Produced by Nicole Apostola, Charles Franks, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team. John Mark Ockerbloom provided additional information about the original edition.
The Treasure
By Selma Lagerlof
Contents
I. At Solberga Parsonage
II. On the Quays
III. The Messenger
IV. In the Moonlight
V. Haunted
VI. In the Town Cellars
VII. Unrest
VIII. Sir Archie's Flight
IX. Over the Ice
X. The Roar of the Waves
Because the Foreword contains key elements about the end of the book, it is located at the end of the e-text.
CHAPTER I
AT SOLBERGA PARSONAGE
In the days when King Frederik the Second of Denmark ruled over Bohuslen [FOOTNOTE: Frederik the Second reigned from 1544 to 1588. At that time, Bohuslen, now a province of southwest Sweden, formed part of Norway and was under the Danish Crown.—Trans.] there dwelt at Marstrand a poor hawker of fish, whose name was Torarin. This man was infirm and of humble condition; he had a palsied arm, which made him unfit to take his place in a boat for fishing or pulling an oar. As he could not earn his livelihood at sea like all the other men of the skerries, he went about selling salted and dried fish among the people of the mainland. Not many days in the year did he spend at home; he was constantly on the road from one village to another with his load of fish.