"Take us along with
you!" said the sick ones. "Not this year," answered the boy. "Not this
year."
When they had travelled still farther on, they came to Huskvarna. It lay
in a valley. The mountains around it were steep and beautifully formed.
A river rushed along the heights in long and narrow falls. Big workshops
and factories lay below the mountain walls; and scattered over the
valley-bottom were the workingmens' homes, encircled by little gardens;
and in the centre of the valley lay the schoolhouse. Just as the wild
geese came along, a bell rang, and a crowd of school children marched
out in line. They were so numerous that the whole schoolyard was filled
with them. "Where are you going? Where are you going?" the children
shouted when they heard the wild geese. "Where there are neither books
nor lessons to be found," answered the boy. "Take us along!" shrieked
the children. "Not this year, but next," cried the boy. "Not this year,
but next."
THE BIG BIRD LAKE
JARRO, THE WILD DUCK
On the eastern shore of Vettern lies Mount Omberg; east of Omberg lies
Dagmosse; east of Dagmosse lies Lake Takern. Around the whole of Takern
spreads the big, even Oestergoeta plain.
Takern is a pretty large lake and in olden times it must have been still
larger. But then the people thought it covered entirely too much of the
fertile plain, so they attempted to drain the water from it, that they
might sow and reap on the lake-bottom.
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