Nils Holgerssons underbara resa. English

by Selma Lagerlöf

ivyclambered along the walls. But now he knew how they had looked at onetime; that they had been covered with images and paintings; that thechancel had had trimmed altars and gilded crosses, and that theirpriests had moved about, arrayed in gold vestments.

  The boy saw also the narrow streets, which were almost deserted onholiday afternoons. He knew, he did, what a stream of stately people hadonce upon a time sauntered about on them. He knew that they had beenlike large workshops--filled with all sorts of workmen.

  But that which Nils Holgersson did not see was, that the city--evento-day--was both beautiful and remarkable. He saw neither the cheerycottages on the side streets, with their black walls, and white bows andred pelargoniums behind the shining window-panes, nor the many prettygardens and avenues, nor the beauty in the weed-clad ruins. His eyeswere so filled with the preceding glory, that he could not see anythinggood in the present.

  The wild geese flew back and forth over the city a couple of times, sothat Thumbietot might see everything. Finally they sank down on thegrass-grown floor of a cathedral ruin to spend the night.

  When they had arranged themselves for sleep, Thumbietot was still awakeand looked up through the open arches, to the pale pink evening sky.When he had been sitting there a while, he thought he didn't want togrieve any more because he couldn't save the buried city.

  No, that he didn't want to do, now that he had seen this one. If thatcity, which he had seen, had not sunk into the sea again, then it wouldperhaps become as dilapidated as this one in a little while. Perhaps itcould not have withstood time and decay, but would have stood there withroofless churches and bare houses and desolate, empty streets--just likethis one. Then it was better that it should remain in all its glory downin the deep.

  "It was best that it happened as it happened," thought he. "If I had thepower to save the city, I don't believe that I should care to do it."Then he no longer grieved over that matter.

  And there are probably many among the young who think in the same way.But when people are old, and have become accustomed to being satisfiedwith little, then they are more happy over the Visby that exists, thanover a magnificent Vineta at the bottom of the sea.

  THE LEGEND OF SMALAND

  _Tuesday, April twelfth_.

  The wild geese had made a good trip over the sea, and had lighted inTjust Township, in northern Smaland. That township didn't seem able tomake up its mind whether it wanted to be land or sea. Fiords ran ineverywhere, and cut the land up into islands and peninsulas and pointsand capes. The sea was so forceful that the only things which could holdthemselves above it were hills and mountains. All the lowlands werehidden away under the water exterior.

  It was evening when the wild geese came in from the sea; and the landwith the little hills lay prettily between the shimmering fiords. Hereand there, on the islands, the boy saw cabins and cottages; and thefarther inland he came, the bigger and better became the dwellinghouses. Finally, they grew into large, white manors. Along the shoresthere was generally a border of trees; and within this lay field-plots,and on the tops of the little hills there were trees again. He could nothelp but think of Blekinge. Here again was a place where land and seamet, in such a pretty and peaceful sort of way, just as if they tried toshow each other the best and loveliest which they possessed.

  The wild geese alighted upon a limestone island a good way in onGoose-fiord. With the first glance at the shore they observed thatspring had made rapid strides while they had been away on the islands.The big, fine trees were not as yet leaf-clad, but the ground under themwas brocaded with white anemones, gagea, and blue anemones.

  When the wild geese saw the flower-carpet they feared that they hadlingered too long in the southern part of the country. Akka saidinstantly that there was no time in which to hunt up any of the stoppingplaces in Smaland. By the next morning they must travel northward, overOestergoetland.

  The boy should then see nothing of Smaland, and this grieved him. He hadheard more about Smaland than he had about any other province, and hehad longed to see it with his own eyes.

  The summer before, when he had served as goose-boy with a farmer in theneighbourhood of Jordberga, he had met a pair of Smaland children,almost every day, who also tended geese. These children had irritatedhim terribly with their Smaland.

  It wasn't fair to say that Osa, the goose-girl, had annoyed him. She wasmuch too wise for that. But the one who could be aggravating with avengeance was her brother, little Mats.

