Nils Holgerssons underbara resa. English

by Selma Lagerlöf

darker smokecurls than before, and whistled mournfully because it had to standstill. All of a sudden it began to move toward the south, likeeverything else.

  The boy saw all the coach doors open and the passengers step out whileboth cars and people were moving southward.

  He glanced away from the earth and tried to look straight ahead. Staringat the queer railway train had made him dizzy; but after he had gazedfor a moment at a little white cloud, he was tired of that and lookeddown again--thinking all the while that the eagle and himself were quitestill and that everything else was travelling on south. Fancy! Supposethe grain field just then running along under him--which must have beennewly sown for he had seen a green blade on it--were to travel all theway down to Skane where the rye was in full bloom at this season!

  Up here the pine forests were different: the trees were bare, thebranches short and the needles were almost black. Many trees were baldat the top and looked sickly. If a forest like that were to journey downto Kolmarden and see a real forest, how inferior it would feel!

  The gardens which he now saw had some pretty bushes, but no fruit treesor lindens or chestnut trees--only mountain ash and birch. There weresome vegetable beds, but they were not as yet hoed or planted.

  "If such an apology for a garden were to come trailing into Soermland,the province of gardens, wouldn't it think itself a poor wilderness bycomparison?"

  Imagine an immense plain like the one now gliding beneath him, comingunder the very eyes of the poor Smaland peasants! They would hurry awayfrom their meagre garden plots and stony fields, to begin plowing andsowing.

  There was one thing, however, of which this Northland had more thanother lands, and that was light. Night must have set in, for the cranesstood sleeping on the morass; but it was as light as day. The sun hadnot travelled southward, like every other thing. Instead, it had gone sofar north that it shone in the boy's face. To all appearance, it had nonotion of setting that night.

  If this light and this sun were only shining on West Vemmenhoeg! It wouldsuit the boy's father and mother to a dot to have a working day thatlasted twenty-four hours.

  _Sunday, June nineteenth_.

  The boy raised his head and looked around, perfectly bewildered. It wasmighty queer! Here he lay sleeping in some place where he had not beenbefore. No, he had never seen this glen nor the mountains round about;and never had he noticed such puny and shrunken birches as those underwhich he now lay.

  Where was the eagle? The boy could see no sign of him. Gorgo must havedeserted him. Well, here was another adventure!

  The boy lay down again, closed his eyes, and tried to recall thecircumstances under which he had dropped to sleep.

  He remembered that as long as he was travelling over Westbottom he hadfancied that the eagle and he were at a standstill in the air, and thatthe land under them was moving southward. As the eagle turned northwest,the wind had come from that side, and again he had felt a current ofair, so that the land below had stopped moving and he had noticed thatthe eagle was bearing him onward with terrific speed.

  "Now we are flying into Lapland," Gorgo had said, and the boy had bentforward, so that he might see the country of which he had heard so much.

  But he had felt rather disappointed at not seeing anything but greattracts of forest land and wide marshes. Forest followed marsh and marshfollowed forest. The monotony of the whole finally made him so sleepythat he had nearly dropped to the ground.

  He said to the eagle that he could not stay on his back another minute,but must sleep awhile. Gorgo had promptly swooped to the ground, wherethe boy had dropped down on a moss tuft. Then Gorgo put a talon aroundhim and soared into the air with him again.

  "Go to sleep, Thumbietot!" he cried. "The sunshine keeps me awake and Iwant to continue the journey."

  Although the boy hung in this uncomfortable position, he actually dozedand dreamed.

  He dreamed that he was on a broad road in southern Sweden, hurryingalong as fast as his little legs could carry him. He was not alone, manywayfarers were tramping in the same direction. Close beside him marchedgrain-filled rye blades, blossoming corn flowers, and yellow daisies.Heavily laden apple trees went puffing along, followed by vine-coveredbean stalks, big clusters of white daisies, and masses of berry bushes.Tall beeches and oaks and lindens strolled leisurely in the middle ofthe road, their branches swaying, and they stepped aside for none.Between the boy's tiny feet darted the little flowers--wild strawberryblossoms, white anemones, clover, and forget-me-nots. At first hethought that only the vegetable family was on the march, but presentlyhe saw that animals and people accompanied them. The insects werebuzzing around advancing bushes, the fishes were swimming in movingditches, the birds were singing in strolling trees. Both tame and wildbeasts were racing, and amongst all this people moved along--some withspades and scythes, others with axes, and others, again, with fishingnets.

