g at the first of the
lighthouses which the inspector had to visit.

While their father was busy, the twins clambered over the rocks, hunting
for starfishes and sea-urchins, and Gerda picked a bouquet of bright
blossoms for their table on the boat.

At the next stopping-place, which was Gefle, the captain took them on
shore to see the shipyard where his own launch, the _North Star,_ was
built; and so, all day long, there was something to keep them busy.

As the boat steamed farther north, each new day grew longer, each night
shorter, until Birger declared that he believed the sun did not set at
all.

"Oh, yes it does," his father told him. "It sets now at about eleven
o'clock, and rises a little after one. You will have to wait until you
cross the Polcirkel and get to the top of Mount Dundret before you have a
night when the sun doesn't even dip below the horizon."

"We must be pretty near the Arctic Circle now," exclaimed Gerda. "It is
growing colder and colder every minute."

"That is because the wind is blowing over an ice-floe," said her father,
pointing to a large field of ice which seemed to be drifting slowly
toward them.

"Look, look, Birger!" cried Gerda, "there are some seals on the ice."

"Yes," said Birger, "and there is a seal-boat sailing up to catch them."

"I'm going to draw a picture of it for Mother," Gerda announced, and she
sat still for a long time, making first one sketch and then another,--a
seal on a cake of ice, a lighthouse, a ship being dashed against the
rocks, and a steam-launch cutting through the water, with a boy and girl
on its deck.

"Oh dear!" she sighed after a while, "I wish something _enormous_ would
happen. I'm tired of water and sky and sawmills and little towns with red
houses just like the pictures in my geography."

"What would you like to have happen?" questioned her father.

"I should like to see some of my girl friends," replied Gerda quickly. "I
haven't had any one to tell my secrets to for over a week."

"Perhaps something enormous will happen tomorrow," her father comforted
her. "We'll see what we can do about it."

So Gerda went to sleep that night thinking of Hilma and Sigrid at home;
and she slept through the beautiful bright summer night, little dreaming
that the boat was bearing her steadily toward a new friend and a dearer
friendship than any she had ever known.

CHAPTER IV

GERDA'S NEW FRIEND

"Look, Gerda," said Lieutenant Ekman, as th