take care of them until they can fly away. Father and I call
+this the Sea-gull Light."
+
+"What do you do with the birds in the winter?" asked Gerda.
+
+"The lighthouse is closed as soon as the Gulf freezes over, and then we
+go to live on the mainland," Karen replied. "One of my brothers built
+a bird-house near our barn, and if my birds are not strong enough to fly
+away, Father lets me take them with me in the cages, and I feed them
+all winter with crumbs and grain."
+
+"How many brothers have you?"
+
+"There are five, but they are all much older than I am. They work in the
+woods in the winter, cutting out logs or making tar; and in the summer
+they go off on fishing trips. I don't see them very often."
+
+"We met a great many vessels loaded with lumber on our way up the coast,"
+said Gerda, "and, wherever we stopped, the wharves were covered with
+great piles of lumber, and barrels and barrels of tar."
+
+"The lumber vessels sail past this island all summer," said Karen. "I
+often wonder where they go, and what becomes of all the lumber they
+carry. There is a sawmill near our house on the shore and it whirrs and
+saws all day long."
+
+"There were sawmills all along the coast," said Gerda. "Birger and I
+began to count them, and then there were so many other things to see that
+we forgot to count."
+
+Karen stooped down to open the door of the magpie's cage, and he hopped
+out and began picking up the grain which she held in her hand for him. "I
+think this magpie is going to stay with me," she said. "He is very tame
+and I often let him out of the cage. Mother says he will bring me good
+luck," she added rather wistfully.
+
+"It must be lonely for you here, with only the birds to play with," said
+Gerda. "You must be glad when the time comes to live on shore and go
+to school again."
+
+For answer, Karen looked at her crutch. "I can't go to school," she said
+soberly; "but my brothers taught me to read and write, and Mother has a
+piano which I can play a little."
+
+Then her face lighted up with a cheery smile. "When your box came this
+spring, it was the most exciting thing that ever happened to me.
+Everything in it gave me something new to think about. I often think how
+pretty the streets of Stockholm must look, with all the little girls
+going about in rainbow skirts, and none of them having to walk with a
+crutch."
+
+"Oh, dear me!" exclaimed Gerda quickly; "it is not often that you see a
+rainbow skirt in Stockholm. I never wear one there."
+
+Karen looked surprised. "Where do you wear it?" she asked.
+
+Then Gerda told about her summer home in Rättvik. "It is on Lake Siljan,
+in the central part of Sweden, in a province that is called Dalarne,"
+she explained. "It is a very old-fashioned place, and the people still
+wear the costumes which were worn hundreds of years ago."
+
+A wistful look had stolen into Karen's face as she listened. "I suppose
+there are ever so many children in Rättvik," she said.
+
+"Oh, yes," answered Gerda. "We play together every day, and go to church
+on Sundays; and sometimes I help to row the Sunday boat."
+
+"What is the Sunday boat?" was Karen's next question.
+
+"There are several parishes in Rättvik, and many of the people live so
+far away from the church that they row across the lake together in a long
+boat which is called the Sunday boat," Gerda told her.
+
+"And do you have girl friends in Stockholm?" asked Karen, envying this
+Gerda who came and went from city to country so easily.
+
+"Yes, indeed," answered Gerda. Then she smiled and said shyly, "I wish
+you would be my friend, too. When I go home I can write to you."
+
+Karen's face flushed with pleasure. "Oh, will you?" she cried. "But there
+will be so little for me to write to you," she added soberly. "After the
+snow comes, and my brothers have all gone into the woods for the winter,
+there are weeks at a time when I never see any one but my father and
+mother."
+
+"You can tell me all about your birds," Gerda suggested; "and the way the
+moon shines on the long stretches of snow; and about the animals that
+creep out from the woods sometimes and sniff around your door. And I will
+tell you about my school, and the parties I have with my friends. And I
+will send you some new music to play on the piano."
+
+But before they could say anything more, Lieutenant Ekman had returned
+from inspecting the lighthouse with Karen's father, and was calling to
+Gerda that it was time for them to start for Luleå.
+
+"Good-bye," the two little girls said to each other, and Karen went down
+to the landing-place to watch the launch steam away.
+
+Gerda stood quietly beside the rail, looking back at the island, long
+after Karen's rainbow skirt and the lighthouse had faded from sight.
+
+"I will give you two öre for your thoughts, if they are worth it," her
+father said at last.
+
+"I was thinking that it will make Karen sad to hear of my good times this
+winter," Gerda told him.
+
+"She will like to have your letters to think about," replied Lieutenant
+Ekman cheerfully. Then he pointed to a little town on the shore ahead.
+"There is Luleå," he said. "You will soon be travelling on the railroad
+toward Mount Dundret and the midnight sun."
+
+But although Gerda was soon speeding into the mysterious Arctic regions,
+she could not forget her new friend in the lonely lighthouse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CROSSING THE POLCIRKEL
+
+
+"Polcirkel, Birger, Polcirkel!" cried Gerda from her side of the car.
+
+"Polcirkel!" shouted Birger in answer, and sprang to Gerda's seat to look
+out of the window.
+
+The slow-running little train groaned and creaked; then came to a stop at
+the tiny station-house on the Arctic Circle.
+
+The twins, their faces smeared with vaseline and veiled in mosquito
+netting, hurried out of the car and looked around them. Close beside the
+station rose a great pile of stones, to mark the only spot where a
+railroad crosses the Arctic Circle. This is the most northerly railroad
+in the world, and was built by the Swedish government to transport iron
+ore to the coast, from the mines four miles north of Gellivare.
+
+As the two children climbed to the top of the cairn, Birger said, "This
+is a wonderful place; is it not, Gerda?"
+
+His sister looked back doubtfully over the immense peat bog through which
+the train had been travelling, and thought of the swamps and the forests
+of pine and birch which lay between them and Luleå, many miles away on
+the coast. Then she looked forward toward more peat bogs, swamps and
+forests that lay between them and Gellivare.
+
+"I suppose it is a wonderful place," she said slowly; "but it seems more
+wonderful to me that we are here looking at it. Do you remember how it
+looks on the map in our geography, and how far away it always seemed?"
+
+"Yes," replied her brother, "I always thought there was nothing but ice
+and snow beyond the Arctic Circle."
+
+"So did I," said Gerda. "I had no idea we should see little farms, and
+fields of rye, oats and barley, away up here in Lapland. Father says the
+crops grow faster because the sun shines all day and almost all night,
+too; and that it is only eight weeks from seed-time to harvest.
+
+"No doubt there is plenty of ice and snow in winter; but just here there
+seems to be nothing but swamps and forests."
+
+"And swarms of mosquitoes," added Birger. "Don't forget the mosquitoes!"
+
+In a moment more the children were back in their seats, and the train was
+creeping slowly northward, on its way toward Gellivare and Mount Dundret,
+where, from the fifth of June to the eleventh of July, the sun may be
+seen shining all day and all night.
+
+Birger took a tiny stone from his pocket and showed it to his sister,
+saying, "See my souvenir of Polcirkel." But Gerda paid little attention
+to his souvenir, and slipped over to her father's seat to ask a question.
+
+"Father," she said softly.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman looked up from the maps and papers in his lap. "What do
+you wish, little daughter?" he asked.
+
+"Will you please make me a promise?" she begged.
+
+"If it won't take all my money to keep it," he answered with a smile.
+
+But Gerda seemed in no hurry to tell what it was that she wanted, and
+began looking over the papers in his lap. "What is this?" she asked,
+taking up a small blue card.
+
+"That is my receipt from the Tourist Agency," he answered. "When I give
+it to the station master at Gellivare, he will give me a key which will
+open the hut on Mount Dundret, and let us see the midnight sun in
+comfort."
+
+"How much did you pay for it?" was Gerda's next question.
+
+"I paid about four kronor for the card and all the privileges that go
+with it," was the answer.
+
+"Have you plenty of money left?" asked the little girl.
+
+Her father laughed. "Enough to get us all three back to Stockholm, at
+least," he said. "Why do you ask?"
+
+"Because--" said Gerda slowly, and then stopped.
+
+"Because what?" Lieutenant Ekman asked again.
+
+"Because I wondered if we could stop at the lighthouse on our way home
+and ask Karen Klasson to go to Stockholm and live with us;" and Gerda
+held her breath and waited for her father to speak.
+
+"Perhaps she would not like to leave her father and mother for the sake
+of living with us," he said at last.
+
+"I think she would, if it would make her back well," persisted Gerda.
+
+Herr Ekman laughed. "If living with us would cure people's backs, we
+might have all the lame children in Sweden to care for," he said.
+
+"But I want only Karen," said Gerda; "and I thought it would be good for
+her to take the Swedish medical gymnastics at the Institute in Stockholm,
+where so many people are cured every year."
+
+Lieutenant Ekman looked thoughtfully at his daughter. "That is a good
+idea and shows a loving heart," he said. "But are you willing to give up
+any of your pleasures in order to make it possible?"
+
+Gerda looked at him in surprise, and he continued, "I am not a rich man.
+If we should take Karen into our family and send her to the gymnasium, it
+would cost a good many kronor, and your mother and I would have to make
+some sacrifices. Are you willing to make some, too?"
+
+Gerda gazed thoughtfully across the stretches of bog-land to the forest
+on the horizon. "Yes," she said at last; "I will go without the furs
+Mother promised to buy for me next winter."
+
+Lieutenant Ekman knew well that Gerda had set her heart on the furs, and
+that it would be a real sacrifice for her to give them up; but if she
+were willing to do so cheerfully, it meant that she was in earnest about
+helping her new friend.
+
+"Yes," he said, after a moment; "if you will give up the furs, we will
+see what can be done. On the way home we will stop at the lighthouse and
+ask Hans Klasson to lend Karen to us for a little while."
+
+Gerda clapped her hands. "Oh, a promise! A promise!" she cried joyously.
+"What a good souvenir of Polcirkel!" and she ran to tell Birger the news.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE MIDNIGHT SUN
+
+
+"What time is it, Father?" asked Gerda, as they reached the top of Mount
+Dundret, and Lieutenant Ekman took the key out of his pocket to open the
+door of the Tourists' Hut.
+
+"It is half past eleven," replied her father, looking at his watch.
+
+"At noon or at night?" questioned Gerda.
+
+"Look at the sun, and don't ask such foolish questions," Birger told her.
+"When the sun is high up in the heavens it is noon; but when it is down
+on the horizon it is night."
+
+Gerda looked off at the sun which hung like a huge red moon on the
+northern horizon. "Then I suppose it is almost midnight," she said, "and
+time to go to bed. I was wishing it was nearer noon and dinner-time."
+
+"You'll have to wait for dinner-time and bedtime, too, until we get back
+to Gellivare," her father told her.
+
+"When you have travelled so far just to see the sun shining at midnight,
+you should spend all your time looking at it," said Birger, opening his
+camera to take some pictures.
+
+Gerda looked down into the valleys below, where a thick mist hung over
+the lakes and rivers; then turned her eyes toward the sun, which was
+becoming paler and paler, its golden glow shedding a drowsy light over
+the hills.
+
+"How still it is!" she said softly. "All the world seems to have gone to
+sleep in the midst of sunshine."
+
+"It is exactly midnight," said her father, looking at the watch which he
+had been holding in his hand.
+
+Birger closed his camera and slipped it into his pocket. "There," he
+said, "I have a picture of the sun shining at midnight, to prove to Oscar
+that it really does shine. Now I am going to gather some flowers to press
+for Mother;" and he ran off down the side of the hill.
+
+Gerda found a seat on a rock beside the hut, and sat down to watch the
+beginning of the new day. The sun gradually brightened and became a
+magnificent red, tinging the clouds with gold and crimson, and gilding
+the distant hills. A fresh breeze sprang up, the swallows in their nests
+under the eaves of the hut twittered softly,--all nature seemed to be
+awake again.
+
+"I've been thinking," said Gerda, after a long silence, "that I told
+Hilma I should understand about the midnight sun if I should see it; but
+I'm afraid I don't understand it, after all."
+
+"It is this way," Lieutenant Ekman began. "The earth moves around the sun
+once every year, and turns on its own axis once every twenty-four hours."
+
+"That is in our geography," Gerda interrupted. "The path which the earth
+takes in its trip around the sun is called its orbit. The axis is a
+straight line that passes through the center of the earth, from the North
+Pole to the South Pole."
+
+"That is right," said her father; "and if old Mother Earth went whirling
+round and round with her axis perpendicular to her orbit, we should have
+twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of darkness all over the earth
+every day in the year."
+
+"I suppose she gets dizzy, spinning around so fast, and finds it hard to
+stand straight up and down," suggested Gerda.
+
+"No doubt of it," answered her father gravely. "At least she has tipped
+over, so that in summer the North Pole is turned toward the sun, but in
+winter it is turned away from the sun."
+
+"Let me show you how I think it is," said Gerda eagerly. She was always
+skillful at drawing pictures, and now she took the paper and pencil
+which her father gave her, and talked as she worked. "This is the sun and
+this is the earth's orbit," and she drew a circle in the center with a
+great path around it.
+
+"This is Mother Earth in the summer with the sun shining on her head at
+the North Pole," and a grandmotherly-looking figure in a Rättvik costume
+was quickly hung up on the line of the orbit, her head tipped toward the
+sun.
+
+"Here she is again in winter, with the sun shining on her feet at the
+South Pole," and Gerda drew the figure on the opposite side of the orbit
+with her head tipped away from the sun.
+
+"That is exactly how it is," said her father. "But do you understand
+that, when she is slowly moving round the sun, she is always tipped in
+the same direction, with the North Pole pointing toward the north star;
+so there comes a time, twice a year, when her head and her feet are both
+equally distant from the sun, which shines on both alike?"
+
+"No," said Gerda. "When does that happen?"
+
+"It happens in March and September, when Mother Earth has travelled just
+half the distance between summer and winter."
+
+"Oh, I see! This is where she would be;" and Gerda made two dots on the
+orbit, each half-way between the two grandmothers.
+
+"Good," said her father. "Now when she is in that position, day and
+night, all over the earth, are each twelve hours long. We call them the
+'Equinoxes.' It is a Latin word which means 'equal nights.'"
+
+"In March and September do we have a day when it is twelve hours from
+sunrise to sunset, and twelve hours from sunset to sunrise?" questioned
+Gerda.
+
+"Yes, and it is the same all over the earth the very same day," repeated
+Lieutenant Ekman. "If you will look in the almanac when you go home, you
+will see just which day it is."
+
+Gerda studied her drawing for a few minutes in silence. "I think I
+understand it now," she said at last.
+
+"It is easy to understand after a little study," her father told her;
+"but everyone has to see it for himself, just like the midnight sun.
+
+"When the North Pole, or Fru Earth's head, is turned toward the sun we
+have the long summer days in Sweden. When it is turned away from the sun
+we have the long winter nights. The nearer we go to the pole, the longer
+days and nights we have. If we could be directly at the pole, we should
+have six months of daylight and six months of darkness every year."
+
+"What did you say?" asked Birger, who came around the corner of the hut
+just in time to hear his father's last words.
+
+"We were explaining how it is that the farther north we go in summer, the
+longer we can see the sun each day," said Gerda.
+
+"Let me hear you explain it," suggested Birger, trying to find a
+comfortable seat on the rocky ground.
+
+But Gerda drew a long breath of dismay. "Oh, Birger, you should have come
+sooner!" she exclaimed. "I understand it perfectly now; but if we go
+through it again I shall get all mixed up in my mind."
+
+Lieutenant Ekman laughed. "I move that we stay up here and watch the
+midnight sun until we understand the whole matter and can stand on our
+heads and say it backwards," he suggested.
+
+"I'm willing to stay all summer, if we can drive off in the daytime and
+see some Lapp settlements," said Birger, who had made friends with a
+young Laplander that morning at the Gellivare station.
+
+"But it is daytime all the time!" cried Gerda. "When should we get any
+sleep?"
+
+"I must be back in Stockholm by the middle of July," said Lieutenant
+Ekman; "but if your friend knows where there are some Laplanders not too
+far away, perhaps we can spare time to go and see them."
+
+"Yes, he does," said Birger eagerly. "The mosquitoes have driven most of
+the herds of reindeer up into the mountains, but Erik's family are still
+living only a few miles north of Gellivare."
+
+"What is Erik doing in Gellivare?" questioned Herr Ekman.
+
+"He is working in the iron mines," Birger explained. "He wants to save
+money so that he can go to Stockholm and learn a trade. He doesn't want
+to stay here in Lapland and wander about with the reindeer all his life."
+
+"So?" said Lieutenant Ekman in surprise. "Your friend Erik seems to have
+ambitions of his own."
+
+"Look at Gerda!" whispered Birger suddenly.
+
+Gerda sat on the ground with her back against the hut, and she was fast
+asleep. "Poor child," said her father, as he carried her into the hut and
+put her on a cot, "she has been awake all night. When she has had a
+little rest we will go back to Gellivare and look up your friend Erik.
+After we have all had a good night's sleep, we shall be ready to make a
+call on his family and their reindeer."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+ERIK'S HOME IN LAPLAND
+
+
+"This is the best part of our trip," Gerda said, two days later,
+as she was standing in the shade of some fir trees at one of the
+posting-stations a few miles from Gellivare, waiting for fresh horses
+to be put into the carts. "I have been reading about Laplanders and their
+reindeer ever since I can remember, and now I am going to see them in
+their own home."
+
+"Perhaps you will be disappointed," Birger told her. "Erik says that his
+father's reindeer may wander away any day to find a place where there is
+more moss, and if they do, the whole family will follow them."
+
+"Where do they go?" asked Gerda.
+
+"There is a treaty between Norway and Sweden, more than one hundred and
+fifty years old, which provides that Swedish Lapps can go to the coast of
+Norway in summer, and Norwegian Lapps can go inland to Sweden in winter,"
+Lieutenant Ekman told the children.
+
+"Yes," said Erik, "when the moss is scanty or the swarms of mosquitoes
+too thick, the reindeer hurry off to some pleasanter spot, without
+stopping to ask permission. Perhaps we have been in camp a week, perhaps
+a month, just as it happens; but when we hear their joints snapping and
+their hoofs tramping all together, we know it is time to take down the
+tent, pack up everything and follow the herd to a new pasture."
+
+"I am glad we are out of sight of the photograph shops in Gellivare,
+anyway," Birger told Erik, when they were seated in the light carts and
+were once more on their journey. "If I could take such good pictures
+myself, I shouldn't care; but all my pictures of the midnight sun make it
+look like the moon in a snow-bank."
+
+Just then Gerda, who was riding with her father, called to Birger, "Stop
+a moment and listen!" So the two posting-carts halted while the children
+listened to the music of a mountain stream not far away. Mingled with the
+sound of the rushing water was the whirr of a busy sawmill in the depths
+of the woods, while from the tree-tops could be heard the call of a
+cuckoo and the harsh cry of a woodpecker.
+
+Soon they were on their way again, pushing deeper and deeper through the
+Lapland forest; their road bordered with green ferns and bright
+blossoming flowers, their path crossed now and again by fluttering
+butterflies.
+
+"This is just the right kind of a carriage for such a road, isn't it?"
+said Gerda, as the track led through a shallow brooklet.
+
+"Yes," answered her father; "a few of the roads in these northern forests
+are excellent; but many of them are only trails, and are rough and rocky.
+If the cart were not so light, with only one seat and two wheels, we
+should often get a severe shaking-up."
+
+"How does it happen that we can get such a good horse and cart up here
+among the forests?" asked Gerda.
+
+"As there is no railroad in this part of Lapland, the Swedish government
+very thoughtfully arranges for the posting-stations, and guarantees the
+pay of the keepers for providing travellers with fresh horses," her
+father explained. "The stations are from one to two Swedish miles apart,
+and everyone who hires a horse is expected to take good care of him."
+
+"I'm afraid we shall have to make this horse go faster, or we shall be
+caught in a thunder-storm," said Gerda, looking up through the trees at
+the sky, which was growing dark with clouds.
+
+"You are right," answered her father; and at the same moment Erik looked
+back and shouted, "We must hurry. Perhaps we can reach my father's tent
+before the rain comes."
+
+Then, glancing up again at the black clouds, he said to Birger, "We shall
+soon hear the pounding of Thor's hammer."
+
+"How do you happen to know about the old Norse gods?" questioned Birger.
+
+"I have been to school in Jockmock, and I read books," replied Erik,
+urging on his horse to a race with the clouds; but the clouds won, for
+the little party had gone scarcely an English mile before they were in
+the midst of a thunder-storm. Over rocks and rills, under low-hanging
+boughs of pine and birch trees rattled the carts along the rough woodland
+road. The rain poured down in sheets, zigzag lightning flashed across the
+sky, and a peal of thunder crashed and rumbled through the forest.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman threw his coat over Gerda, covering her from head to
+foot, and called to Erik that they must stop. As he spoke, a second flash
+of lightning showed a great boulder beside the road and Erik answered,
+"Here we are at my father's tent. It is just beyond that rock."
+
+Another moment, and with one last jounce and jolt, the two carts had
+rounded the turn in the road and stopped in a small clearing beside a
+lake. The arrival of the carts, or kärra, as they are called in Sweden,
+had brought the whole family of Lapps to the door of the tent. There
+they stood, huddled together,--Erik's father, mother, brother and
+sisters,--looking out to see who was arriving in such a downpour.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman jumped down, gathered Gerda up in his arms, coat and
+all, and ran toward the tent. Birger followed, while Erik waited to tie
+the horses to a tree.
+
+Immediately the group at the doorway disappeared inside the tent, making
+way for the strangers to enter, and when Gerda had shaken herself out of
+her father's coat, a scene of the greatest confusion greeted her eyes.
+
+The frame of the tent was made of poles driven into the ground and drawn
+together at the top. It was covered with a coarse woolen cloth which is
+made by the Lapps and is very strong. A cross-pole was fastened to the
+frame to support the cooking-kettle, under which wood had been placed
+for a fire.
+
+An opening had been left at the top of the tent to allow the smoke to
+escape. Birger had often made such a tent of poles and canvas when he was
+spending the summer with his grandmother in Dalarne.
+
+At the right of the entrance was a pile of reindeer skins, and there,
+huddled together with the three children, were four big dogs. The dogs
+stood up and began to growl, but Erik's father, who was a short,
+thick-set man with black eyes and a skin which was red and wrinkled from
+exposure to the cold winds, silenced them with a word. He then helped
+Erik spread some dry skins for the visitors on the left side of the tent.
+
+The Lapp mother immediately busied herself with lighting the fire,
+putting some water into the kettle to boil, and grinding some coffee.
+As she moved about the tent, Gerda saw that a baby, strapped to a
+cradle-board, hung over her back.
+
+The baby's skin was white and soft, her cheeks rosy, her hair as yellow
+as Gerda's. She opened her blue eyes wide at the sight of the strangers,
+but not a sound did she make. Evidently Lapp babies were not expected to
+cry.
+
+The coffee was soon ready, and was poured into cups for the guests, while
+Erik and his brother and sisters drank theirs in turn from a big bowl.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman talked with Erik's father, who, like many of the Lapps,
+could speak Swedish; but the children were all silent, and the dogs lay
+still in their corner, their gleaming eyes watching every motion of the
+strangers.
+
+When Gerda had finished drinking the coffee, which was very good, she
+took two small packages from her pocket and put them into her father's
+hand. "They are for Erik's family," she whispered. "Birger and I bought
+them in Gellivare."
+
+"Don't you think it would be better for you to give them out yourself?"
+he asked; but Gerda shook her head as if she had suddenly become dumb,
+and so Lieutenant Ekman distributed the gifts.
+
+There was a string of shells for the youngest child; a silver ring, a
+beaded belt, a knife and a cheap watch for the older children; a box of
+matches and some tobacco for the father, and some needles and bright
+colored thread for the mother.
+
+"We should like to give you something in return," said Erik's father;
+"but we have nothing in the world except our reindeer. If we should give
+you one of them you might have some trouble in taking it home," and he
+laughed loudly at the idea.
+
+"If you wish to please me, you can do so and help your son at the same
+time," replied Lieutenant Ekman. "Erik is a good lad. He can read well,
+and has studied while he has been working in the mines. Now he wishes to
+learn a trade, and we can take him with us to Stockholm if you will let
+him go."
+
+Erik's father did not speak for a few moments; then he rose and opened
+the door of the tent, motioning for the others to follow him out into
+the forest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+FOUR-FOOTED FRIENDS
+
+
+The brief thunder-storm was over, the high noonday sun was shining down
+into the clearing, and the rumble of Thor's hammer could be heard only
+faintly in the distance. In the trees overhead the birds were calling to
+one another, shaking the drops of rain from many a twig and leaf as they
+flitted among the green branches.
+
+Erik's father took up a stout birch staff which was leaning against the
+tent, and led the way to the reindeer pasture, followed by his dogs.
+
+These dogs are the useful friends of the Lapps. They are very strong and
+brave, and watch the reindeer constantly to keep them together. When the
+herd is attacked by a pack of wolves, the frightened animals scatter in
+all directions, and then the owner and his dogs have hard work to round
+them up again.
+
+Now, as the dogs walked along behind their master, they stopped once in a
+while to sniff the air, and their keen eyes seemed to see everything.
+
+The country was wild and desolate. As far as the eye could reach, there
+was nothing but low hills, bare and rocky, with dark forests of fir and
+birch. It was cold and the wind blew in strong gusts. Tiny rills and
+brooks, formed by the melted snow and the frequent rains, chattered
+among the rocks; and in the deepest hollows there were still small
+patches of snow.
+
+Birger gathered up some of the snow and made a snowball. "Put it in your
+pocket, and take it home to Oscar as a souvenir of Lapland," Gerda
+suggested.
+
+"No," he replied, taking out his camera, "I'll set it up on this rock and
+take a picture of it,--snowball in July."
+
+"You'd better wait until you see the reindeer before you begin taking
+pictures," called Gerda, hurrying on without waiting for her brother.
+In a few moments more they came in sight of the herd, and saw animals of
+all sizes, many of them having superb, spreading antlers.
+
+"Look," said Erik's father, pointing to the reindeer with pride, "there
+are over three hundred deer,--all mine."
+
+"All the needs of the mountain Lapps are supplied by the reindeer,"
+Lieutenant Ekman told the children. "These useful animals furnish their
+owners with food, clothing, bedding and household utensils. They are
+horse, cow, express messenger and freight train. In summer they carry
+heavy loads on their backs; in winter they draw sledges over the snow."
+
+Some of the reindeer were lying down, but others were eating the short,
+greenish-white moss which grows in patches among the rocks, tearing it
+off with their forefeet. They showed no signs of fear at the approach of
+the strangers, and did not even stop to look up at them.
+
+Two or three moved slowly toward Erik when he spoke to them, but not one
+would touch the moss which he held out in his hand.
+
+"This is my own deer," Erik told Birger, showing a mark on the ear of a
+reindeer which had splendid great antlers. "He was given to me when I was
+born, to form the beginning of my herd. I have ten deer now, but I would
+gladly give them all to my father if he would let me go to Stockholm with
+you."
