Little Greta of Denmark Part 9

"I thought maybe you had decided to go after books instead."

Anna looked at Hans. Could he have been playing a joke on them at Vosborg? Was it Hans who had taken the book and then put it back? But how could he have gotten into the library? And anyway, she and Greta had both seen him start down the river in the opposite direction.

Just then Greta's mother called from the door. "Anna, you have a letter from your mother."

"It's too bad you didn't take Chouse with you today, Greta," said Hans, when Anna had gone into the house.

"Why? What happened?"

"He was naughtier than he's ever been before. He chased the young turkeys all over the place and injured three or four of them."

"Did Father see him?"

"Yes. He came along just as Chouse caught one of the turkeys and he was terribly angry. You know how proud Father is of those turkeys."

"Oh, Hans, what _am_ I going to do?" sobbed Greta. "We can't seem to break Chouse of his awful habit of chasing things. And yet I can't bear to part with him."

Just then Anna came running out of the house. "Greta, I have the grandest news. Mother wants you to come to Copenhagen with me when I go home."

For a moment Greta forgot her worries about Chouse. "Oh, Anna, that will be wonderful. Let's ask Mother if I may go."

CHAPTER IX

CHOUSE SEEKS THE SPOTLIGHT

It was soon decided that Greta would go back to Copenhagen with Anna. At dinner that evening the girls talked about nothing else, for Greta had never been in Copenhagen before.

"While you are away, Greta, I'll look around and find a new home for Chouse," her father announced suddenly.

At last it had come--this terrible thing that she had been dreading.

"But I thought that Chouse had been a very good dog lately." For the moment Greta had forgotten Hans's report about the turkeys.

"I had hoped he would learn to behave better," said her father, "but today he injured several of the young turkeys, and I just _can't_ have it, Greta. So we must find another home for him. I know how you love Chouse, and I hate to do this, but I don't see any other way out."

"Why can't Chouse come to Copenhagen with us?" asked Anna, hoping that maybe this would solve the problem, at least for a while.

"Do you think your mother would want him?"

"Oh, yes, I'm sure it would be all right with Mother," said Anna. "We don't have any chickens or turkeys, so Chouse couldn't very well get into mischief at my house."

Greta's father hesitated a minute or two before he answered, while Greta watched him anxiously. "All right, Anna, Chouse may go to Copenhagen with you and Greta."

[Ill.u.s.tration: A TYPICAL VILLAGE SCENE]

Greta sank back in her chair with a deep sigh. By the time she came home from Copenhagen, the whole matter would probably be forgotten. At any rate, the evil day had been postponed.

When the day came for Greta and Anna to leave for Copenhagen, the whole family went to the train with them.

Hans gave Chouse a goodbye pat on the head. "Take good care of my little sister, Chouse," he said.

"And you take good care of the kittens, Hans," warned Greta.

Soon all the goodbyes were said and the two girls were on the train.

"I wish we could get seats by the window," said Greta. They walked up and down the aisle, which was on one side of the train, but there wasn't a single empty seat beside a window. Each car was divided into a dozen sections, like little rooms, with two long seats facing each other.

There was s.p.a.ce for four people on each seat, or eight people in each section. The girls sat down in a section where there were only three people. At the very next station, two of them got off, and then there was a vacant seat beside the window. Greta and Anna decided to take turns at sitting there.

"What time will it be when we reach Copenhagen, Anna?"

"After seven o'clock. You see we have to cross the peninsula of Jutland and then the island of Zealand before we come to Copenhagen."

"I have never seen a really large city before, Anna."

"You will love Copenhagen, Greta. It has such beautiful parks and shops and castles and, oh, _everything_!"

"Oh, look, Anna, here we are at Lemvig already. Do you know the story about Lemvig?"

"No; what is it?"

"A long, long time ago, when Denmark was at war with Sweden, the Swedish soldiers had been ordered to march upon Lemvig and take the town. You can see that almost the whole town is down in the valley; there are just a few houses on the hills. The soldiers couldn't see the town at all, so they asked a farmer where it was. He pointed to the houses on the hill on the other side of the valley. Then the Swedish soldiers rode very fast, keeping their eyes on these houses on the distant hill. They didn't see the valley at all and they rode so fast that they all fell down the hill and into the river. So Lemvig wasn't captured after all."

As the train started again and left Lemvig, Anna leaned out the window.

"Oh, it's too late now," she said sadly.

"Too late for what?" asked Greta.

"I wanted to get an ice-cream bar, but the train started just as the boy with the ice-cream bars came up to our window."

"We'll surely get one at the next town, Anna."

As soon as the train stopped again, Anna let down the window and they each bought an ice-cream bar and also one for Chouse. He had been standing on Greta's lap, with his front feet on the window sill, watching with great interest as they pa.s.sed fields of yellow hay, forests of evergreens, pastures with large herds of cows, and great fields of cabbage and beets.

When they had finally ridden clear across Jutland, which forms the main part of Denmark, and then across the island of Funen, which is connected with the mainland by a large bridge, they came to a wide stretch of water called the Great Belt.

"Get your suitcase, Anna," said Greta. "We will have to get off the train and take a boat here."

Anna laughed, but she didn't make a move to get her suitcase down from the rack overhead.

"The whole train takes the boat, Greta. We don't have to get off at all."

"The whole train? But how can it?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: FARM HOUSES IN THE VALLEY]