Nils Holgerssons underbara resa. English

by Selma Lagerlöf

was eaten long ago. It's a shame for mother to let mestarve in this way!"

  Akka began to think that the eagles had really been shot, and shereasoned that if she were to let the eaglet starve she might perhaps berid of the whole robber tribe for all time. But it went very muchagainst her not to succour a deserted young one so far as she could.

  "Why do you sit there and stare?" snapped the eaglet. "Didn't you hearme say I want food?"

  Akka spread her wings and sank down to the little lake in the glen. Amoment later she returned to the eagles' nest with a salmon trout in herbill.

  The eaglet flew into a temper when she dropped the fish in front of him.

  "Do you think I can eat such stuff?" he shrieked, pushing it aside, andtrying to strike Akka with his bill. "Fetch me a willow grouse or alemming, do you hear?"

  Akka stretched her head forward, and gave the eaglet a sharp nip in theneck. "Let me say to you," remarked the old goose, "that if I'm toprocure food for you, you must be satisfied with what I give you. Yourfather and mother are dead, and from them you can get no help; but ifyou want to lie here and starve to death while you wait for grouse andlemming, I shall not hinder you."

  When Akka had spoken her mind she promptly retired, and did not show herface in the eagles' nest again for some time. But when she did return,the eaglet had eaten the fish, and when she dropped another in front ofhim he swallowed it at once, although it was plain that he found it verydistasteful.

  Akka had imposed upon herself a tedious task. The old eagles neverappeared again, and she alone had to procure for the eaglet all the foodhe needed. She gave him fish and frogs and he did not seem to fare badlyon this diet, but grew big and strong. He soon forgot his parents, theeagles, and fancied that Akka was his real mother. Akka, in turn, lovedhim as if he had been her own child. She tried to give him a goodbringing up, and to cure him of his wildness and overbearing ways.

  After a fortnight Akka observed that the time was approaching for her tomoult and put on a new feather dress so as to be ready to fly. For awhole moon she would be unable to carry food to the baby eaglet, and hemight starve to death.

  So Akka said to him one day: "Gorgo, I can't come to you any more withfish. Everything depends now upon your pluck--which means can you dareto venture into the glen, so I can continue to procure food for you? Youmust choose between starvation and flying down to the glen, but that,too, may cost you your life."

  Without a second's hesitation the eaglet stepped upon the edge of thenest. Barely taking the trouble to measure the distance to the bottom,he spread his tiny wings and started away. He rolled over and over inspace, but nevertheless made enough use of his wings to reach the groundalmost unhurt.

  Down there in the glen Gorgo passed the summer in company with thelittle goslings, and was a good comrade for them. Since he regardedhimself as a gosling, he tried to live as they lived; when they swam inthe lake he followed them until he came near drowning. It was mostembarrassing to him that he could not learn to swim, and he went to Akkaand complained of his inability.

  "Why can't I swim like the others?" he asked.

  "Your claws grew too hooked, and your toes too large while you were upthere on the cliff," Akka replied. "But you'll make a fine bird all thesame."

  The eaglet's wings soon grew so large that they could carry him; but notuntil autumn, when the goslings learned to fly, did it dawn upon himthat he could use them for flight. There came a proud time for him, forat this sport he was the peer of them all. His companions never stayedup in the air any longer than they had to, but he stayed there nearlythe whole day, and practised the art of flying. So far it had notoccurred to him that he was of another species than the geese, but hecould not help noting a number of things that surprised him, and hequestioned Akka constantly.

  "Why do grouse and lemming run and hide when they see my shadow on thecliff?" he queried. "They don't show such fear of the other goslings."

  "Your wings grew too big when you were on the cliff," said Akka. "It isthat which frightens the little wretches. But don't be unhappy becauseof that. You'll be a fine bird all the same."

  After the eagle had learned to fly, he taught himself to fish, and tocatch frogs. But by and by he began to ponder this also.

  "How does it happen that I live on fish and frogs?" he asked. "The othergoslings don't."

