In one room he found an old fireplace, and before this he stopped to talk about the different kinds of fireplaces that had been used in the course of time.  The first indoors fireplace had been a big, flat stone on the floor of the hut, with an opening in the roof which let in both wind and rain.  The next had been a big stone hearth with no opening in the roof.  This must have made the hut very warm, but it also filled it with soot and smoke.  When Vittskoevle was built, the people had advanced far enough to open the fireplace, which, at that time, had a wide chimney for the smoke; but it also took most of the warmth up in the air with it.

If that boy had ever in his life been cross and impatient, he was given a good lesson in patience that day.  It must have been a whole hour now that he had lain perfectly still.

In the next room they came to, the teacher stopped before an old-time bed with its high canopy and rich curtains.  Immediately he began to talk about the beds and bed places of olden days.

The teacher didn’t hurry himself; but then he did not know, of course, that a poor little creature lay shut up in a botanist’s box, and only waited for him to get through.  When they came to a room with gilded leather hangings, he talked to them about how the people had dressed their walls and ceilings ever since the beginning of time.  And when he came to an old family portrait, he told them all about the different changes in dress.  And in the banquet halls he described ancient customs of celebrating weddings and funerals.

Thereupon, the teacher talked a little about the excellent men and women who had lived in the castle; about the old Brahes, and the old Barnekows; of Christian Barnekow, who had given his horse to the king to help him escape; of Margareta Ascheberg who had been married to Kjell Barnekow and who, when a widow, had managed the estates and the whole district for fifty-three years; of banker Hageman, a farmer’s son from Vittskoevle, who had grown so rich that he had bought the entire estate; about the Stjernsvaerds, who had given the people of Skane better ploughs, which enabled them to discard the ridiculous old wooden ploughs that three oxen were hardly able to drag.  During all this, the boy lay still.  If he had ever been mischievous and shut the cellar door on his father or mother, he understood now how they had felt; for it was hours and hours before that teacher got through.

At last the teacher went out into the courtyard again.  And there he discoursed upon the tireless labour of mankind to procure for themselves tools and weapons, clothes and houses and ornaments.  He said that such an old castle as Vittskoevle was a mile-post on time’s highway.  Here one could see how far the people had advanced three hundred and fifty years ago; and one could judge for oneself whether things had gone forward or backward since their time.