  The procession marched with gladness and gayety, and he did not wonderat that when he saw who was leading it. It was nothing less than the Sunitself that rolled on like a great shining head with hair of many-huedrays and a countenance beaming with merriment and kindliness!

  "Forward, march!" it kept calling out. "None need feel anxious whilst Iam here. Forward, march!"

  "I wonder where the Sun wants to take us to?" remarked the boy. A ryeblade that walked beside him heard him, and immediately answered:

  "He wants to take us up to Lapland to fight the Ice Witch."

  Presently the boy noticed that some of the travellers hesitated, slowedup, and finally stood quite still. He saw that the tall beech treestopped, and that the roebuck and the wheat blade tarried by thewayside, likewise the blackberry bush, the little yellow buttercup, thechestnut tree, and the grouse.

  He glanced about him and tried to reason out why so many stopped. Thenhe discovered that they were no longer in southern Sweden. The march hadbeen so rapid that they were already in Svealand.

  Up there the oak began to move more cautiously. It paused awhile toconsider, took a few faltering steps, then came to a standstill.

  "Why doesn't the oak come along?" asked the boy.

  "It's afraid of the Ice Witch," said a fair young birch that trippedalong so boldly and cheerfully that it was a joy to watch it. The crowdhurried on as before. In a short time they were in Norrland, and now itmattered not how much the Sun cried and coaxed--the apple tree stopped,the cherry tree stopped, the rye blade stopped!

  The boy turned to them and asked:

  "Why don't you come along? Why do you desert the Sun?"

  "We dare not! We're afraid of the Ice Witch, who lives in Lapland," theyanswered.

  The boy comprehended that they were far north, as the procession grewthinner and thinner. The rye blade, the barley, the wild strawberry, theblueberry bush, the pea stalk, the currant bush had come along as far asthis. The elk and the domestic cow had been walking side by side, butnow they stopped. The Sun no doubt would have been almost deserted ifnew followers had not happened along. Osier bushes and a lot of brushyvegetation joined the procession. Laps and reindeer, mountain owl andmountain fox and willow grouse followed.

  Then the boy heard something coming toward them. He saw great rivers andcreeks sweeping along with terrible force.

  "Why are they in such a hurry?" he asked.

  "They are running away from the Ice Witch, who lives up in themountains."

  All of a sudden the boy saw before him a high, dark, turreted wall.Instantly the Sun turned its beaming face toward this wall and floodedit with light. Then it became apparent that it was no wall, but the mostglorious mountains, which loomed up--one behind another. Their peakswere rose-coloured in the sunlight, their slopes azure and gold-tinted.

  "Onward, onward!" urged the Sun as it climbed the steep cliffs. "There'sno danger so long as I am with you."

  But half way up, the bold young birch deserted--also the sturdy pine andthe persistent spruce, and there, too, the Laplander, and the willowbrush deserted. At last, when the Sun reached the
top, there was no onebut the little tot, Nils Holgersson, who had followed it.

  The Sun rolled into a cave, where the walls were bedecked with ice, andNils Holgersson wanted to follow, but farther than the opening of thecave he dared not venture, for in there he saw something dreadful.

  Far back in the cave sat an old witch with an ice body, hair of icicles,and a mantle of snow!

  At her feet lay three black wolves, who rose and opened their jaws whenthe Sun approached. From the mouth of one came a piercing cold, from thesecond a blustering north wind, and from the third came impenetrabledarkness.

  "That must be the Ice Witch and her tribe," thought the boy.

  He understood that now was the time for him to flee, but he was socurious to see the outcome of the meeting between the Sun and the IceWitch that he tarried.

  The Ice Witch did not move--only turned her hideous face toward the Sun.This continued for a short time. It