_Tuesday, April twelfth_.
The wild geese had made a good trip over the sea, and had lighted in
Tjust Township, in northern Småland. That township didn't seem able to
make up its mind whether it wanted to be land or sea. Fiords 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 exterior.
It was evening when the wild geese came in from the sea; and the land
with the little hills lay prettily between the shimmering fiords. Here
and there, on the islands, the boy saw cabins and cottages; and the
farther inland he came, the bigger and better became the dwelling
houses. Finally, they grew into large, white manors. Along the shores
there was generally a border of trees; and within this lay field-plots,
and on the tops of the little hills there were trees again. He could not
help but think of Blekinge. Here again was a place where land and sea
met, in such a pretty and peaceful sort of way, just as if they tried to
show each other the best and loveliest which they possessed.
The wild geese alighted upon a limestone island a good way in on
Goose-fiord. With the first glance at the shore they observed that
spring had made rapid strides while they had been away 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 said
instantly that there was no time in which to hunt 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, and this grieved him. He had
heard more about Småland than he had 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 had met a pair of Småland children,
almost every day, who also tended geese. These children had irritated
him terribly with their Småland.
It wasn't 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, how it went when Småland and Skåne were
created?" he would ask, and if Nils Holgersson said no, he began
immediately to relate the old joke-legend.
"Well, it was at that time when our Lord was creating the world. While
he was doing his best work, Saint Peter came walking by. He stopped and
looked on, and then he asked if it was hard to do. 'Well, it isn't
exactly easy,' said our Lord. Saint Peter stood there a little longer,
and when he noticed how easy it was 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 though it would be an indescribably
pretty and fertile land. It was difficult for our Lord to say no to
Saint Peter, and aside from this, he thought very likely that a thing so
well begun no one could spoil. Therefore he said: If you like, we will
prove which one of us two 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, and there he undertook to create Skåne.
It wasn't long before he was through with it, and soon he asked if Saint
Peter had finished, and would come and look at his work. 'I had mine
ready long ago,' said Saint Peter; and from the sound of his voice it
could be heard 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 land. It was a fertile land and easy
to cultivate, with wide plains wherever one looked, and hardly a sign of
hills. It was evident that our Lord had really contemplated making it
such that people should 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 and looked around--perfectly astonished. He
had had the idea that nothing could be so good for a land as a great
deal of warmth. Therefore he had gathered together an enormous mass of
stones and mountains, and erected a highland, and this he had done so
that it should 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 easy to understand that hardly anything except spruce
and juniper and moss and heather could grow there. But what there was
plenty of was water. It had filled up all the clefts in the mountain;
and lakes and rivers and brooks; these one saw everywhere, to say
nothing of swamps and morasses, which spread over large tracts. And the
most exasperating thing of 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," said she. "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," said little Mats. "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
beautiful sea 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 Emån
flows, with all the villages and flour-mills and sawmills, and the
carpenter shops!" "Yes, that is true enough," said little Mats, and
looked troubled.
All of a sudden he had looked up. "Now we are pretty stupid," said he.
"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, as he took up the thread of his story again. "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 livelihood 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 looked so
scornful that Nils Holgersson threw himself upon him, to thrash him. But
Mats was only a little tot, 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 anyone touched her brother.
And Nils Holgersson did not care to fight a girl, but turned his back,
and didn't look at those Småland children for the rest of the day.