The younger of the two had something round him that had certainly once been the jacket of a very corpulent man, for it reached almost to the boy’s ancles; the whole hung fast by a piece of the sleeve and a single brace, made from the seam of what was now the rest of the lining.  It was very difficult to see the transition from jacket to trowsers, the rags glided so into one another.  The whole clothing was arranged so as to give him an air-bath:  there were draught holes on all sides and ends; a yellow linen clout fastened to the nethermost regions seemed as if it were to signify a shirt.  A very large straw hat, that had certainly been driven over several times, was stuck sideways on his head, and allowed the boy’s wiry, flaxen hair to grow freely through the opening where the crown should have been:  the naked brown shoulder and upper part of the arm, which was just as brown, were the prettiest of the whole.

The other boy had only a pair of trowsers on.  They were also ragged, but the rags were bound fast into the pockets with packthread; one string round the ancles, one under the knee, and another round about the waist.  He, however, kept together what he had, and that is always respectable.

“Be off!” shouted the Captain, from the vessel; and the boy with the tied-up rags turned round, and we—­yes, we saw nothing but packthread, in bows, genteel bows.  The front part of the boy only was covered:  he had only the foreparts of trowsers—­the rest was packthread, the bare, naked packthread.

VADSTENE.

* * * * *

In Sweden, it is not only in the country, but even in several of the provincial towns, that one sees whole houses of grass turf or with roofs of grass turf; and some are so low that one might easily spring up to the roof, and sit on the fresh greensward.  In the early spring, whilst the fields are still covered with snow, but which is melted on the roof, the latter affords the first announcement of spring, with the young sprouting grass where the sparrow twitters:  “Spring comes!”

Between Motala and Vadstene, close by the high road, stands a grass-turf house—­one of the most picturesque.  It has but one window, broader than it is high, and a wild rose branch forms the curtain outside.

We see it in the spring.  The roof is so delightfully fresh with grass, it has quite the tint of velvet; and close to it is the chimney, nay, even a cherry-tree grows out of its side, now full of flowers:  the wind shakes the leaves down on a little lamb that is tethered to the chimney.  It is the only lamb of the family.  The old dame who lives here, lifts it up to its place herself in the morning and lifts it down again in the evening, to give it a place in the room.  The roof can just bear the little lamb, but not more—­this is an experience and a certainty.  Last autumn—­and at that time the grass turf roofs are covered with flowers,