Karr lived in a state of continual grief, yearning, and anxiety. Yet he
had to wait two whole summers more before there was an end of the
caterpillars!
Karr no sooner heard the game-keeper say that the forest was out of
danger than he started on a hunt for Helpless. But when he was in the
thick of the forest he made a frightful discovery: He could not hunt any
more, he could not run, he could not track his enemy, and he could not
see at all!
During the long years of waiting, old age had overtaken Karr. He had
grown old without having noticed it. He had not the strength even to
kill a water-snake. He was not able to save his friend Grayskin from his
enemy.
RETRIBUTION
One afternoon Akka from Kebnekaise and her flock alighted on the shore
of a forest lake.
Spring was backward--as it always is in the mountain districts. Ice
covered all the lake save a narrow strip next the land. The geese at
once plunged into the water to bathe and hunt for food. In the morning
Nils Holgersson had dropped one of his wooden shoes, so he went down by
the elms and birches that grew along the shore, to look for something to
bind around his foot.
The boy walked quite a distance before he found anything that he could
use. He glanced about nervously, for he did not fancy being in the
forest.
"Give me the plains and the lakes!" he thought.
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