+
+Lieutenant Ekman turned to the father. "It shall cost him nothing," he
+said. "Are you willing that he should go?"
+
+"Yes, if he does not want to stay here," replied the father, who had
+hoped that the sight of the reindeer would make his son forget his
+longing to leave home.
+
+Erik nodded his head. "I want to go," he said.
+
+"Then it is settled," said Lieutenant Ekman, "and I will see that he
+learns a good trade."
+
+"Yes, it is settled," agreed Erik's father; "but I had hoped that my son
+would live here in Lapland and become an owner of reindeer. There are not
+so many owners as there should be."
+
+"Why, I thought that all Laplanders owned reindeer!" exclaimed Birger.
+
+"No," said his father, "there are about seven thousand Lapps in Sweden,
+but only three or four hundred of them own herds. There are the fisher
+Lapps who live on the coast; and then there are the field Lapps who live
+on the river-banks and cultivate little farms. It is only the mountain
+Lapps who own reindeer and spend all their lives wandering up and down
+the country, wherever their herds lead them."
+
+"What do the reindeer live on in the winter when the snow covers the
+moss?" questioned Birger.
+
+"The Lapps have to find places where the snow is not more than four or
+five feet deep, and then the animals can dig holes in the snow with their
+forefeet until they reach the moss," replied his father. "The reindeer
+are never housed and seem to like cold weather. They prefer to dig up the
+moss for themselves, and will not eat it after it has been gathered and
+dried."
+
+Just then the Lapp mother came to speak to her husband, and in a few
+minutes all the rest of the family arrived.
+
+"They are going to milk the reindeer," Erik explained to Gerda.
+
+"How often do you milk them?" she asked.
+
+"Twice a week," was the answer. "They give only a little milk, but it is
+very thick and rich."
+
+Erik and his brother Pers went carefully into the herd and threw a lasso
+gently over the horns of the deer, to hold them still while the mother
+did the milking. The twins looked on with interest; but to their great
+astonishment not one of the reindeer gave more than a mug of milk. They
+had been used to seeing brimming pails of cow's milk at the Ekman farm in
+Dalarne.
+
+"How do they ever get enough cream to make butter?" questioned Gerda.
+
+"We never make butter, but we make good cheese," Erik's mother explained,
+as she brought a cup of milk for them to taste.
+
+"What do these people eat?" Gerda asked her father, when the woman went
+back to her milking.
+
+"The reindeer furnish them with milk, cream, cheese and meat; and when
+they sell an animal they buy coffee, sugar, meal, tobacco, and whatever
+else they need. Then they catch a few fish and kill a bear once in a
+great while."
+
+"I have killed two bears in my life," Erik's father said with pride.
+"Look," and he showed his belt, from which hung a fringe of bears' teeth.
+
+"Do all the Lapps know how to speak Swedish?" Birger questioned.
+
+"And do they all know how to read and write?" added Gerda.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman nodded. "Most of them do," he replied. "Our government
+provides teachers and ministers for the largest settlements, so that the
+Laplanders may become good Swedish subjects."
+
+"My brother and I went to school in Jockmock last winter," said Erik, who
+had overheard the conversation. "It is a Lapp village near Gellivare, and
+my father goes there sometimes to sell toys that we carve from the
+antlers of the reindeer."
+
+A little five-year-old girl, who had hardly taken her eyes from Gerda's
+face, suddenly put up her hand and took off a leather pouch which hung
+around her neck. Opening the pouch, she took from it a tiny bag made of
+deerskin.
+
+Gerda had noticed that each one of the family wore just such a pouch, and
+she had seen the mother open hers, when she was making the coffee, and
+take from it a silver spoon.
+
+From the deerskin bag the child next took a small box made of bone, and
+by this time Birger and all the others were watching her with interest.
+Off came the cover of the box. Out of the box came a tiny package wrapped
+carefully in a bit of woolen cloth, and out of the wrappings came a
+precious treasure.
+
+"Look," exclaimed Gerda when she saw what it was; "it is a perfect little
+reindeer!"
+
+And so, indeed, it was,--a tiny animal made from a bit of bone, with
+hoofs, head and antlers all perfectly carved.
+
+The child held it out toward Gerda, nodding her head shyly to show that
+she wished to have her take it. But Gerda hesitated to do so until Erik
+said, "My father will make her another. You gave her the string of
+shells, and she will not like it if you refuse her gift."
+
+So Gerda took the little reindeer, and many a time in Stockholm, the next
+winter, she looked at it and thought of the child who gave it to her, and
+of the curious day she spent with the Lapps in far away Lapland.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+KAREN'S BROTHER
+
+
+"How would you like to spend a whole summer here in the forest, watching
+the reindeer?" Lieutenant Ekman asked Gerda, after the milking was over
+and the Lapp mother had gone back to the tent with her children.
+
+"Not very well, if I had to live in that tent," Gerda answered. Then
+suddenly something attracted her attention, and she held up her hand,
+saying, "Listen!"
+
+A faint call sounded in the distance,--a call for help.
+
+"This way," cried Erik, and dashed off down a path which led toward the
+river.
+
+All the others followed him. "It must be one of the lumbermen," said
+Erik's father. "They often get hurt in the log jams."
+
+He was right. When they reached the riverbank they found several men
+trying to drive some logs out into the current, so as to release a man
+who had slipped and was pinned against a rock.
+
+The bed of the river was rilled with rocks, over which the water was
+rushing with great force, in just such a torrent as may be found on
+nearly all the rivers of northern Sweden. Starting from the melting snow
+on the mountains, these rivers flow rapidly down to the sea, and every
+summer millions of logs go sailing down the streams to the sawmills along
+the eastern coast.
+
+Thousands of these logs are thrown into the water to drift down to the
+sea by themselves; but on some of the slower rivers the logs are made
+up into rafts which are guided down the stream by men who live on the
+raft during its journey.
+
+It was one of the log-drivers who had been caught while he was trying to
+push the logs out into the channel; and now his leg was broken.
+
+"We can take him to Gellivare in one of our kärra," said Lieutenant
+Ekman, when, with the help of Erik and his father, the man had finally
+been rescued and carried ashore.
+
+Accordingly, he was lifted into the cart with Erik, while Gerda snuggled
+into the seat between Birger and her father; and the journey over the
+rough woodland road was made as carefully as possible.
+
+Several interesting things were discovered while the doctor from the
+mines was setting the broken leg. The most important of all was that this
+stalwart lumberman had a father who was a lighthouse keeper.
+
+"Ask him if it is the Sea-gull Light," begged Gerda, when she heard of
+it; "and find out if Karen is his sister."
+
+And it was indeed so. The young man had been in the woods all winter, and
+was on his way to the lighthouse, which he had hoped to reach in a few
+days, for the river current was swift and the logs were making good
+progress down to Luleå.
+
+"You shall reach home sooner than you expected," said Lieutenant Ekman
+the next morning, "for you shall go with us this very day."
+
+"Fine! Fine! Fine!" cried Gerda joyously when she heard of it. "Pack your
+bundle, Erik, for you are going with us, too."
+
+While their clothes, and all the little keepsakes of the trip, were being
+hurried into the satchels, Gerda's tongue flew fast with excitement, and
+her feet flew to keep it company.
+
+"What do you suppose Karen will say, when she sees us bringing her
+brother over the rocks?" she ran to ask Birger in one room, and then ran
+to ask her father in another.
+
+At nine o'clock the injured man was moved into the train, the children
+took their last look at the mining town, and then began their return over
+the most northerly railroad in the world, back through the swamps and
+forests, across the Polcirkel, and out of Lapland.
+
+Luleå was reached at last and Josef Klasson was transported from the
+train to the steamer, "Just as if he were a load of iron ore from the
+mines," Birger declared.
+
+"Not quite so bad as that," said his father, and took the twins to see
+the great hydraulic lift that takes up a car loaded with ore, as easily
+as a mother lifts her baby, and dumps the whole load into the hold of a
+vessel.
+
+The children were so full of interest in all the new life around them
+that Josef Klasson almost forgot his pain in telling them about his
+winter in the lumber camp, and the long dark night, when for over a month
+there was not even a glimpse of the sun, and no light except that of the
+moon and the frosty stars.
+
+It seemed but a very short time before Gerda was crying, "I can see the
+Sea-gull Light, and Karen is out on the rocks."
+
+Then came all the excitement of landing. The twins told Karen about
+finding her brother, and the reindeer, and the midnight sun, and the logs
+in the river, all in one breath; while Lieutenant Ekman explained Josef's
+accident to the lighthouse keeper and his wife, who had both hurried down
+to the wharf to find out the meaning of the return of the government
+boat.
+
+Then, after Josef had been welcomed with loving sorrow because of his
+injury, and they had carried him up to the house and made him
+comfortable, Gerda told about her desire to take Karen home with her.
+
+At first the father and mother would not hear of such a thing; but when
+Herr Ekman told of the medical gymnastic exercises that might cure her
+lameness, Josef spoke from his cot.
+
+"Let her go," he said. "It is a terrible thing to be lame. These few days
+that I have been helpless are the worst I have ever known. If there is a
+chance to make Karen well, let her go."
+
+And so Karen and Erik both went to Stockholm on the boat with Herr Ekman
+and the twins.
+
+"You know I told you that I never see my brothers very long at one time,"
+Karen said to Gerda, after the children had been greeted and gladly
+welcomed by Fru Ekman, and they had all tried to make the strangers feel
+at home among them.
+
+"Yes," said Gerda; "but when you next see Josef you may be so well and
+strong that you can go off to the lumber camp with him and help him saw
+down the trees."
+
+Karen shook her head sadly. She could not believe that she would ever
+walk without a crutch, and it was the first time that she had been away
+from her mother in all her life. She turned to the window so that Gerda
+might not see the tears that came into her eyes, and looked down at the
+strange city sights.
+
+Just then Lieutenant Ekman came into the room. "Oh, Father, may we take
+Erik to the Djurgård to-morrow?" Birger asked. "I want to show him the
+Lapp tent and the reindeer out there. He seems to be rather homesick for
+the forest, and says that we live up in the air like the birds in their
+nests."
+
+When the four children were asleep for the night, and the father and
+mother were left alone, they laughed softly together over the situation.
+
+"Who ever heard of bringing a Lapp boy to Stockholm!" exclaimed Herr
+Ekman; and his wife added, "Who but Gerda would think of bringing a
+strange child here, to be cured of her lameness?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A DAY IN SKANSEN
+
+
+It was in the Djurgård that poor Erik first learned that he was a
+Lapp,--a dirty Lapp.
+
+Of course he knew that his ancestors had lived in Lapland for hundreds of
+years; but before he went to the Djurgård that day with Birger and Gerda,
+he had never heard himself called a Lapp in derision.
+
+The Djurgård, or Deer Park, is a beautiful public park on one of the
+wooded islands near Stockholm. There one finds forests of gigantic oaks,
+dense groves of spruce, smiling meadows, winding roads and shady paths.
+Through the tree-branches one catches a glimpse of the blue waters of the
+fjord, rippling and sparkling in the sun; little steamers go puffing
+briskly to and fro; and great vessels sail slowly down to the sea.
+
+In summer, steamers and street cars are constantly carrying people back
+and forth between the Deer Park and other parts of the city. It is not
+a long trip; from the quay in front of the Royal Palace it takes only ten
+minutes to reach the park, and day and night the boats are crowded
+with passengers.
+
+People go there to dine in the open-air restaurants and listen to the
+bands; they go to walk along the beautiful, tree-shaded paths; or they
+go to visit Skansen, one of the most interesting museums in the world.
+
+It was to look at the Lapp encampment in Skansen that Birger and Gerda
+took Erik to the Djurgård. It was to see the birthday celebration in
+honor of Sweden's beloved poet, Karl Bellman, that they took Karen, for
+Gerda had already discovered that Karen knew many of Bellman's verses and
+songs.
+
+The happy little party started early in the afternoon, and as they walked
+through the city streets, many were the curious glances turned upon the
+Lapp boy.
+
+Erik wore a suit of Birger's clothes, and although he was five years
+older, they fitted him well. He was short, as all Lapps are, and his face
+was broad, with high cheek-bones; but he had a pair of large, honest,
+black eyes which looked at everybody and everything in a pleasant, kindly
+way.
+
+"What is that great, upward-going box?" he asked, as he caught sight of
+the Katarina Hissen, on the quay at the south side of the fjord.
+
+"That is an elevator which will take you up to the heights above, where
+you can look over the whole city," was Birger's answer. Then he whispered
+to Gerda to ask if she thought they might go up in the elevator before
+going to the Deer Park.
+
+Gerda shook her head. "It costs five öre to go up in the lift, and three
+öre to come down," she replied. "That would be thirty-two öre for us all,
+and we must save our money to spend in the Djurgård. There is the boat
+now," and she led the way to the little steamer.
+
+"I have heard you say so much about Skansen," said Karen, when they had
+found seats on the deck together, "that I'd like to know what it is
+all about."
+
+"It is all about every old thing in Sweden," laughed Gerda. "The man
+who planned it said that the time would come when gold could not
+buy a picture of olden times--the old homes and costumes and ways of
+living--and then people would wish they could know more about them.
+
+"So he travelled all over Sweden, from one end to the other, making a
+collection of all sorts of old things to put in a museum in Stockholm.
+Then he thought of showing the real life of the country people, so he
+bought houses and set them up in Skansen, and hired the peasants to come
+and live in them.
+
+"When he finished his work, there was an example of every kind of Swedish
+dwelling, from the Laplander's tent and the charcoal burner's hut, to the
+farmhouse in Dalarne and the fisherman's cot in Skåne. And people were
+living in all the houses just as they had lived at home,--spinning,
+weaving, baking, and celebrating all the holidays in the same old way."
+
+"And there are cages of wild animals and birds too," added Birger, "polar
+bears and owls and eagles and reindeer--"
+
+"That is what I want to see,--the reindeer," interrupted Erik; so when
+the steamer reached the quay at the Deer Park, the children went at once
+to find the Laplander's tent in Skansen.
+
+Erik stood still for a long time, looking at the rocks, and the Lapps and
+reindeer; and the twins waited for him to speak. Gerda expected that he
+would say it was just like home; but, instead, he turned to her at last
+and asked, "Do you think it is like Lapland?"
+
+The little girl was rather taken aback at his question. "Well, you know,
+Erik," she stammered, "they have done the best they could."
+
+Erik shook his head. "They could not move the forest, with the rivers and
+mountains and wild birds," he said. "Without them it is not a real
+Lapland home."
+
+His whole face said so plainly, "It is only an imitation," that Birger
+could not help laughing.
+
+"There is no museum in all Europe like Skansen," he said at last, quite
+proudly; "and there are many people who come here to see it, because
+they cannot travel, as Gerda and I did, and see the real homes in the
+country."
+
+"I am one of them," said Karen. "This is the only way I shall ever see a
+Laplander's tent and reindeer."
+
+"I will show you a house that is just like my grandmother's home in
+Rättvik," suggested Gerda, and they walked slowly through the woodland
+paths, so that Karen would not get tired with her crutch.
+
+In a few minutes they came upon a place where some peasants, dressed in
+their native costumes, were dancing folk-dances; for that is one of the
+pleasant Skansen ways of saving the old customs.
+
+"Oh, let us stop and look at the dancers!" cried Karen in delight. "I
+wonder what they are doing," she added, watching their graceful movements
+forward and back and in and out.
+
+"They are 'reaping the flax,'" said Gerda, who knew all the different
+dances because she often went to Skansen with her mother and father on
+sunny summer evenings.
+
+After the flax dance was finished, a company of boys took the platform,
+and made everyone laugh with a queer, half-comical, half-serious dance
+which Gerda called the "ox-dance."
+
+"I should like to dance with them," said Erik suddenly.
+
+"Yes, it is a great deal more fun to dance than to watch others," said
+Gerda kindly; but she moved away from the sight at once, lest Erik should
+push in among the dancers.
+
+"This is just the time to go over to the Bellman oak," she suggested. "It
+is the poet's day, and there will be wreaths and garlands hanging on his
+tree, and a band of music playing some of his songs."
+
+Erik walked along slowly, his eyes looking back longingly toward the
+dancing, and finally Gerda looked back, too.
+
+"See, Erik," she said, "the boys have finished, and now the girls are
+going to dance alone. You would not like to dance with the girls;" and
+then he followed her willingly to the other side of the island.
+
+Crowds of people were gathering under the Bellman oak, and the four
+children found a seat near-by, where they could see and hear everything
+that went on around them.
+
+"We must keep Erik here, or else he will insist on going to blow in the
+band," Gerda whispered to her brother, as she saw the Lapp boy watching
+the man with the trombone. Then she began to talk about Karl Bellman, the
+songs and poems he wrote, and how much the people loved him.
+
+"He is one of our most famous poets," she said earnestly, and Erik looked
+at her and repeated solemnly:--
+
+"Cattle die,
+Kinsmen die,
+One's self dies, too;
+But the fame never dies,
+Of him who gets a good name."
+
+"Why, Erik!" exclaimed Karen in surprise; "that is from 'The Song of the
+High' by Odin, the king of the gods. How did you happen to know it?"
+
+"I know many things," said Erik with an air of importance. But there were
+some things which Erik did not know. One was, how to play the trombone;
+and it was his strongest trait that he liked to investigate everything
+that was new and strange.
+
+Now, when Karen spoke in such a tone of admiration, Erik felt that he
+must find out at once about that queer instrument which made such loud
+music; and before Gerda knew what he was doing, he had jumped up from the
+ground and walked to the stand where the musicians were playing.
+
+"Let me try it," he said, and held out his hand for the trombone.
+
+Gerda was in an agony of distress. "Run and get him, Birger," she urged.
+"Oh, run quick!"
+
+"Erik, Erik, come here!" cried Birger, running after his friend. But
+before Birger's voice reached his ears, the trombonist had said very
+plainly and harshly, "Get away from here, you dirty Lapp!" and poor Erik
+was looking at him with shame and anger in his eyes, when Birger took
+hold of his clenched hand and led him away from the bandstand.
+
+It was a hard moment for the twins. People were looking at them and
+laughing, and the words, "Lapp! Lapp!" spoken in a tone of ridicule,
+could be heard on every side.
+
+"Let us go home," suggested Gerda, her face scarlet with shame at so much
+unpleasant attention.
+
+"No," said Birger stoutly, "let us stay right here and show that we don't
+care."
+
+But Karen all at once felt very tired, and when she told Gerda about it,
+the little party went sadly through the crowd and took their places in
+silence on the return steamer.
+
+Neither Birger nor Gerda had any heart to tell their friends the names of
+the different buildings which they saw from the deck of the boat,
+although Gerda said once, with a brave little effort to make Erik forget
+his shame, "We will go home through Erik-gatan."
+
+But Erik looked at her with troubled eyes and made no answer. Not until
+they were safely within the walls of home did he speak, and then it was
+to ask, "Why did he call me a dirty Lapp?"
+
+"Because many Lapps _are_ dirty," replied Birger, feeling just as
+miserable as Erik looked. "They don't bathe, nor eat from dishes, nor
+sleep in beds, as good Swedish people do."
+
+"I shall bathe, and eat from dishes, and sleep in beds all the rest of my
+life," said Erik, his face very white, his eyes very angry. "And I shall
+learn to use that strange tool that makes loud music," he added.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman stood in the doorway, listening to his words. "Good," he
+said heartily; "that is the way for you to talk. And you shall learn to
+use many other tools, too. I have made arrangements to-day for you to
+work in the ironworks at Göteborg, where they make steamers, engines and
+boilers. I have a friend there who will look after you, and see that you
+are taught a good trade."
+
+"But, Father," cried Birger, "Göteborg is a long way from Stockholm! How
+can Erik go so far alone?"
+
+"I am going over to Göteborg myself next month," replied Inspector Ekman,
+"and he can go with me. A new lightship is ready to be launched, and I
+shall have to inspect it and give the certificate before it is accepted
+by the government."
+
+"Let us go with you! Let us go, too!" begged the twins, dancing round and
+round their father.
+
+"But what will become of Karen?" he asked.
+
+Gerda and Birger stopped short and looked at their new friend. It was
+plain to be seen that she was not strong enough to take such a trip.
+
+Fru Ekman put her arm tenderly around the little lame girl. "Karen will
+visit me," she said kindly.
+
+So it was decided that the twins should go to Göteborg with their father
+by way of the Göta Canal. When the day for the journey arrived, the
+satchels were packed once more, and Gerda showed Karen how to water her
+plants and feed her pet parrot in her absence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THROUGH THE LOCKS
+
+
+"What do you think of a girl who goes off on two journeys in one summer?"
+and Gerda leaned over the railing of the canal-boat to look at her
+friends on the quay below.
+
+It was the middle of August, and the same group of boys and girls who had
+seen the twins off to the North in June were now speeding them to the
+West.
+
+"I think you don't care for Stockholm any longer," called Hilma; while
+Oscar added, "And you can't care for your friends either, or you wouldn't
+be leaving them again so soon."
+
+"I shall be home in just seven days," said Gerda, "and if you will all be
+here on the quay to welcome me, I will tell you the whole story of the
+wonderful Göta Canal, and our sight-seeing in Göteborg."
+
+"Your friends will have to meet you at the railroad station," her father
+told her. "We shall come back by train. It is much the quickest way."
+
+"At the railroad station then, one week from to-day," called Gerda, as
+the steamer backed away from the quay, and swung slowly out into the
+Mälar Lake.
+
+"Gerda and Birger are the luckiest twins I know," exclaimed Olaf, taking
+off his cap and swinging it around his head, as he caught sight of
+Gerda's fluttering handkerchief.
+
+"That boy Erik seems to be very fond of Birger," said Oscar. "And now
+that the little girl from the lighthouse is going to live with the Ekmans
+this winter, I suppose the twins will forget all the rest of us."
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Sigrid loyally. "They will never forget their
+friends. Besides, I like Karen myself. Let's go and see her now. She must
+be lonely without Gerda."
+
+In the meantime the little party of four--Lieutenant Ekman, with Erik and
+the twins--were sailing across the eastern end of Lake Mälar toward the
+Södertelje Canal.
+
+Birger and Gerda explored the boat, making friends with some of the
+passengers, and then found seats with Erik on the forward deck, where
+they could see the wooded shore of the lake. They passed many an island
+with its pretty villas peeping out among the green trees, and saw gay
+pleasure parties sailing or rowing on the quiet water.
+
+In a short time the boat sailed slowly into the peaceful waters of the
+Södertelje Canal. This is the first of the short canals which form links
+between the lakes and rivers of Southern Sweden, thus making a shorter
+waterway from Stockholm to Göteborg; and while the trip is about three
+hundred and seventy miles long, only fifty miles is actual canal, more
+than four-fifths of the distance being covered by lakes and rivers, with
+a fifty-mile sail on the Baltic Sea.
+
+The principal difficulty in making this waterway across Sweden lay in the
+fact that the highest of the lakes is about three hundred feet above the
+sea level, and the boats have to climb up to it from the Baltic Sea, and
+then climb down to Göteborg. This climbing is accomplished by means of
+locks in the canals between the different lakes. In some canals there is
+only one lock, but in others there are several together, like a flight of
+stairs. There are seventy-six locks in all.
+
+The boat sails into a lock and great gates are closed behind it. Then
+water pours in and lifts the boat slowly higher and higher until it is on
+a level with the water in the lock above. The gates in front of the boat
+are opened, it sails slowly into the next lock, the gates close behind
+it; and that lock in turn is filled to the level of the one above.
+
+The boat now wound along between the high green banks of the
+Södertelje Canal until it entered the first of the locks. Birger and
+Erik ran to the rail to watch the opening and closing of the gates, and
+the lowering of the boat to the level of the Baltic Sea; but Gerda
+preferred to talk with some old women who came on board with baskets full
+of kringlor,--ring-twisted cakes.
+
+The cakes looked so good, and everyone who bought them seemed to find
+them so delicious, that at last she ran to ask her father for some money;
+and when the boat had passed the lock and was once more on its way, she
+presented a bagful of cakes to Birger and Erik.
+
+"The Vikings had no such easy way as this of getting from Lake Mälar out
+into the Baltic Sea," said Lieutenant Ekman, coming up to find the
+children, and helping himself generously to the kringlor.
+
+Gerda looked at the gnarled and sturdy oaks that lined the banks of the
+canal like watchful sentinels. "The Vikings must have loved the lakes and
+bays of the Northland," she said. "Perhaps they begged All-father Odin to
+let their spirits come back and make their homes in these trees."
+
+"No doubt they did," replied her father, gravely enough. "I suppose when
+the trees wave their arms and shake themselves so violently they are
+saying to each other something like this: 'See how these good-for-nothing
+children go in good-for-nothing boats over this good-for-nothing
+ditch.'"
+
+"With their good-for-something father," cried Gerda, throwing her arms
+around his neck and giving him a loving kiss.
+
+"Am I really good for something?" he asked, as soon as he could
+speak. "Well then, you must be good for something, too. In olden
+times the Vikings sailed the seas and brought home many a treasure
+from foreign shores. See that you take home some treasures from your
+journey,--something that will remind you of the towns we visit and the
+sights we see," and he put his hand into his pocket and took out three
+coins.
+
+"The Vikings had a fashion of taking what they wanted without paying for
+it," suggested Birger.
+
+"You'd better not try it now, my son," replied Herr Ekman; and he gave
+each one of the children a krona.
+
+"Here's a kringla to remind me of Södertelje," said Gerda, slipping one
+of the cakes into her pocket; and then the three children went off to
+the forward deck to watch the boat sail out into the ocean.
+
+For fifty miles they sailed among wooded islands and rocky ledges, and
+then entered the canal which connects the Baltic Sea with Lake Roxen. On
+the way the boat stopped at two or three ports, and each tune the
+children went ashore to buy a souvenir.
+
+"Show me your treasures, and I will show you mine," Gerda said to Erik,
+after the first stop.
+
+The boy shook his head. "I bought something useful," he said, "and I
+shall send it to my father;" but even with coaxing he would not tell what
+it was, until they were all ready to show their treasures to Lieutenant
+Ekman. So all three of the children agreed to keep their souvenirs a
+secret, and had great fun slipping off alone to buy them.
+
+All day and all night, and all the next day, the boat steamed across the
+open lakes, glided noiselessly into the quiet canals, or climbed slowly
+step by step up the locks.
+
+Toward night of the second day Birger suddenly announced, "This is Lake
+Viken, and it is the highest lake on the way between the two ends of the
+canal route. The captain says that it is more than three hundred feet
+above the level of the sea."
+
+"Have we seen the prettiest part of the route?" asked Gerda.
+
+"Far from it," was the answer. "The best part of the canal is still
+before us, at Trollhättan, although the next lake that we enter, Lake
+Vener, is a lovely sheet of water. It is the largest lake in Sweden, and
+I must visit one of the lighthouses."
+
+"And I must call upon one of the trolls when we get to Trollhättan," said
+Gerda, shaking her head with an air of importance.
+
+"I shall walk up the locks," said Birger.
+
+"You mean that you will walk down the locks," Erik corrected him. "After
+this the boat will go downstairs until we reach the Göta River."
