behind the peasant's house, thou wilt imagine thyself still in
Denmark!'

''Fly with me,' said the swallow. 'I fly over Hal-land's mountain
ridges, where the beeches cease. I soar farther toward the north
than the stork. I will show you where the arable land retires
before rocky valleys. You shall see friendly towns, old churches,
solitary court yards, within which it is cosy and pleasant to
dwell, where the family stands in circle around the table with the
smoking platters, and asks a blessing through the mouth of the
youngest child, and morning and evening sings a holy song. I have
heard it, I have seen it, when I was yet small, from my nest under
the roof.'

''Come! come!' cried the unsteady seagull, impatiently waiting, and
ever flying round in a circle. 'Follow me into the Scheeren, where
thousands of rocky islands, covered with pines and firs, lie along
the coasts like flower beds; where the fisherman draws full nets!'

''Let yourself down between our outspread wings!' sing the wild
swans. 'We will bear you to the great seas, to the ever-roaring,
arrow-quick mountain streams, where the oak does not thrive and the
birches are stunted; let yourself down between our outspread
wings,--we soar high over Sulitelma, the eye of the island, as the
mountain is called; we fly from the spring-green valley, over the
snow waves, up to the summit of the mountain, whence you may catch
a glimpse of the North Sea, beyond Norway. We fly toward Jamtland,
with its high blue mountains, where the waterfalls roar, where the
signal fires flame up as signs from coast to coast that they are
waiting for the ferry boat--up to the deep, cold, hurrying floods,
which do not see the sun set in midsummer, where twilight is dawn!'

'So sing the birds! Shall we hearken to their song--follow them, at
least a short way? We do not seat ourselves upon the wings of the
swan, nor upon the back of the stork; we stride forward with steam
and horses, sometimes upon our own feet, and glance, at the same
time, now and then, from the actual, over the hedge into the
kingdom of fancy, that is always our near neighborland, and pluck
flowers or leaves, which shall be placed together in the memorandum
book--they bud indeed on the flight of the journey. We fly, and we
sing: Sweden, tho