ies,
and seen persons vested with the highest authority conducting the same,
but as to true dignity and lofty majesty, King Oscar excelled them all.
When I compare him with the czar of all the Russias, or compare the
condition of the Swedes with that of their Russian neighbors, I thank
God for my old native land and its noble king.

Of my numerous trips in Sweden I must mention one in particular,--a
journey by sleigh,--in company with my old friend Karl Moellersvaerd,
from Upsala to Gefle, and from Falun south, through Dalarne, past
Smedjebacken, and the lakes below this to Vesteras. The beauty of the
country of a northern clime does not show itself in its entire splendor
until dressed in the garb of winter. The branches of the mighty pines
loaded down by the dazzling snow; millions of snow crystals, more
beautiful than diamonds, glittering from every twig as the sun sends
its first morning rays through the forests; the picturesque costumes of
the peasantry; the comfortable inns with their fine dishes of northern
game; the neat sleighs drawn by small, swift, sure-footed horses; here
and there a smelting furnace or a country church,--all these things
combined left on my mind a picture of rural life more quiet, happy and
beautiful than I had ever seen before.

CHAPTER XII.

Visit in Minnesota and Philadelphia--Conversation with Jay Cooke--The
Crisis of 1873--Negotiations in Holland--Draining of a Lake in
Skane--Icelandic Colony in Manitoba--Return to America.

In the spring of 1873 I returned to Minnesota in company with a large
number of immigrants. Being anxious to have my children learn the
Swedish language, I left my family in Sweden where the children attended
school. They spent this summer at Ronneby watering place, where the
surroundings are characteristic of the mild and pleasant scenery of
southern Sweden.

In traveling from the Atlantic to Minnesota we came by way of the Great
Lakes and the Sault St. Marie canal. Having spent a couple of months in
Minnesota I returned to Europe again via Philadelphia, New York and
Quebec. The reader may remember that the Northern Pacific railroad was
building at that time, and that Jay Cooke, by means of his enthusiasm
and great popularity, had succeeded in raising large sums of money for
this stupendous enterprise. The Union Pacific railroad, south of us, was
already in operation, and its owners, fearing the competition of the new
road, had resorted to all con