A RIDE DOWN THE RIVER
Greta read her letter over carefully to see if all the words were
spelled right. This is what she had written to Anna:
"_Dear Anna:_
_I would like to have you come and visit me this summer. I know we
can have lots of fun. Hans says you may use his bicycle and also
his boat. That is a real honor, for he won't let me use his boat.
He says I am too small._
_I had four darling little kittens, but now they are gone and I
can't find them anywhere. Do you suppose a Nisse took them away?_
_Chouse, my dog, has been very naughty and Father says he may have
to send him away. I hope he won't, because I like to play with
Chouse._
_Come as soon as you can. Mother and Father and Hans all send their
love. So do I._
_Your cousin
Greta._"
She addressed the envelope, writing "Copenhagen" in very large letters.
Just as she was going out of the door, her mother called to her.
"When you are in the village, Greta, please stop at the bakery and bring
back some bread. I told Marie to bake an extra loaf today, but she
forgot it. And we have company coming tonight."
"All right, Mother. I won't forget."
As Greta rode into the village she thought of all the things that she
and Anna could do that summer. She didn't have to pay much attention to
cars coming down the gravel road, for there were many more bicycles than
automobiles. Chouse ran right along beside her bicycle, but once in a
while, when he saw a rabbit, he would suddenly dart away into the field.
In a short time he would come tearing back and soon catch up with Greta.
The fields were especially beautiful right now. The hay was yellow and
almost ready to cut. Greta could see for several miles in every
direction, for the land was flat and there were not many trees. In this
part of Denmark the trees do not grow very large because of the wind
that blows all the time, summer and winter. This wind from the North Sea
never seems to stop blowing, and it blows so hard that the trees all
lean to one side, away from the wind. There are scarcely any branches on
the side that the wind comes from.
The farmers are thankful for this wind from the sea, because it keeps
their windmills turning. And from the windmills they get electric power
to light their houses.
Greta mailed her letter and started back home. She didn't stop to visit
with any of her friends in the village, because she was eager to get
home and look for her kittens again. She hadn't given up the hope of
finding them, though she really didn't know where to look. When more
than halfway home, she suddenly remembered the loaf of bread.
"Come, Chouse. We must go back to the village." Chouse had run to the
side of the road, looking for rabbits again.
[Illustration: A BARBER'S SIGN]
From away down the road, Greta could see the sign of the bakery. Shaped
like a large pretzel, it hung 'way out in front of the store. Every
bakery had a sign like this, and many of the other shops had their own
special signs. Each barber shop had a large metal plate hanging out in
front. The plate was cut in a deep curve on one side, where it was
supposed to fit around a man's neck when he had his hair cut. Of course
barbers didn't use plates like this any more, but these signs were
still used to mark a barber shop.
[Illustration: A BAKERY SIGN]
When Greta got home, Hans was just getting ready to start out in his
new boat.
"Want to come along, Greta?"
"Sure I do. Where are you going?"
"Oh, just down the river." The little river which ran in front of the
house and wound around through the fields seemed like the nicest part of
the farm to Hans and Greta. They fished in the river in the summer and
skated on it in the winter. Hans was proud of his new boat, which was a
birthday present from his father. Although he never let Greta go out in
it alone, he often asked her to go with him.
"Wait just a minute, Hans. I must take this bread in the house and then
I'll go with you."
Chouse was already in the boat when Greta came out. The minute that Hans
started toward the boat, Chouse always jumped in ahead of him. He never
sat still in it long. He would dash back and forth from the front to
the back, and every now and then he tried to jump out, when he saw a
rabbit running across the field.
[Illustration: CHOUSE LIKED THE BOAT]
"Are you going to let me paddle, Hans?" asked Greta.
"Maybe I will, after while."
Greta had to be content with this sort of a promise. She was very happy
just to be out in this beautiful new boat. By the time they had gone
around the first bend of the river, Greta began to think of her kittens
again.
"Hans, do you think that a Nisse really did take my kittens away?"
"Well, of course, I don't _know_, Greta. But it looks like it."
"I thought you didn't believe in the Nisser, Hans."