  "Have you heard, Nils Goose-boy, how it went when Smaland and Skane werecreated?" he would ask, and if Nils Holgersson said no, he beganimmediately to relate the old joke-legend.

  "Well, it was at that time when our Lord was creating the world. Whilehe was doing his best work, Saint Peter came walking by. He stopped andlooked on, and then he asked if it was hard to do. 'Well, it isn'texactly easy,' said our Lord. Saint Peter stood there a little longer,and when he noticed how easy it was to lay out one landscape afteranother, he too wanted to try his hand at it. 'Perhaps you need to restyourself a little,' said Saint Peter, 'I could attend to the work inthe meantime for you.' But this our Lord did not wish. 'I do not know ifyou are so much at home in this art that I can trust you to take holdwhere I leave off,' he answered. Then Saint Peter was angry, and saidthat he believed he could create just as fine countries as our Lordhimself.

  "It happened that our Lord was just then creating Smaland. It wasn'teven half-ready but it looked as though it would be an indescribablypretty and fertile land. It was difficult for our Lord to say no toSaint Peter, and aside from this, he thought very likely that a thing sowell begun no one could spoil. Therefore he said: If you like, we willprove which one of us two understands this sort of work the better. You,who are only a novice, shall go on with this which I have begun, and Iwill create a new land.' To this Saint Peter agreed at once; and so theywent to work--each one in his place.

  "Our Lord moved southward a bit, and there he undertook to create Skane.It wasn't long before he was through with it, and soon he asked if SaintPeter had finished, and would come and look at his work. 'I had mineready long ago,' said Saint Peter; and from the sound of his voice itcould be heard how pleased he was with what he had accomplished.

  "When Saint Peter saw Skane, he had to acknowledge that there wasnothing but good to be said of that land. It was a fertile land and easyto cultivate, with wide plains wherever one looked, and hardly a sign ofhills. It was evident that our Lord had really contemplated making itsuch that people should feel at home there. 'Yes, this is a goodcountry,' said Saint Peter, 'but I think that mine is better.' 'Thenwe'll take a look at it,' said our Lord.

  "The land was already finished in the north and east when Saint Peterbegan the work, but the southern and western parts; and the wholeinterior, he had created all by himself. Now when our Lord came upthere, where Saint Peter had been at work, he was so horrified that hestopped short and exclaimed: 'What on earth have you been doing withthis land, Saint Peter?'

  "Saint Peter, too, stood and looked around--perfectly astonished. Hehad had the idea that nothing could be so good for a land as a greatdeal of warmth. Therefore he had gathered together an enormous mass ofstones and mountains, and erected a highland, and this he had done sothat it should be near the sun, and receive much help from the sun'sheat. Over the stone-heaps he had spread a thin layer of soil, and thenhe had thought that everything was well arranged.

  "But while he was down in Skane, a couple of heavy showers had come up,and more was not needed to show what his work amounted to. When ourLord came to inspect the land, all the soil had been washed away, andthe naked mountain foundation shone forth all over. Where it was aboutthe best, lay clay and heavy gravel over the rocks, but it looked sopoor that it was easy to understand that hardly anything except spruceand juniper and moss and heather could grow there. But what there wasplenty of was water. It had filled up all the clefts in the mountain;and lakes and rivers and brooks; these one saw everywhere, to saynothing of swamps and morasses, which spread over l
arge tracts. And themost exasperating thing of all was, that while some tracts had too muchwater, it was so scarce in others, that whole fields lay like dry moors,where sand and earth whirled up in clouds with the least little breeze.

  "'What can have been your meaning in creating such a land as this?' saidour Lord. Saint Peter made excuses, and declared he had wished to buildup a land so high that it should have plenty of warmth from the sun.'But then you will also get much of the night chill,' said our Lord,'for that too comes from heaven. I am very much afraid the little thatcan grow here will freeze.'

  "This, to be sure, Saint Peter hadn't thought about.

  "'Yes, here it will be a poor and frost-bound land,' said our Lord, 'itcan't be helped.'"

  When little Mats had gotten this far in