Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Visit to Sweden in 1868–1869—The Object of my Journey—Experiences and Observations During the Same—Difference Between American and Swedish Customs—My Birth-place—Arrival and Visit There—Visit to Christianstad—Visit to Stockholm—The Swedish Parliament—My Return to America—Reflections on and Impressions of the Condition of the Bureaucracy of Sweden
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ss Story of an Emigrant.
102
pulpit in the church. He did not know that we were there^
but we could see him, and hear his words during the solemn
"Otte song." On his return with his family to the sacristy
after the services, there was another surprise, and such joy
as we then experienced does not often fall to the lot of
mortal man. He told us that he had just had a dream about me
that very night, and his mind was full of anxiety about my
safety; but he had not expected to meet me so soon.
Between him and me there had been a bond of friendship and
brotherhood, even from childhood, which was now renewed,
never to be broken again.
I had a third uncle, my father’s youngest brother, who
lived in Vislof, three Swedish miles from Fjelkinge. The
second day after my arrival he sent his son asking me to come
to him immediately, as he had been waiting for me a long
time, and I went to his house the same evening. This uncle
had been stricken with paralysis two or three years before,
and been a bed-ridden invalid ever since, unable to use his
limbs, and at times even to speak. His eldest son had gone
to Minnesota the previous summer. The evening which I
spent at his bedside was a remarkable one. As soon as I
approached his bed he partly raised himself to sitting
posture and began to speak, which he had not been able to do
for a long time. His wife was sick abed in another room,
but his youngest son and two daughters were at his
bedside with myself. He saidhehadbeen wantingtodieforalong
time, but when he had heard that I was to visit Sweden he
wished to live until he could see me again. He asked me to
tell all about my father, our family and friends, and his
eldest son. Then he asked me to take his family with me to
America when he was dead. When he had no more
questions to ask or anything to communicate he sent his son for
two of the neighbors, said good-bye to all of us with the
exclamation: "Thanks for all you have related and promised!
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