themountain roof, so the boy could look down the mountain walls, he noticedthat they were simply filled with birds' nests; and in the blue seabeneath him, lay surf-scoters and eider-ducks and kittiwakes andguillemots and razor-bills--so pretty and peaceful--busying themselveswith fishing for small herring.
"This is really a favoured land," said the boy. "You live in a prettyplace, you sheep." "Oh, yes! it's pretty enough here," said the big ram.It was as if he wished to add something; but he did not, only sighed."If you go about here alone you must look out for the crevices which runall around the mountain," he continued after a little. And this was agood warning, for there were deep and broad crevices in several places.The largest of them was called Hell's Hole. That crevice was manyfathoms deep and nearly one fathom wide. "If anyone fell down there, itwould certainly be the last of him," said the big ram. The boy thoughtit sounded as if he had a special meaning in what he said.
Then he conducted the boy down to the narrow strip of shore. Now hecould see those giants which had frightened him the night before, atclose range. They were nothing but tall rock-pillars. The big ram calledthem "cliffs." The boy couldn't see enough of them. He thought that ifthere had ever been any trolls who had turned into stone they ought tolook just like that.
Although it was pretty down on the shore, the boy liked it still betteron the mountain height. It was ghastly down here; for everywhere theycame across dead sheep. It was here that the foxes had held theirorgies. He saw skeletons whose flesh had been eaten, and bodies thatwere half-eaten, and others which they had scarcely tasted, but hadallowed to lie untouched. It was heart-rending to see how the wildbeasts had thrown themselves upon the sheep just for sport--just tohunt them and tear them to death.
The big ram did not pause in front of the dead, but walked by them insilence. But the boy, meanwhile, could not help seeing all the horror.
Then the big ram went up on the mountain height again; but when he wasthere he stopped and said: "If someone who is capable and wise could seeall the misery which prevails here, he surely would not be able to restuntil these foxes had been punished." "The foxes must live, too," saidthe boy. "Yes," said the big ram, "those who do not tear in pieces moreanimals than they need for their sustenance, they may as well live. Butthese are felons." "The peasants who own the island ought to come hereand help you," insisted the boy. "They have rowed over a number oftimes," replied the ram, "but the foxes always hid themselves in thegrottoes and crevices, so they could not get near them, to shoot them.""You surely cannot mean, father, that a poor little creature like meshould be able to get at them, when neither you nor the peasants havesucceeded in getting the better of them." "He that is little and sprycan put many things to rights," said the big ram.
They talked no more about this, and the boy went over and seated himselfamong the wild geese who fed on the highland. Although he had not caredto show his feelings before the ram, he was very sad on the sheep'saccount, and he would have been glad to help them. "I can at least talkwith Akka and Morten goosey-gander about the matter," thought he."Perhaps they can help me with a good suggestion."
A little later the white goosey-gander took the boy on his back and wentover the mountain plain, and in the direction of Hell's Hole at that.
He wandered, care-free, on the open mountain roof--apparentlyunconscious of how large and white he was. He didn't seek protectionbehind tufts, or any other protuberances, but went straight ahead. Itwas strange that he was not more careful, for it was apparent that hehad fared badly in yesterday's storm. He limped on his right leg, andthe left wing hung and dragged as if it might be broken.
He acted as if there were no danger, pecked at a grass-blade here andanother there, and did not look about him in any direction. The boy laystretched out full length on the goose-back, and looked up toward theblue sky. He was so accustomed to riding now, that he could both standand lie down on the goose-back.
When the goosey-gander and the boy were so care-free, they did notobserve, of course, that the three foxes had come up on the mountainplain.
And the foxes, who knew that it was well-nigh impossible to take thelife of a goose on an open plain, thought at first that they wouldn'tchase after the goosey-gander. But as they had nothing else to do, theyfinally sneaked down on one of the long passes, and tried to steal up tohim. They went about it so cautiously that the goosey-gander couldn'tsee a shadow of them.
