"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