her tame birds. One may say, in fact,
that Gabriele strews the evening of her mother's days with flowers.

"A man dear to the Swedish heart has said, 'that the grand natural
feature of northern life is a conquered winter,' and this applies
equally to life individually, to family life, and to that of human
nature. It so readily freezes and grows stiff, snow so readily falls
upon the heart; and winter makes his power felt as much within as
without the house. In order to keep it warm within, in order that life
may flourish and bloom, it is needful to preserve the holy fire
everburning. Love must not turn to ashes and die out; if it do, then all
is labour and heaviness, and one may as well do nothing but--sleep. But
if fire be borrowed from heaven, this will not happen; then will house
and heart be warm, and life bloom incessantly, and a thousand causes
will become rich sources of joy to all. If it be so within the
house--then may it snow without--then winter thou mayst do thy worst!

"But I return to Gabriele, whose lively wit and joyous temper, united to
her affectionate and innocent heart, make her deservedly the favourite
of her parents, and the joy of every one. She asserts continually her
own good-for-nothingness, her uselessness, and incorrigible love to a
sweet '_far niente_;' but nobody is of her opinion in this respect, for
nobody can do without her, and one sees that when it is necessary, she
can be as decided and as able as any one need be. It is now some time
since Gabriele made any charades. I almost fancy that the cause of this
is a certain Baron L., who was suspected for a long time of having set
fire to a house, and who now is suspected of a design of setting fire to
a heart, and who, with certain words and glances, has put all sorts of
whims into her head--I will not say heart.

"And so then we have nothing bad to say of 'this Petrea,' as one of the
friends of the house still calls her, but no longer in anger. This
Petrea has had all kind of botherations in the world: in the first place
with her own nose, with which she could not get into conceit, and then
with various other things, as well within her as without her, and for a
long time it seemed as if her own world would never come forth out of
chaos.

"It has however. With eyes full of grateful tears I will dare to say
this, and some time I may perhaps more fully explain how this has been
done. And blessed be the home which has turned back her wander