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+Project Gutenberg's The Sand-Hills of Jutland, by Hans Christian Andersen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Sand-Hills of Jutland
+
+Author: Hans Christian Andersen
+
+Translator: Mrs. Bushby
+
+Release Date: August 30, 2008 [EBook #26491]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SAND-HILLS OF JUTLAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Chris Curnow, Lindy Walsh,
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 THE
+
+                        SAND-HILLS OF JUTLAND.
+
+
+                                  BY
+
+                       HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN,
+
+                 AUTHOR OF "THE IMPROVISATORE," ETC.
+
+
+                      TRANSLATED BY MRS. BUSHBY.
+
+
+
+
+                               LONDON:
+
+               RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
+
+                                1860.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+The Following Tales
+
+ARE DEDICATED,
+
+WITH THE HIGHEST SENTIMENTS OF
+
+ESTEEM AND REGARD,
+
+TO
+
+THE BARON CHARLES JOACHIM HAMBRO,
+
+BY
+
+HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                   PAGE
+
+THE SAND-HILLS OF JUTLAND                           1
+
+THE MUD-KING'S DAUGHTER                            48
+
+THE QUICKEST RUNNERS                               97
+
+THE BELL'S HOLLOW                                 101
+
+SOUP MADE OF A SAUSAGE-STICK                      106
+
+THE NECK OF A BOTTLE                              124
+
+THE OLD BACHELOR'S NIGHTCAP                       137
+
+SOMETHING                                         153
+
+THE OLD OAK TREE'S LAST DREAM                     162
+
+THE WIND RELATES THE STORY OF WALDEMAR DAAE AND
+HIS DAUGHTERS                                     170
+
+THE GIRL WHO TROD UPON BREAD                      185
+
+OLÉ, THE WATCHMAN OF THE TOWER                    196
+
+ANNE LISBETH; OR, THE APPARITION OF THE BEACH     204
+
+CHILDREN'S PRATTLE                                218
+
+A ROW OF PEARLS                                   222
+
+THE PEN AND THE INKSTAND                          232
+
+THE CHILD IN THE GRAVE                            236
+
+CHARMING.                                         243
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+_The Sand-hills of Jutland._
+
+
+This is a story from the Jutland sand-hills, but it does not commence
+there; on the contrary, it commences far away towards the south, in
+Spain. The sea is the highway between the two countries. Fancy
+yourself there. The scenery is beautiful; the climate is warm. There
+blooms the scarlet pomegranate amidst the dark laurel trees; from the
+hills a refreshing breeze is wafted over the orange groves and the
+magnificent Moorish halls, with their gilded cupolas and their painted
+walls. Processions of children parade the streets with lights and
+waving banners; and, above these, clear and lofty rises the vault of
+heaven, studded with glittering stars. Songs and castanets are heard;
+youths and girls mingle in the dance under the blossoming acacias;
+whilst beggars sit upon the sculptured blocks of marble, and refresh
+themselves with the juicy water-melon. Life dozes here: it is all like
+a charming dream, and one indulges in it. Yes, thus did two young
+newly-married persons, who also possessed all the best gifts of
+earth--health, good humour, riches, and rank.
+
+"Nothing could possibly exceed our happiness," they said in the
+fulness of their joyful hearts; yet there was one degree of still
+higher happiness to which they might attain, and that would be when
+God blessed them with a child--a son, to resemble them in features and
+in disposition.
+
+That fortunate child would be hailed with rapture; would be loved and
+daintily cared for; would be the heir to all the advantages that
+wealth and high birth can bestow.
+
+The days flew by as a continual festival to them.
+
+"Life is a merciful gift of love--almost inconceivably great," said
+the young wife; "but the fulness of this happiness shall be tasted in
+that future life, when it will increase and exist to all eternity. The
+idea is incomprehensible to me."
+
+"That is only an assumption among mankind," said her husband. "In
+reality, it is frightful pride and overweening arrogance to think that
+we shall live for ever--become like God. These were the serpent's wily
+words, and he is the father of lies."
+
+"You do not, however, doubt that there is a life after this one?"
+asked his wife; and for the first time a cloud seemed to pass over
+their sunny heaven of thought.
+
+"Faith holds forth the promise of it, and the priests proclaim it,"
+said the young man; "but, in the midst of all my happiness, I feel
+that it would be too craving, too presumptuous, to demand another life
+after this one--a happiness to be continual. Is there not so much
+granted in this existence that we might and ought to be content with
+it?"
+
+"To us--yes, there has been much granted," replied the young wife;
+"but to how many thousands does not this life become merely a heavy
+trial? How many are not, as it were, cast into this world to be the
+victims of poverty, wrangling, sickness, and misfortune? Nay, if there
+were no life after this one, then everything in this globe has been
+unequally dealt out; then God would not be just."
+
+"The beggar down yonder has joys as great, to his ideas, as are those
+of the monarch in his splendid palace to him," said the young man;
+"and do you not think that the beasts of burden, which are beaten,
+starved, and toiled to death, feel the oppressiveness of their lot?
+They also might desire another life, and call it unjust that they had
+not been placed amidst a higher grade of beings."
+
+"In the kingdom of heaven there are many mansions, Christ has told
+us," answered the lady. "The kingdom of heaven is infinite, as is the
+love of God. The beasts of the field are also His creation; and my
+belief is that no life will be extinguished, but will win that degree
+of happiness which may be suitable to it, and that will be
+sufficient."
+
+"Well, this world is enough for me," said her husband, as he threw his
+arms round his beautiful, amiable wife, and smoked his cigarette upon
+the open balcony, where the deliciously cool air was laden with the
+perfume of orange trees and beds of carnations. Music and the sound of
+castanets arose from the street beneath; the stars shone brightly
+above; and two eyes full of affection, the eyes of his charming wife,
+looked at him with love which would live in eternity.
+
+"Such moments as these," he exclaimed, "are they not well worth being
+born for--born to enjoy them, and then to vanish into nothingness?"
+
+He smiled; his wife lifted her hand and shook it at him with a gesture
+of mild reproach, and the cloud had passed over--they were too happy.
+
+Everything seemed to unite for their advancement in honour, in
+happiness, and in prosperity. There came a change, but in place--not
+in anything to affect their well-being, to damp their joy, or to
+ruffle the smooth current of their lives. The young nobleman was
+appointed by his king ambassador to the court of Russia. It was a post
+of honour to which he was entitled by his birth and education. He had
+a large private fortune, and his young wife had brought him one not
+inferior to his own, for she was the daughter of one of the richest
+men in the kingdom. A large ship was about that time to go to
+Stockholm. It was selected to convey the rich man's dear daughter and
+son-in-law to St. Petersburg; and its cabin was fitted up as if for
+the use of royalty--soft carpets under the feet, silken hangings, and
+every luxury around.
+
+Amidst the ancient Scandinavian ballads, known to all Danes under
+their general title of _Koempeviser_, there is one called "The King
+of England's Son." He likewise sailed in a costly ship; its anchor was
+inlaid with pure gold, and every rope was of twisted silk. Every one
+who saw the Spanish vessel must have remembered the ship in this
+legend, for there was the same pageantry, the same thoughts on their
+departure.
+
+    "God, let us meet again in joy!"
+
+The wind blew freshly from off the Spanish shore, and the last adieux
+were therefore hurried; but in a few weeks they would reach their
+destination. They had not gone far, however, before the wind lulled,
+the sea became calm, its surface sparkled, the stars above shone
+brightly, and all was serenity in the splendid cabin.
+
+At length they became tired of the continued calm, and wished that the
+breeze would rise and swell into a good strong wind, if it would only
+be fair for them; but they still lacked wind, and if it did arise, it
+was always a contrary one. Thus passed weeks, and when at length the
+wind became fair, and blew from the south-west, they were half way
+between Scotland and Jutland. Just then the wind shifted, and
+increased to a gale, as it is described to have done in the ballad of
+"The King of England's Son."
+
+    "The sky grew dark, and the wind it blew,
+      They could see neither land nor haven of rest;
+    So then they cast out their anchor true,
+      But to Denmark they drove with the gale from the west."
+
+This was many years ago. King Christian the Seventh occupied the
+Danish throne, and was then a young man. Much has happened since that
+time, much has changed; lakes and morasses have become fruitful
+meadows, wild moors have become cultivated land, and on the lee of the
+West Jutlander's house grow apple trees and roses; but they must be
+sheltered from the sharp west winds. Up there one can still, however,
+fancy one's self back in the period of Christian the Seventh's reign.
+As then in Jutland, so even now, stretch for miles and miles the brown
+heaths, with their tumuli, their meteors, their knolly, sandy cross
+roads. Towards the west, where large streams fall into the fiords, are
+to be seen wide plains and bogs, encircled by high hills, which, like
+a row of Alpine mountains with pinnacles formed like saws, frown over
+the sea, which is separated from them only by high clay banks; and
+year after year the sea bites a large mouthful off of these, so that
+their edges and summits topple over as if shaken by an earthquake.
+Thus they look at this day, and thus they were many years ago, when
+the happy young couple sailed from Spain in the magnificent ship.
+
+It was the end of September. It was Sunday and sunshine: the sound of
+the church bells reached afar, even to Nissumfiord. The churches up
+there were like rocks with spaces hewn out in them: each one of them
+was like a piece of a mountain, so heavy and massive. The German Ocean
+might have rolled over them, and they would have stood firmly. Many of
+them had no spires or towers, and the bells hung out in the open air
+between two beams. The church service was over. The congregation had
+passed from the house of God out into the churchyard, where then, as
+now, not a tree, not a bush was to be seen--not a single flower, not a
+garland laid upon a grave. Little knolls or heaps of earth point out
+where the dead are buried; a sharp kind of grass, lashed by the wind,
+grows over the whole churchyard. A solitary grave here and there has,
+perhaps, a monument; that is to say, the mouldering trunk of a tree,
+rudely carved into the shape of a coffin. The pieces of tree are
+brought from the woods of the west. The wild ocean provides, for the
+dwellers on the coast, beams, planks, and trees, which the dashing
+billows cast upon the shore. The wind and the sea spray soon decay
+these tree monuments. Such a stump was lying over the grave of a
+child, and one of the women who had come out of the church went
+towards it. She stood gazing upon the partially loosened piece of
+wood. Shortly afterwards her husband joined her. They remained for a
+time without either of them uttering a single word; then he took her
+hand, and led her from the grave out upon the heath, across the moor,
+in the direction of the sand-hills. For a long time they walked in
+silence. At last the husband said,--
+
+"It was an excellent sermon to-day. If we had not our Lord we should
+have nothing."
+
+"Yes," said the wife, "He sends joy, and He sends affliction. He is
+right in all things. To-morrow our little boy would have been five
+years old if he had been spared to us."
+
+"There is no use in your grieving for his loss," replied the husband.
+"He has escaped much evil. He is now where we must pray to be also
+received."
+
+They dropped the painful subject, and pursued their way towards their
+house amidst the sand-hills. Suddenly, from one of these where there
+was no lyme-grass to keep down the sand, there arose as it were a
+thick smoke. It was a furious gust of wind, that had pierced the
+sand-hill, and whirled about in the air the fine particles of sand.
+The wind veered round for a minute; and all the dried fish that was
+hung up on cords outside of the house knocked against its walls, then
+everything was still again. The sun was shining warmly.
+
+The man and his wife entered their house, and having soon divested
+themselves of their Sunday clothes, they hastened over the sand-hills,
+which stood like enormous waves of sand suddenly arrested in their
+course. The sea-reed's and the lyme-grass's blue-green sharp blades
+gave some variety to the white sand. Some neighbours joined the couple
+who had just come from church, and they assisted each other in
+dragging the boats higher up the beach. The gale was increasing; it
+was bitterly cold; and when they were returning over the hills, the
+sand and small stones whisked into their faces, the waves mounted
+high with their white crests, and the spray dashed after them.
+
+It was evening; there was a doleful whistling in the air, increasing
+every moment--a wild howling, as if a host of unseen despairing
+spirits were uttering their complaints. The moaning sound overpowered
+even the angry dashing of the waves, although the fisherman's house
+lay so near to the shore. The sand drifted against the windows, and
+every now and then came a blast that shook the house to its
+foundation. It was very dark, but the moon would rise at midnight.
+
+The air cleared; yet the storm still raged in all its might over the
+deep gloomy sea. The fishermen and their families had retired for some
+time to rest, but no one could close his eyes in such terrible
+weather. Some one knocked at the windows of some of the cottages, and
+when the doors were opened the person said,--
+
+"A large ship is lying fast upon the outer shoal."
+
+In a moment the fishermen and their wives were up and dressed.
+
+The moon had risen, and there was light enough to see if they had not
+been blinded by the sand that was flying about. The wind was so strong
+that they were obliged to lie down, and creep amidst the gusts over
+the sand-hills; and there flew through the air, like swan's down, the
+salt foam and spray from the sea, which, like a roaring, boiling
+cataract, dashed upon the beach. A practised eye was required to
+discern quickly the vessel outside. It was a large ship; it was lifted
+a few cable lengths forward, then driven on towards the land, struck
+upon the inner sand-bank, and stood fast. It was impossible to go to
+the assistance of the ship, the sea was running too high: it beat
+against the unfortunate vessel, and dashed over her. The people on
+shore thought that they heard cries of distress--cries of those in the
+agony of death; and they saw the desperate, useless activity on board.
+Then came a sea that, like a crushing avalanche, fell upon the
+bowsprit, and it was gone. The stern of the vessel rose high above the
+water--two people sprang from it together into the sea--a moment, and
+one of the most gigantic billows that were rolling up against the
+sand-hills cast a body upon the shore: it was that of a female, and
+every one believed it was a corpse. Two women, however, knelt down by
+the body, and thinking that they found in it some sign of life, it was
+carried over the sand-hills to a fisherman's house. How beautiful she
+was, and how handsomely dressed!--evidently a lady of rank.
+
+They placed her in the humble bed; there was no linen on it, only
+blankets to wrap her in, yet these were very warm.
+
+She soon came to life, but was in a high fever. She did not seem to
+know what had happened, or to remark where she was; and this was
+probably fortunate, since all who were dear to her on board the
+ill-fated ship were lying at the bottom of the sea. It had been with
+them as described in the song, "The King of England's Son:"--
+
+    "It was, in sooth, a piteous sight!
+    The ship broke up to bits that night."
+
+Portions of the wreck were washed ashore. She was the only living
+creature out of all that had so lately breathed and moved on board the
+doomed ship. The wind was howling their requiem over the inhospitable
+coast. For a few minutes she slept peacefully, but soon she awoke and
+uttered groans of pain; she cast up her beautiful eyes towards heaven,
+and said a few words, but no one there could understand them.
+
+Another helpless being soon made its appearance, and her new-born babe
+was placed in her arms. It ought to have reposed on a stately couch,
+with silken curtains, in a splendid house. It ought to have been
+welcomed with joy to a life rich in all this world's goods; but our
+Lord had ordained that it should be born in a peasant's hut, in a
+miserable nook. Not even one kiss did it receive from its mother.
+
+The fisherman's wife laid the infant on its mother's breast, and it
+rested near her heart; but that heart had ceased to beat--she was
+dead! The child who should have been nurtured amidst happiness and
+wealth was cast a stranger into the world--thrown up by the sea among
+the sand-hills, to experience heavy days and the fate of the poor. And
+again we call to mind the old song:--
+
+    "The king's son's eyes with big tears fill:
+    'Alas! that I came to this robber-hill.
+    Here nothing awaits me but evil and pain.
+    Had I haply but come to Herr Buggé's domain,
+    Neither knight nor squire would have treated me ill.'"
+
+A little to the south of Nissumfiord, on that portion of the shore
+which Herr Buggé had formerly called his, the vessel had stranded.
+Those rough, inhuman times, when the inhabitants of the west coast
+dealt cruelly, it is said, with the shipwrecked, had long passed away;
+and now the utmost compassion was felt, and the kindest attention paid
+to those whom the engulfing sea had spared. The dying mother and the
+forlorn child would have met with every care wherever "the wild wind
+had blown;" but nowhere could they have been received with more
+cordial kindness than by the poor fishwife who, only the previous
+morning, had stood with a heavy heart by the grave wherein reposed her
+child, who on that very day would have attained his fifth year if the
+Almighty had permitted him to live.
+
+No one knew who the foreign dead woman was, or whence she came. The
+broken planks and fragments of the ship told nothing.
+
+In Spain, at that opulent house, there never arrived either letter or
+message from the daughter and son-in-law; they had not reached their
+destination; fearful storms had raged for some weeks. They waited with
+anxiety for months. At last they heard, "Totally lost--every one on
+board perished!"
+
+But at Huusby-Klitter, in the fisherman's cottage, there dwelt now a
+little urchin.
+
+Where God bestows food for two, there is always something for a third;
+and near the sea there is plenty of fish to be found. The little
+stranger was named Jörgen.
+
+"He is surely a Jewish child," said some people, "he has so dark a
+complexion."
+
+"He may, however, be an Italian or a Spaniard," said the priest.
+
+The whole tribe of fishermen and women comforted themselves that,
+whatever was his origin, the child had received Christian baptism. The
+boy throve, his noble blood mantled in his cheek, and he grew strong,
+notwithstanding poor living. The Danish language, as it is spoken in
+West Jutland, became his mother tongue. The pomegranate seed from the
+Spanish soil became the coarse grass on the west coast of Jutland.
+Such are the vicissitudes of life!
+
+To that home he attached himself with his young life's roots. Hunger
+and cold, the poor man's toil and want, he was to experience, but also
+the poor man's joys.
+
+Childhood has its bright periods, which shine in recollection through
+the whole of after life. How much had he not to amuse him, and to
+play with! The entire seashore, for miles in length, was covered with
+playthings for him--a mosaic of pebbles red as coral, yellow as amber,
+and pure white, round as birds' eggs, all smoothed and polished by the
+sea. Even the scales of the dried fish, the aquatic plants dried by
+the wind, the shining seaweed fluttering among the rocks--all were
+pleasant to his eye, and matter for his thoughts; and the boy was an
+excitable, clever child. Much genius and great abilities lay dormant
+in him. How well he remembered all the stories and old ballads he
+heard; and he was very quick with his fingers. With stones and shells
+he would plan out whole scenes he had heard as if in a picture: one
+might have ornamented a room with these handiworks of his. "He could
+cut out his thoughts with a stick," said his foster-mother; and yet he
+was but a little boy. His voice was very sweet--melody seemed to have
+been born with him. There were many finely-toned strings in that
+breast; they might have sounded forth in the world, had his lot been
+otherwise cast than in a fisherman's house on the shores of the German
+Ocean.
+
+One day a ship foundered near. A case was thrown up on the land
+containing a number of flower-bulbs. Some took them and put them into
+their cooking pots, thinking they were to be eaten; others were left
+to rot upon the sand; none of them fulfilled their destination--to
+unfold the lovely colours, the beauty that lay in them. Would it be
+better with Jörgen? The poor flower-roots were soon done for: there
+might be years of trial before him.
+
+It never occurred to him, or to any of the people around him, to think
+their days lonely and monotonous: there was abundance to do, to hear,
+and to see. The ocean itself was a great book; every day he read a
+new page in it--the calm, the swell of the sea, the breeze, the storm.
+The beach was his favourite resort; going to church was his event, his
+visit of importance, though of visits there was one which occasionally
+took place at the fisherman's house that was particularly welcome to
+him. Twice a year his foster-mother's brother, the eel-man from
+Fjaltring, up near Rovbierg, paid them a visit. He came in a painted
+cart full of eels. The cart was closed and locked like a chest, and
+painted with blue, red, and white tulips; it was drawn by two
+dun-coloured bullocks, and Jörgen was allowed to drive them.
+
+The eel-man was a very good-natured, lively guest. He always brought a
+keg of brandy with him; every one got a dram of it, or a coffee-cup
+full if glasses were scarce; even Jörgen, though he was but a little
+fellow, was treated to a good thimbleful. That was to keep down the
+fat eels, said the eel-man; and then he never failed to tell a story
+he had often told before, and, when people laughed at it, he
+immediately told it over again to the same persons; but this is a
+habit with all talkative individuals; and as Jörgen, during the whole
+time that he was growing up, and into the years of his manhood, often
+quoted phrases in this story, and applied them to himself, we may as
+well listen to it.
+
+"Out in the rivulet dwelt eels, and the eel-mother said to her
+daughters, when they begged to be allowed to go a little way alone up
+the stream. 'Do not go far, lest the horrible eel-spearer should come,
+and take you all away.'
+
+"But they went very far, and of eight daughters only three returned to
+their mother, and these came wailing, 'We only went a short way from
+the door, when the terrible eel-spearer came and killed our five
+sisters.' 'They will come back again,' said the eel-mother. 'No,'
+said the daughters, 'for he skinned them, cut them in pieces, and
+fried them.' 'They will come again,' repeated the mother. 'Impossible,
+for he ate them.' 'They will come again,' still persisted the
+eel-mother. 'But he drank brandy after he had eaten them,' said the
+daughter. 'Did he? Oh! oh! then they will never come again,' howled
+the mother. 'Brandy buries eels.'
+
+"And therefore one must always drink a little brandy after that dish,"
+said the eel-man.
+
+And this story made a great impression on little Jörgen, and partly
+influenced his life. He took the tinsel for the gold. He also wished
+to go "a little way up the stream"--that is to say, to go away in a
+ship to see the world--and his mother said as the eel-mother had done.
+"There are many bad men--eel-spearers." But a little way beyond the
+sand-hills, and a little way on the heath, he was allowed to go, he
+begged so hard. Four happy days, however--days that seemed the
+brightest among his childish years, turned up: he was to go to a large
+meeting. What pleasure, although it was to a funeral!
+
+A relation of the fisherman's family, who had been in easy
+circumstances, was dead. The farm lay inland--"eastward, a little to
+the north," it was said. The father and mother were both going, and
+Jörgen was to accompany them. On leaving the sand-hills, they passed
+over heaths and boggy lands, until they came to the green meadows
+where Skjærumaa winds its way--the river with the numerous eels, where
+the eel-mother with her daughters lived, those whom the cruel man
+speared and cut in pieces, though there were men who had scarcely
+treated their fellow-men better. Even Herr Buggé, the knight who was
+celebrated in the old song, was murdered by a wicked man; and though
+he was himself called so good, he wished to put to death the builder
+who had built for him his castle, with its tower and thick walls, just
+where Jörgen and his foster-parents stood, where Skjærumaa falls into
+the Nissumfiord. The sloping bank or ascent to the ramparts was still
+to be seen, and red fragments of the walls still marked out the
+circumference of the ancient building. Here had Herr Buggé, when the
+builder had taken his departure, said to his squire--"Follow him, and
+say, Master, the tower leans to one side. If he turns, slay him on the
+spot, and take the money from him that he got from me; but, if he does
+not turn, let him go on in peace." And the squire overtook the
+builder, and said what he was ordered to say; and the builder replied,
+"The tower does not lean to one side, but by and by there will come
+from the westward one in a blue cloak, and _he_ will make it bend." A
+hundred years afterwards this prediction was fulfilled, for the German
+Ocean rushed in, and the tower fell; but the then owner of the
+property, Prebjörn Gyldenstierne, erected a habitation higher up, and
+that stands now, and is called Nörre-Vosborg.
+
+Jörgen, with his foster-parents, had to pass this place. Of every
+little town hereabout he had heard stories during the long winter
+evenings; now he saw the castle, with its double moats, its trees and
+bushes, its ramparts overgrown with bracken. But the most beautiful
+sight was the lofty linden trees, that filled the air with so sweet a
+perfume. Towards the north-west, in a corner of the garden, stood a
+large bush with flowers that were like winter's snow amidst summer's
+green. It was an elder tree, the first Jörgen had ever seen in bloom.
+That and the linden trees were always remembered during his future
+years as Denmark's sweetest perfume and beauty, which the soul of
+childhood "for the old man laid by."
+
+The journey soon became more extended, and the country less wild.
+After passing Nörre-Vosborg, where the elder tree was in bloom, he had
+the pleasure of travelling in a sort of carriage, for they met some of
+the other guests who were going to the funeral feast, as it might be
+called, and were invited into their conveyance. To be sure they had
+all three to stuff themselves into a very narrow back seat, but that
+was better, they thought, than walking. They drove over the uneven
+heaths; the bullocks which drew their cart stopped whenever they came
+to a little patch of green grass among the heather. The sun was
+shining warmly, and it was wonderful to see, far in the distance, a
+smoke that undulated, yet was clearer than the air--one could see
+through it: it was as if rays of light were rolling and dancing over
+the heath.
+
+"It is the Lokéman, who is driving his sheep," was told Jörgen, and
+that was enough for him. He fancied he was driving into the land of
+marvellous adventures and fairy tales; yet he was only amidst
+realities. How still it was there!
+
+Far before them stretched the heath, but it looked like a beautifully
+variegated carpet; the ling was in flower, the Cyprus-green juniper
+bushes and the fresh oak shoots seemed like bouquets among the
+heather. But for the many poisonous vipers, how delightful it would
+have been to roll about there! The party spoke of them, and of the
+numerous wolves that had abounded in that neighbourhood, on account of
+which the district was called Ulvborg-Herred. The old man who was
+driving related how, in his father's time, the horses had often to
+fight a hard battle with these now extirpated wild animals; and that
+one morning, on coming out, he found one of his horses treading upon a
+wolf he had killed; but the flesh was entirely stripped from the
+horse's legs.
+
+Too quickly for Jörgen did they drive over the uneven heath, and
+through the deep sand. They stopped at length before the house of
+mourning, which was crowded with strangers, some inside, some on the
+outside. Vehicle after vehicle stood together; the horses and oxen
+were turned out amidst the meagre grass; large sand-hills, like those
+at home by the German Ocean, were to be seen behind the farm, and
+stretched far away in wide long ranges. How had they come there,
+twelve miles inland, and nearly as high and as large as those near the
+shore? The wind had lifted them and removed them: they also had their
+history.
+
+Psalms were sung, and tears were shed by some of the old people,
+otherwise all was very pleasant thought Jörgen. Here was plenty to eat
+and drink--the nicest fat eels; and it was necessary to drink
+brandy-snaps after eating them, "to keep them down," the eel-man had
+said; and his words were acted upon here with all due honour.
+
+Jörgen was in, and Jörgen was out. By the third day he felt himself as
+much at home here as he had done in the fisherman's cottage, where he
+had lived all his earlier days. Up here on the heath it was different
+from down there, but it was very nice. It was covered with
+heather-bells and bilberries; they were so large and so sweet; one
+could mash them with one's foot, so that the heather should be
+dripping with the red juice. Here lay one tumulus, there another;
+columns of smoke arose in the calm air; it was the heath on fire, they
+said, it shone brightly in the evening.
+
+The fourth day came, and the funeral solemnities were over--the
+fisherman and his family were to leave the land sand-hills for the
+strand sand-hills.
+
+"Ours are the largest though;" said the father, "these are not at all
+important-looking."
+
+And the conversation fell on how they came there, and it was all very
+intelligible and very rational. A body had been found on the beach,
+and the peasants had buried it in the churchyard; then commenced a
+drifting of sand--the sea broke wildly on the shore, and a man in the
+parish who was noted for his sagacity advised that the grave should be
+opened, to ascertain if the buried corpse lay and sucked his thumb;
+for if he did that, it was a merman whom they had buried, and the sea
+would force its way up to take him back. The grave was accordingly
+opened, and lo! he they had buried was found sucking his thumb; so
+they took him up instantly, placed him on a car, harnessed two oxen to
+it, and dragged him over heaths and bogs out to the sea; then the sand
+drift stopped, but the sand-hills have always remained. To all this
+Jörgen listened eagerly; and he treasured this ancient legend in his
+memory, along with all that had happened during the pleasantest days
+of his childhood--the days of the funeral feast.
+
+It was delightful to go from home, and to see new places and new
+people; and he was to go still farther away. He went on board a ship.
+He went forth to see what the world produced; and he found bad
+weather, rough seas, evils dispositions, and harsh masters. He went as
+a cabin-boy! Poor living, cold nights, the rope's end, and hard thumps
+with the fist were his portion. There was something in his noble
+Spanish blood which always boiled up, so that angry words rose often
+to his lips; but he was wise enough to keep them back, and he felt
+pretty much like an eel being skinned, cut up, and laid on the pan.
+
+"I will come again," said he to himself. The Spanish coast, his
+parents' native land, the very town where they had lived in grandeur
+and happiness, he saw; but he knew nothing of kindred and a paternal
+home, and his family knew as little of him.
+
+The dirty ship-boy was not allowed to land for a long time, but the
+last day the ship lay there he was sent on shore to bring off some
+purchases that had been made.
+
+There stood Jörgen in wretched clothes, that looked as if they had
+been washed in a ditch and dried in the chimney: it was the first time
+that he, a denizen of the solitary sand-hills, had seen a large town.
+How high the houses were, how narrow the streets, swarming with human
+beings; some hurrying this way, others going that way--it was like a
+whirlpool of townspeople, peasants, monks, and soldiers. There were a
+rushing along, a screaming, a jingling of the bells on the asses and
+the mules, and the church bells ringing too. There were to be heard
+singing and babbling, hammering and banging; for every trade had its
+workshop either in the doorway or on the pavement. The sun was burning
+hot, the air was heavy: it was as if one had entered a baker's oven
+full of beetles, lady-birds, bees, and flies, that hummed and buzzed.
+Jörgen scarcely knew, as the saying is, whether he was on his head or
+his heels. Then he beheld, at a little distance, the immense portals
+of the cathedral; light streamed forth from the arches that were so
+dim and gloomy above; and there came a strong scent from the incense.
+Even the poorest, most tattered beggars ascended the wide stairs to
+the church, and the sailor who was with Jörgen showed him the way in.
+Jörgen stood in a sacred place; splendidly-painted pictures hung round
+in richly-gilded frames; the holy Virgin, with the infant Jesus in her
+arms, was on the altar amidst flowers and light; priests in their
+magnificent robes were chanting; and beautiful, handsomely-dressed
+choristers swung backwards and forwards silver censers. There was in
+everything a splendour, a charm, that penetrated to Jörgen's very
+soul, and overwhelmed him. The church and the faith of his parents and
+his ancestors surrounded him, and touched a chord in his heart which
+caused tears to start to his eyes.
+
+From the church they proceeded to the market. He had many articles of
+food and matters for the use of the cook, to carry. The way was long,
+and he became very tired; so he stopped to rest outside of a large
+handsome house, that had marble pillars, statues, and wide stairs. He
+was leaning with his burden against the wall, when a finely-bedizened
+porter came forward, raised his silver-mounted stick to him, and drove
+him away--him, the grandchild of its owner, the heir of the family;
+but none there knew this, nor did he himself.
+
+He returned on board, was thumped and scolded, had little sleep and
+much work. Such was his life! And it is very good for youth to put up
+with hard usage, it is said. Yes, if it makes age good.
+
+The period for which he had been engaged was expired--the vessel lay
+again at Ringkiöbingfiord. He landed, and went home to Huusby-Klitter;
+but his mother had died during his absence.
+
+The winter which followed was a severe one. Snow storms drove over sea
+and land: one could scarcely face them. How differently were not
+things dealt out in this world! Such freezing cold and drifting snow
+here, whilst in Spain was burning heat, almost too great; and yet
+when, one clear, frosty day at home, Jörgen saw swans flying in large
+flocks from the sea over Nissumfiord, and towards Nörre-Vosborg, he
+thought that the course they pursued was the best, and all summer
+pleasures were to be found there. In fancy he saw the heath in bloom,
+and mingling with it the ripe, juicy berries; the linden trees and
+elder bushes at Nörre-Vosborg were in flower. He must return there
+yet.
+
+Spring was approaching, the fishing was commencing, and Jörgen lent
+his help. He had grown much during the last year, and was extremely
+active. There was plenty of life in him; he could swim, tread the
+water, and turn and roll about in it. He was much inclined to offer
+himself for the mackerel shoals: they take the best swimmer, draw him
+under the water, eat him up, and so there is an end of him; but this
+was not Jörgen's fate.
+
+Among the neighbours in the sand-hills was a boy named Morten. He and
+Jörgen left the fishing, and they both hired themselves on board a
+vessel bound to Norway, and went afterwards to Holland. They were
+always at odds with each other, but that might easily happen when
+people were rather warm-tempered; and they could not help showing
+their feelings sometimes in expressive gestures. This was what Jörgen
+did once on board when they came up from below quarrelling about
+something. They were sitting together, eating out of an earthen dish
+they had between them, when Jörgen, who was holding his clasp-knife in
+his hand, raised it against Morten, looking at the moment as white as
+chalk, and ghastly about the eyes. Morten only said,--
+
+"So you are of that sort that will use the knife!"
+
+Scarcely had he uttered these words before Jörgen's hand was down
+again; he did not say a syllable, ate his dinner, and went to his
+work; but when he had finished that, he sought Morten, and said,--
+
+"Strike me on the face if you will--I have deserved it. There is
+something in me that always boils up so."
+
+"Let bygones be bygones," said Morten; and thereupon they became much
+better friends. When they returned to Jutland and the sand-hills, and
+told all that had passed, it was remarked that Jörgen might boil over,
+but he was an honest pot for all that.
+
+"But not of Jutland manufacture--he cannot be called a Jutlander," was
+Morten's witty reply.
+
+They were both young and healthy, well-grown, and strongly built, but
+Jörgen was the most active.
+
+Up in Norway the country people repair to the summer pastures among
+the mountains, and take their cattle there to grass. On the west coast
+of Jutland, among the sand-hills, are huts built of pieces of wrecks,
+and covered with peat and layers of heather. The sleeping-places
+stretch round the principal room; and there sleep and live, during the
+early spring time, the people employed in the fishing. Every one has
+his _Æsepige_, as she is called, whose business it is to put bait on
+the hooks, to await the fishermen at their landing-place with warm
+ale, and have their food ready for them when they return weary to the
+house. These girls carry the fish from the boats, and cut them up; in
+short, they have a great deal to do.
+
+Jörgen, his father, and a couple of other fishermen, with their
+_Æsepiger_, or serving girls, were together in one house. Morten lived
+in the house next to theirs.
+
+There was one of these girls called Elsé, whom Jörgen had known from
+her infancy. They were great friends, and much alike in disposition,
+though very different in appearance. He was of a dark complexion, and
+she was very fair, with hair almost of a golden colour; her eyes were
+as blue as the sea when the sun is shining upon it.
+
+One day when they were walking together, and Jörgen was holding her
+hand with a tight and affectionate grasp, she said to him,--
+
+"Jörgen, I have something on my mind. Let me be your _Æsepige_, for
+you are to me like a brother; but Morten, who has hired me at
+present--he and I are sweethearts. Do not mention this, however, to
+any one."
+
+And Jörgen felt as if a sand-hill had opened under him. He did not
+utter a single word, but nodded his head by way of a yes--more was not
+necessary; but he felt suddenly in his heart that he could not endure
+Morten, and the longer he reflected on the matter the clearer it
+became to him. Morten had stolen from him the only one he cared for,
+and that was Elsé. She was now lost to him.
+
+If the sea should be boisterous when the fishermen return with their
+little smacks, it is curious to see them cross the reefs. One of the
+fishermen stands erect in advance, the others watch him intently,
+while sitting with their oars ready to use when he gives them a sign
+that now are coming the great waves which will lift the boats over;
+and they are lifted, so that those on shore can only see their keels.
+The next moment the entire boat is hidden by the surging
+waves--neither boat, nor mast, nor people are to be seen: one would
+fancy the sea had swallowed them up. A minute or two more, and they
+show themselves, looking as if some mighty marine monsters were
+creeping out of the foaming sea, the oars moving like their legs. With
+the second and the third reef the same process takes place as with the
+first; and now the fishermen spring into the water and drag the boats
+on shore, every succeeding billow helping and giving them a good lift
+until they are fairly out of the water. One false move on the outside
+of the reefs--one moment's delay, and they would be shipwrecked.
+
+"Then it would be all over with me, and with Morten at the same time."
+This thought came across Jörgen's mind out at sea, where his
+foster-father had been taken suddenly ill: he was in a high fever.
+This was just a little way from the outer reef. Jörgen sprang up.
+
+"Father, allow me," he cried, and his eye glanced over Morten and over
+the waves; but just then every oar was raised for the great struggle,
+and as the first enormous billow came, he observed his father's pale
+suffering countenance, and he could not carry out the wicked design
+that had suggested itself to his mind. The boat got safely over the
+reefs, and in to the land; but Jörgen's evil thoughts remained, and
+his blood boiled at every little disagreeable act that started up in
+his recollection from the time that he and Morten had been comrades,
+and his anger increased as he remembered each offence. Morten had
+supplanted him, he felt assured of that; and that was enough to make
+him hateful to him. A few of the fishermen remarked his scowling looks
+at Morten, but Morten himself did not; he was, just as usual, ready to
+give every assistance, and very talkative--a little too much of the
+latter, perhaps.
+
+Jörgen's foster-father was obliged to keep his bed; he became worse,
+and died within a week; and Jörgen inherited the house behind the
+sand-hills--a humble habitation to be sure, but it was always
+something. Morten had not so much.
+
+"You will not take service any more, Jörgen, I suppose, but will
+remain among us now," said one of the old fishermen.
+
+But Jörgen had no such intention. He was thinking, on the contrary, of
+going away to see a little of the world. The eel-man of Fjaltring had
+an uncle up at Gammel-Skagen; he was a fisherman, but also a thriving
+trader who owned some little vessels. He was such an excellent old
+man, it would be a good thing to take service with him. Gammel-Skagen
+lies on the northern part of Jutland, at the other extremity of the
+country from Huusby-Klitter, and that was what Jörgen thought most of.
+He was determined not to stay for Elsé and Morten's wedding, which was
+to take place in a couple of weeks.
+
+"It was foolish to take his departure now," was the opinion of the old
+fisherman who had spoken to him before. "Now Jörgen had a house, Elsé
+would most likely prefer taking him."
+
+Jörgen answered so shortly, when thus spoken to, that it was difficult
+to ascertain what he thought; but the old man brought Elsé to him. She
+did not say much; but this she did say,--
+
+"You have now a house: one must take that into consideration."
+
+And Jörgen also took much into consideration. In the ocean there are
+many heavy seas--the human heart has still heavier ones. There passed
+many thoughts, strong and weak mingled together, through Jörgen's head
+and heart, and he asked Elsé,--
+
+"If Morten had a house as well as I, which of us two would you rather
+take?"
+
+"But Morten has no house, and has no chance of getting one."
+
+"But we think it is very likely he will have one."
+
+"Oh! then I would take Morten, of course; but one can't live upon
+love."
+
+And Jörgen reflected for the whole night over what had passed. There
+was something in him he could not himself account for; but he had one
+idea--it overpowered his love for Elsé, and it led him to Morten. What
+he said and did there had been well considered by him--he made his
+house over to Morten on the lowest possible terms, saying that he
+would himself prefer to go into service. And Elsé kissed him in her
+gratitude when she heard it, for she certainly loved Morten best.
+
+At an early hour in the morning Jörgen was to take his departure. The
+evening before, though it was already late, he fancied he would like
+to visit Morten once more, so he went; and amongst the sand-hills he
+met the old fisherman, who did not seem to think of his going away,
+and who jested about all the girls being so much in love with Morten.
+Jörgen cut him short, bade him farewell, and proceeded to the house
+where Morten lived. When he reached it he heard loud talking within:
+Morten was not alone. Jörgen was somewhat capricious. Of all persons
+he would least wish to find Elsé there; and, on second thoughts, he
+would rather not give Morten an opportunity of renewing his thanks, so
+he turned back again.
+
+Early next morning, before the dawn of day, he tied up his bundle,
+took his provision box, and went down from the sand-hills to the
+sea-beach. It was easier to walk there than on the heavy sandy road;
+besides, it was shorter, for he was first going to Fjaltring, near
+Vosbjerg, where the eel-man lived, to whom he had promised a visit.
+
+The sea was smooth and beautifully blue--shells of different sorts lay
+around. These were the playthings of his childhood--he now trod them
+under his feet. As he was walking along his nose began to bleed. That
+was only a trifle in itself, but it might have some meaning. A few
+large drops of blood fell upon his arms; he washed them off, stopped
+the bleeding, and found that the loss of a little blood had actually
+made him feel lighter in his head and in his heart. A small quantity
+of sea-kale was growing in the sand; he broke a blade off of it, and
+stuck it in his hat. He tried to feel happy and confident now that he
+was going out into the wide world--"away from the door, a little way
+up the stream," as the eel's children had said; and the mother said,
+"Take care of bad men; they will catch you, skin you, cut you in
+pieces, and fry you." He repeated this to himself, and laughed at it.
+He would get through the world with a whole skin--no fear of that; for
+he had plenty of courage, and that was a good weapon of defence.
+
+The sun was already high up, when, as he approached the small inlet
+between the German Ocean and Nissumfiord, he happened to look back,
+and perceived at a considerable distance two people on horseback, and
+others following on foot: they were evidently making great haste, but
+it was nothing to him.
+
+The ferry-boat lay on the other side of the narrow arm of the sea.
+Jörgen beckoned and called to the person who had charge of it. It came
+over, and he entered it; but before he and the man who was rowing had
+got half way across, the men he had seen hurrying on reached the
+banks, and with threatening gestures shouted the name of the
+magistrate. Jörgen could not comprehend what they wanted, but
+considered it would be best to go back, and even took one of the oars
+to row the faster. The moment the boat neared the shore, people sprang
+into it, and before he had an idea of what they were going to do, they
+had thrown a rope round his hands, and made him their prisoner.
+
+"Your evil deed will cost you your life," said they. "It is lucky we
+arrived in time to catch you."
+
+It was neither more nor less than a murder he was accused of having
+committed. Morten had been found stabbed by a knife in his neck. One
+of the fishermen had, late the night before, met Jörgen going to the
+place where Morten lived. It was not the first time he had lifted a
+knife at him, they knew. He must be the murderer; therefore he must be
+taken into custody. Ringkjöbing was the most proper place to which to
+carry him, but it was a long way off. The wind was from the west. In
+less than half an hour they could cross the fiord at Skjærumaa, and
+from thence they had only a short way to go to Nörre-Vosborg, which
+was a strong place, with ramparts and moats. In the boat was a brother
+of the bailiff there, and he promised to obtain permission to put
+Jörgen for the present into the cell where Lange Margrethe had been
+confined before her execution.
+
+Jörgen's defence of himself was not listened to; for a few drops of
+blood on his clothes spoke volumes against him. His innocence was
+clear to himself; and, if justice were not done him, he must give
+himself up to his fate.
+
+They landed near the site of the old ramparts, where Sir Buggé's
+castle had stood--there, where Jörgen, with his foster-father and
+mother, had passed on their way to the funeral meeting, at which had
+been spent the four brightest and pleasantest days of his childhood.
+He was conveyed again the same way by the fields up to Nörre-Vosborg,
+and yonder stood in full flower the elder tree, and yonder the lindens
+shed their sweet perfume around; and he felt as if it had been only
+yesterday that he had been there.
+
+In the west wing of the castle is a subterranean passage under the
+high stairs; this leads to a low, vaulted cell, in which Lange
+Margrethe had been imprisoned, and whence she had been taken to the
+place of execution. She had eaten the hearts of five children, and
+believed that, could she have added two more to the number, she would
+have been able to fly and to render herself invisible. In the wall
+there was a small, narrow air-hole. No glass was in this rude window;
+yet the sweetly-scented linden tree on the outside could not send the
+slightest portion of its refreshing perfume into that close, mouldy
+dungeon. There was only a miserable pallet there; but a good
+conscience is a good pillow, therefore Jörgen could sleep soundly.
+
+The thick wooden door was locked, and it was further secured by an
+iron bolt; but the nightmare of superstition can creep through a
+key-hole in the baronial castle as in the fisherman's hut. It stole in
+where Jörgen was sitting and thinking upon Lange Margrethe and her
+misdeeds. Her last thoughts had filled that little room the night
+before her execution; he remembered all the magic that, in the olden
+times, was practised when the lord of the manor, Svanwedel, lived
+there; and it was well known how, even now, the chained dog that stood
+on the bridge was found every morning hung over the railing in his
+chain. All these tales recurred to Jörgen's mind, and made him
+shiver; and there was but one sun ray which shone upon him, and that
+was the recollection of the blooming elder and linden trees.
+
+He would not be kept long here; he would be removed to Ringkjöbing,
+where the prison was equally strong.
+
+These times were not like ours. It went hard with the poor then; for
+then it had not come to pass that peasants found their way up to
+lordly mansions, and that from these regiments coachmen and other
+servants became judges in the petty courts, which were invested with
+the power to condemn, for perhaps a trifling fault, the poor man to be
+deprived of all his goods and chattels, or to be flogged at the
+whipping-post. A few of these courts still remain; and in Jutland, far
+from "the King's Copenhagen," and the enlightened and liberal
+government, even now the law is not always very wisely administered:
+it certainly was not so in the case of poor Jörgen.
+
+It was bitterly cold in the place where he was confined. When was this
+imprisonment to be at an end? Though innocent, he had been cast into
+wretchedness and solitude--that was his fate. How things had been
+ordained for him in this world, he had now time to think over. Why had
+he been thus treated--his portion made so hard to bear? Well, this
+would be revealed "in that other life" which assuredly awaits all. In
+the humble cottage that belief had been engrafted into him, which,
+amidst the grandeur and brightness of his Spanish home, had never
+shone upon his father's heart: _that_ now, in the midst of cold and
+darkness, became his consolation, God's gift of grace, which never can
+deceive.
+
+The storms of spring were now raging; the roaring of the German Ocean
+was heard far inland; but just when the tempest had lulled, it sounded
+as if hundreds of heavy wagons were driving over a hard tunnelled
+road. Jörgen heard it even in his dungeon, and it was a change in the
+monotony of his existence. No old melody could have gone more deeply
+to his heart than these sounds--the rolling ocean--the free ocean--on
+which one can be borne throughout the world, fly with the wind, and
+wherever one went have one's own house with one, as the snail has
+his--to stand always upon home's ground, even in a foreign land.
+
+How eagerly he listened to the deep rolling! How remembrances hurried
+through his mind! "Free--free--how delightful to be free, even without
+soles to one's shoes, and in a coarse patched garment!" The very idea
+brought the warm blood rushing into his cheeks, and he struck the wall
+with his fist in his vain impatience. Weeks, months, a whole year had
+elapsed, when a gipsy named Niels Tyv--"the horse-dealer," as he was
+also called--was arrested, and then came better times: it was
+ascertained what injustice had been done to Jörgen.
+
+To the north of Ringkjöbing Fiord, at a small country inn, on the
+evening of the day previous to Jörgen's leaving home, and the
+committal of the murder, Niels Tyv and Morten had met each other. They
+drank a little together, not enough certainly to get into any man's
+head, but enough to set Morten talking too freely. He went on
+chattering, as he was fond of doing, and he mentioned that he had
+bought a house and some ground, and was going to be married. Niels
+thereupon asked him where was the money which was to pay it, and
+Morten struck his pocket pompously, exclaiming in a vaunting manner,--
+
+"Here, where it should be!"
+
+That foolish bragging answer cost him his life; for when he left the
+little inn Niels followed him, and stabbed him in the neck with his
+knife, in order to rob him of the money, which, after all, was not to
+be found.
+
+There was a long trial and much deliberation: it is enough for us to
+know that Jörgen was set free at last. But what compensation was made
+to him for all he had suffered that long weary year in a cold, gloomy
+prison; secluded from all mankind? Why, he was assured that it was
+fortunate he was innocent, and he might now go about his business! The
+burgomaster gave him ten marks for his travelling expenses, and
+several of the townspeople gave him ale and food. They were very good
+people. Not all, then, would "skin you, and lay you on the
+frying-pan!" But the best of all was that the trader Brönne from
+Skagen, he to whom, a year before, Jörgen intended to have hired
+himself, was just at the time of his liberation on business at
+Ringkjöbing. He heard the whole story; he had a heart and
+understanding; and, knowing what Jörgen must have suffered and felt,
+he was determined to do what he could to improve his situation, and
+let him see that there were some kind-hearted people in the world.
+
+From a jail to freedom--from solitude and misery to a home which, by
+comparison, might be called a heaven--to kindness and love, he now
+passed. This also was to be a trial of his character. No chalice of
+life is altogether wormwood. A good person would not fill such for a
+child: would, then, the Almighty Father, who is all love, do so?
+
+"Let all that has taken place be now buried and forgotten," said the
+worthy Mr. Brönne. "We shall draw a thick line over last year. We
+shall burn the almanac. In two days we shall start for that blessed,
+peaceful, pleasant Skagen. It is said to be only a little
+insignificant nook in the country; but a nice warm nook it is, with
+windows open to the wide world."
+
+That _was_ a journey--that _was_ to breathe the fresh air again--to
+come from the cold, damp prison-cell out into the warm sunshine!
+
+The heather was blooming on the moorlands; the shepherd boys sat on
+the tumuli and played their flutes, which were manufactured out of the
+bones of sheep; the FATA MORGANA, the beautiful mirage of the desert,
+with its hanging seas and undulating woods, showed itself; and that
+bright, wonderful phenomenon in the air, which is called the "Lokéman
+driving his sheep."
+
+Towards Limfiorden they passed over the Vandal's land; and towards
+Skagen they journeyed where the men with the long beards,
+_Langbarderne_,[1] came from. In that locality it was that, during the
+famine under King Snio, all old people and young children were
+ordered to be put to death; but the noble lady, Gambaruk, who was the
+heiress of that part of the country, insisted that the children should
+rather be sent out of the country. Jörgen was learned enough to know
+all about this; and, though he was not acquainted with the
+Langobarders' country beyond the lofty Alps, he had a good idea what
+it must be, as he had himself, when a boy, been in the south of
+Europe, in Spain. Well did he remember the heaped-up piles of fruit,
+the red pomegranate flowers, the din, the clamour, the tolling of
+bells in the Spanish city's great hive; but all was more charming at
+home, and Denmark was Jörgen's home.
+
+[Footnote 1: Langobarder, a northern tribe, which, in very ancient
+times, dwelt in the north of Jutland. From thence they migrated to the
+north of Germany, where, according to Tacitus, they lived bout the
+period of the birth of Christ, and were a poor but brave people. Their
+original name was Vinuler, or Viniler. "When these Viniler," say the
+traditions, or rather fables of Scandinavia, "were at war with the
+Vandals, and the latter went to Odin to beseech him to grant them the
+victory, and received for answer that Odin would award the victory to
+those whom he beheld first at sunrise, the warlike female, Gambaruk,
+or Gunborg, who was mother to the leaders of the Viniler--Ebbe and
+Aage--applied to Frigga, Odin's wife, to entreat victory for her
+people. The goddess advised that the females of the tribe should let
+down their long hair so as to imitate beards, and, early in the
+morning, should stand with their husbands in the east, where Odin
+would look out. When, at sunrise, Odin saw them, he exclaimed, 'Who
+are these long-bearded people?' whereupon Frigga replied, that since
+he had bestowed, a name upon them, he must also give them the victory.
+This was the origin of the _Longobardi_, who, after many wanderings,
+found their way into Italy, and, under ALBOIN, founded the kingdom of
+Lombardy."--_Trans._]
+
+At length they reached Vendilskaga, as Skagen is called in the old
+Norse and Icelandic writings. For miles and miles, interspersed with
+sand-hills and cultivated land, houses, farms, and drifting
+sand-banks, stretched, and stretch still, towards Gammel-Skagen,
+Wester and Osterby, out to the lighthouse near Grenen, a waste, a
+desert, where the wind drives before it the loose sand, and where
+sea-gulls and wild swans send forth their discordant cries in concert.
+To the south-west, a few miles from Grenen, lies High, or Old Skagen,
+where the worthy Brönne lived, and where Jörgen was also to reside.
+The house was tarred, the small out-houses had each an inverted boat
+for a roof. Pieces of wrecks were knocked up together to form
+pigsties. Fences there were none, for there was nothing to inclose;
+but upon cords, stretched in long rows one over the other, hung fish
+cut open, and drying in the wind. The whole beach was covered with
+heaps of putrefying herrings: nets were scarcely ever thrown into the
+water, for the herrings were taken in loads on the land. There was so
+vast a supply of this sort of fish, that people either threw them
+back into the sea, or left them to rot on the sands.
+
+The trader's wife and daughter--indeed, the whole household--came out
+rejoicing to meet the father of the family when he returned home.
+There was such a shaking of hands--such exclamations and questions!
+And what a charming countenance and beautiful eyes the daughter had!
+
+The interior of the house was large and extremely comfortable. Various
+dishes of fish were placed upon the table; among others some delicious
+plaice, which might have been a treat for a king; wine from Skagen's
+vineyard--the vast ocean--from which the juice of the grape was
+brought on shore both in casks and bottles.
+
+When the mother and daughter afterwards heard who Jörgen was, and how
+harshly he had been treated, though innocent of all crime, they looked
+very kindly at him; and most sympathising was the expression of the
+daughter's eyes, the lovely Miss Clara. Jörgen found a happy home at
+Gammel-Skagen. It did his heart good, and the poor young man had
+suffered much, even the bitterness of unrequited love, which either
+hardens or softens the heart. Jörgen's was soft enough now; there was
+a vacant place within it, and he was still so young.
+
+It was, perhaps, fortunate that in about three weeks Miss Clara was
+going in one of her father's ships up to Christiansand, in Norway, to
+visit an aunt, and remain there the whole winter. The Sunday before
+her departure they all went to church together, intending to partake
+of the sacrament. It was a large, handsome church, and had several
+hundred years before been built by the Scotch and Dutch a little way
+from where the town was now situated. It had become somewhat
+dilapidated, was difficult of access, the way to it being through
+deep, heavy sand; but the disagreeables of the road were willingly
+encountered in order to enter the house of God--to pray, sing psalms,
+and hear a sermon there. The sand was, as it were, banked up against,
+and even higher than, the circular wall of the churchyard; but the
+graves therein were kept carefully free of the drifting sand.
+
+This was the largest church to the north of Limfiorden. The Virgin
+Mary, with a crown of gold on her head, and the infant Jesus in her
+arms, stood as if in life in the altar-piece; the holy apostles were
+carved on the chancel; and on the walls above were to be seen the
+portraits of the old burgomasters and magistrates of Skagen, with
+their insignia of office: the pulpit was richly carved. The sun was
+shining brightly into the church, and glancing on the crown of brass
+and the little ship that hung from the roof.
+
+Jörgen felt overcome by a kind of childish feeling of awe, mingled
+with reverence, such as he had experienced when as a boy he had stood
+within the magnificent Spanish cathedral; but he knew that here his
+feelings were shared by many. After the sermon the sacrament was
+administered. Like the others, he tasted the consecrated bread and
+wine, and he found that he was kneeling by the side of Miss Clara; but
+he was so much absorbed in his devotions, and in the sacred rite, that
+it was only when about to rise that he observed who was his immediate
+neighbour, and perceived that tears were streaming down her cheeks.
+
+Two days after this she sailed for Norway, and Jörgen made himself
+useful on the farm, and at the fishery, in which there was much more
+done then than is now-a-days. The shoals of mackerel glittered in the
+dark nights, and showed the course they were taking; the crabs gave
+piteous cries when pursued, for fishes are not so mute as they are
+said to be. Every Sunday when he went to church, and gazed on the
+picture of the Virgin in the altar-piece, Jörgen's eyes always
+wandered to the spot where Clara had knelt by his side; and he thought
+of her, and how kind she had been to him.
+
+Autumn came, with its hail and sleet; the water washed up to the very
+town of Skagen; the sand could not absorb all the water, so that
+people had to wade through it. The tempests drove vessel after vessel
+on the fatal reefs; there were snow storms and sand storms; the sand
+drifted against the houses, and closed up the entrances in some
+places, so that people had to creep out by the chimneys; but that was
+nothing remarkable up there. While all was thus bleak and wretched
+without, within there were warmth and comfort. The mingled peat and
+wood fires--the wood obtained from wrecked ships--crackled and blazed
+cheerfully, and Mr. Brönne read aloud old chronicles and legends;
+among others, the story of Prince Hamlet of Denmark, who, coming from
+England, landed near Bovbjerg, and fought a battle there. His grave
+was at Ramme, only a few miles from the place where the eel-man lived.
+Hundreds of tumuli, the graves of the giants and heroes of old, were
+still visible all over the wide heath--a great churchyard. Mr. Brönne
+had himself been there, and had seen Hamlet's grave. They talked of
+the olden times--of their neighbours, the English and Scotch; and
+Jörgen sang the ballad about "The King of England's Son"--about the
+splendid ship--how it was fitted up:--
+
+    "How on the gilded panels stood
+    Engraved our Lord's commandments good;
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    And clasping a sweet maiden, how
+    The prince stood sculptured on the prow!"
+
+Jörgen sang these lines in particular with much emphasis, whilst his
+dark eyes sparkled; but his eyes had always been bright from his
+earliest infancy.
+
+There were songs, and reading, and conversation, and everything to
+make the winter season pass as pleasantly as possible; there was
+prosperity in the house, plenty of comfort for the family, and plenty
+even for the lowest animals on the property; the shelves shone with
+rows of bright, well-scoured pewter plates and dishes; and from the
+roof hung sausages and hams, and other winter stores in abundance.
+Such may be seen even now in the many rich farm-houses on the west
+coast--the same evidences of plenty, the same comfortable rooms, the
+same good-humour, the same, and perhaps a little more, information.
+Hospitality reigns there as in an Arab's tent.
+
+Jörgen had never before spent his time so happily since the pleasant
+days of his childhood at the funeral feast; and yet Miss Clara was
+absent--present only in thought and conversation.
+
+In April a vessel was going up to Norway, and Jörgen was to go in it.
+He was in high spirits, and, according to Mrs. Brönne, he was so
+lively and good-humoured, it was quite a pleasure to see him.
+
+"And it is quite a pleasure to see you also," said her husband.
+"Jörgen has enlivened all our winter evenings, and you with them; you
+have become young again, and really look quite handsome. You were
+formerly the prettiest girl in Viborg, and that is saying a great
+deal, for I have always thought the girls prettier there than anywhere
+else."
+
+Jörgen said nothing to this. Perhaps he did not believe that the
+Viborg girls were prettier than any others; at any rate, he was
+thinking of one from Skagen, and he was now about to join her. The
+vessel had a fair, fresh breeze; therefore he arrived at Christiansand
+in half a day.
+
+Early one morning the trader, Mr. Brönne, went out to the lighthouse
+that is situated at some distance from Gammel-Skagen, and near Grenen.
+The signal-lights had been extinguished for some time, for the sun had
+risen tolerably high before he reached the tower. Away, to some
+distance beyond the most remote point of land, stretched the
+sand-banks under the water. Beyond these, again, he perceived many
+ships, and among them he thought he recognised, by aid of the
+spy-glass, the "Karen Brönne," as his own vessel was called; and he
+was right. It was approaching the coast, and Clara and Jörgen were on
+board. The Skagen lighthouse and the spire of its church looked to
+them like a heron and a swan upon the blue water. Clara sat by the
+gunwale, and saw the sand-hills becoming little by little more and
+more apparent. If the wind only held fair, in less than an hour they
+would reach home; so near were they to happiness, and yet, alas! how
+near to death!
+
+A plank sprung in the ship. The water rushed in. They stopped it as
+well as they could, and used the pumps vigorously. All sail was set,
+and the flag of distress was hoisted. They were about a Danish mile
+off. Fishing-boats were to be seen, but were far away. The wind was
+fair for them. The current was also in their favour, but not strong
+enough. The vessel sank. Jörgen threw his right arm around Clara.
+
+With what a speaking look did she not gaze into his eyes when,
+imploring our Lord for help, he threw himself with her into the sea!
+She uttered one shriek, but she was safe. He would not let her slip
+from his grasp. The words of the old ballad,--
+
+    "And, clasping a sweet maiden, how
+    The prince stood sculptured on the prow,"
+
+were now carried into effect by Jörgen in that agonising hour of
+danger and deep anxiety. He felt the advantage of being a good
+swimmer, and exerted himself to the utmost with his feet and one hand;
+the other was holding fast the young girl. Every possible effort he
+made to keep up his strength in order to reach the land. He heard
+Clara sigh, and perceived that a kind of convulsive shuddering had
+seized her; and he held her the tighter. A single heavy wave broke
+over them--the current lifted them. The water was so clear, though
+deep, that Jörgen thought for a moment he could see the shoals of
+mackerel beneath; or was it Leviathan himself who was waiting to
+swallow them? The clouds cast a shadow over the water, then again came
+the dancing sunbeams; harshly-screaming birds, in flocks, wheeled over
+him; and the wild ducks that, heavy and sleepy, allow themselves to
+drive on with the waves, flew up in alarm from before the swimmer. He
+felt that his strength was failing; but the shore was close at hand,
+and help was coming, for a boat was near. Just then he saw distinctly
+under the water a white, staring figure; a wave lifted him, the figure
+came nearer, he felt a violent blow, it became night before his
+eyes--all had disappeared for him.
+
+There lay, partially imbedded in the sand-bank, the wreck of a ship;
+the sea rolled over it, but the white figure-head was supported by an
+anchor, the sharp iron of which stuck up almost to the surface of the
+water. It was against this that Jörgen had struck himself when the
+current had driven him forward with sudden force. Stunned and
+fainting, he sank with his burden, but the succeeding wave threw him
+and the young girl up again.
+
+The fishermen had now reached them, and they were taken into the boat.
+Blood was streaming over Jörgen's face; he looked as if he were dead,
+but he still held the girl in so tight a grasp that it was with the
+utmost difficulty she could be wrenched from his encircling arm. As
+pale as death, and quite insensible, she lay at full length at the
+bottom of the boat, which steered towards Skagen.
+
+All possible means were tried to restore Clara to animation, but in
+vain--the poor young woman was dead. Long had Jörgen been buffeting
+the waves with a corpse--exerting his utmost strength and straining
+every nerve for a dead body.
+
+Jörgen still breathed; he was carried to the nearest house on the
+inner side of the sand-hills. A sort of army surgeon who happened to
+be at the place, who also acted in the capacities of smith and
+huckster, attended him until the next day, when a physician from
+Hjörring, who had been sent for, arrived.
+
+The patient was severely wounded in the head, and suffering from a
+brain fever. For a time he uttered fearful shrieks, but on the third
+day he sank into a state of drowsiness, and his life seemed to hang
+upon a thread: that it might snap, the physician said, was the best
+that could be wished for Jörgen.
+
+"Let us pray our Lord that he may be taken; he will never more be a
+rational man."
+
+But he was not taken; the thread of life would not break, though
+memory was swept away, and all the powers and faculties of his mind
+were gone. It was a frightful change. A living body was left--a body
+that was to regain health and go about again.
+
+Jörgen remained in the trader Brönne's house.
+
+"He was brought into this lamentable condition by his efforts to save
+our child," said the old man; "he is now our son."
+
+Jörgen was called "an idiot;" but that was a term not exactly
+applicable to him. He was like a musical instrument, the strings of
+which are loose, and can no longer, therefore, be made to sound. Only
+once, for a few minutes, they seemed to resume their elasticity, and
+they vibrated again. Old melodies were played, and played in time. Old
+images seemed to start up before him. They vanished--all glimmering of
+reason vanished, and he sat again staring vacantly around, without
+thought, without mind. It was to be hoped that he did not suffer
+anything. His dark eyes had lost their intelligence; they looked only
+like black glass that could move about.
+
+Everybody was sorry for the poor idiot Jörgen.
+
+It was he who, before he saw the light of day, was destined to a
+career of earthly prosperity, of wealth and happiness, so great that
+it was "_frightful pride, overweening arrogance_," to wish for, or to
+believe in, a future life! All the high powers of his soul were
+wasted. Nothing but hardships, sufferings, and disappointments had
+been dealt out to him. A valuable bulb he was, torn up from his rich
+native soil, and cast upon distant sands to rot and perish. Was that
+being, made in the image of God, worth nothing more? Was he but the
+sport of accidents or of chance? No! The God of infinite love would
+give him a portion in another life for what he had suffered and been
+deprived of here.
+
+"The Lord is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His
+works."
+
+These consolatory words, from one of the Psalms of David, were
+repeated in devout faith by the pious old wife of the trader Brönne;
+and her heartfelt prayer was, that our Lord would soon release the
+poor benighted being, and receive him into God's gift of
+grace--everlasting life.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the churchyard, where the sand had drifted into piles against the
+walls, was Clara buried. It appeared as if Jörgen had never thought
+about her grave; it did not enter into the narrow circle of his ideas,
+which now only dwelt among wrecks of the past. Every Sunday he
+accompanied the family to church, and he generally sat quiet with a
+totally vacant look; but one day, while a psalm was being sung, he
+breathed a sigh, his eyes lightened up, he turned them towards the
+altar--towards that spot where, more than a year before, he had knelt,
+with his dead friend at his side. He uttered her name, became as white
+as a sheet, and tears rolled down his cheeks.
+
+He was helped out of church, and then he said that he felt quite well,
+and did not think anything had been the matter with him; the short
+flash of memory had already faded away from him--the much-tried, the
+sorely-smitten of God. Yet that God, our Creator, is all wisdom and
+all love, who can doubt? Our hearts and our reason acknowledge it, and
+the Bible proclaims it. "His tender mercies are over all His works."
+
+In Spain, where, amidst laurels and orange trees, the Moorish golden
+cupolas glitter in the warm air, where songs and castanets are heard,
+sat, in a splendid mansion, a childless old man. Children were
+passing through the streets in a procession, with lights and waving
+banners. How much of his enormous wealth would he not have given to
+possess one child--to have had spared to him his daughter and her
+little one, who perhaps never beheld the light of day in this world.
+If so, how would it behold the light of eternity--of paradise? "Poor,
+poor child!"
+
+Yes; poor child--nothing but a child--and yet in his thirtieth year!
+for to such an age had Jörgen attained there in Gammel-Skagen.
+
+The sand-drifts had found their way even over the graves in the
+churchyard, and up to the very walls of the church itself; yet here,
+amidst those who had gone before them--amidst relatives and
+friends--the dead were still buried. The good old Brönne and his wife
+reposed there, near their daughter, under the white sand.
+
+It was late in the year--the time of storms; the sand-hills smoked,
+the waves rolled mountains high on the raging sea; the birds in hosts,
+like dark tempestuous clouds, passed screeching over the sand-hills;
+ship after ship went ashore on the terrible reefs between Skagen's
+Green and Huusby-Klitter.
+
+One afternoon Jörgen was sitting alone in the parlour, and suddenly
+there rushed upon his shattered mind a feeling akin to the
+restlessness which so often, in his younger years, had driven him out
+among the sand-hills, or upon the heath.
+
+"Home! home!" he exclaimed. No one heard him. He left the house, and
+took his way to the sand-hills. The sand and the small stones dashed
+against his face, and whirled around him. He went towards the church;
+the sand was lying banked up against the walls, and half way up the
+windows; but the walk up to the church was freer of it. The church
+door was not locked, it opened easily, and Jörgen entered the sacred
+edifice.
+
+The wind went howling over the town of Skagen; it was blowing a
+perfect hurricane, such as had not been known in the memory of the
+oldest man living--it was most fearful weather. But Jörgen was in
+God's house, and while dark night came on around him, all seemed light
+within; it was the light of the immortal soul which is never to be
+extinguished. He felt as if a heavy stone had fallen from his head; he
+fancied that he heard the organ playing, but the sounds were those of
+the storm and the roaring sea. He placed himself in one of the pews,
+and he fancied that the candles were lighted one after the other,
+until there was a blaze of brilliancy such as he had beheld in the
+cathedral in Spain; and all the portraits of the old magistrates and
+burgomasters became imbued with life, descended from the frames in
+which they had stood for years, and placed themselves in the choir.
+The gates and side doors of the church opened, he thought, and in
+walked all the dead, clothed in the grandest costumes of their times,
+whilst music floated in the air; and when they had seated themselves
+in the different pews, a solemn hymn arose, and swelled like the
+rolling of the sea.
+
+Among those who had joined the spirit throng were his old
+foster-father and mother from Huusby-Klitter, and his kind friend
+Brönne and his wife; and at their side, but close to himself, sat
+their mild, lovely daughter. She held out her hand to him, Jörgen
+thought, and they went up to the altar where once they had knelt
+together; the priest joined their hands, and pronounced those words
+and that blessing which were to hallow for them life and love. Then
+music's tones peeled around--the organ, wind instruments, and voices
+combined--until there arose a volume of sound sufficient to shake the
+very tombstones over the graves.
+
+Presently the little ship that hung under the roof moved towards him
+and Clara. It became large and magnificent, with silken sails and
+gilded masts; the anchor was of the brightest gold, and every rope was
+of silk cord, as described in the old song. He and his bride stepped
+on board, then the whole multitude in the church followed them, and
+there was room for all. He fancied that the walls and vaulted roof of
+the church turned into blooming elder and linden trees, which diffused
+a sweet perfume around. It was all one mass of verdure. The trees
+bowed themselves, and left an open space; then the ship ascended
+gently, and sailed out through the air above the sea. Every light in
+the church looked like a star. The wind commenced a hymn, and all sang
+with it: "In love to glory!" "No life shall be lost!" "Away to supreme
+happiness!" "Hallelujah!"
+
+These words were his last in this world. The cord had burst which held
+the undying soul. There lay but a cold corpse in the dark church,
+around which the storm was howling, and which it was overwhelming with
+the drifting sand.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next morning was a Sunday; the congregation and their pastor came
+at the hour of church service. The approach to the church had been
+almost impassable on account of the depth of the sand, and when at
+length they reached it, they found an immense sand-heap piled up
+before the door of the church--the drifting sand had closed up all
+entrance to its interior. The clergyman read a prayer, and then said
+that, as God had locked the doors of that holy house, they must go
+elsewhere and erect another for His service.
+
+They sang a psalm, and retired to their homes.
+
+Jörgen could not be found either at Skagen or amidst the sand-hills,
+where every search was made for him. It was supposed that the wild
+waves, which had rolled so far up on the sands, had swept him off.
+
+But his body lay entombed in a large sarcophagus--in the church
+itself. During the storm God had cast earth upon his coffin--heavy
+piles of quicksand had accumulated there, and lie there even now.
+
+The sand had covered the lofty arches, sand-thorns and wild roses grow
+over the church, where the wayfarer now struggles on towards its
+spire, which towers above the sand, an imposing tombstone over the
+grave, seen from miles around--no king had ever a grander one! None
+disturb the repose of the dead--none knew where Jörgen lay, until
+now--the storm sang the secret for me among the sand-hills!
+
+
+
+
+_The Mud-king's Daughter._
+
+
+The storks are in the habit of relating to their little ones many
+tales, all from the swamps and the bogs. They are, in general,
+suitable to the ages and comprehensions of the hearers. The smallest
+youngsters are contented with mere sound, such as "krible, krable,
+plurremurre." They think that wonderful; but the more advanced require
+something rational, or at least something about their family. Of the
+two most ancient and longest traditions that have been handed down
+among the storks, we are all acquainted with one--that about Moses,
+who was placed by his mother on the banks of the Nile, was found there
+by the king's daughter, was well brought up, and became a great man,
+such as has never been heard of since in the place where he was
+buried.
+
+The other story is not well known, probably because it is a tale of
+home; yet it has passed down from one stork grandam to another for a
+thousand years, and each succeeding narrator has told it better and
+better, and now we shall tell it best of all.
+
+The first pair of storks who related this tale had themselves
+something to do with its events. The place of their summer sojourn
+was at the Viking's loghouse, up by _the wild morass_, at Vendsyssel.
+It is in Hjöring district, away near Skagen, in the north of Jutland,
+speaking with geographical precision. It is now an enormous bog, and
+an account of it can be read in descriptions of the country. This
+place was once the bottom of the sea; but the waters have receded, and
+the ground has risen. It stretches itself for miles on all sides,
+surrounded by wet meadows and pools of water, by peat-bogs,
+cloudberries, and miserable stunted trees. A heavy mist almost always
+hangs over this place, and about seventy years ago wolves were found
+there. It is rightly called, the wild morass; and one may imagine how
+savage it must have been, and how much swamp and sea must have existed
+there a thousand years ago. Yes, in these respects the same was to be
+seen there as is to be seen now. The rushes had the same height, the
+same sort of long leaves, and blue-brown, feather-like flowers that
+they bear now; the birch tree stood with its white bark, and delicate
+drooping leaves, as now; and, in regard to the living creatures, the
+flies had the same sort of crape clothing as they wear now; and the
+storks' bodies were white, with black and red stockings. Mankind, on
+the contrary, at that time wore coats cut in another fashion from what
+they do in our days; but every one of them, serf or huntsman,
+whosoever he might be who trod upon the quagmire, fared a thousand
+years ago as they fare now: one step forward--they fell in, and sank
+down to the MUD-KING, as _he_ was called who reigned below in the
+great morass kingdom. Very little is known about his government; but
+that is, perhaps, a good thing.
+
+Near the bog, close by Liimfjorden, lay the Viking's loghouse of three
+stories high, and with a tower and stone cellars. The storks had
+built their nest upon the roof of this dwelling. The female stork sat
+upon her eggs, and felt certain they would be all hatched.
+
+One evening the male stork remained out very long, and when he came
+home he looked rumpled and flurried.
+
+"I have something very terrible to tell thee," he said to the female
+stork.
+
+"Thou hadst better keep it to thyself," said she. "Remember I am
+sitting upon the eggs: a fright might do me harm, and the eggs might
+be injured."
+
+"But it _must_ be told thee," he replied. "She has come here--the
+daughter of our host in Egypt. She has ventured the long journey up
+hither, and she is lost."
+
+"She who is of the fairies' race? Speak, then! Thou knowest that I
+cannot bear suspense while I am sitting."
+
+"Know, then, that she believed what the doctors said, which thou didst
+relate to me. She believed that the bog-plants up here could cure her
+invalid father; and she has flown hither, in the magic disguise of a
+swan, with the two other swan princesses, who every year come hither
+to the north to bathe and renew their youth. She has come, and she is
+lost."
+
+"Thou dost spin the matter out so long," muttered the female stork,
+"the eggs will be quite cooled. I cannot bear suspense just now."
+
+"I will come to the point," replied the male. "This evening I went to
+the rushes where the quagmire could bear me. Then came three swans.
+There was something in their motions which said to me, 'Take care;
+they are not real swans; they are only the appearance of swans,
+created by magic.' Thou wouldst have known as well as I that they were
+not of the right sort."
+
+"Yes, surely," she said; "but tell me about the princess. I am tired
+of hearing about the swans."
+
+"In the midst of the morass--here, I must tell thee, it is like a
+lake," said the male stork--"thou canst see a portion of it if thou
+wilt raise thyself up a moment--yonder, by the rushes and the green
+morass, lay a large stump of an alder tree. The three swans alighted
+upon it, flapped their wings, and looked about them. One of them cast
+off her swan disguise, and I recognised in her our royal princess from
+Egypt. She sat now with no other mantle around her than her long dark
+hair. I heard her desire the other two to take good care of her magic
+swan garb, while she ducked down under the water to pluck the flower
+which she thought she saw. They nodded, and raised the empty feather
+dress between them. 'What are they going to do with it?' said I to
+myself; and she probably asked herself the same question. The answer
+came too soon, for I saw them take flight up into the air with her
+charmed feather dress. 'Dive thou there!' they cried. 'Never more
+shalt thou fly in the form of a magic swan--never more shalt thou
+behold the land of Egypt. Dwell thou in _the wild morass_!' And they
+tore her magic disguise into a hundred pieces, so that the feathers
+whirled round about as if there were a fall of snow; and away flew the
+two worthless princesses."
+
+"It is shocking!" said the lady stork; "I can't bear to hear it. Tell
+me what more happened."
+
+"The princess sobbed and wept. Her tears trickled down upon the trunk
+of the alder tree, and then it moved; for it was the mud-king
+himself--he who dwells in the morass. I saw the trunk turn itself, and
+then there was no more trunk--it struck up two long miry branches like
+arms; then the poor child became dreadfully alarmed, and she sprang
+aside upon the green slimy coating of the marsh; but it could not bear
+me, much less her, and she sank immediately in. The trunk of the alder
+tree went down with her--it was that which had dragged her down: then
+arose to the surface large black bubbles, and all further traces of
+her disappeared. She is now buried in 'the wild morass;' and never,
+never shall she return to Egypt with the flower she sought. Thou
+couldst not have borne to have seen all this, mother."
+
+"Thou hadst no business to tell me such a startling tale at a time
+like this. The eggs may suffer. The princess can take care of herself:
+she will no doubt be rescued. If it had been me or thee, or any of our
+family, it would have been all over with us."
+
+"I will look after her every day, however," said the male stork; and
+so he did.
+
+A long time had elapsed, when one day he saw that far down from the
+bottom was shooting up a green stem, and when it reached the surface a
+leaf grew on it. The leaf became broader and broader; close by it came
+a bud; and one morning, when the stork flew over it, the bud opened in
+the warm sunshine, and in the centre of it lay a beautiful infant, a
+little girl, just as if she had been taken out of a bath. She so
+strongly resembled the princess from Egypt, that the stork at first
+thought it was herself who had become an infant again; but when he
+considered the matter he came to the conclusion that she was the
+daughter of the princess and the mud-king, therefore she lay in the
+calyx of a water-lily.
+
+"She cannot be left lying there," said the stork to himself; "yet in
+my nest we are already too overcrowded. But a thought strikes me. The
+Viking's wife has no children; she has much wished to have a pet. I am
+often blamed for bringing little ones. I shall now, for once, do so
+in reality. I shall fly with this infant to the Viking's wife: it will
+be a great pleasure to her."
+
+And the stork took the little girl, flew to the loghouse, knocked with
+his beak a hole in the window-pane of stretched bladder, laid the
+infant in the arms of the Viking's wife, then flew to his mate, and
+unburdened his mind to her; while the little ones listened
+attentively, for they were old enough now to do that.
+
+"Only think, the princess is not dead. She has sent her little one up
+here, and now it is well provided for."
+
+"I told thee from the beginning it would be all well," said the mother
+stork. "Turn thy thoughts now to thine own family. It is almost time
+for our long journey; I begin now to tingle under the wings. The
+cuckoo and the nightingale are already gone, and I hear the quails
+saying that we shall soon have a fair wind. Our young ones are quite
+able to go, I know that."
+
+How happy the Viking's wife was when, in the morning, she awoke and
+found the lovely little child lying on her breast! She kissed it and
+caressed it, but it screeched frightfully, and floundered about with
+its little arms and legs: IT evidently seemed little pleased. At last
+it cried itself to sleep, and as it lay there it was one of the most
+beautiful little creatures that could be seen. The Viking's wife was
+so pleased and happy, she took it into her head that her husband, with
+all his retainers, would come as unexpectedly as the little one had
+done; and she set herself and the whole household to work, in order
+that everything might be ready for their reception. The coloured
+tapestry which she and her women had embroidered with representations
+of their gods--ODIN, THOR, and FREIA, as they were called--were hung
+up; the serfs were ordered to clean and polish the old shields with
+which the walls were to be decorated; cushions were laid on the
+benches; and dry logs of wood were heaped on the fireplace in the
+centre of the hall, so that the pile might be easily lighted. The
+Viking's wife laboured so hard herself that she was quite tired by the
+evening, and slept soundly.
+
+When she awoke towards morning she became much alarmed, for the little
+child was gone. She sprang up, lighted a twig of the pine tree, and
+looked about; and, to her amazement, she saw, in the part of the bed
+to which she stretched her feet, not the beautiful infant, but a great
+ugly frog. She was so much disgusted with it that she took up a heavy
+stick, and was going to kill the nasty creature; but it looked at her
+with such wonderfully sad and speaking eyes that she could not strike
+it. Again she searched about. The frog gave a faint, pitiable cry. She
+started up, and sprang from the bed to the window; she opened the
+shutters, and at the same moment the sun streamed in, and cast its
+bright beams upon the bed and upon the large frog; and all at once it
+seemed as if the broad mouth of the noxious animal drew itself in, and
+became small and red--the limbs stretched themselves into the most
+beautiful form--it was her own little lovely child that lay there, and
+no ugly frog.
+
+"What is all this?" she exclaimed. "Have I dreamed a bad dream? That
+certainly is my pretty little elfin child lying yonder." And she
+kissed it and strained it affectionately to her heart; but it
+struggled, and tried to bite like the kitten of a wild cat.
+
+Neither the next day nor the day after came the Viking, though he was
+on the way, but the wind was against him; it was for the storks. A
+fair wind for one is a contrary wind for another.
+
+In the course of a few days and nights it became evident to the
+Viking's wife how things stood with the little child--that it was
+under the influence of some terrible witchcraft. By day it was as
+beautiful as an angel, but it had a wild, evil disposition; by night,
+on the contrary, it was an ugly frog, quiet, except for its croaking,
+and with melancholy eyes. It had two natures, that changed about, both
+without and within. This arose from the little girl whom the stork had
+brought possessing by day her own mother's external appearance, and at
+the same time her father's temper; while by night, on the contrary,
+she showed her connection with him outwardly in her form, whilst her
+mother's mind and heart inwardly became hers. What art could release
+her from the power which exercised such sorcery over her? The Viking's
+wife felt much anxiety and distress about it, and yet her heart hung
+on the poor little being, of whose strange state she thought she
+should not dare to inform her husband when he came home; for he
+assuredly, as was the custom, would put the poor child out on the high
+road, and let any one take it who would. The Viking's good-natured
+wife had not the heart to allow this; therefore she resolved that he
+should never see the child but by day.
+
+At dawn of day the wings of the storks were heard fluttering over the
+roof. During the night more than a hundred pairs of storks had been
+making their preparations, and now they flew up to wend their way to
+the south.
+
+"Let all the males be ready," was the cry. "Let their mates and little
+ones join them."
+
+"How light we feel!" said the young storks, who were all impatience
+to be off. "How charming to be able to travel to other lands!"
+
+"Keep ye all together in one flock," cried the father and mother, "and
+don't chatter so much--it will take away your breath."
+
+So they all flew away.
+
+About the same time the blast of a horn sounding over the heath gave
+notice that the Viking had landed with all his men; they were
+returning home with rich booty from the Gallic coast, where the
+people, as in Britain, sang in their terror,--
+
+    "Save us from the savage Normands!"
+
+What life and bustle were now apparent in the Viking's castle near
+"the wild morass!" Casks of mead were brought into the hall, the pile
+of wood was lighted, and horses were slaughtered for the grand feast
+which was to be prepared. The sacrificial priests sprinkled with the
+horses' warm blood the slaves who were to assist in the offering. The
+fires crackled, the smoke rolled up under the roof, the soot dropped
+from the beams; but people were accustomed to that. Guests were
+invited, and they brought handsome gifts; rancour and falseness were
+forgotten--they all became drunk together, and they thrust their
+doubled fists into each other's faces--which was a sign of
+good-humour. The skald--he was a sort of poet and musician, but at the
+same time a warrior--who had been with them, and had witnessed what he
+sang about, gave them a song, wherein they heard recounted all their
+achievements in battle, and wonderful adventures. At the end of every
+verse came the same refrain,--
+
+     "Fortune dies, friends die, one dies one's self; but a
+     glorious name never dies."
+
+And then they all struck on their shields, and thundered with their
+knives or their knuckle-bones on the table, so that they made a
+tremendous noise.
+
+The Viking's wife sat on the cross bench in the open banquet hall. She
+wore a silk dress, gold bracelets, and large amber beads. She was in
+her grandest attire, and the skald named her also in his song, and
+spoke of the golden treasure she had brought her husband; and HE
+rejoiced in the lovely child he had only seen by daylight, in all its
+wondrous beauty. The fierce temper which accompanied her exterior
+charms pleased him. "She might become," he said, "a stalwart female
+warrior, and able to kill a giant adversary." She never even blinked
+her eyes when a practised hand, in sport, cut off her eyebrows with a
+sharp sword.
+
+The mead casks were emptied, others were brought up, and these, too,
+were drained; for there were folks present who could stand a good
+deal. To them might have been applied the old proverb, "The cattle
+know when to leave the pasture; but an unwise man never knows the
+depth of his stomach."
+
+Yes, they all knew it; but people often know the right thing, and do
+the wrong. They knew also that "one wears out one's welcome when one
+stays too long in another man's house;" but they remained there for
+all that. Meat and mead are good things. All went on merrily, and
+towards night the slaves slept amidst the warm ashes, and dipped their
+fingers into the fat skimmings of the soup, and licked them. It was a
+rare time!
+
+And again the Viking went forth on an expedition, notwithstanding the
+stormy weather. He went after the crops were gathered in. He went with
+his men to the coast of Britain--"it was only across the water," he
+said--and his wife remained at home with her little girl; and it was
+soon to be seen that the foster-mother cared almost more for the poor
+frog, with the honest eyes and plaintive croaking, than for the beauty
+who scratched and bit everybody around.
+
+The raw, damp, autumn, mist, that loosens the leaves from the trees,
+lay over wood and hedge; "Birdfeatherless," as the snow is called, was
+falling thickly; winter was close at hand. The sparrows seized upon
+the storks' nest, and talked over, in their fashion, the absent
+owners. They themselves, the stork pair, with all their young ones,
+where were they now?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The storks were now in the land of Egypt, where the sun was shining
+warmly as with us on a lovely summer day. The tamarind and the acacia
+grew there; the moonbeams streamed over the temples of Mahomet. On the
+slender minarets sat many a pair of storks, reposing after their long
+journey; the whole immense flock had fixed themselves, nest by nest,
+amidst the mighty pillars and broken porticos of temples and forgotten
+edifices. The date tree elevated to a great height its broad leafy
+roof, as if it wished to form a shelter from the sun. The grey
+pyramids stood with their outlines sharply defined in the clear air
+towards the desert, where the ostrich knew he could use his legs; and
+the lion sat with his large grave eyes, and gazed on the marble
+sphinxes that lay half imbedded in the sand. The waters of the Nile
+had receded, and a great part of the bed of the river was swarming
+with frogs; and that, to the stork family, was the pleasantest sight
+in the country where they had arrived. The young ones were astonished
+at all they saw.
+
+"Such are the sights here, and thus it always is in our warm country,"
+said the stork-mother good-humouredly.
+
+"Is there yet more to be seen?" they asked. "Shall we go much further
+into the country?"
+
+"There is nothing more worth seeing," replied the stork-mother.
+"Beyond this luxuriant neighbourhood there is nothing but wild
+forests, where the trees grow close to each other, and are still more
+closely entangled by prickly creeping plants, weaving such a wall of
+verdure, that only the elephant, with his strong clumsy feet, can
+there tread his way. The snakes are too large for us there, and the
+lizards too lively. If ye would go to the desert, ye will meet with
+nothing but sand; it will fill your eyes, it will come in gusts, and
+cover your feathers. No, it is best here. Here are frogs and
+grass-hoppers. I shall remain here, and so shall you."
+
+And they remained. The old ones sat in their nest upon the graceful
+minaret; they reposed themselves, and yet they had enough to do to
+smooth their wings and rub their beaks on their red stockings; and
+they stretched out their necks, saluted gravely, and lifted up their
+heads with their high foreheads and fine soft feathers, and their
+brown eyes looked so wise.
+
+The female young ones strutted about proudly among the juicy reeds,
+stole sly glances at the other young storks, made acquaintances, and
+slaughtered a frog at every third step, or went lounging about with
+little snakes in their bills, which they fancied looked well, and
+which they knew would taste well.
+
+The male young ones got into quarrels; struck each other with their
+wings; pecked at each other with their beaks, even until blood flowed.
+Then they all thought of engaging themselves--the male and the female
+young ones. It was for that they lived, and they built nests, and got
+again into new quarrels; for in these warm countries every one is so
+hot-headed. Nevertheless they were very happy, and this was a great
+joy to the old storks. Every day there was warm sunshine--every day
+plenty to eat. They had nothing to think of except pleasure. But
+yonder, within the splendid palace of their Egyptian host, as they
+called him, there was but little pleasure to be found.
+
+The wealthy, mighty chief lay upon his couch, stiffened in all his
+limbs--stretched out like a mummy in the centre of the grand saloon
+with the many-coloured painted walls: it was as if he were lying in a
+tulip. Kinsmen and servants stood around him. Dead he was not, yet it
+could hardly be said that he lived. The healing bog-flower from the
+faraway lands in the north--that which she was to have sought and
+plucked for him--she who loved him best--would never now be brought.
+His beautiful young daughter, who in the magic garb of a swan had
+flown over sea and land away to the distant north, would never more
+return. "She is dead and gone," had the two swan ladies, her
+companions, declared on their return home. They had concocted a tale,
+and they told it as follows:--
+
+"We had flown all three high up in the air when a sportsman saw us,
+and shot at us with his arrow. It struck our young friend; and, slowly
+singing her farewell song, she sank like a dying swan down into the
+midst of the lake in the wood. There, on its banks, under a fragrant
+weeping birch tree, we buried her. But we took a just revenge: we
+bound fire under the wings of the swallow that built under the
+sportman's thatched roof. It kindled--his house was soon in flames--he
+was burned within it--and the flames shone as far over the sea as to
+the drooping birch, where she is now earth within the earth. Alas!
+never will she return to the land of Egypt."
+
+And they both wept bitterly; and the old stork-father, when he heard
+it, rubbed his bill until it was quite sore.
+
+"Lies and deceit!" he cried. "I should like, above all things, to run
+my beak into their breasts."
+
+"And break it off," said the stork-mother; "you would look remarkably
+well then. Think first of yourself, and the interests of your own
+family; everything else is of little consequence."
+
+"I will, however, place myself upon the edge of the open cupola
+to-morrow, when all the learned and the wise are to assemble to take
+the case of the sick man into consideration: perhaps they may then
+arrive a little nearer to the truth."
+
+And the learned and the wise met together, and talked much, deeply,
+and profoundly of which the stork could make nothing at all; and,
+sooth to say, there was no result obtained from all this talking,
+either for the invalid or for his daughter in "the wild morass;" yet,
+nevertheless, it was all very well to listen to--one _must_ listen to
+a great deal in this world.
+
+But now it were best, perhaps, for us to hear what had happened
+formerly. We shall then be better acquainted with the story--at least,
+we shall know as much as the stork-father did.
+
+"Love bestows life; the highest love bestows the highest life; it is
+only through love that his life can be saved," was what had been said;
+and it was amazingly wisely and well said, the learned declared.
+
+"It is a beautiful thought," said the stork-father.
+
+"I don't quite comprehend it," said the stork-mother, "but that is
+not my fault--it is the fault of the thought; though it is all one to
+me, for I have other things to think upon."
+
+And then the learned talked of love between this and that--that there
+was a difference. Love such as lovers felt, and that between parents
+and children; between light and plants; how the sunbeams kissed the
+ground, and how thereby the seeds sprouted forth--it was all so
+diffusely and learnedly expounded, that it was impossible for the
+stork-father to follow the discourse, much less to repeat it. It made
+him very thoughtful, however; he half closed his eyes, and actually
+stood on one leg the whole of the next day, reflecting on what he had
+heard. So much learning was difficult for him to digest.
+
+But this much the stork-father understood. He had heard both common
+people and great people speak as if they really felt it, that it was a
+great misfortune to many thousands, and to the country in general,
+that the king lay so ill, and that nothing could be done to bring
+about his recovery. It would be a joy and a blessing to all if he
+could but be restored to health.
+
+"But where grew the health-giving flower that might cure him?"
+Everybody asked that question. Scientific writings were searched, the
+glittering stars were consulted, the wind and the weather. Every
+traveller that could be found was appealed to, until at length the
+learned and the wise, as before stated, pitched upon this: "Love
+bestows life--life to a father." And though this dictum was really not
+understood by themselves, they adopted it, and wrote it out as a
+prescription. "Love bestows life"--well and good. But how was this to
+be applied? Here they were at a stand. At length, however, they
+agreed that the princess must be the means of procuring the necessary
+help, as she loved her father with all her heart and soul. They also
+agreed on a mode of proceeding. It is more than a year and a day since
+then. They settled that when the new moon had just disappeared, she
+was to betake herself by night to the marble sphinx in the desert, to
+remove the sand from the entrance with her foot, and then to follow
+one of the long passages which led to the centre of the great
+pyramids, where one of the most mighty monarchs of ancient times,
+surrounded by splendour and magnificence, lay in his mummy-coffin.
+There she was to lean her head over the corpse, and then it would be
+revealed to her where life and health for her father were to be found.
+
+All this she had performed, and in a dream had been instructed that
+from the deep morass high up in the Danish land--the place was
+minutely described to her--she might bring home a certain lotus
+flower, which beneath the water would touch her breast, that would
+cure him.
+
+And therefore she had flown, in the magical disguise of a swan, from
+Egypt up to "the wild morass." All this was well known to the
+stork-father and the stork-mother; and now, though rather late, we
+also know it. We know that the mud-king dragged her down with him, and
+that, as far as regarded her home, she was dead and gone; only the
+wisest of them all said, like the stork-mother, "She can take care of
+herself;" and, knowing no better, they waited to see what would turn
+up.
+
+"I think I shall steal their swan garbs from the two wicked
+princesses," said the stork-father; "then they will not be able to go
+to 'the wild morass' and do mischief. I shall leave the swan
+disguises themselves up yonder till there is some use for them."
+
+"Where could you keep them?" asked the old female stork.
+
+"In our nest near 'the wild morass,'" he replied. "I and our eldest
+young ones can carry them; and if we find them too troublesome, there
+are plenty of places on the way where we can hide them until our next
+flight. One swan's dress would be enough for her, to be sure; but two
+are better. It is a good thing to have abundant means of travelling at
+command in a country so far north."
+
+"You will get no thanks for what you propose doing," said the
+stork-mother; "but you are the master, and must please yourself. I
+have nothing to say except at hatching-time."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the Viking's castle near "the wild morass," whither the storks were
+flying in the spring, the little girl had received her name. She was
+called Helga; but this name was too soft for one with such
+dispositions as that lovely creature had. She grew fast month by
+month; and in a few years, even while the storks were making their
+habitual journeys in autumn towards the Nile, in spring towards "the
+wild morass," the little child had grown up into a big girl, and
+before any one could have thought it, she was in her sixteenth year,
+and a most beautiful young lady--charming in appearance, but hard and
+fierce in temper--the most savage of the savage in that gloomy, cruel
+time.
+
+It was a pleasure to her to sprinkle with her white hands the reeking
+blood of the horse slaughtered for an offering. She would bite, in her
+barbarous sport, the neck of the black-cock which was to be
+slaughtered by the sacrificial priest; and to her foster-father she
+said in positive earnestness,--
+
+"If your enemy were to come and cast ropes over the beams that support
+the roof, and drag them down upon your chamber whilst you were
+sleeping, I would not awaken you if I could--I would not hear it--the
+blood would tingle as it does now in that ear on which, years ago, you
+dared to give me a blow. I remember it well."
+
+But the Viking did not believe she spoke seriously. Like every one
+else, he was fascinated by her extreme beauty, and never troubled
+himself to observe if the mind of little Helga were in unison with her
+looks. She would sit on horseback without a saddle, as if grown fast
+to the animal, and go at full gallop; nor would she spring off, even
+if her horse and other ill-natured ones were biting each other.
+Entirely dressed as she was, she would cast herself from the bank into
+the strong current of the fiord, and swim out to meet the Viking when
+his boat was approaching the land. Of her thick, splendid hair she had
+cut off the longest lock, and plaited for herself a string to her bow.
+
+"Self-made is well made," she said.
+
+The Viking's wife, according to the manners and customs of the age in
+which she lived, was strong in mind, and decided in purpose; but with
+her daughter she was like a soft, timid woman. She was well aware that
+the dreadful child was under the influence of sorcery.
+
+And Helga apparently took a malicious pleasure in frightening her
+mother. Often when the latter was standing on the balcony, or walking
+in the courtyard, Helga would place herself on the side of the well,
+throw her arms up in the air, and then let herself fall headlong into
+the narrow, deep hole, where, with her frog nature, she would duck and
+raise herself up again, and then crawl up as if she had been a cat,
+and run dripping of water into the grand saloon, so that the green
+rushes which were strewed over the floor partook of the wet stream.
+
+There was but one restraint upon little Helga--that was the _evening
+twilight_. In it she became quiet and thoughtful--would allow herself
+to be called and guided; then too, she would seem to feel some
+affection for her mother; and when the sun sank, and the outer and
+inward change took place, she would sit still and sorrowful,
+shrivelled up into the form of a frog, though the head was now much
+larger than that little animal's, and therefore she was uglier than
+ever: she looked like a miserable dwarf, with a frog's head and webbed
+fingers. There was something very sad in her eyes; voice she had none
+except a kind of croak like a child sobbing in its dreams. Then would
+the Viking's wife take her in her lap; she would forget the ugly form,
+and look only at the melancholy eyes; and more than once she
+exclaimed,--
+
+"I could almost wish that thou wert always my dumb fairy-child, for
+thou art more fearful to look at when thy form resumes its beauty."
+
+And she wrote Runic rhymes against enchantment and infirmity, and
+threw them over the poor creature; but there was no change for the
+better.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"One could hardly believe that she was once so small as to lie in the
+calyx of a water-lily," said the stork-father. "She is now quite a
+woman, and the image of her Egyptian mother. Her, alas! we have never
+seen again. She did not take good care of herself, as thou didst
+expect and the learned people predicted. Year after year I have flown
+backwards and forwards over 'the wild morass,' but never have I seen a
+sign of her. Yes, I can assure thee, during the years we have been
+coming up here, when I have arrived some days before thee, that I
+might mend the nest and set everything in order in it, I have for a
+whole night flown, as if I had been an owl or a bat, continually over
+the open water, but to no purpose. We have had no use either for the
+two swan disguises which I and the young ones dragged all the way up
+here from the banks of the Nile. It was hard enough work, and it took
+us three journeys to bring them up. They have now lain here for years
+at the bottom of our nest; and should a fire by any chance break out,
+and the Viking's house be burned down, they would be lost."
+
+"And our good nest would be lost," said the old female stork; "but
+thou thinkest less of that than of these feather things and thy bog
+princess. Thou hadst better go down to her at once, and remain in the
+mire. Thou art a hard-hearted father to thine own: _that_ I have said
+since I laid my first eggs. What if I or one of our young ones should
+get an arrow under our wings from that fierce crazy brat at the
+Viking's? She does not care what she does. This has been much longer
+our home than hers, she ought to recollect. We do not forget our duty;
+we pay our rent every year--a feather, an egg, and a young one--as we
+ought to do. Dost thou think that when _she_ is outside _I_ can
+venture to go below, as in former days, or as I do in Egypt, where I
+am almost everybody's comrade, not to mention that I can there even
+peep into the pots and pans without any fear? No; I sit up here and
+fret myself about her--the hussy! and I fret myself at thee too. Thou
+shouldst have left her lying in the water-lily, and there would have
+been an end of her."
+
+"Thy words are much harder than thy heart," said the stork-father. "I
+know thee better than thou knowest thyself."
+
+And then he made a hop, flapped his wings twice, stretched his legs
+out behind him, and away he flew, or rather sailed, without moving his
+wings, until he had got to some distance. Then he brought his wings
+into play; the sun shone upon his white feathers; he stretched his
+head and his neck forward, and hastened on his way.
+
+"He is, nevertheless, still the handsomest of them all," said his
+admiring mate; "but I will not tell him that."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Late that autumn the Viking returned home, bringing with him booty and
+prisoners. Among these was a young Christian priest, one of the men
+who denounced the gods of the Northern mythology. Often about this
+time was the new religion talked of in baronial halls and ladies'
+bowers--the religion that was spreading over all lands of the south,
+and which, with the holy Ansgarius,[2] had even reached as far as
+Hedeby. Even little Helga had heard of the pure religion of Christ,
+who, from love to mankind, had given himself as a sacrifice to save
+them; but with her it went in at one ear and out at the other, to use
+a common saying. The word _love_ alone seemed to have made some
+impression upon her, when she shrunk into the miserable form of a frog
+in the closed-up chamber. But the Viking's wife had listened to, and
+felt herself wonderfully affected by, the rumour and the Saga about
+the Son of the one only true God.
+
+[Footnote 2: Ansgarius was originally a monk from the monastery of New
+Corbie, in Saxony, to which several of the monks of Corbie in France
+had migrated in A.D. 822. Its abbot, Paschasius Radbert, who died in
+865, was, according to Cardinal Bellarmine, the first fully to
+propagate the belief, now entertained in the Roman Catholic Church, of
+the corporeal presence of the Saviour in the sacrament. Ansgarius, who
+was very enthusiastic, accepted a mission to the north of Europe, and
+preached Christianity in Denmark and Sweden. Jutland was for some time
+the scene of his labours, and he made many converts there; also in
+Sleswig, where a Christian school for children was established, who,
+on leaving it, were sent to spread Christianity throughout the
+country. An archbishopric was founded by the then Emperor of Germany
+in conformity to a plan which had been traced, though not carried out,
+by Charlemagne; and this was bestowed upon Ansgarius. But the church
+he had built was burnt by some still heathen Danes, who, gathering a
+large fleet, invaded Hamburg, which they also reduced to ashes. The
+emperor then constituted him Bishop of Bremen.--_Trans._]
+
+The men, returning from their expedition, had told of the splendid
+temples of costly hewn stone raised to Him whose errand was love. A
+pair of heavy golden vessels, beautifully wrought out of pure gold,
+were brought home, and both had a charming, spicy perfume. They were
+the censers which the Christian priests swung before the altars, on
+which blood never flowed; but wine and the consecrated bread were
+changed into the blood of Him who had given himself for generations
+yet unborn.
+
+To the deep, stone-walled cellars of the Viking's loghouse was the
+young captive, the Christian priest, consigned, fettered with cords
+round his feet and his hands. He was as beautiful as Baldur to look
+at, said the Viking's wife, and she was grieved at his fate; but young
+Helga wished that he should be ham-strung, and bound to the tails of
+wild oxen.
+
+"Then I should let loose the dogs. Halloo! Then away over bogs and
+pools to the naked heath. Hah! that would be something pleasant to
+see--still pleasanter to follow him on the wild journey."
+
+But the Viking would not hear of his being put to such a death. On the
+morrow, as a scoffer and denier of the high gods, he was to be offered
+up as a sacrifice to them upon the blood stone in the sacred grove.
+He was to be the first human sacrifice ever offered up there.
+
+Young Helga prayed that she might be allowed to sprinkle with the
+blood of the captive the images of the gods and the assembled
+spectators. She sharpened her gleaming knife, and, as one of the large
+ferocious dogs, of which there were plenty in the courtyard, leaped
+over her feet, she stuck the knife into his side.
+
+"That is to prove the blade," she exclaimed.
+
+And the Viking's wife was shocked at the savage-tempered, evil-minded
+girl; and when night came, and the beauteous form and the disposition
+of her daughter changed, she poured forth her sorrow to her in warm
+words, which came from the bottom of her heart.
+
+The hideous frog with the ogre head stood before her, and fixed its
+brown sad eyes upon her, listened, and seemed to understand with a
+human being's intellect.
+
+"Never, even to my husband, have I hinted at the double sufferings I
+have through you," said the Viking's wife. "There is more sorrow in my
+heart on your account than I could have believed. Great is a mother's
+love. But love never enters your mind. Your heart is like a lump of
+cold hard mud. From whence did you come to my house?"
+
+Then the ugly shape trembled violently; it seemed as if these words
+touched an invisible tie between the body and the soul--large tears
+started to its eyes.
+
+"Your time of trouble will come some day, depend on it," said the
+Viking's wife, "and dreadful will it also be for me. Better had it
+been that you had been put out on the highway, and the chillness of
+the night had benumbed you until you slept in death;" and the Viking's
+wife wept salt tears, and went angry and distressed away, passing
+round behind the loose skin partition that hung over an upper beam to
+divide the chamber.
+
+Alone in a corner sat the shrivelled frog. She was mute, but after a
+short interval she uttered a sort of half-suppressed sigh. It was as
+if in sorrow a new life had awoke in some nook of her heart. She took
+a step forward, listened, advanced again, and grasping with her
+awkward hands the heavy bar that was placed across the door, she
+removed it softly, and quietly drew away the pin that was stuck in
+over the latch. She then seized the lighted lamp that stood in the
+room beyond: it seemed as if a great resolution had given her
+strength. She made her way down to the dungeon, drew back the iron
+bolt that fastened the trap-door, and slid down to where the prisoner
+was lying. He was sleeping. She touched him with her cold, clammy
+hand; and when he awoke, and beheld the disgusting creature, he
+shuddered as if he had seen an evil apparition. She drew her knife,
+severed his bonds, and beckoned to him to follow her.
+
+He named holy names, made the sign of the cross, and when the strange
+shape stood without moving, he exclaimed, in the words of the Bible,--
+
+"'Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him
+in time of trouble.' Who art thou? How comes it that, under the
+exterior of such an animal, there is so much compassionate feeling?"
+
+The frog beckoned to him, and led him, behind tapestry that concealed
+him, through private passages out to the stables, and pointed to a
+horse. He sprang on it, and she also jumped up; and, placing herself
+before him, she held by the animal's mane. The prisoner understood her
+movement; and at full gallop they rode, by a path he never could have
+found, away to the open heath.
+
+He forgot her ugly form--he knew that the grace and mercy of God could
+be evinced even by means of hobgoblins--he put up earnest prayers, and
+sang holy hymns. She trembled. Was it the power of the prayers and
+hymns that affected her thus? or was it a cold shivering at the
+approach of morning, that was about to dawn? What was it that she
+felt? She raised herself up into the air, attempted to stop the horse,
+and was on the point of leaping down; but the Christian priest held
+her fast with all his might, and chanted a psalm, which he thought
+would have sufficient strength to overcome the influence of the
+witchcraft under which she was kept in the hideous disguise of a frog.
+And the horse dashed more wildly forward, the heavens became red, the
+first ray of the sun burst forth through the morning sky, and with
+that clear gush of light came the miraculous change--she was the young
+beauty, with the cruel, demoniacal spirit. The astonished priest held
+the loveliest maiden in his arms he had ever beheld; but he was
+horror-struck, and, springing from the horse, he stopped it, expecting
+to see it also the victim of some fearful sorcery. Young Helga sprang
+at the same moment to the ground, her short childlike dress reaching
+no lower than her knees. Suddenly she drew her sharp knife from her
+belt, and rushed furiously upon him.
+
+"Let me but reach thee--let me but reach thee, and my knife shall find
+its way to thy heart. Thou art pale in thy terror, beardless slave!"
+
+She closed with him; a severe struggle ensued, but it seemed as if
+some invincible power bestowed strength upon the Christian priest. He
+held her fast; and the old oak tree close by came to his assistance
+by binding down her feet with its roots, which were half loosened from
+the earth, her feet having slid under them. There was a fountain near,
+and he splashed the clear, fresh water over her face and neck,
+commanding the unclean spirit to pass out of her, and signed her
+according to the Christian rites; but the baptismal water had no power
+where the fountain of belief had not streamed upon the heart.
+
+Yet still he was the victor. Yes, more than human strength could have
+accomplished against the powers of evil lay in his acts, which, as it
+were, overpowered her. She suffered her arms to sink, and gazed with
+wondering looks and blanched cheeks upon the man whom she deemed some
+mighty wizard, strong in sorcery and the black art. These were mystic
+Rhunes he had recited, and magic characters he had traced in the air.
+Not for the glancing axe or the well-sharpened knife, if he had
+brandished these before her eyes, would they have blinked, or would
+she have winced; but she winced now when he made the sign of the cross
+upon her brow and bosom, and she stood now like a tame bird, her head
+bowed down upon her breast.
+
+Then he spoke kindly to her of the work of mercy she had performed
+towards him that night, when, in the ugly disguise of a frog, she had
+come to him, had loosened his bonds, and brought him forth to light
+and life. She also was bound--bound even with stronger fetters than he
+had been, he said; but she also should be set free, and like him
+attain to light and life. He would take her to Hedeby, to the holy
+Ansgarius. There, in the Christian city, the witchcraft in which she
+was held would be exorcised; but not before him must she sit on
+horseback, even if she wished it herself--he dared not place her
+there.
+
+"Thou must sit behind me on the horse, not before me. Thine enchanting
+beauty has a magic power bestowed by the evil one. I fear it; and yet
+the victory shall be mine through Christ."
+
+He knelt down and prayed fervently. It seemed as if the surrounding
+wood had been consecrated into a holy temple; the birds began to sing,
+as if they belonged to the new congregation; the wild thyme sent forth
+its fragrant scent, as if to take the place of incense; while the
+priest proclaimed these Bible words: "To give light to them that sit
+in darkness, and in the shadow of death; to guide our feet into the
+way of peace."
+
+And he spoke of everlasting life; and as he discoursed, the horse
+which had carried them in their wild flight stood still, and pulled at
+the large bramble berries, so that the ripest ones fell on little
+Helga's hand, inviting her to pluck them for herself.
+
+She allowed herself patiently to be lifted upon the horse, and she sat
+on its back like a somnambulist, who was neither in a waking nor a
+sleeping state. The Christian priest tied two small green branches
+together in the form of a cross, which he held high aloft; and thus
+they rode through the forest, which became thicker and thicker, and
+the path, if path it could be called, taking them farther into it. The
+blackthorn stood as if to bar their way, and they had to ride round
+outside of it; the trickling streams swelled no longer into mere
+rivulets, but into stagnant pools, and they had to ride round them;
+but as the soft wind that played among the foliage of the trees was
+refreshing and strengthening to the travellers, so the mild words that
+were spoken in Christian charity and truth served to lead the
+benighted one to light and life.
+
+It is said that a constant dripping of water will make a hollow in the
+hardest stone, and that the waves of the sea will in time round the
+edges of the sharpest rocks. The dew of grace which fell for little
+Helga softened the hard, and smoothed the sharp, in her nature. True,
+it was not discernible yet in her, nor was she aware of it herself.
+What knows the seed in the ground of the effect which the refreshing
+dew and the warm sunbeams are to have in producing from it vegetation
+and flowers?
+
+As a mother's song to her child, unmarked, makes an impression upon
+its infant mind, and it prattles after her several of the words
+without understanding them, but in time these words arrange themselves
+into order, and they become clearer, so in the case of Helga worked
+_that word_ which is mighty to save.
+
+They rode out of the forest, and crossed an open heath; then again
+they entered a pathless wood, where, towards evening, they encountered
+a band of robbers.
+
+"Whence didst thou steal that beautiful wench?" they shouted, as they
+stopped the horse, and dragged its two riders down; for they were
+strong and robust men. The priest had no other weapon than the knife
+which he had taken from little Helga. With that he now stood on his
+defence. One of the robbers swung his ponderous axe, but the young
+Christian fortunately sprang aside in time to avoid the blow, which
+then fell upon the unfortunate horse, and the sharp edge entered into
+its neck; blood streamed from the wound, and the poor animal fell to
+the ground. Helga, who had only at that moment awoke from her long
+deep trance, sprang forward, and cast herself over the gasping
+creature. The Christian priest placed himself before her as a shield
+and protection from the lawless men; but one of them struck him on
+the forehead with an iron hammer, so that it was dashed in, and the
+blood and brains gushed forth, while he fell down dead on the spot.
+
+The robbers seized Helga by her white arms; but at that moment the sun
+went down, its last beam faded away, and she was transformed into a
+hideous-looking frog. The pale green mouth stretched itself over half
+the face, its arms became thin and slimy, and a broad hand, with
+webbed-like membranes, extended itself like a fan. Then the robbers
+withdrew their hold of her in terror and astonishment. She stood like
+the ugly animal among them, and, according to the nature of a frog,
+she began to hop about, and, jumping faster than usual, she soon
+escaped into the depths of the thicket. The robbers were then
+convinced that it was some evil artifice of the mischief loving Loke,
+or else some secret magical deception; and in dismay they fled from
+the place.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The full moon had risen, and its silver light penetrated even the
+gloomy recesses of the forest, when from among the low thick
+brushwood, in the frog's hideous form, crept the young Helga. She
+stopped when she reached the bodies of the Christian priest and the
+slaughtered horse: she gazed on them with eyes that seemed full of
+tears, and the frog uttered a sound that somewhat resembled the sob of
+a child who was on the point of crying. She threw herself first over
+the one, then over the other; then took water up in her webbed hand,
+and poured it over them; but all was in vain--they were dead, and dead
+they would remain. She knew that. Wild beasts would soon come and
+devour their bodies. No, that must not be; therefore she determined to
+dig a grave in the ground for them, but she had nothing to dig it
+with except the branch of a tree and both her own hands. With these
+she worked away until her fingers bled. She found she made so little
+progress, that she feared the work would never be completed. Then she
+took water, and washed the dead man's face; covered it with fresh
+green leaves; brought large boughs of the trees, and laid them over
+him; sprinkled dead leaves amongst the branches; fetched the largest
+stones she could carry, and placed them over the bodies, and filled up
+the openings with moss. When she had done all this she thought that
+their tomb might be strong and safe; but during her long and arduous
+labour the night had passed away. The sun arose, and young Helga stood
+again in all her beauty, with bloody hands, and, for the first time,
+with tears on her blooming cheeks.
+
+During this change it seemed as if two natures were wrestling within
+her; she trembled, looked around her as if awakening from a painful
+dream, then seized upon the slender branch of a tree near, and held
+fast by it as if for support; and in another moment she climbed like a
+cat up to the top of the tree, and placed herself firmly there. For a
+whole long day she sat there like a frightened squirrel in the deep
+loneliness of the forest, where all is still and dead, people say.
+Dead! There flew by butterflies chasing each other either in sport or
+in strife. There were ant-hills near, each covered with hundreds of
+little busy labourers, passing in swarms to and fro. In the air danced
+innumerable gnats; crowds of buzzing flies swept past; lady-birds,
+dragon-flies, and other winged insects floated hither and thither;
+earth-worms crept forth from the damp ground; moles crawled about;
+otherwise it was still--_dead_, as people say and think.
+
+None remarked Helga, except the jays that flew screeching to the top
+of the tree where she sat; they hopped on the branches around her with
+impudent curiosity, but there was something in the glance of her eye
+that speedily drove them away; they were none the wiser about her,
+nor, indeed, was she about herself. When the evening approached, and
+the sun began to sink, the transformation time rendered a change of
+position necessary. She slipped down from the tree, and, as the last
+ray of the sun faded away, she was again the shrivelled frog, with the
+webbed-fingered hands; but her eyes beamed now with a charming
+expression, which they had not worn in the beautiful form; they were
+the mildest, sweetest girlish eyes that glanced from behind the mask
+of a frog--they bore witness to the deeply-thinking human mind, the
+deeply-feeling human heart; and these lovely eyes burst into
+tears--tears of unfeigned sorrow.
+
+Close to the lately raised grave lay the cross of green boughs that
+had been tied together--the last work of him who was now dead and
+gone. Helga took it up, and the thought presented itself to her that
+it would be well to place it amidst the stones, above him and the
+slaughtered horse. With the sad remembrances thus awakened, her tears
+flowed faster; and in the fulness of her heart she scratched the same
+sign in the earth round the grave--it would be a fence that would
+decorate it so well. And just as she was forming, with both of her
+hands, the figure of the cross, her magic disguise fell off like a
+torn glove; and when she had washed herself in the clear water of the
+fountain near, and in amazement looked at her delicate white hands,
+she made the sign of the cross between herself and the dead priest;
+then her lips moved, then her tongue was loosened; and that name
+which so often, during the ride through the forest, she had heard
+spoken and chanted, became audible from her mouth--she exclaimed,
+"JESUS CHRIST!"
+
+When the frog's skin had fallen off she was again the beautiful
+maiden; but her head drooped heavily, her limbs seemed to need
+repose--she slept.
+
+Her sleep was only a short one, however; she awoke about midnight, and
+before her stood the dead horse full of life; its eyes glittered, and
+light seemed to proceed from the wound in its neck. Close to it the
+dead Christian priest showed himself--"more beautiful than Baldur,"
+the Viking's wife would have said; and yet he came as a flash of fire.
+
+There was an earnestness in his large, mild eyes, a searching,
+penetrating look--grave, almost stern--that thrilled the young
+proselyte to the utmost depths of her heart. Helga trembled before
+him; and her memory awoke as if with the power it would exercise on
+the great day of doom. All the kindness that had been bestowed on her,
+every affectionate word that had been said to her, came back to her
+mind with an impression deeper than they had ever before made. She
+understood that it was love that, during the days of trial here, had
+supported her--those days of trial in which the offspring of a being
+with a soul, and a form of mud, had writhed and struggled. She
+understood that she had only followed the promptings of her own
+disposition, and done nothing to help herself. All had been bestowed
+on her--all had been ordained for her. She bowed herself in lowly
+humility and shame before Him who must be able to read every thought
+of the heart; and at that moment she felt as if a purifying flame
+darted through her--a light from the Holy Spirit.
+
+"Daughter of the dust!" said the Christian priest, "from dust, from
+earth hast thou arisen--from earth shalt thou again arise! A ray from
+God's invisible sun shall stream on thee. No soul shall be lost. But
+far off is the time when life takes flight into eternity. I come from
+the land of the dead. Thou also shalt once pass through the dark
+valley into yon lofty realms of brightness, where grace and perfection
+dwell. I shall not guide thee now to Hedeby for Christian baptism.
+First must thou disperse the slimy surface over the deep morass, draw
+up the living root of thy life and thy cradle, and perform thy
+appointed task, ere thou darest to seek the holy rite."
+
+And he lifted her up on the horse, and gave her a golden censer like
+those she had formerly seen at the Viking's castle; and strong was the
+perfume which issued from it. The open wound on the forehead of the
+murdered man shone like a diadem of brilliants. He took the cross from
+the grave, and raised it high above him; then away they went through
+the air, away over the rustling woods, away over the mountains where
+the giant heroes are buried, sitting on the slaughtered steed. Still
+onward the phantom forms pursued their way; and in the clear moonlight
+glittered the gold circlet round their brows, and the mantle fluttered
+in the breeze. The magic dragon, who was watching over his treasures,
+raised his head and gazed at them. The hill dwarfs peeped out from
+their mountain recesses and plough-furrows. There were swarms of them,
+with red, blue, and green lights, that looked like the numerous sparks
+in the ashes of newly-burned paper.
+
+Away over forest and heath, over limpid streams and stagnant pools,
+they hastened towards "the wild morass," and over it they flew in wide
+circles. The Christian priest held aloft the cross, which looked as
+dazzling as burnished gold, and as he did so he chanted the mass
+hymns. Little Helga sang with him as a child follows its mother's
+song. She swung the censer about as if before the altar, and there
+came a perfume so strong, so powerful in its effect, that it caused
+the reeds and sedges to blossom; every sprout shot up from the deep
+bottom--everything that had life raised itself up; and with the rest
+arose a mass of water-lilies, which looked like a carpet of
+embroidered flowers. Upon it lay a sleeping female, young and
+beautiful. Helga thought she beheld herself mirrored in the calm
+water; but it was her mother whom she saw--the mud-king's wife--the
+princess from the banks of the Nile.
+
+The dead Christian priest prayed that the sleeper might be lifted upon
+the horse. At first the latter sank under the additional burden, as if
+its body were but a winding-sheet fluttering in the wind; but the sign
+of the cross gave strength to the airy phantom, and all three rode on
+it to the solid ground.
+
+Then crowed the cock at the Viking's castle, and the apparitions
+seemed to disappear in a mist, which was wafted away by the wind; but
+the mother and daughter stood together.
+
+"Is that myself I behold in the deep water?" exclaimed the mother.
+
+"Is that myself I see on the shining surface?" said the daughter.
+
+And they approached each other till form met form in a warm embrace,
+and wildly the mother's heart beat when she perceived the truth.
+
+"My child! my heart's own flower! my lotus from the watery deep!"
+
+And she encircled her daughter with her arm, and wept Her tears
+caused a new sensation to Helga--they were the baptism of love for
+her.
+
+"I came hither in the magic disguise of a swan, and I threw it off,"
+said the mother. "I sank through the swaying mire deep into the mud of
+the morass, which like a wall closed around me; but soon I perceived
+that I was in a fresher stream--some power drew me deeper and still
+deeper down. I felt my eyelids heavy with sleep--I slumbered and I
+dreamed. I thought that I was again in the interior of the Egyptian
+pyramid, but before me still stood the heaving alder trunk that had so
+terrified me on the surface of the morass. I saw the cracks in the
+bark, and they changed their appearance, and became hieroglyphics. It
+was the mummy's coffin I was looking at; it burst open, and out issued
+from it the monarch of a thousand years ago--the mummy form, black as
+pitch, dark and shining as a wood-snail, or as that thick slimy mud.
+It was the mud-king, or the mummy of the pyramids; I knew not which.
+He threw his arms around me, and I felt as if I were dying. I only
+felt that I was alive again when I found something warm on my breast,
+and there a little bird was flapping with its wings, twittering and
+singing. It flew from my breast high up in the dark, heavy space; but
+a long green string bound it still to me. I heard and I comprehended
+its tones and its longing: "Freedom! Sunshine! To the father!" Then I
+thought of my father in my distant home, that dear sunny land--my
+life, my affection--and I loosened the cord, and let it flutter away
+home to my father. Since that hour I have not dreamed. I have slept a
+long, dark, heavy sleep until now, when the strange sounds and perfume
+awoke me and set me free."
+
+That green tie between the mother's heart and the bird's wings, where
+now did it flutter? what now had become of it? The stork alone had
+seen it. The cord was the green stem; the knot was the shining
+flower--the cradle for that child who now had grown up in beauty, and
+again rested near her mother's heart.
+
+And as they stood there embracing each other the stork-father flew in
+circles round them, hastened back to his nest, took from it the magic
+feather disguises that had been hidden away for so many years, cast
+one down before each of them, and then joined them as they raised
+themselves from the ground like two white swans.
+
+"Let us now have some chat," said the stork-father, "now we understand
+each other's language, even though one bird's beak is not exactly made
+after the pattern of another's. It is most fortunate that you came to
+night; to-morrow we should all have been away--the mother, the young
+ones, and myself. We are off to the south. Look at me! I am an old
+friend from the country where the Nile flows, and so is the mother,
+though there is more kindness in her heart than in her tongue. She
+always believed that the princess would make her escape. The young
+ones and I brought these swan garbs up here. Well, how glad I am, and
+how fortunate it is that I am here still! At dawn of day we shall take
+our departure--a large party of storks. We shall fly foremost, and if
+you will follow us you will not miss the way. The young ones and
+myself will have an eye to you."
+
+"And the lotus flower I was to have brought," said the Egyptian
+princess; "it shall go within the swan disguise, by my side, and I
+shall have my heart's darling with me. Then homewards--homewards!"
+
+Then Helga said that she could not leave the Danish land until she had
+once more seen her foster-mother, the Viking's excellent wife. To
+Helga's thoughts arose every pleasing recollection, every kind word,
+even every tear her adopted mother had shed on her account; and, at
+that moment, she felt that she almost loved that mother best.
+
+"Yes, we must go to the Viking's castle," said the stork; "there my
+young ones and their mother await me. How they will stare! The mother
+does not speak much; but, though she is rather abrupt, she means well.
+I will presently make a little noise, that she may know we are
+coming."
+
+And he clattered with his bill as he and the swans flew close to the
+Viking's castle.
+
+Within it all were lying in deep sleep. The Viking's wife had retired
+late to rest; she lay in anxious thought about little Helga, who now
+for full three days and nights had disappeared along with the
+Christian priest: she had probably assisted him in his escape, for it
+was her horse that was missing from the stables. By what power had all
+this been accomplished? The Viking's wife thought upon the wondrous
+works she had heard had been performed by the immaculate Christ, and
+by those who believed on him and followed him. Her changing thoughts
+assumed the shapes of life in her dreams; she fancied she was still
+awake, lost in deep reflection; she imagined that a storm arose--that
+she heard the sea roaring in the east and in the west, the waves
+dashing from the Kattegat and the North Sea; the hideous serpents
+which encircled the earth in the depths of the ocean struggling in
+deadly combat. It was the night of the gods--RAGNAROK, as the heathens
+called the last hour, when all should be changed, even the high gods
+themselves. The reverberating horn sounded, and forth over the
+rainbow[3] rode the gods, clad in steel, to fight the final battle;
+before them flew the winged Valkyries, and the rear was brought up by
+the shades of the dead giant-warriors; the whole atmosphere was
+illuminated around them by the Northern lights, but darkness conquered
+all--it was an awful hour!
+
+[Footnote 3: The Bridge of Heaven in the fables of the Scandinavian
+mythology.--_Trans._]
+
+And near the terrified Viking's wife sat upon the floor little Helga
+in the ugly disguise of the frog; and she shivered and worked her way
+up to her foster-mother, who took her in her lap, and disgusting as
+she was in that form, lovingly caressed her. The air was filled with
+the sounds of the clashing of swords, the blows of clubs, the whizzing
+of arrows, like a violent hail-storm. The time was come when heaven
+and earth should be destroyed, the stars should fall, and all be
+swallowed up below in Surtur's fire; but a new earth and a new heaven
+she knew were to come; the corn was to wave where the sea now rolled
+over the golden sands; the unknown God at length reigned; and to him
+ascended Baldur, the mild, the lovable, released from the kingdom of
+death. He came; the Viking's wife beheld him--she recognised his
+countenance: it was that of the captive Christian priest. "Immaculate
+Christ!" she cried aloud; and whilst uttering this holy name she
+impressed a kiss upon the ugly brow of the frog-child. Then fell the
+magic disguise, and Helga stood before her in all her radiant beauty,
+gentle as she had never looked before, and with speaking eyes. She
+kissed her foster-mother's hands, blessed her for all the care and
+kindness which she, in the days of distress and trial, had lavished
+upon her; thanked her for the thoughts with which she had inspired
+her mind--thanked her for mentioning _that name_ which she now
+repeated, "Immaculate Christ!" and then lifting herself up in the
+suddenly adopted shape of a graceful swan, little Helga spread her
+wings widely out with the rustling sound of a flock of birds of
+passage on the wing, and in another moment she was gone.
+
+The Viking's wife awoke, and on the outside of her casement were to be
+heard the same rustling and flapping of wings. It was the time, she
+knew, when the storks generally took their departure; it was them she
+heard. She wished to see them once more before their journey to the
+south, and bid them farewell. She got up, went out on the balcony, and
+then she saw, on the roof of an adjoining outhouse, stork upon stork,
+while all around the place, above the highest trees, flew crowds of
+them, wheeling in large circles; but below, on the brink of the well,
+where little Helga had but so lately often sat, and frightened her
+with her wild actions, sat now two swans, looking up at her with
+expressive eyes; and she remembered her dream, which seemed to her
+almost a reality. She thought of Helga in the appearance of a swan;
+she thought of the Christian priest, and felt a strange gladness in
+her heart.
+
+The swans fluttered their wings and bowed their necks, as if they were
+saluting her; and the Viking's wife opened her arms, as if she
+understood them, and smiled amidst her tears and manifold thoughts.
+
+Then, with a clattering of bills and a noise of wings, the storks all
+turned towards the south to commence their long journey.
+
+"We will not wait any longer for the swans," said the stork-mother.
+"If they choose to go with us, they must come at once; we cannot be
+lingering here till the plovers begin their flight. It is pleasant to
+travel as we do in a family party, not like the chaffinches and
+strutting cocks. Among their species the males fly by themselves, and
+the females by themselves: that, to say the least of it, is not at all
+seemly. What a miserable sound the stroke of the swans' wings has
+compared with ours!"
+
+"Every one flies in his own way," said the stork-father. "Swans fly
+slantingly, cranes in triangles, and plovers in serpentine windings."
+
+"Name not serpents or snakes when we are about to fly up yonder," said
+the stork-mother. "It will only make the young ones long for a sort of
+food which they can't get just now."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Are these the high hills, beneath yonder, of which I have heard?"
+asked Helga, in the disguise of a swan.
+
+"These are thunder-clouds driving under us," replied her mother.
+
+"What are these white clouds that seem so stationary?" asked Helga.
+
+"These are the mountains covered with everlasting snow that thou
+seest," said her mother; and they flew over the Alps towards the blue
+Mediterranean.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"There is Africa! there is Egypt!" cried in joyful accents, under her
+swan disguise, the daughter of the Nile, as high up in the air she
+descried, like a whitish-yellow, billow-shaped streak, her native
+soil.
+
+The storks also saw it, and quickened their flight.
+
+"I smell the mud of the Nile and the wet frogs," exclaimed the
+stork-mother. "It makes my mouth water. Yes, now ye shall have nice
+things to eat, and ye shall see the marabout, the ibis, and the crane:
+they are all related to our family, but are not nearly so handsome as
+we are. They think a great deal, however, of themselves, particularly
+the ibis: he has been spoiled by the Egyptians, who make a mummy of
+him, and stuff him with aromatic herbs. _I_ would rather be stuffed
+with living frogs; and that is what ye would all like also, and what
+ye shall be. Better a good dinner when one is living than to be made a
+grand show of when one is dead. That is what I think, and I know I am
+right."
+
+"The storks have returned," was told in the splendid house on the
+banks of the Nile, where, within the open hall, upon soft cushions,
+covered with a leopard's skin, the king lay, neither living nor dead,
+hoping for the lotus flower from the deep morass of the north. His
+kindred and his attendants were standing around him.
+
+And into the hall flew two magnificent white swans--they had arrived
+with the storks. They cast off the dazzling magic feather garbs, and
+there stood two beautiful women, as like each other as two drops of
+water. They leaned over the pallid, faded old man; they threw back
+their long hair; and, as little Helga bowed over her grandfather, his
+cheeks flushed, his eyes sparkled, life returned to his stiffened
+limbs. The old man rose hale and hearty; his daughter and his
+grand-daughter pressed him in their arms, as if in a glad morning
+salutation after a long heavy dream.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And there was joy throughout the palace, and in the storks' nest also;
+but _there_ the joy was principally for the good food, the swarms of
+nice frogs; and whilst the learned noted down in haste, and very
+carelessly, the history of the two princesses and of the lotus flower
+as an important event, and a blessing to the royal house, and to the
+country in general, the old storks related the history in their own
+way to their own family; but not until they had all eaten enough, else
+these would have had other things to think of than listening to any
+story.
+
+"Now thou wilt be somebody," whispered the stork-mother; "it is only
+reasonable to expect that."
+
+"Oh! what should _I_ be?" said the stork-father. "And what have _I_
+done? Nothing!"
+
+"Thou hast done more than all the others put together. Without thee
+and the young ones the two princesses would never have seen Egypt
+again, or cured the old man. Thou wilt be nothing! Thou shouldst, at
+the very least, be appointed court doctor, and have a title bestowed
+on thee, which our young ones would inherit, and their little ones
+after them. Thou dost look already exactly like an Egyptian doctor in
+my eyes."
+
+The learned and the wise lectured upon "the fundamental notion," as
+they called it, which pervaded the whole tissue of events. "Love
+bestows life." Then they expounded their meaning in this manner:--
+
+"The warm sunbeam was the Egyptian princess; she descended to the
+mud-king, and from their meeting sprang a flower----"
+
+"I cannot exactly repeat the words," said the stork-father, who had
+been listening to the discussion from the roof, and was now telling in
+his nest what he had heard. "What they said was not easy of
+comprehension, but it was so exceedingly wise that they were
+immediately rewarded with rank and marks of distinction. Even the
+prince's head cook got a handsome present--that was, doubtless, for
+having prepared the repast."
+
+"And what didst thou get?" asked the stork-mother. "They had no right
+to overlook the most important actor in the affair, and that was
+thyself. The learned only babbled about the matter. But so it is
+always."
+
+Late at night, when the now happy household reposed in peaceful
+slumbers, there was one who was still awake; and that was not the
+stork-father, although he was standing upon his nest on one leg, and
+dozing like a sentry. No; little Helga was awake, leaning over the
+balcony, and gazing through the clear air at the large blazing stars,
+larger and brighter than she had ever seen them in the North, and yet
+the same. She was thinking upon the Viking's wife near "the wild
+morass"--upon her foster-mother's mild eyes--upon the tears she had
+shed over the poor frog-child, who was now standing under the light of
+the glorious stars, on the banks of the Nile, in the soft spring air.
+She thought of the love in the heathen woman's breast--the love she
+had shown towards an unfortunate being, who in human form was as
+vicious as a wild beast, and in the form of a noxious animal was
+horrible to look upon or to touch. She gazed at the glittering stars,
+and thought of the shining circle on the brow of the dead priest, when
+they flew over the forest and the morass. Tones seemed again to sound
+on her ears--words she had heard spoken when they rode together, and
+she sat like an evil spirit there--words about the great source of
+love, the highest love, that which included all races and all
+generations. Yes, what was not bestowed, won, obtained? Helga's
+thoughts embraced by day, by night, the whole of her good fortune;
+she stood contemplating it like a child who turns precipitately from
+the giver to the beautiful gifts; she passed on to the increasing
+happiness which might come, and would come. Higher and higher rose her
+thoughts, till she so lost herself in the dreams of future bliss that
+she forgot the Giver of all good. It was the superabundance of
+youthful spirits which caused her imagination to take so bold a
+flight. Her eyes were flashing with her thoughts, when suddenly a loud
+noise in the court beneath recalled her to mundane objects. She saw
+there two enormous ostriches running angrily round in a narrow circle.
