"Well, you see, it's--it's the lassie's birthday to-day."

"And for that I got help with my digging?"

"Yes, for that and for something else, too! Well--good bye to you!"

Jan hurried away so as not to be tempted to explain what that
_something else_ was. It had been on the tip of his tongue to say:
"To-day is not only Glory Goldie's birthday, but it's also the
birthday of my heart."

It was as well, perhaps, that he did not say it, for Börje would
surely have thought Jan had gone out of his mind.


CHRISTMAS MORN

Christmas morning Jan took the little girl along with him to
church; she was then just one year and four months old.

Katrina thought the girl rather young to attend church and feared
she would set up a howl, as she had dime at the vaccination bee;
but inasmuch as it was the custom to take the little ones along to
Christmas Matins, Jan had his own way.

So at five o'clock on Christmas Morn they all set out. It was pitch
dark and cloudy, but not cold; in fact the air was almost balmy,
and quite still, as it usually is toward the end of December.

Before coming to an open highway, they had to walk along a narrow