The Wonderful Adventures of Nils 1732 Studios

Swedish · The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

En stor herrgård

A Great Manor

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  1. 1

    THE OLD SQUIRE AND THE YOUNG SQUIRE.

    GAMLEOLDGAMLE · numeral, nominativequantifies HERRN
    HERRNthe squireHERRN · nounhead of the phrase

    All-caps title heading, 'the squire' (herrn).

    OCHandoCH · conjunctionlinks the coordination
    UNGEYOUNGUNGE · adverbhead of the phrase
    HERRNthe squireHERRN · noundirect object of UNGE

    All-caps title heading, 'the squire' (herrn).

  2. 2

    For a few years now there had lived, in a parish in Västergötland, an indescribably kind and sweet little schoolmistress.

  3. She was both clever at teaching and firm at keeping order, and the children liked her so much that they never wanted to come to school without knowing their lessons.

  4. The parents, too, were very pleased with her.

  5. There was only one person who did not understand how good she was, and that was herself.

  6. She thought that everyone else was wiser and more capable than she was, and grieved that she could not become like them.

  7. 3

    When the schoolmistress had been in service for a few years, the school board proposed that she should go through the Nääs handicraft seminary, so that from then on she would be able to teach children to work not only with their heads, but also with their hands.

  8. No one can imagine how frightened she became when she received this summons.

  9. Nääs did not lie at all far from her school.

  10. She had walked past the beautiful and stately place many times, and she had heard much praise of the handicraft courses that were held at the great old manor.

  11. Teachers, men and women, from all over the country gathered there to learn to use their hands — indeed, people even came from abroad.

  12. She knew beforehand how terribly anxious she would feel among so many excellent people.

  13. She thought it was more than she could manage to go through.

  14. 4

    But neither did she want to say no to the school board, so she sent in her application.

  15. She was accepted as a student, and one fine June evening, the day before the summer courses were to begin, she packed her clothes into a small knapsack and walked to Nääs.

  16. And however many times she stopped along the way, and however far away she wished herself to be, she got there at last.

  17. 5

    At Nääs there was life and bustle with all the course participants, who arrived from various directions and who were now to be shown to lodgings in villas and cottages belonging to the great estate.

  18. Everyone felt a little lost in the unfamiliar surroundings, but the schoolmistress thought, as usual, that no one behaved more awkwardly and strangely than she did.

  19. She had frightened herself so badly that she neither heard nor saw.

  20. These, too, were hard things for her to go through.

  21. She was assigned a room in a lovely villa, where she was to live with a few young girls she did not know at all, and she got to eat her supper together with seventy strangers.

  22. On one side of her sat a little gentleman with a yellowish complexion, who was said to be from Japan, and on the other a schoolmaster from Jokkmokk.

  23. And there had been talk and merriment around the long tables from the very first moment.

  24. Everyone had talked and made acquaintances.

  25. She was the only one who had not dared to say a word.

  26. 6

    The next morning the work began.

  27. Here, as in an ordinary school, the day had begun with morning prayer and singing; then the director, who headed the seminary, had spoken a little about handicraft and given a few brief instructions, and so, before she quite knew how it had come about, she found herself in front of a workbench with a piece of wood in one hand and a knife in the other, while an old handicraft teacher tried to show her how to whittle a flower peg.

  28. 7

    Such work she had never tried before.

  29. She did not have the knack of it.

  30. And as confused as she was then, she could grasp nothing.

  31. When the teacher had gone away from her, she laid the knife and the piece of wood down on the workbench and stood staring straight ahead of her.

  32. 8

    All around the room stood workbenches, and by all of them she saw people setting to work with fresh courage.

  33. A couple of them, who were somewhat at home in the craft, came and wanted to help her along.

  34. But she could not accept any guidance.

  35. She stood thinking that everyone around her noticed how badly she was going about it, and this made her so unhappy that she became quite paralyzed.

  36. 9

    There was breakfast, and after breakfast there was new work.

  37. The director gave a lecture, then followed a gymnastics exercise, and then the handicraft instruction resumed.

  38. Then came the midday rest with dinner and coffee-drinking in the big, cheerful assembly hall, and then in the afternoon more handicraft work, singing practice, and finally games out in the open.

  39. The schoolmistress was in motion all day, going along with the others, but felt just as despairing the whole time.

  40. 10

    When she later thought back on the first days she had spent at Nääs, it seemed to her that she had gone about as if in a fog.

