father explained. "The stations are from one to two Swedish miles apart,
and everyone who hires a horse is expected to take good care of him."

"I'm afraid we shall have to make this horse go faster, or we shall be
caught in a thunder-storm," said Gerda, looking up through the trees at
the sky, which was growing dark with clouds.

"You are right," answered her father; and at the same moment Erik looked
back and shouted, "We must hurry. Perhaps we can reach my father's tent
before the rain comes."

Then, glancing up again at the black clouds, he said to Birger, "We shall
soon hear the pounding of Thor's hammer."

"How do you happen to know about the old Norse gods?" questioned Birger.

"I have been to school in Jockmock, and I read books," replied Erik,
urging on his horse to a race with the clouds; but the clouds won, for
the little party had gone scarcely an English mile before they were in
the midst of a thunder-storm. Over rocks and rills, under low-hanging
boughs of pine and birch trees rattled the carts along the rough woodland
road. The rain poured down in sheets, zigzag lightning flashed across the
sky, and a peal of thunder crashed and rumbled through the forest.

Lieutenant Ekman threw his coat over Gerda, covering her from head to
foot, and called to Erik that they must stop. As he spoke, a second flash
of lightning showed a great boulder beside the road and Erik answered,
"Here we are at my father's tent. It is just beyond that rock."

Another moment, and with one last jounce and jolt, the two carts had
rounded the turn in the road and stopped in a small clearing beside a
lake. The arrival of the carts, or kaerra, as they are called in Sweden,
had brought the whole family of Lapps to the door of the tent. There
they stood, huddled together,--Erik's father, mother, brother and
sisters,--looking out to see who was arriving in such a downpour.

Lieutenant Ekman jumped down, gathered Gerda up in his arms, coat and
all, and ran toward the tent. Birger followed, while Erik waited to tie
the horses to a tree.

Immediately the group at the doorway disappeared inside the tent, making
way for the strangers to enter, and when Gerda had shaken herself out of
her father's coat, a scene of the greatest confusion greeted her eyes.

The frame of the tent was made of poles driven into the ground and drawn
together at the top. It was covered with a coarse woolen cloth which is
made by the Lapps and is very strong. A