The Lilac Fairy Book Part 15

'I will,' answered La.s.se; and he went off to the sh.o.r.e. Then he opened the sh.e.l.ls with a pin, split them carefully in two, and broke small little bits of sticks for the rowers' seats. Then he took the peas which were in the sh.e.l.ls and put them in the boats for cargo. Some of the sh.e.l.ls got broken, some remained whole, and when all were ready La.s.se had twelve boats. But they should not be boats, they should be large warships. He had three liners, three frigates, three brigs and three schooners. The largest liner was called _Hercules_, and the smallest schooner _The Flea_. Little La.s.se put all the twelve into the water, and they floated as splendidly and as proudly as any great ship over the waves of the ocean.

And now the ships must sail round the world. The great island over there was Asia; that large stone Africa; the little island America; the small stones were Polynesia; and the sh.o.r.e from which the ships sailed out was Europe. The whole fleet set off and sailed far away to other parts of the world. The ships of the line steered a straight course to Asia, the frigates sailed to Africa, the brigs to America, and the schooners to Polynesia. But Little La.s.se remained in Europe, and threw small stones out into the great sea.

Now, there was on the sh.o.r.e of Europe a real boat, father's own, a beautiful white-painted boat, and Little La.s.se got into it. Father and mother had forbidden this, but Little La.s.se forgot. He thought he should very much like to travel to some other part of the world.

'I shall row out a little way--only a very little way,' he thought. The pea-sh.e.l.l boats had travelled so far that they only looked like little specks on the ocean. 'I shall seize _Hercules_ on the coast of Asia,'

said La.s.se, 'and then row home again to Europe.'

He shook the rope that held the boat, and, strange to say, the rope became loose. Ditsch, ratsch, a man is a man, and so Little La.s.se manned the boat.

Now he would row--and he could row, for he had rowed so often on the steps at home, when the steps pretended to be a boat and father's big stick an oar. But when Little La.s.se wanted to row there were no oars to be found in the boat. The oars were locked up in the boat-house, and Little La.s.se had not noticed that the boat was empty. It is not so easy as one thinks to row to Asia without oars.

What could Little La.s.se do now? The boat was already some distance out on the sea, and the wind, which blew from land, was driving it still further out. La.s.se was frightened and began to cry. But there was no one on the sh.o.r.e to hear him. Only a big crow perched alone in the birch tree; and the gardener's black cat sat under the birch tree, waiting to catch the crow. Neither of them troubled themselves in the least about Little La.s.se, who was drifting out to sea.

Ah! how sorry Little La.s.se was now that he had been disobedient and got into the boat, when father and mother had so often forbidden him to do so! Now it was too late, he could not get back to land. Perhaps he would be lost out on the great sea. What should he do?

When he had shouted until he was tired and no one heard him, he put his two little hands together and said, 'Good G.o.d, do not be angry with Little La.s.se.' And then he went to sleep. For although it was daylight, old Nukku Matti was sitting on the sh.o.r.es of the 'Land of Nod,' and was fishing for little children with his long fishing rod. He heard the low words which Little La.s.se said to G.o.d, and he immediately drew the boat to himself and laid Little La.s.se to sleep on a bed of rose leaves.

Then Nukku Matti said to one of the Dreams, 'Play with Little La.s.se, so that he does not feel lonesome.'

It was a little dream-boy, so little, so little, that he was less than La.s.se himself; he had blue eyes and fair hair, a red cap with a silver band, and white coat with pearls on the collar. He came to Little La.s.se and said, 'Would you like to sail round the world?'

'Yes,' said La.s.se in his sleep, 'I should like to.'

'Come, then,' said the dream-boy, 'and let us sail in your pea-sh.e.l.l boats. You shall sail in _Hercules_ and I shall sail in _The Flea_.'

So they sailed away from the 'Land of Nod,' and in a little while _Hercules_ and _The Flea_ were on the sh.o.r.es of Asia away at the other end of the world, where the Ice Sea flows through Behring Straits into the Pacific Ocean. A long way off in the winter mist they could see the explorer Nordenskiold with his ship _Vega_ trying to find an opening between the ice. It was so cold, so cold; the great icebergs glittered strangely, and the huge whales now lived under the ice, for they could not make a hole through with their awkward heads. All around on the dreary sh.o.r.e there was snow and snow as far as the eye could see; little grey men in s.h.a.ggy skins moved about, and drove in small sledges through the snow drifts, but the sledges were drawn by dogs.

'Shall we land here?' asked the dream-boy.

'No,' said Little La.s.se. 'I am so afraid that the whales would swallow us up, and the big dogs bite us. Let us sail instead to another part of the world.'

'Very well,' said the dream-boy with the red cap and the silver band; 'it is not far to America'--and at the same moment they were there.

The sun was shining and it was very warm. Tall palm trees grew in long rows on the sh.o.r.e and bore coconuts in their top branches. Men red as copper galloped over the immense green prairies and threw their arrows at the buffaloes, who turned against them with their sharp horns. An enormous cobra which had crept up the stem of a tall palm tree threw itself on to a little llama that was grazing at the foot. Knaps! it was all over with the little llama.

'Shall we land here?' asked the dream-boy.

'No,' said Little La.s.se. 'I am so afraid that the buffaloes will b.u.t.t us, and the great serpent eat us up. Let us travel to another part of the world.'

'Very well,' said the dream-boy with the white coat, 'it is only a little way to Polynesia'--and then they were there.

