r
you wish to go, and my eyes can search out whatever you wish to find.
Tell me how the man looks who exacted this promise from you, and I will
find him and take you to him. Then it is for you to do the rest."

Thumbietot approved of the proposition.

"I can see, Gorgo, that you have had a wise bird like Akka for a
foster-mother," the boy remarked.

He gave a graphic description of Clement Larsson, and added that he had
heard at Skansen that the little fiddler was from Haelsingland.

"We'll search for him through the whole of Haelsingland--from Ljungby to
Mellansjoe; from Great Mountain to Hornland," said the eagle. "To-morrow
before sundown you shall have a talk with the man!"

"I fear you are promising more than you can perform," doubted the boy.

"I should be a mighty poor eagle if I couldn't do that much," said
Gorgo.

So when Gorgo and Thumbietot left Aelvkarleby they were good friends, and
the boy willingly took his mount for a ride on the eagle's back. Thus he
had an opportunity to see much of the country.

When clutched in the eagle's talons he had seen nothing. Perhaps it was
just as well, for in the forenoon he had travelled over Upsala,
Oesterby's big factories, the Dannemora Mine, and the ancient castle of
Oerbyhus, and he would have been sadly disappointed at not seeing them
had he known of their proximity.

The eagle bore him speedily over Gaestrikland. In the southern part of
the province there was very little to tempt the eye. But as they flew
northward, it began to be interesting.

"This country is clad in a spruce skirt and a gray-stone jacket,"
thought the boy. "But around its waist it wears a girdle which has not
its match in value, for it is embroidered with blue lakes and green
groves. The great ironworks adorn it like a row of precious stones, and
its buckle is a whole city with castles and cathedrals and great
clusters of houses."

When the travellers arrived in the northern forest region, Gorgo
alighted on top of a mountain. As the boy dismounted, the eagle said:

"There's game in this forest, and I can't forget my late captivity and
feel really free until I have gone a-hunting. You won't mind my leaving
you for a while?"

"No, of course, I won't," the boy assured him.

"You may go where you like if only you are back here by sundown," said
the eagle, as he flew off.

The boy sat on a stone gazing across the bare, rocky ground and the
great forests round about.

He felt rathe