  41. Everything had been dim and clouded, and she had not really seen or understood what was going on around her.

  42. This had lasted for two days, but on the evening of the second day it had suddenly begun to grow lighter around her.

  43. 11

    When they had eaten supper, an old schoolmaster who had been at Nääs several times before had told a couple of newcomers how the handicraft seminary had come into being, and since she happened to be sitting quite close by, she had not been able to avoid listening to his words.

  44. 12

    He had told how Nääs was a very old place, but that it had been nothing more than a large and beautiful manor until the old squire, who now owned it, had moved there.

  45. He was a rich man, and for the first years after he had settled there, he had devoted himself to beautifying the castle and the park and to improving the dwellings of his tenants.

  46. But then his wife had died, and since he had no children, he often felt lonely on his great estate.

  47. He then persuaded a young nephew, of whom he was very fond, to settle with him out at Nääs.

  48. 13

    At first it was intended that the young squire should help with the running of the estate, but when, for that purpose, he went about among the tenants and saw how the poor lived in their cottages, he had come upon strange thoughts.

  49. He had noticed that in most places neither the men nor the children — indeed, often not even the women — occupied themselves with handwork during the long winter evenings.

  50. In former times people had had to make diligent use of their hands to make clothes and household goods, but nowadays all such things could be bought, and so they had given up that kind of work.

  51. And now the young squire thought he understood that in the cottage where home handiwork had ceased, home comfort and prosperity had also moved away.

  52. 14

    Now and then he came upon a home where the father carpentered chairs and tables and the mother wove, and it was easy to see that there the people were not only better off, but also happier than in the other places.

  53. 15

    He had spoken to his uncle about this, and the old man had realized that it would be a great blessing if people could devote themselves to handwork in their free hours.

  54. But for them to get that far, it was quite certainly required that they be taught to use their hands from childhood on.

  55. The two gentlemen thought that they could not further the matter in any better way than by setting up a handicraft school for children.

  56. They wanted to teach them to make simple things of wood, because they thought that such work lay nearest to hand for everyone.

  57. They were sure that whoever had once had his hand trained to handle the knife well would easily learn to wield the smith's hammer and the shoemaker's hammer.

  58. But whoever had not had his hand accustomed to work when he was young might perhaps never discover that in it he possessed a tool more excellent than all others.

  59. 16

    They had thus begun teaching children handicraft at Nääs, and they had soon found that this was so useful and good for the little ones that they wished all children in Sweden could receive similar instruction.

  60. 17

    But how could such a thing become possible?

  61. Hundreds of thousands of children were growing up in Sweden.

  62. One could not gather all of them together at Nääs and give them handicraft instruction.

  63. It was quite simply unthinkable.

  64. 18

    Then the young squire had come up with a new proposal.

  65. Just think, if instead of giving instruction to children, they were to arrange a handicraft seminary for their teachers!

  66. Just think, if teachers, men and women, from all over the country came to Nääs and learned handicraft, and if they then gave handicraft instruction to all the children they had in their schools!

  67. In that way, perhaps all the children in Sweden could get their hands trained as well as their minds.

  68. 19

    Once they had been seized by this idea, they could not let it go, but sought to put it into effect.

  69. 20

    The two gentlemen helped each other faithfully.

  70. The old squire built handicraft halls, an assembly house, a gymnasium, and saw to it that those who came to the school got food and lodging.

  71. The young one became the seminary's director.

  72. He arranged the instruction, oversaw the work, and gave lectures.

  73. And more than that.

  74. He lived constantly among the course participants, found out how each one of them was faring, and became their warmest and most faithful friend.

  75. 21

    And what a rush of pupils they got right from the very start!

  76. Four handicraft courses were held every year, and more pupils applied for all of them than could be admitted.

  77. The school had soon become known abroad as well, and teachers, men and women, from all the countries of the world came to Nääs to learn how they should manage the training of the hand.

  78. There was no place in Sweden so well known out in the world as Nääs, and no Swede had as many friends over the whole earth as the director of the Nääs handicraft seminary.

  79. 22

    The schoolmistress sat listening to this, and the more she heard, the lighter it grew around her.

  80. She had not previously understood why the handicraft school existed at Nääs, had not thought that it had been created by two men who wanted to benefit their people, had not at all grasped that they did this without pay, that they sacrificed everything they could sacrifice, in order to help their fellow human beings become happier and better.

