proposition.
"I can see, Gorgo, that you have had a wise bird like Akka for afoster-mother," the boy remarked.
He gave a graphic description of Clement Larsson, and added that he hadheard at Skansen that the little fiddler was from Haelsingland.
"We'll search for him through the whole of Haelsingland--from Ljungby toMellansjoe; from Great Mountain to Hornland," said the eagle. "To-morrowbefore sundown you shall have a talk with the man!"
"I fear you are promising more than you can perform," doubted the boy.
"I should be a mighty poor eagle if I couldn't do that much," saidGorgo.
So when Gorgo and Thumbietot left Aelvkarleby they were good friends, andthe boy willingly took his mount for a ride on the eagle's back. Thus hehad an opportunity to see much of the country.
When clutched in the eagle's talons he had seen nothing. Perhaps it wasjust as well, for in the forenoon he had travelled over Upsala,Oesterby's big factories, the Dannemora Mine, and the ancient castle ofOerbyhus, and he would have been sadly disappointed at not seeing themhad he known of their proximity.
The eagle bore him speedily over Gaestrikland. In the southern part ofthe province there was very little to tempt the eye. But as they flewnorthward, it began to be interesting.
"This country is clad in a spruce skirt and a gray-stone jacket,"thought the boy. "But around its waist it wears a girdle which has notits match in value, for it is embroidered with blue lakes and greengroves. The great ironworks adorn it like a row of precious stones, andits buckle is a whole city with castles and cathedrals and greatclusters of houses."
When the travellers arrived in the northern forest region, Gorgoalighted on top of a mountain. As the boy dismounted, the eagle said:
"There's game in this forest, and I can't forget my late captivity andfeel really free until I have gone a-hunting. You won't mind my leavingyou for a while?"
"No, of course, I won't," the boy assured him.
"You may go where you like if only you are back here by sundown," saidthe eagle, as he flew off.
The boy sat on a stone gazing across the bare, rocky ground and thegreat forests round about.
He felt rather lonely. But soon he heard singing in the forest below,and saw something bright moving amongst the trees. Presently he saw ablue and yellow banner, and he knew by the songs and the merry chatterthat it was being borne at the head of a procession. On it came, up thewinding path; he wondered where it and those who followed it were going.He couldn't believe that anybody would come up to such an ugly, desolatewaste as the place where he sat. But the banner was nearing the forestborder, and behind it marched many happy people for whom it had led theway. Suddenly there was life and movement all over the mountain plain;after that there was so much for the boy to see that he didn't have adull moment.
FOREST DAY
On the mountain's broad back, where Gorgo left Thumbietot, there hadbeen a forest fire ten years before. Since that time the charred treeshad been felled and removed, and the great fire-swept area had begun todeck itself with green along the edges, where it skirted the healthyforest. However, the larger part of the top was still barren andappallingly desolate. Charred stumps, standing sentinel-like between therock ledges, bore witness that once there had been a fine forest here;but no fresh roots sprang from the ground.
One day in the early summer all the children in the parish had assembledin front of the schoolhouse near the fire-swept mountain. Each childcarried either a spade or a hoe on its shoulder, and a basket of food inits hand. As soon as all were assembled, they marched in a longprocession toward the forest. The banner came first, with the teacherson either side of it; then followed a couple of foresters and a wagonload of pine shrubs and spruce seeds; then the children.
The procession did not pause in any of the birch groves near thesettlements, but marched on deep into the forest. As it moved along, thefoxes stuck their heads out of the lairs in astonishment, and wonderedwhat kind of backwoods people these were. As they marched past old coalpits where charcoal kilns were fired every autumn, the cross-beakstwisted their hooked bills, and asked one another what kind of coalersthese might be who were now thronging the forest.
Finally, the procession reached the big, burnt mountain plain. The rockshad been stripped of the fine twin-flower creepers that once coveredthem; they had been robbed of the pretty silver moss and the attractivereindeer moss. Around the dark water gathered in clefts and hollowsthere was now no wood-sorrel. The little patches of soil in crevices andbetween stones were without ferns, without star-flowers, without all thegreen and red and light and soft and soothing things which usuallyclothe the forest ground.
It was as if a bright light flashed upon the mountain when all theparish children covered it. Here again was something sweet and delicate;something fresh and rosy; something young and growing. Perhaps thesechildren would bring to the poor abandoned forest a little new life.
When the children had rested and eaten their luncheon, they seized hoesand spades and began to work. The foresters showed them what to do. Theyset out shrub after shrub on every clear spot of earth they could find.
As they worked, they talked quite knowingly among themselves of how thelittle shrubs they were planting would bind the soil so that it couldnot get away, and of how new soil would form under the trees. By and byseeds would drop, and in a few years they would be picking bothstrawberries and raspberries where now there were only bare rocks. Thelittle shrubs which they were planting would gradually become talltrees. Perhaps big houses and great splendid ships would be built fromthem!
If the children had not come here and planted while there was still alittle soil in the clefts, all the earth would have been carried away bywind and water, and the mountain could never more have been clothed ingreen.
"It was well that we came," said the children. "We were just in the nickof time!" They felt very important.
While they were working on the mountain, their parents were at home. Byand by they began to wonder how the children were getting along. Ofcourse it was only a joke about their planting a forest, but it might beamusing to see what they were trying to do.
So presently both fathers and mothers were on their way to the forest.When they came to the outlying stock farms they met some of theirneighbours.
"Are you going to the fire-swept mountain?" they asked.
"That's where we're bound for."
"To have a look at the children?"
"Yes, to see what they're up to."
"It's only play, of course."
"It isn't likely that there will be many forest trees planted by theyoungsters. We have brought the coffee pot along so that we can havesomething warm to drink, since we must stay there all day with onlylunch-basket provisions."
So the parents of the children went on up the mountain. At first theythought only of how pretty it looked to see all the rosy-cheeked littlechildren scattered over the gray hills. Later, they observed how thechildren were working--how some were setting out shrubs, while otherswere digging furrows and sowing seeds. Others again were pulling upheather to prevent its choking the young trees. They saw that thechildren took the work seriously and were so intent upon what they weredoing that they scarcely had time to glance up.
The fathers and mothers stood for a moment and looked on; then they toobegan to pull up heather--just for the fun of it. The children were theinstructors, for they were already trained, and had to show their elderswhat to do.
Thus it happened that all the grown-ups who had come to watch thechildren took part in the work. Then, of course, it became greater funthan before. By and by the children had even more help. Other implementswere needed, so a couple of long-legged boys were sent down to thevillage for spades and hoes. As they ran past the cabins, thestay-at-homes came out and asked: "What's wrong? Has there been anaccident?"
"No, indeed! But the whole parish is up on the fire-swept mountainplanting a forest."
"If the whole parish is there, we can't stay at home!"
So party after party of peasants went crowding to the top of the burntmountain. They stood a moment and looked on. The temptation to join theworkers was irresistible.
"It's a pleasure to sow one's own acres in the spring, and to think ofthe grain that will spring up from the earth, but this work is even morealluring," they thought.
Not only slender blades would come from that sowing, but mighty treeswith tall trunks and sturdy branches. It meant giving birth not merelyto a summer's grain, but to many years' growths. It meant the awakeninghum of insects, the song of the thrush, the play of grouse and all kindsof life on the desolate mountain. Moreover, it was like raising amemorial for coming generations. They could have left a bare, treelessheight as a heritage. Instead they were to leave a glorious forest.
Coming generations
Nils Holgerssons underbara resa. English Page 64