Years and years have passed since the days when a farmer drove stakes and marked off his pasture land. The farms have passed to other owners. Perhaps now the great-great-great-grandsons of some of the farmers live on the farms, or some farms may have been sold to other families. But the new owners of the farms are also owners of the same saeters that the old farmers staked off for the farm. And that is why many a farmer today takes his cattle to a saeter far from his home.
One day late in July, Christian was so excited he could hardly eat his dinner. School had closed for the summer vacation. The next morning Christian, who was only nine years old, was going to a farm to stay four whole weeks. In fact he would stay on the farm until time for school to open again in August.
Christian lived in the largest city in Denmark. We call that city Copenhagen, but Christian calls it Kjøbenhavn (Kuvn havn). Christian was not the only boy in that city who was excited on that July day. Many boys, and girls too, were leaving the city for a summer on a farm.
They were not going to visit aunts or uncles or grandfathers. No, their visits were going to be more exciting even than visits to aunts and uncles and grandparents would be, for many of them were going to be guests of families whom they had never seen.
Those boys and girls live in very poor homes in the city. When school closes for summer vacation, there is little for them to do. Their homes are small and there are few places near their homes where they can play. So every summer farmers invite boys and girls from the city to be their guests for four weeks of their vacation. The officials of the railroads and of steamship lines give those boys and girls free rides on the trains and boats to the farms.
Perhaps Christian was happier than many of the boys. Only a few weeks earlier a letter had come to him from the farmer whom he had visited the summer before. The letter said, “All of us here on the farm want you to come to us again this summer. I think that even the cows, the chickens, the ducks, and the geese missed you when you left last August.” No wonder Christian was excited and happy!
Morning came at last and Christian started very early on his journey to the farm. He carried only a small bag of clothes with him, so he and his mother went to the station on a street car. He passed through the gate at the station and waited on the platform for his train. Other boys and girls were waiting too. Soon they were on the train scrambling for seats by a window for they were eager to see as much of Denmark as they could.