+She had never before seen these large heavy birds, who looked as if
+their wings were clipped; and when she asked what had happened to
+them, she heard for the first time the Egyptian legend about the
+ostrich.
+
+Its race had once been beautiful, its wings broad and strong. Then one
+evening the largest forest birds said to it, "Brother, shall we fly
+to-morrow, God willing, to the river, and drink?" And the ostrich
+answered, "Yes, I will." At dawn they flew away, first up towards the
+sun, higher and higher, the ostrich far before the others. It flew on
+in its pride up towards the light; it relied upon its own strength,
+not upon the Giver of that strength; it did not say, "God willing."
+Then the avenging angel drew aside the veil from the streaming flames,
+and in that moment the bird's wings were burnt, and he sank in
+wretchedness to the earth. Neither he nor his species were ever
+afterwards able to raise themselves up in the air. They fly
+timidly--hurry along in a narrow space; they are a warning to mankind
+in all our thoughts and all our enterprises to say, "God willing."
+
+And Helga humbly bowed her head, looked at the ostriches rushing past,
+saw their surprise and their simple joy at the sight of their own
+large shadows on the white wall, and more serious thoughts took
+possession of her mind, adding to her present happiness--inspiring
+brighter hopes for the future. What was yet to happen? The best for
+her, "God willing."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the early spring, when the storks were about to go north again,
+Helga took from her arm a golden bracelet, scratched her name upon it,
+beckoned to the stork-father, hung the gold band round his neck, and
+bade him carry it to the Viking's wife, who would thereby know that
+her adopted daughter lived, was happy, and remembered her.
+
+"It is heavy to carry," thought the stork, when it was hung round his
+neck; "but gold and honour must not be flung away upon the high road.
+The stork brings luck--they must admit that up yonder."
+
+"Thou layest gold, and I lay eggs," said the stork-mother; "but thou
+layest only once, and I lay every year. But neither of us gets any
+thanks, which is very vexatious."
+
+"One knows, however, that one has done one's duty," said the
+stork-father.
+
+"But that can't be hung up to be seen and lauded; and if it could be,
+fine words butter no parsnips."
+
+So they flew away.
+
+The little nightingale that sang upon the tamarind tree would also
+soon be going north, up yonder near "the wild morass." Helga had often
+heard it--she would send a message by it; for, since she had flown in
+the magical disguise of the swan, she had often spoken to the storks
+and the swallows. The nightingale would therefore understand her, and
+she prayed it to fly to the beech wood upon the Jutland peninsula,
+where the tomb of stone and branches had been erected. She asked it
+to beg all the little birds to protect the sacred spot, and frequently
+to sing over it.
+
+And the nightingale flew away, and time flew also.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And the eagle stood upon a pyramid, and looked in the autumn on a
+stately procession with richly-laden camels, with armed and splendidly
+equipped men on snorting Arabian horses shining white like silver,
+with red trembling nostrils, with long thick manes hanging down to
+their slender legs. Rich guests--a royal Arabian prince, handsome as a
+prince should be--approached the gorgeous palace where the storks'
+nests stood empty. Those who dwelt in these nests were away in the far
+North, but they were soon to return; and they arrived on the very day
+that was most marked by joy and festivities. It was a wedding feast;
+and the beautiful Helga, clad in silk and jewels, was the bride. The
+bridegroom was the young prince from Arabia. They sat at the upper end
+of the table, between her mother and grandfather.
+
+But she looked not at the bridegroom's bronzed and manly cheek, where
+the dark beard curled. She looked not at his black eyes, so full of
+fire, that were fastened upon her. She gazed outwards upon the bright
+twinkling stars that glittered in the heavens.
+
+Then a loud rustling of strong wings was heard in the air. The storks
+had come back; and the old pair, fatigued as they were after their
+journey, and much in need of rest, flew immediately down to the rails
+of the verandah, for they knew what festival was going on. They had
+heard already at the frontiers that Helga had had them painted upon
+the wall, introducing them into her own history.
+
+"It was a kind thought of hers," said the stork-father.
+
+"It is very little," said the stork-mother. "She could hardly have
+done less."
+
+And when Helga saw them she rose, and went out into the verandah to
+stroke their backs. The old couple bowed their necks, and the youngest
+little ones felt themselves much honoured by being so well received.
+
+And Helga looked up towards the shining stars, that glittered more and
+more brilliantly; and between them and her she beheld in the air a
+transparent form. It floated nearer to her. It was the dead Christian
+priest, who had also come to her bridal solemnity--come from the
+kingdom of heaven.
+
+"The glory and the beauty up yonder far exceed all that is known on
+earth," he said.
+
+And Helga pleaded softly, earnestly, that but for one moment she might
+be allowed to ascend up thither, and to cast one single glance on
+those heavenly scenes.
+
+Then he raised her amidst splendour and magnificence, and a stream of
+delicious music. It was not around her only that all seemed to be
+brightness and music, but the light seemed to stream in her soul, and
+the sweet tones to be echoed there. Words cannot describe what she
+felt.
+
+"We must now return," he said; "thou wilt be missed."
+
+"Only one more glance!" she entreated. "Only one short minute!"
+
+"We must return to earth--the guests are all departing."
+
+"But one more glance--the last!"
+
+And Helga stood again in the verandah, but all the torches outside
+were extinguished; all the light in the bridal saloon was gone; the
+storks were gone; no guests were to be seen--no bridegroom. All had
+vanished in these three short minutes.
+
+Then Helga felt anxious. She wandered through the vast empty
+halls--there slept foreign soldiers. She opened the side door which
+led to her own chambers, and, as she fancied she was entering them,
+she found herself in the garden: it had not stood there. Red streaks
+crossed the skies; it was the dawn of day.
+
+Only three minutes in heaven, and a whole night on earth had passed
+away.
+
+Then she perceived the storks. She called to them, spoke their
+language, and the old stork turned his head towards her, listened, and
+drew near.
+
+"Thou dost speak our language," said he. "What wouldst thou? Whence
+comest thou, thou foreign maiden?"
+
+"It is I--it is Helga! Dost thou not know me? Three minutes ago we
+were talking together in the verandah."
+
+"That is a mistake," said the stork. "Thou must have dreamt this."
+
+"No, no," she said, and reminded him of the Viking's castle, "the wild
+morass," the journey thence.
+
+Then the old stork winked with his eyes.
+
+"That is a very old story; I have heard it from my great,
+great-grandmother's time. Yes, truly there was once in Egypt a
+princess from the Danish land; but she disappeared on the evening of
+her wedding, many hundred years ago, and was never seen again. Thou
+canst read that thyself upon the monument in the garden, upon which
+are sculptured both swans and storks, and above it stands one like
+thyself in the white marble."
+
+And so it was. Helga saw, comprehended it all, and sank on her knees.
+
+The sun burst forth in all its morning splendour, and as, in former
+days, with its first rays fell the frog disguise, and the lovely form
+became visible; so now, in the baptism of light, arose a form of
+celestial beauty, purer than the air, as if in a veil of radiance to
+the Father above. The body sank into dust, and where she had stood lay
+a faded lotus flower!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Well, this is a new finale to the story," said the stork-father,
+"which I by no means expected; but I am quite satisfied with it."
+
+"I wonder what the young ones will say to it?" replied the
+stork-mother.
+
+"Ah! that, indeed, is of the most consequence," said the
+stork-father.
+
+
+
+
+_The Quickest Runners._
+
+
+There was a large reward offered--indeed, there were two rewards
+offered, a larger and a lesser one--for the greatest speed, not in one
+race alone, but to such as had got on fastest throughout the year.
+
+"I got the highest prize," said the hare. "One had a right to expect
+justice when one's own family and best friends were in the council;
+but that the snail should have got the second prize I consider as
+almost an insult to me."
+
+"No," observed the wooden fence, which had been a witness to the
+distribution of the prizes; "you must take diligence and good will
+into consideration. That remark was made by several very estimable
+persons, and that was also my opinion. To be sure the snail took half
+a year to cross the threshold; but he broke his thigh-bone in the
+tremendous exertion which that was for him. He devoted himself
+entirely to this race; and, moreover, he ran with his house on his
+back. All these weighed in his favour, and so he obtained the second
+prize."
+
+"I think my claims might also have been taken into consideration,"
+said the swallow. "More speedy than I, in flight and motion, I believe
+no one has shown himself. And where have I not been? Far, far away!"
+
+"And that is just your misfortune," said the wooden fence. "You gad
+about too much. You are always on the wing, ready to start out of the
+country when it begins to freeze. You have no love for your
+fatherland. You cannot claim any consideration in it."
+
+"But if I were to sleep all the winter through on the moor," inquired
+the swallow--"sleep my whole time away--should I be thus entitled to
+be taken into consideration?"
+
+"Obtain an affidavit from the old woman of the moor that you did sleep
+half the year in your fatherland, then your claims will be taken into
+consideration."
+
+"I deserved the first prize instead of the second," said the snail. "I
+know very well that the hare only ran from cowardice, whenever he
+thought there was danger near. I, on the contrary, made the trial the
+business of my life, and I have become a cripple in consequence of my
+exertions. If any one had a right to the first prize it was I; but I
+make no fuss; I scorn to do so."
+
+"I can declare upon my honour that each prize, at least as far as my
+voice in the matter went, was accorded with strict justice," said the
+old sign-post in the wood, who had been one of the arbitrators. "I
+always act with due reflection, and according to order. Seven times
+before have I had the honour to be engaged in the distribution of the
+prizes, but never until to-day have I had my own way carried out. My
+plan has always hitherto been thwarted--that was, to give the first
+prize to one of the first letters in the alphabet, and the second
+prize to one of the last letters. If you will be so good as to grant
+me your attention, I will explain it to you. The eighth letter in the
+alphabet from _A_ is _H_--that stands for _Hare_, and therefore I
+awarded the greatest prize to the Hare; and the eighth letter from the
+end is _S_, therefore the _Snail_ obtained the second prize. Next time
+the _I_ will carry off the first prize, and _R_ the second. A due
+attention to order and rotation should prevail in all rewards and
+appointments. Everything should go according to rule. _Rule_ must
+precede merit."
+
+"I should certainly have voted for myself, had I not been among the
+judges," said the mule. "People must take into account not only how
+quickly one goes, but what other circumstances are in question; as,
+for instance, how much one carries. But I would not this time have
+thought about that, neither about the hare's wisdom in his flight--his
+tact in springing suddenly to one side, to put his pursuers on the
+wrong scent, away from his place of concealment. No; there is one
+thing many people think much of, and which ought never to be
+disregarded. It is called THE BEAUTIFUL. I saw that in the hare's
+charming well-grown ears; it is quite a pleasure to see how long they
+are. I fancied that I beheld myself when I was little, and so I voted
+for him."
+
+"Hush!" said the fly. "As for me, I will not speak; I will only say
+one word. I know right well that I have outrun more than one hare. The
+other day I broke the hind legs of one of the young ones. I was
+sitting on the locomotive before the train: I often do that. One sees
+so well there one's own speed. A young hare ran for a long time in
+front of the engine: he had no idea that I was there. At length he was
+just going to turn off the line, when the locomotive went over his
+hind legs and broke them, for I was sitting on it. The hare remained
+lying there, but I drove on. That was surely getting before him; but I
+do not care for the prize."
+
+"It appears to me," thought the wild rose, but she did not say it--it
+is not her nature to express her ideas openly, though it might have
+been well had she done so--"it appears to me that the sunbeam should
+have had the first prize of honour, and the second also. It passes in
+a moment the immeasurable space from the sun down to us, and comes
+with such power that all nature is awakened by it. It has such beauty,
+that all we roses redden and become fragrant under it. The high
+presiding authorities do not seem to have noticed _it_ at all. Were I
+the sunbeam, I would give each of them a sunstroke, that I would; but
+it would only make them crazy, and they will very likely be that
+without it. I shall say nothing," thought the wild rose. "There is
+peace in the wood; it is delightful to blossom, to shed refreshing
+perfume around, to live amidst the songs of birds and the rustling of
+trees; but the sun's rays will outlive us all."
+
+"What is the first prize?" asked the earth-worm, who had overslept
+himself, and only now joined them.
+
+"It gives free entrance to the kitchen garden," said the mule. "I
+proposed the prize, as a clear-sighted and judicious member of the
+meeting, with a view to the hare's advantage. I was resolved he should
+have it, and he is now provided for. The snail has permission to sit
+on the stone fence, and to enjoy the moss and the sunshine; and,
+moreover, he is appointed to be one of the chief judges of the next
+race. It is well to have one who is practically acquainted with the
+business in hand--on a committee, as human beings call it. I must say
+I expect great things from the future--we have made so good a
+beginning."
+
+
+
+
+_The Bell's Hollow._
+
+
+"Ding-dong! ding-dong!" sounded from the buried bell in Odensee river.
+What sort of a river is that? Every child in the town of Odensee knows
+it. It flows round the foot of the gardens, from the locks to the
+water-mill, away under the wooden bridges. In the river grow yellow
+water-lilies, brown feather-like reeds, and the soft velvet-like
+bulrushes, so high and so large. Old, split willow trees, bent and
+twisted, hang far over the water by the side of the monks' meadows and
+the bleaching greens; but a little above is garden after garden--the
+one very different from the other; some with beautiful flowers and
+arbours, clean and in prim array, like dolls' villages; some only
+filled with cabbages; while in others there are no attempts at a
+garden to be seen at all, only great elder trees stretching themselves
+out, and hanging over the running water, which here and there is
+deeper than an oar can fathom.
+
+Opposite to the nunnery is the deepest part. It is called "The Bell's
+Hollow," and there dwells the merman. He sleeps by day when the sun
+shines through the water, but comes forth on the clear starry nights,
+and by moonlight. He is very old. Grandmothers have heard of him from
+their grandmothers. They said he lived a lonely life, and had scarcely
+any one to speak to except the large old church bell. Once upon a time
+it hung up in the steeple of the church; but now there is no trace
+either of the steeple or the church, which was then called Saint
+Albani.
+
+"Ding-dong! ding-dong!" rang the bell while it stood in the steeple;
+and one evening when the sun was setting, and the bell was in full
+motion, it broke loose, and flew through the air, its shining metal
+glowing in the red sunbeams. "Ding-dong! ding-dong! now I am going to
+rest," sang the bell; and it flew out to Odensee river, where it was
+deepest, and therefore that spot is now called "The Bell's Hollow."
+But it found neither sleep nor rest there. Down at the merman's it
+still rings; so that at times it is heard above, through the water,
+and many people say that its tones foretell a death; but there is no
+truth in that, for it rings to amuse the merman, who is now no longer
+alone.
+
+And what does the bell relate? It was so very old, it was there before
+our grandmothers' grandmothers were born, and yet it was a child
+compared with the merman, who is an old, quiet, strange-looking
+person, with eel-skin leggings, a scaly tunic adorned with yellow
+water-lilies, a wreath of sedges in his hair, and weeds in his beard.
+It must be confessed he was not very handsome to look at.
+
+It would take a year and a day to repeat all that the bell said, for
+it told the same old stories over and over again very minutely, making
+them sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, according to its mood. It
+told of the olden days--the rigorous, dark times.
+
+To the tower upon St. Albani Church, where the bell hung, ascended a
+monk. He was both young and handsome, but had an air of deep
+melancholy. He looked through an aperture out over the Odensee river.
+Its bed then was broad, and the monks' meadows were a lake. He gazed
+over them, and over the green mound called "The Nuns Hill," beyond
+which the cloister lay, where the light shone from a nun's cell. He
+had known her well, and he remembered the past, and his heart beat
+wildly at the recollection.
+
+"Ding-dong! ding-dong!" This was one of the bell's stories:--
+
+"There came up to the tower one day an idiot servant of the bishop;
+and when I, the bell, who am cast in hard and heavy metal, swung about
+and pealed, I could have broken his head, for he seated himself
+immediately under me, and began to play with two sticks, exactly as if
+it had been a stringed instrument, and he sang to it thus: 'Now I may
+venture to sing aloud what elsewhere I dare not whisper--sing of all
+that is kept hidden behind locks and bolts. Yonder it is cold and
+damp. The rats eat the living bodies. No one knows of it; no one hears
+of it--not even now, when the bell is pouring forth its loudest
+peal--ding-dong! ding-dong!'
+
+"There was a king: he was called Knud. He humbled himself both before
+bishops and monks; but as he unjustly oppressed the people, and laid
+heavy taxes on them, they armed themselves with all sorts of weapons,
+and chased him away as if he had been a wild beast. He sought shelter
+in the church, and had the doors and windows closed. The furious
+multitude surrounded the sacred edifice, as I heard related; the
+crows and the ravens, and the jackdaws to boot, became scared by the
+noise and the tumult; they flew up into the tower, and out again; they
+looked on the multitude below, they looked also in at the church
+windows, and shrieked out what they saw.
+
+"King Knud knelt before the altar and prayed; his brothers Erik and
+Benedict stood guarding him with their drawn swords; but the king's
+servitor, the false Blake, betrayed his lord. They knew outside where
+he could be reached. A stone was cast in through the window at him,
+and the king lay dead. There were shouts and cries among the angry
+crowd, and cries among the flocks of frightened birds; and I joined
+them too. I pealed forth, 'Ding-dong! ding-dong!'
+
+"The church bell hangs high, sees far around, receives visits from
+birds, and understands their language. To it whispers the wind through
+the wickets and apertures, and through every little chink; and the
+wind knows everything. He hears it from the air, for it encompasses
+all living things; it even enters into the lungs of human beings--it
+hears every word and every sigh. The air knows all, the wind repeats
+all, and the bell understands their speech, and rings it forth to the
+whole world--'Ding dong! ding dong!'
+
+"But all this was too much for me to hear and to know. I had not
+strength enough to ring it all out. I became so wearied, so heavy,
+that the beam from which I hung broke, and I flew through the luminous
+air down to where the river is deepest, where the merman dwells alone
+in solitude; and here I am, year after year, relating to him what I
+have seen and what I have heard. 'Ding-dong! ding-dong!'"
+
+Thus rang the chimes from "The Bell's Hollow" in the Odensee river, as
+my grandmother declares.
+
+But our schoolmaster says there is no bell ringing down there, for it
+could not be; and there is no merman down there, for there are no
+mermen; and, when all the church bells are ringing loudly, he says
+that it is not the bells, but the air that makes the sound. My
+grandmother told me that the bell also said this; so, since the
+schoolmaster and the bell agree in this, no doubt it is true.
+
+The air knows everything. It is round us, it is in us; it speaks of
+our thoughts and our actions; and it proclaims them farther than did
+the bell now down in the Hollow in Odensee river, where the merman
+dwells--it proclaims all out into the great vault of heaven, far, far
+away, even into eternity, up to where the glorious bells of paradise
+peal in tones unknown to mortal ears.
+
+
+
+
+_Soup made of a Sausage-stick._
+
+
+I.
+
+"We had a capital dinner yesterday," said an aged female mouse to one
+who had not been at the feast. "I sat only twenty-one from the old
+King of the Mice: that was not being badly placed. Shall I tell you
+what we had for dinner? It was all very well arranged. We had mouldy
+bread, the skin of bacon, tallow candles, and sausages. Twice we
+returned to the charge: it was as good as if we had had two dinners.
+There was nothing but good-humour and pleasant chit-chat, as in an
+agreeable family circle. Not a mite was left except the sausage-stick.
+The conversation happened to fall upon the possibility of making soup
+of a sausage-stick. All said they had heard of it, but no one had ever
+tasted that soup, or knew how to prepare it. A health was proposed to
+the inventor, who, it was remarked, deserved to be superintendent of
+the poor. Was not that witty? And the old King of the Mice arose and
+declared that the one among the young mice who could prepare the soup
+in question most palatably should be his queen, and he would grant
+them a year and a day for the trial."
+
+"Well, that was not a bad idea," said the other mouse. "But how is the
+soup made?"
+
+"Ay, how is it made? That was what they were all asking, the young and
+the old. Every one was willing enough to become the queen, but they
+were all loath to take the trouble of going out into the world to
+acquire the prescribed qualification; yet it was absolutely necessary
+to do so. But it does not suit every one to leave her family and her
+snug old mouse-hole. One cannot be going out every day after cheese
+parings, and sniffing the rind of bacon. No: such pursuits, too often
+indulged in, would perchance put them in the way of being eaten alive
+by a cat."
+
+These apprehensions were quite terrible enough to scare most of the
+mice from going forth upon the search of knowledge. Only four
+presented themselves for the undertaking. They were young and active,
+but very poor. They would have gone to the four corners of the earth,
+if only good fortune might attend their enterprise. Each of them took
+with her a sausage-stick to remind her what she was travelling for. It
+was to be her walking staff.
+
+On the 1st of May they set out, and on the 1st of May, a year after,
+they returned; but only three of them. The fourth did not report
+herself, and sent no tidings of herself; and yet it was the day fixed
+for the royal decision.
+
+"There shall be no sadness or no drawback to our pleasure," said the
+King of the Mice, as he gave orders that every mouse within several
+miles round should be invited. They were to assemble in the kitchen.
+The three travelled mice were drawn up in a row alone. In the place
+of the fourth, who was absent, was deposited a sausage-stick covered
+with black crepe. No one ventured to utter a word until the three had
+made their statements, and the king had determined what more was to be
+said.
+
+We have now to hear all this.
+
+
+II.
+
+WHAT THE FIRST LITTLE MOUSE HAD SEEN AND LEARNT ON HER JOURNEY.
+
+"When I first went forth into the wide world," said the little mouse,
+"I thought, as so many of my age do, that I had swallowed all the
+wisdom of the earth; but that was not the case--it required a year and
+a day for that to come to pass. I went at once to sea, on board a ship
+which was bound for the north. I had heard that cooks at sea were
+pretty well acquainted with their business; but there is little to do
+when one has plenty of sides of bacon, barrels of salt meat, and musty
+meal at hand. One lives delicately on these nice things; but one
+learns nothing like making soup of a sausage-stick. We sailed for many
+days and nights, and a stormy and wet time we had of it. When we
+reached our destination I left the vessel: this was far away up in the
+north.
+
+"One has a strange feeling on leaving one's own mouse-hole at home,
+being carried away in a ship, which becomes a home for the time, and
+suddenly finding one's self, at the distance of more than a hundred
+miles, standing alone in a foreign land. I saw myself amidst a large
+tangled wood full of pine and birch trees. Their scent was so strong!
+It is not at all my taste; but the perfume from the wild plants was so
+spicy that I was quite charmed, and thought of the sausage and the
+seasoning for the soup. There were lakes amidst the forest, the water
+was beautifully clear close at hand, but looking in the distance as
+black as ink. There were white swans upon the lake. I mistook them at
+first for foam, they lay so still; but when I saw them fly I
+recognised them. They, however, belong to the race of geese. No one
+can deny his kindred. I like mine, and I hastened to seek the field
+mice, who, truth to tell, know very little except what concerns their
+food; and it was just that on account of which I had travelled to a
+foreign country. That any one should think of making soup out of a
+sausage-stick seemed to them so extraordinary an idea, that it was
+speedily circulated through the whole wood; but that the problem
+should be solved they considered an impossibility. Little did I think
+then that the very same night I should be initiated into the process.
+
+"It was midsummer; therefore it was that the woods scented so
+strongly, they said; therefore were the plants so aromatic in their
+perfume, the lake so clear, and yet so dark with the white swans upon
+them. On the borders of the forest, amidst three or four houses, was
+erected a pole as high as a mainmast, and around it hung wreaths and
+ribbons. This was the Maypole. Girls and young men danced round it,
+and sang to the accompaniment of the fiddler's violin. All went on
+merrily till after the sun had set, and the moon had risen, but I took
+no part in the festivity; for what had a little mouse to do with a
+forest ball? I sat down amidst the soft moss, and held fast my
+sausage-stick. The moon shone brightly on a place where there was a
+solitary tree surrounded by moss so fine--yes, I venture to say as
+fine as the Mice-King's skin--but it had a green tint, and its colour
+was very soothing to the eye. All at once I saw approaching a set of
+the most beautiful little people, so little that they would only have
+reached to my knee; they looked like men and women, but they were
+better proportioned. They called themselves Elves, and their garments
+were composed of the leaves of flowers, trimmed with the wings of
+gnats and flies--not at all ugly. They seemed as if they were
+searching for something--what I did not know; but when they came a
+little nearer to me their leader tapped my sausage-stick, and said,
+'This is what we want; it is all ready, all prepared;' and he became
+more and more joyful as he gazed upon my walking-stick.
+
+"'You may borrow it, but not keep it,' said I.
+
+"'Not keep it!' they all exclaimed together, as they seized my
+sausage-stick, and, dancing away to the green mossy spot, placed the
+sausage-stick there in the centre of it. They determined also on
+having a Maypole; and the stick they had just captured seeming quite
+suited to their purpose, it was soon ornamented.
+
+"Small spiders spun gold threads around it--hung up waving veils and
+flags so finely worked, shining so snow-white under the moonbeams,
+that my eyes were quite dazzled. They took the colours from the wings
+of the butterflies, and sprinkled them on the white webs, till they
+seemed to be laden with flowers and diamonds. I did not know my own
+sausage-stick--it had become such a magnificent Maypole, that
+certainly had not its equal in the world. And now came tripping
+forwards the great mass of the elves, most of them very slightly
+clad; but what they did wear was of the finest materials. I looked
+on, of course, but in the background, for I was too big for them.
+
+"Then what a game commenced! It was as if a thousand glass bells were
+ringing, the sound was so clear and full. I fancied the swans were
+singing, and I also thought I heard cuckoos and thrushes. At length it
+seemed as if the whole wood was filled with music. There were the
+sweet voices of children, the ringing of bells, and the songs of
+birds; and all these melodious sounds seemed to proceed from the
+elves' Maypole--an orchestra in itself--and that was my sausage-stick.
+I never would have believed that so much could have come from it; but
+much, of course, depended on what hands it fell into. I became very
+much agitated, and I wept, as a little mouse can weep, from sheer
+pleasure.
+
+"The night was all too short; but, at this time of the year, the
+nights are not long up yonder. At the dawn of day there arose a fresh
+breeze; the surface of the lake became ruffled; all the delicately
+fine veils and flags disappeared in the air; the swinging kiosks of
+cobwebs, the suspension bridges and balustrades, or whatever they are
+called, which were constructed from leaf to leaf, vanished into
+nothing; six elves brought me my sausage-stick, and at the same time
+asked if I had any wish they could fulfil; whereupon I begged them to
+tell me how soup could be made from a sausage-stick.
+
+"'What we can do,' said the foremost, laughing, 'you have just seen.
+You could scarcely have recognised your sausage-stick.'
+
+"'You mean as you transformed it,' said I; and then I told them the
+cause of my journey, and what was expected at home from it. 'Of what
+use,' I asked, 'will it be to the King of the Mice and all our large
+community that I have seen this beautiful sight? I cannot shake the
+sausage-stick and say, You see here the stick--now comes the soup!
+That would be like a hoax.'
+
+"Then the elf dipped its little finger into a blue violet, and said to
+me,--
+
+"'Look! I spread a charm over your walking-stick, and when you return
+to the palace of the King of the Mice make it touch the king's warm
+breast, and violets will spring from every part of the staff, even in
+the coldest winter weather. See! you have now something worth taking
+home, and perhaps a little more.'"
+
+But before the little mouse had finished repeating what the elf had
+said she laid her staff against the king's breast, and sure enough
+there sprang forth from it the loveliest flowers. They yielded so
+strong a perfume that the king commanded that the mice who stood
+nearest the chimney should stick their tails in the fire, in order
+that the smell of the singed hair should overpower the odour from the
+flowers, which was very offensive.
+
+"But what was 'the little more' you spoke of?" asked the King of the
+Mice.
+
+"Oh!" said the little mouse, "it is what is called an _effect_;" and
+so she turned her sausage-stick. And behold, there were no more
+flowers visible! She held only the naked stick, and she moved it like
+a stick for beating time.
+
+"The violets are for sight, smell, and touch, the elf told me; but
+there are still wanting hearing and taste."
+
+She beat time, and there was music--not such, however, as sounded in
+the wood at the elfin fête; no, such as is heard at times in the
+kitchen. It came suddenly, like the wind whistling down the chimney.
+The pots and the pans boiled over, and the shovel thundered against
+the large brass kettle. It stopped as suddenly as it had commenced;
+and then was only to be heard the smothered song of the tea-kettle,
+which was so strange with its tones rising and falling, and the little
+pot and the large pot boiling, the one not troubling itself about the
+other, as if neither could think. Then the little mouse moved her
+time-stick faster and faster; the pots bubbled up and boiled over; the
+wind roared in the chimney; the commotion was so great that the little
+mouse herself got frightened, and dropped the stick.
+
+"It was hard work to make that soup," cried the old king; "but where
+is the result--the dish?"
+
+"That is all," said the little mouse, courtesying.
+
+"All! Then let us hear what the next has to tell," said the king.
+
+
+III.
+
+WHAT THE SECOND MOUSE HAD TO RELATE.
+
+"I was born in the palace library," said the second mouse. "I, and
+several members of my family there, have never had the good fortune to
+enter the dining-room, let alone the pantry. It was only when I first
+began my travels, and now again to-day, that I have even beheld a
+kitchen. We had often to endure hunger in the library, but we acquired
+much knowledge. The report of the reward offered by royalty for the
+discovery of the process by which soup could be made of a
+sausage-stick reached us even up there, and my grandmother thereupon
+looked for a manuscript which, though she could not read herself, she
+had heard read, wherein it was said,--
+
+"'A poet can make soup out of a sausage-stick.'
+
+"She asked me if I were a poet. I confessed I was not, to which she
+replied that I must go and try to become one. I begged to know what
+was to be done to acquire this art, for it appeared to me about as
+difficult to attain as to make the soup itself. But my grandmother had
+heard a good deal of reading, and she told me that the three things
+principally necessary were--good sense, imagination, and feeling. 'If
+thou canst go and furnish thyself with _these_, thou wilt be a poet;
+and there will be every chance of thy success in the matter of the
+sausage-stick.'
+
+"So I set off to the westward, out into the wide world, to become a
+poet.
+
+"_Good sense_ I knew was the most important of all things, the two
+other qualities not being so highly esteemed. So I went first after
+good sense. Well, where did it dwell? 'Go to the ant; consider her
+ways, and be wise,' a great king of the Hebrews has said. I knew this
+from the library, and I never stopped until I reached a large
+ant-hill; and there I settled myself to watch them.
+
+"They are a very respectable tribe, the ants, and full of good sense;
+everything among them is as correctly done as a well-calculated sum in
+arithmetic. 'To labour and to lay eggs,' say they, 'is to live in the
+present, and to provide for the future;' and that they assuredly do.
+They divide themselves into the clean ants and the dirty ones. Rank is
+distinguished by a number. The queen ant is number one, and her will
+is their only law. She has swallowed all the wisdom, and it was of
+consequence to me to listen to her; but she said so much and was so
+profoundly wise, that I could scarcely comprehend her.
+
+"She said that their hill was the highest in the world; but close to
+the hill stood a tree that was higher, certainly much higher. She
+could not deny this, so she did not allude to it. One evening an ant
+had lost his way, and finding himself on the tree, he crept up the
+trunk, not as far as the top, but much higher than any ant had ever
+gone before; and when he descended, and found his way home at last, he
+imprudently told in the ant-hill of something much higher at a little
+distance from it. This was taken by one and all as an affront to the
+whole community, and the offending ant was condemned to have his mouth
+muzzled, as well as to perpetual solitude. But shortly after another
+ant got as far as the tree, and made a similar journey and a similar
+discovery. He spoke of it, however, discreetly and mysteriously, and
+as he happened to be an ant of consideration--one of the clean--they
+believed him; and when he died they placed an egg-shell over him as a
+monument in honour of his extensive knowledge.
+
+"I observed," said the little mouse, "that the ants continually move
+with their eggs on their backs. One of them dropped hers. She tried
+very hard to get it up again, but could not succeed; then two others
+came and helped her with all their might, until they had nearly lost
+their own eggs, whereupon they let the attempt alone, for one is
+nearest to one's self; and the queen ant remarked that both heart and
+good sense had been shown. 'These two qualities place us ants among
+reasonable beings,' she said. 'Sense ought to be, and is, of the most
+consequence; and I have the most of that;' and she raised herself, in
+her self-satisfaction, on her hind leg. I could not mistake her, and
+I swallowed her. 'Go to the ant; consider her ways, and be wise.' I
+had now the queen.
+
+"I then went nearer to the above-mentioned large tree: it was an oak.
+It had high branches, a majestic crown of leaves, and was very old. I
+perceived that a living creature resided in it--a female. She was
+called a Dryad. She had been born with the tree, and would die with
+it. I had heard of this in the library; and now I beheld one of the
+real trees, and a real oak-nymph. She uttered a frightful shriek when
+she saw me near her; for she was like all women, very much afraid of
+mice. She, however, had more reason to be afraid of me than others of
+her sex have, for I could have gnawed the tree in two, and on it hung
+her life. I spoke to her kindly and cordially. This gave her courage,
+and she took me in her slender hand; and when she understood what had
+brought me out into the wide world, she promised that I should,
+perhaps that very night, become possessed of one of the two treasures
+of which I was in search. She told me that Imagination was her very
+particular friend; that he was as charming as the God of Love; and
+that he often, for many an hour, sought repose under the spreading
+foliage of the tree, which then sighed more musically over the two. He
+called her _his_ dryad, she said, and the tree _his_ tree. The mighty,
+gnarled, majestic oak was just to his taste, with its broad roots sunk
+deep into the earth, its trunk and its coronal rising so high in the
+free air, meeting the drifting snow, the cutting winds, and the bright
+sunshine, before they had reached the ground. All this she said, and
+she continued: 'The birds sing up yonder, and tell of foreign lands,
+and upon the only decayed branch the stork has built a nest; and it
+is a pleasure to hear of the country where the pyramids stand. All
+this Fancy can well depict, and very much more. I myself can describe
+life in the woods from the time that I was quite little, and this tree
+was so tiny that a nettle could have covered it, until now, when it is
+so strong and mighty. Sit down yonder under the woodruffs, and be on
+the look-out. When Fancy comes I shall find an opportunity of pinching
+his wing, and stealing a little feather from it. You shall take that,
+and no poet will ever have been better provided. Will that do?'
+
+"And Imagination came; a feather was plucked from him, and I got it,"
+said the little mouse. "I held it in the water till it became soft. It
+was still hard of digestion, but I managed to gnaw it all up. It is
+not at all easy to stuff one's self so as to be a poet--there is so
+much to be put in one. I had now got two of the ingredients--good
+sense and imagination; and I knew by their help that the third
+ingredient was to be found in the library; for a great man has said
+and written that there are romances which are useful in easing people
+of a superfluity of tears, and which also act as a sort of swamp to
+cast feelings into. I remembered some of these books; they had always
+looked very enticing to me. They were so thumbed, so greasy, they must
+have been very popular.
+
+"I returned home to the library, ate almost as much as a whole
+romance--that is to say, the soft part of it, the pith--but the crust,
+the binding, I let alone. When I had digested this, and another to
+boot, I perceived how my inside was stirred up; so I ate part of a
+third, and then I considered myself a poet, and every one about me
+said I was. I had headaches, of course, and all sorts of aches. I
+thought over what story I could work up about a sausage-stick, and
+there was no end of sticks and pegs crowding my mind. The queen ant
+had had an uncommon intellect. I remembered the man who took a white
+peg into his mouth, and both he and it became invisible. All my
+thoughts ran upon sticks. A poet can write even upon these; and I am a
+poet I trust, for I have fagged hard to be one. I shall be able every
+day in the week to amuse you with the story of a stick. This is my
+soup."
+
+"Let us hear the third," said the King of the Mice.
+
+"Pip, pip!" said a little mouse at the kitchen door. It was the fourth
+of them, the one they thought dead. She tripped in, and jumped upon
+the upper end of the sausage-stick with the black crape. She had been
+journeying day and night, travelling on the railroad by the goods
+train, in which she took great pleasure, and yet she had almost
+arrived too late; but she hurried forward, puffing and panting, and
+looking very much jaded. She had lost her sausage-stick, but not her
+voice; for she began talking with the utmost velocity, as if every one
+was dying to hear her, and no one could say anything to the purpose
+but herself. How she did chatter! But she had arrived so unexpectedly
+that no one had time to find fault with her or her talking, so she
+went on. Now let us listen.
+
+
+IV.
+
+WHAT THE FOURTH MOUSE--WHO SPOKE BEFORE THE THIRD ONE HAD SPOKEN--HAD
+TO RELATE.
+
+"I went straight to the greatest city," she said. "I do not remember
+its name. I do not recollect names well. I came from the railway with
+confiscated goods to the town council-hall, and there I ran to the
+jailer. He spoke of his prisoners, especially of one of them, who had
+uttered some very imprudent words; and when these had been repeated,
+and written down and read, 'The whole,' said he, 'was only--soup of a
+sausage-stick; but that soup may cost him dear.' I felt interested in
+the prisoner," continued the little mouse, "and I watched for an
+opportunity to go in where he was. There is always a mouse-hole behind
+locked doors. He looked very pale, had a dark beard, and large shining
+eyes. The lamp smoked; but the walls were accustomed to this. They did
+not turn any blacker. The prisoner was scratching on them both
+pictures and verses; but I did not read the latter. I fancy he was
+tired of being alone, for I was a welcome guest. He enticed me with
+crumbs of bread, with his flute, and kind words. He was so happy with
+me! I put confidence in him, and we became friends. He shared with me
+bread and water, and gave me cheese and sausages. I lived luxuriously;
+but it was not alone the good cheer that detained me. He allowed me to
+run upon his hand and arm all the way up to his shoulder; he allowed
+me to creep into his beard, and called me his little friend. I became
+very dear to him, and our regard was mutual. I forgot my errand out in
+the wide world; I forgot my sausage-stick in a crevice in the floor;
+and there it still lies. I wished to remain where I was; for, if I
+left him, the poor prisoner would have nothing to care for in this
+world. I remained; but he, alas! did not. He spoke to me so sadly for
+the last time, gave me a double allowance of bread and cheese parings,
+kissed his finger to me, and then he was gone--gone, never to return.
+I do not know his history. 'Soup of a sausage-stick!' said the jailer,
+and I went to him; but I was wrong to trust in him. He took me up,
+indeed, in his hand; but he put me in a cage, a treadmill. That was
+hard work--jumping and jumping without getting on a bit, and only to
+be laughed at.
+
+"The jailer's grandchild was a pretty little fellow, with waving hair
+as yellow as gold, sparkling, joyous eyes, and a laughing mouth.
+
+"'Poor little mouse!' he exclaimed, peeping in at my horrid cage, and
+at the same time drawing up the iron pin that closed it.
+
+"I seized the opportunity, and sprang first to the window-ledge, and
+thence to the conduit-pipe. Free, free! that was all I could think of,
+and not the object of my journey.
+
+"It became dark--it was almost night. I took up my lodgings in a
+tower, where dwelt a watchman and an owl. I could not trust either of
+them, and the owl least of the two. It resembles a cat, and has one
+great fault--that it eats mice. But one can be on one's guard, and
+that I assuredly would be. She was a respectable, extremely
+well-educated old owl. She knew more than the watchman, and almost as
+much as I myself did. The young owls made a great fuss about
+everything.
+
+"'Don't make soup of a sausage-stick,' said she.
+
+"This was the severest thing she could say to them, she was so very
+fond of her family. I felt so much inclined to place some reliance in
+her that I cried "Pip!" from the crevice in which I was concealed. My
+confidence in her seemed to please her, and she assured me that I
+should be safe under her protection; that no animal would be permitted
+to injure me until winter, when she might herself fall upon me, as
+food would be scarce.
+
+"She was very wise in all things. She proved to me that the watchman
+could not blow a blast without his horn, which hung loosely about him.
+
+"He piques himself exceedingly upon his performances, and fancies he
+is the owl of the tower. The sound ought to be very loud, but it is
+extremely weak. 'Soup of a sausage-stick!'
+
+"I begged her to give me the recipe for the soup, and she explained it
+to me thus:--
+
+"'Soup of a sausage-stick is but a cant phrase among men, and is
+differently interpreted. Every one fancies his own interpretation the
+best, but in sober reality there is nothing in it whatsoever.'
+
+"'Nothing!' cried I. That was a poser. 'Truth is not always pleasant,
+but truth is always the best.' So also said the old owl. I considered
+the matter, and came to the conclusion that when I brought _the best_
+I brought more than 'soup of a sausage-stick;' and thereupon I
+hastened homewards, so that I might arrive in good time to bring what
+is most valuable--THE TRUTH. The mice are an enlightened community,
+and their king is the cleverest of them all. He can make me his queen
+for the sake of Truth."
+
+"Thy truth is a falsehood," said the mouse who had not yet had an
+opportunity of speaking. "I can make the soup, and I will do it."
+
+
+V.
+
+HOW THE SOUP WAS MADE.
+
+"I have not travelled at all," said the last mouse. "I remained in our
+own country. It is not necessary to go to foreign lands--one can
+learn as well at home. I remained there. I have not acquired any
+information of unnatural beings. I have not eaten information, or
+conversed with owls. I confined myself to original thoughts. Will some
+one now be so good as to fill the kettle with water, and put it on?
+Let there be plenty of fire under it. Let the water boil--boil
+briskly; then throw the sausage-stick in. Will his majesty the King of
+the Mice be so condescending as to put his tail into the boiling pot,
+and stir it about? The longer he stirs it, the richer the soup will
+become. It costs nothing, and requires no other ingredients--it only
+needs to be stirred."
+
+"Cannot another do this?" asked the king.
+
+"No," said the mouse. "The effect can only be produced by the royal
+tail."
+
+The water was boiled, and the King of the Mice prepared himself for
+the operation, though it was rather dangerous. He stuck his tail out,
+as mice are in the habit of doing in the dairy, when they skim the
+cream off the dish with their tails; but he had no sooner popped his
+tail into the warm steam than he drew it out and sprang down.
+
+"Of course you are my queen," said he; "but we shall wait for the soup
+till our golden wedding, and the poor in my kingdom will have
+something to rejoice over in the future."
+
+So the nuptials were celebrated; but many of the mice, when they went
+home, said, "It could not well be called soup of a sausage-stick, but
+rather soup of a mouse's tail."
+
+They allowed that each of the narratives was very well told, but the
+whole might have been better. "I, for instance, would have related my
+adventures in such and such words...."
+
+These were the critics, and they are always so wise--afterwards.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And this history went round the world. Opinions were divided about it,
+but the historian himself remained unmoved. And this is best in great
+things and in small.
+
+
+
+
+_The Neck of a Bottle._
+
+
+Yonder, in the confined, crooked streets, amidst several poor-looking
+houses, stood a narrow high tenement, run up of framework that was
+much misshapen, with corners and ends awry. It was inhabited by poor
+people, the poorest of whom looked out from the garret, where, outside
+the little window, hung in the sunshine an old, dented bird-cage,
+which had not even a common cage-glass, but only the neck of a bottle
+inverted, with a cork below, and filled with water. An old maid stood
+near the open window; she had just been putting some chickweed into
+the cage, wherein a little linnet was hopping from perch to perch, and
+singing until her warbling became almost overpowering.
+
+"Yes, you may well sing," said the neck of the bottle; but it did not
+say this as we should say it, for the neck of a bottle cannot speak,
+but it thought so within itself, just as we human beings speak
+inwardly.
+
+"Yes, you may well sing, you who have your limbs entire. You should
+have experienced, like me, what it is to have lost your lower part, to
+have only a neck and a mouth, and the latter stopped up with a cork,
+as I have; then you would not sing. But it is well that somebody is
+contented. I have no cause to sing, and I cannot. I could once though,
+when I was a whole bottle. How I was praised at the furrier's in the
+wood, when his daughter was betrothed! Yes, I remember that day as if
+it were yesterday. I have gone through a great deal when I look back.
+I have been in fire and in water, down in the dark earth, and higher
+up than many; and now I am suspended outside of a bird-cage in the air
+and sunshine. It might be worth while to listen to my story; but I do
+not speak it aloud, because I cannot."
+
+So it went on thinking over its own history, which was curious enough;
+and the little bird poured forth its strains, and in the street below
+people walked and drove, every one thinking of himself, some scarcely
+thinking at all; but the neck of the bottle _was_ thinking.
+
+It remembered the blazing smelt-furnace at the manufactory where it
+was blown into life. It remembered even now that it had been extremely
+warm; that it had looked into the roaring oven, its original home, and
+had felt strongly inclined to spring back into it; but that by
+degrees, as it felt cooler, it found itself comfortable enough where
+it was, placed in a row with a whole regiment of brothers and sisters
+from the same furnace, some of which, however, were blown into
+champagne bottles, others into ale bottles; and that made a
+difference, since out in the world an ale bottle may contain the
+costly LACRYMÆ CHRISTI, and a champagne bottle may be filled with
+blacking; but what they were born to every one can see by their shape,
+so that noble remains noble even with blacking in it.
+
+All the bottles were packed up, and our bottle with them. It then
+little thought that it would end in being only the neck of a bottle
+serving as a bird's glass--an honourable state of existence truly, but
+still something. It did not see daylight again until it was unpacked
+along with its comrades in the wine merchant's cellar, and was washed
+for the first time. That was a funny sensation. After that it lay
+empty and uncorked, and felt so very listless; it wanted something,
+but did not know what it wanted. At length it was filled with an
+excellent, superior wine, and, when corked and sealed, a label was
+stuck on it outside with the words, "Best quality." It was as if it
+had taken its first academic degree. But the wine was good, and the
+bottle was good. The young are fond of music, and much singing went on
+in it, the songs being on themes about which it scarcely knew
+anything--the green sunlit hills where the wine grapes grew, where
+beautiful girls and handsome swains met, and danced, and sang, and
+loved. Ah! there it is delightful to dwell. And all this was made into
+songs in the bottle, as it is made into songs by young poets, who also
+frequently know nothing at all about the subjects they choose.
+
+One morning it was bought. The furrier's boy was ordered to purchase a
+bottle of the best wine, and this one was carried away in a basket,
+with ham, cheese, and sausage; there were also the nicest butter and
+the finest bread. The furrier's daughter herself packed the basket.
+She was so young, so pretty! Her brown eyes laughed, and the smile on
+her sweet mouth was almost as expressive as her eyes. She had
+beautiful soft hands--they were so white; yet her throat and neck were
+still whiter. It could be seen at once that she was one of the
+prettiest girls in the neighbourhood, and, strange to say, not yet
+engaged.
+
+The basket of provisions was placed in her lap when the family drove
+out to the wood. The neck of the bottle stuck out above the parts of
+the white napkins that were visible. There was red wax on its cork,
+and it looked straight into the eyes of the pretty girl, and also into
+those of the young sailor--the mate of a ship--who sat beside her. He
+was the son of a portrait painter, and had just passed a first-rate
+examination for mate, and was to go on board his vessel the next day
+to sail for far-distant countries. Much was said about his voyage
+during the drive; and when _it_ was spoken of, there was not exactly
+an expression of joy in the eyes and about the mouth of the furrier's
+daughter.
+
+The two young people wandered away into the green wood. They were in
+earnest conversation. Of what were they speaking? The bottle did not
+hear that, for it was still standing in the basket of provisions. It
+seemed a long time before it was taken out, but then it saw pleasant
+faces round. Everybody was smiling, and the furrier's daughter also
+smiled; but she spoke less, and her cheeks were blushing like two red
+roses.
+
+The father took the full bottle and the corkscrew. Oh! it is
+astonishing to a bottle the first time a cork is drawn from it. The
+neck of the bottle could never afterwards forget that important moment
+when, with a low sound, the cork flew, and the wine streamed out into
+the awaiting glasses.
+
+"To the health of the betrothed pair!" cried the father, and every
+glass was drained; and the young mate kissed his lovely bride. "May
+happiness and every blessing attend you both!" said the old people;
+and the young man begged them to fill their glasses again for his
+toast.
+
+"To my return home and my wedding, within a year and a day!" he
+cried; and when the glasses were empty he took the bottle, and lifted
+it high above his head. "Thou hast been present during the happiest
+day of my life; thou shalt never serve another!"
+
+And he cast the bottle high up in the air. Ah! little did the
+furrier's daughter think then that she should often look on that which
+was flung up; but she was destined to do so. It fell among the thick
+mass of reeds that bordered a pond in the woods. The neck of the
+bottle remembered distinctly what it thought as it lay there, and it
+was this: "I gave them wine, and they give me bog-water; but it was
+well meant." It could no more see the betrothed young couple, or the
+happy old people; but it heard in the distance the sounds of music and
+of mirth. Then came two little peasant children peering among the
+reeds. They saw the bottle, and carried it off with them: so it was
+provided for.
+
+At home, in the cottage among the woods where they lived, their eldest
+brother, who was a sailor, had, the day before, come to say farewell;
+for he was about to start on a long voyage. The mother was busy
+packing various little matters, which the father was to take with him
+to the town in the evening, when he went to see his son once more
+before his departure, and give him again his mother's blessing. A
+phial with spiced brandy was placed in the package; but at that moment
+the children came in with the larger, stronger bottle which they had
+found. A larger quantity could go into it than into the phial. It was
+not the red wine, as before, that the bottle received, but some bitter
+stuff. However, it also was excellent as a stomachic. Our bottle was
+thus again to set forth on its travels. It was carried on board to
+Peter Jensen, who happened to be in the same ship as was the young
+mate; but he did not see the bottle, and, if he had seen it, he would
+not have known it to have been the same from which were drunk the
+toasts in honour of his betrothal, and to his safe return.
+
+Although there was no longer wine in it, there was something quite as
+good; and whenever Peter Jensen brought it forth, his comrades called
+it "the apothecary." The nice medicine was so much in vogue that very
+soon there was not a drop of it left. The bottle had a pleasant time
+of it, upon the whole, while its contents were in such high favour. It
+acquired the name of the great "Loerke"--"Peter Jensen's
+Loerke."[4]
+
+[Footnote 4: "Loerke," which generally means "lark," is the name
+given among the lower classes in Denmark to a spirit bottle of a
+peculiar shape. There is no word that corresponds with it in
+English.--_Trans._]
+
+But this time was passed, and it had lain long neglected in a corner.
+It did not know whether it was on the voyage out or homewards; for it
+had never been on shore anywhere. One day a great storm arose; the
+black, heavy waves rolled mountains high, and heaved the ship up and
+cast it down by turns; the mast came down with a crash; the sea stove
+in a plank; the pumps were no longer of any avail. It was a pitch-dark
+night. The ship sank; but at the last minute the young mate wrote on a
+slip of paper, "_In the name of Jesus--we are lost!_" He wrote down
+the name of his bride, his own name, and that of his ship; then he
+thrust the note into an empty bottle that was within reach, pressed in
+the cork tightly, and cast the bottle out into the raging sea. Little
+did he know that it was the identical bottle which had contained the
+wine in which had been drunk the toasts of joy and hope for him and
+her, that was now tossing on the billows with these last
+remembrances, and the message of death.
+
+The ship sank--the crew sank--but the bottle skimmed the waves like a
+sea-fowl. It had a heart then--the letter of love within it. And the
+sun rose, and the sun set. This sight recalled to the bottle the scene
+of its earliest life--the red glowing furnace, to which it had once
+longed to return. It encountered calms and storms; but it was not
+dashed to pieces against any rocks. It was not swallowed by any shark.
+For more than a year and a day it drifted on--now towards the north,
+now towards the south--as the currents carried it. In other respects
+it was its own master; but one can become tired even of that.
+
+The written paper--the last farewell from the bridegroom to his
+bride--would only bring deep sorrow if it ever reached the proper
+hands. But where were these hands, that had looked so white when they
+spread the tablecloth on the fresh grass in the green wood on the
+betrothal-day? Where was the furrier's daughter? Nay, where was her
+country? and to what country was it nearest? The bottle knew not. It
+drifted and drifted, and it was so tired of always drifting on; but it
+could not help itself. Still, still it had to drift, until at last it
+reached the land; but it was a foreign country. It did not understand
+a word that was said, for the language was not such as it had been
+formerly accustomed to hear; and one feels quite lost if one does not
+understand the language spoken around.
+
+The bottle was taken up and examined; the slip of paper in it was
+observed, taken out, and opened; but nobody could make out what was
+written on it, though every one knew that the bottle must have been
+cast overboard, and that some information was contained in the paper;
+but what _that_ was remained a mystery, and it was put back into the
+bottle, and the latter laid by in a large press, in a large room, in a
+large house.
+
+Whenever any stranger came the slip of paper was taken out, opened,
+and examined, so that the writing, which was only in pencil, became
+more and more illegible from the frequent folding and unfolding of the
+paper, till at length the letters could no longer be discerned. After
+the bottle had remained about a year in the press it was removed to
+the loft, and was soon covered with dust and cobwebs. Ah! then it
+thought of its better days, when red wine was poured from it in the
+shady wood, and when it swayed about upon the waves, and had a secret
+to carry--a letter, a farewell sigh.
+
+It now remained in the loft for twenty mortal years, and it might have
+remained longer, had not the house been going to be rebuilt. The roof
+was taken off, the bottle discovered and talked about; but it did not
+understand what was said. One does not learn languages, living up
+alone in a loft, even in twenty years. "Had I but been down in the
+parlour," it thought, and with truth, "I would, of course, have
+learned it."
+
+It was now washed and rinsed. It certainly wanted cleaning sadly, and
+very clear and transparent it felt itself after it--indeed, quite
+young again in its old age; but the slip of paper committed to its
+charge, that was lost in the washing. The bottle was now filled with
+seeds. Such contents were new to it. Well stopped up and wrapped up it
+was, and it could see neither a lantern nor a candle, not to mention
+the sun or the moon. "One ought to see something when one goes on a
+journey," thought the bottle; but it did not, however, until it
+reached the place it was going to, and was there unpacked.
+
+"What trouble these people abroad have taken about it!" was remarked;
+"yet no doubt it is cracked." But it was not cracked. The bottle
+understood every word that was said, for they were spoken in the
+language it had heard at the furnace, at the wine merchant's, in the
+wood, and on board ship--the only right good old language, one which
+could be understood. The bottle had returned to its own country, and
+in its joy had nearly jumped out of the hands that were holding it. It
+scarcely observed that the cork had been removed, its contents shaken
+out, and itself put away in the cellar to be kept and forgotten. But
+home is dearest, even in a cellar. It had enough to think over, and
+time enough to think, for it lay there for years; but at last one day
+folks came down there to look for some bottles, and took this one with
+them.
+
+Outside, in the garden, there were great doings; coloured lamps hung
+in festoons; paper lanterns, formed like large tulips, gave forth
+their subdued light. It was also a charming evening; the air was calm
+and clear; the stars began, one after the other, to shine in the deep
+blue heavens above; while the round moon looked like a pale
+bluish-grey ball, with a golden border encircling it.
+
+There were also some illuminations in the side walks, at least enough
+to let people see their way; bottles with lights in them were placed
+here and there among the hedges; and amidst these stood the bottle we
+know, the one that was destined to end as the mere neck of a bottle
+and the glass of a bird-cage. At the period just named, however, it
+found everything so exquisitely charming. It was again among flowers
+and verdure, again surrounded by joy and festivity; it again heard
+singing and musical instruments, and the hum and buzz of a crowd of
+people, especially from that part of the gardens which were most
+brilliantly illuminated. It had a good situation itself, and stood
+there useful and happy, bearing its appointed light. During such a
+pleasant time it forgot the twenty years up in the loft, and it is
+good to be able to forget.
+
+Close by it passed a couple arm-in-arm, like the happy pair in the
+wood, the mate and the furrier's daughter. It seemed to the bottle as
+if it were living that time over again. Guests and visitors of
+different ages wandered up and down, gazing upon the illuminations;
+and among these was an old maid, without relations, but not without
+friends. Probably her thoughts were occupied, as were those of the
+bottle; for she was thinking of the green woods, and of a young couple
+just betrothed. These _souvenirs_ affected her much, for she had been
+a party in them--a prominent party. This was in her happier hours; and
+one never forgets these, even when one becomes a very old maid. But
+she did not recognise the bottle, and it did not recognise her. So it
+is we wear out of each other's knowledge in this world, until people
+meet again as these two did.
+
+The bottle passed from the public gardens to the wine merchant's; it
+was there again filled with wine, and sold to an aëronaut, who was to
+go up in a balloon the following Sunday. There was a multitude of
+people to witness the ascent, there was a regimental band, and there
+were many preparations going on. The bottle saw all this from a
+basket, in which it lay with a living rabbit, who was very much
+frightened when it saw it was to go up in the parachute. The bottle
+did not know where it was to go; it beheld the balloon extending
+wider and wider, and becoming so large that it could not be larger;
+then lifting itself up higher and higher, and rolling restlessly until
+the ropes that held it were cut, when it arose majestically into the
+air, with the aëronaut, the basket, the bottle, and the rabbit; then
+the music played loudly, and the assembled crowd shouted, "Hurra!
+hurra!"
+
+"It is droll to go aloft," thought the bottle; "it is a novel sort of
+a voyage. Up yonder one cannot run away."
+
+Many thousand human beings gazed up at the balloon, and the old maid
+gazed among the rest. She stood by her open garret window, where a
+cage hung with a little linnet, which at that time had no water-glass,
+but had to content itself with a cup. Just within the window stood a
+myrtle tree, that was moved a little aside, that it might not come in
+the way while the old maid was leaning out to look at the balloon. And
+she could perceive the aëronaut in it; she saw him let the rabbit down
+in the parachute, and then, having drunk the health of the crowd
+below, throw the bottle high up in the air. Little did she think that
+it was just the same bottle she had seen thrown up high in honour of
+herself and her lover, on a well-remembered happy day amidst the green
+wood, when she was young.
+
+The bottle had no time to think, it was so unexpectedly exalted to the
+highest position it had ever attained in its life. The roofs and the
+spires lay far below, and the people looked as small as pigmies.
+
+It now descended, and that at a different rate of speed from the
+rabbit. The bottle cast somersaults in the air--it felt itself so
+young, so buoyant. It was half full of wine, but not long. What a trip
+that was! The sun shone upon the bottle, and all the crowd looked up
+at it. The balloon was soon far away, and the bottle was soon also
+out of sight, for it fell upon a roof and broke in two; but the
+fragments rebounded again, and leaped and rolled till they reached the
+yard below, where they lay in smaller pieces; for only the neck of the
+bottle escaped destruction, and it looked as if it had been cut round
+by a diamond.
+
+"It may still serve as a glass for a bird's cage," said the man in the
+cellar.
+
+But he himself had neither a bird nor a cage, and it would have cost
+too much to buy these because he had found the neck of a bottle that
+would answer for a glass. The old maid, however, up in the garret,
+might make use of it; and so the neck of the bottle was sent up to
+her. A cork was fitted to it, and, as first mentioned, after its many
+changes, it was filled with fresh water, and was hung in front of the
+cage of the little bird, that sang until its warbling became almost
+overpowering.
+
+"Yes, you may well sing," was what the neck of the bottle had said.
+
+It was somewhat of a wonder, as it had been up in a balloon; but with
+more of its history no one was acquainted. Now it hung as a bird's
+glass, it could hear the people driving and walking in the street
+below, and it could hear the old maid talking in her room to a female
+friend of her youthful days. They were chatting together, but speaking
+of the myrtle plant in the window, not of the neck of the bottle.
+
+"You must not throw away two rix dollars for a wedding bouquet for
+your daughter," said the old maid. "You shall have one from me full of
+flowers. Look how pretty that plant is! Ah! it is a slip of the myrtle
+tree you gave me the day after my betrothal, that I myself, when the
+year was past, might take my wedding bouquet from it. But that day
+never came. The eyes were for ever closed that were to have illumined
+for me the path of happiness in this life. Away, down in the ocean's
+depths, he sleeps calmly--that angel soul! The tree became an old
+tree, but I have become still older; and when it died, I took its last
+green branch and planted it in the earth. That slip has now grown into
+a high plant, and will at last appear amidst bridal array, and form a
+wedding bouquet for my friend's daughter."
+
+And tears started to the old maid's eyes. She spoke of the lover of
+her youth--of the betrothal in the wood; she thought of the toasts
+that were there drunk; she thought of the first kiss, but she did not
+speak of that, for she was now but an old maid. She thought of
+much--much; but little did she think that outside of her window was
+even then a _souvenir_ from that regretted time--the neck of the very
+bottle that had been drawn when the unforgotten toasts were drunk! Nor
+did the bottle-neck know her; for it had not heard all she had said,
+because it had been thinking only of itself.
+
+
+
+
+_The Old Bachelor's Nightcap._
+
+
+There is a street in Copenhagen which bears the extraordinary name of
+"Hyskenstroede." And why is it so called? and what is the meaning of
+that name? It is German; but the German has been corrupted. "Häuschen"
+it ought to be called, and that signifies "small houses." Those which
+stood there formerly--and, indeed, for several years--were not much
+larger than the wooden booths that we see now-a-days erected at fairs.
+Yes, only a little larger, and with windows; but the panes were of
+horn or stretched bladder, for in these days it was too expensive to
+have glass windows in all houses; but the time in question was so far
+back that our grandfathers' grandfathers, when they mentioned it, also
+spoke of it as "in ancient days," for it was several hundred years
+ago.
+
+Many rich merchants in Bremen and Lubeck carried on business in
+Copenhagen. They did not, however, go there themselves--they sent
+their clerks; and these persons generally resided in the wooden houses
+in the "Small Houses' Street," and held sales of ale and spices. The
+German ale was so excellent, and there were so many kinds--"Bremer,
+Prysing, Emser ale," even "Brunswick Mumme;" also, all sorts of
+spices, such as saffron, anise, ginger, and especially pepper, that
+was the most valued; and from this the German commercial travellers
+acquired the name in Denmark of "Pepper Swains, or Bachelors." They
+entered into an agreement before they left home not to marry; and many
+of them lived there to old age. They had to do entirely for
+themselves, attend to all little domestic matters, even make their own
+fires if they had any. Several of them became lonely old men, with
+peculiar thoughts and peculiar habits. Every unmarried man who has
+arrived at a certain age is now here called after them in derision,
+"Pebersvend"--old bachelor. It was necessary to relate all this, in
+order that our story might be understood.
+
+People made great fun of these old bachelors; laughed at their
+nightcaps, at their drawing them down over their eyes, and so retiring
+to their couches.
+
+    "Saw the firewood, saw it through!
+    Old bachelors, there's work for you.
+    To bed with you your nightcaps go;
+    Put out your lights, and cry, 'O woe!'"
+
+Yes, such songs were made on them. People ridiculed the old bachelor
+and his nightcap, just because they knew so little about him, or it.
+Alas! let no one desire such a nightcap. And why not? Listen!
+
+Over in the "Small Houses' Street," in ancient days, there was no
+pavement; people stepped from hole to hole as in a narrow, cut-up
+defile; and narrow enough this was, too. The dwellings on the opposite
+side of the street stood so close together, that in summer a sail was
+spread across the street from one booth to another, and the whole
+place was redolent of pepper, saffron, ginger, and various spices.
+Behind the desks stood few young men; no, they were almost all old
+fellows; and they were by no means, as we would represent them,
+crowned with a peruke or a nightcap, and equipped in shaggy
+pantaloons, a vest and coat buttoned tightly up. This was the costume
+in which our forefathers were painted, it is true; but this community
+of old bachelors could not afford to have their pictures taken. Yet it
+would have been worth while now to have preserved a portrait of one of
+them, as they stood behind their desks, or on festival days, when they
+wended their way to church. The hat they wore was broad-brimmed, and
+with a high crown; and sometimes one of the younger men would stick a
+feather in his. The woollen shirt was concealed by a deep linen
+collar; the tight-fitting jacket was closely buttoned, a loose cloak
+over it; and the pantaloons descended almost into the square-toed
+shoes, for stockings they wore none. In the belt were stuck the eating
+knife and the spoon; and, moreover, a large knife as a weapon of
+defence, for such was often needed in these days.
+
+Thus was equipped, on grand occasions, old Anthon, one of the oldest
+bachelors of the "small houses;" only he did not wear the high-crowned
+hat, but a fur cap, and under that a knitted cap, a veritable
+nightcap, to which he had so accustomed himself that it was never off
+his head: he actually possessed two of the same description. He would
+have made an excellent subject for a painter; he was so skinny, so
+wrinkled about the mouth and the eyes; had long fingers, with such
+large joints; and his grey eyebrows were so thick. A bunch of grey
+hair from one of these hung over his left eye: it certainly was not
+pretty, but it made him very remarkable. It was known that he came
+from Bremen, at least that his master lived there; but he himself was
+from Thüringen, from the town of Eisenach, close to Wartburg. Old
+Anthon spoke little of his native place, but he thought of it the
+more.
+
+The old lodgers in the street did not associate much with each other.
+Each remained in his own booth, which, was locked early in the
+evening, and then looked very dismal; for only a glimmering light
+could be seen through the horn panes of the window in the roof,
+beneath which sat, most frequently on his bed, the old man with his
+German psalm-book, and chanted the evening hymn, or else he went out
+and strolled about at night by way of amusement; but amusement it
+could hardly be called. To be a stranger in a foreign country is a
+very sad situation. No notice is taken of him unless he stands in
+anyone's way.
+
+Often when it was a pitch-dark night, with pouring rain, all around
+looked woefully gloomy and desolate. No lanterns were to be seen,
+except the little one that hung at one end of the street, before the
+image of the Virgin Mary that adorned the wall there. The water was
+heard dashing and splashing against the wooden work near, out by
+Slotsholm, on which the other end of the street opened. Such evenings
+are always long and lonely if there be nothing to interest one. It is
+not necessary every day to pack and unpack, to make up parcels, and to
+polish scales; but one must have something to do, and accordingly old
+Anthon industriously mended his clothes and cleaned his shoes. When at
+length he retired to rest, it was his custom to keep on his nightcap.
+At first he would draw it well down, but he would soon push it up
+again to look if the light were totally extinguished; nor would he be
+satisfied without getting up and feeling it. He would then lie down
+again, and turn on the other side, and again draw down the nightcap;
+but soon the idea would cross his mind that possibly the coals might
+not have become cold in the little fire-pot beneath--the fire might
+not be totally out--that a spark might be kindled, fly forth, and do
+mischief; and he would get out of his bed and creep down the ladder,
+for it could not be called the stairs; and when, on reaching the
+fire-pot, he perceived that not a spark was visible, and he might
+retire to rest in peace, he would stop half way up, being seized with
+the fear that the iron bolt might not be properly drawn across the
+door, or the shutters properly secured; and down he would go again,
+wearying his poor thin legs. By the time he crept back to his humble
+couch he would be half frozen, and his teeth would be chattering in
+his head with the cold. Then he would draw the covering higher up
+around him, and his nightcap lower down over his eyes, and his
+thoughts would wander from the business and burdens of the day; but
+ah! not to soothing scenes. His reveries were never fraught with
+pleasure, for then came old reminiscences, and hung their curtains up;
+and sometimes they were full of pins, that pricked so severely as to
+bring tears into his eyes. Such wounds old Anthon often received, and
+his warm tears fell on the coverlet or the floor, sounding as if one
+of sorrow's deepest strings had burst; they did not dry up, but
+kindled into a flame, which cast its light for him on the panorama of
+a life--a picture which never vanished from his mind. Then he would
+dry his eyes with his nightcap, and chase away the tears, and
+endeavour to chase away the picture with them; but it would not go,
+for it was imbedded in his heart. The panorama did not follow the
+exact order of events; also the saddest parts were generally most
+prominent. And what were these?
+
+"Beautiful are the beech groves in Denmark," it is said; but still
+more beautiful did the beech trees in the meadows near Wartburg seem
+to Anthon. Mightier and more majestic seemed to him the old oak up at
+the proud baronial castle, where the swinging lantern hung over the
+dark masses of rock; sweeter was the perfume of the apple blossoms
+there than in the Danish land; he seemed to feel the charming scent
+even now. A tear trickled down his cheeks, and he saw two little
+children, a boy and a girl, playing together. The boy had rosy cheeks,
+yellow waving hair, and honest blue eyes--he was the rich merchant's
+son, little Anthon himself. The little girl had dark hair and eyes,
+and she looked bold and clever--she was the burgomaster's daughter
+Molly. The childish couple were playing with an apple. At length they
+divided it in two, and each took a half. They also divided the seeds
+between them, and ate them all to one; and the little girl proposed to
+plant that in the ground.
+
+"You will see what will come of this--something will come which you
+can hardly fancy. An apple tree will come up, but not all at once."
+
+And they planted the seed in a flower-pot: both of them were very
+eager about it. The boy dug a hole in the mould with his finger; the
+little girl placed the seed in it, and both of them filled up the hole
+with earth.
+
+"You must not pull it up to-morrow to see if it has taken root," she
+said; "that should not be done. I did that with my flower: twice I
+took it up to see if it was growing. I had very little sense then, and
+the flower died."
+
+The flower-pot was left in Anthon's care, and every morning, the
+whole winter through, he looked at it; but nothing was to be seen
+except the black earth. Then came spring; the sun shone so warmly, and
+two tiny green leaves at last made their appearance in the flower-pot.
+
+"These are Molly and me," said Anthon. "They are charming--they are
+lovely."
+
+Soon there came a third leaf. Who did that represent? And leaf after
+leaf came up; while day by day, and week by week, the plant became
+larger and stronger, until it grew into quite a tree. And another tear
+fell again from its fountain--from old Anthon's heart.
+
+There stretched out, near Eisenach, a range of stony hills, one of
+which, round in shape, was very conspicuous: neither tree, nor bush,
+nor grass grew on it. It was named Mount Venus. Therein dwelt Venus, a
+goddess from the heathen ages. She was here called Fru Holle, and she
+knew and could see every child in Eisenach. She had decoyed into her
+power the noble knight Tannhäuser, the minnesinger, from the musical
+circle of Wartburg.
+
+Little Molly and Anthon often went to this hill, and she one day said
+to him,--
+
+"Would you dare to knock on the side of the hill and cry, 'Fru Holle!
+Fru Holle! open the gate; here is Tannhäuser?' But Anthon dared not do
+it. Molly dared, however; yet only these words--"Fru Holle! Fru
+Holle!"--did she say very loudly and distinctly--the rest seemed to
+die away on the wind; and she certainly did pronounce the rest of the
+sentence so indistinctly, that Anthon was sure she had not really
+added the other words. Yet she looked very confident--as bold as when,
+in the summer evening, she and several other little girls came to play
+in the garden with him, and when they all wanted to kiss him, just
+because he would not be kissed, and defended himself from them, she
+alone ventured to achieve the feat.
+
+"_I_ dare to kiss him!" she used to say, with a proud toss of her
+little head. Then she would take him round his neck to prove her
+power, and Anthon would put up with it, and think it all right from
+her. How pretty and how clever she was! Fru Holle within the hill was
+also very charming, but her charms, it had been said, sprung from the
+seducing beauty bestowed on her by the evil one; but still greater
+beauty was to be found in the holy Elizabeth, the patron saint of the
+country, the pious Thüringian princess, whose good works, known
+through traditions and legends, were celebrated in so many places. A
+picture of her hung in the chapel with a silver lamp before it, but
+Molly did not resemble her.
+
+The apple tree the two children had planted grew year after year; it
+became so large that it had to be transferred to the garden, out in
+the open air, where the dew fell and the sun shone warmly; it became
+strong enough to withstand the severity of winter, and after winter's
+hard trials it seemed as if rejoicing in the return of spring: it then
+put forth blossoms. In August it had two apples, one for Molly and one
+for Anthon: it would not have been well if it had had less.
+
+The tree had grown rapidly, and Molly had grown as fast as the tree;
+she was as fresh as an apple blossom, but she was no longer to see
+that flower. Everything changes in this world. Molly's father left his
+old home, and Molly went with him--far, far away. In our time it might
+be only a few hours' journey by railway, but in those days it took
+more than a day and a night to arrive so far east from Eisenach. It
+was to the other extremity of Thüringia they had to go, to a town
+which is now called Weimar.
+
+And Molly wept, and Anthon wept. All these were now concentrated in
+one single tear, and it had the happy rosy tinge of joy. Molly had
+assured him that she cared much more for him than for all the grandeur
+of Weimar.
+
+One year passed on, two passed, and a third followed, and in all that
+time there came only two letters. One was brought by the carrier, the
+other by a traveller, who had taken a circuitous course, besides
+visiting several cities and other places.
+
+How often had not Anthon and Molly heard together the story of
+Tristand and Isolde, and how often did not Anthon think of himself and
+Molly as them! Although the name "Tristand" signified that he was born
+to sorrow, and that did not apply to Anthon, he never thought as
+Tristand did, "She has forgotten me!" But Isolde had not forgotten her
+heart's dear friend; and when they were both dead and buried, one on
+each side of the church, two linden trees grew out of their graves,
+and, stretching over the roof of the church, met there in full bloom.
+This was very delightful, thought Anthon, and yet so sad! But there
+could be no sadness where he and Molly were concerned. And then he
+whistled an air of the Minnesinger's "Walther von der Vogelweide,"--
+
+    "Under the lime tree by the hedge;"
+
+and especially that favourite verse,--
+
+    "Beyond the wood, in the quiet dale,
+      Tandaradai,
+    Sang the melodious nightingale."
+
+This song was always on his lips. He hummed it, and he whistled it on
+the clear moonlight night, when, passing on horseback through the
+deep ravine, he rode in haste to Weimar to visit Molly. He wished to
+arrive unexpectedly, and he _did_ arrive unexpectedly.
+
+He was well received. Wine sparkled in the goblets; there was gay
+society, distinguished society. He had a comfortable room and an
+excellent bed; and yet he found nothing as he had dreamt and thought
+to find it. He did not understand himself; he did not understand those
+about him; but we can understand all. One can be in a house, can
+mingle with a family, and yet be a total stranger. One may converse,
+but it is like conversing in a stage coach; may know each other as
+people know each other in a stage coach; be a restraint upon each
+other; wish that one were away, or that one's good neighbour were
+away; and it was thus that Anthon felt.
+
+"I will be sincere with you," said Molly to him. "Things have changed
+much since we were together as children--changed within and without.
+Habit and will have no power over our hearts. Anthon, I do not wish to
+have an enemy in you when I am far away from this, as I soon shall be.
+Believe me, I have a great regard for you; but to love you--as I now
+know how one can love another human being--that I have never done. You
+must put up with this. Farewell, Anthon!"
+
+And Anthon also said farewell. No tears sprang to his eyes, but he
+perceived that he was no longer Molly's friend. If we were to kiss a
+burning bar of iron, or a frozen bar of iron, we should experience the
+same sensation when the skin came off our lips.
+
+Within twenty-four hours Anthon had reached Eisenach again, but the
+horse he rode was ruined.
+
+"What of that?" cried he. "I am ruined, and I will ruin all that can
+remind me of her. Fru Holle! Fru Holle! Thou heathenish woman! I will
+tear down and smash the apple tree, and pull it up by the roots. It
+shall never blossom or bear fruit more."
+
+But the tree was not destroyed; he himself was knocked down, and lay
+long in a violent fever. What was to raise him from his sick bed? The
+medicine that did it was the bitterest that could be--one that shook
+the languid body and the shrinking soul. Anthon's father was no longer
+the rich merchant. Days of adversity, days of trial, were close at
+hand. Misfortune rushed in like overwhelming billows--it surged into
+that once wealthy house. His father became a poor man, and sorrow and
+calamity paralysed him. Then Anthon found that he had something else
+to think of than disappointed love, or being angry with Molly. He had
+now to be both father and mother in his desolate home. He had to
+arrange everything, look after everything, and to go forth into the
+world to work for his own and his parents' bread.
+
+He went to Bremen. There he suffered many privations, and passed many
+melancholy days; and all that he went through sometimes soured his
+temper, sometimes saddened him, till strength and mind seemed failing.
+How different were the world and mankind from what he had fancied them
+in his childhood! What were now to him Minnesingers' poems and songs?
+They were gall and wormwood. Yes, this was what he often felt; but
+there were other times when the songs vibrated to his soul, and his
+mind became calm and peaceful.
+
+"What God wills is always the best," said he then. "It was well that
+our Lord did not permit Molly's heart to hang on me. What could it
+have led to, now that prosperity has left me and mine? She gave me up
+before she knew or dreamed of this reverse from more fortunate days
+which was hanging over us. It was the mercy of our Lord towards me.
+Everything is ordained for the best. Yes, all happens wisely. She
+could not, therefore, have acted otherwise, and yet how bitter have
+not my feelings been towards her!"
+
+Years passed on. Anthon's father was dead, and strangers dwelt in his
+paternal home. Anthon, however, was to see it once more; for his
+wealthy master sent him on an errand of business, which obliged him to
+pass through his native town, Eisenach. The old WARTBURG stood
+unchanged, high up on the hill above, with "the monk and the nun" in
+unhewn stone. The mighty oak trees seemed as imposing as in his
+childish days. The Venus mount looked like a grey mass frowning over
+the valley. He would willingly have cried,--
+
+"Fru Holle! Fru Holle! open the hill, and let me stay there, upon the
+soil of my native home!"
+
+It was a sinful thought, and he crossed himself. Then a little bird
+sang among the bushes, and the old Minnesong came back to his
+thoughts:--
+
+    "Beyond the wood, in the quiet dale,
+      Tandaradai!
+    Sang the melodious nightingale."
+
+How remembrances rushed upon him as he approached the town where his
+childhood had been spent, which he now saw through tears! His father's
+house remained where it used to be, but the garden was altered; a
+field footpath was made across a portion of the old garden; and the
+apple tree that he had not uprooted stood there, but no longer within
+the garden: it was on the opposite side of the road, though the sun
+shone on it as cheerfully as of old, and the dew fell on it there. It
+bore such a quantity of fruit that the branches were weighed down to
+the ground.
+
+"It thrives!" he exclaimed. "Yes, _it_ can do so."
+
+One of its well-laden boughs was broken. Wanton hands had done this,
+for the tree was now on the side of the public road.
+
+"Its blossoms are carried off without thanks; its fruit is stolen, its
+branches are broken. It may be said of a tree as of a man, 'It was not
+sung at the tree's cradle that things should turn out thus.' This one
+began its life so charmingly; and what has now become of it? Forsaken
+and forgotten--a garden tree standing in a common field, close to a
+public road, and bending over a miserable ditch! There it stood now,
+unsheltered, ill-used, and disfigured! It was not, indeed, withered by
+all this; but as years advanced its blossoms would become fewer--its
+fruit, if it bore any, late; and so it is all over with it."
+
+Thus thought Anthon under the tree, and thus he thought many a night
+in the little lonely chamber of the wooden house in the "Small Houses'
+Street," in Copenhagen, whither his rich master had sent him, having
+stipulated that he was not to marry.
+
+"_He_ marry!" He laughed a strange and hollow laugh.
+
+The winter had commenced early. There was a sharp frost, and without
+there was a heavy snow storm, so that all who could do so kept within
+doors. Therefore it was that Anthon's neighbours did not observe that
+his booth had not been opened for two whole days, and that he had not
+shown himself during that time. But who would go out in such weather
+when he could stay at home?
+
+These were dark, dismal days; and in the booth, where the window was
+not of glass, it looked like twilight, if not sombre night. Old Anthon
+had scarcely left his bed for two days. He had not strength to get up.
+The intensely cold weather had brought on a severe fit of rheumatism
+in his limbs, and the old bachelor lay forsaken and helpless, almost
+too feeble to stretch out his hand to the pitcher of water which he
+had placed near his bed; and if he could have done so, it would have
+been of no avail, for the last drop had been drained from it. It was
+not the fever, not illness alone that had thus prostrated him; it was
+also old age that had crept upon him. It seemed to be constant night
+up yonder where he lay. A little spider, which he could not see, spun
+contentedly its gossamer web over his face. It was soon to stretch
+like a crepe veil across the features, when the old man closed his
+eyes.
+
+He dozed a good deal; yet time seemed long and weary. He shed no
+tears, and had but little suffering. Molly was scarcely ever in his
+thoughts. He had a conviction that this world and its bustle were no
+more for him. At one time he seemed to feel hunger and thirst. He did
+feel them; but no one came to give him nourishment or drink--no one
+would come. He thought of those who might be fainting or dying of
+want. He remembered how the pious Elizabeth, while living on this
+earth--she who had been the favourite heroine of his childish days at
+home, the magnanimous Duchess of Thüringia--had herself entered the
+most miserable abodes, and brought to the sick and wretched
+refreshments and hope. His thoughts dwelt with pleasure on her good
+deeds. He remembered how she went to feed the hungry, to speak words
+of comfort to those who were suffering, and to bind up their wounds,
+although her austere husband was angry at these works of mercy. He
+recalled to memory the legend about her, that, as she was going on one
+of her charitable errands, with a basket well filled with food and
+wine, her husband, who had watched her steps, rushed out on her, and
+demanded in high wrath what she was carrying; that, in her fear of
+him, she replied, "Roses which I have plucked in the garden;"
+whereupon he dragged the cover off of her basket, and lo! a miracle
+was worked in favour of the charitable lady, for the wine and bread,
+and everything in the basket, lay turned into roses.
+
+Thus old Anthon's thoughts wandered to the heroine in history whom he
+had always so much admired, until her image seemed to stand before his
+dimming sight, close to his humble pallet in the poor wooden hut in a
+foreign land. He uncovered his head, looked in fancy into her mild
+eyes, and all around him seemed a mingling of lustre and of roses
+redolent with sweet perfume. Then he felt the charming scent of the
+apple blossom, and he beheld an apple tree spreading its blooming
+branches above him. Yes, it was the very tree, the seeds of which he
+and Molly had planted together.
+
+And the tree swept its fragrant leaves over his hot brow, and cooled
+it; they touched his parched lips, and they were like refreshing wine
+and bread; they fell upon his breast, and he felt himself softly
+sinking into a calm slumber.
+
+"I shall sleep now," he whispered feebly to himself. "Sleep restores
+strength--to-morrow I shall be well and up again. Beautiful,
+beautiful! The apple tree planted in love I see again in glory."
+
+And he slept.
+
+The following day--it was the third day the booth had been shut
+up--the snow drifted no longer, and the neighbours went to see about
+Anthon, who had not yet shown himself. They found him lying stiff and
+dead, with his old nightcap pressed between his hands. They did not
+put it upon him in his coffin--he had also another which was clean and
+white.
+
+Where now were the tears he had wept? Where were these pearls? They
+remained in the nightcap. Such precious things do not pass away in the
+washing. They were preserved and forgotten with the nightcap. The old
+thoughts, the old dreams--yes, they remained still in _the old
+bachelor's nightcap_. Wish not for that. It will make your brow too
+hot, make your pulses beat too violently, bring dreams that seem
+reality. This was proved by the first person who put it on--and that
+was not till fifty years after--by the burgomaster himself, who was
+blessed with a wife and eleven children. He dreamt of unhappy love,
+bankruptcy, and short commons.
+
+"How warm this nightcap is!" he exclaimed, as he dragged it off. Then
+pearl after pearl began to fall from it, and they jingled and
+glittered. "I must have got the rheumatism in my head," said the
+burgomaster. "Sparks seem falling from my eyes."
+
+They were tears wept half a century before--wept by old Anthon from
+Eisenach.
+
+Whoever has since worn that nightcap has sure enough had visions and
+dreams; his own history has been turned into Anthon's; his dream has
+become quite a tale, and there were many of them. Let others relate
+the rest. We have now told the first, and with it our last words
+are--Never covet AN OLD BACHELOR'S NIGHTCAP.
+
+
+
+
+_Something._
+
+
+"I will be something," said the oldest of five brothers. "I will be of
+use in the world, let the position be ever so insignificant which I
+may fill. If it be only respectable, it will be something. I will make
+bricks--people can't do without these--and then I shall have done
+something."
+
+"But something too trifling," said the second brother. "What you
+propose to do is much the same as doing nothing; it is no better than
+a hodman's work, and can be done by machinery. You had much better
+become a mason. _That_ is something, and that is what I will be. Yes,
+that is a good trade. A mason can get into a trade's corporation,
+become a burgher, have his own colours and his own club. Indeed, if I
+prosper, I may have workmen under me, and be called 'Master,' and my
+wife 'Mistress;' and that would be something."
+
+"That is next to nothing," said the third. "There are many classes in
+a town, and that is about the lowest. It is nothing to be called
+'Master.' You might be very superior yourself; but as a master mason
+you would be only what is called 'a common man.' I know of something
+better. I will be an architect; enter upon the confines of science;
+work myself up to a high place in the kingdom of mind. I know I must
+begin at the foot of the ladder. I can hardly bear to say it--I must
+begin as a carpenter's apprentice, and wear a cap, though I have been
+accustomed to go about in a silk hat. I must run to fetch beer and
+spirits for the common workmen, and let them be 'hail fellow well met'
+with me. This will be disagreeable; but I will fancy that it is all a
+masquerade and the freedom of maskers. To-morrow--that is to say, when
+I am a journeyman--I will go my own way. The others will not join me.
+I shall go to the academy, and learn to draw and design; then I shall
+be called an architect. That is something! That is much! I may become
+'honourable,' or even 'noble'--perhaps both. I shall build and build,
+as others have done before me. _There_ is something to look forward
+to--something worth being!"
+
+"But that something I should not care about," said the fourth. "I will
+not march in the wake of anybody. I will not be a copyist; I will be a
+genius--will be cleverer than you all put together. I shall create a
+new style, furnish ideas for a building adapted to the climate and
+materials of the country--something which shall be a nationality, a
+development of the resources of our age, and, at the same time, an
+exhibition of my own genius."
+
+"But if by chance the climate and the materials did not suit each
+other," said the fifth, "that would be unfortunate for the result.
+Nationalities may be so amplified as to become affectation. The
+discoveries of the age, like youth, may leave you far behind. I
+perceive right well that none of you will, in reality, become
+anything, whatever may be your expectations. But do all of you what
+you please; I shall not follow your examples. I shall keep myself
+disengaged, and shall reason upon what you perform. There is something
+wrong in everything. I will pick that out, and reason upon it. That
+will be something."
+
+And so he did; and people said of the fifth, "He has not settled to
+anything. He has a good head, but he does nothing."
+
+Even this, however, made him something.
+
+This is but a short history; yet it is one which will not end as long
+as the world stands.
+
+But is there nothing more about the five brothers? What has been told
+is absolutely nothing. Hear further; it is quite a romance.
+
+The eldest brother, who made bricks, perceived that from every stone,
+when it was finished, rolled a small coin; and though these little
+coins were but of copper, many of them heaped together became a silver
+dollar; and when one knocks with such at the baker's, the butcher's,
+and other shops, the doors fly open, and one gets what one wants. The
+bricks produced all this. The damaged and broken bricks were also made
+good use of.
+
+Yonder, above the embankment, Mother Margrethe, a poor old woman,
+wanted to build a small house for herself. She got all the broken
+bricks, and some whole ones to boot; for the eldest brother had a good
+heart. The poor woman built her house herself. It was very small; the
+only window was put in awry, the door was very low, and the thatched
+roof might have been laid better; but it was at least a shelter and a
+cover for her. There was a fine view from it of the sea, which broke
+in its might against the embankment. The salt spray often dashed over
+the whole tiny house, which still stood there when he was dead and
+gone who had given the bricks:--
+
+The second brother could build in another way. He was also clever in
+his business. When his apprenticeship was over he strapped on his
+knapsack, and sang the mechanic's song:--
+
+    "While young, far-distant lands I'll tread.
+      Away from home to build,
+    My handiwork shall win my bread,
+      My heart with hope be filled.
+    And when my fatherland I see,
+      And meet my bride--hurra!
+    An active workman I shall be:
+      Then who so happy and gay?"
+
+And he _was_ that. When he returned to his native town, and became a
+master, he built house after house--a whole street. It was a very
+handsome one, and a great ornament to the town. These houses built for
+him a small house, which was to be his own. But how could the houses
+build? Ay, ask them that, and they will not answer you; but people
+will answer for them, and tell you, "It certainly was that street
+which built him a house." It was only a small one, to be sure, and
+with a clay floor; but when he and his bride danced on it the floor
+became polished and bright, and from every stone in the wall sprang a
+flower which was quite as good as any costly tapestry. It was a
+pleasant house, and they were a happy couple. The colours of the
+masons' company floated outside, and the journeymen and apprentices
+shouted "Hurra!" Yes, that was something; and so he died--and that was
+also something.
+
+Then came the architect, the third brother, who had been first a
+carpenter's apprentice, wearing a cap and going on errands; but, on
+leaving the academy, rose to be an architect, and he became a man of
+consequence. Yes, if the houses in the street built by his brother,
+the master mason, had provided him with a house, a street was called
+after the architect, and the handsomest house in it was his own. That
+was something; and he was somebody, with a long, high-sounding title
+besides. His children were called people of quality, and when he died
+his widow was a widow of rank--that was something. And his name stood
+as a fixture at the corner of the street, and was often in folks'
+mouths, being the name of a street--and that was certainly something.
+
+Next came the genius--the fourth brother--who was to devote himself to
+new inventions. In one of his ambitious attempts he fell, and broke
+his neck; but he had a splendid funeral, with a procession, and flags,
+and music. He was noticed in the newspapers, and three funeral
+orations were pronounced over him, the one longer than the others; and
+much delighted he would have been with them if he had heard them, for
+he was fond of being talked about. A monument was erected over his
+grave. It was not very grand, but a monument is always something.
+
+He now was dead, as well as the three other brothers; but the
+fifth--he who was fond of reasoning or arguing--out-lived them all;
+and that was quite right, for he had thus the last word. And he
+thought it a matter of great importance to have the last word. It was
+he who, folks said, "had a good head." At length his last hour also
+struck. He died, and he arrived at the gate of the kingdom of heaven.
+Spirits always come there two and two, and along with him stood there
+another soul, which wanted also to get in, and this was no other than
+the old Mother Margrethe, from the house on the embankment.
+
+"It must surely be for the sake of contrast that I and yon paltry soul
+should come here at the same moment," said the reasoner. "Why, who are
+you, old one? Do you also expect to enter here?" he asked.
+
+And the old woman courtesied as well as she could. She thought it was
+St. Peter himself who spoke.
+
+"I am a miserable old creature without any family. My name is
+Margrethe."
+
+"Well, now, what have you done and effected down yonder?"
+
+"I have effected scarcely anything in yonder world--nothing that can
+tell in my favour here. It will be a pure act of mercy if I am
+permitted to enter this gate."
+
+"How did you leave yon world?" he asked, merely for something to say.
+He was tired of standing waiting there.
+
+"Oh! how I left it I really do not know. I had been very poorly, often
+quite ill, for some years past, and I was not able latterly to leave
+my bed, and go out into the cold and frost. It was a very severe
+winter; but I was getting through it. For a couple of days there was a
+dead calm; but it was bitterly cold, as your honour may remember. The
+ice had remained so long on the ground, that the sea was frozen over
+as far as the eye could reach. The townspeople flocked in crowds to
+the ice. I could hear it all as I lay in my poor room. The same scene
+continued till late in the evening--till the moon rose. From my bed I
+could see through the window far out beyond the seashore; and there
+lay on the horizon, just where the sea and sky seemed to meet, a
+singular-looking white cloud. I lay and looked at it; looked at the
+black spot in the middle of it, which became larger and larger; and I
+knew what that betokened, for I was old and experienced, though I had
+not often seen that sign. I saw it and shuddered. Twice before in my
+life had I seen that strange appearance in the sky, and I knew that
+there would be a terrible storm at the springtide, which would burst
+over the poor people out upon the ice, who were now drinking and
+rushing about, and amusing themselves. Young and old--the whole town
+in fact--were assembled yonder. Who was to warn them of coming danger,
+if none of them observed or knew what I now perceived? I became so
+alarmed, so anxious, that I got out of my bed, and crawled to the
+window. I was incapable of going further; but I put up the window,
+and, on looking out, I could see the people skating and sliding and
+running on the ice. I could see the gay flags, and could hear the boys
+shouting hurra, and the girls and the young men singing in chorus. All
+was jollity and merriment there. But higher and higher arose the white
+cloud with the black spot in it. I cried out as loud as I could, but
+nobody heard me. I was too far away from them. The wind would soon
+break loose, the ice give away, and all upon it sink, without any
+chance of rescue. Hear me they could not, and for me to go to them was
+impossible. Was there nothing that I could do to bring them back to
+land? Then our Lord inspired me with the idea of setting fire to my
+bed; it would be better that my house were to be burned down than that
+the many should meet with such a miserable death. Then I kindled the
+fire. I saw the red flames, and I gained the outside of the house; but
+I remained lying there. I could do no more, for my strength was
+exhausted. The blaze pursued me--it burst from the window, and out
+upon the roof. The crowds on the ice perceived it, and they came
+running as fast as they could to help me, a poor wretch, whom they
+thought would be burned in my bed. It was not one or two only who
+came--they all came. I heard them coming; but I also heard all at once
+the shrill whistle, the loud roar of the wind. I heard it thunder like
+the report of a cannon. The springtide lifted the ice, and suddenly it
+broke asunder; but the crowd had reached the embankment, where the
+sparks were flying over me. I had been the means of saving them all;
+but I was not able to survive the cold and fright, and so I have come
+up here to the gate of the kingdom of heaven; but I am told it is
+locked against such poor creatures as I. And now I have no longer a
+home down yonder on the embankment, though that does not insure me any
+admittance here."
+
+At that moment the gate of heaven was opened, and an angel took the
+old woman in. She dropped a straw; it was one of the pieces of straw
+which had stuffed the bed to which she had set fire to save the lives
+of many, and it had turned to pure gold, but gold that was flexible,
+and twisted itself into pretty shapes.
+
+"See! the poor old woman brought this," said the angel. "What dost
+thou bring? Ah! I know well; thou hast done nothing--not even so much
+as making a brick. If thou couldst go back again, and bring only so
+much as that, if done with good intentions, it would be something: as
+thou wouldst do it, however, it would be of no avail. But thou canst
+not go back, and I can do nothing for thee."
+
+Then the poor soul, the old woman from the house on the embankment,
+begged for him.
+
+"His brother kindly gave me all the stones with which I built my
+humble dwelling. They were a great gift to a poor creature like me.
+May not all these stones and fragments be permitted to value as one
+brick for him? It was a deed of mercy. He is now in want, and this is
+Mercy's home."
+
+"Thy brother whom thou didst think the most inferior to thyself--him
+whose honest business thou didst despise--shares with thee his
+heavenly portion. Thou shalt not be ordered away; thou shalt have
+leave to remain outside here to think over and to repent thy life down
+yonder; but within this gate thou shalt not enter until in good works
+thou hast performed _something_."
+
+"I could have expressed that sentence better," thought the conceited
+logician; but he did not say this aloud, and that was surely
+already--SOMETHING.
+
+
+
+
+_The Old Oak Tree's Last Dream._
+
+A CHRISTMAS TALE.
+
+
+There stood in a wood, high up on the side of a sloping hill near the
+open shore, a very old oak tree. It was about three hundred and
+sixty-five years old, but those long years were not more than as many
+single rotations of the earth for us men. We are awake during the day,
+and sleep during the night, and have then our dreams: with the tree it
+is otherwise. A tree is awake for three quarters of a year. It only
+sleeps in winter--that is _its_ night--after the long day which is
+called spring, summer, and autumn.
+
+Many a warm summer day had the ephemeron insect frolicked round the
+oak tree's head--lived, moved about, and found itself happy; and when
+the little creature reposed for a moment in calm enjoyment on one of
+the great fresh oak leaves, the tree always said,--
+
+"Poor little thing! one day alone is the span of thy whole life. Ah,
+how short! It is very sad."
+
+"Sad!" the ephemeron always replied. "What dost thou mean by that?
+Everything is so charming, so warm and delightful, that I am quite
+happy."
+
+"But for only one day; then all is over."
+
+"All is over!" exclaimed the insect. "What is the meaning of 'all is
+over?' Is all over with thee also?"
+
+"No; I may live, perhaps, thousands of thy days, and my lifetime is
+for centuries. It is so long a period that thou couldst not calculate
+it."
+
+"No, for I do not understand thee. Thou hast thousands of my days, but
+I have thousands of moments to be happy in. Is all the beauty in the
+world at an end when thou diest?"
+
+"Oh! by no means," replied the tree. "It will last longer--much, much
+longer than I can conceive."
+
+"Well, I think we are much on a par, only that we reckon differently."
+
+And the ephemeron danced and floated about in the sunshine, and
+enjoyed itself with its pretty little delicate wings, like the most
+minute flower--enjoyed itself in the warm air, which was so fragrant
+with the sweet perfumes of the clover-fields, of the wild roses in the
+hedges, and of the elder-flower, not to speak of the woodbine, the
+primrose, and the wild mint. The scent was so strong that the
+ephemeron was almost intoxicated by it. The day was long and pleasant,
+full of gladness and sweet perceptions; and when the sun set, the
+little insect felt a sort of pleasing languor creeping over it after
+all its enjoyments. Its wings would no longer carry it, and very
+gently it glided down upon the soft blade of grass that was slightly
+waving in the evening breeze; there it drooped its tiny head, and fell
+into a calm sleep--the sleep of death.
+
+"Poor little insect!" exclaimed the oak tree, "thy life was far too
+short."
+
+And every summer's day were repeated a similar dance, a similar
+conversation, and a similar death. This went on with the whole
+generation of ephemera, and all were equally happy, equally gay. The
+oak tree remained awake during its spring morning, its summer day, and
+its autumn evening; now it was near its sleeping time, its night--the
+winter was close at hand.
+
+Already the tempests were singing, "Good night, good night! Thy leaves
+are falling--we pluck them, we pluck them! Try if thou canst slumber;
+we shall sing thee to sleep, we shall rock thee to sleep; and thy old
+boughs like this--they are creaking in their joy! Softly, softly
+sleep! It is thy three hundred and sixty-fifth night. Sleep calmly!
+The snow is falling from the heavy clouds; it will soon be a wide
+sheet, a warm coverlet for thy feet. Sleep calmly and dream
+pleasantly!"
+
+And the oak tree stood disrobed of all its leaves to go to rest for
+the whole long winter, and during that time to dream many dreams,
+often something stirring and exciting, like the dreams of human
+beings.
+
+It, too, had once been little. Yes, an acorn had been its cradle.
+According to man's reckoning of time it was now living in its fourth
+century. It was the strongest and loftiest tree in the wood, with its
+venerable head reared high above all the other trees; and it was seen
+far away at sea, and looked upon as a beacon by the navigators of the
+passing ships. It little thought how many eyes looked out for it. High
+up amidst its green coronal the wood-pigeons built their nests, and
+the cuckoo's note was heard from thence; and in the autumn, when the
+leaves looked like hammered plates of copper, came birds of passage,
+and rested there before they flew far over the sea. But now it was
+winter, and the tree stood leafless, and the bended and gnarled
+branches were naked. Crows and jackdaws came and sat themselves there
+alternately, and talked of the rigorous weather which was commencing,
+and how difficult it was to find food in winter.
+
+It was just at the holy Christmas time that the tree dreamt its most
+charming dream. Let us listen to it.
+
+The tree had a distinct idea that it was a period of some solemn
+festival; it thought it heard all the church bells round ringing, and
+it seemed to be a mild summer day. Its lofty head, it fancied, looked
+fresh and green, while the bright rays of the sun played among its
+thick foliage. The air was laden with the perfume of wild flowers;
+various butterflies chased each other in sport around its boughs, and
+the ephemera danced and amused themselves. All that during years the
+tree had known and seen around it now passed before it as in a festive
+procession. It beheld, as in the olden time, knights and ladies on
+horseback, with feathers in their hats and falcons on their hands,
+riding through the greenwood; it heard the horns of the huntsmen, and
+the baying of the hounds; it saw the enemies' troops, with their
+various uniforms, their polished armour, their lances and halberds,
+pitch their tents and take them down again; the watch-fires blazed,
+and the soldiers sang and slept under the sheltering branches of the
+tree. It beheld lovers meet in the soft moonlight, and cut their
+names--that first letter--upon its olive-green bark. Guitars and
+Æolian harps were again--but there were very many years between
+them--hung up on the boughs of the tree by gay travelling swains, and
+again their sweet sounds broke on the stillness around. The
+wood-pigeons cooed, as if they were describing the feelings of the
+tree, and the cuckoo told how many summer days it should yet live.
+
+Then it was as if a new current of life rushed from its lowest roots
+up to its highest branches, even to the farthest leaves; the tree felt
+that it extended itself therewith, yet it perceived that its roots
+down in the ground were also full of life and warmth; it felt its
+strength increasing, and that it was growing taller and taller. The
+trunk shot up--there was no pause--more and more it grew--its head
+became fuller, broader--and as the tree grew it became happier, and
+its desire increased to rise up still higher, even until it could
+reach the warm, blazing sun.
+
+Already had it mounted above the clouds, which, like multitudes of
+dark migratory birds, or flocks of white swans, were floating under
+it; and every leaf of the tree that had eyes could see. The stars
+became visible during the day, and looked so large and bright: each of
+them shone like a pair of mild, clear eyes. They might have recalled
+to memory dear, well-known eyes--the eyes of children--the eyes of
+lovers when they met beneath the tree.
+
+It was a moment of exquisite delight. Yet in the midst of its pleasure
+it felt a desire, a longing that all the other trees in the wood
+beneath--all the bushes, plants, and flowers--might be able to lift
+themselves like it, and to participate in its joyful and triumphant
+feelings. The mighty oak tree, in the midst of its glorious dream,
+could not be entirely happy unless it had all its old friends with it,
+great and small; and this feeling pervaded every branch and leaf of
+the tree as strongly as if it had lived in the breast of a human
+being.
+
+The summit of the tree moved about as if it missed and sought
+something left behind. Then it perceived the scent of the woodbine,
+and soon the still stronger scent of the violets and wild thyme; and
+it fancied it could hear the cuckoo repeat its note.
+
+At length amidst the clouds peeped forth the tops of the green trees
+of the wood; they also grew higher and higher, as the oak had done;
+the bushes and the flowers shot up high in the air; and some of these,
+dragging their slender roots after them, flew up more rapidly. The
+birch was the swiftest among the trees: like a white flash of
+lightning it darted its slender stem upwards, its branches waving like
+green wreaths and flags. The wood and all its leafy contents, even the
+brown-feathered rushes, grew, and the birds followed them singing; and
+in the fluttering blades of silken grass the grasshopper sat and
+played with his wings against his long thin legs, and the wild bees
+hummed, and all was song and gladness as up in heaven.
+
+"But the blue-bell and the little wild tansy," said the oak tree; "I
+should like them with me too."
+
+"We are with you," they sang in their low, sweet tones.
+
+"But the pretty water-lily of last year, and the wild apple tree that
+stood down yonder, and looked so fresh, and all the forest flowers of
+years past, had they lived and bloomed till now, they might have been
+with me."
+
+"We are with you--we are with you," sang their voices far above, as if
+they had gone up before.
+
+"Well, this is quite enchanting," cried the old tree. "I have them
+all, small and great--not one is forgotten. How is all this happiness
+possible and conceivable?"
+
+"In the celestial paradise all this is possible and conceivable,"
+voices chanted around.
+
+And the tree, which continued to rise, observed that its roots were
+loosening from their hold in the earth.
+
+"This is well," said the tree. "Nothing now retains me. I am free to
+mount to the highest heaven--to splendour and light; and all that are
+dear to me are with me--small and great--all with me."
+
+"All!"
+
+This was the oak tree's dream; and whilst it dreamt a fearful storm
+had burst over sea and land that holy Christmas eve. The ocean rolled
+heavy billows on the beach--the tree rocked violently, and was torn up
+by the roots at the moment it was dreaming that its roots were
+loosening. It fell. Its three hundred and sixty-five years were now as
+but the day of the ephemeron.
+
+On Christmas morning, when the sun arose, the storm was passed. All
+the church bells were ringing joyously; and from every chimney, even
+the lowest in the peasant's cot, curled from the altars of the
+Druidical feast the blue smoke of the thanksgiving oblation. The sea
+became more and more calm, and on a large vessel in the offing, which
+had weathered the tempest during the night, were hoisted all its flags
+in honour of the day.
+
+"The tree is gone--that old oak tree which was always our landmark!"
+cried the sailors. "It must have fallen in the storm last night. Who
+shall replace it? Alas! no one can."
+
+This was the tree's funeral oration--short, but well meant--as it lay
+stretched at full length amidst the snow upon the shore, and over it
+floated the melody of the psalm tunes from the ship--hymns of
+Christmas joy, and thanksgivings for the salvation of the souls of
+mankind by Jesus Christ, and the blessed promise of everlasting life.
+
+    "Let sacred songs arise on high,
+    Loud hallelujahs reach the sky;
+    Let joy and peace each mortal share,
+    While hymns of praise shall fill the air."
+
+Thus ran the old psalm, and every one out yonder, on the deck of the
+ship, lifted up his voice in thanksgiving and prayer, just as the old
+oak tree was lifted up in its last and most delightful dream on that
+Christmas eve.
+
+
+
+
+_The Wind relates the Story of Waldemar Daae and his Daughters._
+
+
+When the wind sweeps over the grass it ripples like water; when it
+sweeps over the corn, it undulates like waves of the sea. All that is
+the wind's dance. But listen to what the wind tells. It sings it
+aloud, and it is repeated amidst the trees in the wood, and carried
+through the loopholes and the chinks in the wall. Look how the wind
+chases the skies up yonder, as if they were a flock of sheep! Listen
+how the wind howls below through the half-open gate, as if it were the
+warder blowing his horn! Strangely does it sound down the chimney and
+in the fireplace; the fire flickers under it; and the flames, instead
+of ascending, shoot out towards the room, where it is warm and
+comfortable to sit and listen to it. Let the wind speak. It knows more
+tales and adventures than all of us put together. Hearken now to what
+it is about to relate.
+
+It blew a tremendous blast: that was a prelude to its story.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"There lay close to the Great Belt an old castle with thick red
+walls," said the wind. "I knew every stone in it. I had seen them
+before, when they were in Marshal Stig's castle at the Næs. It was
+demolished. The stones were used again, and became new walls--a new
+building--at another place, and that was Borreby Castle as it now
+stands. I have seen and known the high-born ladies and gentlemen, the
+various generations that have dwelt in it; and now I shall tell about
+WALDEMAR DAAE AND HIS DAUGHTERS.
+
+"He held his head so high: he was of royal extraction. He could do
+more than hunt a stag and drain a goblet: that would be proved some
+day, he said to himself.
+
+"His proud lady, apparelled in gold brocade, walked erect over her
+polished inlaid floor. The tapestry was magnificent, the furniture
+costly, and beautifully carved; vessels of gold and silver she had in
+profusion; there were stores of German ale in the cellars; handsome
+spirited horses neighed in the stables; all was superb within Borreby
+Castle when wealth was there.
+
+"And children were there; three fine girls--Idé, Johanné, and Anna
+Dorthea. I remember their names well even now.
+
+"They were rich people, they were people of distinction--born in
+grandeur, and brought up in it. Wheugh--wheugh!" whistled the wind;
+then it continued the tale.
+
+"I never saw there, as in other old mansions, the high-born lady
+sitting in her boudoir with her maidens and spinning-wheels. She
+played on the lute, and sang to it, though never the old Danish
+ballads, but songs in foreign languages. Here were banqueting and
+mirth, titled guests came from far and near, music's tones were heard,
+goblets rang. I could not drown the noise," said the wind. "Here were
+arrogance, ostentation, and display; here was power, but not OUR
+LORD."
+
+"It was one May-day evening," said the wind. "I came from the
+westward. I had seen ships crushed into wrecks on the west coast of
+Jutland. I had hurried over the dreary heaths and green woody coast,
+had crossed the island of Funen, and swept over the Great Belt, and I
+was hoarse with blowing. Then I laid myself down to rest on the coast
+of Zealand, near Borreby, where there stood the forest and the
+charming meadows. The young men from the neighbourhood assembled
+there, and collected brushwood and branches of trees, the largest and
+driest they could find. They carried them to the village, laid them in
+a heap, and set fire to it; then they and the village girls sang and
+danced round it.
+
+"I lay still," said the wind; "but I softly stirred one branch--one
+which had been placed on the bonfire by the handsomest youth. His
+piece of wood blazed up, blazed highest. He was chosen the leader of
+the rustic game, became 'the wild boar,' and had the first choice
+among the girls for his 'pet lamb.' There were more happiness and
+merriment amongst them than up at the grand house at Borreby.
+
+"And then from the great house at Borreby came, driving in a gilded
+coach with six horses, the noble lady and her three daughters, so
+fine, so young--three lovely blossoms--rose, lily, and the pale
+hyacinth. The mother herself was like a flaunting tulip; she did not
+deign to notice one of the crowd of villagers, though they stopped
+their game, and courtesied and bowed with profound respect.
+
+"Rose, lily, and the pale hyacinth--yes, I saw them all three. Whose
+'pet lambs' should they one day become? I thought. The 'wild boar' for
+each of them would assuredly be a proud knight--perhaps a prince.
+Wheugh--wheugh!
+
+"Well, their equipage drove on with them, and the young peasants went
+on with their dancing. And the summer advanced in the village near
+Borreby, in Tjæreby, and all the surrounding towns.
+
+"But one night when I arose," continued the wind, "the great lady was
+lying ill, never to move again. That something had come over her which
+comes over all mankind sooner or later: it is nothing new. Waldemar
+Daae stood in deep and melancholy thought for a short time. 'The
+proudest tree may bend, but not break,' said he to himself. The
+daughters wept; but at last they all dried their eyes at the great
+house, and the noble lady was carried away; and I also went away,"
+said the wind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I returned--I returned soon, over Funen and the Belt, and set myself
+down by Borreby beach, near the large oak wood. There water-wagtails,
+wood-pigeons, blue ravens, and even black storks built their nests. It
+was late in the year: some had eggs, and some had young birds. How
+they were flying about, and how they were shrieking! The strokes of
+the axe were heard--stroke after stroke. The trees were to be felled.
+Waldemar Daae was going to build a costly ship, a man-of-war with
+three decks, which the king would be glad to purchase: and therefore
+the wood--the seamen's landmark, the birds' home--was to be
+sacrificed. The great red-backed shrike flew in alarm--his nest was
+destroyed; the ravens and all the other birds had lost their homes,
+and flew wildly about with cries of distress and anger. I understood
+them well. The crows and the jackdaws screamed high in derision, 'From
+the nest--from the nest! Away--away!'
+
+"And in the midst of the wood, looking on at the crowd of labourers,
+stood Waldemar Daae and his three daughters, and they all laughed
+together at the wild cries of the birds; but his youngest daughter,
+Anna Dorthea, was sorry for them in her heart; and when the men were
+about to cut down a partially decayed tree, amidst whose naked
+branches the black storks had built their nests, and from which the
+tiny little ones peeped out their heads, she begged it might be
+spared. She begged--begged with tears in her eyes; and the tree was
+permitted to remain with the nest of black storks. It was not a great
+boon after all.
+
+"The fine trees were cut down, the wood was sawn, and a large ship
+with three decks was built. The master shipbuilder himself was of low
+birth, but of noble appearance. His eyes and his forehead evinced how
+clever he was, and Waldemar Daae liked to listen to his conversation;
+so also did little Idé, his eldest daughter, who was fifteen years of
+age. And while he was building the ship for the father, he was also
+building castles in the air for himself, wherein he and Idé sat as man
+and wife; and that might have happened had the castles been of stone
+walls, with ramparts and moats, woods and gardens. But, with all his
+talents, the master shipbuilder was but a humble bird. What should a
+sparrow do in an eagle's nest?
+
+"Wheugh--wheugh! I flew away, and he flew away, for he dared not
+remain longer; and little Idé got over his departure, for she was
+obliged to get over it.
+
+"Splendid dark chargers neighed in the stables, worth being looked at;
+and they were looked at and admired. An admiral was sent by the king
+himself to examine the new man-of-war, and to make arrangements for
+its purchase. He praised the spirited horses loudly. I heard him
+myself," said the wind. "I followed the gentlemen through the open
+door, and strewed straw before their feet. Waldemar Daae wanted gold,
+the admiral wanted the horses--he admired them so much; but the
+bargain was not concluded, nor was the ship bought--the ship that was
+lying near the strand, with its white planks--a Noah's ark that was
+never to be launched upon the deep.
+
+"Wheugh! It was a sad pity.
+
+"In the winter time, when the fields were covered with snow, drift-ice
+filled the Belt, and I screwed it up to the shore," said the wind.
+"Then came ravens and crows, all as black as they could be, in large
+flocks. They perched themselves upon the deserted, dead, lonely ship,
+that lay high up on the beach; and they cried and lamented, with their
+hoarse voices, about the wood that was gone, the many precious birds'
+nests that were laid waste, the old ones rendered homeless, the little
+ones rendered homeless; and all for the sake of a great lumbering
+thing, a gigantic vessel, that never was to float upon the deep.
+
+"I whirled the snow in the snow storms, and raised the snow-drifts.
+The snow lay like a sea high around the vessel. I let it hear my
+voice, and know what a tempest can say. I knew if I exerted myself it
+would get some of the knowledge other ships have.
+
+"And winter passed--winter and summer; they come and go as I come and
+go; the snow melts, the apple blossom blooms, the leaves fall--all is
+change, change, and with mankind among the rest.
+
+"But the daughters were still young--little Idé a rose, beautiful to
+look at, as the shipbuilder had seen her. Often did I play with her
+long brown hair, when, under the apple tree in the garden, she was
+standing lost in thought, and did not observe that I was showering
+down the blossoms upon her head. Then she would start, and gaze at the
+red sun, and the golden clouds around it, through the space among the
+dark foliage of the trees.
+
+"Her sister Johanné resembled a lily--fair, slender, and erect; and,
+like her mother, she was stately and haughty. It was a great pleasure
+to her to wander up and down the grand saloon where hung the portraits
+of her ancestors. The high-born dames were painted in silks and
+velvets, with little hats looped up with pearls on their braided
+locks--they were beautiful ladies. Their lords were depicted in steel
+armour, or in costly mantles trimmed with squirrels' fur, and wearing
+blue ruffs; the sword was buckled round the thigh, and not round the
+loins. Johanné's own portrait would hang at some future day on that
+wall, and what would her noble husband be like? Yes, she thought of
+this, and she said this in low accents to herself. I heard her when I
+rushed through the long corridor into the saloon, and out again.
+
+"Anna Dorthea, the pale hyacinth, who was only fourteen years of age,
+was quiet and thoughtful. Her large swimming blue eyes looked somewhat
+pensive, but a childish smile played around her mouth, and I could
+not blow it off; nor did I wish to do so.
+
+"I met her in the garden, in the ravine, in the fields. She was
+gathering plants and flowers, those which she knew her father made use
+of for the drinks and drops he was fond of distilling. Waldemar Daae
+was arrogant and conceited, but also he had a great deal of knowledge.
+Everybody knew that, and everybody talked in whispers about it. Even
+in summer a fire burned in his private cabinet; its doors were always
+locked. He passed days and nights there, but he spoke little about his
+pursuits. The mysteries of nature are studied in silence. He expected
+soon to discover its greatest secret--the transmutation of other
+substances into gold.
+
+"It was for this that smoke was ever issuing from the chimney of his
+laboratory; for this that sparks and flames were always there. And I
+was there too," said the wind. "'Hollo, hollo!' I sang through the
+chimney. There were steam, smoke, embers, ashes. 'You will burn
+yourself up--take care, take care!' But Waldemar Daae did _not_ take
+care.
+
+"The splendid horses in the stables, what became of them?--the silver
+and the gold plate, the cows in the fields, the furniture, the house
+itself? Yes, they could be smelted--smelted in the crucibles; and yet
+no gold was obtained.
+
+"All was empty in the barns and in the pantry, in the cellars and in
+the loft. The fewer people, the more mice. One pane of glass was
+cracked, another was broken. I did not require to go in by the door,"
+said the wind. "When the kitchen chimney is smoking, dinner is
+preparing; but there the smoke rolled from the chimney for that which
+devoured all repasts--for the yellow gold.
+
+"I blew through the castle gate like a warder blowing his horn; but
+there was no warder," said the wind. "I turned the weathercock above
+the tower--it sounded like a watchman snoring inside the tower; but no
+watchman was there--it was only kept by rats and mice. Poverty
+presided at the table--poverty sat in the clothes' chests and in the
+store-rooms. The doors fell off their hinges--there came cracks and
+crevices everywhere. I went in, and I went out," said the wind;
+"therefore I knew what was going on.
+
+"Amidst smoke and ashes--amidst anxiety and sleepless nights--Waldemar
+Daae's hair had turned grey; so had his beard and the thin locks on
+his forehead; his skin had become wrinkled and yellow, his eyes ever
+straining after gold--the expected gold.
+
+"I whisked smoke and ashes into his face and beard: debts came instead
+of gold. I sang through the broken windows and cracked walls--came
+moaning in to the daughter's cheerless room, where the old bed-gear
+was faded and threadbare, but had still to hold out. Such a song was
+not sung at the children's cradles. High life had become wretched
+life. I was the only one then who sang loudly in the castle," said the
+wind. "I snowed them in, and they said they were comfortable. They had
+no wood to burn--the trees had been felled from which they would have
+got it. It was a sharp frost. I rushed through loopholes and
+corridors, over roofs and walls, to keep up my activity. In their poor
+chamber lay the three aristocratic daughters in their bed to keep
+themselves warm. To be as poor as church mice--that was high life!
+Wheugh! Would they give it up? But Herr Daae could not.
+
+"'After winter comes spring,' said he. 'After want come good times;
+but they make one wait. The castle is now mortgaged--we have arrived
+at the worst--we shall have gold now at Easter!'
+
+"I heard him murmuring near a spider's web:--
+
+"'Thou active little weaver! thou teachest me to persevere. Even if
+thy web be swept away thou dost commence again, and dost complete it.
+Again let it be torn asunder, and, unwearied, thou dost again
+recommence thy work over and over again. I shall follow thy example. I
+will go on, and I shall be rewarded.'
+
+"It was Easter morning--the church bells were ringing. The sun was
+careering in the heavens. Under a burning fever the alchemist had
+watched all night: he had boiled and cooled--mixed and distilled. I
+heard him sigh like a despairing creature; I heard him pray; I
+perceived that he held his breath in his anxiety. The lamp had gone
+out--he did not seem to notice it. I blew on the red-hot cinders; they
+brightened up, and shone on his chalky-white face, and tinged it with
+a momentary brightness. The eyes had almost closed in their deep
+sockets; now they opened wider--wider--as if they were about to spring
+forth.
+
+"Look at the alchemical glass! There is something sparkling in it! It
+is glowing, pure, heavy! He lifted it with a trembling hand. He cried
+with trembling lips, 'Gold--gold!' He staggered, and seemed quite
+giddy at the sight. I could have blown him away," said the wind; "but
+I only blew in the ruddy fire, and followed him through the door in to
+where his daughters were freezing. His dress was covered with ashes;
+they were to be seen in his beard, and in his matted hair. He raised
+his head proudly, stretched forth his rich treasure in the fragile
+glass, and 'Won--won! gold!' he cried, as he held high in the air the
+glass that glittered in the dazzling sunshine. But his hand shook, and
+the alchemical glass fell to the ground, and broke into a thousand
+pieces. The last bubble of his prosperity had burst. Wheugh--wheugh!
+And I darted away from the alchemist's castle.
+
+"Later in the year, during the short days, when fogs come with their
+damp drapery, and wring out wet drops on the red berries and the
+leafless trees, I came in a hearty humour, sent breezes aloft to clear
+the air, and began to sweep down the rotten branches. That was no hard
+work, but it was a useful one. There was sweeping of another sort
+within Borreby Castle, where Waldemar Daae dwelt. His enemy, Ové
+Ramel, from Basnæs, was there, with the mortgage bonds upon the
+property and the dwelling-house, which he had purchased. I thundered
+against the cracked window-panes, slammed the rickety doors, whistled
+through the cracks and crevices, 'Wheu-gh!' Herr Ové should have no
+pleasure in the prospect of living there. Idé and Anna Dorthea wept
+bitterly. Johanné stood erect and composed; but she looked very pale,
+and bit her lips till they bled. Much good would that do! Ové Ramel
+vouchsafed his permission to Herr Daae to remain at the castle during
+the rest of his days; but he got no thanks for the offer. I overheard
+all that passed. I saw the homeless man draw himself up haughtily, and
+toss his head; and I sent a blast against the castle and the old
+linden trees, so that the thickest branch among them broke, though it
+was not rotten. It lay before the gate like a broom, in case something
+had to be swept out; and to be sure there _was_ a clean sweep.
+
+"It was a sad day, a cruel hour, a heavy trial to sustain; but the
+heart was hard--the neck was stiff.
+
+"They possessed nothing but the clothes they had on. Yes, they had a
+newly-bought alchemist's glass, which was filled with what had been
+wasted on the floor: it had been scraped up, the treasure promised,
+but not yielded. Waldemar Daae concealed this near his breast, took
+his stick in his hand, and the once wealthy man went, with his three
+daughters, away from Borreby Castle. I blew coldly on his wan cheeks,
+and ruffled his grey beard and his long white hair. I sang around
+them, 'Wheu-gh--wheu-gh!'
+
+"There was an end to all their grandeur!
+
+"Idé and Anna Dorthea walked on each side of their father; Johanné
+turned round at the gate. Why did she do so? Fortune would not turn.
+She gazed at the red stones of the wall, the stones from Marshal
+Stig's castle, and she thought of his daughters:--
+
+    'The eldest took the younger's hand,
+    And out in the wide world they went.'
+
+She thought upon that song. Here there were three, and their father
+was with them. They passed as beggars over the same road where they
+had so often driven in their splendid carriage to SMIDSTRUP MARK, to a
+house with mud floors that was let for ten marks a year--their new
+manor-house, with bare walls and empty closets. The crows and the
+jackdaws flew after them, and cried, as if in derision, 'From the
+nest--from the nest! away--away!' as the birds had screeched at
+Borreby Wood when the trees were cut down.
+
+"And thus they entered the humble house at Smidstrup Mark, and I
+wandered away over moors and meadows, through naked hedges and
+leafless woods, to the open sea--to other lands. Wheugh--wheugh!
+On--on--on!"
+
+What became of Waldemar Daae? What became of his daughters? The wind
+will tell.
+
+"The last of them I saw was Anna Dorthea, the pale hyacinth. She had
+become old and decrepit: that was about fifty years after she had left
+the castle. She lived the longest--she saw them all out."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Yonder, on the heath, near the town of Viborg, stood the dean's
+handsome house, built of red granite. The smoke rolled plentifully
+from its chimneys. The gentle lady and her beautiful daughters sat on
+the balcony, and looked over their pretty garden on the brown heath.
+At what were they gazing? They were looking at the storks' nests, on a
+castle that was almost in ruins. The roof, where there was any roof,
+was covered with moss and houseleeks; but the best part of it
+sustained the storks' nests--that was the only portion which was in
+tolerable repair.
+
+"It was a place to look at, not to dwell in. I had to be cautious with
+it," said the wind. "For the sake of the storks the house was allowed
+to stand, else it was really a disgrace to the heath. The dean would
+not have the storks driven away; so the dilapidated building was
+permitted to remain, and a poor woman was permitted to live in it. She
+had to thank the Egyptian birds for that--or was it a reward for
+having formerly begged that the nests of their wild black kindred
+might be spared in Borreby Wood? _Then_ the wretched pauper was a
+young girl--a lovely pale hyacinth in the noble flower parterre. She
+remembered it well--poor Anna Dorthea!
+
+"'Oh! oh! Yes, mankind can sigh as the wind does amidst the sedges
+and the rushes--Oh! No church bell tolled at _thy_ death, Waldemar
+Daae! No charity-school children sang over his grave when the former
+lord of Borreby was laid in the cold earth! Oh, all shall come to an
+end, even misery! Sister Idé became a peasant's wife. That was the
+hardest trial to her poor father. His daughter's husband a lowly serf,
+who could be obliged by his master to perform the meanest tasks! He,
+too, is now under the sod, and thou art there with him, unhappy Idé! O
+yes--O yes! it was not all over, even then; for I am left a poor, old,
+helpless creature. Blessed Christ! take me hence!'
+
+"Such was Anna Dorthea's prayer in the ruined castle, where she was
+permitted to live--thanks to the storks.
+
+"The boldest of the sisters I disposed of," said the wind. "She
+dressed herself in men's clothes, went on board a ship as a poor boy,
+and hired herself as a sailor. She spoke very little, and looked very
+cross, but was willing to work. She was a bad hand at climbing,
+however; so I blew her overboard before any one had found out that she
+was a female; and I think that was very well done on my part," said
+the wind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"It was one Easter morning, the anniversary of the very day on which
+Waldemar Daae had fancied that he had found out the secret of making
+gold, that I heard under the storks' nests, from amidst the crumbling
+walls, a psalm tune--it was Anna Dorthea's last song.
+
+"There was no window. There was only a hole in the wall. The sun came
+like a mass of gold, and placed itself there. It shone in brightly.
+Her eyes closed--her heart broke! They would have done so all the
+same, had the sun not that morning blazed in upon her.
+
+"The storks had provided a roof over her head until her death.
+
+"I sang over her grave," said the wind; "I had also sung over her
+father's grave, for I knew where it was, and none else did.
+
+"New times came--new generations. The old highway had disappeared in
+inclosed fields. Even the tombs, that were fenced around, have been
+converted into a new road; and the railway's steaming engine, with its
+lines of carriages, dashes over the graves, which are as much
+forgotten as the names of those who moulder into dust in them!
+Wheugh--wheugh!
+
+"This is the history of Waldemar Daae and his daughters. Let any one
+relate it better who can," said the wind, turning round.
+
+And he was gone!
+
+
+
+
+_The Girl who Trod upon Bread._
+
+
+You have doubtless heard of the girl who trod upon bread, not to soil
+her pretty shoes, and what evil this brought upon her. The tale is
+both written and printed.
+
+She was a poor child, but proud and vain. She had a bad disposition,
+people said. When she was little more than an infant it was a pleasure
+to her to catch flies, to pull off their wings, and maim them
+entirely. She used, when somewhat older, to take lady-birds and
+beetles, stick them all upon a pin, then put a large leaf or a piece
+of paper close to their feet, so that the poor things held fast to it,
+and turned and twisted in their endeavours to get off the pin.
+
+"Now the lady-birds shall read," said little Inger. "See how they turn
+the paper!"
+
+As she grew older she became worse instead of better; but she was very
+beautiful, and that was her misfortune. She would have been punished
+otherwise, and in the long run she was.
+
+"You will bring evil on your own head," said her mother.
+
+"As a little child you used often to tear my aprons; I fear that when
+you are older you will break my heart."
+
+And she did so sure enough.
+
+At length she went into the country to wait on people of distinction.
+They were as kind to her as if she had been one of their own family;
+and she was so well dressed that she looked very pretty, and became
+extremely arrogant.
+
+When she had been a year in service her employers said to her,--
+
+"You should go and visit your relations, little Inger."
+
+She went, resolved to let them see how fine she had become. When,
+however, she reached the village, and saw the lads and lasses
+gossiping together near the pond, and her mother sitting close by on a
+stone, resting her head against a bundle of firewood which she had
+picked up in the forest, Inger turned back. She felt ashamed that she
+who was dressed so smartly should have for her mother such a ragged
+creature, one who gathered sticks for her fire. It gave her no concern
+that she was expected--she was so vexed.
+
+A half year more had passed.
+
+"You must go home some day and see your old parents, little Inger,"
+said the mistress of the house. "Here is a large loaf of white
+bread--you can carry this to them; they will be rejoiced to see you."
+
+And Inger put on her best clothes and her nice new shoes, and she
+lifted her dress high, and walked so carefully, that she might not
+soil her garments or her feet. There was no harm at all in that. But
+when she came to where the path went over some damp marshy ground, and
+there were water and mud in the way, she threw the bread into the
+mud, in order to step upon it and get over with dry shoes; but just
+as she had placed one foot on the bread, and had lifted the other up,
+the bread sank in with her deeper and deeper, till she went entirely
+down, and nothing was to be seen but a black bubbling pool.
+
+That is the story.
+
+What became of the girl? She went below to the _Old Woman of the
+Bogs_, who brews down there. The Old Woman of the Bogs is an aunt of
+the fairies. _They_ are very well known. Many poems have been written
+about them, and they have been printed; but nobody knows anything more
+of the Old Woman of the Bogs than that, when the meadows and the
+ground begin to reek in summer, it is the old woman below who is
+brewing. Into her brewery it was that Inger sank, and no one could
+hold out very long there. A cesspool is a charming apartment compared
+with the old Bog-woman's brewery. Every vessel is redolent of horrible
+smells, which would make any human being faint, and they are packed
+closely together and over each other; but even if there were a small
+space among them which one might creep through, it would be
+impossible, on account of all the slimy toads and snakes that are
+always crawling and forcing themselves through. Into this place little
+Inger sank. All this nauseous mess was so ice-cold that she shivered
+in every limb. Yes, she became stiffer and stiffer. The bread stuck
+fast to her, and it drew her as an amber bead draws a slender thread.
+
+The Old Woman of the Bogs was at home. The brewery was that day
+visited by the devil and his dam, and she was a venomous old creature
+who was never idle. She never went out without having some needlework
+with her. She had brought some there. She was sewing running leather
+to put into the shoes of human beings, so that they should never be at
+rest. She embroidered lies, and worked up into mischief and discord
+thoughtless words, that would otherwise have fallen to the ground.
+Yes, she knew how to sew and embroider, and transfer with a vengeance,
+that old grandam!
+
+She beheld Inger, put on her spectacles, and looked at her.
+
+"That is a girl with talents," said she. "I shall ask for her as a
+_souvenir_ of my visit here; she may do very well as a statue to
+ornament my great-grandchildren's antechamber;" and she took her.
+
+It was thus little Inger went to the infernal regions. People do not
+generally go straight through the air to them: they can go by a
+roundabout path when they know the way.
+
+It was an antechamber in an infinity. One became giddy there at
+looking forwards, and giddy at looking backwards, and there stood a
+crowd of anxious, pining beings, who were waiting and hoping for the
+time when the gates of grace should be opened. They would have long to
+wait. Hideous, large, waddling spiders wove thousands of webs over
+their feet; and these webs were like gins or foot-screws, and held
+them as fast as chains of iron, and were a cause of disquiet to every
+soul--a painful annoyance. Misers stood there, and lamented that they
+had forgotten the keys of their money chests. It would be too tiresome
+to repeat all the complaints and troubles that were poured forth
+there. Inger thought it shocking to stand there like a statue: she
+was, as it were, fastened to the ground by the bread.
+
+"This comes of wishing to have clean shoes," said she to herself. "See
+how they all stare at me!"
+
+Yes, they did all stare at her; their evil passions glared from their
+eyes, and spoke, without sound, from the corner of their mouths: they
+were frightful.
+
+"It must be a pleasure to them to see me," thought little Inger. "I
+have a pretty face, and am well dressed;" and she dried her eyes. She
+had not lost her conceit. She had not then perceived how her fine
+clothes had been soiled in the brewhouse of the Old Woman of the Bogs.
+Her dress was covered with dabs of nasty matter; a snake had wound
+itself among her hair, and it dangled over her neck; and from every
+fold in her garment peeped out a toad, that puffed like an asthmatic
+lap-dog. It was very disagreeable. "But all the rest down here look
+horrid too," was the reflection with which she consoled herself.
+
+But the worst of all was the dreadful hunger she felt. Could she not
+stoop down and break off a piece of the bread on which she was
+standing? No; her back was stiffened; her hands and her arms were
+stiffened; her whole body was like a statue of stone; she could only
+move her eyes, and these she could turn entirely round, and that was
+an ugly sight. And flies came and crept over her eyes backwards and
+forwards. She winked her eyes; but the intruders did not fly away, for
+they could not--their wings had been pulled off. That was another
+misery added to the hunger--the gnawing hunger that was so terrible to
+bear!
+
+"If this goes on I cannot hold out much longer," she said.
+
+But she had to hold out, and her sufferings became greater.
+
+Then a warm tear fell upon her head. It trickled over her face and her
+neck, all the way down to the bread. Another tear fell, then many
+followed. Who was weeping over little Inger? Had she not a mother up
+yonder on the earth? The tears of anguish which a mother sheds over
+her erring child always reach it; but they do not comfort the
+child--they burn, they increase the suffering. And oh! this
+intolerable hunger; yet not to be able to snatch one mouthful of the
+bread she was treading under foot! She became as thin, as slender as a
+reed. Another trial was that she heard distinctly all that was said of
+her above on the earth, and it was nothing but blame and evil. Though
+her mother wept, and was in much affliction, she still said,--
+
+"Pride goes before a fall. That was your great fault, Inger. Oh, how
+miserable you have made your mother!"
+
+Her mother and all who were acquainted with her were well aware of the
+sin she had committed in treading upon bread. They knew that she had
+sunk into the bog, and was lost; the cowherd had told that, for he had
+seen it himself from the brow of the hill.
+
+"What affliction you have brought on your mother, Inger!" exclaimed
+her mother. "Ah, well! I expected no better from you."
+
+"Would that I had never been born!" thought Inger; "that would have
+been much better for me. My mother's whimpering can do no good now."
