Gerda in Sweden | Page 6

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