Gerda in Sweden | Page 9

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