back of
this life, the animals felt only once a year; and this was on the day
when they beheld the great crane dance.

IN RAINY WEATHER

_Wednesday, March thirtieth_.

It was the first rainy day of the trip. As long as the wild geese had
remained in the vicinity of Vomb Lake, they had had beautiful weather;
but on the day when they set out to travel farther north, it began to
rain, and for several hours the boy had to sit on the goose-back,
soaking wet, and shivering with the cold.

In the morning when they started, it had been clear and mild. The wild
geese had flown high up in the air--evenly, and without haste--with Akka
at the head maintaining strict discipline, and the rest in two oblique
lines back of her. They had not taken the time to shout any witty
sarcasms to the animals on the ground; but, as it was simply impossible
for them to keep perfectly silent, they sang out continually--in rhythm
with the wing-strokes--their usual coaxing call: "Where are you? Here
am I. Where are you? Here am I."

They all took part in this persistent calling, and only stopped, now and
then, to show the goosey-gander the landmarks they were travelling over.
The places on this route included Linderoedsosen's dry hills, Ovesholm's
manor, Christianstad's church steeple, Baeckaskog's royal castle on the
narrow isthmus between Oppmann's lake and Ivoe's lake, Ryss mountain's
steep precipice.

It had been a monotonous trip, and when the rain-clouds made their
appearance the boy thought it was a real diversion. In the old days,
when he had only seen a rain-cloud from below, he had imagined that they
were gray and disagreeable; but it was a very different thing to be up
amongst them. Now he saw distinctly that the clouds were enormous carts,
which drove through the heavens with sky-high loads. Some of them were
piled up with huge, gray sacks, some with barrels; some were so large
that they could hold a whole lake; and a few were filled with big
utensils and bottles which were piled up to an immense height. And when
so many of them had driven forward that they filled the whole sky, it
appeared as though someone had given a signal, for all at once, water
commenced to pour down over the earth, from utensils, barrels, bottles
and sacks.

Just as the first spring-showers pattered against the ground, there
arose such shouts of joy from all the small birds in groves and
pastures, that the whole air rang with them and the boy leaped hi