  81. 23

    When she now considered the great goodwill and love of humanity that lay behind all this, it moved her so deeply that she felt she could have wept.

  82. Never before had she experienced anything like it.

  83. 24

    The next day she took up the work with a different mind.

  84. When everything was given out of goodwill, then she surely had leave to make better use of it than before.

  85. She forgot to think of herself and remembered only the handicraft and the great goal that was to be reached through it.

  86. And from that moment she managed excellently, for she found everything easy, as long as she did not distrust herself.

  87. 25

    Now, since she had had her eyes freed from the darkness, she noticed everywhere the great, wonderful goodwill.

  88. Now she saw how lovingly everything was arranged for those who went through the seminary.

  89. The course participants got far more than mere instruction in handwork.

  90. The director gave lectures on upbringing for them, they did gymnastics, formed a singing society, and almost every evening they had gatherings with music and readings.

  91. And besides that, there were books, boats, bathhouses, and a piano for their use.

  92. It was intended that they should have a good time and thrive and be happy.

  93. 26

    She began to understand what a priceless privilege it was to be allowed to stay, during the beautiful summer days, at a great Swedish manor.

  94. The castle, where the old squire lived, lay high on a hill nearly encircled by a winding lake and was connected to land by a beautiful stone bridge.

  95. She had never seen anything so lovely as the flowerbeds on the terraces in front of the castle, or the old oaks in the park, or the road along the shore where the trees leaned out over the water, or the lookout pavilion on the cliff above the lake.

  96. The school buildings lay on the mainland opposite the castle, on green, shady meadows by the shore, but she was free to wander about the castle park whenever she had the time and the wish.

  97. She felt she had never known how delightful summer was until she had gotten to enjoy it in so beautiful a place.

  98. 27

    It was not that any great change took place in her.

  99. She did not become bold and self-assured, but she felt happy and glad.

  100. She went about and became thoroughly warmed by all the goodwill.

  101. She could not possibly feel anxious in a place where everyone wished her well and everyone sought to help her.

  102. When the course was over and the participants broke up from Nääs, she felt envious of all those who could say a proper thank-you to the old squire and the young squire, and who could express in fine words what they felt.

  103. She herself never got that far.

  104. 28

    She went back home, took up her schoolwork as before, and was just as glad in it as she used to be.

  105. She did not live so far from Nääs that she could not walk there whenever she had a free afternoon, and at first she did so quite often.

  106. But there were constantly new courses, new faces; her shyness came back, and she became an ever rarer guest at the handicraft school.

  107. But the time when she herself had gone through Nääs always stood for her as the best she had experienced.

  108. 29

    One spring day she heard that the old squire at Nääs was dead.

  109. Then she thought of the delightful summer she had gotten to enjoy on his estate, and she was grieved that she had never thanked him properly.

  110. He had, no doubt, received thanks enough from both high and low, but she would have felt happier if she had been able to tell him, in a word or two, how much he had done for her.

  111. 30

    At Nääs the teaching continued in the same way as before the old squire's death.

  112. For he had, in fact, given the whole beautiful estate to the school, and his nephew still stood at the helm and managed everything.

  113. 31

    Every time the schoolmistress came there, there was something new to see.

  114. Nowadays it was not only handicraft courses that were run there, for the director also wanted to revive the old customs and old joys of the people, and he therefore set up courses in singing games and in many other kinds of games.

  115. But it remained the same in this way, that people went about, as before, thoroughly warmed by goodwill, and felt how everything was arranged and directed so that they should be happy and carry with them, back to the little schoolchildren all around the country, not only knowledge but also joy in work.

  116. 32

    Only a few years after the old squire's death, the schoolmistress heard one Sunday at church that the director at Nääs was said to be ill.

  117. She knew that he had had attacks of the heart several times of late, but she had not believed there was any danger to his life.

  118. This time, people thought, there was.

  119. 33

    Ever since she had heard this, she had thought only of the fact that the director might die, as the old squire had, before she had brought herself to thank him.

  120. And she wondered and pondered how she should go about it in order still to be able to reach him with a thank-you.

  121. 34

    On Sunday afternoon the schoolmistress went round to the neighbors and asked whether their children might come with her to Nääs.

  122. She had heard that the director was ill, and she believed it would give him pleasure if the children came and sang a couple of songs for him.

  123. It was already fairly late in the day, but the moonlight was so strong and clear these evenings that it would not be hard to walk.

