Nils Holgerssons underbara resa. English

by Selma Lagerlöf

filled the eyes of allthese regal merchants, who were so much richer than he. At last he wasmoved because they looked so distressed, and he pondered if he could notin some way help them. And then he happened to think of the rusty coin,which he had but lately seen on the strand.

  He started to run down the street, and luck was with him so that he cameto the self-same gate which he had happened upon first. He dashedthrough it, and commenced to search for the little green copper pennywhich lay on the strand a while ago.

  He found it too, very promptly; but when he had picked it up, and wantedto run back to the city with it--he saw only the sea before him. No citywall, no gate, no sentinels, no streets, no houses could now beseen--only the sea.

  The boy couldn't help that the tears came to his eyes. He had believedin the beginning, that that which he saw was nothing but anhallucination, but this he had already forgotten. He only thought abouthow pretty everything was. He felt a genuine, deep sorrow because thecity had vanished.

  That moment Herr Ermenrich awoke, and came up to him. But he didn't hearhim, and the stork had to poke the boy with his bill to attractattention to himself. "I believe that you stand here and sleep just as Ido," said Herr Ermenrich.

  "Oh, Herr Ermenrich!" said the boy. "What was that city which stoodhere just now?"

  "Have you seen a city?" said the stork. "You have slept and dreamt, as Isay."

  "No! I have not dreamt," said Thumbietot, and he told the stork all thathe had experienced.

  Then Herr Ermenrich said: "For my part, Thumbietot, I believe that youfell asleep here on the strand and dreamed all this.

  "But I will not conceal from you that Bataki, the raven, who is the mostlearned of all birds, once told me that in former times there was a cityon this shore, called Vineta. It was so rich and so fortunate, that nocity has ever been more glorious; but its inhabitants, unluckily, gavethemselves up to arrogance and love of display. As a punishment forthis, says Bataki, the city of Vineta was overtaken by a flood, and sankinto the sea. But its inhabitants cannot die, neither is their citydestroyed. And one night in every hundred years, it rises in all itssplendour up from the sea, and remains on the surface just one hour."

  "Yes, it must be so," said Thumbietot, "for this I have seen."

  "But when the hour is up, it sinks again into the sea, if, during thattime, no merchant in Vineta has sold anything to a single livingcreature. If you, Thumbietot, only had had an ever so tiny coin, to paythe merchants, Vineta might have remained up here on the shore; and itspeople could have lived and died like other human beings."

  "Herr Ermenrich," said the boy, "now I understand why you came andfetched me in the middle of the night. It was because you believed thatI should be able to save the old city. I am so sorry it didn't turn outas you wished, Herr Ermenrich."

  He covered his face with his hands and wept. It wasn't easy to say whichone looked the more disconsolate--the boy, or Herr Ermenrich.

  THE LIVING CITY

  _Monday, April eleventh_.

  On the afternoon of Easter Monday, the wild geese and Thumbietot were onthe wing. They travelled over Gottland.

  The large island lay smooth and even beneath them. The ground waschecked just as it was in Skane and there were many churches and farms.But there was this difference, however, that there were more leafymeadows between the fields here, and then the farms were not built upwith small houses. And there were no large manors with ancienttower-ornamented castles.

  The wild geese had taken the route over Gottland on account ofThumbietot. He had been altogether unlike himself for two days, andhadn't spoken a cheerful word. This was because he had thought ofnothing but that city which had appeared to him in such a strange way.He had never seen anything so magnificent and royal, and he could not bereconciled with himself for having failed to save it. Usually he was notchicken-hearted, but now he actually grieved for the beautiful buildingsand the stately people.

  Both Akka and the goosey-gander tried to convince Thumbietot that he hadbeen the victim of a dream, or an hallucination, but the boy wouldn'tlisten to anything of that sort. He was so positive that he had reallyseen what he had seen, that no one could move him from this conviction.He went about so disconsolate that his travelling companions becameuneasy for him.

