The Lilac Fairy Book, part 24 · page 21 2101‘It crept out from that very large one,’ put in Aina.102‘And supposing someone had eaten the raspberry,’ said Lisa.103‘Then they would have eaten the worm, too,’ said Aina.104‘Well, what harm?’ said Otto.105‘Eat a worm!’ cried Lisa.106‘And kill him with one bite!’ murmured Aina.107‘Just think of it!’ said Otto laughing.108‘Now it is crawling on the table,’ cried Aina again.109‘Blow it away!’ said the big sister.110‘Tramp on it!’ laughed Otto.111But Lisa took a raspberry leaf, swept the worm carefully on to the leaf and carried it out into the yard.112Then Aina noticed that a sparrow sitting on the fence was just ready to pounce on the poor little worm, so she took up the leaf, carried it out into the wood and hid it under a raspberry bush where the greedy sparrow could not find it.113Yes, and what more is there to tell about a raspberry worm?114Who would give three straws for such a miserable little thing?115Yes, but who would not like to live in such a pretty home as it lives in; in such a fresh fragrant dark-red cottage, far away in the quiet wood among flowers and green leaves!116Now it was just dinner time, so they all had a dinner of raspberries and cream.117‘Be careful with the sugar, Otto,’ said the big sister; but Otto’s plate was like a snowdrift in winter, with just a little red under the snow.118Soon after dinner the big sister said: ‘Now we have eaten up the raspberries and we have none left to make preserve for the winter; it would be fine if we could get two baskets full of berries, then we could clean them this evening, and to-morrow we could cook them in the big preserving pan, and then we should have raspberry jam to eat on our bread!’119‘Come, let us go to the wood and pick,’ said Lisa.120‘Yes, let us,’ said Aina.121‘You take the yellow basket and I will take the green one.’122‘Don’t get lost, and come back safely in the evening,’ said the big sister.123‘Greetings to the raspberry worm,’ said Otto, mockingly.124‘Next time I meet him I shall do him the honour of eating him up.’125So Aina and Lisa went off to the wood.126Ah! how delightful it was there, how beautiful!127It was certainly tiresome sometimes climbing over the fallen trees, and getting caught in the branches, and waging war with the juniper bushes and the midges, but what did that matter?128The girls climbed well in their short dresses, and soon they were deep in the wood.129There were plenty of bilberries and elder berries, but no raspberries.130They wandered on and on, and at last they came...131No, it could not be true!... they came to a large raspberry wood.132The wood had been on fire once, and now raspberry bushes had grown up, and there were raspberry bushes and raspberry bushes as far as the eye could see.133Every bush was weighted to the ground with the largest, dark red, ripe raspberries, such a wealth of berries as two little berry pickers had never found before!134Lisa picked, Aina picked.135Lisa ate, Aina ate, and in a little while their baskets were full.136‘Now we shall go home,’ said Aina.137‘No, let us gather a few more,’ said Lisa.138So they put the baskets down on the ground and began to fill their pinafores, and it was not long before their pinafores were full, too.139‘Now we shall go home,’ said Lina.140‘Yes, now we shall go home,’ said Aina.141Both girls took a basket in one hand and held up her apron in the other and then turned to go home.142But that was easier said than done.143They had never been so far in the great wood before, they could not find any road nor path, and soon the girls noticed that they had lost their way.144The worst of it was that the shadows of the tress were becoming so long in the evening sunlight, the birds were beginning to fly home, and the day was closing in.145At last the sun went down behind the pine tops, and it was cool and dusky in the great wood.146The girls became anxious but went steadily on, expecting that the wood would soon end, and that they would see the smoke from the chimneys of their home.147After they had wandered on for a long time it began to grow dark.148At last they reached a great plain overgrown with bushes, and when they looked around them, they saw, as much as they could in the darkness, that they were among the same beautiful raspberry bushes from which they had picked their baskets and their aprons full.149Then they were so tired that they sat down on a stone and began to cry.150‘I am so hungry,’ said Lisa.151‘Yes,’ said Aina, ‘if we had only two good meat sandwiches now.’152As she said that, she felt something in her hand, and when she looked down, she saw a large sandwich of bread and chicken, and at the same time Lisa said: ‘How very queer!153I have a sandwich in my hand.’154‘And I, too,’ said Aina.155‘Will you dare to eat it?’156‘Of course I will,’ said Lisa.157‘Ah, if we only had a good glass of milk now!’158Just as she said that she felt a large glass of milk between her fingers, and at the same time Aina cried out, ‘Lisa!159Lisa!160I have a glass of milk in my hand!161Isn’t it queer?’162The girls, however, were very hungry, so they ate and drank with a good appetite.163When they had finished Aina yawned, stretched out her arms and said: ‘Oh, if only we had a nice soft bed to sleep on now!’1 2← previousThe Lilac Fairy Book, part 23next →The Lilac Fairy Book, part 25↑ back to The Lilac Fairy BookThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/24/page/2/