The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, Selma Lagerlöf [best sales books of all time .txt] 📗

He did not speak of this idea to the big white gander, because the geese were now flying over Bohuslän with all the speed they could muster, and the goosey-gander was puffing so hard that he would not have had the strength to reply.

The sun was far down on the horizon, and disappeared every now and then behind a hill; still the geese kept forging ahead.

Finally, in the west, they saw a shining strip of light, which grew broader and broader with every wing stroke. Soon the sea spread before them, milk white with a shimmer of rose red and sky blue, and when they had circled past the coast cliffs they saw the sun again, as it hung over the sea, big and red and ready to plunge into the waves.

As the boy gazed at the broad, endless sea and the red evening sun, which had such a kindly glow that he dared to look straight at it, he felt a sense of peace and calm penetrate his soul.

“It’s not worth while to be sad, Nils Holgersson,” said the Sun. “This is a beautiful world to live in both for big and little. It is also good to be free and happy, and to have a great dome of open sky above you.”

The geese stood sleeping on a little rock islet just beyond Fjällbacka. When it drew on toward midnight, and the moon hung high in the heavens, old Akka shook the sleepiness out of her eyes. After that she walked around and awakened Yksi and Kaksi, Kolme and Neljä, Viisi and Kuusi, and, last of all, she gave Thumbietot a nudge with her bill that startled him.

“What is it, Mother Akka?” he asked, springing up in alarm.

“Nothing serious,” assured the leader-goose. “It’s just this: we seven who have been long together want to fly a short distance out to sea tonight, and we wondered if you would care to come with us.”

The boy knew that Akka would not have proposed this move had there not been something important on foot, so he promptly seated himself on her back. The flight was straight west. The wild geese first flew over a belt of large and small islands near the coast, then over a broad expanse of open sea, till they reached the large cluster known as the Väder Islands. All of them were low and rocky, and in the moonlight one could see that they were rather large.

Akka looked at one of the smallest islands and alighted there. It consisted of a round, gray stone hill, with a wide cleft across it, into which the sea had cast fine, white sea sand and a few shells.

As the boy slid from the goose’s back he noticed something quite close to him that looked like a jagged stone. But almost at once he saw that it was a big vulture which had chosen the rock island for a night harbour. Before the boy had time to wonder at the geese recklessly alighting so near a dangerous enemy, the bird flew up to them and the boy recognized Gorgo, the eagle.

Evidently Akka and Gorgo had arranged the meeting, for neither of them was taken by surprise.

“This was good of you, Gorgo,” said Akka. “I didn’t expect that you would be at the meeting place ahead of us. Have you been here long?”

“I came early in the evening,” replied Gorgo. “But I fear that the only praise I deserve is for keeping my appointment with you. I’ve not been very successful in carrying out the orders you gave me.”

“I’m sure, Gorgo, that you have done more than you care to admit,” assured Akka. “But before you relate your experiences on the trip, I shall ask Thumbietot to help me find something which is supposed to be buried on this island.”

The boy stood gazing admiringly at two beautiful shells, but when Akka spoke his name, he glanced up.

“You must have wondered, Thumbietot, why we turned out of our course to fly here to the West Sea,” said Akka.

“To be frank, I did think it strange,” answered the boy. “But I knew, of course, that you always have some good reason for whatever you do.”

“You have a good opinion of me,” returned Akka, “but I almost fear you will lose it now, for it’s very probable that we have made this journey in vain.

“Many years ago it happened that two of the other old geese and myself encountered frightful storms during a spring flight and were wind-driven to this island. When we discovered that there was only open sea before us, we feared we should be swept so far out that we should never find our way back to land, so we lay down on the waves between these bare cliffs, where the storm compelled us to remain for several days.

“We suffered terribly from hunger; once we ventured up to the cleft on this island in search of food. We couldn’t find a green blade, but we saw a number of securely tied bags half buried in the sand. We hoped to find grain in the bags and pulled and tugged at them till we tore the cloth. However, no grain poured out, but shining gold pieces. For such things we wild geese had no use, so we left them where they were. We haven’t thought of the find in all these years; but this autumn something has come up to make us wish for gold.

“We do not know that the treasure is still here, but we have travelled all this way to ask you to look into the matter.”

With a shell in either hand the boy jumped down into the cleft and began to scoop up the sand. He found no bags, but when he had made a deep hole he heard the clink of metal and saw that he had come upon a gold piece. Then he dug with his fingers and felt