+
+And when, on the last morning of the journey, they reached Trollhättan,
+with its famous waterfalls and rapids, the children went ashore and left
+the boat to walk down the steep hillside by itself, while they ran along
+beside the canal, or took little trips through the groves to get a better
+view of the falls. Gerda peered under the trees and bushes for a glimpse
+of the water witches, but she saw not one.
+
+"And now for your treasures," said Lieutenant Ekman, when they were once
+more on the boat and it was steaming down the Göta River to Göteborg.
+
+"I bought post-cards," Birger announced, and took a handful from his
+pocket. "Here are pictures of the giant staircase of locks at
+Trollhättan, Lake Vener at sunset, the fortress at Karlsborg, the castle
+at Vettersborg, and the great iron works at Motala."
+
+While Herr Ekman was examining the cards and asking Birger all sorts of
+questions about them, Gerda was busy spreading out her souvenirs on one
+of the deck chairs; and such a variety as she had! There was a box of
+soap, a bag filled with squares of beet-sugar, a tiny hammer made in
+the shape of the giant steam-hammer "Wrath" at Motala, a package of paper
+made at one of the great paper-mills, lace collars, a lace cap and some
+beautiful handkerchiefs from Vadstena.
+
+When her father turned his attention to her collection, he held up his
+hands in amazement. "Are all these things made in Sweden?" he asked.
+"And did you buy them all with one krona?"
+
+"They are all made in the towns and cities which we have visited," Gerda
+replied; "but they cost more than one krona. Mother gave me five kronor
+before we left home and asked me to buy handkerchiefs and laces at
+Vadstena. They are the best to be found anywhere in Sweden."
+
+"And how about your treasures, Erik?" asked Lieutenant Ekman, after he
+had admired Gerda's.
+
+Erik put his hand into his coat pocket and took out a box of matches.
+"These are from Norrköping," he said.
+
+From another pocket he took another box of matches. "And these are from
+Söderköping," he added. Then from one pocket and another he took boxes of
+matches of all sizes and kinds, each time naming the town where they were
+manufactured; while the twins and their father gazed at him in surprise.
+
+"But why so many matches?" asked Lieutenant Ekman, when at last the
+supply seemed to be exhausted. "You have matches enough there to light
+the whole world."
+
+"My father will use them to light his fires," replied Erik. "Matches are
+a great luxury in Lapland.
+
+"And besides," he added, "Sweden manufactures enough matches to light the
+whole world. The captain told me that they are made in twenty-one
+different cities and towns, and that they have taken prizes everywhere."
+
+"That is true," said Herr Ekman. "Swedish matches are famous the world
+over. My young Vikings have each made a good collection of souvenirs."
+
+At that moment a pretty little maid curtsied before them, saying,
+"Göteborg, if you please."
+
+"Oh dear," sighed Gerda, gathering up her treasures, "here's the end of
+our long journey over the wonderful canal!"
+
+But Erik looked down the river to the tall chimneys of the iron-works and
+said to himself, "And here's the beginning of my work in the world."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A WINTER CARNIVAL
+
+
+"Abroad is good but home is better," quoted Birger, as the railroad train
+whizzed across the country, bearing the twins toward home once more after
+four happy days of sight-seeing in Göteborg.
+
+"Vacation will soon be over and we shall be back again in our dear old
+school," exclaimed Gerda, with a comical expression on her face.
+
+"I feel as if we had been going to the best kind of a school all summer,"
+said her brother, looking out of the window at the broad fields and
+little red farmhouses cuddling down in the green landscape. "We have been
+learning about the largest cities, and the canals and railroads, the
+lakes and rivers, and that is what we have to do when we study geography
+in school."
+
+"If I ever make a geography," and Gerda gave a great sigh, "I shall have
+nothing but pictures in it. That is the way the real earth looks outside
+of the geographies. There are just millions and millions of pictures
+fitted together, and not a single word said about them."
+
+Birger laughed. "I will study your geography," he said, "if I am not too
+busy making one of my own."
+
+"What kind of a geography shall you make?" asked Gerda.
+
+"I shall put in my book all my thoughts about the sights I see," he
+answered. "It will read like this, 'The harbor at Göteborg made me think
+of Stockholm harbor, with all the different ships that sail away to
+foreign lands; and of the great world beyond the sea.'"
+
+"Your geography would never please the children half so much as mine,"
+said Gerda; "because we don't all think alike. It makes some people
+sea-sick when they think of ships."
+
+"Here we are in Stockholm," said Lieutenant Ekman, gathering up the bags
+and bundles and helping the children out of the train. "Before we write a
+geography we must see about putting little Karen Klasson under the
+doctor's care."
+
+But they found that Fru Ekman had already taken Karen to see the doctor,
+and had made arrangements for her treatment at the Gymnastic Institute.
+
+"The doctor says that I shall be able to walk without a crutch by
+springtime, if I take the gymnastics faithfully every day," said Karen
+happily.
+
+"Oh, Gerda," she added, "ever so many of your friends have been to see
+me. They are such kind boys and girls!"
+
+"Of course they are! They are the best in the world," Gerda declared, and
+it seemed, indeed, as if there could be no kinder children anywhere than
+those who filled all the autumn days with the magic of their fun and
+good-will for the little lame Karen.
+
+Bouquets of flowers, and plants with bright blossoms, simple games, and
+new books found their way to her room. There was seldom a day when one or
+another of the friends did not come to tell her about some of their good
+times, or plan a little pleasure for her; and Karen seemed to find as
+much enjoyment in hearing of the fun as if she, herself, could really
+take part in it.
+
+"What is the carnival?" she asked Gerda one evening in late November,
+when the last of the friends had clattered down the stairs, and the two
+little girls were sitting beside the tall porcelain stove which filled
+the room with a comfortable heat. "I have heard you all talking about it
+for days; but I don't know just what it is."
+
+"It is a day for winter sports, and all kinds of fun, and you shall sit
+in the casino at the Deer Park and see it for yourself," said Gerda,
+giving Karen a loving hug.
+
+When the day of the carnival arrived at last, and Karen sat in the
+casino, cosily wrapped in furs, and looked out over the Djurgård, she
+knew that she had never dreamed of so much fun and beauty.
+
+There had been heavy hoar frosts for several nights, and the trees had
+become perfectly white,--the pines standing straight as powdered
+sentinels, the birches bending under their silvery covering like frozen
+fountains of spray. The ice was covered with skaters, their sharp steel
+shoes flashing in the sun, their merry laughter ringing out in the cold,
+crisp air.
+
+It seemed as if everyone in Stockholm were skating, or snow-shoeing, or
+skimming over the fields of snow on long skis. Even Fru Ekman, after
+making Karen comfortable in the casino, strapped a pair of skates on her
+own feet and astonished the little girl with the wonderful circles and
+figures she could cut on the ice.
+
+There was no place for beginners in such a company. And indeed, it almost
+seemed as if Swedish boys and girls could skate without beginning, for
+many little children were darting about among the crowds of grown people.
+
+Of course Karen's eyes were fixed most often upon the twins, and as they
+chased each other over the hurdles, or wound in and out among the
+sail-skaters and long lines of merry-makers, for the first time in her
+life she had a feeling of envy.
+
+When Gerda left the skaters at last, to sit for a while beside her
+friend, she saw at once the thought that was in Karen's mind. So, instead
+of speaking about the fun of skating, she began to talk about the
+doctor's promise that the lame back would be entirely cured before
+summer.
+
+"And there is really just as much fun in the summer-time," she said, "for
+then we can swim, and bathe, and row boats on the lake. You can go to
+Rättvik with us, too, and then you shall dance and be gayer than any one
+else."
+
+"Oh, see, there are some men on skis!" cried Karen suddenly, forgetting
+her feeling of envy in watching the wonderful speed made by the party
+of ski-runners who came into sight on the crest of the long hill opposite
+the ice-basin.
+
+The skis, or snow-skates, are a pair of thin strips of hard wood about
+four inches wide and eight or nine feet long, pointed and curved upward
+in front. The snow-skater binds one on each foot and glides over the
+snowy fields, or coasts down the hills as easily as if he were on a
+toboggan.
+
+"That is the best way in the world to travel over the snow," said Birger,
+who had come to find Gerda. "See how fast they go!"
+
+Suddenly one of the men darted away from the others, balanced himself for
+a moment with his long staff, and then shot down the hill like an arrow.
+A mound of snow six feet high had been built up directly in his path, and
+as he reached it, he crouched down, gave a spring, and landed thirty or
+forty feet below, plowing up the light snow into a great cloud, and then
+slipping on down the hill and out upon the frozen bay.
+
+Many others tried the slide and jump: some fell and rolled over in the
+snow, others lost off their skis, which came coasting down hill alone
+like runaway sleds, while others made a long leap with beautiful grace
+and freedom.
+
+"This method of travelling across country on skis, when there is deep
+snow, is hundreds of years old," said Fru Ekman, who had come to send the
+twins away for more fun, while she took her place again beside Karen.
+
+"Men were skiing in Scandinavia as long ago as old Roman times, and
+Magnus the Good, who defeated the Roman legions, had a company of
+ski-soldiers. Gustav Vasa organized a corps of snow-skaters, and Gustavus
+Adolphus used his runners as messengers and scouts."
+
+At that moment there was a sudden commotion outside the door, and a crowd
+of the skaters came into the casino for some hot coffee, their merry
+voices and laughter filling the room. Seldom is there gathered together a
+company of finer men and women, boys and girls, than Karen saw before
+her. Descendants of the Vikings these were,--golden-haired, keen-eyed and
+crimson-cheeked.
+
+"Look at that great fellow, taller than all the others," Fru Ekman
+whispered to Karen. "He is the champion figure-skater of Europe."
+
+"He looks like Baldur, the god of the sun," Karen whispered in reply; and
+then forgot everything else in watching the gay company.
+
+"I have never seen so many people having such a good time before," she
+explained to Fru Ekman after a little while. "At the Sea-gull Light there
+was never anything like this. It is more like the stories of the
+gathering of the gods, than just plain Sweden.
+
+"I suppose Birger is going to try for a skating prize some day," she
+added rather wistfully.
+
+Fru Ekman bent and kissed the little girl. "Yes," she answered, "that is
+why he puts on his skates every day and practices figure-skating on the
+ice in the canals. But keep a brave heart, little Karen. You, too, shall
+wear skates some day."
+
+Karen's face lighted up with a happy smile, and a fire of hope was
+kindled in her heart which made the long hours shorter, and the hard work
+at the gymnasium easier to bear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+YULE-TIDE JOYS
+
+
+It was the day before Christmas,--such a busy day in the Ekman household.
+In fact, it had been a busy week in every household in Sweden, for before
+the tree is lighted on Christmas Eve every room must be cleaned and
+scrubbed and polished, so that not a speck of dirt or dust may be found
+anywhere.
+
+Gerda, with a dainty cap on her hair, and a big apron covering her red
+dress from top to toe, was dusting the pleasant living-room; and Karen,
+perched on a high stool at the dining-room table, was polishing the
+silver. The maids were flying from room to room with brooms and brushes;
+and in the kitchen Fru Ekman and the cook were preparing the lut-fisk and
+making the rice pudding.
+
+The lut-fisk is a kind of smoked fish--salmon, ling, or cod--prepared in
+a delicious way which only a Swedish housewife understands. It is always
+the very finest fish to be had in the market, and before it reaches the
+market it is the very finest fish that swims in the sea. Every fisherman
+who sails from the west coast of Sweden--and there are hundreds of
+them--gives to his priest the two largest fish which he catches during
+the season. It is these fish which are salted and smoked for lut-fisk,
+and sold in the markets for Christmas and Easter.
+
+When Gerda ran out into the kitchen to get some water for her plants, she
+stopped to taste the white gravy which her mother was making for the
+lut-fisk.
+
+Then as she danced back through the dining-room to tell Karen about the
+pudding she sang:--
+
+"Away, away to the fishers' pier,
+Many fishes we'll find there,--Big salmon,
+Good salmon:
+Seize them by the neck,
+Stuff them in a sack,
+And keep them till Christmas and Easter."
+
+"Hurry and finish the silver," she added, "and then we will help Mother
+set the smörgåsbord for our dinner. We never had half such delicious
+things for it before. There is the pickled herring your father sent us,
+and the smoked reindeer from Erik's father in Lapland; and Grandmother
+Ekman sent us strawberry jam, and raspberry preserve, and cheese, and oh,
+so many goodies!" Gerda clapped her hands so hard that some of the water
+she was carrying to her plants was spilled on the floor. "Oh, dear me!"
+she sighed, "there is something more for me to do. We'd never be ready
+for Yule if it wasn't for the Tomtar."
+
+The Tomtar are little old men with long gray beards and tall pointed red
+caps, who live under the boards and in the darkest corners of the chests.
+They come creeping out to do their work in the middle of the night, when
+the house is still, and they are especially helpful at Christmas time.
+
+The two little girls had been talking about the Tomtar for weeks.
+Whenever Karen found a mysterious package lying forgotten on the table,
+Gerda would hurry it away out of sight, saying, "Sh! Little Yule Tomten
+must have left it."
+
+And one day when Gerda found a dainty bit of embroidery under a cushion,
+it was Karen's turn to say, "Let me have it quick! Yule Tomten left it
+for me." Then both little girls shrieked with laughter.
+
+Birger said little about the Tomtar and pretended that he did not believe
+in them at all; but when Gerda set out a dish of sweets for the little
+old men, he moved it down to a low stool where they would have no trouble
+in finding it.
+
+But now the Tomtar were all snugly hidden away for the day, so Gerda had
+to wipe up the water for herself, and then run back to her dusting; but
+before it was finished, Birger and his father came up the stairs,--one
+tugging a fragrant spruce tree, the other carrying a big bundle of oats
+on his shoulder.
+
+"Here's a Christmas dinner for your friends, the birds," Birget told
+Karen, showing her the oats.
+
+For a moment Karen's chin quivered and her eyes filled with tears, as she
+thought of the pole on the barn at home where she had always fastened her
+own bundle of grain; but she smiled through her tears and said
+cheerfully, "The birds of Stockholm will have plenty to eat for one day
+at least, if all the bundles of grain in the markets are sold."
+
+"That they will," replied Birger. "No one in Sweden forgets the birds on
+Christmas day. You should see the big bundles of grain that they hang
+up in Rättvik."
+
+"Come, Birger," called his father from the living-room, "we must set up
+the tree so that it can be trimmed; and then we will see about the
+dinner for the birds."
+
+Gerda and Karen helped decorate the tree, and such fun as it was! They
+brought out great boxes of ornaments, and twined long ropes of gold and
+gleaming threads of silver tinsel in and out among the stiff green
+branches. They hung glittering baubles upon every sprig, and at the tip
+of each and every branch of evergreen they set a tiny wax candle, so that
+when the tree was lighted it would look as if it grew in fairyland.
+
+But not a single Christmas gift appeared in the room until after all
+three children had had their luncheon and gone to their rooms to dress
+for the afternoon festivities. Even then, none of the packages were hung
+upon the tree. Lieutenant Ekman and his wife sorted them out and placed
+them in neat piles on the table in the center of the room, stopping now
+and then to laugh softly at the verses which they had written for the
+gifts.
+
+"Will the daylight never end!" sighed Gerda, looking out at the red and
+yellow sky which told that sunset was near. Then she tied a new blue
+ribbon on her hair and ran to help Karen.
+
+"The postman has just left two big packages," she whispered to her
+friend. "I looked over the stairs and saw him give them to the maid."
+
+"Perhaps one is for me," replied Karen. "Mother wrote that she was
+sending me a box."
+
+"Come, girls," called Birger at last; "Father says it is dark enough now
+to light the tree." And so it was, although it was only three o'clock,
+for it begins to grow dark early in Stockholm, and the winter days are
+very short.
+
+All the family gathered in the hall, the doors were thrown open, and a
+blaze of light and color met their eyes from the sparkling, shining tree.
+With a shout of joy the children skipped round and round it in a merry
+Christmas dance, and even Karen hopped about with her crutch.
+
+The cook in her white apron, and the maids in their white caps, stood in
+the doorway adding their chorus of "ohs!" and "ahs!" to the general
+excitement; and then, after a little while, the whole family gathered
+around the table while Herr Ekman gave out the presents.
+
+It took a long time, as there were so many gifts for each one, and with
+almost every gift there was a funny rhyme to be read aloud and laughed
+over. But no one was in a hurry. They wondered and guessed; they peeped
+into every package; they admired everything.
+
+When the last of the gifts had been distributed, there was the dinner,
+with the delicious lut-fisk, the roast goose, and the rice pudding. But
+before it could be eaten, each one must first taste the dainties on the
+smörgåsbord,--a side-table set out with a collection of relishes.
+
+There was a tiny lump in Karen's throat when she ate a bit of her
+mother's cheese; but she swallowed them both bravely, and was as gay as
+any one at the dinner table.
+
+All the boys and girls in Sweden are sent to bed early on Christmas Eve.
+They must be ready to get up the next morning, long before daylight, and
+go to church with their parents to hear the Christmas service and sing
+the Christmas carols. So nine o'clock found Karen and the twins gathering
+up their gifts and saying good-night.
+
+"Thanks, thanks for everything!" cried the two little girls, throwing
+their arms around Fru Ekman's neck; and Karen added rather shyly,
+"Thanks for such a happy Christmas, dearest Tant."
+
+"But this is only Christmas Eve," Gerda told her, as they scampered off
+to bed. "For two whole weeks there will be nothing but fun and merriment.
+No school! No tasks! Nothing to do but make everyone joyous and happy
+everywhere. Yule-tide is the best time of all the year!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+SPURS AND A CROWN
+
+
+  "Rida, rida, ranka!
+   The horse's name is Blanka.
+Little rider, dear and sweet,
+Now no spurs are on your feet;
+When you've grown and won them,
+Childhood's bliss is done then.
+
+  "Rida, rida, ranka!
+   The horse's name is Blanka.
+Little one with eyes so blue,
+A kingly crown will come to you,
+A crown so bright and splendid!
+Then youthful joy is ended."
+
+Fru Ekman sang the words of the old Swedish lullaby as she had sung them
+many times, years before, when the twins lay in their blue cradle at
+Grandmother Ekman's farm in Dalarne; but now the boy stood proudly in a
+suit of soldier gray, and the girl made a pretty picture in a set of soft
+new furs.
+
+It was the morning of the twins' twelfth birthday, and a March snow-storm
+was covering the housetops and pavements with a white fur coat, "Just
+like my own pretty coat," Gerda said, turning slowly round and round so
+that everyone might see the warm white covering.
+
+"The snow will soon be gone," she added, "but my furs will wait for me
+until next winter."
+
+"You may wear them to school to-day in honor of your birthday," said her
+mother; "but Birger's soldier suit seems a little out of season."
+
+Birger had taken a fancy to have a suit of gray with black trimmings,
+such as the Swedish soldiers wear, and it had been given to him with
+a new Swedish flag, as a match for Gerda's furs.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman turned his son around in order to see the fit of the
+trim jacket. "When you get the gun to go with it," he told the lad, "you
+will be a second Gustavus Adolphus."
+
+"If I am to be as great a man as Gustavus Adolphus, I shall have to go to
+war," replied Birger; "and there seems to be little chance for a war
+now."
+
+"There are many peaceful ways by which a man may serve his country,"
+Lieutenant Ekman told his son; "but King Gustavus II had to fight to keep
+Sweden from being swallowed up by the other nations."
+
+"I could never understand how Sweden happened to have such a great
+fighter as Gustavus Adolphus," said Karen; but Gerda shook a finger at
+her.
+
+"Sh!" she said, "that isn't the way to talk about your own country. And
+have you forgotten Gustav Vasa? He was the first of the Vasa line of
+kings; and he and Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII made the name of Vasa
+one of the most illustrious in Swedish history."
+
+"Karen will never forget Gustav Vasa," said Birger, "after she has been
+to Dalarne and seen all the places where he was in hiding before he
+was a king."
+
+"Yes," said Gerda, "there's the barn where he worked at threshing grain,
+and the house where the woman lowered him out of the window in the night,
+and the Stone of Mora, on the bank of the river, where he spoke to the
+men of Dalarne and urged them to fight for freedom."
+
+"And there's the stone house in Mora over the cellar where Margit Larsson
+hid him when the Danish soldiers were close on his track," added Birger.
+"The inscription says:--
+
+"'Gustav Eriksson Vasa, while in exile and wandering in Dalarne with a
+view of stirring up the people to fight for Fatherland and Freedom, was
+saved by the presence of mind of a Dalecarlian woman, and so escaped the
+troops sent by the Tyrant to arrest him.
+
+"'This monument is gratefully erected by the Swedish people to the
+Liberator.'"
+
+Karen laughed. "How can you remember it so well?" she asked. "It sounded
+as if you were reading it."
+
+"That is because I have read it so often," replied Birger. "Gustav Vasa
+is my favorite hero. He drove the Danes out of the country and won
+freedom for the Swedish people."
+
+"He was the Father of his Country," said Gerda, and she seized Birger's
+new flag and waved it over her head.
+
+"Come, children, it is time for you to go to school," Fru Ekman told
+them; and soon Karen was trudging off to her gymnastic exercises, and
+the twins were clattering down the stairs with their books.
+
+"That was a good song that Mother was singing this morning," Birger told
+his sister. "I'd like to wear spurs on my feet. How they would rattle
+over these stone pavements!"
+
+"I'd rather have 'a crown so bright and splendid,'" said Gerda; "but I'll
+have to be contented with my cooking-cap to-day instead." Then she bade
+her brother good-bye and ran up the steps of the school-house, where,
+after her morning lessons, she would spend an hour in the cooking-class.
+
+At five o'clock the three children were all at home again, and dressed
+for the party which the twins had every year on their birthday.
+
+"It is time the girls and boys were here," said Gerda, standing before
+the mirror in the living-room to fasten a pink rose in the knot of ribbon
+at her throat.
+
+"Here they come!" cried Birger, throwing open the door, and the twelve
+children who had come before, bringing packages for the surprise box,
+came again,--this time with little birthday gifts for the twins.
+
+For an hour there was the greatest confusion, with a perfect babel of
+merry voices and laughter. The gifts were opened and admired by everyone.
+Gerda put on her fur coat and cap, Birger showed a fine new pair of
+skates which his father had given him, and Karen brought out a box of
+little cakes which her mother had sent for the party.
+
+But when the children formed in a long line and Fru Ekman led the way to
+the dining-room, their excitement knew no bounds.
+
+The table was a perfect bower of beautiful flowers. There was a bouquet
+of bright blossoms at every plate, and long ropes of green leaves and
+blossoms were twined across the table, in and out among the dishes. At
+Gerda's place there was a wreath of violets, with violet ribbons on
+knife, fork and spoon; a bunch of violets was tucked under her napkin,
+and a big bow of violet ribbon was tied on her chair.
+
+Birger's flowers were scarlet pinks, with scarlet ribbons and a scarlet
+bow; and at the two ends of the table were the two birthday cakes, almost
+hidden among flowers and wreaths, with Birger's name on one and Gerda's
+on the other, done in colored candies set in white frosting.
+
+Another happy hour was spent at the table, and then the guests trooped
+away to their homes, leaving the twins to look over their gifts once
+more.
+
+But the best gift was still to come,--a never-to-be-forgotten gift that
+came on that wonderful night of their twelfth birthday.
+
+All day there had been a strange feeling in the air. When the girls
+brushed their hair in the morning it was full of tiny sparkles and stood
+out from their heads like clouds of gold, and Birger had found, early in
+the day, that if he stroked the cat's fur it cracked and snapped like
+matches, much to Fru Kitty's surprise.
+
+Now, when Gerda went to look out of the window, she called to the others
+to come quickly to see the northern lights; for out of the north there
+had come a gorgeous illumination, filling the heavens with a marvellous
+radiance such as only the aurora borealis can give.
+
+Banners of crimson, yellow and violet flamed and flared from horizon to
+zenith; sheets of glimmering light streamed across the sky, swaying back
+and forth, and changing from white to blue and green, with once in a
+while a magnificent tongue of red flame shooting higher than the others.
+
+"It is a carnival of light," said Gerda, in a tone of awe. She had often
+seen the northern lights, but never any so brilliant as these.
+
+Everyone seemed charged with the electricity, and little Karen said
+softly, "I never felt so strange before. The lights go up and down my
+back to the tip of my toes."
+
+"It is the elves of light dancing round the room," said Birger with a
+laugh.
+
+"No," said Gerda, "it is the Tomtar playing with the electric wires."
+
+Then, as they all stood watching the wonderful display in the heavens,
+the door opened and Lieutenant Ekman came into the room. "Here is a
+letter for Karen from her mother," he said; "I have had it in my pocket
+all day."
+
+"Oh, let me see it," said Karen, and she turned and ran across the room.
+Yes, ran,--with her crutch standing beside the chair at the window, and
+her two feet pattering firmly on the floor.
+
+"Look at Karen," cried Gerda. "She has forgotten her crutch!"
+
+Karen held her mother's letter in her hand, and her two eyes were shining
+like stars. "I feel as if I should never need my crutch again," she said.
+Then she turned to Fru Ekman and asked breathlessly, "Do you believe that
+I will?"
+
+"I am sure that you won't," replied Fru Ekman, stooping to kiss the happy
+child. "I have noticed for a long time that your back was growing
+straighter and stronger, and you were walking more easily."
+
+Gerda clapped her hands and ran to throw her arms around her friend. "Oh,
+Karen," she exclaimed, "this is the best birthday gift of all! The Tomtar
+sent it on the electric wires."
+
+"No," said Birger, "it was the elves of light dancing across the room."
+
+But Karen looked at the little family clustered so close around her. "It
+is my crown of joy and is from each one of you," she said; "but from
+Gerda most of all."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE MIDSUMMER FESTIVAL
+
+
+It was the middle of June. School was over and vacation had begun. Gerda
+and Birger were on their way to Rättvik, taking Karen with them so that
+she might see the great midsummer festival before going to spend the
+summer at the Sea-gull Light.
+
+"Isn't this the best fun we ever had,--to be travelling alone, without
+any one to take care of us?" asked Birger, as the train whizzed along
+past fields and forests, lakes and rivers.
+
+"It feels just as if we were tourists," replied Gerda, straightening her
+hat and nestling close to Karen.
+
+Karen dimpled and smiled. "I don't see your wonder-eyes, such as tourists
+always have," she said.
+
+"That is because we have been to Rättvik so many times that we know every
+house and tree and rail-fence along the way," answered Birger. "We have
+stopped at Gefle and seen the docks with their great piles of lumber and
+barrels of tar; and we have been to Upsala, the ancient capital of
+Sweden, and seen the famous University which was founded fifteen years
+before Columbus discovered America."
+
+"Last summer Father took us to Falun to visit the wonderful copper
+mines," added Gerda; "but I never want to go there again," and she
+shivered as she thought of the dark underground halls and chambers.
+
+"We saw a fire there, which was lighted hundreds of years ago and has
+never once been allowed to go out," said Birger. "The miners light their
+lamps and torches at the flame."
+
+"Look, there are the chimneys of Falun now," cried Gerda, pointing out of
+the car window; and a half-hour later the children found themselves at
+the neat little Rättvik station.
