"Won't mother be surprised, Miss Eklund, when she finds out how fast I have learned to knit?" said Sigrid.

"Yes, I am sure she will be much pleased," replied Miss Eklund.

Sigrid was very soberly knitting a red worsted square, while her governess sat near to help her when the little steel needles behaved badly. It was Sigrid's first piece of knitting, so she was flushed and eager over her task.

The morning sun poured through the window on a pretty picture. Against the heavy dark wooden chair, Sigrid's pale gold hair shone and glistened. It was brushed back very tight and trim, for that is the way Swedish mothers think little girls should wear their hair. The two smooth braids were fastened with a broad blue ribbon. Over her plain dark blue woolen dress, she wore a blue and white checked gingham apron. Except for the aprons which she always wore, Sigrid's dresses were much like those of her little American cousin, only they were very plain and simple. She did not have any rings, or bracelets or necklaces. That was not because she did not love the pretty trinkets. Oh, no. But she must wait till she is older.

The nursery where they were sitting was a large comfortable room with a huge porcelain stove which filled all one corner of the room and reached way to the ceiling. It was made of shiny green tiles, the colour of the walls of the room, and down in the front were two large brass doors, behind which was the fire. This was the only kind of stove that Sigrid had ever seen, so she never thought that it was queer.

I must not forget to tell you about the odd decoration of the nursery windows. After the fashion of all Swedish windows, they swung out from the middle like doors. When the cold winter months came, on went double windows. Though Sigrid was the healthiest child in the world, she never knew what it was like to open a window in winter and let the fresh, pure air blow in, for all around the inside of the frame were neatly pasted narrow strips of paper. You buy these strips at the store with mucilage on the back like a postage stamp. In the little narrow space between the two windows, Sigrid's mother had planted bright green mosses and gray lichens with tiny red cups. A little wooden house and several painted wooden men and women were placed in this miniature park, that kept green all winter. Sigrid liked her window better than any in the house, for all the others had only the mosses and coloured berries.

"Before many months, I believe you will be able to knit a pair of stockings," said Miss Eklund, as she watched her industrious pupil.

"Did you have to make all your stockings when you were a little girl?" said Sigrid.

"Yes, indeed. I was smaller than you are when I began to learn to knit, for my father was a poor farmer and there was a large family of us. The first thing I ever made was a cozy for a coffee-urn, just as you are doing," said Miss Eklund.

"Oh, tell me what you used to do when you were a little girl. Did you learn your lessons at home as Anders and I do?" asked Sigrid.

"It was very different when I was your age, for we lived way out in the country in a big red farmhouse, and our nearest neighbour was two miles away. We lived in the far north, so that when the winter days were only a few hours long, I could not go to school, but I learned a great deal at home. During the long evenings, father and my big brothers could not see to work on the farm or cut timber, so we would all sit together in the living-room with its huge open fire. Father made mother's chairs or a cradle for the baby, or whittled tools for the farm. Brother Olaf carved wooden platters and spoons with wonderful animals and figures. Then in the spring-time he would sell these things in the city markets.

"Mother used to spin and weave our warm clothes, and she taught me how to do all these things, besides sewing and embroidering. Sometimes, father would tell us the same old sagas that you children love to hear."

"Did you have to study catechism, too?" Sigrid's rosy face looked quite solemn at the thought, for every day she had to learn a portion of the catechism, and also Bible history. She loved the stories of David and Saul and Daniel in the lions' den, but the catechism! Oh, that was very, very hard for a little girl!

"All little Swedish girls must learn their catechism, Sigrid, and my father was even more strict than your good parents," replied Miss Eklund.

"Elsa's big sister, who went to England last year, says that English children do not have to learn to knit and sew and embroider just as they learn their geography and spelling. Why do I have to learn to do these things, when my father could buy them for me?" asked Sigrid.

Just then, Sigrid dropped a stitch in her knitting, and had to unravel two rows before Miss Eklund could reply.

"Even though your mother lived in a beautiful house and her father was very rich, she also learned to knit and sew and crochet. You must know how to do these things so you will be able to take care of your own home when you grow up. But it is time for dinner now and I hear your mother's callers going. Make haste and put your knitting away lest she see her present."

Every morning, Sigrid had an early breakfast with her brother Erik, who went to a private school. He was studying very hard to go to the university at Upsala. Then she must study her lessons and learn many of the same things which her governess had been taught in the long winter months on the farm. And after that came her gymnastic exercises every day, as much a lesson as her reading and spelling.

"Erik," called Sigrid, after dinner, as her brother walked past the nursery. Though he was only three years older than his sister, he was a tall, sturdy boy, and Sigrid felt very proud of him. She beckoned him to a quiet corner where they could whisper unobserved.

"I have a surprise for mother. Miss Eklund has taught me to knit, and mother does not know yet. If I can get it finished, it is going to be a cozy for Christmas."

"That's fine," said Erik, "but you wait till I show you something which I learned to make in my sloyd class at school." Erik glanced around cautiously. Nobody was in sight, so he drew a carved tray from his school-bag.

