The Emperor of Portugalia | Page 4

bit sultry. If Jan had not
held the little girl in his arms he would have lost heart.
"My dear Jan Anderson," he would have said to himself. "You must
remember that you live away down in the Ashdales, by Dove Lake,
where there isn't but one decent farmhouse and here and there a poor
fisherman's hut. Who'll you find hereabout with a name that's pretty
enough to give to your little girl?"
But since this was something which concerned his daughter he never

doubted that all would come right. He stood looking down toward the
lake, as if not caring to her how shut in from the whole countryside it
lay, in its rock-basin. He thought it might just happen that some
high-toned lady, with a grand name, would come rowing across from
Doveness, on the south shore of the lake. Because of the little girl he
felt almost sure this would come to pass.
The child slept the whole time; so for all of her he could have stood
there and waited as long as he liked. But the worrisome person was
Katrina! Every other minute she would ask him whether any one had
come along yet and if he thought it prudent to keep the infant out in the
damp air any longer.
Jan turned his eyes up toward Great Peak, rising high above the little
groves and garden-patches of the Ashdales, like a watch tower atop
some huge fortress, keeping all strangers at a distance. Still it might be
possible that some great lady, who had been up to the Peak, to view the
beautiful landscape had taken the wrong path back and strayed in the
direction of Ruffluck.
He quieted Katrina as well as he could. The child was safe enough, he
assured her. Now that he had stood out there so long he wanted to wait
another minute or so.
Not a soul hove in sight, but he was confident that if he just stuck to it,
the help would come. It could not be otherwise. It would not have
surprised him if a queen in a golden chariot had come driving over
mountains and through thickets, to bestow her name upon his little girl.
More moments passed, and he knew that dusk would soon be falling.
Then he would not be let stand there longer. Katrina looked at the clock,
and again begged him to come inside.
"Just you be patient a second!" he said. "I think I see something
peeping out over west."
The sky had been overcast the whole day, but at that moment the sun
[Note: In Swedish the sun is feminine.] came bursting out from behind

the clouds, and darted a few rays down toward the child.
"I don't wonder at your wanting to have a peek at the li'l' lassie before
you go down," said Jan to the sun. "She's something worth seeing!"
The sun came forth, clearer and clearer, and shed a rose-coloured glow
over both the child and the hut.
"Maybe you'd like to be godmother to 'er?" said Jan of Ruffluck.
To which the sun made no direct reply. She just beamed for a moment,
then drew her mist-cloak about her and disappeared.
Once again Katrina was heard from. "Was any one there?" asked she. "I
thought I heard you talking to somebody. You'd better come inside
now."
"Yes, now I'm coming," he answered, and stepped in. "Such a grand old
aristocrat just went by! But she was in so great a hurry I had barely
time to say 'go'day' to her, before she was gone."
"Goodness me! How provoking!" exclaimed Katrina. "And after we'd
waited so long, too! I suppose you didn't have a chance to ask what her
name was?"
"Oh, yes. Her name is Glory Goldie Sunnycastle--that much I got out of
her."
"Glory Goldie Sunnycastle! But won't that name be a bit too dazzling?"
was Katrina's only comment.
Jan of Ruffluck was positively astonished at himself for having hit
upon something so splendid as making the sun godmother to his child.
He had indeed become a changed man from the moment the little girl
was first laid in his arms!
THE CHRISTENING
When the little girl of Ruffluck Croft was to be taken to the parsonage,

to be christened, that father of hers behaved so foolishly that Katrina
and the godparents were quite put out with him.
It was the wife of Eric of Falla who was to bear the child to the
christening. She sat in the cart with the infant while Eric of Falla,
himself, walked alongside the vehicle, and held the reins. The first part
of the road, all the way to Doveness, was so wretched it could hardly be
called a road, and of course Eric had to drive very