+
+"Six o'clock, and just on time," said Grandmother Ekman's cheerful voice,
+and the next moment all three were gathered in a great hug.
+
+"Is there room for triplets in your house?" asked Gerda. "We have
+outgrown our twinship now, and there are three of us, instead of two."
+
+"There is enough of everything, for Karen to have her good share," said
+the grandmother heartily; and they were soon driving along the pleasant
+country road, toward the red-painted farmhouse and the quiet living-room
+where the tall clock was still ticking cheerfully.
+
+The next morning, and the next, the twins were up bright and early to
+show Karen all their favorite haunts; and the days flew by like minutes.
+
+"Don't you love it, here in Rättvik, Karen dear?" asked Gerda, on the
+third day, as the two little girls were busily at work in the pleasant
+living-room.
+
+"Yes," replied Karen; "but you never told me half enough beautiful things
+about it. Surely there can be no lovelier place in the whole world than
+the mill-pool where we went yesterday with Linda Nilsson."
+
+Karen was coloring the letters in a motto to hang on the wall: and Gerda,
+who was weaving a rug on her grandmother's wooden loom, crossed the room
+to admire her friend's work. She leaned against Karen's chair and read
+the words of the motto aloud: "To read and not know, is to plow and not
+sow."
+
+"That is Grandmother Ekman's favorite motto," she said. "She believes
+that a burning, golden plowshare was dropped from heaven ages ago, in the
+beginning of Sweden's history, as a symbol of what the gods expected of
+the people; and she says that a well-kept farm and a well-read book are
+the most beautiful things in the world."
+
+Birger looked up from the door-step where he was whittling out a mast for
+one of his boats. "If I didn't intend to be an admiral in the navy when I
+am a man," he said, "I should come here and take care of the farm. It
+really is the prettiest farmhouse and the best farm in Dalarne."
+
+"It certainly will be the prettiest by night, when we have it dressed up
+for the midsummer festival," Gerda declared. "Come, Birger! Come, Karen!
+We must go and gather flowers and birch leaves to decorate the house."
+
+"But we must put away our work first," said orderly Karen, gathering up
+her paints and brushes.
+
+Gerda ran to push the loom back into the corner. As she did so, she said
+with a smile, "The first rug I ever made was very ugly. It had a great
+many dark strips in it. That was because my grandmother made me weave in
+a dark strip every time I was naughty."
+
+Karen laughed. "How I would like to see it," she said.
+
+"Oh, I have it now. I will show it to you," and Gerda crossed the room
+and opened one of the chests which were ranged against the wall.
+
+"This is my own chest, where my grandmother keeps everything I make," she
+said, as she lifted the cover and took out a bundle. Opening the bundle,
+she unrolled a funny little rug.
+
+Pointing to a wide black stripe in the middle, Gerda said, "That was for
+the time I broke the vinegar jug, and spoiled Ebba Jorn's dress."
+
+"Oh, tell me about it!" cried Karen.
+
+"No," replied Gerda, "it was too naughty to tell about;" and she put the
+rug quickly back into the chest.
+
+"I didn't know you were ever naughty," said Karen, laughing merrily.
+Then, as the two little girls put on their caps and took up their baskets
+to go flower-hunting, she asked, "Who is Ebba Jorn?"
+
+"She lives across the lake, and she is going to be married to-morrow,"
+answered Gerda. "We can walk in her procession."
+
+Karen gave a little gasp of pleasure. "Oh, what fun!" she exclaimed. Then
+she stopped and looked down at her dress. "But I have nothing to wear,"
+she said. "All my prettiest dresses went home on the steamer with your
+father."
+
+"We shall wear our rainbow skirts," Gerda told her. "And you can wear one
+of mine."
+
+Just then she caught sight of a crowd of boys and girls in a distant
+meadow, and ran to join them; calling to Birger and Karen to come, too.
+"They are gathering flowers to trim the Maypole for the midsummer
+festival," she cried.
+
+It is small wonder that the people of the Northland joyously celebrate
+the bright, sunny day of midsummer, after the cold days and long dark
+nights of winter. It is an ancient custom, coming down from old heathen
+times, when fires were lighted on all the hills to celebrate the victory
+of Baldur, the sun god, who conquered the frost giants and the powers of
+darkness.
+
+On Midsummer's Eve, the twenty-third of June, a majstång is erected in
+every village green in Sweden. The villagers and peasants, young and old,
+gather from far and near, and dance around the May-pole all through the
+long night, which is no night at all, but a glowing twilight, from late
+sunset till early dawn.
+
+There was a great deal of work to be done in preparation for this
+festival, and such a busy day as the children had! They gathered
+basketfuls of flowers, and long streamers of ground pine, which they made
+into ropes and wreaths. They cut great armfuls of birch boughs, and
+decorated the little farmhouse, inside and out; placing the graceful
+branches with their tender green leaves wherever there was a spot to hold
+them. Over the doors and windows, up and down the porch, along the fence,
+and even around the well, they twined the long ropes and fastened the
+green wreaths and boughs.
+
+After a hasty lunch they rowed across the lake and spent the afternoon at
+the village green, helping to dress the tall majstång; and when their
+supper of berries and milk and caraway bread was eaten, they were glad
+enough to tumble into bed, although the sun was till shining and would
+not set until nearly eleven o'clock.
+
+"Wait until to-morrow," murmured Gerda drowsily; "then you will see the
+happiest day of the whole year."
+
+Karen tried to tell her that every day was happy, now that she could run
+and play like other children; but she fell asleep in the middle of the
+sentence, and Gerda hadn't even heard the beginning of it.
+
+"The sun has been dancing over the hills for hours," called Grandmother
+Ekman at five o'clock the next morning. "It is time for everyone to be
+up and making ready for church."
+
+All the festival days in Sweden begin with a church service, and everyone
+goes to church. In the cities the people walk or ride in street-cars
+or carriages; but in Dalarne some ride on bicycles, some drive, some sail
+across the lake in the little steamer, and others row in the Sunday boat.
+
+Grandmother Ekman always followed the good old custom of rowing with her
+neighbors in the long boat, and six o'clock found her at the wharf with
+the three children, all carrying a beautiful branch of white birch with
+its shining green leaves.
+
+"This is just what I have wanted to do, ever since you told me about it
+at the Sea-gull Light," whispered Karen, as they found seats in the boat
+and began the pleasant journey across the peaceful, shining water.
+
+Gerda was in a great state of excitement. She discovered so many things
+to chatter about that Grandmother Ekman said at last, "Hush, child!
+You must compose yourself for church and the Bible reading."
+
+Then Gerda became sober at once, and sat quietly enough during the
+service, until she fell to thinking how lovely the May-pole would look
+in its gala dress of green, red, yellow and white.
+
+"It will be wearing a rainbow skirt, like all the girls in the village,"
+she thought; and surprised her grandmother by smiling in the midst of the
+sermon, at the thought of how very tall this Maypole maiden would be.
+
+The May-pole is always the tallest, slenderest tree that can be found,
+and the one which Gerda and Karen had helped to decorate was at least
+sixty feet from base to tip. It had been brought from the forest by the
+young men of the village, and trimmed of its bark and branches until it
+looked like the mast of a vessel. Hoops and crosspieces reaching out in
+every direction were fastened to the pole, and it was then decorated with
+flowers, streamers, garlands and tiny flags.
+
+Now it was leaning against the platform in the village green, not far
+from the church, where it was to be raised after the service.
+
+When Gerda and Karen reached the green they found a group of young people
+gathered about the pole, tying strings of gilded hearts, festoons of
+colored papers, and fluttering banners to its yard-arms.
+
+"Now it is ready to be raised!" shouted Nils Jorn at last, and everybody
+fell away to make room for the men who were to draw it into its place
+with ropes and tackle.
+
+"Suppose it should break!" gasped Karen, and held her breath while it
+rose slowly in the air. As it settled into the deep hole prepared for it,
+Nils Jorn waved his cap and shouted. Then some one else shouted, and soon
+everybody was shouting and dancing, and the festival of the green leaf
+had begun.
+
+All day and all night the fun ran high, with singing and dancing and
+feasting.
+
+When there was a lull in the merriment, it was because a long procession
+had formed to accompany the bride and bridegroom to the church. After the
+ceremony was over, and the same procession had accompanied them to the
+shore of the lake, some one called out, "Now let us choose a queen and
+crown her, and carry her back to the May-pole where she shall decide who
+is the best dancer."
+
+Oh, it was a hard moment for many of them then, for every maiden hoped
+that she would be the one to be chosen. But Nils Jorn caught sight of
+Gerda's merry smile, and nodded toward her.
+
+"Gerda Ekman has seen plenty of dancing in Stockholm," he said. "Let her
+be our queen."
+
+"Yes, yes!" shouted the others; and for a moment it looked as if Gerda
+would, indeed, have her wish to wear a crown. But when she saw Karen's
+wistful look, she turned quickly to her friends and said, "Let me,
+instead, choose the queen; and I will choose Karen Klasson. I want this
+to be the happiest day of all the year for her."
+
+"One queen is as good as another," said Nils Jorn cheerfully; so they led
+Karen back to the May-pole and she was made queen of the festival and
+crowned with green leaves.
+
+After a few minutes Gerda found a seat beside her under the canopy of
+birch boughs, and the two little girls watched the dancing together.
+
+Everyone was happy and jolly. The fiddler swept his bow across the
+strings until they sang their gayest polka. The accordion puffed and
+wheezed in its attempt to follow the merry tune. The platform was crowded
+with dancers, whirling and stamping, turning and swinging, laughing and
+singing.
+
+The tall pole quivered and shook until all the streamers rustled, all the
+flags fluttered, and all the birch leaves murmured to each other that
+summer had come and the sun god had conquered the frost giants.
+
+"This is truly the happiest day of all my life," Karen said; "and it is
+you, Gerda, who have made it so. I was lame and lonely in the cold
+Northland, and you came, bringing me health and happiness."
+
+"Mother says I must never forget that I was named for the goddess who
+shed light and sunshine over the world," replied Gerda soberly. Then she
+drew her friend closer and whispered, "But think, Karen, of all the good
+times we shall have next year, when you can go to school with me, and we
+can share all our happiness with each other;" and she clapped her hands
+and whirled Karen off into the crowd of dancers,--the gayest and happiest
+of them all.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Gerda in Sweden, by Etta Blaisdell McDonald
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Gerda in Sweden, by Etta Blaisdell McDonald
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Gerda in Sweden
+
+Author: Etta Blaisdell McDonald
+
+Release Date: October 15, 2004 [EBook #13758]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GERDA IN SWEDEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Curtis Weyant and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                        LITTLE PEOPLE EVERYWHERE
+
+                            GERDA IN SWEDEN
+
+             BY ETTA BLAISDELL McDONALD AND JULIA DALRYMPLE
+
+Authors of "Kathleen in Ireland," "Manuel in Mexico," "Ume San in Japan,"
+"Rafael in Italy," "Fritz in Germany," "Boris in Russia," "Betty in
+Canada," etc.
+
+                                 1910
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The Swedish people are a hospitable, peace-loving race, kindly and
+industrious, making the most of their resources. In the south of Sweden
+are broad farming-lands with well-tilled fields and comfortable red
+farmhouses; in the central portion are hills and dales, rich in mines of
+copper and iron which have been famous for hundreds of years. In the
+cities and towns are factories where thousands of workers are employed,
+making all sorts of useful articles, from matches to steam-engines. The
+rivers which flow down to the sea from the western chain of mountains
+carry millions of logs from the great dark forests. As soon as the ice
+breaks up in the spring, whole fleets of fishing boats and lumber vessels
+sail up and down the coast; sawmills whirr and buzz all day long; the hum
+of labor is heard all over the land.
+
+In this Northland the winter days are short and cold; but there are the
+long sunny summer days, when even in the south of Sweden midnight is
+nothing but a soft twilight, and in the north the sun shines for a whole
+month without once dipping below the horizon. This is a glorious time for
+both young and old. The people live out-of-doors day and night, going to
+the parks and gardens, rowing and sailing and swimming, singing and
+dancing on the village green, celebrating the midsummer festival with
+feasting and merry-making,--for once more the sun rides high in the
+heavens, and Baldur, the sun god, has conquered the frost giants.
+
+Just such a happy, useful life is found in this little story. Gerda and
+her twin brother take a trip northward across the Baltic Sea with their
+father, who is an inspector of lighthouses. On their way they meet Karen,
+a little lame girl. After going farther north, into Lapland, where they
+see the sun shining at midnight, and spend a day with a family of Lapps
+and their reindeer, Gerda takes Karen home to Stockholm with her so that
+the child may have the benefit of the famous Swedish gymnastics for her
+lameness. Then such good times as the three children have together! They
+go to the winter carnival to see the skating and skiing; they celebrate
+Yule-tide with all the good old Swedish customs; and there is a birthday
+party for the twins, when Karen also receives a gift,--the very best gift
+of all.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+
+       I. GERDA AND BIRGER
+
+      II. THE SURPRISE BOX
+
+     III. ON BOARD THE "NORTH STAR"
+
+      IV. GERDA'S NEW FRIEND
+
+       V. CROSSING THE POLCIRKEL
+
+      VI. THE MIDNIGHT SUN
+
+     VII. ERIK'S HOME IN LAPLAND
+
+    VIII. FOUR-FOOTED FRIENDS
+
+      IX. KAREN'S BROTHER
+
+       X. A DAY IN SKANSEN
+
+      XI. THROUGH THE LOCKS
+
+     XII. A WINTER CARNIVAL
+
+    XIII. YULE-TIDE JOYS
+
+     XIV. SPURS AND A CROWN
+
+      XV. THE MIDSUMMER FESTIVAL
+
+
+
+
+GERDA IN SWEDEN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+GERDA AND BIRGER
+
+
+If any one had stopped to think of it, the ticking of the tall clock that
+stood against the wall sounded like "Ger-da! Ger-da!"
+
+But no one did stop to think of it. Everyone was far too busy to think
+about the clock and what it was saying, for over in the corner beside the
+tall stove stood a wooden cradle, and in the cradle were two tiny babies.
+
+There they lay, side by side, in the same blue-painted cradle that had
+rocked the Ekman babies for over two hundred years; and one looked so
+exactly like the other that even dear Grandmother Ekman could not tell
+them apart.
+
+But the mother, who rocked them so gently and watched them so tenderly,
+touched one soft cheek and then another, saying proudly, "This is our
+son, and this is our daughter," even when both pairs of blue eyes were
+tightly closed, and both little chins were tucked under the warm blanket.
+
+There is always great rejoicing over the coming of new babies in any
+family; but there was twice as much rejoicing as usual over these babies,
+and that was because they were twins.
+
+Little Ebba Jorn and her brother Nils came with their mother, from the
+farm across the lake, to see the blue-eyed babies in the worn blue
+cradle; and after them came all the other neighbors, so that there was
+always some one in the big chair beside the cradle, gazing admiringly at
+the twins.
+
+It was in March that they were born,--bleak March, when snow covered the
+ground and the wind whistled down the broad chimney; when the days were
+cold and the nights colder; when the frost giants drove their horses, the
+fleet frost-winds, through the valleys, and cast their spell over lakes
+and rivers.
+
+April came, and then May. The sun god drove the frost giants back into
+their dark caves, the trees shook out their tender, green leaves, and
+flowers blossomed in the meadows. But still the tall clock ticked away
+the days, and still they questioned, "What shall we name the babies?"
+
+"Karen is a pretty name," suggested little Ebba Jorn, who had come again
+to see the twins, this time with a gift of two tiny knitted caps.
+
+"My father's name is Oscar," said Nils. "That is a good name for a boy."
+
+"It is always hard to find just the right name for a new baby," said
+Grandmother Ekman.
+
+"And the task is twice as hard when there are two babies," added the
+proud father, laying his hand gently upon one small round head.
+
+"Let us name the boy 'Birger' for your father," suggested his wife,
+kneeling beside the cradle; "and call the girl 'Anna' for your mother."
+
+But Grandmother Ekman shook her head. "No, no!" she said decidedly. "Call
+the boy 'Birger' if you will; but 'Anna' is not the right name for the
+girl."
+
+Anders Ekman took his hand from the baby's head to put it upon his wife's
+shoulder. "Here in Dalarne we have always liked your own name, Kerstin,"
+he said with a smile.
+
+"No maid by the name of Kerstin was ever handy with her needle," she
+objected. "It has always been a great trial to your mother that I have
+not the patience to stitch endless seams and make rainbow skirts. Our son
+shall be Birger; but we must think of a better name for the little
+daughter."
+
+"It is plain that we shall never find two names to suit everyone,"
+replied the father, laughing so heartily that both babies opened their
+big blue eyes and puckered up their lips for a good cry.
+
+"Hush, Birger! Hush, little daughter!" whispered their mother; and she
+rocked the cradle gently, singing softly:--
+
+"Hist, hist!
+Mother is crooning and babies list.
+Hist, hist!
+The dewdrop lies in the flower's cup,
+Mother snuggles the babies up.
+   Birdie in the tree-top,
+   Do not spill the dewdrop.
+Cat be still, and dog be dumb;
+Sleep to babies' eyelids come!"
+
+Nils and Ebba Jorn tiptoed across the room and closed the door carefully
+behind them. Anders Ekman took up some wood-carving and went quietly to
+work; while Grandmother Ekman selected a well-worn book from the
+book-shelf, and seated herself in the big chair by the window to look
+over the Norse legends of the gods and giants.
+
+She turned the pages slowly until she found the pleasant tale of Frey,
+who married Gerd, the beautiful daughter of one of the frost giants. This
+was her favorite story, and she began reading it aloud in a low voice,
+while the fire burned cheerfully on the hearth, and the cradle swayed
+lightly to and fro.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Njoerd, who was the god of the sea, had a son, Frey, and a daughter,
+Freyja. Frey was the god of the seed-time and harvest, and he brought
+peace and prosperity to all the world.
+
+"In summer he gathered gentle showers and drove them up from the sea to
+sprinkle the dry grass; he poured warm sunshine over the hills and
+valleys, and ripened the fruits and grains for a bountiful harvest.
+
+"The elves of light were his messengers, and he sent them flying
+about all day,--shaking pollen out of the willow tassels, filling the
+flower-cups with nectar, sowing the seeds, and threading the grass with
+beads of dew.
+
+"But in the winter, when the frost giants ruled the earth, Frey was idle
+and lonely; and he rode up and down in Odin's hall on the back of his
+boar, Golden Bristles, longing for something to do.
+
+"One morning, as he wandered restlessly through the beautiful city of
+Asgard, the home of the gods, he stood before the throne of Odin, the
+All-father, and saw that it was empty. 'Why should I not sit upon that
+throne, and look out over all the world?' he thought; and although no one
+but Odin was ever allowed to take the lofty seat, Frey mounted the steps
+and sat upon the All-father's throne.
+
+"He looked out over Asgard, shining in the morning light, and saw the
+gods busy about their daily tasks. He gazed down upon the earth, with its
+rugged mountains and raging seas, and saw men hurrying this way and that,
+like tiny ants rushing out of their hills.
+
+"Last of all he turned his eyes toward distant Joetunheim, the dark,
+forbidding home of the frost giants; but in that gloomy land of ice and
+snow he could see no bright nor beautiful thing. Great black cliffs stood
+like sentinels along the coast, dark clouds hung over the hills, and cold
+winds swept through the valleys.
+
+"At the foot of one of the hills stood a barren and desolate dwelling,
+alone in all that dark land of winter; and as Frey gazed, a maiden came
+slowly through the valley and mounted the steps to the entrance of the
+house.
+
+"Then, as she raised her arms to open the door, suddenly the sky, and
+sea, and all the earth were flooded with a bright light, and Frey saw
+that she was the most beautiful maiden in the whole world."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Kerstin looked up at her husband and spoke quickly. "That is like the
+coming of our two babies," she said. "In the days of ice and snow they
+brought light and gladness to our hearts. Let us call the sweet daughter
+'Gerda' after the goddess of sunshine and happiness."
+
+So the two babies were named at last. When the children of the
+neighborhood heard of it, they flocked to the house with their hands full
+of gifts, dancing round and round the cradle and singing a merry song
+that made the rafters ring. The wheels of thin Swedish bread that hung
+over the stove shook on their pole, the tall clock ticked louder than
+ever, and the twins opened their blue eyes and smiled their sweetest
+smile at so much happiness.
+
+But they were not very strong babies, so Anders Ekman went off to his
+work in Stockholm and left them in Dalarne with their mother and
+grandmother, hoping that the good country air would make them plump and
+sturdy.
+
+Dalarne, or the Dales, is the loveliest part of all Sweden, and the Ekman
+farm lay on the shore of a lake so beautiful that it is often called the
+"Eye of Dalarne."
+
+It was in the Dales that Gerda and little Birger outgrew their cradle and
+their baby clothes, and became the sturdy children their father longed to
+have them.
+
+When they were seven years old their mother took them to live in
+Stockholm; but with each new summer they hurried away from the city with
+its schools and lessons, to spend the long vacation at the farm.
+
+"Gerda and Birger are here!" they would cry, opening the door and running
+into the living-room to find their grandmother.
+
+"Gerda and Birger are here!" The news always ran through the neighborhood
+in a twinkling, and from far and near the boys and girls flocked down the
+road to bid them welcome.
+
+"Ger-da! Ger-da!" the old clock in the corner ticked patiently, just as
+it had been ticking for eleven long years. But who could listen to it
+now? There were flowers and berries to pick, chickens to feed, and games
+to play, through all the long summer days in Dalarne. Surely, Gerda and
+Birger had no time to listen to the clock.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE SURPRISE BOX
+
+
+All day long the gentle breezes blowing through the city streets, and the
+bright sun shining on the sparkling water of Lake Maelar, called to the
+children that spring had come in Stockholm.
+
+Great cakes of ice went floating through the arches of the bridge across
+the Norrstroem, and gray gulls, sailing up from the bay, darted down to
+the swirling water to find dainty morsels for their dinner.
+
+The little steamers which had been lying idly at the quays all winter
+were being scraped and painted, and made ready for their summer's work;
+children were playing in the parks; throngs of people filled the
+streets;--spring was in the air!
+
+But in the Ekman household Gerda and Birger had been as busy as bees all
+day, with no thought for the dancing blue water and the shining blue sky.
+Their tongues had flown fast, their fingers faster; they had hunted up
+old clothes, old books, old games; and had added one package after
+another to the contents of a big box that stood in the corner of the
+pleasant living-room.
+
+"Perhaps I can finish this needle-book, if I hurry," said Gerda, drawing
+her chair up to the window to catch the light from the setting sun.
+
+"I wanted to send this work-box, too," added Birger; "but how can I carve
+an initial on the cover when I don't know who is going to have the box?"
+
+"Carve an 'F' for friend," suggested Gerda, stopping to thread her
+needle; but just then there was a sound of chattering voices on the
+stairs, and work-box and needle-book were forgotten.
+
+As Birger sprang to open the door, a little mob of happy boys and girls
+burst into the room with a shout of heartiest greeting. Their eyes were
+sparkling with fun, their cheeks rosy from a run in the fresh spring air,
+and their arms were filled with bundles of all sizes and shapes.
+
+"Ho, Birger! Oh, Gerda!" was their cry; "it took us an endless time to
+get past the porter's wife at the street door, and she made us answer a
+dozen questions. 'To what apartment were we going? Whom did we wish to
+see? Why did we all come together?'"
+
+"And did you tell her that you were coming to the third apartment to see
+the Ekman twins, and were bringing clothing and gifts to fill a surprise
+box?" asked Gerda, holding up her apron for the packages.
+
+"Yes," replied a jolly, round-faced boy whom the others called Oscar,
+"and we had to explain that we didn't know who was to have the box, nor
+why you telephoned to us to bring the gifts to-night, when you said only
+last week that you wouldn't want them until the first of June."
+
+"There has been a hard storm on the northern coast, and Father is
+going by train as far as Lulea, to see if it did much damage to the
+lighthouses," Gerda explained. "He thinks that the storm may have caused
+great suffering among the poor people, so we are going to send our box
+with him, instead of waiting to send it by boat in June. He has to start
+on his trip very early in the morning, so the box must be ready
+to-night."
+
+Everyone began talking at once, and a tall girl with pretty curly hair,
+who had something important to say, had to raise her voice above the din
+before she could be heard. "Let us write a letter and put it into the box
+with the gifts," she suggested.
+
+"Ja sa! Yes, of course! That is good!" they all cried; and while Gerda
+ran to get pen and ink, the boys and girls gathered around a table that
+stood in the center of the room.
+
+"Dear Yunker Unknown:--" began a mischievous-looking boy, pretending to
+write with a great flourish.
+
+"Nonsense!" cried Sigrid Lundgren. "The box is filled with skirts and
+aprons and caps and embroidered belts, and all sorts of things for a
+girl. Don't call her Yunker. Yunker means farmer."
+
+"Well, then, 'Dear Jungfru Unknown:--'" the boy corrected, with more
+flourishes.
+
+"I wish we knew who would get the box, then we should know just what to
+say," said little Hilma Berling.
+
+"She is probably just your age, and is named Selma," said Birger; and
+everyone laughed over his choice of a name.
+
+"Yes," agreed Oscar, "and she lives in the depths of the white northern
+forests, with only a white polar bear and a white snowy owl for company."
+
+"I don't believe we shall ever be able to write a letter," said Birger,
+shaking his head. "How can we write to some one we have never seen?" and
+he sat himself down on a red painted cricket beside the tall stove and
+began carving the cover of the work-box.
+
+"We have made all the little gifts in that box for some one we have never
+seen," said Sigrid. "It ought to be just as easy to write her a letter."
+
+"No, Sigrid," Birger told her; "it is the hardest thing in the world to
+write a letter, especially if you have nothing to say. I would rather
+make a box and carve it, than write half of a letter."
+
+"Here comes Mother. She will tell us what to write," said Gerda.
+
+"Why not write about some of the good times you have together here in
+Stockholm," suggested her mother, and she took up the pen and waited for
+some one to start the letter.
+
+"Our dear Girl-friend in the North:--" said Hilma for a beginning; and as
+Fru Ekman wrote at their dictation, first one and then another added a
+message, until finally she leaned back in her chair and told them to
+listen to what she had written.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"We are a club of capital boys and girls because we live in Sweden's
+capital city," she began.
+
+"That was from Oscar," interrupted Gerda; but her mother continued,--"and
+we send you this box for a surprise.
+
+"We go to school and have to study very hard; but we find a little time
+for play every day. Sometimes we go to the park, but when it storms we
+are glad to stay in the house and work at sewing or sloyd. So, ever since
+Yule-tide, we have been making little gifts for you,--the girls with
+their needles, the boys with their saws and knives.
+
+"We hope you will enjoy wearing the caps and aprons as much as we have
+enjoyed making them; and if you have a brother, please give him the watch
+and the leather watch-chain. It is a gift from Oscar.
+
+"The rainbow skirt is one which Gerda wore last summer. She has outgrown
+it now, and will have to have a new one next year. She hopes it is not
+too small for you.
