Goran had given their supper to Nanna and Gustava and Mejau, and had taken one good-night look at his snowman. Now he put his bowl of boiled potatoes on the table in front of the fire, and pulled up his chair.
Lying on the floor where she had fallen from his box when he was getting his snowman’s blue eyes was a playing card, the Queen of Clubs. His grandfather had found it lying in the road in the village, and had brought it home as a present for Goran. The little boy thought the Queen was very splendid, with her crown and her veil, and her red dress trimmed with bands of blue and leaves and stars and rising suns of yellow. In one hand she held on high a little yellow flower. Now he picked her up and put her on a chair beside him, pretending the Queen had come for supper to keep him from being lonely. Each mouthful of potato he first offered her, with great politeness, but the delicate lady only gazed off into space.
Goran’s supper made his insides feel as if a soft blanket had been tucked cozily about them, and he was warm and sleepy.
“Was there anything else Grandmother told me to do before I went to bed?” he murmured.
“Tick! Tock! Yes, there was,” the Clock replied. “She told you to wind me up. Climb on a chair and do it carefully. Don’t shake me. I can’t stand that, for I’m not as young as I used to be.”
“And I want a drink!” cried the youngest geranium, who was little, and had been hidden by the bigger pots when Goran watered them.
Knock, knock, knock!
What a knocking at the door! Goran ran to open it, and the firelight fell on Nanna the Goat and Gustava the Hen against a background of whirling snow. Nanna was wearing Grandmother’s quilted jacket—where in the world had she found that? And Gustava had wrapped Goran’s muffler about herself and the little basket she carried on her wing.
“Good evening!” began Nanna, rather timidly for her. “May Gustava and I come in and sit by the fire? We thought you might be lonely, and then it is so cold in the shed. I did have a muffler like Gustava’s, but I absent-mindedly ate it. I’m growing very absent-minded. We’ve come with an important message for you, but I can’t remember what it is. Can you, Gustava?”
“Cluck! Clu-uck! No, I can’t. But I’ve brought my beautiful child to call on you,” said Gustava; and she lifted her wing and showed Goran the brown egg in her basket.