hundred millions."

"Oh! Lord!"

"And the municipal debts amount to about two hundred millions."

"Two hundred!"

"And in the years 1881 to 1885 one hundred and forty-six thousand Swedes
emigrated."

"Enough! I don't want to hear any more!"

Gustav Wasa knocked on the table with his hammer.

"As far as I can understand the matter, the country is in a bad way.
Sluggards you are, lazy, envious, irresponsible sluggards; too idle to
bestir yourselves, but quick enough to prevent anybody else from doing
anything. But tell me, Swede, what about my church and my priests?"

"The priests of the church are farmers and dairy-keepers. The bishops
have an income of thirty thousand crowns, and collect money, exactly as
they did before the Recess of Vesteraes; moreover, nearly all of
them are heretics, or free-thinkers, as they call themselves. Men are
beginning to expect some sort of a Reformation."

"Indeed?... And what is the meaning of this music and singing up here?"

"This is the 'Fort.' That is, a mountain, where they have a collection
of all the national keepsakes, just as if the nation were anticipating
its end and making its last will and testament, gathering together all
the mementoes of the past. It shows reverence for the ancestors, but
nothing else."

"What we have heard on this commemoration day seems to prove that the
deeds of our forefathers have been engulfed in the ocean of time. One
thing swims on the surface, another sinks to the bottom. Here we are
sitting like the shadows of our former selves, and to you, who are
alive, we must remain shadows.... Put out the lights!"

The giant Swede extinguished the lights and went out; the soldier
followed close behind him and climbed into something which looked like a
cage.

"If you say a word to anybody of what you have seen and heard," said the
giant, "you will be sorry for it."

"I can quite believe that," answered Cask, "but shall always remember
it. That they should have squandered the old country in drink and pledge
to the foreigner! It's too bad--if it's true."

"Click" went the turbine; and the lift with soldier shot upwards to the
"Fort." And there stood, in the sunset, and the country looked just as
it had looked when the chimes in the belfry Haesjoer chimed, and Gustav
Wasa entered Stockholm, surrounded by his generals.

LITTLE BLUEWING FINDS THE GOLDPOWDER

The rich man had visited the poor island and fallen in love with it.
He could