securely tied bags half buried in the sand. We hoped tofind grain in the bags and pulled and tugged at them till we tore thecloth. However, no grain poured out, but shining gold pieces. For suchthings we wild geese had no use, so we left them where they were. Wehaven't thought of the find in all these years; but this autumnsomething has come up to make us wish for gold.
"We do not know that the treasure is still here, but we have travelledall this way to ask you to look into the matter."
With a shell in either hand the boy jumped down into the cleft and beganto scoop up the sand. He found no bags, but when he had made a deep holehe heard the clink of metal and saw that he had come upon a gold piece.Then he dug with his fingers and felt many coins in the sand. So hehurried back to Akka.
"The bags have rotted and fallen apart," he exclaimed, "and the moneylies scattered all through the sand."
"That's well!" said Akka. "Now fill in the hole and smooth it over so noone will notice the sand has been disturbed."
The boy did as he was told, but when he came up from the cleft he wasastonished to see that the wild geese were lined up, with Akka in thelead, and were marching toward him with great solemnity.
The geese paused in front of him, and all bowed their heads many times,looking so grave that he had to doff his cap and make an obeisance tothem.
"The fact is," said Akka, "we old geese have been thinking that ifThumbietot had been in the service of human beings and had done as muchfor them as he has for us they would not let him go without rewardinghim well."
"I haven't helped you; it is you who have taken good care of me,"returned the boy.
"We think also," continued Akka, "that when a human being has attendedus on a whole journey he shouldn't be allowed to leave us as poor aswhen he came."
"I know that what I have learned this year with you is worth more to methan gold or lands," said the boy.
"Since these gold coins have been lying unclaimed in the cleft all theseyears, I think that you ought to have them," declared the wild goose.
"I thought you said something about needing this money yourselves,"reminded the boy.
"We do need it, so as to be able to give you such recompense as willmake your mother and father think you have been working as a goose boywith worthy people."
The boy turned half round and cast a glance toward the sea, then facedabout and looked straight into Akka's bright eyes.
"I think it strange, Mother Akka, that you turn me away from yourservice like this and pay me off before I have given you notice," hesaid.
"As long as we wild geese remain in Sweden, I trust that you will staywith us," said Akka. "I only wanted to show you where the treasure waswhile we could get to it without going too far out of our course."
"All the same it looks as if you wished to be rid of me before I want togo," argued Thumbietot. "After all the good times we have had together,I think you ought to let me go abroad with you."
When the boy said this, Akka and the other wild geese stretched theirlong necks straight up and stood a moment, with bills half open,drinking in air.
"That is something I haven't thought about," said Akka, when sherecovered herself. "Before you decide to come with us, we had betterhear what Gorgo has to say. You may as well know that when we leftLapland the agreement between Gorgo and myself was that he should travelto your home down in Skane to try to make better terms for you with theelf."
"That is true," affirmed Gorgo, "but as I have already told you, luckwas against me. I soon hunted up Holger Nilsson's croft and aftercircling up and down over the place a couple of hours, I caught sight ofthe elf, skulking along between the sheds.
"Immediately I swooped down upon him and flew off with him to a meadowwhere we could talk together without interruption.
"I told him that I had been sent by Akka from Kebnekaise to ask if hecouldn't give Nils Holgersson easier terms.
"'I only wish I could!' he answered, 'for I have heard that he hasconducted himself well on the trip; but it is not in my power to do so.'
"Then I was wrathy and said that I would bore out his eyes unless hegave in.
"'You may do as you like,' he retorted, 'but as to Nils Holgersson, itwill turn out exactly as I have said. You can tell him from me that hewould do well to return soon with his goose, for matters on the farm arein a bad shape. His father has had to forfeit a bond for his brother,whom he trusted. He has bought a horse with borrowed money, and thebeast went lame the first time he drove it. Since then it has been of noearthly use to him. Tell Nils Holgersson that his parents have had tosell two of the cows and that they must give up the croft unless theyreceive help from somewhere."
When the boy heard this he frowned and clenched his fists so hard thatthe nails dug into his flesh.
"It is cruel of the elf to make the conditions so hard for me that I cannot go home and relieve my parents, but he sha'n't turn me into atraitor to a friend! My father and mother are square and upright folk. Iknow they would rather forfeit my help than have me come back to themwith a guilty conscience."
THE JOURNEY TO VEMMINGHOeG
_Thursday, November third_.
One day in the beginning of November the wild geese flew over HallandRidge and into Skane. For several weeks they had been resting on thewide plains around Falkoeping. As many other wild goose flocks alsostopped there, the grown geese had had a pleasant time visiting with oldfriends, and there had been all kinds of games and races between theyounger birds.
Nils Holgersson had not been happy over the delay in Westergoetland. Hehad tried to keep a stout heart; but it was hard for him to reconcilehimself to his fate.
"If I were only well out of Skane and in some foreign land," he hadthought, "I should know for certain that I had nothing to hope for, andwould feel easier in my mind."
Finally, one morning, the geese started out and flew toward Halland.
In the beginning the boy took very little interest in that province. Hethought there was nothing new to be seen there. But when the wild geesecontinued the journey farther south, along the narrow coast-lands, theboy leaned over the goose's neck and did not take his glance from theground.
He saw the hills gradually disappear and the plain spread under him, atthe same time he noticed that the coast became less rugged, while thegroup of islands beyond thinned and finally vanished and the broad, opensea came clear up to firm land. Here there were no more forests: herethe plain was supreme. It spread all the way to the horizon. A land thatlay so exposed, with field upon field, reminded the boy of Skane. Hefelt both happy and sad as he looked at it.
"I can't be very far from home," he thought.
Many times during the trip the goslings had asked the old geese:
"How does it look in foreign lands?"
"Wait, wait! You shall soon see," the old geese had answered.
When the wild geese had passed Halland Ridge and gone a distance intoSkane, Akka called out:
"Now look down! Look all around! It is like this in foreign lands."
Just then they flew over Soeder Ridge. The whole long range of hills wasclad in beech woods, and beautiful, turreted castles peeped out here andthere.
Among the trees grazed roe-buck, and on the forest meadow romped thehares. Hunters' horns sounded from the forests; the loud baying of dogscould be heard all the way up to the wild geese. Broad avenues woundthrough the trees and on these ladies and gentlemen were driving inpolished carriages or riding fine horses. At the foot of the ridge layRing Lake with the ancient Bosjoe Cloister on a narrow peninsula.
"Does it look like this in foreign lands?" asked the goslings.
"It looks exactly like this wherever there are forest-clad ridges,"replied Akka, "only one doesn't see many of them. Wait! You shall seehow it looks in general."
Akka led the geese farther south to the great Skane plain. There itspread, with grain fields; with acres and acres of sugar beets, wherethe beet-pickers were at work; with low whitewashed farm- and outhouses;with numberless little white churches;
with ugly, gray sugar refineriesand small villages near the railway stations. Little beech-encircledmeadow lakes, each of them adorned by its own stately manor, shimmeredhere and there.
"Now look down! Look carefully!" called the leader-goose. "Thus it is inforeign lands, from the Baltic coast all the way down to the high Alps.Farther than that I have never travelled."
When the goslings had seen the plain, the leader-goose flew down theOeresund coast. Swampy meadows sloped gradually toward the sea. In someplaces were high, steep banks, in others drift-sand fields, where thesand lay heaped in banks and hills. Fishing hamlets stood all along thecoast, with long rows of low, uniform brick houses, with a lighthouse atthe edge of the breakwater, and brown fishing
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