HAPPY CHILDREN IN THE PROVINCE OF DALECARLIA
At daybreak, Greta and Nils, with Erik half asleep on his shoulder, wandered toward home, happy and tired. They stopped at the big house, and Nils said, "Good-bye, Greta."
He touched her hand very gently, and she answered, "Good-bye, Nils."
Then she looked down at the earth where some tiny, sharp, green tulip leaves were pushing their way upward.
"Spring is here," she said, when suddenly Erik let out a piercing shriek.
"And the Baron is here, too!" he cried. "Just look."
Sure enough, Baron von Engstrom's elegant car was standing before the door of Hanssonborg.
From that time on, Erik saw little of Greta. But one day his mother sent him over to Hanssonborg on an errand, and he stopped to chat with Fru Svenson and to see what she was cooking.
He left the kitchen with a blouse full of cookies and the news that the Baron was ill in bed.
"What a very bad-tempered gentleman the Baron is!" Fru Svenson had exclaimed. "Always complaining and never satisfied!"