an have to suffer any annoyance or humiliation on her
account.

The summer the little girl was eleven her father took her to
Loevdala Manor on the seventeenth of August, which was the birthday
of the lord of the manor, Lieutenant Liljecrona.

The seventeenth of August was always a day of rejoicing that was
looked forward to all the year by every one in Svartsjoe and in Bro,
not only by the gentry, who participated in all the festivities,
but also by the young folk of the peasantry, who came in crowds to
Loevdala to look at the smartly dressed people and to listen to the
singing and the dance music.

There was something else, too, that attracted the young people to
Loevdala on the seventeenth of August, and that was all the fruit
that was to be found in the orchard at that time. To be sure, the
children had been taught strict honesty in most matters, but when
it came to a question of such things as hang on bushes and trees,
out in the open, they felt at liberty to take as much as they
wanted, just so they were careful not to be caught at it.

When Jan came into the orchard with his Glory Goldie he noticed how
the little girl opened her eyes when she saw all the fine apple
trees, laden with big round greenings. And Jan would not have
denied her the pleasure of tasting of the fruit had he not seen
Superintendent Soederlind and two other men walking about in the
orchard, on the lookout for trespassers.

He hurried Glory Goldie over to the lawn in front of the
manor-house, out of temptation's way. It was plain that her
thoughts were still on the apple trees and the gooseberry bushes,
for she never even glanced at the prettily dressed children of the
upper class or at the beautiful flowers. Jan could not get her to
listen to the fine speeches delivered by the Dean of Bro and
Engineer Boraeus of Borg, in honour of the day. Why she would not
even listen to Sexton Blackie's congratulatory poem!

Anders Oester's clarinet could be heard from the house. It was
playing such lively dance music just then that folks were hardly
able to hold themselves still, but the little girl only tried to
find a pretext for getting back to the orchard.

Jan kept a firm grip on her hand all the while and no matter what
excuse she would hit upon to break away, he never relaxed his hold.
Everything went smoothly for him until evening, when dusk fell.

Then coloured lanterns were brought out and set in the flower beds
and hung in the trees an