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9 Story of an Emigrant.
But there were also other ennobling influences which
surrounded and emanated from our home, and I recollect most
vividly those connccted with nature. The house was
surrounded by a large beautiful garden, with choice flowers and
fruit, fine grass plats and luxurient trees, the branches of
which were alive with singing birds, the most noted amon^r
these being the nightingale, which every summer filled the
garden with sweet melody.
Of the incidents of my childhood I will mention a few,
which have left the most vivid impression on my mind:
Once niy parents took me along to see the king, who was
to pass by on the highway a short distance from our home.
The people from the country around had congregated by
thousands to see his majesty. Most of them, however, did
not get a chance to see anything but a large number of
carriages each of which was drawn by four or six horses, and
postillions and servants in splendid liveries. In the midst
of this confusion I, however, succeeded in catching a glimpse
of King Oscar I, as he passed by. In my childish mind I had
fancied that the king and his family and all others, in
authority were the peculiar and elect people of the Almighty, but
after this event which produced a very decided impression on
me, I began to entertain serious doubts as to the correctness
of my views on this matter.
At another time I went with my mother to the city of
Kristianstad to hear the Rev. Doctor P. Fjellstedt, who had
just returned from a missionary tour in India. I can never
forget how eloquently he described the Hindoos, and the
Brahmin idolatry, all of which aroused in me an eager
longing to visit the wonderful country and learn to know its
peculiar people. But little did I then dream that I was to
go there thirty-six years later as the representative of the
greatest country of the world.
At one time I went in companv with mv mother to the
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