+
+She heard how the family, the people of distinction who had been so
+kind to her, spoke. "She was a wicked child," they said; "she valued
+not the gifts of our Lord, but trod them under her feet. It will be
+difficult for her to get the gates of grace open to admit her."
+
+"They ought to have brought me up better," thought Inger. "They should
+have taken the whims out of me, if I had any."
+
+She heard that there was a common ballad made about her, "the bad girl
+who trod upon bread, to keep her shoes nicely clean," and this ballad
+was sung from one end of the country to the other.
+
+"That any one should have to suffer so much for such as that--be
+punished so severely for such a trifle!" thought Inger. "All these
+others are punished justly, for no doubt there was a great deal to
+punish; but ah, how I suffer!"
+
+And her heart became still harder than the substance into which she
+had been turned.
+
+"No one can be better in such society. I will not grow better here.
+See how they glare at me!"
+
+And her heart became still harder, and she felt a hatred towards all
+mankind.
+
+"They have a nice story to tell up there now. Oh, how I suffer!"
+
+She listened, and heard them telling her history as a warning to
+children, and the little ones called her "ungodly Inger." "She was so
+naughty," they said, "so very wicked, that she deserved to suffer."
+
+The children always spoke harshly of her. One day, however, that
+hunger and misery were gnawing her most dreadfully, and she heard her
+name mentioned, and her story told to an innocent child--a little
+girl--she observed that the child burst into tears in her distress for
+the proud, finely-dressed Inger.
+
+"But will she never come up again?" asked the child.
+
+The answer was,--
+
+"She will never come up again."
+
+"But if she will beg pardon, and promise never to be naughty again?"
+
+"But she will _not_ beg pardon," they said.
+
+"Oh, how I wish she would do it!" sobbed the little girl in great
+distress. "I will give my doll, and my doll's house too, if she may
+come up! It is so shocking for poor little Inger to be down there!"
+
+These words touched Inger's heart; they seemed almost to make her
+good. It was the first time any one had said "poor Inger," and had not
+dwelt upon her faults. An innocent child cried and prayed for her. She
+was so much affected by this that she felt inclined to weep herself;
+but she could not, and this was an additional pain.
+
+Years passed on in the earth above; but down where she was there was
+no change, except that she heard more and more rarely sounds from
+above, and that she herself was more seldom mentioned. At last one day
+she heard a sigh, and "Inger, Inger, how miserable you have made me! I
+foretold that you would!" These were her mother's last words on her
+deathbed.
+
+And again she heard herself named by her former employers, and her
+mistress said,--
+
+"Perhaps I may meet you once more, Inger. None know whither they are
+to go."
+
+But Inger knew full well that her excellent mistress would never come
+to the place where _she_ was.
+
+Time passed on, and on, slowly and wretchedly. Then once more Inger
+heard her name mentioned, and she beheld as it were, directly above
+her, two clear stars shining. These were two mild eyes that were
+closing upon earth. So many years had elapsed since a little girl had
+cried in childish sorrow over "poor Inger," that that child had become
+an old woman, whom our Lord was now about to call to himself. At that
+hour, when the thoughts and the actions of a whole life stand in
+review before the parting soul, she remembered how, as a little child,
+she had wept bitterly on hearing the history of Inger. That time, and
+those feelings, stood so prominently before the old woman's mind in
+the hour of death, that she cried with intense emotion,--
+
+"Lord, my God! have not I often, like Inger, trod under foot Thy
+blessed gifts, and placed no value on them? Have I not often been
+guilty of pride and vanity in my secret heart? But Thou, in Thy mercy,
+didst not let me sink; Thou didst hold me up. Oh, forsake me not in my
+last hour!"
+
+And the aged woman's eyes closed, and her spirit's eyes opened to what
+had been formerly invisible; and as Inger had been present in her
+latest thoughts, she beheld her, and perceived how deep she had been
+dragged downwards. At that sight the gentle being burst into tears;
+and in the kingdom of heaven she stood like a child, and wept for the
+fate of the unfortunate Inger. Her tears and her prayers sounded like
+an echo down in the hollow form that confined the imprisoned,
+miserable soul. That soul was overwhelmed by the unexpected love from
+those realms afar. One of God's angels wept for her! Why was this
+vouchsafed to her? The tortured spirit gathered, as it were, into one
+thought, all the actions of its life--all that it had done; and it
+shook with the violence of its remorse--remorse such as Inger had
+never felt. Grief became her predominating feeling. She thought that
+for her the gates of mercy would never open, and as in deep contrition
+and self-abasement she thought thus, a ray of brightness penetrated
+into the dismal abyss--a ray more vivid and glorious than the sunbeams
+which thaw the snow figures that the children make in their gardens.
+And this ray, more quickly than the snow-flake that falls upon a
+child's warm mouth can be melted into a drop of water, caused Inger's
+petrified figure to evaporate, and a little bird arose, following the
+zigzag course of the ray, up towards the world that mankind inhabit.
+But it seemed afraid and shy of everything around it; it felt ashamed
+of itself; and apparently wishing to avoid all living creatures, it
+sought, in haste, concealment in a dark recess in a crumbling wall.
+Here it sat, and it crept into the farthest corner, trembling all
+over. It could not sing, for it had no voice. For a long time it sat
+quietly there before it ventured to look out and behold all the beauty
+around. Yes, it was beauty! The air was so fresh, yet so soft; the
+moon shone so clearly; the trees and the flowers scented so sweetly;
+and it was so comfortable where she sat--her feather garb so clean and
+nice! How all creation told of love and glory! The grateful thoughts
+that awoke in the bird's breast she would willingly have poured forth
+in song, but the power was denied to her. Yes, gladly would she have
+sung as do the cuckoo and the nightingale in spring. Our gracious
+Lord, who hears the mute worm's hymn of praise, understood the
+thanksgiving that lifted itself up in the tones of thought, as the
+psalm floated in David's mind before it resolved itself into words and
+melody.
+
+As weeks passed on these unexpressed feelings of gratitude increased.
+They would surely find a voice some day, with the first stroke of the
+wing, to perform some good act. Might not this happen?
+
+Now came the holy Christmas festival. The peasants raised a pole close
+by the old wall, and bound an unthrashed bundle of oats on it, that
+the birds of the air might also enjoy the Christmas, and have plenty
+to eat at that time which was held in commemoration of the redemption
+brought to mankind.
+
+And the sun rose brightly that Christmas morning, and shone upon the
+oat-sheaf, and upon all the chirping birds that flew around the pole;
+and from the wall issued a faint twittering. The swelling thoughts had
+at last found vent, and the low sound was a hymn of joy, as the bird
+flew forth from its hiding-place.
+
+The winter was an unusually severe one. The waters were frozen thickly
+over; the birds and the wild animals in the woods had great difficulty
+in obtaining food. The little bird, that had so recently left its dark
+solitude, flew about the country roads, and when it found by chance a
+little corn dropped in the ruts, it would eat only a single grain
+itself, while it called all the starving sparrows to partake of it. It
+would also fly to the villages and towns, and look well about; and
+where kind hands had strewed crumbs of bread outside the windows for
+the birds, it would eat only one morsel itself, and give all the rest
+to the others.
+
+At the end of the winter the bird had found and given away so many
+crumbs of bread, that the number put together would have weighed as
+much as the loaf upon which little Inger had trodden in order to save
+her fine shoes from being soiled; and when she had found and given
+away the very last crumb, the grey wings of the bird became white, and
+expanded wonderfully.
+
+"It is flying over the sea!" exclaimed the children who saw the white
+bird. Now it seemed to dip into the ocean, now it arose into the clear
+sunshine; it glittered in the air; it disappeared high, high above;
+and the children said that it had flown up to the sun.
+
+
+
+
+_Olé, the Watchman of the Tower._
+
+
+"In the world it is always going up and down, and down and up again;
+but I can't go higher than I am," said Olé, the watchman of the church
+tower. "Ups and downs most people have to experience; in point of
+fact, we each become at last a kind of tower-watchman--we look at life
+and things from above."
+
+Thus spoke Olé up in the lofty tower--my friend the watchman, a
+cheerful, chatty old fellow, who seemed to blurt everything out at
+random, though there were, in reality, deep and earnest feelings
+concealed in his heart. He had come of a good stock; some people even
+said that he was the son of a _Conferentsraad_,[5] or might have been
+that. He had studied, had been a teacher's assistant, assistant clerk
+in the church; but these situations had not done much for him. At one
+time he lived at the chief clerk's, and was to have bed and board
+free. He was then young, and somewhat particular about his dress, as I
+have heard. He insisted on having his boots polished and brushed with
+blacking, but the head clerk would only allow grease; and this was a
+cause of dissension between them. The one talked of stinginess, the
+other talked of foolish vanity. The blacking became the dark
+foundation of enmity, and so they parted; but what he had demanded
+from the clerk he also demanded from the world--real blacking; and he
+always got its substitute, grease; so he turned his back upon all
+mankind, and became a hermit. But a hermitage coupled with a
+livelihood is not to be had in the midst of a large city except up in
+the steeple of a church. Thither he betook himself, and smoked his
+pipe in solitude. He looked up, and he looked down; reflected
+according to his fashion upon all he saw, and all he did not see--on
+what he read in books, and what he read in himself.
+
+[Footnote 5: A Danish title.]
+
+I often lent him books, good books; and people can converse about
+these, as everybody knows. He did not care for fashionable English
+novels, he said, nor for French ones either--they were all too
+frivolous. No, he liked biographies, and books that relate to the
+wonders of nature. I visited him at least once a year, generally
+immediately after the New Year. He had then always something to say
+that the peculiar period suggested to his thoughts.
+
+I shall relate what passed during two of my visits, and give his own
+words as nearly as I can.
+
+
+THE FIRST VISIT.
+
+Among the books I had last lent Olé was one about pebbles, and it
+pleased him extremely.
+
+"Yes, sure enough they are veterans from old days, these pebbles,"
+said he; "and yet we pass them carelessly by. I have myself often done
+so in the fields and on the beach, where they lie in crowds. We tread
+them under foot in some of our pathways, these fragments from the
+remains of antiquity. I have myself done that; but now I hold all
+these pebble-formed pavements in high respect. Thanks for that book;
+it has driven old ideas and habits of thinking aside, and has replaced
+them by other ideas, and made me eager to read something more of the
+same kind. The romance of the earth is the most astonishing of all
+romances. What a pity that one cannot read the first portion of
+it--that it is composed in a language we have not learned! One must
+read it in the layers of the ground, in the strata of the rocks, in
+all the periods of the earth. It was not until the sixth part that the
+living and acting persons, Mr. Adam and Mrs. Eve, were introduced,
+though some will have it they came immediately. That, however, is all
+one to me. It is a most eventful tale, and we are all in it. We go on
+digging and groping, but always find ourselves where we were; yet the
+globe is ever whirling round, and without the waters of the world
+overwhelming us. The crust we tread on holds together--we do not fall
+through it; and this is a history of a million of years, with constant
+advancement. Thanks for the book about the pebbles. They could tell
+many a strange tale if they were able.
+
+"Is it not pleasant once and away to become like a Nix, when one is
+perched so high as I am, and then to remember that we all are but
+minute ants upon the earth's ant-hill, although some of us are
+distinguished ants, some are laborious, and some are indolent ants?
+One seems to be so excessively young by the side of these million
+years old, reverend pebbles. I was reading the book on New Year's
+eve, and was so wrapped up in it that I forgot my accustomed amusement
+on that night, looking at 'the wild host to Amager,' of which you may
+have heard.
+
+"The witches' journey on broomsticks is well known--that takes place
+on St. John's night, and to Bloksberg. But we have also the wild host,
+here at home and in our own time, which goes to Amager every New
+Year's eve. All the bad poets and poetesses, newspaper writers,
+musicians, and artists of all sorts, who come before the public, but
+make no sensation--those, in short, who are very mediocre, ride--on
+New Year's eve, out to Amager: they sit astride on their pencils or
+quill pens. Steel pens don't answer, they are too stiff. I see this
+troop, as I have said, every New Year's eve. I could name most of
+them, but it is not worth while to get into a scrape with them; they
+do not like people to know of their Amager flight upon quill pens. I
+have a kind of a cousin, who is a fisherman's wife, and furnishes
+abusive articles to three popular periodicals: she says she has been
+out there as an invited guest. She has described the whole affair.
+Half that she says, of course, are lies, but part might be true. When
+she was there they commenced with a song; each of the visitors had
+written his own song, and each sang his own composition: they all
+performed together, so it was a kind of 'cats' chorus'. Small groups
+marched about, consisting of those who labour at improving that gift
+which is called 'the gift of the gab:' they had their own shrill
+songs. Then came the little drummers, and those who write without
+giving their names--that is to say, whose grease is imposed on people
+for blacking; then there were the executioners, and the puffers of bad
+wares. In the midst of all the merriment, as it must have been, that
+was going on, shot up from a pit a stem, a tree, a monstrous flower, a
+large toadstool, and a cupola. These were the Utopian productions of
+the honoured assembly, the entire amount of their offerings to the
+world during the past year. Sparks flew from these various objects;
+they were the thoughts and ideas which had been borrowed or stolen,
+which now took wings to themselves, and flew away as if by magic. My
+cousin told me a good deal more, which, though laughable, was too
+malicious for me to repeat.
+
+"I always watch this wild host fly past every New Year's eve; but on
+the last one, as I told you, I neglected to look at them, for I was
+rolling away in thought upon the round pebbles--rolling through
+thousands and thousands of years. I saw them detached from rocks far
+away in the distant north; saw them driven along in masses of ice
+before Noah's ark was put together; saw them sink to the bottom, and
+rise again in a sand-bank, which grew higher and higher above the
+water; and I said, 'That will be Zealand!' It became the resort of
+birds of various species unknown to us--the home of savage chiefs as
+little known to us, until the axe cut the Runic characters which then
+brought them into our chronology. As I was thus musing three or four
+falling stars attracted my eye. My thoughts took another turn. Do you
+know what falling stars are? The scientific themselves do not know
+what they are. I have my own ideas about them. How often in secret are
+not thanks and blessings poured out on those who have done anything
+great or good! Sometimes these thanks are voiceless, but they do not
+fall to the ground. I fancy that they are caught by the sunshine, and
+that the sunbeam brings the silent, secret praise down over the head
+of the benefactor. If it be an entire people that through time bestow
+their thanks, then the thanks come as a banquet--fall like a falling
+star over the grave of the benefactor. It is one of my pleasures,
+especially when on a New Year's eve I observe a falling star, to
+imagine to whose grave the starry messenger of gratitude is speeding.
+One of the last falling stars I saw took its blazing course towards
+the south-west. For whom was it dispatched? It fell, I thought, on the
+slope by Flensborg Fiord, where the Danish flag waves over
+Schleppegrell's, Læssöe's, and their comrades' graves. One fell in the
+centre of the country near Sorö. It was a banquet for Holberg's
+grave--a thank offering of years from many--a thank offering for his
+splendid comedies! It is a glorious and gratifying fancy that a
+falling star could illumine our graves. That will not be the case with
+mine; not even a single sunbeam will bring me thanks, for I have done
+nothing to deserve them. I have not even attained to blacking," said
+Olé; "my lot in life has been only to get grease."
+
+
+THE SECOND VISIT.
+
+It was on a New Year's day that I again ascended to the church tower.
+Olé began to speak of toasts. We drank one to the transition from the
+old drop in eternity to the new drop in eternity, as he called the
+year. Then he gave me his story about the glasses, and there was some
+sense in it.
+
+"When the clocks strike twelve on New Year's night every one rises
+from table with a brimful glass, and drinks to the New Year. To
+commence the year with a glass in one's hand is a good beginning for a
+drunkard. To begin the year by going to bed is a good beginning for a
+sluggard. Sleep will, in the course of his year, play a prominent
+part; so will the glass.
+
+"Do you know what dwells in glasses?" he asked. "There dwell in them
+health, glee, and folly. Within them dwell, also, vexations and bitter
+calamity. When I count up the glasses I can tell the gradations in the
+glass for different people. The first glass, you see, is the glass of
+health; in it grow health-giving plants. Stick to that one glass, and
+at the end of the year you can sit peacefully in the leafy bowers of
+health.
+
+"If you take the second glass a little bird will fly out of it,
+chirping in innocent gladness, and men will laugh and sing with it,
+'Life is pleasant. Away with care, away with fear!'
+
+"From the third glass springs forth a little winged creature--a little
+angel he cannot well be called, for he has Nix blood and a Nix mind.
+He does not come to tease, but to amuse. He places himself behind your
+ear, and whispers some humorous idea; he lays himself close to your
+heart and warms it, so that you become very merry, and fancy yourself
+the cleverest among a set of great wits.
+
+"In the fourth glass is neither plant, bird, nor little figure: it is
+the boundary line of sense, and beyond that line let no one go.
+
+"If you take the fifth glass you will weep over yourself--you will be
+foolishly happy, or become stupidly noisy. From this glass will spring
+Prince Carnival, flippant and crack-brained. He will entice you to
+accompany him; you will forget your respectability, if you have any;
+you will forget more than you ought or dare forget. All is pleasure,
+gaiety, excitement; the maskers carry you off with them; the
+daughters of the Evil One, in silks and flowers, come with flowing
+hair and voluptuous charms. Escape them if you can.
+
+"The sixth glass! In that sits Satan himself--a well-dressed,
+conversable, lively, fascinating little man--who never contradicts
+you, allows that you are always in the right--in fact, seems quite to
+adopt all your opinions. He comes with a lantern to convey you home to
+his own habitation. There is an old legend about a saint who was to
+choose one of the seven mortal sins, and he chose, as he thought, the
+least--drunkenness; but in that state he perpetrated all the other six
+sins. The human nature and the devilish nature mingle. This is the
+sixth glass; and after that all the germs of evil thrive in us, every
+one of them spreading with a rapidity and vigour that cause them to be
+like the mustard-seed in the Bible, 'which, indeed, is the least of
+all seeds; but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs, and
+becometh a tree.' Most of them have nothing before them but to be cast
+into the furnace, and be smelted there.
+
+"This is the story of the glasses," said Olé, the watchman of the
+church tower; "and it applies both to those who use blacking, and to
+those who use only grease."
+
+Such was the result of the second visit to Olé. More may be
+forthcoming at some future time.
+
+
+
+
+_Anne Lisbeth; or, The Apparition of the Beach._
+
+
+Anne Lisbeth was like milk and blood, young and happy, lovely to look
+at; her teeth were so dazzlingly white, her eyes were so clear; her
+foot was light in the dance, and her head was still lighter. What did
+all this lead to? To no good. "The vile creature!" "She was not
+pretty!"
+
+She was placed with the grave-digger's wife, and from thence she went
+to the count's splendid country-seat, where she lived in handsome
+rooms, and was dressed in silks and fineries; not a breath of wind was
+to blow on her; no one dared to say a rough word to her, nothing was
+to be done to annoy her; for she nursed the count's son and heir, who
+was as carefully tended as a prince, and as beautiful as an angel. How
+she loved that child! Her own child was away from her--he was in the
+grave-digger's house, where there was more hunger than plenty, and
+where often there was no one at home. The poor deserted child cried,
+but what nobody hears nobody cares about. He cried himself to sleep,
+and in sleep one feels neither hungry nor thirsty: sleep is,
+therefore, a great blessing. In the course of time Anne Lisbeth's
+child shot up. Ill weeds grow apace, it is said: and this poor weed
+grew, and seemed a member of the family, who were paid for keeping
+him. Anne Lisbeth was quite free of him. She was a village fine lady,
+had everything of the best, and wore a smart bonnet whenever she went
+out. But she never went to the grave-digger's; it was so far from
+where she lived, and she had nothing to do there. The child was under
+their charge; _he_ who paid its board could well afford it, and the
+child would be taken very good care of.
+
+The watch-dog at the lord of the manor's bleach-field sits proudly in
+the sunshine outside of his kennel, and growls at every one that goes
+past. In rainy weather he creeps inside, and lies down dry and
+sheltered. Anne Lisbeth's boy sat on the side of a ditch in the
+sunshine, amusing himself by cutting a bit of stick. In spring he saw
+three strawberry bushes in bloom: they would surely bear fruit. This
+was his pleasantest thought; but there was no fruit. He sat out in the
+drizzling rain, and in the heavy rain--was wet to the skin--and the
+sharp wind dried his clothes upon him. If he went to the farm-houses
+near, he was thumped and shoved about. He was "grim-looking and ugly,"
+the girls and the boys said. What became of Anne Lisbeth's boy? What
+_could_ become of him? It was his fate to be "_never loved_."
+
+At length he was transferred from his joyless village life to the
+still worse life of a sailor boy. He went on board a wretched little
+vessel, to stand by the rudder while the skipper drank. Filthy and
+disgusting the poor boy looked; starving and benumbed with cold he
+was. One would have thought, from his appearance, that he never had
+been well fed; and, indeed, that was the fact.
+
+It was late in the year; it was raw, wet, stormy weather; the cold
+wind penetrated even through thick clothing, especially at sea; and
+only two men on board were too few to work the sails; indeed, it might
+be said only one man and a half--the master and his boy. It had been
+black and gloomy all day; now it became still more dark, and it was
+bitterly cold. The skipper took a dram to warm himself. The flask was
+old, and so was the glass; its foot was broken off, but it was
+inserted into a piece of wood painted blue, which served as a stand
+for it. If one dram was good, two would be better, thought the master.
+The boy stood by the helm, and held on to it with his hard,
+tar-covered hands. He looked frightened. His hair was rough, and he
+was wrinkled, and stunted in his growth. The young sailor was the
+grave-digger's boy; in the church register he was called Anne
+Lisbeth's son.
+
+The wind blew as it list; the sail flapped, then filled; the vessel
+flew on. It was wet, chill, dark as pitch; but worse was yet to come.
+Hark! What was that? With what had the boat come in contact? What had
+burst? What seemed to have caught it? It shifted round. Was it a
+sudden squall? The boy at the helm cried aloud, "In the name of
+Jesus!" The little bark had struck on a large sunken rock, and sank as
+an old shoe would sink in a small pool--sank with men and mice on
+board, as the saying is; and there certainly were mice, but only one
+man and a half--the skipper and the grave-digger's boy. None witnessed
+the catastrophe except the screaming sea-gulls and the fishes below;
+and even they did not see much of it, for they rushed aside in alarm
+when the water gushed thundering into the little vessel as it sank.
+Scarcely a fathom beneath the surface it stood; yet the two human
+beings who had been on board were lost--lost--forgotten! Only the
+glass with the blue-painted wooden foot did not sink; the wooden foot
+floated it. But the glass was broken when it was washed far up on the
+beach. How and when? That is of no consequence. It had served its
+time, and it had been liked; that Anne Lisbeth's child had never been.
+But in the kingdom of heaven no soul can say again, "Never loved!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Anne Lisbeth resided in the large market town, and had done so for
+some years. She was called "Madam," and held her head very high,
+especially when she spoke of old reminiscences of the time she had
+passed at the count's lordly mansion, when she used to drive out in a
+carriage, and used to converse with countesses and baronesses. Her
+sweet nursling, the little count, was a lovely angel, a darling
+creature. She was so fond of him, and he had been so fond of her. How
+she used to pet him, and how he used to kiss her! He was her
+delight--was as dear to her as herself. He was now quite a big boy; he
+was fourteen years of age, and had plenty of learning and
+accomplishments. She had not seen him since she carried him in her
+arms. It was many years since she had been at the count's castle, for
+it was such a long way off.
+
+"But I must go over and see them again," said Anne Lisbeth. "I must go
+to my noble friends, to my darling child, the young count--yes, yes,
+for he is surely longing to see me. He thinks of me, he loves me as he
+did when he used to throw his little cherub arms round my neck and
+lisp, 'An Lis!' Oh, it was like a violin! Yes, I must go over and see
+him again."
+
+She went part of the way in the carrier's wagon, part of the way on
+foot. She arrived at the castle. It looked as grand and imposing as
+ever. The gardens were not at all changed; but the servants were all
+strangers. Not one of them knew anything about Anne Lisbeth. They did
+not know what an important person she had been in the house formerly;
+but surely the countess would tell them who she was, so would her own
+boy. How she longed to see them both!
+
+Well, Anne Lisbeth was there; but she had to wait a long time, and
+waiting is always so tedious. Before the family and their guests went
+to dinner she was called in to the countess, and very kindly spoken
+to. She was told she should see her dear boy after dinner, and after
+dinner she was sent for again.
+
+How much he had grown! How tall and thin! But he had the same charming
+eyes, and the same angelic mouth. He looked at her, but he did not say
+a word. It was evident that he did not remember her. He turned away,
+and was going, but she caught his hand and carried it to her lips.
+"Ah! well, that will do!" he said, and hastily left the room--he, the
+darling of her soul--he on whom her thoughts had centred for so many
+years--he whom she had loved the best--her greatest earthly pride!
+
+Anne Lisbeth left the castle, and turned into the open high road. She
+was very sad--he had been so cold and distant to her. He had not a
+word, not a thought for her who, by day and by night, had so cherished
+_him_ in her heart.
+
+At that moment a large black raven flew across the road before her,
+screeching harshly.
+
+"Oh!" she exclaimed, "what do you want, bird of ill omen that you
+are?"
+
+She passed by the grave-digger's house; his wife was standing in the
+doorway, and they spoke to each other.
+
+"You are looking very well," said the grave-digger's wife. "You are
+stout and hearty. The world goes well with you apparently."
+
+"Pretty well," replied Anne Lisbeth.
+
+"The little vessel has been lost," said the grave-digger's wife. "Lars
+the skipper, and the boy, are both drowned; so there is an end of that
+matter. I had hoped, though, that the boy might by and by have helped
+me with a shilling now and then. He never cost you anything, Anne
+Lisbeth."
+
+"Drowned are they?" exclaimed Anne Lisbeth; and she did not say
+another word on the subject--she was so distressed that her nursling,
+the young count, did not care to speak to her--she who loved him so
+much, and had taken such a long journey to see him--a journey that had
+cost her some money too. The pleasure she had received was not great,
+but she was not going to admit this. She would not say one word to the
+grave-digger's wife to lead her to think that she was no longer a
+person of consequence at the count's. The raven screeched again just
+over her head.
+
+"That horrid noise!" said Anne Lisbeth; "it has quite startled me
+to-day."
+
+She had brought some coffee-beans and chicory with her; it would be a
+kindness to the grave-digger's wife to make her a present of these;
+and, when she did so, it was agreed that they should take a cup of
+coffee together. The mistress of the house went to prepare it, and
+Anne Lisbeth sat down to wait for it. While waiting she fell asleep,
+and she dreamed of one of whom she had never before dreamt: that was
+very strange. She dreamed of her own child, who in that very house
+had starved and squalled, and never tasted anything better than cold
+water, and who now lay in the deep sea, our Lord only knew where. She
+dreamed that she was sitting just where she really was seated, and
+that the grave-digger's wife had gone to make some coffee, but had
+first to grind the coffee-beans, and that a beautiful boy stood in the
+doorway--a boy as charming as the little count had been; and the child
+said,--
+
+"The world is now passing away. Hold fast to me, for thou art my
+mother. Thy child is an angel in the kingdom of heaven. Hold fast to
+me!"
+
+And he seized her. But there was a frightful uproar around, as if
+worlds were breaking asunder; and the angel raised her up, and held
+her fast by the sleeves of her dress--so fast, it seemed to her, that
+she was lifted from the ground; but something hung so heavily about
+her feet, something lay so heavily on her back: it was as if hundreds
+of women were clinging fast to her, and crying, "If thou canst be
+saved, so may we. We will hold on--hold on!" and they all appeared to
+be holding on by her. Then the sleeves of her garments gave way, and
+she fell, overcome with terror.
+
+The sensation of fear awoke her, and she found herself on the point of
+falling off her chair. Her head was so confused that at first she
+could not remember what she had dreamt, though she knew it had been
+something disagreeable. The coffee was drunk, and Anne Lisbeth took
+her departure to the nearest village, where she might meet the
+carrier, and get him to convey her that evening to the town where she
+lived. But the carrier said he was not going until the following
+evening; and, on calculating what it would cost her to remain till
+then, she determined to walk home. She would not go by the high road,
+but by the beach: that was at least eight or nine miles shorter. The
+weather was fine, and it was full moon. She would be at home the next
+morning.
+
+The sun had set; the evening bells that had been chiming were hushed.
+All was still; not a bird was to be heard twittering among the
+leaves--they had all gone to rest: the owls were away. All was silence
+in the wood; and on the beach, where she was walking, she could hear
+her own foot fall on the sand. The very sea seemed slumbering; the
+waves rolled lazily and noiselessly on the shore, and away on the open
+deep there seemed to be a dead calm: not a line of foam, not a ripple
+was visible on the water. All were quiet beneath, the living and the
+dead.
+
+Anne Lisbeth walked on, and her thoughts were not engrossed by
+anything in particular. She was not at all lost in thought, but
+thoughts were not lost to her. They are never lost to us; they lie
+only in a state of torpor, as it were, both the lately active thoughts
+that have lulled themselves to rest, and those which have not yet
+awoke. But thoughts come often undesired; they can touch the heart,
+they can distract the head, they can at times overpower us.
+
+"Good actions have their reward," it is written.
+
+"The wages of sin is death," it is also written. Much is written--much
+is said. But many give no heed to the words of truth--they remember
+them not; and so it was with Anne Lisbeth; but they can force
+themselves upon the mind.
+
+All sins and all virtues lie in our hearts--in thine, in mine. They
+lie like small invisible seeds. From without fall upon them a sunbeam,
+or the contact of an evil hand--they take their bent in their hidden
+nook, to the right or to the left. Yes, there it is decided, and the
+little grain of seed quivers, swells, springs up, and pours its juice
+into your blood, and there you are, fairly launched. These are
+thoughts fraught with anxiety; they do not haunt one when one is in a
+state of mental slumber, but they are fermenting. Anne Lisbeth was
+slumbering--hidden thoughts were fermenting. From Candlemas to
+Candlemas the heart has much on its tablets--it has the year's
+account. Much is forgotten--sins in word and deed against God, against
+our neighbour, and against our own consciences. We reflect little upon
+all this; neither did Anne Lisbeth. She had not broken the laws of her
+country, she kept up good appearances, she did not run in debt, she
+wronged no one; and so, well satisfied with herself, she walked on by
+the seashore. What was that lying in her path? She stopped. What was
+that washed up from the sea? A man's old hat lay there. It might have
+fallen overboard. She approached closer to it, stood still, and looked
+at it. Heavens! what was lying there? She was almost frightened; but
+there was nothing to be frightened at; it was only a mass of seaweed
+that lay twined over a large, oblong, flat rock, that was shaped
+something like a human being--it was nothing but seaweed. Still she
+felt frightened, and hastened on; and as she hurried on, many things
+she had heard in her childhood recurred to her thoughts, especially
+all the superstitious tales about "_the apparition of the beach_"--the
+spectre of the unburied that lay washed up on the lonely, deserted
+shore. The body thrown up from the deep, the dead body itself, she
+thought nothing of; but its ghost followed the solitary wanderer,
+attached itself closely to him or her, and demanded to be carried to
+the churchyard, to receive Christian burial.
+
+"Hold on--hold on!" it was wont to say; and, as Anne Lisbeth repeated
+these words inwardly to herself, she suddenly remembered her strange
+dream, in which the women had clung to her, shrieking, "Hold on--hold
+on!" how the world had sunk; how her sleeves had given way, and she
+had fallen from the grasp of her child, who wished, in the hour of
+doom, to save her. Her child--her own flesh and blood--the little one
+she had never loved, never spared a thought to--that child was now at
+the bottom of the sea, and it might come like "the apparition of the
+beach," and cry, "Hold on--hold on! Give me Christian burial!" And as
+these thoughts crowded on her mind, terror gave wings to her feet, and
+she hurried faster and faster on; but fear came like a cold, clammy
+hand, and laid itself on her beating heart, so that she felt quite
+faint; and as she glanced towards the sea, she saw it looked dark and
+threatening; a thick mist arose, and soon spread around, lying heavily
+over the very trees and bushes, which assumed strange appearances
+through it.
+
+She turned round to look for the moon, which was behind her: it was
+like a pale disc, without any rays. Something seemed to hang heavily
+about her limbs as she attempted to hurry on. She thought of the
+apparition; and, turning again, she beheld the white moon as if close
+to her, while the mist seemed to hang like a mantle over her
+shoulders. "Hold on--hold on! Give me Christian burial!" she expected
+every moment to hear; and she did hear a hollow, terrific sound, which
+seemed to cry hoarsely, "Bury me--bury me!" Yes, it must be the
+spectre of her child--her child who was lying at the bottom of the
+sea, and who would not rest quietly until the corpse was carried to
+the churchyard, and placed like a Christian in consecrated ground. She
+would go there--she would dig his grave herself; and she went in the
+direction in which the church lay, and as she proceeded she felt her
+invisible burden become lighter--it left her; and again she returned
+to the shore to reach her home as speedily as possible. But no sooner
+did her foot tread the sands than the wild sound seemed to moan around
+her, and it seemed ever to repeat, "Bury me--bury me!"
+
+The fog was cold and damp; her hands and her face were cold and damp.
+She shivered in her fright. Without, space seemed to close up around
+her; within her there seemed to be endless room for thoughts that had
+never before entered her mind.
+
+During one spring night here in the north the beech groves can sprout,
+and the next day's early sun can shine on them in all their fresh
+young beauty. In one single second within us can the germ of sin bud
+forth, swelling by degrees into thoughts, words, and deeds, though all
+remorse for them lies dormant. _It_ is quickened and unfolds itself in
+one single second, when conscience awakens; and our Lord awakens
+_that_ when we least expect it. Then there is nothing to be excused;
+deeds stand forth and bear witness, thoughts find words, and words
+ring out over the world. We are shocked at what we have permitted to
+dwell within us, and not stifled; shocked at what, in our
+thoughtlessness or our presumption, we have scattered abroad. The
+heart is the depository of all virtues, but also of all vices; and
+these can thrive in the most barren ground.
+
+Anne Lisbeth reviewed in thought what we have expressed in words. She
+was overwhelmed with it all. She sank to the ground, and crawled a
+little way over it. "Bury me--bury me!" she still seemed to hear. She
+would rather have buried herself, if the grave could be an eternal
+forgetfulness of everything. It was the awakening hour of serious
+thought, of terrible thoughts, that made her shudder. Superstition
+came, too, by turns heating and chilling her blood; and things she
+would scarcely have ventured to mention rushed on her mind. Noiseless
+as the clouds that crossed the sky in the clear moonlight floated past
+her a vision she had heard of. Immediately before her sped four
+foaming horses, flames flashing from their eyes and from their
+distended nostrils; they drew a fiery chariot, in which sat the evil
+lord of the manor, who, more than a hundred years before, had dwelt in
+that neighbourhood. Every night, it is said, he drives to his former
+home, and then instantly turns back again. He was not white, as the
+dead are said to be: no, he was as black as a coal--a burnt-out coal.
+He nodded to Anne Lisbeth, and beckoned to her: "Hold on--hold on! So
+mayst thou again drive in a nobleman's carriage, and forget thine own
+child!"
+
+In still greater terror, and with still greater precipitation than
+before, she fled in the direction of the church. She reached the
+churchyard; but the dark crosses above the graves, and the dark
+ravens, seemed to mingle together before her eyes. The ravens
+screeched as they had screeched in the daytime; but she now understood
+what they said, and each cried, "I am a raven-mother; I am a
+raven-mother!" And Anne Lisbeth thought that they were taunting her.
+She fancied that she might, perhaps, be changed into such a dark bird,
+and might have to screech like them, if she could not get the grave
+demanded of her dug.
+
+And she threw herself down upon the ground, and she dug a grave with
+her hands in the hard earth, so that blood sprang from her fingers.
+
+"Bury me--bury me!" resounded still about her. She dreaded the crowing
+of the cock, and the first red streak in the east, because, if they
+came before her labours were ended, she would be lost. And the cock
+crowed, and in the east it began to be light. The grave was but half
+dug. An ice-cold hand glided over her head and her face, down to where
+her heart was. "Only half a grave!" sighed a voice near her; and
+something seemed to vanish away--vanish into the deep sea. It was "the
+apparition of the beach." Anne Lisbeth sank, terror-stricken and
+benumbed, on the ground. She had lost feeling and consciousness.
+
+It was broad daylight when she came to herself. Two young men lifted
+her up. She was lying, not in the churchyard, but down on the shore;
+and she had dug there a deep hole in the sand, and cut her fingers
+till they bled with a broken glass, the stem of which was stuck into a
+piece of wood painted blue. Anne Lisbeth was ill. Conscience had
+mingled in Superstition's game, and had imbued her with the idea that
+she had only half a soul--that her child had taken the other half away
+with him down to the bottom of the sea. Never could she ascend upwards
+towards the mercy-seat, until she had again the half soul that was
+imprisoned in the depths of the ocean. Anne Lisbeth was taken to her
+home, but she never was the same as she had formerly been. Her
+thoughts were disordered like tangled yarn; one thread alone was
+straight--that was to let "the apparition of the beach" see that a
+grave was dug for him in the churchyard, and thus to win back her
+entire soul.
+
+Many a night she was missed from her home, and she was always found on
+the seashore, where she waited for the spectre of the dead. Thus
+passed a whole year. Then she disappeared one night, and was not to be
+found. The whole of the next day they searched for her in vain.
+
+Towards the evening, when the bell-ringer entered the church to ring
+the evening chimes, he saw Anne Lisbeth lying before the altar. She
+had been there from a very early hour in the morning; her strength was
+almost exhausted, but her eyes sparkled, her face glowed with a sort
+of rosy tint. The departing rays of the sun shone in on her, and
+streamed over the altar-piece, and on the silver clasps of the Bible,
+that lay open at the words of the prophet Joel: "Rend your heart, and
+not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God." "It was a strange
+occurrence," people said--as if everything were chance.
+
+On Anne Lisbeth's countenance, when lighted up by the sun, were to be
+read peace and comfort. "She felt so well," she said. "She had won
+back her soul." During the night "the apparition of the beach"--her
+own child--had been with her, and it had said,--
+
+"Thou hast only dug half a grave for me; but now for a year and a day
+thou hast entombed me in thy heart, and there a mother best inters her
+child." And he had restored to her her lost half soul, and had led her
+into the church.
+
+"Now I am in God's house," said she, "and in it one is blessed."
+
+When the sun had sunk entirely Anne Lisbeth's spirit had soared far
+away up yonder, where there is no more fear when one's sins are
+blotted out; and hers, it might be hoped, had been blotted out by the
+Saviour of the world.
+
+
+
+
+_Children's Prattle_.
+
+
+At the merchant's house there was a large party of children--rich
+people's children and great people's children. The merchant was a man
+of good standing in society, and a learned man. He had taken, in his
+youth, a college examination. He had been kept to his studies by his
+worthy father, who had not gone very deep into learning himself, but
+was honest and active. He had made money, and the merchant had
+increased the fortune left to him. He had intellect, and heart too;
+but less was said of these good qualities than of his money.
+
+There visited at his house several distinguished persons, both people
+of birth, as it is called, and people of talents, as it is
+called--people who came under both of these heads, and people who came
+under neither of these heads. The meeting now in question was a
+children's party, where there was childish talk; and children
+generally speak like parrots.
+
+There was one little girl so excessively proud. She had been flattered
+into her foolish pride by the servants, not by her parents--they were
+too sensible to have done that. Her father was _Kammerjunker_[6] and
+she thought this was monstrously grand.
+
+[Footnote 6: A title at court.]
+
+"I am a court child," she said.
+
+She might as well have been a cellar child, as far as she was herself
+concerned; and she informed the other children that she was "born"
+(_well born_, she meant); that when people were not "born," they could
+never be anybody; and that, however much they might read, however
+clever and industrious they might be, if they were not "born" they
+could never become great.
+
+"And those whose names end in '_sen_,'" she continued, "are all low
+people, and can never be of any consequence in the world. Ladies and
+gentlemen would put their hands on their sides, and keep them at a
+distance, these 'sen--sens!'" And she threw herself into the attitude
+she had described, and stuck her pretty little arms akimbo, to show
+how people of her grade would carry themselves in the presence of such
+common creatures. She really looked very pretty.
+
+But the merchant's little daughter became extremely angry. Her father
+was called "Madsen," and that name, she knew, ended in "sen;" so she
+said, as proudly as she could,--
+
+"But my father can buy hundreds of rix dollars' worth of sugar-plums,
+and think nothing of it. Can your father do that?"
+
+"That's all very well," said the little daughter of a popular
+journalist; "but my father can put both of your fathers and all
+'fathers' into the newspaper. Every one is afraid of him, my mother
+says; for it is my father who rules everything through the
+newspaper." And the little girl tossed her head and strutted about as
+if she thought herself a princess.
+
+But on the outside of the half-open door stood a poor little boy
+peeping in. It was, of course, out of the question that so poor a
+child should enter the drawing-room; but he had been turning the spit
+for the cook, and he had obtained permission to look in behind the
+door at the splendidly dressed children who were amusing themselves,
+and that was a treat to him.
+
+He would have liked to have been one of them, he thought; but at that
+moment he heard what had been said, and it was enough to make him very
+sad. Not one shilling had his parents at home to spare. They were not
+able to set up a newspaper, to say nothing of writing for one. And the
+worse was yet to come; for his father's name, and of course also his
+own name, certainly ended in "sen." He, therefore, could never become
+anybody in this world. This was very disheartening. Though he felt
+assured that he was _born_, it was impossible to think otherwise.
+
+This was what passed that evening.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Several years had elapsed, and during their course the children had
+grown up to be men and women.
+
+There stood in the town a handsome house, which was filled with
+magnificent objects of art. Every one went to see it. Even people who
+lived at a distance came to town to see it. Which prodigy, among the
+children we have spoken of, could call that edifice his or hers? It is
+easy to tell that. No; it is not so easy, after all. That house
+belonged to the poor little boy, who became somebody, although his
+name _did_ end in "sen."--THORWALDSEN!
+
+And the three other children--the children of high birth, money, and
+literary arrogance? Well; there is nothing to be said about them. They
+are all alike. They grew up to be all very respectable, comfortable,
+and commonplace. They were well-meaning people. What they had formerly
+said and thought was only--CHILDREN'S PRATTLE.
+
+
+
+
+_A Row of Pearls._
+
+
+I.
+
+The railroad in Denmark extends no farther as yet than from Copenhagen
+to Korsör. It is a row of pearls. Europe has a wealth of these. Its
+most costly pearls are named Paris, London, Vienna, Naples; though
+many a one does not point out these great cities as his most beautiful
+pearl, but, on the contrary, names some small, by no means remarkable
+town, for it is _his_ home--the home where those he loves reside. Nay,
+sometimes it is but a country-seat--a small cottage hidden among green
+hedges--a mere spot that he hastens towards, while the railway train
+rushes on.
+
+How many pearls are there upon the line from Copenhagen to Korsör? We
+will say six. Most people must remark these. Old remembrances and
+poetry itself bestow a radiance on these pearls, so that they shine in
+on our thoughts.
+
+Near the rising ground where the palace of Frederick VI. stands--the
+home of Ochlenschläger's childhood--shines, under the lee of
+Sondermarken's woody ground, one of these pearls. It is called the
+"Cottage of Philemon and Baucis;" that is to say, the home of two
+loving old people. Here dwelt Rahbek and his wife Camma; here, under
+their hospitable roof, were collected from the busy Copenhagen all the
+superior intellects of their day; here was the home of genius; and now
+say not, "Ah, how changed!" No; it is still the spirits' home--a
+hothouse for sickly plants. Buds that are not strong enough to expand
+into flowers, preserve, though hidden, all the germs of a luxuriant
+tree. Here the sun of mind shines in on a home of stagnant spirits,
+reviving and cheering it. The world around beams through the eyes into
+the soul's unfathomable depths. _The Idiot's Home_, surrounded by the
+love and kindness of human beings, is a holy place--a hothouse for
+those sickly plants that shall in future be transplanted to bloom in
+the garden of paradise. The weakest in the world are now gathered
+here, where once the greatest and the wisest met, exchanged thoughts,
+and were lifted upwards. Their memories will ever be associated with
+the "Cottage of Philemon and Baucis."
+
+The burial-place of kings by Hroar's spring--the ancient
+Roeskilde--lies before us. The cathedral's slender spires tower over
+the low town, and are reflected on the surface of the fiord. One grave
+alone shall we seek here; that shall not be the tomb of the mighty
+Margrethe--the union queen. No; within the churchyard, near whose
+white walls we have so closely flown, is the grave: a humble stone is
+laid over it. Here reposes the great organist--the reviver of the old
+Danish romances. With the melodies we can recall the words,--
+
+    "The clear waves rolled,"
+
+and
+
+    "There dwelt a king in Leiré."[7]
+
+Roeskilde! thou burial-place of kings, in thy pearl we shall see the
+lonely grave on whose stone is chiselled a lyre and the name--WEYSE.
+
+[Footnote 7: Leiré, the original residence of the Danish kings, said to
+have been founded by Skiold, a son of Odin, was, during the heathen ages, a
+place of note. It contained a large and celebrated temple for offerings, to
+which people thronged every ninth year, at the period of the great Yule
+feast, which was held annually in mid-winter, commencing on the 4th of
+January. In Norway this ancient festival was held in honour of Thor; in
+Denmark, in honour of Odin. Every ninth year the sacrifices were on a
+larger scale than usual, consisting then of ninety-nine horses, dogs, and
+cocks--human beings were also sometimes offered. When Christianity was
+established in Denmark the seat of royalty was transferred to Roeskilde,
+and Leiré fell into total insignificance. It is now merely a village in
+Zealand.--_Trans._]
+
+Now come we to Sigersted, near Ringsted. The river is shallow--the
+yellow corn waves where Hagbarth's boat was moored, not far from
+Signé's maiden bower. Who does not know the tradition about
+Hagbarth[8] and Signelil, and their passionate love--that Hagbarth was
+hanged in the galley, while Signelil's tower stood in flames?
+
+[Footnote 8: Hagbarth, a son of the Norwegian king, Amund, and his
+three brothers, Hake, Helvin, and Hamund, scoured the seas with a
+hundred ships, and fell in with the king of Zealand's three sons,
+Sivald, Alf, and Alger. They attacked each other, and continued their
+bloody strife until a late hour at night. Next day they all found
+their ships so disabled that they could not renew the conflict.
+Thereupon they made friends, and the Norwegian princes or pirates
+accompanied the Zealanders to the court of their father, King Sigar.
+Here Hagbarth won the heart of the king's daughter Signé, and they
+became secretly engaged. Hildigeslev, a handsome German prince, was at
+that time her suitor; but she refused him, and in revenge he sowed
+discord between her lover and his brothers and her brothers. Alf and
+Alger murdered Hagbarth's brothers, Helvin and Hamund, but were killed
+in their turn by Hagbarth and Hake. After this deed Hagbarth dared not
+remain at Sigar's court; but he longed so much to be with Signé, that
+he dressed himself as a woman, and in this disguise he obtained
+admission to the palace, and contrived to be named one of her
+attendants. The damsels of her suite were much surprised at the
+hardness of the new waiting-maid's hands, and at other unfeminine
+peculiarities which they remarked; but Signé appointed him her
+especial attendant, and thus partially removed him from their
+troublesome curiosity. Fancying themselves safe, they relaxed their
+precautions. Hagbarth was discovered, secured, and carried before the
+_Thing_, or judicial assembly. Before he left her he received a
+promise from Signé that she would not survive him. He was condemned to
+death; to be hanged on board a galley, in view of Signé's dwelling. To
+prove her love and faith, he entreated that his mantle might be hung
+up first, in order, he said, that the sight of it might prepare him
+for his own death. It was done; and when Signé saw it she fancied her
+lover was dead, and instantly set fire to her abode. Hagbarth beheld
+the flames; and no longer doubting the constancy of the princess, he
+died rejoicing in following her to the other world.--_Trans._]
+
+"Beautiful Sorö, encircled by woods!" thy tranquil, cloistered town
+peeps forth from among thy moss-covered trees; the keen bright eyes of
+youth gaze from the academy, over the lake, to the busy highway, where
+the locomotive's dragon snorts, while it is flying through the wood.
+Sorö, thou poet's pearl, that hast in thy custody the honoured dust of
+Holberg! like a majestic white swan by the deep lake stands thy
+far-famed seat of learning. We fix our eyes on it, and then they
+wander in search of the simple star-flower in the wooded ground--a
+small house. Pious hymns are chanted there, that echo over the length
+and breadth of the land; words are uttered there to which the very
+rustics listen, and hear of Denmark's bygone ages. As the greenwood
+and the birds' songs belong to each other, so are associated the names
+of Sorö and INGEMANN.
+
+To Slagelsé! What is the pearl that dazzles us here? The monastery of
+Antoorskov has vanished, even the last solitary remaining wing, though
+one old relic still exists--renovated and renovated again--a wooden
+cross upon the heights above, where, in legendary lore, it is said
+that HOLY ANDERS, the warrior priest, woke up, borne thither in one
+night from Jerusalem!
+
+Korsör--there wert thou[9] born, who gave us
+
+    "Mirth with melancholy mingled,
+    In stories of 'Knud Sjællandsfar.'"
+
+[Footnote 9: Jeus Baggesen.--_Trans._]
+
+Thou master of language and of wit! the old decaying ramparts of the
+deserted fortification are now the last visible mementos of thy
+childhood's home. When the sun is sinking, their shadows fall upon the
+spot where stood the house in which thine eyes first opened on the
+light. From these ramparts, looking towards Sprogös hills, thou
+sawest, when thou "wert little,"
+
+    "The moon behind the island sink;"
+
+and sang it in undying verse, as afterwards thou didst sing the
+mountains of Switzerland; thou, who didst wander through the vast
+labyrinth of the world, and found that
+
+    "Nowhere do the roses seem so red--
+      Ah! nowhere else the thorn so small appears,
+    And nowhere makes the down so soft a bed,
+      As that where innocence reposed in bygone years!"
+
+Capricious, charming warbler! We will weave a wreath of woodbine. We
+will cast it into the waves, and they will bear it to Kielerfiord,
+upon whose coast thine ashes repose. It will bring a greeting from a
+younger race, a greeting from thy native town, Korsör, where ends the
+row of pearls.
+
+
+II.
+
+"It is, truly enough, a row of pearls from Copenhagen to Korsör," said
+my grandmother, who had heard read aloud what we have just been
+reading. "It is a row of pearls for me, and it was that more than
+forty years ago," she added. "We had no steam engines then. It took us
+days to make a journey which you can make now in a few hours. For
+instance, in 1815, I was then one-and-twenty years old. That is a
+pleasant age. Even up in the thirties it is also a pleasant age. In my
+young days it was much rarer than now to go to Copenhagen, the city of
+all cities, as we thought it. After twenty years' absence from it, my
+parents determined to visit it once more, and I was to accompany them.
+The journey had been projected and talked of for years. At length it
+was positively to be accomplished. I fancied that I was beginning
+quite a new life, and certainly, in one way, a new life did begin for
+me.
+
+"After a great deal of packing and preparations we were ready to
+start. Then what numbers of our neighbours came to bid us good-by! It
+was a very long journey we had before us. Shortly before mid-day we
+drove out of Odense in my father's Holstern wagon--a roomy carriage.
+Our acquaintances bowed to us from the windows of almost every house
+until we were outside of St. Jörgen's Port. The weather was
+delightful, the birds were singing, all was pleasure. We forgot that
+it was a long way and a rough road to Nyborg. We reached that place
+towards evening. The post did not arrive till midnight, and until it
+came the packet could not sail. At length we went on board. Before us
+lay the wide waters, as far as the eye could see, and it was a dead
+calm. We lay down in our clothes and slept. When I awoke in the
+morning, and went on deck, nothing could be seen on either side of us,
+there was such a thick fog. I heard the cocks crowing, and I knew the
+sun must have risen. Bells were ringing: where could they be? The mist
+cleared away, and we found we were lying a little way from Nyborg. As
+the day advanced we had a little wind: it stiffened, and we got on
+faster. At last we were so fortunate, at a little after eleven o'clock
+at night, as to reach Korsör. We had taken twenty-two hours to go
+sixteen miles.
+
+"Glad we were to land; but it was extremely dark, and the lanterns
+gave very little light. However, all was wonderful to me, who had
+never been in any other town but Odense.
+
+"'Here Baggesen was born,' said my father, 'and here Birckner lived.'
+
+"It seemed to me that the old town, with its small houses, became at
+once larger and more important. We were also rejoiced to have the firm
+earth under us once more; but I could not sleep that night, I was so
+excited thinking over all I had seen and encountered since I had left
+home two days before.
+
+"Next morning we rose early. We had before us a bad road, with
+frightful hills and many valleys, till we reached Slagelsé; and beyond
+it, on the other side, it was but little better; therefore we were
+anxious to get to Krebsehuset, that we might early next day go on to
+Sorö, and visit Möllers Emil, as we called him. He was your
+grandfather, my worthy husband, the dean. He was then a student at
+Sorö, and very busy about his second examination.
+
+"Well, we arrived about noon at Krebsehuset. It was a gay little town
+then, and had the best inn on the road, and the prettiest country
+round it: you must all admit that it is pretty still. She was a very
+active landlady, Madame Plambek, and everything in her house was as
+clean as a new pin. There hung up on her wall a letter from Baggesen
+to her. It was framed, and had a glass over it; it was a very
+interesting object to look at, and to me it was quite a curiosity. We
+then went into Sorö, and found Emil there. You may believe he was very
+glad to see us, and we were very glad to see him--he was so good and
+so attentive. We went with him to see the church, with Absolon's grave
+and Holberg's coffin. We saw the old monkish inscriptions, and we
+sailed over the lake to Parnasset--the sweetest evening I remember. I
+recollect well that I thought, if one could write poetry anywhere in
+the world, it would be at Sorö, amidst those charming, peaceful
+scenes, where nature reigns in all her beauty. Afterwards we visited
+by moonlight the 'Philosopher's Walk,' as it was called--the
+beautiful, lonely path by the lake and the moor that leads towards the
+highway to Krebsehuset. Emil remained to supper with us, and my father
+and mother thought he had become very clever and very good-looking. He
+promised us that he would be in Copenhagen within a few days, and
+would join us there: it was then Whitsuntide. We were going to stay
+with his family. These hours at Sorö and Krebsehuset, may they not be
+deemed the most beautiful pearls of my life?
+
+"The next morning we commenced our journey at a very early hour, for
+we had a long way to go to reach Roeskilde, and we were anxious to get
+there in time to see the church. In the evening my father wished to
+visit an old friend, so we stopped at Roeskilde that night, and the
+next day we arrived at Copenhagen. It took us three days to go from
+Korsör to Copenhagen; now the journey is made in three hours. The
+pearls have not become more valuable--that they could not be--but they
+are strung together in a new and wonderful manner. I remained three
+weeks with my parents in Copenhagen, and Emil was with us there for a
+fortnight. When we returned to Fyen, he accompanied us as far as
+Korsör. There, before parting, we were betrothed; so you can well
+believe that _I_ call from Copenhagen to Korsör a row of pearls.
+
+"Afterwards, when Emil and I were married, we often spoke of the
+journey to Copenhagen, and of undertaking it once more. But then came
+first your mother, then she had brothers and sisters, and there was a
+great deal to do; so the journey was put off. And when your
+grandfather got preferment, and was made dean, all was thankfulness
+and joy; but we never got to Copenhagen. No, never have I set foot in
+it again, as often as we thought of it and projected going. Now I am
+too old, and I could not stand travelling by a railroad; but I am very
+glad that there are railroads--they are a blessing to many. You can
+come more speedily to me; and Odense is now not farther from
+Copenhagen than in my young days it was from Nyborg. You could now go
+in almost the same space of time to Italy as it took us to travel to
+Copenhagen. Yes, that is something!
+
+"Nevertheless, I shall stay in one place, and let others travel and
+come to me if they please. But you should not laugh at me for keeping
+so quiet; I have a greater journey before me than any by the railroad.
+When it shall please our Lord, I have to travel up to your
+grandfather; and when you have finished your appointed time on earth,
+and enjoyed the blessings bestowed here by the Almighty, then I trust
+that you will ascend to us; and if we then revert to our earthly days,
+believe me, children, I shall say then as now, 'From Copenhagen to
+Korsör is indeed A ROW OF PEARLS.'"
+
+
+
+
+_The Pen and the Inkstand._
+
+
+The following remark was made in a poet's room, as the speaker looked
+at the inkstand that stood upon his table:--
+
+"It is astonishing all that can come out of that inkstand! What will
+it produce next? Yes, it is wonderful!"
+
+"So it is!" exclaimed the inkstand. "It is incomprehensible! That is
+what I always say." It was thus the inkstand addressed itself to the
+pen, and to everything else that could hear it on the table. "It is
+really astonishing all that can come from me! It is almost incredible!
+I positively do not know myself what the next production may be, when
+a person begins to dip into me. One drop of me serves for half a side
+of paper; and what may not then appear upon it? I am certainly
+something extraordinary. From me proceed all the works of the poets.
+These animated beings, whom people think they recognise--these deep
+feelings, that gay humour, these charming descriptions of nature--I do
+not understand them myself, for I know nothing about nature; but still
+it is all in me. From me have gone forth, and still go forth, these
+warrior hosts, these lovely maidens, these bold knights on snorting
+steeds, those droll characters in humbler life. The fact is, however,
+that I do not know anything about them myself. I assure you they are
+not my ideas."
+
+"You are right there," replied the pen. "You have few ideas, and do
+not trouble yourself much with thinking. If you _did_ exert yourself
+to think, you would perceive that you ought to give something that was
+not dry. You supply me with the means of committing to paper what I
+have in me; I write with that. It is the pen that writes. Mankind do
+not doubt that; and most men have about as much genius for poetry as
+an old inkstand."
+
+"You have but little experience," said the inkstand. "You have
+scarcely been a week in use, and you are already half worn out. Do you
+fancy that you are a poet? You are only a servant; and I have had many
+of your kind before you came--many of the goose family, and of English
+manufacture. I know both quill pens and steel pens. I have had a great
+many in my service, and I shall have many more still, when he, the man
+who stirs me up, comes and puts down what he takes from me. I should
+like very much to know what will be the next thing he will take from
+me."
+
+Late in the evening the poet returned home. He had been at a concert,
+had heard a celebrated violin player, and was quite enchanted with his
+wonderful performance. It had been a complete gush of melody that he
+had drawn from the instrument. Sometimes it seemed like the gentle
+murmur of a rippling stream, sometimes like the singing of birds,
+sometimes like the tempest sweeping through the mighty pine forests.
+He fancied he heard his own heart weep, but in the sweet tones that
+can be heard in a woman's charming voice. It seemed as if not only the
+strings of the violin made music, but its bridge, its pegs, and its
+sounding-board. It was astonishing! The piece had been a most
+difficult one; but it seemed like play--as if the bow were but
+wandering capriciously over the strings. Such was the appearance of
+facility, that every one might have supposed he could do it. The
+violin seemed to sound of itself, the bow to play of itself. These two
+seemed to do it all. One forgot the master who guided them, who gave
+them life and soul. Yes, they forgot the master; but the poet thought
+of him. He named him, and wrote down his thoughts as follows:
+
+"How foolish it would be of the violin and the bow, were they to be
+vain of their performance! And yet this is what so often we of the
+human species are. Poets, artists, those who make discoveries in
+science, military and naval commanders--we are all proud of ourselves;
+and yet we are all only the instruments in our Lord's hands. To Him
+alone be the glory! We have nothing to arrogate to ourselves."
+
+This was what the poet wrote; and he headed it with, "The Master and
+the Instruments." When the inkstand and the pen were again alone, the
+latter said,--
+
+"Well, madam, you heard him read aloud what I had written."
+
+"Yes, what I gave you to write," said the inkstand. "It was a hit at
+you for your conceit. Strange that you cannot see that people make a
+fool of you! I gave you that hit pretty cleverly. I confess, though,
+it was rather malicious."
+
+"Ink-holder!" cried the pen.
+
+"Writing-stick!" cried the inkstand.
+
+They both felt assured that they had answered well; and it is a
+pleasant reflection that one has made a smart reply--one sleeps
+comfortably after it. And they both went to sleep; but the poet could
+not sleep. His thoughts welled forth like the tones from the violin,
+murmuring like a pearly rivulet, rushing like a storm through the
+forest. He recognised the feelings of his own heart--he perceived the
+gleam from the everlasting Master.
+
+To Him alone be the glory!
+
+
+
+
+_The Child in the Grave._
+
+
+There was sorrow in the house, there was sorrow in the heart; for the
+youngest child, a little boy of four years of age, the only son, his
+parents' present joy and future hope, was dead. Two daughters they
+had, indeed, older than their boy--the eldest was almost old enough to
+be confirmed--amiable, sweet girls they both were; but the lost child
+is always the dearest, and he was the youngest, and a son. It was a
+heavy trial. The sisters sorrowed as young hearts sorrow, and were
+much afflicted by their parents' grief; the father was weighed down by
+the affliction; but the mother was quite overwhelmed by the terrible
+blow. By night and by day had she devoted herself to her sick child,
+watched by him, lifted him, carried him about, done everything for him
+herself. She had felt as if he were a part of herself: she could not
+bring herself to believe that he was dead--that he should be laid in a
+coffin, and concealed in the grave. God would not take that child from
+her--O no! And when he was taken, and she could no longer refuse to
+believe the truth, she exclaimed in her wild grief,--
+
+"God has not ordained this! He has heartless agents here on earth.
+They do what they list--they hearken not to a mother's prayers!"
+
+She dared in her woe to arraign the Most High; and then came dark
+thoughts, the thoughts of death--everlasting death--that human beings
+returned as earth to earth, and then all was over. Amidst thoughts
+morbid and impious as these were there could be nothing to console
+her, and she sank into the darkest depth of despair.
+
+In these hours of deepest distress she could not weep. She thought not
+of the young daughters who were left to her; her husband's tears fell
+on her brow, but she did not look up at him; her thoughts were with
+her dead child; her whole heart and soul were wrapped up in recalling
+every reminiscence of the lost one--every syllable of his infantine
+prattle.
+
+The day of the funeral came. She had not slept the night before, but
+towards morning she was overcome by fatigue, and sank for a short time
+into repose. During that time the coffin was removed into another
+apartment, and the cover was screwed down with as little noise as
+possible.
+
+When she awoke she rose, and wished to see her child; then her
+husband, with tears in his eyes, told her, "We have closed the
+coffin--it had to be done!"
+
+"When the Almighty is so hard on me," she exclaimed, "why should human
+beings be kinder?" and she burst into tears.
+
+The coffin was carried to the grave. The inconsolable mother sat with
+her young daughters; she looked at them, but she did not see them;
+her thoughts had nothing more to do with home; she gave herself up to
+wretchedness, and it tossed her about as the sea tosses the ship which
+has lost its helmsman and its rudder. Thus passed the day of the
+funeral, and several days followed amidst the same uniform, heavy
+grief. With tearful eyes and melancholy looks her afflicted family
+gazed at her. She did not care for what comforted them. What could
+they say to change the current of her mournful thoughts?
+
+It seemed as if sleep had fled from her for ever; it alone would be
+her best friend, strengthen her frame, and recall peace to her mind.
+Her family persuaded her to keep her bed, and she lay there as still
+as if buried in sleep. One night her husband had listened to her
+breathing, and believing from it that she had at length found repose
+and relief, he clasped his hands, prayed for her and for them all,
+then sank himself into peaceful slumber. While sleeping soundly he did
+not perceive that she rose, dressed herself, and softly left the room
+and the house, to go--whither her thoughts wandered by day and by
+night--to the grave that hid her child. She passed quietly through the
+garden, out to the fields, beyond which the road led outside of the
+town to the churchyard. No one saw her, and she saw no one.
+
+It was a fine night; the stars were shining brightly, and the air was
+mild, although it was the 1st of September. She entered the
+churchyard, and went to the little grave; it looked like one great
+bouquet of sweet-scented flowers. She threw herself down, and bowed
+her head over the grave, as if she could through the solid earth
+behold her little boy, whose smile she remembered so vividly. The
+affectionate expression of his eyes, even upon his sick bed, was
+never, never to be forgotten. How speaking had not his glance been
+when she had bent over him, and taken the little hand he was himself
+too weak to raise! As she had sat by his couch, so now she sat by his
+grave; but here her tears might flow freely over the sod that covered
+him.
+
+"Wouldst thou descend to thy child?" said a voice close by. It sounded
+so clear, so deep--its tones went to her heart. She looked up, and
+near her stood a man wrapped in a large mourning cloak, with a hood
+drawn over the head; but she could see the countenance under this. It
+was severe, and yet encouraging, his eyes were bright as those of
+youth.
+
+"Descend to my child!" she repeated; and there was the agony of
+despair in her voice.
+
+"Darest thou follow me?" asked the figure. "I am Death!"
+
+She bowed her assent. Then it seemed all at once as if every star in
+the heavens above shone with the light of the moon. She saw the
+many-coloured flowers on the surface of the grave move like a
+fluttering garment. She sank, and the figure threw his dark cloak
+round her. It became night--the night of death. She sank deeper than
+the sexton's spade could reach. The churchyard lay like a roof above
+her head.
+
+The cloak that had enveloped her glided to one side. She stood in an
+immense hall, whose extremities were lost in the distance. It was dusk
+around her; but before her stood, and in one moment was clasped to her
+heart, her child, who smiled on her in beauty far surpassing what he
+had possessed before. She uttered a cry, though it was scarcely
+audible, for close by, and then far away, and afterwards near again,
+came delightful music. Never before had such glorious, such blessed
+sounds reached her ear. They rang from the other side of the thick
+curtain--black as night--that separated the hall from the boundless
+space of eternity.
+
+"My sweet mother! my own mother!" she heard her child exclaim. It was
+his well-known, most beloved voice. And kiss followed kiss in
+rapturous joy. At length the child pointed to the sable curtain.
+
+"There is nothing so charming up yonder on earth, mother. Look,
+mother!--look at them all! That is felicity!"
+
+The mother saw nothing--nothing in the direction to which the child
+pointed, except darkness like that of night. _She_ saw with earthly
+eyes. She did not see as did the child whom God had called to himself.
+She heard, indeed, sounds--music; but she did not understand the words
+that were conveyed in these exquisite tones.
+
+"I can fly now, mother," said the child. "I can fly with all the other
+happy children, away, even into the presence of God. I wish so much to
+go; but if you cry on as you are crying now I cannot leave you, and
+yet I should be so glad to go. May I not? You will come back soon,
+will you not, dear mother?"
+
+"Oh, stay! Oh, stay!" she cried, "only one moment more. Let me gaze on
+you one moment longer; let me kiss you, and hold you a moment longer
+in my arms."
+
+And she kissed him, and held him fast. Then her name was called from
+above--the tones were those of piercing grief. What could they be?
+
+"Hark!" said the child; "it is my father calling on you."
+
+And again, in a few seconds, deep sobs were heard, as of children
+weeping.
+
+"These are my sisters' voices," said the child. "Mother, you have
+surely not forgotten them?"
+
+Then she remembered those who were left behind. A deep feeling of
+anxiety pervaded her mind; she gazed intently before her, and spectres
+seemed to hover around her; she fancied that she knew some of them;
+they floated through the Hall of Death, on towards the dark curtain,
+and there they vanished. Would her husband, her daughters, appear
+there? No; their lamentations were still to be heard from above. She
+had nearly forgotten them for the dead.
+
+"Mother, the bells of heaven are ringing," said the child. "Now the
+sun is about to rise."
+
+And an overwhelming, blinding light streamed around her. The child was
+gone, and she felt herself lifted up. She raised her head, and saw
+that she was lying in the churchyard, upon the grave of her child. But
+in her dream God had become a prop for her feet, and a light to her
+mind. She threw herself on her knees and prayed:--
+
+"Forgive me, O Lord my God, that I wished to detain an everlasting
+soul from its flight into eternity, and that I forgot my duties to the
+living Thou hast graciously spared to me!"
+
+And as she uttered this prayer it appeared as if her heart felt
+lightened of the burden that had crushed it. Then the sun broke forth
+in all its splendour, a little bird sang over her head, and all the
+church bells around began to ring the matin chimes. All seemed holy
+around her; her heart seemed to have drunk in faith and holiness; she
+acknowledged the might and the mercy of God; she remembered her
+duties, and felt a longing to regain her home. She hurried thither,
+and leaning over her still sleeping husband, she awoke him with the
+touch of her warm lips on his cheek. Her words were those of love and
+consolation, and in a tone of mild resignation she exclaimed,--
+
+"God's will is always the best!"
+
+Her husband and her daughters were astonished at the change in her,
+and her husband asked her,--
+
+"Where did you so suddenly acquire this strength--this pious
+resignation?"
+
+And she smiled on him and her daughters as she replied,--
+
+"I derived it from God, by the grave of my child."
+
+
+
+
+_Charming._
+
+
+The sculptor Alfred--surely you know him? We all know him. He used to
+engrave gold medallions; went to Italy, and returned again. He was
+young then; indeed, he is young now, though about half a score of
+years older than he was at that time.
+
+He returned home, and went on a visit to one of the small towns in
+Zealand. The whole community knew of the arrival of the stranger, and
+who he was. There was a party given on his account by one of the
+richest families in the place; every one who was anybody, or had
+anything, was invited; it was quite an event, and the whole town heard
+of it without beat of drum. A good many apprentice boys and poor
+people's children, with a few of their parents, ranged themselves
+outside, and looked at the windows with their drawn blinds, through
+which a blaze of light was streaming. The watchman might have fancied
+he had a party himself, so many people occupied his quarters in the
+street. They all seemed merry on the outside; and in the inside of the
+house everything was pleasant, for Herr Alfred, the sculptor, was
+there.
+
+He talked, and he told anecdotes, and every one present listened to
+him with pleasure and deep attention, but no one with more eagerness
+than an elderly widow of good standing in society; and she was, in
+reference to all that Herr Alfred said, like a blank sheet of
+whity-brown paper, that quickly sucks the sweet things in, and is
+ready for more. She was very susceptible, and totally ignorant--quite
+a female Caspar Hauser.
+
+"I should like to see Rome," said she. "That must be a charming town,
+with the numerous strangers that go there. Describe Rome to us now.
+How does it look as you enter the gate?"
+
+"It is not easy to describe Rome," said the young sculptor. "It is a
+very large place; in the centre of it stands an obelisk, which is four
+thousand years old."
+
+"An organist!" exclaimed the astonished lady, who had never before
+heard the word _obelisk_.
+
+Many of the party could scarcely refrain from laughing, and among the
+rest the sculptor. But the satirical smile that was gathering round
+his mouth glided into one of pleasure; for he saw, close to the lady,
+a pair of large eyes, blue as the sea. They appertained to the
+daughter of the talkative dame, and when one had such a daughter one
+could not be altogether ridiculous. The mother was like a bubbling
+fountain of questions, constantly pouring forth; the daughter like the
+fountain's beautiful naiad, listening to its murmurs. How lovely she
+was! She was something worth a sculptor's while to gaze at; but not to
+converse with; and she said nothing, at least very little.
+
+"Has the Pope a great family?" asked the widow.
+
+And the young man answered as if the question might have been better
+worded,--
+
+"No, he is not of a high family."
+
+"I don't mean that," said the lady; "I mean has he a wife and
+children?"
+
+"The Pope dare not marry," he replied.
+
+"I don't approve of that," said the lady.
+
+She could scarcely have spoken more foolishly, or asked sillier
+questions; but what did all that signify when her daughter looked over
+her shoulder with that most winning smile?
+
+Herr Alfred talked of the brilliant skies of Italy, and its
+cloud-capped hills; the blue Mediterranean; the soft South; the beauty
+which could only be rivalled by the blue eyes of the females of the
+North. And this was said pointedly; but she who ought to have
+understood it did not allow it to be seen that she had detected any
+compliment in his words, and this was also charming.
+
+"Italy!" sighed some. "Travelling!" sighed others. "Charming,
+charming!"
+
+"Well, when I win the fifty-thousand-dollar prize in the lottery,"
+said the widow, "we shall set off on our travels too--my daughter and
+I; and you, Herr Alfred, shall be our escort. We shall all three go,
+and a few other friends will go with us, I hope;" and she bowed
+invitingly to them all round, so that each individual might have
+thought, "It is I she wishes to accompany her." "Yes, we will go to
+Italy, but not where the robbers are; we will stay in Rome, or only go
+by the great high roads, where people are safe, of course."
+
+And the daughter heaved a gentle sigh. How much can there not lie in
+a slight sigh, or be supposed to lie in it! The young man put a world
+of feeling into it; the two blue eyes that had beamed on him that
+evening concealed the treasure--the treasure of heart and of mind,
+richer far than all the glories of Rome; and when he left the party he
+was over head and ears in love with the widow's pretty daughter.
+
+The widow's house became the house of all others most visited by Herr
+Alfred, the sculptor. People knew that it could not be for the
+mother's sake he sought it so often, although he and she were always
+the speakers; it must be for the daughter's sake he went. She was
+called Kala, though christened Karen Malene: the two names had been
+mutilated, and thrown together into the one appellation, _Kala_. She
+was very beautiful, but rather silly, some people hinted, and rather
+indolent. She was certainly a very late riser in the morning.
+
+"She has been accustomed to that from her childhood," said her mother.
+"She has always been such a little Venus that she was scarcely ever
+found fault with. She is not a very early riser, but to this she owes
+her fine clear eyes."
+
+What power there was in these clear eyes--these swimming blue eyes!
+The young man felt it. He told anecdote upon anecdote, and answered
+question after question; and mamma always asked the same lively,
+sensible, pertinent questions as she had asked at first.
+
+It was a pleasure to hear Herr Alfred speak. He described Naples, the
+ascent of Mount Vesuvius, and several of its eruptions; and the widow
+lady, who had never heard of them before, was lost in surprise.
+
+"Mercy on us!" she exclaimed; "then it is a volcano? Does it ever do
+any harm to anybody?"
+
+"It has destroyed entire towns," he replied: "Pompeii and
+Herculaneum."
+
+"But the poor inhabitants! Did you see it yourself?"
+
+"No, not either of these eruptions, but I have a sketch taken by
+myself of an eruption which I did witness."
+
+Then he selected from his portfolio a sketch done with a black-lead
+pencil; but mamma, who delighted in highly-coloured pictures, looked
+at the pale sketch, and exclaimed in amazement,--
+
+"You saw it gush out white?"
+
+Mamma got into Herr Alfred's black books for a few minutes, and he
+felt profound contempt for her; but the light from Kala's eyes soon
+dispelled his gloom. He bethought him that her mother had no knowledge
+of drawing, that was all; but she had what was far better--she had the
+sweet, beautiful Kala.
+
+As might have been expected, Alfred and Kala became engaged, and their
+betrothal was announced in the newspaper of the town. Mamma bought
+thirty copies of it, that she might cut the paragraphs out, and
+inclose them to various friends. The betrothed pair were very happy,
+and so was the mamma: she felt almost as proud as if her family were
+going to be connected with Thorwaldsen.
+
+"You are his successor at any rate," she said; and Alfred thought that
+she had said something very clever. Kala said nothing, but her eyes
+brightened, and a lovely smile played around her well-formed mouth.
+Every movement of hers was graceful: she was very beautiful--that
+cannot be said too often.
+
+Alfred was making busts of Kala and her mother: they sat for him, and
+saw how with his finger he smoothed and moulded the soft clay.
+
+"It is a compliment to us," said his mother-in-law elect, "that you
+condescend to do that simple work yourself, instead of letting your
+men dab all that for you."
+
+"No; it is absolutely necessary that I should do this myself in the
+clay," he replied.
+
+"Oh! you are always so exceedingly gallant!" said mamma; and Kala
+gently pressed his hand, to which pieces of clay were sticking.
+
+He discoursed to them about the magnificence of Nature in its
+creations, the superiority of the living over the dead, plants over
+minerals, animals over plants, human beings over mere animals; how
+mind and beauty manifested themselves through form, and that the
+sculptor sought to bestow on his forms of clay the greatest possible
+beauty and expression.
+
+Kala remained silent, revolving his words. Her mother said,
+
+"It is difficult to follow you; but though my thoughts go slowly, I
+hold fast what I hear."
+
+And the power of beauty held him fast; it had subdued him--entranced
+and enslaved him. Kala's beauty certainly was extraordinary; it was
+enthroned in every feature of her face, in her whole figure, even to
+the points of her fingers. The sculptor was bewildered by it; he
+thought only of her--spoke only of her; and his fancy endowed her with
+all perfection.
+
+Then came the wedding-day, with the bridal gifts and the
+bride's-maids; and the marriage ceremony was duly performed. His
+mother-in-law had placed in the room where the bridal party assembled
+the bust of Thorwaldsen, enveloped in a dressing-gown. "He ought to be
+a guest, according to her idea," she said. Songs were sung, and
+healths were drunk. It was a handsome wedding, and they were a
+handsome couple. "Pygmalion got his Galathea" was a line in one of the
+songs.
+
+"That was something from mythology," remarked the widow.
+
+The following day the young couple started for Copenhagen, where they
+intended to reside; and the mamma accompanied them, to give them a
+helping hand, she said, which meant to take charge of the house. Kala
+was to be a mere doll. Everything was new, bright, and charming. There
+they settled themselves all three; and Alfred, what can be said of
+him, only that he was like a bishop among a flock of geese?
+
+The magic of beauty had infatuated him. He had gazed upon the case,
+and not thought of what was in it; and this is unfortunate, very
+unfortunate, in the marriage state. When the case decays, and the
+gilding rubs off, one then begins to repent of one's bargain. It was
+very mortifying to Alfred that in society neither his wife nor his
+mother-in-law was capable of entering into general conversation--that
+they said very silly things, which, with all his wittiest efforts, he
+could not cover.
+
+How often the young couple sat hand in hand, and he spoke, and she
+dropped a word now and then, always in the same tone, like a clock
+striking one, two, three! It was quite a relief when Sophie, a female
+friend, came.
+
+Sophie was not very pretty; she was slightly awry, Kala said; but this
+was not perceptible except to her female friends. Kala allowed that
+she was clever. It never occurred to her that her talents might make
+her dangerous. She came like fresh air into a close, confined puppet
+show; and fresh air is always pleasant. After a time the young couple
+and the mother-in-law went to breathe the soft air of Italy. Their
+wishes were fulfilled.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Thank Heaven, we are at home again!" exclaimed both the mother and
+the daughter, when, the following year, they and Alfred returned to
+Denmark.
+
+"There is no pleasure in travelling," said the mamma; "on the
+contrary, it is very fatiguing--excuse my saying so. I was excessively
+tired, notwithstanding that I had my children with me. And travelling
+is extremely expensive. What hosts of galleries you have to see! What
+quantities of things to be rushing after! And you are so teased with
+questions when you come home, as if it were possible to know
+everything. And then to hear that you have just forgotten to see what
+was most charming! I am sure I was quite tired of these everlasting
+Madonnas; one was almost turned into a Madonna one's self."
+
+"And the living was so bad," said Kala.
+
+"Not a single spoonful of honest meat soup," rejoined the mamma. "They
+dress the victuals so absurdly."
+
+Kala was much fatigued after her journey. She continued very languid,
+and did not seem to rally--that was the worst of it. Sophie came to
+stay with them, and she was extremely useful.
+
+The mother-in-law allowed that Sophie understood household affairs
+well, and had many accomplishments, which she, with her fortune, had
+no need to trouble herself about; and she confessed, also, that Sophie
+was very estimable and kind. She could not help seeing this when Kala
+was lying ill, without making the slightest exertion in any way.
+
+If there be nothing but the case or framework, when it gives way it is
+all over with the case. And the case had given way. Kala died.
+
+"She was charming!" said her mother. "She was very different from all
+these antiquities that are half mutilated. Kala was a perfect beauty!"
+
+Alfred wept, and his mother-in-law wept, and they both went into
+mourning. The mamma went into the deepest mourning, and she wore her
+mourning longest. She also retained her sorrow the longest; in fact,
+she remained weighed down with grief until Alfred married again. He
+took Sophie, who had nothing to boast of in respect to outward charms.
+
+"He has gone to the other extremity," said his mother-in-law; "passed
+from the most beautiful to the ugliest. He has found it possible to
+forget his first wife. There is no constancy in man. My husband,
+indeed, was different; but he died before me."
+
+"Pygmalion got his Galathea," said Alfred. "These words were in the
+bridal song. I certainly did fall in love with the beautiful statue
+that became imbued with life in my arms. But the kindred soul, which
+Heaven sends us, one of those angels who can feel with us, think with
+us, raise us when we are sinking, I have now found and won. You have
+come, Sophie, not as a beautiful form, fascinating the eye, but
+prettier, more pleasing than was necessary. You excel in the main
+point. You have come and taught the sculptor that his work is but
+clay--dust; only a copy of the outer shell of the kernel we ought to
+seek. Poor Kala! her earthly life was but like a short journey. Yonder
+above, where those who sympathise shall be gathered together, she and
+I will probably be almost strangers."
+
+"That is not a kind speech," said Sophie; "it is not a Christian one.
+Up yonder, where 'they neither marry nor are given in marriage,' but,
+as you say, where spirits shall meet in sympathy--there, where all
+that is beautiful shall unfold and improve, her soul may perhaps
+appear so glorious in its excellence that it may far outshine mine and
+yours. You may then again exclaim, as you did in the first excitement
+of your earthly admiration, 'Charming--charming!'"
+
+
+THE END.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sand-Hills of Jutland, by 
+Hans Christian Andersen
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+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Sand-Hills of Jutland, by Hans Christian Andersen
+    </title>
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's The Sand-Hills of Jutland, by Hans Christian Andersen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Sand-Hills of Jutland
+
+Author: Hans Christian Andersen
+
+Translator: Mrs. Bushby
+
+Release Date: August 30, 2008 [EBook #26491]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SAND-HILLS OF JUTLAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Chris Curnow, Lindy Walsh,
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="400" height="629" alt="Cover"  />
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>THE</h3>
+<h1>SAND-HILLS OF JUTLAND.</h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN,</h2>
+
+<h4>AUTHOR OF "THE IMPROVISATORE," ETC.</h4>
+
+<h3>TRANSLATED BY MRS. BUSHBY.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/image_01.jpg" width="150" height="174" alt="Seal"  />
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>LONDON:</h3>
+<h3>RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.</h3>
+<h3>1860.</h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+
+
+<h3>The Following Tales</h3>
+
+<h4>ARE DEDICATED,</h4>
+
+<h4>WITH THE HIGHEST SENTIMENTS OF</h4>
+
+<h4>ESTEEM AND REGARD,</h4>
+
+<h5>TO</h5>
+
+<h2>THE BARON CHARLES JOACHIM HAMBRO,</h2>
+
+<h5>BY</h5>
+
+<h2>HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.</h2>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<table summary="Contents">
+<tr><td></td><td class="tocpg f1">PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#The_Sand-hills_of_Jutland">THE SAND-HILLS OF JUTLAND</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#The_Mud-kings_Daughter">THE MUD-KING'S DAUGHTER</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#The_Quickest_Runners">THE QUICKEST RUNNERS</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#The_Bells_Hollow">THE BELL'S HOLLOW</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#Soup_made_of_a_Sausage-stick">SOUP MADE OF A SAUSAGE-STICK</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_106">106</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#The_Neck_of_a_Bottle">THE NECK OF A BOTTLE</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#The_Old_Bachelors_Nightcap">THE OLD BACHELOR'S NIGHTCAP</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_137">137</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#Something">SOMETHING</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_153">153</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#The_Old_Oak_Trees_Last_Dream">THE OLD OAK TREE'S LAST DREAM</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#The_Wind_relates_the_Story_of_Waldemar_Daae_and_his_Daughters">THE WIND RELATES THE STORY OF WALDEMAR DAAE AND
+HIS DAUGHTERS</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_170">170</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#The_Girl_who_Trod_upon_Bread">THE GIRL WHO TROD UPON BREAD</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#Ole_the_Watchman_of_the_Tower">OL&Eacute;, THE WATCHMAN OF THE TOWER</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_196">196</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#Anne_Lisbeth_or_The_Apparition_of_the_Beach">ANNE LISBETH; OR, THE APPARITION OF THE BEACH</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_204">204</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#Childrens_Prattle">CHILDREN'S PRATTLE</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_218">218</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#A_Row_of_Pearls">A ROW OF PEARLS</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_222">222</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#The_Pen_and_the_Inkstand">THE PEN AND THE INKSTAND</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_232">232</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#The_Child_in_the_Grave">THE CHILD IN THE GRAVE</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_236">236</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#Charming">CHARMING</a></td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image_02.jpg" width="600" height="189" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+<h2><a name="The_Sand-hills_of_Jutland" id="The_Sand-hills_of_Jutland"></a><i>The Sand-hills of Jutland.</i></h2>
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="46" height="50" /></div>
+<p>his is a story from the Jutland sand-hills, but it does not commence
+there; on the contrary, it commences far away towards the south, in
+Spain. The sea is the highway between the two countries. Fancy
+yourself there. The scenery is beautiful; the climate is warm. There
+blooms the scarlet pomegranate amidst the dark laurel trees; from the
+hills a refreshing breeze is wafted over the orange groves and the
+magnificent Moorish halls, with their gilded cupolas and their painted
+walls. Processions of children parade the streets with lights and
+waving banners; and, above these, clear and lofty rises the vault of
+heaven, studded with glittering stars. Songs and castanets are heard;
+youths and girls mingle in the dance under the blossoming acacias;
+whilst beggars sit upon the sculptured blocks of marble, and refresh
+themselves with the juicy water-melon. Life dozes here: it is all like
+a charming dream, and one indulges in it. Yes, thus did two young
+newly-married persons, who also possessed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> all the best gifts of
+earth&mdash;health, good humour, riches, and rank.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing could possibly exceed our happiness," they said in the
+fulness of their joyful hearts; yet there was one degree of still
+higher happiness to which they might attain, and that would be when
+God blessed them with a child&mdash;a son, to resemble them in features and
+in disposition.</p>
+
+<p>That fortunate child would be hailed with rapture; would be loved and
+daintily cared for; would be the heir to all the advantages that
+wealth and high birth can bestow.</p>
+
+<p>The days flew by as a continual festival to them.</p>
+
+<p>"Life is a merciful gift of love&mdash;almost inconceivably great," said
+the young wife; "but the fulness of this happiness shall be tasted in
+that future life, when it will increase and exist to all eternity. The
+idea is incomprehensible to me."</p>
+
+<p>"That is only an assumption among mankind," said her husband. "In
+reality, it is frightful pride and overweening arrogance to think that
+we shall live for ever&mdash;become like God. These were the serpent's wily
+words, and he is the father of lies."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not, however, doubt that there is a life after this one?"
+asked his wife; and for the first time a cloud seemed to pass over
+their sunny heaven of thought.</p>
+
+<p>"Faith holds forth the promise of it, and the priests proclaim it,"
+said the young man; "but, in the midst of all my happiness, I feel
+that it would be too craving, too presumptuous, to demand another life
+after this one&mdash;a happiness to be continual. Is there not so much
+granted in this existence that we might and ought to be content with
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"To us&mdash;yes, there has been much granted," replied the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> young wife;
+"but to how many thousands does not this life become merely a heavy
+trial? How many are not, as it were, cast into this world to be the
+victims of poverty, wrangling, sickness, and misfortune? Nay, if there
+were no life after this one, then everything in this globe has been
+unequally dealt out; then God would not be just."</p>
+
+<p>"The beggar down yonder has joys as great, to his ideas, as are those
+of the monarch in his splendid palace to him," said the young man;
+"and do you not think that the beasts of burden, which are beaten,
+starved, and toiled to death, feel the oppressiveness of their lot?
+They also might desire another life, and call it unjust that they had
+not been placed amidst a higher grade of beings."</p>
+
+<p>"In the kingdom of heaven there are many mansions, Christ has told
+us," answered the lady. "The kingdom of heaven is infinite, as is the
+love of God. The beasts of the field are also His creation; and my
+belief is that no life will be extinguished, but will win that degree
+of happiness which may be suitable to it, and that will be
+sufficient."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, this world is enough for me," said her husband, as he threw his
+arms round his beautiful, amiable wife, and smoked his cigarette upon
+the open balcony, where the deliciously cool air was laden with the
+perfume of orange trees and beds of carnations. Music and the sound of
+castanets arose from the street beneath; the stars shone brightly
+above; and two eyes full of affection, the eyes of his charming wife,
+looked at him with love which would live in eternity.</p>
+
+<p>"Such moments as these," he exclaimed, "are they not well worth being
+born for&mdash;born to enjoy them, and then to vanish into nothingness?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He smiled; his wife lifted her hand and shook it at him with a gesture
+of mild reproach, and the cloud had passed over&mdash;they were too happy.</p>
+
+<p>Everything seemed to unite for their advancement in honour, in
+happiness, and in prosperity. There came a change, but in place&mdash;not
+in anything to affect their well-being, to damp their joy, or to
+ruffle the smooth current of their lives. The young nobleman was
+appointed by his king ambassador to the court of Russia. It was a post
+of honour to which he was entitled by his birth and education. He had
+a large private fortune, and his young wife had brought him one not
+inferior to his own, for she was the daughter of one of the richest
+men in the kingdom. A large ship was about that time to go to
+Stockholm. It was selected to convey the rich man's dear daughter and
+son-in-law to St. Petersburg; and its cabin was fitted up as if for
+the use of royalty&mdash;soft carpets under the feet, silken hangings, and
+every luxury around.</p>
+
+<p>Amidst the ancient Scandinavian ballads, known to all Danes under
+their general title of <i>K&oelig;mpeviser</i>, there is one called "The King
+of England's Son." He likewise sailed in a costly ship; its anchor was
+inlaid with pure gold, and every rope was of twisted silk. Every one
+who saw the Spanish vessel must have remembered the ship in this
+legend, for there was the same pageantry, the same thoughts on their
+departure.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"God, let us meet again in joy!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The wind blew freshly from off the Spanish shore, and the last adieux
+were therefore hurried; but in a few weeks they would reach their
+destination. They had not gone far,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> however, before the wind lulled,
+the sea became calm, its surface sparkled, the stars above shone
+brightly, and all was serenity in the splendid cabin.</p>
+
+<p>At length they became tired of the continued calm, and wished that the
+breeze would rise and swell into a good strong wind, if it would only
+be fair for them; but they still lacked wind, and if it did arise, it
+was always a contrary one. Thus passed weeks, and when at length the
+wind became fair, and blew from the south-west, they were half way
+between Scotland and Jutland. Just then the wind shifted, and
+increased to a gale, as it is described to have done in the ballad of
+"The King of England's Son."</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The sky grew dark, and the wind it blew,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">They could see neither land nor haven of rest;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So then they cast out their anchor true,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">But to Denmark they drove with the gale from the west."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This was many years ago. King Christian the Seventh occupied the
+Danish throne, and was then a young man. Much has happened since that
+time, much has changed; lakes and morasses have become fruitful
+meadows, wild moors have become cultivated land, and on the lee of the
+West Jutlander's house grow apple trees and roses; but they must be
+sheltered from the sharp west winds. Up there one can still, however,
+fancy one's self back in the period of Christian the Seventh's reign.
+As then in Jutland, so even now, stretch for miles and miles the brown
+heaths, with their tumuli, their meteors, their knolly, sandy cross
+roads. Towards the west, where large streams fall into the fiords, are
+to be seen wide plains and bogs, encircled by high hills, which, like
+a row of Alpine mountains with pinnacles formed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> like saws, frown over
+the sea, which is separated from them only by high clay banks; and
+year after year the sea bites a large mouthful off of these, so that
+their edges and summits topple over as if shaken by an earthquake.
+Thus they look at this day, and thus they were many years ago, when
+the happy young couple sailed from Spain in the magnificent ship.</p>
+
+<p>It was the end of September. It was Sunday and sunshine: the sound of
+the church bells reached afar, even to Nissumfiord. The churches up
+there were like rocks with spaces hewn out in them: each one of them
+was like a piece of a mountain, so heavy and massive. The German Ocean
+might have rolled over them, and they would have stood firmly. Many of
+them had no spires or towers, and the bells hung out in the open air
+between two beams. The church service was over. The congregation had
+passed from the house of God out into the churchyard, where then, as
+now, not a tree, not a bush was to be seen&mdash;not a single flower, not a
+garland laid upon a grave. Little knolls or heaps of earth point out
+where the dead are buried; a sharp kind of grass, lashed by the wind,
+grows over the whole churchyard. A solitary grave here and there has,
+perhaps, a monument; that is to say, the mouldering trunk of a tree,
+rudely carved into the shape of a coffin. The pieces of tree are
+brought from the woods of the west. The wild ocean provides, for the
+dwellers on the coast, beams, planks, and trees, which the dashing
+billows cast upon the shore. The wind and the sea spray soon decay
+these tree monuments. Such a stump was lying over the grave of a
+child, and one of the women who had come out of the church went
+towards it. She stood gazing upon the partially loosened piece of
+wood. Shortly afterwards her husband joined her. They remained for a
+time without either of them uttering a single<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> word; then he took her
+hand, and led her from the grave out upon the heath, across the moor,
+in the direction of the sand-hills. For a long time they walked in
+silence. At last the husband said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It was an excellent sermon to-day. If we had not our Lord we should
+have nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the wife, "He sends joy, and He sends affliction. He is
+right in all things. To-morrow our little boy would have been five
+years old if he had been spared to us."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no use in your grieving for his loss," replied the husband.
+"He has escaped much evil. He is now where we must pray to be also
+received."</p>
+
+<p>They dropped the painful subject, and pursued their way towards their
+house amidst the sand-hills. Suddenly, from one of these where there
+was no lyme-grass to keep down the sand, there arose as it were a
+thick smoke. It was a furious gust of wind, that had pierced the
+sand-hill, and whirled about in the air the fine particles of sand.
+The wind veered round for a minute; and all the dried fish that was
+hung up on cords outside of the house knocked against its walls, then
+everything was still again. The sun was shining warmly.</p>
+
+<p>The man and his wife entered their house, and having soon divested
+themselves of their Sunday clothes, they hastened over the sand-hills,
+which stood like enormous waves of sand suddenly arrested in their
+course. The sea-reed's and the lyme-grass's blue-green sharp blades
+gave some variety to the white sand. Some neighbours joined the couple
+who had just come from church, and they assisted each other in
+dragging the boats higher up the beach. The gale was increasing; it
+was bitterly cold; and when they were returning over the hills, the
+sand and small stones whisked into their faces, the waves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> mounted
+high with their white crests, and the spray dashed after them.</p>
+
+<p>It was evening; there was a doleful whistling in the air, increasing
+every moment&mdash;a wild howling, as if a host of unseen despairing
+spirits were uttering their complaints. The moaning sound overpowered
+even the angry dashing of the waves, although the fisherman's house
+lay so near to the shore. The sand drifted against the windows, and
+every now and then came a blast that shook the house to its
+foundation. It was very dark, but the moon would rise at midnight.</p>
+
+<p>The air cleared; yet the storm still raged in all its might over the
+deep gloomy sea. The fishermen and their families had retired for some
+time to rest, but no one could close his eyes in such terrible
+weather. Some one knocked at the windows of some of the cottages, and
+when the doors were opened the person said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"A large ship is lying fast upon the outer shoal."</p>
+
+<p>In a moment the fishermen and their wives were up and dressed.</p>
+
+<p>The moon had risen, and there was light enough to see if they had not
+been blinded by the sand that was flying about. The wind was so strong
+that they were obliged to lie down, and creep amidst the gusts over
+the sand-hills; and there flew through the air, like swan's down, the
+salt foam and spray from the sea, which, like a roaring, boiling
+cataract, dashed upon the beach. A practised eye was required to
+discern quickly the vessel outside. It was a large ship; it was lifted
+a few cable lengths forward, then driven on towards the land, struck
+upon the inner sand-bank, and stood fast. It was impossible to go to
+the assistance of the ship, the sea was running too high: it beat
+against the unfortunate vessel, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> dashed over her. The people on
+shore thought that they heard cries of distress&mdash;cries of those in the
+agony of death; and they saw the desperate, useless activity on board.
+Then came a sea that, like a crushing avalanche, fell upon the
+bowsprit, and it was gone. The stern of the vessel rose high above the
+water&mdash;two people sprang from it together into the sea&mdash;a moment, and
+one of the most gigantic billows that were rolling up against the
+sand-hills cast a body upon the shore: it was that of a female, and
+every one believed it was a corpse. Two women, however, knelt down by
+the body, and thinking that they found in it some sign of life, it was
+carried over the sand-hills to a fisherman's house. How beautiful she
+was, and how handsomely dressed!&mdash;evidently a lady of rank.</p>
+
+<p>They placed her in the humble bed; there was no linen on it, only
+blankets to wrap her in, yet these were very warm.</p>
+
+<p>She soon came to life, but was in a high fever. She did not seem to
+know what had happened, or to remark where she was; and this was
+probably fortunate, since all who were dear to her on board the
+ill-fated ship were lying at the bottom of the sea. It had been with
+them as described in the song, "The King of England's Son:"&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"It was, in sooth, a piteous sight!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The ship broke up to bits that night."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Portions of the wreck were washed ashore. She was the only living
+creature out of all that had so lately breathed and moved on board the
+doomed ship. The wind was howling their requiem over the inhospitable
+coast. For a few minutes she slept peacefully, but soon she awoke and
+uttered groans of pain; she cast up her beautiful eyes towards heaven,
+and said a few words, but no one there could understand them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Another helpless being soon made its appearance, and her new-born babe
+was placed in her arms. It ought to have reposed on a stately couch,
+with silken curtains, in a splendid house. It ought to have been
+welcomed with joy to a life rich in all this world's goods; but our
+Lord had ordained that it should be born in a peasant's hut, in a
+miserable nook. Not even one kiss did it receive from its mother.</p>
+
+<p>The fisherman's wife laid the infant on its mother's breast, and it
+rested near her heart; but that heart had ceased to beat&mdash;she was
+dead! The child who should have been nurtured amidst happiness and
+wealth was cast a stranger into the world&mdash;thrown up by the sea among
+the sand-hills, to experience heavy days and the fate of the poor. And
+again we call to mind the old song:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The king's son's eyes with big tears fill:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">'Alas! that I came to this robber-hill.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Here nothing awaits me but evil and pain.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Had I haply but come to Herr Bugg&eacute;'s domain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Neither knight nor squire would have treated me ill.'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>A little to the south of Nissumfiord, on that portion of the shore
+which Herr Bugg&eacute; had formerly called his, the vessel had stranded.
+Those rough, inhuman times, when the inhabitants of the west coast
+dealt cruelly, it is said, with the shipwrecked, had long passed away;
+and now the utmost compassion was felt, and the kindest attention paid
+to those whom the engulfing sea had spared. The dying mother and the
+forlorn child would have met with every care wherever "the wild wind
+had blown;" but nowhere could they have been received with more
+cordial kindness than by the poor fishwife who, only the previous
+morning, had stood with a heavy heart by the grave wherein reposed her
+child, who on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> that very day would have attained his fifth year if the
+Almighty had permitted him to live.</p>
+
+<p>No one knew who the foreign dead woman was, or whence she came. The
+broken planks and fragments of the ship told nothing.</p>
+
+<p>In Spain, at that opulent house, there never arrived either letter or
+message from the daughter and son-in-law; they had not reached their
+destination; fearful storms had raged for some weeks. They waited with
+anxiety for months. At last they heard, "Totally lost&mdash;every one on
+board perished!"</p>
+
+<p>But at Huusby-Klitter, in the fisherman's cottage, there dwelt now a
+little urchin.</p>
+
+<p>Where God bestows food for two, there is always something for a third;
+and near the sea there is plenty of fish to be found. The little
+stranger was named J&ouml;rgen.</p>
+
+<p>"He is surely a Jewish child," said some people, "he has so dark a
+complexion."</p>
+
+<p>"He may, however, be an Italian or a Spaniard," said the priest.</p>
+
+<p>The whole tribe of fishermen and women comforted themselves that,
+whatever was his origin, the child had received Christian baptism. The
+boy throve, his noble blood mantled in his cheek, and he grew strong,
+notwithstanding poor living. The Danish language, as it is spoken in
+West Jutland, became his mother tongue. The pomegranate seed from the
+Spanish soil became the coarse grass on the west coast of Jutland.
+Such are the vicissitudes of life!</p>
+
+<p>To that home he attached himself with his young life's roots. Hunger
+and cold, the poor man's toil and want, he was to experience, but also
+the poor man's joys.</p>
+
+<p>Childhood has its bright periods, which shine in recollection through
+the whole of after life. How much had he not to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> amuse him, and to
+play with! The entire seashore, for miles in length, was covered with
+playthings for him&mdash;a mosaic of pebbles red as coral, yellow as amber,
+and pure white, round as birds' eggs, all smoothed and polished by the
+sea. Even the scales of the dried fish, the aquatic plants dried by
+the wind, the shining seaweed fluttering among the rocks&mdash;all were
+pleasant to his eye, and matter for his thoughts; and the boy was an
+excitable, clever child. Much genius and great abilities lay dormant
+in him. How well he remembered all the stories and old ballads he
+heard; and he was very quick with his fingers. With stones and shells
+he would plan out whole scenes he had heard as if in a picture: one
+might have ornamented a room with these handiworks of his. "He could
+cut out his thoughts with a stick," said his foster-mother; and yet he
+was but a little boy. His voice was very sweet&mdash;melody seemed to have
+been born with him. There were many finely-toned strings in that
+breast; they might have sounded forth in the world, had his lot been
+otherwise cast than in a fisherman's house on the shores of the German
+Ocean.</p>
+
+<p>One day a ship foundered near. A case was thrown up on the land
+containing a number of flower-bulbs. Some took them and put them into
+their cooking pots, thinking they were to be eaten; others were left
+to rot upon the sand; none of them fulfilled their destination&mdash;to
+unfold the lovely colours, the beauty that lay in them. Would it be
+better with J&ouml;rgen? The poor flower-roots were soon done for: there
+might be years of trial before him.</p>
+
+<p>It never occurred to him, or to any of the people around him, to think
+their days lonely and monotonous: there was abundance to do, to hear,
+and to see. The ocean itself was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> great book; every day he read a
+new page in it&mdash;the calm, the swell of the sea, the breeze, the storm.
+The beach was his favourite resort; going to church was his event, his
+visit of importance, though of visits there was one which occasionally
+took place at the fisherman's house that was particularly welcome to
+him. Twice a year his foster-mother's brother, the eel-man from
+Fjaltring, up near Rovbierg, paid them a visit. He came in a painted
+cart full of eels. The cart was closed and locked like a chest, and
+painted with blue, red, and white tulips; it was drawn by two
+dun-coloured bullocks, and J&ouml;rgen was allowed to drive them.</p>
+
+<p>The eel-man was a very good-natured, lively guest. He always brought a
+keg of brandy with him; every one got a dram of it, or a coffee-cup
+full if glasses were scarce; even J&ouml;rgen, though he was but a little
+fellow, was treated to a good thimbleful. That was to keep down the
+fat eels, said the eel-man; and then he never failed to tell a story
+he had often told before, and, when people laughed at it, he
+immediately told it over again to the same persons; but this is a
+habit with all talkative individuals; and as J&ouml;rgen, during the whole
+time that he was growing up, and into the years of his manhood, often
+quoted phrases in this story, and applied them to himself, we may as
+well listen to it.</p>
+
+<p>"Out in the rivulet dwelt eels, and the eel-mother said to her
+daughters, when they begged to be allowed to go a little way alone up
+the stream. 'Do not go far, lest the horrible eel-spearer should come,
+and take you all away.'</p>
+
+<p>"But they went very far, and of eight daughters only three returned to
+their mother, and these came wailing, 'We only went a short way from
+the door, when the terrible eel-spearer came and killed our five
+sisters.' 'They will come back<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> again,' said the eel-mother. 'No,'
+said the daughters, 'for he skinned them, cut them in pieces, and
+fried them.' 'They will come again,' repeated the mother. 'Impossible,
+for he ate them.' 'They will come again,' still persisted the
+eel-mother. 'But he drank brandy after he had eaten them,' said the
+daughter. 'Did he? Oh! oh! then they will never come again,' howled
+the mother. 'Brandy buries eels.'</p>
+
+<p>"And therefore one must always drink a little brandy after that dish,"
+said the eel-man.</p>
+
+<p>And this story made a great impression on little J&ouml;rgen, and partly
+influenced his life. He took the tinsel for the gold. He also wished
+to go "a little way up the stream"&mdash;that is to say, to go away in a
+ship to see the world&mdash;and his mother said as the eel-mother had done.
+"There are many bad men&mdash;eel-spearers." But a little way beyond the
+sand-hills, and a little way on the heath, he was allowed to go, he
+begged so hard. Four happy days, however&mdash;days that seemed the
+brightest among his childish years, turned up: he was to go to a large
+meeting. What pleasure, although it was to a funeral!</p>
+
+<p>A relation of the fisherman's family, who had been in easy
+circumstances, was dead. The farm lay inland&mdash;"eastward, a little to
+the north," it was said. The father and mother were both going, and
+J&ouml;rgen was to accompany them. On leaving the sand-hills, they passed
+over heaths and boggy lands, until they came to the green meadows
+where Skj&aelig;rumaa winds its way&mdash;the river with the numerous eels, where
+the eel-mother with her daughters lived, those whom the cruel man
+speared and cut in pieces, though there were men who had scarcely
+treated their fellow-men better. Even Herr Bugg&eacute;, the knight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> who was
+celebrated in the old song, was murdered by a wicked man; and though
+he was himself called so good, he wished to put to death the builder
+who had built for him his castle, with its tower and thick walls, just
+where J&ouml;rgen and his foster-parents stood, where Skj&aelig;rumaa falls into
+the Nissumfiord. The sloping bank or ascent to the ramparts was still
+to be seen, and red fragments of the walls still marked out the
+circumference of the ancient building. Here had Herr Bugg&eacute;, when the
+builder had taken his departure, said to his squire&mdash;"Follow him, and
+say, Master, the tower leans to one side. If he turns, slay him on the
+spot, and take the money from him that he got from me; but, if he does
+not turn, let him go on in peace." And the squire overtook the
+builder, and said what he was ordered to say; and the builder replied,
+"The tower does not lean to one side, but by and by there will come
+from the westward one in a blue cloak, and <i>he</i> will make it bend." A
+hundred years afterwards this prediction was fulfilled, for the German
+Ocean rushed in, and the tower fell; but the then owner of the
+property, Prebj&ouml;rn Gyldenstierne, erected a habitation higher up, and
+that stands now, and is called N&ouml;rre-Vosborg.</p>
+
+<p>J&ouml;rgen, with his foster-parents, had to pass this place. Of every
+little town hereabout he had heard stories during the long winter
+evenings; now he saw the castle, with its double moats, its trees and
+bushes, its ramparts overgrown with bracken. But the most beautiful
+sight was the lofty linden trees, that filled the air with so sweet a
+perfume. Towards the north-west, in a corner of the garden, stood a
+large bush with flowers that were like winter's snow amidst summer's
+green. It was an elder tree, the first J&ouml;rgen had ever seen in bloom.
+That and the linden trees were always remembered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> during his future
+years as Denmark's sweetest perfume and beauty, which the soul of
+childhood "for the old man laid by."</p>
+
+<p>The journey soon became more extended, and the country less wild.
+After passing N&ouml;rre-Vosborg, where the elder tree was in bloom, he had
+the pleasure of travelling in a sort of carriage, for they met some of
+the other guests who were going to the funeral feast, as it might be
+called, and were invited into their conveyance. To be sure they had
+all three to stuff themselves into a very narrow back seat, but that
+was better, they thought, than walking. They drove over the uneven
+heaths; the bullocks which drew their cart stopped whenever they came
+to a little patch of green grass among the heather. The sun was
+shining warmly, and it was wonderful to see, far in the distance, a
+smoke that undulated, yet was clearer than the air&mdash;one could see
+through it: it was as if rays of light were rolling and dancing over
+the heath.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the Lok&eacute;man, who is driving his sheep," was told J&ouml;rgen, and
+that was enough for him. He fancied he was driving into the land of
+marvellous adventures and fairy tales; yet he was only amidst
+realities. How still it was there!</p>
+
+<p>Far before them stretched the heath, but it looked like a beautifully
+variegated carpet; the ling was in flower, the Cyprus-green juniper
+bushes and the fresh oak shoots seemed like bouquets among the
+heather. But for the many poisonous vipers, how delightful it would
+have been to roll about there! The party spoke of them, and of the
+numerous wolves that had abounded in that neighbourhood, on account of
+which the district was called Ulvborg-Herred. The old man who was
+driving related how, in his father's time, the horses had often to
+fight a hard battle with these now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> extirpated wild animals; and that
+one morning, on coming out, he found one of his horses treading upon a
+wolf he had killed; but the flesh was entirely stripped from the
+horse's legs.</p>
+
+<p>Too quickly for J&ouml;rgen did they drive over the uneven heath, and
+through the deep sand. They stopped at length before the house of
+mourning, which was crowded with strangers, some inside, some on the
+outside. Vehicle after vehicle stood together; the horses and oxen
+were turned out amidst the meagre grass; large sand-hills, like those
+at home by the German Ocean, were to be seen behind the farm, and
+stretched far away in wide long ranges. How had they come there,
+twelve miles inland, and nearly as high and as large as those near the
+shore? The wind had lifted them and removed them: they also had their
+history.</p>
+
+<p>Psalms were sung, and tears were shed by some of the old people,
+otherwise all was very pleasant thought J&ouml;rgen. Here was plenty to eat
+and drink&mdash;the nicest fat eels; and it was necessary to drink
+brandy-snaps after eating them, "to keep them down," the eel-man had
+said; and his words were acted upon here with all due honour.</p>
+
+<p>J&ouml;rgen was in, and J&ouml;rgen was out. By the third day he felt himself as
+much at home here as he had done in the fisherman's cottage, where he
+had lived all his earlier days. Up here on the heath it was different
+from down there, but it was very nice. It was covered with
+heather-bells and bilberries; they were so large and so sweet; one
+could mash them with one's foot, so that the heather should be
+dripping with the red juice. Here lay one tumulus, there another;
+columns of smoke arose in the calm air; it was the heath on fire, they
+said, it shone brightly in the evening.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The fourth day came, and the funeral solemnities were over&mdash;the
+fisherman and his family were to leave the land sand-hills for the
+strand sand-hills.</p>
+
+<p>"Ours are the largest though;" said the father, "these are not at all
+important-looking."</p>
+
+<p>And the conversation fell on how they came there, and it was all very
+intelligible and very rational. A body had been found on the beach,
+and the peasants had buried it in the churchyard; then commenced a
+drifting of sand&mdash;the sea broke wildly on the shore, and a man in the
+parish who was noted for his sagacity advised that the grave should be
+opened, to ascertain if the buried corpse lay and sucked his thumb;
+for if he did that, it was a merman whom they had buried, and the sea
+would force its way up to take him back. The grave was accordingly
+opened, and lo! he they had buried was found sucking his thumb; so
+they took him up instantly, placed him on a car, harnessed two oxen to
+it, and dragged him over heaths and bogs out to the sea; then the sand
+drift stopped, but the sand-hills have always remained. To all this
+J&ouml;rgen listened eagerly; and he treasured this ancient legend in his
+memory, along with all that had happened during the pleasantest days
+of his childhood&mdash;the days of the funeral feast.</p>
+
+<p>It was delightful to go from home, and to see new places and new
+people; and he was to go still farther away. He went on board a ship.
+He went forth to see what the world produced; and he found bad
+weather, rough seas, evils dispositions, and harsh masters. He went as
+a cabin-boy! Poor living, cold nights, the rope's end, and hard thumps
+with the fist were his portion. There was something in his noble
+Spanish blood which always boiled up, so that angry words rose often
+to his lips; but he was wise enough to keep them back,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> and he felt
+pretty much like an eel being skinned, cut up, and laid on the pan.</p>
+
+<p>"I will come again," said he to himself. The Spanish coast, his
+parents' native land, the very town where they had lived in grandeur
+and happiness, he saw; but he knew nothing of kindred and a paternal
+home, and his family knew as little of him.</p>
+
+<p>The dirty ship-boy was not allowed to land for a long time, but the
+last day the ship lay there he was sent on shore to bring off some
+purchases that had been made.</p>
+
+<p>There stood J&ouml;rgen in wretched clothes, that looked as if they had
+been washed in a ditch and dried in the chimney: it was the first time
+that he, a denizen of the solitary sand-hills, had seen a large town.
+How high the houses were, how narrow the streets, swarming with human
+beings; some hurrying this way, others going that way&mdash;it was like a
+whirlpool of townspeople, peasants, monks, and soldiers. There were a
+rushing along, a screaming, a jingling of the bells on the asses and
+the mules, and the church bells ringing too. There were to be heard
+singing and babbling, hammering and banging; for every trade had its
+workshop either in the doorway or on the pavement. The sun was burning
+hot, the air was heavy: it was as if one had entered a baker's oven
+full of beetles, lady-birds, bees, and flies, that hummed and buzzed.
+J&ouml;rgen scarcely knew, as the saying is, whether he was on his head or
+his heels. Then he beheld, at a little distance, the immense portals
+of the cathedral; light streamed forth from the arches that were so
+dim and gloomy above; and there came a strong scent from the incense.
+Even the poorest, most tattered beggars ascended the wide stairs to
+the church, and the sailor who was with J&ouml;rgen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> showed him the way in.
+J&ouml;rgen stood in a sacred place; splendidly-painted pictures hung round
+in richly-gilded frames; the holy Virgin, with the infant Jesus in her
+arms, was on the altar amidst flowers and light; priests in their
+magnificent robes were chanting; and beautiful, handsomely-dressed
+choristers swung backwards and forwards silver censers. There was in
+everything a splendour, a charm, that penetrated to J&ouml;rgen's very
+soul, and overwhelmed him. The church and the faith of his parents and
+his ancestors surrounded him, and touched a chord in his heart which
+caused tears to start to his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>From the church they proceeded to the market. He had many articles of
+food and matters for the use of the cook, to carry. The way was long,
+and he became very tired; so he stopped to rest outside of a large
+handsome house, that had marble pillars, statues, and wide stairs. He
+was leaning with his burden against the wall, when a finely-bedizened
+porter came forward, raised his silver-mounted stick to him, and drove
+him away&mdash;him, the grandchild of its owner, the heir of the family;
+but none there knew this, nor did he himself.</p>
+
+<p>He returned on board, was thumped and scolded, had little sleep and
+much work. Such was his life! And it is very good for youth to put up
+with hard usage, it is said. Yes, if it makes age good.</p>
+
+<p>The period for which he had been engaged was expired&mdash;the vessel lay
+again at Ringki&ouml;bingfiord. He landed, and went home to Huusby-Klitter;
+but his mother had died during his absence.</p>
+
+<p>The winter which followed was a severe one. Snow storms drove over sea
+and land: one could scarcely face them. How differently were not
+things dealt out in this world! Such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> freezing cold and drifting snow
+here, whilst in Spain was burning heat, almost too great; and yet
+when, one clear, frosty day at home, J&ouml;rgen saw swans flying in large
+flocks from the sea over Nissumfiord, and towards N&ouml;rre-Vosborg, he
+thought that the course they pursued was the best, and all summer
+pleasures were to be found there. In fancy he saw the heath in bloom,
+and mingling with it the ripe, juicy berries; the linden trees and
+elder bushes at N&ouml;rre-Vosborg were in flower. He must return there
+yet.</p>
+
+<p>Spring was approaching, the fishing was commencing, and J&ouml;rgen lent
+his help. He had grown much during the last year, and was extremely
+active. There was plenty of life in him; he could swim, tread the
+water, and turn and roll about in it. He was much inclined to offer
+himself for the mackerel shoals: they take the best swimmer, draw him
+under the water, eat him up, and so there is an end of him; but this
+was not J&ouml;rgen's fate.</p>
+
+<p>Among the neighbours in the sand-hills was a boy named Morten. He and
+J&ouml;rgen left the fishing, and they both hired themselves on board a
+vessel bound to Norway, and went afterwards to Holland. They were
+always at odds with each other, but that might easily happen when
+people were rather warm-tempered; and they could not help showing
+their feelings sometimes in expressive gestures. This was what J&ouml;rgen
+did once on board when they came up from below quarrelling about
+something. They were sitting together, eating out of an earthen dish
+they had between them, when J&ouml;rgen, who was holding his clasp-knife in
+his hand, raised it against Morten, looking at the moment as white as
+chalk, and ghastly about the eyes. Morten only said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"So you are of that sort that will use the knife!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had he uttered these words before J&ouml;rgen's hand was down
+again; he did not say a syllable, ate his dinner, and went to his
+work; but when he had finished that, he sought Morten, and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Strike me on the face if you will&mdash;I have deserved it. There is
+something in me that always boils up so."</p>
+
+<p>"Let bygones be bygones," said Morten; and thereupon they became much
+better friends. When they returned to Jutland and the sand-hills, and
+told all that had passed, it was remarked that J&ouml;rgen might boil over,
+but he was an honest pot for all that.</p>
+
+<p>"But not of Jutland manufacture&mdash;he cannot be called a Jutlander," was
+Morten's witty reply.</p>
+
+<p>They were both young and healthy, well-grown, and strongly built, but
+J&ouml;rgen was the most active.</p>
+
+<p>Up in Norway the country people repair to the summer pastures among
+the mountains, and take their cattle there to grass. On the west coast
+of Jutland, among the sand-hills, are huts built of pieces of wrecks,
+and covered with peat and layers of heather. The sleeping-places
+stretch round the principal room; and there sleep and live, during the
+early spring time, the people employed in the fishing. Every one has
+his <i>&AElig;sepige</i>, as she is called, whose business it is to put bait on
+the hooks, to await the fishermen at their landing-place with warm
+ale, and have their food ready for them when they return weary to the
+house. These girls carry the fish from the boats, and cut them up; in
+short, they have a great deal to do.</p>
+
+<p>J&ouml;rgen, his father, and a couple of other fishermen, with their
+<i>&AElig;sepiger</i>, or serving girls, were together in one house. Morten lived
+in the house next to theirs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was one of these girls called Els&eacute;, whom J&ouml;rgen had known from
+her infancy. They were great friends, and much alike in disposition,
+though very different in appearance. He was of a dark complexion, and
+she was very fair, with hair almost of a golden colour; her eyes were
+as blue as the sea when the sun is shining upon it.</p>
+
+<p>One day when they were walking together, and J&ouml;rgen was holding her
+hand with a tight and affectionate grasp, she said to him,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"J&ouml;rgen, I have something on my mind. Let me be your <i>&AElig;sepige</i>, for
+you are to me like a brother; but Morten, who has hired me at
+present&mdash;he and I are sweethearts. Do not mention this, however, to
+any one."</p>
+
+<p>And J&ouml;rgen felt as if a sand-hill had opened under him. He did not
+utter a single word, but nodded his head by way of a yes&mdash;more was not
+necessary; but he felt suddenly in his heart that he could not endure
+Morten, and the longer he reflected on the matter the clearer it
+became to him. Morten had stolen from him the only one he cared for,
+and that was Els&eacute;. She was now lost to him.</p>
+
+<p>If the sea should be boisterous when the fishermen return with their
+little smacks, it is curious to see them cross the reefs. One of the
+fishermen stands erect in advance, the others watch him intently,
+while sitting with their oars ready to use when he gives them a sign
+that now are coming the great waves which will lift the boats over;
+and they are lifted, so that those on shore can only see their keels.
+The next moment the entire boat is hidden by the surging
+waves&mdash;neither boat, nor mast, nor people are to be seen: one would
+fancy the sea had swallowed them up. A minute or two more, and they
+show themselves, looking as if some mighty marine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> monsters were
+creeping out of the foaming sea, the oars moving like their legs. With
+the second and the third reef the same process takes place as with the
+first; and now the fishermen spring into the water and drag the boats
+on shore, every succeeding billow helping and giving them a good lift
+until they are fairly out of the water. One false move on the outside
+of the reefs&mdash;one moment's delay, and they would be shipwrecked.</p>
+
+<p>"Then it would be all over with me, and with Morten at the same time."
+This thought came across J&ouml;rgen's mind out at sea, where his
+foster-father had been taken suddenly ill: he was in a high fever.
+This was just a little way from the outer reef. J&ouml;rgen sprang up.</p>
+
+<p>"Father, allow me," he cried, and his eye glanced over Morten and over
+the waves; but just then every oar was raised for the great struggle,
+and as the first enormous billow came, he observed his father's pale
+suffering countenance, and he could not carry out the wicked design
+that had suggested itself to his mind. The boat got safely over the
+reefs, and in to the land; but J&ouml;rgen's evil thoughts remained, and
+his blood boiled at every little disagreeable act that started up in
+his recollection from the time that he and Morten had been comrades,
+and his anger increased as he remembered each offence. Morten had
+supplanted him, he felt assured of that; and that was enough to make
+him hateful to him. A few of the fishermen remarked his scowling looks
+at Morten, but Morten himself did not; he was, just as usual, ready to
+give every assistance, and very talkative&mdash;a little too much of the
+latter, perhaps.</p>
+
+<p>J&ouml;rgen's foster-father was obliged to keep his bed; he became worse,
+and died within a week; and J&ouml;rgen inherited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> the house behind the
+sand-hills&mdash;a humble habitation to be sure, but it was always
+something. Morten had not so much.</p>
+
+<p>"You will not take service any more, J&ouml;rgen, I suppose, but will
+remain among us now," said one of the old fishermen.</p>
+
+<p>But J&ouml;rgen had no such intention. He was thinking, on the contrary, of
+going away to see a little of the world. The eel-man of Fjaltring had
+an uncle up at Gammel-Skagen; he was a fisherman, but also a thriving
+trader who owned some little vessels. He was such an excellent old
+man, it would be a good thing to take service with him. Gammel-Skagen
+lies on the northern part of Jutland, at the other extremity of the
+country from Huusby-Klitter, and that was what J&ouml;rgen thought most of.
+He was determined not to stay for Els&eacute; and Morten's wedding, which was
+to take place in a couple of weeks.</p>
+
+<p>"It was foolish to take his departure now," was the opinion of the old
+fisherman who had spoken to him before. "Now J&ouml;rgen had a house, Els&eacute;
+would most likely prefer taking him."</p>
+
+<p>J&ouml;rgen answered so shortly, when thus spoken to, that it was difficult
+to ascertain what he thought; but the old man brought Els&eacute; to him. She
+did not say much; but this she did say,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You have now a house: one must take that into consideration."</p>
+
+<p>And J&ouml;rgen also took much into consideration. In the ocean there are
+many heavy seas&mdash;the human heart has still heavier ones. There passed
+many thoughts, strong and weak mingled together, through J&ouml;rgen's head
+and heart, and he asked Els&eacute;,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"If Morten had a house as well as I, which of us two would you rather
+take?"</p>
+
+<p>"But Morten has no house, and has no chance of getting one."</p>
+
+<p>"But we think it is very likely he will have one."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! then I would take Morten, of course; but one can't live upon
+love."</p>
+
+<p>And J&ouml;rgen reflected for the whole night over what had passed. There
+was something in him he could not himself account for; but he had one
+idea&mdash;it overpowered his love for Els&eacute;, and it led him to Morten. What
+he said and did there had been well considered by him&mdash;he made his
+house over to Morten on the lowest possible terms, saying that he
+would himself prefer to go into service. And Els&eacute; kissed him in her
+gratitude when she heard it, for she certainly loved Morten best.</p>
+
+<p>At an early hour in the morning J&ouml;rgen was to take his departure. The
+evening before, though it was already late, he fancied he would like
+to visit Morten once more, so he went; and amongst the sand-hills he
+met the old fisherman, who did not seem to think of his going away,
+and who jested about all the girls being so much in love with Morten.
+J&ouml;rgen cut him short, bade him farewell, and proceeded to the house
+where Morten lived. When he reached it he heard loud talking within:
+Morten was not alone. J&ouml;rgen was somewhat capricious. Of all persons
+he would least wish to find Els&eacute; there; and, on second thoughts, he
+would rather not give Morten an opportunity of renewing his thanks, so
+he turned back again.</p>
+
+<p>Early next morning, before the dawn of day, he tied up his bundle,
+took his provision box, and went down from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> sand-hills to the
+sea-beach. It was easier to walk there than on the heavy sandy road;
+besides, it was shorter, for he was first going to Fjaltring, near
+Vosbjerg, where the eel-man lived, to whom he had promised a visit.</p>
+
+<p>The sea was smooth and beautifully blue&mdash;shells of different sorts lay
+around. These were the playthings of his childhood&mdash;he now trod them
+under his feet. As he was walking along his nose began to bleed. That
+was only a trifle in itself, but it might have some meaning. A few
+large drops of blood fell upon his arms; he washed them off, stopped
+the bleeding, and found that the loss of a little blood had actually
+made him feel lighter in his head and in his heart. A small quantity
+of sea-kale was growing in the sand; he broke a blade off of it, and
+stuck it in his hat. He tried to feel happy and confident now that he
+was going out into the wide world&mdash;"away from the door, a little way
+up the stream," as the eel's children had said; and the mother said,
+"Take care of bad men; they will catch you, skin you, cut you in
+pieces, and fry you." He repeated this to himself, and laughed at it.
+He would get through the world with a whole skin&mdash;no fear of that; for
+he had plenty of courage, and that was a good weapon of defence.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was already high up, when, as he approached the small inlet
+between the German Ocean and Nissumfiord, he happened to look back,
+and perceived at a considerable distance two people on horseback, and
+others following on foot: they were evidently making great haste, but
+it was nothing to him.</p>
+
+<p>The ferry-boat lay on the other side of the narrow arm of the sea.
+J&ouml;rgen beckoned and called to the person who had charge of it. It came
+over, and he entered it; but before he and the man who was rowing had
+got half way across, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> men he had seen hurrying on reached the
+banks, and with threatening gestures shouted the name of the
+magistrate. J&ouml;rgen could not comprehend what they wanted, but
+considered it would be best to go back, and even took one of the oars
+to row the faster. The moment the boat neared the shore, people sprang
+into it, and before he had an idea of what they were going to do, they
+had thrown a rope round his hands, and made him their prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>"Your evil deed will cost you your life," said they. "It is lucky we
+arrived in time to catch you."</p>
+
+<p>It was neither more nor less than a murder he was accused of having
+committed. Morten had been found stabbed by a knife in his neck. One
+of the fishermen had, late the night before, met J&ouml;rgen going to the
+place where Morten lived. It was not the first time he had lifted a
+knife at him, they knew. He must be the murderer; therefore he must be
+taken into custody. Ringkj&ouml;bing was the most proper place to which to
+carry him, but it was a long way off. The wind was from the west. In
+less than half an hour they could cross the fiord at Skj&aelig;rumaa, and
+from thence they had only a short way to go to N&ouml;rre-Vosborg, which
+was a strong place, with ramparts and moats. In the boat was a brother
+of the bailiff there, and he promised to obtain permission to put
+J&ouml;rgen for the present into the cell where Lange Margrethe had been
+confined before her execution.</p>
+
+<p>J&ouml;rgen's defence of himself was not listened to; for a few drops of
+blood on his clothes spoke volumes against him. His innocence was
+clear to himself; and, if justice were not done him, he must give
+himself up to his fate.</p>
+
+<p>They landed near the site of the old ramparts, where Sir Bugg&eacute;'s
+castle had stood&mdash;there, where J&ouml;rgen, with his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> foster-father and
+mother, had passed on their way to the funeral meeting, at which had
+been spent the four brightest and pleasantest days of his childhood.
+He was conveyed again the same way by the fields up to N&ouml;rre-Vosborg,
+and yonder stood in full flower the elder tree, and yonder the lindens
+shed their sweet perfume around; and he felt as if it had been only
+yesterday that he had been there.</p>
+
+<p>In the west wing of the castle is a subterranean passage under the
+high stairs; this leads to a low, vaulted cell, in which Lange
+Margrethe had been imprisoned, and whence she had been taken to the
+place of execution. She had eaten the hearts of five children, and
+believed that, could she have added two more to the number, she would
+have been able to fly and to render herself invisible. In the wall
+there was a small, narrow air-hole. No glass was in this rude window;
+yet the sweetly-scented linden tree on the outside could not send the
+slightest portion of its refreshing perfume into that close, mouldy
+dungeon. There was only a miserable pallet there; but a good
+conscience is a good pillow, therefore J&ouml;rgen could sleep soundly.</p>
+
+<p>The thick wooden door was locked, and it was further secured by an
+iron bolt; but the nightmare of superstition can creep through a
+key-hole in the baronial castle as in the fisherman's hut. It stole in
+where J&ouml;rgen was sitting and thinking upon Lange Margrethe and her
+misdeeds. Her last thoughts had filled that little room the night
+before her execution; he remembered all the magic that, in the olden
+times, was practised when the lord of the manor, Svanwedel, lived
+there; and it was well known how, even now, the chained dog that stood
+on the bridge was found every morning hung over the railing in his
+chain. All these tales recurred to J&ouml;rgen's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> mind, and made him
+shiver; and there was but one sun ray which shone upon him, and that
+was the recollection of the blooming elder and linden trees.</p>
+
+<p>He would not be kept long here; he would be removed to Ringkj&ouml;bing,
+where the prison was equally strong.</p>
+
+<p>These times were not like ours. It went hard with the poor then; for
+then it had not come to pass that peasants found their way up to
+lordly mansions, and that from these regiments coachmen and other
+servants became judges in the petty courts, which were invested with
+the power to condemn, for perhaps a trifling fault, the poor man to be
+deprived of all his goods and chattels, or to be flogged at the
+whipping-post. A few of these courts still remain; and in Jutland, far
+from "the King's Copenhagen," and the enlightened and liberal
+government, even now the law is not always very wisely administered:
+it certainly was not so in the case of poor J&ouml;rgen.</p>
+
+<p>It was bitterly cold in the place where he was confined. When was this
+imprisonment to be at an end? Though innocent, he had been cast into
+wretchedness and solitude&mdash;that was his fate. How things had been
+ordained for him in this world, he had now time to think over. Why had
+he been thus treated&mdash;his portion made so hard to bear? Well, this
+would be revealed "in that other life" which assuredly awaits all. In
+the humble cottage that belief had been engrafted into him, which,
+amidst the grandeur and brightness of his Spanish home, had never
+shone upon his father's heart: <i>that</i> now, in the midst of cold and
+darkness, became his consolation, God's gift of grace, which never can
+deceive.</p>
+
+<p>The storms of spring were now raging; the roaring of the German Ocean
+was heard far inland; but just when the tempest had lulled, it sounded
+as if hundreds of heavy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> wagons were driving over a hard tunnelled
+road. J&ouml;rgen heard it even in his dungeon, and it was a change in the
+monotony of his existence. No old melody could have gone more deeply
+to his heart than these sounds&mdash;the rolling ocean&mdash;the free ocean&mdash;on
+which one can be borne throughout the world, fly with the wind, and
+wherever one went have one's own house with one, as the snail has
+his&mdash;to stand always upon home's ground, even in a foreign land.</p>
+
+<p>How eagerly he listened to the deep rolling! How remembrances hurried
+through his mind! "Free&mdash;free&mdash;how delightful to be free, even without
+soles to one's shoes, and in a coarse patched garment!" The very idea
+brought the warm blood rushing into his cheeks, and he struck the wall
+with his fist in his vain impatience. Weeks, months, a whole year had
+elapsed, when a gipsy named Niels Tyv&mdash;"the horse-dealer," as he was
+also called&mdash;was arrested, and then came better times: it was
+ascertained what injustice had been done to J&ouml;rgen.</p>
+
+<p>To the north of Ringkj&ouml;bing Fiord, at a small country inn, on the
+evening of the day previous to J&ouml;rgen's leaving home, and the
+committal of the murder, Niels Tyv and Morten had met each other. They
+drank a little together, not enough certainly to get into any man's
+head, but enough to set Morten talking too freely. He went on
+chattering, as he was fond of doing, and he mentioned that he had
+bought a house and some ground, and was going to be married. Niels
+thereupon asked him where was the money which was to pay it, and
+Morten struck his pocket pompously, exclaiming in a vaunting manner,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Here, where it should be!"</p>
+
+<p>That foolish bragging answer cost him his life; for when he left the
+little inn Niels followed him, and stabbed him in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> neck with his
+knife, in order to rob him of the money, which, after all, was not to
+be found.</p>
+
+<p>There was a long trial and much deliberation: it is enough for us to
+know that J&ouml;rgen was set free at last. But what compensation was made
+to him for all he had suffered that long weary year in a cold, gloomy
+prison; secluded from all mankind? Why, he was assured that it was
+fortunate he was innocent, and he might now go about his business! The
+burgomaster gave him ten marks for his travelling expenses, and
+several of the townspeople gave him ale and food. They were very good
+people. Not all, then, would "skin you, and lay you on the
+frying-pan!" But the best of all was that the trader Br&ouml;nne from
+Skagen, he to whom, a year before, J&ouml;rgen intended to have hired
+himself, was just at the time of his liberation on business at
+Ringkj&ouml;bing. He heard the whole story; he had a heart and
+understanding; and, knowing what J&ouml;rgen must have suffered and felt,
+he was determined to do what he could to improve his situation, and
+let him see that there were some kind-hearted people in the world.</p>
+
+<p>From a jail to freedom&mdash;from solitude and misery to a home which, by
+comparison, might be called a heaven&mdash;to kindness and love, he now
+passed. This also was to be a trial of his character. No chalice of
+life is altogether wormwood. A good person would not fill such for a
+child: would, then, the Almighty Father, who is all love, do so?</p>
+
+<p>"Let all that has taken place be now buried and forgotten," said the
+worthy Mr. Br&ouml;nne. "We shall draw a thick line over last year. We
+shall burn the almanac. In two days we shall start for that blessed,
+peaceful, pleasant Skagen. It is said to be only a little
+insignificant nook in the country; but a nice warm nook it is, with
+windows open to the wide world."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>That <i>was</i> a journey&mdash;that <i>was</i> to breathe the fresh air again&mdash;to
+come from the cold, damp prison-cell out into the warm sunshine!</p>
+
+<p>The heather was blooming on the moorlands; the shepherd boys sat on
+the tumuli and played their flutes, which were manufactured out of the
+bones of sheep; the <span class="smcap">Fata Morgana</span>, the beautiful mirage of the desert,
+with its hanging seas and undulating woods, showed itself; and that
+bright, wonderful phenomenon in the air, which is called the "Lok&eacute;man
+driving his sheep."</p>
+
+<p>Towards Limfiorden they passed over the Vandal's land; and towards
+Skagen they journeyed where the men with the long beards,
+<i>Langbarderne</i>,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> came from. In that locality it was that, during the
+famine under King Snio, all old people <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>and young children were
+ordered to be put to death; but the noble lady, Gambaruk, who was the
+heiress of that part of the country, insisted that the children should
+rather be sent out of the country. J&ouml;rgen was learned enough to know
+all about this; and, though he was not acquainted with the
+Langobarders' country beyond the lofty Alps, he had a good idea what
+it must be, as he had himself, when a boy, been in the south of
+Europe, in Spain. Well did he remember the heaped-up piles of fruit,
+the red pomegranate flowers, the din, the clamour, the tolling of
+bells in the Spanish city's great hive; but all was more charming at
+home, and Denmark was J&ouml;rgen's home.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Langobarder, a northern tribe, which, in very ancient
+times, dwelt in the north of Jutland. From thence they migrated to the
+north of Germany, where, according to Tacitus, they lived bout the
+period of the birth of Christ, and were a poor but brave people. Their
+original name was Vinuler, or Viniler. "When these Viniler," say the
+traditions, or rather fables of Scandinavia, "were at war with the
+Vandals, and the latter went to Odin to beseech him to grant them the
+victory, and received for answer that Odin would award the victory to
+those whom he beheld first at sunrise, the warlike female, Gambaruk,
+or Gunborg, who was mother to the leaders of the Viniler&mdash;Ebbe and
+Aage&mdash;applied to Frigga, Odin's wife, to entreat victory for her
+people. The goddess advised that the females of the tribe should let
+down their long hair so as to imitate beards, and, early in the
+morning, should stand with their husbands in the east, where Odin
+would look out. When, at sunrise, Odin saw them, he exclaimed, 'Who
+are these long-bearded people?' whereupon Frigga replied, that since
+he had bestowed, a name upon them, he must also give them the victory.
