is
not starving and freezing on the highways, I'd ask nothing more!"

Then his father and mother went in, and the boy heard no more of their
conversation.

He was happy and deeply moved when he knew that they loved him so
dearly, although they believed he had gone astray. He longed to rush
into their arms.

"But perhaps it would be an even greater sorrow were they to see me as I
now am."

While he stood there, hesitating, a cart drove up to the gate. The boy
smothered a cry of surprise, for who should step from the cart and go
into the house yard but Osa, the goose girl, and her father!

They walked hand in hand toward the cabin. When they were about half
way there, Osa stopped her father and said:

"Now remember, father, you are not to mention the wooden shoe or the
geese or the little brownie who was so like Nils Holgersson that if it
was not himself it must have had some connection with him."

"Certainly not!" said Jon Esserson. "I shall only say that their son has
been of great help to you on several occasions--when you were trying to
find me--and that therefore we have come to ask if we can't do them a
service in return, since I'm a rich man now and have more than I need,
thanks to the mine I discovered up in Lapland."

"I know, father, that you can say the right thing in the right way," Osa
commended. "It is only that one particular thing that I don't wish you
to mention."

They went into the cabin, and the boy would have liked to hear what they
talked about in there; but he dared not venture near the house. It was
not long before they came out again, and his father and mother
accompanied them as far as the gate.

His parents were strangely happy. They appeared to have gained a new
hold on life.

When the visitors were gone, father and mother lingered at the gate
gazing after them.

"I don't feel unhappy any longer, since I've heard so much that is good
of our Nils," said his mother.

"Perhaps he got more praise than he really deserved," put in his father
thoughtfully.

"Wasn't it enough for you that they came here specially to say they
wanted to help us because our Nils had served them in many ways? I
think, father, that you should have accepted their offer."

"No, mother, I don't wish to accept money from any one, either as a gift
or a loan. In the first place I want to free myself from all debt, then
we will work our way up again. We're not so very old, are we, mother?"
The father laughed h