and the Lieutenant generously promised them new white frocks made by the best sempstress in East Ämtervik for the grand occasion.
The Lieutenant and the children pictured to themselves how the King, when nearing Mårbacka, would suddenly shade his eyes with his hand so as to see better.
"What is that great white building over there in the meadow?" he would ask. "Have they two churches in this parish?"
"No, your Majesty," the Lieutenant would then reply (for of course he was to ride with the King), "that white building is not a church, it is my cow-barn."
Then the King would look at him in wide-eyed wonder, and say:
"By Jove! You must be a deucedly clever fellow, Eric Gustaf, to have built yourself a barn like that!"
How they were to house the King and all his retinue in the little one-story dwelling—that was an almost unsolvable problem. The Lieutenant had often talked of building another story, and they were all agreed that when that was finished it would be an easy matter to entertain the King. Even then they probably would be a bit cramped for space. The Lieutenant and his wife might have to spend the night in the hay-loft, and the children—well, they could sleep in the rabbit hutch.
Now that about the rabbit hutch tickled the little girls immensely. And they wondered what the King
