The boy and the eagle were out bright and early the next morning. Gorgo hoped that he would get far up into West Bothnia that day. As luck would have it, he heard the boy remark to himself that in a country like the one through which they were now travelling it must be impossible for people to live.  
The land which spread below them was Southern Medelpad. When the eagle heard the boy's remark, he replied:
 
"Up here they have forests for fields."
 
The boy thought of the contrast between the light, golden-rye fields with their delicate blades that spring up in one summer, and the dark spruce forest with its solid trees which took many years to for harvest.
 
"One who has to get his from such a field must have a deal of patience!" he observed.
 
Nothing more was said until they came to a place where the forest had been cleared, and the ground was covered with and lopped-off branches. As they flew over this ground, the eagle heard the boy mutter to himself that it was a ugly and poverty-stricken place.
 
"This field was cleared last winter," said the eagle.
 
The boy thought of the harvesters at home, who rode on their reaping machines on fine summer mornings, and in a short time a large field. But the forest field was harvested in winter. The lumbermen went out in the when the snow was deep, and the cold most severe. It was tedious work to fell even one tree, and to down a forest such as this they must have been out in the open many weeks.
 
"They have to be men to a field of this kind," he said.
 
When the eagle had taken two more wing strokes, they sighted a log cabin at the edge of the clearing. It had no windows and only two loose boards for a door. The roof had been covered with bark and , but now it was , and the boy could see that inside the cabin there were only a few big stones to serve as a fireplace, and two board benches. When they were above the cabin the eagle suspected that the boy was wondering who could have lived in such a wretched hut as that.
 
"The who mowed the forest field lived there," the eagle said.
 
The boy remembered how the reapers in his home had returned from their day's work, cheerful and happy, and how the best his mother had in the was always spread for them; while here, after the work of the day, they must rest on hard benches in a cabin that was worse than an outhouse. And what they had to eat he could not imagine.
 
"I wonder if there are any harvest festivals for these labourers?" he questioned.
 
A little farther on they saw below them a wretchedly bad road through the forest. It was narrow and , hilly and , and cut up by in many places. As they flew over it the eagle knew that the boy was wondering what was carted over a road like that.
 
"Over this road the harvest was conveyed to the stack," the eagle said.
 
The boy recalled what fun they had at home when the harvest by two sturdy horses, carried the grain from the field. The man who drove sat proudly on top of the load; the horses danced and up their ears, while the village children, who were allowed to climb upon the sheaves, sat there laughing and , half-pleased, half-frightened. But here the great logs were drawn up and down steep hills; here the poor horses must be worked to their limit, and the driver must often be in . "I'm afraid there has been very little cheer along this road," the boy observed.
 
The eagle flew on with powerful wing strokes, and soon they came to a river bank covered with logs, chips, and bark. The eagle perceived that the boy wondered why it looked so littered up down there.
 
"Here the harvest has been stacked," the eagle told him.
 
The boy thought of how the grain stacks in his part of the country were piled up close to the farms, as if they were their greatest , while here the harvest was borne to a river , and left there.
 
"I wonder if any one out in this wilderness counts his stacks, and compares them with his neighbour's?" he said.
 
A little later they came to Ljungen, a river which through a broad valley. Immediately everything was so changed that they might well think they had come to another country. The dark spruce forest had stopped on the inclines above the valley, and the slopes were clad in light-stemmed birches and aspens. The valley was so broad that in many places the river widened into lakes. Along the shores lay a large flourishing town.
 
As they soared above the valley the eagle realized that the boy was wondering if the fields and meadows here could provide a livelihood for so many people.
 
"Here live the reapers who mow the forest fields," the eagle said.
 
The boy was thinking of the lowly cabins and the hedged-in farms down in
Skåne when he exclaimed:
"Why, here the peasants live in real . It looks as if it might be worth one's while to work in the forest!"
 
The eagle had intended to travel straight north, but when he had flown out over the river he understood that the boy wondered who handled the timber after it was stacked on the rive............