him as an
enemy; or he had some slight personal interest in the matter, and then
it would be better to watch his plans, and overthrow them.

The doctor and Mr. Bredejord therefore concluded that they would not
oppose his becoming a passenger. Then they gradually were filled with a
desire to study this singular man, and find out why he wished to take
passage on the "Alaska." But how could they do this without sailing with
him. It would not be such an absurd thing to do after all. The course
which the "Alaska" was to take was a very attractive one, at least the
first part of it. To be brief, Dr. Schwaryencrona, who was a great
traveler, asked to be taken as a passenger, to accompany the expedition
as far as the China seas, by paying such a price as the committee might
judge proper.

This example immediately acted with irresistible force upon Mr.
Bredejord, who had dreamed for a long time about an excursion to the
land of the Sun. He also solicited a cabin under the same conditions.

Every one in Stockholm now believed that Mr. Hochstedt would do the
same, partly out of scientific curiosity, and partly from terror at the
thought of passing so many months without the society of his friends.
But all Stockholm was deceived. The professor was strongly tempted to
go, and he reviewed all the arguments for and against it, and found it
almost impossible to arrive at any decision, but fate ordained that he
should stay at home.

The time of their departure was irrevocably fixed for the 10th of
February. On the 9th Erik went to meet Mr. Malarius, and was agreeably
surprised to see Dame Hersebom, and Vanda, who had come to bid him
farewell. They were modestly intending to go to a hotel in the town, but
the doctor insisted that they should come and stay with him, to the
great displeasure of Kajsa, who did not think that they were
sufficiently distinguished.

Vanda was now a tall girl, whose beauty fulfilled its early promise. She
had passed successfully a very difficult examination at Bergen which
entitled her to take a professor's chair, in a superior school. But she
preferred to remain at Noroe with her mother, and she was going to fill
Mr. Malarius' place during his absence: always serious and gentle, she
found in teaching a strange and inexplicable charm, but it had not
changed the simplicity of her home life. This beautiful girl, in her
quaint Norwegian costume, was able to give tranquilly her opinion on the
deepest scientif