hollow was nothing but a gravel-pit, butthe crows could not be satisfied with such a simple explanation; theyflew down in it continually, and turned every single sand-grain to getat the reason why human beings had digged it. While the crows werepottering around down there, a mass of gravel fell from one side. Theyrushed up to it, and had the good fortune to find amongst the fallenstones and stubble--a large earthen crock, which was locked with awooden clasp! Naturally they wanted to know if there was anything in it,and they tried both to peck holes in the crock, and to bend up theclasp, but they had no success.
They stood perfectly helpless and examined the crock, when they heardsomeone say: "Shall I come down and assist you crows?" They glanced upquickly. On the edge of the hollow sat a fox and blinked down at them.He was one of the prettiest foxes--both in colour and form--that theyhad ever seen. The only fault with him was that he had lost an ear.
"If you desire to do us a service," said Wind-Rush, "we shall not saynay." At the same time, both he and the others flew up from the hollow.Then the fox jumped down in their place, bit at the jar, and pulled atthe lock--but he couldn't open it either.
"Can you make out what there is in it?" said Wind-Rush. The fox rolledthe jar back and forth, and listened attentively. "It must be silvermoney," said he.
This was more than the crows had expected. "Do you think it can besilver?" said they, and their eyes were ready to pop out of their headswith greed; for remarkable as it may sound, there is nothing in theworld which crows love as much as silver money.
"Hear how it rattles!" said the fox and rolled the crock around oncemore. "Only I can't understand how we shall get at it." "That willsurely be impossible," said the crows. The fox stood and rubbed his headagainst his left leg, and pondered. Now perhaps he might succeed, withthe help of the crows, in becoming master of that little imp who alwayseluded him. "Oh! I know someone who could open the crock for you," saidthe fox. "Then tell us! Tell us!" cried the crows; and they were soexcited that they tumbled down into the pit. "That I will do, if you'llfirst promise me that you will agree to my terms," said he.
Then the fox told the crows about Thumbietot, and said that if theycould bring him to the heath he would open the crock for them. But inpayment for this counsel, he demanded that they should deliverThumbietot to him, as soon as he had gotten the silver money for them.The crows had no reason to spare Thumbietot, so agreed to the compact atonce. It was easy enough to agree to this; but it was harder to find outwhere Thumbietot and the wild geese were stopping.
Wind-Rush himself travelled away with fifty crows, and said that heshould soon return. But one day after another passed without the crowson crow-ridge seeing a shadow of him.
KIDNAPPED BY CROWS
_Wednesday, April thirteenth_.
The wild geese were up at daybreak, so they should have time to getthemselves a bite of food before starting out on the journey towardOestergoetland. The island in Goosefiord, where they had slept, was smalland barren, but in the water all around it were growths which they couldeat their fill upon. It was worse for the boy, however. He couldn'tmanage to find anything eatable.
As he stood there hungry and drowsy, and looked around in alldirections, his glance fell upon a pair of squirrels, who played uponthe wooded point, directly opposite the rock island. He wondered if thesquirrels still had any of their winter supplies left, and asked thewhite goosey-gander to take him over to the point, that he might begthem for a couple of hazelnuts.
Instantly the white one swam across the sound with him; but as luckwould have it the squirrels had so much fun chasing each other from treeto tree, that they didn't bother about listening to the boy. They drewfarther into the grove. He hurried after them, and was soon out of thegoosey-gander's sight--who stayed behind and waited on the shore.
The boy waded forward between some white anemone-stems--which were sohigh they reached to his chin--when he felt that someone caught hold ofhim from behind, and tried to lift him up. He turned round and saw thata crow had grabbed him by the shirt-band. He tried to break loose, butbefore this was possible, another crow ran up, gripped him by thestocking, and knocked him over.
If Nils Holgersson had immediately cried for help, the whitegoosey-gander certainly would have been able to save him; but the boyprobably thought that he could protect himself, unaided, against acouple of crows. He kicked and struck out, but the crows didn't let gotheir hold, and they soon succeeded in raising themselves into the airwith him. To make matters worse, they flew so recklessly that his headstruck against a branch. He received a hard knock over the head, it grewblack before his eyes, and he lost consciousness.
