"All the same I believe I'll make an attempt...." She rose into the air,
and in a second her claws were fastened in Nils Holgersson's shoulder
and she was trying to hack at his eyes.
The boy shielded both eyes with one hand and tried to free himself with
the other, at the same time calling with all his might for help. He
realized that he was in deadly peril and thought that this time, surely,
it was all over with him!
Now I must tell you of a strange coincidence: The very year that Nils
Holgersson travelled with the wild geese there was a woman who thought
of writing a book about Sweden, which would be suitable for children to
read in the schools. She had thought of this from Christmas time until
the following autumn; but not a line of the book had she written. At
last she became so tired of the whole thing that she said to herself:
"You are not fitted for such work. Sit down and compose stories and
legends, as usual, and let another write this book, which has got to be
serious and instructive, and in which there must not be one untruthful
word."
It was as good as settled that she would abandon the idea. But she
thought, very naturally, it would have been agreeable to write something
beautiful about Sweden, and it was hard for her to relinquish her work.
Finally, it occurred to her that maybe it was because she lived in a
city, with only gray streets and house walls around her, that she could
make no headway with the writing.
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