father and mother were coming down the lane. It was easy to see thatthey were broken by many sorrows. His mother had many lines on her faceand his father's hair had turned gray. She was talking with him aboutgetting a loan from her brother-in-law.
"No, I don't want to borrow any more money," his father said, as theywere passing the stable. "There's nothing quite so hard as being indebt. It would be better to sell the cabin."
"If it were not for the boy, I shouldn't mind selling it," his motherdemurred. "But what will become of him, if he returns some day, wretchedand poor--as he's likely to be--and we not here?"
"You're right about that," the father agreed. "But we shall have to askthe folks who take the place to receive him kindly and to let him knowthat he's welcome back to us. We sha'n't say a harsh word to him, nomatter what he may be, shall we mother?"
"No, indeed! If I only had him again, so that I could be certain he isnot starving and freezing on the highways, I'd ask nothing more!"
Then his father and mother went in, and the boy heard no more of theirconversation.
He was happy and deeply moved when he knew that they loved him sodearly, although they believed he had gone astray. He longed to rushinto their arms.
"But perhaps it would be an even greater sorrow were they to see me as Inow am."
While he stood there, hesitating, a cart drove up to the gate. The boysmothered a cry of surprise, for who should step from the cart and gointo the house yard but Osa, the goose girl, and her father!
They walked hand in hand toward the cabin. When they were about halfway there, Osa stopped her father and said:
"Now remember, father, you are not to mention the wooden shoe or thegeese or the little brownie who was so like Nils Holgersson that if itwas not himself it must have had some connection with him."
"Certainly not!" said Jon Esserson. "I shall only say that their son hasbeen of great help to you on several occasions--when you were trying tofind me--and that therefore we have come to ask if we can't do them aservice in return, since I'm a rich man now and have more than I need,thanks to the mine I discovered up in Lapland."
"I know, father, that you can say the right thing in the right way," Osacommended. "It is only that one particular thing that I don't wish youto mention."
They went into the cabin, and the boy would have liked to hear what theytalked about in there; but he dared not venture near the house. It wasnot long before they came out again, and his father and motheraccompanied them as far as the gate.
His parents were strangely happy. They appeared to have gained a newhold on life.
When the visitors were gone, father and mother lingered at the gategazing after them.
"I don't feel unhappy any longer, since I've heard so much that is goodof our Nils," said his mother.
"Perhaps he got more praise than he really deserved," put in his fatherthoughtfully.
"Wasn't it enough for you that they came here specially to say theywanted to help us because our Nils had served them in many ways? Ithink, father, that you should have accepted their offer."
"No, mother, I don't wish to accept money from any one, either as a giftor a loan. In the first place I want to free myself from all debt, thenwe will work our way up again. We're not so very old, are we, mother?"The father laughed heartily as he said this.
"I believe you think it will be fun to sell this place, upon which wehave expended such a lot of time and hard work," protested the mother.
"Oh, you know why I'm laughing," the father retorted. "It was thethought of the boy's having gone to the bad that weighed me down until Ihad no strength or courage left in me. Now that I know he still livesand has turned out well, you'll see that Holger Nilsson has some gritleft."
The mother went in alone, and the boy made haste to hide in a corner,for his father walked into the stable. He went over to the horse andexamined its hoof, as usual, to try to discover what was wrong with it.
"What's this!" he cried, discovering some letters scratched on thehoof.
"Remove the sharp piece of iron from the foot," he read and glancedaround inquiringly. However, he ran his fingers along the under side ofthe hoof and looked at it carefully.
"I verily believe there is something sharp here!" he said.
While his father was busy with the horse and the boy sat huddled in acorner, it happened that other callers came to the farm.
The fact was that when Morten Goosey-Gander found himself so near hisold home he simply could not resist the temptation of showing his wifeand children to his old companions on the farm. So he took Dunfin andthe goslings along, and made for home.
There was not a soul in the barn yard when the goosey-gander came along.He alighted, confidently walked all around the place, and showed Dunfinhow luxuriously he had lived when he was a tame goose.
When they had viewed the entire farm, he noticed that the door of thecow shed was open.
"Look in here a moment," he said, "then you will see how I lived informer days. It was very different from camping in swamps and morasses,as we do now."
The goosey-gander stood in the doorway and looked into the cow shed.
"There's not a soul in here," he said. "Come along, Dunfin, and youshall see the goose pen. Don't be afraid; there's no danger."
Forthwith the goosey-gander, Dunfin, and all six goslings waddled intothe goose pen, to have a look at the elegance and comfort in which thebig white gander had lived before he joined the wild geese.
"This is the way it used to be: here was my place and over there was thetrough, which was always filled with oats and water," explained thegoosey-gander.
"Wait! there's some fodder in it now." With that he rushed to the troughand began to gobble up the oats.
But Dunfin was nervous.
"Let's go out again!" she said.
"Only two more grains," insisted the goosey-gander. The next second helet out a shriek and ran for the door, but it was too late! The doorslammed, the mistress stood without and bolted it. They were locked in!
The father had removed a sharp piece of iron from the horse's hoof andstood contentedly stroking the animal when the mother came running intothe stable.
"Come, father, and see the capture I've made!"
"No, wait a minute!" said the father. "Look here, first. I havediscovered what ailed the horse."
"I believe our luck has turned," said the mother. "Only fancy! the bigwhite goosey-gander that disappeared last spring must have gone off withthe wild geese. He has come back to us in company with seven wild geese.They walked straight into the goose pen, and I've shut them all in."
"That's extraordinary," remarked the father. "But best of all is that wedon't have to think any more that our boy stole the goosey-gander whenhe went away."
"You're quite right, father," she said. "But I'm afraid we'll have tokill them to-night. In two days is Morten Gooseday[1] and we must makehaste if we expect to get them to market in time."
[Footnote 1: In Sweden the 10th of November is called Morten Goosedayand corresponds to the American Thanksgiving Day.]
"I think it would be outrageous to butcher the goosey-gander, now thathe has returned to us with such a large family," protested HolgerNilsson.
"If times were easier we'd let him live; but since we're going to movefrom here, we can't keep geese. Come along now and help me carry theminto the kitchen," urged the mother.
They went out together and in a few moments the boy saw his fathercoming along with Morten Goosey-Gander and Dunfin--one under each arm.He and his wife went into the cabin.
The goosey-gander cried:
"Thumbietot, come and help me!"--as he always did when inperil--although he was not aware that the boy was at hand.
Nils Holgersson heard him, yet he lingered at the door of the cow shed.
He did not hesitate because he knew that it would be well for him if thegoosey-gander were beheaded--at that moment he did not even rememberthis--but because he shrank from being seen by his parents.
"They
have a hard enough time of it already," he thought. "Must I bringthem a new sorrow?"
But when the door closed on the goosey-gander, the boy was aroused.
He dashed across the house yard, sprang up on the board-walk leading tothe entrance door and ran into the hallway, where he kicked off hiswooden shoes in the old accustomed way, and walked toward the door.
All the while it went so much against the grain to appear before hisfather and mother that he could not raise his hand to knock.
"But this concerns the life of the goosey-gander," he said tohimself--"he who has been my best friend ever since I last
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