Christian had almost a whole day’s journey to the farm. Denmark is made up of hundreds of small bodies of land with water separating them. To reach the farm Christian had to travel on two trains and two boats.
Christian was interested in all that he saw. He was not surprised to see the wide stretches of flat land, but after visiting farms of Norway you may be surprised. Christian saw a field in which black and white cows were eating the green grass. He could see far, far away across that pasture. The land was as level as a floor, with not even a tiny hill in sight.
At other places he did see hills—no very high ones though. That hilly land looks very little like land of Norway made by the giants. But the same ice-sheets did make these hills. As the glaciers that covered Denmark melted, they left behind these piles of rocks and soil which we call hills.
Some sights which Christian saw are much like the sights in the land of the Dutch children. The land of Denmark is flat like Holland, so the Danes have long made the wind work for them just as the Dutch have done. So Christian saw windmills which still pump the water off the low lands or grind the farmers’ grain.
Denmark has many small farms. Many of the farms have even less than two acres. A piece of land so small as that in America would hardly be called a farm. Of course Denmark has large farms also. But Christian saw many of the small farms as he rode across the country. The farm buildings form three sides of a square. Many times the buildings are of red brick and the roof of straw woven into a covering called a thatched roof.
The farmer was at the train to meet Christian. They rode out to the farm in a wagon behind two bay horses. After what seemed to Christian a very short ride he was opening the gate to the farm and could see the white farmhouse and barns far back across the fields.
Then began happy days for Christian. He liked the big light room at the top of the clean white house which was his own, but he liked best the big out-of-doors. He drank all the milk he wanted. He ate potatoes with heaps of butter, and eggs, and cheese, and sausages, and bread.
A FARMHOUSE WITH A THATCHED ROOF
But Christian worked too. One of his tasks was to help gather in the eggs. The baskets were so quickly filled with eggs that the farmer took them to town twice each week. Christian went with him. They took the eggs to a large building where eggs are packed for shipping. Such a lot of eggs in that building! Christian wanted to know what the workmen did with the eggs and before the summer was over he had learned.