Tuesday, April twelfth.
THE wild geese had made a good trip over the sea, and had alighted in Tjust Parish, in northern Småland. That parish seemed unable to make up its mind whether it wanted to be land or sea. Bays ran in everywhere, and cut the land up into islands and peninsulas and points and capes. The sea was so forceful that the only things which could hold themselves above it were hills and mountains. All the lowlands were hidden away under the water.
It was evening when the wild geese came in from the sea; and the land with the little hills lay prettily between the shimmering bays. Here and there, on the islands, the boy saw cabins and cottages; and the farther inland he travelled, the bigger and better became the dwelling houses, till finally, they grew into large, white manors. Along the shores was a border of trees; and beyond lay field-plots, and on the tops of the little hills there were more trees. He could not help but think of Blekinge. Here again was a place where land and sea met in a charming and peaceful way, trying, as it were, to show each other the best and loveliest they possessed.
The wild geese alighted upon a barren rock island a good way in Goose Bay. The first glance at the shore assured them that spring had made rapid strides while they were on the islands. The big, fine trees were not as yet leaf-clad, but the ground under them was brocaded with white anemones, gagea, and blue anemones.
When the wild geese saw the flower-carpet they feared that they had lingered too long in the southern part of the country. Akka immediately remarked that there was no time in which to look up any of the stopping places in Småland. By the next morning they must travel northward, over Östergötland.
The boy should then see nothing of Småland, which grieved him. He had heard more about Småland than about any other province, and he had longed to see it with his own eyes.
The summer before, when he had served as goose-boy with a farmer in the neighbourhood of Jordberga, he used to meet almost every day two Småland children, who also tended geese. These children had irritated him terribly with their Småland.
It wouldn't be fair to say that Osa, the goose-girl, had annoyed him. She was much too wise for that. But the one who could be aggravating with a vengeance was her brother, little Mats.
"Have you heard, Nils Goose-boy, what happened when Småland and Skåne were created?" he would ask, and if Nils Holgersson said no, he promptly began to relate the old joke-legend.
"Well, it happened at the time when Our Lord was creating the world. While he was doing his best work, Saint Peter came along. He stopped and looked on, and then he asked if it was hard work. 'Well, it isn't exactly easy,' said Our Lord. Saint Peter stood there a while longer, and when he noticed how easy it appeared to lay out one landscape after another, he too wanted to try his hand at it. 'Perhaps you need to rest yourself a little,' said Saint Peter, 'I could attend to the work in the meantime for you.' But this Our Lord did not wish. 'I do not know if you are so much at home in this art that I can trust you to take hold where I leave off,' he answered. Then Saint Peter was angry, and said that he believed he could create just as fine countries as Our Lord himself.
"It happened that Our Lord was just then creating Småland. It wasn't even half ready but it looked as if it would become an indescribably beautiful and fertile land. It was difficult for Our Lord to say no to Saint Peter, and besides, he thought very likely that a thing so well begun no one could spoil. Therefore he said: 'If you like, we will prove which of us understands this sort of work the better. You, who are only a novice, shall go on with this, which I have begun, and I will create a new land.' To this Saint Peter agreed at once; and so they went to work – each one in his place.
"Our Lord moved southward a bit, where he undertook to create Skåne. It wasn't long before he was through with it, and asked if Saint Peter had also finished, and would come to look at his work. 'Mine was ready long ago,' said Saint Peter; and from the sound of his voice it was plain how pleased he was with what he had accomplished.
"When Saint Peter saw Skåne, he had to acknowledge that there was nothing but good to be said of that country. It was a fertile land and easy to cultivate, with wide plains wherever one looked, and with hardly a sign of hills. It was evident that Our Lord had really contemplated making it such that people would feel at home there. 'Yes, this is a good country,' said Saint Peter, 'but I think that mine is better.' 'Then we'll take a look at it,' said Our Lord.
"The land was already finished in the north and east when Saint Peter began the work, but the southern and western parts, and the whole interior, he had created all by himself. Now when Our Lord came up there, where Saint Peter had been at work, he was so horrified that he stopped short and exclaimed: 'What on earth have you been doing with this land, Saint Peter?'