+
+"If you want to know what Stockholm is like, you must think of islands
+and bridges, because the city is built on eight islands, and they are all
+connected by bridges with each other and with the mainland. In summer,
+little steamers go around the city, in and out among the islands; but in
+winter the lake and all the bays are frozen over, and there is good
+skating everywhere.
+
+"Then you should see the twelve girls and boys who are writing this
+letter, holding fast to one another in a long line, and skimming across
+Djurgarden bay or skating around Stadenholm, where the King's Palace
+stands.
+
+"Sometime, if you will come to visit us in Stockholm, we will have you
+join the line and skate with us under the bridges, and up and down the
+waterways; and we will show you what good times we can have in the city."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"So we did write a letter after all," sighed Birger, as Fru Ekman
+finished reading. "Now we must sign our names;" and after much discussion
+and laughter the twelve names appeared on the paper, written in a circle
+without any beginning or end,--Sigrid's and Hilma's and Oscar's and
+Gerda's and all.
+
+"Put it in the box and we'll nail on the cover," cried Oscar, picking up
+the hammer and pounding as if he were driving a dozen nails at once.
+
+"Can't a poor man read his newspaper in peace, without being disturbed by
+all this noise?" called Herr Ekman from the next room; but when he
+appeared in the doorway the merry twinkle in his eyes showed that he
+cared little about the noise and was glad to see the children having a
+good time.
+
+"I'd like to be going north with this box," said Magnus, as he took some
+nails and began nailing on the cover.
+
+"Father goes every summer to inspect the lighthouses along the coast,"
+said Birger, "and he has promised to take me with him sometime."
+
+"And me, too," added Gerda; "he wouldn't take you without me."
+
+"Is it very different in the far North?" asked Oscar.
+
+"Yes," replied Herr Ekman, "the winter is long and cold and dark; there
+are severe storms, and deep snow covers the ground; but the boys and
+girls find plenty to do, and seem to be just as happy as you are," and he
+pinched Oscar's ear as he spoke.
+
+"I don't see how they can be happy in the winter when it is dark all
+night and almost all day," said Olaf.
+
+Herr Ekman laughed. "Do you think they should go into a den, like the
+bears, and sleep through the winter?" he asked.
+
+"But think of the summer, when it is light all day and all night, too,"
+said Sigrid. "Then they have fun enough to make up for the winter."
+
+"I never could understand about our long nights in winter and our long
+days in summer," spoke Hilma Berling.
+
+"It is because we live so near the North Pole," Oscar told her. "Now that
+Commander Peary of the United States of America has really discovered
+the North Pole, perhaps the geographies will make it easier to understand
+how the sun juggles with the poles and circles.
+
+"I am sorry that it has been discovered," he added. "I always meant to do
+it myself, when I got old enough to discover anything."
+
+"If I could stand on the top of Mount Dundret and see the sun shining at
+midnight, I am sure I could understand about it without any geography,"
+Gerda declared.
+
+"If you should go north with Herr Lighthouse-Inspector Ekman this summer,
+you might meet the little girl who receives this box," said Sigrid.
+
+"I should know her the minute I saw her," Gerda said decidedly.
+
+"How would you know her?" questioned Birger. "You don't even know her
+name or where she lives. Father is going to give the box to the
+lighthouse-master at Lulea, and he will decide where to send it."
+
+"Oh, there are ways!" replied Gerda. "And besides, she would have on my
+rainbow skirt."
+
+That night, after the children had trooped down the stairs and away to
+their homes, and after Gerda and Birger had said good-night and gone to
+their beds, the father and mother sat by the table, talking over plans
+for the summer.
+
+"I suppose we shall start for Dalarne the day after school closes,"
+suggested Fru Ekman.
+
+"No," answered her husband, "I have been thinking that the children are
+old enough now to travel a little; and I have decided to take them with
+me when I go north this summer. They ought to know more about the
+forests, and rivers, and shores of their good old Mother Svea."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ON BOARD THE "NORTH STAR"
+
+
+It was a sunny morning in late June. The waters of the Saltsjoe rippled
+and sparkled around the islands of Stockholm, and little steamers puffed
+briskly about in the harbor. The tide had turned, and the fresh water of
+the lake, mingled with the salt water of the fjord, was swirling and
+eddying under the bridges and beating against the stone quays; for Lake
+Maelar is only eighteen inches higher than the Salt Sea, and while the
+incoming tide brings salt water up the river from the ocean, the outgoing
+tide carries fresh water down from the lake.
+
+Just as the great clock in the church tower began chiming the hour of
+nine, a group of children gathered on the granite pier opposite the
+King's Palace.
+
+A busy scene greeted their eyes. Vessels were being loaded and unloaded,
+passengers were arriving, men were hurrying to and fro, and boys selling
+newspapers were rushing about in the crowd.
+
+"Do you see the _North Star_?" Sigrid asked the others. "That is the name
+of the boat they are going to take."
+
+"There it is!" cried Oscar; "and there are Gerda and Birger on the deck."
+With a merry shout of greeting he ran on board the steam launch, followed
+by all the other girls and boys.
+
+"Oh, Gerda, how I wish I were going with you," said Hilma wistfully. "I
+should love to cross the Arctic Circle and see the sun shining all night
+long."
+
+Gerda, who was wearing a pretty blue travelling dress, with blue ribbons
+on her hat and in her hair, threw her arms around her friend. "I wish
+you were going, too," she answered. "Birger is the best brother any girl
+could have; but he isn't like a sister, and that is what you are to me,
+Hilma."
+
+At the same moment, Birger was confiding to his friend, "I wish you were
+going with us, Oscar. Gerda is a good sister; but she isn't like a
+brother."
+
+All the other boys and girls were talking and laughing together, telling
+of the strange sights that Birger and Gerda would see on their trip into
+Lapland; and what they would do if only they were going, too.
+
+Suddenly a warning whistle from the steamer sent them hurrying back to
+the quay, where they stood waving their handkerchiefs and shouting good
+wishes until the twins were out of sight.
+
+The vessel's course lay first between two islands, and Gerda lifted her
+eyes to the windows of the King's Palace, which stood near the quay of
+one; but Birger found more to interest him in the military and naval
+buildings on the other.
+
+"There is a ship from Liverpool, England," said Lieutenant Ekman,
+pointing to a vessel which was lying beside the quay in front of the
+palace.
+
+"It is hard to believe that we are forty miles from the ocean when we see
+such big ships in our harbor," said Birger. "How did it happen that
+Stockholm was built so far from the open sea? It would be easier for all
+these vessels if they didn't have to come sailing up among all the
+islands to find a landing-place."
+
+"Lake Maelar was the stronghold of the ancient Viking warriors," replied
+his father; "and it was just because there were forty miles of difficult
+sailing among narrow channels, that they chose to live at the head of the
+Saltsjoe, and make this fjord their thoroughfare in going out to the
+Baltic Sea."
+
+"Did they like to make things as hard as possible for themselves?" asked
+Gerda with interest.
+
+"Not so much as they liked to make it as hard as possible for their
+enemies," said Herr Ekman. "Centuries ago, hunters and fishermen built
+their rude huts on the wooded islands at the outlet of Maelar Lake. They
+often found it convenient to slip away from their pursuers among these
+islands; but they were not always successful, for their settlements on
+the site of the present city were repeatedly destroyed by hostile
+tribes."
+
+"Why didn't they build fortifications on the islands and hold the enemy
+at bay?" questioned Birger.
+
+"They were too busy sailing off to foreign lands," answered his father.
+"Fleet after fleet of Viking ships sailed out of the bays of Sweden,
+manned by the bravest sailors the world has ever known; and they swooped
+down upon the tribes of Europe, fighting and conquering them with the
+strength of giants and the glee of children."
+
+"It was Birger Jarl who built the first walls and towers to protect the
+city," spoke Gerda. "I remember learning it in my history lesson."
+
+"Yes," her father replied; "good old Earl Birger, who ruled the Swedes in
+the thirteenth century, saw how important such fortifications would be,
+and so he locked up the Maelar Lake from hostile fleets by building walls
+and towers around one of the islands and making it his capital."
+
+"There is an old folk-song in one of my books which always reminds me of
+the Vikings," said Birger.
+
+"Let us hear it," suggested his father, and Birger repeated:--
+
+"Brave of heart and warriors bold,
+Were the Swedes from time untold;
+Breasts for honor ever warm,
+Youthful strength in hero arm.
+    Blue eyes bright
+    Dance with light
+For thy dear green valleys old.
+North, thou giant limb of earth,
+With thy friendly, homely hearth."
+
+"There is another stanza," said Gerda. "I like the second one best," and
+she added:--
+
+"Song of many a thousand year
+Rings through wood and valley clear;
+Picture thou of waters wild,
+Yet as tears of mourning mild.
+    To the rhyme
+    Of past time
+Blend all hearts and lists each ear.
+Guard the songs of Swedish lore,
+Love and sing them evermore."
+
+"Good," said Lieutenant Ekman; "isn't there a third stanza, Birger?"
+
+But Birger was at the other end of the boat. "Come here, Gerda," he
+called. "We can see Waxholm now."
+
+Then, as the boat slipped past the great fortress and began to thread its
+way in and out among the islands in the fjord, the twins stood at the
+rail, pointing out to each other a beautiful wooded island, a windmill, a
+rocky ledge, a pretty summer cottage nestling among the trees, a
+fisherman's hut with fishing nets hung up on poles to dry, an eagle
+soaring across the blue sky, or a flock of terns flying up from the rocks
+with their harsh, rattling cry.
+
+There was a new and interesting sight every moment, and the sailors in
+their blue uniforms nodded to each other with pleasure as Gerda flitted
+across the deck.
+
+"She is like a little bluebird," they said; and like a bird she chirped
+and twittered, singing snatches of song, and asking a hundred questions.
+
+"I like those old fancies that the Vikings had about the sea and the sky
+and the winds," she said at last, stretching her arms wide and dancing
+from end to end of the deck. "They called the sea the 'necklace of the
+earth,' and the sky the 'wind-weaver.'"
+
+"I wish I had the magic boat that Loki gave to Frey," answered Birger
+lazily, lying flat on his back and looking up into the "wind-weaver."
+"If I had it, I would sail over the whole long 'necklace of the earth,'
+from clasp to clasp."
+
+But Gerda was already out of hearing. She had gone to sit beside her
+father and watch the course of the boat through the thousands of rocky
+islands that stud the coast.
+
+"The captain says that the frost giants threw all these rocks out
+here when they were having a battle with old Njord, the god of the sea,"
+she said. Then, as she caught sight of a lighthouse on a low outer
+ledge,--"Why, Father!" she cried, "I thought we were going to stop at
+every lighthouse on the coast."
+
+"So we are, after we leave the Skaergard," replied Lieutenant Ekman. "I
+came down as far as this several weeks ago when the ice went out of the
+fjord. There are two or three months when all this water is frozen over
+and there can be no shipping; but as soon as the ice breaks up, the lamps
+are lighted in the lighthouses and I come down to see them. Now it is so
+light all night that for two months the lamps are not lighted at all
+unless there is a storm."
+
+Gerda ran to the rail to wave her handkerchief to a little girl on the
+deck of a lumber vessel which they were passing.
+
+"The lighthouse keepers have a good many vacations, don't they?" she said
+when she came back.
+
+"Yes," replied her father; "those on the east coast of Sweden have
+several months in the winter when the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia
+are covered with solid ice; but on the south and west coasts the
+lighthouses and even the lightships are lighted all winter."
+
+"Why is that?" questioned Birger, coming to join them.
+
+"There is a warm current which crosses the Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf
+of Mexico and washes our western coast. It is called the Gulf Stream.
+This current warms the air and makes the climate milder, and it keeps the
+water from freezing, so that shipping is carried on all winter,"
+Lieutenant Ekman explained.
+
+Just then a sailor came to tell them that their dinner was ready. While
+they were eating, the launch made a landing at the first of the
+lighthouses which the inspector had to visit.
+
+While their father was busy, the twins clambered over the rocks, hunting
+for starfishes and sea-urchins, and Gerda picked a bouquet of bright
+blossoms for their table on the boat.
+
+At the next stopping-place, which was Gefle, the captain took them on
+shore to see the shipyard where his own launch, the _North Star,_ was
+built; and so, all day long, there was something to keep them busy.
+
+As the boat steamed farther north, each new day grew longer, each night
+shorter, until Birger declared that he believed the sun did not set at
+all.
+
+"Oh, yes it does," his father told him. "It sets now at about eleven
+o'clock, and rises a little after one. You will have to wait until you
+cross the Polcirkel and get to the top of Mount Dundret before you have a
+night when the sun doesn't even dip below the horizon."
+
+"We must be pretty near the Arctic Circle now," exclaimed Gerda. "It is
+growing colder and colder every minute."
+
+"That is because the wind is blowing over an ice-floe," said her father,
+pointing to a large field of ice which seemed to be drifting slowly
+toward them.
+
+"Look, look, Birger!" cried Gerda, "there are some seals on the ice."
+
+"Yes," said Birger, "and there is a seal-boat sailing up to catch them."
+
+"I'm going to draw a picture of it for Mother," Gerda announced, and she
+sat still for a long time, making first one sketch and then another,--a
+seal on a cake of ice, a lighthouse, a ship being dashed against the
+rocks, and a steam-launch cutting through the water, with a boy and girl
+on its deck.
+
+"Oh dear!" she sighed after a while, "I wish something _enormous_ would
+happen. I'm tired of water and sky and sawmills and little towns with red
+houses just like the pictures in my geography."
+
+"What would you like to have happen?" questioned her father.
+
+"I should like to see some of my girl friends," replied Gerda quickly. "I
+haven't had any one to tell my secrets to for over a week."
+
+"Perhaps something enormous will happen tomorrow," her father comforted
+her. "We'll see what we can do about it."
+
+So Gerda went to sleep that night thinking of Hilma and Sigrid at home;
+and she slept through the beautiful bright summer night, little dreaming
+that the boat was bearing her steadily toward a new friend and a dearer
+friendship than any she had ever known.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+GERDA'S NEW FRIEND
+
+
+"Look, Gerda," said Lieutenant Ekman, as their launch steamed the next
+morning toward a barren island off the east coast of Sweden, "do you see
+a child on those rocks below the lighthouse?"
+
+Gerda looked eagerly where her father pointed. "Yes, I think I see her
+now," she said, after a moment.
+
+Birger ran to the bow of the boat. "Come up here," he called. "I can see
+her quite plainly. She has on a rainbow skirt."
+
+"Oh, Birger!" cried Gerda, "can it be the little girl who received our
+box? If it is, her name is Karen. Don't you remember the letter of thanks
+she wrote us?"
+
+As she spoke, the child began clambering carefully over the rocks and
+made her way to the landing-place. The twins saw now that she wore the
+rainbow skirt and the dark bodice over a white waist, which forms the
+costume of the Raettvik girls and women; but they saw, also, that she
+walked with a crutch.
+
+"Oh, Father, she is lame!" Gerda exclaimed. Then she stood quietly on the
+deck, waving her hand and smiling in friendly greeting until the launch
+was made fast to the wharf.
+
+"Are you Gerda?" asked the little lame girl eagerly, as Lieutenant Ekman
+swung his daughter ashore; and Gerda asked just as eagerly, "Are you
+Karen?" Then both children laughed and answered "Yes," together.
+
+"Come up to the house, Gerda, I want to show you my birds," said Karen at
+once; and she climbed up over the rocks toward the tiny cottage.
+
+Gerda followed more slowly, looking pityingly at the crutch and the poor,
+crooked back; but Karen turned and called to her to hurry.
+
+"I have ever so many things to show you, Gerda," she said. "There are no
+children for me to play with, so I have to make friends with the birds. I
+have four now, and I am trying to teach them to eat from my hand."
+
+As Karen spoke, she led the way around the corner of the house, and
+there, sheltered from the wind, was a collection of cages, mounted on a
+rough wooden bench. In each one was a bird which had been injured in some
+way.
+
+The largest cage held a snowy owl, and when Karen spoke to him he ruffled
+up his feathers and rolled his head from side to side, his great golden
+eyes staring at her without blinking.
+
+"He can't see when the sun shines," Karen explained; "but he seems to
+know my voice."
+
+"What a good time he must have in the long winter nights, when he can see
+all the time," said Gerda. "Where did you get him?"
+
+"Father found him in the woods with a broken wing; but he is nearly well
+now, and I shall soon set him free," Karen told her.
+
+"And here is a woodpecker, and a cuckoo, and a magpie," said Gerda,
+looking into the cages.
+
+"Yes," said Karen, "and last year I had an eider-duck, and I often have
+sea-gulls. Sometimes, when there is a big storm, the gulls are blown
+against the windows of the lighthouse and are hurt. I find them on the
+rocks in the morning with a broken leg or wing, and then I put them in a
+cage and take care of them until they can fly away. Father and I call
+this the Sea-gull Light."
+
+"What do you do with the birds in the winter?" asked Gerda.
+
+"The lighthouse is closed as soon as the Gulf freezes over, and then we
+go to live on the mainland," Karen replied. "One of my brothers built
+a bird-house near our barn, and if my birds are not strong enough to fly
+away, Father lets me take them with me in the cages, and I feed them
+all winter with crumbs and grain."
+
+"How many brothers have you?"
+
+"There are five, but they are all much older than I am. They work in the
+woods in the winter, cutting out logs or making tar; and in the summer
+they go off on fishing trips. I don't see them very often."
+
+"We met a great many vessels loaded with lumber on our way up the coast,"
+said Gerda, "and, wherever we stopped, the wharves were covered with
+great piles of lumber, and barrels and barrels of tar."
+
+"The lumber vessels sail past this island all summer," said Karen. "I
+often wonder where they go, and what becomes of all the lumber they
+carry. There is a sawmill near our house on the shore and it whirrs and
+saws all day long."
+
+"There were sawmills all along the coast," said Gerda. "Birger and I
+began to count them, and then there were so many other things to see that
+we forgot to count."
+
+Karen stooped down to open the door of the magpie's cage, and he hopped
+out and began picking up the grain which she held in her hand for him. "I
+think this magpie is going to stay with me," she said. "He is very tame
+and I often let him out of the cage. Mother says he will bring me good
+luck," she added rather wistfully.
+
+"It must be lonely for you here, with only the birds to play with," said
+Gerda. "You must be glad when the time comes to live on shore and go
+to school again."
+
+For answer, Karen looked at her crutch. "I can't go to school," she said
+soberly; "but my brothers taught me to read and write, and Mother has a
+piano which I can play a little."
+
+Then her face lighted up with a cheery smile. "When your box came this
+spring, it was the most exciting thing that ever happened to me.
+Everything in it gave me something new to think about. I often think how
+pretty the streets of Stockholm must look, with all the little girls
+going about in rainbow skirts, and none of them having to walk with a
+crutch."
+
+"Oh, dear me!" exclaimed Gerda quickly; "it is not often that you see a
+rainbow skirt in Stockholm. I never wear one there."
+
+Karen looked surprised. "Where do you wear it?" she asked.
+
+Then Gerda told about her summer home in Raettvik. "It is on Lake Siljan,
+in the central part of Sweden, in a province that is called Dalarne,"
+she explained. "It is a very old-fashioned place, and the people still
+wear the costumes which were worn hundreds of years ago."
+
+A wistful look had stolen into Karen's face as she listened. "I suppose
+there are ever so many children in Raettvik," she said.
+
+"Oh, yes," answered Gerda. "We play together every day, and go to church
+on Sundays; and sometimes I help to row the Sunday boat."
+
+"What is the Sunday boat?" was Karen's next question.
+
+"There are several parishes in Raettvik, and many of the people live so
+far away from the church that they row across the lake together in a long
+boat which is called the Sunday boat," Gerda told her.
+
+"And do you have girl friends in Stockholm?" asked Karen, envying this
+Gerda who came and went from city to country so easily.
+
+"Yes, indeed," answered Gerda. Then she smiled and said shyly, "I wish
+you would be my friend, too. When I go home I can write to you."
+
+Karen's face flushed with pleasure. "Oh, will you?" she cried. "But there
+will be so little for me to write to you," she added soberly. "After the
+snow comes, and my brothers have all gone into the woods for the winter,
+there are weeks at a time when I never see any one but my father and
+mother."
+
+"You can tell me all about your birds," Gerda suggested; "and the way the
+moon shines on the long stretches of snow; and about the animals that
+creep out from the woods sometimes and sniff around your door. And I will
+tell you about my school, and the parties I have with my friends. And I
+will send you some new music to play on the piano."
+
+But before they could say anything more, Lieutenant Ekman had returned
+from inspecting the lighthouse with Karen's father, and was calling to
+Gerda that it was time for them to start for Lulea.
+
+"Good-bye," the two little girls said to each other, and Karen went down
+to the landing-place to watch the launch steam away.
+
+Gerda stood quietly beside the rail, looking back at the island, long
+after Karen's rainbow skirt and the lighthouse had faded from sight.
+
+"I will give you two oere for your thoughts, if they are worth it," her
+father said at last.
+
+"I was thinking that it will make Karen sad to hear of my good times this
+winter," Gerda told him.
+
+"She will like to have your letters to think about," replied Lieutenant
+Ekman cheerfully. Then he pointed to a little town on the shore ahead.
+"There is Lulea," he said. "You will soon be travelling on the railroad
+toward Mount Dundret and the midnight sun."
+
+But although Gerda was soon speeding into the mysterious Arctic regions,
+she could not forget her new friend in the lonely lighthouse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CROSSING THE POLCIRKEL
+
+
+"Polcirkel, Birger, Polcirkel!" cried Gerda from her side of the car.
+
+"Polcirkel!" shouted Birger in answer, and sprang to Gerda's seat to look
+out of the window.
+
+The slow-running little train groaned and creaked; then came to a stop at
+the tiny station-house on the Arctic Circle.
+
+The twins, their faces smeared with vaseline and veiled in mosquito
+netting, hurried out of the car and looked around them. Close beside the
+station rose a great pile of stones, to mark the only spot where a
+railroad crosses the Arctic Circle. This is the most northerly railroad
+in the world, and was built by the Swedish government to transport iron
+ore to the coast, from the mines four miles north of Gellivare.
+
+As the two children climbed to the top of the cairn, Birger said, "This
+is a wonderful place; is it not, Gerda?"
+
+His sister looked back doubtfully over the immense peat bog through which
+the train had been travelling, and thought of the swamps and the forests
+of pine and birch which lay between them and Lulea, many miles away on
+the coast. Then she looked forward toward more peat bogs, swamps and
+forests that lay between them and Gellivare.
+
+"I suppose it is a wonderful place," she said slowly; "but it seems more
+wonderful to me that we are here looking at it. Do you remember how it
+looks on the map in our geography, and how far away it always seemed?"
+
+"Yes," replied her brother, "I always thought there was nothing but ice
+and snow beyond the Arctic Circle."
+
+"So did I," said Gerda. "I had no idea we should see little farms, and
+fields of rye, oats and barley, away up here in Lapland. Father says the
+crops grow faster because the sun shines all day and almost all night,
+too; and that it is only eight weeks from seed-time to harvest.
+
+"No doubt there is plenty of ice and snow in winter; but just here there
+seems to be nothing but swamps and forests."
+
+"And swarms of mosquitoes," added Birger. "Don't forget the mosquitoes!"
+
+In a moment more the children were back in their seats, and the train was
+creeping slowly northward, on its way toward Gellivare and Mount Dundret,
+where, from the fifth of June to the eleventh of July, the sun may be
+seen shining all day and all night.
+
+Birger took a tiny stone from his pocket and showed it to his sister,
+saying, "See my souvenir of Polcirkel." But Gerda paid little attention
+to his souvenir, and slipped over to her father's seat to ask a question.
+
+"Father," she said softly.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman looked up from the maps and papers in his lap. "What do
+you wish, little daughter?" he asked.
+
+"Will you please make me a promise?" she begged.
+
+"If it won't take all my money to keep it," he answered with a smile.
+
+But Gerda seemed in no hurry to tell what it was that she wanted, and
+began looking over the papers in his lap. "What is this?" she asked,
+taking up a small blue card.
+
+"That is my receipt from the Tourist Agency," he answered. "When I give
+it to the station master at Gellivare, he will give me a key which will
+open the hut on Mount Dundret, and let us see the midnight sun in
+comfort."
+
+"How much did you pay for it?" was Gerda's next question.
+
+"I paid about four kronor for the card and all the privileges that go
+with it," was the answer.
+
+"Have you plenty of money left?" asked the little girl.
+
+Her father laughed. "Enough to get us all three back to Stockholm, at
+least," he said. "Why do you ask?"
+
+"Because--" said Gerda slowly, and then stopped.
+
+"Because what?" Lieutenant Ekman asked again.
+
+"Because I wondered if we could stop at the lighthouse on our way home
+and ask Karen Klasson to go to Stockholm and live with us;" and Gerda
+held her breath and waited for her father to speak.
+
+"Perhaps she would not like to leave her father and mother for the sake
+of living with us," he said at last.
+
+"I think she would, if it would make her back well," persisted Gerda.
+
+Herr Ekman laughed. "If living with us would cure people's backs, we
+might have all the lame children in Sweden to care for," he said.
+
+"But I want only Karen," said Gerda; "and I thought it would be good for
+her to take the Swedish medical gymnastics at the Institute in Stockholm,
+where so many people are cured every year."
+
+Lieutenant Ekman looked thoughtfully at his daughter. "That is a good
+idea and shows a loving heart," he said. "But are you willing to give up
+any of your pleasures in order to make it possible?"
+
+Gerda looked at him in surprise, and he continued, "I am not a rich man.
+If we should take Karen into our family and send her to the gymnasium, it
+would cost a good many kronor, and your mother and I would have to make
+some sacrifices. Are you willing to make some, too?"
+
+Gerda gazed thoughtfully across the stretches of bog-land to the forest
+on the horizon. "Yes," she said at last; "I will go without the furs
+Mother promised to buy for me next winter."
+
+Lieutenant Ekman knew well that Gerda had set her heart on the furs, and
+that it would be a real sacrifice for her to give them up; but if she
+were willing to do so cheerfully, it meant that she was in earnest about
+helping her new friend.
+
+"Yes," he said, after a moment; "if you will give up the furs, we will
+see what can be done. On the way home we will stop at the lighthouse and
+ask Hans Klasson to lend Karen to us for a little while."
+
+Gerda clapped her hands. "Oh, a promise! A promise!" she cried joyously.
+"What a good souvenir of Polcirkel!" and she ran to tell Birger the news.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE MIDNIGHT SUN
+
+
+"What time is it, Father?" asked Gerda, as they reached the top of Mount
+Dundret, and Lieutenant Ekman took the key out of his pocket to open the
+door of the Tourists' Hut.
+
+"It is half past eleven," replied her father, looking at his watch.
+
+"At noon or at night?" questioned Gerda.
+
+"Look at the sun, and don't ask such foolish questions," Birger told her.
+"When the sun is high up in the heavens it is noon; but when it is down
+on the horizon it is night."
+
+Gerda looked off at the sun which hung like a huge red moon on the
+northern horizon. "Then I suppose it is almost midnight," she said, "and
+time to go to bed. I was wishing it was nearer noon and dinner-time."
