"I like your father, and shall be
happy to pass a day with him."

"Yes, dear Eric," said Alete, "I love your father. Pay however some
attention to old Marguerite's preparations. I wish to be received like a
princess, and if all the plate is not produced to do me honor, if the
table be not covered with the finest linen and loaded with delicacies, if
the furniture does not glitter like glass, and the passage-hall and
corridor are not bright as if for a wedding, I will turn all the house
upside down."

"Well well," said Eric, "there you are a queen. My father will turn over
all power to you, and you may make as many reforms as you please."

Part III.

A few days after the visit of Eric, the groom of M. de Vermondans took
from the carriage-house two sleighs, trimmed with wolf and bear-skins,
and harnessed to each of them a spirited horse, the activity of which
seemed enhanced by the cold morning air. In the first sleigh sat M. de
Vermondans and Alete; and Ireneus and Ebba entered the second.

"Are we ready?" said the old man, as he took the reins in one hand, and
the whip in the other.

"Yes," said Ireneus, after he had wrapped up the delicate frame confided
to him in a large Astracan-skin.

"Well, let us start." The horses, as soon as the reins were loosed, left
the house at a gallop.

"I am glad," said Ebba to Ireneus, "that you are in Sweden at this
season, which to us is so solemn."

"Do you then celebrate Christmas with so much pomp?"

"I do not think it is celebrated in any country of the world with so much
joy and unanimity, from the northern extremity of the realm to the
southern boundary, in town and country, in palace and peasant's hut."

"I am sure that in this festival there are touching usages, with which
you are thoroughly acquainted. I shall be delighted if you will explain
them to me. All you have told me of your popular legends and
superstitions, opens to me, as it were, a new world, in which, I assure
you, I am glad to wander."

"Were I not afraid that I would appear pedantic to you." said Ebba, "I
would tell you what Eric has told me about our Christmas festival. It
appears to date back to a remote day before the Christian era. At this
season our pagan ancestors celebrated the winter solstice, just as on the
25th of June they did that of summer. The early name of this festival,
which we yet preserve, indicates an astronomical idea. It was called
_Julfest_. (the feast of the wheel,) certa