little window that the glass was broken. He poked in the thing whichhe held in his hand to the lady squirrel. Then he slid down again, andtook up that which he had laid upon the ground, and climbed up to thecage with that also. The next instant he ran off again with such hastethat the old woman could hardly follow him with her eyes.
But now it was the old grandma who could no longer sit still in thecottage; but who, very slowly, went out to the back yard and stationedherself in the shadow of the pump to await the elf's return. And therewas one other who had also seen him and had become curious. This was thehouse cat. He crept along slyly and stopped close to the wall, just twosteps away from the stream of light. They both stood and waited, longand patiently, on that chilly March night, and the old woman was justbeginning to think about going in again, when she heard a clatter on thepavement, and saw that the little mite of an elf came trotting alongonce more, carrying a burden in each hand, as he had done before. Thatwhich he bore squealed and squirmed. And now a light dawned on the oldgrandma. She understood that the elf had hurried down to the hazel-groveand brought back the lady squirrel's babies; and that he was carryingthem to her so they shouldn't starve to death.
The old grandma stood very still, so as not to disturb them; and it didnot look as if the elf had noticed her. He was just going to lay one ofthe babies on the ground so that he could swing himself up to the cagewith the other one--when he saw the house cat's green eyes glisten closebeside him. He stood there, bewildered, with a young one in each hand.
He turned around and looked in all directions; then he became aware ofthe old grandma's presence. Then he did not hesitate long; but walkedforward, stretched his arms as high as he could reach, for her to takeone of the baby squirrels.
The old grandma did not wish to prove herself unworthy of theconfidence, so she bent down and took the baby squirrel, and stood thereand held it until the boy had swung himself up to the cage with theother one. Then he came back for the one he had entrusted to her care.
The next morning, when the farm folk had gathered together forbreakfast, it was impossible for the old woman to refrain from tellingthem of what she had seen the night before. They all laughed at her, ofcourse, and said that she had been only dreaming. There were no babysquirrels this early in the year.
But she was sure of her ground, and begged them to take a look into thesquirrel cage and this they did. And there lay on the bed of leaves,four tiny half-naked, half blind baby squirrels, who were at least acouple of days old.
When the farmer himself saw the young ones, he said: "Be it as it maywith this; but one thing is certain, we, on this farm, have behaved insuch a manner that we are shamed before both animals and human beings."And, thereupon, he took the mother squirrel and all her young ones fromthe cage, and laid them in the old grandma's lap. "Go thou out to thehazel-grove with them," said he, "and let them have their freedom backagain!"
It was this event that was so much talked about, and which even got intothe newspapers, but which the majority would not credit because theywere not able to explain how anything like that could have happened.
VITTSKOeVLE
_Saturday, March twenty-sixth_.
Two days later, another strange thing happened. A flock of wild geesecame flying one morning, and lit on a meadow down in Eastern Skane notvery far from Vittskoevle manor. In the flock were thirteen wild geese,of the usual gray variety, and one white goosey-gander, who carried onhis back a tiny lad dressed in yellow leather breeches, green vest, anda white woollen toboggan hood.
They were now very near the Eastern sea; and on the meadow where thegeese had alighted the soil was sandy, as it usually is on thesea-coast. It looked as if, formerly, there had been flying sand in thisvicinity which had to be held down; for in several directions large,planted pine-woods could be seen.
When the wild geese had been feeding a while, several children camealong, and walked on the edge of the meadow. The goose who was on guardat once raised herself into the air with noisy wing-strokes, so thewhole flock should hear that there was danger on foot. All the wildgeese flew upward; but the white one trotted along on the groundunconcerned. When he saw the others fly he raised his head and calledafter them: "You needn't fly away from these! They are only a couple ofchildren!"
