"BjornstjerneBjornson-AHappyBoy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bjornson Bjornstjerne)

A Happy Boy
BjЎrnstjerne BjЎrnson

Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII



Chapter I
HE was called Eyvind, and he cried when he was born. But as soon as he could sit
up on his mother's knee he laughed; and when they lighted the candle at evening,
he laughed till the place rang again, but cried when he could not get to it.
"This boy will be something out of the common," said his mother.
A bare rock frowned over the house where he was born, but it was not high; fir
and birch trees looked down from its brow, and the wild cherry strewed blossoms
on the roof. A little goat which belonged to Eyvind roamed about the roof; he
had to be kept up there lest he should stray, and Eyvind carried leaves and
grass up to him. One fine day the goat hopped over and away up the rock; he went
straight ahead and came to a place where he had never been before. Eyvind could
not see the goat when he came out after tea, and thought at once of the fox. He
got hot all over, looked about, and called: "Goatie-goatie, and goatie-wee!"
"Ba-a-a-a!" said the goat up on the hillside, looking down with his head on one
side.
But a little girl was kneeling beside the goat.
'Is he your goat?" she asked.
Eyvind stood with open mouth and eyes, and thrust both hands into the pockets of
his little breeches.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I am Marit, mother's baby, father's mouse, little fairy in the house,
grand-daughter of Ole Nordistuen of the hill-farms, four years old in autumn,
two days after the first frost-nights, I am!"
"Are you though?" said he, drawing a long breath, for he had not ventured to
breathe whilst she was speaking.
"Is he your goat?" asked the girl again.
"Yes," said he, looking up.
"I've taken such a fancy to the goat. Will you not give him to me?"
"No, indeed, I won't."
She lay kicking her legs about and looking down at him, and then she said: "If I
were to give you a butter-cake for the goat, mightn't I have him then?"
Eyvind belonged to poor folks; he had eaten butter-cake only once in his life,