were almost the only signs of active life at Silkborg. After the firewood had
been unloaded, Christina’s father bought a whole bundle of eels and a
sucking-pig, which were all placed in a basket in the stern of the boat. Then
they returned again up the stream; and as the wind was favorable, two sails
were hoisted, which carried the boat on as well as if two horses had been
harnessed to it. As they sailed on, they came by chance to the place where
the boatman’s assistant lived, at a little distance from the bank of the river.
The boat was moored; and the two men, after desiring the children to sit
still, both went on shore. they obeyed this order for a very short time, and
then forgot it altogether. First they peeped into the basket containing the
eels and the sucking-pig; then they must needs pull out the pig and take it in
their hands, and feel it, and touch it; and as they both wanted to hold it at
the same time, the consequence was that they let it fall into the water, and
the pig sailed away with the stream.
Here was a terrible disaster. Ib jumped ashore, and ran a little distance
from the boat.
“Oh, take me with you,” cried Christina; and she sprang after him. In a
few minutes they found themselves deep in a thicket, and could no longer
see the boat or the shore. They ran on a little farther, and then Christina fell
down, and began to cry.
Ib helped her up, and said, “Never mind; follow me. Yonder is the
house.” But the house was not yonder; and they wandered still farther, over
the dry rustling leaves of the last year, and treading on fallen branches that
crackled under their little feet; then they heard a loud, piercing cry, and they
stood still to listen. Presently the scream of an eagle sounded through the
wood; it was an ugly cry, and it frightened the children; but before them, in
the thickest part of the forest, grew the most beautiful blackberries, in
wonderful quantities. They looked so inviting that the children could not
help stopping; and they remained there so long eating, that their mouths and
cheeks became quite black with the juice.
Presently they heard the frightful scream again, and Christina said, “We
shall get into trouble about that pig.”
