WEXIO 51 



liberty of thought. It is not altogether surprising that 

 at Wexio, although he lived there ten years, they hold 

 little tradition of Linnaeus. The old gymnasium, which 

 now contains the Sm&landic museum, library, and collec- 

 tion of antiquities and coins, has since honoured itself 

 with Linne's bust, but only one person here and there 

 in Wexio knows that he studied here at all : for even 

 in his day he was only known as an eccentric young 

 fellow who wasted his time on things outside the school 

 routine, causing some surprise as to why, considering 

 his parents were poor, he was allowed to remain there 

 at all. He might have wasted his time less expensively 

 at home. He seldom shared in the schoolboys' sports ; 

 but the masters said, in more sarcastic but less witty 

 words than Dr. Johnson used of himself, he contrived 

 wonderfully well to be idle without them. 



One Christmas Carl invited his more kindly pre- 

 ceptor Gabriel Hok to come home with him on a visit 

 and tell him all about Lund University, where Hok was 

 entered as a tutor. Here Gabriel saw Anna Maria, the 

 eldest of Carl's three sisters, a pretty girl, if we may 

 judge by her portrait, taken in later life, which now 

 hangs at Hammarby. Hok, to please Anna Maria's 

 parents, spoke well, indeed proudly, of Carl ; all of 

 which promoted the enjoyment of that pleasant Christ- 

 mas holiday. Carl, it appears, did not return to Wexio, 

 but stayed some months unsettled at home. Probably 

 the parents feared to risk, or were unable to furnish funds 

 for his entrance to Lund University, until his mother's 