The little creature who had been riding on his back, sat down upon aknoll on the outskirts of the wood and picked a pine-cone in pieces,that he might get at the seeds. The children were so close to him thathe did not dare to run across the meadow to the white one. He concealedhimself under a big, dry thistle-leaf, and at the same time gave awarning-cry. But the white one had evidently made up his mind not to lethimself be scared. He walked along on the ground all the while; and notonce did he look to see in what direction they were going.
Meanwhile, they turned from the path, walked across the field, gettingnearer and nearer to the goosey-gander. When he finally did look up,they were right upon him. He was so dumfounded, and became so confused,he forgot that he could fly, and tried to get out of their reach byrunning. But the children followed, chasing him into a ditch, and therethey caught him. The larger of the two stuck him under his arm andcarried him off.
When the boy, who lay under the thistle-leaf saw this, he sprang up asif he wanted to take the goosey-gander away from them; then he must haveremembered how little and powerless he was, for he threw himself on theknoll and beat upon the ground with his clenched fists.
The goosey-gander cried with all his might for help: "Thumbietot, comeand help me! Oh, Thumbietot, come and help me!" The boy began to laughin the midst of his distress. "Oh, yes! I'm just the right one to helpanybody, I am!" said he.
Anyway he got up and followed the goosey-gander. "I can't help him,"said he, "but I shall at least find out where they are taking him."
The children had a good start; but the boy had no difficulty in keepingthem within sight until they came to a hollow where a brook gushedforth. But here he was obliged to run alongside of it for some littletime, before he could find a place narrow enough for him to jump over.
When he came up from the hollow the children had disappeared. He couldsee their footprints on a narrow path which led to the woods, and thesehe continued to follow.
Soon he came to a cross-road. Here the children must have separated, forthere were footprints in two directions. The boy looked now as if allhope had fled. Then he saw a little white down on a heather-knoll, andhe understood that the goosey-gander had dropped this by the wayside tolet him know in which direction he had been carried; and therefore hecontinued his search. He followed the children through the entire wood.The goosey-gander he did not see; but wherever he was likely to miss hisway, lay a little white down to put him right.
The boy continued faithfully to follow the bits of down. They led himout of the wood, across a couple of meadows, up on a road, and finallythrough the entrance of a broad _allee_. At the end of the _allee_ therewere gables and towers of red tiling, decorated with bright borders andother ornamentations that glittered and shone. When the boy saw thatthis was some great manor, he thought he knew what had become of thegoosey-gander. "No doubt the children have carried the goosey-gander tothe manor and sold him there. By this time he's probably butchered," hesaid to himself. But he did not seem to be satisfied with anything lessthan proof positive, and with renewed courage he ran forward. He met noone in the _allee_--and that was well, for such as he are generallyafraid of being seen by human beings.
The mansion which he came to was a splendid, old-time structure withfour great wings which inclosed a courtyard. On the east wing, there wasa high arch leading into the courtyard. This far the boy ran withouthesitation, but when he got there he stopped. He dared not venturefarther, but stood still and pondered what he should do now.
There he stood, with his finger on his nose, thinking, when he heardfootsteps behind him; and as he turned around he saw a whole companymarch up the _allee_. In haste he stole behind a water-barrel whichstood near the arch, and hid himself.
Those
who came up were some twenty young men from a folk-high-school,out on a walking tour. They were accompanied by one of the instructors.When they were come as far as the arch, the teacher requested them towait there a moment, while he went in and asked if they might see theold castle of Vittskoevle.
The newcomers were warm and tired; as if they had been on a long tramp.One of them was so thirsty that he went over to the water-barrel andstooped down to drink. He had a tin box such as botanists use hangingabout his neck. He evidently thought that this was in his way, for hethrew it down on the ground. With this, the lid flew open, and one couldsee that there were a few spring flowers in it.
The botanist's box dropped just in front of the boy; and he must havethought that here was his opportunity to get into the castle and findout what had become of the goosey-gander. He smuggled himself quicklyinto the box and concealed himself as well as he could under theanemones
Nils Holgerssons underbara resa. English Page 9