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The old leader-goose came rushing down the hill and up to the boy. First she seized hold of him and shook him, then she stroked him with her bill before she shook him again. But she did not say a word, since he asked her not to waken the others. Thumbietot kissed old Mother Akka on both cheeks, then he told her how he had been carried off to Skansen and held captive there.
"The longer you keep it up, the better it will go," answered the leader-goose, without slackening her speed. And she was quite right, for when the goslings had flown two hours longer, they complained no more of being tired. But in the mountain glen they had been in the habit of eating all day long, and very soon they began to feel hungry.
Thereupon the leader-goose pointed with her bill and said: "But who is that you have with you? I've never seen anything like him before." "That's my comrade," said the goosey-gander. "He's been a goose-tender all his life. He'll be useful all right to take with us on the trip." "Yes, he may be all right for a tame goose," answered the wild one. "What do you call him?"
"I have never seen a tame goose run, nor have I ever done it myself," said the goosey-gander; and he made things appear much worse than they really were. The big white one was sure now that the leader-goose would say that under no circumstances could they take him along.
After that she walked around and awakened Yksi and Kaksi, Kolme and Neljä, Viisi and Kuusi, and, last of all, she gave Thumbietot a nudge with her bill that startled him. "What is it, Mother Akka?" he asked, springing up in alarm. "Nothing serious," assured the leader-goose.
"Yes, it would be well if you could show us that," said the leader-goose. "We have already observed how much you know about flying; but you are more skilled, perhaps, in other sports. Possibly you are strong in a swimming match?" "No, I can't boast that I am," said the goosey-gander.
Two years before Nils Holgersson travelled with the wild geese the old leader-goose, Akka from Kebnekaise, was standing at the foot of the mountain slope looking toward the eagle's nest.
"Let him hear first what the wild geese have to say to him; later we shall tell him that the water-snake is dead." Presently they heard Akka talking to Karr. "It happened last year while we were making our usual spring trip," remarked the leader-goose. "We started out one morning Yksi, Kaksi, and I, and we flew over the great boundary forests between Dalecarlia and Hälsingland.
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