should prefer to have the pleasure of eating you; butin whichever way death meets you it will be dear to me."
The boy could not think but what the fox was right, for the fire wasmaking rapid headway. The whole bed was now in a blaze, and smoke rosefrom the floor; and along the painted wall-strips the fire crept fromrider to rider. The boy jumped up in the fireplace, and tried to openthe oven door, when he heard a key which turned around slowly in thelock. It must be human beings coming. And in the dire extremity in whichhe found himself, he was not afraid, but only glad. He was already onthe threshold when the door opened. He saw a couple of children facinghim; but how they looked when they saw the cabin in flames, he took notime to find out; but rushed past them into the open.
He didn't dare run far. He knew, of course, that Smirre Fox lay in waitfor him, and he understood that he must remain near the children. Heturned round to see what sort of folk they were, but he hadn't looked atthem a second before he ran up to them and cried: "Oh, good-day, Osagoose-girl! Oh, good-day, little Mats!"
For when the boy saw those children he forgot entirely where he was.Crows and burning cabin and talking animals had vanished from hismemory. He was walking on a stubble-field, in West Vemminghoeg, tending agoose-flock; and beside him, on the field, walked those same Smalandchildren, with their geese. As soon as he saw them, he ran up on thestone-hedge and shouted: "Oh, good-day, Osa goose-girl! Oh, good-day,little Mats!"
But when the children saw such a little creature coming up to them withoutstretched hands, they grabbed hold of each other, took a couple ofsteps backward, and looked scared to death.
When the boy noticed their terror he woke up and remembered who he was.And then it seemed to him that nothing worse could happen to him thanthat those children should see how he had been bewitched. Shame andgrief because he was no longer a human being overpowered him. He turnedand fled. He knew not whither.
But a glad meeting awaited the boy when he came down to the heath. Forthere, in the heather, he spied something white, and toward him came thewhite goosey-gander, accompanied by Dunfin. When the white one saw theboy running with such speed, he thought that dreadful fiends werepursuing him. He flung him in all haste upon his back and flew off withhim.
THE OLD PEASANT WOMAN
_Thursday, April fourteenth_.
Three tired wanderers were out in the late evening in search of a nightharbour. They travelled over a poor and desolate portion of northernSmaland. But the sort of resting place which they wanted, they shouldhave been able to find; for they were no weaklings who asked for softbeds or comfortable rooms. "If one of these long mountain-ridges had apeak so high and steep that a fox couldn't in any way climb up to it,then we should have a good sleeping-place," said one of them. "If asingle one of the big swamps was thawed out, and was so marshy and wetthat a fox wouldn't dare venture out on it, this, too, would be a rightgood night harbour," said the second. "If the ice on one of the largelakes we travel past were loose, so that a fox could not come out onit, then we should have found just what we are seeking," said the third.
The worst of it was that when the sun had gone down, two of thetravellers became so sleepy that every second they were ready to fall tothe ground. The third one, who could keep himself awake, grew more andmore uneasy as night approached. "Then it was a misfortune that we cameto a land where lakes and swamps are frozen, so that a fox can getaround everywhere. In other places the ice has melted away; but nowwe're well up in the very coldest Smaland, where spring has not as yetarrived. I don't know how I shall ever manage to find a goodsleeping-place! Unless I find some spot that is well protected, SmirreFox will be upon us before morning."
He gazed in all directions, but he saw no shelter where he could lodge.It was a dark and chilly night, with wind and drizzle. It grew moreterrible and disagreeable around him every second.
This may sound strange, perhaps, but the travellers didn't seem to havethe least desire to ask for house-room on any farm. They had alreadypassed many parishes without knocking at a single door. Little hillsidecabins on the outskirts of the forests, which all poor wanderers areglad to run across, they took no notice of either. One might almost betempted to say they deserved to have a hard time of it, since they didnot seek help where it was to be had for the asking.
