The white goosey-gander had chosen Dunfin as travelling companion, and they had flown about hither and thither with the greatest anxiety for Thumbietot.  During this ramble they had heard a thrush, who sat in a tree-top, cry and wail that someone, who called himself Kidnapped-by-Crows, had made fun of him.  They had talked with the thrush, and he had shown them in which direction that Kidnapped-by-Crows had travelled.  Afterward, they had met a dove-cock, a starling and a drake; they had all wailed about a little culprit who had disturbed their song, and who was named Caught-by-Crows, Captured-by-Crows, and Stolen-by-Crows.  In this way, they were enabled to trace Thumbietot all the way to the heather-heath in Sonnerbo township.

As soon as the goosey-gander and Dunfin had found Thumbietot, they had started toward the north, in order to reach Taberg.  But it had been a long road to travel, and the darkness was upon them before they had sighted the mountain top.  “If we only get there by to-morrow, surely all our troubles will be over,” thought the boy, and dug down into the straw to have it warmer.  All the while the cow fussed and fumed in the stall.  Then, all of a sudden, she began to talk to the boy.  “Everything is wrong with me,” said the cow.  “I am neither milked nor tended.  I have no night fodder in my manger, and no bed has been made under me.  My mistress came here at dusk, to put things in order for me, but she felt so ill, that she had to go in soon again, and she has not returned.”

“It’s distressing that I should be little and powerless,” said the boy.  “I don’t believe that I am able to help you.”  “You can’t make me believe that you are powerless because you are little,” said the cow.  “All the elves that I’ve ever heard of, were so strong that they could pull a whole load of hay and strike a cow dead with one fist.”  The boy couldn’t help laughing at the cow.  “They were a very different kind of elf from me,” said he.  “But I’ll loosen your halter and open the door for you, so that you can go out and drink in one of the pools on the place, and then I’ll try to climb up to the hayloft and throw down some hay in your manger.”  “Yes, that would be some help,” said the cow.

The boy did as he had said; and when the cow stood with a full manger in front of her, he thought that at last he should get some sleep.  But he had hardly crept down in the bed before she began, anew, to talk to him.

“You’ll be clean put out with me if I ask you for one thing more,” said the cow.  “Oh, no I won’t, if it’s only something that I’m able to do,” said the boy.  “Then I will ask you to go into the cabin, directly opposite, and find out how my mistress is getting along.  I fear some misfortune has come to her.”  “No!  I can’t do that,” said the boy.  “I dare not show myself before human beings.” “’Surely you’re not afraid of an old and sick woman,” said the cow.  “But you do not need to go into the cabin.  Just stand outside the door and peep in through the crack!” “Oh! if that is all you ask of me, I’ll do it of course,” said the boy.