  "This is due to the fact that I had no other food to give you when youwere on the cliff," said Akka. "But don't let that make you sad. You'llbe a fine bird all the same."

  When the wild geese began their autumn moving, Gorgo flew along with theflock, regarding himself all the while as one of them. The air wasfilled with birds who were on their way south, and there was greatexcitement among them when Akka appeared with an eagle in her train. Thewild goose flock was continually surrounded by swarms of the curious wholoudly expressed their astonishment. Akka bade them be silent, but itwas impossible to stop so many wagging tongues.

  "Why do they call me an eagle?" Gorgo asked repeatedly, growing more andmore exasperated. "Can't they see that I'm a wild goose? I'm nobird-eater who preys upon his kind. How dare they give me such an uglyname?"

  One day they flew above a barn yard where many chickens walked on a dumpheap and picked. "An eagle! An eagle!" shrieked the chickens, andstarted to run for shelter. But Gorgo, who had heard the eagles spokenof as savage criminals, could not control his anger. He snapped hiswings together and shot down to the ground, striking his talons into oneof the hens. "I'll teach you, I will, that I'm no eagle!" he screamedfuriously, and struck with his beak.

  That instant he heard Akka call to him from the air, and roseobediently. The wild goose flew toward him and began to reprimand him."What are you trying to do?" she cried, beating him with her bill. "Wasit perhaps your intention to tear that poor hen to pieces?" But when theeagle took his punishment from the wild goose without a protest, therearose from the great bird throng around them a perfect storm of tauntsand gibes. The eagle heard this, and turned toward Akka with flamingeyes, as though he would have liked to attack her. But he suddenlychanged his mind, and with quick wing strokes bounded into the air,soaring so high that no call could reach him; and he sailed around upthere as long as the wild geese saw him.

  Two days later he appeared again in the wild goose flock.

  "I know who I am," he said to Akka. "Since I am an eagle, I must liveas becomes an eagle; but I think that we can be friends all the same.You or any of yours I shall never attack."

  But Akka had set her heart on successfully training an eagle into a mildand harmless bird, and she could not tolerate his wanting to do as hechose.

  "Do you think that I wish to be the friend of a bird-eater?" she asked."Live as I have taught you to live, and you may travel with my flock asheretofore."

  Both were proud and stubborn, and neither of them would yield. It endedin Akka's forbidding the eagle to show his face in her neighbourhood,and her anger toward him was so intense that no one dared speak his namein her presence.

  After that Gorgo roamed around the country, alone and shunned, like allgreat robbers. He was often downhearted, and certainly longed many atime for the days when he thought himself a wild goose, and played withthe merry goslings.

  Among the animals he had a great reputation for courage. They used tosay of him that he feared no one but his foster-mother, Akka. And theycould also say of him that he never used violence against a wild goose.

  IN CAPTIVITY

  Gorgo was only three years old, and had not as yet thought aboutmarrying and procuring a home for himself, when he was captured one dayby a hunter, and sold to the Skansen Zooelogical Garden, where there werealready two eagles held captive in a cage built of iron bars and steelwires. The cage stood out in the open, and was so large that a couple oftrees had easily been moved into it, and quite a large cairn was piledup in there. Notwithstanding all this, the birds were unhappy. They satmotionless on the same spot nearly all day. Their pretty, dark featherdresses became rough and lustreless, and their eyes we
re riveted withhopeless longing on the sky without.

  During the first week of Gorgo's captivity he was still awake and fullof life, but later a heavy torpor came upon him. He perched himself onone spot, like the other eagles, and stared at vacancy. He no longerknew how the days passed.

  One morning when Gorgo sat in his usual torpor, he heard some one callto him from below. He was so drowsy that he could barely rouse himselfenough to lower his glance.

  "Who is calling me?" he asked.

  "Oh, Gorgo! Don't you know me? It's Thumbietot who used to fly aroundwith the wild geese."

  "Is Akka also captured?" asked Gorgo in the tone of one who is trying tocollect his thoughts after a long sleep.

