"And you know, Hans, how I had looked simply _everywhere_ for that doll." "Yes. And then you found her under the bed in your room. That is why I say that you have to believe in the Nisser. There is no other way to explain things like that." While they were talking, Chouse had been running back and forth in the boat. Suddenly he put his front feet up on the side and started barking. He barked and barked and wagged his tail. He was trying so hard to tell them something. "I guess Chouse sees a rabbit. He wants to get out of the boat." "Let's let him out, Hans, and see what he does." Hans quickly turned the boat and paddled over to the shore. Chouse jumped out before the boat had even touched the bank. In fact, he almost fell into the river, he was in such a hurry to get out. Then he ran across the field and was soon out of sight, swallowed up in the field of hay. "Hans, please let me paddle now." "Wait until we get around the next bend in the river." Hans's boat was still so new that he liked to paddle it himself. "Well, all right." Greta was disappointed, but she had to be content. Hans pushed the boat away from the shore and paddled down the middle of the river. The river was quite straight here. Greta thought that the next bend was very far away indeed. And it seemed that Hans was purposely going just as slowly as he could. Oh, why did he want to tease her this way? Greta hoped that her father would get her a boat when she was fifteen years old. But that was a long time off--five whole years. "I wonder where Chouse has gone, Hans." "Oh, he's chasing rabbits all over the field." Just then they heard Chouse bark, but it was a very faint bark, as if he were far away. The children looked and looked, but they couldn't see him anywhere. He barked again, and this time it sounded a little bit louder, but he was still out of sight. As Greta and Hans went on down the river, the barking got louder and louder. "Oh, Hans, I see Chouse," cried Greta in great excitement. "Where is he, Greta?" "He's way down there in front of us, right down by the water near that group of trees. Hurry, Hans. Let's see why he is barking." Hans pushed the boat forward with strong, swift strokes. He knew exactly how to handle his boat, and in no time at all they had reached the group of trees that was growing by the edge of the water. "Oh, Hans, the kittens! There are the kittens!" Greta stood right up in the boat. "Hurry, Hans. One of the kittens is in the river." "You'd better sit down, Greta, or you'll be in the river yourself." With one strong stroke of his paddle, Hans drove the boat against the grassy bank. Both children jumped out and ran over to Chouse and the kittens. One kitten was lying on the grass, but it looked more like a rat than a kitten. Its soft fur was soaking wet. Chouse was working hard to pull the other kitten out of the river. Finally he got it up on the bank just as Hans rushed up to help with the rescue.