+This was the origin of the <i>Longobardi</i>, who, after many wanderings,
+found their way into Italy, and, under <span class="smcap">Alboin</span>, founded the kingdom of
+Lombardy."&mdash;<i>Trans.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>At length they reached Vendilskaga, as Skagen is called in the old
+Norse and Icelandic writings. For miles and miles, interspersed with
+sand-hills and cultivated land, houses, farms, and drifting
+sand-banks, stretched, and stretch still, towards Gammel-Skagen,
+Wester and Osterby, out to the lighthouse near Grenen, a waste, a
+desert, where the wind drives before it the loose sand, and where
+sea-gulls and wild swans send forth their discordant cries in concert.
+To the south-west, a few miles from Grenen, lies High, or Old Skagen,
+where the worthy Br&ouml;nne lived, and where J&ouml;rgen was also to reside.
+The house was tarred, the small out-houses had each an inverted boat
+for a roof. Pieces of wrecks were knocked up together to form
+pigsties. Fences there were none, for there was nothing to inclose;
+but upon cords, stretched in long rows one over the other, hung fish
+cut open, and drying in the wind. The whole beach was covered with
+heaps of putrefying herrings: nets were scarcely ever thrown into the
+water, for the herrings were taken in loads on the land. There was so
+vast a supply of this sort of fish,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> that people either threw them
+back into the sea, or left them to rot on the sands.</p>
+
+<p>The trader's wife and daughter&mdash;indeed, the whole household&mdash;came out
+rejoicing to meet the father of the family when he returned home.
+There was such a shaking of hands&mdash;such exclamations and questions!
+And what a charming countenance and beautiful eyes the daughter had!</p>
+
+<p>The interior of the house was large and extremely comfortable. Various
+dishes of fish were placed upon the table; among others some delicious
+plaice, which might have been a treat for a king; wine from Skagen's
+vineyard&mdash;the vast ocean&mdash;from which the juice of the grape was
+brought on shore both in casks and bottles.</p>
+
+<p>When the mother and daughter afterwards heard who J&ouml;rgen was, and how
+harshly he had been treated, though innocent of all crime, they looked
+very kindly at him; and most sympathising was the expression of the
+daughter's eyes, the lovely Miss Clara. J&ouml;rgen found a happy home at
+Gammel-Skagen. It did his heart good, and the poor young man had
+suffered much, even the bitterness of unrequited love, which either
+hardens or softens the heart. J&ouml;rgen's was soft enough now; there was
+a vacant place within it, and he was still so young.</p>
+
+<p>It was, perhaps, fortunate that in about three weeks Miss Clara was
+going in one of her father's ships up to Christiansand, in Norway, to
+visit an aunt, and remain there the whole winter. The Sunday before
+her departure they all went to church together, intending to partake
+of the sacrament. It was a large, handsome church, and had several
+hundred years before been built by the Scotch and Dutch a little way
+from where the town was now situated. It had become somewhat
+dilapidated, was difficult of access, the way to it being through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+deep, heavy sand; but the disagreeables of the road were willingly
+encountered in order to enter the house of God&mdash;to pray, sing psalms,
+and hear a sermon there. The sand was, as it were, banked up against,
+and even higher than, the circular wall of the churchyard; but the
+graves therein were kept carefully free of the drifting sand.</p>
+
+<p>This was the largest church to the north of Limfiorden. The Virgin
+Mary, with a crown of gold on her head, and the infant Jesus in her
+arms, stood as if in life in the altar-piece; the holy apostles were
+carved on the chancel; and on the walls above were to be seen the
+portraits of the old burgomasters and magistrates of Skagen, with
+their insignia of office: the pulpit was richly carved. The sun was
+shining brightly into the church, and glancing on the crown of brass
+and the little ship that hung from the roof.</p>
+
+<p>J&ouml;rgen felt overcome by a kind of childish feeling of awe, mingled
+with reverence, such as he had experienced when as a boy he had stood
+within the magnificent Spanish cathedral; but he knew that here his
+feelings were shared by many. After the sermon the sacrament was
+administered. Like the others, he tasted the consecrated bread and
+wine, and he found that he was kneeling by the side of Miss Clara; but
+he was so much absorbed in his devotions, and in the sacred rite, that
+it was only when about to rise that he observed who was his immediate
+neighbour, and perceived that tears were streaming down her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>Two days after this she sailed for Norway, and J&ouml;rgen made himself
+useful on the farm, and at the fishery, in which there was much more
+done then than is now-a-days. The shoals of mackerel glittered in the
+dark nights, and showed the course they were taking; the crabs gave
+piteous cries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> when pursued, for fishes are not so mute as they are
+said to be. Every Sunday when he went to church, and gazed on the
+picture of the Virgin in the altar-piece, J&ouml;rgen's eyes always
+wandered to the spot where Clara had knelt by his side; and he thought
+of her, and how kind she had been to him.</p>
+
+<p>Autumn came, with its hail and sleet; the water washed up to the very
+town of Skagen; the sand could not absorb all the water, so that
+people had to wade through it. The tempests drove vessel after vessel
+on the fatal reefs; there were snow storms and sand storms; the sand
+drifted against the houses, and closed up the entrances in some
+places, so that people had to creep out by the chimneys; but that was
+nothing remarkable up there. While all was thus bleak and wretched
+without, within there were warmth and comfort. The mingled peat and
+wood fires&mdash;the wood obtained from wrecked ships&mdash;crackled and blazed
+cheerfully, and Mr. Br&ouml;nne read aloud old chronicles and legends;
+among others, the story of Prince Hamlet of Denmark, who, coming from
+England, landed near Bovbjerg, and fought a battle there. His grave
+was at Ramme, only a few miles from the place where the eel-man lived.
+Hundreds of tumuli, the graves of the giants and heroes of old, were
+still visible all over the wide heath&mdash;a great churchyard. Mr. Br&ouml;nne
+had himself been there, and had seen Hamlet's grave. They talked of
+the olden times&mdash;of their neighbours, the English and Scotch; and
+J&ouml;rgen sang the ballad about "The King of England's Son"&mdash;about the
+splendid ship&mdash;how it was fitted up:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"How on the gilded panels stood<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Engraved our Lord's commandments good;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr style='width: 25%;' />
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And clasping a sweet maiden, how<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The prince stood sculptured on the prow!"<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></div></div>
+
+<p>J&ouml;rgen sang these lines in particular with much emphasis, whilst his
+dark eyes sparkled; but his eyes had always been bright from his
+earliest infancy.</p>
+
+<p>There were songs, and reading, and conversation, and everything to
+make the winter season pass as pleasantly as possible; there was
+prosperity in the house, plenty of comfort for the family, and plenty
+even for the lowest animals on the property; the shelves shone with
+rows of bright, well-scoured pewter plates and dishes; and from the
+roof hung sausages and hams, and other winter stores in abundance.
+Such may be seen even now in the many rich farm-houses on the west
+coast&mdash;the same evidences of plenty, the same comfortable rooms, the
+same good-humour, the same, and perhaps a little more, information.
+Hospitality reigns there as in an Arab's tent.</p>
+
+<p>J&ouml;rgen had never before spent his time so happily since the pleasant
+days of his childhood at the funeral feast; and yet Miss Clara was
+absent&mdash;present only in thought and conversation.</p>
+
+<p>In April a vessel was going up to Norway, and J&ouml;rgen was to go in it.
+He was in high spirits, and, according to Mrs. Br&ouml;nne, he was so
+lively and good-humoured, it was quite a pleasure to see him.</p>
+
+<p>"And it is quite a pleasure to see you also," said her husband.
+"J&ouml;rgen has enlivened all our winter evenings, and you with them; you
+have become young again, and really look quite handsome. You were
+formerly the prettiest girl in Viborg, and that is saying a great
+deal, for I have always thought the girls prettier there than anywhere
+else."</p>
+
+<p>J&ouml;rgen said nothing to this. Perhaps he did not believe that the
+Viborg girls were prettier than any others; at any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> rate, he was
+thinking of one from Skagen, and he was now about to join her. The
+vessel had a fair, fresh breeze; therefore he arrived at Christiansand
+in half a day.</p>
+
+<p>Early one morning the trader, Mr. Br&ouml;nne, went out to the lighthouse
+that is situated at some distance from Gammel-Skagen, and near Grenen.
+The signal-lights had been extinguished for some time, for the sun had
+risen tolerably high before he reached the tower. Away, to some
+distance beyond the most remote point of land, stretched the
+sand-banks under the water. Beyond these, again, he perceived many
+ships, and among them he thought he recognised, by aid of the
+spy-glass, the "Karen Br&ouml;nne," as his own vessel was called; and he
+was right. It was approaching the coast, and Clara and J&ouml;rgen were on
+board. The Skagen lighthouse and the spire of its church looked to
+them like a heron and a swan upon the blue water. Clara sat by the
+gunwale, and saw the sand-hills becoming little by little more and
+more apparent. If the wind only held fair, in less than an hour they
+would reach home; so near were they to happiness, and yet, alas! how
+near to death!</p>
+
+<p>A plank sprung in the ship. The water rushed in. They stopped it as
+well as they could, and used the pumps vigorously. All sail was set,
+and the flag of distress was hoisted. They were about a Danish mile
+off. Fishing-boats were to be seen, but were far away. The wind was
+fair for them. The current was also in their favour, but not strong
+enough. The vessel sank. J&ouml;rgen threw his right arm around Clara.</p>
+
+<p>With what a speaking look did she not gaze into his eyes when,
+imploring our Lord for help, he threw himself with her into the sea!
+She uttered one shriek, but she was safe. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> would not let her slip
+from his grasp. The words of the old ballad,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"And, clasping a sweet maiden, how<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The prince stood sculptured on the prow,"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>were now carried into effect by J&ouml;rgen in that agonising hour of
+danger and deep anxiety. He felt the advantage of being a good
+swimmer, and exerted himself to the utmost with his feet and one hand;
+the other was holding fast the young girl. Every possible effort he
+made to keep up his strength in order to reach the land. He heard
+Clara sigh, and perceived that a kind of convulsive shuddering had
+seized her; and he held her the tighter. A single heavy wave broke
+over them&mdash;the current lifted them. The water was so clear, though
+deep, that J&ouml;rgen thought for a moment he could see the shoals of
+mackerel beneath; or was it Leviathan himself who was waiting to
+swallow them? The clouds cast a shadow over the water, then again came
+the dancing sunbeams; harshly-screaming birds, in flocks, wheeled over
+him; and the wild ducks that, heavy and sleepy, allow themselves to
+drive on with the waves, flew up in alarm from before the swimmer. He
+felt that his strength was failing; but the shore was close at hand,
+and help was coming, for a boat was near. Just then he saw distinctly
+under the water a white, staring figure; a wave lifted him, the figure
+came nearer, he felt a violent blow, it became night before his
+eyes&mdash;all had disappeared for him.</p>
+
+<p>There lay, partially imbedded in the sand-bank, the wreck of a ship;
+the sea rolled over it, but the white figure-head was supported by an
+anchor, the sharp iron of which stuck up almost to the surface of the
+water. It was against this that J&ouml;rgen had struck himself when the
+current had driven him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> forward with sudden force. Stunned and
+fainting, he sank with his burden, but the succeeding wave threw him
+and the young girl up again.</p>
+
+<p>The fishermen had now reached them, and they were taken into the boat.
+Blood was streaming over J&ouml;rgen's face; he looked as if he were dead,
+but he still held the girl in so tight a grasp that it was with the
+utmost difficulty she could be wrenched from his encircling arm. As
+pale as death, and quite insensible, she lay at full length at the
+bottom of the boat, which steered towards Skagen.</p>
+
+<p>All possible means were tried to restore Clara to animation, but in
+vain&mdash;the poor young woman was dead. Long had J&ouml;rgen been buffeting
+the waves with a corpse&mdash;exerting his utmost strength and straining
+every nerve for a dead body.</p>
+
+<p>J&ouml;rgen still breathed; he was carried to the nearest house on the
+inner side of the sand-hills. A sort of army surgeon who happened to
+be at the place, who also acted in the capacities of smith and
+huckster, attended him until the next day, when a physician from
+Hj&ouml;rring, who had been sent for, arrived.</p>
+
+<p>The patient was severely wounded in the head, and suffering from a
+brain fever. For a time he uttered fearful shrieks, but on the third
+day he sank into a state of drowsiness, and his life seemed to hang
+upon a thread: that it might snap, the physician said, was the best
+that could be wished for J&ouml;rgen.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us pray our Lord that he may be taken; he will never more be a
+rational man."</p>
+
+<p>But he was not taken; the thread of life would not break, though
+memory was swept away, and all the powers and faculties of his mind
+were gone. It was a frightful change.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> A living body was left&mdash;a body
+that was to regain health and go about again.</p>
+
+<p>J&ouml;rgen remained in the trader Br&ouml;nne's house.</p>
+
+<p>"He was brought into this lamentable condition by his efforts to save
+our child," said the old man; "he is now our son."</p>
+
+<p>J&ouml;rgen was called "an idiot;" but that was a term not exactly
+applicable to him. He was like a musical instrument, the strings of
+which are loose, and can no longer, therefore, be made to sound. Only
+once, for a few minutes, they seemed to resume their elasticity, and
+they vibrated again. Old melodies were played, and played in time. Old
+images seemed to start up before him. They vanished&mdash;all glimmering of
+reason vanished, and he sat again staring vacantly around, without
+thought, without mind. It was to be hoped that he did not suffer
+anything. His dark eyes had lost their intelligence; they looked only
+like black glass that could move about.</p>
+
+<p>Everybody was sorry for the poor idiot J&ouml;rgen.</p>
+
+<p>It was he who, before he saw the light of day, was destined to a
+career of earthly prosperity, of wealth and happiness, so great that
+it was "<i>frightful pride, overweening arrogance</i>," to wish for, or to
+believe in, a future life! All the high powers of his soul were
+wasted. Nothing but hardships, sufferings, and disappointments had
+been dealt out to him. A valuable bulb he was, torn up from his rich
+native soil, and cast upon distant sands to rot and perish. Was that
+being, made in the image of God, worth nothing more? Was he but the
+sport of accidents or of chance? No! The God of infinite love would
+give him a portion in another life for what he had suffered and been
+deprived of here.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The Lord is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His
+works."</p>
+
+<p>These consolatory words, from one of the Psalms of David, were
+repeated in devout faith by the pious old wife of the trader Br&ouml;nne;
+and her heartfelt prayer was, that our Lord would soon release the
+poor benighted being, and receive him into God's gift of
+grace&mdash;everlasting life.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In the churchyard, where the sand had drifted into piles against the
+walls, was Clara buried. It appeared as if J&ouml;rgen had never thought
+about her grave; it did not enter into the narrow circle of his ideas,
+which now only dwelt among wrecks of the past. Every Sunday he
+accompanied the family to church, and he generally sat quiet with a
+totally vacant look; but one day, while a psalm was being sung, he
+breathed a sigh, his eyes lightened up, he turned them towards the
+altar&mdash;towards that spot where, more than a year before, he had knelt,
+with his dead friend at his side. He uttered her name, became as white
+as a sheet, and tears rolled down his cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>He was helped out of church, and then he said that he felt quite well,
+and did not think anything had been the matter with him; the short
+flash of memory had already faded away from him&mdash;the much-tried, the
+sorely-smitten of God. Yet that God, our Creator, is all wisdom and
+all love, who can doubt? Our hearts and our reason acknowledge it, and
+the Bible proclaims it. "His tender mercies are over all His works."</p>
+
+<p>In Spain, where, amidst laurels and orange trees, the Moorish golden
+cupolas glitter in the warm air, where songs and castanets are heard,
+sat, in a splendid mansion, a childless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> old man. Children were
+passing through the streets in a procession, with lights and waving
+banners. How much of his enormous wealth would he not have given to
+possess one child&mdash;to have had spared to him his daughter and her
+little one, who perhaps never beheld the light of day in this world.
+If so, how would it behold the light of eternity&mdash;of paradise? "Poor,
+poor child!"</p>
+
+<p>Yes; poor child&mdash;nothing but a child&mdash;and yet in his thirtieth year!
+for to such an age had J&ouml;rgen attained there in Gammel-Skagen.</p>
+
+<p>The sand-drifts had found their way even over the graves in the
+churchyard, and up to the very walls of the church itself; yet here,
+amidst those who had gone before them&mdash;amidst relatives and
+friends&mdash;the dead were still buried. The good old Br&ouml;nne and his wife
+reposed there, near their daughter, under the white sand.</p>
+
+<p>It was late in the year&mdash;the time of storms; the sand-hills smoked,
+the waves rolled mountains high on the raging sea; the birds in hosts,
+like dark tempestuous clouds, passed screeching over the sand-hills;
+ship after ship went ashore on the terrible reefs between Skagen's
+Green and Huusby-Klitter.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon J&ouml;rgen was sitting alone in the parlour, and suddenly
+there rushed upon his shattered mind a feeling akin to the
+restlessness which so often, in his younger years, had driven him out
+among the sand-hills, or upon the heath.</p>
+
+<p>"Home! home!" he exclaimed. No one heard him. He left the house, and
+took his way to the sand-hills. The sand and the small stones dashed
+against his face, and whirled around him. He went towards the church;
+the sand was lying banked up against the walls, and half way up the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+windows; but the walk up to the church was freer of it. The church
+door was not locked, it opened easily, and J&ouml;rgen entered the sacred
+edifice.</p>
+
+<p>The wind went howling over the town of Skagen; it was blowing a
+perfect hurricane, such as had not been known in the memory of the
+oldest man living&mdash;it was most fearful weather. But J&ouml;rgen was in
+God's house, and while dark night came on around him, all seemed light
+within; it was the light of the immortal soul which is never to be
+extinguished. He felt as if a heavy stone had fallen from his head; he
+fancied that he heard the organ playing, but the sounds were those of
+the storm and the roaring sea. He placed himself in one of the pews,
+and he fancied that the candles were lighted one after the other,
+until there was a blaze of brilliancy such as he had beheld in the
+cathedral in Spain; and all the portraits of the old magistrates and
+burgomasters became imbued with life, descended from the frames in
+which they had stood for years, and placed themselves in the choir.
+The gates and side doors of the church opened, he thought, and in
+walked all the dead, clothed in the grandest costumes of their times,
+whilst music floated in the air; and when they had seated themselves
+in the different pews, a solemn hymn arose, and swelled like the
+rolling of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Among those who had joined the spirit throng were his old
+foster-father and mother from Huusby-Klitter, and his kind friend
+Br&ouml;nne and his wife; and at their side, but close to himself, sat
+their mild, lovely daughter. She held out her hand to him, J&ouml;rgen
+thought, and they went up to the altar where once they had knelt
+together; the priest joined their hands, and pronounced those words
+and that blessing which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> were to hallow for them life and love. Then
+music's tones peeled around&mdash;the organ, wind instruments, and voices
+combined&mdash;until there arose a volume of sound sufficient to shake the
+very tombstones over the graves.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the little ship that hung under the roof moved towards him
+and Clara. It became large and magnificent, with silken sails and
+gilded masts; the anchor was of the brightest gold, and every rope was
+of silk cord, as described in the old song. He and his bride stepped
+on board, then the whole multitude in the church followed them, and
+there was room for all. He fancied that the walls and vaulted roof of
+the church turned into blooming elder and linden trees, which diffused
+a sweet perfume around. It was all one mass of verdure. The trees
+bowed themselves, and left an open space; then the ship ascended
+gently, and sailed out through the air above the sea. Every light in
+the church looked like a star. The wind commenced a hymn, and all sang
+with it: "In love to glory!" "No life shall be lost!" "Away to supreme
+happiness!" "Hallelujah!"</p>
+
+<p>These words were his last in this world. The cord had burst which held
+the undying soul. There lay but a cold corpse in the dark church,
+around which the storm was howling, and which it was overwhelming with
+the drifting sand.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The next morning was a Sunday; the congregation and their pastor came
+at the hour of church service. The approach to the church had been
+almost impassable on account of the depth of the sand, and when at
+length they reached it, they found an immense sand-heap piled up
+before the door of the church&mdash;the drifting sand had closed up all
+entrance to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> its interior. The clergyman read a prayer, and then said
+that, as God had locked the doors of that holy house, they must go
+elsewhere and erect another for His service.</p>
+
+<p>They sang a psalm, and retired to their homes.</p>
+
+<p>J&ouml;rgen could not be found either at Skagen or amidst the sand-hills,
+where every search was made for him. It was supposed that the wild
+waves, which had rolled so far up on the sands, had swept him off.</p>
+
+<p>But his body lay entombed in a large sarcophagus&mdash;in the church
+itself. During the storm God had cast earth upon his coffin&mdash;heavy
+piles of quicksand had accumulated there, and lie there even now.</p>
+
+<p>The sand had covered the lofty arches, sand-thorns and wild roses grow
+over the church, where the wayfarer now struggles on towards its
+spire, which towers above the sand, an imposing tombstone over the
+grave, seen from miles around&mdash;no king had ever a grander one! None
+disturb the repose of the dead&mdash;none knew where J&ouml;rgen lay, until
+now&mdash;the storm sang the secret for me among the sand-hills!</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 148px;">
+<img src="images/image_03.jpg" width="148" height="147" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image_04.jpg" width="600" height="105" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+<h2><a name="The_Mud-kings_Daughter" id="The_Mud-kings_Daughter"></a><i>The Mud-king's Daughter.</i></h2>
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="46" height="50" /></div>
+<p>he storks are in the habit of relating to their little ones many
+tales, all from the swamps and the bogs. They are, in general,
+suitable to the ages and comprehensions of the hearers. The smallest
+youngsters are contented with mere sound, such as "krible, krable,
+plurremurre." They think that wonderful; but the more advanced require
+something rational, or at least something about their family. Of the
+two most ancient and longest traditions that have been handed down
+among the storks, we are all acquainted with one&mdash;that about Moses,
+who was placed by his mother on the banks of the Nile, was found there
+by the king's daughter, was well brought up, and became a great man,
+such as has never been heard of since in the place where he was
+buried.</p>
+
+<p>The other story is not well known, probably because it is a tale of
+home; yet it has passed down from one stork grandam to another for a
+thousand years, and each succeeding narrator has told it better and
+better, and now we shall tell it best of all.</p>
+
+<p>The first pair of storks who related this tale had themselves
+something to do with its events. The place of their summer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> sojourn
+was at the Viking's loghouse, up by <i>the wild morass</i>, at Vendsyssel.
+It is in Hj&ouml;ring district, away near Skagen, in the north of Jutland,
+speaking with geographical precision. It is now an enormous bog, and
+an account of it can be read in descriptions of the country. This
+place was once the bottom of the sea; but the waters have receded, and
+the ground has risen. It stretches itself for miles on all sides,
+surrounded by wet meadows and pools of water, by peat-bogs,
+cloudberries, and miserable stunted trees. A heavy mist almost always
+hangs over this place, and about seventy years ago wolves were found
+there. It is rightly called, the wild morass; and one may imagine how
+savage it must have been, and how much swamp and sea must have existed
+there a thousand years ago. Yes, in these respects the same was to be
+seen there as is to be seen now. The rushes had the same height, the
+same sort of long leaves, and blue-brown, feather-like flowers that
+they bear now; the birch tree stood with its white bark, and delicate
+drooping leaves, as now; and, in regard to the living creatures, the
+flies had the same sort of crape clothing as they wear now; and the
+storks' bodies were white, with black and red stockings. Mankind, on
+the contrary, at that time wore coats cut in another fashion from what
+they do in our days; but every one of them, serf or huntsman,
+whosoever he might be who trod upon the quagmire, fared a thousand
+years ago as they fare now: one step forward&mdash;they fell in, and sank
+down to the <span class="smcap">Mud-king</span>, as <i>he</i> was called who reigned below in the
+great morass kingdom. Very little is known about his government; but
+that is, perhaps, a good thing.</p>
+
+<p>Near the bog, close by Liimfjorden, lay the Viking's loghouse of three
+stories high, and with a tower and stone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> cellars. The storks had
+built their nest upon the roof of this dwelling. The female stork sat
+upon her eggs, and felt certain they would be all hatched.</p>
+
+<p>One evening the male stork remained out very long, and when he came
+home he looked rumpled and flurried.</p>
+
+<p>"I have something very terrible to tell thee," he said to the female
+stork.</p>
+
+<p>"Thou hadst better keep it to thyself," said she. "Remember I am
+sitting upon the eggs: a fright might do me harm, and the eggs might
+be injured."</p>
+
+<p>"But it <i>must</i> be told thee," he replied. "She has come here&mdash;the
+daughter of our host in Egypt. She has ventured the long journey up
+hither, and she is lost."</p>
+
+<p>"She who is of the fairies' race? Speak, then! Thou knowest that I
+cannot bear suspense while I am sitting."</p>
+
+<p>"Know, then, that she believed what the doctors said, which thou didst
+relate to me. She believed that the bog-plants up here could cure her
+invalid father; and she has flown hither, in the magic disguise of a
+swan, with the two other swan princesses, who every year come hither
+to the north to bathe and renew their youth. She has come, and she is
+lost."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou dost spin the matter out so long," muttered the female stork,
+"the eggs will be quite cooled. I cannot bear suspense just now."</p>
+
+<p>"I will come to the point," replied the male. "This evening I went to
+the rushes where the quagmire could bear me. Then came three swans.
+There was something in their motions which said to me, 'Take care;
+they are not real swans; they are only the appearance of swans,
+created by magic.' Thou wouldst have known as well as I that they were
+not of the right sort."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, surely," she said; "but tell me about the princess. I am tired
+of hearing about the swans."</p>
+
+<p>"In the midst of the morass&mdash;here, I must tell thee, it is like a
+lake," said the male stork&mdash;"thou canst see a portion of it if thou
+wilt raise thyself up a moment&mdash;yonder, by the rushes and the green
+morass, lay a large stump of an alder tree. The three swans alighted
+upon it, flapped their wings, and looked about them. One of them cast
+off her swan disguise, and I recognised in her our royal princess from
+Egypt. She sat now with no other mantle around her than her long dark
+hair. I heard her desire the other two to take good care of her magic
+swan garb, while she ducked down under the water to pluck the flower
+which she thought she saw. They nodded, and raised the empty feather
+dress between them. 'What are they going to do with it?' said I to
+myself; and she probably asked herself the same question. The answer
+came too soon, for I saw them take flight up into the air with her
+charmed feather dress. 'Dive thou there!' they cried. 'Never more
+shalt thou fly in the form of a magic swan&mdash;never more shalt thou
+behold the land of Egypt. Dwell thou in <i>the wild morass</i>!' And they
+tore her magic disguise into a hundred pieces, so that the feathers
+whirled round about as if there were a fall of snow; and away flew the
+two worthless princesses."</p>
+
+<p>"It is shocking!" said the lady stork; "I can't bear to hear it. Tell
+me what more happened."</p>
+
+<p>"The princess sobbed and wept. Her tears trickled down upon the trunk
+of the alder tree, and then it moved; for it was the mud-king
+himself&mdash;he who dwells in the morass. I saw the trunk turn itself, and
+then there was no more trunk&mdash;it struck up two long miry branches like
+arms; then the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> poor child became dreadfully alarmed, and she sprang
+aside upon the green slimy coating of the marsh; but it could not bear
+me, much less her, and she sank immediately in. The trunk of the alder
+tree went down with her&mdash;it was that which had dragged her down: then
+arose to the surface large black bubbles, and all further traces of
+her disappeared. She is now buried in 'the wild morass;' and never,
+never shall she return to Egypt with the flower she sought. Thou
+couldst not have borne to have seen all this, mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou hadst no business to tell me such a startling tale at a time
+like this. The eggs may suffer. The princess can take care of herself:
+she will no doubt be rescued. If it had been me or thee, or any of our
+family, it would have been all over with us."</p>
+
+<p>"I will look after her every day, however," said the male stork; and
+so he did.</p>
+
+<p>A long time had elapsed, when one day he saw that far down from the
+bottom was shooting up a green stem, and when it reached the surface a
+leaf grew on it. The leaf became broader and broader; close by it came
+a bud; and one morning, when the stork flew over it, the bud opened in
+the warm sunshine, and in the centre of it lay a beautiful infant, a
+little girl, just as if she had been taken out of a bath. She so
+strongly resembled the princess from Egypt, that the stork at first
+thought it was herself who had become an infant again; but when he
+considered the matter he came to the conclusion that she was the
+daughter of the princess and the mud-king, therefore she lay in the
+calyx of a water-lily.</p>
+
+<p>"She cannot be left lying there," said the stork to himself; "yet in
+my nest we are already too overcrowded. But a thought strikes me. The
+Viking's wife has no children; she has much wished to have a pet. I am
+often blamed for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> bringing little ones. I shall now, for once, do so
+in reality. I shall fly with this infant to the Viking's wife: it will
+be a great pleasure to her."</p>
+
+<p>And the stork took the little girl, flew to the loghouse, knocked with
+his beak a hole in the window-pane of stretched bladder, laid the
+infant in the arms of the Viking's wife, then flew to his mate, and
+unburdened his mind to her; while the little ones listened
+attentively, for they were old enough now to do that.</p>
+
+<p>"Only think, the princess is not dead. She has sent her little one up
+here, and now it is well provided for."</p>
+
+<p>"I told thee from the beginning it would be all well," said the mother
+stork. "Turn thy thoughts now to thine own family. It is almost time
+for our long journey; I begin now to tingle under the wings. The
+cuckoo and the nightingale are already gone, and I hear the quails
+saying that we shall soon have a fair wind. Our young ones are quite
+able to go, I know that."</p>
+
+<p>How happy the Viking's wife was when, in the morning, she awoke and
+found the lovely little child lying on her breast! She kissed it and
+caressed it, but it screeched frightfully, and floundered about with
+its little arms and legs: <span class="smcap">it</span> evidently seemed little pleased. At last
+it cried itself to sleep, and as it lay there it was one of the most
+beautiful little creatures that could be seen. The Viking's wife was
+so pleased and happy, she took it into her head that her husband, with
+all his retainers, would come as unexpectedly as the little one had
+done; and she set herself and the whole household to work, in order
+that everything might be ready for their reception. The coloured
+tapestry which she and her women had embroidered with representations
+of their gods&mdash;<span class="smcap">Odin</span>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> <span class="smcap">Thor</span>, and <span class="smcap">Freia</span>, as they were called&mdash;were hung
+up; the serfs were ordered to clean and polish the old shields with
+which the walls were to be decorated; cushions were laid on the
+benches; and dry logs of wood were heaped on the fireplace in the
+centre of the hall, so that the pile might be easily lighted. The
+Viking's wife laboured so hard herself that she was quite tired by the
+evening, and slept soundly.</p>
+
+<p>When she awoke towards morning she became much alarmed, for the little
+child was gone. She sprang up, lighted a twig of the pine tree, and
+looked about; and, to her amazement, she saw, in the part of the bed
+to which she stretched her feet, not the beautiful infant, but a great
+ugly frog. She was so much disgusted with it that she took up a heavy
+stick, and was going to kill the nasty creature; but it looked at her
+with such wonderfully sad and speaking eyes that she could not strike
+it. Again she searched about. The frog gave a faint, pitiable cry. She
+started up, and sprang from the bed to the window; she opened the
+shutters, and at the same moment the sun streamed in, and cast its
+bright beams upon the bed and upon the large frog; and all at once it
+seemed as if the broad mouth of the noxious animal drew itself in, and
+became small and red&mdash;the limbs stretched themselves into the most
+beautiful form&mdash;it was her own little lovely child that lay there, and
+no ugly frog.</p>
+
+<p>"What is all this?" she exclaimed. "Have I dreamed a bad dream? That
+certainly is my pretty little elfin child lying yonder." And she
+kissed it and strained it affectionately to her heart; but it
+struggled, and tried to bite like the kitten of a wild cat.</p>
+
+<p>Neither the next day nor the day after came the Viking, though he was
+on the way, but the wind was against him;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> it was for the storks. A
+fair wind for one is a contrary wind for another.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of a few days and nights it became evident to the
+Viking's wife how things stood with the little child&mdash;that it was
+under the influence of some terrible witchcraft. By day it was as
+beautiful as an angel, but it had a wild, evil disposition; by night,
+on the contrary, it was an ugly frog, quiet, except for its croaking,
+and with melancholy eyes. It had two natures, that changed about, both
+without and within. This arose from the little girl whom the stork had
+brought possessing by day her own mother's external appearance, and at
+the same time her father's temper; while by night, on the contrary,
+she showed her connection with him outwardly in her form, whilst her
+mother's mind and heart inwardly became hers. What art could release
+her from the power which exercised such sorcery over her? The Viking's
+wife felt much anxiety and distress about it, and yet her heart hung
+on the poor little being, of whose strange state she thought she
+should not dare to inform her husband when he came home; for he
+assuredly, as was the custom, would put the poor child out on the high
+road, and let any one take it who would. The Viking's good-natured
+wife had not the heart to allow this; therefore she resolved that he
+should never see the child but by day.</p>
+
+<p>At dawn of day the wings of the storks were heard fluttering over the
+roof. During the night more than a hundred pairs of storks had been
+making their preparations, and now they flew up to wend their way to
+the south.</p>
+
+<p>"Let all the males be ready," was the cry. "Let their mates and little
+ones join them."</p>
+
+<p>"How light we feel!" said the young storks, who were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> all impatience
+to be off. "How charming to be able to travel to other lands!"</p>
+
+<p>"Keep ye all together in one flock," cried the father and mother, "and
+don't chatter so much&mdash;it will take away your breath."</p>
+
+<p>So they all flew away.</p>
+
+<p>About the same time the blast of a horn sounding over the heath gave
+notice that the Viking had landed with all his men; they were
+returning home with rich booty from the Gallic coast, where the
+people, as in Britain, sang in their terror,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Save us from the savage Normands!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>What life and bustle were now apparent in the Viking's castle near
+"the wild morass!" Casks of mead were brought into the hall, the pile
+of wood was lighted, and horses were slaughtered for the grand feast
+which was to be prepared. The sacrificial priests sprinkled with the
+horses' warm blood the slaves who were to assist in the offering. The
+fires crackled, the smoke rolled up under the roof, the soot dropped
+from the beams; but people were accustomed to that. Guests were
+invited, and they brought handsome gifts; rancour and falseness were
+forgotten&mdash;they all became drunk together, and they thrust their
+doubled fists into each other's faces&mdash;which was a sign of
+good-humour. The skald&mdash;he was a sort of poet and musician, but at the
+same time a warrior&mdash;who had been with them, and had witnessed what he
+sang about, gave them a song, wherein they heard recounted all their
+achievements in battle, and wonderful adventures. At the end of every
+verse came the same refrain,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Fortune dies, friends die, one dies one's self; but a
+glorious name never dies." </p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And then they all struck on their shields, and thundered with their
+knives or their knuckle-bones on the table, so that they made a
+tremendous noise.</p>
+
+<p>The Viking's wife sat on the cross bench in the open banquet hall. She
+wore a silk dress, gold bracelets, and large amber beads. She was in
+her grandest attire, and the skald named her also in his song, and
+spoke of the golden treasure she had brought her husband; and <span class="smcap">he</span>
+rejoiced in the lovely child he had only seen by daylight, in all its
+wondrous beauty. The fierce temper which accompanied her exterior
+charms pleased him. "She might become," he said, "a stalwart female
+warrior, and able to kill a giant adversary." She never even blinked
+her eyes when a practised hand, in sport, cut off her eyebrows with a
+sharp sword.</p>
+
+<p>The mead casks were emptied, others were brought up, and these, too,
+were drained; for there were folks present who could stand a good
+deal. To them might have been applied the old proverb, "The cattle
+know when to leave the pasture; but an unwise man never knows the
+depth of his stomach."</p>
+
+<p>Yes, they all knew it; but people often know the right thing, and do
+the wrong. They knew also that "one wears out one's welcome when one
+stays too long in another man's house;" but they remained there for
+all that. Meat and mead are good things. All went on merrily, and
+towards night the slaves slept amidst the warm ashes, and dipped their
+fingers into the fat skimmings of the soup, and licked them. It was a
+rare time!</p>
+
+<p>And again the Viking went forth on an expedition, notwithstanding the
+stormy weather. He went after the crops were gathered in. He went with
+his men to the coast of Britain&mdash;"it was only across the water," he
+said&mdash;and his wife<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> remained at home with her little girl; and it was
+soon to be seen that the foster-mother cared almost more for the poor
+frog, with the honest eyes and plaintive croaking, than for the beauty
+who scratched and bit everybody around.</p>
+
+<p>The raw, damp, autumn, mist, that loosens the leaves from the trees,
+lay over wood and hedge; "Birdfeatherless," as the snow is called, was
+falling thickly; winter was close at hand. The sparrows seized upon
+the storks' nest, and talked over, in their fashion, the absent
+owners. They themselves, the stork pair, with all their young ones,
+where were they now?</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The storks were now in the land of Egypt, where the sun was shining
+warmly as with us on a lovely summer day. The tamarind and the acacia
+grew there; the moonbeams streamed over the temples of Mahomet. On the
+slender minarets sat many a pair of storks, reposing after their long
+journey; the whole immense flock had fixed themselves, nest by nest,
+amidst the mighty pillars and broken porticos of temples and forgotten
+edifices. The date tree elevated to a great height its broad leafy
+roof, as if it wished to form a shelter from the sun. The grey
+pyramids stood with their outlines sharply defined in the clear air
+towards the desert, where the ostrich knew he could use his legs; and
+the lion sat with his large grave eyes, and gazed on the marble
+sphinxes that lay half imbedded in the sand. The waters of the Nile
+had receded, and a great part of the bed of the river was swarming
+with frogs; and that, to the stork family, was the pleasantest sight
+in the country where they had arrived. The young ones were astonished
+at all they saw.</p>
+
+<p>"Such are the sights here, and thus it always is in our warm country,"
+said the stork-mother good-humouredly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Is there yet more to be seen?" they asked. "Shall we go much further
+into the country?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing more worth seeing," replied the stork-mother.
+"Beyond this luxuriant neighbourhood there is nothing but wild
+forests, where the trees grow close to each other, and are still more
+closely entangled by prickly creeping plants, weaving such a wall of
+verdure, that only the elephant, with his strong clumsy feet, can
+there tread his way. The snakes are too large for us there, and the
+lizards too lively. If ye would go to the desert, ye will meet with
+nothing but sand; it will fill your eyes, it will come in gusts, and
+cover your feathers. No, it is best here. Here are frogs and
+grass-hoppers. I shall remain here, and so shall you."</p>
+
+<p>And they remained. The old ones sat in their nest upon the graceful
+minaret; they reposed themselves, and yet they had enough to do to
+smooth their wings and rub their beaks on their red stockings; and
+they stretched out their necks, saluted gravely, and lifted up their
+heads with their high foreheads and fine soft feathers, and their
+brown eyes looked so wise.</p>
+
+<p>The female young ones strutted about proudly among the juicy reeds,
+stole sly glances at the other young storks, made acquaintances, and
+slaughtered a frog at every third step, or went lounging about with
+little snakes in their bills, which they fancied looked well, and
+which they knew would taste well.</p>
+
+<p>The male young ones got into quarrels; struck each other with their
+wings; pecked at each other with their beaks, even until blood flowed.
+Then they all thought of engaging themselves&mdash;the male and the female
+young ones. It was for that they lived, and they built nests, and got
+again into new<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> quarrels; for in these warm countries every one is so
+hot-headed. Nevertheless they were very happy, and this was a great
+joy to the old storks. Every day there was warm sunshine&mdash;every day
+plenty to eat. They had nothing to think of except pleasure. But
+yonder, within the splendid palace of their Egyptian host, as they
+called him, there was but little pleasure to be found.</p>
+
+<p>The wealthy, mighty chief lay upon his couch, stiffened in all his
+limbs&mdash;stretched out like a mummy in the centre of the grand saloon
+with the many-coloured painted walls: it was as if he were lying in a
+tulip. Kinsmen and servants stood around him. Dead he was not, yet it
+could hardly be said that he lived. The healing bog-flower from the
+faraway lands in the north&mdash;that which she was to have sought and
+plucked for him&mdash;she who loved him best&mdash;would never now be brought.
+His beautiful young daughter, who in the magic garb of a swan had
+flown over sea and land away to the distant north, would never more
+return. "She is dead and gone," had the two swan ladies, her
+companions, declared on their return home. They had concocted a tale,
+and they told it as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We had flown all three high up in the air when a sportsman saw us,
+and shot at us with his arrow. It struck our young friend; and, slowly
+singing her farewell song, she sank like a dying swan down into the
+midst of the lake in the wood. There, on its banks, under a fragrant
+weeping birch tree, we buried her. But we took a just revenge: we
+bound fire under the wings of the swallow that built under the
+sportman's thatched roof. It kindled&mdash;his house was soon in flames&mdash;he
+was burned within it&mdash;and the flames shone as far over the sea as to
+the drooping birch, where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> she is now earth within the earth. Alas!
+never will she return to the land of Egypt."</p>
+
+<p>And they both wept bitterly; and the old stork-father, when he heard
+it, rubbed his bill until it was quite sore.</p>
+
+<p>"Lies and deceit!" he cried. "I should like, above all things, to run
+my beak into their breasts."</p>
+
+<p>"And break it off," said the stork-mother; "you would look remarkably
+well then. Think first of yourself, and the interests of your own
+family; everything else is of little consequence."</p>
+
+<p>"I will, however, place myself upon the edge of the open cupola
+to-morrow, when all the learned and the wise are to assemble to take
+the case of the sick man into consideration: perhaps they may then
+arrive a little nearer to the truth."</p>
+
+<p>And the learned and the wise met together, and talked much, deeply,
+and profoundly of which the stork could make nothing at all; and,
+sooth to say, there was no result obtained from all this talking,
+either for the invalid or for his daughter in "the wild morass;" yet,
+nevertheless, it was all very well to listen to&mdash;one <i>must</i> listen to
+a great deal in this world.</p>
+
+<p>But now it were best, perhaps, for us to hear what had happened
+formerly. We shall then be better acquainted with the story&mdash;at least,
+we shall know as much as the stork-father did.</p>
+
+<p>"Love bestows life; the highest love bestows the highest life; it is
+only through love that his life can be saved," was what had been said;
+and it was amazingly wisely and well said, the learned declared.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a beautiful thought," said the stork-father.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't quite comprehend it," said the stork-mother,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> "but that is
+not my fault&mdash;it is the fault of the thought; though it is all one to
+me, for I have other things to think upon."</p>
+
+<p>And then the learned talked of love between this and that&mdash;that there
+was a difference. Love such as lovers felt, and that between parents
+and children; between light and plants; how the sunbeams kissed the
+ground, and how thereby the seeds sprouted forth&mdash;it was all so
+diffusely and learnedly expounded, that it was impossible for the
+stork-father to follow the discourse, much less to repeat it. It made
+him very thoughtful, however; he half closed his eyes, and actually
+stood on one leg the whole of the next day, reflecting on what he had
+heard. So much learning was difficult for him to digest.</p>
+
+<p>But this much the stork-father understood. He had heard both common
+people and great people speak as if they really felt it, that it was a
+great misfortune to many thousands, and to the country in general,
+that the king lay so ill, and that nothing could be done to bring
+about his recovery. It would be a joy and a blessing to all if he
+could but be restored to health.</p>
+
+<p>"But where grew the health-giving flower that might cure him?"
+Everybody asked that question. Scientific writings were searched, the
+glittering stars were consulted, the wind and the weather. Every
+traveller that could be found was appealed to, until at length the
+learned and the wise, as before stated, pitched upon this: "Love
+bestows life&mdash;life to a father." And though this dictum was really not
+understood by themselves, they adopted it, and wrote it out as a
+prescription. "Love bestows life"&mdash;well and good. But how was this to
+be applied? Here they were at a stand. At length,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> however, they
+agreed that the princess must be the means of procuring the necessary
+help, as she loved her father with all her heart and soul. They also
+agreed on a mode of proceeding. It is more than a year and a day since
+then. They settled that when the new moon had just disappeared, she
+was to betake herself by night to the marble sphinx in the desert, to
+remove the sand from the entrance with her foot, and then to follow
+one of the long passages which led to the centre of the great
+pyramids, where one of the most mighty monarchs of ancient times,
+surrounded by splendour and magnificence, lay in his mummy-coffin.
+There she was to lean her head over the corpse, and then it would be
+revealed to her where life and health for her father were to be found.</p>
+
+<p>All this she had performed, and in a dream had been instructed that
+from the deep morass high up in the Danish land&mdash;the place was
+minutely described to her&mdash;she might bring home a certain lotus
+flower, which beneath the water would touch her breast, that would
+cure him.</p>
+
+<p>And therefore she had flown, in the magical disguise of a swan, from
+Egypt up to "the wild morass." All this was well known to the
+stork-father and the stork-mother; and now, though rather late, we
+also know it. We know that the mud-king dragged her down with him, and
+that, as far as regarded her home, she was dead and gone; only the
+wisest of them all said, like the stork-mother, "She can take care of
+herself;" and, knowing no better, they waited to see what would turn
+up.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I shall steal their swan garbs from the two wicked
+princesses," said the stork-father; "then they will not be able to go
+to 'the wild morass' and do mischief. I shall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> leave the swan
+disguises themselves up yonder till there is some use for them."</p>
+
+<p>"Where could you keep them?" asked the old female stork.</p>
+
+<p>"In our nest near 'the wild morass,'" he replied. "I and our eldest
+young ones can carry them; and if we find them too troublesome, there
+are plenty of places on the way where we can hide them until our next
+flight. One swan's dress would be enough for her, to be sure; but two
+are better. It is a good thing to have abundant means of travelling at
+command in a country so far north."</p>
+
+<p>"You will get no thanks for what you propose doing," said the
+stork-mother; "but you are the master, and must please yourself. I
+have nothing to say except at hatching-time."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>At the Viking's castle near "the wild morass," whither the storks were
+flying in the spring, the little girl had received her name. She was
+called Helga; but this name was too soft for one with such
+dispositions as that lovely creature had. She grew fast month by
+month; and in a few years, even while the storks were making their
+habitual journeys in autumn towards the Nile, in spring towards "the
+wild morass," the little child had grown up into a big girl, and
+before any one could have thought it, she was in her sixteenth year,
+and a most beautiful young lady&mdash;charming in appearance, but hard and
+fierce in temper&mdash;the most savage of the savage in that gloomy, cruel
+time.</p>
+
+<p>It was a pleasure to her to sprinkle with her white hands the reeking
+blood of the horse slaughtered for an offering. She would bite, in her
+barbarous sport, the neck of the black-cock which was to be
+slaughtered by the sacrificial priest; and to her foster-father she
+said in positive earnestness,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"If your enemy were to come and cast ropes over the beams that support
+the roof, and drag them down upon your chamber whilst you were
+sleeping, I would not awaken you if I could&mdash;I would not hear it&mdash;the
+blood would tingle as it does now in that ear on which, years ago, you
+dared to give me a blow. I remember it well."</p>
+
+<p>But the Viking did not believe she spoke seriously. Like every one
+else, he was fascinated by her extreme beauty, and never troubled
+himself to observe if the mind of little Helga were in unison with her
+looks. She would sit on horseback without a saddle, as if grown fast
+to the animal, and go at full gallop; nor would she spring off, even
+if her horse and other ill-natured ones were biting each other.
+Entirely dressed as she was, she would cast herself from the bank into
+the strong current of the fiord, and swim out to meet the Viking when
+his boat was approaching the land. Of her thick, splendid hair she had
+cut off the longest lock, and plaited for herself a string to her bow.</p>
+
+<p>"Self-made is well made," she said.</p>
+
+<p>The Viking's wife, according to the manners and customs of the age in
+which she lived, was strong in mind, and decided in purpose; but with
+her daughter she was like a soft, timid woman. She was well aware that
+the dreadful child was under the influence of sorcery.</p>
+
+<p>And Helga apparently took a malicious pleasure in frightening her
+mother. Often when the latter was standing on the balcony, or walking
+in the courtyard, Helga would place herself on the side of the well,
+throw her arms up in the air, and then let herself fall headlong into
+the narrow, deep hole, where, with her frog nature, she would duck and
+raise herself up again, and then crawl up as if she had been a cat,
+and run<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> dripping of water into the grand saloon, so that the green
+rushes which were strewed over the floor partook of the wet stream.</p>
+
+<p>There was but one restraint upon little Helga&mdash;that was the <i>evening
+twilight</i>. In it she became quiet and thoughtful&mdash;would allow herself
+to be called and guided; then too, she would seem to feel some
+affection for her mother; and when the sun sank, and the outer and
+inward change took place, she would sit still and sorrowful,
+shrivelled up into the form of a frog, though the head was now much
+larger than that little animal's, and therefore she was uglier than
+ever: she looked like a miserable dwarf, with a frog's head and webbed
+fingers. There was something very sad in her eyes; voice she had none
+except a kind of croak like a child sobbing in its dreams. Then would
+the Viking's wife take her in her lap; she would forget the ugly form,
+and look only at the melancholy eyes; and more than once she
+exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I could almost wish that thou wert always my dumb fairy-child, for
+thou art more fearful to look at when thy form resumes its beauty."</p>
+
+<p>And she wrote Runic rhymes against enchantment and infirmity, and
+threw them over the poor creature; but there was no change for the
+better.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"One could hardly believe that she was once so small as to lie in the
+calyx of a water-lily," said the stork-father. "She is now quite a
+woman, and the image of her Egyptian mother. Her, alas! we have never
+seen again. She did not take good care of herself, as thou didst
+expect and the learned people predicted. Year after year I have flown
+backwards and forwards over 'the wild morass,' but never have I seen a
+sign of her. Yes, I can assure thee, during the years we have been
+coming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> up here, when I have arrived some days before thee, that I
+might mend the nest and set everything in order in it, I have for a
+whole night flown, as if I had been an owl or a bat, continually over
+the open water, but to no purpose. We have had no use either for the
+two swan disguises which I and the young ones dragged all the way up
+here from the banks of the Nile. It was hard enough work, and it took
+us three journeys to bring them up. They have now lain here for years
+at the bottom of our nest; and should a fire by any chance break out,
+and the Viking's house be burned down, they would be lost."</p>
+
+<p>"And our good nest would be lost," said the old female stork; "but
+thou thinkest less of that than of these feather things and thy bog
+princess. Thou hadst better go down to her at once, and remain in the
+mire. Thou art a hard-hearted father to thine own: <i>that</i> I have said
+since I laid my first eggs. What if I or one of our young ones should
+get an arrow under our wings from that fierce crazy brat at the
+Viking's? She does not care what she does. This has been much longer
+our home than hers, she ought to recollect. We do not forget our duty;
+we pay our rent every year&mdash;a feather, an egg, and a young one&mdash;as we
+ought to do. Dost thou think that when <i>she</i> is outside <i>I</i> can
+venture to go below, as in former days, or as I do in Egypt, where I
+am almost everybody's comrade, not to mention that I can there even
+peep into the pots and pans without any fear? No; I sit up here and
+fret myself about her&mdash;the hussy! and I fret myself at thee too. Thou
+shouldst have left her lying in the water-lily, and there would have
+been an end of her."</p>
+
+<p>"Thy words are much harder than thy heart," said the stork-father. "I
+know thee better than thou knowest thyself."</p>
+
+<p>And then he made a hop, flapped his wings twice, stretched<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> his legs
+out behind him, and away he flew, or rather sailed, without moving his
+wings, until he had got to some distance. Then he brought his wings
+into play; the sun shone upon his white feathers; he stretched his
+head and his neck forward, and hastened on his way.</p>
+
+<p>"He is, nevertheless, still the handsomest of them all," said his
+admiring mate; "but I will not tell him that."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Late that autumn the Viking returned home, bringing with him booty and
+prisoners. Among these was a young Christian priest, one of the men
+who denounced the gods of the Northern mythology. Often about this
+time was the new religion talked of in baronial halls and ladies'
+bowers&mdash;the religion that was spreading over all lands of the south,
+and which, with the holy Ansgarius,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> had even reached as far as
+Hedeby. Even little Helga had heard of the pure religion of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>Christ,
+who, from love to mankind, had given himself as a sacrifice to save
+them; but with her it went in at one ear and out at the other, to use
+a common saying. The word <i>love</i> alone seemed to have made some
+impression upon her, when she shrunk into the miserable form of a frog
+in the closed-up chamber. But the Viking's wife had listened to, and
+felt herself wonderfully affected by, the rumour and the Saga about
+the Son of the one only true God.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Ansgarius was originally a monk from the monastery of New
+Corbie, in Saxony, to which several of the monks of Corbie in France
+had migrated in <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 822. Its abbot, Paschasius Radbert, who died in
+865, was, according to Cardinal Bellarmine, the first fully to
+propagate the belief, now entertained in the Roman Catholic Church, of
+the corporeal presence of the Saviour in the sacrament. Ansgarius, who
+was very enthusiastic, accepted a mission to the north of Europe, and
+preached Christianity in Denmark and Sweden. Jutland was for some time
+the scene of his labours, and he made many converts there; also in
+Sleswig, where a Christian school for children was established, who,
+on leaving it, were sent to spread Christianity throughout the
+country. An archbishopric was founded by the then Emperor of Germany
+in conformity to a plan which had been traced, though not carried out,
+by Charlemagne; and this was bestowed upon Ansgarius. But the church
+he had built was burnt by some still heathen Danes, who, gathering a
+large fleet, invaded Hamburg, which they also reduced to ashes. The
+emperor then constituted him Bishop of Bremen.&mdash;<i>Trans.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>The men, returning from their expedition, had told of the splendid
+temples of costly hewn stone raised to Him whose errand was love. A
+pair of heavy golden vessels, beautifully wrought out of pure gold,
+were brought home, and both had a charming, spicy perfume. They were
+the censers which the Christian priests swung before the altars, on
+which blood never flowed; but wine and the consecrated bread were
+changed into the blood of Him who had given himself for generations
+yet unborn.</p>
+
+<p>To the deep, stone-walled cellars of the Viking's loghouse was the
+young captive, the Christian priest, consigned, fettered with cords
+round his feet and his hands. He was as beautiful as Baldur to look
+at, said the Viking's wife, and she was grieved at his fate; but young
+Helga wished that he should be ham-strung, and bound to the tails of
+wild oxen.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I should let loose the dogs. Halloo! Then away over bogs and
+pools to the naked heath. Hah! that would be something pleasant to
+see&mdash;still pleasanter to follow him on the wild journey."</p>
+
+<p>But the Viking would not hear of his being put to such a death. On the
+morrow, as a scoffer and denier of the high gods, he was to be offered
+up as a sacrifice to them upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> blood stone in the sacred grove.
+He was to be the first human sacrifice ever offered up there.</p>
+
+<p>Young Helga prayed that she might be allowed to sprinkle with the
+blood of the captive the images of the gods and the assembled
+spectators. She sharpened her gleaming knife, and, as one of the large
+ferocious dogs, of which there were plenty in the courtyard, leaped
+over her feet, she stuck the knife into his side.</p>
+
+<p>"That is to prove the blade," she exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>And the Viking's wife was shocked at the savage-tempered, evil-minded
+girl; and when night came, and the beauteous form and the disposition
+of her daughter changed, she poured forth her sorrow to her in warm
+words, which came from the bottom of her heart.</p>
+
+<p>The hideous frog with the ogre head stood before her, and fixed its
+brown sad eyes upon her, listened, and seemed to understand with a
+human being's intellect.</p>
+
+<p>"Never, even to my husband, have I hinted at the double sufferings I
+have through you," said the Viking's wife. "There is more sorrow in my
+heart on your account than I could have believed. Great is a mother's
+love. But love never enters your mind. Your heart is like a lump of
+cold hard mud. From whence did you come to my house?"</p>
+
+<p>Then the ugly shape trembled violently; it seemed as if these words
+touched an invisible tie between the body and the soul&mdash;large tears
+started to its eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Your time of trouble will come some day, depend on it," said the
+Viking's wife, "and dreadful will it also be for me. Better had it
+been that you had been put out on the highway, and the chillness of
+the night had benumbed you until you slept in death;" and the Viking's
+wife wept salt tears,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> and went angry and distressed away, passing
+round behind the loose skin partition that hung over an upper beam to
+divide the chamber.</p>
+
+<p>Alone in a corner sat the shrivelled frog. She was mute, but after a
+short interval she uttered a sort of half-suppressed sigh. It was as
+if in sorrow a new life had awoke in some nook of her heart. She took
+a step forward, listened, advanced again, and grasping with her
+awkward hands the heavy bar that was placed across the door, she
+removed it softly, and quietly drew away the pin that was stuck in
+over the latch. She then seized the lighted lamp that stood in the
+room beyond: it seemed as if a great resolution had given her
+strength. She made her way down to the dungeon, drew back the iron
+bolt that fastened the trap-door, and slid down to where the prisoner
+was lying. He was sleeping. She touched him with her cold, clammy
+hand; and when he awoke, and beheld the disgusting creature, he
+shuddered as if he had seen an evil apparition. She drew her knife,
+severed his bonds, and beckoned to him to follow her.</p>
+
+<p>He named holy names, made the sign of the cross, and when the strange
+shape stood without moving, he exclaimed, in the words of the Bible,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him
+in time of trouble.' Who art thou? How comes it that, under the
+exterior of such an animal, there is so much compassionate feeling?"</p>
+
+<p>The frog beckoned to him, and led him, behind tapestry that concealed
+him, through private passages out to the stables, and pointed to a
+horse. He sprang on it, and she also jumped up; and, placing herself
+before him, she held by the animal's mane. The prisoner understood her
+movement;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> and at full gallop they rode, by a path he never could have
+found, away to the open heath.</p>
+
+<p>He forgot her ugly form&mdash;he knew that the grace and mercy of God could
+be evinced even by means of hobgoblins&mdash;he put up earnest prayers, and
+sang holy hymns. She trembled. Was it the power of the prayers and
+hymns that affected her thus? or was it a cold shivering at the
+approach of morning, that was about to dawn? What was it that she
+felt? She raised herself up into the air, attempted to stop the horse,
+and was on the point of leaping down; but the Christian priest held
+her fast with all his might, and chanted a psalm, which he thought
+would have sufficient strength to overcome the influence of the
+witchcraft under which she was kept in the hideous disguise of a frog.
+And the horse dashed more wildly forward, the heavens became red, the
+first ray of the sun burst forth through the morning sky, and with
+that clear gush of light came the miraculous change&mdash;she was the young
+beauty, with the cruel, demoniacal spirit. The astonished priest held
+the loveliest maiden in his arms he had ever beheld; but he was
+horror-struck, and, springing from the horse, he stopped it, expecting
+to see it also the victim of some fearful sorcery. Young Helga sprang
+at the same moment to the ground, her short childlike dress reaching
+no lower than her knees. Suddenly she drew her sharp knife from her
+belt, and rushed furiously upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me but reach thee&mdash;let me but reach thee, and my knife shall find
+its way to thy heart. Thou art pale in thy terror, beardless slave!"</p>
+
+<p>She closed with him; a severe struggle ensued, but it seemed as if
+some invincible power bestowed strength upon the Christian priest. He
+held her fast; and the old oak tree<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> close by came to his assistance
+by binding down her feet with its roots, which were half loosened from
+the earth, her feet having slid under them. There was a fountain near,
+and he splashed the clear, fresh water over her face and neck,
+commanding the unclean spirit to pass out of her, and signed her
+according to the Christian rites; but the baptismal water had no power
+where the fountain of belief had not streamed upon the heart.</p>
+
+<p>Yet still he was the victor. Yes, more than human strength could have
+accomplished against the powers of evil lay in his acts, which, as it
+were, overpowered her. She suffered her arms to sink, and gazed with
+wondering looks and blanched cheeks upon the man whom she deemed some
+mighty wizard, strong in sorcery and the black art. These were mystic
+Rhunes he had recited, and magic characters he had traced in the air.
+Not for the glancing axe or the well-sharpened knife, if he had
+brandished these before her eyes, would they have blinked, or would
+she have winced; but she winced now when he made the sign of the cross
+upon her brow and bosom, and she stood now like a tame bird, her head
+bowed down upon her breast.</p>
+
+<p>Then he spoke kindly to her of the work of mercy she had performed
+towards him that night, when, in the ugly disguise of a frog, she had
+come to him, had loosened his bonds, and brought him forth to light
+and life. She also was bound&mdash;bound even with stronger fetters than he
+had been, he said; but she also should be set free, and like him
+attain to light and life. He would take her to Hedeby, to the holy
+Ansgarius. There, in the Christian city, the witchcraft in which she
+was held would be exorcised; but not before him must she sit on
+horseback, even if she wished it herself&mdash;he dared not place her
+there.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Thou must sit behind me on the horse, not before me. Thine enchanting
+beauty has a magic power bestowed by the evil one. I fear it; and yet
+the victory shall be mine through Christ."</p>
+
+<p>He knelt down and prayed fervently. It seemed as if the surrounding
+wood had been consecrated into a holy temple; the birds began to sing,
+as if they belonged to the new congregation; the wild thyme sent forth
+its fragrant scent, as if to take the place of incense; while the
+priest proclaimed these Bible words: "To give light to them that sit
+in darkness, and in the shadow of death; to guide our feet into the
+way of peace."</p>
+
+<p>And he spoke of everlasting life; and as he discoursed, the horse
+which had carried them in their wild flight stood still, and pulled at
+the large bramble berries, so that the ripest ones fell on little
+Helga's hand, inviting her to pluck them for herself.</p>
+
+<p>She allowed herself patiently to be lifted upon the horse, and she sat
+on its back like a somnambulist, who was neither in a waking nor a
+sleeping state. The Christian priest tied two small green branches
+together in the form of a cross, which he held high aloft; and thus
+they rode through the forest, which became thicker and thicker, and
+the path, if path it could be called, taking them farther into it. The
+blackthorn stood as if to bar their way, and they had to ride round
+outside of it; the trickling streams swelled no longer into mere
+rivulets, but into stagnant pools, and they had to ride round them;
+but as the soft wind that played among the foliage of the trees was
+refreshing and strengthening to the travellers, so the mild words that
+were spoken in Christian charity and truth served to lead the
+benighted one to light and life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It is said that a constant dripping of water will make a hollow in the
+hardest stone, and that the waves of the sea will in time round the
+edges of the sharpest rocks. The dew of grace which fell for little
+Helga softened the hard, and smoothed the sharp, in her nature. True,
+it was not discernible yet in her, nor was she aware of it herself.
+What knows the seed in the ground of the effect which the refreshing
+dew and the warm sunbeams are to have in producing from it vegetation
+and flowers?</p>
+
+<p>As a mother's song to her child, unmarked, makes an impression upon
+its infant mind, and it prattles after her several of the words
+without understanding them, but in time these words arrange themselves
+into order, and they become clearer, so in the case of Helga worked
+<i>that word</i> which is mighty to save.</p>
+
+<p>They rode out of the forest, and crossed an open heath; then again
+they entered a pathless wood, where, towards evening, they encountered
+a band of robbers.</p>
+
+<p>"Whence didst thou steal that beautiful wench?" they shouted, as they
+stopped the horse, and dragged its two riders down; for they were
+strong and robust men. The priest had no other weapon than the knife
+which he had taken from little Helga. With that he now stood on his
+defence. One of the robbers swung his ponderous axe, but the young
+Christian fortunately sprang aside in time to avoid the blow, which
+then fell upon the unfortunate horse, and the sharp edge entered into
+its neck; blood streamed from the wound, and the poor animal fell to
+the ground. Helga, who had only at that moment awoke from her long
+deep trance, sprang forward, and cast herself over the gasping
+creature. The Christian priest placed himself before her as a shield
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> protection from the lawless men; but one of them struck him on
+the forehead with an iron hammer, so that it was dashed in, and the
+blood and brains gushed forth, while he fell down dead on the spot.</p>
+
+<p>The robbers seized Helga by her white arms; but at that moment the sun
+went down, its last beam faded away, and she was transformed into a
+hideous-looking frog. The pale green mouth stretched itself over half
+the face, its arms became thin and slimy, and a broad hand, with
+webbed-like membranes, extended itself like a fan. Then the robbers
+withdrew their hold of her in terror and astonishment. She stood like
+the ugly animal among them, and, according to the nature of a frog,
+she began to hop about, and, jumping faster than usual, she soon
+escaped into the depths of the thicket. The robbers were then
+convinced that it was some evil artifice of the mischief loving Loke,
+or else some secret magical deception; and in dismay they fled from
+the place.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The full moon had risen, and its silver light penetrated even the
+gloomy recesses of the forest, when from among the low thick
+brushwood, in the frog's hideous form, crept the young Helga. She
+stopped when she reached the bodies of the Christian priest and the
+slaughtered horse: she gazed on them with eyes that seemed full of
+tears, and the frog uttered a sound that somewhat resembled the sob of
+a child who was on the point of crying. She threw herself first over
+the one, then over the other; then took water up in her webbed hand,
+and poured it over them; but all was in vain&mdash;they were dead, and dead
+they would remain. She knew that. Wild beasts would soon come and
+devour their bodies. No, that must not be; therefore she determined to
+dig a grave in the ground<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> for them, but she had nothing to dig it
+with except the branch of a tree and both her own hands. With these
+she worked away until her fingers bled. She found she made so little
+progress, that she feared the work would never be completed. Then she
+took water, and washed the dead man's face; covered it with fresh
+green leaves; brought large boughs of the trees, and laid them over
+him; sprinkled dead leaves amongst the branches; fetched the largest
+stones she could carry, and placed them over the bodies, and filled up
+the openings with moss. When she had done all this she thought that
+their tomb might be strong and safe; but during her long and arduous
+labour the night had passed away. The sun arose, and young Helga stood
+again in all her beauty, with bloody hands, and, for the first time,
+with tears on her blooming cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>During this change it seemed as if two natures were wrestling within
+her; she trembled, looked around her as if awakening from a painful
+dream, then seized upon the slender branch of a tree near, and held
+fast by it as if for support; and in another moment she climbed like a
+cat up to the top of the tree, and placed herself firmly there. For a
+whole long day she sat there like a frightened squirrel in the deep
+loneliness of the forest, where all is still and dead, people say.
+Dead! There flew by butterflies chasing each other either in sport or
+in strife. There were ant-hills near, each covered with hundreds of
+little busy labourers, passing in swarms to and fro. In the air danced
+innumerable gnats; crowds of buzzing flies swept past; lady-birds,
+dragon-flies, and other winged insects floated hither and thither;
+earth-worms crept forth from the damp ground; moles crawled about;
+otherwise it was still&mdash;<i>dead</i>, as people say and think.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>None remarked Helga, except the jays that flew screeching to the top
+of the tree where she sat; they hopped on the branches around her with
+impudent curiosity, but there was something in the glance of her eye
+that speedily drove them away; they were none the wiser about her,
+nor, indeed, was she about herself. When the evening approached, and
+the sun began to sink, the transformation time rendered a change of
+position necessary. She slipped down from the tree, and, as the last
+ray of the sun faded away, she was again the shrivelled frog, with the
+webbed-fingered hands; but her eyes beamed now with a charming
+expression, which they had not worn in the beautiful form; they were
+the mildest, sweetest girlish eyes that glanced from behind the mask
+of a frog&mdash;they bore witness to the deeply-thinking human mind, the
+deeply-feeling human heart; and these lovely eyes burst into
+tears&mdash;tears of unfeigned sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>Close to the lately raised grave lay the cross of green boughs that
+had been tied together&mdash;the last work of him who was now dead and
+gone. Helga took it up, and the thought presented itself to her that
+it would be well to place it amidst the stones, above him and the
+slaughtered horse. With the sad remembrances thus awakened, her tears
+flowed faster; and in the fulness of her heart she scratched the same
+sign in the earth round the grave&mdash;it would be a fence that would
+decorate it so well. And just as she was forming, with both of her
+hands, the figure of the cross, her magic disguise fell off like a
+torn glove; and when she had washed herself in the clear water of the
+fountain near, and in amazement looked at her delicate white hands,
+she made the sign of the cross between herself and the dead priest;
+then her lips moved, then her tongue was loosened; and that name<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+which so often, during the ride through the forest, she had heard
+spoken and chanted, became audible from her mouth&mdash;she exclaimed,
+"<span class="smcap">Jesus Christ</span>!"</p>
+
+<p>When the frog's skin had fallen off she was again the beautiful
+maiden; but her head drooped heavily, her limbs seemed to need
+repose&mdash;she slept.</p>
+
+<p>Her sleep was only a short one, however; she awoke about midnight, and
+before her stood the dead horse full of life; its eyes glittered, and
+light seemed to proceed from the wound in its neck. Close to it the
+dead Christian priest showed himself&mdash;"more beautiful than Baldur,"
+the Viking's wife would have said; and yet he came as a flash of fire.</p>
+
+<p>There was an earnestness in his large, mild eyes, a searching,
+penetrating look&mdash;grave, almost stern&mdash;that thrilled the young
+proselyte to the utmost depths of her heart. Helga trembled before
+him; and her memory awoke as if with the power it would exercise on
+the great day of doom. All the kindness that had been bestowed on her,
+every affectionate word that had been said to her, came back to her
+mind with an impression deeper than they had ever before made. She
+understood that it was love that, during the days of trial here, had
+supported her&mdash;those days of trial in which the offspring of a being
+with a soul, and a form of mud, had writhed and struggled. She
+understood that she had only followed the promptings of her own
+disposition, and done nothing to help herself. All had been bestowed
+on her&mdash;all had been ordained for her. She bowed herself in lowly
+humility and shame before Him who must be able to read every thought
+of the heart; and at that moment she felt as if a purifying flame
+darted through her&mdash;a light from the Holy Spirit.</p>
+
+<p>"Daughter of the dust!" said the Christian priest, "from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> dust, from
+earth hast thou arisen&mdash;from earth shalt thou again arise! A ray from
+God's invisible sun shall stream on thee. No soul shall be lost. But
+far off is the time when life takes flight into eternity. I come from
+the land of the dead. Thou also shalt once pass through the dark
+valley into yon lofty realms of brightness, where grace and perfection
+dwell. I shall not guide thee now to Hedeby for Christian baptism.
+First must thou disperse the slimy surface over the deep morass, draw
+up the living root of thy life and thy cradle, and perform thy
+appointed task, ere thou darest to seek the holy rite."</p>
+
+<p>And he lifted her up on the horse, and gave her a golden censer like
+those she had formerly seen at the Viking's castle; and strong was the
+perfume which issued from it. The open wound on the forehead of the
+murdered man shone like a diadem of brilliants. He took the cross from
+the grave, and raised it high above him; then away they went through
+the air, away over the rustling woods, away over the mountains where
+the giant heroes are buried, sitting on the slaughtered steed. Still
+onward the phantom forms pursued their way; and in the clear moonlight
+glittered the gold circlet round their brows, and the mantle fluttered
+in the breeze. The magic dragon, who was watching over his treasures,
+raised his head and gazed at them. The hill dwarfs peeped out from
+their mountain recesses and plough-furrows. There were swarms of them,
+with red, blue, and green lights, that looked like the numerous sparks
+in the ashes of newly-burned paper.</p>
+
+<p>Away over forest and heath, over limpid streams and stagnant pools,
+they hastened towards "the wild morass," and over it they flew in wide
+circles. The Christian priest held aloft the cross, which looked as
+dazzling as burnished gold,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> and as he did so he chanted the mass
+hymns. Little Helga sang with him as a child follows its mother's
+song. She swung the censer about as if before the altar, and there
+came a perfume so strong, so powerful in its effect, that it caused
+the reeds and sedges to blossom; every sprout shot up from the deep
+bottom&mdash;everything that had life raised itself up; and with the rest
+arose a mass of water-lilies, which looked like a carpet of
+embroidered flowers. Upon it lay a sleeping female, young and
+beautiful. Helga thought she beheld herself mirrored in the calm
+water; but it was her mother whom she saw&mdash;the mud-king's wife&mdash;the
+princess from the banks of the Nile.</p>
+
+<p>The dead Christian priest prayed that the sleeper might be lifted upon
+the horse. At first the latter sank under the additional burden, as if
+its body were but a winding-sheet fluttering in the wind; but the sign
+of the cross gave strength to the airy phantom, and all three rode on
+it to the solid ground.</p>
+
+<p>Then crowed the cock at the Viking's castle, and the apparitions
+seemed to disappear in a mist, which was wafted away by the wind; but
+the mother and daughter stood together.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that myself I behold in the deep water?" exclaimed the mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that myself I see on the shining surface?" said the daughter.</p>
+
+<p>And they approached each other till form met form in a warm embrace,
+and wildly the mother's heart beat when she perceived the truth.</p>
+
+<p>"My child! my heart's own flower! my lotus from the watery deep!"</p>
+
+<p>And she encircled her daughter with her arm, and wept<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> Her tears
+caused a new sensation to Helga&mdash;they were the baptism of love for
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"I came hither in the magic disguise of a swan, and I threw it off,"
+said the mother. "I sank through the swaying mire deep into the mud of
+the morass, which like a wall closed around me; but soon I perceived
+that I was in a fresher stream&mdash;some power drew me deeper and still
+deeper down. I felt my eyelids heavy with sleep&mdash;I slumbered and I
+dreamed. I thought that I was again in the interior of the Egyptian
+pyramid, but before me still stood the heaving alder trunk that had so
+terrified me on the surface of the morass. I saw the cracks in the
+bark, and they changed their appearance, and became hieroglyphics. It
+was the mummy's coffin I was looking at; it burst open, and out issued
+from it the monarch of a thousand years ago&mdash;the mummy form, black as
+pitch, dark and shining as a wood-snail, or as that thick slimy mud.
+It was the mud-king, or the mummy of the pyramids; I knew not which.
+He threw his arms around me, and I felt as if I were dying. I only
+felt that I was alive again when I found something warm on my breast,
+and there a little bird was flapping with its wings, twittering and
+singing. It flew from my breast high up in the dark, heavy space; but
+a long green string bound it still to me. I heard and I comprehended
+its tones and its longing: "Freedom! Sunshine! To the father!" Then I
+thought of my father in my distant home, that dear sunny land&mdash;my
+life, my affection&mdash;and I loosened the cord, and let it flutter away
+home to my father. Since that hour I have not dreamed. I have slept a
+long, dark, heavy sleep until now, when the strange sounds and perfume
+awoke me and set me free."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>That green tie between the mother's heart and the bird's wings, where
+now did it flutter? what now had become of it? The stork alone had
+seen it. The cord was the green stem; the knot was the shining
+flower&mdash;the cradle for that child who now had grown up in beauty, and
+again rested near her mother's heart.</p>
+
+<p>And as they stood there embracing each other the stork-father flew in
+circles round them, hastened back to his nest, took from it the magic
+feather disguises that had been hidden away for so many years, cast
+one down before each of them, and then joined them as they raised
+themselves from the ground like two white swans.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us now have some chat," said the stork-father, "now we understand
+each other's language, even though one bird's beak is not exactly made
+after the pattern of another's. It is most fortunate that you came to
+night; to-morrow we should all have been away&mdash;the mother, the young
+ones, and myself. We are off to the south. Look at me! I am an old
+friend from the country where the Nile flows, and so is the mother,
+though there is more kindness in her heart than in her tongue. She
+always believed that the princess would make her escape. The young
+ones and I brought these swan garbs up here. Well, how glad I am, and
+how fortunate it is that I am here still! At dawn of day we shall take
+our departure&mdash;a large party of storks. We shall fly foremost, and if
+you will follow us you will not miss the way. The young ones and
+myself will have an eye to you."</p>
+
+<p>"And the lotus flower I was to have brought," said the Egyptian
+princess; "it shall go within the swan disguise, by my side, and I
+shall have my heart's darling with me. Then homewards&mdash;homewards!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then Helga said that she could not leave the Danish land until she had
+once more seen her foster-mother, the Viking's excellent wife. To
+Helga's thoughts arose every pleasing recollection, every kind word,
+even every tear her adopted mother had shed on her account; and, at
+that moment, she felt that she almost loved that mother best.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we must go to the Viking's castle," said the stork; "there my
+young ones and their mother await me. How they will stare! The mother
+does not speak much; but, though she is rather abrupt, she means well.
+I will presently make a little noise, that she may know we are
+coming."</p>
+
+<p>And he clattered with his bill as he and the swans flew close to the
+Viking's castle.</p>
+
+<p>Within it all were lying in deep sleep. The Viking's wife had retired
+late to rest; she lay in anxious thought about little Helga, who now
+for full three days and nights had disappeared along with the
+Christian priest: she had probably assisted him in his escape, for it
+was her horse that was missing from the stables. By what power had all
+this been accomplished? The Viking's wife thought upon the wondrous
+works she had heard had been performed by the immaculate Christ, and
+by those who believed on him and followed him. Her changing thoughts
+assumed the shapes of life in her dreams; she fancied she was still
+awake, lost in deep reflection; she imagined that a storm arose&mdash;that
+she heard the sea roaring in the east and in the west, the waves
+dashing from the Kattegat and the North Sea; the hideous serpents
+which encircled the earth in the depths of the ocean struggling in
+deadly combat. It was the night of the gods&mdash;<span class="smcap">Ragnarok</span>, as the heathens
+called the last hour, when all should be changed, even the high gods
+themselves. The reverberating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> horn sounded, and forth over the
+rainbow<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> rode the gods, clad in steel, to fight the final battle;
+before them flew the winged Valkyries, and the rear was brought up by
+the shades of the dead giant-warriors; the whole atmosphere was
+illuminated around them by the Northern lights, but darkness conquered
+all&mdash;it was an awful hour!</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The Bridge of Heaven in the fables of the Scandinavian
+mythology.&mdash;<i>Trans.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>And near the terrified Viking's wife sat upon the floor little Helga
+in the ugly disguise of the frog; and she shivered and worked her way
+up to her foster-mother, who took her in her lap, and disgusting as
+she was in that form, lovingly caressed her. The air was filled with
+the sounds of the clashing of swords, the blows of clubs, the whizzing
+of arrows, like a violent hail-storm. The time was come when heaven
+and earth should be destroyed, the stars should fall, and all be
+swallowed up below in Surtur's fire; but a new earth and a new heaven
+she knew were to come; the corn was to wave where the sea now rolled
+over the golden sands; the unknown God at length reigned; and to him
+ascended Baldur, the mild, the lovable, released from the kingdom of
+death. He came; the Viking's wife beheld him&mdash;she recognised his
+countenance: it was that of the captive Christian priest. "Immaculate
+Christ!" she cried aloud; and whilst uttering this holy name she
+impressed a kiss upon the ugly brow of the frog-child. Then fell the
+magic disguise, and Helga stood before her in all her radiant beauty,
+gentle as she had never looked before, and with speaking eyes. She
+kissed her foster-mother's hands, blessed her for all the care and
+kindness which she, in the days of distress and trial, had lavished
+upon her; thanked her for the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>thoughts with which she had inspired
+her mind&mdash;thanked her for mentioning <i>that name</i> which she now
+repeated, "Immaculate Christ!" and then lifting herself up in the
+suddenly adopted shape of a graceful swan, little Helga spread her
+wings widely out with the rustling sound of a flock of birds of
+passage on the wing, and in another moment she was gone.</p>
+
+<p>The Viking's wife awoke, and on the outside of her casement were to be
+heard the same rustling and flapping of wings. It was the time, she
+knew, when the storks generally took their departure; it was them she
+heard. She wished to see them once more before their journey to the
+south, and bid them farewell. She got up, went out on the balcony, and
+then she saw, on the roof of an adjoining outhouse, stork upon stork,
+while all around the place, above the highest trees, flew crowds of
+them, wheeling in large circles; but below, on the brink of the well,
+where little Helga had but so lately often sat, and frightened her
+with her wild actions, sat now two swans, looking up at her with
+expressive eyes; and she remembered her dream, which seemed to her
+almost a reality. She thought of Helga in the appearance of a swan;
+she thought of the Christian priest, and felt a strange gladness in
+her heart.</p>
+
+<p>The swans fluttered their wings and bowed their necks, as if they were
+saluting her; and the Viking's wife opened her arms, as if she
+understood them, and smiled amidst her tears and manifold thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>Then, with a clattering of bills and a noise of wings, the storks all
+turned towards the south to commence their long journey.</p>
+
+<p>"We will not wait any longer for the swans," said the stork-mother.
+"If they choose to go with us, they must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> come at once; we cannot be
+lingering here till the plovers begin their flight. It is pleasant to
+travel as we do in a family party, not like the chaffinches and
+strutting cocks. Among their species the males fly by themselves, and
+the females by themselves: that, to say the least of it, is not at all
+seemly. What a miserable sound the stroke of the swans' wings has
+compared with ours!"</p>
+
+<p>"Every one flies in his own way," said the stork-father. "Swans fly
+slantingly, cranes in triangles, and plovers in serpentine windings."</p>
+
+<p>"Name not serpents or snakes when we are about to fly up yonder," said
+the stork-mother. "It will only make the young ones long for a sort of
+food which they can't get just now."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"Are these the high hills, beneath yonder, of which I have heard?"
+asked Helga, in the disguise of a swan.</p>
+
+<p>"These are thunder-clouds driving under us," replied her mother.</p>
+
+<p>"What are these white clouds that seem so stationary?" asked Helga.</p>
+
+<p>"These are the mountains covered with everlasting snow that thou
+seest," said her mother; and they flew over the Alps towards the blue
+Mediterranean.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"There is Africa! there is Egypt!" cried in joyful accents, under her
+swan disguise, the daughter of the Nile, as high up in the air she
+descried, like a whitish-yellow, billow-shaped streak, her native
+soil.</p>
+
+<p>The storks also saw it, and quickened their flight.</p>
+
+<p>"I smell the mud of the Nile and the wet frogs," exclaimed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> the
+stork-mother. "It makes my mouth water. Yes, now ye shall have nice
+things to eat, and ye shall see the marabout, the ibis, and the crane:
+they are all related to our family, but are not nearly so handsome as
+we are. They think a great deal, however, of themselves, particularly
+the ibis: he has been spoiled by the Egyptians, who make a mummy of
+him, and stuff him with aromatic herbs. <i>I</i> would rather be stuffed
+with living frogs; and that is what ye would all like also, and what
+ye shall be. Better a good dinner when one is living than to be made a
+grand show of when one is dead. That is what I think, and I know I am
+right."</p>
+
+<p>"The storks have returned," was told in the splendid house on the
+banks of the Nile, where, within the open hall, upon soft cushions,
+covered with a leopard's skin, the king lay, neither living nor dead,
+hoping for the lotus flower from the deep morass of the north. His
+kindred and his attendants were standing around him.</p>
+
+<p>And into the hall flew two magnificent white swans&mdash;they had arrived
+with the storks. They cast off the dazzling magic feather garbs, and
+there stood two beautiful women, as like each other as two drops of
+water. They leaned over the pallid, faded old man; they threw back
+their long hair; and, as little Helga bowed over her grandfather, his
+cheeks flushed, his eyes sparkled, life returned to his stiffened
+limbs. The old man rose hale and hearty; his daughter and his
+grand-daughter pressed him in their arms, as if in a glad morning
+salutation after a long heavy dream.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>And there was joy throughout the palace, and in the storks' nest also;
+but <i>there</i> the joy was principally for the good food, the swarms of
+nice frogs; and whilst the learned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> noted down in haste, and very
+carelessly, the history of the two princesses and of the lotus flower
+as an important event, and a blessing to the royal house, and to the
+country in general, the old storks related the history in their own
+way to their own family; but not until they had all eaten enough, else
+these would have had other things to think of than listening to any
+story.</p>
+
+<p>"Now thou wilt be somebody," whispered the stork-mother; "it is only
+reasonable to expect that."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! what should <i>I</i> be?" said the stork-father. "And what have <i>I</i>
+done? Nothing!"</p>
+
+<p>"Thou hast done more than all the others put together. Without thee
+and the young ones the two princesses would never have seen Egypt
+again, or cured the old man. Thou wilt be nothing! Thou shouldst, at
+the very least, be appointed court doctor, and have a title bestowed
+on thee, which our young ones would inherit, and their little ones
+after them. Thou dost look already exactly like an Egyptian doctor in
+my eyes."</p>
+
+<p>The learned and the wise lectured upon "the fundamental notion," as
+they called it, which pervaded the whole tissue of events. "Love
+bestows life." Then they expounded their meaning in this manner:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The warm sunbeam was the Egyptian princess; she descended to the
+mud-king, and from their meeting sprang a flower&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot exactly repeat the words," said the stork-father, who had
+been listening to the discussion from the roof, and was now telling in
+his nest what he had heard. "What they said was not easy of
+comprehension, but it was so exceedingly wise that they were
+immediately rewarded with rank and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> marks of distinction. Even the
+prince's head cook got a handsome present&mdash;that was, doubtless, for
+having prepared the repast."</p>
+
+<p>"And what didst thou get?" asked the stork-mother. "They had no right
+to overlook the most important actor in the affair, and that was
+thyself. The learned only babbled about the matter. But so it is
+always."</p>
+
+<p>Late at night, when the now happy household reposed in peaceful
+slumbers, there was one who was still awake; and that was not the
+stork-father, although he was standing upon his nest on one leg, and
+dozing like a sentry. No; little Helga was awake, leaning over the
+balcony, and gazing through the clear air at the large blazing stars,
+larger and brighter than she had ever seen them in the North, and yet
+the same. She was thinking upon the Viking's wife near "the wild
+morass"&mdash;upon her foster-mother's mild eyes&mdash;upon the tears she had
+shed over the poor frog-child, who was now standing under the light of
+the glorious stars, on the banks of the Nile, in the soft spring air.
+She thought of the love in the heathen woman's breast&mdash;the love she
+had shown towards an unfortunate being, who in human form was as
+vicious as a wild beast, and in the form of a noxious animal was
+horrible to look upon or to touch. She gazed at the glittering stars,
+and thought of the shining circle on the brow of the dead priest, when
+they flew over the forest and the morass. Tones seemed again to sound
+on her ears&mdash;words she had heard spoken when they rode together, and
+she sat like an evil spirit there&mdash;words about the great source of
+love, the highest love, that which included all races and all
+generations. Yes, what was not bestowed, won, obtained? Helga's
+thoughts embraced by day, by night, the whole of her good fortune;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+she stood contemplating it like a child who turns precipitately from
+the giver to the beautiful gifts; she passed on to the increasing
+happiness which might come, and would come. Higher and higher rose her
+thoughts, till she so lost herself in the dreams of future bliss that
+she forgot the Giver of all good. It was the superabundance of
+youthful spirits which caused her imagination to take so bold a
+flight. Her eyes were flashing with her thoughts, when suddenly a loud
+noise in the court beneath recalled her to mundane objects. She saw
+there two enormous ostriches running angrily round in a narrow circle.
+She had never before seen these large heavy birds, who looked as if
+their wings were clipped; and when she asked what had happened to
+them, she heard for the first time the Egyptian legend about the
+ostrich.</p>
+
+<p>Its race had once been beautiful, its wings broad and strong. Then one
+evening the largest forest birds said to it, "Brother, shall we fly
+to-morrow, God willing, to the river, and drink?" And the ostrich
+answered, "Yes, I will." At dawn they flew away, first up towards the
+sun, higher and higher, the ostrich far before the others. It flew on
+in its pride up towards the light; it relied upon its own strength,
+not upon the Giver of that strength; it did not say, "God willing."
+Then the avenging angel drew aside the veil from the streaming flames,
+and in that moment the bird's wings were burnt, and he sank in
+wretchedness to the earth. Neither he nor his species were ever
+afterwards able to raise themselves up in the air. They fly
+timidly&mdash;hurry along in a narrow space; they are a warning to mankind
+in all our thoughts and all our enterprises to say, "God willing."</p>
+
+<p>And Helga humbly bowed her head, looked at the ostriches rushing past,
+saw their surprise and their simple joy at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> sight of their own
+large shadows on the white wall, and more serious thoughts took
+possession of her mind, adding to her present happiness&mdash;inspiring
+brighter hopes for the future. What was yet to happen? The best for
+her, "God willing."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In the early spring, when the storks were about to go north again,
+Helga took from her arm a golden bracelet, scratched her name upon it,
+beckoned to the stork-father, hung the gold band round his neck, and
+bade him carry it to the Viking's wife, who would thereby know that
+her adopted daughter lived, was happy, and remembered her.</p>
+
+<p>"It is heavy to carry," thought the stork, when it was hung round his
+neck; "but gold and honour must not be flung away upon the high road.
+The stork brings luck&mdash;they must admit that up yonder."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou layest gold, and I lay eggs," said the stork-mother; "but thou
+layest only once, and I lay every year. But neither of us gets any
+thanks, which is very vexatious."</p>
+
+<p>"One knows, however, that one has done one's duty," said the
+stork-father.</p>
+
+<p>"But that can't be hung up to be seen and lauded; and if it could be,
+fine words butter no parsnips."</p>
+
+<p>So they flew away.</p>
+
+<p>The little nightingale that sang upon the tamarind tree would also
+soon be going north, up yonder near "the wild morass." Helga had often
+heard it&mdash;she would send a message by it; for, since she had flown in
+the magical disguise of the swan, she had often spoken to the storks
+and the swallows. The nightingale would therefore understand her, and
+she prayed it to fly to the beech wood upon the Jutland peninsula,
+where the tomb of stone and branches had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> erected. She asked it
+to beg all the little birds to protect the sacred spot, and frequently
+to sing over it.</p>
+
+<p>And the nightingale flew away, and time flew also.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>And the eagle stood upon a pyramid, and looked in the autumn on a
+stately procession with richly-laden camels, with armed and splendidly
+equipped men on snorting Arabian horses shining white like silver,
+with red trembling nostrils, with long thick manes hanging down to
+their slender legs. Rich guests&mdash;a royal Arabian prince, handsome as a
+prince should be&mdash;approached the gorgeous palace where the storks'
+nests stood empty. Those who dwelt in these nests were away in the far
+North, but they were soon to return; and they arrived on the very day
+that was most marked by joy and festivities. It was a wedding feast;
+and the beautiful Helga, clad in silk and jewels, was the bride. The
+bridegroom was the young prince from Arabia. They sat at the upper end
+of the table, between her mother and grandfather.</p>
+
+<p>But she looked not at the bridegroom's bronzed and manly cheek, where
+the dark beard curled. She looked not at his black eyes, so full of
+fire, that were fastened upon her. She gazed outwards upon the bright
+twinkling stars that glittered in the heavens.</p>
+
+<p>Then a loud rustling of strong wings was heard in the air. The storks
+had come back; and the old pair, fatigued as they were after their
+journey, and much in need of rest, flew immediately down to the rails
+of the verandah, for they knew what festival was going on. They had
+heard already at the frontiers that Helga had had them painted upon
+the wall, introducing them into her own history.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a kind thought of hers," said the stork-father.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It is very little," said the stork-mother. "She could hardly have
+done less."</p>
+
+<p>And when Helga saw them she rose, and went out into the verandah to
+stroke their backs. The old couple bowed their necks, and the youngest
+little ones felt themselves much honoured by being so well received.</p>
+
+<p>And Helga looked up towards the shining stars, that glittered more and
+more brilliantly; and between them and her she beheld in the air a
+transparent form. It floated nearer to her. It was the dead Christian
+priest, who had also come to her bridal solemnity&mdash;come from the
+kingdom of heaven.</p>
+
+<p>"The glory and the beauty up yonder far exceed all that is known on
+earth," he said.</p>
+
+<p>And Helga pleaded softly, earnestly, that but for one moment she might
+be allowed to ascend up thither, and to cast one single glance on
+those heavenly scenes.</p>
+
+<p>Then he raised her amidst splendour and magnificence, and a stream of
+delicious music. It was not around her only that all seemed to be
+brightness and music, but the light seemed to stream in her soul, and
+the sweet tones to be echoed there. Words cannot describe what she
+felt.</p>
+
+<p>"We must now return," he said; "thou wilt be missed."</p>
+
+<p>"Only one more glance!" she entreated. "Only one short minute!"</p>
+
+<p>"We must return to earth&mdash;the guests are all departing."</p>
+
+<p>"But one more glance&mdash;the last!"</p>
+
+<p>And Helga stood again in the verandah, but all the torches outside
+were extinguished; all the light in the bridal saloon was gone; the
+storks were gone; no guests were to be seen&mdash;no bridegroom. All had
+vanished in these three short minutes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then Helga felt anxious. She wandered through the vast empty
+halls&mdash;there slept foreign soldiers. She opened the side door which
+led to her own chambers, and, as she fancied she was entering them,
+she found herself in the garden: it had not stood there. Red streaks
+crossed the skies; it was the dawn of day.</p>
+
+<p>Only three minutes in heaven, and a whole night on earth had passed
+away.</p>
+
+<p>Then she perceived the storks. She called to them, spoke their
+language, and the old stork turned his head towards her, listened, and
+drew near.</p>
+
+<p>"Thou dost speak our language," said he. "What wouldst thou? Whence
+comest thou, thou foreign maiden?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is I&mdash;it is Helga! Dost thou not know me? Three minutes ago we
+were talking together in the verandah."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a mistake," said the stork. "Thou must have dreamt this."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," she said, and reminded him of the Viking's castle, "the wild
+morass," the journey thence.</p>
+
+<p>Then the old stork winked with his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"That is a very old story; I have heard it from my great,
+great-grandmother's time. Yes, truly there was once in Egypt a
+princess from the Danish land; but she disappeared on the evening of
+her wedding, many hundred years ago, and was never seen again. Thou
+canst read that thyself upon the monument in the garden, upon which
+are sculptured both swans and storks, and above it stands one like
+thyself in the white marble."</p>
+
+<p>And so it was. Helga saw, comprehended it all, and sank on her knees.</p>
+
+<p>The sun burst forth in all its morning splendour, and as, in former
+days, with its first rays fell the frog disguise, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> the lovely form
+became visible; so now, in the baptism of light, arose a form of
+celestial beauty, purer than the air, as if in a veil of radiance to
+the Father above. The body sank into dust, and where she had stood lay
+a faded lotus flower!</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"Well, this is a new finale to the story," said the stork-father,
+"which I by no means expected; but I am quite satisfied with it."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what the young ones will say to it?" replied the
+stork-mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! that, indeed, is of the most consequence," said the
+stork-father.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/image_05.jpg" width="150" height="150" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image_06.jpg" width="600" height="114" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+<h2><a name="The_Quickest_Runners" id="The_Quickest_Runners"></a><i>The Quickest Runners.</i></h2>
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="46" height="50" /></div>
+<p>here was a large reward offered&mdash;indeed, there were two rewards
+offered, a larger and a lesser one&mdash;for the greatest speed, not in one
+race alone, but to such as had got on fastest throughout the year.</p>
+
+<p>"I got the highest prize," said the hare. "One had a right to expect
+justice when one's own family and best friends were in the council;
+but that the snail should have got the second prize I consider as
+almost an insult to me."</p>
+
+<p>"No," observed the wooden fence, which had been a witness to the
+distribution of the prizes; "you must take diligence and good will
+into consideration. That remark was made by several very estimable
+persons, and that was also my opinion. To be sure the snail took half
+a year to cross the threshold; but he broke his thigh-bone in the
+tremendous exertion which that was for him. He devoted himself
+entirely to this race; and, moreover, he ran with his house on his
+back. All these weighed in his favour, and so he obtained the second
+prize."</p>
+
+<p>"I think my claims might also have been taken into consideration,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+said the swallow. "More speedy than I, in flight and motion, I believe
+no one has shown himself. And where have I not been? Far, far away!"</p>
+
+<p>"And that is just your misfortune," said the wooden fence. "You gad
+about too much. You are always on the wing, ready to start out of the
+country when it begins to freeze. You have no love for your
+fatherland. You cannot claim any consideration in it."</p>
+
+<p>"But if I were to sleep all the winter through on the moor," inquired
+the swallow&mdash;"sleep my whole time away&mdash;should I be thus entitled to
+be taken into consideration?"</p>
+
+<p>"Obtain an affidavit from the old woman of the moor that you did sleep
+half the year in your fatherland, then your claims will be taken into
+consideration."</p>
+
+<p>"I deserved the first prize instead of the second," said the snail. "I
+know very well that the hare only ran from cowardice, whenever he
+thought there was danger near. I, on the contrary, made the trial the
+business of my life, and I have become a cripple in consequence of my
+exertions. If any one had a right to the first prize it was I; but I
+make no fuss; I scorn to do so."</p>
+
+<p>"I can declare upon my honour that each prize, at least as far as my
+voice in the matter went, was accorded with strict justice," said the
+old sign-post in the wood, who had been one of the arbitrators. "I
+always act with due reflection, and according to order. Seven times
+before have I had the honour to be engaged in the distribution of the
+prizes, but never until to-day have I had my own way carried out. My
+plan has always hitherto been thwarted&mdash;that was, to give the first
+prize to one of the first letters in the alphabet, and the second
+prize to one of the last letters. If you will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> be so good as to grant
+me your attention, I will explain it to you. The eighth letter in the
+alphabet from <i>A</i> is <i>H</i>&mdash;that stands for <i>Hare</i>, and therefore I
+awarded the greatest prize to the Hare; and the eighth letter from the
+end is <i>S</i>, therefore the <i>Snail</i> obtained the second prize. Next time
+the <i>I</i> will carry off the first prize, and <i>R</i> the second. A due
+attention to order and rotation should prevail in all rewards and
+appointments. Everything should go according to rule. <i>Rule</i> must
+precede merit."</p>
+
+<p>"I should certainly have voted for myself, had I not been among the
+judges," said the mule. "People must take into account not only how
+quickly one goes, but what other circumstances are in question; as,
+for instance, how much one carries. But I would not this time have
+thought about that, neither about the hare's wisdom in his flight&mdash;his
+tact in springing suddenly to one side, to put his pursuers on the
+wrong scent, away from his place of concealment. No; there is one
+thing many people think much of, and which ought never to be
+disregarded. It is called <span class="smcap">the beautiful</span>. I saw that in the hare's
+charming well-grown ears; it is quite a pleasure to see how long they
+are. I fancied that I beheld myself when I was little, and so I voted
+for him."</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" said the fly. "As for me, I will not speak; I will only say
+one word. I know right well that I have outrun more than one hare. The
+other day I broke the hind legs of one of the young ones. I was
+sitting on the locomotive before the train: I often do that. One sees
+so well there one's own speed. A young hare ran for a long time in
+front of the engine: he had no idea that I was there. At length he was
+just going to turn off the line, when the locomotive went over his
+hind legs and broke them, for I was sitting on it. The hare remained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
+lying there, but I drove on. That was surely getting before him; but I
+do not care for the prize."</p>
+
+<p>"It appears to me," thought the wild rose, but she did not say it&mdash;it
+is not her nature to express her ideas openly, though it might have
+been well had she done so&mdash;"it appears to me that the sunbeam should
+have had the first prize of honour, and the second also. It passes in
+a moment the immeasurable space from the sun down to us, and comes
+with such power that all nature is awakened by it. It has such beauty,
+that all we roses redden and become fragrant under it. The high
+presiding authorities do not seem to have noticed <i>it</i> at all. Were I
+the sunbeam, I would give each of them a sunstroke, that I would; but
+it would only make them crazy, and they will very likely be that
+without it. I shall say nothing," thought the wild rose. "There is
+peace in the wood; it is delightful to blossom, to shed refreshing
+perfume around, to live amidst the songs of birds and the rustling of
+trees; but the sun's rays will outlive us all."</p>
+
+<p>"What is the first prize?" asked the earth-worm, who had overslept
+himself, and only now joined them.</p>
+
+<p>"It gives free entrance to the kitchen garden," said the mule. "I
+proposed the prize, as a clear-sighted and judicious member of the
+meeting, with a view to the hare's advantage. I was resolved he should
+have it, and he is now provided for. The snail has permission to sit
+on the stone fence, and to enjoy the moss and the sunshine; and,
+moreover, he is appointed to be one of the chief judges of the next
+race. It is well to have one who is practically acquainted with the
+business in hand&mdash;on a committee, as human beings call it. I must say
+I expect great things from the future&mdash;we have made so good a
+beginning."</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/image_26.jpg" width="150" height="151" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image_32.jpg" width="600" height="127" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+<h2><a name="The_Bells_Hollow" id="The_Bells_Hollow"></a><i>The Bell's Hollow.</i></h2>
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_d.jpg" alt="&quot;D" width="74" height="50" /></div>
+<p>ing-dong! ding-dong!" sounded from the buried bell in Odensee river.
+What sort of a river is that? Every child in the town of Odensee knows
+it. It flows round the foot of the gardens, from the locks to the
+water-mill, away under the wooden bridges. In the river grow yellow
+water-lilies, brown feather-like reeds, and the soft velvet-like
+bulrushes, so high and so large. Old, split willow trees, bent and
+twisted, hang far over the water by the side of the monks' meadows and
+the bleaching greens; but a little above is garden after garden&mdash;the
+one very different from the other; some with beautiful flowers and
+arbours, clean and in prim array, like dolls' villages; some only
+filled with cabbages; while in others there are no attempts at a
+garden to be seen at all, only great elder trees stretching themselves
+out, and hanging over the running water, which here and there is
+deeper than an oar can fathom.</p>
+
+<p>Opposite to the nunnery is the deepest part. It is called<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> "The Bell's
+Hollow," and there dwells the merman. He sleeps by day when the sun
+shines through the water, but comes forth on the clear starry nights,
+and by moonlight. He is very old. Grandmothers have heard of him from
+their grandmothers. They said he lived a lonely life, and had scarcely
+any one to speak to except the large old church bell. Once upon a time
+it hung up in the steeple of the church; but now there is no trace
+either of the steeple or the church, which was then called Saint
+Albani.</p>
+
+<p>"Ding-dong! ding-dong!" rang the bell while it stood in the steeple;
+and one evening when the sun was setting, and the bell was in full
+motion, it broke loose, and flew through the air, its shining metal
+glowing in the red sunbeams. "Ding-dong! ding-dong! now I am going to
+rest," sang the bell; and it flew out to Odensee river, where it was
+deepest, and therefore that spot is now called "The Bell's Hollow."
+But it found neither sleep nor rest there. Down at the merman's it
+still rings; so that at times it is heard above, through the water,
+and many people say that its tones foretell a death; but there is no
+truth in that, for it rings to amuse the merman, who is now no longer
+alone.</p>
+
+<p>And what does the bell relate? It was so very old, it was there before
+our grandmothers' grandmothers were born, and yet it was a child
+compared with the merman, who is an old, quiet, strange-looking
+person, with eel-skin leggings, a scaly tunic adorned with yellow
+water-lilies, a wreath of sedges in his hair, and weeds in his beard.
+It must be confessed he was not very handsome to look at.</p>
+
+<p>It would take a year and a day to repeat all that the bell said, for
+it told the same old stories over and over again very minutely, making
+them sometimes longer, sometimes shorter,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> according to its mood. It
+told of the olden days&mdash;the rigorous, dark times.</p>
+
+<p>To the tower upon St. Albani Church, where the bell hung, ascended a
+monk. He was both young and handsome, but had an air of deep
+melancholy. He looked through an aperture out over the Odensee river.
+Its bed then was broad, and the monks' meadows were a lake. He gazed
+over them, and over the green mound called "The Nuns Hill," beyond
+which the cloister lay, where the light shone from a nun's cell. He
+had known her well, and he remembered the past, and his heart beat
+wildly at the recollection.</p>
+
+<p>"Ding-dong! ding-dong!" This was one of the bell's stories:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"There came up to the tower one day an idiot servant of the bishop;
+and when I, the bell, who am cast in hard and heavy metal, swung about
+and pealed, I could have broken his head, for he seated himself
+immediately under me, and began to play with two sticks, exactly as if
+it had been a stringed instrument, and he sang to it thus: 'Now I may
+venture to sing aloud what elsewhere I dare not whisper&mdash;sing of all
+that is kept hidden behind locks and bolts. Yonder it is cold and
+damp. The rats eat the living bodies. No one knows of it; no one hears
+of it&mdash;not even now, when the bell is pouring forth its loudest
+peal&mdash;ding-dong! ding-dong!'</p>
+
+<p>"There was a king: he was called Knud. He humbled himself both before
+bishops and monks; but as he unjustly oppressed the people, and laid
+heavy taxes on them, they armed themselves with all sorts of weapons,
+and chased him away as if he had been a wild beast. He sought shelter
+in the church, and had the doors and windows closed. The furious
+multitude surrounded the sacred edifice, as I heard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> related; the
+crows and the ravens, and the jackdaws to boot, became scared by the
+noise and the tumult; they flew up into the tower, and out again; they
+looked on the multitude below, they looked also in at the church
+windows, and shrieked out what they saw.</p>
+
+<p>"King Knud knelt before the altar and prayed; his brothers Erik and
+Benedict stood guarding him with their drawn swords; but the king's
+servitor, the false Blake, betrayed his lord. They knew outside where
+he could be reached. A stone was cast in through the window at him,
+and the king lay dead. There were shouts and cries among the angry
+crowd, and cries among the flocks of frightened birds; and I joined
+them too. I pealed forth, 'Ding-dong! ding-dong!'</p>
+
+<p>"The church bell hangs high, sees far around, receives visits from
+birds, and understands their language. To it whispers the wind through
+the wickets and apertures, and through every little chink; and the
+wind knows everything. He hears it from the air, for it encompasses
+all living things; it even enters into the lungs of human beings&mdash;it
+hears every word and every sigh. The air knows all, the wind repeats
+all, and the bell understands their speech, and rings it forth to the
+whole world&mdash;'Ding dong! ding dong!'</p>
+
+<p>"But all this was too much for me to hear and to know. I had not
+strength enough to ring it all out. I became so wearied, so heavy,
+that the beam from which I hung broke, and I flew through the luminous
+air down to where the river is deepest, where the merman dwells alone
+in solitude; and here I am, year after year, relating to him what I
+have seen and what I have heard. 'Ding-dong! ding-dong!'"</p>
+
+<p>Thus rang the chimes from "The Bell's Hollow" in the Odensee river, as
+my grandmother declares.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But our schoolmaster says there is no bell ringing down there, for it
+could not be; and there is no merman down there, for there are no
+mermen; and, when all the church bells are ringing loudly, he says
+that it is not the bells, but the air that makes the sound. My
+grandmother told me that the bell also said this; so, since the
+schoolmaster and the bell agree in this, no doubt it is true.</p>
+
+<p>The air knows everything. It is round us, it is in us; it speaks of
+our thoughts and our actions; and it proclaims them farther than did
+the bell now down in the Hollow in Odensee river, where the merman
+dwells&mdash;it proclaims all out into the great vault of heaven, far, far
+away, even into eternity, up to where the glorious bells of paradise
+peal in tones unknown to mortal ears.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/image_07.jpg" width="150" height="151" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image_08.jpg" width="600" height="142" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+<h2><a name="Soup_made_of_a_Sausage-stick" id="Soup_made_of_a_Sausage-stick"></a><i>Soup made of a Sausage-stick.</i></h2>
+
+
+<h3>I.</h3>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="&quot;W" width="98" height="50" /></div>
+<p>e had a capital dinner yesterday," said an aged female mouse to one
+who had not been at the feast. "I sat only twenty-one from the old
+King of the Mice: that was not being badly placed. Shall I tell you
+what we had for dinner? It was all very well arranged. We had mouldy
+bread, the skin of bacon, tallow candles, and sausages. Twice we
+returned to the charge: it was as good as if we had had two dinners.
+There was nothing but good-humour and pleasant chit-chat, as in an
+agreeable family circle. Not a mite was left except the sausage-stick.
+The conversation happened to fall upon the possibility of making soup
+of a sausage-stick. All said they had heard of it, but no one had ever
+tasted that soup, or knew how to prepare it. A health was proposed to
+the inventor, who, it was remarked, deserved to be superintendent of
+the poor. Was not that witty? And the old King of the Mice arose and
+declared that the one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> among the young mice who could prepare the soup
+in question most palatably should be his queen, and he would grant
+them a year and a day for the trial."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that was not a bad idea," said the other mouse. "But how is the
+soup made?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, how is it made? That was what they were all asking, the young and
+the old. Every one was willing enough to become the queen, but they
+were all loath to take the trouble of going out into the world to
+acquire the prescribed qualification; yet it was absolutely necessary
+to do so. But it does not suit every one to leave her family and her
+snug old mouse-hole. One cannot be going out every day after cheese
+parings, and sniffing the rind of bacon. No: such pursuits, too often
+indulged in, would perchance put them in the way of being eaten alive
+by a cat."</p>
+
+<p>These apprehensions were quite terrible enough to scare most of the
+mice from going forth upon the search of knowledge. Only four
+presented themselves for the undertaking. They were young and active,
+but very poor. They would have gone to the four corners of the earth,
+if only good fortune might attend their enterprise. Each of them took
+with her a sausage-stick to remind her what she was travelling for. It
+was to be her walking staff.</p>
+
+<p>On the 1st of May they set out, and on the 1st of May, a year after,
+they returned; but only three of them. The fourth did not report
+herself, and sent no tidings of herself; and yet it was the day fixed
+for the royal decision.</p>
+
+<p>"There shall be no sadness or no drawback to our pleasure," said the
+King of the Mice, as he gave orders that every mouse within several
+miles round should be invited. They were to assemble in the kitchen.
+The three travelled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> mice were drawn up in a row alone. In the place
+of the fourth, who was absent, was deposited a sausage-stick covered
+with black crepe. No one ventured to utter a word until the three had
+made their statements, and the king had determined what more was to be
+said.</p>
+
+<p>We have now to hear all this.</p>
+
+
+<h3>II.</h3>
+
+<h3>WHAT THE FIRST LITTLE MOUSE HAD SEEN AND LEARNT ON HER JOURNEY.</h3>
+
+<p>"When I first went forth into the wide world," said the little mouse,
+"I thought, as so many of my age do, that I had swallowed all the
+wisdom of the earth; but that was not the case&mdash;it required a year and
+a day for that to come to pass. I went at once to sea, on board a ship
+which was bound for the north. I had heard that cooks at sea were
+pretty well acquainted with their business; but there is little to do
+when one has plenty of sides of bacon, barrels of salt meat, and musty
+meal at hand. One lives delicately on these nice things; but one
+learns nothing like making soup of a sausage-stick. We sailed for many
+days and nights, and a stormy and wet time we had of it. When we
+reached our destination I left the vessel: this was far away up in the
+north.</p>
+
+<p>"One has a strange feeling on leaving one's own mouse-hole at home,
+being carried away in a ship, which becomes a home for the time, and
+suddenly finding one's self, at the distance of more than a hundred
+miles, standing alone in a foreign<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> land. I saw myself amidst a large
+tangled wood full of pine and birch trees. Their scent was so strong!
+It is not at all my taste; but the perfume from the wild plants was so
+spicy that I was quite charmed, and thought of the sausage and the
+seasoning for the soup. There were lakes amidst the forest, the water
+was beautifully clear close at hand, but looking in the distance as
+black as ink. There were white swans upon the lake. I mistook them at
+first for foam, they lay so still; but when I saw them fly I
+recognised them. They, however, belong to the race of geese. No one
+can deny his kindred. I like mine, and I hastened to seek the field
+mice, who, truth to tell, know very little except what concerns their
+food; and it was just that on account of which I had travelled to a
+foreign country. That any one should think of making soup out of a
+sausage-stick seemed to them so extraordinary an idea, that it was
+speedily circulated through the whole wood; but that the problem
+should be solved they considered an impossibility. Little did I think
+then that the very same night I should be initiated into the process.</p>
+
+<p>"It was midsummer; therefore it was that the woods scented so
+strongly, they said; therefore were the plants so aromatic in their
+perfume, the lake so clear, and yet so dark with the white swans upon
+them. On the borders of the forest, amidst three or four houses, was
+erected a pole as high as a mainmast, and around it hung wreaths and
+ribbons. This was the Maypole. Girls and young men danced round it,
+and sang to the accompaniment of the fiddler's violin. All went on
+merrily till after the sun had set, and the moon had risen, but I took
+no part in the festivity; for what had a little mouse to do with a
+forest ball? I sat down amidst the soft moss, and held fast my
+sausage-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>stick. The moon shone brightly on a place where there was a
+solitary tree surrounded by moss so fine&mdash;yes, I venture to say as
+fine as the Mice-King's skin&mdash;but it had a green tint, and its colour
+was very soothing to the eye. All at once I saw approaching a set of
+the most beautiful little people, so little that they would only have
+reached to my knee; they looked like men and women, but they were
+better proportioned. They called themselves Elves, and their garments
+were composed of the leaves of flowers, trimmed with the wings of
+gnats and flies&mdash;not at all ugly. They seemed as if they were
+searching for something&mdash;what I did not know; but when they came a
+little nearer to me their leader tapped my sausage-stick, and said,
+'This is what we want; it is all ready, all prepared;' and he became
+more and more joyful as he gazed upon my walking-stick.</p>
+
+<p>"'You may borrow it, but not keep it,' said I.</p>
+
+<p>"'Not keep it!' they all exclaimed together, as they seized my
+sausage-stick, and, dancing away to the green mossy spot, placed the
+sausage-stick there in the centre of it. They determined also on
+having a Maypole; and the stick they had just captured seeming quite
+suited to their purpose, it was soon ornamented.</p>
+
+<p>"Small spiders spun gold threads around it&mdash;hung up waving veils and
+flags so finely worked, shining so snow-white under the moonbeams,
+that my eyes were quite dazzled. They took the colours from the wings
+of the butterflies, and sprinkled them on the white webs, till they
+seemed to be laden with flowers and diamonds. I did not know my own
+sausage-stick&mdash;it had become such a magnificent Maypole, that
+certainly had not its equal in the world. And now came tripping
+forwards the great mass of the elves, most of them very slightly
+clad;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> but what they did wear was of the finest materials. I looked
+on, of course, but in the background, for I was too big for them.</p>
+
+<p>"Then what a game commenced! It was as if a thousand glass bells were
+ringing, the sound was so clear and full. I fancied the swans were
+singing, and I also thought I heard cuckoos and thrushes. At length it
+seemed as if the whole wood was filled with music. There were the
+sweet voices of children, the ringing of bells, and the songs of
+birds; and all these melodious sounds seemed to proceed from the
+elves' Maypole&mdash;an orchestra in itself&mdash;and that was my sausage-stick.
+I never would have believed that so much could have come from it; but
+much, of course, depended on what hands it fell into. I became very
+much agitated, and I wept, as a little mouse can weep, from sheer
+pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"The night was all too short; but, at this time of the year, the
+nights are not long up yonder. At the dawn of day there arose a fresh
+breeze; the surface of the lake became ruffled; all the delicately
+fine veils and flags disappeared in the air; the swinging kiosks of
+cobwebs, the suspension bridges and balustrades, or whatever they are
+called, which were constructed from leaf to leaf, vanished into
+nothing; six elves brought me my sausage-stick, and at the same time
+asked if I had any wish they could fulfil; whereupon I begged them to
+tell me how soup could be made from a sausage-stick.</p>
+
+<p>"'What we can do,' said the foremost, laughing, 'you have just seen.
+You could scarcely have recognised your sausage-stick.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You mean as you transformed it,' said I; and then I told them the
+cause of my journey, and what was expected at home from it. 'Of what
+use,' I asked, 'will it be to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> King of the Mice and all our large
+community that I have seen this beautiful sight? I cannot shake the
+sausage-stick and say, You see here the stick&mdash;now comes the soup!
+That would be like a hoax.'</p>
+
+<p>"Then the elf dipped its little finger into a blue violet, and said to
+me,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'Look! I spread a charm over your walking-stick, and when you return
+to the palace of the King of the Mice make it touch the king's warm
+breast, and violets will spring from every part of the staff, even in
+the coldest winter weather. See! you have now something worth taking
+home, and perhaps a little more.'"</p>
+
+<p>But before the little mouse had finished repeating what the elf had
+said she laid her staff against the king's breast, and sure enough
+there sprang forth from it the loveliest flowers. They yielded so
+strong a perfume that the king commanded that the mice who stood
+nearest the chimney should stick their tails in the fire, in order
+that the smell of the singed hair should overpower the odour from the
+flowers, which was very offensive.</p>
+
+<p>"But what was 'the little more' you spoke of?" asked the King of the
+Mice.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said the little mouse, "it is what is called an <i>effect</i>;" and
+so she turned her sausage-stick. And behold, there were no more
+flowers visible! She held only the naked stick, and she moved it like
+a stick for beating time.</p>
+
+<p>"The violets are for sight, smell, and touch, the elf told me; but
+there are still wanting hearing and taste."</p>
+
+<p>She beat time, and there was music&mdash;not such, however, as sounded in
+the wood at the elfin f&ecirc;te; no, such as is heard at times in the
+kitchen. It came suddenly, like the wind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> whistling down the chimney.
+The pots and the pans boiled over, and the shovel thundered against
+the large brass kettle. It stopped as suddenly as it had commenced;
+and then was only to be heard the smothered song of the tea-kettle,
+which was so strange with its tones rising and falling, and the little
+pot and the large pot boiling, the one not troubling itself about the
+other, as if neither could think. Then the little mouse moved her
+time-stick faster and faster; the pots bubbled up and boiled over; the
+wind roared in the chimney; the commotion was so great that the little
+mouse herself got frightened, and dropped the stick.</p>
+
+<p>"It was hard work to make that soup," cried the old king; "but where
+is the result&mdash;the dish?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is all," said the little mouse, courtesying.</p>
+
+<p>"All! Then let us hear what the next has to tell," said the king.</p>
+
+
+<h3>III.</h3>
+
+<h3>WHAT THE SECOND MOUSE HAD TO RELATE.</h3>
+
+<p>"I was born in the palace library," said the second mouse. "I, and
+several members of my family there, have never had the good fortune to
+enter the dining-room, let alone the pantry. It was only when I first
+began my travels, and now again to-day, that I have even beheld a
+kitchen. We had often to endure hunger in the library, but we acquired
+much knowledge. The report of the reward offered by royalty for the
+discovery of the process by which soup could be made of a
+sausage-stick reached us even up there, and my grandmother<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> thereupon
+looked for a manuscript which, though she could not read herself, she
+had heard read, wherein it was said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'A poet can make soup out of a sausage-stick.'</p>
+
+<p>"She asked me if I were a poet. I confessed I was not, to which she
+replied that I must go and try to become one. I begged to know what
+was to be done to acquire this art, for it appeared to me about as
+difficult to attain as to make the soup itself. But my grandmother had
+heard a good deal of reading, and she told me that the three things
+principally necessary were&mdash;good sense, imagination, and feeling. 'If
+thou canst go and furnish thyself with <i>these</i>, thou wilt be a poet;
+and there will be every chance of thy success in the matter of the
+sausage-stick.'</p>
+
+<p>"So I set off to the westward, out into the wide world, to become a
+poet.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Good sense</i> I knew was the most important of all things, the two
+other qualities not being so highly esteemed. So I went first after
+good sense. Well, where did it dwell? 'Go to the ant; consider her
+ways, and be wise,' a great king of the Hebrews has said. I knew this
+from the library, and I never stopped until I reached a large
+ant-hill; and there I settled myself to watch them.</p>
+
+<p>"They are a very respectable tribe, the ants, and full of good sense;
+everything among them is as correctly done as a well-calculated sum in
+arithmetic. 'To labour and to lay eggs,' say they, 'is to live in the
+present, and to provide for the future;' and that they assuredly do.
+They divide themselves into the clean ants and the dirty ones. Rank is
+distinguished by a number. The queen ant is number one, and her will
+is their only law. She has swallowed all the wisdom, and it was of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+consequence to me to listen to her; but she said so much and was so
+profoundly wise, that I could scarcely comprehend her.</p>
+
+<p>"She said that their hill was the highest in the world; but close to
+the hill stood a tree that was higher, certainly much higher. She
+could not deny this, so she did not allude to it. One evening an ant
+had lost his way, and finding himself on the tree, he crept up the
+trunk, not as far as the top, but much higher than any ant had ever
+gone before; and when he descended, and found his way home at last, he
+imprudently told in the ant-hill of something much higher at a little
+distance from it. This was taken by one and all as an affront to the
+whole community, and the offending ant was condemned to have his mouth
+muzzled, as well as to perpetual solitude. But shortly after another
+ant got as far as the tree, and made a similar journey and a similar
+discovery. He spoke of it, however, discreetly and mysteriously, and
+as he happened to be an ant of consideration&mdash;one of the clean&mdash;they
+believed him; and when he died they placed an egg-shell over him as a
+monument in honour of his extensive knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>"I observed," said the little mouse, "that the ants continually move
+with their eggs on their backs. One of them dropped hers. She tried
+very hard to get it up again, but could not succeed; then two others
+came and helped her with all their might, until they had nearly lost
+their own eggs, whereupon they let the attempt alone, for one is
+nearest to one's self; and the queen ant remarked that both heart and
+good sense had been shown. 'These two qualities place us ants among
+reasonable beings,' she said. 'Sense ought to be, and is, of the most
+consequence; and I have the most of that;' and she raised herself, in
+her self-satisfaction,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> on her hind leg. I could not mistake her, and
+I swallowed her. 'Go to the ant; consider her ways, and be wise.' I
+had now the queen.</p>
+
+<p>"I then went nearer to the above-mentioned large tree: it was an oak.
+It had high branches, a majestic crown of leaves, and was very old. I
+perceived that a living creature resided in it&mdash;a female. She was
+called a Dryad. She had been born with the tree, and would die with
+it. I had heard of this in the library; and now I beheld one of the
+real trees, and a real oak-nymph. She uttered a frightful shriek when
+she saw me near her; for she was like all women, very much afraid of
+mice. She, however, had more reason to be afraid of me than others of
+her sex have, for I could have gnawed the tree in two, and on it hung
+her life. I spoke to her kindly and cordially. This gave her courage,
+and she took me in her slender hand; and when she understood what had
+brought me out into the wide world, she promised that I should,
+perhaps that very night, become possessed of one of the two treasures
+of which I was in search. She told me that Imagination was her very
+particular friend; that he was as charming as the God of Love; and
+that he often, for many an hour, sought repose under the spreading
+foliage of the tree, which then sighed more musically over the two. He
+called her <i>his</i> dryad, she said, and the tree <i>his</i> tree. The mighty,
+gnarled, majestic oak was just to his taste, with its broad roots sunk
+deep into the earth, its trunk and its coronal rising so high in the
+free air, meeting the drifting snow, the cutting winds, and the bright
+sunshine, before they had reached the ground. All this she said, and
+she continued: 'The birds sing up yonder, and tell of foreign lands,
+and upon the only decayed branch the stork has built a nest; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> it
+is a pleasure to hear of the country where the pyramids stand. All
+this Fancy can well depict, and very much more. I myself can describe
+life in the woods from the time that I was quite little, and this tree
+was so tiny that a nettle could have covered it, until now, when it is
+so strong and mighty. Sit down yonder under the woodruffs, and be on
+the look-out. When Fancy comes I shall find an opportunity of pinching
+his wing, and stealing a little feather from it. You shall take that,
+and no poet will ever have been better provided. Will that do?'</p>
+
+<p>"And Imagination came; a feather was plucked from him, and I got it,"
+said the little mouse. "I held it in the water till it became soft. It
+was still hard of digestion, but I managed to gnaw it all up. It is
+not at all easy to stuff one's self so as to be a poet&mdash;there is so
+much to be put in one. I had now got two of the ingredients&mdash;good
+sense and imagination; and I knew by their help that the third
+ingredient was to be found in the library; for a great man has said
+and written that there are romances which are useful in easing people
+of a superfluity of tears, and which also act as a sort of swamp to
+cast feelings into. I remembered some of these books; they had always
+looked very enticing to me. They were so thumbed, so greasy, they must
+have been very popular.</p>
+
+<p>"I returned home to the library, ate almost as much as a whole
+romance&mdash;that is to say, the soft part of it, the pith&mdash;but the crust,
+the binding, I let alone. When I had digested this, and another to
+boot, I perceived how my inside was stirred up; so I ate part of a
+third, and then I considered myself a poet, and every one about me
+said I was. I had headaches, of course, and all sorts of aches. I
+thought over what story I could work up about a sausage-stick, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+there was no end of sticks and pegs crowding my mind. The queen ant
+had had an uncommon intellect. I remembered the man who took a white
+peg into his mouth, and both he and it became invisible. All my
+thoughts ran upon sticks. A poet can write even upon these; and I am a
+poet I trust, for I have fagged hard to be one. I shall be able every
+day in the week to amuse you with the story of a stick. This is my
+soup."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us hear the third," said the King of the Mice.</p>
+
+<p>"Pip, pip!" said a little mouse at the kitchen door. It was the fourth
+of them, the one they thought dead. She tripped in, and jumped upon
+the upper end of the sausage-stick with the black crape. She had been
+journeying day and night, travelling on the railroad by the goods
+train, in which she took great pleasure, and yet she had almost
+arrived too late; but she hurried forward, puffing and panting, and
+looking very much jaded. She had lost her sausage-stick, but not her
+voice; for she began talking with the utmost velocity, as if every one
+was dying to hear her, and no one could say anything to the purpose
+but herself. How she did chatter! But she had arrived so unexpectedly
+that no one had time to find fault with her or her talking, so she
+went on. Now let us listen.</p>
+
+
+<h3>IV.</h3>
+
+<h3>WHAT THE FOURTH MOUSE&mdash;WHO SPOKE BEFORE THE THIRD ONE HAD SPOKEN&mdash;HAD
+TO RELATE.
+</h3>
+<p>"I went straight to the greatest city," she said. "I do not remember
+its name. I do not recollect names well. I came from the railway with
+confiscated goods to the town council-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>hall, and there I ran to the
+jailer. He spoke of his prisoners, especially of one of them, who had
+uttered some very imprudent words; and when these had been repeated,
+and written down and read, 'The whole,' said he, 'was only&mdash;soup of a
+sausage-stick; but that soup may cost him dear.' I felt interested in
+the prisoner," continued the little mouse, "and I watched for an
+opportunity to go in where he was. There is always a mouse-hole behind
+locked doors. He looked very pale, had a dark beard, and large shining
+eyes. The lamp smoked; but the walls were accustomed to this. They did
+not turn any blacker. The prisoner was scratching on them both
+pictures and verses; but I did not read the latter. I fancy he was
+tired of being alone, for I was a welcome guest. He enticed me with
+crumbs of bread, with his flute, and kind words. He was so happy with
+me! I put confidence in him, and we became friends. He shared with me
+bread and water, and gave me cheese and sausages. I lived luxuriously;
+but it was not alone the good cheer that detained me. He allowed me to
+run upon his hand and arm all the way up to his shoulder; he allowed
+me to creep into his beard, and called me his little friend. I became
+very dear to him, and our regard was mutual. I forgot my errand out in
+the wide world; I forgot my sausage-stick in a crevice in the floor;
+and there it still lies. I wished to remain where I was; for, if I
+left him, the poor prisoner would have nothing to care for in this
+world. I remained; but he, alas! did not. He spoke to me so sadly for
+the last time, gave me a double allowance of bread and cheese parings,
+kissed his finger to me, and then he was gone&mdash;gone, never to return.
+I do not know his history. 'Soup of a sausage-stick!' said the jailer,
+and I went to him; but I was wrong to trust in him. He took me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> up,
+indeed, in his hand; but he put me in a cage, a treadmill. That was
+hard work&mdash;jumping and jumping without getting on a bit, and only to
+be laughed at.</p>
+
+<p>"The jailer's grandchild was a pretty little fellow, with waving hair
+as yellow as gold, sparkling, joyous eyes, and a laughing mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"'Poor little mouse!' he exclaimed, peeping in at my horrid cage, and
+at the same time drawing up the iron pin that closed it.</p>
+
+<p>"I seized the opportunity, and sprang first to the window-ledge, and
+thence to the conduit-pipe. Free, free! that was all I could think of,
+and not the object of my journey.</p>
+
+<p>"It became dark&mdash;it was almost night. I took up my lodgings in a
+tower, where dwelt a watchman and an owl. I could not trust either of
+them, and the owl least of the two. It resembles a cat, and has one
+great fault&mdash;that it eats mice. But one can be on one's guard, and
+that I assuredly would be. She was a respectable, extremely
+well-educated old owl. She knew more than the watchman, and almost as
+much as I myself did. The young owls made a great fuss about
+everything.</p>
+
+<p>"'Don't make soup of a sausage-stick,' said she.</p>
+
+<p>"This was the severest thing she could say to them, she was so very
+fond of her family. I felt so much inclined to place some reliance in
+her that I cried "Pip!" from the crevice in which I was concealed. My
+confidence in her seemed to please her, and she assured me that I
+should be safe under her protection; that no animal would be permitted
+to injure me until winter, when she might herself fall upon me, as
+food would be scarce.</p>
+
+<p>"She was very wise in all things. She proved to me that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> the watchman
+could not blow a blast without his horn, which hung loosely about him.</p>
+
+<p>"He piques himself exceedingly upon his performances, and fancies he
+is the owl of the tower. The sound ought to be very loud, but it is
+extremely weak. 'Soup of a sausage-stick!'</p>
+
+<p>"I begged her to give me the recipe for the soup, and she explained it
+to me thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'Soup of a sausage-stick is but a cant phrase among men, and is
+differently interpreted. Every one fancies his own interpretation the
+best, but in sober reality there is nothing in it whatsoever.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Nothing!' cried I. That was a poser. 'Truth is not always pleasant,
+but truth is always the best.' So also said the old owl. I considered
+the matter, and came to the conclusion that when I brought <i>the best</i>
+I brought more than 'soup of a sausage-stick;' and thereupon I
+hastened homewards, so that I might arrive in good time to bring what
+is most valuable&mdash;<span class="smcap">the truth</span>. The mice are an enlightened community,
+and their king is the cleverest of them all. He can make me his queen
+for the sake of Truth."</p>
+
+<p>"Thy truth is a falsehood," said the mouse who had not yet had an
+opportunity of speaking. "I can make the soup, and I will do it."</p>
+
+
+<h3>V.</h3>
+
+<h3>HOW THE SOUP WAS MADE.</h3>
+
+<p>"I have not travelled at all," said the last mouse. "I remained in our
+own country. It is not necessary to go to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> foreign lands&mdash;one can
+learn as well at home. I remained there. I have not acquired any
+information of unnatural beings. I have not eaten information, or
+conversed with owls. I confined myself to original thoughts. Will some
+one now be so good as to fill the kettle with water, and put it on?
