“I think it would be outrageous to butcher the goosey-gander, now that he has returned to us with such a large family,” protested Holger Nilsson.

“If times were easier we’d let him live; but since we’re going to move from here, we can’t keep geese.  Come along now and help me carry them into the kitchen,” urged the mother.

They went out together and in a few moments the boy saw his father coming along with Morten Goosey-Gander and Dunfin—­one under each arm.  He and his wife went into the cabin.

The goosey-gander cried: 

“Thumbietot, come and help me!”—­as he always did when in peril—­although he was not aware that the boy was at hand.

Nils Holgersson heard him, yet he lingered at the door of the cow shed.

He did not hesitate because he knew that it would be well for him if the goosey-gander were beheaded—­at that moment he did not even remember this—­but because he shrank from being seen by his parents.

“They have a hard enough time of it already,” he thought.  “Must I bring them a new sorrow?”

But when the door closed on the goosey-gander, the boy was aroused.

He dashed across the house yard, sprang up on the board-walk leading to the entrance door and ran into the hallway, where he kicked off his wooden shoes in the old accustomed way, and walked toward the door.

All the while it went so much against the grain to appear before his father and mother that he could not raise his hand to knock.

“But this concerns the life of the goosey-gander,” he said to himself—­“he who has been my best friend ever since I last stood here.”

In a twinkling the boy remembered all that he and the goosey-gander had suffered on ice-bound lakes and stormy seas and among wild beasts of prey.  His heart swelled with gratitude; he conquered himself and knocked on the door.

“Is there some one who wishes to come in?” asked his father, opening the door.

“Mother, you sha’n’t touch the goosey-gander!” cried the boy.

Instantly both the goosey-gander and Dunfin, who lay on a bench with their feet tied, gave a cry of joy, so that he was sure they were alive.

Some one else gave a cry of joy—­his mother!

“My, but you have grown tall and handsome!” she exclaimed.

The boy had not entered the cabin, but was standing on the doorstep, like one who is not quite certain how he will be received.

“The Lord be praised that I have you back again!” said his mother, laughing and crying.  “Come in, my boy!  Come in!”

“Welcome!” added his father, and not another word could he utter.

But the boy still lingered at the threshold.  He could not comprehend why they were so glad to see him—­such as he was.  Then his mother came and put her arms around him and drew him into the room, and he knew that he was all right.

“Mother and father!” he cried.  “I’m a big boy.  I am a human being again!”