have gone well; but he couldn't possibly refrain from asking
how Saint Peter had succeeded in creating the Skaninge.

"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 Smaland children for the rest of the day.

THE CROWS

THE EARTHEN CROCK

In the southwest corner of Smaland lies a township called Sonnerbo. It
is a rather smooth and even country. And one who sees it in winter, when
it is covered with snow, cannot imagine that there is anything under the
snow but garden-plots, rye-fields and clover-meadows as is generally the
case in flat countries. But, in the beginning of April when the snow
finally melts away in Sonnerbo, it is apparent that that which lies
hidden under it is only dry, sandy heaths, bare rocks, and big, marshy
swamps. There are fields here and there, to be sure, but they are so
small that they are scarcely worth mentioning; and one also finds a few
little red or gray farmhouses hidden away in some beech-coppice--almost
as if they were afraid to show themselves.

Where Sonnerbo township touches the boundaries of Halland, there is a
sandy heath which is so far-reaching that he who stands upon one edge of
it cannot look across to the other. Nothing except heather grows on the
heath, and it wouldn't be easy either to coax other growths to thrive
there. To start with one would have to uproot the heather; for it is
thus with heather: although it has only a little shrunken root, small
shrunken branches, and dry, shrunken leaves it fancies that it's a tree.
Therefore it acts just like real trees--spreads itself out in forest
fashion over wide areas; holds together faithfully, and causes all
foreign growths that wish to crowd in upon its territory to die out.

The only place on the heath where the heather is not all-powerful, is a
low, stony ridge which passes over it. There you'll find juniper bushes,
mountain ash, and a few large, fine oaks. At the time when Nils
Holgersson travelled around with the wild geese, a little cabin stood
there, with a bit of cleared ground around it. But the people who had
lived th