They were not far off when the goosey-gander made an attempt to raisehimself into the air. He spread his wings, but he did not succeed inlifting himself. When the foxes seemed to grasp the fact that hecouldn't fly, they hurried forward with greater eagerness than before.They no longer concealed themselves in the cleft, but came up on thehighland. They hurried as fast as they could, behind tufts and hollows,and came nearer and nearer the goosey-gander--without his seeming tonotice that he was being hunted. At last the foxes were so near thatthey could make the final leap. Simultaneously, all three threwthemselves with one long jump at the goosey-gander.
But still at the last moment he must have noticed something, for he ranout of the way, so the foxes missed him. This, at any rate, didn't meanvery much, for the goosey-gander only had a couple of metres headway,and, in the bargain, he limped. Anyway, the poor thing ran ahead as fastas he could.
The boy sat upon the goose-back--backward--and shrieked and called tothe foxes. "You have eaten yourselves too fat on mutton, foxes. Youcan't catch up with a goose even." He teased them so that they becamecrazed with rage and thought only of rushing forward.
The white one ran right straight to the big cleft. When he was there, hemade one stroke with his wings, and got over. Just then the foxes werealmost upon him.
The goosey-gander hurried on with the same haste as before, even afterhe had gotten across Hell's Hole. But he had hardly been running twometres before the boy patted him on the neck, and said: "Now you canstop, goosey-gander."
At that instant they heard a number of wild howls behind them, and ascraping of claws, and heavy falls. But of the foxes they saw nothingmore.
The next morning the lighthouse keeper on Great Karl's Island found abit of bark poked under the entrance-door, and on it had been cut, inslanting, angular letters: "The foxes on the little island have fallendown into Hell's Hole. Take care of them!"
And this the lighthouse keeper did, too.
TWO CITIES
THE CITY AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA
_Saturday, April ninth_.
It was a calm and clear night. The wild geese did not trouble themselvesto seek shelter in any of the grottoes, but stood and slept upon themountain top; and the boy had lain down in the short, dry grass besidethe geese.
It was bright moonlight that night; so bright that it was difficult forthe boy to go to sleep. He lay there and thought about just how long hehad been away from home; and he figured out that it was three weekssince he had started on the trip. At the same time he remembered thatthis was Easter-eve.
"It is to-night that all the witches come home from Blakulla," thoughthe, and laughed to himself. For he was just a little afraid of both thesea-nymph and the elf, but he didn't believe in witches the least littlebit.
If there had been any witches out that night, he should have seen them,to be sure. It was so light in the heavens that not the tiniest blackspeck could move in the air without his seeing it.
While the boy lay there with his nose in the air and thought about this,his eye rested on something lovely! The moon's disc was whole and round,and rather high, and over it a big bird came flying. He did not fly pastthe moon, but he moved just as though he might have flown out from it.The bird looked black against the light background, and the wingsextended from one rim of the disc to the other. He flew on, evenly, inthe same direction, and the boy thought that he was painted on themoon's disc. The body was small, the neck long and slender, the legshung down, long and thin. It couldn't be anything but a stork.
A couple of seconds later Herr Ermenrich, the stork, lit beside the boy.He bent down and pok
ed him with his bill to awaken him.
Instantly the boy sat up. "I'm not asleep, Herr Ermenrich," he said."How does it happen that you are out in the middle of the night, and howis everything at Glimminge castle? Do you want to speak with motherAkka?"
"It's too light to sleep to-night," answered Herr Ermenrich. "ThereforeI concluded to travel over here to Karl's Island and hunt you up, friendThumbietot. I learned from the seamew that you were spending the nighthere. I have not as yet moved over to Glimminge castle, but am stillliving at Pommern."
The boy was simply overjoyed to think that Herr Ermenrich had sought himout. They chatted about all sorts of things, like old friends. At lastthe stork asked the boy if he wouldn't like to go out riding for a
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