air at the window, and
her two feet pattering firmly on the floor.

"Look at Karen," cried Gerda. "She has forgotten her crutch!"

Karen held her mother's letter in her hand, and her two eyes were shining
like stars. "I feel as if I should never need my crutch again," she said.
Then she turned to Fru Ekman and asked breathlessly, "Do you believe that
I will?"

"I am sure that you won't," replied Fru Ekman, stooping to kiss the happy
child. "I have noticed for a long time that your back was growing
straighter and stronger, and you were walking more easily."

Gerda clapped her hands and ran to throw her arms around her friend. "Oh,
Karen," she exclaimed, "this is the best birthday gift of all! The Tomtar
sent it on the electric wires."

"No," said Birger, "it was the elves of light dancing across the room."

But Karen looked at the little family clustered so close around her. "It
is my crown of joy and is from each one of you," she said; "but from
Gerda most of all."

CHAPTER XV

THE MIDSUMMER FESTIVAL

It was the middle of June. School was over and vacation had begun. Gerda
and Birger were on their way to Raettvik, taking Karen with them so that
she might see the great midsummer festival before going to spend the
summer at the Sea-gull Light.

"Isn't this the best fun we ever had,--to be travelling alone, without
any one to take care of us?" asked Birger, as the train whizzed along
past fields and forests, lakes and rivers.

"It feels just as if we were tourists," replied Gerda, straightening her
hat and nestling close to Karen.

Karen dimpled and smiled. "I don't see your wonder-eyes, such as tourists
always have," she said.

"That is because we have been to Raettvik so many times that we know every
house and tree and rail-fence along the way," answered Birger. "We have
stopped at Gefle and seen the docks with their great piles of lumber and
barrels of tar; and we have been to Upsala, the ancient capital of
Sweden, and seen the famous University which was founded fifteen years
before Columbus discovered America."

"Last summer Father took us to Falun to visit the wonderful copper
mines," added Gerda; "but I never want to go there again," and she
shivered as she thought of the dark underground halls and chambers.

"We saw a fire there, which was lighted hundreds of years ago and has
never once been allowed to go out," said Birger. "The miners light their
lamps and torches at the flame."

"Loo