wn. But when she saw Karen's
wistful look, she turned quickly to her friends and said, "Let me,
instead, choose the queen; and I will choose Karen Klasson. I want this
to be the happiest day of all the year for her."

"One queen is as good as another," said Nils Jorn cheerfully; so they led
Karen back to the May-pole and she was made queen of the festival and
crowned with green leaves.

After a few minutes Gerda found a seat beside her under the canopy of
birch boughs, and the two little girls watched the dancing together.

Everyone was happy and jolly. The fiddler swept his bow across the
strings until they sang their gayest polka. The accordion puffed and
wheezed in its attempt to follow the merry tune. The platform was crowded
with dancers, whirling and stamping, turning and swinging, laughing and
singing.

The tall pole quivered and shook until all the streamers rustled, all the
flags fluttered, and all the birch leaves murmured to each other that
summer had come and the sun god had conquered the frost giants.

"This is truly the happiest day of all my life," Karen said; "and it is
you, Gerda, who have made it so. I was lame and lonely in the cold
Northland, and you came, bringing me health and happiness."

"Mother says I must never forget that I was named for the goddess who
shed light and sunshine over the world," replied Gerda soberly. Then she
drew her friend closer and whispered, "But think, Karen, of all the good
times we shall have next year, when you can go to school with me, and we
can share all our happiness with each other;" and she clapped her hands
and whirled Karen off into the crowd of dancers,--the gayest and happiest
of them all.

End of Project Gutenberg's Gerda in Sweden, by Etta Blaisdell McDonald

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GERDA IN SWEDEN ***

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