"Oh! the young girls out in the country where I used to live will have a merry time of it to-night. I wonder if they still make pancakes. I was about sixteen years old the night I tried it with two other girls, for the charm would not work unless there were three. Together we took the bowl from the cupboard, beat the eggs, and added the flour. All three of us stirred it at once and threw in the salt at the same time. Of course, we got in too much salt. Not one of us must speak or laugh the whole time. That was the hardest of all. Dear me, I hadn't thought of that night for years." Miss Eklund delayed her tale to laugh as heartily as if she was making up for lost time. "After we had poured out the batter and cooked it, each of us ate a third of the very salt cake. But we couldn't drink before we went to bed. During our dreams, the older girls told us that a young man would appear to each of us and offer us a glass of water." Karin interrupted the story by exclaiming, "What is that coming down the road? I believe it is the boys with our green boughs. Old Maja doesn't look as though he liked those branches thrust behind his ears. Why, the wagon is all one bower of birch-trees!" As the wagon drove into the yard, Erik spied his newly-arrived cousin and sung out: "There once was little Karin, Who at the royal hall Among the handmaids serving The fairest was of all. "Then spoke the King, 'Fair Karin, Wilt thou my sweetheart be? My horse and golden saddle I'll straightway give to thee.'" The children all laughed merrily at the new turn to the familiar old song. "How pretty we shall make the May-pole!" exclaimed Sigrid. She called it a "May-pole," though it was the middle of June. The Swedish word for "May" means green leaf. And a "green-leaf pole" it certainly was when they had draped the cross-bars with leaves and garlands and added scores of the yellow and blue flags of Sweden. Toward the close of the afternoon, the pole in its gala-dress was swung into place by means of huge ropes. Then a great shout went up from the little crowd of relatives and working people who lived on the grounds. "Strike up a dance, Per," cried Major Lund to the fiddler. In a twinkling, the children had caught hold of hands and were dancing around the pole. Old and young, servants and all, shared in the merrymaking. [Illustration: "IN A TWINKLING, THE CHILDREN ... WERE DANCING AROUND THE POLE"]