The Wonderful Adventures of Nils | Page 6

there is such a thing
as justice in this world."
"Moo, moo, moo," sang the three of them in unison. He couldn't hear
what they said, for each one tried to out-bellow the others.
The boy wanted to ask after the elf, but he couldn't make himself heard
because the cows were in full uproar. They carried on as they used to
do when he let a strange dog in on them. They kicked with their hind
legs, shook their necks, stretched their heads, and measured the
distance with their horns.
"Come here, you!" said Mayrose, "and you'll get a kick that you won't
forget in a hurry!"

"Come here," said Gold Lily, "and you shall dance on my horns!"
"Come here, and you shall taste how it felt when you threw your
wooden shoes at me, as you did last summer!" bawled Star.
"Come here, and you shall be repaid for that wasp you let loose in my
ear!" growled Gold Lily.
Mayrose was the oldest and the wisest of them, and she was the very
maddest. "Come here!" said she, "that I may pay you back for the many
times that you have jerked the milk pail away from your mother; and
for all the snares you laid for her, when she came carrying the milk
pails; and for all the tears when she has stood here and wept over you!"
The boy wanted to tell them how he regretted that he had been unkind
to them; and that never, never--from now on--should he be anything but
good, if they would only tell him where the elf was. But the cows didn't
listen to him. They made such a racket that he began to fear one of
them would succeed in breaking loose; and he thought that the best
thing for him to do was to go quietly away from the cowhouse.
When he came out, he was thoroughly disheartened. He could
understand that no one on the place wanted to help him find the elf.
And little good would it do him, probably, if the elf were found.
He crawled up on the broad hedge which fenced in the farm, and which
was overgrown with briers and lichen. There he sat down to think about
how it would go with him, if he never became a human being again.
When father and mother came home from church, there would be a
surprise for them. Yes, a surprise--it would be all over the land; and
people would come flocking from East Vemminghög, and from Torp,
and from Skerup. The whole Vemminghög township would come to
stare at him. Perhaps father and mother would take him with them, and
show him at the market place in Kivik.
No, that was too horrible to think about. He would rather that no human
being should ever see him again.
His unhappiness was simply frightful! No one in all the world was so
unhappy as he. He was no longer a human being--but a freak.
Little by little he began to comprehend what it meant--to be no longer
human. He was separated from everything now; he could no longer
play with other boys, he could not take charge of the farm after his
parents were gone; and certainly no girl would think of marrying him.
He sat and looked at his home. It was a little log house, which lay as if

it had been crushed down to earth, under the high, sloping roof. The
outhouses were also small; and the patches of ground were so narrow
that a horse could barely turn around on them. But little and poor
though the place was, it was much too good for him now. He couldn't
ask for any better place than a hole under the stable floor.
It was wondrously beautiful weather! It budded, and it rippled, and it
murmured, and it twittered--all around him. But he sat there with such a
heavy sorrow. He should never be happy any more about anything.
Never had he seen the skies as blue as they were to-day. Birds of
passage came on their travels. They came from foreign lands, and had
travelled over the East sea, by way of Smygahuk, and were now on
their way North. They were of many different kinds; but he was only
familiar with the wild geese, who came flying in two long rows, which
met at an angle.
Several flocks of wild geese had already flown by. They flew very high,
still he could hear how they shrieked: "To the hills! Now we're off to
the hills!"
When the wild geese saw the tame geese, who walked about the farm,
they sank nearer the earth, and called: "Come along! Come along!
We're off to the hills!"
The tame geese could not