understand that she already made him happy every day and every hour
that God granted them. Only once in the whole time of her growing
period did Jan have to suffer any annoyance or humiliation on her
account.

The summer the little girl was eleven her father took her to
Lövdala Manor on the seventeenth of August, which was the birthday
of the lord of the manor, Lieutenant Liljecrona.

The seventeenth of August was always a day of rejoicing that was
looked forward to all the year by every one in Svartsjö and in Bro,
not only by the gentry, who participated in all the festivities,
but also by the young folk of the peasantry, who came in crowds to
Lövdala to look at the smartly dressed people and to listen to the
singing and the dance music.

There was something else, too, that attracted the young people to
Lövdala on the seventeenth of August, and that was all the fruit
that was to be found in the orchard at that time. To be sure, the
children had been taught strict honesty in most matters, but when
it came to a question of such things as hang on bushes and trees,
out in the open, they felt at liberty to take as much as they
wanted, just so they were careful not to be caught at it.

When Jan came into the orchard with his Glory Goldie he noticed how
the little girl opened her eyes when she saw all the fine apple
trees, laden with big round greenings. And Jan would not have
denied her the pleasure of tasting of the fruit had he not seen
Superintendent Söderlind and two other men walking about in the
orchard, on the lookout for trespassers.