  124. The schoolmistress felt as though she had to walk to Nääs that very evening.

  125. She was afraid it might be too late the next day.

  126. 35

    The wild geese had left Bohuslän and stood sleeping in a marsh in the western part of Västergötland.

  127. Little Nils Holgersson had crept up onto a road embankment running crosswise over the marshland, to escape the wet.

  128. He was just about to look for a place to sleep when he saw a small band of people come walking along the road.

  129. It was a young schoolmistress with a dozen or thirteen children around her.

  130. They came in a tight cluster, with the schoolmistress in the middle and the children round about her.

  131. They talked so cheerfully and confidingly that the boy felt the urge to follow along a bit and listen to what they were saying to one another.

  132. 36

    That he could easily do, for as he ran in the shadow at the roadside, it was almost impossible for anyone to see him.

  133. And where fifteen people marched along, there was such a clatter of footsteps that no one could hear how the gravel crunched under his little wooden shoes.

  134. 37

    To keep the children in good spirits during the walk, the schoolmistress had been telling them old legends.

  135. She had just finished one, when the boy joined the group, but the children at once begged her to tell one more.

  136. 38

    «Have you heard the tale of the old giant from Västergötland, who moved to an island far away in the northern sea?» asked the schoolmistress.

  137. No, the children had not, and the schoolmistress began.

  138. 39

    «It happened once, on a dark and stormy night, that a ship was wrecked by a little skerry far away in the northern sea.

  139. The vessel was smashed to splinters against the shore rocks, and of the whole crew there were only two men who managed to save themselves onto land.

  140. They stood on the skerry drenched and stiff with cold, and one can well understand that they were overjoyed when they saw a great driftwood fire blazing on the shore.

  141. They hurried toward the fire without thought of any danger.

  142. Only when they were quite close to it did they notice that a fearsome old warrior sat by the fire, so huge and massive that they could not doubt he was a man of giant kin whom they had chanced upon.

  143. 40

    They stopped and hesitated, but the north storm howled over the skerry with a dreadful cold.

  144. They would soon freeze to death if they did not get to warm themselves at the giant's fire, and they decided to risk approaching him.

  145. 'Good evening, father!' said the elder of them.

  146. 'Will you let two shipwrecked sailors warm themselves at your fire?'

  147. 41

    The giant started up out of his thoughts, half rose, and drew the sword from its sheath.

  148. 'What sort of folk are you?' he asked, for he was old and saw poorly and did not know what kind of people had spoken to him.

  149. 42

    'We're both men of Västergötland, if you want to know,' answered the elder of the sailors.

  150. 'Our ship has wrecked in the sea out there, and we have come ashore frozen and half-naked.'

  151. 43

    'I don't usually tolerate people on my skerry, but if you're men of Västergötland, that's another matter,' said the giant, and put the sword back in its sheath.

  152. 'Then you may sit down and warm yourselves, for I myself am from Västergötland and have lived in the great mound at Skalunda for many years.'

  153. 44

    The sailors now took their seats on a couple of stones.

  154. They did not dare address the giant, but sat silent and stared at him.

  155. And the longer they regarded him, the bigger he seemed to their eyes, and the smaller and more powerless they felt themselves to be.

  156. 45

    'I have poor eyes nowadays,' the giant explained.

  157. 'I can hardly make out a glimpse of you.

  158. It would otherwise have amused me to know what a man of Västergötland looks like nowadays.

  159. But at least give me your hand, one of you, so that I may feel whether there is still warm blood in Sweden!'

  160. 46

    The men eyed the giant's fists and their own by turns.

  161. Neither of them had any wish to try his handshake.

  162. But they saw that an iron poker, which the giant used to stir the fire with, had been left lying in the flames and was glowing hot at one end.

  163. They lifted it up with their combined strength and held it out to the giant.

  164. He took hold of the poker and gripped it, so that the iron flowed between his fingers.

  165. 'Ah yes, I feel that there's still warm blood in Sweden,' he said, quite satisfied, to the astonished sailors.

  166. 47

    It grew still and quiet again by the fire for a while, but the fact that the giant had chanced upon countrymen had turned his thoughts back to Västergötland.

  167. One memory after another rose up in him.

  168. 48

    'I wonder how things stand with Skalunda mound nowadays?' he asked the sailors.

  169. 49

    Neither of the men knew anything about the mound the giant was asking after.

