One day Harold and his father left Bergen to visit Harold’s cousin
Albert who lived in Stockholm, the capital city of Sweden. They traveled
for a day and a night on a train.
The train crossed Norway on Norway’s longest railway which passed
through the high mountains. The electric train climbed the mountains
easily and Harold saw that part of Norway which his storybooks call “the
home of the giants.”
Then the train left Norway and crossed Sweden. Harold thought the farms
in Sweden looked much like the farms around his home in Minnesota. The
fields were large. The houses were far apart. Sometimes the train went
for miles before Harold saw a farmhouse.
When Harold reached Stockholm he saw a city which to him looked much
like any other city. But his cousin Albert said, “You will get your best
view of Stockholm from high above the city.” So he took them to the top
of a tall tower and they looked down on the city. “What a queer city it
is!” said Harold. “It is spread out over many islands.”
Then Albert told Harold how Stockholm came to be built where it is.
Albert had learned about the building of the city at school.
The city was built nearly seven hundred years ago. A rich nobleman
planned the city in the days when many pirates sailed on the Baltic Sea,
the sea which Stockholm faces. The nobleman wanted to build a fortress
for protection from the pirates. All along the sea coast were
islands—hundreds of islands. The nobleman chose three small islands
back from the sea with many other islands in front of them and built a
wall around them. He thought that behind the wall his people would be
safe from the pirates.
A town grew up behind the wall. The days of the pirates passed.
Stockholm became a city of trade. It grew and grew. Buildings spread
over other islands until today the city covers a dozen islands in a
large lake which opens into a channel of water which flows to the sea.
[Illustration: THE CITY OF STOCKHOLM]
And Harold and Albert looked down on that city and watched the boats
coming and going on the many waterways.
Albert took his guests to a little home outside the city. “This is where
we live in the summer,” he said. Harold thought the place looked like a
tiny city of playhouses, but as they came nearer he saw that the
playhouses were real homes.
Harold’s aunt met them at the door of one of the cottages. It had two
rooms and a porch. Vines and rose bushes grew over the porch. All the
other cottages were much like the one where Albert lived.
Around each house was a garden spot. Albert said, “These are our ‘little
farms.’” Albert does most of the gardening on his “little farm.”
The summer home though does not belong to Albert. The city owns those
garden spots. A few years ago many countries of the world were at war.
Sweden could not get the food from other countries that she needed.
Stockholm began then the plan of renting garden spots to its citizens,
so that they might grow the food that they needed. The plan proved so
good that the city kept the garden spots after the war was over. And
Albert’s father rents a little farm for Albert each summer. He pays a
very small sum for the use of the garden and cottage for the entire
summer—a sum equal to about five dollars in American money.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE SMALL SUMMER HOMES]
Albert showed Harold the vegetables, fruit, and flowers which he was
growing on his farm. “In the fall,” he said, “I’ll take my best
specimens to the fair in the city. I’m sure to get a prize for some of
them.”
Each day after Albert had hoed his garden, he and Harold went to play
with the other boys who also lived on little farms. One day they went to
the lake to swim and to ride on the rafts. The boys had made the rafts
of logs. Between the two logs at each end of the rafts they had fastened
a board for seats. Albert rowed the raft on which he and Harold rode
while they rested from their swimming. Harold only laughed and swam away
again when Albert tipped the raft and threw him into the water.
[Illustration: THE BOYS WITH THEIR RAFTS]
One morning the boys went to the city again. They walked through the
streets toward the quay—the place where the boats land. Harold noticed
that all the buildings were of white stone. He knew that Sweden, like
Norway, was a land of many forests. Why then were there so few wooden
houses? He asked Albert. His cousin told him, “The first city was built
of wood, but fires came and destroyed the homes. People kept building of
wood for many years, but again and again fires destroyed the homes. Wood
is not Sweden’s only building material. Under the soil around Stockholm
is a fine building stone called granite. So the buildings you see in
this new city are of granite.”
The boys stopped along the street to visit a flower market. It was
bright with many colors. For in that city so far north many flowers
grow. In the market place were pinks, violets, sweet peas, roses,
asters, dahlias, and long-stemmed gladioli.
About noon the boys got on a boat at the quay to go to the King’s
palace. The palace of the King stands in an old part of the city. It is
on one of the islands where the old wall stood so long ago. Near the
King’s palace are a few streets of old buildings with sharp gabled
roofs. That part of Stockholm is called “the city between bridges.” Day
and night boats pass under the bridges and move along the water in front
of the palace.
The boys reached the palace about noon. Albert wanted Harold to see the
changing of the King’s guards. As they neared the palace, they heard
sounds of band music. In the courtyard beside the palace, they saw a
line of guards dressed in uniform such as guards of the palace have worn
for hundreds of years. Then the line of marching men came into sight.
The band in uniform marched first, then the guards who were to take the
place of those guards now at the palace. They crossed the bridge and
entered the courtyard. The guards drilled for a few minutes at the
command of the officer. The band played more music. Then the commander
told the new guards what their duties were and the old guards marched
away, leaving them to protect the king and his property.
The next day Albert was going on a long hike with his Boy Scout troop.
The scout leader said that Harold could go with them. Early in the
morning the boys gathered near the water front to wait for their leader.
Soon Harold felt at home with the group of boys wearing khaki suits and
carrying knapsacks even though he could not speak their language. Many
of the boys could speak a little English and they talked to Harold in
his language.
[Illustration: CHANGING THE GUARD IN FRONT OF THE ROYAL CASTLE]
The scouts hiked several miles that day. They stopped on the grounds of
an old, old castle. In a few minutes tents were pitched for the night.
The leader took them into the castle, which had been built hundreds of
years ago. They went to the banquet hall of knights of old. Harold had
never seen such a beautiful room. The walls were covered with paintings
of kings and knights. The ceiling was of gold. The boys stood before the
King’s throne and imagined a page kneeling there to be dubbed a knight.
They could almost hear the words, “I dub thee knight. Be ever true to
your country. Be ever strong; protect the weak; and do good deeds.”
Then outside on the courtyard of that old castle, the scouts took their
oath—not unlike the one the knights of old had taken so many years ago.
They too pledged obedience to the laws of their country. They promised
to be strong and to go forth to do good deeds day by day.