+Let there be plenty of fire under it. Let the water boil&mdash;boil
+briskly; then throw the sausage-stick in. Will his majesty the King of
+the Mice be so condescending as to put his tail into the boiling pot,
+and stir it about? The longer he stirs it, the richer the soup will
+become. It costs nothing, and requires no other ingredients&mdash;it only
+needs to be stirred."</p>
+
+<p>"Cannot another do this?" asked the king.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the mouse. "The effect can only be produced by the royal
+tail."</p>
+
+<p>The water was boiled, and the King of the Mice prepared himself for
+the operation, though it was rather dangerous. He stuck his tail out,
+as mice are in the habit of doing in the dairy, when they skim the
+cream off the dish with their tails; but he had no sooner popped his
+tail into the warm steam than he drew it out and sprang down.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you are my queen," said he; "but we shall wait for the soup
+till our golden wedding, and the poor in my kingdom will have
+something to rejoice over in the future."</p>
+
+<p>So the nuptials were celebrated; but many of the mice, when they went
+home, said, "It could not well be called soup of a sausage-stick, but
+rather soup of a mouse's tail."</p>
+
+<p>They allowed that each of the narratives was very well told, but the
+whole might have been better. "I, for instance,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> would have related my
+adventures in such and such words...."</p>
+
+<p>These were the critics, and they are always so wise&mdash;afterwards.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>And this history went round the world. Opinions were divided about it,
+but the historian himself remained unmoved. And this is best in great
+things and in small.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/image_09.jpg" width="150" height="151" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image_10.jpg" width="600" height="142" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+<h2><a name="The_Neck_of_a_Bottle" id="The_Neck_of_a_Bottle"></a><i>The Neck of a Bottle.</i></h2>
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_y.jpg" alt="Y" width="50" height="50" /></div>
+<p>onder, in the confined, crooked streets, amidst several poor-looking
+houses, stood a narrow high tenement, run up of framework that was
+much misshapen, with corners and ends awry. It was inhabited by poor
+people, the poorest of whom looked out from the garret, where, outside
+the little window, hung in the sunshine an old, dented bird-cage,
+which had not even a common cage-glass, but only the neck of a bottle
+inverted, with a cork below, and filled with water. An old maid stood
+near the open window; she had just been putting some chickweed into
+the cage, wherein a little linnet was hopping from perch to perch, and
+singing until her warbling became almost overpowering.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you may well sing," said the neck of the bottle; but it did not
+say this as we should say it, for the neck of a bottle cannot speak,
+but it thought so within itself, just as we human beings speak
+inwardly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you may well sing, you who have your limbs entire. You should
+have experienced, like me, what it is to have lost your lower part, to
+have only a neck and a mouth, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> latter stopped up with a cork,
+as I have; then you would not sing. But it is well that somebody is
+contented. I have no cause to sing, and I cannot. I could once though,
+when I was a whole bottle. How I was praised at the furrier's in the
+wood, when his daughter was betrothed! Yes, I remember that day as if
+it were yesterday. I have gone through a great deal when I look back.
+I have been in fire and in water, down in the dark earth, and higher
+up than many; and now I am suspended outside of a bird-cage in the air
+and sunshine. It might be worth while to listen to my story; but I do
+not speak it aloud, because I cannot."</p>
+
+<p>So it went on thinking over its own history, which was curious enough;
+and the little bird poured forth its strains, and in the street below
+people walked and drove, every one thinking of himself, some scarcely
+thinking at all; but the neck of the bottle <i>was</i> thinking.</p>
+
+<p>It remembered the blazing smelt-furnace at the manufactory where it
+was blown into life. It remembered even now that it had been extremely
+warm; that it had looked into the roaring oven, its original home, and
+had felt strongly inclined to spring back into it; but that by
+degrees, as it felt cooler, it found itself comfortable enough where
+it was, placed in a row with a whole regiment of brothers and sisters
+from the same furnace, some of which, however, were blown into
+champagne bottles, others into ale bottles; and that made a
+difference, since out in the world an ale bottle may contain the
+costly <span class="smcap">Lacrym&aelig; Christi</span>, and a champagne bottle may be filled with
+blacking; but what they were born to every one can see by their shape,
+so that noble remains noble even with blacking in it.</p>
+
+<p>All the bottles were packed up, and our bottle with them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> It then
+little thought that it would end in being only the neck of a bottle
+serving as a bird's glass&mdash;an honourable state of existence truly, but
+still something. It did not see daylight again until it was unpacked
+along with its comrades in the wine merchant's cellar, and was washed
+for the first time. That was a funny sensation. After that it lay
+empty and uncorked, and felt so very listless; it wanted something,
+but did not know what it wanted. At length it was filled with an
+excellent, superior wine, and, when corked and sealed, a label was
+stuck on it outside with the words, "Best quality." It was as if it
+had taken its first academic degree. But the wine was good, and the
+bottle was good. The young are fond of music, and much singing went on
+in it, the songs being on themes about which it scarcely knew
+anything&mdash;the green sunlit hills where the wine grapes grew, where
+beautiful girls and handsome swains met, and danced, and sang, and
+loved. Ah! there it is delightful to dwell. And all this was made into
+songs in the bottle, as it is made into songs by young poets, who also
+frequently know nothing at all about the subjects they choose.</p>
+
+<p>One morning it was bought. The furrier's boy was ordered to purchase a
+bottle of the best wine, and this one was carried away in a basket,
+with ham, cheese, and sausage; there were also the nicest butter and
+the finest bread. The furrier's daughter herself packed the basket.
+She was so young, so pretty! Her brown eyes laughed, and the smile on
+her sweet mouth was almost as expressive as her eyes. She had
+beautiful soft hands&mdash;they were so white; yet her throat and neck were
+still whiter. It could be seen at once that she was one of the
+prettiest girls in the neighbourhood, and, strange to say, not yet
+engaged.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The basket of provisions was placed in her lap when the family drove
+out to the wood. The neck of the bottle stuck out above the parts of
+the white napkins that were visible. There was red wax on its cork,
+and it looked straight into the eyes of the pretty girl, and also into
+those of the young sailor&mdash;the mate of a ship&mdash;who sat beside her. He
+was the son of a portrait painter, and had just passed a first-rate
+examination for mate, and was to go on board his vessel the next day
+to sail for far-distant countries. Much was said about his voyage
+during the drive; and when <i>it</i> was spoken of, there was not exactly
+an expression of joy in the eyes and about the mouth of the furrier's
+daughter.</p>
+
+<p>The two young people wandered away into the green wood. They were in
+earnest conversation. Of what were they speaking? The bottle did not
+hear that, for it was still standing in the basket of provisions. It
+seemed a long time before it was taken out, but then it saw pleasant
+faces round. Everybody was smiling, and the furrier's daughter also
+smiled; but she spoke less, and her cheeks were blushing like two red
+roses.</p>
+
+<p>The father took the full bottle and the corkscrew. Oh! it is
+astonishing to a bottle the first time a cork is drawn from it. The
+neck of the bottle could never afterwards forget that important moment
+when, with a low sound, the cork flew, and the wine streamed out into
+the awaiting glasses.</p>
+
+<p>"To the health of the betrothed pair!" cried the father, and every
+glass was drained; and the young mate kissed his lovely bride. "May
+happiness and every blessing attend you both!" said the old people;
+and the young man begged them to fill their glasses again for his
+toast.</p>
+
+<p>"To my return home and my wedding, within a year and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> a day!" he
+cried; and when the glasses were empty he took the bottle, and lifted
+it high above his head. "Thou hast been present during the happiest
+day of my life; thou shalt never serve another!"</p>
+
+<p>And he cast the bottle high up in the air. Ah! little did the
+furrier's daughter think then that she should often look on that which
+was flung up; but she was destined to do so. It fell among the thick
+mass of reeds that bordered a pond in the woods. The neck of the
+bottle remembered distinctly what it thought as it lay there, and it
+was this: "I gave them wine, and they give me bog-water; but it was
+well meant." It could no more see the betrothed young couple, or the
+happy old people; but it heard in the distance the sounds of music and
+of mirth. Then came two little peasant children peering among the
+reeds. They saw the bottle, and carried it off with them: so it was
+provided for.</p>
+
+<p>At home, in the cottage among the woods where they lived, their eldest
+brother, who was a sailor, had, the day before, come to say farewell;
+for he was about to start on a long voyage. The mother was busy
+packing various little matters, which the father was to take with him
+to the town in the evening, when he went to see his son once more
+before his departure, and give him again his mother's blessing. A
+phial with spiced brandy was placed in the package; but at that moment
+the children came in with the larger, stronger bottle which they had
+found. A larger quantity could go into it than into the phial. It was
+not the red wine, as before, that the bottle received, but some bitter
+stuff. However, it also was excellent as a stomachic. Our bottle was
+thus again to set forth on its travels. It was carried on board to
+Peter Jensen, who happened to be in the same ship as was the young
+mate; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> he did not see the bottle, and, if he had seen it, he would
+not have known it to have been the same from which were drunk the
+toasts in honour of his betrothal, and to his safe return.</p>
+
+<p>Although there was no longer wine in it, there was something quite as
+good; and whenever Peter Jensen brought it forth, his comrades called
+it "the apothecary." The nice medicine was so much in vogue that very
+soon there was not a drop of it left. The bottle had a pleasant time
+of it, upon the whole, while its contents were in such high favour. It
+acquired the name of the great "L&oelig;rke"&mdash;"Peter Jensen's
+L&oelig;rke."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> "L&oelig;rke," which generally means "lark," is the name
+given among the lower classes in Denmark to a spirit bottle of a
+peculiar shape. There is no word that corresponds with it in
+English.&mdash;<i>Trans.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>But this time was passed, and it had lain long neglected in a corner.
+It did not know whether it was on the voyage out or homewards; for it
+had never been on shore anywhere. One day a great storm arose; the
+black, heavy waves rolled mountains high, and heaved the ship up and
+cast it down by turns; the mast came down with a crash; the sea stove
+in a plank; the pumps were no longer of any avail. It was a pitch-dark
+night. The ship sank; but at the last minute the young mate wrote on a
+slip of paper, "<i>In the name of Jesus&mdash;we are lost!</i>" He wrote down
+the name of his bride, his own name, and that of his ship; then he
+thrust the note into an empty bottle that was within reach, pressed in
+the cork tightly, and cast the bottle out into the raging sea. Little
+did he know that it was the identical bottle which had contained the
+wine in which had been drunk the toasts of joy and hope for him and
+her, that was now tossing on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>billows with these last
+remembrances, and the message of death.</p>
+
+<p>The ship sank&mdash;the crew sank&mdash;but the bottle skimmed the waves like a
+sea-fowl. It had a heart then&mdash;the letter of love within it. And the
+sun rose, and the sun set. This sight recalled to the bottle the scene
+of its earliest life&mdash;the red glowing furnace, to which it had once
+longed to return. It encountered calms and storms; but it was not
+dashed to pieces against any rocks. It was not swallowed by any shark.
+For more than a year and a day it drifted on&mdash;now towards the north,
+now towards the south&mdash;as the currents carried it. In other respects
+it was its own master; but one can become tired even of that.</p>
+
+<p>The written paper&mdash;the last farewell from the bridegroom to his
+bride&mdash;would only bring deep sorrow if it ever reached the proper
+hands. But where were these hands, that had looked so white when they
+spread the tablecloth on the fresh grass in the green wood on the
+betrothal-day? Where was the furrier's daughter? Nay, where was her
+country? and to what country was it nearest? The bottle knew not. It
+drifted and drifted, and it was so tired of always drifting on; but it
+could not help itself. Still, still it had to drift, until at last it
+reached the land; but it was a foreign country. It did not understand
+a word that was said, for the language was not such as it had been
+formerly accustomed to hear; and one feels quite lost if one does not
+understand the language spoken around.</p>
+
+<p>The bottle was taken up and examined; the slip of paper in it was
+observed, taken out, and opened; but nobody could make out what was
+written on it, though every one knew that the bottle must have been
+cast overboard, and that some information<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> was contained in the paper;
+but what <i>that</i> was remained a mystery, and it was put back into the
+bottle, and the latter laid by in a large press, in a large room, in a
+large house.</p>
+
+<p>Whenever any stranger came the slip of paper was taken out, opened,
+and examined, so that the writing, which was only in pencil, became
+more and more illegible from the frequent folding and unfolding of the
+paper, till at length the letters could no longer be discerned. After
+the bottle had remained about a year in the press it was removed to
+the loft, and was soon covered with dust and cobwebs. Ah! then it
+thought of its better days, when red wine was poured from it in the
+shady wood, and when it swayed about upon the waves, and had a secret
+to carry&mdash;a letter, a farewell sigh.</p>
+
+<p>It now remained in the loft for twenty mortal years, and it might have
+remained longer, had not the house been going to be rebuilt. The roof
+was taken off, the bottle discovered and talked about; but it did not
+understand what was said. One does not learn languages, living up
+alone in a loft, even in twenty years. "Had I but been down in the
+parlour," it thought, and with truth, "I would, of course, have
+learned it."</p>
+
+<p>It was now washed and rinsed. It certainly wanted cleaning sadly, and
+very clear and transparent it felt itself after it&mdash;indeed, quite
+young again in its old age; but the slip of paper committed to its
+charge, that was lost in the washing. The bottle was now filled with
+seeds. Such contents were new to it. Well stopped up and wrapped up it
+was, and it could see neither a lantern nor a candle, not to mention
+the sun or the moon. "One ought to see something when one goes on a
+journey," thought the bottle; but it did not, however,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> until it
+reached the place it was going to, and was there unpacked.</p>
+
+<p>"What trouble these people abroad have taken about it!" was remarked;
+"yet no doubt it is cracked." But it was not cracked. The bottle
+understood every word that was said, for they were spoken in the
+language it had heard at the furnace, at the wine merchant's, in the
+wood, and on board ship&mdash;the only right good old language, one which
+could be understood. The bottle had returned to its own country, and
+in its joy had nearly jumped out of the hands that were holding it. It
+scarcely observed that the cork had been removed, its contents shaken
+out, and itself put away in the cellar to be kept and forgotten. But
+home is dearest, even in a cellar. It had enough to think over, and
+time enough to think, for it lay there for years; but at last one day
+folks came down there to look for some bottles, and took this one with
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Outside, in the garden, there were great doings; coloured lamps hung
+in festoons; paper lanterns, formed like large tulips, gave forth
+their subdued light. It was also a charming evening; the air was calm
+and clear; the stars began, one after the other, to shine in the deep
+blue heavens above; while the round moon looked like a pale
+bluish-grey ball, with a golden border encircling it.</p>
+
+<p>There were also some illuminations in the side walks, at least enough
+to let people see their way; bottles with lights in them were placed
+here and there among the hedges; and amidst these stood the bottle we
+know, the one that was destined to end as the mere neck of a bottle
+and the glass of a bird-cage. At the period just named, however, it
+found everything so exquisitely charming. It was again among flowers
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> verdure, again surrounded by joy and festivity; it again heard
+singing and musical instruments, and the hum and buzz of a crowd of
+people, especially from that part of the gardens which were most
+brilliantly illuminated. It had a good situation itself, and stood
+there useful and happy, bearing its appointed light. During such a
+pleasant time it forgot the twenty years up in the loft, and it is
+good to be able to forget.</p>
+
+<p>Close by it passed a couple arm-in-arm, like the happy pair in the
+wood, the mate and the furrier's daughter. It seemed to the bottle as
+if it were living that time over again. Guests and visitors of
+different ages wandered up and down, gazing upon the illuminations;
+and among these was an old maid, without relations, but not without
+friends. Probably her thoughts were occupied, as were those of the
+bottle; for she was thinking of the green woods, and of a young couple
+just betrothed. These <i>souvenirs</i> affected her much, for she had been
+a party in them&mdash;a prominent party. This was in her happier hours; and
+one never forgets these, even when one becomes a very old maid. But
+she did not recognise the bottle, and it did not recognise her. So it
+is we wear out of each other's knowledge in this world, until people
+meet again as these two did.</p>
+
+<p>The bottle passed from the public gardens to the wine merchant's; it
+was there again filled with wine, and sold to an a&euml;ronaut, who was to
+go up in a balloon the following Sunday. There was a multitude of
+people to witness the ascent, there was a regimental band, and there
+were many preparations going on. The bottle saw all this from a
+basket, in which it lay with a living rabbit, who was very much
+frightened when it saw it was to go up in the parachute. The bottle
+did not know where it was to go; it beheld the balloon extending<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+wider and wider, and becoming so large that it could not be larger;
+then lifting itself up higher and higher, and rolling restlessly until
+the ropes that held it were cut, when it arose majestically into the
+air, with the a&euml;ronaut, the basket, the bottle, and the rabbit; then
+the music played loudly, and the assembled crowd shouted, "Hurra!
+hurra!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is droll to go aloft," thought the bottle; "it is a novel sort of
+a voyage. Up yonder one cannot run away."</p>
+
+<p>Many thousand human beings gazed up at the balloon, and the old maid
+gazed among the rest. She stood by her open garret window, where a
+cage hung with a little linnet, which at that time had no water-glass,
+but had to content itself with a cup. Just within the window stood a
+myrtle tree, that was moved a little aside, that it might not come in
+the way while the old maid was leaning out to look at the balloon. And
+she could perceive the a&euml;ronaut in it; she saw him let the rabbit down
+in the parachute, and then, having drunk the health of the crowd
+below, throw the bottle high up in the air. Little did she think that
+it was just the same bottle she had seen thrown up high in honour of
+herself and her lover, on a well-remembered happy day amidst the green
+wood, when she was young.</p>
+
+<p>The bottle had no time to think, it was so unexpectedly exalted to the
+highest position it had ever attained in its life. The roofs and the
+spires lay far below, and the people looked as small as pigmies.</p>
+
+<p>It now descended, and that at a different rate of speed from the
+rabbit. The bottle cast somersaults in the air&mdash;it felt itself so
+young, so buoyant. It was half full of wine, but not long. What a trip
+that was! The sun shone upon the bottle, and all the crowd looked up
+at it. The balloon was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> soon far away, and the bottle was soon also
+out of sight, for it fell upon a roof and broke in two; but the
+fragments rebounded again, and leaped and rolled till they reached the
+yard below, where they lay in smaller pieces; for only the neck of the
+bottle escaped destruction, and it looked as if it had been cut round
+by a diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"It may still serve as a glass for a bird's cage," said the man in the
+cellar.</p>
+
+<p>But he himself had neither a bird nor a cage, and it would have cost
+too much to buy these because he had found the neck of a bottle that
+would answer for a glass. The old maid, however, up in the garret,
+might make use of it; and so the neck of the bottle was sent up to
+her. A cork was fitted to it, and, as first mentioned, after its many
+changes, it was filled with fresh water, and was hung in front of the
+cage of the little bird, that sang until its warbling became almost
+overpowering.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you may well sing," was what the neck of the bottle had said.</p>
+
+<p>It was somewhat of a wonder, as it had been up in a balloon; but with
+more of its history no one was acquainted. Now it hung as a bird's
+glass, it could hear the people driving and walking in the street
+below, and it could hear the old maid talking in her room to a female
+friend of her youthful days. They were chatting together, but speaking
+of the myrtle plant in the window, not of the neck of the bottle.</p>
+
+<p>"You must not throw away two rix dollars for a wedding bouquet for
+your daughter," said the old maid. "You shall have one from me full of
+flowers. Look how pretty that plant is! Ah! it is a slip of the myrtle
+tree you gave me the day after my betrothal, that I myself, when the
+year was past,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> might take my wedding bouquet from it. But that day
+never came. The eyes were for ever closed that were to have illumined
+for me the path of happiness in this life. Away, down in the ocean's
+depths, he sleeps calmly&mdash;that angel soul! The tree became an old
+tree, but I have become still older; and when it died, I took its last
+green branch and planted it in the earth. That slip has now grown into
+a high plant, and will at last appear amidst bridal array, and form a
+wedding bouquet for my friend's daughter."</p>
+
+<p>And tears started to the old maid's eyes. She spoke of the lover of
+her youth&mdash;of the betrothal in the wood; she thought of the toasts
+that were there drunk; she thought of the first kiss, but she did not
+speak of that, for she was now but an old maid. She thought of
+much&mdash;much; but little did she think that outside of her window was
+even then a <i>souvenir</i> from that regretted time&mdash;the neck of the very
+bottle that had been drawn when the unforgotten toasts were drunk! Nor
+did the bottle-neck know her; for it had not heard all she had said,
+because it had been thinking only of itself.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/image_11.jpg" width="150" height="146" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image_12.jpg" width="600" height="137" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+<h2><a name="The_Old_Bachelors_Nightcap" id="The_Old_Bachelors_Nightcap"></a><i>The Old Bachelor's Nightcap.</i></h2>
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="46" height="50" /></div>
+<p>here is a street in Copenhagen which bears the extraordinary name of
+"Hyskenstr&oelig;de." And why is it so called? and what is the meaning of
+that name? It is German; but the German has been corrupted. "H&auml;uschen"
+it ought to be called, and that signifies "small houses." Those which
+stood there formerly&mdash;and, indeed, for several years&mdash;were not much
+larger than the wooden booths that we see now-a-days erected at fairs.
+Yes, only a little larger, and with windows; but the panes were of
+horn or stretched bladder, for in these days it was too expensive to
+have glass windows in all houses; but the time in question was so far
+back that our grandfathers' grandfathers, when they mentioned it, also
+spoke of it as "in ancient days," for it was several hundred years
+ago.</p>
+
+<p>Many rich merchants in Bremen and Lubeck carried on business in
+Copenhagen. They did not, however, go there themselves&mdash;they sent
+their clerks; and these persons generally resided in the wooden houses
+in the "Small Houses'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> Street," and held sales of ale and spices. The
+German ale was so excellent, and there were so many kinds&mdash;"Bremer,
+Prysing, Emser ale," even "Brunswick Mumme;" also, all sorts of
+spices, such as saffron, anise, ginger, and especially pepper, that
+was the most valued; and from this the German commercial travellers
+acquired the name in Denmark of "Pepper Swains, or Bachelors." They
+entered into an agreement before they left home not to marry; and many
+of them lived there to old age. They had to do entirely for
+themselves, attend to all little domestic matters, even make their own
+fires if they had any. Several of them became lonely old men, with
+peculiar thoughts and peculiar habits. Every unmarried man who has
+arrived at a certain age is now here called after them in derision,
+"Pebersvend"&mdash;old bachelor. It was necessary to relate all this, in
+order that our story might be understood.</p>
+
+<p>People made great fun of these old bachelors; laughed at their
+nightcaps, at their drawing them down over their eyes, and so retiring
+to their couches.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Saw the firewood, saw it through!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Old bachelors, there's work for you.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To bed with you your nightcaps go;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Put out your lights, and cry, 'O woe!'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Yes, such songs were made on them. People ridiculed the old bachelor
+and his nightcap, just because they knew so little about him, or it.
+Alas! let no one desire such a nightcap. And why not? Listen!</p>
+
+<p>Over in the "Small Houses' Street," in ancient days, there was no
+pavement; people stepped from hole to hole as in a narrow, cut-up
+defile; and narrow enough this was, too. The dwellings on the opposite
+side of the street stood so close<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> together, that in summer a sail was
+spread across the street from one booth to another, and the whole
+place was redolent of pepper, saffron, ginger, and various spices.
+Behind the desks stood few young men; no, they were almost all old
+fellows; and they were by no means, as we would represent them,
+crowned with a peruke or a nightcap, and equipped in shaggy
+pantaloons, a vest and coat buttoned tightly up. This was the costume
+in which our forefathers were painted, it is true; but this community
+of old bachelors could not afford to have their pictures taken. Yet it
+would have been worth while now to have preserved a portrait of one of
+them, as they stood behind their desks, or on festival days, when they
+wended their way to church. The hat they wore was broad-brimmed, and
+with a high crown; and sometimes one of the younger men would stick a
+feather in his. The woollen shirt was concealed by a deep linen
+collar; the tight-fitting jacket was closely buttoned, a loose cloak
+over it; and the pantaloons descended almost into the square-toed
+shoes, for stockings they wore none. In the belt were stuck the eating
+knife and the spoon; and, moreover, a large knife as a weapon of
+defence, for such was often needed in these days.</p>
+
+<p>Thus was equipped, on grand occasions, old Anthon, one of the oldest
+bachelors of the "small houses;" only he did not wear the high-crowned
+hat, but a fur cap, and under that a knitted cap, a veritable
+nightcap, to which he had so accustomed himself that it was never off
+his head: he actually possessed two of the same description. He would
+have made an excellent subject for a painter; he was so skinny, so
+wrinkled about the mouth and the eyes; had long fingers, with such
+large joints; and his grey eyebrows were so thick. A bunch of grey
+hair from one of these hung over his left eye:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> it certainly was not
+pretty, but it made him very remarkable. It was known that he came
+from Bremen, at least that his master lived there; but he himself was
+from Th&uuml;ringen, from the town of Eisenach, close to Wartburg. Old
+Anthon spoke little of his native place, but he thought of it the
+more.</p>
+
+<p>The old lodgers in the street did not associate much with each other.
+Each remained in his own booth, which, was locked early in the
+evening, and then looked very dismal; for only a glimmering light
+could be seen through the horn panes of the window in the roof,
+beneath which sat, most frequently on his bed, the old man with his
+German psalm-book, and chanted the evening hymn, or else he went out
+and strolled about at night by way of amusement; but amusement it
+could hardly be called. To be a stranger in a foreign country is a
+very sad situation. No notice is taken of him unless he stands in
+anyone's way.</p>
+
+<p>Often when it was a pitch-dark night, with pouring rain, all around
+looked woefully gloomy and desolate. No lanterns were to be seen,
+except the little one that hung at one end of the street, before the
+image of the Virgin Mary that adorned the wall there. The water was
+heard dashing and splashing against the wooden work near, out by
+Slotsholm, on which the other end of the street opened. Such evenings
+are always long and lonely if there be nothing to interest one. It is
+not necessary every day to pack and unpack, to make up parcels, and to
+polish scales; but one must have something to do, and accordingly old
+Anthon industriously mended his clothes and cleaned his shoes. When at
+length he retired to rest, it was his custom to keep on his nightcap.
+At first he would draw it well down, but he would soon push it up
+again to look if the light were totally extinguished; nor would he be
+satisfied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> without getting up and feeling it. He would then lie down
+again, and turn on the other side, and again draw down the nightcap;
+but soon the idea would cross his mind that possibly the coals might
+not have become cold in the little fire-pot beneath&mdash;the fire might
+not be totally out&mdash;that a spark might be kindled, fly forth, and do
+mischief; and he would get out of his bed and creep down the ladder,
+for it could not be called the stairs; and when, on reaching the
+fire-pot, he perceived that not a spark was visible, and he might
+retire to rest in peace, he would stop half way up, being seized with
+the fear that the iron bolt might not be properly drawn across the
+door, or the shutters properly secured; and down he would go again,
+wearying his poor thin legs. By the time he crept back to his humble
+couch he would be half frozen, and his teeth would be chattering in
+his head with the cold. Then he would draw the covering higher up
+around him, and his nightcap lower down over his eyes, and his
+thoughts would wander from the business and burdens of the day; but
+ah! not to soothing scenes. His reveries were never fraught with
+pleasure, for then came old reminiscences, and hung their curtains up;
+and sometimes they were full of pins, that pricked so severely as to
+bring tears into his eyes. Such wounds old Anthon often received, and
+his warm tears fell on the coverlet or the floor, sounding as if one
+of sorrow's deepest strings had burst; they did not dry up, but
+kindled into a flame, which cast its light for him on the panorama of
+a life&mdash;a picture which never vanished from his mind. Then he would
+dry his eyes with his nightcap, and chase away the tears, and
+endeavour to chase away the picture with them; but it would not go,
+for it was imbedded in his heart. The panorama did not follow the
+exact order of events; also the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> saddest parts were generally most
+prominent. And what were these?</p>
+
+<p>"Beautiful are the beech groves in Denmark," it is said; but still
+more beautiful did the beech trees in the meadows near Wartburg seem
+to Anthon. Mightier and more majestic seemed to him the old oak up at
+the proud baronial castle, where the swinging lantern hung over the
+dark masses of rock; sweeter was the perfume of the apple blossoms
+there than in the Danish land; he seemed to feel the charming scent
+even now. A tear trickled down his cheeks, and he saw two little
+children, a boy and a girl, playing together. The boy had rosy cheeks,
+yellow waving hair, and honest blue eyes&mdash;he was the rich merchant's
+son, little Anthon himself. The little girl had dark hair and eyes,
+and she looked bold and clever&mdash;she was the burgomaster's daughter
+Molly. The childish couple were playing with an apple. At length they
+divided it in two, and each took a half. They also divided the seeds
+between them, and ate them all to one; and the little girl proposed to
+plant that in the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"You will see what will come of this&mdash;something will come which you
+can hardly fancy. An apple tree will come up, but not all at once."</p>
+
+<p>And they planted the seed in a flower-pot: both of them were very
+eager about it. The boy dug a hole in the mould with his finger; the
+little girl placed the seed in it, and both of them filled up the hole
+with earth.</p>
+
+<p>"You must not pull it up to-morrow to see if it has taken root," she
+said; "that should not be done. I did that with my flower: twice I
+took it up to see if it was growing. I had very little sense then, and
+the flower died."</p>
+
+<p>The flower-pot was left in Anthon's care, and every morning,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> the
+whole winter through, he looked at it; but nothing was to be seen
+except the black earth. Then came spring; the sun shone so warmly, and
+two tiny green leaves at last made their appearance in the flower-pot.</p>
+
+<p>"These are Molly and me," said Anthon. "They are charming&mdash;they are
+lovely."</p>
+
+<p>Soon there came a third leaf. Who did that represent? And leaf after
+leaf came up; while day by day, and week by week, the plant became
+larger and stronger, until it grew into quite a tree. And another tear
+fell again from its fountain&mdash;from old Anthon's heart.</p>
+
+<p>There stretched out, near Eisenach, a range of stony hills, one of
+which, round in shape, was very conspicuous: neither tree, nor bush,
+nor grass grew on it. It was named Mount Venus. Therein dwelt Venus, a
+goddess from the heathen ages. She was here called Fru Holle, and she
+knew and could see every child in Eisenach. She had decoyed into her
+power the noble knight Tannh&auml;user, the minnesinger, from the musical
+circle of Wartburg.</p>
+
+<p>Little Molly and Anthon often went to this hill, and she one day said
+to him,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Would you dare to knock on the side of the hill and cry, 'Fru Holle!
+Fru Holle! open the gate; here is Tannh&auml;user?' But Anthon dared not do
+it. Molly dared, however; yet only these words&mdash;"Fru Holle! Fru
+Holle!"&mdash;did she say very loudly and distinctly&mdash;the rest seemed to
+die away on the wind; and she certainly did pronounce the rest of the
+sentence so indistinctly, that Anthon was sure she had not really
+added the other words. Yet she looked very confident&mdash;as bold as when,
+in the summer evening, she and several other little girls came to play
+in the garden with him, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> when they all wanted to kiss him, just
+because he would not be kissed, and defended himself from them, she
+alone ventured to achieve the feat.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I</i> dare to kiss him!" she used to say, with a proud toss of her
+little head. Then she would take him round his neck to prove her
+power, and Anthon would put up with it, and think it all right from
+her. How pretty and how clever she was! Fru Holle within the hill was
+also very charming, but her charms, it had been said, sprung from the
+seducing beauty bestowed on her by the evil one; but still greater
+beauty was to be found in the holy Elizabeth, the patron saint of the
+country, the pious Th&uuml;ringian princess, whose good works, known
+through traditions and legends, were celebrated in so many places. A
+picture of her hung in the chapel with a silver lamp before it, but
+Molly did not resemble her.</p>
+
+<p>The apple tree the two children had planted grew year after year; it
+became so large that it had to be transferred to the garden, out in
+the open air, where the dew fell and the sun shone warmly; it became
+strong enough to withstand the severity of winter, and after winter's
+hard trials it seemed as if rejoicing in the return of spring: it then
+put forth blossoms. In August it had two apples, one for Molly and one
+for Anthon: it would not have been well if it had had less.</p>
+
+<p>The tree had grown rapidly, and Molly had grown as fast as the tree;
+she was as fresh as an apple blossom, but she was no longer to see
+that flower. Everything changes in this world. Molly's father left his
+old home, and Molly went with him&mdash;far, far away. In our time it might
+be only a few hours' journey by railway, but in those days it took
+more than a day and a night to arrive so far east from Eisenach. It
+was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> to the other extremity of Th&uuml;ringia they had to go, to a town
+which is now called Weimar.</p>
+
+<p>And Molly wept, and Anthon wept. All these were now concentrated in
+one single tear, and it had the happy rosy tinge of joy. Molly had
+assured him that she cared much more for him than for all the grandeur
+of Weimar.</p>
+
+<p>One year passed on, two passed, and a third followed, and in all that
+time there came only two letters. One was brought by the carrier, the
+other by a traveller, who had taken a circuitous course, besides
+visiting several cities and other places.</p>
+
+<p>How often had not Anthon and Molly heard together the story of
+Tristand and Isolde, and how often did not Anthon think of himself and
+Molly as them! Although the name "Tristand" signified that he was born
+to sorrow, and that did not apply to Anthon, he never thought as
+Tristand did, "She has forgotten me!" But Isolde had not forgotten her
+heart's dear friend; and when they were both dead and buried, one on
+each side of the church, two linden trees grew out of their graves,
+and, stretching over the roof of the church, met there in full bloom.
+This was very delightful, thought Anthon, and yet so sad! But there
+could be no sadness where he and Molly were concerned. And then he
+whistled an air of the Minnesinger's "Walther von der Vogelweide,"&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Under the lime tree by the hedge;"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>and especially that favourite verse,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Beyond the wood, in the quiet dale,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Tandaradai,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sang the melodious nightingale."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This song was always on his lips. He hummed it, and he whistled it on
+the clear moonlight night, when, passing on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> horseback through the
+deep ravine, he rode in haste to Weimar to visit Molly. He wished to
+arrive unexpectedly, and he <i>did</i> arrive unexpectedly.</p>
+
+<p>He was well received. Wine sparkled in the goblets; there was gay
+society, distinguished society. He had a comfortable room and an
+excellent bed; and yet he found nothing as he had dreamt and thought
+to find it. He did not understand himself; he did not understand those
+about him; but we can understand all. One can be in a house, can
+mingle with a family, and yet be a total stranger. One may converse,
+but it is like conversing in a stage coach; may know each other as
+people know each other in a stage coach; be a restraint upon each
+other; wish that one were away, or that one's good neighbour were
+away; and it was thus that Anthon felt.</p>
+
+<p>"I will be sincere with you," said Molly to him. "Things have changed
+much since we were together as children&mdash;changed within and without.
+Habit and will have no power over our hearts. Anthon, I do not wish to
+have an enemy in you when I am far away from this, as I soon shall be.
+Believe me, I have a great regard for you; but to love you&mdash;as I now
+know how one can love another human being&mdash;that I have never done. You
+must put up with this. Farewell, Anthon!"</p>
+
+<p>And Anthon also said farewell. No tears sprang to his eyes, but he
+perceived that he was no longer Molly's friend. If we were to kiss a
+burning bar of iron, or a frozen bar of iron, we should experience the
+same sensation when the skin came off our lips.</p>
+
+<p>Within twenty-four hours Anthon had reached Eisenach again, but the
+horse he rode was ruined.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What of that?" cried he. "I am ruined, and I will ruin all that can
+remind me of her. Fru Holle! Fru Holle! Thou heathenish woman! I will
+tear down and smash the apple tree, and pull it up by the roots. It
+shall never blossom or bear fruit more."</p>
+
+<p>But the tree was not destroyed; he himself was knocked down, and lay
+long in a violent fever. What was to raise him from his sick bed? The
+medicine that did it was the bitterest that could be&mdash;one that shook
+the languid body and the shrinking soul. Anthon's father was no longer
+the rich merchant. Days of adversity, days of trial, were close at
+hand. Misfortune rushed in like overwhelming billows&mdash;it surged into
+that once wealthy house. His father became a poor man, and sorrow and
+calamity paralysed him. Then Anthon found that he had something else
+to think of than disappointed love, or being angry with Molly. He had
+now to be both father and mother in his desolate home. He had to
+arrange everything, look after everything, and to go forth into the
+world to work for his own and his parents' bread.</p>
+
+<p>He went to Bremen. There he suffered many privations, and passed many
+melancholy days; and all that he went through sometimes soured his
+temper, sometimes saddened him, till strength and mind seemed failing.
+How different were the world and mankind from what he had fancied them
+in his childhood! What were now to him Minnesingers' poems and songs?
+They were gall and wormwood. Yes, this was what he often felt; but
+there were other times when the songs vibrated to his soul, and his
+mind became calm and peaceful.</p>
+
+<p>"What God wills is always the best," said he then. "It was well that
+our Lord did not permit Molly's heart to hang<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> on me. What could it
+have led to, now that prosperity has left me and mine? She gave me up
+before she knew or dreamed of this reverse from more fortunate days
+which was hanging over us. It was the mercy of our Lord towards me.
+Everything is ordained for the best. Yes, all happens wisely. She
+could not, therefore, have acted otherwise, and yet how bitter have
+not my feelings been towards her!"</p>
+
+<p>Years passed on. Anthon's father was dead, and strangers dwelt in his
+paternal home. Anthon, however, was to see it once more; for his
+wealthy master sent him on an errand of business, which obliged him to
+pass through his native town, Eisenach. The old <span class="smcap">Wartburg</span> stood
+unchanged, high up on the hill above, with "the monk and the nun" in
+unhewn stone. The mighty oak trees seemed as imposing as in his
+childish days. The Venus mount looked like a grey mass frowning over
+the valley. He would willingly have cried,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Fru Holle! Fru Holle! open the hill, and let me stay there, upon the
+soil of my native home!"</p>
+
+<p>It was a sinful thought, and he crossed himself. Then a little bird
+sang among the bushes, and the old Minnesong came back to his
+thoughts:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Beyond the wood, in the quiet dale,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Tandaradai!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sang the melodious nightingale."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>How remembrances rushed upon him as he approached the town where his
+childhood had been spent, which he now saw through tears! His father's
+house remained where it used to be, but the garden was altered; a
+field footpath was made across a portion of the old garden; and the
+apple tree that he had not uprooted stood there, but no longer within
+the garden: it was on the opposite side of the road, though the sun<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
+shone on it as cheerfully as of old, and the dew fell on it there. It
+bore such a quantity of fruit that the branches were weighed down to
+the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"It thrives!" he exclaimed. "Yes, <i>it</i> can do so."</p>
+
+<p>One of its well-laden boughs was broken. Wanton hands had done this,
+for the tree was now on the side of the public road.</p>
+
+<p>"Its blossoms are carried off without thanks; its fruit is stolen, its
+branches are broken. It may be said of a tree as of a man, 'It was not
+sung at the tree's cradle that things should turn out thus.' This one
+began its life so charmingly; and what has now become of it? Forsaken
+and forgotten&mdash;a garden tree standing in a common field, close to a
+public road, and bending over a miserable ditch! There it stood now,
+unsheltered, ill-used, and disfigured! It was not, indeed, withered by
+all this; but as years advanced its blossoms would become fewer&mdash;its
+fruit, if it bore any, late; and so it is all over with it."</p>
+
+<p>Thus thought Anthon under the tree, and thus he thought many a night
+in the little lonely chamber of the wooden house in the "Small Houses'
+Street," in Copenhagen, whither his rich master had sent him, having
+stipulated that he was not to marry.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>He</i> marry!" He laughed a strange and hollow laugh.</p>
+
+<p>The winter had commenced early. There was a sharp frost, and without
+there was a heavy snow storm, so that all who could do so kept within
+doors. Therefore it was that Anthon's neighbours did not observe that
+his booth had not been opened for two whole days, and that he had not
+shown himself during that time. But who would go out in such weather
+when he could stay at home?</p>
+
+<p>These were dark, dismal days; and in the booth, where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> the window was
+not of glass, it looked like twilight, if not sombre night. Old Anthon
+had scarcely left his bed for two days. He had not strength to get up.
+The intensely cold weather had brought on a severe fit of rheumatism
+in his limbs, and the old bachelor lay forsaken and helpless, almost
+too feeble to stretch out his hand to the pitcher of water which he
+had placed near his bed; and if he could have done so, it would have
+been of no avail, for the last drop had been drained from it. It was
+not the fever, not illness alone that had thus prostrated him; it was
+also old age that had crept upon him. It seemed to be constant night
+up yonder where he lay. A little spider, which he could not see, spun
+contentedly its gossamer web over his face. It was soon to stretch
+like a crepe veil across the features, when the old man closed his
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>He dozed a good deal; yet time seemed long and weary. He shed no
+tears, and had but little suffering. Molly was scarcely ever in his
+thoughts. He had a conviction that this world and its bustle were no
+more for him. At one time he seemed to feel hunger and thirst. He did
+feel them; but no one came to give him nourishment or drink&mdash;no one
+would come. He thought of those who might be fainting or dying of
+want. He remembered how the pious Elizabeth, while living on this
+earth&mdash;she who had been the favourite heroine of his childish days at
+home, the magnanimous Duchess of Th&uuml;ringia&mdash;had herself entered the
+most miserable abodes, and brought to the sick and wretched
+refreshments and hope. His thoughts dwelt with pleasure on her good
+deeds. He remembered how she went to feed the hungry, to speak words
+of comfort to those who were suffering, and to bind up their wounds,
+although her austere<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> husband was angry at these works of mercy. He
+recalled to memory the legend about her, that, as she was going on one
+of her charitable errands, with a basket well filled with food and
+wine, her husband, who had watched her steps, rushed out on her, and
+demanded in high wrath what she was carrying; that, in her fear of
+him, she replied, "Roses which I have plucked in the garden;"
+whereupon he dragged the cover off of her basket, and lo! a miracle
+was worked in favour of the charitable lady, for the wine and bread,
+and everything in the basket, lay turned into roses.</p>
+
+<p>Thus old Anthon's thoughts wandered to the heroine in history whom he
+had always so much admired, until her image seemed to stand before his
+dimming sight, close to his humble pallet in the poor wooden hut in a
+foreign land. He uncovered his head, looked in fancy into her mild
+eyes, and all around him seemed a mingling of lustre and of roses
+redolent with sweet perfume. Then he felt the charming scent of the
+apple blossom, and he beheld an apple tree spreading its blooming
+branches above him. Yes, it was the very tree, the seeds of which he
+and Molly had planted together.</p>
+
+<p>And the tree swept its fragrant leaves over his hot brow, and cooled
+it; they touched his parched lips, and they were like refreshing wine
+and bread; they fell upon his breast, and he felt himself softly
+sinking into a calm slumber.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall sleep now," he whispered feebly to himself. "Sleep restores
+strength&mdash;to-morrow I shall be well and up again. Beautiful,
+beautiful! The apple tree planted in love I see again in glory."</p>
+
+<p>And he slept.</p>
+
+<p>The following day&mdash;it was the third day the booth had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> shut
+up&mdash;the snow drifted no longer, and the neighbours went to see about
+Anthon, who had not yet shown himself. They found him lying stiff and
+dead, with his old nightcap pressed between his hands. They did not
+put it upon him in his coffin&mdash;he had also another which was clean and
+white.</p>
+
+<p>Where now were the tears he had wept? Where were these pearls? They
+remained in the nightcap. Such precious things do not pass away in the
+washing. They were preserved and forgotten with the nightcap. The old
+thoughts, the old dreams&mdash;yes, they remained still in <i>the old
+bachelor's nightcap</i>. Wish not for that. It will make your brow too
+hot, make your pulses beat too violently, bring dreams that seem
+reality. This was proved by the first person who put it on&mdash;and that
+was not till fifty years after&mdash;by the burgomaster himself, who was
+blessed with a wife and eleven children. He dreamt of unhappy love,
+bankruptcy, and short commons.</p>
+
+<p>"How warm this nightcap is!" he exclaimed, as he dragged it off. Then
+pearl after pearl began to fall from it, and they jingled and
+glittered. "I must have got the rheumatism in my head," said the
+burgomaster. "Sparks seem falling from my eyes."</p>
+
+<p>They were tears wept half a century before&mdash;wept by old Anthon from
+Eisenach.</p>
+
+<p>Whoever has since worn that nightcap has sure enough had visions and
+dreams; his own history has been turned into Anthon's; his dream has
+become quite a tale, and there were many of them. Let others relate
+the rest. We have now told the first, and with it our last words
+are&mdash;Never covet <span class="smcap">an old bachelor's nightcap</span>.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/image_28.jpg" width="150" height="151" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image_13.jpg" width="600" height="141" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+<h2><a name="Something" id="Something"></a><i>Something.</i></h2>
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="&quot;I" width="54" height="50" /></div>
+<p>&nbsp;will be something," said the oldest of five brothers. "I will be of
+use in the world, let the position be ever so insignificant which I
+may fill. If it be only respectable, it will be something. I will make
+bricks&mdash;people can't do without these&mdash;and then I shall have done
+something."</p>
+
+<p>"But something too trifling," said the second brother. "What you
+propose to do is much the same as doing nothing; it is no better than
+a hodman's work, and can be done by machinery. You had much better
+become a mason. <i>That</i> is something, and that is what I will be. Yes,
+that is a good trade. A mason can get into a trade's corporation,
+become a burgher, have his own colours and his own club. Indeed, if I
+prosper, I may have workmen under me, and be called 'Master,' and my
+wife 'Mistress;' and that would be something."</p>
+
+<p>"That is next to nothing," said the third. "There are many classes in
+a town, and that is about the lowest. It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> nothing to be called
+'Master.' You might be very superior yourself; but as a master mason
+you would be only what is called 'a common man.' I know of something
+better. I will be an architect; enter upon the confines of science;
+work myself up to a high place in the kingdom of mind. I know I must
+begin at the foot of the ladder. I can hardly bear to say it&mdash;I must
+begin as a carpenter's apprentice, and wear a cap, though I have been
+accustomed to go about in a silk hat. I must run to fetch beer and
+spirits for the common workmen, and let them be 'hail fellow well met'
+with me. This will be disagreeable; but I will fancy that it is all a
+masquerade and the freedom of maskers. To-morrow&mdash;that is to say, when
+I am a journeyman&mdash;I will go my own way. The others will not join me.
+I shall go to the academy, and learn to draw and design; then I shall
+be called an architect. That is something! That is much! I may become
+'honourable,' or even 'noble'&mdash;perhaps both. I shall build and build,
+as others have done before me. <i>There</i> is something to look forward
+to&mdash;something worth being!"</p>
+
+<p>"But that something I should not care about," said the fourth. "I will
+not march in the wake of anybody. I will not be a copyist; I will be a
+genius&mdash;will be cleverer than you all put together. I shall create a
+new style, furnish ideas for a building adapted to the climate and
+materials of the country&mdash;something which shall be a nationality, a
+development of the resources of our age, and, at the same time, an
+exhibition of my own genius."</p>
+
+<p>"But if by chance the climate and the materials did not suit each
+other," said the fifth, "that would be unfortunate for the result.
+Nationalities may be so amplified as to become affectation. The
+discoveries of the age, like youth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> may leave you far behind. I
+perceive right well that none of you will, in reality, become
+anything, whatever may be your expectations. But do all of you what
+you please; I shall not follow your examples. I shall keep myself
+disengaged, and shall reason upon what you perform. There is something
+wrong in everything. I will pick that out, and reason upon it. That
+will be something."</p>
+
+<p>And so he did; and people said of the fifth, "He has not settled to
+anything. He has a good head, but he does nothing."</p>
+
+<p>Even this, however, made him something.</p>
+
+<p>This is but a short history; yet it is one which will not end as long
+as the world stands.</p>
+
+<p>But is there nothing more about the five brothers? What has been told
+is absolutely nothing. Hear further; it is quite a romance.</p>
+
+<p>The eldest brother, who made bricks, perceived that from every stone,
+when it was finished, rolled a small coin; and though these little
+coins were but of copper, many of them heaped together became a silver
+dollar; and when one knocks with such at the baker's, the butcher's,
+and other shops, the doors fly open, and one gets what one wants. The
+bricks produced all this. The damaged and broken bricks were also made
+good use of.</p>
+
+<p>Yonder, above the embankment, Mother Margrethe, a poor old woman,
+wanted to build a small house for herself. She got all the broken
+bricks, and some whole ones to boot; for the eldest brother had a good
+heart. The poor woman built her house herself. It was very small; the
+only window was put in awry, the door was very low, and the thatched
+roof might have been laid better; but it was at least a shelter and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> a
+cover for her. There was a fine view from it of the sea, which broke
+in its might against the embankment. The salt spray often dashed over
+the whole tiny house, which still stood there when he was dead and
+gone who had given the bricks:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The second brother could build in another way. He was also clever in
+his business. When his apprenticeship was over he strapped on his
+knapsack, and sang the mechanic's song:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"While young, far-distant lands I'll tread.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Away from home to build,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My handiwork shall win my bread,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">My heart with hope be filled.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And when my fatherland I see,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And meet my bride&mdash;hurra!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">An active workman I shall be:<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Then who so happy and gay?"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And he <i>was</i> that. When he returned to his native town, and became a
+master, he built house after house&mdash;a whole street. It was a very
+handsome one, and a great ornament to the town. These houses built for
+him a small house, which was to be his own. But how could the houses
+build? Ay, ask them that, and they will not answer you; but people
+will answer for them, and tell you, "It certainly was that street
+which built him a house." It was only a small one, to be sure, and
+with a clay floor; but when he and his bride danced on it the floor
+became polished and bright, and from every stone in the wall sprang a
+flower which was quite as good as any costly tapestry. It was a
+pleasant house, and they were a happy couple. The colours of the
+masons' company floated outside, and the journeymen and apprentices<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+shouted "Hurra!" Yes, that was something; and so he died&mdash;and that was
+also something.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the architect, the third brother, who had been first a
+carpenter's apprentice, wearing a cap and going on errands; but, on
+leaving the academy, rose to be an architect, and he became a man of
+consequence. Yes, if the houses in the street built by his brother,
+the master mason, had provided him with a house, a street was called
+after the architect, and the handsomest house in it was his own. That
+was something; and he was somebody, with a long, high-sounding title
+besides. His children were called people of quality, and when he died
+his widow was a widow of rank&mdash;that was something. And his name stood
+as a fixture at the corner of the street, and was often in folks'
+mouths, being the name of a street&mdash;and that was certainly something.</p>
+
+<p>Next came the genius&mdash;the fourth brother&mdash;who was to devote himself to
+new inventions. In one of his ambitious attempts he fell, and broke
+his neck; but he had a splendid funeral, with a procession, and flags,
+and music. He was noticed in the newspapers, and three funeral
+orations were pronounced over him, the one longer than the others; and
+much delighted he would have been with them if he had heard them, for
+he was fond of being talked about. A monument was erected over his
+grave. It was not very grand, but a monument is always something.</p>
+
+<p>He now was dead, as well as the three other brothers; but the
+fifth&mdash;he who was fond of reasoning or arguing&mdash;out-lived them all;
+and that was quite right, for he had thus the last word. And he
+thought it a matter of great importance to have the last word. It was
+he who, folks said, "had a good head." At length his last hour also
+struck. He died,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> and he arrived at the gate of the kingdom of heaven.
+Spirits always come there two and two, and along with him stood there
+another soul, which wanted also to get in, and this was no other than
+the old Mother Margrethe, from the house on the embankment.</p>
+
+<p>"It must surely be for the sake of contrast that I and yon paltry soul
+should come here at the same moment," said the reasoner. "Why, who are
+you, old one? Do you also expect to enter here?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>And the old woman courtesied as well as she could. She thought it was
+St. Peter himself who spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a miserable old creature without any family. My name is
+Margrethe."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, what have you done and effected down yonder?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have effected scarcely anything in yonder world&mdash;nothing that can
+tell in my favour here. It will be a pure act of mercy if I am
+permitted to enter this gate."</p>
+
+<p>"How did you leave yon world?" he asked, merely for something to say.
+He was tired of standing waiting there.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! how I left it I really do not know. I had been very poorly, often
+quite ill, for some years past, and I was not able latterly to leave
+my bed, and go out into the cold and frost. It was a very severe
+winter; but I was getting through it. For a couple of days there was a
+dead calm; but it was bitterly cold, as your honour may remember. The
+ice had remained so long on the ground, that the sea was frozen over
+as far as the eye could reach. The townspeople flocked in crowds to
+the ice. I could hear it all as I lay in my poor room. The same scene
+continued till late in the evening&mdash;till<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> the moon rose. From my bed I
+could see through the window far out beyond the seashore; and there
+lay on the horizon, just where the sea and sky seemed to meet, a
+singular-looking white cloud. I lay and looked at it; looked at the
+black spot in the middle of it, which became larger and larger; and I
+knew what that betokened, for I was old and experienced, though I had
+not often seen that sign. I saw it and shuddered. Twice before in my
+life had I seen that strange appearance in the sky, and I knew that
+there would be a terrible storm at the springtide, which would burst
+over the poor people out upon the ice, who were now drinking and
+rushing about, and amusing themselves. Young and old&mdash;the whole town
+in fact&mdash;were assembled yonder. Who was to warn them of coming danger,
+if none of them observed or knew what I now perceived? I became so
+alarmed, so anxious, that I got out of my bed, and crawled to the
+window. I was incapable of going further; but I put up the window,
+and, on looking out, I could see the people skating and sliding and
+running on the ice. I could see the gay flags, and could hear the boys
+shouting hurra, and the girls and the young men singing in chorus. All
+was jollity and merriment there. But higher and higher arose the white
+cloud with the black spot in it. I cried out as loud as I could, but
+nobody heard me. I was too far away from them. The wind would soon
+break loose, the ice give away, and all upon it sink, without any
+chance of rescue. Hear me they could not, and for me to go to them was
+impossible. Was there nothing that I could do to bring them back to
+land? Then our Lord inspired me with the idea of setting fire to my
+bed; it would be better that my house were to be burned down than that
+the many should meet with such a miserable death. Then I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> kindled the
+fire. I saw the red flames, and I gained the outside of the house; but
+I remained lying there. I could do no more, for my strength was
+exhausted. The blaze pursued me&mdash;it burst from the window, and out
+upon the roof. The crowds on the ice perceived it, and they came
+running as fast as they could to help me, a poor wretch, whom they
+thought would be burned in my bed. It was not one or two only who
+came&mdash;they all came. I heard them coming; but I also heard all at once
+the shrill whistle, the loud roar of the wind. I heard it thunder like
+the report of a cannon. The springtide lifted the ice, and suddenly it
+broke asunder; but the crowd had reached the embankment, where the
+sparks were flying over me. I had been the means of saving them all;
+but I was not able to survive the cold and fright, and so I have come
+up here to the gate of the kingdom of heaven; but I am told it is
+locked against such poor creatures as I. And now I have no longer a
+home down yonder on the embankment, though that does not insure me any
+admittance here."</p>
+
+<p>At that moment the gate of heaven was opened, and an angel took the
+old woman in. She dropped a straw; it was one of the pieces of straw
+which had stuffed the bed to which she had set fire to save the lives
+of many, and it had turned to pure gold, but gold that was flexible,
+and twisted itself into pretty shapes.</p>
+
+<p>"See! the poor old woman brought this," said the angel. "What dost
+thou bring? Ah! I know well; thou hast done nothing&mdash;not even so much
+as making a brick. If thou couldst go back again, and bring only so
+much as that, if done with good intentions, it would be something: as
+thou wouldst do it, however, it would be of no avail. But thou canst
+not go back, and I can do nothing for thee."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then the poor soul, the old woman from the house on the embankment,
+begged for him.</p>
+
+<p>"His brother kindly gave me all the stones with which I built my
+humble dwelling. They were a great gift to a poor creature like me.
+May not all these stones and fragments be permitted to value as one
+brick for him? It was a deed of mercy. He is now in want, and this is
+Mercy's home."</p>
+
+<p>"Thy brother whom thou didst think the most inferior to thyself&mdash;him
+whose honest business thou didst despise&mdash;shares with thee his
+heavenly portion. Thou shalt not be ordered away; thou shalt have
+leave to remain outside here to think over and to repent thy life down
+yonder; but within this gate thou shalt not enter until in good works
+thou hast performed <i>something</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"I could have expressed that sentence better," thought the conceited
+logician; but he did not say this aloud, and that was surely
+already&mdash;<span class="smcap">something</span>.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/image_14.jpg" width="150" height="148" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image_15.jpg" width="600" height="134" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+<h2><a name="The_Old_Oak_Trees_Last_Dream" id="The_Old_Oak_Trees_Last_Dream"></a><i>The Old Oak Tree's Last Dream.</i></h2>
+
+<h2>A CHRISTMAS TALE.</h2>
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="46" height="50" /></div>
+<p>here stood in a wood, high up on the side of a sloping hill near the
+open shore, a very old oak tree. It was about three hundred and
+sixty-five years old, but those long years were not more than as many
+single rotations of the earth for us men. We are awake during the day,
+and sleep during the night, and have then our dreams: with the tree it
+is otherwise. A tree is awake for three quarters of a year. It only
+sleeps in winter&mdash;that is <i>its</i> night&mdash;after the long day which is
+called spring, summer, and autumn.</p>
+
+<p>Many a warm summer day had the ephemeron insect frolicked round the
+oak tree's head&mdash;lived, moved about, and found itself happy; and when
+the little creature reposed for a moment in calm enjoyment on one of
+the great fresh oak leaves, the tree always said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Poor little thing! one day alone is the span of thy whole life. Ah,
+how short! It is very sad."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Sad!" the ephemeron always replied. "What dost thou mean by that?
+Everything is so charming, so warm and delightful, that I am quite
+happy."</p>
+
+<p>"But for only one day; then all is over."</p>
+
+<p>"All is over!" exclaimed the insect. "What is the meaning of 'all is
+over?' Is all over with thee also?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I may live, perhaps, thousands of thy days, and my lifetime is
+for centuries. It is so long a period that thou couldst not calculate
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"No, for I do not understand thee. Thou hast thousands of my days, but
+I have thousands of moments to be happy in. Is all the beauty in the
+world at an end when thou diest?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! by no means," replied the tree. "It will last longer&mdash;much, much
+longer than I can conceive."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I think we are much on a par, only that we reckon differently."</p>
+
+<p>And the ephemeron danced and floated about in the sunshine, and
+enjoyed itself with its pretty little delicate wings, like the most
+minute flower&mdash;enjoyed itself in the warm air, which was so fragrant
+with the sweet perfumes of the clover-fields, of the wild roses in the
+hedges, and of the elder-flower, not to speak of the woodbine, the
+primrose, and the wild mint. The scent was so strong that the
+ephemeron was almost intoxicated by it. The day was long and pleasant,
+full of gladness and sweet perceptions; and when the sun set, the
+little insect felt a sort of pleasing languor creeping over it after
+all its enjoyments. Its wings would no longer carry it, and very
+gently it glided down upon the soft blade of grass that was slightly
+waving in the evening breeze; there it drooped its tiny head, and fell
+into a calm sleep&mdash;the sleep of death.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Poor little insect!" exclaimed the oak tree, "thy life was far too
+short."</p>
+
+<p>And every summer's day were repeated a similar dance, a similar
+conversation, and a similar death. This went on with the whole
+generation of ephemera, and all were equally happy, equally gay. The
+oak tree remained awake during its spring morning, its summer day, and
+its autumn evening; now it was near its sleeping time, its night&mdash;the
+winter was close at hand.</p>
+
+<p>Already the tempests were singing, "Good night, good night! Thy leaves
+are falling&mdash;we pluck them, we pluck them! Try if thou canst slumber;
+we shall sing thee to sleep, we shall rock thee to sleep; and thy old
+boughs like this&mdash;they are creaking in their joy! Softly, softly
+sleep! It is thy three hundred and sixty-fifth night. Sleep calmly!
+The snow is falling from the heavy clouds; it will soon be a wide
+sheet, a warm coverlet for thy feet. Sleep calmly and dream
+pleasantly!"</p>
+
+<p>And the oak tree stood disrobed of all its leaves to go to rest for
+the whole long winter, and during that time to dream many dreams,
+often something stirring and exciting, like the dreams of human
+beings.</p>
+
+<p>It, too, had once been little. Yes, an acorn had been its cradle.
+According to man's reckoning of time it was now living in its fourth
+century. It was the strongest and loftiest tree in the wood, with its
+venerable head reared high above all the other trees; and it was seen
+far away at sea, and looked upon as a beacon by the navigators of the
+passing ships. It little thought how many eyes looked out for it. High
+up amidst its green coronal the wood-pigeons built their nests, and
+the cuckoo's note was heard from thence; and in the autumn,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> when the
+leaves looked like hammered plates of copper, came birds of passage,
+and rested there before they flew far over the sea. But now it was
+winter, and the tree stood leafless, and the bended and gnarled
+branches were naked. Crows and jackdaws came and sat themselves there
+alternately, and talked of the rigorous weather which was commencing,
+and how difficult it was to find food in winter.</p>
+
+<p>It was just at the holy Christmas time that the tree dreamt its most
+charming dream. Let us listen to it.</p>
+
+<p>The tree had a distinct idea that it was a period of some solemn
+festival; it thought it heard all the church bells round ringing, and
+it seemed to be a mild summer day. Its lofty head, it fancied, looked
+fresh and green, while the bright rays of the sun played among its
+thick foliage. The air was laden with the perfume of wild flowers;
+various butterflies chased each other in sport around its boughs, and
+the ephemera danced and amused themselves. All that during years the
+tree had known and seen around it now passed before it as in a festive
+procession. It beheld, as in the olden time, knights and ladies on
+horseback, with feathers in their hats and falcons on their hands,
+riding through the greenwood; it heard the horns of the huntsmen, and
+the baying of the hounds; it saw the enemies' troops, with their
+various uniforms, their polished armour, their lances and halberds,
+pitch their tents and take them down again; the watch-fires blazed,
+and the soldiers sang and slept under the sheltering branches of the
+tree. It beheld lovers meet in the soft moonlight, and cut their
+names&mdash;that first letter&mdash;upon its olive-green bark. Guitars and
+&AElig;olian harps were again&mdash;but there were very many years between
+them&mdash;hung up on the boughs of the tree by gay travelling swains, and
+again their sweet sounds broke<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> on the stillness around. The
+wood-pigeons cooed, as if they were describing the feelings of the
+tree, and the cuckoo told how many summer days it should yet live.</p>
+
+<p>Then it was as if a new current of life rushed from its lowest roots
+up to its highest branches, even to the farthest leaves; the tree felt
+that it extended itself therewith, yet it perceived that its roots
+down in the ground were also full of life and warmth; it felt its
+strength increasing, and that it was growing taller and taller. The
+trunk shot up&mdash;there was no pause&mdash;more and more it grew&mdash;its head
+became fuller, broader&mdash;and as the tree grew it became happier, and
+its desire increased to rise up still higher, even until it could
+reach the warm, blazing sun.</p>
+
+<p>Already had it mounted above the clouds, which, like multitudes of
+dark migratory birds, or flocks of white swans, were floating under
+it; and every leaf of the tree that had eyes could see. The stars
+became visible during the day, and looked so large and bright: each of
+them shone like a pair of mild, clear eyes. They might have recalled
+to memory dear, well-known eyes&mdash;the eyes of children&mdash;the eyes of
+lovers when they met beneath the tree.</p>
+
+<p>It was a moment of exquisite delight. Yet in the midst of its pleasure
+it felt a desire, a longing that all the other trees in the wood
+beneath&mdash;all the bushes, plants, and flowers&mdash;might be able to lift
+themselves like it, and to participate in its joyful and triumphant
+feelings. The mighty oak tree, in the midst of its glorious dream,
+could not be entirely happy unless it had all its old friends with it,
+great and small; and this feeling pervaded every branch and leaf of
+the tree as strongly as if it had lived in the breast of a human
+being.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The summit of the tree moved about as if it missed and sought
+something left behind. Then it perceived the scent of the woodbine,
+and soon the still stronger scent of the violets and wild thyme; and
+it fancied it could hear the cuckoo repeat its note.</p>
+
+<p>At length amidst the clouds peeped forth the tops of the green trees
+of the wood; they also grew higher and higher, as the oak had done;
+the bushes and the flowers shot up high in the air; and some of these,
+dragging their slender roots after them, flew up more rapidly. The
+birch was the swiftest among the trees: like a white flash of
+lightning it darted its slender stem upwards, its branches waving like
+green wreaths and flags. The wood and all its leafy contents, even the
+brown-feathered rushes, grew, and the birds followed them singing; and
+in the fluttering blades of silken grass the grasshopper sat and
+played with his wings against his long thin legs, and the wild bees
+hummed, and all was song and gladness as up in heaven.</p>
+
+<p>"But the blue-bell and the little wild tansy," said the oak tree; "I
+should like them with me too."</p>
+
+<p>"We are with you," they sang in their low, sweet tones.</p>
+
+<p>"But the pretty water-lily of last year, and the wild apple tree that
+stood down yonder, and looked so fresh, and all the forest flowers of
+years past, had they lived and bloomed till now, they might have been
+with me."</p>
+
+<p>"We are with you&mdash;we are with you," sang their voices far above, as if
+they had gone up before.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, this is quite enchanting," cried the old tree. "I have them
+all, small and great&mdash;not one is forgotten. How is all this happiness
+possible and conceivable?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"In the celestial paradise all this is possible and conceivable,"
+voices chanted around.</p>
+
+<p>And the tree, which continued to rise, observed that its roots were
+loosening from their hold in the earth.</p>
+
+<p>"This is well," said the tree. "Nothing now retains me. I am free to
+mount to the highest heaven&mdash;to splendour and light; and all that are
+dear to me are with me&mdash;small and great&mdash;all with me."</p>
+
+<p>"All!"</p>
+
+<p>This was the oak tree's dream; and whilst it dreamt a fearful storm
+had burst over sea and land that holy Christmas eve. The ocean rolled
+heavy billows on the beach&mdash;the tree rocked violently, and was torn up
+by the roots at the moment it was dreaming that its roots were
+loosening. It fell. Its three hundred and sixty-five years were now as
+but the day of the ephemeron.</p>
+
+<p>On Christmas morning, when the sun arose, the storm was passed. All
+the church bells were ringing joyously; and from every chimney, even
+the lowest in the peasant's cot, curled from the altars of the
+Druidical feast the blue smoke of the thanksgiving oblation. The sea
+became more and more calm, and on a large vessel in the offing, which
+had weathered the tempest during the night, were hoisted all its flags
+in honour of the day.</p>
+
+<p>"The tree is gone&mdash;that old oak tree which was always our landmark!"
+cried the sailors. "It must have fallen in the storm last night. Who
+shall replace it? Alas! no one can."</p>
+
+<p>This was the tree's funeral oration&mdash;short, but well meant&mdash;as it lay
+stretched at full length amidst the snow upon the shore, and over it
+floated the melody of the psalm tunes from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> the ship&mdash;hymns of
+Christmas joy, and thanksgivings for the salvation of the souls of
+mankind by Jesus Christ, and the blessed promise of everlasting life.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Let sacred songs arise on high,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Loud hallelujahs reach the sky;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let joy and peace each mortal share,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While hymns of praise shall fill the air."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Thus ran the old psalm, and every one out yonder, on the deck of the
+ship, lifted up his voice in thanksgiving and prayer, just as the old
+oak tree was lifted up in its last and most delightful dream on that
+Christmas eve.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/image_16.jpg" width="150" height="147" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image_17.jpg" width="600" height="102" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+<h2><a name="The_Wind_relates_the_Story_of_Waldemar_Daae_and_his_Daughters" id="The_Wind_relates_the_Story_of_Waldemar_Daae_and_his_Daughters"></a><i>The Wind relates the Story of Waldemar Daae and his Daughters.</i></h2>
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w1.jpg" alt="W" width="70" height="50" /></div>
+<p>hen the wind sweeps over the grass it ripples like water; when it
+sweeps over the corn, it undulates like waves of the sea. All that is
+the wind's dance. But listen to what the wind tells. It sings it
+aloud, and it is repeated amidst the trees in the wood, and carried
+through the loopholes and the chinks in the wall. Look how the wind
+chases the skies up yonder, as if they were a flock of sheep! Listen
+how the wind howls below through the half-open gate, as if it were the
+warder blowing his horn! Strangely does it sound down the chimney and
+in the fireplace; the fire flickers under it; and the flames, instead
+of ascending, shoot out towards the room, where it is warm and
+comfortable to sit and listen to it. Let the wind speak. It knows more
+tales and adventures than all of us put together. Hearken now to what
+it is about to relate.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It blew a tremendous blast: that was a prelude to its story.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"There lay close to the Great Belt an old castle with thick red
+walls," said the wind. "I knew every stone in it. I had seen them
+before, when they were in Marshal Stig's castle at the N&aelig;s. It was
+demolished. The stones were used again, and became new walls&mdash;a new
+building&mdash;at another place, and that was Borreby Castle as it now
+stands. I have seen and known the high-born ladies and gentlemen, the
+various generations that have dwelt in it; and now I shall tell about
+<span class="smcap">Waldemar Daae and his Daughters</span>.</p>
+
+<p>"He held his head so high: he was of royal extraction. He could do
+more than hunt a stag and drain a goblet: that would be proved some
+day, he said to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"His proud lady, apparelled in gold brocade, walked erect over her
+polished inlaid floor. The tapestry was magnificent, the furniture
+costly, and beautifully carved; vessels of gold and silver she had in
+profusion; there were stores of German ale in the cellars; handsome
+spirited horses neighed in the stables; all was superb within Borreby
+Castle when wealth was there.</p>
+
+<p>"And children were there; three fine girls&mdash;Id&eacute;, Johann&eacute;, and Anna
+Dorthea. I remember their names well even now.</p>
+
+<p>"They were rich people, they were people of distinction&mdash;born in
+grandeur, and brought up in it. Wheugh&mdash;wheugh!" whistled the wind;
+then it continued the tale.</p>
+
+<p>"I never saw there, as in other old mansions, the high-born lady
+sitting in her boudoir with her maidens and spinning-wheels. She
+played on the lute, and sang to it, though never the old Danish
+ballads, but songs in foreign languages.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> Here were banqueting and
+mirth, titled guests came from far and near, music's tones were heard,
+goblets rang. I could not drown the noise," said the wind. "Here were
+arrogance, ostentation, and display; here was power, but not <span class="smcap">our
+Lord</span>."</p>
+
+<p>"It was one May-day evening," said the wind. "I came from the
+westward. I had seen ships crushed into wrecks on the west coast of
+Jutland. I had hurried over the dreary heaths and green woody coast,
+had crossed the island of Funen, and swept over the Great Belt, and I
+was hoarse with blowing. Then I laid myself down to rest on the coast
+of Zealand, near Borreby, where there stood the forest and the
+charming meadows. The young men from the neighbourhood assembled
+there, and collected brushwood and branches of trees, the largest and
+driest they could find. They carried them to the village, laid them in
+a heap, and set fire to it; then they and the village girls sang and
+danced round it.</p>
+
+<p>"I lay still," said the wind; "but I softly stirred one branch&mdash;one
+which had been placed on the bonfire by the handsomest youth. His
+piece of wood blazed up, blazed highest. He was chosen the leader of
+the rustic game, became 'the wild boar,' and had the first choice
+among the girls for his 'pet lamb.' There were more happiness and
+merriment amongst them than up at the grand house at Borreby.</p>
+
+<p>"And then from the great house at Borreby came, driving in a gilded
+coach with six horses, the noble lady and her three daughters, so
+fine, so young&mdash;three lovely blossoms&mdash;rose, lily, and the pale
+hyacinth. The mother herself was like a flaunting tulip; she did not
+deign to notice one of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> crowd of villagers, though they stopped
+their game, and courtesied and bowed with profound respect.</p>
+
+<p>"Rose, lily, and the pale hyacinth&mdash;yes, I saw them all three. Whose
+'pet lambs' should they one day become? I thought. The 'wild boar' for
+each of them would assuredly be a proud knight&mdash;perhaps a prince.
+Wheugh&mdash;wheugh!</p>
+
+<p>"Well, their equipage drove on with them, and the young peasants went
+on with their dancing. And the summer advanced in the village near
+Borreby, in Tj&aelig;reby, and all the surrounding towns.</p>
+
+<p>"But one night when I arose," continued the wind, "the great lady was
+lying ill, never to move again. That something had come over her which
+comes over all mankind sooner or later: it is nothing new. Waldemar
+Daae stood in deep and melancholy thought for a short time. 'The
+proudest tree may bend, but not break,' said he to himself. The
+daughters wept; but at last they all dried their eyes at the great
+house, and the noble lady was carried away; and I also went away,"
+said the wind.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"I returned&mdash;I returned soon, over Funen and the Belt, and set myself
+down by Borreby beach, near the large oak wood. There water-wagtails,
+wood-pigeons, blue ravens, and even black storks built their nests. It
+was late in the year: some had eggs, and some had young birds. How
+they were flying about, and how they were shrieking! The strokes of
+the axe were heard&mdash;stroke after stroke. The trees were to be felled.
+Waldemar Daae was going to build a costly ship, a man-of-war with
+three decks, which the king would be glad to purchase: and therefore
+the wood&mdash;the seamen's landmark,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> the birds' home&mdash;was to be
+sacrificed. The great red-backed shrike flew in alarm&mdash;his nest was
+destroyed; the ravens and all the other birds had lost their homes,
+and flew wildly about with cries of distress and anger. I understood
+them well. The crows and the jackdaws screamed high in derision, 'From
+the nest&mdash;from the nest! Away&mdash;away!'</p>
+
+<p>"And in the midst of the wood, looking on at the crowd of labourers,
+stood Waldemar Daae and his three daughters, and they all laughed
+together at the wild cries of the birds; but his youngest daughter,
+Anna Dorthea, was sorry for them in her heart; and when the men were
+about to cut down a partially decayed tree, amidst whose naked
+branches the black storks had built their nests, and from which the
+tiny little ones peeped out their heads, she begged it might be
+spared. She begged&mdash;begged with tears in her eyes; and the tree was
+permitted to remain with the nest of black storks. It was not a great
+boon after all.</p>
+
+<p>"The fine trees were cut down, the wood was sawn, and a large ship
+with three decks was built. The master shipbuilder himself was of low
+birth, but of noble appearance. His eyes and his forehead evinced how
+clever he was, and Waldemar Daae liked to listen to his conversation;
+so also did little Id&eacute;, his eldest daughter, who was fifteen years of
+age. And while he was building the ship for the father, he was also
+building castles in the air for himself, wherein he and Id&eacute; sat as man
+and wife; and that might have happened had the castles been of stone
+walls, with ramparts and moats, woods and gardens. But, with all his
+talents, the master shipbuilder was but a humble bird. What should a
+sparrow do in an eagle's nest?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Wheugh&mdash;wheugh! I flew away, and he flew away, for he dared not
+remain longer; and little Id&eacute; got over his departure, for she was
+obliged to get over it.</p>
+
+<p>"Splendid dark chargers neighed in the stables, worth being looked at;
+and they were looked at and admired. An admiral was sent by the king
+himself to examine the new man-of-war, and to make arrangements for
+its purchase. He praised the spirited horses loudly. I heard him
+myself," said the wind. "I followed the gentlemen through the open
+door, and strewed straw before their feet. Waldemar Daae wanted gold,
+the admiral wanted the horses&mdash;he admired them so much; but the
+bargain was not concluded, nor was the ship bought&mdash;the ship that was
+lying near the strand, with its white planks&mdash;a Noah's ark that was
+never to be launched upon the deep.</p>
+
+<p>"Wheugh! It was a sad pity.</p>
+
+<p>"In the winter time, when the fields were covered with snow, drift-ice
+filled the Belt, and I screwed it up to the shore," said the wind.
+"Then came ravens and crows, all as black as they could be, in large
+flocks. They perched themselves upon the deserted, dead, lonely ship,
+that lay high up on the beach; and they cried and lamented, with their
+hoarse voices, about the wood that was gone, the many precious birds'
+nests that were laid waste, the old ones rendered homeless, the little
+ones rendered homeless; and all for the sake of a great lumbering
+thing, a gigantic vessel, that never was to float upon the deep.</p>
+
+<p>"I whirled the snow in the snow storms, and raised the snow-drifts.
+The snow lay like a sea high around the vessel. I let it hear my
+voice, and know what a tempest can say. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> knew if I exerted myself it
+would get some of the knowledge other ships have.</p>
+
+<p>"And winter passed&mdash;winter and summer; they come and go as I come and
+go; the snow melts, the apple blossom blooms, the leaves fall&mdash;all is
+change, change, and with mankind among the rest.</p>
+
+<p>"But the daughters were still young&mdash;little Id&eacute; a rose, beautiful to
+look at, as the shipbuilder had seen her. Often did I play with her
+long brown hair, when, under the apple tree in the garden, she was
+standing lost in thought, and did not observe that I was showering
+down the blossoms upon her head. Then she would start, and gaze at the
+red sun, and the golden clouds around it, through the space among the
+dark foliage of the trees.</p>
+
+<p>"Her sister Johann&eacute; resembled a lily&mdash;fair, slender, and erect; and,
+like her mother, she was stately and haughty. It was a great pleasure
+to her to wander up and down the grand saloon where hung the portraits
+of her ancestors. The high-born dames were painted in silks and
+velvets, with little hats looped up with pearls on their braided
+locks&mdash;they were beautiful ladies. Their lords were depicted in steel
+armour, or in costly mantles trimmed with squirrels' fur, and wearing
+blue ruffs; the sword was buckled round the thigh, and not round the
+loins. Johann&eacute;'s own portrait would hang at some future day on that
+wall, and what would her noble husband be like? Yes, she thought of
+this, and she said this in low accents to herself. I heard her when I
+rushed through the long corridor into the saloon, and out again.</p>
+
+<p>"Anna Dorthea, the pale hyacinth, who was only fourteen years of age,
+was quiet and thoughtful. Her large swimming blue eyes looked somewhat
+pensive, but a childish smile<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> played around her mouth, and I could
+not blow it off; nor did I wish to do so.</p>
+
+<p>"I met her in the garden, in the ravine, in the fields. She was
+gathering plants and flowers, those which she knew her father made use
+of for the drinks and drops he was fond of distilling. Waldemar Daae
+was arrogant and conceited, but also he had a great deal of knowledge.
+Everybody knew that, and everybody talked in whispers about it. Even
+in summer a fire burned in his private cabinet; its doors were always
+locked. He passed days and nights there, but he spoke little about his
+pursuits. The mysteries of nature are studied in silence. He expected
+soon to discover its greatest secret&mdash;the transmutation of other
+substances into gold.</p>
+
+<p>"It was for this that smoke was ever issuing from the chimney of his
+laboratory; for this that sparks and flames were always there. And I
+was there too," said the wind. "'Hollo, hollo!' I sang through the
+chimney. There were steam, smoke, embers, ashes. 'You will burn
+yourself up&mdash;take care, take care!' But Waldemar Daae did <i>not</i> take
+care.</p>
+
+<p>"The splendid horses in the stables, what became of them?&mdash;the silver
+and the gold plate, the cows in the fields, the furniture, the house
+itself? Yes, they could be smelted&mdash;smelted in the crucibles; and yet
+no gold was obtained.</p>
+
+<p>"All was empty in the barns and in the pantry, in the cellars and in
+the loft. The fewer people, the more mice. One pane of glass was
+cracked, another was broken. I did not require to go in by the door,"
+said the wind. "When the kitchen chimney is smoking, dinner is
+preparing; but there the smoke rolled from the chimney for that which
+devoured all repasts&mdash;for the yellow gold.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I blew through the castle gate like a warder blowing his horn; but
+there was no warder," said the wind. "I turned the weathercock above
+the tower&mdash;it sounded like a watchman snoring inside the tower; but no
+watchman was there&mdash;it was only kept by rats and mice. Poverty
+presided at the table&mdash;poverty sat in the clothes' chests and in the
+store-rooms. The doors fell off their hinges&mdash;there came cracks and
+crevices everywhere. I went in, and I went out," said the wind;
+"therefore I knew what was going on.</p>
+
+<p>"Amidst smoke and ashes&mdash;amidst anxiety and sleepless nights&mdash;Waldemar
+Daae's hair had turned grey; so had his beard and the thin locks on
+his forehead; his skin had become wrinkled and yellow, his eyes ever
+straining after gold&mdash;the expected gold.</p>
+
+<p>"I whisked smoke and ashes into his face and beard: debts came instead
+of gold. I sang through the broken windows and cracked walls&mdash;came
+moaning in to the daughter's cheerless room, where the old bed-gear
+was faded and threadbare, but had still to hold out. Such a song was
+not sung at the children's cradles. High life had become wretched
+life. I was the only one then who sang loudly in the castle," said the
+wind. "I snowed them in, and they said they were comfortable. They had
+no wood to burn&mdash;the trees had been felled from which they would have
+got it. It was a sharp frost. I rushed through loopholes and
+corridors, over roofs and walls, to keep up my activity. In their poor
+chamber lay the three aristocratic daughters in their bed to keep
+themselves warm. To be as poor as church mice&mdash;that was high life!
+Wheugh! Would they give it up? But Herr Daae could not.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'After winter comes spring,' said he. 'After want come good times;
+but they make one wait. The castle is now mortgaged&mdash;we have arrived
+at the worst&mdash;we shall have gold now at Easter!'</p>
+
+<p>"I heard him murmuring near a spider's web:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'Thou active little weaver! thou teachest me to persevere. Even if
+thy web be swept away thou dost commence again, and dost complete it.
+Again let it be torn asunder, and, unwearied, thou dost again
+recommence thy work over and over again. I shall follow thy example. I
+will go on, and I shall be rewarded.'</p>
+
+<p>"It was Easter morning&mdash;the church bells were ringing. The sun was
+careering in the heavens. Under a burning fever the alchemist had
+watched all night: he had boiled and cooled&mdash;mixed and distilled. I
+heard him sigh like a despairing creature; I heard him pray; I
+perceived that he held his breath in his anxiety. The lamp had gone
+out&mdash;he did not seem to notice it. I blew on the red-hot cinders; they
+brightened up, and shone on his chalky-white face, and tinged it with
+a momentary brightness. The eyes had almost closed in their deep
+sockets; now they opened wider&mdash;wider&mdash;as if they were about to spring
+forth.</p>
+
+<p>"Look at the alchemical glass! There is something sparkling in it! It
+is glowing, pure, heavy! He lifted it with a trembling hand. He cried
+with trembling lips, 'Gold&mdash;gold!' He staggered, and seemed quite
+giddy at the sight. I could have blown him away," said the wind; "but
+I only blew in the ruddy fire, and followed him through the door in to
+where his daughters were freezing. His dress was covered with ashes;
+they were to be seen in his beard, and in his matted hair. He raised
+his head proudly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> stretched forth his rich treasure in the fragile
+glass, and 'Won&mdash;won! gold!' he cried, as he held high in the air the
+glass that glittered in the dazzling sunshine. But his hand shook, and
+the alchemical glass fell to the ground, and broke into a thousand
+pieces. The last bubble of his prosperity had burst. Wheugh&mdash;wheugh!
+And I darted away from the alchemist's castle.</p>
+
+<p>"Later in the year, during the short days, when fogs come with their
+damp drapery, and wring out wet drops on the red berries and the
+leafless trees, I came in a hearty humour, sent breezes aloft to clear
+the air, and began to sweep down the rotten branches. That was no hard
+work, but it was a useful one. There was sweeping of another sort
+within Borreby Castle, where Waldemar Daae dwelt. His enemy, Ov&eacute;
+Ramel, from Basn&aelig;s, was there, with the mortgage bonds upon the
+property and the dwelling-house, which he had purchased. I thundered
+against the cracked window-panes, slammed the rickety doors, whistled
+through the cracks and crevices, 'Wheu-gh!' Herr Ov&eacute; should have no
+pleasure in the prospect of living there. Id&eacute; and Anna Dorthea wept
+bitterly. Johann&eacute; stood erect and composed; but she looked very pale,
+and bit her lips till they bled. Much good would that do! Ov&eacute; Ramel
+vouchsafed his permission to Herr Daae to remain at the castle during
+the rest of his days; but he got no thanks for the offer. I overheard
+all that passed. I saw the homeless man draw himself up haughtily, and
+toss his head; and I sent a blast against the castle and the old
+linden trees, so that the thickest branch among them broke, though it
+was not rotten. It lay before the gate like a broom, in case something
+had to be swept out; and to be sure there <i>was</i> a clean sweep.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It was a sad day, a cruel hour, a heavy trial to sustain; but the
+heart was hard&mdash;the neck was stiff.</p>
+
+<p>"They possessed nothing but the clothes they had on. Yes, they had a
+newly-bought alchemist's glass, which was filled with what had been
+wasted on the floor: it had been scraped up, the treasure promised,
+but not yielded. Waldemar Daae concealed this near his breast, took
+his stick in his hand, and the once wealthy man went, with his three
+daughters, away from Borreby Castle. I blew coldly on his wan cheeks,
+and ruffled his grey beard and his long white hair. I sang around
+them, 'Wheu-gh&mdash;wheu-gh!'</p>
+
+<p>"There was an end to all their grandeur!</p>
+
+<p>"Id&eacute; and Anna Dorthea walked on each side of their father; Johann&eacute;
+turned round at the gate. Why did she do so? Fortune would not turn.
+She gazed at the red stones of the wall, the stones from Marshal
+Stig's castle, and she thought of his daughters:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'The eldest took the younger's hand,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And out in the wide world they went.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>She thought upon that song. Here there were three, and their father
+was with them. They passed as beggars over the same road where they
+had so often driven in their splendid carriage to <span class="smcap">Smidstrup Mark</span>, to a
+house with mud floors that was let for ten marks a year&mdash;their new
+manor-house, with bare walls and empty closets. The crows and the
+jackdaws flew after them, and cried, as if in derision, 'From the
+nest&mdash;from the nest! away&mdash;away!' as the birds had screeched at
+Borreby Wood when the trees were cut down.</p>
+
+<p>"And thus they entered the humble house at Smidstrup Mark, and I
+wandered away over moors and meadows,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> through naked hedges and
+leafless woods, to the open sea&mdash;to other lands. Wheugh&mdash;wheugh!
+On&mdash;on&mdash;on!"</p>
+
+<p>What became of Waldemar Daae? What became of his daughters? The wind
+will tell.</p>
+
+<p>"The last of them I saw was Anna Dorthea, the pale hyacinth. She had
+become old and decrepit: that was about fifty years after she had left
+the castle. She lived the longest&mdash;she saw them all out."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"Yonder, on the heath, near the town of Viborg, stood the dean's
+handsome house, built of red granite. The smoke rolled plentifully
+from its chimneys. The gentle lady and her beautiful daughters sat on
+the balcony, and looked over their pretty garden on the brown heath.
+At what were they gazing? They were looking at the storks' nests, on a
+castle that was almost in ruins. The roof, where there was any roof,
+was covered with moss and houseleeks; but the best part of it
+sustained the storks' nests&mdash;that was the only portion which was in
+tolerable repair.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a place to look at, not to dwell in. I had to be cautious with
+it," said the wind. "For the sake of the storks the house was allowed
+to stand, else it was really a disgrace to the heath. The dean would
+not have the storks driven away; so the dilapidated building was
+permitted to remain, and a poor woman was permitted to live in it. She
+had to thank the Egyptian birds for that&mdash;or was it a reward for
+having formerly begged that the nests of their wild black kindred
+might be spared in Borreby Wood? <i>Then</i> the wretched pauper was a
+young girl&mdash;a lovely pale hyacinth in the noble flower parterre. She
+remembered it well&mdash;poor Anna Dorthea!</p>
+
+<p>"'Oh! oh! Yes, mankind can sigh as the wind does amidst<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> the sedges
+and the rushes&mdash;Oh! No church bell tolled at <i>thy</i> death, Waldemar
+Daae! No charity-school children sang over his grave when the former
+lord of Borreby was laid in the cold earth! Oh, all shall come to an
+end, even misery! Sister Id&eacute; became a peasant's wife. That was the
+hardest trial to her poor father. His daughter's husband a lowly serf,
+who could be obliged by his master to perform the meanest tasks! He,
+too, is now under the sod, and thou art there with him, unhappy Id&eacute;! O
+yes&mdash;O yes! it was not all over, even then; for I am left a poor, old,
+helpless creature. Blessed Christ! take me hence!'</p>
+
+<p>"Such was Anna Dorthea's prayer in the ruined castle, where she was
+permitted to live&mdash;thanks to the storks.</p>
+
+<p>"The boldest of the sisters I disposed of," said the wind. "She
+dressed herself in men's clothes, went on board a ship as a poor boy,
+and hired herself as a sailor. She spoke very little, and looked very
+cross, but was willing to work. She was a bad hand at climbing,
+however; so I blew her overboard before any one had found out that she
+was a female; and I think that was very well done on my part," said
+the wind.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"It was one Easter morning, the anniversary of the very day on which
+Waldemar Daae had fancied that he had found out the secret of making
+gold, that I heard under the storks' nests, from amidst the crumbling
+walls, a psalm tune&mdash;it was Anna Dorthea's last song.</p>
+
+<p>"There was no window. There was only a hole in the wall. The sun came
+like a mass of gold, and placed itself there. It shone in brightly.
+Her eyes closed&mdash;her heart broke! They would have done so all the
+same, had the sun not that morning blazed in upon her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The storks had provided a roof over her head until her death.</p>
+
+<p>"I sang over her grave," said the wind; "I had also sung over her
+father's grave, for I knew where it was, and none else did.</p>
+
+<p>"New times came&mdash;new generations. The old highway had disappeared in
+inclosed fields. Even the tombs, that were fenced around, have been
+converted into a new road; and the railway's steaming engine, with its
+lines of carriages, dashes over the graves, which are as much
+forgotten as the names of those who moulder into dust in them!
+Wheugh&mdash;wheugh!</p>
+
+<p>"This is the history of Waldemar Daae and his daughters. Let any one
+relate it better who can," said the wind, turning round.</p>
+
+<p>And he was gone!</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/image_18.jpg" width="150" height="152" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image_19.jpg" width="600" height="140" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+<h2><a name="The_Girl_who_Trod_upon_Bread" id="The_Girl_who_Trod_upon_Bread"></a><i>The Girl who Trod upon Bread.</i></h2>
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_y.jpg" alt="Y" width="50" height="50" /></div>
+<p>ou have doubtless heard of the girl who trod upon bread, not to soil
+her pretty shoes, and what evil this brought upon her. The tale is
+both written and printed.</p>
+
+<p>She was a poor child, but proud and vain. She had a bad disposition,
+people said. When she was little more than an infant it was a pleasure
+to her to catch flies, to pull off their wings, and maim them
+entirely. She used, when somewhat older, to take lady-birds and
+beetles, stick them all upon a pin, then put a large leaf or a piece
+of paper close to their feet, so that the poor things held fast to it,
+and turned and twisted in their endeavours to get off the pin.</p>
+
+<p>"Now the lady-birds shall read," said little Inger. "See how they turn
+the paper!"</p>
+
+<p>As she grew older she became worse instead of better; but she was very
+beautiful, and that was her misfortune. She would have been punished
+otherwise, and in the long run she was.</p>
+
+<p>"You will bring evil on your own head," said her mother.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"As a little child you used often to tear my aprons; I fear that when
+you are older you will break my heart."</p>
+
+<p>And she did so sure enough.</p>
+
+<p>At length she went into the country to wait on people of distinction.
+They were as kind to her as if she had been one of their own family;
+and she was so well dressed that she looked very pretty, and became
+extremely arrogant.</p>
+
+<p>When she had been a year in service her employers said to her,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You should go and visit your relations, little Inger."</p>
+
+<p>She went, resolved to let them see how fine she had become. When,
+however, she reached the village, and saw the lads and lasses
+gossiping together near the pond, and her mother sitting close by on a
+stone, resting her head against a bundle of firewood which she had
+picked up in the forest, Inger turned back. She felt ashamed that she
+who was dressed so smartly should have for her mother such a ragged
+creature, one who gathered sticks for her fire. It gave her no concern
+that she was expected&mdash;she was so vexed.</p>
+
+<p>A half year more had passed.</p>
+
+<p>"You must go home some day and see your old parents, little Inger,"
+said the mistress of the house. "Here is a large loaf of white
+bread&mdash;you can carry this to them; they will be rejoiced to see you."</p>
+
+<p>And Inger put on her best clothes and her nice new shoes, and she
+lifted her dress high, and walked so carefully, that she might not
+soil her garments or her feet. There was no harm at all in that. But
+when she came to where the path went over some damp marshy ground, and
+there were water and mud in the way, she threw the bread into the
+mud,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> in order to step upon it and get over with dry shoes; but just
+as she had placed one foot on the bread, and had lifted the other up,
+the bread sank in with her deeper and deeper, till she went entirely
+down, and nothing was to be seen but a black bubbling pool.</p>
+
+<p>That is the story.</p>
+
+<p>What became of the girl? She went below to the <i>Old Woman of the
+Bogs</i>, who brews down there. The Old Woman of the Bogs is an aunt of
+the fairies. <i>They</i> are very well known. Many poems have been written
+about them, and they have been printed; but nobody knows anything more
+of the Old Woman of the Bogs than that, when the meadows and the
+ground begin to reek in summer, it is the old woman below who is
+brewing. Into her brewery it was that Inger sank, and no one could
+hold out very long there. A cesspool is a charming apartment compared
+with the old Bog-woman's brewery. Every vessel is redolent of horrible
+smells, which would make any human being faint, and they are packed
+closely together and over each other; but even if there were a small
+space among them which one might creep through, it would be
+impossible, on account of all the slimy toads and snakes that are
+always crawling and forcing themselves through. Into this place little
+Inger sank. All this nauseous mess was so ice-cold that she shivered
+in every limb. Yes, she became stiffer and stiffer. The bread stuck
+fast to her, and it drew her as an amber bead draws a slender thread.</p>
+
+<p>The Old Woman of the Bogs was at home. The brewery was that day
+visited by the devil and his dam, and she was a venomous old creature
+who was never idle. She never went out without having some needlework
+with her. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> had brought some there. She was sewing running leather
+to put into the shoes of human beings, so that they should never be at
+rest. She embroidered lies, and worked up into mischief and discord
+thoughtless words, that would otherwise have fallen to the ground.
+Yes, she knew how to sew and embroider, and transfer with a vengeance,
+that old grandam!</p>
+
+<p>She beheld Inger, put on her spectacles, and looked at her.</p>
+
+<p>"That is a girl with talents," said she. "I shall ask for her as a
+<i>souvenir</i> of my visit here; she may do very well as a statue to
+ornament my great-grandchildren's antechamber;" and she took her.</p>
+
+<p>It was thus little Inger went to the infernal regions. People do not
+generally go straight through the air to them: they can go by a
+roundabout path when they know the way.</p>
+
+<p>It was an antechamber in an infinity. One became giddy there at
+looking forwards, and giddy at looking backwards, and there stood a
+crowd of anxious, pining beings, who were waiting and hoping for the
+time when the gates of grace should be opened. They would have long to
+wait. Hideous, large, waddling spiders wove thousands of webs over
+their feet; and these webs were like gins or foot-screws, and held
+them as fast as chains of iron, and were a cause of disquiet to every
+soul&mdash;a painful annoyance. Misers stood there, and lamented that they
+had forgotten the keys of their money chests. It would be too tiresome
+to repeat all the complaints and troubles that were poured forth
+there. Inger thought it shocking to stand there like a statue: she
+was, as it were, fastened to the ground by the bread.</p>
+
+<p>"This comes of wishing to have clean shoes," said she to herself. "See
+how they all stare at me!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Yes, they did all stare at her; their evil passions glared from their
+eyes, and spoke, without sound, from the corner of their mouths: they
+were frightful.</p>
+
+<p>"It must be a pleasure to them to see me," thought little Inger. "I
+have a pretty face, and am well dressed;" and she dried her eyes. She
+had not lost her conceit. She had not then perceived how her fine
+clothes had been soiled in the brewhouse of the Old Woman of the Bogs.
+Her dress was covered with dabs of nasty matter; a snake had wound
+itself among her hair, and it dangled over her neck; and from every
+fold in her garment peeped out a toad, that puffed like an asthmatic
+lap-dog. It was very disagreeable. "But all the rest down here look
+horrid too," was the reflection with which she consoled herself.</p>
+
+<p>But the worst of all was the dreadful hunger she felt. Could she not
+stoop down and break off a piece of the bread on which she was
+standing? No; her back was stiffened; her hands and her arms were
+stiffened; her whole body was like a statue of stone; she could only
+move her eyes, and these she could turn entirely round, and that was
+an ugly sight. And flies came and crept over her eyes backwards and
+forwards. She winked her eyes; but the intruders did not fly away, for
+they could not&mdash;their wings had been pulled off. That was another
+misery added to the hunger&mdash;the gnawing hunger that was so terrible to
+bear!</p>
+
+<p>"If this goes on I cannot hold out much longer," she said.</p>
+
+<p>But she had to hold out, and her sufferings became greater.</p>
+
+<p>Then a warm tear fell upon her head. It trickled over her face and her
+neck, all the way down to the bread. Another tear fell, then many
+followed. Who was weeping over little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> Inger? Had she not a mother up
+yonder on the earth? The tears of anguish which a mother sheds over
+her erring child always reach it; but they do not comfort the
+child&mdash;they burn, they increase the suffering. And oh! this
+intolerable hunger; yet not to be able to snatch one mouthful of the
+bread she was treading under foot! She became as thin, as slender as a
+reed. Another trial was that she heard distinctly all that was said of
+her above on the earth, and it was nothing but blame and evil. Though
+her mother wept, and was in much affliction, she still said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Pride goes before a fall. That was your great fault, Inger. Oh, how
+miserable you have made your mother!"</p>
+
+<p>Her mother and all who were acquainted with her were well aware of the
+sin she had committed in treading upon bread. They knew that she had
+sunk into the bog, and was lost; the cowherd had told that, for he had
+seen it himself from the brow of the hill.</p>
+
+<p>"What affliction you have brought on your mother, Inger!" exclaimed
+her mother. "Ah, well! I expected no better from you."</p>
+
+<p>"Would that I had never been born!" thought Inger; "that would have
+been much better for me. My mother's whimpering can do no good now."</p>
+
+<p>She heard how the family, the people of distinction who had been so
+kind to her, spoke. "She was a wicked child," they said; "she valued
+not the gifts of our Lord, but trod them under her feet. It will be
+difficult for her to get the gates of grace open to admit her."</p>
+
+<p>"They ought to have brought me up better," thought Inger. "They should
+have taken the whims out of me, if I had any."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She heard that there was a common ballad made about her, "the bad girl
+who trod upon bread, to keep her shoes nicely clean," and this ballad
+was sung from one end of the country to the other.</p>
+
+<p>"That any one should have to suffer so much for such as that&mdash;be
+punished so severely for such a trifle!" thought Inger. "All these
+others are punished justly, for no doubt there was a great deal to
+punish; but ah, how I suffer!"</p>
+
+<p>And her heart became still harder than the substance into which she
+had been turned.</p>
+
+<p>"No one can be better in such society. I will not grow better here.
+See how they glare at me!"</p>
+
+<p>And her heart became still harder, and she felt a hatred towards all
+mankind.</p>
+
+<p>"They have a nice story to tell up there now. Oh, how I suffer!"</p>
+
+<p>She listened, and heard them telling her history as a warning to
+children, and the little ones called her "ungodly Inger." "She was so
+naughty," they said, "so very wicked, that she deserved to suffer."</p>
+
+<p>The children always spoke harshly of her. One day, however, that
+hunger and misery were gnawing her most dreadfully, and she heard her
+name mentioned, and her story told to an innocent child&mdash;a little
+girl&mdash;she observed that the child burst into tears in her distress for
+the proud, finely-dressed Inger.</p>
+
+<p>"But will she never come up again?" asked the child.</p>
+
+<p>The answer was,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"She will never come up again."</p>
+
+<p>"But if she will beg pardon, and promise never to be naughty again?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But she will <i>not</i> beg pardon," they said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how I wish she would do it!" sobbed the little girl in great
+distress. "I will give my doll, and my doll's house too, if she may
+come up! It is so shocking for poor little Inger to be down there!"</p>
+
+<p>These words touched Inger's heart; they seemed almost to make her
+good. It was the first time any one had said "poor Inger," and had not
+dwelt upon her faults. An innocent child cried and prayed for her. She
+was so much affected by this that she felt inclined to weep herself;
+but she could not, and this was an additional pain.</p>
+
+<p>Years passed on in the earth above; but down where she was there was
+no change, except that she heard more and more rarely sounds from
+above, and that she herself was more seldom mentioned. At last one day
+she heard a sigh, and "Inger, Inger, how miserable you have made me! I
+foretold that you would!" These were her mother's last words on her
+deathbed.</p>
+
+<p>And again she heard herself named by her former employers, and her
+mistress said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I may meet you once more, Inger. None know whither they are
+to go."</p>
+
+<p>But Inger knew full well that her excellent mistress would never come
+to the place where <i>she</i> was.</p>
+
+<p>Time passed on, and on, slowly and wretchedly. Then once more Inger
+heard her name mentioned, and she beheld as it were, directly above
+her, two clear stars shining. These were two mild eyes that were
+closing upon earth. So many years had elapsed since a little girl had
+cried in childish sorrow over "poor Inger," that that child had become
+an old woman, whom our Lord was now about to call to himself. At<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> that
+hour, when the thoughts and the actions of a whole life stand in
+review before the parting soul, she remembered how, as a little child,
+she had wept bitterly on hearing the history of Inger. That time, and
+those feelings, stood so prominently before the old woman's mind in
+the hour of death, that she cried with intense emotion,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Lord, my God! have not I often, like Inger, trod under foot Thy
+blessed gifts, and placed no value on them? Have I not often been
+guilty of pride and vanity in my secret heart? But Thou, in Thy mercy,
+didst not let me sink; Thou didst hold me up. Oh, forsake me not in my
+last hour!"</p>
+
+<p>And the aged woman's eyes closed, and her spirit's eyes opened to what
+had been formerly invisible; and as Inger had been present in her
+latest thoughts, she beheld her, and perceived how deep she had been
+dragged downwards. At that sight the gentle being burst into tears;
+and in the kingdom of heaven she stood like a child, and wept for the
+fate of the unfortunate Inger. Her tears and her prayers sounded like
+an echo down in the hollow form that confined the imprisoned,
+miserable soul. That soul was overwhelmed by the unexpected love from
+those realms afar. One of God's angels wept for her! Why was this
+vouchsafed to her? The tortured spirit gathered, as it were, into one
+thought, all the actions of its life&mdash;all that it had done; and it
+shook with the violence of its remorse&mdash;remorse such as Inger had
+never felt. Grief became her predominating feeling. She thought that
+for her the gates of mercy would never open, and as in deep contrition
+and self-abasement she thought thus, a ray of brightness penetrated
+into the dismal abyss&mdash;a ray more vivid and glorious than the sunbeams
+which thaw the snow figures that the children<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> make in their gardens.
+And this ray, more quickly than the snow-flake that falls upon a
+child's warm mouth can be melted into a drop of water, caused Inger's
+petrified figure to evaporate, and a little bird arose, following the
+zigzag course of the ray, up towards the world that mankind inhabit.
+But it seemed afraid and shy of everything around it; it felt ashamed
+of itself; and apparently wishing to avoid all living creatures, it
+sought, in haste, concealment in a dark recess in a crumbling wall.
+Here it sat, and it crept into the farthest corner, trembling all
+over. It could not sing, for it had no voice. For a long time it sat
+quietly there before it ventured to look out and behold all the beauty
+around. Yes, it was beauty! The air was so fresh, yet so soft; the
+moon shone so clearly; the trees and the flowers scented so sweetly;
+and it was so comfortable where she sat&mdash;her feather garb so clean and
+nice! How all creation told of love and glory! The grateful thoughts
+that awoke in the bird's breast she would willingly have poured forth
+in song, but the power was denied to her. Yes, gladly would she have
+sung as do the cuckoo and the nightingale in spring. Our gracious
+Lord, who hears the mute worm's hymn of praise, understood the
+thanksgiving that lifted itself up in the tones of thought, as the
+psalm floated in David's mind before it resolved itself into words and
+melody.</p>
+
+<p>As weeks passed on these unexpressed feelings of gratitude increased.
+They would surely find a voice some day, with the first stroke of the
+wing, to perform some good act. Might not this happen?</p>
+
+<p>Now came the holy Christmas festival. The peasants raised a pole close
+by the old wall, and bound an unthrashed bundle of oats on it, that
+the birds of the air might also enjoy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> the Christmas, and have plenty
+to eat at that time which was held in commemoration of the redemption
+brought to mankind.</p>
+
+<p>And the sun rose brightly that Christmas morning, and shone upon the
+oat-sheaf, and upon all the chirping birds that flew around the pole;
+and from the wall issued a faint twittering. The swelling thoughts had
+at last found vent, and the low sound was a hymn of joy, as the bird
+flew forth from its hiding-place.</p>
+
+<p>The winter was an unusually severe one. The waters were frozen thickly
+over; the birds and the wild animals in the woods had great difficulty
+in obtaining food. The little bird, that had so recently left its dark
+solitude, flew about the country roads, and when it found by chance a
+little corn dropped in the ruts, it would eat only a single grain
+itself, while it called all the starving sparrows to partake of it. It
+would also fly to the villages and towns, and look well about; and
+where kind hands had strewed crumbs of bread outside the windows for
+the birds, it would eat only one morsel itself, and give all the rest
+to the others.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the winter the bird had found and given away so many
+crumbs of bread, that the number put together would have weighed as
+much as the loaf upon which little Inger had trodden in order to save
+her fine shoes from being soiled; and when she had found and given
+away the very last crumb, the grey wings of the bird became white, and
+expanded wonderfully.</p>
+
+<p>"It is flying over the sea!" exclaimed the children who saw the white
+bird. Now it seemed to dip into the ocean, now it arose into the clear
+sunshine; it glittered in the air; it disappeared high, high above;
+and the children said that it had flown up to the sun.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 148px;">
+<img src="images/image_03.jpg" width="148" height="147" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image_20.jpg" width="600" height="134" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+<h2><a name="Ole_the_Watchman_of_the_Tower" id="Ole_the_Watchman_of_the_Tower"></a><i>Ol&eacute;, the Watchman of the Tower.</i></h2>
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="&quot;I" width="54" height="50" /></div>
+<p>n the world it is always going up and down, and down and up again;
+but I can't go higher than I am," said Ol&eacute;, the watchman of the church
+tower. "Ups and downs most people have to experience; in point of
+fact, we each become at last a kind of tower-watchman&mdash;we look at life
+and things from above."</p>
+
+<p>Thus spoke Ol&eacute; up in the lofty tower&mdash;my friend the watchman, a
+cheerful, chatty old fellow, who seemed to blurt everything out at
+random, though there were, in reality, deep and earnest feelings
+concealed in his heart. He had come of a good stock; some people even
+said that he was the son of a <i>Conferentsraad</i>,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> or might have been
+that. He had studied, had been a teacher's assistant, assistant clerk
+in the church; but these situations had not done much for him. At one
+time he lived at the chief clerk's, and was to have bed and board
+free. He was then young, and somewhat particular about his dress, as I
+have heard. He insisted on having his boots <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>polished and brushed with
+blacking, but the head clerk would only allow grease; and this was a
+cause of dissension between them. The one talked of stinginess, the
+other talked of foolish vanity. The blacking became the dark
+foundation of enmity, and so they parted; but what he had demanded
+from the clerk he also demanded from the world&mdash;real blacking; and he
+always got its substitute, grease; so he turned his back upon all
+mankind, and became a hermit. But a hermitage coupled with a
+livelihood is not to be had in the midst of a large city except up in
+the steeple of a church. Thither he betook himself, and smoked his
+pipe in solitude. He looked up, and he looked down; reflected
+according to his fashion upon all he saw, and all he did not see&mdash;on
+what he read in books, and what he read in himself.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> A Danish title.</p></div>
+
+<p>I often lent him books, good books; and people can converse about
+these, as everybody knows. He did not care for fashionable English
+novels, he said, nor for French ones either&mdash;they were all too
+frivolous. No, he liked biographies, and books that relate to the
+wonders of nature. I visited him at least once a year, generally
+immediately after the New Year. He had then always something to say
+that the peculiar period suggested to his thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>I shall relate what passed during two of my visits, and give his own
+words as nearly as I can.</p>
+
+
+<h3>THE FIRST VISIT.</h3>
+
+<p>Among the books I had last lent Ol&eacute; was one about pebbles, and it
+pleased him extremely.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sure enough they are veterans from old days, these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> pebbles,"
+said he; "and yet we pass them carelessly by. I have myself often done
+so in the fields and on the beach, where they lie in crowds. We tread
+them under foot in some of our pathways, these fragments from the
+remains of antiquity. I have myself done that; but now I hold all
+these pebble-formed pavements in high respect. Thanks for that book;
+it has driven old ideas and habits of thinking aside, and has replaced
+them by other ideas, and made me eager to read something more of the
+same kind. The romance of the earth is the most astonishing of all
+romances. What a pity that one cannot read the first portion of
+it&mdash;that it is composed in a language we have not learned! One must
+read it in the layers of the ground, in the strata of the rocks, in
+all the periods of the earth. It was not until the sixth part that the
+living and acting persons, Mr. Adam and Mrs. Eve, were introduced,
+though some will have it they came immediately. That, however, is all
+one to me. It is a most eventful tale, and we are all in it. We go on
+digging and groping, but always find ourselves where we were; yet the
+globe is ever whirling round, and without the waters of the world
+overwhelming us. The crust we tread on holds together&mdash;we do not fall
+through it; and this is a history of a million of years, with constant
+advancement. Thanks for the book about the pebbles. They could tell
+many a strange tale if they were able.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it not pleasant once and away to become like a Nix, when one is
+perched so high as I am, and then to remember that we all are but
+minute ants upon the earth's ant-hill, although some of us are
+distinguished ants, some are laborious, and some are indolent ants?
+One seems to be so excessively young by the side of these million
+years old, reverend pebbles.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> I was reading the book on New Year's
+eve, and was so wrapped up in it that I forgot my accustomed amusement
+on that night, looking at 'the wild host to Amager,' of which you may
+have heard.</p>
+
+<p>"The witches' journey on broomsticks is well known&mdash;that takes place
+on St. John's night, and to Bloksberg. But we have also the wild host,
+here at home and in our own time, which goes to Amager every New
+Year's eve. All the bad poets and poetesses, newspaper writers,
+musicians, and artists of all sorts, who come before the public, but
+make no sensation&mdash;those, in short, who are very mediocre, ride&mdash;on
+New Year's eve, out to Amager: they sit astride on their pencils or
+quill pens. Steel pens don't answer, they are too stiff. I see this
+troop, as I have said, every New Year's eve. I could name most of
+them, but it is not worth while to get into a scrape with them; they
+do not like people to know of their Amager flight upon quill pens. I
+have a kind of a cousin, who is a fisherman's wife, and furnishes
+abusive articles to three popular periodicals: she says she has been
+out there as an invited guest. She has described the whole affair.
+Half that she says, of course, are lies, but part might be true. When
+she was there they commenced with a song; each of the visitors had
+written his own song, and each sang his own composition: they all
+performed together, so it was a kind of 'cats' chorus'. Small groups
+marched about, consisting of those who labour at improving that gift
+which is called 'the gift of the gab:' they had their own shrill
+songs. Then came the little drummers, and those who write without
+giving their names&mdash;that is to say, whose grease is imposed on people
+for blacking; then there were the executioners, and the puffers of bad
+wares. In the midst of all the merriment,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> as it must have been, that
+was going on, shot up from a pit a stem, a tree, a monstrous flower, a
+large toadstool, and a cupola. These were the Utopian productions of
+the honoured assembly, the entire amount of their offerings to the
+world during the past year. Sparks flew from these various objects;
+they were the thoughts and ideas which had been borrowed or stolen,
+which now took wings to themselves, and flew away as if by magic. My
+cousin told me a good deal more, which, though laughable, was too
+malicious for me to repeat.</p>
+
+<p>"I always watch this wild host fly past every New Year's eve; but on
+the last one, as I told you, I neglected to look at them, for I was
+rolling away in thought upon the round pebbles&mdash;rolling through
+thousands and thousands of years. I saw them detached from rocks far
+away in the distant north; saw them driven along in masses of ice
+before Noah's ark was put together; saw them sink to the bottom, and
+rise again in a sand-bank, which grew higher and higher above the
+water; and I said, 'That will be Zealand!' It became the resort of
+birds of various species unknown to us&mdash;the home of savage chiefs as
+little known to us, until the axe cut the Runic characters which then
+brought them into our chronology. As I was thus musing three or four
+falling stars attracted my eye. My thoughts took another turn. Do you
+know what falling stars are? The scientific themselves do not know
+what they are. I have my own ideas about them. How often in secret are
+not thanks and blessings poured out on those who have done anything
+great or good! Sometimes these thanks are voiceless, but they do not
+fall to the ground. I fancy that they are caught by the sunshine, and
+that the sunbeam brings the silent, secret praise down over the head
+of the benefactor. If<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> it be an entire people that through time bestow
+their thanks, then the thanks come as a banquet&mdash;fall like a falling
+star over the grave of the benefactor. It is one of my pleasures,
+especially when on a New Year's eve I observe a falling star, to
+imagine to whose grave the starry messenger of gratitude is speeding.
+One of the last falling stars I saw took its blazing course towards
+the south-west. For whom was it dispatched? It fell, I thought, on the
+slope by Flensborg Fiord, where the Danish flag waves over
+Schleppegrell's, L&aelig;ss&ouml;e's, and their comrades' graves. One fell in the
+centre of the country near Sor&ouml;. It was a banquet for Holberg's
+grave&mdash;a thank offering of years from many&mdash;a thank offering for his
+splendid comedies! It is a glorious and gratifying fancy that a
+falling star could illumine our graves. That will not be the case with
+mine; not even a single sunbeam will bring me thanks, for I have done
+nothing to deserve them. I have not even attained to blacking," said
+Ol&eacute;; "my lot in life has been only to get grease."</p>
+
+
+<h3>THE SECOND VISIT.</h3>
+
+<p>It was on a New Year's day that I again ascended to the church tower.
+Ol&eacute; began to speak of toasts. We drank one to the transition from the
+old drop in eternity to the new drop in eternity, as he called the
+year. Then he gave me his story about the glasses, and there was some
+sense in it.</p>
+
+<p>"When the clocks strike twelve on New Year's night every one rises
+from table with a brimful glass, and drinks to the New Year. To
+commence the year with a glass in one's hand is a good beginning for a
+drunkard. To begin the year<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> by going to bed is a good beginning for a
+sluggard. Sleep will, in the course of his year, play a prominent
+part; so will the glass.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what dwells in glasses?" he asked. "There dwell in them
+health, glee, and folly. Within them dwell, also, vexations and bitter
+calamity. When I count up the glasses I can tell the gradations in the
+glass for different people. The first glass, you see, is the glass of
+health; in it grow health-giving plants. Stick to that one glass, and
+at the end of the year you can sit peacefully in the leafy bowers of
+health.</p>
+
+<p>"If you take the second glass a little bird will fly out of it,
+chirping in innocent gladness, and men will laugh and sing with it,
+'Life is pleasant. Away with care, away with fear!'</p>
+
+<p>"From the third glass springs forth a little winged creature&mdash;a little
+angel he cannot well be called, for he has Nix blood and a Nix mind.
+He does not come to tease, but to amuse. He places himself behind your
+ear, and whispers some humorous idea; he lays himself close to your
+heart and warms it, so that you become very merry, and fancy yourself
+the cleverest among a set of great wits.</p>
+
+<p>"In the fourth glass is neither plant, bird, nor little figure: it is
+the boundary line of sense, and beyond that line let no one go.</p>
+
+<p>"If you take the fifth glass you will weep over yourself&mdash;you will be
+foolishly happy, or become stupidly noisy. From this glass will spring
+Prince Carnival, flippant and crack-brained. He will entice you to
+accompany him; you will forget your respectability, if you have any;
+you will forget more than you ought or dare forget. All is pleasure,
+gaiety,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> excitement; the maskers carry you off with them; the
+daughters of the Evil One, in silks and flowers, come with flowing
+hair and voluptuous charms. Escape them if you can.</p>
+
+<p>"The sixth glass! In that sits Satan himself&mdash;a well-dressed,
+conversable, lively, fascinating little man&mdash;who never contradicts
+you, allows that you are always in the right&mdash;in fact, seems quite to
+adopt all your opinions. He comes with a lantern to convey you home to
+his own habitation. There is an old legend about a saint who was to
+choose one of the seven mortal sins, and he chose, as he thought, the
+least&mdash;drunkenness; but in that state he perpetrated all the other six
+sins. The human nature and the devilish nature mingle. This is the
+sixth glass; and after that all the germs of evil thrive in us, every
+one of them spreading with a rapidity and vigour that cause them to be
+like the mustard-seed in the Bible, 'which, indeed, is the least of
+all seeds; but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs, and
+becometh a tree.' Most of them have nothing before them but to be cast
+into the furnace, and be smelted there.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the story of the glasses," said Ol&eacute;, the watchman of the
+church tower; "and it applies both to those who use blacking, and to
+those who use only grease."</p>
+
+<p>Such was the result of the second visit to Ol&eacute;. More may be
+forthcoming at some future time.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 149px;">
+<img src="images/image_21.jpg" width="149" height="148" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image_22.jpg" width="600" height="136" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+<h2><a name="Anne_Lisbeth_or_The_Apparition_of_the_Beach" id="Anne_Lisbeth_or_The_Apparition_of_the_Beach"></a><i>Anne Lisbeth; or, The Apparition of the Beach.</i></h2>
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="49" height="50" /></div>
+<p>nne Lisbeth was like milk and blood, young and happy, lovely to look
+at; her teeth were so dazzlingly white, her eyes were so clear; her
+foot was light in the dance, and her head was still lighter. What did
+all this lead to? To no good. "The vile creature!" "She was not
+pretty!"</p>
+
+<p>She was placed with the grave-digger's wife, and from thence she went
+to the count's splendid country-seat, where she lived in handsome
+rooms, and was dressed in silks and fineries; not a breath of wind was
+to blow on her; no one dared to say a rough word to her, nothing was
+to be done to annoy her; for she nursed the count's son and heir, who
+was as carefully tended as a prince, and as beautiful as an angel. How
+she loved that child! Her own child was away from her&mdash;he was in the
+grave-digger's house, where there was more hunger than plenty, and
+where often there was no one at home. The poor deserted child cried,
+but what nobody<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> hears nobody cares about. He cried himself to sleep,
+and in sleep one feels neither hungry nor thirsty: sleep is,
+therefore, a great blessing. In the course of time Anne Lisbeth's
+child shot up. Ill weeds grow apace, it is said: and this poor weed
+grew, and seemed a member of the family, who were paid for keeping
+him. Anne Lisbeth was quite free of him. She was a village fine lady,
+had everything of the best, and wore a smart bonnet whenever she went
+out. But she never went to the grave-digger's; it was so far from
+where she lived, and she had nothing to do there. The child was under
+their charge; <i>he</i> who paid its board could well afford it, and the
+child would be taken very good care of.</p>
+
+<p>The watch-dog at the lord of the manor's bleach-field sits proudly in
+the sunshine outside of his kennel, and growls at every one that goes
+past. In rainy weather he creeps inside, and lies down dry and
+sheltered. Anne Lisbeth's boy sat on the side of a ditch in the
+sunshine, amusing himself by cutting a bit of stick. In spring he saw
+three strawberry bushes in bloom: they would surely bear fruit. This
+was his pleasantest thought; but there was no fruit. He sat out in the
+drizzling rain, and in the heavy rain&mdash;was wet to the skin&mdash;and the
+sharp wind dried his clothes upon him. If he went to the farm-houses
+near, he was thumped and shoved about. He was "grim-looking and ugly,"
+the girls and the boys said. What became of Anne Lisbeth's boy? What
+<i>could</i> become of him? It was his fate to be "<i>never loved</i>."</p>
+
+<p>At length he was transferred from his joyless village life to the
+still worse life of a sailor boy. He went on board a wretched little
+vessel, to stand by the rudder while the skipper drank. Filthy and
+disgusting the poor boy looked; starving and benumbed with cold he
+was. One would have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> thought, from his appearance, that he never had
+been well fed; and, indeed, that was the fact.</p>
+
+<p>It was late in the year; it was raw, wet, stormy weather; the cold
+wind penetrated even through thick clothing, especially at sea; and
+only two men on board were too few to work the sails; indeed, it might
+be said only one man and a half&mdash;the master and his boy. It had been
+black and gloomy all day; now it became still more dark, and it was
+bitterly cold. The skipper took a dram to warm himself. The flask was
+old, and so was the glass; its foot was broken off, but it was
+inserted into a piece of wood painted blue, which served as a stand
+for it. If one dram was good, two would be better, thought the master.
+The boy stood by the helm, and held on to it with his hard,
+tar-covered hands. He looked frightened. His hair was rough, and he
+was wrinkled, and stunted in his growth. The young sailor was the
+grave-digger's boy; in the church register he was called Anne
+Lisbeth's son.</p>
+
+<p>The wind blew as it list; the sail flapped, then filled; the vessel
+flew on. It was wet, chill, dark as pitch; but worse was yet to come.
+Hark! What was that? With what had the boat come in contact? What had
+burst? What seemed to have caught it? It shifted round. Was it a
+sudden squall? The boy at the helm cried aloud, "In the name of
+Jesus!" The little bark had struck on a large sunken rock, and sank as
+an old shoe would sink in a small pool&mdash;sank with men and mice on
+board, as the saying is; and there certainly were mice, but only one
+man and a half&mdash;the skipper and the grave-digger's boy. None witnessed
+the catastrophe except the screaming sea-gulls and the fishes below;
+and even they did not see much of it, for they rushed aside in alarm
+when the water gushed thundering into the little vessel as it sank.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+Scarcely a fathom beneath the surface it stood; yet the two human
+beings who had been on board were lost&mdash;lost&mdash;forgotten! Only the
+glass with the blue-painted wooden foot did not sink; the wooden foot
+floated it. But the glass was broken when it was washed far up on the
+beach. How and when? That is of no consequence. It had served its
+time, and it had been liked; that Anne Lisbeth's child had never been.
+But in the kingdom of heaven no soul can say again, "Never loved!"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Anne Lisbeth resided in the large market town, and had done so for
+some years. She was called "Madam," and held her head very high,
+especially when she spoke of old reminiscences of the time she had
+passed at the count's lordly mansion, when she used to drive out in a
+carriage, and used to converse with countesses and baronesses. Her
+sweet nursling, the little count, was a lovely angel, a darling
+creature. She was so fond of him, and he had been so fond of her. How
+she used to pet him, and how he used to kiss her! He was her
+delight&mdash;was as dear to her as herself. He was now quite a big boy; he
+was fourteen years of age, and had plenty of learning and
+accomplishments. She had not seen him since she carried him in her
+arms. It was many years since she had been at the count's castle, for
+it was such a long way off.</p>
+
+<p>"But I must go over and see them again," said Anne Lisbeth. "I must go
+to my noble friends, to my darling child, the young count&mdash;yes, yes,
+for he is surely longing to see me. He thinks of me, he loves me as he
+did when he used to throw his little cherub arms round my neck and
+lisp, 'An Lis!' Oh, it was like a violin! Yes, I must go over and see
+him again."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She went part of the way in the carrier's wagon, part of the way on
+foot. She arrived at the castle. It looked as grand and imposing as
+ever. The gardens were not at all changed; but the servants were all
+strangers. Not one of them knew anything about Anne Lisbeth. They did
+not know what an important person she had been in the house formerly;
+but surely the countess would tell them who she was, so would her own
+boy. How she longed to see them both!</p>
+
+<p>Well, Anne Lisbeth was there; but she had to wait a long time, and
+waiting is always so tedious. Before the family and their guests went
+to dinner she was called in to the countess, and very kindly spoken
+to. She was told she should see her dear boy after dinner, and after
+dinner she was sent for again.</p>
+
+<p>How much he had grown! How tall and thin! But he had the same charming
+eyes, and the same angelic mouth. He looked at her, but he did not say
+a word. It was evident that he did not remember her. He turned away,
+and was going, but she caught his hand and carried it to her lips.
+"Ah! well, that will do!" he said, and hastily left the room&mdash;he, the
+darling of her soul&mdash;he on whom her thoughts had centred for so many
+years&mdash;he whom she had loved the best&mdash;her greatest earthly pride!</p>
+
+<p>Anne Lisbeth left the castle, and turned into the open high road. She
+was very sad&mdash;he had been so cold and distant to her. He had not a
+word, not a thought for her who, by day and by night, had so cherished
+<i>him</i> in her heart.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment a large black raven flew across the road before her,
+screeching harshly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" she exclaimed, "what do you want, bird of ill omen that you
+are?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She passed by the grave-digger's house; his wife was standing in the
+doorway, and they spoke to each other.</p>
+
+<p>"You are looking very well," said the grave-digger's wife. "You are
+stout and hearty. The world goes well with you apparently."</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty well," replied Anne Lisbeth.</p>
+
+<p>"The little vessel has been lost," said the grave-digger's wife. "Lars
+the skipper, and the boy, are both drowned; so there is an end of that
+matter. I had hoped, though, that the boy might by and by have helped
+me with a shilling now and then. He never cost you anything, Anne
+Lisbeth."</p>
+
+<p>"Drowned are they?" exclaimed Anne Lisbeth; and she did not say
+another word on the subject&mdash;she was so distressed that her nursling,
+the young count, did not care to speak to her&mdash;she who loved him so
+much, and had taken such a long journey to see him&mdash;a journey that had
+cost her some money too. The pleasure she had received was not great,
+but she was not going to admit this. She would not say one word to the
+grave-digger's wife to lead her to think that she was no longer a
+person of consequence at the count's. The raven screeched again just
+over her head.</p>
+
+<p>"That horrid noise!" said Anne Lisbeth; "it has quite startled me
+to-day."</p>
+
+<p>She had brought some coffee-beans and chicory with her; it would be a
+kindness to the grave-digger's wife to make her a present of these;
+and, when she did so, it was agreed that they should take a cup of
+coffee together. The mistress of the house went to prepare it, and
+Anne Lisbeth sat down to wait for it. While waiting she fell asleep,
+and she dreamed of one of whom she had never before dreamt: that was
+very strange. She dreamed of her own child, who in that very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> house
+had starved and squalled, and never tasted anything better than cold
+water, and who now lay in the deep sea, our Lord only knew where. She
+dreamed that she was sitting just where she really was seated, and
+that the grave-digger's wife had gone to make some coffee, but had
+first to grind the coffee-beans, and that a beautiful boy stood in the
+doorway&mdash;a boy as charming as the little count had been; and the child
+said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The world is now passing away. Hold fast to me, for thou art my
+mother. Thy child is an angel in the kingdom of heaven. Hold fast to
+me!"</p>
+
+<p>And he seized her. But there was a frightful uproar around, as if
+worlds were breaking asunder; and the angel raised her up, and held
+her fast by the sleeves of her dress&mdash;so fast, it seemed to her, that
+she was lifted from the ground; but something hung so heavily about
+her feet, something lay so heavily on her back: it was as if hundreds
+of women were clinging fast to her, and crying, "If thou canst be
+saved, so may we. We will hold on&mdash;hold on!" and they all appeared to
+be holding on by her. Then the sleeves of her garments gave way, and
+she fell, overcome with terror.</p>
+
+<p>The sensation of fear awoke her, and she found herself on the point of
+falling off her chair. Her head was so confused that at first she
+could not remember what she had dreamt, though she knew it had been
+something disagreeable. The coffee was drunk, and Anne Lisbeth took
+her departure to the nearest village, where she might meet the
+carrier, and get him to convey her that evening to the town where she
+lived. But the carrier said he was not going until the following
+evening; and, on calculating what it would cost her to remain till
+then, she determined to walk home. She would not go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> by the high road,
+but by the beach: that was at least eight or nine miles shorter. The
+weather was fine, and it was full moon. She would be at home the next
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>The sun had set; the evening bells that had been chiming were hushed.
+All was still; not a bird was to be heard twittering among the
+leaves&mdash;they had all gone to rest: the owls were away. All was silence
+in the wood; and on the beach, where she was walking, she could hear
+her own foot fall on the sand. The very sea seemed slumbering; the
+waves rolled lazily and noiselessly on the shore, and away on the open
+deep there seemed to be a dead calm: not a line of foam, not a ripple
+was visible on the water. All were quiet beneath, the living and the
+dead.</p>
+
+<p>Anne Lisbeth walked on, and her thoughts were not engrossed by
+anything in particular. She was not at all lost in thought, but
+thoughts were not lost to her. They are never lost to us; they lie
+only in a state of torpor, as it were, both the lately active thoughts
+that have lulled themselves to rest, and those which have not yet
+awoke. But thoughts come often undesired; they can touch the heart,
+they can distract the head, they can at times overpower us.</p>
+
+<p>"Good actions have their reward," it is written.</p>
+
+<p>"The wages of sin is death," it is also written. Much is written&mdash;much
+is said. But many give no heed to the words of truth&mdash;they remember
+them not; and so it was with Anne Lisbeth; but they can force
+themselves upon the mind.</p>
+
+<p>All sins and all virtues lie in our hearts&mdash;in thine, in mine. They
+lie like small invisible seeds. From without fall upon them a sunbeam,
+or the contact of an evil hand&mdash;they take their bent in their hidden
+nook, to the right or to the left. Yes, there it is decided, and the
+little grain of seed quivers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> swells, springs up, and pours its juice
+into your blood, and there you are, fairly launched. These are
+thoughts fraught with anxiety; they do not haunt one when one is in a
+state of mental slumber, but they are fermenting. Anne Lisbeth was
+slumbering&mdash;hidden thoughts were fermenting. From Candlemas to
+Candlemas the heart has much on its tablets&mdash;it has the year's
+account. Much is forgotten&mdash;sins in word and deed against God, against
+our neighbour, and against our own consciences. We reflect little upon
+all this; neither did Anne Lisbeth. She had not broken the laws of her
+country, she kept up good appearances, she did not run in debt, she
+wronged no one; and so, well satisfied with herself, she walked on by
+the seashore. What was that lying in her path? She stopped. What was
+that washed up from the sea? A man's old hat lay there. It might have
+fallen overboard. She approached closer to it, stood still, and looked
+at it. Heavens! what was lying there? She was almost frightened; but
+there was nothing to be frightened at; it was only a mass of seaweed
+that lay twined over a large, oblong, flat rock, that was shaped
+something like a human being&mdash;it was nothing but seaweed. Still she
+felt frightened, and hastened on; and as she hurried on, many things
+she had heard in her childhood recurred to her thoughts, especially
+all the superstitious tales about "<i>the apparition of the beach</i>"&mdash;the
+spectre of the unburied that lay washed up on the lonely, deserted
+shore. The body thrown up from the deep, the dead body itself, she
+thought nothing of; but its ghost followed the solitary wanderer,
+attached itself closely to him or her, and demanded to be carried to
+the churchyard, to receive Christian burial.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on&mdash;hold on!" it was wont to say; and, as Anne Lisbeth repeated
+these words inwardly to herself, she suddenly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> remembered her strange
+dream, in which the women had clung to her, shrieking, "Hold on&mdash;hold
+on!" how the world had sunk; how her sleeves had given way, and she
+had fallen from the grasp of her child, who wished, in the hour of
+doom, to save her. Her child&mdash;her own flesh and blood&mdash;the little one
+she had never loved, never spared a thought to&mdash;that child was now at
+the bottom of the sea, and it might come like "the apparition of the
+beach," and cry, "Hold on&mdash;hold on! Give me Christian burial!" And as
+these thoughts crowded on her mind, terror gave wings to her feet, and
+she hurried faster and faster on; but fear came like a cold, clammy
+hand, and laid itself on her beating heart, so that she felt quite
+faint; and as she glanced towards the sea, she saw it looked dark and
+threatening; a thick mist arose, and soon spread around, lying heavily
+over the very trees and bushes, which assumed strange appearances
+through it.</p>
+
+<p>She turned round to look for the moon, which was behind her: it was
+like a pale disc, without any rays. Something seemed to hang heavily
+about her limbs as she attempted to hurry on. She thought of the
+apparition; and, turning again, she beheld the white moon as if close
+to her, while the mist seemed to hang like a mantle over her
+shoulders. "Hold on&mdash;hold on! Give me Christian burial!" she expected
+every moment to hear; and she did hear a hollow, terrific sound, which
+seemed to cry hoarsely, "Bury me&mdash;bury me!" Yes, it must be the
+spectre of her child&mdash;her child who was lying at the bottom of the
+sea, and who would not rest quietly until the corpse was carried to
+the churchyard, and placed like a Christian in consecrated ground. She
+would go there&mdash;she would dig his grave herself; and she went in the
+direction in which the church lay, and as she proceeded she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> felt her
+invisible burden become lighter&mdash;it left her; and again she returned
+to the shore to reach her home as speedily as possible. But no sooner
+did her foot tread the sands than the wild sound seemed to moan around
+her, and it seemed ever to repeat, "Bury me&mdash;bury me!"</p>
+
+<p>The fog was cold and damp; her hands and her face were cold and damp.
