Morten
Goosey-Gander just now, when the geese were on the wing, and the big
white one might meet with all sorts of mishaps. After Thumbietot had
been sitting worrying for two hours or more, he remarked to himself
that, thus far, there had been no mishap, and it was not worth while to
lose heart.

Just then he heard a rooster crowing down on the ground, and instantly
he bent forward on the raven's back and called out:

"What's the name of the country I'm travelling over?"

"It's called Haerjedalen, Haerjedalen, Haerjedalen," crowed the rooster.

"How does it look down there where you are?" the boy asked.

"Cliffs in the west, woods in the east, broad valleys across the whole
country," replied the rooster.

"Thank you," cried the boy. "You give a clear account of it."

When they had travelled a little farther, he heard a crow cawing down in
the mist.

"What kind of people live in this country?" shouted the boy.

"Good, thrifty peasants," answered the crow. "Good, thrifty peasants."

"What do they do?" asked the boy. "What do they do?"

"They raise cattle and fell forests," cawed the crow.

"Thanks," replied the boy. "You answer well."

A bit farther on he heard a human voice yodeling and singing down in the
mist.

"Is there any large city in this part of the country?" the boy asked.

"What--what--who is it that calls?" cried the human voice.

"Is there any large city in this region?" the boy repeated.

"I want to know who it is that calls," shouted the human voice.

"I might have known that I could get no information when I asked a human
being a civil question," the boy retorted.

It was not long before the mist went away as suddenly as it had come.
Then the boy saw a beautiful landscape, with high cliffs as in Jaemtland,
but there were no large, flourishing settlements on the mountain slopes.
The villages lay far apart, and the farms were small. Bataki followed
the stream southward till they came within sight of a village. There he
alighted in a stubble field and let the boy dismount.

"In the summer grain grew on this ground," said Bataki. "Look around and
see if you can't find something eatable."

The boy acted upon the suggestion and before long he found a blade of
wheat. As he picked out the grains and ate them, Bataki talked to him.

"Do you see that mountain towering directly south of us?" he asked.

"Yes, of course, I see it," said the boy.

"It is called Sonfjaellet," continued the ra