and immediately the birds commenced singing, the branches of the trees
rustled, and the clouds moved across the sky, casting their shadows on the
landscape beneath them. Then Ole-Luk-Oie lifted little Hjalmar up to the
frame, and placed his feet in the picture, just on the high grass, and there he
stood with the sun shining down upon him through the branches of the
trees. He ran to the water, and seated himself in a little boat which lay there,
and which was painted red and white. The sails glittered like silver, and six
swans, each with a golden circlet round its neck, and a bright blue star on its
forehead, drew the boat past the green wood, where the trees talked of
robbers and witches, and the flowers of beautiful little elves and fairies,
whose histories the butterflies had related to them. Brilliant fish, with scales
like silver and gold, swam after the boat, sometimes making a spring and
splashing the water round them, while birds, red and blue, small and great,
flew after him in two long lines. The gnats danced round them, and the
cockchafers cried “Buz, buz.” They all wanted to follow Hjalmar, and all
had some story to tell him. It was a most pleasant sail. Sometimes the
forests were thick and dark, sometimes like a beautiful garden, gay with
sunshine and flowers; then he passed great palaces of glass and of marble,
and on the balconies stood princesses, whose faces were those of little girls
whom Hjalmar knew well, and had often played with. One of them held out
her hand, in which was a heart made of sugar, more beautiful than any
confectioner ever sold. As Hjalmar sailed by, he caught hold of one side of
the sugar heart, and held it fast, and the princess held fast also, so that it
broke in two pieces. Hjalmar had one piece, and the princess the other, but
Hjalmar’s was the largest. At each castle stood little princes acting as
sentinels. They presented arms, and had golden swords, and made it rain
plums and tin soldiers, so that they must have been real princes.
Hjalmar continued to sail, sometimes through woods, sometimes as it
were through large halls, and then by large cities. At last he came to the
town where his nurse lived, who had carried him in her arms when he was a
very little boy, and had always been kind to him. She nodded and beckoned