+She shivered in her fright. Without, space seemed to close up around
+her; within her there seemed to be endless room for thoughts that had
+never before entered her mind.</p>
+
+<p>During one spring night here in the north the beech groves can sprout,
+and the next day's early sun can shine on them in all their fresh
+young beauty. In one single second within us can the germ of sin bud
+forth, swelling by degrees into thoughts, words, and deeds, though all
+remorse for them lies dormant. <i>It</i> is quickened and unfolds itself in
+one single second, when conscience awakens; and our Lord awakens
+<i>that</i> when we least expect it. Then there is nothing to be excused;
+deeds stand forth and bear witness, thoughts find words, and words
+ring out over the world. We are shocked at what we have permitted to
+dwell within us, and not stifled; shocked at what, in our
+thoughtlessness or our presumption, we have scattered abroad. The
+heart is the depository of all virtues, but also of all vices; and
+these can thrive in the most barren ground.</p>
+
+<p>Anne Lisbeth reviewed in thought what we have expressed in words. She
+was overwhelmed with it all. She sank to the ground, and crawled a
+little way over it. "Bury me&mdash;bury me!" she still seemed to hear. She
+would rather have buried herself, if the grave could be an eternal
+forgetfulness of everything. It was the awakening hour of serious
+thought,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> of terrible thoughts, that made her shudder. Superstition
+came, too, by turns heating and chilling her blood; and things she
+would scarcely have ventured to mention rushed on her mind. Noiseless
+as the clouds that crossed the sky in the clear moonlight floated past
+her a vision she had heard of. Immediately before her sped four
+foaming horses, flames flashing from their eyes and from their
+distended nostrils; they drew a fiery chariot, in which sat the evil
+lord of the manor, who, more than a hundred years before, had dwelt in
+that neighbourhood. Every night, it is said, he drives to his former
+home, and then instantly turns back again. He was not white, as the
+dead are said to be: no, he was as black as a coal&mdash;a burnt-out coal.
+He nodded to Anne Lisbeth, and beckoned to her: "Hold on&mdash;hold on! So
+mayst thou again drive in a nobleman's carriage, and forget thine own
+child!"</p>
+
+<p>In still greater terror, and with still greater precipitation than
+before, she fled in the direction of the church. She reached the
+churchyard; but the dark crosses above the graves, and the dark
+ravens, seemed to mingle together before her eyes. The ravens
+screeched as they had screeched in the daytime; but she now understood
+what they said, and each cried, "I am a raven-mother; I am a
+raven-mother!" And Anne Lisbeth thought that they were taunting her.
+She fancied that she might, perhaps, be changed into such a dark bird,
+and might have to screech like them, if she could not get the grave
+demanded of her dug.</p>
+
+<p>And she threw herself down upon the ground, and she dug a grave with
+her hands in the hard earth, so that blood sprang from her fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"Bury me&mdash;bury me!" resounded still about her. She dreaded the crowing
+of the cock, and the first red streak in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> the east, because, if they
+came before her labours were ended, she would be lost. And the cock
+crowed, and in the east it began to be light. The grave was but half
+dug. An ice-cold hand glided over her head and her face, down to where
+her heart was. "Only half a grave!" sighed a voice near her; and
+something seemed to vanish away&mdash;vanish into the deep sea. It was "the
+apparition of the beach." Anne Lisbeth sank, terror-stricken and
+benumbed, on the ground. She had lost feeling and consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>It was broad daylight when she came to herself. Two young men lifted
+her up. She was lying, not in the churchyard, but down on the shore;
+and she had dug there a deep hole in the sand, and cut her fingers
+till they bled with a broken glass, the stem of which was stuck into a
+piece of wood painted blue. Anne Lisbeth was ill. Conscience had
+mingled in Superstition's game, and had imbued her with the idea that
+she had only half a soul&mdash;that her child had taken the other half away
+with him down to the bottom of the sea. Never could she ascend upwards
+towards the mercy-seat, until she had again the half soul that was
+imprisoned in the depths of the ocean. Anne Lisbeth was taken to her
+home, but she never was the same as she had formerly been. Her
+thoughts were disordered like tangled yarn; one thread alone was
+straight&mdash;that was to let "the apparition of the beach" see that a
+grave was dug for him in the churchyard, and thus to win back her
+entire soul.</p>
+
+<p>Many a night she was missed from her home, and she was always found on
+the seashore, where she waited for the spectre of the dead. Thus
+passed a whole year. Then she disappeared one night, and was not to be
+found. The whole of the next day they searched for her in vain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Towards the evening, when the bell-ringer entered the church to ring
+the evening chimes, he saw Anne Lisbeth lying before the altar. She
+had been there from a very early hour in the morning; her strength was
+almost exhausted, but her eyes sparkled, her face glowed with a sort
+of rosy tint. The departing rays of the sun shone in on her, and
+streamed over the altar-piece, and on the silver clasps of the Bible,
+that lay open at the words of the prophet Joel: "Rend your heart, and
+not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God." "It was a strange
+occurrence," people said&mdash;as if everything were chance.</p>
+
+<p>On Anne Lisbeth's countenance, when lighted up by the sun, were to be
+read peace and comfort. "She felt so well," she said. "She had won
+back her soul." During the night "the apparition of the beach"&mdash;her
+own child&mdash;had been with her, and it had said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Thou hast only dug half a grave for me; but now for a year and a day
+thou hast entombed me in thy heart, and there a mother best inters her
+child." And he had restored to her her lost half soul, and had led her
+into the church.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I am in God's house," said she, "and in it one is blessed."</p>
+
+<p>When the sun had sunk entirely Anne Lisbeth's spirit had soared far
+away up yonder, where there is no more fear when one's sins are
+blotted out; and hers, it might be hoped, had been blotted out by the
+Saviour of the world.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/image_09.jpg" width="150" height="151" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image_23.jpg" width="600" height="111" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+<h2><a name="Childrens_Prattle" id="Childrens_Prattle"></a><i>Children's Prattle</i>.</h2>
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="49" height="50" /></div>
+<p>t the merchant's house there was a large party of children&mdash;rich
+people's children and great people's children. The merchant was a man
+of good standing in society, and a learned man. He had taken, in his
+youth, a college examination. He had been kept to his studies by his
+worthy father, who had not gone very deep into learning himself, but
+was honest and active. He had made money, and the merchant had
+increased the fortune left to him. He had intellect, and heart too;
+but less was said of these good qualities than of his money.</p>
+
+<p>There visited at his house several distinguished persons, both people
+of birth, as it is called, and people of talents, as it is
+called&mdash;people who came under both of these heads, and people who came
+under neither of these heads. The meeting now in question was a
+children's party, where there was childish talk; and children
+generally speak like parrots.</p>
+
+<p>There was one little girl so excessively proud. She had been flattered
+into her foolish pride by the servants, not by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> her parents&mdash;they were
+too sensible to have done that. Her father was <i>Kammerjunker</i><a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> and
+she thought this was monstrously grand.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> A title at court.</p></div>
+
+<p>"I am a court child," she said.</p>
+
+<p>She might as well have been a cellar child, as far as she was herself
+concerned; and she informed the other children that she was "born"
+(<i>well born</i>, she meant); that when people were not "born," they could
+never be anybody; and that, however much they might read, however
+clever and industrious they might be, if they were not "born" they
+could never become great.</p>
+
+<p>"And those whose names end in '<i>sen</i>,'" she continued, "are all low
+people, and can never be of any consequence in the world. Ladies and
+gentlemen would put their hands on their sides, and keep them at a
+distance, these 'sen&mdash;sens!'" And she threw herself into the attitude
+she had described, and stuck her pretty little arms akimbo, to show
+how people of her grade would carry themselves in the presence of such
+common creatures. She really looked very pretty.</p>
+
+<p>But the merchant's little daughter became extremely angry. Her father
+was called "Madsen," and that name, she knew, ended in "sen;" so she
+said, as proudly as she could,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But my father can buy hundreds of rix dollars' worth of sugar-plums,
+and think nothing of it. Can your father do that?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's all very well," said the little daughter of a popular
+journalist; "but my father can put both of your fathers and all
+'fathers' into the newspaper. Every one is afraid of him, my mother
+says; for it is my father who rules everything <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>through the
+newspaper." And the little girl tossed her head and strutted about as
+if she thought herself a princess.</p>
+
+<p>But on the outside of the half-open door stood a poor little boy
+peeping in. It was, of course, out of the question that so poor a
+child should enter the drawing-room; but he had been turning the spit
+for the cook, and he had obtained permission to look in behind the
+door at the splendidly dressed children who were amusing themselves,
+and that was a treat to him.</p>
+
+<p>He would have liked to have been one of them, he thought; but at that
+moment he heard what had been said, and it was enough to make him very
+sad. Not one shilling had his parents at home to spare. They were not
+able to set up a newspaper, to say nothing of writing for one. And the
+worse was yet to come; for his father's name, and of course also his
+own name, certainly ended in "sen." He, therefore, could never become
+anybody in this world. This was very disheartening. Though he felt
+assured that he was <i>born</i>, it was impossible to think otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>This was what passed that evening.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Several years had elapsed, and during their course the children had
+grown up to be men and women.</p>
+
+<p>There stood in the town a handsome house, which was filled with
+magnificent objects of art. Every one went to see it. Even people who
+lived at a distance came to town to see it. Which prodigy, among the
+children we have spoken of, could call that edifice his or hers? It is
+easy to tell that. No; it is not so easy, after all. That house
+belonged to the poor little boy, who became somebody, although his
+name <i>did</i> end in "sen."&mdash;<span class="smcap">Thorwaldsen!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span></span></p>
+
+<p>And the three other children&mdash;the children of high birth, money, and
+literary arrogance? Well; there is nothing to be said about them. They
+are all alike. They grew up to be all very respectable, comfortable,
+and commonplace. They were well-meaning people. What they had formerly
+said and thought was only&mdash;<span class="smcap">children's prattle</span>.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/image_24.jpg" width="150" height="151" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image_25.jpg" width="600" height="138" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+<h2><a name="A_Row_of_Pearls" id="A_Row_of_Pearls"></a><i>A Row of Pearls.</i></h2>
+
+
+<h3>I.</h3>
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="46" height="50" /></div>
+<p>he railroad in Denmark extends no farther as yet than from Copenhagen
+to Kors&ouml;r. It is a row of pearls. Europe has a wealth of these. Its
+most costly pearls are named Paris, London, Vienna, Naples; though
+many a one does not point out these great cities as his most beautiful
+pearl, but, on the contrary, names some small, by no means remarkable
+town, for it is <i>his</i> home&mdash;the home where those he loves reside. Nay,
+sometimes it is but a country-seat&mdash;a small cottage hidden among green
+hedges&mdash;a mere spot that he hastens towards, while the railway train
+rushes on.</p>
+
+<p>How many pearls are there upon the line from Copenhagen to Kors&ouml;r? We
+will say six. Most people must remark these. Old remembrances and
+poetry itself bestow a radiance on these pearls, so that they shine in
+on our thoughts.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Near the rising ground where the palace of Frederick VI. stands&mdash;the
+home of Ochlenschl&auml;ger's childhood&mdash;shines, under the lee of
+Sondermarken's woody ground, one of these pearls. It is called the
+"Cottage of Philemon and Baucis;" that is to say, the home of two
+loving old people. Here dwelt Rahbek and his wife Camma; here, under
+their hospitable roof, were collected from the busy Copenhagen all the
+superior intellects of their day; here was the home of genius; and now
+say not, "Ah, how changed!" No; it is still the spirits' home&mdash;a
+hothouse for sickly plants. Buds that are not strong enough to expand
+into flowers, preserve, though hidden, all the germs of a luxuriant
+tree. Here the sun of mind shines in on a home of stagnant spirits,
+reviving and cheering it. The world around beams through the eyes into
+the soul's unfathomable depths. <i>The Idiot's Home</i>, surrounded by the
+love and kindness of human beings, is a holy place&mdash;a hothouse for
+those sickly plants that shall in future be transplanted to bloom in
+the garden of paradise. The weakest in the world are now gathered
+here, where once the greatest and the wisest met, exchanged thoughts,
+and were lifted upwards. Their memories will ever be associated with
+the "Cottage of Philemon and Baucis."</p>
+
+<p>The burial-place of kings by Hroar's spring&mdash;the ancient
+Roeskilde&mdash;lies before us. The cathedral's slender spires tower over
+the low town, and are reflected on the surface of the fiord. One grave
+alone shall we seek here; that shall not be the tomb of the mighty
+Margrethe&mdash;the union queen. No; within the churchyard, near whose
+white walls we have so closely flown, is the grave: a humble stone is
+laid over it. Here reposes the great organist&mdash;the reviver of the old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
+Danish romances. With the melodies we can recall the words,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The clear waves rolled,"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>and</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"There dwelt a king in Leir&eacute;."<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Roeskilde! thou burial-place of kings, in thy pearl we shall see the
+lonely grave on whose stone is chiselled a lyre and the name&mdash;<span class="smcap">Weyse.</span></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Leir&eacute;, the original residence of the Danish kings, said
+to have been founded by Skiold, a son of Odin, was, during the heathen
+ages, a place of note. It contained a large and celebrated temple for
+offerings, to which people thronged every ninth year, at the period of
+the great Yule feast, which was held annually in mid-winter,
+commencing on the 4th of January. In Norway this ancient festival was
+held in honour of Thor; in Denmark, in honour of Odin. Every ninth
+year the sacrifices were on a larger scale than usual, consisting then
+of ninety-nine horses, dogs, and cocks&mdash;human beings were also
+sometimes offered. When Christianity was established in Denmark the
+seat of royalty was transferred to Roeskilde, and Leir&eacute; fell into
+total insignificance. It is now merely a village in
+Zealand.&mdash;<i>Trans.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Now come we to Sigersted, near Ringsted. The river is shallow&mdash;the
+yellow corn waves where Hagbarth's boat was moored, not far from
+Sign&eacute;'s maiden bower. Who does not know the tradition about
+Hagbarth<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> and Signelil, and their passionate love&mdash;that Hagbarth was
+hanged in the galley, while Signelil's tower stood in flames?</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Hagbarth, a son of the Norwegian king, Amund, and his
+three brothers, Hake, Helvin, and Hamund, scoured the seas with a
+hundred ships, and fell in with the king of Zealand's three sons,
+Sivald, Alf, and Alger. They attacked each other, and continued their
+bloody strife until a late hour at night. Next day they all found
+their ships so disabled that they could not renew the conflict.
+Thereupon they made friends, and the Norwegian princes or pirates
+accompanied the Zealanders to the court of their father, King Sigar.
+Here Hagbarth won the heart of the king's daughter Sign&eacute;, and they
+became secretly engaged. Hildigeslev, a handsome German prince, was at
+that time her suitor; but she refused him, and in revenge he sowed
+discord between her lover and his brothers and her brothers. Alf and
+Alger murdered Hagbarth's brothers, Helvin and Hamund, but were killed
+in their turn by Hagbarth and Hake. After this deed Hagbarth dared not
+remain at Sigar's court; but he longed so much to be with Sign&eacute;, that
+he dressed himself as a woman, and in this disguise he obtained
+admission to the palace, and contrived to be named one of her
+attendants. The damsels of her suite were much surprised at the
+hardness of the new waiting-maid's hands, and at other unfeminine
+peculiarities which they remarked; but Sign&eacute; appointed him her
+especial attendant, and thus partially removed him from their
+troublesome curiosity. Fancying themselves safe, they relaxed their
+precautions. Hagbarth was discovered, secured, and carried before the
+<i>Thing</i>, or judicial assembly. Before he left her he received a
+promise from Sign&eacute; that she would not survive him. He was condemned to
+death; to be hanged on board a galley, in view of Sign&eacute;'s dwelling. To
+prove her love and faith, he entreated that his mantle might be hung
+up first, in order, he said, that the sight of it might prepare him
+for his own death. It was done; and when Sign&eacute; saw it she fancied her
+lover was dead, and instantly set fire to her abode. Hagbarth beheld
+the flames; and no longer doubting the constancy of the princess, he
+died rejoicing in following her to the other world.&mdash;<i>Trans.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<p>"Beautiful Sor&ouml;, encircled by woods!" thy tranquil, cloistered town
+peeps forth from among thy moss-covered trees; the keen bright eyes of
+youth gaze from the academy, over the lake, to the busy highway, where
+the locomotive's dragon snorts, while it is flying through the wood.
+Sor&ouml;, thou poet's pearl, that hast in thy custody the honoured dust of
+Holberg! like a majestic white swan by the deep lake stands thy
+far-famed seat of learning. We fix our eyes on it, and then they
+wander in search of the simple star-flower in the wooded ground&mdash;a
+small house. Pious hymns are chanted there, that echo over the length
+and breadth of the land; words are uttered <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>there to which the very
+rustics listen, and hear of Denmark's bygone ages. As the greenwood
+and the birds' songs belong to each other, so are associated the names
+of Sor&ouml; and <span class="smcap">Ingemann</span>.</p>
+
+<p>To Slagels&eacute;! What is the pearl that dazzles us here? The monastery of
+Antoorskov has vanished, even the last solitary remaining wing, though
+one old relic still exists&mdash;renovated and renovated again&mdash;a wooden
+cross upon the heights above, where, in legendary lore, it is said
+that <span class="smcap">Holy Anders</span>, the warrior priest, woke up, borne thither in one
+night from Jerusalem!</p>
+
+<p>Kors&ouml;r&mdash;there wert thou<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> born, who gave us</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Mirth with melancholy mingled,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In stories of 'Knud Sj&aelig;llandsfar.'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Jeus Baggesen.&mdash;<i>Trans.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Thou master of language and of wit! the old decaying ramparts of the
+deserted fortification are now the last visible mementos of thy
+childhood's home. When the sun is sinking, their shadows fall upon the
+spot where stood the house in which thine eyes first opened on the
+light. From these ramparts, looking towards Sprog&ouml;s hills, thou
+sawest, when thou "wert little,"</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The moon behind the island sink;"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>and sang it in undying verse, as afterwards thou didst sing the
+mountains of Switzerland; thou, who didst wander through the vast
+labyrinth of the world, and found that</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Nowhere do the roses seem so red&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Ah! nowhere else the thorn so small appears,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And nowhere makes the down so soft a bed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">As that where innocence reposed in bygone years!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Capricious, charming warbler! We will weave a wreath of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>woodbine. We
+will cast it into the waves, and they will bear it to Kielerfiord,
+upon whose coast thine ashes repose. It will bring a greeting from a
+younger race, a greeting from thy native town, Kors&ouml;r, where ends the
+row of pearls.</p>
+
+
+<h3>II.</h3>
+
+<p>"It is, truly enough, a row of pearls from Copenhagen to Kors&ouml;r," said
+my grandmother, who had heard read aloud what we have just been
+reading. "It is a row of pearls for me, and it was that more than
+forty years ago," she added. "We had no steam engines then. It took us
+days to make a journey which you can make now in a few hours. For
+instance, in 1815, I was then one-and-twenty years old. That is a
+pleasant age. Even up in the thirties it is also a pleasant age. In my
+young days it was much rarer than now to go to Copenhagen, the city of
+all cities, as we thought it. After twenty years' absence from it, my
+parents determined to visit it once more, and I was to accompany them.
+The journey had been projected and talked of for years. At length it
+was positively to be accomplished. I fancied that I was beginning
+quite a new life, and certainly, in one way, a new life did begin for
+me.</p>
+
+<p>"After a great deal of packing and preparations we were ready to
+start. Then what numbers of our neighbours came to bid us good-by! It
+was a very long journey we had before us. Shortly before mid-day we
+drove out of Odense in my father's Holstern wagon&mdash;a roomy carriage.
+Our acquaintances bowed to us from the windows of almost every house
+until we were outside of St. J&ouml;rgen's Port. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> weather was
+delightful, the birds were singing, all was pleasure. We forgot that
+it was a long way and a rough road to Nyborg. We reached that place
+towards evening. The post did not arrive till midnight, and until it
+came the packet could not sail. At length we went on board. Before us
+lay the wide waters, as far as the eye could see, and it was a dead
+calm. We lay down in our clothes and slept. When I awoke in the
+morning, and went on deck, nothing could be seen on either side of us,
+there was such a thick fog. I heard the cocks crowing, and I knew the
+sun must have risen. Bells were ringing: where could they be? The mist
+cleared away, and we found we were lying a little way from Nyborg. As
+the day advanced we had a little wind: it stiffened, and we got on
+faster. At last we were so fortunate, at a little after eleven o'clock
+at night, as to reach Kors&ouml;r. We had taken twenty-two hours to go
+sixteen miles.</p>
+
+<p>"Glad we were to land; but it was extremely dark, and the lanterns
+gave very little light. However, all was wonderful to me, who had
+never been in any other town but Odense.</p>
+
+<p>"'Here Baggesen was born,' said my father, 'and here Birckner lived.'</p>
+
+<p>"It seemed to me that the old town, with its small houses, became at
+once larger and more important. We were also rejoiced to have the firm
+earth under us once more; but I could not sleep that night, I was so
+excited thinking over all I had seen and encountered since I had left
+home two days before.</p>
+
+<p>"Next morning we rose early. We had before us a bad road, with
+frightful hills and many valleys, till we reached Slagels&eacute;; and beyond
+it, on the other side, it was but little better; therefore we were
+anxious to get to Krebsehuset, that we might early next day go on to
+Sor&ouml;, and visit M&ouml;llers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> Emil, as we called him. He was your
+grandfather, my worthy husband, the dean. He was then a student at
+Sor&ouml;, and very busy about his second examination.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we arrived about noon at Krebsehuset. It was a gay little town
+then, and had the best inn on the road, and the prettiest country
+round it: you must all admit that it is pretty still. She was a very
+active landlady, Madame Plambek, and everything in her house was as
+clean as a new pin. There hung up on her wall a letter from Baggesen
+to her. It was framed, and had a glass over it; it was a very
+interesting object to look at, and to me it was quite a curiosity. We
+then went into Sor&ouml;, and found Emil there. You may believe he was very
+glad to see us, and we were very glad to see him&mdash;he was so good and
+so attentive. We went with him to see the church, with Absolon's grave
+and Holberg's coffin. We saw the old monkish inscriptions, and we
+sailed over the lake to Parnasset&mdash;the sweetest evening I remember. I
+recollect well that I thought, if one could write poetry anywhere in
+the world, it would be at Sor&ouml;, amidst those charming, peaceful
+scenes, where nature reigns in all her beauty. Afterwards we visited
+by moonlight the 'Philosopher's Walk,' as it was called&mdash;the
+beautiful, lonely path by the lake and the moor that leads towards the
+highway to Krebsehuset. Emil remained to supper with us, and my father
+and mother thought he had become very clever and very good-looking. He
+promised us that he would be in Copenhagen within a few days, and
+would join us there: it was then Whitsuntide. We were going to stay
+with his family. These hours at Sor&ouml; and Krebsehuset, may they not be
+deemed the most beautiful pearls of my life?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The next morning we commenced our journey at a very early hour, for
+we had a long way to go to reach Roeskilde, and we were anxious to get
+there in time to see the church. In the evening my father wished to
+visit an old friend, so we stopped at Roeskilde that night, and the
+next day we arrived at Copenhagen. It took us three days to go from
+Kors&ouml;r to Copenhagen; now the journey is made in three hours. The
+pearls have not become more valuable&mdash;that they could not be&mdash;but they
+are strung together in a new and wonderful manner. I remained three
+weeks with my parents in Copenhagen, and Emil was with us there for a
+fortnight. When we returned to Fyen, he accompanied us as far as
+Kors&ouml;r. There, before parting, we were betrothed; so you can well
+believe that <i>I</i> call from Copenhagen to Kors&ouml;r a row of pearls.</p>
+
+<p>"Afterwards, when Emil and I were married, we often spoke of the
+journey to Copenhagen, and of undertaking it once more. But then came
+first your mother, then she had brothers and sisters, and there was a
+great deal to do; so the journey was put off. And when your
+grandfather got preferment, and was made dean, all was thankfulness
+and joy; but we never got to Copenhagen. No, never have I set foot in
+it again, as often as we thought of it and projected going. Now I am
+too old, and I could not stand travelling by a railroad; but I am very
+glad that there are railroads&mdash;they are a blessing to many. You can
+come more speedily to me; and Odense is now not farther from
+Copenhagen than in my young days it was from Nyborg. You could now go
+in almost the same space of time to Italy as it took us to travel to
+Copenhagen. Yes, that is something!</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless, I shall stay in one place, and let others<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> travel and
+come to me if they please. But you should not laugh at me for keeping
+so quiet; I have a greater journey before me than any by the railroad.
+When it shall please our Lord, I have to travel up to your
+grandfather; and when you have finished your appointed time on earth,
+and enjoyed the blessings bestowed here by the Almighty, then I trust
+that you will ascend to us; and if we then revert to our earthly days,
+believe me, children, I shall say then as now, 'From Copenhagen to
+Kors&ouml;r is indeed <span class="smcap">a row of pearls</span>.'"</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/image_26.jpg" width="150" height="151" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image_27.jpg" width="600" height="129" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+<h2><a name="The_Pen_and_the_Inkstand" id="The_Pen_and_the_Inkstand"></a><i>The Pen and the Inkstand.</i></h2>
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="46" height="50" /></div>
+<p>he following remark was made in a poet's room, as the speaker looked
+at the inkstand that stood upon his table:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It is astonishing all that can come out of that inkstand! What will
+it produce next? Yes, it is wonderful!"</p>
+
+<p>"So it is!" exclaimed the inkstand. "It is incomprehensible! That is
+what I always say." It was thus the inkstand addressed itself to the
+pen, and to everything else that could hear it on the table. "It is
+really astonishing all that can come from me! It is almost incredible!
+I positively do not know myself what the next production may be, when
+a person begins to dip into me. One drop of me serves for half a side
+of paper; and what may not then appear upon it? I am certainly
+something extraordinary. From me proceed all the works of the poets.
+These animated beings, whom people think they recognise&mdash;these deep
+feelings, that gay humour, these charming descriptions of nature&mdash;I do
+not understand them myself, for I know nothing about nature; but still
+it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> all in me. From me have gone forth, and still go forth, these
+warrior hosts, these lovely maidens, these bold knights on snorting
+steeds, those droll characters in humbler life. The fact is, however,
+that I do not know anything about them myself. I assure you they are
+not my ideas."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right there," replied the pen. "You have few ideas, and do
+not trouble yourself much with thinking. If you <i>did</i> exert yourself
+to think, you would perceive that you ought to give something that was
+not dry. You supply me with the means of committing to paper what I
+have in me; I write with that. It is the pen that writes. Mankind do
+not doubt that; and most men have about as much genius for poetry as
+an old inkstand."</p>
+
+<p>"You have but little experience," said the inkstand. "You have
+scarcely been a week in use, and you are already half worn out. Do you
+fancy that you are a poet? You are only a servant; and I have had many
+of your kind before you came&mdash;many of the goose family, and of English
+manufacture. I know both quill pens and steel pens. I have had a great
+many in my service, and I shall have many more still, when he, the man
+who stirs me up, comes and puts down what he takes from me. I should
+like very much to know what will be the next thing he will take from
+me."</p>
+
+<p>Late in the evening the poet returned home. He had been at a concert,
+had heard a celebrated violin player, and was quite enchanted with his
+wonderful performance. It had been a complete gush of melody that he
+had drawn from the instrument. Sometimes it seemed like the gentle
+murmur of a rippling stream, sometimes like the singing of birds,
+sometimes like the tempest sweeping through the mighty pine forests.
+He fancied he heard his own heart weep, but in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> sweet tones that
+can be heard in a woman's charming voice. It seemed as if not only the
+strings of the violin made music, but its bridge, its pegs, and its
+sounding-board. It was astonishing! The piece had been a most
+difficult one; but it seemed like play&mdash;as if the bow were but
+wandering capriciously over the strings. Such was the appearance of
+facility, that every one might have supposed he could do it. The
+violin seemed to sound of itself, the bow to play of itself. These two
+seemed to do it all. One forgot the master who guided them, who gave
+them life and soul. Yes, they forgot the master; but the poet thought
+of him. He named him, and wrote down his thoughts as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"How foolish it would be of the violin and the bow, were they to be
+vain of their performance! And yet this is what so often we of the
+human species are. Poets, artists, those who make discoveries in
+science, military and naval commanders&mdash;we are all proud of ourselves;
+and yet we are all only the instruments in our Lord's hands. To Him
+alone be the glory! We have nothing to arrogate to ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>This was what the poet wrote; and he headed it with, "The Master and
+the Instruments." When the inkstand and the pen were again alone, the
+latter said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well, madam, you heard him read aloud what I had written."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, what I gave you to write," said the inkstand. "It was a hit at
+you for your conceit. Strange that you cannot see that people make a
+fool of you! I gave you that hit pretty cleverly. I confess, though,
+it was rather malicious."</p>
+
+<p>"Ink-holder!" cried the pen.</p>
+
+<p>"Writing-stick!" cried the inkstand.</p>
+
+<p>They both felt assured that they had answered well; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> it is a
+pleasant reflection that one has made a smart reply&mdash;one sleeps
+comfortably after it. And they both went to sleep; but the poet could
+not sleep. His thoughts welled forth like the tones from the violin,
+murmuring like a pearly rivulet, rushing like a storm through the
+forest. He recognised the feelings of his own heart&mdash;he perceived the
+gleam from the everlasting Master.</p>
+
+<p>To Him alone be the glory!</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/image_28.jpg" width="150" height="151" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image_29.jpg" width="600" height="103" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+<h2><a name="The_Child_in_the_Grave" id="The_Child_in_the_Grave"></a><i>The Child in the Grave.</i></h2>
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="46" height="50" /></div>
+<p>here was sorrow in the house, there was sorrow in the heart; for the
+youngest child, a little boy of four years of age, the only son, his
+parents' present joy and future hope, was dead. Two daughters they
+had, indeed, older than their boy&mdash;the eldest was almost old enough to
+be confirmed&mdash;amiable, sweet girls they both were; but the lost child
+is always the dearest, and he was the youngest, and a son. It was a
+heavy trial. The sisters sorrowed as young hearts sorrow, and were
+much afflicted by their parents' grief; the father was weighed down by
+the affliction; but the mother was quite overwhelmed by the terrible
+blow. By night and by day had she devoted herself to her sick child,
+watched by him, lifted him, carried him about, done everything for him
+herself. She had felt as if he were a part of herself: she could not
+bring herself to believe that he was dead&mdash;that he should be laid in a
+coffin, and concealed in the grave. God would not take that child from
+her&mdash;O no! And when he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> was taken, and she could no longer refuse to
+believe the truth, she exclaimed in her wild grief,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"God has not ordained this! He has heartless agents here on earth.
+They do what they list&mdash;they hearken not to a mother's prayers!"</p>
+
+<p>She dared in her woe to arraign the Most High; and then came dark
+thoughts, the thoughts of death&mdash;everlasting death&mdash;that human beings
+returned as earth to earth, and then all was over. Amidst thoughts
+morbid and impious as these were there could be nothing to console
+her, and she sank into the darkest depth of despair.</p>
+
+<p>In these hours of deepest distress she could not weep. She thought not
+of the young daughters who were left to her; her husband's tears fell
+on her brow, but she did not look up at him; her thoughts were with
+her dead child; her whole heart and soul were wrapped up in recalling
+every reminiscence of the lost one&mdash;every syllable of his infantine
+prattle.</p>
+
+<p>The day of the funeral came. She had not slept the night before, but
+towards morning she was overcome by fatigue, and sank for a short time
+into repose. During that time the coffin was removed into another
+apartment, and the cover was screwed down with as little noise as
+possible.</p>
+
+<p>When she awoke she rose, and wished to see her child; then her
+husband, with tears in his eyes, told her, "We have closed the
+coffin&mdash;it had to be done!"</p>
+
+<p>"When the Almighty is so hard on me," she exclaimed, "why should human
+beings be kinder?" and she burst into tears.</p>
+
+<p>The coffin was carried to the grave. The inconsolable mother sat with
+her young daughters; she looked at them,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> but she did not see them;
+her thoughts had nothing more to do with home; she gave herself up to
+wretchedness, and it tossed her about as the sea tosses the ship which
+has lost its helmsman and its rudder. Thus passed the day of the
+funeral, and several days followed amidst the same uniform, heavy
+grief. With tearful eyes and melancholy looks her afflicted family
+gazed at her. She did not care for what comforted them. What could
+they say to change the current of her mournful thoughts?</p>
+
+<p>It seemed as if sleep had fled from her for ever; it alone would be
+her best friend, strengthen her frame, and recall peace to her mind.
+Her family persuaded her to keep her bed, and she lay there as still
+as if buried in sleep. One night her husband had listened to her
+breathing, and believing from it that she had at length found repose
+and relief, he clasped his hands, prayed for her and for them all,
+then sank himself into peaceful slumber. While sleeping soundly he did
+not perceive that she rose, dressed herself, and softly left the room
+and the house, to go&mdash;whither her thoughts wandered by day and by
+night&mdash;to the grave that hid her child. She passed quietly through the
+garden, out to the fields, beyond which the road led outside of the
+town to the churchyard. No one saw her, and she saw no one.</p>
+
+<p>It was a fine night; the stars were shining brightly, and the air was
+mild, although it was the 1st of September. She entered the
+churchyard, and went to the little grave; it looked like one great
+bouquet of sweet-scented flowers. She threw herself down, and bowed
+her head over the grave, as if she could through the solid earth
+behold her little boy, whose smile she remembered so vividly. The
+affectionate expression of his eyes, even upon his sick bed, was
+never, never to be forgotten.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> How speaking had not his glance been
+when she had bent over him, and taken the little hand he was himself
+too weak to raise! As she had sat by his couch, so now she sat by his
+grave; but here her tears might flow freely over the sod that covered
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldst thou descend to thy child?" said a voice close by. It sounded
+so clear, so deep&mdash;its tones went to her heart. She looked up, and
+near her stood a man wrapped in a large mourning cloak, with a hood
+drawn over the head; but she could see the countenance under this. It
+was severe, and yet encouraging, his eyes were bright as those of
+youth.</p>
+
+<p>"Descend to my child!" she repeated; and there was the agony of
+despair in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Darest thou follow me?" asked the figure. "I am Death!"</p>
+
+<p>She bowed her assent. Then it seemed all at once as if every star in
+the heavens above shone with the light of the moon. She saw the
+many-coloured flowers on the surface of the grave move like a
+fluttering garment. She sank, and the figure threw his dark cloak
+round her. It became night&mdash;the night of death. She sank deeper than
+the sexton's spade could reach. The churchyard lay like a roof above
+her head.</p>
+
+<p>The cloak that had enveloped her glided to one side. She stood in an
+immense hall, whose extremities were lost in the distance. It was dusk
+around her; but before her stood, and in one moment was clasped to her
+heart, her child, who smiled on her in beauty far surpassing what he
+had possessed before. She uttered a cry, though it was scarcely
+audible, for close by, and then far away, and afterwards near again,
+came delightful music. Never before had such glorious, such blessed
+sounds reached her ear. They rang<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> from the other side of the thick
+curtain&mdash;black as night&mdash;that separated the hall from the boundless
+space of eternity.</p>
+
+<p>"My sweet mother! my own mother!" she heard her child exclaim. It was
+his well-known, most beloved voice. And kiss followed kiss in
+rapturous joy. At length the child pointed to the sable curtain.</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing so charming up yonder on earth, mother. Look,
+mother!&mdash;look at them all! That is felicity!"</p>
+
+<p>The mother saw nothing&mdash;nothing in the direction to which the child
+pointed, except darkness like that of night. <i>She</i> saw with earthly
+eyes. She did not see as did the child whom God had called to himself.
+She heard, indeed, sounds&mdash;music; but she did not understand the words
+that were conveyed in these exquisite tones.</p>
+
+<p>"I can fly now, mother," said the child. "I can fly with all the other
+happy children, away, even into the presence of God. I wish so much to
+go; but if you cry on as you are crying now I cannot leave you, and
+yet I should be so glad to go. May I not? You will come back soon,
+will you not, dear mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, stay! Oh, stay!" she cried, "only one moment more. Let me gaze on
+you one moment longer; let me kiss you, and hold you a moment longer
+in my arms."</p>
+
+<p>And she kissed him, and held him fast. Then her name was called from
+above&mdash;the tones were those of piercing grief. What could they be?</p>
+
+<p>"Hark!" said the child; "it is my father calling on you."</p>
+
+<p>And again, in a few seconds, deep sobs were heard, as of children
+weeping.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"These are my sisters' voices," said the child. "Mother, you have
+surely not forgotten them?"</p>
+
+<p>Then she remembered those who were left behind. A deep feeling of
+anxiety pervaded her mind; she gazed intently before her, and spectres
+seemed to hover around her; she fancied that she knew some of them;
+they floated through the Hall of Death, on towards the dark curtain,
+and there they vanished. Would her husband, her daughters, appear
+there? No; their lamentations were still to be heard from above. She
+had nearly forgotten them for the dead.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, the bells of heaven are ringing," said the child. "Now the
+sun is about to rise."</p>
+
+<p>And an overwhelming, blinding light streamed around her. The child was
+gone, and she felt herself lifted up. She raised her head, and saw
+that she was lying in the churchyard, upon the grave of her child. But
+in her dream God had become a prop for her feet, and a light to her
+mind. She threw herself on her knees and prayed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me, O Lord my God, that I wished to detain an everlasting
+soul from its flight into eternity, and that I forgot my duties to the
+living Thou hast graciously spared to me!"</p>
+
+<p>And as she uttered this prayer it appeared as if her heart felt
+lightened of the burden that had crushed it. Then the sun broke forth
+in all its splendour, a little bird sang over her head, and all the
+church bells around began to ring the matin chimes. All seemed holy
+around her; her heart seemed to have drunk in faith and holiness; she
+acknowledged the might and the mercy of God; she remembered her
+duties, and felt a longing to regain her home. She hurried thither,
+and leaning over her still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> sleeping husband, she awoke him with the
+touch of her warm lips on his cheek. Her words were those of love and
+consolation, and in a tone of mild resignation she exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"God's will is always the best!"</p>
+
+<p>Her husband and her daughters were astonished at the change in her,
+and her husband asked her,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you so suddenly acquire this strength&mdash;this pious
+resignation?"</p>
+
+<p>And she smiled on him and her daughters as she replied,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I derived it from God, by the grave of my child."</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/image_30.jpg" width="150" height="117" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/image_31.jpg" width="600" height="133" alt="Decorative Image"  />
+</div>
+<h2><a name="Charming" id="Charming"></a><i>Charming.</i></h2>
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="46" height="50" /></div>
+<p>he sculptor Alfred&mdash;surely you know him? We all know him. He used to
+engrave gold medallions; went to Italy, and returned again. He was
+young then; indeed, he is young now, though about half a score of
+years older than he was at that time.</p>
+
+<p>He returned home, and went on a visit to one of the small towns in
+Zealand. The whole community knew of the arrival of the stranger, and
+who he was. There was a party given on his account by one of the
+richest families in the place; every one who was anybody, or had
+anything, was invited; it was quite an event, and the whole town heard
+of it without beat of drum. A good many apprentice boys and poor
+people's children, with a few of their parents, ranged themselves
+outside, and looked at the windows with their drawn blinds, through
+which a blaze of light was streaming. The watchman might have fancied
+he had a party himself, so many people occupied his quarters in the
+street. They all seemed merry on the outside; and in the inside of the
+house<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> everything was pleasant, for Herr Alfred, the sculptor, was
+there.</p>
+
+<p>He talked, and he told anecdotes, and every one present listened to
+him with pleasure and deep attention, but no one with more eagerness
+than an elderly widow of good standing in society; and she was, in
+reference to all that Herr Alfred said, like a blank sheet of
+whity-brown paper, that quickly sucks the sweet things in, and is
+ready for more. She was very susceptible, and totally ignorant&mdash;quite
+a female Caspar Hauser.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to see Rome," said she. "That must be a charming town,
+with the numerous strangers that go there. Describe Rome to us now.
+How does it look as you enter the gate?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not easy to describe Rome," said the young sculptor. "It is a
+very large place; in the centre of it stands an obelisk, which is four
+thousand years old."</p>
+
+<p>"An organist!" exclaimed the astonished lady, who had never before
+heard the word <i>obelisk</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the party could scarcely refrain from laughing, and among the
+rest the sculptor. But the satirical smile that was gathering round
+his mouth glided into one of pleasure; for he saw, close to the lady,
+a pair of large eyes, blue as the sea. They appertained to the
+daughter of the talkative dame, and when one had such a daughter one
+could not be altogether ridiculous. The mother was like a bubbling
+fountain of questions, constantly pouring forth; the daughter like the
+fountain's beautiful naiad, listening to its murmurs. How lovely she
+was! She was something worth a sculptor's while to gaze at; but not to
+converse with; and she said nothing, at least very little.</p>
+
+<p>"Has the Pope a great family?" asked the widow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And the young man answered as if the question might have been better
+worded,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"No, he is not of a high family."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mean that," said the lady; "I mean has he a wife and
+children?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Pope dare not marry," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't approve of that," said the lady.</p>
+
+<p>She could scarcely have spoken more foolishly, or asked sillier
+questions; but what did all that signify when her daughter looked over
+her shoulder with that most winning smile?</p>
+
+<p>Herr Alfred talked of the brilliant skies of Italy, and its
+cloud-capped hills; the blue Mediterranean; the soft South; the beauty
+which could only be rivalled by the blue eyes of the females of the
+North. And this was said pointedly; but she who ought to have
+understood it did not allow it to be seen that she had detected any
+compliment in his words, and this was also charming.</p>
+
+<p>"Italy!" sighed some. "Travelling!" sighed others. "Charming,
+charming!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, when I win the fifty-thousand-dollar prize in the lottery,"
+said the widow, "we shall set off on our travels too&mdash;my daughter and
+I; and you, Herr Alfred, shall be our escort. We shall all three go,
+and a few other friends will go with us, I hope;" and she bowed
+invitingly to them all round, so that each individual might have
+thought, "It is I she wishes to accompany her." "Yes, we will go to
+Italy, but not where the robbers are; we will stay in Rome, or only go
+by the great high roads, where people are safe, of course."</p>
+
+<p>And the daughter heaved a gentle sigh. How much can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> there not lie in
+a slight sigh, or be supposed to lie in it! The young man put a world
+of feeling into it; the two blue eyes that had beamed on him that
+evening concealed the treasure&mdash;the treasure of heart and of mind,
+richer far than all the glories of Rome; and when he left the party he
+was over head and ears in love with the widow's pretty daughter.</p>
+
+<p>The widow's house became the house of all others most visited by Herr
+Alfred, the sculptor. People knew that it could not be for the
+mother's sake he sought it so often, although he and she were always
+the speakers; it must be for the daughter's sake he went. She was
+called Kala, though christened Karen Malene: the two names had been
+mutilated, and thrown together into the one appellation, <i>Kala</i>. She
+was very beautiful, but rather silly, some people hinted, and rather
+indolent. She was certainly a very late riser in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>"She has been accustomed to that from her childhood," said her mother.
+"She has always been such a little Venus that she was scarcely ever
+found fault with. She is not a very early riser, but to this she owes
+her fine clear eyes."</p>
+
+<p>What power there was in these clear eyes&mdash;these swimming blue eyes!
+The young man felt it. He told anecdote upon anecdote, and answered
+question after question; and mamma always asked the same lively,
+sensible, pertinent questions as she had asked at first.</p>
+
+<p>It was a pleasure to hear Herr Alfred speak. He described Naples, the
+ascent of Mount Vesuvius, and several of its eruptions; and the widow
+lady, who had never heard of them before, was lost in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Mercy on us!" she exclaimed; "then it is a volcano? Does it ever do
+any harm to anybody?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It has destroyed entire towns," he replied: "Pompeii and
+Herculaneum."</p>
+
+<p>"But the poor inhabitants! Did you see it yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, not either of these eruptions, but I have a sketch taken by
+myself of an eruption which I did witness."</p>
+
+<p>Then he selected from his portfolio a sketch done with a black-lead
+pencil; but mamma, who delighted in highly-coloured pictures, looked
+at the pale sketch, and exclaimed in amazement,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You saw it gush out white?"</p>
+
+<p>Mamma got into Herr Alfred's black books for a few minutes, and he
+felt profound contempt for her; but the light from Kala's eyes soon
+dispelled his gloom. He bethought him that her mother had no knowledge
+of drawing, that was all; but she had what was far better&mdash;she had the
+sweet, beautiful Kala.</p>
+
+<p>As might have been expected, Alfred and Kala became engaged, and their
+betrothal was announced in the newspaper of the town. Mamma bought
+thirty copies of it, that she might cut the paragraphs out, and
+inclose them to various friends. The betrothed pair were very happy,
+and so was the mamma: she felt almost as proud as if her family were
+going to be connected with Thorwaldsen.</p>
+
+<p>"You are his successor at any rate," she said; and Alfred thought that
+she had said something very clever. Kala said nothing, but her eyes
+brightened, and a lovely smile played around her well-formed mouth.
+Every movement of hers was graceful: she was very beautiful&mdash;that
+cannot be said too often.</p>
+
+<p>Alfred was making busts of Kala and her mother: they sat for him, and
+saw how with his finger he smoothed and moulded the soft clay.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It is a compliment to us," said his mother-in-law elect, "that you
+condescend to do that simple work yourself, instead of letting your
+men dab all that for you."</p>
+
+<p>"No; it is absolutely necessary that I should do this myself in the
+clay," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! you are always so exceedingly gallant!" said mamma; and Kala
+gently pressed his hand, to which pieces of clay were sticking.</p>
+
+<p>He discoursed to them about the magnificence of Nature in its
+creations, the superiority of the living over the dead, plants over
+minerals, animals over plants, human beings over mere animals; how
+mind and beauty manifested themselves through form, and that the
+sculptor sought to bestow on his forms of clay the greatest possible
+beauty and expression.</p>
+
+<p>Kala remained silent, revolving his words. Her mother said,</p>
+
+<p>"It is difficult to follow you; but though my thoughts go slowly, I
+hold fast what I hear."</p>
+
+<p>And the power of beauty held him fast; it had subdued him&mdash;entranced
+and enslaved him. Kala's beauty certainly was extraordinary; it was
+enthroned in every feature of her face, in her whole figure, even to
+the points of her fingers. The sculptor was bewildered by it; he
+thought only of her&mdash;spoke only of her; and his fancy endowed her with
+all perfection.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the wedding-day, with the bridal gifts and the
+bride's-maids; and the marriage ceremony was duly performed. His
+mother-in-law had placed in the room where the bridal party assembled
+the bust of Thorwaldsen, enveloped in a dressing-gown. "He ought to be
+a guest, according to her idea," she said. Songs were sung, and
+healths were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> drunk. It was a handsome wedding, and they were a
+handsome couple. "Pygmalion got his Galathea" was a line in one of the
+songs.</p>
+
+<p>"That was something from mythology," remarked the widow.</p>
+
+<p>The following day the young couple started for Copenhagen, where they
+intended to reside; and the mamma accompanied them, to give them a
+helping hand, she said, which meant to take charge of the house. Kala
+was to be a mere doll. Everything was new, bright, and charming. There
+they settled themselves all three; and Alfred, what can be said of
+him, only that he was like a bishop among a flock of geese?</p>
+
+<p>The magic of beauty had infatuated him. He had gazed upon the case,
+and not thought of what was in it; and this is unfortunate, very
+unfortunate, in the marriage state. When the case decays, and the
+gilding rubs off, one then begins to repent of one's bargain. It was
+very mortifying to Alfred that in society neither his wife nor his
+mother-in-law was capable of entering into general conversation&mdash;that
+they said very silly things, which, with all his wittiest efforts, he
+could not cover.</p>
+
+<p>How often the young couple sat hand in hand, and he spoke, and she
+dropped a word now and then, always in the same tone, like a clock
+striking one, two, three! It was quite a relief when Sophie, a female
+friend, came.</p>
+
+<p>Sophie was not very pretty; she was slightly awry, Kala said; but this
+was not perceptible except to her female friends. Kala allowed that
+she was clever. It never occurred to her that her talents might make
+her dangerous. She came like fresh air into a close, confined puppet
+show; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> fresh air is always pleasant. After a time the young couple
+and the mother-in-law went to breathe the soft air of Italy. Their
+wishes were fulfilled.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"Thank Heaven, we are at home again!" exclaimed both the mother and
+the daughter, when, the following year, they and Alfred returned to
+Denmark.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no pleasure in travelling," said the mamma; "on the
+contrary, it is very fatiguing&mdash;excuse my saying so. I was excessively
+tired, notwithstanding that I had my children with me. And travelling
+is extremely expensive. What hosts of galleries you have to see! What
+quantities of things to be rushing after! And you are so teased with
+questions when you come home, as if it were possible to know
+everything. And then to hear that you have just forgotten to see what
+was most charming! I am sure I was quite tired of these everlasting
+Madonnas; one was almost turned into a Madonna one's self."</p>
+
+<p>"And the living was so bad," said Kala.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a single spoonful of honest meat soup," rejoined the mamma. "They
+dress the victuals so absurdly."</p>
+
+<p>Kala was much fatigued after her journey. She continued very languid,
+and did not seem to rally&mdash;that was the worst of it. Sophie came to
+stay with them, and she was extremely useful.</p>
+
+<p>The mother-in-law allowed that Sophie understood household affairs
+well, and had many accomplishments, which she, with her fortune, had
+no need to trouble herself about; and she confessed, also, that Sophie
+was very estimable and kind. She could not help seeing this when Kala
+was lying ill, without making the slightest exertion in any way.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>If there be nothing but the case or framework, when it gives way it is
+all over with the case. And the case had given way. Kala died.</p>
+
+<p>"She was charming!" said her mother. "She was very different from all
+these antiquities that are half mutilated. Kala was a perfect beauty!"</p>
+
+<p>Alfred wept, and his mother-in-law wept, and they both went into
+mourning. The mamma went into the deepest mourning, and she wore her
+mourning longest. She also retained her sorrow the longest; in fact,
+she remained weighed down with grief until Alfred married again. He
+took Sophie, who had nothing to boast of in respect to outward charms.</p>
+
+<p>"He has gone to the other extremity," said his mother-in-law; "passed
+from the most beautiful to the ugliest. He has found it possible to
+forget his first wife. There is no constancy in man. My husband,
+indeed, was different; but he died before me."</p>
+
+<p>"Pygmalion got his Galathea," said Alfred. "These words were in the
+bridal song. I certainly did fall in love with the beautiful statue
+that became imbued with life in my arms. But the kindred soul, which
+Heaven sends us, one of those angels who can feel with us, think with
+us, raise us when we are sinking, I have now found and won. You have
+come, Sophie, not as a beautiful form, fascinating the eye, but
+prettier, more pleasing than was necessary. You excel in the main
+point. You have come and taught the sculptor that his work is but
+clay&mdash;dust; only a copy of the outer shell of the kernel we ought to
+seek. Poor Kala! her earthly life was but like a short journey. Yonder
+above, where those who sympathise shall be gathered together, she and
+I will probably be almost strangers."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That is not a kind speech," said Sophie; "it is not a Christian one.
+Up yonder, where 'they neither marry nor are given in marriage,' but,
+as you say, where spirits shall meet in sympathy&mdash;there, where all
+that is beautiful shall unfold and improve, her soul may perhaps
+appear so glorious in its excellence that it may far outshine mine and
+yours. You may then again exclaim, as you did in the first excitement
+of your earthly admiration, 'Charming&mdash;charming!'"</p>
+
+
+<h3>THE END.</h3>
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sand-Hills of Jutland, by 
+Hans Christian Andersen
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+</body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg's The Sand-Hills of Jutland, by Hans Christian Andersen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Sand-Hills of Jutland
+
+Author: Hans Christian Andersen
+
+Translator: Mrs. Bushby
+
+Release Date: August 30, 2008 [EBook #26491]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SAND-HILLS OF JUTLAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Chris Curnow, Lindy Walsh,
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 THE
+
+                        SAND-HILLS OF JUTLAND.
+
+
+                                  BY
+
+                       HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN,
+
+                 AUTHOR OF "THE IMPROVISATORE," ETC.
+
+
+                      TRANSLATED BY MRS. BUSHBY.
+
+
+
+
+                               LONDON:
+
+               RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
+
+                                1860.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+The Following Tales
+
+ARE DEDICATED,
+
+WITH THE HIGHEST SENTIMENTS OF
+
+ESTEEM AND REGARD,
+
+TO
+
+THE BARON CHARLES JOACHIM HAMBRO,
+
+BY
+
+HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                   PAGE
+
+THE SAND-HILLS OF JUTLAND                           1
+
+THE MUD-KING'S DAUGHTER                            48
+
+THE QUICKEST RUNNERS                               97
+
+THE BELL'S HOLLOW                                 101
+
+SOUP MADE OF A SAUSAGE-STICK                      106
+
+THE NECK OF A BOTTLE                              124
+
+THE OLD BACHELOR'S NIGHTCAP                       137
+
+SOMETHING                                         153
+
+THE OLD OAK TREE'S LAST DREAM                     162
+
+THE WIND RELATES THE STORY OF WALDEMAR DAAE AND
+HIS DAUGHTERS                                     170
+
+THE GIRL WHO TROD UPON BREAD                      185
+
+OLE, THE WATCHMAN OF THE TOWER                    196
+
+ANNE LISBETH; OR, THE APPARITION OF THE BEACH     204
+
+CHILDREN'S PRATTLE                                218
+
+A ROW OF PEARLS                                   222
+
+THE PEN AND THE INKSTAND                          232
+
+THE CHILD IN THE GRAVE                            236
+
+CHARMING.                                         243
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+_The Sand-hills of Jutland._
+
+
+This is a story from the Jutland sand-hills, but it does not commence
+there; on the contrary, it commences far away towards the south, in
+Spain. The sea is the highway between the two countries. Fancy
+yourself there. The scenery is beautiful; the climate is warm. There
+blooms the scarlet pomegranate amidst the dark laurel trees; from the
+hills a refreshing breeze is wafted over the orange groves and the
+magnificent Moorish halls, with their gilded cupolas and their painted
+walls. Processions of children parade the streets with lights and
+waving banners; and, above these, clear and lofty rises the vault of
+heaven, studded with glittering stars. Songs and castanets are heard;
+youths and girls mingle in the dance under the blossoming acacias;
+whilst beggars sit upon the sculptured blocks of marble, and refresh
+themselves with the juicy water-melon. Life dozes here: it is all like
+a charming dream, and one indulges in it. Yes, thus did two young
+newly-married persons, who also possessed all the best gifts of
+earth--health, good humour, riches, and rank.
+
+"Nothing could possibly exceed our happiness," they said in the
+fulness of their joyful hearts; yet there was one degree of still
+higher happiness to which they might attain, and that would be when
+God blessed them with a child--a son, to resemble them in features and
+in disposition.
+
+That fortunate child would be hailed with rapture; would be loved and
+daintily cared for; would be the heir to all the advantages that
+wealth and high birth can bestow.
+
+The days flew by as a continual festival to them.
+
+"Life is a merciful gift of love--almost inconceivably great," said
+the young wife; "but the fulness of this happiness shall be tasted in
+that future life, when it will increase and exist to all eternity. The
+idea is incomprehensible to me."
+
+"That is only an assumption among mankind," said her husband. "In
+reality, it is frightful pride and overweening arrogance to think that
+we shall live for ever--become like God. These were the serpent's wily
+words, and he is the father of lies."
+
+"You do not, however, doubt that there is a life after this one?"
+asked his wife; and for the first time a cloud seemed to pass over
+their sunny heaven of thought.
+
+"Faith holds forth the promise of it, and the priests proclaim it,"
+said the young man; "but, in the midst of all my happiness, I feel
+that it would be too craving, too presumptuous, to demand another life
+after this one--a happiness to be continual. Is there not so much
+granted in this existence that we might and ought to be content with
+it?"
+
+"To us--yes, there has been much granted," replied the young wife;
+"but to how many thousands does not this life become merely a heavy
+trial? How many are not, as it were, cast into this world to be the
+victims of poverty, wrangling, sickness, and misfortune? Nay, if there
+were no life after this one, then everything in this globe has been
+unequally dealt out; then God would not be just."
+
+"The beggar down yonder has joys as great, to his ideas, as are those
+of the monarch in his splendid palace to him," said the young man;
+"and do you not think that the beasts of burden, which are beaten,
+starved, and toiled to death, feel the oppressiveness of their lot?
+They also might desire another life, and call it unjust that they had
+not been placed amidst a higher grade of beings."
+
+"In the kingdom of heaven there are many mansions, Christ has told
+us," answered the lady. "The kingdom of heaven is infinite, as is the
+love of God. The beasts of the field are also His creation; and my
+belief is that no life will be extinguished, but will win that degree
+of happiness which may be suitable to it, and that will be
+sufficient."
+
+"Well, this world is enough for me," said her husband, as he threw his
+arms round his beautiful, amiable wife, and smoked his cigarette upon
+the open balcony, where the deliciously cool air was laden with the
+perfume of orange trees and beds of carnations. Music and the sound of
+castanets arose from the street beneath; the stars shone brightly
+above; and two eyes full of affection, the eyes of his charming wife,
+looked at him with love which would live in eternity.
+
+"Such moments as these," he exclaimed, "are they not well worth being
+born for--born to enjoy them, and then to vanish into nothingness?"
+
+He smiled; his wife lifted her hand and shook it at him with a gesture
+of mild reproach, and the cloud had passed over--they were too happy.
+
+Everything seemed to unite for their advancement in honour, in
+happiness, and in prosperity. There came a change, but in place--not
+in anything to affect their well-being, to damp their joy, or to
+ruffle the smooth current of their lives. The young nobleman was
+appointed by his king ambassador to the court of Russia. It was a post
+of honour to which he was entitled by his birth and education. He had
+a large private fortune, and his young wife had brought him one not
+inferior to his own, for she was the daughter of one of the richest
+men in the kingdom. A large ship was about that time to go to
+Stockholm. It was selected to convey the rich man's dear daughter and
+son-in-law to St. Petersburg; and its cabin was fitted up as if for
+the use of royalty--soft carpets under the feet, silken hangings, and
+every luxury around.
+
+Amidst the ancient Scandinavian ballads, known to all Danes under
+their general title of _Koempeviser_, there is one called "The King
+of England's Son." He likewise sailed in a costly ship; its anchor was
+inlaid with pure gold, and every rope was of twisted silk. Every one
+who saw the Spanish vessel must have remembered the ship in this
+legend, for there was the same pageantry, the same thoughts on their
+departure.
+
+    "God, let us meet again in joy!"
+
+The wind blew freshly from off the Spanish shore, and the last adieux
+were therefore hurried; but in a few weeks they would reach their
+destination. They had not gone far, however, before the wind lulled,
+the sea became calm, its surface sparkled, the stars above shone
+brightly, and all was serenity in the splendid cabin.
+
+At length they became tired of the continued calm, and wished that the
+breeze would rise and swell into a good strong wind, if it would only
+be fair for them; but they still lacked wind, and if it did arise, it
+was always a contrary one. Thus passed weeks, and when at length the
+wind became fair, and blew from the south-west, they were half way
+between Scotland and Jutland. Just then the wind shifted, and
+increased to a gale, as it is described to have done in the ballad of
+"The King of England's Son."
+
+    "The sky grew dark, and the wind it blew,
+      They could see neither land nor haven of rest;
+    So then they cast out their anchor true,
+      But to Denmark they drove with the gale from the west."
+
+This was many years ago. King Christian the Seventh occupied the
+Danish throne, and was then a young man. Much has happened since that
+time, much has changed; lakes and morasses have become fruitful
+meadows, wild moors have become cultivated land, and on the lee of the
+West Jutlander's house grow apple trees and roses; but they must be
+sheltered from the sharp west winds. Up there one can still, however,
+fancy one's self back in the period of Christian the Seventh's reign.
+As then in Jutland, so even now, stretch for miles and miles the brown
+heaths, with their tumuli, their meteors, their knolly, sandy cross
+roads. Towards the west, where large streams fall into the fiords, are
+to be seen wide plains and bogs, encircled by high hills, which, like
+a row of Alpine mountains with pinnacles formed like saws, frown over
+the sea, which is separated from them only by high clay banks; and
+year after year the sea bites a large mouthful off of these, so that
+their edges and summits topple over as if shaken by an earthquake.
+Thus they look at this day, and thus they were many years ago, when
+the happy young couple sailed from Spain in the magnificent ship.
+
+It was the end of September. It was Sunday and sunshine: the sound of
+the church bells reached afar, even to Nissumfiord. The churches up
+there were like rocks with spaces hewn out in them: each one of them
+was like a piece of a mountain, so heavy and massive. The German Ocean
+might have rolled over them, and they would have stood firmly. Many of
+them had no spires or towers, and the bells hung out in the open air
+between two beams. The church service was over. The congregation had
+passed from the house of God out into the churchyard, where then, as
+now, not a tree, not a bush was to be seen--not a single flower, not a
+garland laid upon a grave. Little knolls or heaps of earth point out
+where the dead are buried; a sharp kind of grass, lashed by the wind,
+grows over the whole churchyard. A solitary grave here and there has,
+perhaps, a monument; that is to say, the mouldering trunk of a tree,
+rudely carved into the shape of a coffin. The pieces of tree are
+brought from the woods of the west. The wild ocean provides, for the
+dwellers on the coast, beams, planks, and trees, which the dashing
+billows cast upon the shore. The wind and the sea spray soon decay
+these tree monuments. Such a stump was lying over the grave of a
+child, and one of the women who had come out of the church went
+towards it. She stood gazing upon the partially loosened piece of
+wood. Shortly afterwards her husband joined her. They remained for a
+time without either of them uttering a single word; then he took her
+hand, and led her from the grave out upon the heath, across the moor,
+in the direction of the sand-hills. For a long time they walked in
+silence. At last the husband said,--
+
+"It was an excellent sermon to-day. If we had not our Lord we should
+have nothing."
+
+"Yes," said the wife, "He sends joy, and He sends affliction. He is
+right in all things. To-morrow our little boy would have been five
+years old if he had been spared to us."
+
+"There is no use in your grieving for his loss," replied the husband.
+"He has escaped much evil. He is now where we must pray to be also
+received."
+
+They dropped the painful subject, and pursued their way towards their
+house amidst the sand-hills. Suddenly, from one of these where there
+was no lyme-grass to keep down the sand, there arose as it were a
+thick smoke. It was a furious gust of wind, that had pierced the
+sand-hill, and whirled about in the air the fine particles of sand.
+The wind veered round for a minute; and all the dried fish that was
+hung up on cords outside of the house knocked against its walls, then
+everything was still again. The sun was shining warmly.
+
+The man and his wife entered their house, and having soon divested
+themselves of their Sunday clothes, they hastened over the sand-hills,
+which stood like enormous waves of sand suddenly arrested in their
+course. The sea-reed's and the lyme-grass's blue-green sharp blades
+gave some variety to the white sand. Some neighbours joined the couple
+who had just come from church, and they assisted each other in
+dragging the boats higher up the beach. The gale was increasing; it
+was bitterly cold; and when they were returning over the hills, the
+sand and small stones whisked into their faces, the waves mounted
+high with their white crests, and the spray dashed after them.
+
+It was evening; there was a doleful whistling in the air, increasing
+every moment--a wild howling, as if a host of unseen despairing
+spirits were uttering their complaints. The moaning sound overpowered
+even the angry dashing of the waves, although the fisherman's house
+lay so near to the shore. The sand drifted against the windows, and
+every now and then came a blast that shook the house to its
+foundation. It was very dark, but the moon would rise at midnight.
+
+The air cleared; yet the storm still raged in all its might over the
+deep gloomy sea. The fishermen and their families had retired for some
+time to rest, but no one could close his eyes in such terrible
+weather. Some one knocked at the windows of some of the cottages, and
+when the doors were opened the person said,--
+
+"A large ship is lying fast upon the outer shoal."
+
+In a moment the fishermen and their wives were up and dressed.
+
+The moon had risen, and there was light enough to see if they had not
+been blinded by the sand that was flying about. The wind was so strong
+that they were obliged to lie down, and creep amidst the gusts over
+the sand-hills; and there flew through the air, like swan's down, the
+salt foam and spray from the sea, which, like a roaring, boiling
+cataract, dashed upon the beach. A practised eye was required to
+discern quickly the vessel outside. It was a large ship; it was lifted
+a few cable lengths forward, then driven on towards the land, struck
+upon the inner sand-bank, and stood fast. It was impossible to go to
+the assistance of the ship, the sea was running too high: it beat
+against the unfortunate vessel, and dashed over her. The people on
+shore thought that they heard cries of distress--cries of those in the
+agony of death; and they saw the desperate, useless activity on board.
+Then came a sea that, like a crushing avalanche, fell upon the
+bowsprit, and it was gone. The stern of the vessel rose high above the
+water--two people sprang from it together into the sea--a moment, and
+one of the most gigantic billows that were rolling up against the
+sand-hills cast a body upon the shore: it was that of a female, and
+every one believed it was a corpse. Two women, however, knelt down by
+the body, and thinking that they found in it some sign of life, it was
+carried over the sand-hills to a fisherman's house. How beautiful she
+was, and how handsomely dressed!--evidently a lady of rank.
+
+They placed her in the humble bed; there was no linen on it, only
+blankets to wrap her in, yet these were very warm.
+
+She soon came to life, but was in a high fever. She did not seem to
+know what had happened, or to remark where she was; and this was
+probably fortunate, since all who were dear to her on board the
+ill-fated ship were lying at the bottom of the sea. It had been with
+them as described in the song, "The King of England's Son:"--
+
+    "It was, in sooth, a piteous sight!
+    The ship broke up to bits that night."
+
+Portions of the wreck were washed ashore. She was the only living
+creature out of all that had so lately breathed and moved on board the
+doomed ship. The wind was howling their requiem over the inhospitable
+coast. For a few minutes she slept peacefully, but soon she awoke and
+uttered groans of pain; she cast up her beautiful eyes towards heaven,
+and said a few words, but no one there could understand them.
+
+Another helpless being soon made its appearance, and her new-born babe
+was placed in her arms. It ought to have reposed on a stately couch,
+with silken curtains, in a splendid house. It ought to have been
+welcomed with joy to a life rich in all this world's goods; but our
+Lord had ordained that it should be born in a peasant's hut, in a
+miserable nook. Not even one kiss did it receive from its mother.
+
+The fisherman's wife laid the infant on its mother's breast, and it
+rested near her heart; but that heart had ceased to beat--she was
+dead! The child who should have been nurtured amidst happiness and
+wealth was cast a stranger into the world--thrown up by the sea among
+the sand-hills, to experience heavy days and the fate of the poor. And
+again we call to mind the old song:--
+
+    "The king's son's eyes with big tears fill:
+    'Alas! that I came to this robber-hill.
+    Here nothing awaits me but evil and pain.
+    Had I haply but come to Herr Bugge's domain,
+    Neither knight nor squire would have treated me ill.'"
+
+A little to the south of Nissumfiord, on that portion of the shore
+which Herr Bugge had formerly called his, the vessel had stranded.
+Those rough, inhuman times, when the inhabitants of the west coast
+dealt cruelly, it is said, with the shipwrecked, had long passed away;
+and now the utmost compassion was felt, and the kindest attention paid
+to those whom the engulfing sea had spared. The dying mother and the
+forlorn child would have met with every care wherever "the wild wind
+had blown;" but nowhere could they have been received with more
+cordial kindness than by the poor fishwife who, only the previous
+morning, had stood with a heavy heart by the grave wherein reposed her
+child, who on that very day would have attained his fifth year if the
+Almighty had permitted him to live.
+
+No one knew who the foreign dead woman was, or whence she came. The
+broken planks and fragments of the ship told nothing.
+
+In Spain, at that opulent house, there never arrived either letter or
+message from the daughter and son-in-law; they had not reached their
+destination; fearful storms had raged for some weeks. They waited with
+anxiety for months. At last they heard, "Totally lost--every one on
+board perished!"
+
+But at Huusby-Klitter, in the fisherman's cottage, there dwelt now a
+little urchin.
+
+Where God bestows food for two, there is always something for a third;
+and near the sea there is plenty of fish to be found. The little
+stranger was named Joergen.
+
+"He is surely a Jewish child," said some people, "he has so dark a
+complexion."
+
+"He may, however, be an Italian or a Spaniard," said the priest.
+
+The whole tribe of fishermen and women comforted themselves that,
+whatever was his origin, the child had received Christian baptism. The
+boy throve, his noble blood mantled in his cheek, and he grew strong,
+notwithstanding poor living. The Danish language, as it is spoken in
+West Jutland, became his mother tongue. The pomegranate seed from the
+Spanish soil became the coarse grass on the west coast of Jutland.
+Such are the vicissitudes of life!
+
+To that home he attached himself with his young life's roots. Hunger
+and cold, the poor man's toil and want, he was to experience, but also
+the poor man's joys.
+
+Childhood has its bright periods, which shine in recollection through
+the whole of after life. How much had he not to amuse him, and to
+play with! The entire seashore, for miles in length, was covered with
+playthings for him--a mosaic of pebbles red as coral, yellow as amber,
+and pure white, round as birds' eggs, all smoothed and polished by the
+sea. Even the scales of the dried fish, the aquatic plants dried by
+the wind, the shining seaweed fluttering among the rocks--all were
+pleasant to his eye, and matter for his thoughts; and the boy was an
+excitable, clever child. Much genius and great abilities lay dormant
+in him. How well he remembered all the stories and old ballads he
+heard; and he was very quick with his fingers. With stones and shells
+he would plan out whole scenes he had heard as if in a picture: one
+might have ornamented a room with these handiworks of his. "He could
+cut out his thoughts with a stick," said his foster-mother; and yet he
+was but a little boy. His voice was very sweet--melody seemed to have
+been born with him. There were many finely-toned strings in that
+breast; they might have sounded forth in the world, had his lot been
+otherwise cast than in a fisherman's house on the shores of the German
+Ocean.
+
+One day a ship foundered near. A case was thrown up on the land
+containing a number of flower-bulbs. Some took them and put them into
+their cooking pots, thinking they were to be eaten; others were left
+to rot upon the sand; none of them fulfilled their destination--to
+unfold the lovely colours, the beauty that lay in them. Would it be
+better with Joergen? The poor flower-roots were soon done for: there
+might be years of trial before him.
+
+It never occurred to him, or to any of the people around him, to think
+their days lonely and monotonous: there was abundance to do, to hear,
+and to see. The ocean itself was a great book; every day he read a
+new page in it--the calm, the swell of the sea, the breeze, the storm.
+The beach was his favourite resort; going to church was his event, his
+visit of importance, though of visits there was one which occasionally
+took place at the fisherman's house that was particularly welcome to
+him. Twice a year his foster-mother's brother, the eel-man from
+Fjaltring, up near Rovbierg, paid them a visit. He came in a painted
+cart full of eels. The cart was closed and locked like a chest, and
+painted with blue, red, and white tulips; it was drawn by two
+dun-coloured bullocks, and Joergen was allowed to drive them.
+
+The eel-man was a very good-natured, lively guest. He always brought a
+keg of brandy with him; every one got a dram of it, or a coffee-cup
+full if glasses were scarce; even Joergen, though he was but a little
+fellow, was treated to a good thimbleful. That was to keep down the
+fat eels, said the eel-man; and then he never failed to tell a story
+he had often told before, and, when people laughed at it, he
+immediately told it over again to the same persons; but this is a
+habit with all talkative individuals; and as Joergen, during the whole
+time that he was growing up, and into the years of his manhood, often
+quoted phrases in this story, and applied them to himself, we may as
+well listen to it.
+
+"Out in the rivulet dwelt eels, and the eel-mother said to her
+daughters, when they begged to be allowed to go a little way alone up
+the stream. 'Do not go far, lest the horrible eel-spearer should come,
+and take you all away.'
+
+"But they went very far, and of eight daughters only three returned to
+their mother, and these came wailing, 'We only went a short way from
+the door, when the terrible eel-spearer came and killed our five
+sisters.' 'They will come back again,' said the eel-mother. 'No,'
+said the daughters, 'for he skinned them, cut them in pieces, and
+fried them.' 'They will come again,' repeated the mother. 'Impossible,
+for he ate them.' 'They will come again,' still persisted the
+eel-mother. 'But he drank brandy after he had eaten them,' said the
+daughter. 'Did he? Oh! oh! then they will never come again,' howled
+the mother. 'Brandy buries eels.'
+
+"And therefore one must always drink a little brandy after that dish,"
+said the eel-man.
+
+And this story made a great impression on little Joergen, and partly
+influenced his life. He took the tinsel for the gold. He also wished
+to go "a little way up the stream"--that is to say, to go away in a
+ship to see the world--and his mother said as the eel-mother had done.
+"There are many bad men--eel-spearers." But a little way beyond the
+sand-hills, and a little way on the heath, he was allowed to go, he
+begged so hard. Four happy days, however--days that seemed the
+brightest among his childish years, turned up: he was to go to a large
+meeting. What pleasure, although it was to a funeral!
+
+A relation of the fisherman's family, who had been in easy
+circumstances, was dead. The farm lay inland--"eastward, a little to
+the north," it was said. The father and mother were both going, and
+Joergen was to accompany them. On leaving the sand-hills, they passed
+over heaths and boggy lands, until they came to the green meadows
+where Skjaerumaa winds its way--the river with the numerous eels, where
+the eel-mother with her daughters lived, those whom the cruel man
+speared and cut in pieces, though there were men who had scarcely
+treated their fellow-men better. Even Herr Bugge, the knight who was
+celebrated in the old song, was murdered by a wicked man; and though
+he was himself called so good, he wished to put to death the builder
+who had built for him his castle, with its tower and thick walls, just
+where Joergen and his foster-parents stood, where Skjaerumaa falls into
+the Nissumfiord. The sloping bank or ascent to the ramparts was still
+to be seen, and red fragments of the walls still marked out the
+circumference of the ancient building. Here had Herr Bugge, when the
+builder had taken his departure, said to his squire--"Follow him, and
+say, Master, the tower leans to one side. If he turns, slay him on the
+spot, and take the money from him that he got from me; but, if he does
+not turn, let him go on in peace." And the squire overtook the
+builder, and said what he was ordered to say; and the builder replied,
+"The tower does not lean to one side, but by and by there will come
+from the westward one in a blue cloak, and _he_ will make it bend." A
+hundred years afterwards this prediction was fulfilled, for the German
+Ocean rushed in, and the tower fell; but the then owner of the
+property, Prebjoern Gyldenstierne, erected a habitation higher up, and
+that stands now, and is called Noerre-Vosborg.
+
+Joergen, with his foster-parents, had to pass this place. Of every
+little town hereabout he had heard stories during the long winter
+evenings; now he saw the castle, with its double moats, its trees and
+bushes, its ramparts overgrown with bracken. But the most beautiful
+sight was the lofty linden trees, that filled the air with so sweet a
+perfume. Towards the north-west, in a corner of the garden, stood a
+large bush with flowers that were like winter's snow amidst summer's
+green. It was an elder tree, the first Joergen had ever seen in bloom.
+That and the linden trees were always remembered during his future
+years as Denmark's sweetest perfume and beauty, which the soul of
+childhood "for the old man laid by."
+
+The journey soon became more extended, and the country less wild.
+After passing Noerre-Vosborg, where the elder tree was in bloom, he had
+the pleasure of travelling in a sort of carriage, for they met some of
+the other guests who were going to the funeral feast, as it might be
+called, and were invited into their conveyance. To be sure they had
+all three to stuff themselves into a very narrow back seat, but that
+was better, they thought, than walking. They drove over the uneven
+heaths; the bullocks which drew their cart stopped whenever they came
+to a little patch of green grass among the heather. The sun was
+shining warmly, and it was wonderful to see, far in the distance, a
+smoke that undulated, yet was clearer than the air--one could see
+through it: it was as if rays of light were rolling and dancing over
+the heath.
+
+"It is the Lokeman, who is driving his sheep," was told Joergen, and
+that was enough for him. He fancied he was driving into the land of
+marvellous adventures and fairy tales; yet he was only amidst
+realities. How still it was there!
+
+Far before them stretched the heath, but it looked like a beautifully
+variegated carpet; the ling was in flower, the Cyprus-green juniper
+bushes and the fresh oak shoots seemed like bouquets among the
+heather. But for the many poisonous vipers, how delightful it would
+have been to roll about there! The party spoke of them, and of the
+numerous wolves that had abounded in that neighbourhood, on account of
+which the district was called Ulvborg-Herred. The old man who was
+driving related how, in his father's time, the horses had often to
+fight a hard battle with these now extirpated wild animals; and that
+one morning, on coming out, he found one of his horses treading upon a
+wolf he had killed; but the flesh was entirely stripped from the
+horse's legs.
+
+Too quickly for Joergen did they drive over the uneven heath, and
+through the deep sand. They stopped at length before the house of
+mourning, which was crowded with strangers, some inside, some on the
+outside. Vehicle after vehicle stood together; the horses and oxen
+were turned out amidst the meagre grass; large sand-hills, like those
+at home by the German Ocean, were to be seen behind the farm, and
+stretched far away in wide long ranges. How had they come there,
+twelve miles inland, and nearly as high and as large as those near the
+shore? The wind had lifted them and removed them: they also had their
+history.
+
+Psalms were sung, and tears were shed by some of the old people,
+otherwise all was very pleasant thought Joergen. Here was plenty to eat
+and drink--the nicest fat eels; and it was necessary to drink
+brandy-snaps after eating them, "to keep them down," the eel-man had
+said; and his words were acted upon here with all due honour.
+
+Joergen was in, and Joergen was out. By the third day he felt himself as
+much at home here as he had done in the fisherman's cottage, where he
+had lived all his earlier days. Up here on the heath it was different
+from down there, but it was very nice. It was covered with
+heather-bells and bilberries; they were so large and so sweet; one
+could mash them with one's foot, so that the heather should be
+dripping with the red juice. Here lay one tumulus, there another;
+columns of smoke arose in the calm air; it was the heath on fire, they
+said, it shone brightly in the evening.
+
+The fourth day came, and the funeral solemnities were over--the
+fisherman and his family were to leave the land sand-hills for the
+strand sand-hills.
+
+"Ours are the largest though;" said the father, "these are not at all
+important-looking."
+
+And the conversation fell on how they came there, and it was all very
+intelligible and very rational. A body had been found on the beach,
+and the peasants had buried it in the churchyard; then commenced a
+drifting of sand--the sea broke wildly on the shore, and a man in the
+parish who was noted for his sagacity advised that the grave should be
+opened, to ascertain if the buried corpse lay and sucked his thumb;
+for if he did that, it was a merman whom they had buried, and the sea
+would force its way up to take him back. The grave was accordingly
+opened, and lo! he they had buried was found sucking his thumb; so
+they took him up instantly, placed him on a car, harnessed two oxen to
+it, and dragged him over heaths and bogs out to the sea; then the sand
+drift stopped, but the sand-hills have always remained. To all this
+Joergen listened eagerly; and he treasured this ancient legend in his
+memory, along with all that had happened during the pleasantest days
+of his childhood--the days of the funeral feast.
+
+It was delightful to go from home, and to see new places and new
+people; and he was to go still farther away. He went on board a ship.
+He went forth to see what the world produced; and he found bad
+weather, rough seas, evils dispositions, and harsh masters. He went as
+a cabin-boy! Poor living, cold nights, the rope's end, and hard thumps
+with the fist were his portion. There was something in his noble
+Spanish blood which always boiled up, so that angry words rose often
+to his lips; but he was wise enough to keep them back, and he felt
+pretty much like an eel being skinned, cut up, and laid on the pan.
+
+"I will come again," said he to himself. The Spanish coast, his
+parents' native land, the very town where they had lived in grandeur
+and happiness, he saw; but he knew nothing of kindred and a paternal
+home, and his family knew as little of him.
+
+The dirty ship-boy was not allowed to land for a long time, but the
+last day the ship lay there he was sent on shore to bring off some
+purchases that had been made.
+
+There stood Joergen in wretched clothes, that looked as if they had
+been washed in a ditch and dried in the chimney: it was the first time
+that he, a denizen of the solitary sand-hills, had seen a large town.
+How high the houses were, how narrow the streets, swarming with human
+beings; some hurrying this way, others going that way--it was like a
+whirlpool of townspeople, peasants, monks, and soldiers. There were a
+rushing along, a screaming, a jingling of the bells on the asses and
+the mules, and the church bells ringing too. There were to be heard
+singing and babbling, hammering and banging; for every trade had its
+workshop either in the doorway or on the pavement. The sun was burning
+hot, the air was heavy: it was as if one had entered a baker's oven
+full of beetles, lady-birds, bees, and flies, that hummed and buzzed.
+Joergen scarcely knew, as the saying is, whether he was on his head or
+his heels. Then he beheld, at a little distance, the immense portals
+of the cathedral; light streamed forth from the arches that were so
+dim and gloomy above; and there came a strong scent from the incense.
+Even the poorest, most tattered beggars ascended the wide stairs to
+the church, and the sailor who was with Joergen showed him the way in.
+Joergen stood in a sacred place; splendidly-painted pictures hung round
+in richly-gilded frames; the holy Virgin, with the infant Jesus in her
+arms, was on the altar amidst flowers and light; priests in their
+magnificent robes were chanting; and beautiful, handsomely-dressed
+choristers swung backwards and forwards silver censers. There was in
+everything a splendour, a charm, that penetrated to Joergen's very
+soul, and overwhelmed him. The church and the faith of his parents and
+his ancestors surrounded him, and touched a chord in his heart which
+caused tears to start to his eyes.
+
+From the church they proceeded to the market. He had many articles of
+food and matters for the use of the cook, to carry. The way was long,
+and he became very tired; so he stopped to rest outside of a large
+handsome house, that had marble pillars, statues, and wide stairs. He
+was leaning with his burden against the wall, when a finely-bedizened
+porter came forward, raised his silver-mounted stick to him, and drove
+him away--him, the grandchild of its owner, the heir of the family;
+but none there knew this, nor did he himself.
+
+He returned on board, was thumped and scolded, had little sleep and
+much work. Such was his life! And it is very good for youth to put up
+with hard usage, it is said. Yes, if it makes age good.
+
+The period for which he had been engaged was expired--the vessel lay
+again at Ringkioebingfiord. He landed, and went home to Huusby-Klitter;
+but his mother had died during his absence.
+
+The winter which followed was a severe one. Snow storms drove over sea
+and land: one could scarcely face them. How differently were not
+things dealt out in this world! Such freezing cold and drifting snow
+here, whilst in Spain was burning heat, almost too great; and yet
+when, one clear, frosty day at home, Joergen saw swans flying in large
+flocks from the sea over Nissumfiord, and towards Noerre-Vosborg, he
+thought that the course they pursued was the best, and all summer
+pleasures were to be found there. In fancy he saw the heath in bloom,
+and mingling with it the ripe, juicy berries; the linden trees and
+elder bushes at Noerre-Vosborg were in flower. He must return there
+yet.
+
+Spring was approaching, the fishing was commencing, and Joergen lent
+his help. He had grown much during the last year, and was extremely
+active. There was plenty of life in him; he could swim, tread the
+water, and turn and roll about in it. He was much inclined to offer
+himself for the mackerel shoals: they take the best swimmer, draw him
+under the water, eat him up, and so there is an end of him; but this
+was not Joergen's fate.
+
+Among the neighbours in the sand-hills was a boy named Morten. He and
+Joergen left the fishing, and they both hired themselves on board a
+vessel bound to Norway, and went afterwards to Holland. They were
+always at odds with each other, but that might easily happen when
+people were rather warm-tempered; and they could not help showing
+their feelings sometimes in expressive gestures. This was what Joergen
+did once on board when they came up from below quarrelling about
+something. They were sitting together, eating out of an earthen dish
+they had between them, when Joergen, who was holding his clasp-knife in
+his hand, raised it against Morten, looking at the moment as white as
+chalk, and ghastly about the eyes. Morten only said,--
+
+"So you are of that sort that will use the knife!"
+
+Scarcely had he uttered these words before Joergen's hand was down
+again; he did not say a syllable, ate his dinner, and went to his
+work; but when he had finished that, he sought Morten, and said,--
+
+"Strike me on the face if you will--I have deserved it. There is
+something in me that always boils up so."
+
+"Let bygones be bygones," said Morten; and thereupon they became much
+better friends. When they returned to Jutland and the sand-hills, and
+told all that had passed, it was remarked that Joergen might boil over,
+but he was an honest pot for all that.
+
+"But not of Jutland manufacture--he cannot be called a Jutlander," was
+Morten's witty reply.
+
+They were both young and healthy, well-grown, and strongly built, but
+Joergen was the most active.
+
+Up in Norway the country people repair to the summer pastures among
+the mountains, and take their cattle there to grass. On the west coast
+of Jutland, among the sand-hills, are huts built of pieces of wrecks,
+and covered with peat and layers of heather. The sleeping-places
+stretch round the principal room; and there sleep and live, during the
+early spring time, the people employed in the fishing. Every one has
+his _AEsepige_, as she is called, whose business it is to put bait on
+the hooks, to await the fishermen at their landing-place with warm
+ale, and have their food ready for them when they return weary to the
+house. These girls carry the fish from the boats, and cut them up; in
+short, they have a great deal to do.
+
+Joergen, his father, and a couple of other fishermen, with their
+_AEsepiger_, or serving girls, were together in one house. Morten lived
+in the house next to theirs.
+
+There was one of these girls called Else, whom Joergen had known from
+her infancy. They were great friends, and much alike in disposition,
+though very different in appearance. He was of a dark complexion, and
+she was very fair, with hair almost of a golden colour; her eyes were
+as blue as the sea when the sun is shining upon it.
+
+One day when they were walking together, and Joergen was holding her
+hand with a tight and affectionate grasp, she said to him,--
+
+"Joergen, I have something on my mind. Let me be your _AEsepige_, for
+you are to me like a brother; but Morten, who has hired me at
+present--he and I are sweethearts. Do not mention this, however, to
+any one."
+
+And Joergen felt as if a sand-hill had opened under him. He did not
+utter a single word, but nodded his head by way of a yes--more was not
+necessary; but he felt suddenly in his heart that he could not endure
+Morten, and the longer he reflected on the matter the clearer it
+became to him. Morten had stolen from him the only one he cared for,
+and that was Else. She was now lost to him.
+
+If the sea should be boisterous when the fishermen return with their
+little smacks, it is curious to see them cross the reefs. One of the
+fishermen stands erect in advance, the others watch him intently,
+while sitting with their oars ready to use when he gives them a sign
+that now are coming the great waves which will lift the boats over;
+and they are lifted, so that those on shore can only see their keels.
+The next moment the entire boat is hidden by the surging
+waves--neither boat, nor mast, nor people are to be seen: one would
+fancy the sea had swallowed them up. A minute or two more, and they
+show themselves, looking as if some mighty marine monsters were
+creeping out of the foaming sea, the oars moving like their legs. With
+the second and the third reef the same process takes place as with the
+first; and now the fishermen spring into the water and drag the boats
+on shore, every succeeding billow helping and giving them a good lift
+until they are fairly out of the water. One false move on the outside
+of the reefs--one moment's delay, and they would be shipwrecked.
+
+"Then it would be all over with me, and with Morten at the same time."
+This thought came across Joergen's mind out at sea, where his
+foster-father had been taken suddenly ill: he was in a high fever.
+This was just a little way from the outer reef. Joergen sprang up.
+
+"Father, allow me," he cried, and his eye glanced over Morten and over
+the waves; but just then every oar was raised for the great struggle,
+and as the first enormous billow came, he observed his father's pale
+suffering countenance, and he could not carry out the wicked design
+that had suggested itself to his mind. The boat got safely over the
+reefs, and in to the land; but Joergen's evil thoughts remained, and
+his blood boiled at every little disagreeable act that started up in
+his recollection from the time that he and Morten had been comrades,
+and his anger increased as he remembered each offence. Morten had
+supplanted him, he felt assured of that; and that was enough to make
+him hateful to him. A few of the fishermen remarked his scowling looks
+at Morten, but Morten himself did not; he was, just as usual, ready to
+give every assistance, and very talkative--a little too much of the
+latter, perhaps.
+
+Joergen's foster-father was obliged to keep his bed; he became worse,
+and died within a week; and Joergen inherited the house behind the
+sand-hills--a humble habitation to be sure, but it was always
+something. Morten had not so much.
+
+"You will not take service any more, Joergen, I suppose, but will
+remain among us now," said one of the old fishermen.
+
+But Joergen had no such intention. He was thinking, on the contrary, of
+going away to see a little of the world. The eel-man of Fjaltring had
+an uncle up at Gammel-Skagen; he was a fisherman, but also a thriving
+trader who owned some little vessels. He was such an excellent old
+man, it would be a good thing to take service with him. Gammel-Skagen
+lies on the northern part of Jutland, at the other extremity of the
+country from Huusby-Klitter, and that was what Joergen thought most of.
+He was determined not to stay for Else and Morten's wedding, which was
+to take place in a couple of weeks.
+
+"It was foolish to take his departure now," was the opinion of the old
+fisherman who had spoken to him before. "Now Joergen had a house, Else
+would most likely prefer taking him."
+
+Joergen answered so shortly, when thus spoken to, that it was difficult
+to ascertain what he thought; but the old man brought Else to him. She
+did not say much; but this she did say,--
+
+"You have now a house: one must take that into consideration."
+
+And Joergen also took much into consideration. In the ocean there are
+many heavy seas--the human heart has still heavier ones. There passed
+many thoughts, strong and weak mingled together, through Joergen's head
+and heart, and he asked Else,--
+
+"If Morten had a house as well as I, which of us two would you rather
+take?"
+
+"But Morten has no house, and has no chance of getting one."
+
+"But we think it is very likely he will have one."
+
+"Oh! then I would take Morten, of course; but one can't live upon
+love."
+
+And Joergen reflected for the whole night over what had passed. There
+was something in him he could not himself account for; but he had one
+idea--it overpowered his love for Else, and it led him to Morten. What
+he said and did there had been well considered by him--he made his
+house over to Morten on the lowest possible terms, saying that he
+would himself prefer to go into service. And Else kissed him in her
+gratitude when she heard it, for she certainly loved Morten best.
+
+At an early hour in the morning Joergen was to take his departure. The
+evening before, though it was already late, he fancied he would like
+to visit Morten once more, so he went; and amongst the sand-hills he
+met the old fisherman, who did not seem to think of his going away,
+and who jested about all the girls being so much in love with Morten.
+Joergen cut him short, bade him farewell, and proceeded to the house
+where Morten lived. When he reached it he heard loud talking within:
+Morten was not alone. Joergen was somewhat capricious. Of all persons
+he would least wish to find Else there; and, on second thoughts, he
+would rather not give Morten an opportunity of renewing his thanks, so
+he turned back again.
+
+Early next morning, before the dawn of day, he tied up his bundle,
+took his provision box, and went down from the sand-hills to the
+sea-beach. It was easier to walk there than on the heavy sandy road;
+besides, it was shorter, for he was first going to Fjaltring, near
+Vosbjerg, where the eel-man lived, to whom he had promised a visit.
+
+The sea was smooth and beautifully blue--shells of different sorts lay
+around. These were the playthings of his childhood--he now trod them
+under his feet. As he was walking along his nose began to bleed. That
+was only a trifle in itself, but it might have some meaning. A few
+large drops of blood fell upon his arms; he washed them off, stopped
+the bleeding, and found that the loss of a little blood had actually
+made him feel lighter in his head and in his heart. A small quantity
+of sea-kale was growing in the sand; he broke a blade off of it, and
+stuck it in his hat. He tried to feel happy and confident now that he
+was going out into the wide world--"away from the door, a little way
+up the stream," as the eel's children had said; and the mother said,
+"Take care of bad men; they will catch you, skin you, cut you in
+pieces, and fry you." He repeated this to himself, and laughed at it.
+He would get through the world with a whole skin--no fear of that; for
+he had plenty of courage, and that was a good weapon of defence.
+
+The sun was already high up, when, as he approached the small inlet
+between the German Ocean and Nissumfiord, he happened to look back,
+and perceived at a considerable distance two people on horseback, and
+others following on foot: they were evidently making great haste, but
+it was nothing to him.
+
+The ferry-boat lay on the other side of the narrow arm of the sea.
+Joergen beckoned and called to the person who had charge of it. It came
+over, and he entered it; but before he and the man who was rowing had
+got half way across, the men he had seen hurrying on reached the
+banks, and with threatening gestures shouted the name of the
+magistrate. Joergen could not comprehend what they wanted, but
+considered it would be best to go back, and even took one of the oars
+to row the faster. The moment the boat neared the shore, people sprang
+into it, and before he had an idea of what they were going to do, they
+had thrown a rope round his hands, and made him their prisoner.
+
+"Your evil deed will cost you your life," said they. "It is lucky we
+arrived in time to catch you."
+
+It was neither more nor less than a murder he was accused of having
+committed. Morten had been found stabbed by a knife in his neck. One
+of the fishermen had, late the night before, met Joergen going to the
+place where Morten lived. It was not the first time he had lifted a
+knife at him, they knew. He must be the murderer; therefore he must be
+taken into custody. Ringkjoebing was the most proper place to which to
+carry him, but it was a long way off. The wind was from the west. In
+less than half an hour they could cross the fiord at Skjaerumaa, and
+from thence they had only a short way to go to Noerre-Vosborg, which
+was a strong place, with ramparts and moats. In the boat was a brother
+of the bailiff there, and he promised to obtain permission to put
+Joergen for the present into the cell where Lange Margrethe had been
+confined before her execution.
+
+Joergen's defence of himself was not listened to; for a few drops of
+blood on his clothes spoke volumes against him. His innocence was
+clear to himself; and, if justice were not done him, he must give
+himself up to his fate.
+
+They landed near the site of the old ramparts, where Sir Bugge's
+castle had stood--there, where Joergen, with his foster-father and
+mother, had passed on their way to the funeral meeting, at which had
+been spent the four brightest and pleasantest days of his childhood.
+He was conveyed again the same way by the fields up to Noerre-Vosborg,
+and yonder stood in full flower the elder tree, and yonder the lindens
+shed their sweet perfume around; and he felt as if it had been only
+yesterday that he had been there.
+
+In the west wing of the castle is a subterranean passage under the
+high stairs; this leads to a low, vaulted cell, in which Lange
+Margrethe had been imprisoned, and whence she had been taken to the
+place of execution. She had eaten the hearts of five children, and
+believed that, could she have added two more to the number, she would
+have been able to fly and to render herself invisible. In the wall
+there was a small, narrow air-hole. No glass was in this rude window;
+yet the sweetly-scented linden tree on the outside could not send the
+slightest portion of its refreshing perfume into that close, mouldy
+dungeon. There was only a miserable pallet there; but a good
+conscience is a good pillow, therefore Joergen could sleep soundly.
+
+The thick wooden door was locked, and it was further secured by an
+iron bolt; but the nightmare of superstition can creep through a
+key-hole in the baronial castle as in the fisherman's hut. It stole in
+where Joergen was sitting and thinking upon Lange Margrethe and her
+misdeeds. Her last thoughts had filled that little room the night
+before her execution; he remembered all the magic that, in the olden
+times, was practised when the lord of the manor, Svanwedel, lived
+there; and it was well known how, even now, the chained dog that stood
+on the bridge was found every morning hung over the railing in his
+chain. All these tales recurred to Joergen's mind, and made him
+shiver; and there was but one sun ray which shone upon him, and that
+was the recollection of the blooming elder and linden trees.
+
+He would not be kept long here; he would be removed to Ringkjoebing,
+where the prison was equally strong.
+
+These times were not like ours. It went hard with the poor then; for
+then it had not come to pass that peasants found their way up to
+lordly mansions, and that from these regiments coachmen and other
+servants became judges in the petty courts, which were invested with
+the power to condemn, for perhaps a trifling fault, the poor man to be
+deprived of all his goods and chattels, or to be flogged at the
+whipping-post. A few of these courts still remain; and in Jutland, far
+from "the King's Copenhagen," and the enlightened and liberal
+government, even now the law is not always very wisely administered:
+it certainly was not so in the case of poor Joergen.
+
+It was bitterly cold in the place where he was confined. When was this
+imprisonment to be at an end? Though innocent, he had been cast into
+wretchedness and solitude--that was his fate. How things had been
+ordained for him in this world, he had now time to think over. Why had
+he been thus treated--his portion made so hard to bear? Well, this
+would be revealed "in that other life" which assuredly awaits all. In
+the humble cottage that belief had been engrafted into him, which,
+amidst the grandeur and brightness of his Spanish home, had never
+shone upon his father's heart: _that_ now, in the midst of cold and
+darkness, became his consolation, God's gift of grace, which never can
+deceive.
+
+The storms of spring were now raging; the roaring of the German Ocean
+was heard far inland; but just when the tempest had lulled, it sounded
+as if hundreds of heavy wagons were driving over a hard tunnelled
+road. Joergen heard it even in his dungeon, and it was a change in the
+monotony of his existence. No old melody could have gone more deeply
+to his heart than these sounds--the rolling ocean--the free ocean--on
+which one can be borne throughout the world, fly with the wind, and
+wherever one went have one's own house with one, as the snail has
+his--to stand always upon home's ground, even in a foreign land.
+
+How eagerly he listened to the deep rolling! How remembrances hurried
+through his mind! "Free--free--how delightful to be free, even without
+soles to one's shoes, and in a coarse patched garment!" The very idea
+brought the warm blood rushing into his cheeks, and he struck the wall
+with his fist in his vain impatience. Weeks, months, a whole year had
+elapsed, when a gipsy named Niels Tyv--"the horse-dealer," as he was
+also called--was arrested, and then came better times: it was
+ascertained what injustice had been done to Joergen.
+
+To the north of Ringkjoebing Fiord, at a small country inn, on the
+evening of the day previous to Joergen's leaving home, and the
+committal of the murder, Niels Tyv and Morten had met each other. They
+drank a little together, not enough certainly to get into any man's
+head, but enough to set Morten talking too freely. He went on
+chattering, as he was fond of doing, and he mentioned that he had
+bought a house and some ground, and was going to be married. Niels
+thereupon asked him where was the money which was to pay it, and
+Morten struck his pocket pompously, exclaiming in a vaunting manner,--
+
+"Here, where it should be!"
+
+That foolish bragging answer cost him his life; for when he left the
+little inn Niels followed him, and stabbed him in the neck with his
+knife, in order to rob him of the money, which, after all, was not to
+be found.
+
+There was a long trial and much deliberation: it is enough for us to
+know that Joergen was set free at last. But what compensation was made
+to him for all he had suffered that long weary year in a cold, gloomy
+prison; secluded from all mankind? Why, he was assured that it was
+fortunate he was innocent, and he might now go about his business! The
+burgomaster gave him ten marks for his travelling expenses, and
+several of the townspeople gave him ale and food. They were very good
+people. Not all, then, would "skin you, and lay you on the
+frying-pan!" But the best of all was that the trader Broenne from
+Skagen, he to whom, a year before, Joergen intended to have hired
+himself, was just at the time of his liberation on business at
+Ringkjoebing. He heard the whole story; he had a heart and
+understanding; and, knowing what Joergen must have suffered and felt,
+he was determined to do what he could to improve his situation, and
+let him see that there were some kind-hearted people in the world.
+
+From a jail to freedom--from solitude and misery to a home which, by
+comparison, might be called a heaven--to kindness and love, he now
+passed. This also was to be a trial of his character. No chalice of
+life is altogether wormwood. A good person would not fill such for a
+child: would, then, the Almighty Father, who is all love, do so?
+
+"Let all that has taken place be now buried and forgotten," said the
+worthy Mr. Broenne. "We shall draw a thick line over last year. We
+shall burn the almanac. In two days we shall start for that blessed,
+peaceful, pleasant Skagen. It is said to be only a little
+insignificant nook in the country; but a nice warm nook it is, with
+windows open to the wide world."
+
+That _was_ a journey--that _was_ to breathe the fresh air again--to
+come from the cold, damp prison-cell out into the warm sunshine!
+
+The heather was blooming on the moorlands; the shepherd boys sat on
+the tumuli and played their flutes, which were manufactured out of the
+bones of sheep; the FATA MORGANA, the beautiful mirage of the desert,
+with its hanging seas and undulating woods, showed itself; and that
+bright, wonderful phenomenon in the air, which is called the "Lokeman
+driving his sheep."
+
+Towards Limfiorden they passed over the Vandal's land; and towards
+Skagen they journeyed where the men with the long beards,
+_Langbarderne_,[1] came from. In that locality it was that, during the
+famine under King Snio, all old people and young children were
+ordered to be put to death; but the noble lady, Gambaruk, who was the
+heiress of that part of the country, insisted that the children should
+rather be sent out of the country. Joergen was learned enough to know
+all about this; and, though he was not acquainted with the
+Langobarders' country beyond the lofty Alps, he had a good idea what
+it must be, as he had himself, when a boy, been in the south of
+Europe, in Spain. Well did he remember the heaped-up piles of fruit,
+the red pomegranate flowers, the din, the clamour, the tolling of
+bells in the Spanish city's great hive; but all was more charming at
+home, and Denmark was Joergen's home.
+
+[Footnote 1: Langobarder, a northern tribe, which, in very ancient
+times, dwelt in the north of Jutland. From thence they migrated to the
+north of Germany, where, according to Tacitus, they lived bout the
+period of the birth of Christ, and were a poor but brave people. Their
+original name was Vinuler, or Viniler. "When these Viniler," say the
+traditions, or rather fables of Scandinavia, "were at war with the
+Vandals, and the latter went to Odin to beseech him to grant them the
+victory, and received for answer that Odin would award the victory to
+those whom he beheld first at sunrise, the warlike female, Gambaruk,
+or Gunborg, who was mother to the leaders of the Viniler--Ebbe and
+Aage--applied to Frigga, Odin's wife, to entreat victory for her
+people. The goddess advised that the females of the tribe should let
+down their long hair so as to imitate beards, and, early in the
+morning, should stand with their husbands in the east, where Odin
+would look out. When, at sunrise, Odin saw them, he exclaimed, 'Who
+are these long-bearded people?' whereupon Frigga replied, that since
+he had bestowed, a name upon them, he must also give them the victory.
+This was the origin of the _Longobardi_, who, after many wanderings,
+found their way into Italy, and, under ALBOIN, founded the kingdom of
+Lombardy."--_Trans._]
+
+At length they reached Vendilskaga, as Skagen is called in the old
+Norse and Icelandic writings. For miles and miles, interspersed with
+sand-hills and cultivated land, houses, farms, and drifting
+sand-banks, stretched, and stretch still, towards Gammel-Skagen,
+Wester and Osterby, out to the lighthouse near Grenen, a waste, a
+desert, where the wind drives before it the loose sand, and where
+sea-gulls and wild swans send forth their discordant cries in concert.
+To the south-west, a few miles from Grenen, lies High, or Old Skagen,
+where the worthy Broenne lived, and where Joergen was also to reside.
+The house was tarred, the small out-houses had each an inverted boat
+for a roof. Pieces of wrecks were knocked up together to form
+pigsties. Fences there were none, for there was nothing to inclose;
+but upon cords, stretched in long rows one over the other, hung fish
+cut open, and drying in the wind. The whole beach was covered with
+heaps of putrefying herrings: nets were scarcely ever thrown into the
+water, for the herrings were taken in loads on the land. There was so
+vast a supply of this sort of fish, that people either threw them
+back into the sea, or left them to rot on the sands.
+
+The trader's wife and daughter--indeed, the whole household--came out
+rejoicing to meet the father of the family when he returned home.
+There was such a shaking of hands--such exclamations and questions!
+And what a charming countenance and beautiful eyes the daughter had!
+
+The interior of the house was large and extremely comfortable. Various
+dishes of fish were placed upon the table; among others some delicious
+plaice, which might have been a treat for a king; wine from Skagen's
+vineyard--the vast ocean--from which the juice of the grape was
+brought on shore both in casks and bottles.
+
+When the mother and daughter afterwards heard who Joergen was, and how
+harshly he had been treated, though innocent of all crime, they looked
+very kindly at him; and most sympathising was the expression of the
+daughter's eyes, the lovely Miss Clara. Joergen found a happy home at
+Gammel-Skagen. It did his heart good, and the poor young man had
+suffered much, even the bitterness of unrequited love, which either
+hardens or softens the heart. Joergen's was soft enough now; there was
+a vacant place within it, and he was still so young.
+
+It was, perhaps, fortunate that in about three weeks Miss Clara was
+going in one of her father's ships up to Christiansand, in Norway, to
+visit an aunt, and remain there the whole winter. The Sunday before
+her departure they all went to church together, intending to partake
+of the sacrament. It was a large, handsome church, and had several
+hundred years before been built by the Scotch and Dutch a little way
+from where the town was now situated. It had become somewhat
+dilapidated, was difficult of access, the way to it being through
+deep, heavy sand; but the disagreeables of the road were willingly
+encountered in order to enter the house of God--to pray, sing psalms,
+and hear a sermon there. The sand was, as it were, banked up against,
+and even higher than, the circular wall of the churchyard; but the
+graves therein were kept carefully free of the drifting sand.
+
+This was the largest church to the north of Limfiorden. The Virgin
+Mary, with a crown of gold on her head, and the infant Jesus in her
+arms, stood as if in life in the altar-piece; the holy apostles were
+carved on the chancel; and on the walls above were to be seen the
+portraits of the old burgomasters and magistrates of Skagen, with
+their insignia of office: the pulpit was richly carved. The sun was
+shining brightly into the church, and glancing on the crown of brass
+and the little ship that hung from the roof.
+
+Joergen felt overcome by a kind of childish feeling of awe, mingled
+with reverence, such as he had experienced when as a boy he had stood
+within the magnificent Spanish cathedral; but he knew that here his
+feelings were shared by many. After the sermon the sacrament was
+administered. Like the others, he tasted the consecrated bread and
+wine, and he found that he was kneeling by the side of Miss Clara; but
+he was so much absorbed in his devotions, and in the sacred rite, that
+it was only when about to rise that he observed who was his immediate
+neighbour, and perceived that tears were streaming down her cheeks.
+
+Two days after this she sailed for Norway, and Joergen made himself
+useful on the farm, and at the fishery, in which there was much more
+done then than is now-a-days. The shoals of mackerel glittered in the
+dark nights, and showed the course they were taking; the crabs gave
+piteous cries when pursued, for fishes are not so mute as they are
+said to be. Every Sunday when he went to church, and gazed on the
+picture of the Virgin in the altar-piece, Joergen's eyes always
+wandered to the spot where Clara had knelt by his side; and he thought
+of her, and how kind she had been to him.
+
+Autumn came, with its hail and sleet; the water washed up to the very
+town of Skagen; the sand could not absorb all the water, so that
+people had to wade through it. The tempests drove vessel after vessel
+on the fatal reefs; there were snow storms and sand storms; the sand
+drifted against the houses, and closed up the entrances in some
+places, so that people had to creep out by the chimneys; but that was
+nothing remarkable up there. While all was thus bleak and wretched
+without, within there were warmth and comfort. The mingled peat and
+wood fires--the wood obtained from wrecked ships--crackled and blazed
+cheerfully, and Mr. Broenne read aloud old chronicles and legends;
+among others, the story of Prince Hamlet of Denmark, who, coming from
+England, landed near Bovbjerg, and fought a battle there. His grave
+was at Ramme, only a few miles from the place where the eel-man lived.
+Hundreds of tumuli, the graves of the giants and heroes of old, were
+still visible all over the wide heath--a great churchyard. Mr. Broenne
+had himself been there, and had seen Hamlet's grave. They talked of
+the olden times--of their neighbours, the English and Scotch; and
+Joergen sang the ballad about "The King of England's Son"--about the
+splendid ship--how it was fitted up:--
+
+    "How on the gilded panels stood
+    Engraved our Lord's commandments good;
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    And clasping a sweet maiden, how
+    The prince stood sculptured on the prow!"
+
+Joergen sang these lines in particular with much emphasis, whilst his
+dark eyes sparkled; but his eyes had always been bright from his
+earliest infancy.
+
+There were songs, and reading, and conversation, and everything to
+make the winter season pass as pleasantly as possible; there was
+prosperity in the house, plenty of comfort for the family, and plenty
+even for the lowest animals on the property; the shelves shone with
+rows of bright, well-scoured pewter plates and dishes; and from the
+roof hung sausages and hams, and other winter stores in abundance.
+Such may be seen even now in the many rich farm-houses on the west
+coast--the same evidences of plenty, the same comfortable rooms, the
+same good-humour, the same, and perhaps a little more, information.
+Hospitality reigns there as in an Arab's tent.
+
+Joergen had never before spent his time so happily since the pleasant
+days of his childhood at the funeral feast; and yet Miss Clara was
+absent--present only in thought and conversation.
+
+In April a vessel was going up to Norway, and Joergen was to go in it.
+He was in high spirits, and, according to Mrs. Broenne, he was so
+lively and good-humoured, it was quite a pleasure to see him.
+
+"And it is quite a pleasure to see you also," said her husband.
+"Joergen has enlivened all our winter evenings, and you with them; you
+have become young again, and really look quite handsome. You were
+formerly the prettiest girl in Viborg, and that is saying a great
+deal, for I have always thought the girls prettier there than anywhere
+else."
+
+Joergen said nothing to this. Perhaps he did not believe that the
+Viborg girls were prettier than any others; at any rate, he was
+thinking of one from Skagen, and he was now about to join her. The
+vessel had a fair, fresh breeze; therefore he arrived at Christiansand
+in half a day.
+
+Early one morning the trader, Mr. Broenne, went out to the lighthouse
+that is situated at some distance from Gammel-Skagen, and near Grenen.
+The signal-lights had been extinguished for some time, for the sun had
+risen tolerably high before he reached the tower. Away, to some
+distance beyond the most remote point of land, stretched the
+sand-banks under the water. Beyond these, again, he perceived many
+ships, and among them he thought he recognised, by aid of the
+spy-glass, the "Karen Broenne," as his own vessel was called; and he
+was right. It was approaching the coast, and Clara and Joergen were on
+board. The Skagen lighthouse and the spire of its church looked to
+them like a heron and a swan upon the blue water. Clara sat by the
+gunwale, and saw the sand-hills becoming little by little more and
+more apparent. If the wind only held fair, in less than an hour they
+would reach home; so near were they to happiness, and yet, alas! how
+near to death!
+
+A plank sprung in the ship. The water rushed in. They stopped it as
+well as they could, and used the pumps vigorously. All sail was set,
+and the flag of distress was hoisted. They were about a Danish mile
+off. Fishing-boats were to be seen, but were far away. The wind was
+fair for them. The current was also in their favour, but not strong
+enough. The vessel sank. Joergen threw his right arm around Clara.
+
+With what a speaking look did she not gaze into his eyes when,
+imploring our Lord for help, he threw himself with her into the sea!
+She uttered one shriek, but she was safe. He would not let her slip
+from his grasp. The words of the old ballad,--
+
+    "And, clasping a sweet maiden, how
+    The prince stood sculptured on the prow,"
+
+were now carried into effect by Joergen in that agonising hour of
+danger and deep anxiety. He felt the advantage of being a good
+swimmer, and exerted himself to the utmost with his feet and one hand;
+the other was holding fast the young girl. Every possible effort he
+made to keep up his strength in order to reach the land. He heard
+Clara sigh, and perceived that a kind of convulsive shuddering had
+seized her; and he held her the tighter. A single heavy wave broke
+over them--the current lifted them. The water was so clear, though
+deep, that Joergen thought for a moment he could see the shoals of
+mackerel beneath; or was it Leviathan himself who was waiting to
+swallow them? The clouds cast a shadow over the water, then again came
+the dancing sunbeams; harshly-screaming birds, in flocks, wheeled over
+him; and the wild ducks that, heavy and sleepy, allow themselves to
+drive on with the waves, flew up in alarm from before the swimmer. He
+felt that his strength was failing; but the shore was close at hand,
+and help was coming, for a boat was near. Just then he saw distinctly
+under the water a white, staring figure; a wave lifted him, the figure
+came nearer, he felt a violent blow, it became night before his
+eyes--all had disappeared for him.
+
+There lay, partially imbedded in the sand-bank, the wreck of a ship;
+the sea rolled over it, but the white figure-head was supported by an
+anchor, the sharp iron of which stuck up almost to the surface of the
+water. It was against this that Joergen had struck himself when the
+current had driven him forward with sudden force. Stunned and
+fainting, he sank with his burden, but the succeeding wave threw him
+and the young girl up again.
+
+The fishermen had now reached them, and they were taken into the boat.
+Blood was streaming over Joergen's face; he looked as if he were dead,
+but he still held the girl in so tight a grasp that it was with the
+utmost difficulty she could be wrenched from his encircling arm. As
+pale as death, and quite insensible, she lay at full length at the
+bottom of the boat, which steered towards Skagen.
+
+All possible means were tried to restore Clara to animation, but in
+vain--the poor young woman was dead. Long had Joergen been buffeting
+the waves with a corpse--exerting his utmost strength and straining
+every nerve for a dead body.
+
+Joergen still breathed; he was carried to the nearest house on the
+inner side of the sand-hills. A sort of army surgeon who happened to
+be at the place, who also acted in the capacities of smith and
+huckster, attended him until the next day, when a physician from
+Hjoerring, who had been sent for, arrived.
+
+The patient was severely wounded in the head, and suffering from a
+brain fever. For a time he uttered fearful shrieks, but on the third
+day he sank into a state of drowsiness, and his life seemed to hang
+upon a thread: that it might snap, the physician said, was the best
+that could be wished for Joergen.
+
+"Let us pray our Lord that he may be taken; he will never more be a
+rational man."
+
+But he was not taken; the thread of life would not break, though
+memory was swept away, and all the powers and faculties of his mind
+were gone. It was a frightful change. A living body was left--a body
+that was to regain health and go about again.
+
+Joergen remained in the trader Broenne's house.
+
+"He was brought into this lamentable condition by his efforts to save
+our child," said the old man; "he is now our son."
+
+Joergen was called "an idiot;" but that was a term not exactly
+applicable to him. He was like a musical instrument, the strings of
+which are loose, and can no longer, therefore, be made to sound. Only
+once, for a few minutes, they seemed to resume their elasticity, and
+they vibrated again. Old melodies were played, and played in time. Old
+images seemed to start up before him. They vanished--all glimmering of
+reason vanished, and he sat again staring vacantly around, without
+thought, without mind. It was to be hoped that he did not suffer
+anything. His dark eyes had lost their intelligence; they looked only
+like black glass that could move about.
+
+Everybody was sorry for the poor idiot Joergen.
+
+It was he who, before he saw the light of day, was destined to a
+career of earthly prosperity, of wealth and happiness, so great that
+it was "_frightful pride, overweening arrogance_," to wish for, or to
+believe in, a future life! All the high powers of his soul were
+wasted. Nothing but hardships, sufferings, and disappointments had
+been dealt out to him. A valuable bulb he was, torn up from his rich
+native soil, and cast upon distant sands to rot and perish. Was that
+being, made in the image of God, worth nothing more? Was he but the
+sport of accidents or of chance? No! The God of infinite love would
+give him a portion in another life for what he had suffered and been
+deprived of here.
+
+"The Lord is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His
+works."
+
+These consolatory words, from one of the Psalms of David, were
+repeated in devout faith by the pious old wife of the trader Broenne;
+and her heartfelt prayer was, that our Lord would soon release the
+poor benighted being, and receive him into God's gift of
+grace--everlasting life.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the churchyard, where the sand had drifted into piles against the
+walls, was Clara buried. It appeared as if Joergen had never thought
+about her grave; it did not enter into the narrow circle of his ideas,
+which now only dwelt among wrecks of the past. Every Sunday he
+accompanied the family to church, and he generally sat quiet with a
+totally vacant look; but one day, while a psalm was being sung, he
+breathed a sigh, his eyes lightened up, he turned them towards the
+altar--towards that spot where, more than a year before, he had knelt,
+with his dead friend at his side. He uttered her name, became as white
+as a sheet, and tears rolled down his cheeks.
+
+He was helped out of church, and then he said that he felt quite well,
+and did not think anything had been the matter with him; the short
+flash of memory had already faded away from him--the much-tried, the
+sorely-smitten of God. Yet that God, our Creator, is all wisdom and
+all love, who can doubt? Our hearts and our reason acknowledge it, and
+the Bible proclaims it. "His tender mercies are over all His works."
+
+In Spain, where, amidst laurels and orange trees, the Moorish golden
+cupolas glitter in the warm air, where songs and castanets are heard,
+sat, in a splendid mansion, a childless old man. Children were
+passing through the streets in a procession, with lights and waving
+banners. How much of his enormous wealth would he not have given to
+possess one child--to have had spared to him his daughter and her
+little one, who perhaps never beheld the light of day in this world.
+If so, how would it behold the light of eternity--of paradise? "Poor,
+poor child!"
+
+Yes; poor child--nothing but a child--and yet in his thirtieth year!
+for to such an age had Joergen attained there in Gammel-Skagen.
+
+The sand-drifts had found their way even over the graves in the
+churchyard, and up to the very walls of the church itself; yet here,
+amidst those who had gone before them--amidst relatives and
+friends--the dead were still buried. The good old Broenne and his wife
+reposed there, near their daughter, under the white sand.
+
+It was late in the year--the time of storms; the sand-hills smoked,
+the waves rolled mountains high on the raging sea; the birds in hosts,
+like dark tempestuous clouds, passed screeching over the sand-hills;
+ship after ship went ashore on the terrible reefs between Skagen's
+Green and Huusby-Klitter.
+
+One afternoon Joergen was sitting alone in the parlour, and suddenly
+there rushed upon his shattered mind a feeling akin to the
+restlessness which so often, in his younger years, had driven him out
+among the sand-hills, or upon the heath.
+
+"Home! home!" he exclaimed. No one heard him. He left the house, and
+took his way to the sand-hills. The sand and the small stones dashed
+against his face, and whirled around him. He went towards the church;
+the sand was lying banked up against the walls, and half way up the
+windows; but the walk up to the church was freer of it. The church
+door was not locked, it opened easily, and Joergen entered the sacred
+edifice.
+
+The wind went howling over the town of Skagen; it was blowing a
+perfect hurricane, such as had not been known in the memory of the
+oldest man living--it was most fearful weather. But Joergen was in
+God's house, and while dark night came on around him, all seemed light
+within; it was the light of the immortal soul which is never to be
+extinguished. He felt as if a heavy stone had fallen from his head; he
+fancied that he heard the organ playing, but the sounds were those of
+the storm and the roaring sea. He placed himself in one of the pews,
+and he fancied that the candles were lighted one after the other,
+until there was a blaze of brilliancy such as he had beheld in the
+cathedral in Spain; and all the portraits of the old magistrates and
+burgomasters became imbued with life, descended from the frames in
+which they had stood for years, and placed themselves in the choir.
+The gates and side doors of the church opened, he thought, and in
+walked all the dead, clothed in the grandest costumes of their times,
+whilst music floated in the air; and when they had seated themselves
+in the different pews, a solemn hymn arose, and swelled like the
+rolling of the sea.
+
+Among those who had joined the spirit throng were his old
+foster-father and mother from Huusby-Klitter, and his kind friend
+Broenne and his wife; and at their side, but close to himself, sat
+their mild, lovely daughter. She held out her hand to him, Joergen
+thought, and they went up to the altar where once they had knelt
+together; the priest joined their hands, and pronounced those words
+and that blessing which were to hallow for them life and love. Then
+music's tones peeled around--the organ, wind instruments, and voices
+combined--until there arose a volume of sound sufficient to shake the
+very tombstones over the graves.
+
+Presently the little ship that hung under the roof moved towards him
+and Clara. It became large and magnificent, with silken sails and
+gilded masts; the anchor was of the brightest gold, and every rope was
+of silk cord, as described in the old song. He and his bride stepped
+on board, then the whole multitude in the church followed them, and
+there was room for all. He fancied that the walls and vaulted roof of
+the church turned into blooming elder and linden trees, which diffused
+a sweet perfume around. It was all one mass of verdure. The trees
+bowed themselves, and left an open space; then the ship ascended
+gently, and sailed out through the air above the sea. Every light in
+the church looked like a star. The wind commenced a hymn, and all sang
+with it: "In love to glory!" "No life shall be lost!" "Away to supreme
+happiness!" "Hallelujah!"
+
+These words were his last in this world. The cord had burst which held
+the undying soul. There lay but a cold corpse in the dark church,
+around which the storm was howling, and which it was overwhelming with
+the drifting sand.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next morning was a Sunday; the congregation and their pastor came
+at the hour of church service. The approach to the church had been
+almost impassable on account of the depth of the sand, and when at
+length they reached it, they found an immense sand-heap piled up
+before the door of the church--the drifting sand had closed up all
+entrance to its interior. The clergyman read a prayer, and then said
+that, as God had locked the doors of that holy house, they must go
+elsewhere and erect another for His service.
+
+They sang a psalm, and retired to their homes.
+
+Joergen could not be found either at Skagen or amidst the sand-hills,
+where every search was made for him. It was supposed that the wild
+waves, which had rolled so far up on the sands, had swept him off.
+
+But his body lay entombed in a large sarcophagus--in the church
+itself. During the storm God had cast earth upon his coffin--heavy
+piles of quicksand had accumulated there, and lie there even now.
+
+The sand had covered the lofty arches, sand-thorns and wild roses grow
+over the church, where the wayfarer now struggles on towards its
+spire, which towers above the sand, an imposing tombstone over the
+grave, seen from miles around--no king had ever a grander one! None
+disturb the repose of the dead--none knew where Joergen lay, until
+now--the storm sang the secret for me among the sand-hills!
+
+
+
+
+_The Mud-king's Daughter._
+
+
+The storks are in the habit of relating to their little ones many
+tales, all from the swamps and the bogs. They are, in general,
+suitable to the ages and comprehensions of the hearers. The smallest
+youngsters are contented with mere sound, such as "krible, krable,
+plurremurre." They think that wonderful; but the more advanced require
+something rational, or at least something about their family. Of the
+two most ancient and longest traditions that have been handed down
+among the storks, we are all acquainted with one--that about Moses,
+who was placed by his mother on the banks of the Nile, was found there
+by the king's daughter, was well brought up, and became a great man,
+such as has never been heard of since in the place where he was
+buried.
+
+The other story is not well known, probably because it is a tale of
+home; yet it has passed down from one stork grandam to another for a
+thousand years, and each succeeding narrator has told it better and
+better, and now we shall tell it best of all.
+
+The first pair of storks who related this tale had themselves
+something to do with its events. The place of their summer sojourn
+was at the Viking's loghouse, up by _the wild morass_, at Vendsyssel.
+It is in Hjoering district, away near Skagen, in the north of Jutland,
+speaking with geographical precision. It is now an enormous bog, and
+an account of it can be read in descriptions of the country. This
+place was once the bottom of the sea; but the waters have receded, and
+the ground has risen. It stretches itself for miles on all sides,
+surrounded by wet meadows and pools of water, by peat-bogs,
+cloudberries, and miserable stunted trees. A heavy mist almost always
+hangs over this place, and about seventy years ago wolves were found
+there. It is rightly called, the wild morass; and one may imagine how
+savage it must have been, and how much swamp and sea must have existed
+there a thousand years ago. Yes, in these respects the same was to be
+seen there as is to be seen now. The rushes had the same height, the
+same sort of long leaves, and blue-brown, feather-like flowers that
+they bear now; the birch tree stood with its white bark, and delicate
+drooping leaves, as now; and, in regard to the living creatures, the
+flies had the same sort of crape clothing as they wear now; and the
+storks' bodies were white, with black and red stockings. Mankind, on
+the contrary, at that time wore coats cut in another fashion from what
+they do in our days; but every one of them, serf or huntsman,
+whosoever he might be who trod upon the quagmire, fared a thousand
+years ago as they fare now: one step forward--they fell in, and sank
+down to the MUD-KING, as _he_ was called who reigned below in the
+great morass kingdom. Very little is known about his government; but
+that is, perhaps, a good thing.
+
+Near the bog, close by Liimfjorden, lay the Viking's loghouse of three
+stories high, and with a tower and stone cellars. The storks had
+built their nest upon the roof of this dwelling. The female stork sat
+upon her eggs, and felt certain they would be all hatched.
+
+One evening the male stork remained out very long, and when he came
+home he looked rumpled and flurried.
+
+"I have something very terrible to tell thee," he said to the female
+stork.
+
+"Thou hadst better keep it to thyself," said she. "Remember I am
+sitting upon the eggs: a fright might do me harm, and the eggs might
+be injured."
+
+"But it _must_ be told thee," he replied. "She has come here--the
+daughter of our host in Egypt. She has ventured the long journey up
+hither, and she is lost."
+
+"She who is of the fairies' race? Speak, then! Thou knowest that I
+cannot bear suspense while I am sitting."
+
+"Know, then, that she believed what the doctors said, which thou didst
+relate to me. She believed that the bog-plants up here could cure her
+invalid father; and she has flown hither, in the magic disguise of a
+swan, with the two other swan princesses, who every year come hither
+to the north to bathe and renew their youth. She has come, and she is
+lost."
+
+"Thou dost spin the matter out so long," muttered the female stork,
+"the eggs will be quite cooled. I cannot bear suspense just now."
+
+"I will come to the point," replied the male. "This evening I went to
+the rushes where the quagmire could bear me. Then came three swans.
+There was something in their motions which said to me, 'Take care;
+they are not real swans; they are only the appearance of swans,
+created by magic.' Thou wouldst have known as well as I that they were
+not of the right sort."
+
+"Yes, surely," she said; "but tell me about the princess. I am tired
+of hearing about the swans."
+
+"In the midst of the morass--here, I must tell thee, it is like a
+lake," said the male stork--"thou canst see a portion of it if thou
+wilt raise thyself up a moment--yonder, by the rushes and the green
+morass, lay a large stump of an alder tree. The three swans alighted
+upon it, flapped their wings, and looked about them. One of them cast
+off her swan disguise, and I recognised in her our royal princess from
+Egypt. She sat now with no other mantle around her than her long dark
+hair. I heard her desire the other two to take good care of her magic
+swan garb, while she ducked down under the water to pluck the flower
+which she thought she saw. They nodded, and raised the empty feather
+dress between them. 'What are they going to do with it?' said I to
+myself; and she probably asked herself the same question. The answer
+came too soon, for I saw them take flight up into the air with her
+charmed feather dress. 'Dive thou there!' they cried. 'Never more
+shalt thou fly in the form of a magic swan--never more shalt thou
+behold the land of Egypt. Dwell thou in _the wild morass_!' And they
+tore her magic disguise into a hundred pieces, so that the feathers
+whirled round about as if there were a fall of snow; and away flew the
+two worthless princesses."
+
+"It is shocking!" said the lady stork; "I can't bear to hear it. Tell
+me what more happened."
+
+"The princess sobbed and wept. Her tears trickled down upon the trunk
+of the alder tree, and then it moved; for it was the mud-king
+himself--he who dwells in the morass. I saw the trunk turn itself, and
+then there was no more trunk--it struck up two long miry branches like
+arms; then the poor child became dreadfully alarmed, and she sprang
+aside upon the green slimy coating of the marsh; but it could not bear
+me, much less her, and she sank immediately in. The trunk of the alder
+tree went down with her--it was that which had dragged her down: then
+arose to the surface large black bubbles, and all further traces of
+her disappeared. She is now buried in 'the wild morass;' and never,
+never shall she return to Egypt with the flower she sought. Thou
+couldst not have borne to have seen all this, mother."
+
+"Thou hadst no business to tell me such a startling tale at a time
+like this. The eggs may suffer. The princess can take care of herself:
+she will no doubt be rescued. If it had been me or thee, or any of our
+family, it would have been all over with us."
+
+"I will look after her every day, however," said the male stork; and
+so he did.
+
+A long time had elapsed, when one day he saw that far down from the
+bottom was shooting up a green stem, and when it reached the surface a
+leaf grew on it. The leaf became broader and broader; close by it came
+a bud; and one morning, when the stork flew over it, the bud opened in
+the warm sunshine, and in the centre of it lay a beautiful infant, a
+little girl, just as if she had been taken out of a bath. She so
+strongly resembled the princess from Egypt, that the stork at first
+thought it was herself who had become an infant again; but when he
+considered the matter he came to the conclusion that she was the
+daughter of the princess and the mud-king, therefore she lay in the
+calyx of a water-lily.
+
+"She cannot be left lying there," said the stork to himself; "yet in
+my nest we are already too overcrowded. But a thought strikes me. The
+Viking's wife has no children; she has much wished to have a pet. I am
+often blamed for bringing little ones. I shall now, for once, do so
+in reality. I shall fly with this infant to the Viking's wife: it will
+be a great pleasure to her."
+
+And the stork took the little girl, flew to the loghouse, knocked with
+his beak a hole in the window-pane of stretched bladder, laid the
+infant in the arms of the Viking's wife, then flew to his mate, and
+unburdened his mind to her; while the little ones listened
+attentively, for they were old enough now to do that.
+
+"Only think, the princess is not dead. She has sent her little one up
+here, and now it is well provided for."
+
+"I told thee from the beginning it would be all well," said the mother
+stork. "Turn thy thoughts now to thine own family. It is almost time
+for our long journey; I begin now to tingle under the wings. The
+cuckoo and the nightingale are already gone, and I hear the quails
+saying that we shall soon have a fair wind. Our young ones are quite
+able to go, I know that."
+
+How happy the Viking's wife was when, in the morning, she awoke and
+found the lovely little child lying on her breast! She kissed it and
+caressed it, but it screeched frightfully, and floundered about with
+its little arms and legs: IT evidently seemed little pleased. At last
+it cried itself to sleep, and as it lay there it was one of the most
+beautiful little creatures that could be seen. The Viking's wife was
+so pleased and happy, she took it into her head that her husband, with
+all his retainers, would come as unexpectedly as the little one had
+done; and she set herself and the whole household to work, in order
+that everything might be ready for their reception. The coloured
+tapestry which she and her women had embroidered with representations
+of their gods--ODIN, THOR, and FREIA, as they were called--were hung
+up; the serfs were ordered to clean and polish the old shields with
+which the walls were to be decorated; cushions were laid on the
+benches; and dry logs of wood were heaped on the fireplace in the
+centre of the hall, so that the pile might be easily lighted. The
+Viking's wife laboured so hard herself that she was quite tired by the
+evening, and slept soundly.
+
+When she awoke towards morning she became much alarmed, for the little
+child was gone. She sprang up, lighted a twig of the pine tree, and
+looked about; and, to her amazement, she saw, in the part of the bed
+to which she stretched her feet, not the beautiful infant, but a great
+ugly frog. She was so much disgusted with it that she took up a heavy
+stick, and was going to kill the nasty creature; but it looked at her
+with such wonderfully sad and speaking eyes that she could not strike
+it. Again she searched about. The frog gave a faint, pitiable cry. She
+started up, and sprang from the bed to the window; she opened the
+shutters, and at the same moment the sun streamed in, and cast its
+bright beams upon the bed and upon the large frog; and all at once it
+seemed as if the broad mouth of the noxious animal drew itself in, and
+became small and red--the limbs stretched themselves into the most
+beautiful form--it was her own little lovely child that lay there, and
+no ugly frog.
+
+"What is all this?" she exclaimed. "Have I dreamed a bad dream? That
+certainly is my pretty little elfin child lying yonder." And she
+kissed it and strained it affectionately to her heart; but it
+struggled, and tried to bite like the kitten of a wild cat.
+
+Neither the next day nor the day after came the Viking, though he was
+on the way, but the wind was against him; it was for the storks. A
+fair wind for one is a contrary wind for another.
+
+In the course of a few days and nights it became evident to the
+Viking's wife how things stood with the little child--that it was
+under the influence of some terrible witchcraft. By day it was as
+beautiful as an angel, but it had a wild, evil disposition; by night,
+on the contrary, it was an ugly frog, quiet, except for its croaking,
+and with melancholy eyes. It had two natures, that changed about, both
+without and within. This arose from the little girl whom the stork had
+brought possessing by day her own mother's external appearance, and at
+the same time her father's temper; while by night, on the contrary,
+she showed her connection with him outwardly in her form, whilst her
+mother's mind and heart inwardly became hers. What art could release
+her from the power which exercised such sorcery over her? The Viking's
+wife felt much anxiety and distress about it, and yet her heart hung
+on the poor little being, of whose strange state she thought she
+should not dare to inform her husband when he came home; for he
+assuredly, as was the custom, would put the poor child out on the high
+road, and let any one take it who would. The Viking's good-natured
+wife had not the heart to allow this; therefore she resolved that he
+should never see the child but by day.
