e frost giants.

Just such a happy, useful life is found in this little story. Gerda and
her twin brother take a trip northward across the Baltic Sea with their
father, who is an inspector of lighthouses. On their way they meet Karen,
a little lame girl. After going farther north, into Lapland, where they
see the sun shining at midnight, and spend a day with a family of Lapps
and their reindeer, Gerda takes Karen home to Stockholm with her so that
the child may have the benefit of the famous Swedish gymnastics for her
lameness. Then such good times as the three children have together! They
go to the winter carnival to see the skating and skiing; they celebrate
Yule-tide with all the good old Swedish customs; and there is a birthday
party for the twins, when Karen also receives a gift,--the very best gift
of all.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. GERDA AND BIRGER

II. THE SURPRISE BOX

III. ON BOARD THE "NORTH STAR"

IV. GERDA'S NEW FRIEND

V. CROSSING THE POLCIRKEL

VI. THE MIDNIGHT SUN

VII. ERIK'S HOME IN LAPLAND

VIII. FOUR-FOOTED FRIENDS

IX. KAREN'S BROTHER

X. A DAY IN SKANSEN

XI. THROUGH THE LOCKS

XII. A WINTER CARNIVAL

XIII. YULE-TIDE JOYS

XIV. SPURS AND A CROWN

XV. THE MIDSUMMER FESTIVAL

GERDA IN SWEDEN

CHAPTER I

GERDA AND BIRGER

If any one had stopped to think of it, the ticking of the tall clock that
stood against the wall sounded like "Ger-da! Ger-da!"

But no one did stop to think of it. Everyone was far too busy to think
about the clock and what it was saying, for over in the corner beside the
tall stove stood a wooden cradle, and in the cradle were two tiny babies.

There they lay, side by side, in the same blue-painted cradle that had
rocked the Ekman babies for over two hundred years; and one looked so
exactly like the other that even dear Grandmother Ekman could not tell
them apart.

But the mother, who rocked them so gently and watched them so tenderly,
touched one soft cheek and then another, saying proudly, "This is our
son, and this is our daughter," even when both pairs of blue eyes were
tightly closed, and both little chins were tucked under the warm blanket.

There is always great rejoicing over the coming of new babies in any
family; but there was twice as much rejoicing as usual over these babies,
and that was because they were twins.

Little Ebba Jorn