hich, I assure you,
interest me in no small degree?"

"If you wish it," said Ebba, "I will." Whenever she spoke she seemed with
difficulty to surmount her timidity.

"Well, my dear nephew," said M. de Vermondans, with Eric on one side,
Ebba on the other, and the practical knowledge of Alete, "it seems to me
you can employ your time very profitably; for my own part I can only
induct you into the mysteries of bear-hunting, and the chase of the stag
and reindeer. It is so rude that I shall not be able to keep up with you.
Among my people, however, I shall be able to find a guide, who finds game
like a blood-hound, and follows it like a lion."

"That will do wonderfully well, uncle; with so attractive an offer, I
fear only that amid my amusements I shall forget my country and my
regiment, and become faithless to my king."

PART II.

Even if Ireneus had not willingly accepted the plan worked out for the
Employment of his leisure in study, the rigorous climate of Sweden would,
in some manner, have made it compulsory for him to do so. To the cold and
dry days, which, during the winter, enlightened and animated the people
of the north, succeeded storms and hurricanes. Tempests of snow floated
in the air, covered the paths, and blocked up the doors of the houses. A
cloudy horizon and black sky seemed to close around every house, like a
girdle of iron. At a little distance not even a hill could be
distinguished from a forest; all was, as it were, drowned and overwhelmed
in a misty ocean, in movable columns of snow, which were impetuous, and
irresistible as the sand-whirlpools of the desert. About midday a light
purple tint, like a dying twilight, glittered in somber space: a ray
thrown by the sun across the clouds, gave an uncertain light. All,
however, soon became dark again. One might have fancied that the god of
day had retired over-wearied from regions he had in vain attempted to
subdue. Nowhere does the symbolical dogma of the contests of darkness
and light manifest itself in more characteristic traits than in the
Scandinavian mythology; and nowhere does it appear physically under a
more positive image than in the regions which have been for centuries
devoted to this mythology. During the summer at the north, the sun reigns
like an absolute sovereign over nature, and ceaselessly lights it with
his crown of fire; he ever watches it, like a jealous lover. If he
inclines toward the horizon, if his burning disk disappea