When he opened his eyes once more, he found himself high above theground. He regained his senses slowly; at first he knew neither where hewas, nor what he saw. When he glanced down, he saw that under him wasspread a tremendously big woolly carpet, which was woven in greens andreds, and in large irregular patterns. The carpet was very thick andfine, but he thought it was a pity that it had been so badly used. Itwas actually ragged; long tears ran through it; in some places largepieces were torn away. And the strangest of all was that it appeared tobe spread over a mirror floor; for under the holes and tears in thecarpet shone bright and glittering glass.
The next thing the boy observed was that the sun unrolled itself in theheavens. Instantly, the mirror-glass under the holes and tears in thecarpet began to shimmer in red and gold. It looked very gorgeous, andthe boy was delighted with the pretty colour-scheme, although he didn'texactly understand what it was that he saw. But now the crows descended,and he saw at once that the big carpet under him was the earth, whichwas dressed in green and brown cone-trees and naked leaf-trees, and thatthe holes and tears were shining fiords and little lakes.
He remembered that the first time he had travelled up in the air, hehad thought that the earth in Skane looked like a piece of checkedcloth. But this country which resembled a torn carpet--what might thisbe?
He began to ask himself a lot of questions. Why wasn't he sitting on thegoosey-gander's back? Why did a great swarm of crows fly around him? Andwhy was he being pulled and knocked hither and thither so that he wasabout to break to pieces?
Then, all at once, the whole thing dawned on him. He had been kidnappedby a couple of crows. The white goosey-gander was still on the shore,waiting, and to-day the wild geese were going to travel to Oestergoetland.He was being carried southwest; this he understood because the sun'sdisc was behind him. The big forest-carpet which lay beneath him wassurely Smaland.
"What will become of the goosey-gander now, when I cannot look afterhim?" thought the boy, and began to call to the crows to take him backto the wild geese instantly. He wasn't at all uneasy on his own account.He believed that they were carrying him off simply in a spirit ofmischief.
The crows didn't pay the slightest attention to his exhortations, butflew on as fast as they could. After a bit, one of them flapped hiswings in a manner which meant: "Look out! Danger!" Soon thereafter theycame down in a spruce forest, pushed their way between prickly branchesto the ground, and put the boy down under a thick spruce, where he wasso well concealed that not even a falcon could have sighted him.
Fifty crows surrounded him, with bills pointed toward him to guard him."Now perhaps I may hear, crows, what your purpose is in carrying meoff", said he. But he was hardly permitted to finish the sentence beforea big crow hissed at him: "Keep still! or I'll bore your eyes out."
It was evident that the crow meant what she said; and there was nothingfor the boy to do but obey. So he sat there and stared at the crows, andthe crows stared at him.
The longer he looked at them, the less he liked them. It was dreadfulhow dusty and unkempt their feather dresses were--as though they knewneither baths nor oiling. Their toes and claws were grimy with dried-inmud, and the corners of their mouths were covered with food drippings.These were very different birds from the wild geese--that he observed.He thought they had a cruel, sneaky, watchful and bold appearance, justlike cut-throats and vagabon
ds.
"It is certainly a real robber-band that I've fallen in with," thoughthe.
Just then he heard the wild geese's call above him. "Where are you? Heream I. Where are you? Here am I."
He understood that Akka and the others had gone out to search for him;but before he could answer them the big crow who appeared to be theleader of the band hissed in his ear: "Think of your eyes!" And therewas nothing else for him to do but to keep still.
The wild geese may not have known that he was so near them, but had justhappened, incidentally, to travel over this forest. He heard their calla couple of times more, then it died away. "Well, now you'll have to getalong by yourself, Nils Holgersson," he said to himself. "Now you mustprove whether you have learned anything during these weeks in the
Nils Holgerssons underbara resa. English Page 33