e ships. He certainly had not slept five
minutes before he slipped out from under the wing and slid down the
lightning-rod and the waterspout all the way down to the ground.

Soon he stood on a big square which spread itself in front of the
church. It was covered with round stones, and was just as difficult for
him to travel over, as it is for big people to walk on a tufted meadow.
Those who are accustomed to live in the open--or way out in the
country--always feel uneasy when they come into a city, where the houses
stand straight and forbidding, and the streets are open, so that
everyone can see who goes there. And it happened in the same way with
the boy. When he stood on the big Karlskrona square, and looked at the
German church, and town hall, and the cathedral from which he had just
descended, he couldn't do anything but wish that he was back on the
tower again with the geese.

It was a lucky thing that the square was entirely deserted. There wasn't
a human being about--unless he counted a statue that stood on a high
pedestal. The boy gazed long at the statue, which represented a big,
brawny man in a three-cornered hat, long waistcoat, knee-breeches and
coarse shoes, and wondered what kind of a one he was. He held a long
stick in his hand, and he looked as if he would know how to make use of
it, too--for he had an awfully severe countenance, with a big, hooked
nose and an ugly mouth.

"What is that long-lipped thing doing here?" said the boy at last. He
had never felt so small and insignificant as he did that night. He tried
to jolly himself up a bit by saying something audacious. Then he thought
no more about the statue, but betook himself to a wide street which led
down to the sea.

But the boy hadn't gone far before he heard that someone was following
him. Someone was walking behind him, who stamped on the stone pavement
with heavy footsteps, and pounded on the ground with a hard stick. It
sounded as if the bronze man up in the square had gone out for a
promenade.

The boy listened after the steps, while he ran down the street, and he
became more and more convinced that it was the bronze man. The ground
trembled, and the houses shook. It couldn't be anyone but he, who walked
so heavily, and the boy grew panic-stricken when he thought of what he
had just said to him. He did not dare to turn his head to find out if it
really was he.

"Perhaps he is only out walking for recreation," thought the boy.
"Surely