The wonderful adventures of nils

her tricks on them. As she sat on the edge of a cloud and looked down upon Narke, which rested so peacefully and comfortably beneath her, she must have thought: “The inhabitants would fare much too well if I were not in existence. They would grow sleepy and dull. There must be some one like myself to rouse them and keep them in good spirits.”
Then she would laugh wildly and, chattering like a magpie, would rush off, dancing and spinning from one end of the plain to the other. When a Narke man saw her come dragging her dust trail over the plain, he could not help smiling. Provoking and tiresome she certainly was, but she had a merry spirit. It was just as refreshing for the peasants to meet Ysatter-Kaisa as it was for the plain to be lashed by the windstorm.
Nowadays `tis said that Ysatter-Kaisa is dead and gone, like all other witches, but this one can hardly believe. It is as if some one were to come and tell you that henceforth the air would always be still on the plain, and the wind would never more dance across it with blustering breezes and drenching showers.
He who fancies that Ysatter-Kaisa is dead and gone may as well hear what occurred in Narke the year that Nils Holgersson travelled over that part of the country. Then let him tell what he thinks about it.
MARKET EVE
Wednesday, April twenty-seventh.
It was the day before the big Cattle Fair at Orebro; it rained in torrents and people thought: “This is exactly as in Ysatter-Kaisa`s time! At fairs she used to be more prankish than usual. It was quite in her line to arrange a downpour like this on a market eve.”
As the day wore on, the rain increased, and toward evening came regular cloud-bursts. The roads were like bottomless swamps. The farmers who had started from home with their cattle early in the morning, that they might arrive at a seasonable hour, fared badly. Cows and oxen were so tired they could hardly move, and many of the poor beasts dropped down in the middle of the road, to show that they were too exhausted to go any farther. All who lived along the roadside had to open their doors to the market-bound travellers, and harbour them as best they could. Farm houses, barns, and sheds were soon crowded to their limit.
Meanwhile, those who could struggle along toward the inn did so; but when they arrived they wished they had stopped at some cabin along the road. All the cribs in the barn and all the stalls in the stable were already occupied. There was no other choice than to let horses and cattle stand out in the rain. Their masters could barely manage to get under cover.
The crush and mud and slush in the barn yard were frightful! Some of the animals were standing in puddles and could not even lie down. There were thoughtful masters, of course, who procured straw for their animals to lie on, and spread blankets over them; but there were those, also, who sat in the inn, drinking and gambling, entirely forgetful of the dumb creatures which they should have protected.
The boy and the wild geese had come to a little wooded island in Hjalmar Lake that evening. The island was separated from the main land by a narrow and shallow stream, and at low tide one could pass over it dry-shod.
It rained just as hard on the island as it did everywhere else. The boy could not sleep for the water that kept dripping down on him. Finally he got up and began to walk. He fancied that he felt the rain less when he moved about.
He had hardly circled the island, when he heard a splashing in the stream. Presently he saw a solitary horse tramping among the trees. Never in all his life had he seen such a wreck of a horse! He was broken-winded and stiff-kneed and so thin that every rib could be seen under the hide. He bore neither harness nor saddle-only an old bridle, from which dangled a half-rotted rope-end. Obviously he had had no difficulty in breaking loose.
The horse walked straight toward the spot where the wild geese were sleeping. The boy was afraid that he would step on them.
“Where are you going? Feel your ground!” shouted the boy.
“Oh, there you are!” exclaimed the horse. “I`ve walked miles to meet you!”
“Have you heard of me?” asked the boy, astonished.
“I`ve got ears, even if I am old! There are many who talk of you nowadays.”
As he spoke, the horse bent his head that he might see better, and the boy noticed that he had a small head, beautiful eyes, and a soft, sensitive nose.
“He must have been a good horse at the start, though he has come to grief in his old age,” he thought.
“I wish you would come with me and help me with something,” pleaded the horse.
The boy thought it would be embarrassing to accompany a creature who looked so wretched, and excused himself on account of the bad weather.
“You`ll be no worse off on my back than you are lying here,” said the horse. “But perhaps you don`t dare to go with an old tramp of a horse like me.”
