ying to find a
comfortable seat on the rocky ground.

But Gerda drew a long breath of dismay. "Oh, Birger, you should have come
sooner!" she exclaimed. "I understand it perfectly now; but if we go
through it again I shall get all mixed up in my mind."

Lieutenant Ekman laughed. "I move that we stay up here and watch the
midnight sun until we understand the whole matter and can stand on our
heads and say it backwards," he suggested.

"I'm willing to stay all summer, if we can drive off in the daytime and
see some Lapp settlements," said Birger, who had made friends with a
young Laplander that morning at the Gellivare station.

"But it is daytime all the time!" cried Gerda. "When should we get any
sleep?"

"I must be back in Stockholm by the middle of July," said Lieutenant
Ekman; "but if your friend knows where there are some Laplanders not too
far away, perhaps we can spare time to go and see them."

"Yes, he does," said Birger eagerly. "The mosquitoes have driven most of
the herds of reindeer up into the mountains, but Erik's family are still
living only a few miles north of Gellivare."

"What is Erik doing in Gellivare?" questioned Herr Ekman.

"He is working in the iron mines," Birger explained. "He wants to save
money so that he can go to Stockholm and learn a trade. He doesn't want
to stay here in Lapland and wander about with the reindeer all his life."

"So?" said Lieutenant Ekman in surprise. "Your friend Erik seems to have
ambitions of his own."

"Look at Gerda!" whispered Birger suddenly.

Gerda sat on the ground with her back against the hut, and she was fast
asleep. "Poor child," said her father, as he carried her into the hut and
put her on a cot, "she has been awake all night. When she has had a
little rest we will go back to Gellivare and look up your friend Erik.
After we have all had a good night's sleep, we shall be ready to make a
call on his family and their reindeer."

CHAPTER VII

ERIK'S HOME IN LAPLAND

"This is the best part of our trip," Gerda said, two days later,
as she was standing in the shade of some fir trees at one of the
posting-stations a few miles from Gellivare, waiting for fresh horses
to be put into the carts. "I have been reading about Laplanders and their
reindeer ever since I can remember, and now I am going to see them in
their own home."

"Perhaps you will be disappointed," Birger told her. "Erik says that his
father's reindeer may wander away any day