  170. 'It's quite sunk in, I suppose,' answered one of them, as if venturing a guess.

  171. He sensed that it would not do to stand speechless before such a questioner.

  172. 'Aye, aye, I can well believe it,' said the giant, nodding in confirmation.

  173. 'It couldn't be otherwise, for that mound my wife and daughter carried together in their aprons in a single morning.'

  174. 50

    Again he sat brooding and trying to gather his memories together.

  175. It was not so very recently that he had been home in Västergötland, and it took a while before he could reach deep enough down among his recollections.

  176. 51

    'Then Kinnekulle and Billingen and the other little hills scattered over the great plain — they still stand, I suppose?' said the giant.

  177. — 'Oh, they do indeed,' answered the man of Västergötland, and to show the giant that he understood him to be a capable fellow, he added: 'Perhaps you had a hand in raising one or another of those hills, father?'

  178. 52

    'No, not exactly that,' said the giant, 'but I can tell you that you have my father to thank for those hills still standing there.

  179. When I was a small lad, there was no great plain in Västergötland; where the plain now spreads out, there lay a mountain range that stretched from Vättern to the Göta River.

  180. But then some rivers took it into their heads to grind the mountain to gravel and carry it down to Vänern.

  181. It was not a proper granite mountain, but consisted mostly of limestone and slate, so the rivers found it easy to overcome.

  182. I remember how they made their channels and river valleys ever wider, until at last they widened them into plains.

  183. Father and I sometimes went out to watch the rivers at their work, and Father was none too pleased that they were destroying the whole mountain.

  184. 'They could at least leave us a few resting places,' he said, and with that he took off his stone shoes and set one down far in the west and the other far in the east.

  185. His stone hat he laid down on a hillock by the shore of Vänern; my stone cap he flung further south, and threw his stone club in the same direction.

  186. Whatever other good, hard stone we had with us, he set down in various places.

  187. Then the rivers washed away nearly the whole mountain, but the spots that Father had protected with his stoneware they did not dare touch, and so they were left standing.

  188. Where Father had set down one of his shoes, Halleberg remained under the heel and Hunneberg under the sole.

  189. Under the other shoe Billingen was preserved; Father's hat had given shelter to Kinnekulle, under my cap lay Mösseberg, and under the stone club hid Ålleberg.

  190. All the other little hills on the Västergötland plain were likewise spared for Father's sake, and now I just wonder whether there are many men in Västergötland with that much respect left in them.'

  191. 53

    'That's not so easy to answer,' said the sailor, 'but I must say that if rivers and giants were once so mighty in their day, then I feel, as it were, an increased respect for us humans, for it is nevertheless we who have made ourselves masters over both the plain and the mountains.'

  192. 54

    The giant gave a slight grimace.

  193. He did not look at all as though he had been pleased with the answer, but he soon took up the conversation again.

  194. 'How does it stand with Trollhättan nowadays?' he said.

  195. — 'It rushes and thunders as it always has,' said the sailor.

  196. 'Perhaps you had a hand in setting the great waterfalls going, just as you had a hand in sparing the Västergötland hills?'

  197. — 'No, not exactly that,' said the giant, 'but I remember that when I was a small lad, my brothers and I used to use it as a slide.

  198. We would stand on a log, and away we went, down Gullöfallet and Toppöfallet and the other three falls.

  199. We got up such speed that we very nearly slid all the way down to the sea.

  200. I wonder whether there's any man in Västergötland nowadays who amuses himself that way?'

  201. — 'That's not so easy to know,' said the sailor.

  202. 'But I almost think it a more remarkable feat that we humans have managed to cut a canal alongside the falls, so that we can not only go down Trollhättan, as you did in your youth, but also go up it with barges and steamboats.'

  203. 55

    'That was strange to hear,' said the giant, and it seemed as though he had grown a little annoyed at the answer.

  204. 'Can you now also tell me how things stand with that region over by Lake Mjörn, which used to be called the Starvelands?'

  205. — 'Yes, that has certainly been a great trouble to us,' said the man of Västergötland.

  206. 'Perhaps it was you, father, who had a hand in laying them out so lean and cheerless?'

  207. — 'No, not exactly that,' said the giant, 'in my day there grew fine forest on them.

  208. But it happened that when I was to hold a wedding for one of my daughters, we needed a great deal of wood for the baking oven, so I took a long rope, wound it around all the forest on the Starvelands, pulled it down with a single tug, and carried it home.

