He thought of his brother Nils. He thought of the great sorrow that this was going to cause Nils. Then he thought of the Baron, who was a gnome and a weakling and must never be master of Hanssonborg.
"You will surely refuse him!" he repeated.
Greta smiled with a sad little twist of her mouth.
"Perhaps I cannot, little Erik," she replied.
As they continued on their way, she explained to Erik why she might be obliged to accept the Baron's offer of marriage. She explained to him that her mother was threatened with the loss of Hanssonborg.
"And we could never bear to give up our home," she finished simply.
Erik could well understand this. "Home," like many other words, came to the English language from the Swedish. The Swedes build homes, and not just houses. Their dwellings are not mere objects of brick and wood, but are living parts of themselves.
Perhaps this is because so much time must be spent indoors when the long winter months are mostly made of night.
No, Greta and her mother could never give up Hanssonborg. Yet, on the other hand, Greta must never be forced to marry the Baron. Something must be done.
Erik's head was in a whirl. That day at school he declared that six times nine was seventy. He answered his German teacher in French, his English teacher in German, and his French teacher in Swedish.
At bathing time, when the pupils had to scrub one another from head to foot, he poured a tub of water over his chum's head and nearly drowned the lad. Then he got soap in his own eyes and howled with pain.
There can be no nonsense about education in Sweden. Boys and girls are supposed to work seriously in school, and the result is that everyone in the country knows how to read and write.
So Erik was punished. He was given so much written homework that he decided to be careful of his behavior in the future.
The Baron left Hanssonborg at last. But Greta told Erik that he was coming back again. He would return in the spring, when he hoped that Greta would announce their engagement.
Usually the spring was awaited with eagerness. It marks the end of dark, bleak, wintry days. But Erik did not look forward to this particular spring. He almost dreaded it. For he could not forget that with the flowers and bird songs would also come the Baron.