The wonderful adventures of nils
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gns. The little caterpillars were everywhere. The whole forest was being ravaged by them!
All of a sudden he came to a tract where there was no odour, and where all was still.
“Here`s the end of their domain,” thought the dog, as he paused and glanced about.
But here it was even worse; for the caterpillars had already done their work, and the trees were needleless. They were like the dead. The only thing that covered them was a network of ragged threads, which the caterpillars had spun to use as roads and bridges.
In there, among the dying trees, Grayskin stood waiting for Karr.
He was not alone. With him were four old elk-the most respected in the forest. Karr knew them: They were Crooked-Back, who was a small elk, but had a larger hump than the others; Antler-Crown, who was the most dignified of the elk; Rough-Mane, with the thick coat; and an old long-legged one, who, up till the autumn before, when he got a bullet in his thigh, had been terribly hot-tempered and quarrelsome.
“What in the world is happening to the forest?” Karr asked when he came up to the elk. They stood with lowered heads, far protruding upper lips, and looked puzzled.
“No one can tell,” answered Grayskin. “This insect family used to be the least hurtful of any in the forest, and never before have they done any damage. But these last few years they have been multiplying so fast that now it appears as if the entire forest would be destroyed.”
“Yes, it looks bad,” Karr agreed, “but I see that the wisest animals in the forest have come together to hold a consultation. Perhaps you have already found some remedy?”
When the dog said this, Crooked-Back solemnly raised his heavy head, pricked up his long ears, and spoke:
“We have summoned you hither, Karr, that we may learn if the humans know of this desolation.”
“No,” said Karr, “no human being ever comes thus far into the forest when it`s not hunting time. They know nothing of this misfortune.”
Then Antler-Crown said:
“We who have lived long in the forest do not think that we can fight this insect pest all by ourselves.”
“After this there will be no peace in the forest!” put in Rough-Mane.
“But we can`t let the whole Liberty Forest go to rack and ruin!” protested Big-and-Strong. “We`ll have to consult the humans; there is no alternative.”
Karr understood that the elk had difficulty in expressing what they wished to say, and he tried to help them.
“Perhaps you want me to let the people know the conditions here?” he suggested.
All the old elk nodded their heads.
“It`s most unfortunate that we are obliged to ask help of human beings, but we have no choice.”
A moment later Karr was on his way home. As he ran ahead, deeply distressed over all that he had heard and seen, a big black water-snake approached them.
“Well met in the forest!” hissed the water-snake.
“Well met again!” snarled Karr, and rushed by without stopping.
The snake turned and tried to catch up to him.
“Perhaps that creature also, is worried about the forest,” thought Karr, and waited.
Immediately the snake began to talk about the great disaster.
“There will be an end of peace and quiet in the forest when human beings are called hither,” said the snake.
“I`m afraid there will,” the dog agreed; “but the oldest forest dwellers know what they`re about!” he added.
“I think I know a better plan,” said the snake, “if I can get the reward I wish.”
“Are you not the one whom every one around here calls old Helpless?” said the dog, sneeringly.
“I`m an old inhabitant of the forest,” said the snake, “and I know how to get rid of such plagues.”
“If you clear the forest of that pest, I feel sure you can have anything you ask for,” said Karr.
The snake did not respond to this until he had crawled under a tree stump, where he was well protected. Then he said:
“Tell Grayskin that if he will leave Liberty Forest forever, and go far north, where no oak tree grows, I will send sickness and death to all the creeping things that gnaw the pines and spruces!”
“What`s that you say?” asked Karr, bristling up. “What harm has Grayskin ever done you?”
“He has slain the one whom I loved best,” the snake declared, “and I want to be avenged.”
Before the snake had finished speaking, Karr made a dash for him; but the reptile lay safely hidden under the tree stump.
“Stay where you are!” Karr concluded. “We`ll manage to drive out the caterpillars without your help.”
THE BIG WAR OF THE MOTHS
The following spring, as Karr was dashing through the forest one morning, he heard some one behind him calling: “Karr! Karr!”
He turned and saw an old fox standing outside his lair.
“You must tell me if the humans are doing anything for the forest,” said the fox.
“Yes, you may be sure they are!” said Karr. “They are working as hard as they can.”
“They have killed off all my kinsfolk, and they`ll be killing me next,” protested the fox. “But they shall be pardoned for that if only they save the forest.”
