l have a successful
passage, and also that you have on board many Scandinavians going to our
shores to make their home with us."

I thought I again heard the same voices as before cry in response, "Good
for you, Paul, good for you!"

I felt now that I was a different man. It was as if I had actually heard
the voices of the dear young people encouraging me to go forward. I
suddenly became very restless and full of energy. I wanted my horse to
go faster. The young folks wished me to go to "The Land of the Long
Night." To that country I should go.

From that day I was ready for any amount of hardships, of bumping and
knocking about in sleighs. I did not care if my ears and nose were
frozen. All I wanted was to go ahead as fast as I could until I reached
"The Land of the Long Night."

I was in splendid condition for the journey. I had been roughing it all
summer in the mountain fastnesses of Norway. I had been living on cream,
butter, cheese, and milk, and had had bacon twice a week, on Sundays and
Wednesdays.

There were about one hundred and forty or fifty post stations before I
reached Haparanda, the most northern town on the Gulf of Bothnia.

Every day's travel brought me nearer to "The Land of the Long Night,"
but it was still a very long way off. I had yet to sleep at many post
stations and to change horses and vehicles many times.

I entered and left many towns--Malmoe, Skanoer, Falsterboe,
Trelleborg,--these last three were quaint, and the most southern towns
in Sweden. How charming, clean, and neat are those little Swedish towns!
I wished I could have tarried in some of them. Then I made a sweep
eastward, following the coast, and passed the town of Ystad, and then I
gradually drove northward, for now the road skirted the shores of the
Baltic. I passed Cimbrishamn, Soelvesberg, Carlshamn, and Carlskrona.

From Carlskrona the country was very pretty, and on my way to Kalmar,
and further north, I could see the Island of Oeland with its numerous
windmills.

The continuous driving, often in vehicles without springs, was rather
hard on my trousers, and I had not many pairs with me. In a word my
outfit was very modest. To travel comfortably, one must have as little
baggage as possible; for if you have too much baggage it is as if you
were dragging a heavy log behind you; you are not your own master, all
kinds of difficulties come in the way, and you have become the slave of
your own baggage. I bought clothing a