"That is an elevator which will take you up to the heights above, where
you can look over the whole city," was Birger's answer. Then he whispered
to Gerda to ask if she thought they might go up in the elevator before
going to the Deer Park.

Gerda shook her head. "It costs five öre to go up in the lift, and three
öre to come down," she replied. "That would be thirty-two öre for us all,
and we must save our money to spend in the Djurgård. There is the boat
now," and she led the way to the little steamer.

"I have heard you say so much about Skansen," said Karen, when they had
found seats on the deck together, "that I'd like to know what it is
all about."

"It is all about every old thing in Sweden," laughed Gerda. "The man
who planned it said that the time would come when gold could not
buy a picture of olden times--the old homes and costumes and ways of
living--and then people would wish they could know more about them.

"So he travelled all over Sweden, from one end to the other, making a
collection of all sorts of old things to put in a museum in Stockholm.
Then he thought of showing the real life of the country people, so he
bought houses and set them up in Skansen, and hired the peasants to come
and live in them.

"When he finished his work, there was an example of every kind of Swedish
dwelling, from the Laplander's tent and the charcoal burner's hut, to the
farmhouse in Dalarne and the fisherman's cot in Skåne. And people were
living in all the houses just as they had lived at home,--spinning,
weaving, baking, and celebrating all the holidays in the same old way."