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across and help the old woman, won t you?
So Tuk ran over quickly and helped her; but when he
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came back again into the room it was quite dark, and as to Danish militia.
a light, there was no thought of such a thing. He was now to  Kribledy, krabledy plump! down fell somebody: it was
go to bed; that was an old turn-up bedstead; in it he lay and a wooden bird, the popinjay used at the shooting-matches
thought about his geography lesson, and of Zealand, and at Prastoe. Now he said that there were just as many inhab-
of all that his master had told him. He ought, to be sure, itants as he had nails in his body; and he was very proud.
to have read over his lesson again, but that, you know, he  Thorwaldsen lived almost next door to me.* Plump! Here
could not do. He therefore put his geography-book under I lie capitally.
his pillow, because he had heard that was a very good thing * Prastoe, a still smaller town than Kjoge. Some hundred
to do when one wants to learn one s lesson; but one can- paces from it lies the manor-house Ny Soe, where Thor-
not, however, rely upon it entirely. Well, there he lay, and waldsen, the famed sculptor, generally sojourned during
thought and thought, and all at once it was just as if some- his stay in Denmark, and where he called many of his im-
one kissed his eyes and mouth: he slept, and yet he did not mortal works into existence.
sleep; it was as though the old washerwoman gazed on him But little Tuk was no longer lying down: all at once he
with her mild eyes and said,  It were a great sin if you were was on horseback. On he went at full gallop, still galloping
not to know your lesson tomorrow morning. You have aid- on and on. A knight with a gleaming plume, and most mag-
ed me, I therefore will now help you; and the loving God nificently dressed, held him before him on the horse, and
will do so at all times. And all of a sudden the book under thus they rode through the wood to the old town of Bor-
Tuk s pillow began scraping and scratching. dingborg, and that was a large and very lively town. High
 Kickery-ki! kluk! kluk! kluk!  that was an old hen who towers rose from the castle of the king, and the brightness
came creeping along, and she was from Kjoge.  I am a Kjoger of many candles streamed from all the windows; within
hen, * said she, and then she related how many inhabitants was dance and song, and King Waldemar and the young,
there were there, and about the battle that had taken place, richly-attired maids of honor danced together. The morn
and which, after all, was hardly worth talking about. now came; and as soon as the sun appeared, the whole town
* Kjoge, a town in the bay of Kjoge.  To see the Kjoge and the king s palace crumbled together, and one tower
hens, is an expression similar to  showing a child London, after the other; and at last only a single one remained stand-
which is said to be done by taking his head in both bands, ing where the castle had been before,* and the town was so
and so lifting him off the ground. At the invasion of the small and poor, and the school boys came along with their
English in 1807, an encounter of a no very glorious nature books under their arms, and said,  2000 inhabitants! but
took place between the British troops and the undisciplined that was not true, for there were not so many.
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* Bordingborg, in the reign of King Waldemar, a consid- ed fountains in thick streams of water, so that there was a
erable place, now an unimportant little town. One solitary continual splashing; and close beside them sat an old king
tower only, and some remains of a wall, show where the cas- with a golden crown upon his white head: that was King
tle once stood. Hroar, near the fountains, close to the town of Roeskilde,
And little Tukey lay in his bed: it seemed to him as if as it is now called. And up the slope into the old church
he dreamed, and yet as if he were not dreaming; however, went all the kings and queens of Denmark, hand in hand,
somebody was close beside him. all with their golden crowns; and the organ played and the
 Little Tukey! Little Tukey! cried someone near. It was a fountains rustled. Little Tuk saw all, heard all.  Do not for-
seaman, quite a little personage, so little as if he were a mid- get the diet, said King Hroar.*
shipman; but a midshipman it was not. * Roeskilde, once the capital of Denmark. The town takes
 Many remembrances from Corsor.* That is a town that its name from King Hroar, and the many fountains in the
is just rising into importance; a lively town that has steam- neighborhood. In the beautiful cathedral the greater num-
boats and stagecoaches: formerly people called it ugly, but ber of the kings and queens of Denmark are interred. In
that is no longer true. I lie on the sea, said Corsor;  I have Roeskilde, too, the members of the Danish Diet assemble.
high roads and gardens, and I have given birth to a poet Again all suddenly disappeared. Yes, and whither? It
who was witty and amusing, which all poets are not. I once seemed to him just as if one turned over a leaf in a book.
intended to equip a ship that was to sail all round the earth; And now stood there an old peasant-woman, who came
but I did not do it, although I could have done so: and then, from Soroe,* where grass grows in the market-place. She had
too, I smell so deliciously, for close before the gate bloom an old grey linen apron hanging over her head and back: it
the most beautiful roses. was so wet, it certainly must have been raining.  Yes, that it
* Corsor, on the Great Belt, called, formerly, before the has, said she; and she now related many pretty things out of
introduction of steam-vessels, when travellers were often Holberg s comedies, and about Waldemar and Absalon; but
obliged to wait a long time for a favorable wind,  the most all at once she cowered together, and her head began shak-
tiresome of towns. The poet Baggesen was born here. ing backwards and forwards, and she looked as she were
Little Tuk looked, and all was red and green before his going to make a spring.  Croak! croak! said she.  It is wet, it
eyes; but as soon as the confusion of colors was somewhat is wet; there is such a pleasant deathlike stillness in Sorbe!
over, all of a sudden there appeared a wooded slope close to She was now suddenly a frog,  Croak ; and now she was an
the bay, and high up above stood a magnificent old church, old woman.  One must dress according to the weather, said
with two high pointed towers. From out the hill-side spout- she.  It is wet; it is wet. My town is just like a bottle; and one [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]