Gerda in Sweden

ticking of the tall clock that stood agai

bout the clock and what it was saying, for over in the corner beside the

ked the Ekman babies for over two hundred years; and one looked so exactly

and then another, saying proudly, "This is our son, and this is our daughter," even when both p

s in any family; but there was twice as much rejoicing as us

ee the blue-eyed babies in the worn blue cradle; and after them came all the other neighbors, so

down the broad chimney; when the days were cold and the nights colder; when the frost giants drove

trees shook out their tender, green leaves, and flowers blossomed in the meadows. But still t

a Jorn, who had come again to see the twins, t

ar," said Nils. "That is

find just the right na

other

e two babies," added the proud father, layin

" suggested his wife, kneeling beside the crad

e said decidedly. "Call the boy 'Birger' if you wi

t upon his wife's shoulder. "Here in Dalarne we have alw

n a great trial to your mother that I have not the patience to stitch endless seams and make rain

," replied the father, laughing so heartily that both babies ope

" whispered their mother; and she roc

t, h

rooning and

t,

lies in the

ggles the

in the

pill the

ll, and do

abies' eye

ome wood-carving and went quietly to work; while Grandmother Ekman selected a well-worn book from the book-s

l daughter of one of the frost giants. This was her favorite story, and she began reading it aloud in

*

daughter, Freyja. Frey was the god of the seed-time and har

to sprinkle the dry grass; he poured warm sunshine over the hills a

l day,-shaking pollen out of the willow tassels, filling the flower-cups

was idle and lonely; and he rode up and down in Odin's hall on t

din, 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 though

their daily tasks. He gazed down upon the earth, with its rugged mountains and raging

ut in that gloomy land of ice and snow he could see no bright nor beautiful thing. Great black cliffs stoo

one in all that dark land of winter; and as Frey gazed, a maiden came slo

and sea, and all the earth were flooded with a bright light, and F

*

abies," she said. "In the days of ice and snow they brought light and gladness to our hea

ancing 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 sho

ork in Stockholm and left them in Dalarne with their mother and grandmo

eden, and the Ekman farm lay on the shore of a lake so

grew their cradle and their baby clothes, and became

ockholm; but with each new summer they hurried away from the city w

cry, opening the door and running into t

the neighborhood in a twinkling, and from far and near th

ears. But who could listen to it now? There were flowers and berries to pick, chickens to feed, and games to