-two whole hours, and he thought
so hard that his forehead lay in furrows; but he was none the wiser. It
seemed as though the thoughts only rolled round and round in his head.
The longer he sat there, the more impossible it seemed to him to find
any solution.

"This thing is certainly much too difficult for one who has learned as
little as I have," he thought at last. "It will probably wind up by my
having to go back among human beings after all. I must ask the minister
and the doctor and the schoolmaster and others who are learned, and may
know a cure for such things."

This he concluded that he would do at once, and shook himself--for he
was as wet as a dog that has been in a water-pool.

Just about then he saw that a big owl came flying along, and alighted on
one of the trees that bordered the village street. The next instant a
lady owl, who sat under the cornice of the house, began to call out:
"Kivitt, Kivitt! Are you at home again, Mr. Gray Owl? What kind of a
time did you have abroad?"

"Thank you, Lady Brown Owl. I had a very comfortable time," said the
gray owl. "Has anything out of the ordinary happened here at home during
my absence?"

"Not here in Blekinge, Mr. Gray Owl; but in Skane a marvellous thing has
happened! A boy has been transformed by an elf into a goblin no bigger
than a squirrel; and since then he has gone to Lapland with a tame
goose."

"That's a remarkable bit of news, a remarkable bit of news. Can he never
be human again, Lady Brown Owl? Can he never be human again?"

"That's a secret, Mr. Gray Owl; but you shall hear it just the same.
The elf has said that if the boy watches over the goosey-gander, so that
he comes home safe and sound, and--"

"What more, Lady Brown Owl? What more? What more?"

"Fly with me up to the church tower, Mr. Gray Owl, and you shall hear
the whole story! I fear there may be someone listening down here in the
street." With that, the owls flew their way; but the boy flung his cap
in the air, and shouted: "If I only watch over the goosey-gander, so
that he gets back safe and sound, then I shall become a human being
again. Hurrah! Hurrah! Then I shall become a human being again!"

He shouted "hurrah" until it was strange that they did not hear him in
the houses--but they didn't, and he hurried back to the wild geese, out
in the wet morass, as fast as his legs could carry him.

THE STAIRWAY WITH THE THREE STEPS

_Thursday, March thirty-first_.

The f