Page:Fairy tales and stories (Andersen, Tegner).djvu/161

Rh so much and I could see it all before me, while the rain was pouring down and I was standing there with the dust-bin. Just then some one put his arm round my waist---' "'Yes, and you gave him such a box on the ear, that it sent him flying!' "'Well, I did n't know it was you! You had arrived as early as your letter; and you looked so handsome, — of course, you are so still, — you had a long, yellow-silk handkerchief in your breast-pocket and a black, glazed hat! You were so grand! But, gracious me, what terrible weather it was, and what a state the streets were in!' "'Then we got married!' he said; 'do you remember? And then our first little boy came, and then Marie, and Nils, and Peter, and Hans Christian!' "'Yes, and all of them have now grown up and become respectable people, whom everybody likes!'

"'And then their children again; and they have little ones too!' said the old sailor. 'Yes, they are great-grandchildren, and chips of the old block! But it seems to me it was about this time of the year we were married!' "'Yes, this is the day of your golden wedding!' said elder-tree mother, as she put her head straight in between the two old people, and they thought it was the neighbor's wife who nodded to them ; and they looked at one another and took each other by the hand. Soon after came their children and grandchildren, who all knew it was the golden-wedding day; they had already been there in the morning to offer their congratulations, but the old people had forgotten that, although they remembered so well everything that had happened many years ago. The elder-tree smelled so sweetly and the sun, which was setting, shone right into the faces of the old people, which were quite fresh and ruddy, and the youngest of the grandchildren danced around them and shouted gleefully that to-night there would be great doings — that they were going to have hot potatoes! And elder-tree mother in the tree nodded her head and shouted 'hurrah!' with all the others." "But that is not a fairy tale!" said the little boy, who had been listening to it. "Well, you ought to know!" said the old man, who had been telling the story; "but let us ask elder-tree mother!"

"That was not a fairy tale!" said elder-tree mother, "but now it is coming! Out of real lite grow the most wonderful fairy tales; otherwise my beautiful elder-tree could not have sprung from the tea-urn." And then she took the little boy out of bed and held him to her bosom, and the elder-tree branches, which were full of blossoms, closed around them, till at last they seemed to sit in an arbor, thickly covered with leaves and flowers — and away it flew with them through the air. What a delightful