+
+"You'll have to wait for dinner-time and bedtime, too, until we get back
+to Gellivare," her father told her.
+
+"When you have travelled so far just to see the sun shining at midnight,
+you should spend all your time looking at it," said Birger, opening his
+camera to take some pictures.
+
+Gerda looked down into the valleys below, where a thick mist hung over
+the lakes and rivers; then turned her eyes toward the sun, which was
+becoming paler and paler, its golden glow shedding a drowsy light over
+the hills.
+
+"How still it is!" she said softly. "All the world seems to have gone to
+sleep in the midst of sunshine."
+
+"It is exactly midnight," said her father, looking at the watch which he
+had been holding in his hand.
+
+Birger closed his camera and slipped it into his pocket. "There," he
+said, "I have a picture of the sun shining at midnight, to prove to Oscar
+that it really does shine. Now I am going to gather some flowers to press
+for Mother;" and he ran off down the side of the hill.
+
+Gerda found a seat on a rock beside the hut, and sat down to watch the
+beginning of the new day. The sun gradually brightened and became a
+magnificent red, tinging the clouds with gold and crimson, and gilding
+the distant hills. A fresh breeze sprang up, the swallows in their nests
+under the eaves of the hut twittered softly,--all nature seemed to be
+awake again.
+
+"I've been thinking," said Gerda, after a long silence, "that I told
+Hilma I should understand about the midnight sun if I should see it; but
+I'm afraid I don't understand it, after all."
+
+"It is this way," Lieutenant Ekman began. "The earth moves around the sun
+once every year, and turns on its own axis once every twenty-four hours."
+
+"That is in our geography," Gerda interrupted. "The path which the earth
+takes in its trip around the sun is called its orbit. The axis is a
+straight line that passes through the center of the earth, from the North
+Pole to the South Pole."
+
+"That is right," said her father; "and if old Mother Earth went whirling
+round and round with her axis perpendicular to her orbit, we should have
+twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of darkness all over the earth
+every day in the year."
+
+"I suppose she gets dizzy, spinning around so fast, and finds it hard to
+stand straight up and down," suggested Gerda.
+
+"No doubt of it," answered her father gravely. "At least she has tipped
+over, so that in summer the North Pole is turned toward the sun, but in
+winter it is turned away from the sun."
+
+"Let me show you how I think it is," said Gerda eagerly. She was always
+skillful at drawing pictures, and now she took the paper and pencil
+which her father gave her, and talked as she worked. "This is the sun and
+this is the earth's orbit," and she drew a circle in the center with a
+great path around it.
+
+"This is Mother Earth in the summer with the sun shining on her head at
+the North Pole," and a grandmotherly-looking figure in a Raettvik costume
+was quickly hung up on the line of the orbit, her head tipped toward the
+sun.
+
+"Here she is again in winter, with the sun shining on her feet at the
+South Pole," and Gerda drew the figure on the opposite side of the orbit
+with her head tipped away from the sun.
+
+"That is exactly how it is," said her father. "But do you understand
+that, when she is slowly moving round the sun, she is always tipped in
+the same direction, with the North Pole pointing toward the north star;
+so there comes a time, twice a year, when her head and her feet are both
+equally distant from the sun, which shines on both alike?"
+
+"No," said Gerda. "When does that happen?"
+
+"It happens in March and September, when Mother Earth has travelled just
+half the distance between summer and winter."
+
+"Oh, I see! This is where she would be;" and Gerda made two dots on the
+orbit, each half-way between the two grandmothers.
+
+"Good," said her father. "Now when she is in that position, day and
+night, all over the earth, are each twelve hours long. We call them the
+'Equinoxes.' It is a Latin word which means 'equal nights.'"
+
+"In March and September do we have a day when it is twelve hours from
+sunrise to sunset, and twelve hours from sunset to sunrise?" questioned
+Gerda.
+
+"Yes, and it is the same all over the earth the very same day," repeated
+Lieutenant Ekman. "If you will look in the almanac when you go home, you
+will see just which day it is."
+
+Gerda studied her drawing for a few minutes in silence. "I think I
+understand it now," she said at last.
+
+"It is easy to understand after a little study," her father told her;
+"but everyone has to see it for himself, just like the midnight sun.
+
+"When the North Pole, or Fru Earth's head, is turned toward the sun we
+have the long summer days in Sweden. When it is turned away from the sun
+we have the long winter nights. The nearer we go to the pole, the longer
+days and nights we have. If we could be directly at the pole, we should
+have six months of daylight and six months of darkness every year."
+
+"What did you say?" asked Birger, who came around the corner of the hut
+just in time to hear his father's last words.
+
+"We were explaining how it is that the farther north we go in summer, the
+longer we can see the sun each day," said Gerda.
+
+"Let me hear you explain it," suggested Birger, trying to find a
+comfortable seat on the rocky ground.
+
+But Gerda drew a long breath of dismay. "Oh, Birger, you should have come
+sooner!" she exclaimed. "I understand it perfectly now; but if we go
+through it again I shall get all mixed up in my mind."
+
+Lieutenant Ekman laughed. "I move that we stay up here and watch the
+midnight sun until we understand the whole matter and can stand on our
+heads and say it backwards," he suggested.
+
+"I'm willing to stay all summer, if we can drive off in the daytime and
+see some Lapp settlements," said Birger, who had made friends with a
+young Laplander that morning at the Gellivare station.
+
+"But it is daytime all the time!" cried Gerda. "When should we get any
+sleep?"
+
+"I must be back in Stockholm by the middle of July," said Lieutenant
+Ekman; "but if your friend knows where there are some Laplanders not too
+far away, perhaps we can spare time to go and see them."
+
+"Yes, he does," said Birger eagerly. "The mosquitoes have driven most of
+the herds of reindeer up into the mountains, but Erik's family are still
+living only a few miles north of Gellivare."
+
+"What is Erik doing in Gellivare?" questioned Herr Ekman.
+
+"He is working in the iron mines," Birger explained. "He wants to save
+money so that he can go to Stockholm and learn a trade. He doesn't want
+to stay here in Lapland and wander about with the reindeer all his life."
+
+"So?" said Lieutenant Ekman in surprise. "Your friend Erik seems to have
+ambitions of his own."
+
+"Look at Gerda!" whispered Birger suddenly.
+
+Gerda sat on the ground with her back against the hut, and she was fast
+asleep. "Poor child," said her father, as he carried her into the hut and
+put her on a cot, "she has been awake all night. When she has had a
+little rest we will go back to Gellivare and look up your friend Erik.
+After we have all had a good night's sleep, we shall be ready to make a
+call on his family and their reindeer."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+ERIK'S HOME IN LAPLAND
+
+
+"This is the best part of our trip," Gerda said, two days later,
+as she was standing in the shade of some fir trees at one of the
+posting-stations a few miles from Gellivare, waiting for fresh horses
+to be put into the carts. "I have been reading about Laplanders and their
+reindeer ever since I can remember, and now I am going to see them in
+their own home."
+
+"Perhaps you will be disappointed," Birger told her. "Erik says that his
+father's reindeer may wander away any day to find a place where there is
+more moss, and if they do, the whole family will follow them."
+
+"Where do they go?" asked Gerda.
+
+"There is a treaty between Norway and Sweden, more than one hundred and
+fifty years old, which provides that Swedish Lapps can go to the coast of
+Norway in summer, and Norwegian Lapps can go inland to Sweden in winter,"
+Lieutenant Ekman told the children.
+
+"Yes," said Erik, "when the moss is scanty or the swarms of mosquitoes
+too thick, the reindeer hurry off to some pleasanter spot, without
+stopping to ask permission. Perhaps we have been in camp a week, perhaps
+a month, just as it happens; but when we hear their joints snapping and
+their hoofs tramping all together, we know it is time to take down the
+tent, pack up everything and follow the herd to a new pasture."
+
+"I am glad we are out of sight of the photograph shops in Gellivare,
+anyway," Birger told Erik, when they were seated in the light carts and
+were once more on their journey. "If I could take such good pictures
+myself, I shouldn't care; but all my pictures of the midnight sun make it
+look like the moon in a snow-bank."
+
+Just then Gerda, who was riding with her father, called to Birger, "Stop
+a moment and listen!" So the two posting-carts halted while the children
+listened to the music of a mountain stream not far away. Mingled with the
+sound of the rushing water was the whirr of a busy sawmill in the depths
+of the woods, while from the tree-tops could be heard the call of a
+cuckoo and the harsh cry of a woodpecker.
+
+Soon they were on their way again, pushing deeper and deeper through the
+Lapland forest; their road bordered with green ferns and bright
+blossoming flowers, their path crossed now and again by fluttering
+butterflies.
+
+"This is just the right kind of a carriage for such a road, isn't it?"
+said Gerda, as the track led through a shallow brooklet.
+
+"Yes," answered her father; "a few of the roads in these northern forests
+are excellent; but many of them are only trails, and are rough and rocky.
+If the cart were not so light, with only one seat and two wheels, we
+should often get a severe shaking-up."
+
+"How does it happen that we can get such a good horse and cart up here
+among the forests?" asked Gerda.
+
+"As there is no railroad in this part of Lapland, the Swedish government
+very thoughtfully arranges for the posting-stations, and guarantees the
+pay of the keepers for providing travellers with fresh horses," her
+father explained. "The stations are from one to two Swedish miles apart,
+and everyone who hires a horse is expected to take good care of him."
+
+"I'm afraid we shall have to make this horse go faster, or we shall be
+caught in a thunder-storm," said Gerda, looking up through the trees at
+the sky, which was growing dark with clouds.
+
+"You are right," answered her father; and at the same moment Erik looked
+back and shouted, "We must hurry. Perhaps we can reach my father's tent
+before the rain comes."
+
+Then, glancing up again at the black clouds, he said to Birger, "We shall
+soon hear the pounding of Thor's hammer."
+
+"How do you happen to know about the old Norse gods?" questioned Birger.
+
+"I have been to school in Jockmock, and I read books," replied Erik,
+urging on his horse to a race with the clouds; but the clouds won, for
+the little party had gone scarcely an English mile before they were in
+the midst of a thunder-storm. Over rocks and rills, under low-hanging
+boughs of pine and birch trees rattled the carts along the rough woodland
+road. The rain poured down in sheets, zigzag lightning flashed across the
+sky, and a peal of thunder crashed and rumbled through the forest.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman threw his coat over Gerda, covering her from head to
+foot, and called to Erik that they must stop. As he spoke, a second flash
+of lightning showed a great boulder beside the road and Erik answered,
+"Here we are at my father's tent. It is just beyond that rock."
+
+Another moment, and with one last jounce and jolt, the two carts had
+rounded the turn in the road and stopped in a small clearing beside a
+lake. The arrival of the carts, or kaerra, as they are called in Sweden,
+had brought the whole family of Lapps to the door of the tent. There
+they stood, huddled together,--Erik's father, mother, brother and
+sisters,--looking out to see who was arriving in such a downpour.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman jumped down, gathered Gerda up in his arms, coat and
+all, and ran toward the tent. Birger followed, while Erik waited to tie
+the horses to a tree.
+
+Immediately the group at the doorway disappeared inside the tent, making
+way for the strangers to enter, and when Gerda had shaken herself out of
+her father's coat, a scene of the greatest confusion greeted her eyes.
+
+The frame of the tent was made of poles driven into the ground and drawn
+together at the top. It was covered with a coarse woolen cloth which is
+made by the Lapps and is very strong. A cross-pole was fastened to the
+frame to support the cooking-kettle, under which wood had been placed
+for a fire.
+
+An opening had been left at the top of the tent to allow the smoke to
+escape. Birger had often made such a tent of poles and canvas when he was
+spending the summer with his grandmother in Dalarne.
+
+At the right of the entrance was a pile of reindeer skins, and there,
+huddled together with the three children, were four big dogs. The dogs
+stood up and began to growl, but Erik's father, who was a short,
+thick-set man with black eyes and a skin which was red and wrinkled from
+exposure to the cold winds, silenced them with a word. He then helped
+Erik spread some dry skins for the visitors on the left side of the tent.
+
+The Lapp mother immediately busied herself with lighting the fire,
+putting some water into the kettle to boil, and grinding some coffee.
+As she moved about the tent, Gerda saw that a baby, strapped to a
+cradle-board, hung over her back.
+
+The baby's skin was white and soft, her cheeks rosy, her hair as yellow
+as Gerda's. She opened her blue eyes wide at the sight of the strangers,
+but not a sound did she make. Evidently Lapp babies were not expected to
+cry.
+
+The coffee was soon ready, and was poured into cups for the guests, while
+Erik and his brother and sisters drank theirs in turn from a big bowl.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman talked with Erik's father, who, like many of the Lapps,
+could speak Swedish; but the children were all silent, and the dogs lay
+still in their corner, their gleaming eyes watching every motion of the
+strangers.
+
+When Gerda had finished drinking the coffee, which was very good, she
+took two small packages from her pocket and put them into her father's
+hand. "They are for Erik's family," she whispered. "Birger and I bought
+them in Gellivare."
+
+"Don't you think it would be better for you to give them out yourself?"
+he asked; but Gerda shook her head as if she had suddenly become dumb,
+and so Lieutenant Ekman distributed the gifts.
+
+There was a string of shells for the youngest child; a silver ring, a
+beaded belt, a knife and a cheap watch for the older children; a box of
+matches and some tobacco for the father, and some needles and bright
+colored thread for the mother.
+
+"We should like to give you something in return," said Erik's father;
+"but we have nothing in the world except our reindeer. If we should give
+you one of them you might have some trouble in taking it home," and he
+laughed loudly at the idea.
+
+"If you wish to please me, you can do so and help your son at the same
+time," replied Lieutenant Ekman. "Erik is a good lad. He can read well,
+and has studied while he has been working in the mines. Now he wishes to
+learn a trade, and we can take him with us to Stockholm if you will let
+him go."
+
+Erik's father did not speak for a few moments; then he rose and opened
+the door of the tent, motioning for the others to follow him out into
+the forest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+FOUR-FOOTED FRIENDS
+
+
+The brief thunder-storm was over, the high noonday sun was shining down
+into the clearing, and the rumble of Thor's hammer could be heard only
+faintly in the distance. In the trees overhead the birds were calling to
+one another, shaking the drops of rain from many a twig and leaf as they
+flitted among the green branches.
+
+Erik's father took up a stout birch staff which was leaning against the
+tent, and led the way to the reindeer pasture, followed by his dogs.
+
+These dogs are the useful friends of the Lapps. They are very strong and
+brave, and watch the reindeer constantly to keep them together. When the
+herd is attacked by a pack of wolves, the frightened animals scatter in
+all directions, and then the owner and his dogs have hard work to round
+them up again.
+
+Now, as the dogs walked along behind their master, they stopped once in a
+while to sniff the air, and their keen eyes seemed to see everything.
+
+The country was wild and desolate. As far as the eye could reach, there
+was nothing but low hills, bare and rocky, with dark forests of fir and
+birch. It was cold and the wind blew in strong gusts. Tiny rills and
+brooks, formed by the melted snow and the frequent rains, chattered
+among the rocks; and in the deepest hollows there were still small
+patches of snow.
+
+Birger gathered up some of the snow and made a snowball. "Put it in your
+pocket, and take it home to Oscar as a souvenir of Lapland," Gerda
+suggested.
+
+"No," he replied, taking out his camera, "I'll set it up on this rock and
+take a picture of it,--snowball in July."
+
+"You'd better wait until you see the reindeer before you begin taking
+pictures," called Gerda, hurrying on without waiting for her brother.
+In a few moments more they came in sight of the herd, and saw animals of
+all sizes, many of them having superb, spreading antlers.
+
+"Look," said Erik's father, pointing to the reindeer with pride, "there
+are over three hundred deer,--all mine."
+
+"All the needs of the mountain Lapps are supplied by the reindeer,"
+Lieutenant Ekman told the children. "These useful animals furnish their
+owners with food, clothing, bedding and household utensils. They are
+horse, cow, express messenger and freight train. In summer they carry
+heavy loads on their backs; in winter they draw sledges over the snow."
+
+Some of the reindeer were lying down, but others were eating the short,
+greenish-white moss which grows in patches among the rocks, tearing it
+off with their forefeet. They showed no signs of fear at the approach of
+the strangers, and did not even stop to look up at them.
+
+Two or three moved slowly toward Erik when he spoke to them, but not one
+would touch the moss which he held out in his hand.
+
+"This is my own deer," Erik told Birger, showing a mark on the ear of a
+reindeer which had splendid great antlers. "He was given to me when I was
+born, to form the beginning of my herd. I have ten deer now, but I would
+gladly give them all to my father if he would let me go to Stockholm with
+you."
+
+Lieutenant Ekman turned to the father. "It shall cost him nothing," he
+said. "Are you willing that he should go?"
+
+"Yes, if he does not want to stay here," replied the father, who had
+hoped that the sight of the reindeer would make his son forget his
+longing to leave home.
+
+Erik nodded his head. "I want to go," he said.
+
+"Then it is settled," said Lieutenant Ekman, "and I will see that he
+learns a good trade."
+
+"Yes, it is settled," agreed Erik's father; "but I had hoped that my son
+would live here in Lapland and become an owner of reindeer. There are not
+so many owners as there should be."
+
+"Why, I thought that all Laplanders owned reindeer!" exclaimed Birger.
+
+"No," said his father, "there are about seven thousand Lapps in Sweden,
+but only three or four hundred of them own herds. There are the fisher
+Lapps who live on the coast; and then there are the field Lapps who live
+on the river-banks and cultivate little farms. It is only the mountain
+Lapps who own reindeer and spend all their lives wandering up and down
+the country, wherever their herds lead them."
+
+"What do the reindeer live on in the winter when the snow covers the
+moss?" questioned Birger.
+
+"The Lapps have to find places where the snow is not more than four or
+five feet deep, and then the animals can dig holes in the snow with their
+forefeet until they reach the moss," replied his father. "The reindeer
+are never housed and seem to like cold weather. They prefer to dig up the
+moss for themselves, and will not eat it after it has been gathered and
+dried."
+
+Just then the Lapp mother came to speak to her husband, and in a few
+minutes all the rest of the family arrived.
+
+"They are going to milk the reindeer," Erik explained to Gerda.
+
+"How often do you milk them?" she asked.
+
+"Twice a week," was the answer. "They give only a little milk, but it is
+very thick and rich."
+
+Erik and his brother Pers went carefully into the herd and threw a lasso
+gently over the horns of the deer, to hold them still while the mother
+did the milking. The twins looked on with interest; but to their great
+astonishment not one of the reindeer gave more than a mug of milk. They
+had been used to seeing brimming pails of cow's milk at the Ekman farm in
+Dalarne.
+
+"How do they ever get enough cream to make butter?" questioned Gerda.
+
+"We never make butter, but we make good cheese," Erik's mother explained,
+as she brought a cup of milk for them to taste.
+
+"What do these people eat?" Gerda asked her father, when the woman went
+back to her milking.
+
+"The reindeer furnish them with milk, cream, cheese and meat; and when
+they sell an animal they buy coffee, sugar, meal, tobacco, and whatever
+else they need. Then they catch a few fish and kill a bear once in a
+great while."
+
+"I have killed two bears in my life," Erik's father said with pride.
+"Look," and he showed his belt, from which hung a fringe of bears' teeth.
+
+"Do all the Lapps know how to speak Swedish?" Birger questioned.
+
+"And do they all know how to read and write?" added Gerda.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman nodded. "Most of them do," he replied. "Our government
+provides teachers and ministers for the largest settlements, so that the
+Laplanders may become good Swedish subjects."
+
+"My brother and I went to school in Jockmock last winter," said Erik, who
+had overheard the conversation. "It is a Lapp village near Gellivare, and
+my father goes there sometimes to sell toys that we carve from the
+antlers of the reindeer."
+
+A little five-year-old girl, who had hardly taken her eyes from Gerda's
+face, suddenly put up her hand and took off a leather pouch which hung
+around her neck. Opening the pouch, she took from it a tiny bag made of
+deerskin.
+
+Gerda had noticed that each one of the family wore just such a pouch, and
+she had seen the mother open hers, when she was making the coffee, and
+take from it a silver spoon.
+
+From the deerskin bag the child next took a small box made of bone, and
+by this time Birger and all the others were watching her with interest.
+Off came the cover of the box. Out of the box came a tiny package wrapped
+carefully in a bit of woolen cloth, and out of the wrappings came a
+precious treasure.
+
+"Look," exclaimed Gerda when she saw what it was; "it is a perfect little
+reindeer!"
+
+And so, indeed, it was,--a tiny animal made from a bit of bone, with
+hoofs, head and antlers all perfectly carved.
+
+The child held it out toward Gerda, nodding her head shyly to show that
+she wished to have her take it. But Gerda hesitated to do so until Erik
+said, "My father will make her another. You gave her the string of
+shells, and she will not like it if you refuse her gift."
+
+So Gerda took the little reindeer, and many a time in Stockholm, the next
+winter, she looked at it and thought of the child who gave it to her, and
+of the curious day she spent with the Lapps in far away Lapland.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+KAREN'S BROTHER
+
+
+"How would you like to spend a whole summer here in the forest, watching
+the reindeer?" Lieutenant Ekman asked Gerda, after the milking was over
+and the Lapp mother had gone back to the tent with her children.
+
+"Not very well, if I had to live in that tent," Gerda answered. Then
+suddenly something attracted her attention, and she held up her hand,
+saying, "Listen!"
+
+A faint call sounded in the distance,--a call for help.
+
+"This way," cried Erik, and dashed off down a path which led toward the
+river.
+
+All the others followed him. "It must be one of the lumbermen," said
+Erik's father. "They often get hurt in the log jams."
+
+He was right. When they reached the riverbank they found several men
+trying to drive some logs out into the current, so as to release a man
+who had slipped and was pinned against a rock.
+
+The bed of the river was rilled with rocks, over which the water was
+rushing with great force, in just such a torrent as may be found on
+nearly all the rivers of northern Sweden. Starting from the melting snow
+on the mountains, these rivers flow rapidly down to the sea, and every
+summer millions of logs go sailing down the streams to the sawmills along
+the eastern coast.
+
+Thousands of these logs are thrown into the water to drift down to the
+sea by themselves; but on some of the slower rivers the logs are made
+up into rafts which are guided down the stream by men who live on the
+raft during its journey.
+
+It was one of the log-drivers who had been caught while he was trying to
+push the logs out into the channel; and now his leg was broken.
+
+"We can take him to Gellivare in one of our kaerra," said Lieutenant
+Ekman, when, with the help of Erik and his father, the man had finally
+been rescued and carried ashore.
+
+Accordingly, he was lifted into the cart with Erik, while Gerda snuggled
+into the seat between Birger and her father; and the journey over the
+rough woodland road was made as carefully as possible.
+
+Several interesting things were discovered while the doctor from the
+mines was setting the broken leg. The most important of all was that this
+stalwart lumberman had a father who was a lighthouse keeper.
+
+"Ask him if it is the Sea-gull Light," begged Gerda, when she heard of
+it; "and find out if Karen is his sister."
+
+And it was indeed so. The young man had been in the woods all winter, and
+was on his way to the lighthouse, which he had hoped to reach in a few
+days, for the river current was swift and the logs were making good
+progress down to Lulea.
+
+"You shall reach home sooner than you expected," said Lieutenant Ekman
+the next morning, "for you shall go with us this very day."
+
+"Fine! Fine! Fine!" cried Gerda joyously when she heard of it. "Pack your
+bundle, Erik, for you are going with us, too."
+
+While their clothes, and all the little keepsakes of the trip, were being
+hurried into the satchels, Gerda's tongue flew fast with excitement, and
+her feet flew to keep it company.
+
+"What do you suppose Karen will say, when she sees us bringing her
+brother over the rocks?" she ran to ask Birger in one room, and then ran
+to ask her father in another.
+
+At nine o'clock the injured man was moved into the train, the children
+took their last look at the mining town, and then began their return over
+the most northerly railroad in the world, back through the swamps and
+forests, across the Polcirkel, and out of Lapland.
+
+Lulea was reached at last and Josef Klasson was transported from the
+train to the steamer, "Just as if he were a load of iron ore from the
+mines," Birger declared.
+
+"Not quite so bad as that," said his father, and took the twins to see
+the great hydraulic lift that takes up a car loaded with ore, as easily
+as a mother lifts her baby, and dumps the whole load into the hold of a
+vessel.
+
+The children were so full of interest in all the new life around them
+that Josef Klasson almost forgot his pain in telling them about his
+winter in the lumber camp, and the long dark night, when for over a month
+there was not even a glimpse of the sun, and no light except that of the
+moon and the frosty stars.
+
+It seemed but a very short time before Gerda was crying, "I can see the
+Sea-gull Light, and Karen is out on the rocks."
+
+Then came all the excitement of landing. The twins told Karen about
+finding her brother, and the reindeer, and the midnight sun, and the logs
+in the river, all in one breath; while Lieutenant Ekman explained Josef's
+accident to the lighthouse keeper and his wife, who had both hurried down
+to the wharf to find out the meaning of the return of the government
+boat.
+
+Then, after Josef had been welcomed with loving sorrow because of his
+injury, and they had carried him up to the house and made him
+comfortable, Gerda told about her desire to take Karen home with her.
+
+At first the father and mother would not hear of such a thing; but when
+Herr Ekman told of the medical gymnastic exercises that might cure her
+lameness, Josef spoke from his cot.
+
+"Let her go," he said. "It is a terrible thing to be lame. These few days
+that I have been helpless are the worst I have ever known. If there is a
+chance to make Karen well, let her go."
+
+And so Karen and Erik both went to Stockholm on the boat with Herr Ekman
+and the twins.
+
+"You know I told you that I never see my brothers very long at one time,"
+Karen said to Gerda, after the children had been greeted and gladly
+welcomed by Fru Ekman, and they had all tried to make the strangers feel
+at home among them.
+
+"Yes," said Gerda; "but when you next see Josef you may be so well and
+strong that you can go off to the lumber camp with him and help him saw
+down the trees."
+
+Karen shook her head sadly. She could not believe that she would ever
+walk without a crutch, and it was the first time that she had been away
+from her mother in all her life. She turned to the window so that Gerda
+might not see the tears that came into her eyes, and looked down at the
+strange city sights.
+
+Just then Lieutenant Ekman came into the room. "Oh, Father, may we take
+Erik to the Djurgard to-morrow?" Birger asked. "I want to show him the
+Lapp tent and the reindeer out there. He seems to be rather homesick for
+the forest, and says that we live up in the air like the birds in their
+nests."
+
+When the four children were asleep for the night, and the father and
+mother were left alone, they laughed softly together over the situation.
+
+"Who ever heard of bringing a Lapp boy to Stockholm!" exclaimed Herr
+Ekman; and his wife added, "Who but Gerda would think of bringing a
+strange child here, to be cured of her lameness?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A DAY IN SKANSEN
+
+
+It was in the Djurgard that poor Erik first learned that he was a
+Lapp,--a dirty Lapp.