+
+At dawn of day the wings of the storks were heard fluttering over the
+roof. During the night more than a hundred pairs of storks had been
+making their preparations, and now they flew up to wend their way to
+the south.
+
+"Let all the males be ready," was the cry. "Let their mates and little
+ones join them."
+
+"How light we feel!" said the young storks, who were all impatience
+to be off. "How charming to be able to travel to other lands!"
+
+"Keep ye all together in one flock," cried the father and mother, "and
+don't chatter so much--it will take away your breath."
+
+So they all flew away.
+
+About the same time the blast of a horn sounding over the heath gave
+notice that the Viking had landed with all his men; they were
+returning home with rich booty from the Gallic coast, where the
+people, as in Britain, sang in their terror,--
+
+    "Save us from the savage Normands!"
+
+What life and bustle were now apparent in the Viking's castle near
+"the wild morass!" Casks of mead were brought into the hall, the pile
+of wood was lighted, and horses were slaughtered for the grand feast
+which was to be prepared. The sacrificial priests sprinkled with the
+horses' warm blood the slaves who were to assist in the offering. The
+fires crackled, the smoke rolled up under the roof, the soot dropped
+from the beams; but people were accustomed to that. Guests were
+invited, and they brought handsome gifts; rancour and falseness were
+forgotten--they all became drunk together, and they thrust their
+doubled fists into each other's faces--which was a sign of
+good-humour. The skald--he was a sort of poet and musician, but at the
+same time a warrior--who had been with them, and had witnessed what he
+sang about, gave them a song, wherein they heard recounted all their
+achievements in battle, and wonderful adventures. At the end of every
+verse came the same refrain,--
+
+     "Fortune dies, friends die, one dies one's self; but a
+     glorious name never dies."
+
+And then they all struck on their shields, and thundered with their
+knives or their knuckle-bones on the table, so that they made a
+tremendous noise.
+
+The Viking's wife sat on the cross bench in the open banquet hall. She
+wore a silk dress, gold bracelets, and large amber beads. She was in
+her grandest attire, and the skald named her also in his song, and
+spoke of the golden treasure she had brought her husband; and HE
+rejoiced in the lovely child he had only seen by daylight, in all its
+wondrous beauty. The fierce temper which accompanied her exterior
+charms pleased him. "She might become," he said, "a stalwart female
+warrior, and able to kill a giant adversary." She never even blinked
+her eyes when a practised hand, in sport, cut off her eyebrows with a
+sharp sword.
+
+The mead casks were emptied, others were brought up, and these, too,
+were drained; for there were folks present who could stand a good
+deal. To them might have been applied the old proverb, "The cattle
+know when to leave the pasture; but an unwise man never knows the
+depth of his stomach."
+
+Yes, they all knew it; but people often know the right thing, and do
+the wrong. They knew also that "one wears out one's welcome when one
+stays too long in another man's house;" but they remained there for
+all that. Meat and mead are good things. All went on merrily, and
+towards night the slaves slept amidst the warm ashes, and dipped their
+fingers into the fat skimmings of the soup, and licked them. It was a
+rare time!
+
+And again the Viking went forth on an expedition, notwithstanding the
+stormy weather. He went after the crops were gathered in. He went with
+his men to the coast of Britain--"it was only across the water," he
+said--and his wife remained at home with her little girl; and it was
+soon to be seen that the foster-mother cared almost more for the poor
+frog, with the honest eyes and plaintive croaking, than for the beauty
+who scratched and bit everybody around.
+
+The raw, damp, autumn, mist, that loosens the leaves from the trees,
+lay over wood and hedge; "Birdfeatherless," as the snow is called, was
+falling thickly; winter was close at hand. The sparrows seized upon
+the storks' nest, and talked over, in their fashion, the absent
+owners. They themselves, the stork pair, with all their young ones,
+where were they now?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The storks were now in the land of Egypt, where the sun was shining
+warmly as with us on a lovely summer day. The tamarind and the acacia
+grew there; the moonbeams streamed over the temples of Mahomet. On the
+slender minarets sat many a pair of storks, reposing after their long
+journey; the whole immense flock had fixed themselves, nest by nest,
+amidst the mighty pillars and broken porticos of temples and forgotten
+edifices. The date tree elevated to a great height its broad leafy
+roof, as if it wished to form a shelter from the sun. The grey
+pyramids stood with their outlines sharply defined in the clear air
+towards the desert, where the ostrich knew he could use his legs; and
+the lion sat with his large grave eyes, and gazed on the marble
+sphinxes that lay half imbedded in the sand. The waters of the Nile
+had receded, and a great part of the bed of the river was swarming
+with frogs; and that, to the stork family, was the pleasantest sight
+in the country where they had arrived. The young ones were astonished
+at all they saw.
+
+"Such are the sights here, and thus it always is in our warm country,"
+said the stork-mother good-humouredly.
+
+"Is there yet more to be seen?" they asked. "Shall we go much further
+into the country?"
+
+"There is nothing more worth seeing," replied the stork-mother.
+"Beyond this luxuriant neighbourhood there is nothing but wild
+forests, where the trees grow close to each other, and are still more
+closely entangled by prickly creeping plants, weaving such a wall of
+verdure, that only the elephant, with his strong clumsy feet, can
+there tread his way. The snakes are too large for us there, and the
+lizards too lively. If ye would go to the desert, ye will meet with
+nothing but sand; it will fill your eyes, it will come in gusts, and
+cover your feathers. No, it is best here. Here are frogs and
+grass-hoppers. I shall remain here, and so shall you."
+
+And they remained. The old ones sat in their nest upon the graceful
+minaret; they reposed themselves, and yet they had enough to do to
+smooth their wings and rub their beaks on their red stockings; and
+they stretched out their necks, saluted gravely, and lifted up their
+heads with their high foreheads and fine soft feathers, and their
+brown eyes looked so wise.
+
+The female young ones strutted about proudly among the juicy reeds,
+stole sly glances at the other young storks, made acquaintances, and
+slaughtered a frog at every third step, or went lounging about with
+little snakes in their bills, which they fancied looked well, and
+which they knew would taste well.
+
+The male young ones got into quarrels; struck each other with their
+wings; pecked at each other with their beaks, even until blood flowed.
+Then they all thought of engaging themselves--the male and the female
+young ones. It was for that they lived, and they built nests, and got
+again into new quarrels; for in these warm countries every one is so
+hot-headed. Nevertheless they were very happy, and this was a great
+joy to the old storks. Every day there was warm sunshine--every day
+plenty to eat. They had nothing to think of except pleasure. But
+yonder, within the splendid palace of their Egyptian host, as they
+called him, there was but little pleasure to be found.
+
+The wealthy, mighty chief lay upon his couch, stiffened in all his
+limbs--stretched out like a mummy in the centre of the grand saloon
+with the many-coloured painted walls: it was as if he were lying in a
+tulip. Kinsmen and servants stood around him. Dead he was not, yet it
+could hardly be said that he lived. The healing bog-flower from the
+faraway lands in the north--that which she was to have sought and
+plucked for him--she who loved him best--would never now be brought.
+His beautiful young daughter, who in the magic garb of a swan had
+flown over sea and land away to the distant north, would never more
+return. "She is dead and gone," had the two swan ladies, her
+companions, declared on their return home. They had concocted a tale,
+and they told it as follows:--
+
+"We had flown all three high up in the air when a sportsman saw us,
+and shot at us with his arrow. It struck our young friend; and, slowly
+singing her farewell song, she sank like a dying swan down into the
+midst of the lake in the wood. There, on its banks, under a fragrant
+weeping birch tree, we buried her. But we took a just revenge: we
+bound fire under the wings of the swallow that built under the
+sportman's thatched roof. It kindled--his house was soon in flames--he
+was burned within it--and the flames shone as far over the sea as to
+the drooping birch, where she is now earth within the earth. Alas!
+never will she return to the land of Egypt."
+
+And they both wept bitterly; and the old stork-father, when he heard
+it, rubbed his bill until it was quite sore.
+
+"Lies and deceit!" he cried. "I should like, above all things, to run
+my beak into their breasts."
+
+"And break it off," said the stork-mother; "you would look remarkably
+well then. Think first of yourself, and the interests of your own
+family; everything else is of little consequence."
+
+"I will, however, place myself upon the edge of the open cupola
+to-morrow, when all the learned and the wise are to assemble to take
+the case of the sick man into consideration: perhaps they may then
+arrive a little nearer to the truth."
+
+And the learned and the wise met together, and talked much, deeply,
+and profoundly of which the stork could make nothing at all; and,
+sooth to say, there was no result obtained from all this talking,
+either for the invalid or for his daughter in "the wild morass;" yet,
+nevertheless, it was all very well to listen to--one _must_ listen to
+a great deal in this world.
+
+But now it were best, perhaps, for us to hear what had happened
+formerly. We shall then be better acquainted with the story--at least,
+we shall know as much as the stork-father did.
+
+"Love bestows life; the highest love bestows the highest life; it is
+only through love that his life can be saved," was what had been said;
+and it was amazingly wisely and well said, the learned declared.
+
+"It is a beautiful thought," said the stork-father.
+
+"I don't quite comprehend it," said the stork-mother, "but that is
+not my fault--it is the fault of the thought; though it is all one to
+me, for I have other things to think upon."
+
+And then the learned talked of love between this and that--that there
+was a difference. Love such as lovers felt, and that between parents
+and children; between light and plants; how the sunbeams kissed the
+ground, and how thereby the seeds sprouted forth--it was all so
+diffusely and learnedly expounded, that it was impossible for the
+stork-father to follow the discourse, much less to repeat it. It made
+him very thoughtful, however; he half closed his eyes, and actually
+stood on one leg the whole of the next day, reflecting on what he had
+heard. So much learning was difficult for him to digest.
+
+But this much the stork-father understood. He had heard both common
+people and great people speak as if they really felt it, that it was a
+great misfortune to many thousands, and to the country in general,
+that the king lay so ill, and that nothing could be done to bring
+about his recovery. It would be a joy and a blessing to all if he
+could but be restored to health.
+
+"But where grew the health-giving flower that might cure him?"
+Everybody asked that question. Scientific writings were searched, the
+glittering stars were consulted, the wind and the weather. Every
+traveller that could be found was appealed to, until at length the
+learned and the wise, as before stated, pitched upon this: "Love
+bestows life--life to a father." And though this dictum was really not
+understood by themselves, they adopted it, and wrote it out as a
+prescription. "Love bestows life"--well and good. But how was this to
+be applied? Here they were at a stand. At length, however, they
+agreed that the princess must be the means of procuring the necessary
+help, as she loved her father with all her heart and soul. They also
+agreed on a mode of proceeding. It is more than a year and a day since
+then. They settled that when the new moon had just disappeared, she
+was to betake herself by night to the marble sphinx in the desert, to
+remove the sand from the entrance with her foot, and then to follow
+one of the long passages which led to the centre of the great
+pyramids, where one of the most mighty monarchs of ancient times,
+surrounded by splendour and magnificence, lay in his mummy-coffin.
+There she was to lean her head over the corpse, and then it would be
+revealed to her where life and health for her father were to be found.
+
+All this she had performed, and in a dream had been instructed that
+from the deep morass high up in the Danish land--the place was
+minutely described to her--she might bring home a certain lotus
+flower, which beneath the water would touch her breast, that would
+cure him.
+
+And therefore she had flown, in the magical disguise of a swan, from
+Egypt up to "the wild morass." All this was well known to the
+stork-father and the stork-mother; and now, though rather late, we
+also know it. We know that the mud-king dragged her down with him, and
+that, as far as regarded her home, she was dead and gone; only the
+wisest of them all said, like the stork-mother, "She can take care of
+herself;" and, knowing no better, they waited to see what would turn
+up.
+
+"I think I shall steal their swan garbs from the two wicked
+princesses," said the stork-father; "then they will not be able to go
+to 'the wild morass' and do mischief. I shall leave the swan
+disguises themselves up yonder till there is some use for them."
+
+"Where could you keep them?" asked the old female stork.
+
+"In our nest near 'the wild morass,'" he replied. "I and our eldest
+young ones can carry them; and if we find them too troublesome, there
+are plenty of places on the way where we can hide them until our next
+flight. One swan's dress would be enough for her, to be sure; but two
+are better. It is a good thing to have abundant means of travelling at
+command in a country so far north."
+
+"You will get no thanks for what you propose doing," said the
+stork-mother; "but you are the master, and must please yourself. I
+have nothing to say except at hatching-time."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the Viking's castle near "the wild morass," whither the storks were
+flying in the spring, the little girl had received her name. She was
+called Helga; but this name was too soft for one with such
+dispositions as that lovely creature had. She grew fast month by
+month; and in a few years, even while the storks were making their
+habitual journeys in autumn towards the Nile, in spring towards "the
+wild morass," the little child had grown up into a big girl, and
+before any one could have thought it, she was in her sixteenth year,
+and a most beautiful young lady--charming in appearance, but hard and
+fierce in temper--the most savage of the savage in that gloomy, cruel
+time.
+
+It was a pleasure to her to sprinkle with her white hands the reeking
+blood of the horse slaughtered for an offering. She would bite, in her
+barbarous sport, the neck of the black-cock which was to be
+slaughtered by the sacrificial priest; and to her foster-father she
+said in positive earnestness,--
+
+"If your enemy were to come and cast ropes over the beams that support
+the roof, and drag them down upon your chamber whilst you were
+sleeping, I would not awaken you if I could--I would not hear it--the
+blood would tingle as it does now in that ear on which, years ago, you
+dared to give me a blow. I remember it well."
+
+But the Viking did not believe she spoke seriously. Like every one
+else, he was fascinated by her extreme beauty, and never troubled
+himself to observe if the mind of little Helga were in unison with her
+looks. She would sit on horseback without a saddle, as if grown fast
+to the animal, and go at full gallop; nor would she spring off, even
+if her horse and other ill-natured ones were biting each other.
+Entirely dressed as she was, she would cast herself from the bank into
+the strong current of the fiord, and swim out to meet the Viking when
+his boat was approaching the land. Of her thick, splendid hair she had
+cut off the longest lock, and plaited for herself a string to her bow.
+
+"Self-made is well made," she said.
+
+The Viking's wife, according to the manners and customs of the age in
+which she lived, was strong in mind, and decided in purpose; but with
+her daughter she was like a soft, timid woman. She was well aware that
+the dreadful child was under the influence of sorcery.
+
+And Helga apparently took a malicious pleasure in frightening her
+mother. Often when the latter was standing on the balcony, or walking
+in the courtyard, Helga would place herself on the side of the well,
+throw her arms up in the air, and then let herself fall headlong into
+the narrow, deep hole, where, with her frog nature, she would duck and
+raise herself up again, and then crawl up as if she had been a cat,
+and run dripping of water into the grand saloon, so that the green
+rushes which were strewed over the floor partook of the wet stream.
+
+There was but one restraint upon little Helga--that was the _evening
+twilight_. In it she became quiet and thoughtful--would allow herself
+to be called and guided; then too, she would seem to feel some
+affection for her mother; and when the sun sank, and the outer and
+inward change took place, she would sit still and sorrowful,
+shrivelled up into the form of a frog, though the head was now much
+larger than that little animal's, and therefore she was uglier than
+ever: she looked like a miserable dwarf, with a frog's head and webbed
+fingers. There was something very sad in her eyes; voice she had none
+except a kind of croak like a child sobbing in its dreams. Then would
+the Viking's wife take her in her lap; she would forget the ugly form,
+and look only at the melancholy eyes; and more than once she
+exclaimed,--
+
+"I could almost wish that thou wert always my dumb fairy-child, for
+thou art more fearful to look at when thy form resumes its beauty."
+
+And she wrote Runic rhymes against enchantment and infirmity, and
+threw them over the poor creature; but there was no change for the
+better.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"One could hardly believe that she was once so small as to lie in the
+calyx of a water-lily," said the stork-father. "She is now quite a
+woman, and the image of her Egyptian mother. Her, alas! we have never
+seen again. She did not take good care of herself, as thou didst
+expect and the learned people predicted. Year after year I have flown
+backwards and forwards over 'the wild morass,' but never have I seen a
+sign of her. Yes, I can assure thee, during the years we have been
+coming up here, when I have arrived some days before thee, that I
+might mend the nest and set everything in order in it, I have for a
+whole night flown, as if I had been an owl or a bat, continually over
+the open water, but to no purpose. We have had no use either for the
+two swan disguises which I and the young ones dragged all the way up
+here from the banks of the Nile. It was hard enough work, and it took
+us three journeys to bring them up. They have now lain here for years
+at the bottom of our nest; and should a fire by any chance break out,
+and the Viking's house be burned down, they would be lost."
+
+"And our good nest would be lost," said the old female stork; "but
+thou thinkest less of that than of these feather things and thy bog
+princess. Thou hadst better go down to her at once, and remain in the
+mire. Thou art a hard-hearted father to thine own: _that_ I have said
+since I laid my first eggs. What if I or one of our young ones should
+get an arrow under our wings from that fierce crazy brat at the
+Viking's? She does not care what she does. This has been much longer
+our home than hers, she ought to recollect. We do not forget our duty;
+we pay our rent every year--a feather, an egg, and a young one--as we
+ought to do. Dost thou think that when _she_ is outside _I_ can
+venture to go below, as in former days, or as I do in Egypt, where I
+am almost everybody's comrade, not to mention that I can there even
+peep into the pots and pans without any fear? No; I sit up here and
+fret myself about her--the hussy! and I fret myself at thee too. Thou
+shouldst have left her lying in the water-lily, and there would have
+been an end of her."
+
+"Thy words are much harder than thy heart," said the stork-father. "I
+know thee better than thou knowest thyself."
+
+And then he made a hop, flapped his wings twice, stretched his legs
+out behind him, and away he flew, or rather sailed, without moving his
+wings, until he had got to some distance. Then he brought his wings
+into play; the sun shone upon his white feathers; he stretched his
+head and his neck forward, and hastened on his way.
+
+"He is, nevertheless, still the handsomest of them all," said his
+admiring mate; "but I will not tell him that."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Late that autumn the Viking returned home, bringing with him booty and
+prisoners. Among these was a young Christian priest, one of the men
+who denounced the gods of the Northern mythology. Often about this
+time was the new religion talked of in baronial halls and ladies'
+bowers--the religion that was spreading over all lands of the south,
+and which, with the holy Ansgarius,[2] had even reached as far as
+Hedeby. Even little Helga had heard of the pure religion of Christ,
+who, from love to mankind, had given himself as a sacrifice to save
+them; but with her it went in at one ear and out at the other, to use
+a common saying. The word _love_ alone seemed to have made some
+impression upon her, when she shrunk into the miserable form of a frog
+in the closed-up chamber. But the Viking's wife had listened to, and
+felt herself wonderfully affected by, the rumour and the Saga about
+the Son of the one only true God.
+
+[Footnote 2: Ansgarius was originally a monk from the monastery of New
+Corbie, in Saxony, to which several of the monks of Corbie in France
+had migrated in A.D. 822. Its abbot, Paschasius Radbert, who died in
+865, was, according to Cardinal Bellarmine, the first fully to
+propagate the belief, now entertained in the Roman Catholic Church, of
+the corporeal presence of the Saviour in the sacrament. Ansgarius, who
+was very enthusiastic, accepted a mission to the north of Europe, and
+preached Christianity in Denmark and Sweden. Jutland was for some time
+the scene of his labours, and he made many converts there; also in
+Sleswig, where a Christian school for children was established, who,
+on leaving it, were sent to spread Christianity throughout the
+country. An archbishopric was founded by the then Emperor of Germany
+in conformity to a plan which had been traced, though not carried out,
+by Charlemagne; and this was bestowed upon Ansgarius. But the church
+he had built was burnt by some still heathen Danes, who, gathering a
+large fleet, invaded Hamburg, which they also reduced to ashes. The
+emperor then constituted him Bishop of Bremen.--_Trans._]
+
+The men, returning from their expedition, had told of the splendid
+temples of costly hewn stone raised to Him whose errand was love. A
+pair of heavy golden vessels, beautifully wrought out of pure gold,
+were brought home, and both had a charming, spicy perfume. They were
+the censers which the Christian priests swung before the altars, on
+which blood never flowed; but wine and the consecrated bread were
+changed into the blood of Him who had given himself for generations
+yet unborn.
+
+To the deep, stone-walled cellars of the Viking's loghouse was the
+young captive, the Christian priest, consigned, fettered with cords
+round his feet and his hands. He was as beautiful as Baldur to look
+at, said the Viking's wife, and she was grieved at his fate; but young
+Helga wished that he should be ham-strung, and bound to the tails of
+wild oxen.
+
+"Then I should let loose the dogs. Halloo! Then away over bogs and
+pools to the naked heath. Hah! that would be something pleasant to
+see--still pleasanter to follow him on the wild journey."
+
+But the Viking would not hear of his being put to such a death. On the
+morrow, as a scoffer and denier of the high gods, he was to be offered
+up as a sacrifice to them upon the blood stone in the sacred grove.
+He was to be the first human sacrifice ever offered up there.
+
+Young Helga prayed that she might be allowed to sprinkle with the
+blood of the captive the images of the gods and the assembled
+spectators. She sharpened her gleaming knife, and, as one of the large
+ferocious dogs, of which there were plenty in the courtyard, leaped
+over her feet, she stuck the knife into his side.
+
+"That is to prove the blade," she exclaimed.
+
+And the Viking's wife was shocked at the savage-tempered, evil-minded
+girl; and when night came, and the beauteous form and the disposition
+of her daughter changed, she poured forth her sorrow to her in warm
+words, which came from the bottom of her heart.
+
+The hideous frog with the ogre head stood before her, and fixed its
+brown sad eyes upon her, listened, and seemed to understand with a
+human being's intellect.
+
+"Never, even to my husband, have I hinted at the double sufferings I
+have through you," said the Viking's wife. "There is more sorrow in my
+heart on your account than I could have believed. Great is a mother's
+love. But love never enters your mind. Your heart is like a lump of
+cold hard mud. From whence did you come to my house?"
+
+Then the ugly shape trembled violently; it seemed as if these words
+touched an invisible tie between the body and the soul--large tears
+started to its eyes.
+
+"Your time of trouble will come some day, depend on it," said the
+Viking's wife, "and dreadful will it also be for me. Better had it
+been that you had been put out on the highway, and the chillness of
+the night had benumbed you until you slept in death;" and the Viking's
+wife wept salt tears, and went angry and distressed away, passing
+round behind the loose skin partition that hung over an upper beam to
+divide the chamber.
+
+Alone in a corner sat the shrivelled frog. She was mute, but after a
+short interval she uttered a sort of half-suppressed sigh. It was as
+if in sorrow a new life had awoke in some nook of her heart. She took
+a step forward, listened, advanced again, and grasping with her
+awkward hands the heavy bar that was placed across the door, she
+removed it softly, and quietly drew away the pin that was stuck in
+over the latch. She then seized the lighted lamp that stood in the
+room beyond: it seemed as if a great resolution had given her
+strength. She made her way down to the dungeon, drew back the iron
+bolt that fastened the trap-door, and slid down to where the prisoner
+was lying. He was sleeping. She touched him with her cold, clammy
+hand; and when he awoke, and beheld the disgusting creature, he
+shuddered as if he had seen an evil apparition. She drew her knife,
+severed his bonds, and beckoned to him to follow her.
+
+He named holy names, made the sign of the cross, and when the strange
+shape stood without moving, he exclaimed, in the words of the Bible,--
+
+"'Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him
+in time of trouble.' Who art thou? How comes it that, under the
+exterior of such an animal, there is so much compassionate feeling?"
+
+The frog beckoned to him, and led him, behind tapestry that concealed
+him, through private passages out to the stables, and pointed to a
+horse. He sprang on it, and she also jumped up; and, placing herself
+before him, she held by the animal's mane. The prisoner understood her
+movement; and at full gallop they rode, by a path he never could have
+found, away to the open heath.
+
+He forgot her ugly form--he knew that the grace and mercy of God could
+be evinced even by means of hobgoblins--he put up earnest prayers, and
+sang holy hymns. She trembled. Was it the power of the prayers and
+hymns that affected her thus? or was it a cold shivering at the
+approach of morning, that was about to dawn? What was it that she
+felt? She raised herself up into the air, attempted to stop the horse,
+and was on the point of leaping down; but the Christian priest held
+her fast with all his might, and chanted a psalm, which he thought
+would have sufficient strength to overcome the influence of the
+witchcraft under which she was kept in the hideous disguise of a frog.
+And the horse dashed more wildly forward, the heavens became red, the
+first ray of the sun burst forth through the morning sky, and with
+that clear gush of light came the miraculous change--she was the young
+beauty, with the cruel, demoniacal spirit. The astonished priest held
+the loveliest maiden in his arms he had ever beheld; but he was
+horror-struck, and, springing from the horse, he stopped it, expecting
+to see it also the victim of some fearful sorcery. Young Helga sprang
+at the same moment to the ground, her short childlike dress reaching
+no lower than her knees. Suddenly she drew her sharp knife from her
+belt, and rushed furiously upon him.
+
+"Let me but reach thee--let me but reach thee, and my knife shall find
+its way to thy heart. Thou art pale in thy terror, beardless slave!"
+
+She closed with him; a severe struggle ensued, but it seemed as if
+some invincible power bestowed strength upon the Christian priest. He
+held her fast; and the old oak tree close by came to his assistance
+by binding down her feet with its roots, which were half loosened from
+the earth, her feet having slid under them. There was a fountain near,
+and he splashed the clear, fresh water over her face and neck,
+commanding the unclean spirit to pass out of her, and signed her
+according to the Christian rites; but the baptismal water had no power
+where the fountain of belief had not streamed upon the heart.
+
+Yet still he was the victor. Yes, more than human strength could have
+accomplished against the powers of evil lay in his acts, which, as it
+were, overpowered her. She suffered her arms to sink, and gazed with
+wondering looks and blanched cheeks upon the man whom she deemed some
+mighty wizard, strong in sorcery and the black art. These were mystic
+Rhunes he had recited, and magic characters he had traced in the air.
+Not for the glancing axe or the well-sharpened knife, if he had
+brandished these before her eyes, would they have blinked, or would
+she have winced; but she winced now when he made the sign of the cross
+upon her brow and bosom, and she stood now like a tame bird, her head
+bowed down upon her breast.
+
+Then he spoke kindly to her of the work of mercy she had performed
+towards him that night, when, in the ugly disguise of a frog, she had
+come to him, had loosened his bonds, and brought him forth to light
+and life. She also was bound--bound even with stronger fetters than he
+had been, he said; but she also should be set free, and like him
+attain to light and life. He would take her to Hedeby, to the holy
+Ansgarius. There, in the Christian city, the witchcraft in which she
+was held would be exorcised; but not before him must she sit on
+horseback, even if she wished it herself--he dared not place her
+there.
+
+"Thou must sit behind me on the horse, not before me. Thine enchanting
+beauty has a magic power bestowed by the evil one. I fear it; and yet
+the victory shall be mine through Christ."
+
+He knelt down and prayed fervently. It seemed as if the surrounding
+wood had been consecrated into a holy temple; the birds began to sing,
+as if they belonged to the new congregation; the wild thyme sent forth
+its fragrant scent, as if to take the place of incense; while the
+priest proclaimed these Bible words: "To give light to them that sit
+in darkness, and in the shadow of death; to guide our feet into the
+way of peace."
+
+And he spoke of everlasting life; and as he discoursed, the horse
+which had carried them in their wild flight stood still, and pulled at
+the large bramble berries, so that the ripest ones fell on little
+Helga's hand, inviting her to pluck them for herself.
+
+She allowed herself patiently to be lifted upon the horse, and she sat
+on its back like a somnambulist, who was neither in a waking nor a
+sleeping state. The Christian priest tied two small green branches
+together in the form of a cross, which he held high aloft; and thus
+they rode through the forest, which became thicker and thicker, and
+the path, if path it could be called, taking them farther into it. The
+blackthorn stood as if to bar their way, and they had to ride round
+outside of it; the trickling streams swelled no longer into mere
+rivulets, but into stagnant pools, and they had to ride round them;
+but as the soft wind that played among the foliage of the trees was
+refreshing and strengthening to the travellers, so the mild words that
+were spoken in Christian charity and truth served to lead the
+benighted one to light and life.
+
+It is said that a constant dripping of water will make a hollow in the
+hardest stone, and that the waves of the sea will in time round the
+edges of the sharpest rocks. The dew of grace which fell for little
+Helga softened the hard, and smoothed the sharp, in her nature. True,
+it was not discernible yet in her, nor was she aware of it herself.
+What knows the seed in the ground of the effect which the refreshing
+dew and the warm sunbeams are to have in producing from it vegetation
+and flowers?
+
+As a mother's song to her child, unmarked, makes an impression upon
+its infant mind, and it prattles after her several of the words
+without understanding them, but in time these words arrange themselves
+into order, and they become clearer, so in the case of Helga worked
+_that word_ which is mighty to save.
+
+They rode out of the forest, and crossed an open heath; then again
+they entered a pathless wood, where, towards evening, they encountered
+a band of robbers.
+
+"Whence didst thou steal that beautiful wench?" they shouted, as they
+stopped the horse, and dragged its two riders down; for they were
+strong and robust men. The priest had no other weapon than the knife
+which he had taken from little Helga. With that he now stood on his
+defence. One of the robbers swung his ponderous axe, but the young
+Christian fortunately sprang aside in time to avoid the blow, which
+then fell upon the unfortunate horse, and the sharp edge entered into
+its neck; blood streamed from the wound, and the poor animal fell to
+the ground. Helga, who had only at that moment awoke from her long
+deep trance, sprang forward, and cast herself over the gasping
+creature. The Christian priest placed himself before her as a shield
+and protection from the lawless men; but one of them struck him on
+the forehead with an iron hammer, so that it was dashed in, and the
+blood and brains gushed forth, while he fell down dead on the spot.
+
+The robbers seized Helga by her white arms; but at that moment the sun
+went down, its last beam faded away, and she was transformed into a
+hideous-looking frog. The pale green mouth stretched itself over half
+the face, its arms became thin and slimy, and a broad hand, with
+webbed-like membranes, extended itself like a fan. Then the robbers
+withdrew their hold of her in terror and astonishment. She stood like
+the ugly animal among them, and, according to the nature of a frog,
+she began to hop about, and, jumping faster than usual, she soon
+escaped into the depths of the thicket. The robbers were then
+convinced that it was some evil artifice of the mischief loving Loke,
+or else some secret magical deception; and in dismay they fled from
+the place.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The full moon had risen, and its silver light penetrated even the
+gloomy recesses of the forest, when from among the low thick
+brushwood, in the frog's hideous form, crept the young Helga. She
+stopped when she reached the bodies of the Christian priest and the
+slaughtered horse: she gazed on them with eyes that seemed full of
+tears, and the frog uttered a sound that somewhat resembled the sob of
+a child who was on the point of crying. She threw herself first over
+the one, then over the other; then took water up in her webbed hand,
+and poured it over them; but all was in vain--they were dead, and dead
+they would remain. She knew that. Wild beasts would soon come and
+devour their bodies. No, that must not be; therefore she determined to
+dig a grave in the ground for them, but she had nothing to dig it
+with except the branch of a tree and both her own hands. With these
+she worked away until her fingers bled. She found she made so little
+progress, that she feared the work would never be completed. Then she
+took water, and washed the dead man's face; covered it with fresh
+green leaves; brought large boughs of the trees, and laid them over
+him; sprinkled dead leaves amongst the branches; fetched the largest
+stones she could carry, and placed them over the bodies, and filled up
+the openings with moss. When she had done all this she thought that
+their tomb might be strong and safe; but during her long and arduous
+labour the night had passed away. The sun arose, and young Helga stood
+again in all her beauty, with bloody hands, and, for the first time,
+with tears on her blooming cheeks.
+
+During this change it seemed as if two natures were wrestling within
+her; she trembled, looked around her as if awakening from a painful
+dream, then seized upon the slender branch of a tree near, and held
+fast by it as if for support; and in another moment she climbed like a
+cat up to the top of the tree, and placed herself firmly there. For a
+whole long day she sat there like a frightened squirrel in the deep
+loneliness of the forest, where all is still and dead, people say.
+Dead! There flew by butterflies chasing each other either in sport or
+in strife. There were ant-hills near, each covered with hundreds of
+little busy labourers, passing in swarms to and fro. In the air danced
+innumerable gnats; crowds of buzzing flies swept past; lady-birds,
+dragon-flies, and other winged insects floated hither and thither;
+earth-worms crept forth from the damp ground; moles crawled about;
+otherwise it was still--_dead_, as people say and think.
+
+None remarked Helga, except the jays that flew screeching to the top
+of the tree where she sat; they hopped on the branches around her with
+impudent curiosity, but there was something in the glance of her eye
+that speedily drove them away; they were none the wiser about her,
+nor, indeed, was she about herself. When the evening approached, and
+the sun began to sink, the transformation time rendered a change of
+position necessary. She slipped down from the tree, and, as the last
+ray of the sun faded away, she was again the shrivelled frog, with the
+webbed-fingered hands; but her eyes beamed now with a charming
+expression, which they had not worn in the beautiful form; they were
+the mildest, sweetest girlish eyes that glanced from behind the mask
+of a frog--they bore witness to the deeply-thinking human mind, the
+deeply-feeling human heart; and these lovely eyes burst into
+tears--tears of unfeigned sorrow.
+
+Close to the lately raised grave lay the cross of green boughs that
+had been tied together--the last work of him who was now dead and
+gone. Helga took it up, and the thought presented itself to her that
+it would be well to place it amidst the stones, above him and the
+slaughtered horse. With the sad remembrances thus awakened, her tears
+flowed faster; and in the fulness of her heart she scratched the same
+sign in the earth round the grave--it would be a fence that would
+decorate it so well. And just as she was forming, with both of her
+hands, the figure of the cross, her magic disguise fell off like a
+torn glove; and when she had washed herself in the clear water of the
+fountain near, and in amazement looked at her delicate white hands,
+she made the sign of the cross between herself and the dead priest;
+then her lips moved, then her tongue was loosened; and that name
+which so often, during the ride through the forest, she had heard
+spoken and chanted, became audible from her mouth--she exclaimed,
+"JESUS CHRIST!"
+
+When the frog's skin had fallen off she was again the beautiful
+maiden; but her head drooped heavily, her limbs seemed to need
+repose--she slept.
+
+Her sleep was only a short one, however; she awoke about midnight, and
+before her stood the dead horse full of life; its eyes glittered, and
+light seemed to proceed from the wound in its neck. Close to it the
+dead Christian priest showed himself--"more beautiful than Baldur,"
+the Viking's wife would have said; and yet he came as a flash of fire.
+
+There was an earnestness in his large, mild eyes, a searching,
+penetrating look--grave, almost stern--that thrilled the young
+proselyte to the utmost depths of her heart. Helga trembled before
+him; and her memory awoke as if with the power it would exercise on
+the great day of doom. All the kindness that had been bestowed on her,
+every affectionate word that had been said to her, came back to her
+mind with an impression deeper than they had ever before made. She
+understood that it was love that, during the days of trial here, had
+supported her--those days of trial in which the offspring of a being
+with a soul, and a form of mud, had writhed and struggled. She
+understood that she had only followed the promptings of her own
+disposition, and done nothing to help herself. All had been bestowed
+on her--all had been ordained for her. She bowed herself in lowly
+humility and shame before Him who must be able to read every thought
+of the heart; and at that moment she felt as if a purifying flame
+darted through her--a light from the Holy Spirit.
+
+"Daughter of the dust!" said the Christian priest, "from dust, from
+earth hast thou arisen--from earth shalt thou again arise! A ray from
+God's invisible sun shall stream on thee. No soul shall be lost. But
+far off is the time when life takes flight into eternity. I come from
+the land of the dead. Thou also shalt once pass through the dark
+valley into yon lofty realms of brightness, where grace and perfection
+dwell. I shall not guide thee now to Hedeby for Christian baptism.
+First must thou disperse the slimy surface over the deep morass, draw
+up the living root of thy life and thy cradle, and perform thy
+appointed task, ere thou darest to seek the holy rite."
+
+And he lifted her up on the horse, and gave her a golden censer like
+those she had formerly seen at the Viking's castle; and strong was the
+perfume which issued from it. The open wound on the forehead of the
+murdered man shone like a diadem of brilliants. He took the cross from
+the grave, and raised it high above him; then away they went through
+the air, away over the rustling woods, away over the mountains where
+the giant heroes are buried, sitting on the slaughtered steed. Still
+onward the phantom forms pursued their way; and in the clear moonlight
+glittered the gold circlet round their brows, and the mantle fluttered
+in the breeze. The magic dragon, who was watching over his treasures,
+raised his head and gazed at them. The hill dwarfs peeped out from
+their mountain recesses and plough-furrows. There were swarms of them,
+with red, blue, and green lights, that looked like the numerous sparks
+in the ashes of newly-burned paper.
+
+Away over forest and heath, over limpid streams and stagnant pools,
+they hastened towards "the wild morass," and over it they flew in wide
+circles. The Christian priest held aloft the cross, which looked as
+dazzling as burnished gold, and as he did so he chanted the mass
+hymns. Little Helga sang with him as a child follows its mother's
+song. She swung the censer about as if before the altar, and there
+came a perfume so strong, so powerful in its effect, that it caused
+the reeds and sedges to blossom; every sprout shot up from the deep
+bottom--everything that had life raised itself up; and with the rest
+arose a mass of water-lilies, which looked like a carpet of
+embroidered flowers. Upon it lay a sleeping female, young and
+beautiful. Helga thought she beheld herself mirrored in the calm
+water; but it was her mother whom she saw--the mud-king's wife--the
+princess from the banks of the Nile.
+
+The dead Christian priest prayed that the sleeper might be lifted upon
+the horse. At first the latter sank under the additional burden, as if
+its body were but a winding-sheet fluttering in the wind; but the sign
+of the cross gave strength to the airy phantom, and all three rode on
+it to the solid ground.
+
+Then crowed the cock at the Viking's castle, and the apparitions
+seemed to disappear in a mist, which was wafted away by the wind; but
+the mother and daughter stood together.
+
+"Is that myself I behold in the deep water?" exclaimed the mother.
+
+"Is that myself I see on the shining surface?" said the daughter.
+
+And they approached each other till form met form in a warm embrace,
+and wildly the mother's heart beat when she perceived the truth.
+
+"My child! my heart's own flower! my lotus from the watery deep!"
+
+And she encircled her daughter with her arm, and wept Her tears
+caused a new sensation to Helga--they were the baptism of love for
+her.
+
+"I came hither in the magic disguise of a swan, and I threw it off,"
+said the mother. "I sank through the swaying mire deep into the mud of
+the morass, which like a wall closed around me; but soon I perceived
+that I was in a fresher stream--some power drew me deeper and still
+deeper down. I felt my eyelids heavy with sleep--I slumbered and I
+dreamed. I thought that I was again in the interior of the Egyptian
+pyramid, but before me still stood the heaving alder trunk that had so
+terrified me on the surface of the morass. I saw the cracks in the
+bark, and they changed their appearance, and became hieroglyphics. It
+was the mummy's coffin I was looking at; it burst open, and out issued
+from it the monarch of a thousand years ago--the mummy form, black as
+pitch, dark and shining as a wood-snail, or as that thick slimy mud.
+It was the mud-king, or the mummy of the pyramids; I knew not which.
+He threw his arms around me, and I felt as if I were dying. I only
+felt that I was alive again when I found something warm on my breast,
+and there a little bird was flapping with its wings, twittering and
+singing. It flew from my breast high up in the dark, heavy space; but
+a long green string bound it still to me. I heard and I comprehended
+its tones and its longing: "Freedom! Sunshine! To the father!" Then I
+thought of my father in my distant home, that dear sunny land--my
+life, my affection--and I loosened the cord, and let it flutter away
+home to my father. Since that hour I have not dreamed. I have slept a
+long, dark, heavy sleep until now, when the strange sounds and perfume
+awoke me and set me free."
+
+That green tie between the mother's heart and the bird's wings, where
+now did it flutter? what now had become of it? The stork alone had
+seen it. The cord was the green stem; the knot was the shining
+flower--the cradle for that child who now had grown up in beauty, and
+again rested near her mother's heart.
+
+And as they stood there embracing each other the stork-father flew in
+circles round them, hastened back to his nest, took from it the magic
+feather disguises that had been hidden away for so many years, cast
+one down before each of them, and then joined them as they raised
+themselves from the ground like two white swans.
+
+"Let us now have some chat," said the stork-father, "now we understand
+each other's language, even though one bird's beak is not exactly made
+after the pattern of another's. It is most fortunate that you came to
+night; to-morrow we should all have been away--the mother, the young
+ones, and myself. We are off to the south. Look at me! I am an old
+friend from the country where the Nile flows, and so is the mother,
+though there is more kindness in her heart than in her tongue. She
+always believed that the princess would make her escape. The young
+ones and I brought these swan garbs up here. Well, how glad I am, and
+how fortunate it is that I am here still! At dawn of day we shall take
+our departure--a large party of storks. We shall fly foremost, and if
+you will follow us you will not miss the way. The young ones and
+myself will have an eye to you."
+
+"And the lotus flower I was to have brought," said the Egyptian
+princess; "it shall go within the swan disguise, by my side, and I
+shall have my heart's darling with me. Then homewards--homewards!"
+
+Then Helga said that she could not leave the Danish land until she had
+once more seen her foster-mother, the Viking's excellent wife. To
+Helga's thoughts arose every pleasing recollection, every kind word,
+even every tear her adopted mother had shed on her account; and, at
+that moment, she felt that she almost loved that mother best.
+
+"Yes, we must go to the Viking's castle," said the stork; "there my
+young ones and their mother await me. How they will stare! The mother
+does not speak much; but, though she is rather abrupt, she means well.
+I will presently make a little noise, that she may know we are
+coming."
+
+And he clattered with his bill as he and the swans flew close to the
+Viking's castle.
+
+Within it all were lying in deep sleep. The Viking's wife had retired
+late to rest; she lay in anxious thought about little Helga, who now
+for full three days and nights had disappeared along with the
+Christian priest: she had probably assisted him in his escape, for it
+was her horse that was missing from the stables. By what power had all
+this been accomplished? The Viking's wife thought upon the wondrous
+works she had heard had been performed by the immaculate Christ, and
+by those who believed on him and followed him. Her changing thoughts
+assumed the shapes of life in her dreams; she fancied she was still
+awake, lost in deep reflection; she imagined that a storm arose--that
+she heard the sea roaring in the east and in the west, the waves
+dashing from the Kattegat and the North Sea; the hideous serpents
+which encircled the earth in the depths of the ocean struggling in
+deadly combat. It was the night of the gods--RAGNAROK, as the heathens
+called the last hour, when all should be changed, even the high gods
+themselves. The reverberating horn sounded, and forth over the
+rainbow[3] rode the gods, clad in steel, to fight the final battle;
+before them flew the winged Valkyries, and the rear was brought up by
+the shades of the dead giant-warriors; the whole atmosphere was
+illuminated around them by the Northern lights, but darkness conquered
+all--it was an awful hour!
+
+[Footnote 3: The Bridge of Heaven in the fables of the Scandinavian
+mythology.--_Trans._]
+
+And near the terrified Viking's wife sat upon the floor little Helga
+in the ugly disguise of the frog; and she shivered and worked her way
+up to her foster-mother, who took her in her lap, and disgusting as
+she was in that form, lovingly caressed her. The air was filled with
+the sounds of the clashing of swords, the blows of clubs, the whizzing
+of arrows, like a violent hail-storm. The time was come when heaven
+and earth should be destroyed, the stars should fall, and all be
+swallowed up below in Surtur's fire; but a new earth and a new heaven
+she knew were to come; the corn was to wave where the sea now rolled
+over the golden sands; the unknown God at length reigned; and to him
+ascended Baldur, the mild, the lovable, released from the kingdom of
+death. He came; the Viking's wife beheld him--she recognised his
+countenance: it was that of the captive Christian priest. "Immaculate
+Christ!" she cried aloud; and whilst uttering this holy name she
+impressed a kiss upon the ugly brow of the frog-child. Then fell the
+magic disguise, and Helga stood before her in all her radiant beauty,
+gentle as she had never looked before, and with speaking eyes. She
+kissed her foster-mother's hands, blessed her for all the care and
+kindness which she, in the days of distress and trial, had lavished
+upon her; thanked her for the thoughts with which she had inspired
+her mind--thanked her for mentioning _that name_ which she now
+repeated, "Immaculate Christ!" and then lifting herself up in the
+suddenly adopted shape of a graceful swan, little Helga spread her
+wings widely out with the rustling sound of a flock of birds of
+passage on the wing, and in another moment she was gone.
+
+The Viking's wife awoke, and on the outside of her casement were to be
+heard the same rustling and flapping of wings. It was the time, she
+knew, when the storks generally took their departure; it was them she
+heard. She wished to see them once more before their journey to the
+south, and bid them farewell. She got up, went out on the balcony, and
+then she saw, on the roof of an adjoining outhouse, stork upon stork,
+while all around the place, above the highest trees, flew crowds of
+them, wheeling in large circles; but below, on the brink of the well,
+where little Helga had but so lately often sat, and frightened her
+with her wild actions, sat now two swans, looking up at her with
+expressive eyes; and she remembered her dream, which seemed to her
+almost a reality. She thought of Helga in the appearance of a swan;
+she thought of the Christian priest, and felt a strange gladness in
+her heart.
+
+The swans fluttered their wings and bowed their necks, as if they were
+saluting her; and the Viking's wife opened her arms, as if she
+understood them, and smiled amidst her tears and manifold thoughts.
+
+Then, with a clattering of bills and a noise of wings, the storks all
+turned towards the south to commence their long journey.
+
+"We will not wait any longer for the swans," said the stork-mother.
+"If they choose to go with us, they must come at once; we cannot be
+lingering here till the plovers begin their flight. It is pleasant to
+travel as we do in a family party, not like the chaffinches and
+strutting cocks. Among their species the males fly by themselves, and
+the females by themselves: that, to say the least of it, is not at all
+seemly. What a miserable sound the stroke of the swans' wings has
+compared with ours!"
+
+"Every one flies in his own way," said the stork-father. "Swans fly
+slantingly, cranes in triangles, and plovers in serpentine windings."
+
+"Name not serpents or snakes when we are about to fly up yonder," said
+the stork-mother. "It will only make the young ones long for a sort of
+food which they can't get just now."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Are these the high hills, beneath yonder, of which I have heard?"
+asked Helga, in the disguise of a swan.
+
+"These are thunder-clouds driving under us," replied her mother.
+
+"What are these white clouds that seem so stationary?" asked Helga.
+
+"These are the mountains covered with everlasting snow that thou
+seest," said her mother; and they flew over the Alps towards the blue
+Mediterranean.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"There is Africa! there is Egypt!" cried in joyful accents, under her
+swan disguise, the daughter of the Nile, as high up in the air she
+descried, like a whitish-yellow, billow-shaped streak, her native
+soil.
+
+The storks also saw it, and quickened their flight.
+
+"I smell the mud of the Nile and the wet frogs," exclaimed the
+stork-mother. "It makes my mouth water. Yes, now ye shall have nice
+things to eat, and ye shall see the marabout, the ibis, and the crane:
+they are all related to our family, but are not nearly so handsome as
+we are. They think a great deal, however, of themselves, particularly
+the ibis: he has been spoiled by the Egyptians, who make a mummy of
+him, and stuff him with aromatic herbs. _I_ would rather be stuffed
+with living frogs; and that is what ye would all like also, and what
+ye shall be. Better a good dinner when one is living than to be made a
+grand show of when one is dead. That is what I think, and I know I am
+right."
+
+"The storks have returned," was told in the splendid house on the
+banks of the Nile, where, within the open hall, upon soft cushions,
+covered with a leopard's skin, the king lay, neither living nor dead,
+hoping for the lotus flower from the deep morass of the north. His
+kindred and his attendants were standing around him.
+
+And into the hall flew two magnificent white swans--they had arrived
+with the storks. They cast off the dazzling magic feather garbs, and
+there stood two beautiful women, as like each other as two drops of
+water. They leaned over the pallid, faded old man; they threw back
+their long hair; and, as little Helga bowed over her grandfather, his
+cheeks flushed, his eyes sparkled, life returned to his stiffened
+limbs. The old man rose hale and hearty; his daughter and his
+grand-daughter pressed him in their arms, as if in a glad morning
+salutation after a long heavy dream.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And there was joy throughout the palace, and in the storks' nest also;
+but _there_ the joy was principally for the good food, the swarms of
+nice frogs; and whilst the learned noted down in haste, and very
+carelessly, the history of the two princesses and of the lotus flower
+as an important event, and a blessing to the royal house, and to the
+country in general, the old storks related the history in their own
+way to their own family; but not until they had all eaten enough, else
+these would have had other things to think of than listening to any
+story.
+
+"Now thou wilt be somebody," whispered the stork-mother; "it is only
+reasonable to expect that."
+
+"Oh! what should _I_ be?" said the stork-father. "And what have _I_
+done? Nothing!"
+
+"Thou hast done more than all the others put together. Without thee
+and the young ones the two princesses would never have seen Egypt
+again, or cured the old man. Thou wilt be nothing! Thou shouldst, at
+the very least, be appointed court doctor, and have a title bestowed
+on thee, which our young ones would inherit, and their little ones
+after them. Thou dost look already exactly like an Egyptian doctor in
+my eyes."
+
+The learned and the wise lectured upon "the fundamental notion," as
+they called it, which pervaded the whole tissue of events. "Love
+bestows life." Then they expounded their meaning in this manner:--
+
+"The warm sunbeam was the Egyptian princess; she descended to the
+mud-king, and from their meeting sprang a flower----"
+
+"I cannot exactly repeat the words," said the stork-father, who had
+been listening to the discussion from the roof, and was now telling in
+his nest what he had heard. "What they said was not easy of
+comprehension, but it was so exceedingly wise that they were
+immediately rewarded with rank and marks of distinction. Even the
+prince's head cook got a handsome present--that was, doubtless, for
+having prepared the repast."
+
+"And what didst thou get?" asked the stork-mother. "They had no right
+to overlook the most important actor in the affair, and that was
+thyself. The learned only babbled about the matter. But so it is
+always."
+
+Late at night, when the now happy household reposed in peaceful
+slumbers, there was one who was still awake; and that was not the
+stork-father, although he was standing upon his nest on one leg, and
+dozing like a sentry. No; little Helga was awake, leaning over the
+balcony, and gazing through the clear air at the large blazing stars,
+larger and brighter than she had ever seen them in the North, and yet
+the same. She was thinking upon the Viking's wife near "the wild
+morass"--upon her foster-mother's mild eyes--upon the tears she had
+shed over the poor frog-child, who was now standing under the light of
+the glorious stars, on the banks of the Nile, in the soft spring air.
+She thought of the love in the heathen woman's breast--the love she
+had shown towards an unfortunate being, who in human form was as
+vicious as a wild beast, and in the form of a noxious animal was
+horrible to look upon or to touch. She gazed at the glittering stars,
+and thought of the shining circle on the brow of the dead priest, when
+they flew over the forest and the morass. Tones seemed again to sound
+on her ears--words she had heard spoken when they rode together, and
+she sat like an evil spirit there--words about the great source of
+love, the highest love, that which included all races and all
+generations. Yes, what was not bestowed, won, obtained? Helga's
+thoughts embraced by day, by night, the whole of her good fortune;
+she stood contemplating it like a child who turns precipitately from
+the giver to the beautiful gifts; she passed on to the increasing
+happiness which might come, and would come. Higher and higher rose her
+thoughts, till she so lost herself in the dreams of future bliss that
+she forgot the Giver of all good. It was the superabundance of
+youthful spirits which caused her imagination to take so bold a
+flight. Her eyes were flashing with her thoughts, when suddenly a loud
+noise in the court beneath recalled her to mundane objects. She saw
+there two enormous ostriches running angrily round in a narrow circle.
+She had never before seen these large heavy birds, who looked as if
+their wings were clipped; and when she asked what had happened to
+them, she heard for the first time the Egyptian legend about the
+ostrich.
+
+Its race had once been beautiful, its wings broad and strong. Then one
+evening the largest forest birds said to it, "Brother, shall we fly
+to-morrow, God willing, to the river, and drink?" And the ostrich
+answered, "Yes, I will." At dawn they flew away, first up towards the
+sun, higher and higher, the ostrich far before the others. It flew on
+in its pride up towards the light; it relied upon its own strength,
+not upon the Giver of that strength; it did not say, "God willing."
+Then the avenging angel drew aside the veil from the streaming flames,
+and in that moment the bird's wings were burnt, and he sank in
+wretchedness to the earth. Neither he nor his species were ever
+afterwards able to raise themselves up in the air. They fly
+timidly--hurry along in a narrow space; they are a warning to mankind
+in all our thoughts and all our enterprises to say, "God willing."
+
+And Helga humbly bowed her head, looked at the ostriches rushing past,
+saw their surprise and their simple joy at the sight of their own
+large shadows on the white wall, and more serious thoughts took
+possession of her mind, adding to her present happiness--inspiring
+brighter hopes for the future. What was yet to happen? The best for
+her, "God willing."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the early spring, when the storks were about to go north again,
+Helga took from her arm a golden bracelet, scratched her name upon it,
+beckoned to the stork-father, hung the gold band round his neck, and
+bade him carry it to the Viking's wife, who would thereby know that
+her adopted daughter lived, was happy, and remembered her.
+
+"It is heavy to carry," thought the stork, when it was hung round his
+neck; "but gold and honour must not be flung away upon the high road.
+The stork brings luck--they must admit that up yonder."
+
+"Thou layest gold, and I lay eggs," said the stork-mother; "but thou
+layest only once, and I lay every year. But neither of us gets any
+thanks, which is very vexatious."
+
+"One knows, however, that one has done one's duty," said the
+stork-father.
+
+"But that can't be hung up to be seen and lauded; and if it could be,
+fine words butter no parsnips."
+
+So they flew away.
+
+The little nightingale that sang upon the tamarind tree would also
+soon be going north, up yonder near "the wild morass." Helga had often
+heard it--she would send a message by it; for, since she had flown in
+the magical disguise of the swan, she had often spoken to the storks
+and the swallows. The nightingale would therefore understand her, and
+she prayed it to fly to the beech wood upon the Jutland peninsula,
+where the tomb of stone and branches had been erected. She asked it
+to beg all the little birds to protect the sacred spot, and frequently
+to sing over it.
+
+And the nightingale flew away, and time flew also.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And the eagle stood upon a pyramid, and looked in the autumn on a
+stately procession with richly-laden camels, with armed and splendidly
+equipped men on snorting Arabian horses shining white like silver,
+with red trembling nostrils, with long thick manes hanging down to
+their slender legs. Rich guests--a royal Arabian prince, handsome as a
+prince should be--approached the gorgeous palace where the storks'
+nests stood empty. Those who dwelt in these nests were away in the far
+North, but they were soon to return; and they arrived on the very day
+that was most marked by joy and festivities. It was a wedding feast;
+and the beautiful Helga, clad in silk and jewels, was the bride. The
+bridegroom was the young prince from Arabia. They sat at the upper end
+of the table, between her mother and grandfather.
+
+But she looked not at the bridegroom's bronzed and manly cheek, where
+the dark beard curled. She looked not at his black eyes, so full of
+fire, that were fastened upon her. She gazed outwards upon the bright
+twinkling stars that glittered in the heavens.
+
+Then a loud rustling of strong wings was heard in the air. The storks
+had come back; and the old pair, fatigued as they were after their
+journey, and much in need of rest, flew immediately down to the rails
+of the verandah, for they knew what festival was going on. They had
+heard already at the frontiers that Helga had had them painted upon
+the wall, introducing them into her own history.
+
+"It was a kind thought of hers," said the stork-father.
+
+"It is very little," said the stork-mother. "She could hardly have
+done less."
+
+And when Helga saw them she rose, and went out into the verandah to
+stroke their backs. The old couple bowed their necks, and the youngest
+little ones felt themselves much honoured by being so well received.
+
+And Helga looked up towards the shining stars, that glittered more and
+more brilliantly; and between them and her she beheld in the air a
+transparent form. It floated nearer to her. It was the dead Christian
+priest, who had also come to her bridal solemnity--come from the
+kingdom of heaven.
+
+"The glory and the beauty up yonder far exceed all that is known on
+earth," he said.
+
+And Helga pleaded softly, earnestly, that but for one moment she might
+be allowed to ascend up thither, and to cast one single glance on
+those heavenly scenes.
+
+Then he raised her amidst splendour and magnificence, and a stream of
+delicious music. It was not around her only that all seemed to be
+brightness and music, but the light seemed to stream in her soul, and
+the sweet tones to be echoed there. Words cannot describe what she
+felt.
+
+"We must now return," he said; "thou wilt be missed."
+
+"Only one more glance!" she entreated. "Only one short minute!"
+
+"We must return to earth--the guests are all departing."
+
+"But one more glance--the last!"
+
+And Helga stood again in the verandah, but all the torches outside
+were extinguished; all the light in the bridal saloon was gone; the
+storks were gone; no guests were to be seen--no bridegroom. All had
+vanished in these three short minutes.
+
+Then Helga felt anxious. She wandered through the vast empty
+halls--there slept foreign soldiers. She opened the side door which
+led to her own chambers, and, as she fancied she was entering them,
+she found herself in the garden: it had not stood there. Red streaks
+crossed the skies; it was the dawn of day.
+
+Only three minutes in heaven, and a whole night on earth had passed
+away.
+
+Then she perceived the storks. She called to them, spoke their
+language, and the old stork turned his head towards her, listened, and
+drew near.
+
+"Thou dost speak our language," said he. "What wouldst thou? Whence
+comest thou, thou foreign maiden?"
+
+"It is I--it is Helga! Dost thou not know me? Three minutes ago we
+were talking together in the verandah."
+
+"That is a mistake," said the stork. "Thou must have dreamt this."
+
+"No, no," she said, and reminded him of the Viking's castle, "the wild
+morass," the journey thence.
+
+Then the old stork winked with his eyes.
+
+"That is a very old story; I have heard it from my great,
+great-grandmother's time. Yes, truly there was once in Egypt a
+princess from the Danish land; but she disappeared on the evening of
+her wedding, many hundred years ago, and was never seen again. Thou
+canst read that thyself upon the monument in the garden, upon which
+are sculptured both swans and storks, and above it stands one like
+thyself in the white marble."
+
+And so it was. Helga saw, comprehended it all, and sank on her knees.
+
+The sun burst forth in all its morning splendour, and as, in former
+days, with its first rays fell the frog disguise, and the lovely form
+became visible; so now, in the baptism of light, arose a form of
+celestial beauty, purer than the air, as if in a veil of radiance to
+the Father above. The body sank into dust, and where she had stood lay
+a faded lotus flower!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Well, this is a new finale to the story," said the stork-father,
+"which I by no means expected; but I am quite satisfied with it."
+
+"I wonder what the young ones will say to it?" replied the
+stork-mother.
+
+"Ah! that, indeed, is of the most consequence," said the
+stork-father.
+
+
+
+
+_The Quickest Runners._
+
+
+There was a large reward offered--indeed, there were two rewards
+offered, a larger and a lesser one--for the greatest speed, not in one
+race alone, but to such as had got on fastest throughout the year.
+
+"I got the highest prize," said the hare. "One had a right to expect
+justice when one's own family and best friends were in the council;
+but that the snail should have got the second prize I consider as
+almost an insult to me."
+
+"No," observed the wooden fence, which had been a witness to the
+distribution of the prizes; "you must take diligence and good will
+into consideration. That remark was made by several very estimable
+persons, and that was also my opinion. To be sure the snail took half
+a year to cross the threshold; but he broke his thigh-bone in the
+tremendous exertion which that was for him. He devoted himself
+entirely to this race; and, moreover, he ran with his house on his
+back. All these weighed in his favour, and so he obtained the second
+prize."
+
+"I think my claims might also have been taken into consideration,"
+said the swallow. "More speedy than I, in flight and motion, I believe
+no one has shown himself. And where have I not been? Far, far away!"
+
+"And that is just your misfortune," said the wooden fence. "You gad
+about too much. You are always on the wing, ready to start out of the
+country when it begins to freeze. You have no love for your
+fatherland. You cannot claim any consideration in it."
+
+"But if I were to sleep all the winter through on the moor," inquired
+the swallow--"sleep my whole time away--should I be thus entitled to
+be taken into consideration?"
+
+"Obtain an affidavit from the old woman of the moor that you did sleep
+half the year in your fatherland, then your claims will be taken into
+consideration."
+
+"I deserved the first prize instead of the second," said the snail. "I
+know very well that the hare only ran from cowardice, whenever he
+thought there was danger near. I, on the contrary, made the trial the
+business of my life, and I have become a cripple in consequence of my
+exertions. If any one had a right to the first prize it was I; but I
+make no fuss; I scorn to do so."
+
+"I can declare upon my honour that each prize, at least as far as my
+voice in the matter went, was accorded with strict justice," said the
+old sign-post in the wood, who had been one of the arbitrators. "I
+always act with due reflection, and according to order. Seven times
+before have I had the honour to be engaged in the distribution of the
+prizes, but never until to-day have I had my own way carried out. My
+plan has always hitherto been thwarted--that was, to give the first
+prize to one of the first letters in the alphabet, and the second
+prize to one of the last letters. If you will be so good as to grant
+me your attention, I will explain it to you. The eighth letter in the
+alphabet from _A_ is _H_--that stands for _Hare_, and therefore I
+awarded the greatest prize to the Hare; and the eighth letter from the
+end is _S_, therefore the _Snail_ obtained the second prize. Next time
+the _I_ will carry off the first prize, and _R_ the second. A due
+attention to order and rotation should prevail in all rewards and
+appointments. Everything should go according to rule. _Rule_ must
+precede merit."
+
+"I should certainly have voted for myself, had I not been among the
+judges," said the mule. "People must take into account not only how
+quickly one goes, but what other circumstances are in question; as,
+for instance, how much one carries. But I would not this time have
+thought about that, neither about the hare's wisdom in his flight--his
+tact in springing suddenly to one side, to put his pursuers on the
+wrong scent, away from his place of concealment. No; there is one
+thing many people think much of, and which ought never to be
+disregarded. It is called THE BEAUTIFUL. I saw that in the hare's
+charming well-grown ears; it is quite a pleasure to see how long they
+are. I fancied that I beheld myself when I was little, and so I voted
+for him."
+
+"Hush!" said the fly. "As for me, I will not speak; I will only say
+one word. I know right well that I have outrun more than one hare. The
+other day I broke the hind legs of one of the young ones. I was
+sitting on the locomotive before the train: I often do that. One sees
+so well there one's own speed. A young hare ran for a long time in
+front of the engine: he had no idea that I was there. At length he was
+just going to turn off the line, when the locomotive went over his
+hind legs and broke them, for I was sitting on it. The hare remained
+lying there, but I drove on. That was surely getting before him; but I
+do not care for the prize."
+
+"It appears to me," thought the wild rose, but she did not say it--it
+is not her nature to express her ideas openly, though it might have
+been well had she done so--"it appears to me that the sunbeam should
+have had the first prize of honour, and the second also. It passes in
+a moment the immeasurable space from the sun down to us, and comes
+with such power that all nature is awakened by it. It has such beauty,
+that all we roses redden and become fragrant under it. The high
+presiding authorities do not seem to have noticed _it_ at all. Were I
+the sunbeam, I would give each of them a sunstroke, that I would; but
+it would only make them crazy, and they will very likely be that
+without it. I shall say nothing," thought the wild rose. "There is
+peace in the wood; it is delightful to blossom, to shed refreshing
+perfume around, to live amidst the songs of birds and the rustling of
+trees; but the sun's rays will outlive us all."
+
+"What is the first prize?" asked the earth-worm, who had overslept
+himself, and only now joined them.
+
+"It gives free entrance to the kitchen garden," said the mule. "I
+proposed the prize, as a clear-sighted and judicious member of the
+meeting, with a view to the hare's advantage. I was resolved he should
+have it, and he is now provided for. The snail has permission to sit
+on the stone fence, and to enjoy the moss and the sunshine; and,
+moreover, he is appointed to be one of the chief judges of the next
+race. It is well to have one who is practically acquainted with the
+business in hand--on a committee, as human beings call it. I must say
+I expect great things from the future--we have made so good a
+beginning."
+
+
+
+
+_The Bell's Hollow._
+
+
+"Ding-dong! ding-dong!" sounded from the buried bell in Odensee river.
+What sort of a river is that? Every child in the town of Odensee knows
+it. It flows round the foot of the gardens, from the locks to the
+water-mill, away under the wooden bridges. In the river grow yellow
+water-lilies, brown feather-like reeds, and the soft velvet-like
+bulrushes, so high and so large. Old, split willow trees, bent and
+twisted, hang far over the water by the side of the monks' meadows and
+the bleaching greens; but a little above is garden after garden--the
+one very different from the other; some with beautiful flowers and
+arbours, clean and in prim array, like dolls' villages; some only
+filled with cabbages; while in others there are no attempts at a
+garden to be seen at all, only great elder trees stretching themselves
+out, and hanging over the running water, which here and there is
+deeper than an oar can fathom.
+
+Opposite to the nunnery is the deepest part. It is called "The Bell's
+Hollow," and there dwells the merman. He sleeps by day when the sun
+shines through the water, but comes forth on the clear starry nights,
+and by moonlight. He is very old. Grandmothers have heard of him from
+their grandmothers. They said he lived a lonely life, and had scarcely
+any one to speak to except the large old church bell. Once upon a time
+it hung up in the steeple of the church; but now there is no trace
+either of the steeple or the church, which was then called Saint
+Albani.
+
+"Ding-dong! ding-dong!" rang the bell while it stood in the steeple;
+and one evening when the sun was setting, and the bell was in full
+motion, it broke loose, and flew through the air, its shining metal
+glowing in the red sunbeams. "Ding-dong! ding-dong! now I am going to
+rest," sang the bell; and it flew out to Odensee river, where it was
+deepest, and therefore that spot is now called "The Bell's Hollow."
+But it found neither sleep nor rest there. Down at the merman's it
+still rings; so that at times it is heard above, through the water,
+and many people say that its tones foretell a death; but there is no
+truth in that, for it rings to amuse the merman, who is now no longer
+alone.
+
+And what does the bell relate? It was so very old, it was there before
+our grandmothers' grandmothers were born, and yet it was a child
+compared with the merman, who is an old, quiet, strange-looking
+person, with eel-skin leggings, a scaly tunic adorned with yellow
+water-lilies, a wreath of sedges in his hair, and weeds in his beard.
+It must be confessed he was not very handsome to look at.
+
+It would take a year and a day to repeat all that the bell said, for
+it told the same old stories over and over again very minutely, making
+them sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, according to its mood. It
+told of the olden days--the rigorous, dark times.
+
+To the tower upon St. Albani Church, where the bell hung, ascended a
+monk. He was both young and handsome, but had an air of deep
+melancholy. He looked through an aperture out over the Odensee river.
+Its bed then was broad, and the monks' meadows were a lake. He gazed
+over them, and over the green mound called "The Nuns Hill," beyond
+which the cloister lay, where the light shone from a nun's cell. He
+had known her well, and he remembered the past, and his heart beat
+wildly at the recollection.
+
+"Ding-dong! ding-dong!" This was one of the bell's stories:--
+
+"There came up to the tower one day an idiot servant of the bishop;
+and when I, the bell, who am cast in hard and heavy metal, swung about
+and pealed, I could have broken his head, for he seated himself
+immediately under me, and began to play with two sticks, exactly as if
+it had been a stringed instrument, and he sang to it thus: 'Now I may
+venture to sing aloud what elsewhere I dare not whisper--sing of all
+that is kept hidden behind locks and bolts. Yonder it is cold and
+damp. The rats eat the living bodies. No one knows of it; no one hears
+of it--not even now, when the bell is pouring forth its loudest
+peal--ding-dong! ding-dong!'
+
+"There was a king: he was called Knud. He humbled himself both before
+bishops and monks; but as he unjustly oppressed the people, and laid
+heavy taxes on them, they armed themselves with all sorts of weapons,
+and chased him away as if he had been a wild beast. He sought shelter
+in the church, and had the doors and windows closed. The furious
+multitude surrounded the sacred edifice, as I heard related; the
+crows and the ravens, and the jackdaws to boot, became scared by the
+noise and the tumult; they flew up into the tower, and out again; they
+looked on the multitude below, they looked also in at the church
+windows, and shrieked out what they saw.
+
+"King Knud knelt before the altar and prayed; his brothers Erik and
+Benedict stood guarding him with their drawn swords; but the king's
+servitor, the false Blake, betrayed his lord. They knew outside where
+he could be reached. A stone was cast in through the window at him,
+and the king lay dead. There were shouts and cries among the angry
+crowd, and cries among the flocks of frightened birds; and I joined
+them too. I pealed forth, 'Ding-dong! ding-dong!'
+
+"The church bell hangs high, sees far around, receives visits from
+birds, and understands their language. To it whispers the wind through
+the wickets and apertures, and through every little chink; and the
+wind knows everything. He hears it from the air, for it encompasses
+all living things; it even enters into the lungs of human beings--it
+hears every word and every sigh. The air knows all, the wind repeats
+all, and the bell understands their speech, and rings it forth to the
+whole world--'Ding dong! ding dong!'
+
+"But all this was too much for me to hear and to know. I had not
+strength enough to ring it all out. I became so wearied, so heavy,
+that the beam from which I hung broke, and I flew through the luminous
+air down to where the river is deepest, where the merman dwells alone
+in solitude; and here I am, year after year, relating to him what I
+have seen and what I have heard. 'Ding-dong! ding-dong!'"
+
+Thus rang the chimes from "The Bell's Hollow" in the Odensee river, as
+my grandmother declares.
+
+But our schoolmaster says there is no bell ringing down there, for it
+could not be; and there is no merman down there, for there are no
+mermen; and, when all the church bells are ringing loudly, he says
+that it is not the bells, but the air that makes the sound. My
+grandmother told me that the bell also said this; so, since the
+schoolmaster and the bell agree in this, no doubt it is true.
+
+The air knows everything. It is round us, it is in us; it speaks of
+our thoughts and our actions; and it proclaims them farther than did
+the bell now down in the Hollow in Odensee river, where the merman
+dwells--it proclaims all out into the great vault of heaven, far, far
+away, even into eternity, up to where the glorious bells of paradise
+peal in tones unknown to mortal ears.
+
+
+
+
+_Soup made of a Sausage-stick._
+
+
+I.
+
+"We had a capital dinner yesterday," said an aged female mouse to one
+who had not been at the feast. "I sat only twenty-one from the old
+King of the Mice: that was not being badly placed. Shall I tell you
+what we had for dinner? It was all very well arranged. We had mouldy
+bread, the skin of bacon, tallow candles, and sausages. Twice we
+returned to the charge: it was as good as if we had had two dinners.
+There was nothing but good-humour and pleasant chit-chat, as in an
+agreeable family circle. Not a mite was left except the sausage-stick.
+The conversation happened to fall upon the possibility of making soup
+of a sausage-stick. All said they had heard of it, but no one had ever
+tasted that soup, or knew how to prepare it. A health was proposed to
+the inventor, who, it was remarked, deserved to be superintendent of
+the poor. Was not that witty? And the old King of the Mice arose and
+declared that the one among the young mice who could prepare the soup
+in question most palatably should be his queen, and he would grant
+them a year and a day for the trial."
+
+"Well, that was not a bad idea," said the other mouse. "But how is the
+soup made?"
+
+"Ay, how is it made? That was what they were all asking, the young and
+the old. Every one was willing enough to become the queen, but they
+were all loath to take the trouble of going out into the world to
+acquire the prescribed qualification; yet it was absolutely necessary
+to do so. But it does not suit every one to leave her family and her
+snug old mouse-hole. One cannot be going out every day after cheese
+parings, and sniffing the rind of bacon. No: such pursuits, too often
+indulged in, would perchance put them in the way of being eaten alive
+by a cat."
+
+These apprehensions were quite terrible enough to scare most of the
+mice from going forth upon the search of knowledge. Only four
+presented themselves for the undertaking. They were young and active,
+but very poor. They would have gone to the four corners of the earth,
+if only good fortune might attend their enterprise. Each of them took
+with her a sausage-stick to remind her what she was travelling for. It
+was to be her walking staff.
+
+On the 1st of May they set out, and on the 1st of May, a year after,
+they returned; but only three of them. The fourth did not report
+herself, and sent no tidings of herself; and yet it was the day fixed
+for the royal decision.
+
+"There shall be no sadness or no drawback to our pleasure," said the
+King of the Mice, as he gave orders that every mouse within several
+miles round should be invited. They were to assemble in the kitchen.
+The three travelled mice were drawn up in a row alone. In the place
+of the fourth, who was absent, was deposited a sausage-stick covered
+with black crepe. No one ventured to utter a word until the three had
+made their statements, and the king had determined what more was to be
+said.
+
+We have now to hear all this.
+
+
+II.
+
+WHAT THE FIRST LITTLE MOUSE HAD SEEN AND LEARNT ON HER JOURNEY.
+
+"When I first went forth into the wide world," said the little mouse,
+"I thought, as so many of my age do, that I had swallowed all the
+wisdom of the earth; but that was not the case--it required a year and
+a day for that to come to pass. I went at once to sea, on board a ship
+which was bound for the north. I had heard that cooks at sea were
+pretty well acquainted with their business; but there is little to do
+when one has plenty of sides of bacon, barrels of salt meat, and musty
+meal at hand. One lives delicately on these nice things; but one
+learns nothing like making soup of a sausage-stick. We sailed for many
+days and nights, and a stormy and wet time we had of it. When we
+reached our destination I left the vessel: this was far away up in the
+north.
+
+"One has a strange feeling on leaving one's own mouse-hole at home,
+being carried away in a ship, which becomes a home for the time, and
+suddenly finding one's self, at the distance of more than a hundred
+miles, standing alone in a foreign land. I saw myself amidst a large
+tangled wood full of pine and birch trees. Their scent was so strong!
+It is not at all my taste; but the perfume from the wild plants was so
+spicy that I was quite charmed, and thought of the sausage and the
+seasoning for the soup. There were lakes amidst the forest, the water
+was beautifully clear close at hand, but looking in the distance as
+black as ink. There were white swans upon the lake. I mistook them at
+first for foam, they lay so still; but when I saw them fly I
+recognised them. They, however, belong to the race of geese. No one
+can deny his kindred. I like mine, and I hastened to seek the field
+mice, who, truth to tell, know very little except what concerns their
+food; and it was just that on account of which I had travelled to a
+foreign country. That any one should think of making soup out of a
+sausage-stick seemed to them so extraordinary an idea, that it was
+speedily circulated through the whole wood; but that the problem
+should be solved they considered an impossibility. Little did I think
+then that the very same night I should be initiated into the process.
+
+"It was midsummer; therefore it was that the woods scented so
+strongly, they said; therefore were the plants so aromatic in their
+perfume, the lake so clear, and yet so dark with the white swans upon
+them. On the borders of the forest, amidst three or four houses, was
+erected a pole as high as a mainmast, and around it hung wreaths and
+ribbons. This was the Maypole. Girls and young men danced round it,
+and sang to the accompaniment of the fiddler's violin. All went on
+merrily till after the sun had set, and the moon had risen, but I took
+no part in the festivity; for what had a little mouse to do with a
+forest ball? I sat down amidst the soft moss, and held fast my
+sausage-stick. The moon shone brightly on a place where there was a
+solitary tree surrounded by moss so fine--yes, I venture to say as
+fine as the Mice-King's skin--but it had a green tint, and its colour
+was very soothing to the eye. All at once I saw approaching a set of
+the most beautiful little people, so little that they would only have
+reached to my knee; they looked like men and women, but they were
+better proportioned. They called themselves Elves, and their garments
+were composed of the leaves of flowers, trimmed with the wings of
+gnats and flies--not at all ugly. They seemed as if they were
+searching for something--what I did not know; but when they came a
+little nearer to me their leader tapped my sausage-stick, and said,
+'This is what we want; it is all ready, all prepared;' and he became
+more and more joyful as he gazed upon my walking-stick.
+
+"'You may borrow it, but not keep it,' said I.
+
+"'Not keep it!' they all exclaimed together, as they seized my
+sausage-stick, and, dancing away to the green mossy spot, placed the
+sausage-stick there in the centre of it. They determined also on
+having a Maypole; and the stick they had just captured seeming quite
+suited to their purpose, it was soon ornamented.
+
+"Small spiders spun gold threads around it--hung up waving veils and
+flags so finely worked, shining so snow-white under the moonbeams,
+that my eyes were quite dazzled. They took the colours from the wings
+of the butterflies, and sprinkled them on the white webs, till they
+seemed to be laden with flowers and diamonds. I did not know my own
+sausage-stick--it had become such a magnificent Maypole, that
+certainly had not its equal in the world. And now came tripping
+forwards the great mass of the elves, most of them very slightly
+clad; but what they did wear was of the finest materials. I looked
+on, of course, but in the background, for I was too big for them.
+
+"Then what a game commenced! It was as if a thousand glass bells were
+ringing, the sound was so clear and full. I fancied the swans were
+singing, and I also thought I heard cuckoos and thrushes. At length it
+seemed as if the whole wood was filled with music. There were the
+sweet voices of children, the ringing of bells, and the songs of
+birds; and all these melodious sounds seemed to proceed from the
+elves' Maypole--an orchestra in itself--and that was my sausage-stick.
+I never would have believed that so much could have come from it; but
+much, of course, depended on what hands it fell into. I became very
+much agitated, and I wept, as a little mouse can weep, from sheer
+pleasure.
+
+"The night was all too short; but, at this time of the year, the
+nights are not long up yonder. At the dawn of day there arose a fresh
+breeze; the surface of the lake became ruffled; all the delicately
+fine veils and flags disappeared in the air; the swinging kiosks of
+cobwebs, the suspension bridges and balustrades, or whatever they are
+called, which were constructed from leaf to leaf, vanished into
+nothing; six elves brought me my sausage-stick, and at the same time
+asked if I had any wish they could fulfil; whereupon I begged them to
+tell me how soup could be made from a sausage-stick.
+
+"'What we can do,' said the foremost, laughing, 'you have just seen.
+You could scarcely have recognised your sausage-stick.'
+
+"'You mean as you transformed it,' said I; and then I told them the
+cause of my journey, and what was expected at home from it. 'Of what
+use,' I asked, 'will it be to the King of the Mice and all our large
+community that I have seen this beautiful sight? I cannot shake the
+sausage-stick and say, You see here the stick--now comes the soup!
+That would be like a hoax.'
+
+"Then the elf dipped its little finger into a blue violet, and said to
+me,--
+
+"'Look! I spread a charm over your walking-stick, and when you return
+to the palace of the King of the Mice make it touch the king's warm
+breast, and violets will spring from every part of the staff, even in
+the coldest winter weather. See! you have now something worth taking
+home, and perhaps a little more.'"
+
+But before the little mouse had finished repeating what the elf had
+said she laid her staff against the king's breast, and sure enough
+there sprang forth from it the loveliest flowers. They yielded so
+strong a perfume that the king commanded that the mice who stood
+nearest the chimney should stick their tails in the fire, in order
+that the smell of the singed hair should overpower the odour from the
+flowers, which was very offensive.
+
+"But what was 'the little more' you spoke of?" asked the King of the
+Mice.
+
+"Oh!" said the little mouse, "it is what is called an _effect_;" and
+so she turned her sausage-stick. And behold, there were no more
+flowers visible! She held only the naked stick, and she moved it like
+a stick for beating time.
+
+"The violets are for sight, smell, and touch, the elf told me; but
+there are still wanting hearing and taste."
+
+She beat time, and there was music--not such, however, as sounded in
+the wood at the elfin fete; no, such as is heard at times in the
+kitchen. It came suddenly, like the wind whistling down the chimney.
+The pots and the pans boiled over, and the shovel thundered against
+the large brass kettle. It stopped as suddenly as it had commenced;
+and then was only to be heard the smothered song of the tea-kettle,
+which was so strange with its tones rising and falling, and the little
+pot and the large pot boiling, the one not troubling itself about the
+other, as if neither could think. Then the little mouse moved her
+time-stick faster and faster; the pots bubbled up and boiled over; the
+wind roared in the chimney; the commotion was so great that the little
+mouse herself got frightened, and dropped the stick.
+
+"It was hard work to make that soup," cried the old king; "but where
+is the result--the dish?"
+
+"That is all," said the little mouse, courtesying.
+
+"All! Then let us hear what the next has to tell," said the king.
+
+
+III.
+
+WHAT THE SECOND MOUSE HAD TO RELATE.
+
+"I was born in the palace library," said the second mouse. "I, and
+several members of my family there, have never had the good fortune to
+enter the dining-room, let alone the pantry. It was only when I first
+began my travels, and now again to-day, that I have even beheld a
+kitchen. We had often to endure hunger in the library, but we acquired
+much knowledge. The report of the reward offered by royalty for the
+discovery of the process by which soup could be made of a
+sausage-stick reached us even up there, and my grandmother thereupon
+looked for a manuscript which, though she could not read herself, she
+had heard read, wherein it was said,--
+
+"'A poet can make soup out of a sausage-stick.'
+
+"She asked me if I were a poet. I confessed I was not, to which she
+replied that I must go and try to become one. I begged to know what
+was to be done to acquire this art, for it appeared to me about as
+difficult to attain as to make the soup itself. But my grandmother had
+heard a good deal of reading, and she told me that the three things
+principally necessary were--good sense, imagination, and feeling. 'If
+thou canst go and furnish thyself with _these_, thou wilt be a poet;
+and there will be every chance of thy success in the matter of the
+sausage-stick.'
+
+"So I set off to the westward, out into the wide world, to become a
+poet.
+
+"_Good sense_ I knew was the most important of all things, the two
+other qualities not being so highly esteemed. So I went first after
+good sense. Well, where did it dwell? 'Go to the ant; consider her
+ways, and be wise,' a great king of the Hebrews has said. I knew this
+from the library, and I never stopped until I reached a large
+ant-hill; and there I settled myself to watch them.
+
+"They are a very respectable tribe, the ants, and full of good sense;
+everything among them is as correctly done as a well-calculated sum in
+arithmetic. 'To labour and to lay eggs,' say they, 'is to live in the
+present, and to provide for the future;' and that they assuredly do.
+They divide themselves into the clean ants and the dirty ones. Rank is
+distinguished by a number. The queen ant is number one, and her will
+is their only law. She has swallowed all the wisdom, and it was of
+consequence to me to listen to her; but she said so much and was so
+profoundly wise, that I could scarcely comprehend her.
+
+"She said that their hill was the highest in the world; but close to
+the hill stood a tree that was higher, certainly much higher. She
+could not deny this, so she did not allude to it. One evening an ant
+had lost his way, and finding himself on the tree, he crept up the
+trunk, not as far as the top, but much higher than any ant had ever
+gone before; and when he descended, and found his way home at last, he
+imprudently told in the ant-hill of something much higher at a little
+distance from it. This was taken by one and all as an affront to the
+whole community, and the offending ant was condemned to have his mouth
+muzzled, as well as to perpetual solitude. But shortly after another
+ant got as far as the tree, and made a similar journey and a similar
+discovery. He spoke of it, however, discreetly and mysteriously, and
+as he happened to be an ant of consideration--one of the clean--they
+believed him; and when he died they placed an egg-shell over him as a
+monument in honour of his extensive knowledge.
+
+"I observed," said the little mouse, "that the ants continually move
+with their eggs on their backs. One of them dropped hers. She tried
+very hard to get it up again, but could not succeed; then two others
+came and helped her with all their might, until they had nearly lost
+their own eggs, whereupon they let the attempt alone, for one is
+nearest to one's self; and the queen ant remarked that both heart and
+good sense had been shown. 'These two qualities place us ants among
+reasonable beings,' she said. 'Sense ought to be, and is, of the most
+consequence; and I have the most of that;' and she raised herself, in
+her self-satisfaction, on her hind leg. I could not mistake her, and
+I swallowed her. 'Go to the ant; consider her ways, and be wise.' I
+had now the queen.
+
+"I then went nearer to the above-mentioned large tree: it was an oak.
+It had high branches, a majestic crown of leaves, and was very old. I
+perceived that a living creature resided in it--a female. She was
+called a Dryad. She had been born with the tree, and would die with
+it. I had heard of this in the library; and now I beheld one of the
+real trees, and a real oak-nymph. She uttered a frightful shriek when
+she saw me near her; for she was like all women, very much afraid of
+mice. She, however, had more reason to be afraid of me than others of
+her sex have, for I could have gnawed the tree in two, and on it hung
+her life. I spoke to her kindly and cordially. This gave her courage,
+and she took me in her slender hand; and when she understood what had
+brought me out into the wide world, she promised that I should,
+perhaps that very night, become possessed of one of the two treasures
+of which I was in search. She told me that Imagination was her very
+particular friend; that he was as charming as the God of Love; and
+that he often, for many an hour, sought repose under the spreading
+foliage of the tree, which then sighed more musically over the two. He
+called her _his_ dryad, she said, and the tree _his_ tree. The mighty,
+gnarled, majestic oak was just to his taste, with its broad roots sunk
+deep into the earth, its trunk and its coronal rising so high in the
+free air, meeting the drifting snow, the cutting winds, and the bright
+sunshine, before they had reached the ground. All this she said, and
+she continued: 'The birds sing up yonder, and tell of foreign lands,
+and upon the only decayed branch the stork has built a nest; and it
+is a pleasure to hear of the country where the pyramids stand. All
+this Fancy can well depict, and very much more. I myself can describe
+life in the woods from the time that I was quite little, and this tree
+was so tiny that a nettle could have covered it, until now, when it is
+so strong and mighty. Sit down yonder under the woodruffs, and be on
+the look-out. When Fancy comes I shall find an opportunity of pinching
+his wing, and stealing a little feather from it. You shall take that,
+and no poet will ever have been better provided. Will that do?'
+
+"And Imagination came; a feather was plucked from him, and I got it,"
+said the little mouse. "I held it in the water till it became soft. It
+was still hard of digestion, but I managed to gnaw it all up. It is
+not at all easy to stuff one's self so as to be a poet--there is so
+much to be put in one. I had now got two of the ingredients--good
+sense and imagination; and I knew by their help that the third
+ingredient was to be found in the library; for a great man has said
+and written that there are romances which are useful in easing people
+of a superfluity of tears, and which also act as a sort of swamp to
+cast feelings into. I remembered some of these books; they had always
+looked very enticing to me. They were so thumbed, so greasy, they must
+have been very popular.
+
+"I returned home to the library, ate almost as much as a whole
+romance--that is to say, the soft part of it, the pith--but the crust,
+the binding, I let alone. When I had digested this, and another to
+boot, I perceived how my inside was stirred up; so I ate part of a
+third, and then I considered myself a poet, and every one about me
+said I was. I had headaches, of course, and all sorts of aches. I
+thought over what story I could work up about a sausage-stick, and
+there was no end of sticks and pegs crowding my mind. The queen ant
+had had an uncommon intellect. I remembered the man who took a white
+peg into his mouth, and both he and it became invisible. All my
+thoughts ran upon sticks. A poet can write even upon these; and I am a
+poet I trust, for I have fagged hard to be one. I shall be able every
+day in the week to amuse you with the story of a stick. This is my
+soup."
+
+"Let us hear the third," said the King of the Mice.
+
+"Pip, pip!" said a little mouse at the kitchen door. It was the fourth
+of them, the one they thought dead. She tripped in, and jumped upon
+the upper end of the sausage-stick with the black crape. She had been
+journeying day and night, travelling on the railroad by the goods
+train, in which she took great pleasure, and yet she had almost
+arrived too late; but she hurried forward, puffing and panting, and
+looking very much jaded. She had lost her sausage-stick, but not her
+voice; for she began talking with the utmost velocity, as if every one
+was dying to hear her, and no one could say anything to the purpose
+but herself. How she did chatter! But she had arrived so unexpectedly
+that no one had time to find fault with her or her talking, so she
+went on. Now let us listen.
+
+
+IV.
+
+WHAT THE FOURTH MOUSE--WHO SPOKE BEFORE THE THIRD ONE HAD SPOKEN--HAD
+TO RELATE.
+
+"I went straight to the greatest city," she said. "I do not remember
+its name. I do not recollect names well. I came from the railway with
+confiscated goods to the town council-hall, and there I ran to the
+jailer. He spoke of his prisoners, especially of one of them, who had
+uttered some very imprudent words; and when these had been repeated,
+and written down and read, 'The whole,' said he, 'was only--soup of a
+sausage-stick; but that soup may cost him dear.' I felt interested in
+the prisoner," continued the little mouse, "and I watched for an
+opportunity to go in where he was. There is always a mouse-hole behind
+locked doors. He looked very pale, had a dark beard, and large shining
+eyes. The lamp smoked; but the walls were accustomed to this. They did
+not turn any blacker. The prisoner was scratching on them both
+pictures and verses; but I did not read the latter. I fancy he was
+tired of being alone, for I was a welcome guest. He enticed me with
+crumbs of bread, with his flute, and kind words. He was so happy with
+me! I put confidence in him, and we became friends. He shared with me
+bread and water, and gave me cheese and sausages. I lived luxuriously;
+but it was not alone the good cheer that detained me. He allowed me to
+run upon his hand and arm all the way up to his shoulder; he allowed
+me to creep into his beard, and called me his little friend. I became
+very dear to him, and our regard was mutual. I forgot my errand out in
+the wide world; I forgot my sausage-stick in a crevice in the floor;
+and there it still lies. I wished to remain where I was; for, if I
+left him, the poor prisoner would have nothing to care for in this
+world. I remained; but he, alas! did not. He spoke to me so sadly for
+the last time, gave me a double allowance of bread and cheese parings,
+kissed his finger to me, and then he was gone--gone, never to return.
+I do not know his history. 'Soup of a sausage-stick!' said the jailer,
+and I went to him; but I was wrong to trust in him. He took me up,
+indeed, in his hand; but he put me in a cage, a treadmill. That was
+hard work--jumping and jumping without getting on a bit, and only to
+be laughed at.
+
+"The jailer's grandchild was a pretty little fellow, with waving hair
+as yellow as gold, sparkling, joyous eyes, and a laughing mouth.
+
+"'Poor little mouse!' he exclaimed, peeping in at my horrid cage, and
+at the same time drawing up the iron pin that closed it.
+
+"I seized the opportunity, and sprang first to the window-ledge, and
+thence to the conduit-pipe. Free, free! that was all I could think of,
+and not the object of my journey.
+
+"It became dark--it was almost night. I took up my lodgings in a
+tower, where dwelt a watchman and an owl. I could not trust either of
+them, and the owl least of the two. It resembles a cat, and has one
+great fault--that it eats mice. But one can be on one's guard, and
+that I assuredly would be. She was a respectable, extremely
+well-educated old owl. She knew more than the watchman, and almost as
+much as I myself did. The young owls made a great fuss about
+everything.
+
+"'Don't make soup of a sausage-stick,' said she.
+
+"This was the severest thing she could say to them, she was so very
+fond of her family. I felt so much inclined to place some reliance in
+her that I cried "Pip!" from the crevice in which I was concealed. My
+confidence in her seemed to please her, and she assured me that I
+should be safe under her protection; that no animal would be permitted
+to injure me until winter, when she might herself fall upon me, as
+food would be scarce.
+
+"She was very wise in all things. She proved to me that the watchman
+could not blow a blast without his horn, which hung loosely about him.
+
+"He piques himself exceedingly upon his performances, and fancies he
+is the owl of the tower. The sound ought to be very loud, but it is
+extremely weak. 'Soup of a sausage-stick!'
+
+"I begged her to give me the recipe for the soup, and she explained it
+to me thus:--
+
+"'Soup of a sausage-stick is but a cant phrase among men, and is
+differently interpreted. Every one fancies his own interpretation the
+best, but in sober reality there is nothing in it whatsoever.'
+
+"'Nothing!' cried I. That was a poser. 'Truth is not always pleasant,
+but truth is always the best.' So also said the old owl. I considered
+the matter, and came to the conclusion that when I brought _the best_
+I brought more than 'soup of a sausage-stick;' and thereupon I
+hastened homewards, so that I might arrive in good time to bring what
+is most valuable--THE TRUTH. The mice are an enlightened community,
+and their king is the cleverest of them all. He can make me his queen
+for the sake of Truth."
+
+"Thy truth is a falsehood," said the mouse who had not yet had an
+opportunity of speaking. "I can make the soup, and I will do it."
+
+
+V.
+
+HOW THE SOUP WAS MADE.
+
+"I have not travelled at all," said the last mouse. "I remained in our
+own country. It is not necessary to go to foreign lands--one can
+learn as well at home. I remained there. I have not acquired any
+information of unnatural beings. I have not eaten information, or
+conversed with owls. I confined myself to original thoughts. Will some
+one now be so good as to fill the kettle with water, and put it on?
+Let there be plenty of fire under it. Let the water boil--boil
+briskly; then throw the sausage-stick in. Will his majesty the King of
+the Mice be so condescending as to put his tail into the boiling pot,
+and stir it about? The longer he stirs it, the richer the soup will
+become. It costs nothing, and requires no other ingredients--it only
+needs to be stirred."
+
+"Cannot another do this?" asked the king.
+
+"No," said the mouse. "The effect can only be produced by the royal
+tail."
+
+The water was boiled, and the King of the Mice prepared himself for
+the operation, though it was rather dangerous. He stuck his tail out,
+as mice are in the habit of doing in the dairy, when they skim the
+cream off the dish with their tails; but he had no sooner popped his
+tail into the warm steam than he drew it out and sprang down.
+
+"Of course you are my queen," said he; "but we shall wait for the soup
+till our golden wedding, and the poor in my kingdom will have
+something to rejoice over in the future."
+
+So the nuptials were celebrated; but many of the mice, when they went
+home, said, "It could not well be called soup of a sausage-stick, but
+rather soup of a mouse's tail."
+
+They allowed that each of the narratives was very well told, but the
+whole might have been better. "I, for instance, would have related my
+adventures in such and such words...."
+
+These were the critics, and they are always so wise--afterwards.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And this history went round the world. Opinions were divided about it,
+but the historian himself remained unmoved. And this is best in great
+things and in small.
+
+
+
+
+_The Neck of a Bottle._
+
+
+Yonder, in the confined, crooked streets, amidst several poor-looking
+houses, stood a narrow high tenement, run up of framework that was
+much misshapen, with corners and ends awry. It was inhabited by poor
+people, the poorest of whom looked out from the garret, where, outside
+the little window, hung in the sunshine an old, dented bird-cage,
+which had not even a common cage-glass, but only the neck of a bottle
+inverted, with a cork below, and filled with water. An old maid stood
+near the open window; she had just been putting some chickweed into
+the cage, wherein a little linnet was hopping from perch to perch, and
+singing until her warbling became almost overpowering.
+
+"Yes, you may well sing," said the neck of the bottle; but it did not
+say this as we should say it, for the neck of a bottle cannot speak,
+but it thought so within itself, just as we human beings speak
+inwardly.
+
+"Yes, you may well sing, you who have your limbs entire. You should
+have experienced, like me, what it is to have lost your lower part, to
+have only a neck and a mouth, and the latter stopped up with a cork,
+as I have; then you would not sing. But it is well that somebody is
+contented. I have no cause to sing, and I cannot. I could once though,
+when I was a whole bottle. How I was praised at the furrier's in the
+wood, when his daughter was betrothed! Yes, I remember that day as if
+it were yesterday. I have gone through a great deal when I look back.
+I have been in fire and in water, down in the dark earth, and higher
+up than many; and now I am suspended outside of a bird-cage in the air
+and sunshine. It might be worth while to listen to my story; but I do
+not speak it aloud, because I cannot."
+
+So it went on thinking over its own history, which was curious enough;
+and the little bird poured forth its strains, and in the street below
+people walked and drove, every one thinking of himself, some scarcely
+thinking at all; but the neck of the bottle _was_ thinking.
+
+It remembered the blazing smelt-furnace at the manufactory where it
+was blown into life. It remembered even now that it had been extremely
+warm; that it had looked into the roaring oven, its original home, and
+had felt strongly inclined to spring back into it; but that by
+degrees, as it felt cooler, it found itself comfortable enough where
+it was, placed in a row with a whole regiment of brothers and sisters
+from the same furnace, some of which, however, were blown into
+champagne bottles, others into ale bottles; and that made a
+difference, since out in the world an ale bottle may contain the
+costly LACRYMAE CHRISTI, and a champagne bottle may be filled with
+blacking; but what they were born to every one can see by their shape,
+so that noble remains noble even with blacking in it.
+
+All the bottles were packed up, and our bottle with them. It then
+little thought that it would end in being only the neck of a bottle
+serving as a bird's glass--an honourable state of existence truly, but
+still something. It did not see daylight again until it was unpacked
+along with its comrades in the wine merchant's cellar, and was washed
+for the first time. That was a funny sensation. After that it lay
+empty and uncorked, and felt so very listless; it wanted something,
+but did not know what it wanted. At length it was filled with an
+excellent, superior wine, and, when corked and sealed, a label was
+stuck on it outside with the words, "Best quality." It was as if it
+had taken its first academic degree. But the wine was good, and the
+bottle was good. The young are fond of music, and much singing went on
+in it, the songs being on themes about which it scarcely knew
+anything--the green sunlit hills where the wine grapes grew, where
+beautiful girls and handsome swains met, and danced, and sang, and
+loved. Ah! there it is delightful to dwell. And all this was made into
+songs in the bottle, as it is made into songs by young poets, who also
+frequently know nothing at all about the subjects they choose.
+
+One morning it was bought. The furrier's boy was ordered to purchase a
+bottle of the best wine, and this one was carried away in a basket,
+with ham, cheese, and sausage; there were also the nicest butter and
+the finest bread. The furrier's daughter herself packed the basket.
+She was so young, so pretty! Her brown eyes laughed, and the smile on
+her sweet mouth was almost as expressive as her eyes. She had
+beautiful soft hands--they were so white; yet her throat and neck were
+still whiter. It could be seen at once that she was one of the
+prettiest girls in the neighbourhood, and, strange to say, not yet
+engaged.
+
+The basket of provisions was placed in her lap when the family drove
+out to the wood. The neck of the bottle stuck out above the parts of
+the white napkins that were visible. There was red wax on its cork,
+and it looked straight into the eyes of the pretty girl, and also into
+those of the young sailor--the mate of a ship--who sat beside her. He
+was the son of a portrait painter, and had just passed a first-rate
+examination for mate, and was to go on board his vessel the next day
+to sail for far-distant countries. Much was said about his voyage
+during the drive; and when _it_ was spoken of, there was not exactly
+an expression of joy in the eyes and about the mouth of the furrier's
+daughter.
+
+The two young people wandered away into the green wood. They were in
+earnest conversation. Of what were they speaking? The bottle did not
+hear that, for it was still standing in the basket of provisions. It
+seemed a long time before it was taken out, but then it saw pleasant
+faces round. Everybody was smiling, and the furrier's daughter also
+smiled; but she spoke less, and her cheeks were blushing like two red
+roses.
+
+The father took the full bottle and the corkscrew. Oh! it is
+astonishing to a bottle the first time a cork is drawn from it. The
+neck of the bottle could never afterwards forget that important moment
+when, with a low sound, the cork flew, and the wine streamed out into
+the awaiting glasses.
+
+"To the health of the betrothed pair!" cried the father, and every
+glass was drained; and the young mate kissed his lovely bride. "May
+happiness and every blessing attend you both!" said the old people;
+and the young man begged them to fill their glasses again for his
+toast.
+
+"To my return home and my wedding, within a year and a day!" he
+cried; and when the glasses were empty he took the bottle, and lifted
+it high above his head. "Thou hast been present during the happiest
+day of my life; thou shalt never serve another!"
+
+And he cast the bottle high up in the air. Ah! little did the
+furrier's daughter think then that she should often look on that which
+was flung up; but she was destined to do so. It fell among the thick
+mass of reeds that bordered a pond in the woods. The neck of the
+bottle remembered distinctly what it thought as it lay there, and it
+was this: "I gave them wine, and they give me bog-water; but it was
+well meant." It could no more see the betrothed young couple, or the
+happy old people; but it heard in the distance the sounds of music and
+of mirth. Then came two little peasant children peering among the
+reeds. They saw the bottle, and carried it off with them: so it was
+provided for.
+
+At home, in the cottage among the woods where they lived, their eldest
+brother, who was a sailor, had, the day before, come to say farewell;
+for he was about to start on a long voyage. The mother was busy
+packing various little matters, which the father was to take with him
+to the town in the evening, when he went to see his son once more
+before his departure, and give him again his mother's blessing. A
+phial with spiced brandy was placed in the package; but at that moment
+the children came in with the larger, stronger bottle which they had
+found. A larger quantity could go into it than into the phial. It was
+not the red wine, as before, that the bottle received, but some bitter
+stuff. However, it also was excellent as a stomachic. Our bottle was
+thus again to set forth on its travels. It was carried on board to
+Peter Jensen, who happened to be in the same ship as was the young
+mate; but he did not see the bottle, and, if he had seen it, he would
+not have known it to have been the same from which were drunk the
+toasts in honour of his betrothal, and to his safe return.
+
+Although there was no longer wine in it, there was something quite as
+good; and whenever Peter Jensen brought it forth, his comrades called
+it "the apothecary." The nice medicine was so much in vogue that very
+soon there was not a drop of it left. The bottle had a pleasant time
+of it, upon the whole, while its contents were in such high favour. It
+acquired the name of the great "Loerke"--"Peter Jensen's
+Loerke."[4]
+
+[Footnote 4: "Loerke," which generally means "lark," is the name
+given among the lower classes in Denmark to a spirit bottle of a
+peculiar shape. There is no word that corresponds with it in
+English.--_Trans._]
+
+But this time was passed, and it had lain long neglected in a corner.
+It did not know whether it was on the voyage out or homewards; for it
+had never been on shore anywhere. One day a great storm arose; the
+black, heavy waves rolled mountains high, and heaved the ship up and
+cast it down by turns; the mast came down with a crash; the sea stove
+in a plank; the pumps were no longer of any avail. It was a pitch-dark
+night. The ship sank; but at the last minute the young mate wrote on a
+slip of paper, "_In the name of Jesus--we are lost!_" He wrote down
+the name of his bride, his own name, and that of his ship; then he
+thrust the note into an empty bottle that was within reach, pressed in
+the cork tightly, and cast the bottle out into the raging sea. Little
+did he know that it was the identical bottle which had contained the
+wine in which had been drunk the toasts of joy and hope for him and
+her, that was now tossing on the billows with these last
+remembrances, and the message of death.
+
+The ship sank--the crew sank--but the bottle skimmed the waves like a
+sea-fowl. It had a heart then--the letter of love within it. And the
+sun rose, and the sun set. This sight recalled to the bottle the scene
+of its earliest life--the red glowing furnace, to which it had once
+longed to return. It encountered calms and storms; but it was not
+dashed to pieces against any rocks. It was not swallowed by any shark.
+For more than a year and a day it drifted on--now towards the north,
+now towards the south--as the currents carried it. In other respects
+it was its own master; but one can become tired even of that.
+
+The written paper--the last farewell from the bridegroom to his
+bride--would only bring deep sorrow if it ever reached the proper
+hands. But where were these hands, that had looked so white when they
+spread the tablecloth on the fresh grass in the green wood on the
+betrothal-day? Where was the furrier's daughter? Nay, where was her
+country? and to what country was it nearest? The bottle knew not. It
+drifted and drifted, and it was so tired of always drifting on; but it
+could not help itself. Still, still it had to drift, until at last it
+reached the land; but it was a foreign country. It did not understand
+a word that was said, for the language was not such as it had been
+formerly accustomed to hear; and one feels quite lost if one does not
+understand the language spoken around.
+
+The bottle was taken up and examined; the slip of paper in it was
+observed, taken out, and opened; but nobody could make out what was
+written on it, though every one knew that the bottle must have been
+cast overboard, and that some information was contained in the paper;
+but what _that_ was remained a mystery, and it was put back into the
+bottle, and the latter laid by in a large press, in a large room, in a
+large house.
+
+Whenever any stranger came the slip of paper was taken out, opened,
+and examined, so that the writing, which was only in pencil, became
+more and more illegible from the frequent folding and unfolding of the
+paper, till at length the letters could no longer be discerned. After
+the bottle had remained about a year in the press it was removed to
+the loft, and was soon covered with dust and cobwebs. Ah! then it
+thought of its better days, when red wine was poured from it in the
+shady wood, and when it swayed about upon the waves, and had a secret
+to carry--a letter, a farewell sigh.
+
+It now remained in the loft for twenty mortal years, and it might have
+remained longer, had not the house been going to be rebuilt. The roof
+was taken off, the bottle discovered and talked about; but it did not
+understand what was said. One does not learn languages, living up
+alone in a loft, even in twenty years. "Had I but been down in the
+parlour," it thought, and with truth, "I would, of course, have
+learned it."
+
+It was now washed and rinsed. It certainly wanted cleaning sadly, and
+very clear and transparent it felt itself after it--indeed, quite
+young again in its old age; but the slip of paper committed to its
+charge, that was lost in the washing. The bottle was now filled with
+seeds. Such contents were new to it. Well stopped up and wrapped up it
+was, and it could see neither a lantern nor a candle, not to mention
+the sun or the moon. "One ought to see something when one goes on a
+journey," thought the bottle; but it did not, however, until it
+reached the place it was going to, and was there unpacked.
+
+"What trouble these people abroad have taken about it!" was remarked;
+"yet no doubt it is cracked." But it was not cracked. The bottle
+understood every word that was said, for they were spoken in the
+language it had heard at the furnace, at the wine merchant's, in the
+wood, and on board ship--the only right good old language, one which
+could be understood. The bottle had returned to its own country, and
+in its joy had nearly jumped out of the hands that were holding it. It
+scarcely observed that the cork had been removed, its contents shaken
+out, and itself put away in the cellar to be kept and forgotten. But
+home is dearest, even in a cellar. It had enough to think over, and
+time enough to think, for it lay there for years; but at last one day
+folks came down there to look for some bottles, and took this one with
+them.
+
+Outside, in the garden, there were great doings; coloured lamps hung
+in festoons; paper lanterns, formed like large tulips, gave forth
+their subdued light. It was also a charming evening; the air was calm
+and clear; the stars began, one after the other, to shine in the deep
+blue heavens above; while the round moon looked like a pale
+bluish-grey ball, with a golden border encircling it.
+
+There were also some illuminations in the side walks, at least enough
+to let people see their way; bottles with lights in them were placed
+here and there among the hedges; and amidst these stood the bottle we
+know, the one that was destined to end as the mere neck of a bottle
+and the glass of a bird-cage. At the period just named, however, it
+found everything so exquisitely charming. It was again among flowers
+and verdure, again surrounded by joy and festivity; it again heard
+singing and musical instruments, and the hum and buzz of a crowd of
+people, especially from that part of the gardens which were most
+brilliantly illuminated. It had a good situation itself, and stood
+there useful and happy, bearing its appointed light. During such a
+pleasant time it forgot the twenty years up in the loft, and it is
+good to be able to forget.
+
+Close by it passed a couple arm-in-arm, like the happy pair in the
+wood, the mate and the furrier's daughter. It seemed to the bottle as
+if it were living that time over again. Guests and visitors of
+different ages wandered up and down, gazing upon the illuminations;
+and among these was an old maid, without relations, but not without
+friends. Probably her thoughts were occupied, as were those of the
+bottle; for she was thinking of the green woods, and of a young couple
+just betrothed. These _souvenirs_ affected her much, for she had been
+a party in them--a prominent party. This was in her happier hours; and
+one never forgets these, even when one becomes a very old maid. But
+she did not recognise the bottle, and it did not recognise her. So it
+is we wear out of each other's knowledge in this world, until people
+meet again as these two did.
+
+The bottle passed from the public gardens to the wine merchant's; it
+was there again filled with wine, and sold to an aeronaut, who was to
+go up in a balloon the following Sunday. There was a multitude of
+people to witness the ascent, there was a regimental band, and there
+were many preparations going on. The bottle saw all this from a
+basket, in which it lay with a living rabbit, who was very much
+frightened when it saw it was to go up in the parachute. The bottle
+did not know where it was to go; it beheld the balloon extending
+wider and wider, and becoming so large that it could not be larger;
+then lifting itself up higher and higher, and rolling restlessly until
+the ropes that held it were cut, when it arose majestically into the
+air, with the aeronaut, the basket, the bottle, and the rabbit; then
+the music played loudly, and the assembled crowd shouted, "Hurra!
+hurra!"
+
+"It is droll to go aloft," thought the bottle; "it is a novel sort of
+a voyage. Up yonder one cannot run away."
+
+Many thousand human beings gazed up at the balloon, and the old maid
+gazed among the rest. She stood by her open garret window, where a
+cage hung with a little linnet, which at that time had no water-glass,
+but had to content itself with a cup. Just within the window stood a
+myrtle tree, that was moved a little aside, that it might not come in
+the way while the old maid was leaning out to look at the balloon. And
+she could perceive the aeronaut in it; she saw him let the rabbit down
+in the parachute, and then, having drunk the health of the crowd
+below, throw the bottle high up in the air. Little did she think that
+it was just the same bottle she had seen thrown up high in honour of
+herself and her lover, on a well-remembered happy day amidst the green
+wood, when she was young.
+
+The bottle had no time to think, it was so unexpectedly exalted to the
+highest position it had ever attained in its life. The roofs and the
+spires lay far below, and the people looked as small as pigmies.
+
+It now descended, and that at a different rate of speed from the
+rabbit. The bottle cast somersaults in the air--it felt itself so
+young, so buoyant. It was half full of wine, but not long. What a trip
+that was! The sun shone upon the bottle, and all the crowd looked up
+at it. The balloon was soon far away, and the bottle was soon also
+out of sight, for it fell upon a roof and broke in two; but the
+fragments rebounded again, and leaped and rolled till they reached the
+yard below, where they lay in smaller pieces; for only the neck of the
+bottle escaped destruction, and it looked as if it had been cut round
+by a diamond.
+
+"It may still serve as a glass for a bird's cage," said the man in the
+cellar.
+
+But he himself had neither a bird nor a cage, and it would have cost
+too much to buy these because he had found the neck of a bottle that
+would answer for a glass. The old maid, however, up in the garret,
+might make use of it; and so the neck of the bottle was sent up to
+her. A cork was fitted to it, and, as first mentioned, after its many
+changes, it was filled with fresh water, and was hung in front of the
+cage of the little bird, that sang until its warbling became almost
+overpowering.
+
+"Yes, you may well sing," was what the neck of the bottle had said.
+
+It was somewhat of a wonder, as it had been up in a balloon; but with
+more of its history no one was acquainted. Now it hung as a bird's
+glass, it could hear the people driving and walking in the street
+below, and it could hear the old maid talking in her room to a female
+friend of her youthful days. They were chatting together, but speaking
+of the myrtle plant in the window, not of the neck of the bottle.
+
+"You must not throw away two rix dollars for a wedding bouquet for
+your daughter," said the old maid. "You shall have one from me full of
+flowers. Look how pretty that plant is! Ah! it is a slip of the myrtle
+tree you gave me the day after my betrothal, that I myself, when the
+year was past, might take my wedding bouquet from it. But that day
+never came. The eyes were for ever closed that were to have illumined
+for me the path of happiness in this life. Away, down in the ocean's
+depths, he sleeps calmly--that angel soul! The tree became an old
+tree, but I have become still older; and when it died, I took its last
+green branch and planted it in the earth. That slip has now grown into
+a high plant, and will at last appear amidst bridal array, and form a
+wedding bouquet for my friend's daughter."
+
+And tears started to the old maid's eyes. She spoke of the lover of
+her youth--of the betrothal in the wood; she thought of the toasts
+that were there drunk; she thought of the first kiss, but she did not
+speak of that, for she was now but an old maid. She thought of
+much--much; but little did she think that outside of her window was
+even then a _souvenir_ from that regretted time--the neck of the very
+bottle that had been drawn when the unforgotten toasts were drunk! Nor
+did the bottle-neck know her; for it had not heard all she had said,
+because it had been thinking only of itself.
+
+
+
+
+_The Old Bachelor's Nightcap._
+
+
+There is a street in Copenhagen which bears the extraordinary name of
+"Hyskenstroede." And why is it so called? and what is the meaning of
+that name? It is German; but the German has been corrupted. "Haeuschen"
+it ought to be called, and that signifies "small houses." Those which
+stood there formerly--and, indeed, for several years--were not much
+larger than the wooden booths that we see now-a-days erected at fairs.
+Yes, only a little larger, and with windows; but the panes were of
+horn or stretched bladder, for in these days it was too expensive to
+have glass windows in all houses; but the time in question was so far
+back that our grandfathers' grandfathers, when they mentioned it, also
+spoke of it as "in ancient days," for it was several hundred years
+ago.
+
+Many rich merchants in Bremen and Lubeck carried on business in
+Copenhagen. They did not, however, go there themselves--they sent
+their clerks; and these persons generally resided in the wooden houses
+in the "Small Houses' Street," and held sales of ale and spices. The
+German ale was so excellent, and there were so many kinds--"Bremer,
+Prysing, Emser ale," even "Brunswick Mumme;" also, all sorts of
+spices, such as saffron, anise, ginger, and especially pepper, that
+was the most valued; and from this the German commercial travellers
+acquired the name in Denmark of "Pepper Swains, or Bachelors." They
+entered into an agreement before they left home not to marry; and many
+of them lived there to old age. They had to do entirely for
+themselves, attend to all little domestic matters, even make their own
+fires if they had any. Several of them became lonely old men, with
+peculiar thoughts and peculiar habits. Every unmarried man who has
+arrived at a certain age is now here called after them in derision,
+"Pebersvend"--old bachelor. It was necessary to relate all this, in
+order that our story might be understood.
+
+People made great fun of these old bachelors; laughed at their
+nightcaps, at their drawing them down over their eyes, and so retiring
+to their couches.
+
+    "Saw the firewood, saw it through!
+    Old bachelors, there's work for you.
+    To bed with you your nightcaps go;
+    Put out your lights, and cry, 'O woe!'"
+
+Yes, such songs were made on them. People ridiculed the old bachelor
+and his nightcap, just because they knew so little about him, or it.
+Alas! let no one desire such a nightcap. And why not? Listen!
+
+Over in the "Small Houses' Street," in ancient days, there was no
+pavement; people stepped from hole to hole as in a narrow, cut-up
+defile; and narrow enough this was, too. The dwellings on the opposite
+side of the street stood so close together, that in summer a sail was
+spread across the street from one booth to another, and the whole
+place was redolent of pepper, saffron, ginger, and various spices.
+Behind the desks stood few young men; no, they were almost all old
+fellows; and they were by no means, as we would represent them,
+crowned with a peruke or a nightcap, and equipped in shaggy
+pantaloons, a vest and coat buttoned tightly up. This was the costume
+in which our forefathers were painted, it is true; but this community
+of old bachelors could not afford to have their pictures taken. Yet it
+would have been worth while now to have preserved a portrait of one of
+them, as they stood behind their desks, or on festival days, when they
+wended their way to church. The hat they wore was broad-brimmed, and
+with a high crown; and sometimes one of the younger men would stick a
+feather in his. The woollen shirt was concealed by a deep linen
+collar; the tight-fitting jacket was closely buttoned, a loose cloak
+over it; and the pantaloons descended almost into the square-toed
+shoes, for stockings they wore none. In the belt were stuck the eating
+knife and the spoon; and, moreover, a large knife as a weapon of
+defence, for such was often needed in these days.
+
+Thus was equipped, on grand occasions, old Anthon, one of the oldest
+bachelors of the "small houses;" only he did not wear the high-crowned
+hat, but a fur cap, and under that a knitted cap, a veritable
+nightcap, to which he had so accustomed himself that it was never off
+his head: he actually possessed two of the same description. He would
+have made an excellent subject for a painter; he was so skinny, so
+wrinkled about the mouth and the eyes; had long fingers, with such
+large joints; and his grey eyebrows were so thick. A bunch of grey
+hair from one of these hung over his left eye: it certainly was not
+pretty, but it made him very remarkable. It was known that he came
+from Bremen, at least that his master lived there; but he himself was
+from Thueringen, from the town of Eisenach, close to Wartburg. Old
+Anthon spoke little of his native place, but he thought of it the
+more.
+
+The old lodgers in the street did not associate much with each other.
+Each remained in his own booth, which, was locked early in the
+evening, and then looked very dismal; for only a glimmering light
+could be seen through the horn panes of the window in the roof,
+beneath which sat, most frequently on his bed, the old man with his
+German psalm-book, and chanted the evening hymn, or else he went out
+and strolled about at night by way of amusement; but amusement it
+could hardly be called. To be a stranger in a foreign country is a
+very sad situation. No notice is taken of him unless he stands in
+anyone's way.
+
+Often when it was a pitch-dark night, with pouring rain, all around
+looked woefully gloomy and desolate. No lanterns were to be seen,
+except the little one that hung at one end of the street, before the
+image of the Virgin Mary that adorned the wall there. The water was
+heard dashing and splashing against the wooden work near, out by
+Slotsholm, on which the other end of the street opened. Such evenings
+are always long and lonely if there be nothing to interest one. It is
+not necessary every day to pack and unpack, to make up parcels, and to
+polish scales; but one must have something to do, and accordingly old
+Anthon industriously mended his clothes and cleaned his shoes. When at
+length he retired to rest, it was his custom to keep on his nightcap.
+At first he would draw it well down, but he would soon push it up
+again to look if the light were totally extinguished; nor would he be
+satisfied without getting up and feeling it. He would then lie down
+again, and turn on the other side, and again draw down the nightcap;
+but soon the idea would cross his mind that possibly the coals might
+not have become cold in the little fire-pot beneath--the fire might
+not be totally out--that a spark might be kindled, fly forth, and do
+mischief; and he would get out of his bed and creep down the ladder,
+for it could not be called the stairs; and when, on reaching the
+fire-pot, he perceived that not a spark was visible, and he might
+retire to rest in peace, he would stop half way up, being seized with
+the fear that the iron bolt might not be properly drawn across the
+door, or the shutters properly secured; and down he would go again,
+wearying his poor thin legs. By the time he crept back to his humble
+couch he would be half frozen, and his teeth would be chattering in
+his head with the cold. Then he would draw the covering higher up
+around him, and his nightcap lower down over his eyes, and his
+thoughts would wander from the business and burdens of the day; but
+ah! not to soothing scenes. His reveries were never fraught with
+pleasure, for then came old reminiscences, and hung their curtains up;
+and sometimes they were full of pins, that pricked so severely as to
+bring tears into his eyes. Such wounds old Anthon often received, and
+his warm tears fell on the coverlet or the floor, sounding as if one
+of sorrow's deepest strings had burst; they did not dry up, but
+kindled into a flame, which cast its light for him on the panorama of
+a life--a picture which never vanished from his mind. Then he would
+dry his eyes with his nightcap, and chase away the tears, and
+endeavour to chase away the picture with them; but it would not go,
+for it was imbedded in his heart. The panorama did not follow the
+exact order of events; also the saddest parts were generally most
+prominent. And what were these?
+
+"Beautiful are the beech groves in Denmark," it is said; but still
+more beautiful did the beech trees in the meadows near Wartburg seem
+to Anthon. Mightier and more majestic seemed to him the old oak up at
+the proud baronial castle, where the swinging lantern hung over the
+dark masses of rock; sweeter was the perfume of the apple blossoms
+there than in the Danish land; he seemed to feel the charming scent
+even now. A tear trickled down his cheeks, and he saw two little
+children, a boy and a girl, playing together. The boy had rosy cheeks,
+yellow waving hair, and honest blue eyes--he was the rich merchant's
+son, little Anthon himself. The little girl had dark hair and eyes,
+and she looked bold and clever--she was the burgomaster's daughter
+Molly. The childish couple were playing with an apple. At length they
+divided it in two, and each took a half. They also divided the seeds
+between them, and ate them all to one; and the little girl proposed to
+plant that in the ground.
+
+"You will see what will come of this--something will come which you
+can hardly fancy. An apple tree will come up, but not all at once."
+
+And they planted the seed in a flower-pot: both of them were very
+eager about it. The boy dug a hole in the mould with his finger; the
+little girl placed the seed in it, and both of them filled up the hole
+with earth.
+
+"You must not pull it up to-morrow to see if it has taken root," she
+said; "that should not be done. I did that with my flower: twice I
+took it up to see if it was growing. I had very little sense then, and
+the flower died."
+
+The flower-pot was left in Anthon's care, and every morning, the
+whole winter through, he looked at it; but nothing was to be seen
+except the black earth. Then came spring; the sun shone so warmly, and
+two tiny green leaves at last made their appearance in the flower-pot.
+
+"These are Molly and me," said Anthon. "They are charming--they are
+lovely."
+
+Soon there came a third leaf. Who did that represent? And leaf after
+leaf came up; while day by day, and week by week, the plant became
+larger and stronger, until it grew into quite a tree. And another tear
+fell again from its fountain--from old Anthon's heart.
+
+There stretched out, near Eisenach, a range of stony hills, one of
+which, round in shape, was very conspicuous: neither tree, nor bush,
+nor grass grew on it. It was named Mount Venus. Therein dwelt Venus, a
+goddess from the heathen ages. She was here called Fru Holle, and she
+knew and could see every child in Eisenach. She had decoyed into her
+power the noble knight Tannhaeuser, the minnesinger, from the musical
+circle of Wartburg.
+
+Little Molly and Anthon often went to this hill, and she one day said
+to him,--
+
+"Would you dare to knock on the side of the hill and cry, 'Fru Holle!
+Fru Holle! open the gate; here is Tannhaeuser?' But Anthon dared not do
+it. Molly dared, however; yet only these words--"Fru Holle! Fru
+Holle!"--did she say very loudly and distinctly--the rest seemed to
+die away on the wind; and she certainly did pronounce the rest of the
+sentence so indistinctly, that Anthon was sure she had not really
+added the other words. Yet she looked very confident--as bold as when,
+in the summer evening, she and several other little girls came to play
+in the garden with him, and when they all wanted to kiss him, just
+because he would not be kissed, and defended himself from them, she
+alone ventured to achieve the feat.
+
+"_I_ dare to kiss him!" she used to say, with a proud toss of her
+little head. Then she would take him round his neck to prove her
+power, and Anthon would put up with it, and think it all right from
+her. How pretty and how clever she was! Fru Holle within the hill was
+also very charming, but her charms, it had been said, sprung from the
+seducing beauty bestowed on her by the evil one; but still greater
+beauty was to be found in the holy Elizabeth, the patron saint of the
+country, the pious Thueringian princess, whose good works, known
+through traditions and legends, were celebrated in so many places. A
+picture of her hung in the chapel with a silver lamp before it, but
+Molly did not resemble her.
+
+The apple tree the two children had planted grew year after year; it
+became so large that it had to be transferred to the garden, out in
+the open air, where the dew fell and the sun shone warmly; it became
+strong enough to withstand the severity of winter, and after winter's
+hard trials it seemed as if rejoicing in the return of spring: it then
+put forth blossoms. In August it had two apples, one for Molly and one
+for Anthon: it would not have been well if it had had less.
+
+The tree had grown rapidly, and Molly had grown as fast as the tree;
+she was as fresh as an apple blossom, but she was no longer to see
+that flower. Everything changes in this world. Molly's father left his
+old home, and Molly went with him--far, far away. In our time it might
+be only a few hours' journey by railway, but in those days it took
+more than a day and a night to arrive so far east from Eisenach. It
+was to the other extremity of Thueringia they had to go, to a town
+which is now called Weimar.
+
+And Molly wept, and Anthon wept. All these were now concentrated in
+one single tear, and it had the happy rosy tinge of joy. Molly had
+assured him that she cared much more for him than for all the grandeur
+of Weimar.
+
+One year passed on, two passed, and a third followed, and in all that
+time there came only two letters. One was brought by the carrier, the
+other by a traveller, who had taken a circuitous course, besides
+visiting several cities and other places.
+
+How often had not Anthon and Molly heard together the story of
+Tristand and Isolde, and how often did not Anthon think of himself and
+Molly as them! Although the name "Tristand" signified that he was born
+to sorrow, and that did not apply to Anthon, he never thought as
+Tristand did, "She has forgotten me!" But Isolde had not forgotten her
+heart's dear friend; and when they were both dead and buried, one on
+each side of the church, two linden trees grew out of their graves,
+and, stretching over the roof of the church, met there in full bloom.
+This was very delightful, thought Anthon, and yet so sad! But there
+could be no sadness where he and Molly were concerned. And then he
+whistled an air of the Minnesinger's "Walther von der Vogelweide,"--
+
+    "Under the lime tree by the hedge;"
+
+and especially that favourite verse,--
+
+    "Beyond the wood, in the quiet dale,
+      Tandaradai,
+    Sang the melodious nightingale."
+
+This song was always on his lips. He hummed it, and he whistled it on
+the clear moonlight night, when, passing on horseback through the
+deep ravine, he rode in haste to Weimar to visit Molly. He wished to
+arrive unexpectedly, and he _did_ arrive unexpectedly.
+
+He was well received. Wine sparkled in the goblets; there was gay
+society, distinguished society. He had a comfortable room and an
+excellent bed; and yet he found nothing as he had dreamt and thought
+to find it. He did not understand himself; he did not understand those
+about him; but we can understand all. One can be in a house, can
+mingle with a family, and yet be a total stranger. One may converse,
+but it is like conversing in a stage coach; may know each other as
+people know each other in a stage coach; be a restraint upon each
+other; wish that one were away, or that one's good neighbour were
+away; and it was thus that Anthon felt.
+
+"I will be sincere with you," said Molly to him. "Things have changed
+much since we were together as children--changed within and without.
+Habit and will have no power over our hearts. Anthon, I do not wish to
+have an enemy in you when I am far away from this, as I soon shall be.
+Believe me, I have a great regard for you; but to love you--as I now
+know how one can love another human being--that I have never done. You
+must put up with this. Farewell, Anthon!"
+
+And Anthon also said farewell. No tears sprang to his eyes, but he
+perceived that he was no longer Molly's friend. If we were to kiss a
+burning bar of iron, or a frozen bar of iron, we should experience the
+same sensation when the skin came off our lips.
+
+Within twenty-four hours Anthon had reached Eisenach again, but the
+horse he rode was ruined.
+
+"What of that?" cried he. "I am ruined, and I will ruin all that can
+remind me of her. Fru Holle! Fru Holle! Thou heathenish woman! I will
+tear down and smash the apple tree, and pull it up by the roots. It
+shall never blossom or bear fruit more."
+
+But the tree was not destroyed; he himself was knocked down, and lay
+long in a violent fever. What was to raise him from his sick bed? The
+medicine that did it was the bitterest that could be--one that shook
+the languid body and the shrinking soul. Anthon's father was no longer
+the rich merchant. Days of adversity, days of trial, were close at
+hand. Misfortune rushed in like overwhelming billows--it surged into
+that once wealthy house. His father became a poor man, and sorrow and
+calamity paralysed him. Then Anthon found that he had something else
+to think of than disappointed love, or being angry with Molly. He had
+now to be both father and mother in his desolate home. He had to
+arrange everything, look after everything, and to go forth into the
+world to work for his own and his parents' bread.
+
+He went to Bremen. There he suffered many privations, and passed many
+melancholy days; and all that he went through sometimes soured his
+temper, sometimes saddened him, till strength and mind seemed failing.
+How different were the world and mankind from what he had fancied them
+in his childhood! What were now to him Minnesingers' poems and songs?
+They were gall and wormwood. Yes, this was what he often felt; but
+there were other times when the songs vibrated to his soul, and his
+mind became calm and peaceful.
+
+"What God wills is always the best," said he then. "It was well that
+our Lord did not permit Molly's heart to hang on me. What could it
+have led to, now that prosperity has left me and mine? She gave me up
+before she knew or dreamed of this reverse from more fortunate days
+which was hanging over us. It was the mercy of our Lord towards me.
+Everything is ordained for the best. Yes, all happens wisely. She
+could not, therefore, have acted otherwise, and yet how bitter have
+not my feelings been towards her!"
+
+Years passed on. Anthon's father was dead, and strangers dwelt in his
+paternal home. Anthon, however, was to see it once more; for his
+wealthy master sent him on an errand of business, which obliged him to
+pass through his native town, Eisenach. The old WARTBURG stood
+unchanged, high up on the hill above, with "the monk and the nun" in
+unhewn stone. The mighty oak trees seemed as imposing as in his
+childish days. The Venus mount looked like a grey mass frowning over
+the valley. He would willingly have cried,--
+
+"Fru Holle! Fru Holle! open the hill, and let me stay there, upon the
+soil of my native home!"
+
+It was a sinful thought, and he crossed himself. Then a little bird
+sang among the bushes, and the old Minnesong came back to his
+thoughts:--
+
+    "Beyond the wood, in the quiet dale,
+      Tandaradai!
+    Sang the melodious nightingale."
+
+How remembrances rushed upon him as he approached the town where his
+childhood had been spent, which he now saw through tears! His father's
+house remained where it used to be, but the garden was altered; a
+field footpath was made across a portion of the old garden; and the
+apple tree that he had not uprooted stood there, but no longer within
+the garden: it was on the opposite side of the road, though the sun
+shone on it as cheerfully as of old, and the dew fell on it there. It
+bore such a quantity of fruit that the branches were weighed down to
+the ground.
+
+"It thrives!" he exclaimed. "Yes, _it_ can do so."
+
+One of its well-laden boughs was broken. Wanton hands had done this,
+for the tree was now on the side of the public road.
+
+"Its blossoms are carried off without thanks; its fruit is stolen, its
+branches are broken. It may be said of a tree as of a man, 'It was not
+sung at the tree's cradle that things should turn out thus.' This one
+began its life so charmingly; and what has now become of it? Forsaken
+and forgotten--a garden tree standing in a common field, close to a
+public road, and bending over a miserable ditch! There it stood now,
+unsheltered, ill-used, and disfigured! It was not, indeed, withered by
+all this; but as years advanced its blossoms would become fewer--its
+fruit, if it bore any, late; and so it is all over with it."
+
+Thus thought Anthon under the tree, and thus he thought many a night
+in the little lonely chamber of the wooden house in the "Small Houses'
+Street," in Copenhagen, whither his rich master had sent him, having
+stipulated that he was not to marry.
+
+"_He_ marry!" He laughed a strange and hollow laugh.
+
+The winter had commenced early. There was a sharp frost, and without
+there was a heavy snow storm, so that all who could do so kept within
+doors. Therefore it was that Anthon's neighbours did not observe that
+his booth had not been opened for two whole days, and that he had not
+shown himself during that time. But who would go out in such weather
+when he could stay at home?
+
+These were dark, dismal days; and in the booth, where the window was
+not of glass, it looked like twilight, if not sombre night. Old Anthon
+had scarcely left his bed for two days. He had not strength to get up.
+The intensely cold weather had brought on a severe fit of rheumatism
+in his limbs, and the old bachelor lay forsaken and helpless, almost
+too feeble to stretch out his hand to the pitcher of water which he
+had placed near his bed; and if he could have done so, it would have
+been of no avail, for the last drop had been drained from it. It was
+not the fever, not illness alone that had thus prostrated him; it was
+also old age that had crept upon him. It seemed to be constant night
+up yonder where he lay. A little spider, which he could not see, spun
+contentedly its gossamer web over his face. It was soon to stretch
+like a crepe veil across the features, when the old man closed his
+eyes.
+
+He dozed a good deal; yet time seemed long and weary. He shed no
+tears, and had but little suffering. Molly was scarcely ever in his
+thoughts. He had a conviction that this world and its bustle were no
+more for him. At one time he seemed to feel hunger and thirst. He did
+feel them; but no one came to give him nourishment or drink--no one
+would come. He thought of those who might be fainting or dying of
+want. He remembered how the pious Elizabeth, while living on this
+earth--she who had been the favourite heroine of his childish days at
+home, the magnanimous Duchess of Thueringia--had herself entered the
+most miserable abodes, and brought to the sick and wretched
+refreshments and hope. His thoughts dwelt with pleasure on her good
+deeds. He remembered how she went to feed the hungry, to speak words
+of comfort to those who were suffering, and to bind up their wounds,
+although her austere husband was angry at these works of mercy. He
+recalled to memory the legend about her, that, as she was going on one
+of her charitable errands, with a basket well filled with food and
+wine, her husband, who had watched her steps, rushed out on her, and
+demanded in high wrath what she was carrying; that, in her fear of
+him, she replied, "Roses which I have plucked in the garden;"
+whereupon he dragged the cover off of her basket, and lo! a miracle
+was worked in favour of the charitable lady, for the wine and bread,
+and everything in the basket, lay turned into roses.
+
+Thus old Anthon's thoughts wandered to the heroine in history whom he
+had always so much admired, until her image seemed to stand before his
+dimming sight, close to his humble pallet in the poor wooden hut in a
+foreign land. He uncovered his head, looked in fancy into her mild
+eyes, and all around him seemed a mingling of lustre and of roses
+redolent with sweet perfume. Then he felt the charming scent of the
+apple blossom, and he beheld an apple tree spreading its blooming
+branches above him. Yes, it was the very tree, the seeds of which he
+and Molly had planted together.
