was a king."

"Yes," said Gerda, "there's the barn where he worked at threshing grain,
and the house where the woman lowered him out of the window in the night,
and the Stone of Mora, on the bank of the river, where he spoke to the
men of Dalarne and urged them to fight for freedom."

"And there's the stone house in Mora over the cellar where Margit Larsson
hid him when the Danish soldiers were close on his track," added Birger.
"The inscription says:--

"'Gustav Eriksson Vasa, while in exile and wandering in Dalarne with a
view of stirring up the people to fight for Fatherland and Freedom, was
saved by the presence of mind of a Dalecarlian woman, and so escaped the
troops sent by the Tyrant to arrest him.

"'This monument is gratefully erected by the Swedish people to the
Liberator.'"

Karen laughed. "How can you remember it so well?" she asked. "It sounded
as if you were reading it."

"That is because I have read it so often," replied Birger. "Gustav Vasa
is my favorite hero. He drove the Danes out of the country and won
freedom for the Swedish people."

"He was the Father of his Country," said Gerda, and she seized Birger's
new flag and waved it over her head.

"Come, children, it is time for you to go to school," Fru Ekman told