Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE MADNESS OF THE MELDERS; OR, HOW COEN FIEST GEEW. LOF ANKER was burgomaster of Fahlun, PS called the miner’s capital, and said also to -BJfjS- be the oldest-fashioned town in Sweden. Moreover he was the best blacksmith in his province and the raciest story-teller, not in the sense which that term obtains in England, for Alof’s word was reckoned as good as most people’s oath; but nobody in Dalecarlia had such a store of tales, or was so ready to tell them. In his time great discontent arose throughout the Norland provinces, because their French king Bcrnadotte would set up schools in all the villages, and required people to send their children, which the steady old peasants regarded as an innovation calculated to undermine the ancient manners and morals of the North. The general dissatisfactionreached its height among the timber houses and thatched roofs of Fahlun. The copper miners, who formed the great body of its citizens, did nothing for three summer days but smoke togc ther on the mischief that threatened their family circles; the women wished them all at work again, for the consumption of barley bread and hot beer was something beyond their experience; and the wives of the two innkeepers got scarlet petticoats and silver-laced caps out of the profits which corn brandy brought on that occasion. Nobody approved of the schools but Holsteier, the German trader, and Hamerfast, the Lap; some thought they might not do the province so much harm, and all were anxious to know the opinion of the burgomaster. Alof Anker said nothing for some time; he had a particular wagon wheel to shoe for a Norland baron, so he heated his iron and wielded his hammer as if there had been nothing wrong in all Sweden till the work was done, and the wheel ready for running; then he took off …
