, they were very
downhearted. There was not one among them but thought the boy had been
killed by the fall and was lying dead in the forest, where they could
not see him.

But the next morning, when the sun peeped over the hills and awakened
the wild geese, the boy lay sleeping, as usual, in their midst. When he
woke and heard them shrieking and cackling their astonishment, he could
not help laughing.

They were so eager to know what had happened to him that they did not
care to go to breakfast until he had told them the whole story. The boy
soon narrated his entire adventure with the bears, but after that he
seemed reluctant to continue.

"How I got back to you perhaps you already know?" he said.

"No, we know nothing. We thought you were killed."

"That's curious!" remarked the boy. "Oh, yes!--when Father Bear left me
I climbed up into a pine and fell asleep. At daybreak I was awakened by
an eagle hovering over me. He picked me up with his talons and carried
me away. He didn't hurt me, but flew straight here to you and dropped me
down among you."

"Didn't he tell you who he was?" asked the big white gander.

"He was gone before I had time even to thank him. I thought that Mother
Akka had sent him after me."

"How extraordinary!" exclaimed the white goosey-gander. "But are you
certain that it was an eagle?"

"I had never before seen an eagle," said the boy, "but he was so big
and splendid that I can't give him a lowlier name!"

Morten Goosey-Gander turned to the wild geese to hear what they thought
of this; but they stood gazing into the air, as though they were
thinking of something else.

"We must not forget entirely to eat breakfast today," said Akka, quickly
spreading her wings.

THE FLOOD

THE SWANS

_May first to fourth_.

There was a terrible storm raging in the district north of Lake Maelar,
which lasted several days. The sky was a dull gray, the wind whistled,
and the rain beat. Both people and animals knew the spring could not be
ushered in with anything short of this; nevertheless they thought it
unbearable.

After it had been raining for a whole day, the snowdrifts in the pine
forests began to melt in earnest, and the spring brooks grew lively. All
the pools on the farms, the standing water in the ditches, the water
that oozed between the tufts in marshes and swamps--all were in motion
and tried to find their way to creeks, that they might be borne along to
the sea.

The creeks