"Saint Peter, too, stood looking around – perfectly astonished. He had had the idea that nothing could be so good for a land as a great deal of heat. Therefore he had gathered together an enormous mass of stones and mountains, and had erected a highland, and this he had done so that it might be near the sun, and receive much help from the sun's heat. Over the stone-heaps he had spread a thin layer of soil, and then he had thought that everything was well arranged.
"But while he was down in Skåne, a couple of heavy showers had come up, and more was not needed to show what his work amounted to. When Our Lord came to inspect the land, all the soil had been washed away, and the naked mountain foundation shone forth all over. Where it was about the best, lay clay and heavy gravel over the rocks, but it looked so poor that it was plainly to be seen that little else than spruce and juniper and moss and heather could grow there. But what there was plenty of was water! It covered all the clefts in the mountain; and lakes and rivers and brooks were everywhere, to say nothing of swamps and morasses, which spread over large areas. And the most exasperating of it all was, that while some tracts had too much water, it was so scarce in others that whole fields lay like dry moors, where sand and earth whirled up in clouds with the least little breeze.
"'What can have been your meaning in creating such a land as this?' said Our Lord. Saint Peter made excuses, and declared he had wished to build up a land so high that it should have plenty of warmth from the sun. 'But then you will also get much of the night chill,' said Our Lord, 'for that too comes from heaven. I am very much afraid the little that can grow here will freeze.'
"This, to be sure, Saint Peter hadn't thought about.
"'Yes, here it will be a poor and frost-bound land,' said Our Lord, 'it can't be helped.'"
When little Mats had gotten this far in his story, Osa, the goose-girl, protested: "I cannot bear, little Mats, to hear you say that it is so miserable in Småland. You forget entirely how much good soil there is there. Only think of Möre district, by Kalmar Sound! I wonder where you'll find a richer grain region. There are fields upon fields, just like here in Skåne. The soil is so good that I cannot imagine anything that couldn't grow there."
"I can't help that," little Mats insisted. "I'm only relating what others have said before."
"And I have heard many say that there is not a more beautiful coast land than Tjust. Think of the bays and islets, and the manors, and the groves!" said Osa. "Yes, that's true enough," little Mats admitted. "And don't you remember," continued Osa, "the school teacher said that such a lively and picturesque district as that bit of Småland which lies south of Lake Vettern is not to be found in all Sweden? Think of the the beautiful lake and the yellow coast-mountains, and of Grenna and Jönköping, with its match factory, and think of Huskvarna, and all the big establishments there!" "Yes, that's true enough," said little Mats once again. "And think of Visingsö, little Mats, with the ruins and the oak forests and the legends! Think of the valley through which Em River flows, with all the villages and flour-mills and sawmills, and carpenter shops!" "Yes, that is true enough," said little Mats, and seemed troubled.
All of a sudden he looked up and said: "Now we are pretty stupid! All this, of course, lies in Our Lord's Småland, in that part of the land which was already finished when Saint Peter undertook the job. It's only natural that it should be pretty and fine there. But in Saint Peter's Småland it looks as it says in the legend. And it wasn't surprising that Our Lord was distressed when he saw it," continued little Mats, picking up the thread of his story. "Saint Peter didn't lose his courage, at all events, but tried to comfort Our Lord. 'Don't be so grieved over this!' said he. 'Only wait until I have created people who can till the swamps and break up fields from the stone hills.'
"That was the end of Our Lord's patience – and he said: 'No! you can go down to Skåne and make the Skåninge, but the Smålander I will create myself.' And so Our Lord created the Smålander, and made him quick-witted and contented and happy and thrifty and enterprising and capable, that he might be able to get his living in his poor country."
Then little Mats was silent; and if Nils Holgersson had also kept still, all would have gone well; but he couldn't possibly refrain from asking how Saint Peter had succeeded in creating the Skåninge.
"Well, what do you think yourself?" said little Mats, and he looked so scornful that Nils fell upon him, to thrash him. But Mats was only a little chap, and Osa, the goose-girl, who was a year older than he, ran forward instantly to help him. Good-natured though she was, she sprang like a lion as soon as any one touched her brother.
Nils Holgersson did not care to fight a girl, so turned his back; and he didn't look at those Småland children for the rest of the day.
This chapter has been put on-line as part of the
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Celebration of Women Writers.
Initial text entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of volunteer
Carrie Snyder