+
+Of course he knew that his ancestors had lived in Lapland for hundreds of
+years; but before he went to the Djurgard that day with Birger and Gerda,
+he had never heard himself called a Lapp in derision.
+
+The Djurgard, or Deer Park, is a beautiful public park on one of the
+wooded islands near Stockholm. There one finds forests of gigantic oaks,
+dense groves of spruce, smiling meadows, winding roads and shady paths.
+Through the tree-branches one catches a glimpse of the blue waters of the
+fjord, rippling and sparkling in the sun; little steamers go puffing
+briskly to and fro; and great vessels sail slowly down to the sea.
+
+In summer, steamers and street cars are constantly carrying people back
+and forth between the Deer Park and other parts of the city. It is not
+a long trip; from the quay in front of the Royal Palace it takes only ten
+minutes to reach the park, and day and night the boats are crowded
+with passengers.
+
+People go there to dine in the open-air restaurants and listen to the
+bands; they go to walk along the beautiful, tree-shaded paths; or they
+go to visit Skansen, one of the most interesting museums in the world.
+
+It was to look at the Lapp encampment in Skansen that Birger and Gerda
+took Erik to the Djurgard. It was to see the birthday celebration in
+honor of Sweden's beloved poet, Karl Bellman, that they took Karen, for
+Gerda had already discovered that Karen knew many of Bellman's verses and
+songs.
+
+The happy little party started early in the afternoon, and as they walked
+through the city streets, many were the curious glances turned upon the
+Lapp boy.
+
+Erik wore a suit of Birger's clothes, and although he was five years
+older, they fitted him well. He was short, as all Lapps are, and his face
+was broad, with high cheek-bones; but he had a pair of large, honest,
+black eyes which looked at everybody and everything in a pleasant, kindly
+way.
+
+"What is that great, upward-going box?" he asked, as he caught sight of
+the Katarina Hissen, on the quay at the south side of the fjord.
+
+"That is an elevator which will take you up to the heights above, where
+you can look over the whole city," was Birger's answer. Then he whispered
+to Gerda to ask if she thought they might go up in the elevator before
+going to the Deer Park.
+
+Gerda shook her head. "It costs five oere to go up in the lift, and three
+oere to come down," she replied. "That would be thirty-two oere for us all,
+and we must save our money to spend in the Djurgard. There is the boat
+now," and she led the way to the little steamer.
+
+"I have heard you say so much about Skansen," said Karen, when they had
+found seats on the deck together, "that I'd like to know what it is
+all about."
+
+"It is all about every old thing in Sweden," laughed Gerda. "The man
+who planned it said that the time would come when gold could not
+buy a picture of olden times--the old homes and costumes and ways of
+living--and then people would wish they could know more about them.
+
+"So he travelled all over Sweden, from one end to the other, making a
+collection of all sorts of old things to put in a museum in Stockholm.
+Then he thought of showing the real life of the country people, so he
+bought houses and set them up in Skansen, and hired the peasants to come
+and live in them.
+
+"When he finished his work, there was an example of every kind of Swedish
+dwelling, from the Laplander's tent and the charcoal burner's hut, to the
+farmhouse in Dalarne and the fisherman's cot in Skane. And people were
+living in all the houses just as they had lived at home,--spinning,
+weaving, baking, and celebrating all the holidays in the same old way."
+
+"And there are cages of wild animals and birds too," added Birger, "polar
+bears and owls and eagles and reindeer--"
+
+"That is what I want to see,--the reindeer," interrupted Erik; so when
+the steamer reached the quay at the Deer Park, the children went at once
+to find the Laplander's tent in Skansen.
+
+Erik stood still for a long time, looking at the rocks, and the Lapps and
+reindeer; and the twins waited for him to speak. Gerda expected that he
+would say it was just like home; but, instead, he turned to her at last
+and asked, "Do you think it is like Lapland?"
+
+The little girl was rather taken aback at his question. "Well, you know,
+Erik," she stammered, "they have done the best they could."
+
+Erik shook his head. "They could not move the forest, with the rivers and
+mountains and wild birds," he said. "Without them it is not a real
+Lapland home."
+
+His whole face said so plainly, "It is only an imitation," that Birger
+could not help laughing.
+
+"There is no museum in all Europe like Skansen," he said at last, quite
+proudly; "and there are many people who come here to see it, because
+they cannot travel, as Gerda and I did, and see the real homes in the
+country."
+
+"I am one of them," said Karen. "This is the only way I shall ever see a
+Laplander's tent and reindeer."
+
+"I will show you a house that is just like my grandmother's home in
+Raettvik," suggested Gerda, and they walked slowly through the woodland
+paths, so that Karen would not get tired with her crutch.
+
+In a few minutes they came upon a place where some peasants, dressed in
+their native costumes, were dancing folk-dances; for that is one of the
+pleasant Skansen ways of saving the old customs.
+
+"Oh, let us stop and look at the dancers!" cried Karen in delight. "I
+wonder what they are doing," she added, watching their graceful movements
+forward and back and in and out.
+
+"They are 'reaping the flax,'" said Gerda, who knew all the different
+dances because she often went to Skansen with her mother and father on
+sunny summer evenings.
+
+After the flax dance was finished, a company of boys took the platform,
+and made everyone laugh with a queer, half-comical, half-serious dance
+which Gerda called the "ox-dance."
+
+"I should like to dance with them," said Erik suddenly.
+
+"Yes, it is a great deal more fun to dance than to watch others," said
+Gerda kindly; but she moved away from the sight at once, lest Erik should
+push in among the dancers.
+
+"This is just the time to go over to the Bellman oak," she suggested. "It
+is the poet's day, and there will be wreaths and garlands hanging on his
+tree, and a band of music playing some of his songs."
+
+Erik walked along slowly, his eyes looking back longingly toward the
+dancing, and finally Gerda looked back, too.
+
+"See, Erik," she said, "the boys have finished, and now the girls are
+going to dance alone. You would not like to dance with the girls;" and
+then he followed her willingly to the other side of the island.
+
+Crowds of people were gathering under the Bellman oak, and the four
+children found a seat near-by, where they could see and hear everything
+that went on around them.
+
+"We must keep Erik here, or else he will insist on going to blow in the
+band," Gerda whispered to her brother, as she saw the Lapp boy watching
+the man with the trombone. Then she began to talk about Karl Bellman, the
+songs and poems he wrote, and how much the people loved him.
+
+"He is one of our most famous poets," she said earnestly, and Erik looked
+at her and repeated solemnly:--
+
+"Cattle die,
+Kinsmen die,
+One's self dies, too;
+But the fame never dies,
+Of him who gets a good name."
+
+"Why, Erik!" exclaimed Karen in surprise; "that is from 'The Song of the
+High' by Odin, the king of the gods. How did you happen to know it?"
+
+"I know many things," said Erik with an air of importance. But there were
+some things which Erik did not know. One was, how to play the trombone;
+and it was his strongest trait that he liked to investigate everything
+that was new and strange.
+
+Now, when Karen spoke in such a tone of admiration, Erik felt that he
+must find out at once about that queer instrument which made such loud
+music; and before Gerda knew what he was doing, he had jumped up from the
+ground and walked to the stand where the musicians were playing.
+
+"Let me try it," he said, and held out his hand for the trombone.
+
+Gerda was in an agony of distress. "Run and get him, Birger," she urged.
+"Oh, run quick!"
+
+"Erik, Erik, come here!" cried Birger, running after his friend. But
+before Birger's voice reached his ears, the trombonist had said very
+plainly and harshly, "Get away from here, you dirty Lapp!" and poor Erik
+was looking at him with shame and anger in his eyes, when Birger took
+hold of his clenched hand and led him away from the bandstand.
+
+It was a hard moment for the twins. People were looking at them and
+laughing, and the words, "Lapp! Lapp!" spoken in a tone of ridicule,
+could be heard on every side.
+
+"Let us go home," suggested Gerda, her face scarlet with shame at so much
+unpleasant attention.
+
+"No," said Birger stoutly, "let us stay right here and show that we don't
+care."
+
+But Karen all at once felt very tired, and when she told Gerda about it,
+the little party went sadly through the crowd and took their places in
+silence on the return steamer.
+
+Neither Birger nor Gerda had any heart to tell their friends the names of
+the different buildings which they saw from the deck of the boat,
+although Gerda said once, with a brave little effort to make Erik forget
+his shame, "We will go home through Erik-gatan."
+
+But Erik looked at her with troubled eyes and made no answer. Not until
+they were safely within the walls of home did he speak, and then it was
+to ask, "Why did he call me a dirty Lapp?"
+
+"Because many Lapps _are_ dirty," replied Birger, feeling just as
+miserable as Erik looked. "They don't bathe, nor eat from dishes, nor
+sleep in beds, as good Swedish people do."
+
+"I shall bathe, and eat from dishes, and sleep in beds all the rest of my
+life," said Erik, his face very white, his eyes very angry. "And I shall
+learn to use that strange tool that makes loud music," he added.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman stood in the doorway, listening to his words. "Good," he
+said heartily; "that is the way for you to talk. And you shall learn to
+use many other tools, too. I have made arrangements to-day for you to
+work in the ironworks at Goeteborg, where they make steamers, engines and
+boilers. I have a friend there who will look after you, and see that you
+are taught a good trade."
+
+"But, Father," cried Birger, "Goeteborg is a long way from Stockholm! How
+can Erik go so far alone?"
+
+"I am going over to Goeteborg myself next month," replied Inspector Ekman,
+"and he can go with me. A new lightship is ready to be launched, and I
+shall have to inspect it and give the certificate before it is accepted
+by the government."
+
+"Let us go with you! Let us go, too!" begged the twins, dancing round and
+round their father.
+
+"But what will become of Karen?" he asked.
+
+Gerda and Birger stopped short and looked at their new friend. It was
+plain to be seen that she was not strong enough to take such a trip.
+
+Fru Ekman put her arm tenderly around the little lame girl. "Karen will
+visit me," she said kindly.
+
+So it was decided that the twins should go to Goeteborg with their father
+by way of the Goeta Canal. When the day for the journey arrived, the
+satchels were packed once more, and Gerda showed Karen how to water her
+plants and feed her pet parrot in her absence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THROUGH THE LOCKS
+
+
+"What do you think of a girl who goes off on two journeys in one summer?"
+and Gerda leaned over the railing of the canal-boat to look at her
+friends on the quay below.
+
+It was the middle of August, and the same group of boys and girls who had
+seen the twins off to the North in June were now speeding them to the
+West.
+
+"I think you don't care for Stockholm any longer," called Hilma; while
+Oscar added, "And you can't care for your friends either, or you wouldn't
+be leaving them again so soon."
+
+"I shall be home in just seven days," said Gerda, "and if you will all be
+here on the quay to welcome me, I will tell you the whole story of the
+wonderful Goeta Canal, and our sight-seeing in Goeteborg."
+
+"Your friends will have to meet you at the railroad station," her father
+told her. "We shall come back by train. It is much the quickest way."
+
+"At the railroad station then, one week from to-day," called Gerda, as
+the steamer backed away from the quay, and swung slowly out into the
+Maelar Lake.
+
+"Gerda and Birger are the luckiest twins I know," exclaimed Olaf, taking
+off his cap and swinging it around his head, as he caught sight of
+Gerda's fluttering handkerchief.
+
+"That boy Erik seems to be very fond of Birger," said Oscar. "And now
+that the little girl from the lighthouse is going to live with the Ekmans
+this winter, I suppose the twins will forget all the rest of us."
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Sigrid loyally. "They will never forget their
+friends. Besides, I like Karen myself. Let's go and see her now. She must
+be lonely without Gerda."
+
+In the meantime the little party of four--Lieutenant Ekman, with Erik and
+the twins--were sailing across the eastern end of Lake Maelar toward the
+Soedertelje Canal.
+
+Birger and Gerda explored the boat, making friends with some of the
+passengers, and then found seats with Erik on the forward deck, where
+they could see the wooded shore of the lake. They passed many an island
+with its pretty villas peeping out among the green trees, and saw gay
+pleasure parties sailing or rowing on the quiet water.
+
+In a short time the boat sailed slowly into the peaceful waters of the
+Soedertelje Canal. This is the first of the short canals which form links
+between the lakes and rivers of Southern Sweden, thus making a shorter
+waterway from Stockholm to Goeteborg; and while the trip is about three
+hundred and seventy miles long, only fifty miles is actual canal, more
+than four-fifths of the distance being covered by lakes and rivers, with
+a fifty-mile sail on the Baltic Sea.
+
+The principal difficulty in making this waterway across Sweden lay in the
+fact that the highest of the lakes is about three hundred feet above the
+sea level, and the boats have to climb up to it from the Baltic Sea, and
+then climb down to Goeteborg. This climbing is accomplished by means of
+locks in the canals between the different lakes. In some canals there is
+only one lock, but in others there are several together, like a flight of
+stairs. There are seventy-six locks in all.
+
+The boat sails into a lock and great gates are closed behind it. Then
+water pours in and lifts the boat slowly higher and higher until it is on
+a level with the water in the lock above. The gates in front of the boat
+are opened, it sails slowly into the next lock, the gates close behind
+it; and that lock in turn is filled to the level of the one above.
+
+The boat now wound along between the high green banks of the
+Soedertelje Canal until it entered the first of the locks. Birger and
+Erik ran to the rail to watch the opening and closing of the gates, and
+the lowering of the boat to the level of the Baltic Sea; but Gerda
+preferred to talk with some old women who came on board with baskets full
+of kringlor,--ring-twisted cakes.
+
+The cakes looked so good, and everyone who bought them seemed to find
+them so delicious, that at last she ran to ask her father for some money;
+and when the boat had passed the lock and was once more on its way, she
+presented a bagful of cakes to Birger and Erik.
+
+"The Vikings had no such easy way as this of getting from Lake Maelar out
+into the Baltic Sea," said Lieutenant Ekman, coming up to find the
+children, and helping himself generously to the kringlor.
+
+Gerda looked at the gnarled and sturdy oaks that lined the banks of the
+canal like watchful sentinels. "The Vikings must have loved the lakes and
+bays of the Northland," she said. "Perhaps they begged All-father Odin to
+let their spirits come back and make their homes in these trees."
+
+"No doubt they did," replied her father, gravely enough. "I suppose when
+the trees wave their arms and shake themselves so violently they are
+saying to each other something like this: 'See how these good-for-nothing
+children go in good-for-nothing boats over this good-for-nothing
+ditch.'"
+
+"With their good-for-something father," cried Gerda, throwing her arms
+around his neck and giving him a loving kiss.
+
+"Am I really good for something?" he asked, as soon as he could
+speak. "Well then, you must be good for something, too. In olden
+times the Vikings sailed the seas and brought home many a treasure
+from foreign shores. See that you take home some treasures from your
+journey,--something that will remind you of the towns we visit and the
+sights we see," and he put his hand into his pocket and took out three
+coins.
+
+"The Vikings had a fashion of taking what they wanted without paying for
+it," suggested Birger.
+
+"You'd better not try it now, my son," replied Herr Ekman; and he gave
+each one of the children a krona.
+
+"Here's a kringla to remind me of Soedertelje," said Gerda, slipping one
+of the cakes into her pocket; and then the three children went off to
+the forward deck to watch the boat sail out into the ocean.
+
+For fifty miles they sailed among wooded islands and rocky ledges, and
+then entered the canal which connects the Baltic Sea with Lake Roxen. On
+the way the boat stopped at two or three ports, and each tune the
+children went ashore to buy a souvenir.
+
+"Show me your treasures, and I will show you mine," Gerda said to Erik,
+after the first stop.
+
+The boy shook his head. "I bought something useful," he said, "and I
+shall send it to my father;" but even with coaxing he would not tell what
+it was, until they were all ready to show their treasures to Lieutenant
+Ekman. So all three of the children agreed to keep their souvenirs a
+secret, and had great fun slipping off alone to buy them.
+
+All day and all night, and all the next day, the boat steamed across the
+open lakes, glided noiselessly into the quiet canals, or climbed slowly
+step by step up the locks.
+
+Toward night of the second day Birger suddenly announced, "This is Lake
+Viken, and it is the highest lake on the way between the two ends of the
+canal route. The captain says that it is more than three hundred feet
+above the level of the sea."
+
+"Have we seen the prettiest part of the route?" asked Gerda.
+
+"Far from it," was the answer. "The best part of the canal is still
+before us, at Trollhaettan, although the next lake that we enter, Lake
+Vener, is a lovely sheet of water. It is the largest lake in Sweden, and
+I must visit one of the lighthouses."
+
+"And I must call upon one of the trolls when we get to Trollhaettan," said
+Gerda, shaking her head with an air of importance.
+
+"I shall walk up the locks," said Birger.
+
+"You mean that you will walk down the locks," Erik corrected him. "After
+this the boat will go downstairs until we reach the Goeta River."
+
+And when, on the last morning of the journey, they reached Trollhaettan,
+with its famous waterfalls and rapids, the children went ashore and left
+the boat to walk down the steep hillside by itself, while they ran along
+beside the canal, or took little trips through the groves to get a better
+view of the falls. Gerda peered under the trees and bushes for a glimpse
+of the water witches, but she saw not one.
+
+"And now for your treasures," said Lieutenant Ekman, when they were once
+more on the boat and it was steaming down the Goeta River to Goeteborg.
+
+"I bought post-cards," Birger announced, and took a handful from his
+pocket. "Here are pictures of the giant staircase of locks at
+Trollhaettan, Lake Vener at sunset, the fortress at Karlsborg, the castle
+at Vettersborg, and the great iron works at Motala."
+
+While Herr Ekman was examining the cards and asking Birger all sorts of
+questions about them, Gerda was busy spreading out her souvenirs on one
+of the deck chairs; and such a variety as she had! There was a box of
+soap, a bag filled with squares of beet-sugar, a tiny hammer made in
+the shape of the giant steam-hammer "Wrath" at Motala, a package of paper
+made at one of the great paper-mills, lace collars, a lace cap and some
+beautiful handkerchiefs from Vadstena.
+
+When her father turned his attention to her collection, he held up his
+hands in amazement. "Are all these things made in Sweden?" he asked.
+"And did you buy them all with one krona?"
+
+"They are all made in the towns and cities which we have visited," Gerda
+replied; "but they cost more than one krona. Mother gave me five kronor
+before we left home and asked me to buy handkerchiefs and laces at
+Vadstena. They are the best to be found anywhere in Sweden."
+
+"And how about your treasures, Erik?" asked Lieutenant Ekman, after he
+had admired Gerda's.
+
+Erik put his hand into his coat pocket and took out a box of matches.
+"These are from Norrkoeping," he said.
+
+From another pocket he took another box of matches. "And these are from
+Soederkoeping," he added. Then from one pocket and another he took boxes of
+matches of all sizes and kinds, each time naming the town where they were
+manufactured; while the twins and their father gazed at him in surprise.
+
+"But why so many matches?" asked Lieutenant Ekman, when at last the
+supply seemed to be exhausted. "You have matches enough there to light
+the whole world."
+
+"My father will use them to light his fires," replied Erik. "Matches are
+a great luxury in Lapland.
+
+"And besides," he added, "Sweden manufactures enough matches to light the
+whole world. The captain told me that they are made in twenty-one
+different cities and towns, and that they have taken prizes everywhere."
+
+"That is true," said Herr Ekman. "Swedish matches are famous the world
+over. My young Vikings have each made a good collection of souvenirs."
+
+At that moment a pretty little maid curtsied before them, saying,
+"Goeteborg, if you please."
+
+"Oh dear," sighed Gerda, gathering up her treasures, "here's the end of
+our long journey over the wonderful canal!"
+
+But Erik looked down the river to the tall chimneys of the iron-works and
+said to himself, "And here's the beginning of my work in the world."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A WINTER CARNIVAL
+
+
+"Abroad is good but home is better," quoted Birger, as the railroad train
+whizzed across the country, bearing the twins toward home once more after
+four happy days of sight-seeing in Goeteborg.
+
+"Vacation will soon be over and we shall be back again in our dear old
+school," exclaimed Gerda, with a comical expression on her face.
+
+"I feel as if we had been going to the best kind of a school all summer,"
+said her brother, looking out of the window at the broad fields and
+little red farmhouses cuddling down in the green landscape. "We have been
+learning about the largest cities, and the canals and railroads, the
+lakes and rivers, and that is what we have to do when we study geography
+in school."
+
+"If I ever make a geography," and Gerda gave a great sigh, "I shall have
+nothing but pictures in it. That is the way the real earth looks outside
+of the geographies. There are just millions and millions of pictures
+fitted together, and not a single word said about them."
+
+Birger laughed. "I will study your geography," he said, "if I am not too
+busy making one of my own."
+
+"What kind of a geography shall you make?" asked Gerda.
+
+"I shall put in my book all my thoughts about the sights I see," he
+answered. "It will read like this, 'The harbor at Goeteborg made me think
+of Stockholm harbor, with all the different ships that sail away to
+foreign lands; and of the great world beyond the sea.'"
+
+"Your geography would never please the children half so much as mine,"
+said Gerda; "because we don't all think alike. It makes some people
+sea-sick when they think of ships."
+
+"Here we are in Stockholm," said Lieutenant Ekman, gathering up the bags
+and bundles and helping the children out of the train. "Before we write a
+geography we must see about putting little Karen Klasson under the
+doctor's care."
+
+But they found that Fru Ekman had already taken Karen to see the doctor,
+and had made arrangements for her treatment at the Gymnastic Institute.
+
+"The doctor says that I shall be able to walk without a crutch by
+springtime, if I take the gymnastics faithfully every day," said Karen
+happily.
+
+"Oh, Gerda," she added, "ever so many of your friends have been to see
+me. They are such kind boys and girls!"
+
+"Of course they are! They are the best in the world," Gerda declared, and
+it seemed, indeed, as if there could be no kinder children anywhere than
+those who filled all the autumn days with the magic of their fun and
+good-will for the little lame Karen.
+
+Bouquets of flowers, and plants with bright blossoms, simple games, and
+new books found their way to her room. There was seldom a day when one or
+another of the friends did not come to tell her about some of their good
+times, or plan a little pleasure for her; and Karen seemed to find as
+much enjoyment in hearing of the fun as if she, herself, could really
+take part in it.
+
+"What is the carnival?" she asked Gerda one evening in late November,
+when the last of the friends had clattered down the stairs, and the two
+little girls were sitting beside the tall porcelain stove which filled
+the room with a comfortable heat. "I have heard you all talking about it
+for days; but I don't know just what it is."
+
+"It is a day for winter sports, and all kinds of fun, and you shall sit
+in the casino at the Deer Park and see it for yourself," said Gerda,
+giving Karen a loving hug.
+
+When the day of the carnival arrived at last, and Karen sat in the
+casino, cosily wrapped in furs, and looked out over the Djurgard, she
+knew that she had never dreamed of so much fun and beauty.
+
+There had been heavy hoar frosts for several nights, and the trees had
+become perfectly white,--the pines standing straight as powdered
+sentinels, the birches bending under their silvery covering like frozen
+fountains of spray. The ice was covered with skaters, their sharp steel
+shoes flashing in the sun, their merry laughter ringing out in the cold,
+crisp air.
+
+It seemed as if everyone in Stockholm were skating, or snow-shoeing, or
+skimming over the fields of snow on long skis. Even Fru Ekman, after
+making Karen comfortable in the casino, strapped a pair of skates on her
+own feet and astonished the little girl with the wonderful circles and
+figures she could cut on the ice.
+
+There was no place for beginners in such a company. And indeed, it almost
+seemed as if Swedish boys and girls could skate without beginning, for
+many little children were darting about among the crowds of grown people.
+
+Of course Karen's eyes were fixed most often upon the twins, and as they
+chased each other over the hurdles, or wound in and out among the
+sail-skaters and long lines of merry-makers, for the first time in her
+life she had a feeling of envy.
+
+When Gerda left the skaters at last, to sit for a while beside her
+friend, she saw at once the thought that was in Karen's mind. So, instead
+of speaking about the fun of skating, she began to talk about the
+doctor's promise that the lame back would be entirely cured before
+summer.
+
+"And there is really just as much fun in the summer-time," she said, "for
+then we can swim, and bathe, and row boats on the lake. You can go to
+Raettvik with us, too, and then you shall dance and be gayer than any one
+else."
+
+"Oh, see, there are some men on skis!" cried Karen suddenly, forgetting
+her feeling of envy in watching the wonderful speed made by the party
+of ski-runners who came into sight on the crest of the long hill opposite
+the ice-basin.
+
+The skis, or snow-skates, are a pair of thin strips of hard wood about
+four inches wide and eight or nine feet long, pointed and curved upward
+in front. The snow-skater binds one on each foot and glides over the
+snowy fields, or coasts down the hills as easily as if he were on a
+toboggan.
+
+"That is the best way in the world to travel over the snow," said Birger,
+who had come to find Gerda. "See how fast they go!"
+
+Suddenly one of the men darted away from the others, balanced himself for
+a moment with his long staff, and then shot down the hill like an arrow.
+A mound of snow six feet high had been built up directly in his path, and
+as he reached it, he crouched down, gave a spring, and landed thirty or
+forty feet below, plowing up the light snow into a great cloud, and then
+slipping on down the hill and out upon the frozen bay.
+
+Many others tried the slide and jump: some fell and rolled over in the
+snow, others lost off their skis, which came coasting down hill alone
+like runaway sleds, while others made a long leap with beautiful grace
+and freedom.
+
+"This method of travelling across country on skis, when there is deep
+snow, is hundreds of years old," said Fru Ekman, who had come to send the
+twins away for more fun, while she took her place again beside Karen.
+
+"Men were skiing in Scandinavia as long ago as old Roman times, and
+Magnus the Good, who defeated the Roman legions, had a company of
+ski-soldiers. Gustav Vasa organized a corps of snow-skaters, and Gustavus
+Adolphus used his runners as messengers and scouts."
+
+At that moment there was a sudden commotion outside the door, and a crowd
+of the skaters came into the casino for some hot coffee, their merry
+voices and laughter filling the room. Seldom is there gathered together a
+company of finer men and women, boys and girls, than Karen saw before
+her. Descendants of the Vikings these were,--golden-haired, keen-eyed and
+crimson-cheeked.
+
+"Look at that great fellow, taller than all the others," Fru Ekman
+whispered to Karen. "He is the champion figure-skater of Europe."
+
+"He looks like Baldur, the god of the sun," Karen whispered in reply; and
+then forgot everything else in watching the gay company.
+
+"I have never seen so many people having such a good time before," she
+explained to Fru Ekman after a little while. "At the Sea-gull Light there
+was never anything like this. It is more like the stories of the
+gathering of the gods, than just plain Sweden.
+
+"I suppose Birger is going to try for a skating prize some day," she
+added rather wistfully.
+
+Fru Ekman bent and kissed the little girl. "Yes," she answered, "that is
+why he puts on his skates every day and practices figure-skating on the
+ice in the canals. But keep a brave heart, little Karen. You, too, shall
+wear skates some day."
+
+Karen's face lighted up with a happy smile, and a fire of hope was
+kindled in her heart which made the long hours shorter, and the hard work
+at the gymnasium easier to bear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+YULE-TIDE JOYS
+
+
+It was the day before Christmas,--such a busy day in the Ekman household.
