_I would like to have you come and visit me this summer. I know we can have lots of fun. Hans says you may use his bicycle and also his boat. That is a real honor, for he won"t let me use his boat.
He says I am too small._
_I had four darling little kittens, but now they are gone and I can"t find them anywhere. Do you suppose a Nisse took them away?_
_Chouse, my dog, has been very naughty and Father says he may have to send him away. I hope he won"t, because I like to play with Chouse._
_Come as soon as you can. Mother and Father and Hans all send their love. So do I._
_Your cousin Greta._"
She addressed the envelope, writing "Copenhagen" in very large letters.
Just as she was going out of the door, her mother called to her.
"When you are in the village, Greta, please stop at the bakery and bring back some bread. I told Marie to bake an extra loaf today, but she forgot it. And we have company coming tonight."
"All right, Mother. I won"t forget."
As Greta rode into the village she thought of all the things that she and Anna could do that summer. She didn"t have to pay much attention to cars coming down the gravel road, for there were many more bicycles than automobiles. Chouse ran right along beside her bicycle, but once in a while, when he saw a rabbit, he would suddenly dart away into the field.
In a short time he would come tearing back and soon catch up with Greta.
The fields were especially beautiful right now. The hay was yellow and almost ready to cut. Greta could see for several miles in every direction, for the land was flat and there were not many trees. In this part of Denmark the trees do not grow very large because of the wind that blows all the time, summer and winter. This wind from the North Sea never seems to stop blowing, and it blows so hard that the trees all lean to one side, away from the wind. There are scarcely any branches on the side that the wind comes from.
The farmers are thankful for this wind from the sea, because it keeps their windmills turning. And from the windmills they get electric power to light their houses.
Greta mailed her letter and started back home. She didn"t stop to visit with any of her friends in the village, because she was eager to get home and look for her kittens again. She hadn"t given up the hope of finding them, though she really didn"t know where to look. When more than halfway home, she suddenly remembered the loaf of bread.
"Come, Chouse. We must go back to the village." Chouse had run to the side of the road, looking for rabbits again.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A BARBER"S SIGN]
From away down the road, Greta could see the sign of the bakery. Shaped like a large pretzel, it hung "way out in front of the store. Every bakery had a sign like this, and many of the other shops had their own special signs. Each barber shop had a large metal plate hanging out in front. The plate was cut in a deep curve on one side, where it was supposed to fit around a man"s neck when he had his hair cut. Of course barbers didn"t use plates like this any more, but these signs were still used to mark a barber shop.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A BAKERY SIGN]
When Greta got home, Hans was just getting ready to start out in his new boat.
"Want to come along, Greta?"
"Sure I do. Where are you going?"
"Oh, just down the river." The little river which ran in front of the house and wound around through the fields seemed like the nicest part of the farm to Hans and Greta. They fished in the river in the summer and skated on it in the winter. Hans was proud of his new boat, which was a birthday present from his father. Although he never let Greta go out in it alone, he often asked her to go with him.
"Wait just a minute, Hans. I must take this bread in the house and then I"ll go with you."
Chouse was already in the boat when Greta came out. The minute that Hans started toward the boat, Chouse always jumped in ahead of him. He never sat still in it long. He would dash back and forth from the front to the back, and every now and then he tried to jump out, when he saw a rabbit running across the field.
[Ill.u.s.tration: CHOUSE LIKED THE BOAT]
"Are you going to let me paddle, Hans?" asked Greta.
"Maybe I will, after while."
Greta had to be content with this sort of a promise. She was very happy just to be out in this beautiful new boat. By the time they had gone around the first bend of the river, Greta began to think of her kittens again.
"Hans, do you think that a Nisse really did take my kittens away?"
"Well, of course, I don"t _know_, Greta. But it looks like it."
"I thought you didn"t believe in the Nisser, Hans."
"Why, one _has_ to believe in the Nisser. There is just no other way to explain some of the things that happen."
"Do you remember the time my doll disappeared and I couldn"t find her for months and months?"
"Sure I do. And then all of a sudden she appeared again."
"And you know, Hans, how I had looked simply _everywhere_ for that doll."
"Yes. And then you found her under the bed in your room. That is why I say that you have to believe in the Nisser. There is no other way to explain things like that."
While they were talking, Chouse had been running back and forth in the boat. Suddenly he put his front feet up on the side and started barking.
He barked and barked and wagged his tail. He was trying so hard to tell them something.
"I guess Chouse sees a rabbit. He wants to get out of the boat."
"Let"s let him out, Hans, and see what he does."
Hans quickly turned the boat and paddled over to the sh.o.r.e. Chouse jumped out before the boat had even touched the bank. In fact, he almost fell into the river, he was in such a hurry to get out. Then he ran across the field and was soon out of sight, swallowed up in the field of hay.
"Hans, please let me paddle now."
"Wait until we get around the next bend in the river."
Hans"s boat was still so new that he liked to paddle it himself.
"Well, all right." Greta was disappointed, but she had to be content.
Hans pushed the boat away from the sh.o.r.e and paddled down the middle of the river. The river was quite straight here. Greta thought that the next bend was very far away indeed. And it seemed that Hans was purposely going just as slowly as he could. Oh, why did he want to tease her this way? Greta hoped that her father would get her a boat when she was fifteen years old. But that was a long time off--five whole years.
"I wonder where Chouse has gone, Hans."
"Oh, he"s chasing rabbits all over the field."
Just then they heard Chouse bark, but it was a very faint bark, as if he were far away. The children looked and looked, but they couldn"t see him anywhere. He barked again, and this time it sounded a little bit louder, but he was still out of sight. As Greta and Hans went on down the river, the barking got louder and louder.
"Oh, Hans, I see Chouse," cried Greta in great excitement.
"Where is he, Greta?"