it is a sign of trouble, that during the course of the year there will be a death in the house.  All fancy that in Christmas a revelation of the future is found.  To read this prophecy however, it is necessary to rise before dawn, to go fasting and in silence into the wood, without speaking or looking around.  If too at sunrise, the church is reached before the crowing of the cock, the coffins of those who will die during the year will be seen, and by turning the head around, it may be learned if the harvest will be good or bad, or whether there will be a conflagration in the village.

While Ebba was describing these usages and superstitions of Sweden, the sleighs passed rapidly along the snow plains, which had been previously leveled by other vehicles.  The spire of the church in which the father of Eric for thirty years had officiated as PROST with honor and dignity was seen.  About fifty houses were arranged in a circle around the ascent of a hill.  There was one among them of comparatively large dimensions, of two stories, and built of stone, a rare thing in Sweden, whose country houses usually have but one story and an attic, and are built of wood.  One side of this house adjoined a large and beautiful church, and the other on an inclosure.  Two rows of windows in the principal facade looked out on the gulf, and before the principal door was a terrace commanding a most extensive view.  At this moment the sun lit up the polished windows, and the plain, covered with an immense sheet of snow, shone brilliantly.  The sea with a fringe of ice close to the shore, rolled in the distance its free and azure waves, and the forests which appeared here and there in their somber verdure and mute majesty, the vast and silent space, the little village, the motion of the population of which was already visible, presented to Ireneus a picture which differed so much from all he had seen, that it filled him with wonder and surprise.

“The house,” said Ebba, “which I see has attracted your attention, is that of Eric’s father, a good and venerable old man, the whole of the life of whom has been an example of prudence and usefulness.  He does much good around him, by means of his religious exhortations and agricultural industry.  In Sweden, many of the clergy act in this double capacity.  The greater portion of the revenue of many livings consists entirely of the revenue of the lands with which they are endowed.  If the priest does not take pleasure in rural occupations, he farms out the lands, and quietly receives the rent.  They render important services to the districts amid which they live.  They are teachers of labor, and often introduce systems of agricultural improvement revealed to them by science or a new machine.

“The father of Eric is one of those farmer priests; for more than twenty years without neglecting any of his sacerdotal duties, he has cultivated a large farm attached to the presbytery.  He has given lessons in agriculture to the peasants, and enforced them by success, for no fields are more productive than his own, and no yard has seen fine cattle.  How great is his activity!