"Why, one _has_ to believe in the Nisser. There is just no other way to
explain some of the things that happen."
"Do you remember the time my doll disappeared and I couldn't find her
for months and months?"
"Sure I do. And then all of a sudden she appeared again."
"And you know, Hans, how I had looked simply _everywhere_ for that
doll."
"Yes. And then you found her under the bed in your room. That is why I
say that you have to believe in the Nisser. There is no other way to
explain things like that."
While they were talking, Chouse had been running back and forth in the
boat. Suddenly he put his front feet up on the side and started barking.
He barked and barked and wagged his tail. He was trying so hard to tell
them something.
"I guess Chouse sees a rabbit. He wants to get out of the boat."
"Let's let him out, Hans, and see what he does."
Hans quickly turned the boat and paddled over to the shore. Chouse
jumped out before the boat had even touched the bank. In fact, he almost
fell into the river, he was in such a hurry to get out. Then he ran
across the field and was soon out of sight, swallowed up in the field of
hay.
"Hans, please let me paddle now."
"Wait until we get around the next bend in the river."
Hans's boat was still so new that he liked to paddle it himself.
"Well, all right." Greta was disappointed, but she had to be content.
Hans pushed the boat away from the shore and paddled down the middle of
the river. The river was quite straight here. Greta thought that the
next bend was very far away indeed. And it seemed that Hans was
purposely going just as slowly as he could. Oh, why did he want to tease
her this way? Greta hoped that her father would get her a boat when she
was fifteen years old. But that was a long time off--five whole years.
"I wonder where Chouse has gone, Hans."
"Oh, he's chasing rabbits all over the field."
Just then they heard Chouse bark, but it was a very faint bark, as if he
were far away. The children looked and looked, but they couldn't see
him anywhere. He barked again, and this time it sounded a little bit
louder, but he was still out of sight. As Greta and Hans went on down
the river, the barking got louder and louder.
"Oh, Hans, I see Chouse," cried Greta in great excitement.
"Where is he, Greta?"
"He's way down there in front of us, right down by the water near that
group of trees. Hurry, Hans. Let's see why he is barking."
Hans pushed the boat forward with strong, swift strokes. He knew exactly
how to handle his boat, and in no time at all they had reached the group
of trees that was growing by the edge of the water.
"Oh, Hans, the kittens! There are the kittens!" Greta stood right up in
the boat. "Hurry, Hans. One of the kittens is in the river."
"You'd better sit down, Greta, or you'll be in the river yourself."
With one strong stroke of his paddle, Hans drove the boat against the
grassy bank. Both children jumped out and ran over to Chouse and the
kittens. One kitten was lying on the grass, but it looked more like a
rat than a kitten. Its soft fur was soaking wet. Chouse was working hard
to pull the other kitten out of the river. Finally he got it up on the
bank just as Hans rushed up to help with the rescue.
"Oh, Hans, the poor little things are almost drowned." Greta picked up
the two mewing kittens and held them close to her, trying to make them
dry and warm and comfortable.
"It certainly is lucky that we came along when we did," said Hans. "Or
rather, it's lucky that Chouse was hunting rabbits along here."
[Illustration: SAFE AGAIN]
"But where are the other two kittens, Hans?"
Hans didn't answer right away. He walked along the shore for a little
distance, stopping now and then to look carefully in the water. At one
place he got down on his knees and looked. Then he walked back quickly
to Greta.
"I'm afraid we shall never find them, Greta. Come on. Let's go home so
that we can get these kittens really dry and warm. We must give them
some warm milk, for I know they are hungry."
All the way home Greta was very quiet. She took off her sweater and
wrapped it around the kittens, holding them in her lap. Suddenly she
looked up at Hans with a smile.
"Hans, this certainly proves that Chouse didn't try to do away with the
kittens, for he was the one who _rescued_ them. Surely Father won't send
him away now."
"I don't know, Greta. I saw Chouse chasing the chickens again
yesterday."
"Did Father see him?" asked Greta with a worried look.
Hans was in a teasing mood and he didn't answer Greta right away.
Finally he said, with an annoying smile on his face, "I think I'd better
not tell you, Greta."