d know. Haven't you finished your pipe yet?"

"There!" said the giant. "It wasn't so bad on the whole! And now you
shall see the golden helmets."

The troll arose with difficulty and went into the inferior of the
mountain; the soldier followed at his heels.

"Tread softly!" said the giant, pointing to a light with a golden helmet
who was leaning against a door, made of rock, apparently fast asleep.
But before the words had been out of his mouth, Cask stumbled and the
iron on the heel of his shoe struck a stone so forcibly that it emitted
sparks. The golden helmet awoke at once, just as if he had been a
sleeping sentry, and called:

"Is it time?"

"Not yet!" answered the giant.

The knight with the golden helmet sat down again and instantly fell
asleep.

The giant opened a mountain wall and the soldier looked into a huge
hall. A table, that seemed to have no end, ran through the centre of the
hall, and in the twilight the soldier could see a brilliant gathering
of knights with golden helmets sitting in arm-chairs, the backs of which
were decorated with golden crowns. At the head of the table sat a man
who seemed head and shoulders taller than the rest; his beard reached to
his waist, like the beard of Moses or Joshua, and he held a hammer all
his hand.

All of them seemed fast asleep, although it was neither the sleep which
restores strength, nor the sleep which is called eternal sleep.

"Now, pay attention," said the giant, "to-day is the great commemoration
day."

He pressed a finger on a lark garnet in the mountain rock, and a
thousand flames shot up.

The golden helmets awoke.

"Who goes there?" asked the man with the prophet's beard.

"Swede," answered the giant.

"A good name!" replied Gustav Eriksson Wasa, for it was he. "How much
time has passed away?"

"In years, after the birth of Christ, one thousand nine hundred and
three."

"Time flies. But have you made arty progress? Are you still a country
and a nation?"

"We are. But since Gustavus I, the country has grown. Jaemtland,
Herjedalen, and Gottland have been added."

"Who conquered them?"

"Well, it was in the time of Queen Christina; but her guardians really
conquered them."

"And then?"

"Then we got Schonen, Halland, Blekinge, and Bohuslaen."

"The deuce you did! Who won them?"

"Charles X."

"Well, and then?"

"Nothing else."

"Is that all?"

Somebody knocked on the table.

"Erich the saint wishes to speak," said G