The Wonderful Adventures of Nils 1732 Studios

Swedish · The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

En dag i Hälsingland

A Day in Hälsingland

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  1. 1

    The next day the boy traveled on over Hälsingland.

    Nästanextnästa · adjective, nominativemodifies dag
    dagdaydag · noun, nominative, common gender, singularhead of the phrase
    fortraveledfor · prepositionpreposition marking pojken

    Past tense of fara (to travel/fly, here of tomte-Nils and geese in flight); mistagged as a preposition. Translation renders it "flew"/"passing over" far more often than "traveled".

    pojkenboypojke · noun, nominative, common gender, singularmodifies dag
    framforwardfram · adverbmodifies dag
    överoveröver · prepositionpreposition marking Hälsingland
    HälsinglandHälsinglandHälsingland · proper noun, nominativemodifies dag

  2. It lay beneath him with new, light-green shoots on the conifers, new birch leaves in the pastures, new greenery on the meadows, and newly sprung grain in the fields.

  3. It was a high-lying and hilly land, but straight through the middle of it ran a wide, bright valley, and from this other valleys spread out to either side, some narrow and short, some broad and long.

  4. »This land, I do believe, is shaped like a leaf,» the boy thought, »for it's as green as a leaf, and the valleys branch out over it much the same way the veins branch out over a leaf blade.»

  5. 2

    From the great main valley there first ran out two mighty branch valleys, one to the east and one to the west.

  6. Then it sent out only small valleys, until it reached quite far north.

  7. There it again stretched out two strong arms.

  8. After that it went on a good stretch further straight ahead, but then it narrowed and disappeared into the wilderness.

  9. 3

    In the middle of the great valley flowed a broad, splendid river, which in many places widened out into lakes.

  10. Nearest the river lay meadows, thickly dotted with small gray hay-barns; above the meadows came the fields, and at the edge of the valley, where the forest began, stood the farms.

  11. They were large and well-built, and followed one after another in an almost unbroken row.

  12. The churches rose down by the riverbank, and around them the farms gathered into large villages.

  13. In the same way the houses crowded together around the railway stations and the sawmills, which lay here and there by lakes and rivers and were easily recognized by the stacks of boards piled up around them.

  14. 4

    The branch valleys were, in the same way as the main valley, filled with lakes, fields, villages, and farms.

  15. They crept in, bright and smiling, among the dark mountains, until little by little they were squeezed together by these and became so narrow that they could hold no more than a small brook.

  16. 5

    On the highlands between the valleys the coniferous forest held sway.

  17. It had no even ground to grow on, for a mass of mountains lay strewn about up there, but the forest covered it all like a shaggy pelt spread over a knotty body.

  18. 6

    This was a splendid land to look down upon.

  19. The boy also got to see a good deal of it, because the eagle was trying to find the old fiddler Klement Larsson and flew from valley to valley, searching for him.

  20. 7

    When it had gotten some way into the morning, there was life and movement about the farms.

  21. The doors of the cow-houses, which in this district were large, built of heavy timber, and had chimneys and tall, wide windows, were flung wide open, and the cows were let out.

  22. These were handsome and bright-colored, small and lithe, sure of foot, and so merry that they made the funniest leaps.

  23. The calves and the sheep came out too, and it was not hard to see that they were in their very best spirits.

  24. 8

    With every moment there was more life on the farmyards.

  25. A couple of young girls with knapsacks on their backs went about among the livestock.

  26. A boy with a long staff in his hand kept the sheep together.

  27. A little dog ran about among the cows, barking at those that wanted to butt.

  28. The farmer harnessed a horse to a cart and loaded it with butter-tubs, cheese-molds, and all sorts of provisions.

  29. The people laughed and sang.

  30. Both they and the animals were merry, as if they expected a real day of gladness.

  31. 9

    A while later all of them were on their way up toward the forests.

  32. One of the girls walked in the lead and called the livestock with a sweetly ringing cry.

  33. After her the animals followed in a long row.

  34. The herd-boy and the sheepdog ran back and forth to see that no animal strayed from the right course.

  35. Last of all came the farmer and his hired man.

  36. They walked alongside the cart to keep it from tipping over, for the road they followed was only a narrow, stony forest path.

  37. 10

    Either all the farmers in Hälsingland must have the custom of sending their livestock up to the forests on one and the same day, or else it simply happened that way that year.

  38. But the boy certainly saw the glad processions of people and livestock wander out from every valley and every farm, push into the wild forest, and fill it with life.