  209. I wonder whether there's anyone nowadays who can pull down so much forest at once?'

  210. — 'That's more than I dare answer,' said the man of Västergötland.

  211. 'But this I know: in my youth the Starvelands lay bare and barren, and that people have now planted forest over the whole area.

  212. That too I count a manly deed.'

  213. 56

    'Well, but down in southern Västergötland, surely no one can make a living there?' said the giant.

  214. — 'Did you have a hand in arranging that land too?' asked the man of Västergötland.

  215. — 'No, not exactly that,' said the giant, 'but I remember that when we giant children herded our flocks down there, we built ourselves so many stone huts and made the ground so rough with all the stones we threw at one another that I should think it would be hard to clear farmland in those parts.'

  216. — 'Yes, it's true that farming there does not pay much,' said the man of Västergötland, 'but the people there have taken up weaving and woodwork, and I think it shows more skill to be able to earn one's living in so poor a region than to have had a hand in ruining it.'

  217. 57

    'Now there's only one more thing I know to ask about,' said the giant.

  218. 'How do things stand down on the coast, where the Göta River flows out into the sea?'

  219. — 'Did you have your hand in that game too?' asked the sailor.

  220. — 'Not exactly that,' said the giant, 'but I remember that we used to go down to the shore, lure a whale to us, and ride on its back through the fjords and channels of the archipelago.

  221. I wonder if you know of anyone who does the same nowadays?'

  222. — 'That I shall leave unsaid,' answered the sailor, 'but I will count it just as fine a feat that we humans have built a city down at the mouth of the Göta River, from which ships sail out to every sea in the world.'

  223. To this the giant made no reply, and the sailor, who was himself from Gothenburg, began describing to him the rich trading city with its wide harbor, its bridges and canals and stately streets, and told him that it possessed so many enterprising merchants and bold seafarers that they would likely make it the foremost city in the North.

  224. 58

    The giant's brow had drawn into ever deeper furrows at each answer he received, and it was plain enough that he was thoroughly displeased that humans had made themselves masters over nature.

  225. 'I hear that a great deal has changed in Västergötland,' he said, 'and I should very much like to go back there and set a thing or two right.'

  226. When the sailor heard these words, he grew a little uneasy.

  227. He did not believe the giant would come to Västergötland with any good intention, but of course he dared not let this show.

  228. 'You may be sure, father, that you will get an honorable reception,' he said.

  229. 'We shall have all the church bells rung for you.'

  230. — 'So, there are still church bells in Västergötland,' said the giant, sounding doubtful.

  231. 'Aren't they cracked to pieces yet, the great bells at Husaby and Skara and Värnhem?'

  232. — 'No, they're all still there, and they've gotten many sisters since your time.

  233. Now there's not a place in Västergötland where you don't hear church bells.'

  234. — 'Then I suppose I'd better stay right where I am,' said the giant, 'for it was on account of those very bells that I moved away from home.'

  235. 59

    He now sank into thought, but soon turned again to the sailors.

  236. 'You may now lie down calmly and sleep by the fire,' he said.

  237. 'Early tomorrow morning I shall arrange for a ship to come sailing past here, which will pick you up and carry you home.

  238. But for the hospitality I have shown you, I ask of you only this service: that as soon as you have come home, you go to the best man there is in Västergötland and give him this ring.

  239. Give him my greetings, and tell him that if he will wear it on his finger, he shall become far greater a man than he now is!'

  240. 60

    As soon as the sailors had come home, they went to the best man in Västergötland and delivered the ring to him.

  241. But he was too wise to put it on his finger right away.

  242. Instead he hung it on a little oak that stood in his yard.

  243. At once the oak began to grow so fast that everyone could notice it.

  244. It put out shoots and sent out twigs.

  245. The trunk thickened, the bark hardened.

  246. The tree grew new leaves and shed them, bore flowers and fruit, and in a little while became so great that no one had ever seen a mightier oak.

  247. But scarcely had it reached its full growth before it began, with the same speed, to wither; the branches fell, the trunk grew hollow, and the tree rotted away, so that soon nothing more remained of it than a stump.

  248. 61

    Then the man who was the best man in Västergötland took the ring and flung it far away.

  249. 'This giant's gift is such that it would give a man great powers and make him, in a short time, more excellent than all others,' he said.

  250. 'But it would cause him to overexert himself, so that before long his ability and his happiness would be at an end.