+In fact, it had been a busy week in every household in Sweden, for before
+the tree is lighted on Christmas Eve every room must be cleaned and
+scrubbed and polished, so that not a speck of dirt or dust may be found
+anywhere.
+
+Gerda, with a dainty cap on her hair, and a big apron covering her red
+dress from top to toe, was dusting the pleasant living-room; and Karen,
+perched on a high stool at the dining-room table, was polishing the
+silver. The maids were flying from room to room with brooms and brushes;
+and in the kitchen Fru Ekman and the cook were preparing the lut-fisk and
+making the rice pudding.
+
+The lut-fisk is a kind of smoked fish--salmon, ling, or cod--prepared in
+a delicious way which only a Swedish housewife understands. It is always
+the very finest fish to be had in the market, and before it reaches the
+market it is the very finest fish that swims in the sea. Every fisherman
+who sails from the west coast of Sweden--and there are hundreds of
+them--gives to his priest the two largest fish which he catches during
+the season. It is these fish which are salted and smoked for lut-fisk,
+and sold in the markets for Christmas and Easter.
+
+When Gerda ran out into the kitchen to get some water for her plants, she
+stopped to taste the white gravy which her mother was making for the
+lut-fisk.
+
+Then as she danced back through the dining-room to tell Karen about the
+pudding she sang:--
+
+"Away, away to the fishers' pier,
+Many fishes we'll find there,--Big salmon,
+Good salmon:
+Seize them by the neck,
+Stuff them in a sack,
+And keep them till Christmas and Easter."
+
+"Hurry and finish the silver," she added, "and then we will help Mother
+set the smoergasbord for our dinner. We never had half such delicious
+things for it before. There is the pickled herring your father sent us,
+and the smoked reindeer from Erik's father in Lapland; and Grandmother
+Ekman sent us strawberry jam, and raspberry preserve, and cheese, and oh,
+so many goodies!" Gerda clapped her hands so hard that some of the water
+she was carrying to her plants was spilled on the floor. "Oh, dear me!"
+she sighed, "there is something more for me to do. We'd never be ready
+for Yule if it wasn't for the Tomtar."
+
+The Tomtar are little old men with long gray beards and tall pointed red
+caps, who live under the boards and in the darkest corners of the chests.
+They come creeping out to do their work in the middle of the night, when
+the house is still, and they are especially helpful at Christmas time.
+
+The two little girls had been talking about the Tomtar for weeks.
+Whenever Karen found a mysterious package lying forgotten on the table,
+Gerda would hurry it away out of sight, saying, "Sh! Little Yule Tomten
+must have left it."
+
+And one day when Gerda found a dainty bit of embroidery under a cushion,
+it was Karen's turn to say, "Let me have it quick! Yule Tomten left it
+for me." Then both little girls shrieked with laughter.
+
+Birger said little about the Tomtar and pretended that he did not believe
+in them at all; but when Gerda set out a dish of sweets for the little
+old men, he moved it down to a low stool where they would have no trouble
+in finding it.
+
+But now the Tomtar were all snugly hidden away for the day, so Gerda had
+to wipe up the water for herself, and then run back to her dusting; but
+before it was finished, Birger and his father came up the stairs,--one
+tugging a fragrant spruce tree, the other carrying a big bundle of oats
+on his shoulder.
+
+"Here's a Christmas dinner for your friends, the birds," Birget told
+Karen, showing her the oats.
+
+For a moment Karen's chin quivered and her eyes filled with tears, as she
+thought of the pole on the barn at home where she had always fastened her
+own bundle of grain; but she smiled through her tears and said
+cheerfully, "The birds of Stockholm will have plenty to eat for one day
+at least, if all the bundles of grain in the markets are sold."
+
+"That they will," replied Birger. "No one in Sweden forgets the birds on
+Christmas day. You should see the big bundles of grain that they hang
+up in Raettvik."
+
+"Come, Birger," called his father from the living-room, "we must set up
+the tree so that it can be trimmed; and then we will see about the
+dinner for the birds."
+
+Gerda and Karen helped decorate the tree, and such fun as it was! They
+brought out great boxes of ornaments, and twined long ropes of gold and
+gleaming threads of silver tinsel in and out among the stiff green
+branches. They hung glittering baubles upon every sprig, and at the tip
+of each and every branch of evergreen they set a tiny wax candle, so that
+when the tree was lighted it would look as if it grew in fairyland.
+
+But not a single Christmas gift appeared in the room until after all
+three children had had their luncheon and gone to their rooms to dress
+for the afternoon festivities. Even then, none of the packages were hung
+upon the tree. Lieutenant Ekman and his wife sorted them out and placed
+them in neat piles on the table in the center of the room, stopping now
+and then to laugh softly at the verses which they had written for the
+gifts.
+
+"Will the daylight never end!" sighed Gerda, looking out at the red and
+yellow sky which told that sunset was near. Then she tied a new blue
+ribbon on her hair and ran to help Karen.
+
+"The postman has just left two big packages," she whispered to her
+friend. "I looked over the stairs and saw him give them to the maid."
+
+"Perhaps one is for me," replied Karen. "Mother wrote that she was
+sending me a box."
+
+"Come, girls," called Birger at last; "Father says it is dark enough now
+to light the tree." And so it was, although it was only three o'clock,
+for it begins to grow dark early in Stockholm, and the winter days are
+very short.
+
+All the family gathered in the hall, the doors were thrown open, and a
+blaze of light and color met their eyes from the sparkling, shining tree.
+With a shout of joy the children skipped round and round it in a merry
+Christmas dance, and even Karen hopped about with her crutch.
+
+The cook in her white apron, and the maids in their white caps, stood in
+the doorway adding their chorus of "ohs!" and "ahs!" to the general
+excitement; and then, after a little while, the whole family gathered
+around the table while Herr Ekman gave out the presents.
+
+It took a long time, as there were so many gifts for each one, and with
+almost every gift there was a funny rhyme to be read aloud and laughed
+over. But no one was in a hurry. They wondered and guessed; they peeped
+into every package; they admired everything.
+
+When the last of the gifts had been distributed, there was the dinner,
+with the delicious lut-fisk, the roast goose, and the rice pudding. But
+before it could be eaten, each one must first taste the dainties on the
+smoergasbord,--a side-table set out with a collection of relishes.
+
+There was a tiny lump in Karen's throat when she ate a bit of her
+mother's cheese; but she swallowed them both bravely, and was as gay as
+any one at the dinner table.
+
+All the boys and girls in Sweden are sent to bed early on Christmas Eve.
+They must be ready to get up the next morning, long before daylight, and
+go to church with their parents to hear the Christmas service and sing
+the Christmas carols. So nine o'clock found Karen and the twins gathering
+up their gifts and saying good-night.
+
+"Thanks, thanks for everything!" cried the two little girls, throwing
+their arms around Fru Ekman's neck; and Karen added rather shyly,
+"Thanks for such a happy Christmas, dearest Tant."
+
+"But this is only Christmas Eve," Gerda told her, as they scampered off
+to bed. "For two whole weeks there will be nothing but fun and merriment.
+No school! No tasks! Nothing to do but make everyone joyous and happy
+everywhere. Yule-tide is the best time of all the year!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+SPURS AND A CROWN
+
+
+  "Rida, rida, ranka!
+   The horse's name is Blanka.
+Little rider, dear and sweet,
+Now no spurs are on your feet;
+When you've grown and won them,
+Childhood's bliss is done then.
+
+  "Rida, rida, ranka!
+   The horse's name is Blanka.
+Little one with eyes so blue,
+A kingly crown will come to you,
+A crown so bright and splendid!
+Then youthful joy is ended."
+
+Fru Ekman sang the words of the old Swedish lullaby as she had sung them
+many times, years before, when the twins lay in their blue cradle at
+Grandmother Ekman's farm in Dalarne; but now the boy stood proudly in a
+suit of soldier gray, and the girl made a pretty picture in a set of soft
+new furs.
+
+It was the morning of the twins' twelfth birthday, and a March snow-storm
+was covering the housetops and pavements with a white fur coat, "Just
+like my own pretty coat," Gerda said, turning slowly round and round so
+that everyone might see the warm white covering.
+
+"The snow will soon be gone," she added, "but my furs will wait for me
+until next winter."
+
+"You may wear them to school to-day in honor of your birthday," said her
+mother; "but Birger's soldier suit seems a little out of season."
+
+Birger had taken a fancy to have a suit of gray with black trimmings,
+such as the Swedish soldiers wear, and it had been given to him with
+a new Swedish flag, as a match for Gerda's furs.
+
+Lieutenant Ekman turned his son around in order to see the fit of the
+trim jacket. "When you get the gun to go with it," he told the lad, "you
+will be a second Gustavus Adolphus."
+
+"If I am to be as great a man as Gustavus Adolphus, I shall have to go to
+war," replied Birger; "and there seems to be little chance for a war
+now."
+
+"There are many peaceful ways by which a man may serve his country,"
+Lieutenant Ekman told his son; "but King Gustavus II had to fight to keep
+Sweden from being swallowed up by the other nations."
+
+"I could never understand how Sweden happened to have such a great
+fighter as Gustavus Adolphus," said Karen; but Gerda shook a finger at
+her.
+
+"Sh!" she said, "that isn't the way to talk about your own country. And
+have you forgotten Gustav Vasa? He was the first of the Vasa line of
+kings; and he and Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII made the name of Vasa
+one of the most illustrious in Swedish history."
+
+"Karen will never forget Gustav Vasa," said Birger, "after she has been
+to Dalarne and seen all the places where he was in hiding before he
+was a king."
+
+"Yes," said Gerda, "there's the barn where he worked at threshing grain,
+and the house where the woman lowered him out of the window in the night,
+and the Stone of Mora, on the bank of the river, where he spoke to the
+men of Dalarne and urged them to fight for freedom."
+
+"And there's the stone house in Mora over the cellar where Margit Larsson
+hid him when the Danish soldiers were close on his track," added Birger.
+"The inscription says:--
+
+"'Gustav Eriksson Vasa, while in exile and wandering in Dalarne with a
+view of stirring up the people to fight for Fatherland and Freedom, was
+saved by the presence of mind of a Dalecarlian woman, and so escaped the
+troops sent by the Tyrant to arrest him.
+
+"'This monument is gratefully erected by the Swedish people to the
+Liberator.'"
+
+Karen laughed. "How can you remember it so well?" she asked. "It sounded
+as if you were reading it."
+
+"That is because I have read it so often," replied Birger. "Gustav Vasa
+is my favorite hero. He drove the Danes out of the country and won
+freedom for the Swedish people."
+
+"He was the Father of his Country," said Gerda, and she seized Birger's
+new flag and waved it over her head.
+
+"Come, children, it is time for you to go to school," Fru Ekman told
+them; and soon Karen was trudging off to her gymnastic exercises, and
+the twins were clattering down the stairs with their books.
+
+"That was a good song that Mother was singing this morning," Birger told
+his sister. "I'd like to wear spurs on my feet. How they would rattle
+over these stone pavements!"
+
+"I'd rather have 'a crown so bright and splendid,'" said Gerda; "but I'll
+have to be contented with my cooking-cap to-day instead." Then she bade
+her brother good-bye and ran up the steps of the school-house, where,
+after her morning lessons, she would spend an hour in the cooking-class.
+
+At five o'clock the three children were all at home again, and dressed
+for the party which the twins had every year on their birthday.
+
+"It is time the girls and boys were here," said Gerda, standing before
+the mirror in the living-room to fasten a pink rose in the knot of ribbon
+at her throat.
+
+"Here they come!" cried Birger, throwing open the door, and the twelve
+children who had come before, bringing packages for the surprise box,
+came again,--this time with little birthday gifts for the twins.
+
+For an hour there was the greatest confusion, with a perfect babel of
+merry voices and laughter. The gifts were opened and admired by everyone.
+Gerda put on her fur coat and cap, Birger showed a fine new pair of
+skates which his father had given him, and Karen brought out a box of
+little cakes which her mother had sent for the party.
+
+But when the children formed in a long line and Fru Ekman led the way to
+the dining-room, their excitement knew no bounds.
+
+The table was a perfect bower of beautiful flowers. There was a bouquet
+of bright blossoms at every plate, and long ropes of green leaves and
+blossoms were twined across the table, in and out among the dishes. At
+Gerda's place there was a wreath of violets, with violet ribbons on
+knife, fork and spoon; a bunch of violets was tucked under her napkin,
+and a big bow of violet ribbon was tied on her chair.
+
+Birger's flowers were scarlet pinks, with scarlet ribbons and a scarlet
+bow; and at the two ends of the table were the two birthday cakes, almost
+hidden among flowers and wreaths, with Birger's name on one and Gerda's
+on the other, done in colored candies set in white frosting.
+
+Another happy hour was spent at the table, and then the guests trooped
+away to their homes, leaving the twins to look over their gifts once
+more.
+
+But the best gift was still to come,--a never-to-be-forgotten gift that
+came on that wonderful night of their twelfth birthday.
+
+All day there had been a strange feeling in the air. When the girls
+brushed their hair in the morning it was full of tiny sparkles and stood
+out from their heads like clouds of gold, and Birger had found, early in
+the day, that if he stroked the cat's fur it cracked and snapped like
+matches, much to Fru Kitty's surprise.
+
+Now, when Gerda went to look out of the window, she called to the others
+to come quickly to see the northern lights; for out of the north there
+had come a gorgeous illumination, filling the heavens with a marvellous
+radiance such as only the aurora borealis can give.
+
+Banners of crimson, yellow and violet flamed and flared from horizon to
+zenith; sheets of glimmering light streamed across the sky, swaying back
+and forth, and changing from white to blue and green, with once in a
+while a magnificent tongue of red flame shooting higher than the others.
+
+"It is a carnival of light," said Gerda, in a tone of awe. She had often
+seen the northern lights, but never any so brilliant as these.
+
+Everyone seemed charged with the electricity, and little Karen said
+softly, "I never felt so strange before. The lights go up and down my
+back to the tip of my toes."
+
+"It is the elves of light dancing round the room," said Birger with a
+laugh.
+
+"No," said Gerda, "it is the Tomtar playing with the electric wires."
+
+Then, as they all stood watching the wonderful display in the heavens,
+the door opened and Lieutenant Ekman came into the room. "Here is a
+letter for Karen from her mother," he said; "I have had it in my pocket
+all day."
+
+"Oh, let me see it," said Karen, and she turned and ran across the room.
+Yes, ran,--with her crutch standing beside the chair at the window, and
+her two feet pattering firmly on the floor.
+
+"Look at Karen," cried Gerda. "She has forgotten her crutch!"
+
+Karen held her mother's letter in her hand, and her two eyes were shining
+like stars. "I feel as if I should never need my crutch again," she said.
+Then she turned to Fru Ekman and asked breathlessly, "Do you believe that
+I will?"
+
+"I am sure that you won't," replied Fru Ekman, stooping to kiss the happy
+child. "I have noticed for a long time that your back was growing
+straighter and stronger, and you were walking more easily."
+
+Gerda clapped her hands and ran to throw her arms around her friend. "Oh,
+Karen," she exclaimed, "this is the best birthday gift of all! The Tomtar
+sent it on the electric wires."
+
+"No," said Birger, "it was the elves of light dancing across the room."
+
+But Karen looked at the little family clustered so close around her. "It
+is my crown of joy and is from each one of you," she said; "but from
+Gerda most of all."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE MIDSUMMER FESTIVAL
+
+
+It was the middle of June. School was over and vacation had begun. Gerda
+and Birger were on their way to Raettvik, taking Karen with them so that
+she might see the great midsummer festival before going to spend the
+summer at the Sea-gull Light.
+
+"Isn't this the best fun we ever had,--to be travelling alone, without
+any one to take care of us?" asked Birger, as the train whizzed along
+past fields and forests, lakes and rivers.
+
+"It feels just as if we were tourists," replied Gerda, straightening her
+hat and nestling close to Karen.
+
+Karen dimpled and smiled. "I don't see your wonder-eyes, such as tourists
+always have," she said.
+
+"That is because we have been to Raettvik so many times that we know every
+house and tree and rail-fence along the way," answered Birger. "We have
+stopped at Gefle and seen the docks with their great piles of lumber and
+barrels of tar; and we have been to Upsala, the ancient capital of
+Sweden, and seen the famous University which was founded fifteen years
+before Columbus discovered America."
+
+"Last summer Father took us to Falun to visit the wonderful copper
+mines," added Gerda; "but I never want to go there again," and she
+shivered as she thought of the dark underground halls and chambers.
+
+"We saw a fire there, which was lighted hundreds of years ago and has
+never once been allowed to go out," said Birger. "The miners light their
+lamps and torches at the flame."
+
+"Look, there are the chimneys of Falun now," cried Gerda, pointing out of
+the car window; and a half-hour later the children found themselves at
+the neat little Raettvik station.
+
+"Six o'clock, and just on time," said Grandmother Ekman's cheerful voice,
+and the next moment all three were gathered in a great hug.
+
+"Is there room for triplets in your house?" asked Gerda. "We have
+outgrown our twinship now, and there are three of us, instead of two."
+
+"There is enough of everything, for Karen to have her good share," said
+the grandmother heartily; and they were soon driving along the pleasant
+country road, toward the red-painted farmhouse and the quiet living-room
+where the tall clock was still ticking cheerfully.
+
+The next morning, and the next, the twins were up bright and early to
+show Karen all their favorite haunts; and the days flew by like minutes.
+
+"Don't you love it, here in Raettvik, Karen dear?" asked Gerda, on the
+third day, as the two little girls were busily at work in the pleasant
+living-room.
+
+"Yes," replied Karen; "but you never told me half enough beautiful things
+about it. Surely there can be no lovelier place in the whole world than
+the mill-pool where we went yesterday with Linda Nilsson."
+
+Karen was coloring the letters in a motto to hang on the wall: and Gerda,
+who was weaving a rug on her grandmother's wooden loom, crossed the room
+to admire her friend's work. She leaned against Karen's chair and read
+the words of the motto aloud: "To read and not know, is to plow and not
+sow."
+
+"That is Grandmother Ekman's favorite motto," she said. "She believes
+that a burning, golden plowshare was dropped from heaven ages ago, in the
+beginning of Sweden's history, as a symbol of what the gods expected of
+the people; and she says that a well-kept farm and a well-read book are
+the most beautiful things in the world."
+
+Birger looked up from the door-step where he was whittling out a mast for
+one of his boats. "If I didn't intend to be an admiral in the navy when I
+am a man," he said, "I should come here and take care of the farm. It
+really is the prettiest farmhouse and the best farm in Dalarne."
+
+"It certainly will be the prettiest by night, when we have it dressed up
+for the midsummer festival," Gerda declared. "Come, Birger! Come, Karen!
+We must go and gather flowers and birch leaves to decorate the house."
+
+"But we must put away our work first," said orderly Karen, gathering up
+her paints and brushes.
+
+Gerda ran to push the loom back into the corner. As she did so, she said
+with a smile, "The first rug I ever made was very ugly. It had a great
+many dark strips in it. That was because my grandmother made me weave in
+a dark strip every time I was naughty."
+
+Karen laughed. "How I would like to see it," she said.
+
+"Oh, I have it now. I will show it to you," and Gerda crossed the room
+and opened one of the chests which were ranged against the wall.
+
+"This is my own chest, where my grandmother keeps everything I make," she
+said, as she lifted the cover and took out a bundle. Opening the bundle,
+she unrolled a funny little rug.
+
+Pointing to a wide black stripe in the middle, Gerda said, "That was for
+the time I broke the vinegar jug, and spoiled Ebba Jorn's dress."
+
+"Oh, tell me about it!" cried Karen.
+
+"No," replied Gerda, "it was too naughty to tell about;" and she put the
+rug quickly back into the chest.
+
+"I didn't know you were ever naughty," said Karen, laughing merrily.
+Then, as the two little girls put on their caps and took up their baskets
+to go flower-hunting, she asked, "Who is Ebba Jorn?"
+
+"She lives across the lake, and she is going to be married to-morrow,"
+answered Gerda. "We can walk in her procession."
+
+Karen gave a little gasp of pleasure. "Oh, what fun!" she exclaimed. Then
+she stopped and looked down at her dress. "But I have nothing to wear,"
+she said. "All my prettiest dresses went home on the steamer with your
+father."
+
+"We shall wear our rainbow skirts," Gerda told her. "And you can wear one
+of mine."
+
+Just then she caught sight of a crowd of boys and girls in a distant
+meadow, and ran to join them; calling to Birger and Karen to come, too.
+"They are gathering flowers to trim the Maypole for the midsummer
+festival," she cried.
+
+It is small wonder that the people of the Northland joyously celebrate
+the bright, sunny day of midsummer, after the cold days and long dark
+nights of winter. It is an ancient custom, coming down from old heathen
+times, when fires were lighted on all the hills to celebrate the victory
+of Baldur, the sun god, who conquered the frost giants and the powers of
+darkness.
+
+On Midsummer's Eve, the twenty-third of June, a majstang is erected in
+every village green in Sweden. The villagers and peasants, young and old,
+gather from far and near, and dance around the May-pole all through the
+long night, which is no night at all, but a glowing twilight, from late
+sunset till early dawn.
+
+There was a great deal of work to be done in preparation for this
+festival, and such a busy day as the children had! They gathered
+basketfuls of flowers, and long streamers of ground pine, which they made
+into ropes and wreaths. They cut great armfuls of birch boughs, and
+decorated the little farmhouse, inside and out; placing the graceful
+branches with their tender green leaves wherever there was a spot to hold
+them. Over the doors and windows, up and down the porch, along the fence,
+and even around the well, they twined the long ropes and fastened the
+green wreaths and boughs.
+
+After a hasty lunch they rowed across the lake and spent the afternoon at
+the village green, helping to dress the tall majstang; and when their
+supper of berries and milk and caraway bread was eaten, they were glad
+enough to tumble into bed, although the sun was till shining and would
+not set until nearly eleven o'clock.
+
+"Wait until to-morrow," murmured Gerda drowsily; "then you will see the
+happiest day of the whole year."
+
+Karen tried to tell her that every day was happy, now that she could run
+and play like other children; but she fell asleep in the middle of the
+sentence, and Gerda hadn't even heard the beginning of it.
+
+"The sun has been dancing over the hills for hours," called Grandmother
+Ekman at five o'clock the next morning. "It is time for everyone to be
+up and making ready for church."
+
+All the festival days in Sweden begin with a church service, and everyone
+goes to church. In the cities the people walk or ride in street-cars
+or carriages; but in Dalarne some ride on bicycles, some drive, some sail
+across the lake in the little steamer, and others row in the Sunday boat.
+
+Grandmother Ekman always followed the good old custom of rowing with her
+neighbors in the long boat, and six o'clock found her at the wharf with
+the three children, all carrying a beautiful branch of white birch with
+its shining green leaves.
+
+"This is just what I have wanted to do, ever since you told me about it
+at the Sea-gull Light," whispered Karen, as they found seats in the boat
+and began the pleasant journey across the peaceful, shining water.
+
+Gerda was in a great state of excitement. She discovered so many things
+to chatter about that Grandmother Ekman said at last, "Hush, child!
+You must compose yourself for church and the Bible reading."
+
+Then Gerda became sober at once, and sat quietly enough during the
+service, until she fell to thinking how lovely the May-pole would look
+in its gala dress of green, red, yellow and white.
+
+"It will be wearing a rainbow skirt, like all the girls in the village,"
+she thought; and surprised her grandmother by smiling in the midst of the
+sermon, at the thought of how very tall this Maypole maiden would be.
+
+The May-pole is always the tallest, slenderest tree that can be found,
+and the one which Gerda and Karen had helped to decorate was at least
+sixty feet from base to tip. It had been brought from the forest by the
+young men of the village, and trimmed of its bark and branches until it
+looked like the mast of a vessel. Hoops and crosspieces reaching out in
+every direction were fastened to the pole, and it was then decorated with
+flowers, streamers, garlands and tiny flags.
+
+Now it was leaning against the platform in the village green, not far
+from the church, where it was to be raised after the service.
+
+When Gerda and Karen reached the green they found a group of young people
+gathered about the pole, tying strings of gilded hearts, festoons of
+colored papers, and fluttering banners to its yard-arms.
+
+"Now it is ready to be raised!" shouted Nils Jorn at last, and everybody
+fell away to make room for the men who were to draw it into its place
+with ropes and tackle.
+
+"Suppose it should break!" gasped Karen, and held her breath while it
+rose slowly in the air. As it settled into the deep hole prepared for it,
+Nils Jorn waved his cap and shouted. Then some one else shouted, and soon
+everybody was shouting and dancing, and the festival of the green leaf
+had begun.
+
+All day and all night the fun ran high, with singing and dancing and
+feasting.
+
+When there was a lull in the merriment, it was because a long procession
+had formed to accompany the bride and bridegroom to the church. After the
+ceremony was over, and the same procession had accompanied them to the
+shore of the lake, some one called out, "Now let us choose a queen and
+crown her, and carry her back to the May-pole where she shall decide who
+is the best dancer."
+
+Oh, it was a hard moment for many of them then, for every maiden hoped
+that she would be the one to be chosen. But Nils Jorn caught sight of
+Gerda's merry smile, and nodded toward her.
+
+"Gerda Ekman has seen plenty of dancing in Stockholm," he said. "Let her
+be our queen."
+
+"Yes, yes!" shouted the others; and for a moment it looked as if Gerda
+would, indeed, have her wish to wear a crown. But when she saw Karen's
+wistful look, she turned quickly to her friends and said, "Let me,
+instead, choose the queen; and I will choose Karen Klasson. I want this
+to be the happiest day of all the year for her."
+
+"One queen is as good as another," said Nils Jorn cheerfully; so they led
+Karen back to the May-pole and she was made queen of the festival and
+crowned with green leaves.
+
+After a few minutes Gerda found a seat beside her under the canopy of
+birch boughs, and the two little girls watched the dancing together.
+
+Everyone was happy and jolly. The fiddler swept his bow across the
+strings until they sang their gayest polka. The accordion puffed and
+wheezed in its attempt to follow the merry tune. The platform was crowded
+with dancers, whirling and stamping, turning and swinging, laughing and
+singing.
+
+The tall pole quivered and shook until all the streamers rustled, all the
+flags fluttered, and all the birch leaves murmured to each other that
+summer had come and the sun god had conquered the frost giants.
+
+"This is truly the happiest day of all my life," Karen said; "and it is
+you, Gerda, who have made it so. I was lame and lonely in the cold
+Northland, and you came, bringing me health and happiness."
+
+"Mother says I must never forget that I was named for the goddess who
+shed light and sunshine over the world," replied Gerda soberly. Then she
+drew her friend closer and whispered, "But think, Karen, of all the good
+times we shall have next year, when you can go to school with me, and we
+can share all our happiness with each other;" and she clapped her hands
+and whirled Karen off into the crowd of dancers,--the gayest and happiest
+of them all.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Gerda in Sweden, by Etta Blaisdell McDonald
+
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