Near the Top of the World: Stories of Norway, Sweden & DenmarkMoore, Nelle E.
General
Near the Top of the World: Stories of Norway, Sweden & Denmark
Moore, Nelle E.
Readers -- Geography; Scandinavia -- Juvenile literature
Christian lived in the largest city in Denmark. We call that city
Copenhagen, but Christian calls it Kjøbenhavn (Kuvn havn). Christian was
not the only boy in that city who was excited on that July day. Many
boys, and girls too, were leaving the city for a summer on a farm.
They were not going to visit aunts or uncles or grandfathers. No, their
visits were going to be more exciting even than visits to aunts and
uncles and grandparents would be, for many of them were going to be
guests of families whom they had never seen.
Those boys and girls live in very poor homes in the city. When school
closes for summer vacation, there is little for them to do. Their homes
are small and there are few places near their homes where they can play.
So every summer farmers invite boys and girls from the city to be their
guests for four weeks of their vacation. The officials of the railroads
and of steamship lines give those boys and girls free rides on the
trains and boats to the farms.
Perhaps Christian was happier than many of the boys. Only a few weeks
earlier a letter had come to him from the farmer whom he had visited the
summer before. The letter said, “All of us here on the farm want you to
come to us again this summer. I think that even the cows, the chickens,
the ducks, and the geese missed you when you left last August.” No
wonder Christian was excited and happy!
Morning came at last and Christian started very early on his journey to
the farm. He carried only a small bag of clothes with him, so he and his
mother went to the station on a street car. He passed through the gate
at the station and waited on the platform for his train. Other boys and
girls were waiting too. Soon they were on the train scrambling for seats
by a window for they were eager to see as much of Denmark as they could.
Christian had almost a whole day’s journey to the farm. Denmark is made
up of hundreds of small bodies of land with water separating them. To
reach the farm Christian had to travel on two trains and two boats.
Christian was interested in all that he saw. He was not surprised to see
the wide stretches of flat land, but after visiting farms of Norway you
may be surprised. Christian saw a field in which black and white cows
were eating the green grass. He could see far, far away across that
pasture. The land was as level as a floor, with not even a tiny hill in
sight.
At other places he did see hills—no very high ones though. That hilly
land looks very little like land of Norway made by the giants. But the
same ice-sheets did make these hills. As the glaciers that covered
Denmark melted, they left behind these piles of rocks and soil which we
call hills.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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