WEXIO 31 



one of his wife's relatives Professor Lars Johansson 

 Humerus, a cousin of the Brodersons, and also con- 

 nected with the Tilianders. The rector introduced his 

 pretty boy, who evidently made a favourable impression 

 upon the professor, for he counselled his father to send 

 Carl to complete his education at Lund University, 

 where he promised to be kind to him. The travellers 

 then proceeded on their way to Wexio. 



Their road skirted the lake, and, though still wooded 

 and rocky, the scenery was less wild and unconquered 

 by man than their own Stenbrohult, and the climate 

 even milder than at Liatorp, the most fertile part of 

 their own parish. Here the gooseberries were setting 

 for fruit ; at home they were still in blossom. 



' All nature is alive, and seems to be gathering all 

 her entomological hosts to eat you up,' says Sydney 

 Smith of the wildernesses of Brazil. In Sweden, 

 awakened nature at the close of May is arraying her 

 entomological hosts for work or warfare. Still wood 

 and rock ; though some of the larger masses of stone 

 here are not boulders, but the living rock, showing 

 traces of glacier action in its rounded smoothness. 

 These rock walls are stained red with microscopic 

 lichen, against which the hoary stems of pine and fir, 

 all powdered or dusty with their parasitic moss, and the 

 coarser ragged lichen hanging about the low wiry twigs 

 of the firs, look ruder and rougher than ever. The 

 principal crop grown hereabout is telegraph posts. 



This place is called Gemla ; though why it bears a 