“Certainly I dare!” said the boy.
“Then wake the geese, so that we can arrange with them where they shall come for you to-morrow,” said the horse.
The boy was soon seated on the animal`s back. The old nag trotted along better than he had thought possible. It was a long ride in the rain and darkness before they halted near a large inn, where everything looked terribly uninviting! The wheel tracks were so deep in the road that the boy feared he might drown should he fall down into them. Alongside the fence, which enclosed the yard, some thirty or forty horses and cattle were tied, with no protection against the rain, and in the yard were wagons piled with packing cases, where sheep, calves, hogs, and chickens were shut in.
The horse walked over to the fence and stationed himself. The boy remained seated upon his back, and, with his good night eyes, plainly saw how badly the animals fared.
“How do you happen to be standing out here in the rain?” he asked.
“We`re on our way to a fair at Orebro, but we were obliged to put up here on account of the rain. This is an inn; but so many travellers have already arrived that there`s no room for us in the barns.”
The boy made no reply, but sat quietly looking about him. Not many of the animals were asleep, and on all sides he heard complaints and indignant protests. They had reason enough for grumbling, for the weather was even worse than it had been earlier in the day. A freezing wind had begun to blow, and the rain which came beating down on them was turning to snow. It was easy enough to understand what the horse wanted the boy to help him with.
“Do you see that fine farm yard directly opposite the inn?” remarked the horse.
“Yes, I see it,” answered the boy, “and I can`t comprehend why they haven`t tried to find shelter for all of you in there. They are already full, perhaps?”
“No, there are no strangers in that place,” said the horse. “The people who live on that farm are so stingy and selfish that it would be useless for any one to ask them for harbour.”
“If that`s the case, I suppose you`ll have to stand where you are.”
“I was born and raised on that farm,” said the horse; “I know that there is a large barn and a big cow shed, with many empty stalls and mangers, and I was wondering if you couldn`t manage in some way or other to get us in over there.”
“I don`t think I could venture-” hesitated the boy. But he felt so sorry for the poor beasts that he wanted at least to try.
He ran into the strange barn yard and saw at once that all the outhouses were locked and the keys gone. He stood there, puzzled and helpless, when aid came to him from an unexpected source. A gust of wind came sweeping along with terrific force and flung open a shed door right in front of him.
The boy was not long in getting back to the horse.
“It isn`t possible to get into the barn or the cow house,” he said, “but there`s a big, empty hay shed that they have forgotten to bolt. I can lead you into that.”
“Thank you!” said the horse. “It will seem good to sleep once more on familiar ground. It`s the only happiness I can expect in this life.”
Meanwhile, at the flourishing farm opposite the inn, the family sat up much later than usual that evening.
The master of the place was a man of thirty-five, tall and dignified, with a handsome but melancholy face. During the day he had been out in the rain and had got wet, like every one else, and at supper he asked his old mother, who was still mistress of the place, to light a fire on the hearth that he might dry his clothes. The mother kindled a feeble blaze-for in that house they were not wasteful with wood-and the master hung his coat on the back of a chair, and placed it before the fire. With one foot on top of the andiron and a hand resting on his knee, he stood gazing into the embers. Thus he stood for two whole hours, making no move other than to cast a log on the fire now and then.
The mistress removed the supper things and turned down his bed for the night before she went to her own room and seated herself. At intervals she came to the door and looked wonderingly at her son.
“It`s nothing, mother. I`m only thinking,” he said.
His thoughts were on something that had occurred shortly before: When he passed the inn a horse dealer had asked him if he would not like to purchase a horse, and had shown him an old nag so weather-beaten that he asked the dealer if he took him for a fool, since he wished to palm off such a played-out beast on him.
“Oh, no!” said the horse dealer. “I only thought that, inasmuch as the horse once belonged to you, you might wish to give him a comfortable home in his old age; he has need of it.”
Then he looked at the horse and recognized it as one which he himself had raised and broken in; but it did not occur to him to purchase such an old and useless creature on that account. No, indeed! He was not one who squandered his money.
All the same, the sight of the horse had awakened many, memories-and it was the memories that kept him awake.
That horse had been a fine animal. His father had let him te…