+
+And the tree swept its fragrant leaves over his hot brow, and cooled
+it; they touched his parched lips, and they were like refreshing wine
+and bread; they fell upon his breast, and he felt himself softly
+sinking into a calm slumber.
+
+"I shall sleep now," he whispered feebly to himself. "Sleep restores
+strength--to-morrow I shall be well and up again. Beautiful,
+beautiful! The apple tree planted in love I see again in glory."
+
+And he slept.
+
+The following day--it was the third day the booth had been shut
+up--the snow drifted no longer, and the neighbours went to see about
+Anthon, who had not yet shown himself. They found him lying stiff and
+dead, with his old nightcap pressed between his hands. They did not
+put it upon him in his coffin--he had also another which was clean and
+white.
+
+Where now were the tears he had wept? Where were these pearls? They
+remained in the nightcap. Such precious things do not pass away in the
+washing. They were preserved and forgotten with the nightcap. The old
+thoughts, the old dreams--yes, they remained still in _the old
+bachelor's nightcap_. Wish not for that. It will make your brow too
+hot, make your pulses beat too violently, bring dreams that seem
+reality. This was proved by the first person who put it on--and that
+was not till fifty years after--by the burgomaster himself, who was
+blessed with a wife and eleven children. He dreamt of unhappy love,
+bankruptcy, and short commons.
+
+"How warm this nightcap is!" he exclaimed, as he dragged it off. Then
+pearl after pearl began to fall from it, and they jingled and
+glittered. "I must have got the rheumatism in my head," said the
+burgomaster. "Sparks seem falling from my eyes."
+
+They were tears wept half a century before--wept by old Anthon from
+Eisenach.
+
+Whoever has since worn that nightcap has sure enough had visions and
+dreams; his own history has been turned into Anthon's; his dream has
+become quite a tale, and there were many of them. Let others relate
+the rest. We have now told the first, and with it our last words
+are--Never covet AN OLD BACHELOR'S NIGHTCAP.
+
+
+
+
+_Something._
+
+
+"I will be something," said the oldest of five brothers. "I will be of
+use in the world, let the position be ever so insignificant which I
+may fill. If it be only respectable, it will be something. I will make
+bricks--people can't do without these--and then I shall have done
+something."
+
+"But something too trifling," said the second brother. "What you
+propose to do is much the same as doing nothing; it is no better than
+a hodman's work, and can be done by machinery. You had much better
+become a mason. _That_ is something, and that is what I will be. Yes,
+that is a good trade. A mason can get into a trade's corporation,
+become a burgher, have his own colours and his own club. Indeed, if I
+prosper, I may have workmen under me, and be called 'Master,' and my
+wife 'Mistress;' and that would be something."
+
+"That is next to nothing," said the third. "There are many classes in
+a town, and that is about the lowest. It is nothing to be called
+'Master.' You might be very superior yourself; but as a master mason
+you would be only what is called 'a common man.' I know of something
+better. I will be an architect; enter upon the confines of science;
+work myself up to a high place in the kingdom of mind. I know I must
+begin at the foot of the ladder. I can hardly bear to say it--I must
+begin as a carpenter's apprentice, and wear a cap, though I have been
+accustomed to go about in a silk hat. I must run to fetch beer and
+spirits for the common workmen, and let them be 'hail fellow well met'
+with me. This will be disagreeable; but I will fancy that it is all a
+masquerade and the freedom of maskers. To-morrow--that is to say, when
+I am a journeyman--I will go my own way. The others will not join me.
+I shall go to the academy, and learn to draw and design; then I shall
+be called an architect. That is something! That is much! I may become
+'honourable,' or even 'noble'--perhaps both. I shall build and build,
+as others have done before me. _There_ is something to look forward
+to--something worth being!"
+
+"But that something I should not care about," said the fourth. "I will
+not march in the wake of anybody. I will not be a copyist; I will be a
+genius--will be cleverer than you all put together. I shall create a
+new style, furnish ideas for a building adapted to the climate and
+materials of the country--something which shall be a nationality, a
+development of the resources of our age, and, at the same time, an
+exhibition of my own genius."
+
+"But if by chance the climate and the materials did not suit each
+other," said the fifth, "that would be unfortunate for the result.
+Nationalities may be so amplified as to become affectation. The
+discoveries of the age, like youth, may leave you far behind. I
+perceive right well that none of you will, in reality, become
+anything, whatever may be your expectations. But do all of you what
+you please; I shall not follow your examples. I shall keep myself
+disengaged, and shall reason upon what you perform. There is something
+wrong in everything. I will pick that out, and reason upon it. That
+will be something."
+
+And so he did; and people said of the fifth, "He has not settled to
+anything. He has a good head, but he does nothing."
+
+Even this, however, made him something.
+
+This is but a short history; yet it is one which will not end as long
+as the world stands.
+
+But is there nothing more about the five brothers? What has been told
+is absolutely nothing. Hear further; it is quite a romance.
+
+The eldest brother, who made bricks, perceived that from every stone,
+when it was finished, rolled a small coin; and though these little
+coins were but of copper, many of them heaped together became a silver
+dollar; and when one knocks with such at the baker's, the butcher's,
+and other shops, the doors fly open, and one gets what one wants. The
+bricks produced all this. The damaged and broken bricks were also made
+good use of.
+
+Yonder, above the embankment, Mother Margrethe, a poor old woman,
+wanted to build a small house for herself. She got all the broken
+bricks, and some whole ones to boot; for the eldest brother had a good
+heart. The poor woman built her house herself. It was very small; the
+only window was put in awry, the door was very low, and the thatched
+roof might have been laid better; but it was at least a shelter and a
+cover for her. There was a fine view from it of the sea, which broke
+in its might against the embankment. The salt spray often dashed over
+the whole tiny house, which still stood there when he was dead and
+gone who had given the bricks:--
+
+The second brother could build in another way. He was also clever in
+his business. When his apprenticeship was over he strapped on his
+knapsack, and sang the mechanic's song:--
+
+    "While young, far-distant lands I'll tread.
+      Away from home to build,
+    My handiwork shall win my bread,
+      My heart with hope be filled.
+    And when my fatherland I see,
+      And meet my bride--hurra!
+    An active workman I shall be:
+      Then who so happy and gay?"
+
+And he _was_ that. When he returned to his native town, and became a
+master, he built house after house--a whole street. It was a very
+handsome one, and a great ornament to the town. These houses built for
+him a small house, which was to be his own. But how could the houses
+build? Ay, ask them that, and they will not answer you; but people
+will answer for them, and tell you, "It certainly was that street
+which built him a house." It was only a small one, to be sure, and
+with a clay floor; but when he and his bride danced on it the floor
+became polished and bright, and from every stone in the wall sprang a
+flower which was quite as good as any costly tapestry. It was a
+pleasant house, and they were a happy couple. The colours of the
+masons' company floated outside, and the journeymen and apprentices
+shouted "Hurra!" Yes, that was something; and so he died--and that was
+also something.
+
+Then came the architect, the third brother, who had been first a
+carpenter's apprentice, wearing a cap and going on errands; but, on
+leaving the academy, rose to be an architect, and he became a man of
+consequence. Yes, if the houses in the street built by his brother,
+the master mason, had provided him with a house, a street was called
+after the architect, and the handsomest house in it was his own. That
+was something; and he was somebody, with a long, high-sounding title
+besides. His children were called people of quality, and when he died
+his widow was a widow of rank--that was something. And his name stood
+as a fixture at the corner of the street, and was often in folks'
+mouths, being the name of a street--and that was certainly something.
+
+Next came the genius--the fourth brother--who was to devote himself to
+new inventions. In one of his ambitious attempts he fell, and broke
+his neck; but he had a splendid funeral, with a procession, and flags,
+and music. He was noticed in the newspapers, and three funeral
+orations were pronounced over him, the one longer than the others; and
+much delighted he would have been with them if he had heard them, for
+he was fond of being talked about. A monument was erected over his
+grave. It was not very grand, but a monument is always something.
+
+He now was dead, as well as the three other brothers; but the
+fifth--he who was fond of reasoning or arguing--out-lived them all;
+and that was quite right, for he had thus the last word. And he
+thought it a matter of great importance to have the last word. It was
+he who, folks said, "had a good head." At length his last hour also
+struck. He died, and he arrived at the gate of the kingdom of heaven.
+Spirits always come there two and two, and along with him stood there
+another soul, which wanted also to get in, and this was no other than
+the old Mother Margrethe, from the house on the embankment.
+
+"It must surely be for the sake of contrast that I and yon paltry soul
+should come here at the same moment," said the reasoner. "Why, who are
+you, old one? Do you also expect to enter here?" he asked.
+
+And the old woman courtesied as well as she could. She thought it was
+St. Peter himself who spoke.
+
+"I am a miserable old creature without any family. My name is
+Margrethe."
+
+"Well, now, what have you done and effected down yonder?"
+
+"I have effected scarcely anything in yonder world--nothing that can
+tell in my favour here. It will be a pure act of mercy if I am
+permitted to enter this gate."
+
+"How did you leave yon world?" he asked, merely for something to say.
+He was tired of standing waiting there.
+
+"Oh! how I left it I really do not know. I had been very poorly, often
+quite ill, for some years past, and I was not able latterly to leave
+my bed, and go out into the cold and frost. It was a very severe
+winter; but I was getting through it. For a couple of days there was a
+dead calm; but it was bitterly cold, as your honour may remember. The
+ice had remained so long on the ground, that the sea was frozen over
+as far as the eye could reach. The townspeople flocked in crowds to
+the ice. I could hear it all as I lay in my poor room. The same scene
+continued till late in the evening--till the moon rose. From my bed I
+could see through the window far out beyond the seashore; and there
+lay on the horizon, just where the sea and sky seemed to meet, a
+singular-looking white cloud. I lay and looked at it; looked at the
+black spot in the middle of it, which became larger and larger; and I
+knew what that betokened, for I was old and experienced, though I had
+not often seen that sign. I saw it and shuddered. Twice before in my
+life had I seen that strange appearance in the sky, and I knew that
+there would be a terrible storm at the springtide, which would burst
+over the poor people out upon the ice, who were now drinking and
+rushing about, and amusing themselves. Young and old--the whole town
+in fact--were assembled yonder. Who was to warn them of coming danger,
+if none of them observed or knew what I now perceived? I became so
+alarmed, so anxious, that I got out of my bed, and crawled to the
+window. I was incapable of going further; but I put up the window,
+and, on looking out, I could see the people skating and sliding and
+running on the ice. I could see the gay flags, and could hear the boys
+shouting hurra, and the girls and the young men singing in chorus. All
+was jollity and merriment there. But higher and higher arose the white
+cloud with the black spot in it. I cried out as loud as I could, but
+nobody heard me. I was too far away from them. The wind would soon
+break loose, the ice give away, and all upon it sink, without any
+chance of rescue. Hear me they could not, and for me to go to them was
+impossible. Was there nothing that I could do to bring them back to
+land? Then our Lord inspired me with the idea of setting fire to my
+bed; it would be better that my house were to be burned down than that
+the many should meet with such a miserable death. Then I kindled the
+fire. I saw the red flames, and I gained the outside of the house; but
+I remained lying there. I could do no more, for my strength was
+exhausted. The blaze pursued me--it burst from the window, and out
+upon the roof. The crowds on the ice perceived it, and they came
+running as fast as they could to help me, a poor wretch, whom they
+thought would be burned in my bed. It was not one or two only who
+came--they all came. I heard them coming; but I also heard all at once
+the shrill whistle, the loud roar of the wind. I heard it thunder like
+the report of a cannon. The springtide lifted the ice, and suddenly it
+broke asunder; but the crowd had reached the embankment, where the
+sparks were flying over me. I had been the means of saving them all;
+but I was not able to survive the cold and fright, and so I have come
+up here to the gate of the kingdom of heaven; but I am told it is
+locked against such poor creatures as I. And now I have no longer a
+home down yonder on the embankment, though that does not insure me any
+admittance here."
+
+At that moment the gate of heaven was opened, and an angel took the
+old woman in. She dropped a straw; it was one of the pieces of straw
+which had stuffed the bed to which she had set fire to save the lives
+of many, and it had turned to pure gold, but gold that was flexible,
+and twisted itself into pretty shapes.
+
+"See! the poor old woman brought this," said the angel. "What dost
+thou bring? Ah! I know well; thou hast done nothing--not even so much
+as making a brick. If thou couldst go back again, and bring only so
+much as that, if done with good intentions, it would be something: as
+thou wouldst do it, however, it would be of no avail. But thou canst
+not go back, and I can do nothing for thee."
+
+Then the poor soul, the old woman from the house on the embankment,
+begged for him.
+
+"His brother kindly gave me all the stones with which I built my
+humble dwelling. They were a great gift to a poor creature like me.
+May not all these stones and fragments be permitted to value as one
+brick for him? It was a deed of mercy. He is now in want, and this is
+Mercy's home."
+
+"Thy brother whom thou didst think the most inferior to thyself--him
+whose honest business thou didst despise--shares with thee his
+heavenly portion. Thou shalt not be ordered away; thou shalt have
+leave to remain outside here to think over and to repent thy life down
+yonder; but within this gate thou shalt not enter until in good works
+thou hast performed _something_."
+
+"I could have expressed that sentence better," thought the conceited
+logician; but he did not say this aloud, and that was surely
+already--SOMETHING.
+
+
+
+
+_The Old Oak Tree's Last Dream._
+
+A CHRISTMAS TALE.
+
+
+There stood in a wood, high up on the side of a sloping hill near the
+open shore, a very old oak tree. It was about three hundred and
+sixty-five years old, but those long years were not more than as many
+single rotations of the earth for us men. We are awake during the day,
+and sleep during the night, and have then our dreams: with the tree it
+is otherwise. A tree is awake for three quarters of a year. It only
+sleeps in winter--that is _its_ night--after the long day which is
+called spring, summer, and autumn.
+
+Many a warm summer day had the ephemeron insect frolicked round the
+oak tree's head--lived, moved about, and found itself happy; and when
+the little creature reposed for a moment in calm enjoyment on one of
+the great fresh oak leaves, the tree always said,--
+
+"Poor little thing! one day alone is the span of thy whole life. Ah,
+how short! It is very sad."
+
+"Sad!" the ephemeron always replied. "What dost thou mean by that?
+Everything is so charming, so warm and delightful, that I am quite
+happy."
+
+"But for only one day; then all is over."
+
+"All is over!" exclaimed the insect. "What is the meaning of 'all is
+over?' Is all over with thee also?"
+
+"No; I may live, perhaps, thousands of thy days, and my lifetime is
+for centuries. It is so long a period that thou couldst not calculate
+it."
+
+"No, for I do not understand thee. Thou hast thousands of my days, but
+I have thousands of moments to be happy in. Is all the beauty in the
+world at an end when thou diest?"
+
+"Oh! by no means," replied the tree. "It will last longer--much, much
+longer than I can conceive."
+
+"Well, I think we are much on a par, only that we reckon differently."
+
+And the ephemeron danced and floated about in the sunshine, and
+enjoyed itself with its pretty little delicate wings, like the most
+minute flower--enjoyed itself in the warm air, which was so fragrant
+with the sweet perfumes of the clover-fields, of the wild roses in the
+hedges, and of the elder-flower, not to speak of the woodbine, the
+primrose, and the wild mint. The scent was so strong that the
+ephemeron was almost intoxicated by it. The day was long and pleasant,
+full of gladness and sweet perceptions; and when the sun set, the
+little insect felt a sort of pleasing languor creeping over it after
+all its enjoyments. Its wings would no longer carry it, and very
+gently it glided down upon the soft blade of grass that was slightly
+waving in the evening breeze; there it drooped its tiny head, and fell
+into a calm sleep--the sleep of death.
+
+"Poor little insect!" exclaimed the oak tree, "thy life was far too
+short."
+
+And every summer's day were repeated a similar dance, a similar
+conversation, and a similar death. This went on with the whole
+generation of ephemera, and all were equally happy, equally gay. The
+oak tree remained awake during its spring morning, its summer day, and
+its autumn evening; now it was near its sleeping time, its night--the
+winter was close at hand.
+
+Already the tempests were singing, "Good night, good night! Thy leaves
+are falling--we pluck them, we pluck them! Try if thou canst slumber;
+we shall sing thee to sleep, we shall rock thee to sleep; and thy old
+boughs like this--they are creaking in their joy! Softly, softly
+sleep! It is thy three hundred and sixty-fifth night. Sleep calmly!
+The snow is falling from the heavy clouds; it will soon be a wide
+sheet, a warm coverlet for thy feet. Sleep calmly and dream
+pleasantly!"
+
+And the oak tree stood disrobed of all its leaves to go to rest for
+the whole long winter, and during that time to dream many dreams,
+often something stirring and exciting, like the dreams of human
+beings.
+
+It, too, had once been little. Yes, an acorn had been its cradle.
+According to man's reckoning of time it was now living in its fourth
+century. It was the strongest and loftiest tree in the wood, with its
+venerable head reared high above all the other trees; and it was seen
+far away at sea, and looked upon as a beacon by the navigators of the
+passing ships. It little thought how many eyes looked out for it. High
+up amidst its green coronal the wood-pigeons built their nests, and
+the cuckoo's note was heard from thence; and in the autumn, when the
+leaves looked like hammered plates of copper, came birds of passage,
+and rested there before they flew far over the sea. But now it was
+winter, and the tree stood leafless, and the bended and gnarled
+branches were naked. Crows and jackdaws came and sat themselves there
+alternately, and talked of the rigorous weather which was commencing,
+and how difficult it was to find food in winter.
+
+It was just at the holy Christmas time that the tree dreamt its most
+charming dream. Let us listen to it.
+
+The tree had a distinct idea that it was a period of some solemn
+festival; it thought it heard all the church bells round ringing, and
+it seemed to be a mild summer day. Its lofty head, it fancied, looked
+fresh and green, while the bright rays of the sun played among its
+thick foliage. The air was laden with the perfume of wild flowers;
+various butterflies chased each other in sport around its boughs, and
+the ephemera danced and amused themselves. All that during years the
+tree had known and seen around it now passed before it as in a festive
+procession. It beheld, as in the olden time, knights and ladies on
+horseback, with feathers in their hats and falcons on their hands,
+riding through the greenwood; it heard the horns of the huntsmen, and
+the baying of the hounds; it saw the enemies' troops, with their
+various uniforms, their polished armour, their lances and halberds,
+pitch their tents and take them down again; the watch-fires blazed,
+and the soldiers sang and slept under the sheltering branches of the
+tree. It beheld lovers meet in the soft moonlight, and cut their
+names--that first letter--upon its olive-green bark. Guitars and
+AEolian harps were again--but there were very many years between
+them--hung up on the boughs of the tree by gay travelling swains, and
+again their sweet sounds broke on the stillness around. The
+wood-pigeons cooed, as if they were describing the feelings of the
+tree, and the cuckoo told how many summer days it should yet live.
+
+Then it was as if a new current of life rushed from its lowest roots
+up to its highest branches, even to the farthest leaves; the tree felt
+that it extended itself therewith, yet it perceived that its roots
+down in the ground were also full of life and warmth; it felt its
+strength increasing, and that it was growing taller and taller. The
+trunk shot up--there was no pause--more and more it grew--its head
+became fuller, broader--and as the tree grew it became happier, and
+its desire increased to rise up still higher, even until it could
+reach the warm, blazing sun.
+
+Already had it mounted above the clouds, which, like multitudes of
+dark migratory birds, or flocks of white swans, were floating under
+it; and every leaf of the tree that had eyes could see. The stars
+became visible during the day, and looked so large and bright: each of
+them shone like a pair of mild, clear eyes. They might have recalled
+to memory dear, well-known eyes--the eyes of children--the eyes of
+lovers when they met beneath the tree.
+
+It was a moment of exquisite delight. Yet in the midst of its pleasure
+it felt a desire, a longing that all the other trees in the wood
+beneath--all the bushes, plants, and flowers--might be able to lift
+themselves like it, and to participate in its joyful and triumphant
+feelings. The mighty oak tree, in the midst of its glorious dream,
+could not be entirely happy unless it had all its old friends with it,
+great and small; and this feeling pervaded every branch and leaf of
+the tree as strongly as if it had lived in the breast of a human
+being.
+
+The summit of the tree moved about as if it missed and sought
+something left behind. Then it perceived the scent of the woodbine,
+and soon the still stronger scent of the violets and wild thyme; and
+it fancied it could hear the cuckoo repeat its note.
+
+At length amidst the clouds peeped forth the tops of the green trees
+of the wood; they also grew higher and higher, as the oak had done;
+the bushes and the flowers shot up high in the air; and some of these,
+dragging their slender roots after them, flew up more rapidly. The
+birch was the swiftest among the trees: like a white flash of
+lightning it darted its slender stem upwards, its branches waving like
+green wreaths and flags. The wood and all its leafy contents, even the
+brown-feathered rushes, grew, and the birds followed them singing; and
+in the fluttering blades of silken grass the grasshopper sat and
+played with his wings against his long thin legs, and the wild bees
+hummed, and all was song and gladness as up in heaven.
+
+"But the blue-bell and the little wild tansy," said the oak tree; "I
+should like them with me too."
+
+"We are with you," they sang in their low, sweet tones.
+
+"But the pretty water-lily of last year, and the wild apple tree that
+stood down yonder, and looked so fresh, and all the forest flowers of
+years past, had they lived and bloomed till now, they might have been
+with me."
+
+"We are with you--we are with you," sang their voices far above, as if
+they had gone up before.
+
+"Well, this is quite enchanting," cried the old tree. "I have them
+all, small and great--not one is forgotten. How is all this happiness
+possible and conceivable?"
+
+"In the celestial paradise all this is possible and conceivable,"
+voices chanted around.
+
+And the tree, which continued to rise, observed that its roots were
+loosening from their hold in the earth.
+
+"This is well," said the tree. "Nothing now retains me. I am free to
+mount to the highest heaven--to splendour and light; and all that are
+dear to me are with me--small and great--all with me."
+
+"All!"
+
+This was the oak tree's dream; and whilst it dreamt a fearful storm
+had burst over sea and land that holy Christmas eve. The ocean rolled
+heavy billows on the beach--the tree rocked violently, and was torn up
+by the roots at the moment it was dreaming that its roots were
+loosening. It fell. Its three hundred and sixty-five years were now as
+but the day of the ephemeron.
+
+On Christmas morning, when the sun arose, the storm was passed. All
+the church bells were ringing joyously; and from every chimney, even
+the lowest in the peasant's cot, curled from the altars of the
+Druidical feast the blue smoke of the thanksgiving oblation. The sea
+became more and more calm, and on a large vessel in the offing, which
+had weathered the tempest during the night, were hoisted all its flags
+in honour of the day.
+
+"The tree is gone--that old oak tree which was always our landmark!"
+cried the sailors. "It must have fallen in the storm last night. Who
+shall replace it? Alas! no one can."
+
+This was the tree's funeral oration--short, but well meant--as it lay
+stretched at full length amidst the snow upon the shore, and over it
+floated the melody of the psalm tunes from the ship--hymns of
+Christmas joy, and thanksgivings for the salvation of the souls of
+mankind by Jesus Christ, and the blessed promise of everlasting life.
+
+    "Let sacred songs arise on high,
+    Loud hallelujahs reach the sky;
+    Let joy and peace each mortal share,
+    While hymns of praise shall fill the air."
+
+Thus ran the old psalm, and every one out yonder, on the deck of the
+ship, lifted up his voice in thanksgiving and prayer, just as the old
+oak tree was lifted up in its last and most delightful dream on that
+Christmas eve.
+
+
+
+
+_The Wind relates the Story of Waldemar Daae and his Daughters._
+
+
+When the wind sweeps over the grass it ripples like water; when it
+sweeps over the corn, it undulates like waves of the sea. All that is
+the wind's dance. But listen to what the wind tells. It sings it
+aloud, and it is repeated amidst the trees in the wood, and carried
+through the loopholes and the chinks in the wall. Look how the wind
+chases the skies up yonder, as if they were a flock of sheep! Listen
+how the wind howls below through the half-open gate, as if it were the
+warder blowing his horn! Strangely does it sound down the chimney and
+in the fireplace; the fire flickers under it; and the flames, instead
+of ascending, shoot out towards the room, where it is warm and
+comfortable to sit and listen to it. Let the wind speak. It knows more
+tales and adventures than all of us put together. Hearken now to what
+it is about to relate.
+
+It blew a tremendous blast: that was a prelude to its story.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"There lay close to the Great Belt an old castle with thick red
+walls," said the wind. "I knew every stone in it. I had seen them
+before, when they were in Marshal Stig's castle at the Naes. It was
+demolished. The stones were used again, and became new walls--a new
+building--at another place, and that was Borreby Castle as it now
+stands. I have seen and known the high-born ladies and gentlemen, the
+various generations that have dwelt in it; and now I shall tell about
+WALDEMAR DAAE AND HIS DAUGHTERS.
+
+"He held his head so high: he was of royal extraction. He could do
+more than hunt a stag and drain a goblet: that would be proved some
+day, he said to himself.
+
+"His proud lady, apparelled in gold brocade, walked erect over her
+polished inlaid floor. The tapestry was magnificent, the furniture
+costly, and beautifully carved; vessels of gold and silver she had in
+profusion; there were stores of German ale in the cellars; handsome
+spirited horses neighed in the stables; all was superb within Borreby
+Castle when wealth was there.
+
+"And children were there; three fine girls--Ide, Johanne, and Anna
+Dorthea. I remember their names well even now.
+
+"They were rich people, they were people of distinction--born in
+grandeur, and brought up in it. Wheugh--wheugh!" whistled the wind;
+then it continued the tale.
+
+"I never saw there, as in other old mansions, the high-born lady
+sitting in her boudoir with her maidens and spinning-wheels. She
+played on the lute, and sang to it, though never the old Danish
+ballads, but songs in foreign languages. Here were banqueting and
+mirth, titled guests came from far and near, music's tones were heard,
+goblets rang. I could not drown the noise," said the wind. "Here were
+arrogance, ostentation, and display; here was power, but not OUR
+LORD."
+
+"It was one May-day evening," said the wind. "I came from the
+westward. I had seen ships crushed into wrecks on the west coast of
+Jutland. I had hurried over the dreary heaths and green woody coast,
+had crossed the island of Funen, and swept over the Great Belt, and I
+was hoarse with blowing. Then I laid myself down to rest on the coast
+of Zealand, near Borreby, where there stood the forest and the
+charming meadows. The young men from the neighbourhood assembled
+there, and collected brushwood and branches of trees, the largest and
+driest they could find. They carried them to the village, laid them in
+a heap, and set fire to it; then they and the village girls sang and
+danced round it.
+
+"I lay still," said the wind; "but I softly stirred one branch--one
+which had been placed on the bonfire by the handsomest youth. His
+piece of wood blazed up, blazed highest. He was chosen the leader of
+the rustic game, became 'the wild boar,' and had the first choice
+among the girls for his 'pet lamb.' There were more happiness and
+merriment amongst them than up at the grand house at Borreby.
+
+"And then from the great house at Borreby came, driving in a gilded
+coach with six horses, the noble lady and her three daughters, so
+fine, so young--three lovely blossoms--rose, lily, and the pale
+hyacinth. The mother herself was like a flaunting tulip; she did not
+deign to notice one of the crowd of villagers, though they stopped
+their game, and courtesied and bowed with profound respect.
+
+"Rose, lily, and the pale hyacinth--yes, I saw them all three. Whose
+'pet lambs' should they one day become? I thought. The 'wild boar' for
+each of them would assuredly be a proud knight--perhaps a prince.
+Wheugh--wheugh!
+
+"Well, their equipage drove on with them, and the young peasants went
+on with their dancing. And the summer advanced in the village near
+Borreby, in Tjaereby, and all the surrounding towns.
+
+"But one night when I arose," continued the wind, "the great lady was
+lying ill, never to move again. That something had come over her which
+comes over all mankind sooner or later: it is nothing new. Waldemar
+Daae stood in deep and melancholy thought for a short time. 'The
+proudest tree may bend, but not break,' said he to himself. The
+daughters wept; but at last they all dried their eyes at the great
+house, and the noble lady was carried away; and I also went away,"
+said the wind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I returned--I returned soon, over Funen and the Belt, and set myself
+down by Borreby beach, near the large oak wood. There water-wagtails,
+wood-pigeons, blue ravens, and even black storks built their nests. It
+was late in the year: some had eggs, and some had young birds. How
+they were flying about, and how they were shrieking! The strokes of
+the axe were heard--stroke after stroke. The trees were to be felled.
+Waldemar Daae was going to build a costly ship, a man-of-war with
+three decks, which the king would be glad to purchase: and therefore
+the wood--the seamen's landmark, the birds' home--was to be
+sacrificed. The great red-backed shrike flew in alarm--his nest was
+destroyed; the ravens and all the other birds had lost their homes,
+and flew wildly about with cries of distress and anger. I understood
+them well. The crows and the jackdaws screamed high in derision, 'From
+the nest--from the nest! Away--away!'
+
+"And in the midst of the wood, looking on at the crowd of labourers,
+stood Waldemar Daae and his three daughters, and they all laughed
+together at the wild cries of the birds; but his youngest daughter,
+Anna Dorthea, was sorry for them in her heart; and when the men were
+about to cut down a partially decayed tree, amidst whose naked
+branches the black storks had built their nests, and from which the
+tiny little ones peeped out their heads, she begged it might be
+spared. She begged--begged with tears in her eyes; and the tree was
+permitted to remain with the nest of black storks. It was not a great
+boon after all.
+
+"The fine trees were cut down, the wood was sawn, and a large ship
+with three decks was built. The master shipbuilder himself was of low
+birth, but of noble appearance. His eyes and his forehead evinced how
+clever he was, and Waldemar Daae liked to listen to his conversation;
+so also did little Ide, his eldest daughter, who was fifteen years of
+age. And while he was building the ship for the father, he was also
+building castles in the air for himself, wherein he and Ide sat as man
+and wife; and that might have happened had the castles been of stone
+walls, with ramparts and moats, woods and gardens. But, with all his
+talents, the master shipbuilder was but a humble bird. What should a
+sparrow do in an eagle's nest?
+
+"Wheugh--wheugh! I flew away, and he flew away, for he dared not
+remain longer; and little Ide got over his departure, for she was
+obliged to get over it.
+
+"Splendid dark chargers neighed in the stables, worth being looked at;
+and they were looked at and admired. An admiral was sent by the king
+himself to examine the new man-of-war, and to make arrangements for
+its purchase. He praised the spirited horses loudly. I heard him
+myself," said the wind. "I followed the gentlemen through the open
+door, and strewed straw before their feet. Waldemar Daae wanted gold,
+the admiral wanted the horses--he admired them so much; but the
+bargain was not concluded, nor was the ship bought--the ship that was
+lying near the strand, with its white planks--a Noah's ark that was
+never to be launched upon the deep.
+
+"Wheugh! It was a sad pity.
+
+"In the winter time, when the fields were covered with snow, drift-ice
+filled the Belt, and I screwed it up to the shore," said the wind.
+"Then came ravens and crows, all as black as they could be, in large
+flocks. They perched themselves upon the deserted, dead, lonely ship,
+that lay high up on the beach; and they cried and lamented, with their
+hoarse voices, about the wood that was gone, the many precious birds'
+nests that were laid waste, the old ones rendered homeless, the little
+ones rendered homeless; and all for the sake of a great lumbering
+thing, a gigantic vessel, that never was to float upon the deep.
+
+"I whirled the snow in the snow storms, and raised the snow-drifts.
+The snow lay like a sea high around the vessel. I let it hear my
+voice, and know what a tempest can say. I knew if I exerted myself it
+would get some of the knowledge other ships have.
+
+"And winter passed--winter and summer; they come and go as I come and
+go; the snow melts, the apple blossom blooms, the leaves fall--all is
+change, change, and with mankind among the rest.
+
+"But the daughters were still young--little Ide a rose, beautiful to
+look at, as the shipbuilder had seen her. Often did I play with her
+long brown hair, when, under the apple tree in the garden, she was
+standing lost in thought, and did not observe that I was showering
+down the blossoms upon her head. Then she would start, and gaze at the
+red sun, and the golden clouds around it, through the space among the
+dark foliage of the trees.
+
+"Her sister Johanne resembled a lily--fair, slender, and erect; and,
+like her mother, she was stately and haughty. It was a great pleasure
+to her to wander up and down the grand saloon where hung the portraits
+of her ancestors. The high-born dames were painted in silks and
+velvets, with little hats looped up with pearls on their braided
+locks--they were beautiful ladies. Their lords were depicted in steel
+armour, or in costly mantles trimmed with squirrels' fur, and wearing
+blue ruffs; the sword was buckled round the thigh, and not round the
+loins. Johanne's own portrait would hang at some future day on that
+wall, and what would her noble husband be like? Yes, she thought of
+this, and she said this in low accents to herself. I heard her when I
+rushed through the long corridor into the saloon, and out again.
+
+"Anna Dorthea, the pale hyacinth, who was only fourteen years of age,
+was quiet and thoughtful. Her large swimming blue eyes looked somewhat
+pensive, but a childish smile played around her mouth, and I could
+not blow it off; nor did I wish to do so.
+
+"I met her in the garden, in the ravine, in the fields. She was
+gathering plants and flowers, those which she knew her father made use
+of for the drinks and drops he was fond of distilling. Waldemar Daae
+was arrogant and conceited, but also he had a great deal of knowledge.
+Everybody knew that, and everybody talked in whispers about it. Even
+in summer a fire burned in his private cabinet; its doors were always
+locked. He passed days and nights there, but he spoke little about his
+pursuits. The mysteries of nature are studied in silence. He expected
+soon to discover its greatest secret--the transmutation of other
+substances into gold.
+
+"It was for this that smoke was ever issuing from the chimney of his
+laboratory; for this that sparks and flames were always there. And I
+was there too," said the wind. "'Hollo, hollo!' I sang through the
+chimney. There were steam, smoke, embers, ashes. 'You will burn
+yourself up--take care, take care!' But Waldemar Daae did _not_ take
+care.
+
+"The splendid horses in the stables, what became of them?--the silver
+and the gold plate, the cows in the fields, the furniture, the house
+itself? Yes, they could be smelted--smelted in the crucibles; and yet
+no gold was obtained.
+
+"All was empty in the barns and in the pantry, in the cellars and in
+the loft. The fewer people, the more mice. One pane of glass was
+cracked, another was broken. I did not require to go in by the door,"
+said the wind. "When the kitchen chimney is smoking, dinner is
+preparing; but there the smoke rolled from the chimney for that which
+devoured all repasts--for the yellow gold.
+
+"I blew through the castle gate like a warder blowing his horn; but
+there was no warder," said the wind. "I turned the weathercock above
+the tower--it sounded like a watchman snoring inside the tower; but no
+watchman was there--it was only kept by rats and mice. Poverty
+presided at the table--poverty sat in the clothes' chests and in the
+store-rooms. The doors fell off their hinges--there came cracks and
+crevices everywhere. I went in, and I went out," said the wind;
+"therefore I knew what was going on.
+
+"Amidst smoke and ashes--amidst anxiety and sleepless nights--Waldemar
+Daae's hair had turned grey; so had his beard and the thin locks on
+his forehead; his skin had become wrinkled and yellow, his eyes ever
+straining after gold--the expected gold.
+
+"I whisked smoke and ashes into his face and beard: debts came instead
+of gold. I sang through the broken windows and cracked walls--came
+moaning in to the daughter's cheerless room, where the old bed-gear
+was faded and threadbare, but had still to hold out. Such a song was
+not sung at the children's cradles. High life had become wretched
+life. I was the only one then who sang loudly in the castle," said the
+wind. "I snowed them in, and they said they were comfortable. They had
+no wood to burn--the trees had been felled from which they would have
+got it. It was a sharp frost. I rushed through loopholes and
+corridors, over roofs and walls, to keep up my activity. In their poor
+chamber lay the three aristocratic daughters in their bed to keep
+themselves warm. To be as poor as church mice--that was high life!
+Wheugh! Would they give it up? But Herr Daae could not.
+
+"'After winter comes spring,' said he. 'After want come good times;
+but they make one wait. The castle is now mortgaged--we have arrived
+at the worst--we shall have gold now at Easter!'
+
+"I heard him murmuring near a spider's web:--
+
+"'Thou active little weaver! thou teachest me to persevere. Even if
+thy web be swept away thou dost commence again, and dost complete it.
+Again let it be torn asunder, and, unwearied, thou dost again
+recommence thy work over and over again. I shall follow thy example. I
+will go on, and I shall be rewarded.'
+
+"It was Easter morning--the church bells were ringing. The sun was
+careering in the heavens. Under a burning fever the alchemist had
+watched all night: he had boiled and cooled--mixed and distilled. I
+heard him sigh like a despairing creature; I heard him pray; I
+perceived that he held his breath in his anxiety. The lamp had gone
+out--he did not seem to notice it. I blew on the red-hot cinders; they
+brightened up, and shone on his chalky-white face, and tinged it with
+a momentary brightness. The eyes had almost closed in their deep
+sockets; now they opened wider--wider--as if they were about to spring
+forth.
+
+"Look at the alchemical glass! There is something sparkling in it! It
+is glowing, pure, heavy! He lifted it with a trembling hand. He cried
+with trembling lips, 'Gold--gold!' He staggered, and seemed quite
+giddy at the sight. I could have blown him away," said the wind; "but
+I only blew in the ruddy fire, and followed him through the door in to
+where his daughters were freezing. His dress was covered with ashes;
+they were to be seen in his beard, and in his matted hair. He raised
+his head proudly, stretched forth his rich treasure in the fragile
+glass, and 'Won--won! gold!' he cried, as he held high in the air the
+glass that glittered in the dazzling sunshine. But his hand shook, and
+the alchemical glass fell to the ground, and broke into a thousand
+pieces. The last bubble of his prosperity had burst. Wheugh--wheugh!
+And I darted away from the alchemist's castle.
+
+"Later in the year, during the short days, when fogs come with their
+damp drapery, and wring out wet drops on the red berries and the
+leafless trees, I came in a hearty humour, sent breezes aloft to clear
+the air, and began to sweep down the rotten branches. That was no hard
+work, but it was a useful one. There was sweeping of another sort
+within Borreby Castle, where Waldemar Daae dwelt. His enemy, Ove
+Ramel, from Basnaes, was there, with the mortgage bonds upon the
+property and the dwelling-house, which he had purchased. I thundered
+against the cracked window-panes, slammed the rickety doors, whistled
+through the cracks and crevices, 'Wheu-gh!' Herr Ove should have no
+pleasure in the prospect of living there. Ide and Anna Dorthea wept
+bitterly. Johanne stood erect and composed; but she looked very pale,
+and bit her lips till they bled. Much good would that do! Ove Ramel
+vouchsafed his permission to Herr Daae to remain at the castle during
+the rest of his days; but he got no thanks for the offer. I overheard
+all that passed. I saw the homeless man draw himself up haughtily, and
+toss his head; and I sent a blast against the castle and the old
+linden trees, so that the thickest branch among them broke, though it
+was not rotten. It lay before the gate like a broom, in case something
+had to be swept out; and to be sure there _was_ a clean sweep.
+
+"It was a sad day, a cruel hour, a heavy trial to sustain; but the
+heart was hard--the neck was stiff.
+
+"They possessed nothing but the clothes they had on. Yes, they had a
+newly-bought alchemist's glass, which was filled with what had been
+wasted on the floor: it had been scraped up, the treasure promised,
+but not yielded. Waldemar Daae concealed this near his breast, took
+his stick in his hand, and the once wealthy man went, with his three
+daughters, away from Borreby Castle. I blew coldly on his wan cheeks,
+and ruffled his grey beard and his long white hair. I sang around
+them, 'Wheu-gh--wheu-gh!'
+
+"There was an end to all their grandeur!
+
+"Ide and Anna Dorthea walked on each side of their father; Johanne
+turned round at the gate. Why did she do so? Fortune would not turn.
+She gazed at the red stones of the wall, the stones from Marshal
+Stig's castle, and she thought of his daughters:--
+
+    'The eldest took the younger's hand,
+    And out in the wide world they went.'
+
+She thought upon that song. Here there were three, and their father
+was with them. They passed as beggars over the same road where they
+had so often driven in their splendid carriage to SMIDSTRUP MARK, to a
+house with mud floors that was let for ten marks a year--their new
+manor-house, with bare walls and empty closets. The crows and the
+jackdaws flew after them, and cried, as if in derision, 'From the
+nest--from the nest! away--away!' as the birds had screeched at
+Borreby Wood when the trees were cut down.
+
+"And thus they entered the humble house at Smidstrup Mark, and I
+wandered away over moors and meadows, through naked hedges and
+leafless woods, to the open sea--to other lands. Wheugh--wheugh!
+On--on--on!"
+
+What became of Waldemar Daae? What became of his daughters? The wind
+will tell.
+
+"The last of them I saw was Anna Dorthea, the pale hyacinth. She had
+become old and decrepit: that was about fifty years after she had left
+the castle. She lived the longest--she saw them all out."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Yonder, on the heath, near the town of Viborg, stood the dean's
+handsome house, built of red granite. The smoke rolled plentifully
+from its chimneys. The gentle lady and her beautiful daughters sat on
+the balcony, and looked over their pretty garden on the brown heath.
+At what were they gazing? They were looking at the storks' nests, on a
+castle that was almost in ruins. The roof, where there was any roof,
+was covered with moss and houseleeks; but the best part of it
+sustained the storks' nests--that was the only portion which was in
+tolerable repair.
+
+"It was a place to look at, not to dwell in. I had to be cautious with
+it," said the wind. "For the sake of the storks the house was allowed
+to stand, else it was really a disgrace to the heath. The dean would
+not have the storks driven away; so the dilapidated building was
+permitted to remain, and a poor woman was permitted to live in it. She
+had to thank the Egyptian birds for that--or was it a reward for
+having formerly begged that the nests of their wild black kindred
+might be spared in Borreby Wood? _Then_ the wretched pauper was a
+young girl--a lovely pale hyacinth in the noble flower parterre. She
+remembered it well--poor Anna Dorthea!
+
+"'Oh! oh! Yes, mankind can sigh as the wind does amidst the sedges
+and the rushes--Oh! No church bell tolled at _thy_ death, Waldemar
+Daae! No charity-school children sang over his grave when the former
+lord of Borreby was laid in the cold earth! Oh, all shall come to an
+end, even misery! Sister Ide became a peasant's wife. That was the
+hardest trial to her poor father. His daughter's husband a lowly serf,
+who could be obliged by his master to perform the meanest tasks! He,
+too, is now under the sod, and thou art there with him, unhappy Ide! O
+yes--O yes! it was not all over, even then; for I am left a poor, old,
+helpless creature. Blessed Christ! take me hence!'
+
+"Such was Anna Dorthea's prayer in the ruined castle, where she was
+permitted to live--thanks to the storks.
+
+"The boldest of the sisters I disposed of," said the wind. "She
+dressed herself in men's clothes, went on board a ship as a poor boy,
+and hired herself as a sailor. She spoke very little, and looked very
+cross, but was willing to work. She was a bad hand at climbing,
+however; so I blew her overboard before any one had found out that she
+was a female; and I think that was very well done on my part," said
+the wind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"It was one Easter morning, the anniversary of the very day on which
+Waldemar Daae had fancied that he had found out the secret of making
+gold, that I heard under the storks' nests, from amidst the crumbling
+walls, a psalm tune--it was Anna Dorthea's last song.
+
+"There was no window. There was only a hole in the wall. The sun came
+like a mass of gold, and placed itself there. It shone in brightly.
+Her eyes closed--her heart broke! They would have done so all the
+same, had the sun not that morning blazed in upon her.
+
+"The storks had provided a roof over her head until her death.
+
+"I sang over her grave," said the wind; "I had also sung over her
+father's grave, for I knew where it was, and none else did.
+
+"New times came--new generations. The old highway had disappeared in
+inclosed fields. Even the tombs, that were fenced around, have been
+converted into a new road; and the railway's steaming engine, with its
+lines of carriages, dashes over the graves, which are as much
+forgotten as the names of those who moulder into dust in them!
+Wheugh--wheugh!
+
+"This is the history of Waldemar Daae and his daughters. Let any one
+relate it better who can," said the wind, turning round.
+
+And he was gone!
+
+
+
+
+_The Girl who Trod upon Bread._
+
+
+You have doubtless heard of the girl who trod upon bread, not to soil
+her pretty shoes, and what evil this brought upon her. The tale is
+both written and printed.
+
+She was a poor child, but proud and vain. She had a bad disposition,
+people said. When she was little more than an infant it was a pleasure
+to her to catch flies, to pull off their wings, and maim them
+entirely. She used, when somewhat older, to take lady-birds and
+beetles, stick them all upon a pin, then put a large leaf or a piece
+of paper close to their feet, so that the poor things held fast to it,
+and turned and twisted in their endeavours to get off the pin.
+
+"Now the lady-birds shall read," said little Inger. "See how they turn
+the paper!"
+
+As she grew older she became worse instead of better; but she was very
+beautiful, and that was her misfortune. She would have been punished
+otherwise, and in the long run she was.
+
+"You will bring evil on your own head," said her mother.
+
+"As a little child you used often to tear my aprons; I fear that when
+you are older you will break my heart."
+
+And she did so sure enough.
+
+At length she went into the country to wait on people of distinction.
+They were as kind to her as if she had been one of their own family;
+and she was so well dressed that she looked very pretty, and became
+extremely arrogant.
+
+When she had been a year in service her employers said to her,--
+
+"You should go and visit your relations, little Inger."
+
+She went, resolved to let them see how fine she had become. When,
+however, she reached the village, and saw the lads and lasses
+gossiping together near the pond, and her mother sitting close by on a
+stone, resting her head against a bundle of firewood which she had
+picked up in the forest, Inger turned back. She felt ashamed that she
+who was dressed so smartly should have for her mother such a ragged
+creature, one who gathered sticks for her fire. It gave her no concern
+that she was expected--she was so vexed.
+
+A half year more had passed.
+
+"You must go home some day and see your old parents, little Inger,"
+said the mistress of the house. "Here is a large loaf of white
+bread--you can carry this to them; they will be rejoiced to see you."
+
+And Inger put on her best clothes and her nice new shoes, and she
+lifted her dress high, and walked so carefully, that she might not
+soil her garments or her feet. There was no harm at all in that. But
+when she came to where the path went over some damp marshy ground, and
+there were water and mud in the way, she threw the bread into the
+mud, in order to step upon it and get over with dry shoes; but just
+as she had placed one foot on the bread, and had lifted the other up,
+the bread sank in with her deeper and deeper, till she went entirely
+down, and nothing was to be seen but a black bubbling pool.
+
+That is the story.
+
+What became of the girl? She went below to the _Old Woman of the
+Bogs_, who brews down there. The Old Woman of the Bogs is an aunt of
+the fairies. _They_ are very well known. Many poems have been written
+about them, and they have been printed; but nobody knows anything more
+of the Old Woman of the Bogs than that, when the meadows and the
+ground begin to reek in summer, it is the old woman below who is
+brewing. Into her brewery it was that Inger sank, and no one could
+hold out very long there. A cesspool is a charming apartment compared
+with the old Bog-woman's brewery. Every vessel is redolent of horrible
+smells, which would make any human being faint, and they are packed
+closely together and over each other; but even if there were a small
+space among them which one might creep through, it would be
+impossible, on account of all the slimy toads and snakes that are
+always crawling and forcing themselves through. Into this place little
+Inger sank. All this nauseous mess was so ice-cold that she shivered
+in every limb. Yes, she became stiffer and stiffer. The bread stuck
+fast to her, and it drew her as an amber bead draws a slender thread.
+
+The Old Woman of the Bogs was at home. The brewery was that day
+visited by the devil and his dam, and she was a venomous old creature
+who was never idle. She never went out without having some needlework
+with her. She had brought some there. She was sewing running leather
+to put into the shoes of human beings, so that they should never be at
+rest. She embroidered lies, and worked up into mischief and discord
+thoughtless words, that would otherwise have fallen to the ground.
+Yes, she knew how to sew and embroider, and transfer with a vengeance,
+that old grandam!
+
+She beheld Inger, put on her spectacles, and looked at her.
+
+"That is a girl with talents," said she. "I shall ask for her as a
+_souvenir_ of my visit here; she may do very well as a statue to
+ornament my great-grandchildren's antechamber;" and she took her.
+
+It was thus little Inger went to the infernal regions. People do not
+generally go straight through the air to them: they can go by a
+roundabout path when they know the way.
+
+It was an antechamber in an infinity. One became giddy there at
+looking forwards, and giddy at looking backwards, and there stood a
+crowd of anxious, pining beings, who were waiting and hoping for the
+time when the gates of grace should be opened. They would have long to
+wait. Hideous, large, waddling spiders wove thousands of webs over
+their feet; and these webs were like gins or foot-screws, and held
+them as fast as chains of iron, and were a cause of disquiet to every
+soul--a painful annoyance. Misers stood there, and lamented that they
+had forgotten the keys of their money chests. It would be too tiresome
+to repeat all the complaints and troubles that were poured forth
+there. Inger thought it shocking to stand there like a statue: she
+was, as it were, fastened to the ground by the bread.
+
+"This comes of wishing to have clean shoes," said she to herself. "See
+how they all stare at me!"
+
+Yes, they did all stare at her; their evil passions glared from their
+eyes, and spoke, without sound, from the corner of their mouths: they
+were frightful.
+
+"It must be a pleasure to them to see me," thought little Inger. "I
+have a pretty face, and am well dressed;" and she dried her eyes. She
+had not lost her conceit. She had not then perceived how her fine
+clothes had been soiled in the brewhouse of the Old Woman of the Bogs.
+Her dress was covered with dabs of nasty matter; a snake had wound
+itself among her hair, and it dangled over her neck; and from every
+fold in her garment peeped out a toad, that puffed like an asthmatic
+lap-dog. It was very disagreeable. "But all the rest down here look
+horrid too," was the reflection with which she consoled herself.
+
+But the worst of all was the dreadful hunger she felt. Could she not
+stoop down and break off a piece of the bread on which she was
+standing? No; her back was stiffened; her hands and her arms were
+stiffened; her whole body was like a statue of stone; she could only
+move her eyes, and these she could turn entirely round, and that was
+an ugly sight. And flies came and crept over her eyes backwards and
+forwards. She winked her eyes; but the intruders did not fly away, for
+they could not--their wings had been pulled off. That was another
+misery added to the hunger--the gnawing hunger that was so terrible to
+bear!
+
+"If this goes on I cannot hold out much longer," she said.
+
+But she had to hold out, and her sufferings became greater.
+
+Then a warm tear fell upon her head. It trickled over her face and her
+neck, all the way down to the bread. Another tear fell, then many
+followed. Who was weeping over little Inger? Had she not a mother up
+yonder on the earth? The tears of anguish which a mother sheds over
+her erring child always reach it; but they do not comfort the
+child--they burn, they increase the suffering. And oh! this
+intolerable hunger; yet not to be able to snatch one mouthful of the
+bread she was treading under foot! She became as thin, as slender as a
+reed. Another trial was that she heard distinctly all that was said of
+her above on the earth, and it was nothing but blame and evil. Though
+her mother wept, and was in much affliction, she still said,--
+
+"Pride goes before a fall. That was your great fault, Inger. Oh, how
+miserable you have made your mother!"
+
+Her mother and all who were acquainted with her were well aware of the
+sin she had committed in treading upon bread. They knew that she had
+sunk into the bog, and was lost; the cowherd had told that, for he had
+seen it himself from the brow of the hill.
+
+"What affliction you have brought on your mother, Inger!" exclaimed
+her mother. "Ah, well! I expected no better from you."
+
+"Would that I had never been born!" thought Inger; "that would have
+been much better for me. My mother's whimpering can do no good now."
+
+She heard how the family, the people of distinction who had been so
+kind to her, spoke. "She was a wicked child," they said; "she valued
+not the gifts of our Lord, but trod them under her feet. It will be
+difficult for her to get the gates of grace open to admit her."
+
+"They ought to have brought me up better," thought Inger. "They should
+have taken the whims out of me, if I had any."
+
+She heard that there was a common ballad made about her, "the bad girl
+who trod upon bread, to keep her shoes nicely clean," and this ballad
+was sung from one end of the country to the other.
+
+"That any one should have to suffer so much for such as that--be
+punished so severely for such a trifle!" thought Inger. "All these
+others are punished justly, for no doubt there was a great deal to
+punish; but ah, how I suffer!"
+
+And her heart became still harder than the substance into which she
+had been turned.
+
+"No one can be better in such society. I will not grow better here.
+See how they glare at me!"
+
+And her heart became still harder, and she felt a hatred towards all
+mankind.
+
+"They have a nice story to tell up there now. Oh, how I suffer!"
+
+She listened, and heard them telling her history as a warning to
+children, and the little ones called her "ungodly Inger." "She was so
+naughty," they said, "so very wicked, that she deserved to suffer."
+
+The children always spoke harshly of her. One day, however, that
+hunger and misery were gnawing her most dreadfully, and she heard her
+name mentioned, and her story told to an innocent child--a little
+girl--she observed that the child burst into tears in her distress for
+the proud, finely-dressed Inger.
+
+"But will she never come up again?" asked the child.
+
+The answer was,--
+
+"She will never come up again."
+
+"But if she will beg pardon, and promise never to be naughty again?"
+
+"But she will _not_ beg pardon," they said.
+
+"Oh, how I wish she would do it!" sobbed the little girl in great
+distress. "I will give my doll, and my doll's house too, if she may
+come up! It is so shocking for poor little Inger to be down there!"
+
+These words touched Inger's heart; they seemed almost to make her
+good. It was the first time any one had said "poor Inger," and had not
+dwelt upon her faults. An innocent child cried and prayed for her. She
+was so much affected by this that she felt inclined to weep herself;
+but she could not, and this was an additional pain.
+
+Years passed on in the earth above; but down where she was there was
+no change, except that she heard more and more rarely sounds from
+above, and that she herself was more seldom mentioned. At last one day
+she heard a sigh, and "Inger, Inger, how miserable you have made me! I
+foretold that you would!" These were her mother's last words on her
+deathbed.
+
+And again she heard herself named by her former employers, and her
+mistress said,--
+
+"Perhaps I may meet you once more, Inger. None know whither they are
+to go."
+
+But Inger knew full well that her excellent mistress would never come
+to the place where _she_ was.
+
+Time passed on, and on, slowly and wretchedly. Then once more Inger
+heard her name mentioned, and she beheld as it were, directly above
+her, two clear stars shining. These were two mild eyes that were
+closing upon earth. So many years had elapsed since a little girl had
+cried in childish sorrow over "poor Inger," that that child had become
+an old woman, whom our Lord was now about to call to himself. At that
+hour, when the thoughts and the actions of a whole life stand in
+review before the parting soul, she remembered how, as a little child,
+she had wept bitterly on hearing the history of Inger. That time, and
+those feelings, stood so prominently before the old woman's mind in
+the hour of death, that she cried with intense emotion,--
+
+"Lord, my God! have not I often, like Inger, trod under foot Thy
+blessed gifts, and placed no value on them? Have I not often been
+guilty of pride and vanity in my secret heart? But Thou, in Thy mercy,
+didst not let me sink; Thou didst hold me up. Oh, forsake me not in my
+last hour!"
+
+And the aged woman's eyes closed, and her spirit's eyes opened to what
+had been formerly invisible; and as Inger had been present in her
+latest thoughts, she beheld her, and perceived how deep she had been
+dragged downwards. At that sight the gentle being burst into tears;
+and in the kingdom of heaven she stood like a child, and wept for the
+fate of the unfortunate Inger. Her tears and her prayers sounded like
+an echo down in the hollow form that confined the imprisoned,
+miserable soul. That soul was overwhelmed by the unexpected love from
+those realms afar. One of God's angels wept for her! Why was this
+vouchsafed to her? The tortured spirit gathered, as it were, into one
+thought, all the actions of its life--all that it had done; and it
+shook with the violence of its remorse--remorse such as Inger had
+never felt. Grief became her predominating feeling. She thought that
+for her the gates of mercy would never open, and as in deep contrition
+and self-abasement she thought thus, a ray of brightness penetrated
+into the dismal abyss--a ray more vivid and glorious than the sunbeams
+which thaw the snow figures that the children make in their gardens.
+And this ray, more quickly than the snow-flake that falls upon a
+child's warm mouth can be melted into a drop of water, caused Inger's
+petrified figure to evaporate, and a little bird arose, following the
+zigzag course of the ray, up towards the world that mankind inhabit.
+But it seemed afraid and shy of everything around it; it felt ashamed
+of itself; and apparently wishing to avoid all living creatures, it
+sought, in haste, concealment in a dark recess in a crumbling wall.
+Here it sat, and it crept into the farthest corner, trembling all
+over. It could not sing, for it had no voice. For a long time it sat
+quietly there before it ventured to look out and behold all the beauty
+around. Yes, it was beauty! The air was so fresh, yet so soft; the
+moon shone so clearly; the trees and the flowers scented so sweetly;
+and it was so comfortable where she sat--her feather garb so clean and
+nice! How all creation told of love and glory! The grateful thoughts
+that awoke in the bird's breast she would willingly have poured forth
+in song, but the power was denied to her. Yes, gladly would she have
+sung as do the cuckoo and the nightingale in spring. Our gracious
+Lord, who hears the mute worm's hymn of praise, understood the
+thanksgiving that lifted itself up in the tones of thought, as the
+psalm floated in David's mind before it resolved itself into words and
+melody.
+
+As weeks passed on these unexpressed feelings of gratitude increased.
+They would surely find a voice some day, with the first stroke of the
+wing, to perform some good act. Might not this happen?
+
+Now came the holy Christmas festival. The peasants raised a pole close
+by the old wall, and bound an unthrashed bundle of oats on it, that
+the birds of the air might also enjoy the Christmas, and have plenty
+to eat at that time which was held in commemoration of the redemption
+brought to mankind.
+
+And the sun rose brightly that Christmas morning, and shone upon the
+oat-sheaf, and upon all the chirping birds that flew around the pole;
+and from the wall issued a faint twittering. The swelling thoughts had
+at last found vent, and the low sound was a hymn of joy, as the bird
+flew forth from its hiding-place.
+
+The winter was an unusually severe one. The waters were frozen thickly
+over; the birds and the wild animals in the woods had great difficulty
+in obtaining food. The little bird, that had so recently left its dark
+solitude, flew about the country roads, and when it found by chance a
+little corn dropped in the ruts, it would eat only a single grain
+itself, while it called all the starving sparrows to partake of it. It
+would also fly to the villages and towns, and look well about; and
+where kind hands had strewed crumbs of bread outside the windows for
+the birds, it would eat only one morsel itself, and give all the rest
+to the others.
+
+At the end of the winter the bird had found and given away so many
+crumbs of bread, that the number put together would have weighed as
+much as the loaf upon which little Inger had trodden in order to save
+her fine shoes from being soiled; and when she had found and given
+away the very last crumb, the grey wings of the bird became white, and
+expanded wonderfully.
+
+"It is flying over the sea!" exclaimed the children who saw the white
+bird. Now it seemed to dip into the ocean, now it arose into the clear
+sunshine; it glittered in the air; it disappeared high, high above;
+and the children said that it had flown up to the sun.
+
+
+
+
+_Ole, the Watchman of the Tower._
+
+
+"In the world it is always going up and down, and down and up again;
+but I can't go higher than I am," said Ole, the watchman of the church
+tower. "Ups and downs most people have to experience; in point of
+fact, we each become at last a kind of tower-watchman--we look at life
+and things from above."
+
+Thus spoke Ole up in the lofty tower--my friend the watchman, a
+cheerful, chatty old fellow, who seemed to blurt everything out at
+random, though there were, in reality, deep and earnest feelings
+concealed in his heart. He had come of a good stock; some people even
+said that he was the son of a _Conferentsraad_,[5] or might have been
+that. He had studied, had been a teacher's assistant, assistant clerk
+in the church; but these situations had not done much for him. At one
+time he lived at the chief clerk's, and was to have bed and board
+free. He was then young, and somewhat particular about his dress, as I
+have heard. He insisted on having his boots polished and brushed with
+blacking, but the head clerk would only allow grease; and this was a
+cause of dissension between them. The one talked of stinginess, the
+other talked of foolish vanity. The blacking became the dark
+foundation of enmity, and so they parted; but what he had demanded
+from the clerk he also demanded from the world--real blacking; and he
+always got its substitute, grease; so he turned his back upon all
+mankind, and became a hermit. But a hermitage coupled with a
+livelihood is not to be had in the midst of a large city except up in
+the steeple of a church. Thither he betook himself, and smoked his
+pipe in solitude. He looked up, and he looked down; reflected
+according to his fashion upon all he saw, and all he did not see--on
+what he read in books, and what he read in himself.
+
+[Footnote 5: A Danish title.]
+
+I often lent him books, good books; and people can converse about
+these, as everybody knows. He did not care for fashionable English
+novels, he said, nor for French ones either--they were all too
+frivolous. No, he liked biographies, and books that relate to the
+wonders of nature. I visited him at least once a year, generally
+immediately after the New Year. He had then always something to say
+that the peculiar period suggested to his thoughts.
+
+I shall relate what passed during two of my visits, and give his own
+words as nearly as I can.
+
+
+THE FIRST VISIT.
+
+Among the books I had last lent Ole was one about pebbles, and it
+pleased him extremely.
+
+"Yes, sure enough they are veterans from old days, these pebbles,"
+said he; "and yet we pass them carelessly by. I have myself often done
+so in the fields and on the beach, where they lie in crowds. We tread
+them under foot in some of our pathways, these fragments from the
+remains of antiquity. I have myself done that; but now I hold all
+these pebble-formed pavements in high respect. Thanks for that book;
+it has driven old ideas and habits of thinking aside, and has replaced
+them by other ideas, and made me eager to read something more of the
+same kind. The romance of the earth is the most astonishing of all
+romances. What a pity that one cannot read the first portion of
+it--that it is composed in a language we have not learned! One must
+read it in the layers of the ground, in the strata of the rocks, in
+all the periods of the earth. It was not until the sixth part that the
+living and acting persons, Mr. Adam and Mrs. Eve, were introduced,
+though some will have it they came immediately. That, however, is all
+one to me. It is a most eventful tale, and we are all in it. We go on
+digging and groping, but always find ourselves where we were; yet the
+globe is ever whirling round, and without the waters of the world
+overwhelming us. The crust we tread on holds together--we do not fall
+through it; and this is a history of a million of years, with constant
+advancement. Thanks for the book about the pebbles. They could tell
+many a strange tale if they were able.
+
+"Is it not pleasant once and away to become like a Nix, when one is
+perched so high as I am, and then to remember that we all are but
+minute ants upon the earth's ant-hill, although some of us are
+distinguished ants, some are laborious, and some are indolent ants?
+One seems to be so excessively young by the side of these million
+years old, reverend pebbles. I was reading the book on New Year's
+eve, and was so wrapped up in it that I forgot my accustomed amusement
+on that night, looking at 'the wild host to Amager,' of which you may
+have heard.
+
+"The witches' journey on broomsticks is well known--that takes place
+on St. John's night, and to Bloksberg. But we have also the wild host,
+here at home and in our own time, which goes to Amager every New
+Year's eve. All the bad poets and poetesses, newspaper writers,
+musicians, and artists of all sorts, who come before the public, but
+make no sensation--those, in short, who are very mediocre, ride--on
+New Year's eve, out to Amager: they sit astride on their pencils or
+quill pens. Steel pens don't answer, they are too stiff. I see this
+troop, as I have said, every New Year's eve. I could name most of
+them, but it is not worth while to get into a scrape with them; they
+do not like people to know of their Amager flight upon quill pens. I
+have a kind of a cousin, who is a fisherman's wife, and furnishes
+abusive articles to three popular periodicals: she says she has been
+out there as an invited guest. She has described the whole affair.
+Half that she says, of course, are lies, but part might be true. When
+she was there they commenced with a song; each of the visitors had
+written his own song, and each sang his own composition: they all
+performed together, so it was a kind of 'cats' chorus'. Small groups
+marched about, consisting of those who labour at improving that gift
+which is called 'the gift of the gab:' they had their own shrill
+songs. Then came the little drummers, and those who write without
+giving their names--that is to say, whose grease is imposed on people
+for blacking; then there were the executioners, and the puffers of bad
+wares. In the midst of all the merriment, as it must have been, that
+was going on, shot up from a pit a stem, a tree, a monstrous flower, a
+large toadstool, and a cupola. These were the Utopian productions of
+the honoured assembly, the entire amount of their offerings to the
+world during the past year. Sparks flew from these various objects;
+they were the thoughts and ideas which had been borrowed or stolen,
+which now took wings to themselves, and flew away as if by magic. My
+cousin told me a good deal more, which, though laughable, was too
+malicious for me to repeat.
+
+"I always watch this wild host fly past every New Year's eve; but on
+the last one, as I told you, I neglected to look at them, for I was
+rolling away in thought upon the round pebbles--rolling through
+thousands and thousands of years. I saw them detached from rocks far
+away in the distant north; saw them driven along in masses of ice
+before Noah's ark was put together; saw them sink to the bottom, and
+rise again in a sand-bank, which grew higher and higher above the
+water; and I said, 'That will be Zealand!' It became the resort of
+birds of various species unknown to us--the home of savage chiefs as
+little known to us, until the axe cut the Runic characters which then
+brought them into our chronology. As I was thus musing three or four
+falling stars attracted my eye. My thoughts took another turn. Do you
+know what falling stars are? The scientific themselves do not know
+what they are. I have my own ideas about them. How often in secret are
+not thanks and blessings poured out on those who have done anything
+great or good! Sometimes these thanks are voiceless, but they do not
+fall to the ground. I fancy that they are caught by the sunshine, and
+that the sunbeam brings the silent, secret praise down over the head
+of the benefactor. If it be an entire people that through time bestow
+their thanks, then the thanks come as a banquet--fall like a falling
+star over the grave of the benefactor. It is one of my pleasures,
+especially when on a New Year's eve I observe a falling star, to
+imagine to whose grave the starry messenger of gratitude is speeding.
+One of the last falling stars I saw took its blazing course towards
+the south-west. For whom was it dispatched? It fell, I thought, on the
+slope by Flensborg Fiord, where the Danish flag waves over
+Schleppegrell's, Laessoee's, and their comrades' graves. One fell in the
+centre of the country near Soroe. It was a banquet for Holberg's
+grave--a thank offering of years from many--a thank offering for his
+splendid comedies! It is a glorious and gratifying fancy that a
+falling star could illumine our graves. That will not be the case with
+mine; not even a single sunbeam will bring me thanks, for I have done
+nothing to deserve them. I have not even attained to blacking," said
+Ole; "my lot in life has been only to get grease."
+
+
+THE SECOND VISIT.
+
+It was on a New Year's day that I again ascended to the church tower.
+Ole began to speak of toasts. We drank one to the transition from the
+old drop in eternity to the new drop in eternity, as he called the
+year. Then he gave me his story about the glasses, and there was some
+sense in it.
+
+"When the clocks strike twelve on New Year's night every one rises
+from table with a brimful glass, and drinks to the New Year. To
+commence the year with a glass in one's hand is a good beginning for a
+drunkard. To begin the year by going to bed is a good beginning for a
+sluggard. Sleep will, in the course of his year, play a prominent
+part; so will the glass.
+
+"Do you know what dwells in glasses?" he asked. "There dwell in them
+health, glee, and folly. Within them dwell, also, vexations and bitter
+calamity. When I count up the glasses I can tell the gradations in the
+glass for different people. The first glass, you see, is the glass of
+health; in it grow health-giving plants. Stick to that one glass, and
+at the end of the year you can sit peacefully in the leafy bowers of
+health.
+
+"If you take the second glass a little bird will fly out of it,
+chirping in innocent gladness, and men will laugh and sing with it,
+'Life is pleasant. Away with care, away with fear!'
+
+"From the third glass springs forth a little winged creature--a little
+angel he cannot well be called, for he has Nix blood and a Nix mind.
+He does not come to tease, but to amuse. He places himself behind your
+ear, and whispers some humorous idea; he lays himself close to your
+heart and warms it, so that you become very merry, and fancy yourself
+the cleverest among a set of great wits.
+
+"In the fourth glass is neither plant, bird, nor little figure: it is
+the boundary line of sense, and beyond that line let no one go.
+
+"If you take the fifth glass you will weep over yourself--you will be
+foolishly happy, or become stupidly noisy. From this glass will spring
+Prince Carnival, flippant and crack-brained. He will entice you to
+accompany him; you will forget your respectability, if you have any;
+you will forget more than you ought or dare forget. All is pleasure,
+gaiety, excitement; the maskers carry you off with them; the
+daughters of the Evil One, in silks and flowers, come with flowing
+hair and voluptuous charms. Escape them if you can.
+
+"The sixth glass! In that sits Satan himself--a well-dressed,
+conversable, lively, fascinating little man--who never contradicts
+you, allows that you are always in the right--in fact, seems quite to
+adopt all your opinions. He comes with a lantern to convey you home to
+his own habitation. There is an old legend about a saint who was to
+choose one of the seven mortal sins, and he chose, as he thought, the
+least--drunkenness; but in that state he perpetrated all the other six
+sins. The human nature and the devilish nature mingle. This is the
+sixth glass; and after that all the germs of evil thrive in us, every
+one of them spreading with a rapidity and vigour that cause them to be
+like the mustard-seed in the Bible, 'which, indeed, is the least of
+all seeds; but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs, and
+becometh a tree.' Most of them have nothing before them but to be cast
+into the furnace, and be smelted there.
+
+"This is the story of the glasses," said Ole, the watchman of the
+church tower; "and it applies both to those who use blacking, and to
+those who use only grease."
+
+Such was the result of the second visit to Ole. More may be
+forthcoming at some future time.
+
+
+
+
+_Anne Lisbeth; or, The Apparition of the Beach._
+
+
+Anne Lisbeth was like milk and blood, young and happy, lovely to look
+at; her teeth were so dazzlingly white, her eyes were so clear; her
+foot was light in the dance, and her head was still lighter. What did
+all this lead to? To no good. "The vile creature!" "She was not
+pretty!"
+
+She was placed with the grave-digger's wife, and from thence she went
+to the count's splendid country-seat, where she lived in handsome
+rooms, and was dressed in silks and fineries; not a breath of wind was
+to blow on her; no one dared to say a rough word to her, nothing was
+to be done to annoy her; for she nursed the count's son and heir, who
+was as carefully tended as a prince, and as beautiful as an angel. How
+she loved that child! Her own child was away from her--he was in the
+grave-digger's house, where there was more hunger than plenty, and
+where often there was no one at home. The poor deserted child cried,
+but what nobody hears nobody cares about. He cried himself to sleep,
+and in sleep one feels neither hungry nor thirsty: sleep is,
+therefore, a great blessing. In the course of time Anne Lisbeth's
+child shot up. Ill weeds grow apace, it is said: and this poor weed
+grew, and seemed a member of the family, who were paid for keeping
+him. Anne Lisbeth was quite free of him. She was a village fine lady,
+had everything of the best, and wore a smart bonnet whenever she went
+out. But she never went to the grave-digger's; it was so far from
+where she lived, and she had nothing to do there. The child was under
+their charge; _he_ who paid its board could well afford it, and the
+child would be taken very good care of.
+
+The watch-dog at the lord of the manor's bleach-field sits proudly in
+the sunshine outside of his kennel, and growls at every one that goes
+past. In rainy weather he creeps inside, and lies down dry and
+sheltered. Anne Lisbeth's boy sat on the side of a ditch in the
+sunshine, amusing himself by cutting a bit of stick. In spring he saw
+three strawberry bushes in bloom: they would surely bear fruit. This
+was his pleasantest thought; but there was no fruit. He sat out in the
+drizzling rain, and in the heavy rain--was wet to the skin--and the
+sharp wind dried his clothes upon him. If he went to the farm-houses
+near, he was thumped and shoved about. He was "grim-looking and ugly,"
+the girls and the boys said. What became of Anne Lisbeth's boy? What
+_could_ become of him? It was his fate to be "_never loved_."
+
+At length he was transferred from his joyless village life to the
+still worse life of a sailor boy. He went on board a wretched little
+vessel, to stand by the rudder while the skipper drank. Filthy and
+disgusting the poor boy looked; starving and benumbed with cold he
+was. One would have thought, from his appearance, that he never had
+been well fed; and, indeed, that was the fact.
+
+It was late in the year; it was raw, wet, stormy weather; the cold
+wind penetrated even through thick clothing, especially at sea; and
+only two men on board were too few to work the sails; indeed, it might
+be said only one man and a half--the master and his boy. It had been
+black and gloomy all day; now it became still more dark, and it was
+bitterly cold. The skipper took a dram to warm himself. The flask was
+old, and so was the glass; its foot was broken off, but it was
+inserted into a piece of wood painted blue, which served as a stand
+for it. If one dram was good, two would be better, thought the master.
+The boy stood by the helm, and held on to it with his hard,
+tar-covered hands. He looked frightened. His hair was rough, and he
+was wrinkled, and stunted in his growth. The young sailor was the
+grave-digger's boy; in the church register he was called Anne
+Lisbeth's son.
+
+The wind blew as it list; the sail flapped, then filled; the vessel
+flew on. It was wet, chill, dark as pitch; but worse was yet to come.
+Hark! What was that? With what had the boat come in contact? What had
+burst? What seemed to have caught it? It shifted round. Was it a
+sudden squall? The boy at the helm cried aloud, "In the name of
+Jesus!" The little bark had struck on a large sunken rock, and sank as
+an old shoe would sink in a small pool--sank with men and mice on
+board, as the saying is; and there certainly were mice, but only one
+man and a half--the skipper and the grave-digger's boy. None witnessed
+the catastrophe except the screaming sea-gulls and the fishes below;
+and even they did not see much of it, for they rushed aside in alarm
+when the water gushed thundering into the little vessel as it sank.
+Scarcely a fathom beneath the surface it stood; yet the two human
+beings who had been on board were lost--lost--forgotten! Only the
+glass with the blue-painted wooden foot did not sink; the wooden foot
+floated it. But the glass was broken when it was washed far up on the
+beach. How and when? That is of no consequence. It had served its
+time, and it had been liked; that Anne Lisbeth's child had never been.
+But in the kingdom of heaven no soul can say again, "Never loved!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Anne Lisbeth resided in the large market town, and had done so for
+some years. She was called "Madam," and held her head very high,
+especially when she spoke of old reminiscences of the time she had
+passed at the count's lordly mansion, when she used to drive out in a
+carriage, and used to converse with countesses and baronesses. Her
+sweet nursling, the little count, was a lovely angel, a darling
+creature. She was so fond of him, and he had been so fond of her. How
+she used to pet him, and how he used to kiss her! He was her
+delight--was as dear to her as herself. He was now quite a big boy; he
+was fourteen years of age, and had plenty of learning and
+accomplishments. She had not seen him since she carried him in her
+arms. It was many years since she had been at the count's castle, for
+it was such a long way off.
+
+"But I must go over and see them again," said Anne Lisbeth. "I must go
+to my noble friends, to my darling child, the young count--yes, yes,
+for he is surely longing to see me. He thinks of me, he loves me as he
+did when he used to throw his little cherub arms round my neck and
+lisp, 'An Lis!' Oh, it was like a violin! Yes, I must go over and see
+him again."
+
+She went part of the way in the carrier's wagon, part of the way on
+foot. She arrived at the castle. It looked as grand and imposing as
+ever. The gardens were not at all changed; but the servants were all
+strangers. Not one of them knew anything about Anne Lisbeth. They did
+not know what an important person she had been in the house formerly;
+but surely the countess would tell them who she was, so would her own
+boy. How she longed to see them both!
+
+Well, Anne Lisbeth was there; but she had to wait a long time, and
+waiting is always so tedious. Before the family and their guests went
+to dinner she was called in to the countess, and very kindly spoken
+to. She was told she should see her dear boy after dinner, and after
+dinner she was sent for again.
+
+How much he had grown! How tall and thin! But he had the same charming
+eyes, and the same angelic mouth. He looked at her, but he did not say
+a word. It was evident that he did not remember her. He turned away,
+and was going, but she caught his hand and carried it to her lips.
+"Ah! well, that will do!" he said, and hastily left the room--he, the
+darling of her soul--he on whom her thoughts had centred for so many
+years--he whom she had loved the best--her greatest earthly pride!
+
+Anne Lisbeth left the castle, and turned into the open high road. She
+was very sad--he had been so cold and distant to her. He had not a
+word, not a thought for her who, by day and by night, had so cherished
+_him_ in her heart.
+
+At that moment a large black raven flew across the road before her,
+screeching harshly.
+
+"Oh!" she exclaimed, "what do you want, bird of ill omen that you
+are?"
+
+She passed by the grave-digger's house; his wife was standing in the
+doorway, and they spoke to each other.
+
+"You are looking very well," said the grave-digger's wife. "You are
+stout and hearty. The world goes well with you apparently."
+
+"Pretty well," replied Anne Lisbeth.
+
+"The little vessel has been lost," said the grave-digger's wife. "Lars
+the skipper, and the boy, are both drowned; so there is an end of that
+matter. I had hoped, though, that the boy might by and by have helped
+me with a shilling now and then. He never cost you anything, Anne
+Lisbeth."
+
+"Drowned are they?" exclaimed Anne Lisbeth; and she did not say
+another word on the subject--she was so distressed that her nursling,
+the young count, did not care to speak to her--she who loved him so
+much, and had taken such a long journey to see him--a journey that had
+cost her some money too. The pleasure she had received was not great,
+but she was not going to admit this. She would not say one word to the
+grave-digger's wife to lead her to think that she was no longer a
+person of consequence at the count's. The raven screeched again just
+over her head.
+
+"That horrid noise!" said Anne Lisbeth; "it has quite startled me
+to-day."
+
+She had brought some coffee-beans and chicory with her; it would be a
+kindness to the grave-digger's wife to make her a present of these;
+and, when she did so, it was agreed that they should take a cup of
+coffee together. The mistress of the house went to prepare it, and
+Anne Lisbeth sat down to wait for it. While waiting she fell asleep,
+and she dreamed of one of whom she had never before dreamt: that was
+very strange. She dreamed of her own child, who in that very house
+had starved and squalled, and never tasted anything better than cold
+water, and who now lay in the deep sea, our Lord only knew where. She
+dreamed that she was sitting just where she really was seated, and
+that the grave-digger's wife had gone to make some coffee, but had
+first to grind the coffee-beans, and that a beautiful boy stood in the
+doorway--a boy as charming as the little count had been; and the child
+said,--
+
+"The world is now passing away. Hold fast to me, for thou art my
+mother. Thy child is an angel in the kingdom of heaven. Hold fast to
+me!"
+
+And he seized her. But there was a frightful uproar around, as if
+worlds were breaking asunder; and the angel raised her up, and held
+her fast by the sleeves of her dress--so fast, it seemed to her, that
+she was lifted from the ground; but something hung so heavily about
+her feet, something lay so heavily on her back: it was as if hundreds
+of women were clinging fast to her, and crying, "If thou canst be
+saved, so may we. We will hold on--hold on!" and they all appeared to
+be holding on by her. Then the sleeves of her garments gave way, and
+she fell, overcome with terror.
+
+The sensation of fear awoke her, and she found herself on the point of
+falling off her chair. Her head was so confused that at first she
+could not remember what she had dreamt, though she knew it had been
+something disagreeable. The coffee was drunk, and Anne Lisbeth took
+her departure to the nearest village, where she might meet the
+carrier, and get him to convey her that evening to the town where she
+lived. But the carrier said he was not going until the following
+evening; and, on calculating what it would cost her to remain till
+then, she determined to walk home. She would not go by the high road,
+but by the beach: that was at least eight or nine miles shorter. The
+weather was fine, and it was full moon. She would be at home the next
+morning.
+
+The sun had set; the evening bells that had been chiming were hushed.
+All was still; not a bird was to be heard twittering among the
+leaves--they had all gone to rest: the owls were away. All was silence
+in the wood; and on the beach, where she was walking, she could hear
+her own foot fall on the sand. The very sea seemed slumbering; the
+waves rolled lazily and noiselessly on the shore, and away on the open
+deep there seemed to be a dead calm: not a line of foam, not a ripple
+was visible on the water. All were quiet beneath, the living and the
+dead.
+
+Anne Lisbeth walked on, and her thoughts were not engrossed by
+anything in particular. She was not at all lost in thought, but
+thoughts were not lost to her. They are never lost to us; they lie
+only in a state of torpor, as it were, both the lately active thoughts
+that have lulled themselves to rest, and those which have not yet
+awoke. But thoughts come often undesired; they can touch the heart,
+they can distract the head, they can at times overpower us.
+
+"Good actions have their reward," it is written.
+
+"The wages of sin is death," it is also written. Much is written--much
+is said. But many give no heed to the words of truth--they remember
+them not; and so it was with Anne Lisbeth; but they can force
+themselves upon the mind.
+
+All sins and all virtues lie in our hearts--in thine, in mine. They
+lie like small invisible seeds. From without fall upon them a sunbeam,
+or the contact of an evil hand--they take their bent in their hidden
+nook, to the right or to the left. Yes, there it is decided, and the
+little grain of seed quivers, swells, springs up, and pours its juice
+into your blood, and there you are, fairly launched. These are
+thoughts fraught with anxiety; they do not haunt one when one is in a
+state of mental slumber, but they are fermenting. Anne Lisbeth was
+slumbering--hidden thoughts were fermenting. From Candlemas to
+Candlemas the heart has much on its tablets--it has the year's
+account. Much is forgotten--sins in word and deed against God, against
+our neighbour, and against our own consciences. We reflect little upon
+all this; neither did Anne Lisbeth. She had not broken the laws of her
+country, she kept up good appearances, she did not run in debt, she
+wronged no one; and so, well satisfied with herself, she walked on by
+the seashore. What was that lying in her path? She stopped. What was
+that washed up from the sea? A man's old hat lay there. It might have
+fallen overboard. She approached closer to it, stood still, and looked
+at it. Heavens! what was lying there? She was almost frightened; but
+there was nothing to be frightened at; it was only a mass of seaweed
+that lay twined over a large, oblong, flat rock, that was shaped
+something like a human being--it was nothing but seaweed. Still she
+felt frightened, and hastened on; and as she hurried on, many things
+she had heard in her childhood recurred to her thoughts, especially
+all the superstitious tales about "_the apparition of the beach_"--the
+spectre of the unburied that lay washed up on the lonely, deserted
+shore. The body thrown up from the deep, the dead body itself, she
+thought nothing of; but its ghost followed the solitary wanderer,
+attached itself closely to him or her, and demanded to be carried to
+the churchyard, to receive Christian burial.
+
+"Hold on--hold on!" it was wont to say; and, as Anne Lisbeth repeated
+these words inwardly to herself, she suddenly remembered her strange
+dream, in which the women had clung to her, shrieking, "Hold on--hold
+on!" how the world had sunk; how her sleeves had given way, and she
+had fallen from the grasp of her child, who wished, in the hour of
+doom, to save her. Her child--her own flesh and blood--the little one
+she had never loved, never spared a thought to--that child was now at
+the bottom of the sea, and it might come like "the apparition of the
+beach," and cry, "Hold on--hold on! Give me Christian burial!" And as
+these thoughts crowded on her mind, terror gave wings to her feet, and
+she hurried faster and faster on; but fear came like a cold, clammy
+hand, and laid itself on her beating heart, so that she felt quite
+faint; and as she glanced towards the sea, she saw it looked dark and
+threatening; a thick mist arose, and soon spread around, lying heavily
+over the very trees and bushes, which assumed strange appearances
+through it.
+
+She turned round to look for the moon, which was behind her: it was
+like a pale disc, without any rays. Something seemed to hang heavily
+about her limbs as she attempted to hurry on. She thought of the
+apparition; and, turning again, she beheld the white moon as if close
+to her, while the mist seemed to hang like a mantle over her
+shoulders. "Hold on--hold on! Give me Christian burial!" she expected
+every moment to hear; and she did hear a hollow, terrific sound, which
+seemed to cry hoarsely, "Bury me--bury me!" Yes, it must be the
+spectre of her child--her child who was lying at the bottom of the
+sea, and who would not rest quietly until the corpse was carried to
+the churchyard, and placed like a Christian in consecrated ground. She
+would go there--she would dig his grave herself; and she went in the
+direction in which the church lay, and as she proceeded she felt her
+invisible burden become lighter--it left her; and again she returned
+to the shore to reach her home as speedily as possible. But no sooner
+did her foot tread the sands than the wild sound seemed to moan around
+her, and it seemed ever to repeat, "Bury me--bury me!"
+
+The fog was cold and damp; her hands and her face were cold and damp.
+She shivered in her fright. Without, space seemed to close up around
+her; within her there seemed to be endless room for thoughts that had
+never before entered her mind.
+
+During one spring night here in the north the beech groves can sprout,
+and the next day's early sun can shine on them in all their fresh
+young beauty. In one single second within us can the germ of sin bud
+forth, swelling by degrees into thoughts, words, and deeds, though all
+remorse for them lies dormant. _It_ is quickened and unfolds itself in
+one single second, when conscience awakens; and our Lord awakens
+_that_ when we least expect it. Then there is nothing to be excused;
+deeds stand forth and bear witness, thoughts find words, and words
+ring out over the world. We are shocked at what we have permitted to
+dwell within us, and not stifled; shocked at what, in our
+thoughtlessness or our presumption, we have scattered abroad. The
+heart is the depository of all virtues, but also of all vices; and
+these can thrive in the most barren ground.
+
+Anne Lisbeth reviewed in thought what we have expressed in words. She
+was overwhelmed with it all. She sank to the ground, and crawled a
+little way over it. "Bury me--bury me!" she still seemed to hear. She
+would rather have buried herself, if the grave could be an eternal
+forgetfulness of everything. It was the awakening hour of serious
+thought, of terrible thoughts, that made her shudder. Superstition
+came, too, by turns heating and chilling her blood; and things she
+would scarcely have ventured to mention rushed on her mind. Noiseless
+as the clouds that crossed the sky in the clear moonlight floated past
+her a vision she had heard of. Immediately before her sped four
+foaming horses, flames flashing from their eyes and from their
+distended nostrils; they drew a fiery chariot, in which sat the evil
+lord of the manor, who, more than a hundred years before, had dwelt in
+that neighbourhood. Every night, it is said, he drives to his former
+home, and then instantly turns back again. He was not white, as the
+dead are said to be: no, he was as black as a coal--a burnt-out coal.
+He nodded to Anne Lisbeth, and beckoned to her: "Hold on--hold on! So
+mayst thou again drive in a nobleman's carriage, and forget thine own
+child!"
+
+In still greater terror, and with still greater precipitation than
+before, she fled in the direction of the church. She reached the
+churchyard; but the dark crosses above the graves, and the dark
+ravens, seemed to mingle together before her eyes. The ravens
+screeched as they had screeched in the daytime; but she now understood
+what they said, and each cried, "I am a raven-mother; I am a
+raven-mother!" And Anne Lisbeth thought that they were taunting her.
+She fancied that she might, perhaps, be changed into such a dark bird,
+and might have to screech like them, if she could not get the grave
+demanded of her dug.
+
+And she threw herself down upon the ground, and she dug a grave with
+her hands in the hard earth, so that blood sprang from her fingers.
+
+"Bury me--bury me!" resounded still about her. She dreaded the crowing
+of the cock, and the first red streak in the east, because, if they
+came before her labours were ended, she would be lost. And the cock
+crowed, and in the east it began to be light. The grave was but half
+dug. An ice-cold hand glided over her head and her face, down to where
+her heart was. "Only half a grave!" sighed a voice near her; and
+something seemed to vanish away--vanish into the deep sea. It was "the
+apparition of the beach." Anne Lisbeth sank, terror-stricken and
+benumbed, on the ground. She had lost feeling and consciousness.
+
+It was broad daylight when she came to herself. Two young men lifted
+her up. She was lying, not in the churchyard, but down on the shore;
+and she had dug there a deep hole in the sand, and cut her fingers
+till they bled with a broken glass, the stem of which was stuck into a
+piece of wood painted blue. Anne Lisbeth was ill. Conscience had
+mingled in Superstition's game, and had imbued her with the idea that
+she had only half a soul--that her child had taken the other half away
+with him down to the bottom of the sea. Never could she ascend upwards
+towards the mercy-seat, until she had again the half soul that was
+imprisoned in the depths of the ocean. Anne Lisbeth was taken to her
+home, but she never was the same as she had formerly been. Her
+thoughts were disordered like tangled yarn; one thread alone was
+straight--that was to let "the apparition of the beach" see that a
+grave was dug for him in the churchyard, and thus to win back her
+entire soul.
+
+Many a night she was missed from her home, and she was always found on
+the seashore, where she waited for the spectre of the dead. Thus
+passed a whole year. Then she disappeared one night, and was not to be
+found. The whole of the next day they searched for her in vain.
+
+Towards the evening, when the bell-ringer entered the church to ring
+the evening chimes, he saw Anne Lisbeth lying before the altar. She
+had been there from a very early hour in the morning; her strength was
+almost exhausted, but her eyes sparkled, her face glowed with a sort
+of rosy tint. The departing rays of the sun shone in on her, and
+streamed over the altar-piece, and on the silver clasps of the Bible,
+that lay open at the words of the prophet Joel: "Rend your heart, and
+not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God." "It was a strange
+occurrence," people said--as if everything were chance.
+
+On Anne Lisbeth's countenance, when lighted up by the sun, were to be
+read peace and comfort. "She felt so well," she said. "She had won
+back her soul." During the night "the apparition of the beach"--her
+own child--had been with her, and it had said,--
+
+"Thou hast only dug half a grave for me; but now for a year and a day
+thou hast entombed me in thy heart, and there a mother best inters her
+child." And he had restored to her her lost half soul, and had led her
+into the church.
+
+"Now I am in God's house," said she, "and in it one is blessed."
+
+When the sun had sunk entirely Anne Lisbeth's spirit had soared far
+away up yonder, where there is no more fear when one's sins are
+blotted out; and hers, it might be hoped, had been blotted out by the
+Saviour of the world.
+
+
+
+
+_Children's Prattle_.
+
+
+At the merchant's house there was a large party of children--rich
+people's children and great people's children. The merchant was a man
+of good standing in society, and a learned man. He had taken, in his
+youth, a college examination. He had been kept to his studies by his
+worthy father, who had not gone very deep into learning himself, but
+was honest and active. He had made money, and the merchant had
+increased the fortune left to him. He had intellect, and heart too;
+but less was said of these good qualities than of his money.
+
+There visited at his house several distinguished persons, both people
+of birth, as it is called, and people of talents, as it is
+called--people who came under both of these heads, and people who came
+under neither of these heads. The meeting now in question was a
+children's party, where there was childish talk; and children
+generally speak like parrots.
+
+There was one little girl so excessively proud. She had been flattered
+into her foolish pride by the servants, not by her parents--they were
+too sensible to have done that. Her father was _Kammerjunker_[6] and
+she thought this was monstrously grand.
+
+[Footnote 6: A title at court.]
+
+"I am a court child," she said.
+
+She might as well have been a cellar child, as far as she was herself
+concerned; and she informed the other children that she was "born"
+(_well born_, she meant); that when people were not "born," they could
+never be anybody; and that, however much they might read, however
+clever and industrious they might be, if they were not "born" they
+could never become great.
+
+"And those whose names end in '_sen_,'" she continued, "are all low
+people, and can never be of any consequence in the world. Ladies and
+gentlemen would put their hands on their sides, and keep them at a
+distance, these 'sen--sens!'" And she threw herself into the attitude
+she had described, and stuck her pretty little arms akimbo, to show
+how people of her grade would carry themselves in the presence of such
+common creatures. She really looked very pretty.
+
+But the merchant's little daughter became extremely angry. Her father
+was called "Madsen," and that name, she knew, ended in "sen;" so she
+said, as proudly as she could,--
+
+"But my father can buy hundreds of rix dollars' worth of sugar-plums,
+and think nothing of it. Can your father do that?"
+
+"That's all very well," said the little daughter of a popular
+journalist; "but my father can put both of your fathers and all
+'fathers' into the newspaper. Every one is afraid of him, my mother
+says; for it is my father who rules everything through the
+newspaper." And the little girl tossed her head and strutted about as
+if she thought herself a princess.
+
+But on the outside of the half-open door stood a poor little boy
+peeping in. It was, of course, out of the question that so poor a
+child should enter the drawing-room; but he had been turning the spit
+for the cook, and he had obtained permission to look in behind the
+door at the splendidly dressed children who were amusing themselves,
+and that was a treat to him.
+
+He would have liked to have been one of them, he thought; but at that
+moment he heard what had been said, and it was enough to make him very
+sad. Not one shilling had his parents at home to spare. They were not
+able to set up a newspaper, to say nothing of writing for one. And the
+worse was yet to come; for his father's name, and of course also his
+own name, certainly ended in "sen." He, therefore, could never become
+anybody in this world. This was very disheartening. Though he felt
+assured that he was _born_, it was impossible to think otherwise.
+
+This was what passed that evening.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Several years had elapsed, and during their course the children had
+grown up to be men and women.
+
+There stood in the town a handsome house, which was filled with
+magnificent objects of art. Every one went to see it. Even people who
+lived at a distance came to town to see it. Which prodigy, among the
+children we have spoken of, could call that edifice his or hers? It is
+easy to tell that. No; it is not so easy, after all. That house
+belonged to the poor little boy, who became somebody, although his
+name _did_ end in "sen."--THORWALDSEN!
+
+And the three other children--the children of high birth, money, and
+literary arrogance? Well; there is nothing to be said about them. They
+are all alike. They grew up to be all very respectable, comfortable,
+and commonplace. They were well-meaning people. What they had formerly
+said and thought was only--CHILDREN'S PRATTLE.
+
+
+
+
+_A Row of Pearls._
+
+
+I.
+
+The railroad in Denmark extends no farther as yet than from Copenhagen
+to Korsoer. It is a row of pearls. Europe has a wealth of these. Its
+most costly pearls are named Paris, London, Vienna, Naples; though
+many a one does not point out these great cities as his most beautiful
+pearl, but, on the contrary, names some small, by no means remarkable
+town, for it is _his_ home--the home where those he loves reside. Nay,
+sometimes it is but a country-seat--a small cottage hidden among green
+hedges--a mere spot that he hastens towards, while the railway train
+rushes on.
+
+How many pearls are there upon the line from Copenhagen to Korsoer? We
+will say six. Most people must remark these. Old remembrances and
+poetry itself bestow a radiance on these pearls, so that they shine in
+on our thoughts.
+
+Near the rising ground where the palace of Frederick VI. stands--the
+home of Ochlenschlaeger's childhood--shines, under the lee of
+Sondermarken's woody ground, one of these pearls. It is called the
+"Cottage of Philemon and Baucis;" that is to say, the home of two
+loving old people. Here dwelt Rahbek and his wife Camma; here, under
+their hospitable roof, were collected from the busy Copenhagen all the
+superior intellects of their day; here was the home of genius; and now
+say not, "Ah, how changed!" No; it is still the spirits' home--a
+hothouse for sickly plants. Buds that are not strong enough to expand
+into flowers, preserve, though hidden, all the germs of a luxuriant
+tree. Here the sun of mind shines in on a home of stagnant spirits,
+reviving and cheering it. The world around beams through the eyes into
+the soul's unfathomable depths. _The Idiot's Home_, surrounded by the
+love and kindness of human beings, is a holy place--a hothouse for
+those sickly plants that shall in future be transplanted to bloom in
+the garden of paradise. The weakest in the world are now gathered
+here, where once the greatest and the wisest met, exchanged thoughts,
+and were lifted upwards. Their memories will ever be associated with
+the "Cottage of Philemon and Baucis."
+
+The burial-place of kings by Hroar's spring--the ancient
+Roeskilde--lies before us. The cathedral's slender spires tower over
+the low town, and are reflected on the surface of the fiord. One grave
+alone shall we seek here; that shall not be the tomb of the mighty
+Margrethe--the union queen. No; within the churchyard, near whose
+white walls we have so closely flown, is the grave: a humble stone is
+laid over it. Here reposes the great organist--the reviver of the old
+Danish romances. With the melodies we can recall the words,--
+
+    "The clear waves rolled,"
+
+and
+
+    "There dwelt a king in Leire."[7]
+
+Roeskilde! thou burial-place of kings, in thy pearl we shall see the
+lonely grave on whose stone is chiselled a lyre and the name--WEYSE.
+
+[Footnote 7: Leire, the original residence of the Danish kings, said to
+have been founded by Skiold, a son of Odin, was, during the heathen ages, a
+place of note. It contained a large and celebrated temple for offerings, to
+which people thronged every ninth year, at the period of the great Yule
+feast, which was held annually in mid-winter, commencing on the 4th of
+January. In Norway this ancient festival was held in honour of Thor; in
+Denmark, in honour of Odin. Every ninth year the sacrifices were on a
+larger scale than usual, consisting then of ninety-nine horses, dogs, and
+cocks--human beings were also sometimes offered. When Christianity was
+established in Denmark the seat of royalty was transferred to Roeskilde,
+and Leire fell into total insignificance. It is now merely a village in
+Zealand.--_Trans._]
+
+Now come we to Sigersted, near Ringsted. The river is shallow--the
+yellow corn waves where Hagbarth's boat was moored, not far from
+Signe's maiden bower. Who does not know the tradition about
+Hagbarth[8] and Signelil, and their passionate love--that Hagbarth was
+hanged in the galley, while Signelil's tower stood in flames?
+
+[Footnote 8: Hagbarth, a son of the Norwegian king, Amund, and his
+three brothers, Hake, Helvin, and Hamund, scoured the seas with a
+hundred ships, and fell in with the king of Zealand's three sons,
+Sivald, Alf, and Alger. They attacked each other, and continued their
+bloody strife until a late hour at night. Next day they all found
+their ships so disabled that they could not renew the conflict.
+Thereupon they made friends, and the Norwegian princes or pirates
+accompanied the Zealanders to the court of their father, King Sigar.
+Here Hagbarth won the heart of the king's daughter Signe, and they
+became secretly engaged. Hildigeslev, a handsome German prince, was at
+that time her suitor; but she refused him, and in revenge he sowed
+discord between her lover and his brothers and her brothers. Alf and
+Alger murdered Hagbarth's brothers, Helvin and Hamund, but were killed
+in their turn by Hagbarth and Hake. After this deed Hagbarth dared not
+remain at Sigar's court; but he longed so much to be with Signe, that
+he dressed himself as a woman, and in this disguise he obtained
+admission to the palace, and contrived to be named one of her
+attendants. The damsels of her suite were much surprised at the
+hardness of the new waiting-maid's hands, and at other unfeminine
+peculiarities which they remarked; but Signe appointed him her
+especial attendant, and thus partially removed him from their
+troublesome curiosity. Fancying themselves safe, they relaxed their
+precautions. Hagbarth was discovered, secured, and carried before the
+_Thing_, or judicial assembly. Before he left her he received a
+promise from Signe that she would not survive him. He was condemned to
+death; to be hanged on board a galley, in view of Signe's dwelling. To
+prove her love and faith, he entreated that his mantle might be hung
+up first, in order, he said, that the sight of it might prepare him
+for his own death. It was done; and when Signe saw it she fancied her
+lover was dead, and instantly set fire to her abode. Hagbarth beheld
+the flames; and no longer doubting the constancy of the princess, he
+died rejoicing in following her to the other world.--_Trans._]
+
+"Beautiful Soroe, encircled by woods!" thy tranquil, cloistered town
+peeps forth from among thy moss-covered trees; the keen bright eyes of
+youth gaze from the academy, over the lake, to the busy highway, where
+the locomotive's dragon snorts, while it is flying through the wood.
+Soroe, thou poet's pearl, that hast in thy custody the honoured dust of
+Holberg! like a majestic white swan by the deep lake stands thy
+far-famed seat of learning. We fix our eyes on it, and then they
+wander in search of the simple star-flower in the wooded ground--a
+small house. Pious hymns are chanted there, that echo over the length
+and breadth of the land; words are uttered there to which the very
+rustics listen, and hear of Denmark's bygone ages. As the greenwood
+and the birds' songs belong to each other, so are associated the names
+of Soroe and INGEMANN.
+
+To Slagelse! What is the pearl that dazzles us here? The monastery of
+Antoorskov has vanished, even the last solitary remaining wing, though
+one old relic still exists--renovated and renovated again--a wooden
+cross upon the heights above, where, in legendary lore, it is said
+that HOLY ANDERS, the warrior priest, woke up, borne thither in one
+night from Jerusalem!
+
+Korsoer--there wert thou[9] born, who gave us
+
+    "Mirth with melancholy mingled,
+    In stories of 'Knud Sjaellandsfar.'"
+
+[Footnote 9: Jeus Baggesen.--_Trans._]
+
+Thou master of language and of wit! the old decaying ramparts of the
+deserted fortification are now the last visible mementos of thy
+childhood's home. When the sun is sinking, their shadows fall upon the
+spot where stood the house in which thine eyes first opened on the
+light. From these ramparts, looking towards Sprogoes hills, thou
+sawest, when thou "wert little,"
+
+    "The moon behind the island sink;"
+
+and sang it in undying verse, as afterwards thou didst sing the
+mountains of Switzerland; thou, who didst wander through the vast
+labyrinth of the world, and found that
+
+    "Nowhere do the roses seem so red--
+      Ah! nowhere else the thorn so small appears,
+    And nowhere makes the down so soft a bed,
+      As that where innocence reposed in bygone years!"
+
+Capricious, charming warbler! We will weave a wreath of woodbine. We
+will cast it into the waves, and they will bear it to Kielerfiord,
+upon whose coast thine ashes repose. It will bring a greeting from a
+younger race, a greeting from thy native town, Korsoer, where ends the
+row of pearls.
+
+
+II.
+
+"It is, truly enough, a row of pearls from Copenhagen to Korsoer," said
+my grandmother, who had heard read aloud what we have just been
+reading. "It is a row of pearls for me, and it was that more than
+forty years ago," she added. "We had no steam engines then. It took us
+days to make a journey which you can make now in a few hours. For
+instance, in 1815, I was then one-and-twenty years old. That is a
+pleasant age. Even up in the thirties it is also a pleasant age. In my
+young days it was much rarer than now to go to Copenhagen, the city of
+all cities, as we thought it. After twenty years' absence from it, my
+parents determined to visit it once more, and I was to accompany them.
+The journey had been projected and talked of for years. At length it
+was positively to be accomplished. I fancied that I was beginning
+quite a new life, and certainly, in one way, a new life did begin for
+me.
+
+"After a great deal of packing and preparations we were ready to
+start. Then what numbers of our neighbours came to bid us good-by! It
+was a very long journey we had before us. Shortly before mid-day we
+drove out of Odense in my father's Holstern wagon--a roomy carriage.
+Our acquaintances bowed to us from the windows of almost every house
+until we were outside of St. Joergen's Port. The weather was
+delightful, the birds were singing, all was pleasure. We forgot that
+it was a long way and a rough road to Nyborg. We reached that place
+towards evening. The post did not arrive till midnight, and until it
+came the packet could not sail. At length we went on board. Before us
+lay the wide waters, as far as the eye could see, and it was a dead
+calm. We lay down in our clothes and slept. When I awoke in the
+morning, and went on deck, nothing could be seen on either side of us,
+there was such a thick fog. I heard the cocks crowing, and I knew the
+sun must have risen. Bells were ringing: where could they be? The mist
+cleared away, and we found we were lying a little way from Nyborg. As
+the day advanced we had a little wind: it stiffened, and we got on
+faster. At last we were so fortunate, at a little after eleven o'clock
+at night, as to reach Korsoer. We had taken twenty-two hours to go
+sixteen miles.
+
+"Glad we were to land; but it was extremely dark, and the lanterns
+gave very little light. However, all was wonderful to me, who had
+never been in any other town but Odense.
+
+"'Here Baggesen was born,' said my father, 'and here Birckner lived.'
+
+"It seemed to me that the old town, with its small houses, became at
+once larger and more important. We were also rejoiced to have the firm
+earth under us once more; but I could not sleep that night, I was so
+excited thinking over all I had seen and encountered since I had left
+home two days before.
+
+"Next morning we rose early. We had before us a bad road, with
+frightful hills and many valleys, till we reached Slagelse; and beyond
+it, on the other side, it was but little better; therefore we were
+anxious to get to Krebsehuset, that we might early next day go on to
+Soroe, and visit Moellers Emil, as we called him. He was your
+grandfather, my worthy husband, the dean. He was then a student at
+Soroe, and very busy about his second examination.
+
+"Well, we arrived about noon at Krebsehuset. It was a gay little town
+then, and had the best inn on the road, and the prettiest country
+round it: you must all admit that it is pretty still. She was a very
+active landlady, Madame Plambek, and everything in her house was as
+clean as a new pin. There hung up on her wall a letter from Baggesen
+to her. It was framed, and had a glass over it; it was a very
+interesting object to look at, and to me it was quite a curiosity. We
+then went into Soroe, and found Emil there. You may believe he was very
+glad to see us, and we were very glad to see him--he was so good and
+so attentive. We went with him to see the church, with Absolon's grave
+and Holberg's coffin. We saw the old monkish inscriptions, and we
+sailed over the lake to Parnasset--the sweetest evening I remember. I
+recollect well that I thought, if one could write poetry anywhere in
+the world, it would be at Soroe, amidst those charming, peaceful
+scenes, where nature reigns in all her beauty. Afterwards we visited
+by moonlight the 'Philosopher's Walk,' as it was called--the
+beautiful, lonely path by the lake and the moor that leads towards the
+highway to Krebsehuset. Emil remained to supper with us, and my father
+and mother thought he had become very clever and very good-looking. He
+promised us that he would be in Copenhagen within a few days, and
+would join us there: it was then Whitsuntide. We were going to stay
+with his family. These hours at Soroe and Krebsehuset, may they not be
+deemed the most beautiful pearls of my life?
+
+"The next morning we commenced our journey at a very early hour, for
+we had a long way to go to reach Roeskilde, and we were anxious to get
+there in time to see the church. In the evening my father wished to
+visit an old friend, so we stopped at Roeskilde that night, and the
+next day we arrived at Copenhagen. It took us three days to go from
+Korsoer to Copenhagen; now the journey is made in three hours. The
+pearls have not become more valuable--that they could not be--but they
+are strung together in a new and wonderful manner. I remained three
+weeks with my parents in Copenhagen, and Emil was with us there for a
+fortnight. When we returned to Fyen, he accompanied us as far as
+Korsoer. There, before parting, we were betrothed; so you can well
+believe that _I_ call from Copenhagen to Korsoer a row of pearls.
+
+"Afterwards, when Emil and I were married, we often spoke of the
+journey to Copenhagen, and of undertaking it once more. But then came
+first your mother, then she had brothers and sisters, and there was a
+great deal to do; so the journey was put off. And when your
+grandfather got preferment, and was made dean, all was thankfulness
+and joy; but we never got to Copenhagen. No, never have I set foot in
+it again, as often as we thought of it and projected going. Now I am
+too old, and I could not stand travelling by a railroad; but I am very
+glad that there are railroads--they are a blessing to many. You can
+come more speedily to me; and Odense is now not farther from
+Copenhagen than in my young days it was from Nyborg. You could now go
+in almost the same space of time to Italy as it took us to travel to
+Copenhagen. Yes, that is something!
+
+"Nevertheless, I shall stay in one place, and let others travel and
+come to me if they please. But you should not laugh at me for keeping
+so quiet; I have a greater journey before me than any by the railroad.
+When it shall please our Lord, I have to travel up to your
+grandfather; and when you have finished your appointed time on earth,
+and enjoyed the blessings bestowed here by the Almighty, then I trust
+that you will ascend to us; and if we then revert to our earthly days,
+believe me, children, I shall say then as now, 'From Copenhagen to
+Korsoer is indeed A ROW OF PEARLS.'"
+
+
+
+
+_The Pen and the Inkstand._
+
+
+The following remark was made in a poet's room, as the speaker looked
+at the inkstand that stood upon his table:--
+
+"It is astonishing all that can come out of that inkstand! What will
+it produce next? Yes, it is wonderful!"
+
+"So it is!" exclaimed the inkstand. "It is incomprehensible! That is
+what I always say." It was thus the inkstand addressed itself to the
+pen, and to everything else that could hear it on the table. "It is
+really astonishing all that can come from me! It is almost incredible!
+I positively do not know myself what the next production may be, when
+a person begins to dip into me. One drop of me serves for half a side
+of paper; and what may not then appear upon it? I am certainly
+something extraordinary. From me proceed all the works of the poets.
+These animated beings, whom people think they recognise--these deep
+feelings, that gay humour, these charming descriptions of nature--I do
+not understand them myself, for I know nothing about nature; but still
+it is all in me. From me have gone forth, and still go forth, these
+warrior hosts, these lovely maidens, these bold knights on snorting
+steeds, those droll characters in humbler life. The fact is, however,
+that I do not know anything about them myself. I assure you they are
+not my ideas."
+
+"You are right there," replied the pen. "You have few ideas, and do
+not trouble yourself much with thinking. If you _did_ exert yourself
+to think, you would perceive that you ought to give something that was
+not dry. You supply me with the means of committing to paper what I
+have in me; I write with that. It is the pen that writes. Mankind do
+not doubt that; and most men have about as much genius for poetry as
+an old inkstand."
+
+"You have but little experience," said the inkstand. "You have
+scarcely been a week in use, and you are already half worn out. Do you
+fancy that you are a poet? You are only a servant; and I have had many
+of your kind before you came--many of the goose family, and of English
+manufacture. I know both quill pens and steel pens. I have had a great
+many in my service, and I shall have many more still, when he, the man
+who stirs me up, comes and puts down what he takes from me. I should
+like very much to know what will be the next thing he will take from
+me."
+
+Late in the evening the poet returned home. He had been at a concert,
+had heard a celebrated violin player, and was quite enchanted with his
+wonderful performance. It had been a complete gush of melody that he
+had drawn from the instrument. Sometimes it seemed like the gentle
+murmur of a rippling stream, sometimes like the singing of birds,
+sometimes like the tempest sweeping through the mighty pine forests.
+He fancied he heard his own heart weep, but in the sweet tones that
+can be heard in a woman's charming voice. It seemed as if not only the
+strings of the violin made music, but its bridge, its pegs, and its
+sounding-board. It was astonishing! The piece had been a most
+difficult one; but it seemed like play--as if the bow were but
+wandering capriciously over the strings. Such was the appearance of
+facility, that every one might have supposed he could do it. The
+violin seemed to sound of itself, the bow to play of itself. These two
+seemed to do it all. One forgot the master who guided them, who gave
+them life and soul. Yes, they forgot the master; but the poet thought
+of him. He named him, and wrote down his thoughts as follows:
+
+"How foolish it would be of the violin and the bow, were they to be
+vain of their performance! And yet this is what so often we of the
+human species are. Poets, artists, those who make discoveries in
+science, military and naval commanders--we are all proud of ourselves;
+and yet we are all only the instruments in our Lord's hands. To Him
+alone be the glory! We have nothing to arrogate to ourselves."
+
+This was what the poet wrote; and he headed it with, "The Master and
+the Instruments." When the inkstand and the pen were again alone, the
+latter said,--
+
+"Well, madam, you heard him read aloud what I had written."
+
+"Yes, what I gave you to write," said the inkstand. "It was a hit at
+you for your conceit. Strange that you cannot see that people make a
+fool of you! I gave you that hit pretty cleverly. I confess, though,
+it was rather malicious."
+
+"Ink-holder!" cried the pen.
+
+"Writing-stick!" cried the inkstand.
+
+They both felt assured that they had answered well; and it is a
+pleasant reflection that one has made a smart reply--one sleeps
+comfortably after it. And they both went to sleep; but the poet could
+not sleep. His thoughts welled forth like the tones from the violin,
+murmuring like a pearly rivulet, rushing like a storm through the
+forest. He recognised the feelings of his own heart--he perceived the
+gleam from the everlasting Master.
+
+To Him alone be the glory!
+
+
+
+
+_The Child in the Grave._
+
+
+There was sorrow in the house, there was sorrow in the heart; for the
+youngest child, a little boy of four years of age, the only son, his
+parents' present joy and future hope, was dead. Two daughters they
+had, indeed, older than their boy--the eldest was almost old enough to
+be confirmed--amiable, sweet girls they both were; but the lost child
+is always the dearest, and he was the youngest, and a son. It was a
+heavy trial. The sisters sorrowed as young hearts sorrow, and were
+much afflicted by their parents' grief; the father was weighed down by
+the affliction; but the mother was quite overwhelmed by the terrible
+blow. By night and by day had she devoted herself to her sick child,
+watched by him, lifted him, carried him about, done everything for him
+herself. She had felt as if he were a part of herself: she could not
+bring herself to believe that he was dead--that he should be laid in a
+coffin, and concealed in the grave. God would not take that child from
+her--O no! And when he was taken, and she could no longer refuse to
+believe the truth, she exclaimed in her wild grief,--
+
+"God has not ordained this! He has heartless agents here on earth.
+They do what they list--they hearken not to a mother's prayers!"
+
+She dared in her woe to arraign the Most High; and then came dark
+thoughts, the thoughts of death--everlasting death--that human beings
+returned as earth to earth, and then all was over. Amidst thoughts
+morbid and impious as these were there could be nothing to console
+her, and she sank into the darkest depth of despair.
+
+In these hours of deepest distress she could not weep. She thought not
+of the young daughters who were left to her; her husband's tears fell
+on her brow, but she did not look up at him; her thoughts were with
+her dead child; her whole heart and soul were wrapped up in recalling
+every reminiscence of the lost one--every syllable of his infantine
+prattle.
+
+The day of the funeral came. She had not slept the night before, but
+towards morning she was overcome by fatigue, and sank for a short time
+into repose. During that time the coffin was removed into another
+apartment, and the cover was screwed down with as little noise as
+possible.
+
+When she awoke she rose, and wished to see her child; then her
+husband, with tears in his eyes, told her, "We have closed the
+coffin--it had to be done!"
+
+"When the Almighty is so hard on me," she exclaimed, "why should human
+beings be kinder?" and she burst into tears.
+
+The coffin was carried to the grave. The inconsolable mother sat with
+her young daughters; she looked at them, but she did not see them;
+her thoughts had nothing more to do with home; she gave herself up to
+wretchedness, and it tossed her about as the sea tosses the ship which
+has lost its helmsman and its rudder. Thus passed the day of the
+funeral, and several days followed amidst the same uniform, heavy
+grief. With tearful eyes and melancholy looks her afflicted family
+gazed at her. She did not care for what comforted them. What could
+they say to change the current of her mournful thoughts?
+
+It seemed as if sleep had fled from her for ever; it alone would be
+her best friend, strengthen her frame, and recall peace to her mind.
+Her family persuaded her to keep her bed, and she lay there as still
+as if buried in sleep. One night her husband had listened to her
+breathing, and believing from it that she had at length found repose
+and relief, he clasped his hands, prayed for her and for them all,
+then sank himself into peaceful slumber. While sleeping soundly he did
+not perceive that she rose, dressed herself, and softly left the room
+and the house, to go--whither her thoughts wandered by day and by
+night--to the grave that hid her child. She passed quietly through the
+garden, out to the fields, beyond which the road led outside of the
+town to the churchyard. No one saw her, and she saw no one.
+
+It was a fine night; the stars were shining brightly, and the air was
+mild, although it was the 1st of September. She entered the
+churchyard, and went to the little grave; it looked like one great
+bouquet of sweet-scented flowers. She threw herself down, and bowed
+her head over the grave, as if she could through the solid earth
+behold her little boy, whose smile she remembered so vividly. The
+affectionate expression of his eyes, even upon his sick bed, was
+never, never to be forgotten. How speaking had not his glance been
+when she had bent over him, and taken the little hand he was himself
+too weak to raise! As she had sat by his couch, so now she sat by his
+grave; but here her tears might flow freely over the sod that covered
+him.
+
+"Wouldst thou descend to thy child?" said a voice close by. It sounded
+so clear, so deep--its tones went to her heart. She looked up, and
+near her stood a man wrapped in a large mourning cloak, with a hood
+drawn over the head; but she could see the countenance under this. It
+was severe, and yet encouraging, his eyes were bright as those of
+youth.
+
+"Descend to my child!" she repeated; and there was the agony of
+despair in her voice.
+
+"Darest thou follow me?" asked the figure. "I am Death!"
+
+She bowed her assent. Then it seemed all at once as if every star in
+the heavens above shone with the light of the moon. She saw the
+many-coloured flowers on the surface of the grave move like a
+fluttering garment. She sank, and the figure threw his dark cloak
+round her. It became night--the night of death. She sank deeper than
+the sexton's spade could reach. The churchyard lay like a roof above
+her head.
+
+The cloak that had enveloped her glided to one side. She stood in an
+immense hall, whose extremities were lost in the distance. It was dusk
+around her; but before her stood, and in one moment was clasped to her
+heart, her child, who smiled on her in beauty far surpassing what he
+had possessed before. She uttered a cry, though it was scarcely
+audible, for close by, and then far away, and afterwards near again,
+came delightful music. Never before had such glorious, such blessed
+sounds reached her ear. They rang from the other side of the thick
+curtain--black as night--that separated the hall from the boundless
+space of eternity.
+
+"My sweet mother! my own mother!" she heard her child exclaim. It was
+his well-known, most beloved voice. And kiss followed kiss in
+rapturous joy. At length the child pointed to the sable curtain.
+
+"There is nothing so charming up yonder on earth, mother. Look,
+mother!--look at them all! That is felicity!"
+
+The mother saw nothing--nothing in the direction to which the child
+pointed, except darkness like that of night. _She_ saw with earthly
+eyes. She did not see as did the child whom God had called to himself.
+She heard, indeed, sounds--music; but she did not understand the words
+that were conveyed in these exquisite tones.
+
+"I can fly now, mother," said the child. "I can fly with all the other
+happy children, away, even into the presence of God. I wish so much to
+go; but if you cry on as you are crying now I cannot leave you, and
+yet I should be so glad to go. May I not? You will come back soon,
+will you not, dear mother?"
+
+"Oh, stay! Oh, stay!" she cried, "only one moment more. Let me gaze on
+you one moment longer; let me kiss you, and hold you a moment longer
+in my arms."
+
+And she kissed him, and held him fast. Then her name was called from
+above--the tones were those of piercing grief. What could they be?
+
+"Hark!" said the child; "it is my father calling on you."
+
+And again, in a few seconds, deep sobs were heard, as of children
+weeping.
+
+"These are my sisters' voices," said the child. "Mother, you have
+surely not forgotten them?"
+
+Then she remembered those who were left behind. A deep feeling of
+anxiety pervaded her mind; she gazed intently before her, and spectres
+seemed to hover around her; she fancied that she knew some of them;
+they floated through the Hall of Death, on towards the dark curtain,
+and there they vanished. Would her husband, her daughters, appear
+there? No; their lamentations were still to be heard from above. She
+had nearly forgotten them for the dead.
+
+"Mother, the bells of heaven are ringing," said the child. "Now the
+sun is about to rise."
+
+And an overwhelming, blinding light streamed around her. The child was
+gone, and she felt herself lifted up. She raised her head, and saw
+that she was lying in the churchyard, upon the grave of her child. But
+in her dream God had become a prop for her feet, and a light to her
+mind. She threw herself on her knees and prayed:--
+
+"Forgive me, O Lord my God, that I wished to detain an everlasting
+soul from its flight into eternity, and that I forgot my duties to the
+living Thou hast graciously spared to me!"
+
+And as she uttered this prayer it appeared as if her heart felt
+lightened of the burden that had crushed it. Then the sun broke forth
+in all its splendour, a little bird sang over her head, and all the
+church bells around began to ring the matin chimes. All seemed holy
+around her; her heart seemed to have drunk in faith and holiness; she
+acknowledged the might and the mercy of God; she remembered her
+duties, and felt a longing to regain her home. She hurried thither,
+and leaning over her still sleeping husband, she awoke him with the
+touch of her warm lips on his cheek. Her words were those of love and
+consolation, and in a tone of mild resignation she exclaimed,--
+
+"God's will is always the best!"
+
+Her husband and her daughters were astonished at the change in her,
+and her husband asked her,--
+
+"Where did you so suddenly acquire this strength--this pious
+resignation?"
+
+And she smiled on him and her daughters as she replied,--
+
+"I derived it from God, by the grave of my child."
+
+
+
+
+_Charming._
+
+
+The sculptor Alfred--surely you know him? We all know him. He used to
+engrave gold medallions; went to Italy, and returned again. He was
+young then; indeed, he is young now, though about half a score of
+years older than he was at that time.
+
+He returned home, and went on a visit to one of the small towns in
+Zealand. The whole community knew of the arrival of the stranger, and
+who he was. There was a party given on his account by one of the
+richest families in the place; every one who was anybody, or had
+anything, was invited; it was quite an event, and the whole town heard
+of it without beat of drum. A good many apprentice boys and poor
+people's children, with a few of their parents, ranged themselves
+outside, and looked at the windows with their drawn blinds, through
+which a blaze of light was streaming. The watchman might have fancied
+he had a party himself, so many people occupied his quarters in the
+street. They all seemed merry on the outside; and in the inside of the
+house everything was pleasant, for Herr Alfred, the sculptor, was
+there.
+
+He talked, and he told anecdotes, and every one present listened to
+him with pleasure and deep attention, but no one with more eagerness
+than an elderly widow of good standing in society; and she was, in
+reference to all that Herr Alfred said, like a blank sheet of
+whity-brown paper, that quickly sucks the sweet things in, and is
+ready for more. She was very susceptible, and totally ignorant--quite
+a female Caspar Hauser.
+
+"I should like to see Rome," said she. "That must be a charming town,
+with the numerous strangers that go there. Describe Rome to us now.
+How does it look as you enter the gate?"
+
+"It is not easy to describe Rome," said the young sculptor. "It is a
+very large place; in the centre of it stands an obelisk, which is four
+thousand years old."
+
+"An organist!" exclaimed the astonished lady, who had never before
+heard the word _obelisk_.
+
+Many of the party could scarcely refrain from laughing, and among the
+rest the sculptor. But the satirical smile that was gathering round
+his mouth glided into one of pleasure; for he saw, close to the lady,
+a pair of large eyes, blue as the sea. They appertained to the
+daughter of the talkative dame, and when one had such a daughter one
+could not be altogether ridiculous. The mother was like a bubbling
+fountain of questions, constantly pouring forth; the daughter like the
+fountain's beautiful naiad, listening to its murmurs. How lovely she
+was! She was something worth a sculptor's while to gaze at; but not to
+converse with; and she said nothing, at least very little.
+
+"Has the Pope a great family?" asked the widow.
+
+And the young man answered as if the question might have been better
+worded,--
+
+"No, he is not of a high family."
+
+"I don't mean that," said the lady; "I mean has he a wife and
+children?"
+
+"The Pope dare not marry," he replied.
+
+"I don't approve of that," said the lady.
+
+She could scarcely have spoken more foolishly, or asked sillier
+questions; but what did all that signify when her daughter looked over
+her shoulder with that most winning smile?
+
+Herr Alfred talked of the brilliant skies of Italy, and its
+cloud-capped hills; the blue Mediterranean; the soft South; the beauty
+which could only be rivalled by the blue eyes of the females of the
+North. And this was said pointedly; but she who ought to have
+understood it did not allow it to be seen that she had detected any
+compliment in his words, and this was also charming.
+
+"Italy!" sighed some. "Travelling!" sighed others. "Charming,
+charming!"
+
+"Well, when I win the fifty-thousand-dollar prize in the lottery,"
+said the widow, "we shall set off on our travels too--my daughter and
+I; and you, Herr Alfred, shall be our escort. We shall all three go,
+and a few other friends will go with us, I hope;" and she bowed
+invitingly to them all round, so that each individual might have
+thought, "It is I she wishes to accompany her." "Yes, we will go to
+Italy, but not where the robbers are; we will stay in Rome, or only go
+by the great high roads, where people are safe, of course."
+
+And the daughter heaved a gentle sigh. How much can there not lie in
+a slight sigh, or be supposed to lie in it! The young man put a world
+of feeling into it; the two blue eyes that had beamed on him that
+evening concealed the treasure--the treasure of heart and of mind,
+richer far than all the glories of Rome; and when he left the party he
+was over head and ears in love with the widow's pretty daughter.
+
+The widow's house became the house of all others most visited by Herr
+Alfred, the sculptor. People knew that it could not be for the
+mother's sake he sought it so often, although he and she were always
+the speakers; it must be for the daughter's sake he went. She was
+called Kala, though christened Karen Malene: the two names had been
+mutilated, and thrown together into the one appellation, _Kala_. She
+was very beautiful, but rather silly, some people hinted, and rather
+indolent. She was certainly a very late riser in the morning.
+
+"She has been accustomed to that from her childhood," said her mother.
+"She has always been such a little Venus that she was scarcely ever
+found fault with. She is not a very early riser, but to this she owes
+her fine clear eyes."
+
+What power there was in these clear eyes--these swimming blue eyes!
+The young man felt it. He told anecdote upon anecdote, and answered
+question after question; and mamma always asked the same lively,
+sensible, pertinent questions as she had asked at first.
+
+It was a pleasure to hear Herr Alfred speak. He described Naples, the
+ascent of Mount Vesuvius, and several of its eruptions; and the widow
+lady, who had never heard of them before, was lost in surprise.
+
+"Mercy on us!" she exclaimed; "then it is a volcano? Does it ever do
+any harm to anybody?"
+
+"It has destroyed entire towns," he replied: "Pompeii and
+Herculaneum."
+
+"But the poor inhabitants! Did you see it yourself?"
+
+"No, not either of these eruptions, but I have a sketch taken by
+myself of an eruption which I did witness."
+
+Then he selected from his portfolio a sketch done with a black-lead
+pencil; but mamma, who delighted in highly-coloured pictures, looked
+at the pale sketch, and exclaimed in amazement,--
+
+"You saw it gush out white?"
+
+Mamma got into Herr Alfred's black books for a few minutes, and he
+felt profound contempt for her; but the light from Kala's eyes soon
+dispelled his gloom. He bethought him that her mother had no knowledge
+of drawing, that was all; but she had what was far better--she had the
+sweet, beautiful Kala.
+
+As might have been expected, Alfred and Kala became engaged, and their
+betrothal was announced in the newspaper of the town. Mamma bought
+thirty copies of it, that she might cut the paragraphs out, and
+inclose them to various friends. The betrothed pair were very happy,
+and so was the mamma: she felt almost as proud as if her family were
+going to be connected with Thorwaldsen.
+
+"You are his successor at any rate," she said; and Alfred thought that
+she had said something very clever. Kala said nothing, but her eyes
+brightened, and a lovely smile played around her well-formed mouth.
+Every movement of hers was graceful: she was very beautiful--that
+cannot be said too often.
+
+Alfred was making busts of Kala and her mother: they sat for him, and
+saw how with his finger he smoothed and moulded the soft clay.
+
+"It is a compliment to us," said his mother-in-law elect, "that you
+condescend to do that simple work yourself, instead of letting your
+men dab all that for you."
+
+"No; it is absolutely necessary that I should do this myself in the
+clay," he replied.
+
+"Oh! you are always so exceedingly gallant!" said mamma; and Kala
+gently pressed his hand, to which pieces of clay were sticking.
+
+He discoursed to them about the magnificence of Nature in its
+creations, the superiority of the living over the dead, plants over
+minerals, animals over plants, human beings over mere animals; how
+mind and beauty manifested themselves through form, and that the
+sculptor sought to bestow on his forms of clay the greatest possible
+beauty and expression.
+
+Kala remained silent, revolving his words. Her mother said,
+
+"It is difficult to follow you; but though my thoughts go slowly, I
+hold fast what I hear."
+
+And the power of beauty held him fast; it had subdued him--entranced
+and enslaved him. Kala's beauty certainly was extraordinary; it was
+enthroned in every feature of her face, in her whole figure, even to
+the points of her fingers. The sculptor was bewildered by it; he
+thought only of her--spoke only of her; and his fancy endowed her with
+all perfection.
+
+Then came the wedding-day, with the bridal gifts and the
+bride's-maids; and the marriage ceremony was duly performed. His
+mother-in-law had placed in the room where the bridal party assembled
+the bust of Thorwaldsen, enveloped in a dressing-gown. "He ought to be
+a guest, according to her idea," she said. Songs were sung, and
+healths were drunk. It was a handsome wedding, and they were a
+handsome couple. "Pygmalion got his Galathea" was a line in one of the
+songs.
+
+"That was something from mythology," remarked the widow.
+
+The following day the young couple started for Copenhagen, where they
+intended to reside; and the mamma accompanied them, to give them a
+helping hand, she said, which meant to take charge of the house. Kala
+was to be a mere doll. Everything was new, bright, and charming. There
+they settled themselves all three; and Alfred, what can be said of
+him, only that he was like a bishop among a flock of geese?
+
+The magic of beauty had infatuated him. He had gazed upon the case,
+and not thought of what was in it; and this is unfortunate, very
+unfortunate, in the marriage state. When the case decays, and the
+gilding rubs off, one then begins to repent of one's bargain. It was
+very mortifying to Alfred that in society neither his wife nor his
+mother-in-law was capable of entering into general conversation--that
+they said very silly things, which, with all his wittiest efforts, he
+could not cover.
+
+How often the young couple sat hand in hand, and he spoke, and she
+dropped a word now and then, always in the same tone, like a clock
+striking one, two, three! It was quite a relief when Sophie, a female
+friend, came.
+
+Sophie was not very pretty; she was slightly awry, Kala said; but this
+was not perceptible except to her female friends. Kala allowed that
+she was clever. It never occurred to her that her talents might make
+her dangerous. She came like fresh air into a close, confined puppet
+show; and fresh air is always pleasant. After a time the young couple
+and the mother-in-law went to breathe the soft air of Italy. Their
+wishes were fulfilled.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Thank Heaven, we are at home again!" exclaimed both the mother and
+the daughter, when, the following year, they and Alfred returned to
+Denmark.
+
+"There is no pleasure in travelling," said the mamma; "on the
+contrary, it is very fatiguing--excuse my saying so. I was excessively
+tired, notwithstanding that I had my children with me. And travelling
+is extremely expensive. What hosts of galleries you have to see! What
+quantities of things to be rushing after! And you are so teased with
+questions when you come home, as if it were possible to know
+everything. And then to hear that you have just forgotten to see what
+was most charming! I am sure I was quite tired of these everlasting
+Madonnas; one was almost turned into a Madonna one's self."
+
+"And the living was so bad," said Kala.
+
+"Not a single spoonful of honest meat soup," rejoined the mamma. "They
+dress the victuals so absurdly."
+
+Kala was much fatigued after her journey. She continued very languid,
+and did not seem to rally--that was the worst of it. Sophie came to
+stay with them, and she was extremely useful.
+
+The mother-in-law allowed that Sophie understood household affairs
+well, and had many accomplishments, which she, with her fortune, had
+no need to trouble herself about; and she confessed, also, that Sophie
+was very estimable and kind. She could not help seeing this when Kala
+was lying ill, without making the slightest exertion in any way.
+
+If there be nothing but the case or framework, when it gives way it is
+all over with the case. And the case had given way. Kala died.
+
+"She was charming!" said her mother. "She was very different from all
+these antiquities that are half mutilated. Kala was a perfect beauty!"
+
+Alfred wept, and his mother-in-law wept, and they both went into
+mourning. The mamma went into the deepest mourning, and she wore her
+mourning longest. She also retained her sorrow the longest; in fact,
+she remained weighed down with grief until Alfred married again. He
+took Sophie, who had nothing to boast of in respect to outward charms.
+
+"He has gone to the other extremity," said his mother-in-law; "passed
+from the most beautiful to the ugliest. He has found it possible to
+forget his first wife. There is no constancy in man. My husband,
+indeed, was different; but he died before me."
+
+"Pygmalion got his Galathea," said Alfred. "These words were in the
+bridal song. I certainly did fall in love with the beautiful statue
+that became imbued with life in my arms. But the kindred soul, which
+Heaven sends us, one of those angels who can feel with us, think with
+us, raise us when we are sinking, I have now found and won. You have
+come, Sophie, not as a beautiful form, fascinating the eye, but
+prettier, more pleasing than was necessary. You excel in the main
+point. You have come and taught the sculptor that his work is but
+clay--dust; only a copy of the outer shell of the kernel we ought to
+seek. Poor Kala! her earthly life was but like a short journey. Yonder
+above, where those who sympathise shall be gathered together, she and
+I will probably be almost strangers."
+
+"That is not a kind speech," said Sophie; "it is not a Christian one.
+Up yonder, where 'they neither marry nor are given in marriage,' but,
+as you say, where spirits shall meet in sympathy--there, where all
+that is beautiful shall unfold and improve, her soul may perhaps
+appear so glorious in its excellence that it may far outshine mine and
+yours. You may then again exclaim, as you did in the first excitement
+of your earthly admiration, 'Charming--charming!'"
+
+
+THE END.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sand-Hills of Jutland, by
+Hans Christian Andersen
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