and when all were ready Lasse had twelve boats. But they should
not be boats, they should be large warships. He had three liners,
three frigates, three brigs and three schooners. The largest
liner was called Hercules, and the smallest schooner The Flea.
Little Lasse put all the twelve into the water, and they floated
as splendidly and as proudly as any great ships over the waves of
the ocean.

And now the ships must sail round the world. The great island
over there was Asia; that large stone Africa; the little island
America; the small stones were Polynesia; and the shore from
which the ships sailed out was Europe. The whole fleet set off
and sailed far away to other parts of the world. The ships of the
line steered a straight course to Asia, the frigates sailed to
Africa, the brigs to America, and the schooners to Polynesia. But
Little Lasse remained in Europe, and threw small stones out into
the great sea.

Now, there was on the shore of Europe a real boat, father's own,
a beautiful white-painted boat, and Little Lasse got into it.
Father and mother had forbidden this, but Little Lasse forgot. He
thought he should very much like to travel to some other part of
the world.

'I shall row out a little way--only a very little way,' he
thought. The pea-shell boats had travelled so far that they only
looked like little specks on the ocean. 'I shall seize Hercules
on the coast of Asia,' said Lasse, 'and then row home again to
Europe.'