The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlöf (i can read book club TXT) 📕

and saw that they had picked out secluded and well protected nesting places.

“Now where will you settle down, Dunfin?” they asked.

“I? Why I don’t intend to remain on the island,” she said. “I’m going with the wild geese up to Lapland.”

“What a pity that you must leave us!” said the sisters.

“I should have been very glad to remain here with father and mother and you,” said Dunfin, “had I not promised the big, white⁠—”

“What!” shrieked Prettywing. “Are you to have the handsome goosey-gander? Then it is⁠—” But here Goldeye gave her a sharp nudge, and she stopped short.

The two cruel sisters had much to talk about all the afternoon. They were furious because Dunfin had a suitor like the white goosey-gander. They themselves had suitors, but theirs were only common gray geese, and, since they had seen Morten Goosey-Gander, they thought them so homely and lowbred that they did not wish even to look at them.

“This will grieve me to death!” whimpered Goldeye. “If at least it had been you, Sister Prettywing, who had captured him!”

“I would rather see him dead than to go about here the entire summer thinking of Dunfin’s capturing a white goosey-gander!” pouted Prettywing.

However, the sisters continued to appear very friendly toward Dunfin, and in the afternoon Goldeye took Dunfin with her, that she might see the one she thought of marrying.

“He’s not as attractive as the one you will have,” said Goldeye. “But to make up for it, one can be certain that he is what he is.”

“What do you mean, Goldeye?” questioned Dunfin. At first Goldeye would not explain what she had meant, but at last she came out with it.

“We have never seen a white goose travel with wild geese,” said the sister, “and we wonder if he can be bewitched.”

“You are very stupid,” retorted Dunfin indignantly. “He is a tame goose, of course.”

“He brings with him one who is bewitched,” said Goldeye, “and, under the circumstances, he too must be bewitched. Are you not afraid that he may be a black cormorant?” She was a good talker and succeeded in frightening Dunfin thoroughly.

“You don’t mean what you are saying,” pleaded the little gray goose. “You only wish to frighten me!”

“I wish what is for your good, Dunfin,” said Goldeye. “I can’t imagine anything worse than for you to fly away with a black cormorant! But now I shall tell you something⁠—try to persuade him to eat some of the roots I have gathered here. If he is bewitched, it will be apparent at once. If he is not, he will remain as he is.”

The boy was sitting amongst the wild geese, listening to Akka and the old goose-master, when Dunfin came flying up to him. “Thumbietot, Thumbietot!” she cried. “Morten Goosey-Gander is dying! I have killed him!”

“Let me get up on your back, Dunfin, and take me to him!” Away they flew, and Akka and the other wild geese followed them. When they got to the goosey-gander, he was lying prostrate on the ground. He could not utter a word⁠—only gasped for breath.

“Tickle him under the gorge and slap him on the back!” commanded Akka. The boy did so and presently the big, white gander coughed up a large, white root, which had stuck in his gorge. “Have you been eating of these?” asked Akka, pointing to some roots that lay on the ground.

“Yes,” groaned the goosey-gander.

“Then it was well they stuck in your throat,” said Akka, “for they are poisonous. Had you swallowed them, you certainly should have died.”

“Dunfin bade me eat them,” said the goosey-gander.

“My sister gave them to me,” protested Dunfin, and she told everything.

“You must beware of those sisters of yours, Dunfin!” warned Akka, “for they wish you no good, depend upon it!”

But Dunfin was so constituted that she could not think evil of anyone and, a moment later, when Prettywing asked her to come and meet her intended, she went with her immediately.

“Oh, he isn’t as handsome as yours,” said the sister, “but he’s much more courageous and daring!”

“How do you know he is?” challenged Dunfin.

“For some time past there has been weeping and wailing amongst the sea gulls and wild ducks on the island. Every morning at daybreak a strange bird of prey comes and carries off one of them.”

“What kind of a bird is it?” asked Dunfin.

“We don’t know,” replied the sister. “One of his kind has never before been seen on the island, and, strange to say, he has never attacked one of us geese. But now my intended has made up his mind to challenge him tomorrow morning, and drive him away.”

“Oh, I hope he’ll succeed!” said Dunfin.

“I hardly think he will,” returned the sister. “If my goosey-gander were as big and strong as yours, I should have hope.”

“Do you wish me to ask Morten Goosey-Gander to meet the strange bird?” asked Dunfin.

“Indeed, I do!” exclaimed Prettywing excitedly. “You couldn’t render me a greater service.”

The next morning the goosey-gander was up before the sun. He stationed himself on the highest point of the island and peered in all directions. Presently he saw a big, dark bird coming from the west. His wings were exceedingly large, and it was easy to tell that he was an eagle. The goosey-gander had not expected a more dangerous adversary than an owl, and how he understood that he could not escape this encounter with his life. But it did not occur to him to avoid a struggle with a bird who was many times stronger than himself.

The great bird swooped down on a sea gull and dug his talons into it. Before the eagle could spread his wings, Morten Goosey-Gander rushed up to him. “Drop that!” he shouted, “and don’t come here again or you’ll have me to deal with!”

“What kind of a lunatic are you?” said the eagle. “It’s lucky for you that I never fight with geese, or you would soon be done for!”

Morten Goosey-Gander thought the eagle considered himself too good to fight with