-green shoots on the pine trees, new birch leaves in
the groves, new green grass in the meadows, and sprouting grain in the
fields. It was a mountainous country, but directly through it ran a
broad, light valley from either side of which branched other
valleys--some short and narrow, some broad and long.

"This land resembles a leaf," thought the boy, "for it's as green as a
leaf, and the valleys subdivide it in about the same way as the veins of
a leaf are foliated."

The branch valleys, like the main one, were filled with lakes, rivers,
farms, and villages. They snuggled, light and smiling, between the dark
mountains until they were gradually squeezed together by the hills.
There they were so narrow that they could not hold more than a little
brook.

On the high land between the valleys there were pine forests which had
no even ground to grow upon. There were mountains standing all about,
and the forest covered the whole, like a woolly hide stretched over a
bony body.

It was a picturesque country to look down upon, and the boy saw a good
deal of it, because the eagle was trying to find the old fiddler,
Clement Larsson, and flew from ravine to ravine looking for him.

A little later in the morning there was life and movement on every farm.
The doors of the cattle sheds were thrown wide open and the cows were
let out. They were prettily coloured, small, supple and sprightly, and
so sure-footed that they made the most comic leaps and bounds. After
them came the calves and sheep, and it was plainly to be seen that they,
too, were in the best of spirits.

It grew livelier every moment in the farm yards. A couple of young girls
with knapsacks on their backs walked among the cattle; a boy with a long
switch kept the sheep together, and a little dog ran in and out among
the cows, barking at the ones that tried to gore him. The farmer hitched
a horse to a cart loaded with tubs of butter, boxes of cheese, and all
kinds of eatables. The people laughed and chattered. They and the beasts
were alike merry--as if looking forward to a day of real pleasure.

A moment later all were on their way to the forest. One of the girls
walked in the lead and coaxed the cattle with pretty, musical calls. The
animals followed in a long line. The shepherd boy and the sheep-dog ran
hither and thither, to see that no creature turned from the right
course; and last came the farmer and his hired man. They walked beside
the cart to prevent its