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She promptly accompanied them, and saw that they had picked out secluded and well protected nesting places. "Now where will you settle down, Dunfin?" they asked. "I? Why I don't intend to remain on the island," she said. "I'm going with the wild geese up to Lapland." "What a pity that you must leave us!" said the sisters.
"I would rather see him dead than to go about here the entire summer thinking of Dunfin's capturing a white goosey-gander!" pouted Prettywing. However, the sisters continued to appear very friendly toward Dunfin, and in the afternoon Goldeye took Dunfin with her, that she might see the one she thought of marrying. "He's not as attractive as the one you will have," said Goldeye.
Goldeye agreed with her sister that these were certainly very distinguished strangers that had come to the island, but suddenly she broke off and called: "Sister Prettywing! Oh, Sister Prettywing! Don't you see whom they bring with them?" Prettywing also caught sight of Dunfin and was so astounded that she stood for a long time with her bill wide open, and only hissed.
"But to make up for it, one can be certain that he is what he is." "What do you mean, Goldeye?" questioned Dunfin. At first Goldeye would not explain what she had meant, but at last she came out with it. "We have never seen a white goose travel with wild geese," said the sister, "and we wonder if he can be bewitched." "You are very stupid," retorted Dunfin indignantly.
The boy had seen very little of the goosey-gander, because the big, white gander thought only of his Dunfin and was unwilling to leave her for a moment. On the other hand, Thumbietot had stuck to Akka and Gorgo, the eagle, and the three of them had passed many happy hours together. The two birds had taken him with them on long trips.
She begged the wild geese to fly to her home before travelling farther north, that she might let her family see that she was still alive. It would be such a joy to them. Akka frankly declared that she thought Dunfin's parents and brothers and sisters had shown no great love for her when they abandoned her at Öland, but Dunfin would not admit that Akka was in the right.
"How do you know he is?" challenged Dunfin. "For some time past there has been weeping and wailing amongst the sea gulls and wild ducks on the island. Every morning at daybreak a strange bird of prey comes and carries off one of them." "What kind of a bird is it?" asked Dunfin. "We don't know," replied the sister.
"What else was there to do, when they saw that I could not fly?" she protested. "Surely they couldn't remain at Öland on my account!" Dunfin began telling the wild geese all about her home in the archipelago, to try to induce them to make the trip. Her family lived on a rock island.
They too had seen the geese approach, but they had not recognized Dunfin in the flock. "It is strange to see wild geese land on this island," remarked the goose-master. "It is a fine flock that one can see by their flight." "But it won't be easy to find pasturage for so many," said the goose-wife, who was gentle and sweet-tempered, like Dunfin.
As the boy sat on the goose's back and glanced down at the curious shore mansions, Dunfin cried out with delight: "Now I know where I am! Over there lies the City that Floats on the Water." The boy looked ahead.
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