The Wonderful Adventure of Nils Holgersson

by Selma Lagerlof

  ‘Gander, gander! I’ve lost my shoe!’ the boy screamed.

  The gander turned and descended towards the ground, but then the boy saw that two children, who had been walking along the road, had picked up his shoe.

  ‘Gander, gander,’ the boy shouted quickly, ‘go up again! It’s too late! I can’t get my shoe back!’

  But down on the road stood Åsa the Goose-girl and her brother, Little Mats, observing the little wooden shoe that had fallen from the sky.

  ‘It was the wild geese who lost it,’ Little Mats said.

  Åsa the Goose-girl stood silent a long time and thought about their find. At last she said, slowly and thoughtfully, ‘Do you remember, Little Mats, that when we went past Övedskloster, we heard them saying that on a farm they had seen a gnome who was dressed in leather breeches and had wooden shoes on his feet like any labourer? And do you remember that when we came to Vittskövle, a girl told us that she had seen a farm gnome with wooden shoes who flew away on the back of a goose? And when we came home to our cottage, Little Mats, we saw a gnome dressed the same way, and who also climbed up on a goose and flew away? Maybe it was the same one who is riding along up here in the sky and lost the wooden shoe.’

  ‘Yes, that must be it,’ said Little Mats.

  They turned over the wooden shoe and observed it carefully, because it’s not every day you find the farm gnome’s wooden shoe on the road.

  ‘Wait, wait, Little Mats!’ said Åsa the Goose-girl. ‘There’s something written on one side.’

  ‘Yes, there is. But the letters are so small.’

  ‘Let me see! Yes, it says … It says “Nils Holgersson from V. Vemmenhög”.’

  ‘That’s the strangest thing I’ve ever heard!’ said Little Mats.

  THE BEGINNING

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  First published in Swedish as Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige (1906–7)

  This translation first published in Penguin Classics 2016

  Translation copyright © Paul Norlén, 2016

  Cover design and illustration: Coralie Bickford-Smith

  All rights reserved

  ISBN: 978-0-241-20610-2