That year Karr never ran into the woods without some animal`s asking if the humans could save the forest. It was not easy for the dog to answer; the people themselves were not certain that they could conquer the moths. But considering how feared and hated old Kolmarden had always been, it was remarkable that every day more than a hundred men went there, to work. They cleared away the underbrush. They felled dead trees, lopped off branches from the live ones so that the caterpillars could not easily crawl from tree to tree; they also dug wide trenches around the ravaged parts and put up lime-washed fences to keep them out of new territory. Then they painted rings of lime around the trunks of trees to prevent the caterpillars leaving those they had already stripped. The idea was to force them to remain where they were until they starved to death.
The people worked with the forest until far into the spring. They were hopeful, and could hardly wait for the caterpillars to come out from their eggs, feeling certain that they had shut them in so effectually that most of them would die of starvation.
But in the early summer the caterpillars came out, more numerous than ever.
They were everywhere! They crawled on the country roads, on fences, on the walls of the cabins. They wandered outside the confines of Liberty Forest to other parts of Kolmarden.
“They won`t stop till all our forests are destroyed!” sighed the people, who were in great despair, and could not enter the forest without weeping.
Karr was so sick of the sight of all these creeping, gnawing things that he could hardly bear to step outside the door. But one day he felt that he must go and find out how Grayskin was getting on. He took the shortest cut to the elk`s haunts, and hurried along-his nose close to the earth. When he came to the tree stump where he had met Helpless the year before, the snake was still there, and called to him:
“Have you told Grayskin what I said to you when last we met?” asked the water-snake.
Karr only growled and tried to get at him.
“If you haven`t told him, by all means do so!” insisted the snake. “You must see that the humans know of no cure for this plague.”
“Neither do you!” retorted the dog, and ran on.
Karr found Grayskin, but the elk was so low-spirited that he scarcely greeted the dog. He began at once to talk of the forest.
“I don`t know what I wouldn`t give if this misery were only at an end!” he said.
“Now I shall tell you that `tis said you could save the forest.” Then Karr delivered the water-snake`s message.
“If any one but Helpless had promised this, I should immediately go into exile,” declared the elk. “But how can a poor water-snake have the power to work such a miracle?”
“Of course it`s only a bluff,” said Karr. “Water-snakes always like to pretend that they know more than other creatures.”
When Karr was ready to go home, Grayskin accompanied him part of the way. Presently Karr heard a thrush, perched on a pine top, cry:
“There goes Grayskin, who has destroyed the forest! There goes Grayskin, who has destroyed the forest!”
Karr thought that he had not heard correctly, but the next moment a hare came darting across the path. When the hare saw them, he stopped, flapped his ears, and screamed:
“Here comes Grayskin, who has destroyed the forest!” Then he ran as fast as he could.
“What do they mean by that?” asked Karr.
“I really don`t know,” said Grayskin. “I think that the small forest animals are displeased with me because I was the one who proposed that we should ask help of human beings. When the underbrush was cut down, all their lairs and hiding places were destroyed.”
They walked on together a while longer, and Karr heard the same cry coming from all directions:
“There goes Grayskin, who has destroyed the forest!”
Grayskin pretended not to hear it; but Karr understood why the elk was so downhearted.
“I say, Grayskin, what does the water-snake mean by saying you killed the one he loved best?”
“How can I tell?” said Grayskin. “You know very well that I never kill anything.”
Shortly after that they met the four old elk-Crooked-Back, Antler-Crown, Rough-Mane, and Big-and-Strong, who were coming along slowly, one after the other.
“Well met in the forest!” called Grayskin.
“Well met in turn!” answered the elk.
“We were just looking for you, Grayskin, to consult with you about the forest.”
“The fact is,” began Crooked-Back, “we have been informed that a crime has been committed here, and that the whole forest is being destroyed because the criminal has not been punished.”
“What kind of a crime was it?”
“Some one killed a harmless creature that he couldn`t eat. Such an act is accounted a crime in Liberty Forest.”
“Who could have done such a cowardly thing?” wondered Grayskin.
“They say that an elk did it, and we were just going to ask if you knew who it was.”
“No,” said Grayskin, “I have never heard of an elk killing a harmless creature.”
Grayskin parted from the four old elk, and went on with Karr. He was sil…