  "No; Akka, the white goosey-gander, and the whole flock are probablysafe and sound up in Lapland at this season," said the boy. "It's only Iwho am a prisoner here."

  As the boy was speaking he noticed that Gorgo averted his glance, andbegan to stare into space again.

  "Golden eagle!" cried the boy; "I have not forgotten that once youcarried me back to the wild geese, and that you spared the whitegoosey-gander's life! Tell me if I can be of any help to you!"

  Gorgo scarcely raised his head. "Don't disturb me, Thumbietot," heyawned. "I'm sitting here dreaming that I am free, and am soaring awayup among the clouds. I don't want to be awake."

  "You must rouse yourself, and see what goes on around you," the boyadmonished, "or you will soon look as wretched as the other eagles."

  "I wish I were as they are! They are so lost in their dreams thatnothing more can trouble them," said the eagle.

  When night came, and all three eagles were asleep, there was a lightscraping on the steel wires stretched across the top of the cage. Thetwo listless old captives did not allow themselves to be disturbed bythe noise, but Gorgo awakened.

  "Who's there? Who is moving up on the roof?" he asked.

  "It's Thumbietot, Gorgo," answered the boy. "I'm sitting here filingaway at the steel wires so that you can escape."

  The eagle raised his head, and saw in the night light how the boy satand filed the steel wires at the top of the cage. He felt hopeful for aninstant, but soon discouragement got the upper hand.

  "I'm a big bird, Thumbietot," said Gorgo; "how can you ever manage tofile away enough wires for me to come out? You'd better quit that, andleave me in peace."

  "Oh, go to sleep, and don't bother about me!" said the boy. "I'll not bethrough to-night nor to-morrow night, but I shall try to free you intime for here you'll become a total wreck."

  Gorgo fell asleep. When he awoke the next morning he saw at a glancethat a number of wires had been filed. That day he felt less drowsy thanhe had done in the past. He spread his wings, and fluttered from branchto branch to get the stiffness out of his joints.

  One morning early, just as the first streak of sunlight made itsappearance, Thumbietot awakened the eagle.

  "Try now, Gorgo!" he whispered.

  The eagle looked up. The boy had actually filed off so many wires thatnow there was a big hole in the wire netting. Gorgo flapped his wingsand propelled himself upward. Twice he missed and fell back into thecage; but finally he succeeded in getting out.

  With proud wing strokes he soared into the clouds. Little Thumbietot satand gazed after him with a mournful expression. He wished that some onewould come and give him his freedom too.

  The boy was domiciled now at Skansen. He had become acquainted with allthe animals there, and had made many friends among them. He had to admitthat there was so much to see and learn there that it was not difficultfor him to pass the time. To be sure his thoughts went forth every dayto Morten Goosey-Gander and his other comrades, and he yearned for them."If only I weren't bound by my promise," he thought, "I'd find some birdto take me to them!"

  It may seem strange that Clement Larsson had not restored the boy'sliberty, but one must remember how excited the little fiddler had beenwhen he left Skansen. The morning of his departure he had thought ofsetting out the midget's food in a blue bowl, but, unluckily, he hadbeen unable to find one. All the Skansen folk--Lapps, peasant girls,artisans, and gardeners--had come to bid him good-bye, and he had had notime to search for a blue bowl. It was time to start, and at the lastmoment he had to ask the old Laplander to help him.

  "One of the tiny folk happens to be living here at Skansen," saidClement, "and every morning I set out a little food for him. Will you dome the favour of taking these few coppers and purchasing a blue bowlwith them? Put a little gruel and milk in it, and to-morrow morning setit out under the steps of Bollnaes cottage."

  The old Laplander looked surprised, but there was no time for Clement toexplain further, as he had to be off to the railway station.

  The Laplander went down to the zooelogical village to purchase the bowl.As he saw no blue one that he thought appropriate, he bought a whiteone, and this he conscientiously filled and set out every morning.

  That was why the boy had not been released from his pledge. He knew thatClement had gone away, but _he_ was not allowed to leave.

