ry, but white and damp. Suddenly
the boy understood that it was nothing but a mist.

When the mist became so thick that one couldn't see a goose-length
ahead, the birds began to carry on like real lunatics. All these, who
before had travelled forward in such perfect order, began to play in the
mist. They flew hither and thither, to entice one another astray. "Be
careful!" they cried. "You're only travelling round and round. Turn
back, for pity's sake! You'll never get to Oeland in this way."

They all knew perfectly well where the island was, but they did their
best to lead each other astray. "Look at those wagtails!" rang out in
the mist. "They are going back toward the North Sea!" "Have a care, wild
geese!" shrieked someone from another direction. "If you continue like
this, you'll get clear up to Ruegen."

There was, of course, no danger that the birds who were accustomed to
travel here would permit themselves to be lured in a wrong direction.
But the ones who had a hard time of it were the wild geese. The jesters
observed that they were uncertain as to the way, and did all they could
to confuse them.

"Where do you intend to go, good people?" called a swan. He came right
up to Akka, and looked sympathetic and serious.

"We shall travel to Oeland; but we have never been there before," said
Akka. She thought that this was a bird to be trusted.

"It's too bad," said the swan. "They have lured you in the wrong
direction. You're on the road to Blekinge. Now come with me, and I'll
put you right!"

And so he flew off with them; and when he had taken them so far away
from the track that they heard no calls, he disappeared in the mist.

They flew around for a while at random. They had barely succeeded in
finding the birds again, when a duck approached them. "It's best that
you lie down on the water until the mist clears," said the duck. "It is
evident that you are not accustomed to look out for yourselves on
journeys."

Those rogues succeeded in making Akka's head swim. As near as the boy
could make out, the wild geese flew round and round for a long time.

"Be careful! Can't you see that you are flying up and down?" shouted a
loon as he rushed by. The boy positively clutched the goosey-gander
around the neck. This was something which he had feared for a long time.

No one can tell when they would have arrived, if they hadn't heard a
rolling and muffled sound in the distance.

Then Akka craned her neck, snapped