to take the Swedish medical gymnastics at the Institute in Stockholm,
where so many people are cured every year."

Lieutenant Ekman looked thoughtfully at his daughter. "That is a good
idea and shows a loving heart," he said. "But are you willing to give up
any of your pleasures in order to make it possible?"

Gerda looked at him in surprise, and he continued, "I am not a rich man.
If we should take Karen into our family and send her to the gymnasium, it
would cost a good many kronor, and your mother and I would have to make
some sacrifices. Are you willing to make some, too?"

Gerda gazed thoughtfully across the stretches of bog-land to the forest
on the horizon. "Yes," she said at last; "I will go without the furs
Mother promised to buy for me next winter."

Lieutenant Ekman knew well that Gerda had set her heart on the furs, and
that it would be a real sacrifice for her to give them up; but if she
were willing to do so cheerfully, it meant that she was in earnest about
helping her new friend.

"Yes," he said, after a moment; "if you will give up the furs, we will
see what can be done. On the way home we will stop at the lighthouse and
ask Hans Klasson to lend Karen to us for a little while."

Gerda clapped her hands. "Oh, a promise! A promise!" she cried joyously.
"What a good souvenir of Polcirkel!" and she ran to tell Birger the news.

CHAPTER VI

THE MIDNIGHT SUN

"What time is it, Father?" asked Gerda, as they reached the top of Mount
Dundret, and Lieutenant Ekman took the key out of his pocket to open the
door of the Tourists' Hut.

"It is half past eleven," replied her father, looking at his watch.

"At noon or at night?" questioned Gerda.

"Look at the sun, and don't ask such foolish questions," Birger told her.
"When the sun is high up in the heavens it is noon; but when it is down
on the horizon it is night."

Gerda looked off at the sun which hung like a huge red moon on the
northern horizon. "Then I suppose it is almost midnight," she said, "and
time to go to bed. I was wishing it was nearer noon and dinner-time."

"You'll have to wait for dinner-time and bedtime, too, until we get back
to Gellivare," her father told her.

"When you have travelled so far just to see the sun shining at midnight,
you should spend all your time looking at it," said Birger, opening his
camera to take some pictures.

Gerda looked down into the valleys below, where a thick mist hung over
the lakes and