But finally, when it was so dark that there was scarcely a glimmer oflight left under the skies and the two who needed sleep journeyed on ina kind of half-sleep, they happened into a farmyard which was a long wayoff from all neighbours. And not only did it lie there desolate, but itappeared to be uninhabited as well. No smoke rose from the chimney; nolight shone through the windows; no human being moved on the place. Whenthe one among the three who could keep awake, saw the place, he thought:"Now come what may, we must try to get in here. Anything better we arenot likely to find."
Soon after that, all three stood in the house-yard. Two of them fellasleep the instant they stood still, but the third looked about himeagerly, to find where they could get under cover. It was not a smallfarm. Beside the dwelling house and stable and smoke-house, there werelong ranges with granaries and storehouses and cattlesheds. But it alllooked awfully poor and dilapidated. The houses had gray, moss-grown,leaning walls, which seemed ready to topple over. In the roofs wereyawning holes, and the doors hung aslant on broken hinges. It wasapparent that no one had taken the trouble to drive a nail into a wallon this place for a long time.
Meanwhile, he who was awake had figured out which house was the cowshed.He roused his travelling companions from their sleep, and conducted themto the cowshed door. Luckily, this was not fastened with anything but ahook, which he could easily push up with a rod. He heaved a sigh ofrelief at the thought that they should soon be in safety. But when thecowshed door swung open with a sharp creaking, he heard a cow begin tobellow. "Are you coming at last, mistress?" said she. "I thought thatyou didn't propose to give me any supper to-night."
The one who was awake stopped in the doorway, absolutely terrified whenhe discovered that the cowshed was not empty. But he soon saw that therewas not more than one cow, and three or four chickens; and then he tookcourage again. "We are three poor travellers who want to come insomewhere, where no fox can assail us, and no human being capture us,"said he. "We wonder if this can be a good place for us." "I cannotbelieve but what it is," answered the cow. "To be sure the walls arepoor, but the fox does not walk through them as yet; and no one liveshere except an old peasant woman, who isn't at all likely to make acaptive of anyone. But who are you?" she continued, as she twisted inher stall to get a sight of the newcomers. "I am Nils Holgersson fromVemminghoeg, who has been transformed into an elf," replied the first ofthe incomers, "and I have with me a tame goose, whom I generally ride,and a gray goose." "Such rare guests have never before been within myfour walls," said the cow, "and you shall be welcome, although I wouldhave preferred that it had been my mistress, come to give me my supper."
The boy led the geese into the cowshed, which was rather large, andplaced them in an empty manger, where they fell asleep instantly. Forhimself, he made a little bed of straw and expected that he, too, shouldgo to sleep at once.
But this was impossible, for the poor cow, who hadn't had her supper,wasn't still an instant. She shook her flanks, moved around in thestall, and complained of how hungry she was. The boy couldn't get a winkof sleep, but lay there and lived over all the things that had happenedto him during these last days.
He thought of Osa, the goose-girl, and little Mats, whom he hadencountered so unexpectedly; and he fancied that the little cabin whichhe had set on fire must have been their old home in Smaland. Now herecalled that he had heard them speak of just such a cabin, and of thebig heather-heath which lay below it. Now Osa and Mats had wandered backthere to see their old home again, and then, when they had reached it,it was in flames.
It was indeed a great sorrow which he had brought upon them, and it hurthim very much. If he ever again became a human being, he would try tocompensate them for the damage and miscalculation.
Then his thoughts wandered to the crows. And when he thought ofFumle-Drumle who had saved his life, and had met his own death so soonafter he had been elected chieftain, he was so distressed that tearsfilled his eyes. He had had a pretty rough time of it these last fewdays. But, anyway, it was a rare stroke of luck that the goosey-ganderand Dunfin had found him. The goosey-gander had said that as soon as thegeese discovered that Thumbietot had disappeared, they had asked allthe small animals in the forest about him. They soon learned that aflock of Smaland crows had carried him off. But the crows were alreadyout of sight, and whither they had directed their course no one had beenable to say. That they might find the boy as soon as possible, Akka hadcommanded the wild geese to start out--two and two--in differentdirections, to search for him. But after a two
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