  That night the boy longed more than ever for his freedom. This wasbecause summer had come now in earnest. During his travels he hadsuffered much in cold and stormy weather, and when he first came toSkansen he had thought that perhaps it was just as well that he had beencompelled to break the journey. He would have been frozen to death hadhe gone to Lapland in the month of May. But now it was warm; the earthwas green-clad, birches and poplars were clothed in their satinyfoliage, and the cherry trees--in fact all the fruit trees--were coveredwith blossoms. The berry bushes had green berries on their stems; theoaks had carefully unfolded their leaves, and peas, cabbages, and beanswere growing in the vegetable garden at Skansen.

  "Now it must be warm up in Lapland," thought the boy. "I should like tobe seated on Morten Goosey-Gander's back on a fine morning like this! Itwould be great fun to ride around in the warm, still air, and look downat the ground, as it now lies decked with green grass, and embellishedwith pretty blossoms."

  He sat musing on this when the eagle suddenly swooped down from the sky,and perched beside the boy, on top of the cage.

  "I wanted to try my wings to see if they were still good for anything,"said Gorgo. "You didn't suppose that I meant to leave you here incaptivity? Get up on my back, and I'll take you to your comrades."

  "No, that's impossible!" the boy answered. "I have pledged my word thatI would stay here till I am liberated."

  "What sort of nonsense are you talking?" protested Gorgo. "In the firstplace they brought you here against your will; then they forced you topromise that you would remain here. Surely you must understand that sucha promise one need not keep?"

  "Oh, no, I must keep it," said the boy. "I thank you all the same foryour kind intention, but you can't help me."

  "Oh, can't I?" said Gorgo. "We'll see about that!" In a twinkling hegrasped Nils Holgersson in his big talons, and rose with him toward theskies, disappearing in a northerly direction.

  ON OVER GAeSTRIKLAND

  THE PRECIOUS GIRDLE

  _Wednesday, June fifteenth_.

  The eagle kept on flying until he was a long distance north ofStockholm. Then he sank to a wooded hillock where he relaxed his hold onthe boy.

  The instant Thumbietot was out of Gorgo's clutches he started to runback to the city as fast as he could.

  The eagle made a long swoop, caught up to the boy, and stopped him withhis claw.

  "Do you propose to go back to prison?" he demanded.

  "That's my affair. I can go where I like, for all of you!" retorted theboy, trying to get away. Thereupon the eagle gripped him with his strongtalons, and rose in the air.

  Now Gorgo circled over the entire province of Uppland and did not stopagain until he came to the great water-falls at Aelvkarleby where healighted on a rock in the middle of the rushing rapids below the roaringfalls. Again he relaxed his hold on the captive.

  The boy saw that here there was no chance of escape from the eagle.Above them the whi
te scum wall of the water-fall came tumbling down, andround about the river rushed along in a mighty torrent. Thumbietot wasvery indignant to think that in this way he had been forced to become apromise-breaker. He turned his back to the eagle and would not speak tohim.

  Now that the bird had set the boy down in a place from which he couldnot run away, he told him confidentially that he had been brought up byAkka from Kebnekaise, and that he had quarrelled with his foster-mother.

  "Now, Thumbietot, perhaps you understand why I wish to take you back tothe wild geese," he said. "I have heard that you are in great favourwith Akka, and it was my purpose to ask you to make peace between us."

  As soon as the boy comprehended that the eagle had not carried him offin a spirit of contrariness, he felt kindly toward him.

  "I should like very much to help you," he returned, "but I am bound bymy promise." Thereupon he explained to the eagle how he had fallen intocaptivity and how Clement Larsson had left Skansen without setting himfree.

  Nevertheless the eagle would not relinquish his plan.

  "Listen to me, Thumbietot," he said. "My wings can carry you whereveryou wish to go, and my eyes can search out whatever you wish to find.Tell me how the man looks who exacted this promise from you, and I willfind him and take you to him. Then it is for you to do the rest."

  Thumbietot approved of the