  39. From the dark forest depths he heard, all day long, the cowherd girls' calls and the tinkling of cowbells.

  40. Most of them had long and difficult roads to travel, and the boy saw how, with great trouble, they trudged over swampy moors, how they had to make detours to get around windfalls, and how it often happened that the carts struck against stones and tipped over with everything in them.

  41. But the people met every difficulty with ringing laughter and good cheer.

  42. 11

    Toward afternoon the wanderers reached cleared spots in the forest, where a low cow-house and a couple of small gray cottages had been raised.

  43. When the cows came onto the yard between the cottages, they lowed merrily, as if they recognized the place, and at once began grazing on the green, juicy grass.

  44. The people, amid jest and merriment, carried water and wood and everything that had been hauled on the cart into the largest cottage.

  45. Soon smoke rose out of the chimney.

  46. And so the summer-farm girls, the herd-boy, and the grown men settled down around a flat slab of rock out in the open and began to eat.

  47. 12

    Gorgo, the eagle, felt sure he would find Klement Larsson among these people who were pulling up toward the forest.

  48. As soon as he sighted a summer-farm procession, he swooped down and

  49. 13

    studied it with his sharp eyes.

  50. But hour after hour went by, without his finding him.

  51. 14

    After a great deal of circling about, the eagle came, toward evening, to a hilly and desolate district lying east of the great main valley.

  52. Again he saw a summer farm below him.

  53. People and livestock had already arrived there.

  54. The men stood chopping wood, and the summer-farm girls were milking the cows.

  55. 15

    »Look there!» said Gorgo.

  56. »There, I think, we have him.»

  57. 16

    He swooped down, and to the boy's great astonishment he saw that the eagle was right.

  58. There indeed stood little Klement Larsson, chopping wood on the summer farm.

  59. 17

    Gorgo landed in the thick forest a little way from the houses.

  60. »Now I've done what I undertook to do,» he said, and gave his head a proud toss.

  61. »You must now try to come to terms with the fellow.

  62. I'll perch up there in the thick pine-top and wait for you.»

  63. 18

    THE ANIMALS' NEW YEAR'S EVE.

  64. 19

    On the summer farm the work was done and the evening meal eaten, but the people sat up and talked.

  65. It was a long time since they had been out in the forest on a summer night, and it seemed as if they could not bring themselves to go to bed.

  66. It was full daylight, and the summer-farm girls busied themselves eagerly with their handiwork, but now and then they lifted their heads, looked in toward the forest, and smiled to themselves.

  67. »Yes, now we're here again,» they said, and the home parish sank away out of their minds with all its cares, and the forest closed around them with its silent peace.

  68. When, back home at the farm, they thought about having to walk alone in the forest all summer, they could hardly understand how they would endure it, but as soon as they were out at the summer farm, they felt that here, after all, they had their best time.

  69. 20

    From a couple of summer farms nearby, young girls and men had come to pay a visit, so that there were a good many people who had settled down in the grass in front of the cottages, but no conversation would get going.

  70. The men were to turn back home the next day, and the summer-farm girls gave them little errands and asked them to carry greetings down to the home parish.

  71. That was about all that was said.

  72. 21

    Then the eldest of the girls looked up from her work and said quite merrily: »We oughtn't to need to have it so quiet on the summer farm tonight, for we have with us two who are used to enjoying a good story.

  73. One is Klement Larsson, who sits here beside me, and the other is Bärnhard from Sunnansjö, who's standing over there looking up toward Blacksåsen.

  74. Now I think we ought to ask them each to tell us a story, and I promise that to whichever one amuses us most, I'll give this scarf here, which I'm knitting.»

  75. 22

    This proposal met with great approval.

  76. The two who were to compete made, of course, a few objections, but soon gave in.

  77. Klement asked that Bärnhard should begin, and this the other had nothing against.

  78. He did not know Klement Larsson very well, but he supposed that this one would come up with some old tale about ghosts and trolls, and since he knew that people gladly listen to such things, he thought it wisest to choose something of the same kind.

  79. 23

    »Several hundred years ago,» he said, »it happened that a parson here in Delsbo was out riding on a New Year's night in the middle of the thick forest.

  80. He sat on horseback, dressed in a fur coat and a fur cap, and on the pommel of the saddle he had a bag, in which he kept the communion vessels, the handbook, and the priest's cloak.