  251. I do not wish to make use of it, and I hope no one will find it, for it was not sent here with any good intent.'

  252. 62

    But it may well be possible that the ring has since been found.

  253. Whenever a good man exerts himself beyond his strength to do good, one may well wonder whether he has found the ring, and whether it is the ring that drives him to work so hard that he wears himself out before his time and must leave his work unfinished.»

  254. 63

    THE SONG.

  255. 64

    The schoolmistress had walked with brisk steps while she told the story, and when she had finished, she noticed that she was almost there.

  256. She already saw the great outbuildings, shaded by beautiful trees, just like everything else here on the estate.

  257. And before she had walked past them, the castle already came into view, high up on its terrace.

  258. 65

    Up until now she had been glad of her undertaking and had felt no hesitation, but now, when she saw the estate, her courage began to fail her.

  259. What if it was pure madness, what she wanted to do!

  260. No one, surely, was asking for her gratitude.

  261. Perhaps they would only laugh at her for coming rushing along like that, so late in the evening, with her schoolchildren?

  262. Neither she nor they could sing so beautifully that anyone would think it worth anything.

  263. 66

    She began to walk more slowly, and when she reached the stairway leading up to the castle terrace, she turned off the road and went up it.

  264. She knew very well that the great castle building had stood empty ever since the old squire's death.

  265. She went there only to give herself time to think over whether she ought to go on, or whether she should turn back.

  266. 67

    When she came up onto the terrace and saw the castle lying dazzling white in the moonlight, when she saw the hedges and the flowerbeds and the balustrade with its urns and the stately stairway, she grew even more discouraged.

  267. She thought that everything looked so grand and stately that she truly understood she had no business there.

  268. «Do not come near me!» she felt the fine, white castle was saying to her.

  269. «Surely you cannot believe that you and your schoolchildren could give any joy to one who is used to living in a place such as this.»

  270. 68

    To drive away the doubt that was beginning to steal over her, the schoolmistress then told the schoolchildren this very same story about the old squire and the young squire that she herself had heard when she had gone through the handicraft course.

  271. And this made her braver.

  272. It was, after all, a truth that the castle and the whole estate had been given to the handicraft seminary.

  273. It had been given so that teachers, men and women, might spend a happy time at the beautiful estate and then carry knowledge and joy from it back to their schoolchildren.

  274. But here, where such a gift had been given to a school, here they had surely shown that they valued school folk.

  275. They had made plain that they held the upbringing of Sweden's children more important than anything else.

  276. Just here, of all places, she ought never to feel timid.

  277. 69

    These thoughts gave her a little confidence, so that she felt she wanted to go on with her undertaking.

  278. And to strengthen her courage she turned down toward the park, which clothed the slope between the castle height and the lake.

  279. As she walked beneath the splendid trees, standing so dark and mysterious in the moonlight, many happy memories awoke in her.

  280. She told the children how things had gone here in her time, and how happy she had been while she went through the course and, every day, had been able to stroll for pleasure in this lovely park.

  281. She spoke of festivities and games and work, but above all she told of the great goodwill that had opened the proud manor to her and to so many others.

  282. 70

    In this way she managed to keep her courage up, so that she actually made it through the park and over the bridge and reached the shore meadows, where the director's villa stood amid the school buildings.

  283. 71

    Right beside the bridge spread the green playing field, and as she walked past it, she described to the children how lovely it used to be here on summer evenings, when the field was full of people in light clothing, and singing games and ball games followed one another.

  284. She showed the children Vänhem, where the assembly hall was, the seminary, where the lectures were held, and the villas, where the gymnasium and the handicraft halls were housed.

  285. She walked forward briskly and talked without pause, as though to keep herself from having time to grow anxious.

  286. But when at last she came far enough to see the director's villa, she stopped short.

  287. 72

    «You know, children, I think we shouldn't go any farther,» she said.

  288. «I hadn't thought of this before, but perhaps the director is so dangerously ill that we would disturb him with our singing.

  289. It would be terrible if we made him worse.»

  290. 73

    Little Nils Holgersson had followed along with the children the whole time and had heard everything the schoolmistress had spoken of.

  291. He knew, then, that they had set out to sing for someone lying ill over there in the villa, and he now understood that the singing would come to nothing, because they feared disturbing and worrying the sick man.

  292. 74

    «It's a pity they're going away without singing,» he thought.

