Nils Holgerssons underbara resa. English

by Selma Lagerlöf

was the grandest sight the boyhad ever seen!

  "Surely you don't mean to say you can set fire to a place like that?"remarked the bear doubtingly.

  The boy stood wedged between the beast's paws thinking the only thingthat might save him would be that the bear should have a high opinion ofhis capability and power.

  "It's all the same to me," he answered with a superior air. "Big orlittle, I can burn it down."

  "Then I'll tell you something," said Father Bear. "My forefathers livedin this region from the time that the forests first sprang up. Fromthem I inherited hunting grounds and pastures, lairs and retreats, andhave lived here in peace all my life. In the beginning I wasn't troubledmuch by the human kind. They dug in the mountains and picked up a littleore down here, by the rapids; they had a forge and a furnace, but thehammers sounded only a few hours during the day, and the furnace was notfired more than two moons at a stretch. It wasn't so bad but that Icould stand it; but these last years, since they have built thisnoise-shop, which keeps up the same racket both day and night, life herehas become intolerable. Formerly only a manager and a couple ofblacksmiths lived here, but now there are so many people that I cannever feel safe from them. I thought that I should have to move away,but I have discovered something better!"

  The boy wondered what Father Bear had hit upon, but no opportunity wasafforded him to ask, as the bear took him between his tusks again andlumbered down the hill. The boy could see nothing, but knew by theincreasing noise that they were approaching the rolling mills.

  Father Bear was well informed regarding the ironworks. He had prowledaround there on many a dark night, had observed what went on within, andhad wondered if there would never be any cessation of the work. He hadtested the walls with his paws and wished that he were only strongenough to knock down the whole structure with a single blow.

  He was not easily distinguishable against the dark ground, and when, inaddition, he remained in the shadow of the walls, there was not muchdanger of his being discovered. Now he walked fearlessly between theworkshops and climbed to the top of a slag heap. There he sat up on hishaunches, took the boy between his forepaws and held him up.

  "Try to look into the house!" he commanded. A strong current of air wasforced into a big cylinder which was suspended from the ceiling andfilled with molten iron. As this current rushed into the mess of ironwith an awful roar, showers of sparks of all colours spurted up inbunches, in sprays, in long clusters! They struck against the wall andcame splashing down over the whole big room. Father Bear let the boywatch the gorgeous spectacle until the blowing was over and the flowingand sparkling red steel had been poured into ingot moulds.

  The boy was completely charmed by the marvellous display and almostforgot that he was imprisoned between a bear's two paws.

  Father Bear let him look into the rolling mill. He saw a workman take ashort, thick bar of iron at white heat from a furnace opening and placeit under a roller. When the iron came out from under the roller, it wasflattened and extended. Immediately another workman seized it and placedit beneath a heavier roller, which made it still longer and thinner.Thus it was passed from roller to roller, squeezed and drawn out until,finally, it curled along the floor, like a long red thread.

  But while the first bar of iron was being pressed, a second was takenfrom the furnace and placed under the rollers, and when this was alittle along, a third was brought. Continuously fresh threads camecrawling over the floor, like hissing snakes. The boy was dazzled by theiron. But he found it more splendid to watch the workmen who,dexterously and delicately, seized the glowing snakes with their tongsand forced them under the rollers. It seemed like play for them tohandle the hissing iron.

  "I call that real man's work!" the boy remarked to himself.

  The bear then let the boy have a peep at the furnace and the forge, andhe became more and more astonished as he saw how the blacksmiths handlediron and fire.

  "Those men have no fear of heat and flames," he thought. The workmenwere sooty and grimy. He fancied they were some sort of firefolk--thatwas why they could bend and mould the iron as they wished. He could notbelieve that they were just ordinary men, since they had such power!

  "They keep this up day after day, night after night," said Father Bear,as he dropped wearily down on the ground. "You can understand that onegets rather tired of that kind of thing. I'm mighty glad that at last Ican put an end to it!"

  "Indeed!" said the boy. "How will you go about it?"

  "Oh, I thought that you were going to set fire to the buildings!" saidFather Bear. "That would put an end to all this work, and I could remainin my old home."

  The boy was all of a shiver.

  So it was for this that Father Bear had brought him here!

  "If you will set fire to the noise-works, I'll promise to spare yourlife," said Father Bear. "But if you don't do it, I'll make short workof you!" The huge workshops were built of brick, and the boy wasthinking to himself that Father Bear could command as much as he liked,it was impossible to obey him. Presently he saw that it might not beimpossible after all. Just beyond them lay a pile of chips and shavingsto which he could easily set fire, and beside it was a wood pile thatalmost reached the coal shed. The coal shed extended over to theworkshops, and if that once caught fire, the flames would soon fly overto the roof of the iron foundry. Everything combustible would burn, thewalls would fall from the heat, and the machinery would be destroyed."Will you or won't you?" demanded Father Bear. The boy knew that heought to answer promptly that he would not, but he also knew that thenthe bear's paws would squeeze him to death; therefore he replied:

  "I shall have to think it over."

  "Very well, do so," assented Father Bear. "Let me say to you that ironis the thing that has given men the advantage over us bears, which isanother reason for my wishing to put an end to the work here."

  The boy thought he would use the delay to figure out some plan ofescape, but he was so worried he could not direct his thoughts where hewould; instead he began to think of the great help that iron had been tomankind. They needed iron for everything. There was iron in the ploughthat broke up the field, in the axe that felled the tree for buildinghouses, in the scythe that mowed the grain, and in the knife, whichcould be turned to all sorts of uses. There was iron in the horse's bit,in the lock on the door, in the nails that held furniture together, inthe sheathing that covered the roof. The rifle which drove away wildbeasts was made of iron, also the pick that had broken up the mine. Ironcovered the men-of-war he had seen at Karlskrona; the locomotivessteamed through the country on iron rails; the needle that had stitchedhis coat was of iron; the shears that clipped the sheep and the kettlethat cooked the food. Big and little alike--much that was indispensablewas made from iron. Father Bear was perfectly right in saying that itwas the iron that had given men their mastery over the bears.

  "Now will you or won't you?" Father Bear repeated.

  The boy was startled from his musing. Here he stood thinking of mattersthat were entirely unnecessary, and had not yet found a way to savehimself!

  "You mustn't be so impatient," he said. "This is a serious matter forme, and I've got to have time to consider."

  "Well, then, consider another moment," said Father Bear. "But let metell you that it's because of the iron that men have become so muchwiser than we bears. For this alone, if for nothing else, I should liketo put a stop to the work here."

  Again the boy endeavoured to think out a plan of escape, but histhoughts wandered, willy nilly. They were taken up with the iron. Andgradually he began to comprehend how much thinking and calculating menmust have done before they discovered how to produce iron from ore, andhe seemed to see sooty blacksmiths of old bending over the forge,pondering how they should properly handle it. Perhaps it was becausethey had thought so much about the iron that intelligence had beendeveloped in mankind, until finally they became so advanced that theywere able to build great works like these. The fact was that men owedmore to the iron than they themselves knew.
>
  "Well, what say you? Will you or won't you?" insisted Father Bear.

  The boy shrank back. Here he stood thinking needless thoughts, and hadno idea as to what he should do to save himself.

  "It's not such an easy matter to decide as you think," he answered. "Youmust give me time for reflection."

  "I can wait for you a little longer," said Father Bear. "But after thatyou'll get no more grace. You must know that it's the fault of the ironthat the human kind can live here on the property of the bears. And nowyou understand why I would be rid of the work."

  The boy meant to use the last moment to think out some way to savehimself, but, anxious and distraught as he was, his thoughts