The lut-fisk is a kind of smoked fish--salmon, ling, or cod--prepared in
a delicious way which only a Swedish housewife understands. It is always
the very finest fish to be had in the market, and before it reaches the
market it is the very finest fish that swims in the sea. Every fisherman
who sails from the west coast of Sweden--and there are hundreds of
them--gives to his priest the two largest fish which he catches during
the season. It is these fish which are salted and smoked for lut-fisk,
and sold in the markets for Christmas and Easter.

When Gerda ran out into the kitchen to get some water for her plants, she
stopped to taste the white gravy which her mother was making for the
lut-fisk.

Then as she danced back through the dining-room to tell Karen about the
pudding she sang:--

"Away, away to the fishers' pier,
Many fishes we'll find there,--Big salmon,
Good salmon:
Seize them by the neck,
Stuff them in a sack,
And keep them till Christmas and Easter."

"Hurry and finish the silver," she added, "and then we will help Mother
set the smörgåsbord for our dinner. We never had half such delicious
things for it before. There is the pickled herring your father sent us,
and the smoked reindeer from Erik's father in Lapland; and Grandmother
Ekman sent us strawberry jam, and raspberry preserve, and cheese, and oh,
so many goodies!" Gerda clapped her hands so hard that some of the water
she was carrying to her plants was spilled on the floor. "Oh, dear me!"