ld excitement they
rushed up from the bins, slid down through the narrow holes in the
walls, and tumbled over each other in their eagerness to get out.

In the middle of the courtyard stood a tiny creature, who blew upon a
pipe. All round him he had a whole circle of rats who listened to him,
astonished and fascinated; and every moment brought more. Once he took
the pipe from his lips--only for a second--put his thumb to his nose and
wiggled his fingers at the gray rats; and then it looked as if they
wanted to throw themselves on him and bite him to death; but as soon as
he blew on his pipe they were in his power.

When the tiny creature had played all the gray rats out of Glimminge
castle, he began to wander slowly from the courtyard out on the highway;
and all the gray rats followed him, because the tones from that pipe
sounded so sweet to their ears that they could not resist them.

The tiny creature walked before them and charmed them along with him,
on the road to Vallby. He led them into all sorts of crooks and turns
and bends--on through hedges and down into ditches--and wherever he went
they had to follow. He blew continuously on his pipe, which appeared to
be made from an animal's horn, although the horn was so small that, in
our days, there were no animals from whose foreheads it could have been
broken. No one knew, either, who had made it. Flammea, the steeple-owl,
had found it in a niche, in Lund cathedral. She had shown it to Bataki,
the raven; and they had both figured out that this was the kind of horn
that was used in former times by those who wished to gain power over
rats and mice. But the raven was Akka's friend; and it was from him she
had learned that Flammea owned a treasure like this. And it was true
that the rats could not resist the pipe. The boy walked before them and
played as long as the starlight lasted--and all the while they followed
him. He played at daybreak; he played at sunrise; and the whole time the
entire procession of gray rats followed him, and were enticed farther
and farther away from the big grain loft at Glimminge castle.

THE GREAT CRANE DANCE ON KULLABERG

_Tuesday, March twenty-ninth_.

Although there are many magnificent buildings in Skane, it must be
acknowledged that there's not one among them that has such pretty walls
as old Kullaberg.

Kullaberg is low and rather long. It is not by any means a big or
imposing mountain. On its broad summit you'll find woods