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Greta had to be content with this sort of a promise. She was very happy just to be out in this beautiful new boat. By the time they had gone around the first bend of the river, Greta began to think of her kittens again.

"Hans, do you think that a Nisse really did take my kittens away?"

"Well, of course, I don't know, Greta. But it looks like it."

"I thought you didn't believe in the Nisser, Hans."

"Why, one has to believe in the Nisser. There is just no other way to explain some of the things that happen."

"Do you remember the time my doll disappeared and I couldn't find her for months and months?"

"Sure I do. And then all of a sudden she appeared again."

"And you know, Hans, how I had looked simply everywhere for that doll."

"Yes. And then you found her under the bed in your room. That is why I say that you have to believe in the Nisser. There is no other way to explain things like that."

While they were talking, Chouse had been running back and forth in the boat. Suddenly he put his front feet up on the side and started barking. He barked and barked and wagged his tail. He was trying so hard to tell them something.

"I guess Chouse sees a rabbit. He wants to get out of the boat."

"Let's let him out, Hans, and see what he does."

Hans quickly turned the boat and paddled over to the shore. Chouse jumped out before the boat had even touched the bank. In fact, he almost fell into the river, he was in such a hurry to get out. Then he ran across the field and was soon out of sight, swallowed up in the field of hay.

"Hans, please let me paddle now."

"Wait until we get around the next bend in the river."

Hans's boat was still so new that he liked to paddle it himself.

"Well, all right." Greta was disappointed, but she had to be content.

Hans pushed the boat away from the shore and paddled down the middle of the river. The river was quite straight here. Greta thought that the next bend was very far away indeed. And it seemed that Hans was purposely going just as slowly as he could. Oh, why did he want to tease her this way? Greta hoped that her father would get her a boat when she was fifteen years old. But that was a long time off—five whole years.

"I wonder where Chouse has gone, Hans."

"Oh, he's chasing rabbits all over the field."

Just then they heard Chouse bark, but it was a very faint bark, as if he were far away. The children looked and looked, but they couldn't see him anywhere. He barked again, and this time it sounded a little bit louder, but he was still out of sight. As Greta and Hans went on down the river, the barking got louder and louder.

"Oh, Hans, I see Chouse," cried Greta in great excitement.

"Where is he, Greta?"

"He's way down there in front of us, right down by the water near that group of trees. Hurry, Hans. Let's see why he is barking."

Hans pushed the boat forward with strong, swift strokes. He knew exactly how to handle his boat, and in no time at all they had reached the group of trees that was growing by the edge of the water.

"Oh, Hans, the kittens! There are the kittens!" Greta stood right up in the boat. "Hurry, Hans. One of the kittens is in the river."

"You'd better sit down, Greta, or you'll be in the river yourself."

With one strong stroke of his paddle, Hans drove the boat against the grassy bank. Both children jumped out and ran over to Chouse and the kittens. One kitten was lying on the grass, but it looked more like a rat than a kitten. Its soft fur was soaking wet. Chouse was working hard to pull the other kitten out of the river. Finally he got it up on the bank just as Hans rushed up to help with the rescue.

"Oh, Hans, the poor little things are almost drowned." Greta picked up the two mewing kittens and held them close to her, trying to make them dry and warm and comfortable.

"It certainly is lucky that we came along when we did," said Hans. "Or rather, it's lucky that Chouse was hunting rabbits along here."

SAFE AGAIN

"But where are the other two kittens, Hans?"

Hans didn't answer right away. He walked along the shore for a little distance, stopping now and then to look carefully in the water. At one place he got down on his knees and looked. Then he walked back quickly to Greta.

"I'm afraid we shall never find them, Greta. Come on. Let's go home so that we can get these kittens really dry and warm. We must give them some warm milk, for I know they are hungry."

All the way home Greta was very quiet. She took off her sweater and wrapped it around the kittens, holding them in her lap. Suddenly she looked up at Hans with a smile.

"Hans, this certainly proves that Chouse didn't try to do away with the kittens, for he was the one who rescued them. Surely Father won't send him away now."

"I don't know, Greta. I saw Chouse chasing the chickens again yesterday."

"Did Father see him?" asked Greta with a worried look.

Hans was in a teasing mood and he didn't answer Greta right away. Finally he said, with an annoying smile on his face, "I think I'd better not tell you, Greta."

CHAPTER IV
EXCITEMENT IN THE FOREST

"Oh, Father, I'm afraid to go any higher." Greta clung to her father's arm in terror. This was the first time she had climbed up the lookout tower in the forest, and even now she was only halfway up. It seemed such a fearfully long way to the top.

"I just can't go on," the little girl pleaded.

"Why, Greta, for months you've begged to climb up here."

"But I didn't know it was so high."

"You won't be scared if you don't look down at the ground. Just hold tightly to my hand and you will be all right. Remember, Greta, a girl who is named after a queen must not be afraid of anything."

"All right, Father, I'll go on."

AT THE TOP OF THE TOWER

In no time at all they reached the very top of the tower, which stood in the middle of the forest.

"Why, Father, I can see all of Denmark from here."

Her father laughed. "Not quite all of it, Greta. But you can see all of our farm and a good many other farms, too. By the way, Greta, just how large is Denmark?"

"I thought school was over for the summer," laughed Greta. "But I'll tell you anyway. Denmark covers exactly 16,574 square miles. Besides that, Denmark owns Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Any more questions, teacher?"

"Not right away. I'll try to think up a really hard one next time."

Greta's father began looking closely at the forest. He was very proud of the rows and rows of sturdy evergreens that covered a hundred acres of his farm. Each year a certain number of trees was cut. Some of them were sold, and some of