"Do tell us, father," said Anders.
"It is just a short story about a careless farmer who had a lazy servant. For many days, the servant rode his master's horse to pasture without giving the poor animal any water to drink. That was a very dry summer, so the horse suffered greatly.
"One day the farmer wanted to drive to market. So he said to his servant:
"'Fetch my horse from the pasture.'
"The servant went after the horse, but it had disappeared. He delayed so long that the master finally followed him into the field. But he could not find the horse either. Just as they had given up the search, they heard a neigh. In the next meadow, where they had been hunting, they saw the horse drinking at a spring.
"'Are you really there?' cried the farmer. He hastened over the stone wall to catch the horse. As he was about to put the halter over its neck, the horse disappeared and a snipe flew into the air. There the bird neighed till sunset."
"That served the farmer quite right," said Erik, indignantly, and the others agreed with him.
The broad waters of Lake Mälar were alive with sailing craft and small steamers. Who would stay indoors on such a day! Along the wooded slopes of the lake they sailed past many a lovely villa, half-hidden by trees, and occasionally some ancient castle.
"That is the place where I saw a water-sprite late one afternoon," said Sigrid. The breeze had died down and the boat seemed to rest at anchor near an old wooden bridge beneath which a hillside brook rushed joyously into the lake.
"Did you really?" asked Elsa. Sigrid believed in trolls, sea-nymphs, fairies, and water-sprites. But Elsa was several years older than her cousin, and she wasn't at all certain that trolls and water-sprites still lived in the wild country, though they might have in the olden times.