they cried, and then they stood up so gracefully that it was
quite a pleasure to look at them.

"Now we must give up our stories, and exercise these letters," said
Ole-Luk-Oie. "One, two--one, two--" So he drilled them till they stood
up gracefully and looked as beautiful as a copy could look. But after
Ole-Luk-Oie was gone, and Hjalmar looked at them in the morning, they
were as wretched and awkward as ever.

TUESDAY

As soon as Hjalmar was in bed Ole-Luk-Oie touched with his little magic
wand all the furniture in the room, which immediately began to chatter.
And each article talked only of itself.

Over the chest of drawers hung a large picture in a gilt frame,
representing a landscape, with fine old trees, flowers in the grass, and
a broad stream which flowed through the wood past several castles far
out into the wild ocean.

Ole-Luk-Oie touched the picture with his magic wand, and immediately the
birds began to sing, the branches of the trees rustled, and the clouds
moved across the sky, casting their shadows on the landscape beneath
them.

Then Ole-Luk-Oie lifted little Hjalmar up to the frame and placed his
feet in the picture, on the high grass, and there he stood with the sun
shining down upon him through the branches of the trees. He ran to the
water and seated himself in a little boat which lay there, and which was
painted red and white.

The sails glittered like silver, and six swans, each with a golden
circlet round its neck and a bright, blue star on its forehead, drew the
boat past the green wood, where the trees talked of robbers and witches,
and the flowers of beautiful little elves and fairies whose histories
the butterflies had related to them.

Brilliant fish with scales like silver and gold swam after the boat,
sometimes making a spring and splashing the water round them; while
birds, red and blue, small and great, flew after him in two long lines.
The gnats danced round them, and the cockchafers cried "Buzz, buzz."
They all wanted to follow Hjalmar, and all had some story to tell him.
It was a most delightful sail.

[Illustration: On the balconies stood princesses.]

Sometimes the forests were thick and dark, sometimes like a beautiful
garden gay with sunshine and flowers; he passed great palaces of glass
and of marble, and on the balconies stood princesses, whose faces were
those of little girls whom Hjalmar knew well and had often played with.
One of the little girls held out her h