  81. He had been called to a sickbed far off in the forest country, and he had sat and talked with the sick man until it had grown late in the evening.

  82. Now at last he was on his way home, but he did not think he would reach the parsonage before well past midnight.

  83. 24

    Since he now had to travel about on horseback and could not lie still in his bed, he was glad that it was not too hard a night to be out in.

  84. It was mild weather, with still air and an overcast sky.

  85. The full moon wandered, large and round, behind the clouds and gave light, though it could not itself be seen.

  86. Had it not been for that bit of moonlight, he would have had a hard time telling the path from the ground, for it was a bare winter and everything had the same brownish-gray color.

  87. 25

    That night the parson was riding a horse he set great store by.

  88. It was strong, hardy, and nearly as clever as a human being.

  89. Among other things, it knew how to find its way home from any place in the parish whatsoever.

  90. The parson had noticed this many times, and he trusted it so surely that he never bothered to think about the road when he rode that horse.

  91. So now, too, he came riding through the gray night and the confusing forest with the reins hanging loose and his thoughts far away.

  92. 26

    The parson sat thinking about the sermon he was to give the next day, and about a good deal else besides, and it was quite a while before it occurred to him to find out how far he had gotten on his way home.

  93. When at last he looked up and noticed that the forest stood just as thick around him as at the start of the journey, he was rather astonished.

  94. He had now been riding so long that he ought to have reached the cultivated part of the parish.

  95. 27

    It was the same in Delsbo then as now.

  96. The church and the parsonage and all the large farms and villages lay to the north of the parish, around Dellen, and to the south there was nothing but forests and mountains.

  97. When the parson saw that he was still in the wilderness, he knew, then, that he was still in the southern part of the parish, and that he must travel north to get home.

  98. But this was just what he felt he was not doing.

  99. He had neither moon nor stars to guide himself by, but he was one of those who carry the points of the compass in their heads, and he had a firm feeling that he was riding south, or perhaps east.

  100. 28

    It was his intention to turn the horse at once, but then he checked himself.

  101. The horse had never gone astray before, and it surely would not do so now either.

  102. It was more likely that he himself was mistaken.

  103. He had been far away with his thoughts and had not been minding the road.

  104. And so he let the horse go on in the old direction and sank once more into his musings.

  105. 29

    But just then a large branch struck him so hard that it very nearly swept him off the horse's back.

  106. Then he realized that he must find out where he had gotten to.

  107. 30

    He looked toward the ground and noticed that he was traveling over soft moss, where there was no trodden path.

  108. The horse went on quite briskly all the same and showed no hesitation.

  109. But just as before, the parson felt certain that it was going the wrong way.

  110. 31

    That time he did not delay in taking charge.

  111. He seized the reins, forced the horse to turn, and succeeded, too, in bringing it back to the path.

  112. But hardly was it there before it made a detour and again set off straight into the forest.

  113. 32

    The parson was as certain as could well be that it was going wrong, but since the horse was so stubborn, he thought that it might perhaps be trying to find its way to a better road, and so he let it go on.

  114. 33

    The horse managed well, even though it had no path to follow.

  115. If a rocky crag stood in the way, it climbed up it as nimbly as a goat, and when the ground fell away afterward, it set its feet together and slid down the steep rock faces.

  116. 34

    'If only he finds his way back home before it's time for church!' the parson thought.

  117. 'I wonder what my Delsbo folk would think of me, if I didn't get to church in time.'

  118. 35

    He did not have long to brood over this, for he came quite suddenly to a place he recognized.

  119. It was a small dark tarn, where he had lain fishing the previous summer.

  120. Now he saw that things stood just as he had feared.

  121. He was deep in the forest country, and the horse was striving on toward the southeast.

  122. It really seemed to have set itself to carry him as far away from church and parsonage as possible.

  123. 36

    The parson sprang with all haste out of the saddle.

  124. He could not let the horse carry him off into the wilderness in this way.

  125. He must get home, and since the horse insisted on going the wrong way, he decided to walk on foot and lead it, until they came onto known roads.

  126. He wound the reins around his arm and began the walk.

  127. It was no easy matter to go through the forest dressed in a heavy fur coat, but the parson was a strong and hardy man, and not afraid of any exertion.

  128. 37

    The horse, however, caused him fresh trouble.

  129. It would not follow him, but planted its hooves in the ground and braced against him.

  130. 38

    Then the parson finally lost his temper.

