tood on the highest point of the island and raised his
arms--as if in despair over all the misfortune that should come to him
and his island.
The boy was not a little terrified when he noticed that Akka began to
descend right over that particular island! "No, for pity's sake! We
must not light there," said he.
But the geese continued to descend, and soon the boy was astonished that
he could have seen things so awry. In the first place, the big stone
blocks were nothing but houses. The whole island was a city; and the
shining gold specks were street lamps and lighted window-panes. The
giant, who stood highest up on the island, and raised his arms, was a
church with two cross-towers; all the sea-trolls and monsters, which he
thought he had seen, were boats and ships of every description, that lay
anchored all around the island. On the side which lay toward the land
were mostly row-boats and sailboats and small coast steamers; but on the
side that faced the sea lay armour-clad battleships; some were broad,
with very thick, slanting smokestacks; others were long and narrow, and
so constructed that they could glide through the water like fishes.
Now what city might this be? That, the boy could figure out because he
saw all the battleships. All his life he had loved ships, although he
had had nothing to do with any, except the galleys which he had sailed
in the road ditches. He knew very well that this city--where so many
battleships lay--couldn't be any place but Karlskrona.
The boy's grandfather had been an old marine; and as long as he had
lived, he had talked of Karlskrona every day; of the great warship dock,
and of all the other things to be seen in that city. The boy felt
perfectly at home, and he was glad that he should see all this of which
he had heard so much.
But he only had a glimpse of the towers and fortifications which barred
the entrance to the harbour, and the many buildings, and the
shipyard--before Akka came down on one of the flat church-towers.
This was a pretty safe place for those who wanted to get away from a
fox, and the boy began to wonder if he couldn't venture to crawl in
under the goosey-gander's wing for this one night. Yes, that he might
safely do. It would do him good to get a little sleep. He should try to
see a little more of the dock and the ships after it had grown light.
The boy himself thought it was strange that he could keep still and wait
until the next morning to see th
|