"I'm sitting here
thinking that we ought to go abroad with the geese."
"Surely you are not in earnest!" said the goosey-gander. Since he had
proved to the wild geese his ability to travel with them all the way to
Lapland, he was perfectly satisfied to get back to the goose pen in
Holger Nilsson's cow shed.
The boy sat silently a while and gazed down on Vermland, where the birch
woods, leafy groves, and gardens were clad in red and yellow autumn
colours.
"I don't think I've ever seen the earth beneath us as lovely as it is
to-day!" he finally remarked. "The lakes are like blue satin bands.
Don't you think it would be a pity to settle down in West Vemminghoeg and
never see any more of the world?"
"I thought you wanted to go home to your mother and father and show them
what a splendid boy you had become?" said the goosey-gander.
All summer he had been dreaming of what a proud moment it would be for
him when he should alight in the house yard before Holger Nilsson's
cabin and show Dunfin and the six goslings to the geese and chickens,
the cows and the cat, and to Mother Holger Nilsson herself, so that he
was not very happy over the boy's proposal.
"Now, Morten Goosey-Gander, don't you think yourself that it would be
hard never to see anything more that is beautiful!" said the boy.
"I would rather see the fat grain fields of Soederslaett than these lean
hills," answered the goosey-gander.
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