Erik undertook to arrange with Mr. Hersebom and Dame Katrina that they should leave Vanda behind them, with the express condition that he would bring her himself every year to see them.  He had tried to keep all his adopted family with him, even offering to transport from Noroe the house with all its furniture where he had passed his infancy.  But this project of emigration was generally regarded as impracticable.  Mr. Hersebom and Katrina were too old to change their habits.  They would not have been perfectly happy in a country of whose language and habits they were ignorant.  He was obliged, therefore, to permit them to depart, but not before making such provision for them as would enable them to spend the remainder of their days in ease and comfort, which, notwithstanding their honest, laborious lives, they had been unable to accomplish.

Erik would have liked to have kept Otto at least, but he preferred his fiord, and thought that there was no life preferable to that of a fisherman.  It must also be confessed that the golden-haired and blue-eyed daughter of the overseer of the oil-works had something to do with the attractions which Noroe had for him.  At least we must conclude so, since it was soon made known that he expected to marry her at the next “Yule,” or Christmas.

Mr. Malarius counted upon educating their children as he had educated Erik and Vanda.  He modestly resumed his position in the village school, after sharing in the honor of the decorations bestowed by the Geographical Society of France upon the captain of the “Alaska.”  He was also busily occupied in correcting the proofs of his magnificent work on the “Flora of the Arctic Regions.”  As for Dr. Schwaryencrona, he has not quite finished his “Treatise on Iconography,” which will transmit his name to posterity.

The latest legal business of Mr. Bredejord has been to establish Erik’s claim as sole proprietor of the Vandalia mine.  He gained his case in the first instance, and also on appeal, which was no small success.

Erik took advantage of this, and of the enormous fortune thus accruing to him, to purchase the “Alaska,” which he converted into a pleasure yacht.  He uses it every year to go to Noroe in company with Mme. Durrien and Vanda, to visit his adopted family.  Although his civil rights have been accorded to him, and his legal name is Emile Durrien, he has added that of Hersebom, and among his relatives he is still called only Erik.

The secret desire of his mother is to see him some day married to Vanda, whom she already loves as a daughter, and, as Erik evidently shares this desire, we may suppose that it will be realized one of these days.

Kajsa still remains single, with the knowledge that she has lost her opportunity.

Dr. Schwaryencrona, Mr. Bredejord, and Professor Hochstedt still play innumerable games of whist.

One evening the doctor, having played worse than usual, Mr. Bredejord, as he tapped his snuff-box, had the pleasure of recalling to his mind a circumstance which had too long been forgotten.