  131. He was never in the habit of striking that horse, and he did not feel like doing so now either.

  132. Instead he threw down the reins and walked away from it.

  133. 'We had better part here, then, since you want to go your own way,' he said.

  134. 39

    He had scarcely gone a couple of steps before the horse came after him, took a careful grip on his coat sleeve, and tried to hold him back.

  135. The parson then turned around and looked the horse in the eye, as if to find out why it was behaving so strangely.

  136. 40

    Afterward the parson could never quite understand how this had been possible, but it is certain that, dark as it was, he saw the horse's face quite clearly and could read it as if it had been a human's.

  137. He understood that the horse was in the most fearful anxiety and distress.

  138. It fixed a look on him that was both pleading and reproachful.

  139. 'I have served you and done your will day after day,' it seemed to say.

  140. 'Can't you follow me this one night?'

  141. 41

    The parson was moved by the plea he read in the animal's eyes.

  142. It was clear that the horse needed his help in one way or another that night, and since he was a manly man, he resolved at once to follow it.

  143. Without further delay he led it up to a rock so that he could climb into the saddle.

  144. 'Go on, then!' he said.

  145. 'I won't abandon you, since you want me with you.

  146. No one shall say of the parson of Delsbo that he refuses to follow anyone who is in need.'

  147. 42

    After that he let the horse go as it pleased, and thought only of keeping his seat in the saddle.

  148. It became a dangerous and difficult ride, and it went uphill almost the whole time.

  149. The forest stood so thick around him that he could not see two steps ahead, but it seemed to him as if they were traveling up a high mountain.

  150. The horse struggled its way up perilous slopes.

  151. If it had been the parson himself who had done the steering, he would never have thought of leading a horse over such ground.

  152. 'Surely you don't mean to climb up onto Blacksåsen too?' said the parson, laughing a little at the same time, for he knew that Blacksåsen was one of the highest mountains in Hälsingland.

  153. 43

    Partway through the ride the parson began to notice that he and the horse were not the only ones abroad that night.

  154. He heard how stones rolled away and how branches broke.

  155. It sounded like large animals forcing their way through the forest.

  156. He knew there were plenty of wolves in that region, and he wondered whether the horse meant to lead him into a fight with wild beasts.

  157. 44

    Up and up it went, and the higher they climbed, the sparser the forest grew.

  158. 45

    At last they rode out onto an almost bare mountain ridge, where the parson could look about him in every direction.

  159. He looked out over immense stretches of land, rising and falling in knolls and crags and everywhere covered in gloomy forests.

  160. Dark as it was, he had trouble making sense of it all, but soon it became clear to him where he was.

  161. 46

    'Well, well, so it is Blacksåsen that I've ridden up onto,' he thought.

  162. 'It can't be any other mountain.

  163. There in the west I see Järvsö crag, and in the east the sea glitters around Agön.

  164. Up north I also see something shining.

  165. That must be Dellen.

  166. And here in the depths beneath me I see the white smoke from Nianforsen.

  167. Yes, it's Blacksåsen that I've come up onto.

  168. That was quite an adventure!'

  169. 47

    When they were up on the very summit of the mountain, the horse stopped behind a bushy spruce, as though it wanted to keep itself hidden there.

  170. The parson leaned forward and pushed the branches aside, so that he got a clear view.

  171. 48

    The mountain's bare crown lay before him, but it was not empty and deserted there, as he had expected.

  172. In the middle of the open ground lay a great boulder, and gathered around it were many wild animals.

  173. It looked, the parson thought, as if they had come there to hold some kind of assembly.

  174. 49

    Nearest to the great stone the parson saw the bears, which were so heavily and solidly built that they looked like fur-clad boulders.

  175. They had lain down and blinked impatiently with their small eyes.

  176. It was plain that they had risen out of their winter sleep to attend the assembly, and that they were finding it hard to stay awake.

  177. Behind them sat several hundred wolves in dense ranks.

  178. They were not sleepy, but livelier in the winter darkness than ever they were in summer.

  179. They sat on their hind legs like dogs, lashed the ground with their tails, and panted hard, with their tongues hanging far out of their jaws.

  180. Behind the wolves the lynxes prowled about, stiff-legged and clumsy, like great misshapen cats.

  181. They seemed to shy away from showing themselves to the other animals and hissed whenever anyone came near them.

  182. The rank behind the lynxes was taken up by the wolverines, which had the face of a dog and the coat of a bear.

  183. They did not care for the ground, but stamped impatiently with their broad feet and longed to get up into the trees.