  293. «It would surely be an easy matter to find out whether the man in there can't bear to hear them.

  294. Why doesn't someone go up to the villa and ask?»

  295. 75

    But this did not seem to occur to the schoolmistress, and she turned and walked slowly back.

  296. The schoolchildren raised a couple of objections, but she hushed them.

  297. «No, no!» she said.

  298. «It was foolish of me to come here and sing so late in the evening.

  299. We would only disturb him.»

  300. 76

    Then Nils Holgersson thought that, since no one else was doing it, he had better find out for himself whether it was really so that the sick man was too weak to hear a little song.

  301. He parted from the others and ran up to the house.

  302. A carriage stood waiting outside the villa, and an old coachman stood beside the horses, waiting.

  303. The boy had scarcely reached the vicinity of the entrance before the front door opened and a maid came out with a tray.

  304. «Larsson will just have to wait for the doctor a little longer,» she said.

  305. «The mistress asked me to bring him something warm.»

  306. 77

    «How is the master doing?» asked the coachman.

  307. 78

    «There's no more suffering now, but it's as though his heart had stopped.

  308. The director has been lying motionless for an hour now.

  309. We hardly know whether he's alive or dead.»

  310. 79

    «Does the doctor say it will be the end?»

  311. 80

    «It hangs in the balance, Larsson, it hangs in the balance.

  312. It is as though the director were lying there listening for a summons.

  313. If word comes for him from above, he's ready to follow it.»

  314. 81

    Nils Holgersson ran quickly down the road to catch up with the schoolmistress and the schoolchildren.

  315. He thought of how it had been when his grandfather died.

  316. He had been a sailor, and when he lay on his deathbed, he had asked them to open the window, so that he might hear the roar of the wind once more.

  317. And what if this man, who lay ill, had loved being surrounded by youth and hearing their songs and games...?

  318. 82

    The schoolmistress walked, wavering, down the avenue.

  319. Now, as she walked away from Nääs, she wanted to turn back, and when she had been on her way there, she had wanted to turn back then too.

  320. She was still in great anguish and indecision.

  321. 83

    She no longer spoke with the children, but walked in silence.

  322. The shade in the avenue where she walked was so deep that she could see nothing.

  323. But she seemed to hear such a multitude of voices around her.

  324. They were anxious cries reaching her from a thousand different directions.

  325. «We are so far away, the rest of us,» said the voices.

  326. «But you are near.

  327. Go and sing out what all of us feel!»

  328. 84

    And she remembered one after another of those the director had helped and taken care of.

  329. It was superhuman how he had exerted himself to assist all who were in need.

  330. «Go and sing for him!» whispered the voices around her.

  331. «Don't let him die without having received a greeting from his school!

  332. Don't think of yourself as small and insignificant!

  333. Think of the great host standing behind you!

  334. Let him understand, before he leaves us, how we all love him!»

  335. 85

    The schoolmistress walked slower and slower.

  336. Then she heard something that was not merely voices and urgings in her own soul, but that came from the world outside her.

  337. It was no ordinary human voice.

  338. It was like a bird's twitter or a grasshopper's chirring.

  339. Yet she heard quite clearly that it was calling for her to turn back.

  340. 86

    And that was all it took for her to find the courage to do so.

  341. — — —

  342. 87

    The schoolmistress and the schoolchildren had sung a couple of songs outside the director's window.

  343. She herself felt that their singing had sounded remarkably beautiful that evening.

  344. It was as if strange voices had sung along with them.

  345. The air had been full of slumbering tones and sounds.

  346. They had only needed to strike up, and all of these had awakened and rung out along with the song.

  347. 88

    Then the front door was flung open, and someone hurried out.

  348. «Now they're coming to tell me I mustn't sing anymore,» thought the schoolmistress.

  349. «If only I haven't caused some misfortune!»

  350. But that was not so.

  351. It was a message that she should come into the house and rest, and then sing a couple more songs.

  352. 89

    On the steps the doctor came to meet her.

  353. «The danger is past this time,» he said.

  354. «He lay there in a stupor, and his heart beat ever fainter.

  355. But when you began to sing, it was as though he had heard a call from all those who need him.

  356. He felt that it was not yet time for him to seek his rest.

  357. Sing more for him!

  358. Sing, and be glad, for I believe it is your song that has brought him back to life!

  359. Now perhaps we shall get to keep him a few more years.»

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.