"Oh, it's beautiful!" and Sigrid clapped her hands with glee. "How could you make it? Why, it is just like an old Viking ship with the dragon's head peering at you from the prow. And you have made the sides like the scales of some strange monster. Mother will be so delighted.

"It must be splendid to be a big boy and go to your school," continued Sigrid. "You do such interesting things. I wish that I could go on a school journey with my teacher for two or three days and see some of our wonderful old castles, as you do. Mother says perhaps Miss Eklund and I may go with her and father when they go through the GÖta Canal to GÖteborg, next summer, to visit Aunt Frederika. That will be better than a school journey."

"But, Sigrid, there are many wonderful things to see right here in our own beautiful Stockholm," said Erik. "Many school-children come here every spring with their teachers."

"Sometime you promised you would tell me an old saga about Stockholm before there was any city here," said Sigrid.

"Oh, you mean about King Agne," said Erik. "Once father pointed out to me the place where he was supposed to have landed with his ships, so I always like that story."

"Yes, yes, that is the one. Do tell me," said Sigrid.

Erik loved to tell his little sister these stories that he had often heard from his mother and father, so he did not need to be urged.

"Many hundred years ago, when the bold Vikings sailed out from our harbours and conquered far and wide, King Agne ruled in Upsala. Where our city is to-day, was only a group of green wooded islands with a few huts. Late in the summer, King Agne came sailing in from the Baltic, and dropped anchor near the large island, where the king's palace is to-day."

"Why, I can see that from mother's window," said Sigrid.

"Yes, we are so high up from the water, we can easily see the island. These old Viking kings often went on voyages of conquest along our shores. Way off to the east, King Agne had warred against King Froste of Finland and slain him. Then the victor plundered the country and sailed over here with much booty. He had taken captive the king's beautiful daughter Skialf, his son Loge, and many others.

"King Agne was exultant over his victory and he wanted to make the Princess Skialf his bride. So he said to his henchmen:

"'Let a spacious tent be erected beneath that fine oak-tree on yonder tongue of land. Then let my swiftest runners carry staffs of invitation to all the chieftains round about and bid them gather at a royal feast to celebrate the wedding of King Agne and the fair Princess Skialf. Command them that they bring a goodly store of meat and drink for the feast.'"

"Miss Eklund told us about the messengers' staffs when we went skating, so I know about them," interrupted Sigrid.

"These sticks were burned at one end, with a noose at the other end. This was a very plain way of telling the chieftains that they would be hanged and their houses burned, if they neglected to send the message on to the next chief.

"So a large number gathered in the huge tent which looked out on the Baltic, where the dragon-prowed ships lay at anchor.

"All this time the poor princess was very unhappy. But she dared not let the king know her fears. She thought and thought how she could escape becoming his bride. Finally a plan grew in her mind and she said to the king:

"'O brave and generous king, I beseech you that, before the royal wedding feast, you hold a funeral banquet in honour of my noble sire. My lord, may you give ear to this great favour which a captive maiden begs for her father.'

"The princess prayed so piteously that the heart of the old Viking was melted, and he again commanded:

"'Let the two feasts for my slain enemy and for my wedding be celebrated at the same time.'

"The goodly company gathered around the royal board, and fell to eating and drinking with great zest. The grave-ale was handed around in a huge drinking-horn, and the lusty warriors drank so long and so deep that soon they became boisterous and began to fight among themselves.

"Now the king wore about his neck a long and massive chain of gold. It was so long that it hung way down on his chest. Many other Viking kings had worn this royal treasure.

"In the midst of the carousal, the princess whispered to the king:

"'My lord, have a care for your beautiful gold necklace, lest you lose it during the revels.'

"'Ah, my lovely bride, you are right. What a prudent and careful wife you will make!' said the king, as he coiled the chain several times around his neck.

"Ere long, the fiery-hearted warriors were so drunk with ale that sleep overcame them, and one by one they fell from their places at the table. As soon as they were soundly slumbering, the princess rose from her place by the king's side. She and the other captives had only pretended to drink. She fastened a ship's rope to the coil of gold about the king's neck and then handed the rope to her brother, who was outside.

"Whist! the men threw the rope over the branch of the huge oak. Up went the tent into the air, and the king was strangled with his own golden chain."

"What a horrible story!" said Sigrid with a shudder. "What became of the princess?"

"Oh, she and the other captives hastened away to the ships and sailed back to Finland. When the Vikings awoke from their heavy sleep, they were wild with rage. But there was nothing to do but to bury the king beneath a great mound of earth, which the waves long since washed away."

"Ugh! I am glad I did not live in those cruel days, aren't you, Erik?"

But Erik shook his head and laughed. "Just think what fun it would be to sail away in a brave ship, out on the wild ocean where no man had ever been before. Those old Vikings were as strong as giants and feared nothing in the world. I must finish studying my lessons now, but I'll tell you another tale some other time."