“Come along,” he said, “and you shall see him.” He gave her a hand lest she might fall down the hole; then walking backwards, he led her down the companionway into the Captain’s cabin--a fine room, with polished mahogany walls and mahogany furniture. In there, sure enough, was the bird of paradise! The bird was even more beautiful than her imagination had pictured it. It was not alive, yet it stood in the middle of the table--whole and perfect in all its gorgeous plumage. The little girl climbed up on to a chair and from there to the table. Then she sat down beside the bird and regarded its beauty. The cabin-boy, who stood by, showed her its long, light, drooping feathers. “Look!” he said. “You can see he’s from Paradise, for he hasn’t any feet.”[1] [1] The first birds of paradise seen in Europe were mounted without feet.--TRANSLATOR. Now that seemed to fit in very well with her own concept of Paradise: a place where one did not have to walk but moved about on wings. She gazed at the bird in adoration, her hands folded as in prayer. She wondered if the cabin-boy knew it was the bird that protected Captain Strömberg, but dared not ask him. The child could have sat there all day lost in wonder; but her reverie was suddenly interrupted by loud shouts from the deck. It sounded as if someone were calling, “Selma! Selma!” Immediately afterwards, they all came rushing into the cabin--Lieutenant Lagerlöf, Back-Kaisa, Fru Lagerlöf, Captain Strömberg, Johan, and Anna. They were so many they quite filled the room. “How did you get here?” they asked as with one breath--wonder and amazement depicted on their faces. With that, the little girl remembered that she had walked on the deck, had walked down the stairs and into the cabin--that no one had carried her. “Now come down off the table,” said one, “and let us see whether you can walk.” She crawled from the table to the chair, and from the chair to the floor. Yes, she could both stand and walk. How they rejoiced! Their hopes had not been in vain; the object of the journey was fulfilled. The little girl was not going to grow up a helpless cripple, but a normal human being. The grown folk said it was the splendid baths at Strömstad that had wrought the change. With tears of joy and gratitude, they blessed the sea, the air, the city and all therein--glad they had come. The little girl, meanwhile, had her own thoughts about it. She wondered if it was not the bird of paradise that had helped her. Was it not the little marvel with the quivering wings which had come from that land where feet were not needed that had taught her to walk here on this earth, where it was such a very necessary thing? VIII THE KEEPSAKE THEY had said good-bye to Fru Strömberg and “Little Mårbacka.” The children had packed away their precious sea-shells and the grown-ups had locked their trunks. They were now going aboard the steamer that was to bear them away from Strömstad.