När Johan fick en liten kalv

The little crofter boy Johan's family has lost their only cow, Embla. She ate a nail and died yesterday. Now Johan stands on the porch bridge and thinks about the terrible thing that happened. He looks out at the white snow that is falling and lies down like a quiet cover just about everything. But it's not really quiet, because out on the road Bäckhultarn passes by on his way to town. He's a member of the jury and has at least twenty cows that are all alive. It's so unfair. Johan doesn't know when he's standing there watching Bäckhultarn's sled disappears over the road that towards evening the sled will go the same way back and drop something in the ditch, something that will ease the grief after Embla.The story was first published in 1951 in the anthology A car comes loaded. This is a new edition of the picture book När Bäckhultarn for til stan, which was published in 1989.