  Just as the boy was the most depressed, old Kaksi came back to theflock. She had been blown toward Gottland, and had been compelled totravel over the whole island before she had learned through some crowsthat her comrades were on Little Karl's Island. When Kaksi found outwhat was wrong with Thumbietot, she said impulsively:

  "If Thumbietot is grieving over an old city, we'll soon be able tocomfort him. Just come along, and I'll take you to a place that I sawyesterday! You will not need to be distressed very long."

  Thereupon the geese had taken farewell of the sheep, and were on theirway to the place which Kaksi wished to show Thumbietot. As blue as hewas, he couldn't keep from looking at the land over which he travelled,as usual.

  He thought it looked as though the whole island had in the beginningbeen just such a high, steep cliff as Karl's Island--though much biggerof course. But afterward, it had in some way been flattened out. Someonehad taken a big rolling-pin and rolled over it, as if it had been a lumpof dough. Not that the island had become altogether flat and even, likea bread-cake, for it wasn't like that. While they had travelled alongthe coast, he had seen white lime walls with grottoes and crags, inseveral directions; but in most of the places they were levelled, andsank inconspicuously down toward the sea.

  In Gottland they had a pleasant and peaceful holiday afternoon. Itturned out to be mild spring weather; the trees had large buds; springblossoms dressed the ground in the leafy meadows; the poplars' long,thin pendants swayed; and in the little gardens, which one finds aroundevery cottage, the gooseberry bushes were green.

  The warmth and the spring-budding had tempted the people out into thegardens and roads, and wherever a number of them were gathered togetherthey were playing. It was not the children alone who played, but thegrown-ups also. They were throwing stones at a given point, and theythrew balls in the air with such exact aim that they almost touched thewild geese. It looked cheerful and pleasant to see big folks at play;and the boy certainly would have enjoyed it, if he had been able toforget his grief because he had failed to save the city.

  Anyway, he had to admit that this was a lovely trip. There was so muchsinging and sound in the air. Little children played ring games, andsang as they played. The Salvation Army was out. He saw a lot of peopledressed in black and red--sitting upon a wooded hill, playing on guitarsand brass instruments. On one road came a great crowd of people. Theywere Good Templars who had been on a pleasure trip. He recognized themby the big banners with the gold inscriptions which waved above them.They sang song after song as long as he could hear them.

  After that the boy could never think of Gottland without thinking of thegames and songs at the same time.

  He had been sitting and looking down for a long while; but now hehappened to raise his eyes. No one can describe his amazement. Before hewas aware of it, the wild geese had left the interior of the island andgone westward--toward the sea-coast. Now the wide, blue sea lay beforehim. However, it was not the sea that was remarkable, but a city whichappeared on the sea-shore.

  The boy came from the east, and the sun had just begun to go down in thewest. When he came nearer the city, its walls and towers and high,gabled houses and churches stood there, perfectly black, against thelight evening sky. He couldn't see therefore what it really looked like,and for a couple of moments he believed that this city was just asbeautiful as the one he had seen on Easter night.

  When he got right up to it, he saw that it was both like and unlike thatcity from the bottom of the sea. There was the same contrast betweenthem, as there is between a man whom one sees arrayed in purple andjewels one day, and on another day one sees him dressed in rags.

  Yes, this city had probably, once upon a time, been like the one whichhe sat and thoug
ht about. This one, also, was enclosed by a wall withtowers and gates. But the towers in this city, which had been allowed toremain on land, were roofless, hollow and empty. The gates were withoutdoors; sentinels and warriors had disappeared. All the glitteringsplendour was gone. There was nothing left but the naked, gray stoneskeleton.

  When the boy came farther into the city, he saw that the larger part ofit was made up of small, low houses; but here and there were still a fewhigh gabled houses and a few cathedrals, which were from the olden time.The walls of the gabled houses were whitewashed, and entirely withoutornamentation; but because the boy had so lately seen the buried city,he seemed to understand how they had been decorated: some with statues,and others with black and white marble. And it was the same with the oldcathedrals; the majority of them were roofless with bare interiors. Thewindow openings were empty, the floors were grass-grown, and