The Norwegians did not get words from the English, however. The English got words from the Norwegians. Long, long ago some people from these northern lands went to live in the land of the English people. From them the English learned to use some of the old Norsk words and they have kept some of those words in their language. English settlers brought the English language to America, so Americans too use those old Norsk words. The Norwegian pupils have a hard time learning to pronounce words which have the letter “w,” for “w” is not used in the Norsk language. The English word “warm” is “varme,” “work” is “verke,” “wash” is “vaske,” “window” is “vindue,” “west” is “vest,” and “well” is “vel.” But, of course, many, many other English words are not at all like Norsk words. 2. IN SWEDISH SCHOOLS Greda was very happy one morning as she went to school. She carried a small bundle in her hand as she hurried along. When she entered her classroom she whispered to the teacher, “Today is my birthday.” Then the teacher brought out a small stand just big enough to hold the little Swedish flag which Greda took out of her bundle. As Greda put the flag into the flag holder, her classmates said, “Happy birthday, Greda,” and sang a song to the flag. [Illustration: A SEVENTH GRADE TIMEPLAN] In that Swedish school girls and boys study almost the same subjects as the Norwegian girls and boys study. When winter comes and snow covers the hills, the skiing teacher comes to school every day. Now skiing sounds like play, but it is a school study for girls and boys in those North lands. Girls and boys of Norway and Sweden want to be good ski runners and ski jumpers. They begin to ski when they are very young. The young children run only on small hills near the school. The older girls and boys go out to longer mountainsides for their practice. Of course many pupils get tumbles in the snow as they learn to run on skis. The teacher says, “To be a good ski runner, you must have courage to try, and if you fail, you must laugh and try again.” Some children of the North lands go to school in the summer too. But the summer school is very different from the regular school. “Summer school is much more fun,” Martha, a Swedish girl, said after she had spent a summer in a camp and had studied with a camp teacher. Her brother Nils likes camp school too. Martha and Nils are twins. They were nine years old when they went to the summer camp. [Illustration: MARTHA AND NILS PICKING BERRIES] That summer Martha picked gooseberries. She learned to make gooseberry pie, gooseberry jelly, and gooseberry preserves. Nils only helped to take the stems off the berries, but he thought that was fun when he worked with the other girls and boys of the camp. [Illustration: NILS HELPING TO REPAIR THE ROOF] Nils helped to repair the roof on one of the summerhouses. That roof was of red tile. Nils carefully measured and fitted each piece of tile into its proper place.