For a moment he forgot what he was like now; then he
remembered it, and jumped down quickly from the machine. Then a greater
unrest came over him. After all, human beings were very wonderful and
clever.
He walked by the post-office, and then he thought of all the newspapers
which came every day, with news from all the four corners of the earth.
He saw the apothecary's shop and the doctor's home, and he thought about
the power of human beings, which was so great that they were able to
battle with sickness and death. He came to the church. Then he thought
how human beings had built it, that they might hear about another world
than the one in which they lived, of God and the resurrection and
eternal life. And the longer he walked there, the better he liked human
beings.
It is so with children that they never think any farther ahead than the
length of their noses. That which lies nearest them, they want
promptly, without caring what it may cost them. Nils Holgersson had not
understood what he was losing when he chose to remain an elf; but now he
began to be dreadfully afraid that, perhaps, he should never again get
back to his right form.
How in all the world should he go to work in order to become human? This
he wanted, oh! so much, to know.
He crawled up on a doorstep, and seated himself in the pouring rain and
meditated.
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