  184. And behind these, over the whole space clear to the edge of the forest, tumbled the foxes, the weasels, and the martens, which were all small and exceedingly handsomely formed, but had an even wilder and more bloodthirsty look than the larger animals.

  185. 50

    The parson saw all of this quite clearly, because the whole place was lit up.

  186. For on the tall stone in the middle stood the forest spirit, holding in her hand a pine-wood torch that burned with a high, red flame.

  187. The spirit was as tall as the tallest tree in the forest, and had a cloak of spruce twigs and hair of spruce cones.

  188. She stood perfectly still, her face turned toward the forest.

  189. She watched and listened.

  190. 51

    Although the parson saw it all quite clearly, he was so astonished that he wanted, as it were, to resist it and not believe the testimony of his own eyes.

  191. 'This is simply impossible,' he thought.

  192. 'I have ridden about too long in the dark of the forest.

  193. It is a fancy that has taken hold of me.'

  194. 52

    But all the same he paid the closest attention to everything, and wondered what he would get to see, and what was going to happen.

  195. 53

    He did not have to wait long before, down from the forest, there sounded a small tinkling bell.

  196. And right after that he heard the noise of footsteps and of breaking branches, as when a great many animals force their way through the wilderness.

  197. 54

    It was a great herd of livestock that came up onto the mountain.

  198. They came marching out of the forest in such order as if they had been on their way to the summer farm.

  199. First went the bell-cow, then the bull, then the other cows, and after them the young cattle and calves.

  200. The sheep followed them in a tight flock, then came the goats, and last a couple of horses and foals.

  201. The sheepdog walked alongside the herd, but neither herd-boy nor herd-girl accompanied it.

  202. 55

    The parson thought it heartbreaking to see the tame animals coming, marching straight toward the beasts of prey.

  203. He would have liked to place himself in their way and shout at them to stop, but he understood well enough that it was not in any human's power to halt the livestock's march that night, and he kept still.

  204. 56

    It was easy to see that the tame animals suffered, dreading what they had before them.

  205. They looked wretched and anxious.

  206. Even the bell-cow moved forward with a hanging head and dispirited steps.

  207. The goats had no wish either to play or to butt.

  208. The horses tried to keep up a brave front, but their whole bodies quivered with fear.

  209. Saddest of all to see was the sheepdog.

  210. It kept its tail between its legs and all but crept along the ground.

  211. 57

    The bell-cow led the procession all the way up to the forest spirit, who stood on the stone at the mountain's top.

  212. It walked around the stone and then turned back toward the forest, without any of the wild animals touching it.

  213. And in the same way all the livestock passed by the wild animals unmolested.

  214. 58

    While the cattle were passing by, the parson saw the forest spirit lower her pine-wood torch over one or another of them and turn it downward.

  215. 59

    Every time this happened, the beasts of prey burst into a loud, gleeful roaring, above all if it was over a cow or some other large animal that the torch was lowered, but the animal that saw the torch turned over it cried out loud and shrill, as if it had felt a knife in its flesh, and the whole flock it belonged to broke out in wailing too.

  216. 60

    Now the parson began to understand what it was he was seeing.

  217. He had heard tell before of this, that the animals of Delsbo gathered on Blacksåsen every New Year's night, so that the forest spirit could mark out which tame animals would, in the coming year, fall into the power of the beasts of prey.

  218. He felt a great pity for the poor creatures who were under the rule of wild beasts, though they surely ought to have no master but man.

  219. 61

    Scarcely had the first flock drawn away before, once again, the clanging of bells was heard from down in the forest, and the livestock from another farm came marching up onto the mountaintop.

  220. It went in the same order as the previous one and made its way to the forest spirit, who stood there stern and solemn, marking out beast after beast for death.

  221. And after this flock came herd upon herd without a break.

  222. Some flocks were so small that they consisted of no more than a single cow and a few sheep.

  223. Others were made up of nothing but a couple of goats.

  224. It was plain that these came from small, poor homes, but they had to go before the forest spirit all the same, and neither the one nor the other was spared.

  225. 62

    The parson thought of the Delsbo farmers, who held so much love for their livestock.

  226. 'If they only knew of this, they surely would not let it go on so,' he thought.

  227. 'They would surely rather risk their own lives than let their livestock walk out among bears and wolves and be judged by the forest spirit.'

  228. 63

    The last flock to come forward was the parsonage livestock.