It was very warm there, as warm as in a hot bath in Finland. Costly spices grew on the sh.o.r.es: the pepper plant, the cinnamon tree, ginger, saffron; the coffee plant and the tea plant. Brown people with long ears and thick lips, and hideously painted faces, hunted a yellow-spotted tiger among the high bamboos on the sh.o.r.e, and the tiger turned on them and stuck its claws into one of the brown men. Then all the others took to flight.

'Shall we land here?' asked the dream-boy.

'No,' said Little La.s.se. 'Don't you see the tiger away there by the pepper plant? Let us travel to another part of the world.'

'We can do so,' said the dream-boy with the blue eyes. 'We are not far from Africa'--and as he said that they were there.

They anch.o.r.ed at the mouth of a great river where the sh.o.r.es were as green as the greenest velvet. A little distance from the river an immense desert stretched away. The air was yellow; the sun shone so hot, so hot as if it would burn the earth to ashes, and the people were as black as the blackest jet. They rode across the desert on tall camels; the lions roared with thirst, and the great crocodiles with their grey lizard heads and sharp white teeth gaped up out of the river.

'Shall we land here?' asked the dream-boy.

'No,' said Little La.s.se. 'The sun would burn us, and the lions and the crocodiles would eat us up. Let us travel to another part of the world.'

'We can travel back to Europe,' said the dream-boy with the fair hair.

And with that they were there.

They came to a sh.o.r.e where it was all so cool and familiar and friendly.

There stood the tall birch tree with its drooping leaves; at the top sat the old crow, and at its foot crept the gardener's black cat. Not far away was a house which Little La.s.se had seen before; near the house there was a garden, and in the garden a pea bed with long pea sh.e.l.ls. An old gardener with a green coat walked about and wondered if the cuc.u.mbers were ripe. Fylax was barking on the steps, and when he saw Little La.s.se he wagged his tail. Old Stina was milking the cows in the farmyard, and there was a very familiar lady in a check woollen shawl on her way to the bleaching green to see if the clothes were bleached.

There was, too, a well-known gentleman in a yellow summer coat, with a long pipe in his mouth; he was going to see if the reapers had cut the rye. A boy and a girl were running on the sh.o.r.e and calling out, 'Little La.s.se! Come home for bread-and-b.u.t.ter!'

'Shall we land here?' asked the dream-boy, and he blinked his blue eyes roguishly.

'Come with me, and I shall ask mother to give you some bread-and-b.u.t.ter and a gla.s.s of milk,' said Little La.s.se.

'Wait a little,' said the dream-boy. And now Little La.s.se saw that the kitchen door was open, and from within there was heard a low, pleasant frizzling, like that which is heard when one whisks yellow batter with a wooden ladle into a hot frying-pan.

'Perhaps we should sail back to Polynesia now?' said the dream-boy.

'No; they are frying pancakes in Europe just now,' said Little La.s.se; and he wanted to jump ash.o.r.e, but he could not. The dream-boy had tied him with a chain of flowers, so that he could not move. And now all the little dreams came about him, thousands and thousands of little children, and they made a ring around him and sang a little song:

The world is very, very wide, Little La.s.se, La.s.se, And though you've sailed beyond the tide, You can never tell how wide It is on the other side, La.s.se, Little La.s.se.

You have found it cold and hot, Little La.s.se, La.s.se; But in no land is G.o.d not, La.s.se, Little La.s.se.

Many men live there as here, But they all to G.o.d are dear, Little La.s.se, La.s.se.

When His angel is your guide, Little La.s.se, La.s.se, Then no harm can e'er betide, Even on the other side Where the wild beasts wander.

But tell us now, Whene'er you roam, Do you not find the best is home Of all the lands you've looked upon, La.s.se, Little La.s.se?

When the dreams had sung their song they skipped away, and Nukku Matti carried La.s.se back to the boat. He lay there for a long time quite still, and he still heard the frying-pan frizzling at home on the fire, the frizzling was very plain, Little La.s.se heard it quite near him; and so he woke up and rubbed his eyes.

There he lay in the boat, where he had fallen asleep. The wind had turned, and the boat had drifted out with one wind and drifted in with another while Little La.s.se slept, and what La.s.se thought was frizzling in a frying-pan was the low murmur of the waves as they washed against the stones on the sh.o.r.e. But he was not altogether wrong, for the clear blue sea is like a great pan in which G.o.d's sun all day makes cakes for good children.

Little La.s.se rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked around him.

Everything was the same as before; the crow in the birch tree, the cat on the gra.s.s, and the pea-sh.e.l.l fleet on the sh.o.r.e. Some of the ships had foundered, and some had drifted back to land. _Hercules_ had come back with its cargo from Asia, _The Flea_ had arrived from Polynesia, and the other parts of the world were just where they were before.

Little La.s.se did not know what to think. He had so often been in that grotto in the 'Land of Nod' and did not know what tricks dreams can play. But Little La.s.se did not trouble his head with such things; he gathered together his boats and walked up the sh.o.r.e back to the house.

His brother and sister ran to meet him, and called out from the distance, 'Where have you been so long, La.s.se? Come home and get some bread-and-b.u.t.ter.' The kitchen door stood open, and inside was heard a strange frizzling.

The gardener was near the gate, watering the dill and parsley, the carrots and parsnips.

'Well,' he said, 'where has Little La.s.se been so long?'

Little La.s.se straightened himself up stiff, and answered: 'I have sailed round the world in a pea-sh.e.l.l boat.'

'Oh!' said the gardener.