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

four walls,” said the cow, “and you shall be welcome, although I would have preferred that it had been my mistress, come to give me my supper.”

The boy led the geese into the cowshed, which was rather large, and placed them in an empty manger, where they fell asleep instantly. For himself, he made a little bed of straw and expected that he, too, should go to sleep at once.

But this was impossible, for the poor cow, who hadn’t had her supper, wasn’t still an instant. She shook her flanks, moved around in the stall, and complained of how hungry she was. The boy couldn’t get a wink of sleep, but lay there and lived over all the things that had happened to him during these last days.

He thought of Osa, the goose-girl, and little Mats, whom he had encountered so unexpectedly; and he fancied that the little cabin which he had set on fire must have been their old home in Småland. Now he recalled that he had heard them speak of just such a cabin, and of the big heather-heath which lay below it. Now Osa and Mats had wandered back there to see their old home again, and then, when they had reached it, it was in flames.

It was indeed a great sorrow which he had brought upon them, and it hurt him very much. If he ever again became a human being, he would try to compensate them for the damage and miscalculation.

Then his thoughts wandered to the crows. And when he thought of Fumle-Drumle who had saved his life, and had met his own death so soon after he had been elected chieftain, he was so distressed that tears filled his eyes. He had had a pretty rough time of it these last few days. But, anyway, it was a rare stroke of luck that the goosey-gander and Dunfin had found him. The goosey-gander had said that as soon as the geese discovered that Thumbietot had disappeared, they had asked all the small animals in the forest about him. They soon learned that a flock of Småland crows had carried him off. But the crows were already out of sight, and whither they had directed their course no one had been able to say. That they might find the boy as soon as possible, Akka had commanded the wild geese to start out⁠—two and two⁠—in different directions, to search for him. But after a two days’ hunt, whether or not they had found him, they were to meet in northwestern Småland on a high mountain-top, which resembled an abrupt, chopped-off tower, and was called Taberg. After Akka had given them the best directions, and described carefully how they should find Taberg, they had separated.

The white goosey-gander had chosen Dunfin as travelling companion, and they had flown about hither and thither with the greatest anxiety for Thumbietot. During this ramble they had heard a thrush, who sat in a treetop, cry and wail that someone, who called himself Kidnapped-by-Crows, had made fun of him. They had talked with the thrush, and he had shown them in which direction that Kidnapped-by-Crows had travelled. Afterward, they had met a dove-cock, a starling and a drake; they had all wailed about a little culprit who had disturbed their song, and who was named Caught-by-Crows, Captured-by-Crows, and Stolen-by-Crows. In this way, they were enabled to trace Thumbietot all the way to the heather-heath in Sonnerbo township.

As soon as the goosey-gander and Dunfin had found Thumbietot, they had started toward the north, in order to reach Taberg. But it had been a long road to travel, and the darkness was upon them before they had sighted the mountain top. “If we only get there by tomorrow, surely all our troubles will be over,” thought the boy, and dug down into the straw to have it warmer. All the while the cow fussed and fumed in the stall.

Then, all of a sudden, she began to talk to the boy. “Everything is wrong with me,” said the cow. “I am neither milked nor tended. I have no night fodder in my manger, and no bed has been made under me. My mistress came here at dusk, to put things in order for me, but she felt so ill, that she had to go in soon again, and she has not returned.”

“It’s distressing that I should be little and powerless,” said the boy. “I don’t believe that I am able to help you.”

“You can’t make me believe that you are powerless because you are little,” said the cow. “All the elves that I’ve ever heard of, were so strong that they could pull a whole load of hay and strike a cow dead with one fist.”

The boy couldn’t help laughing at the cow. “They were a very different kind of elf from me,” said he. “But I’ll loosen your halter and open the door for you, so that you can go out and drink in one of the pools on the place, and then I’ll try to climb up to the hayloft and throw down some hay in your manger.”

“Yes, that would be some help,” said the cow.

The boy did as he had said; and when the cow stood with a full manger in front of her, he thought that at last he should get some sleep. But he had hardly crept down in the bed before she began, anew, to talk to him.

“You’ll be clean put out with me if I ask you for one thing more,” said the cow.

“Oh, no I won’t, if it’s only something that I’m able to do,” said the boy.

“Then I will ask you to go into the cabin, directly opposite, and find out how my mistress is getting along. I fear some misfortune has come to her.”

“No! I can’t do that,” said the boy. “I dare not show myself before human beings.”

“Surely you’re not afraid of an old and sick woman,” said the cow. “But you do