Lagerlöf, Selma, 1858-1940 -- Translations into English; Short stories, Swedish -- Translations into English; Sweden -- Fiction
Suddenly the people who stand on the shore and can look far out across
the fiord send up a great cry of horror and fear. They see that the
balloon, pursued all the while by the two children, sails away toward
the fairway, where there is open sea. "Open sea! It is open sea out
there!" the people shout.
The skaters down on the ice hear the shouts and turn their eyes toward
the mouth of the fiord. They see how a strip of water shimmers in the
sunlight yonder. They see, also, that two little boys are skating toward
this strip, which they do not notice because their eyes are fixed on the
balloon; and not for a second do they turn them toward earth.
The people are calling out with all their might and stamping on the ice.
Fast runners are hurrying on to stop them; but the little ones mark
nothing of all this, where they are chasing after the airship. They do
not know that they alone are following it. They hear no cries back of
them. They do not hear the splash and roar of the water ahead of them.
They see only the balloon, which as it were carries them with it.
Lennart already feels his own airship rising under him, and Hugo soars
away over the North Pole.
The people on the ice and on the shore see how rapidly they are nearing
the open sea. For a second or two they are in such breathless suspense
that they can neither move nor cry out. It seems as if the two children
are under a magic spell--in their chase after a shining heavenly vision.
The air-sailors up in the balloon have also caught a glimpse of the
little boys. They see that they are in danger and scream at them and
make warning gestures; but the boys do not understand them. When they
notice that the air-sailors are making signs at them, they think they
want to take them up into the car. They stretch their arms toward them,
overjoyed in the hope of accompanying them through the bright upper
regions.
At this moment the boys have reached the sailing channel, and, with arms
uplifted, they skate down into the water and disappear without a cry for
help. The skaters, who have tried to reach them in time, are standing a
couple of seconds later on the edge of the ice, but the current has
carried their bodies under the ice, and no helping hand can reach
them.
The Wedding March
Now I'm going to tell a pretty story.
A good many years ago there was to be a very big wedding at Svartsjö
parish in Vermland.
First, there was to be a church ceremony and after that three days of
feasting and merrymaking, and every day while the festivities lasted
there was to be dancing from early morning till far into the night.
Since there was to be so much dancing, it was of very great importance
to get a good fiddler, and Juryman Nils Olafsson, who was managing the
wedding, worried almost more over this than over anything else.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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