st at that moment the boy
was not without weapons of defence. He struck a match quickly, touched
the curtains, and when they were in flames, he threw them down upon
Smirre Fox. When the fire enveloped the fox, he was seized with a mad
terror. He thought no more about the boy, but rushed wildly out of the
cabin.

But it looked as if the boy had escaped one danger to throw himself into
a greater one. From the tuft of oakum which he had flung at Smirre the
fire had spread to the bed-hangings. He jumped down and tried to smother
it, but it blazed too quickly now. The cabin was soon filled with smoke,
and Smirre Fox, who had remained just outside the window, began to grasp
the state of affairs within. "Well, Thumbietot," he called out, "which
do you choose now: to be broiled alive in there, or to come out here to
me? Of course, I should prefer to have the pleasure of eating you; but
in whichever way death meets you it will be dear to me."

The boy could not think but what the fox was right, for the fire was
making rapid headway. The whole bed was now in a blaze, and smoke rose
from the floor; and along the painted wall-strips the fire crept from
rider to rider. The boy jumped up in the fireplace, and tried to open
the oven door, when he heard a key which turned around slowly in the
lock. It must be human beings coming. And in the dire extremity in which
he found himself, he was not afraid, but only glad. He was already on
the threshold when the door opened. He saw a couple of children facing
him; but how they looked when they saw the cabin in flames, he took no
time to find out; but rushed past them into the open.

He didn't dare run far. He knew, of course, that Smirre Fox lay in wait
for him, and he understood that he must remain near the children. He
turned round to see what sort of folk they were, but he hadn't looked at
them a second before he ran up to them and cried: "Oh, good-day, Osa
goose-girl! Oh, good-day, little Mats!"

For when the boy saw those children he forgot entirely where he was.
Crows and burning cabin and talking animals had vanished from his
memory. He was walking on a stubble-field, in West Vemminghoeg, tending a
goose-flock; and beside him, on the field, walked those same Smaland
children, with their geese. As soon as he saw them, he ran up on the
stone-hedge and shouted: "Oh, good-day, Osa goose-girl! Oh, good-day,
little Mats!"

But when the children saw such a little creature coming up to th