  229. The parson recognized the bell-cow's bell from far off, and the horse must have done so too.

  230. It began to tremble in every limb and broke out in a sweat.

  231. 'So, now it's your turn to pass the forest spirit and receive your judgment,' said the parson to the horse.

  232. 'But don't be afraid!

  233. I understand well enough why you have brought me here, and I will not abandon you.'

  234. 64

    The splendid parsonage livestock came in a long procession out of the forest and moved toward the forest spirit and the wild animals.

  235. Last in the line was the horse that had carried its master up onto Blacksåsen.

  236. The parson had not dismounted, but stayed seated and let the animal carry him forward toward the forest spirit.

  237. 65

    He had neither gun nor knife for his defense, but he had taken out the handbook and sat holding it pressed to his chest as he now went into battle with the abomination.

  238. 66

    At first it seemed as if no one would notice him.

  239. The parsonage livestock passed the forest spirit in the same way as the other herds had.

  240. The forest spirit did not lower the pine-wood torch over any of the animals.

  241. Only when the wise horse came did she make a movement to mark it out for death.

  242. 67

    But at that very moment the parson stretched up the handbook, and the torchlight fell on the cross on the book's cover.

  243. The forest spirit gave out a loud, shrill scream, and the torch fell from her hand down onto the ground.

  244. 68

    The flame went out at once, and in the sudden change from light to darkness the parson could see nothing at all.

  245. Nor did he hear anything either.

  246. Around him reigned the same deep silence that is usual in winter in the wilderness.

  247. 69

    Then the heavy clouds that covered the sky suddenly parted, and through the rift stepped the full moon and cast its light down upon the ground.

  248. And now the parson saw that he and the horse stood alone on the summit of Blacksåsen.

  249. Not a single one of the many wild animals remained there.

  250. The ground was not trampled by all the herds of livestock that had passed over it.

  251. But he himself sat with the handbook stretched out before him, and the horse beneath him stood trembling and bathed in sweat.

  252. 70

    When the parson had ridden down the mountain and come home to his farm, he did not know any longer whether it had been dream or vision or reality, that which he had seen.

  253. But that it had been a warning to him to think of the poor animals under the rule of wild beasts, that he understood.

  254. And he preached so mightily to the Delsbo farmers that in his time all the wolves and bears were wiped out here in the parish, though they are said to have come back again since he passed on.»

  255. 71

    Here Bärnhard ended his tale.

  256. He received a great deal of praise from every side, and it seemed to be a settled matter that he would win the prize.

  257. Most of them thought it was almost a pity for Klement, having to compete against him.

  258. 72

    But Klement began undaunted.

  259. »It was one day when I was walking at Skansen outside Stockholm, longing for home,» he said, and then told of the little gnome he had bought free, so that it would not be caged and gaped at by people.

  260. And he went on to say that no sooner had he done this good deed than he had been rewarded for it.

  261. He talked and talked, while his listeners' astonishment grew ever greater, and when at last he came to the royal footman and the splendid book, all the summer-farm girls had let their handiwork sink into their laps and sat motionless, staring at Klement, who had gotten to live through such remarkable events.

  262. 73

    As soon as Klement had finished, the eldest summer-farm girl said that he should have the scarf.

  263. »Bärnhard has only told us of something that happened to someone else, but Klement has himself been through a real story, and I think that counts for more,» she said.

  264. 74

    Everyone agreed to this.

  265. They looked at Klement with quite different eyes than before, now that they had heard that he had spoken with the king, and the little fiddler was afraid to show how proud he felt.

  266. But right in the middle of this great happiness it happened that someone asked him what he had done with the gnome.

  267. 75

    »I didn't get around to setting out a blue bowl for him myself,» said Klement.

  268. »But I asked the old Lapp fellow to do it.

  269. What's become of him since, I don't know.»

  270. 76

    Scarcely had Klement said this before a little pinecone came flying and struck him on the nose.

  271. It did not come from the trees, and none of the people had thrown it.

  272. It was quite impossible to make out where it had come from.

  273. 77

    »Ow, ow, Klement!» said the summer-farm girl.

  274. »It looks as if the little folk are listening to what we're saying.

  275. You really shouldn't have left it to someone else to set out the blue bowl.»

The particulars

The text
Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige, Selma Lagerlöf. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils.
Translation
Public-domain Swedish (Lagerlöf, d. 1940; published 1906–07). English translation © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC.
Words
Every word of the text, by letter.
Data
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Two whoopie pies and a pine. An inside joke.