was the most exciting thing that ever happened to me.
Everything in it gave me something new to think about. I often think how
pretty the streets of Stockholm must look, with all the little girls
going about in rainbow skirts, and none of them having to walk with a
crutch."

"Oh, dear me!" exclaimed Gerda quickly; "it is not often that you see a
rainbow skirt in Stockholm. I never wear one there."

Karen looked surprised. "Where do you wear it?" she asked.

Then Gerda told about her summer home in Raettvik. "It is on Lake Siljan,
in the central part of Sweden, in a province that is called Dalarne,"
she explained. "It is a very old-fashioned place, and the people still
wear the costumes which were worn hundreds of years ago."

A wistful look had stolen into Karen's face as she listened. "I suppose
there are ever so many children in Raettvik," she said.

"Oh, yes," answered Gerda. "We play together every day, and go to church
on Sundays; and sometimes I help to row the Sunday boat."

"What is the Sunday boat?" was Karen's next question.

"There are several parishes in Raettvik, and many of the people live so
far away from the church that they row across the lake together in a long
boat which is called the Sunday boat," Gerda told her.

"And do you have girl friends in Stockholm?" asked Karen, envying this
Gerda who came and went from city to country so easily.

"Yes, indeed," answered Gerda. Then she smiled and said shyly, "I wish
you would be my friend, too. When I go home I can write to you."

Karen's face flushed with pleasure. "Oh, will you?" she cried. "But there
will be so little for me to write to you," she added soberly. "After the
snow comes, and my brothers have all gone into the woods for the winter,
there are weeks at a time when I never see any one but my father and
mother."

"You can tell me all about your birds," Gerda suggested; "and the way the
moon shines on the long stretches of snow; and about the animals that
creep out from the woods sometimes and sniff around your door. And I will
tell you about my school, and the parties I have with my friends. And I
will send you some new music to play on the piano."

But before they could say anything more, Lieutenant Ekman had returned
from inspecting the lighthouse with Karen's father, and was calling to
Gerda that it was time for them to start for Lulea.

"Good-bye," the two little girls said to each other, and Karen went down
to the landing-plac