Page:Fairy tales from Hans Christian Andersen (Walker).djvu/288

246 This had been done by the strangers for love of his father. Early next morning John packed his little bundle and stowed away his sole inheritance in his belt; it only consisted of fifty dollars and a few silver coins, and with these he started out into the world. But first he went to the churchyard to his father's grave, where he knelt and said the Lord's prayer, and then added, "Farewell, dear father! I will always be good, and then you won't be afraid to pray to the good God that all may go well with me!"

The fields that John passed through were full of bright flowers nodding their heads in the warm sunshine as much as to say, "Welcome into the fields! Is it not lovely here?" but John turned round once more to look at the old church where he had been baptized, and where he had gone every Sunday and sung the psalms with his good old father. On looking back he saw standing in one of the loopholes of the tower the little church-Nissé with his pointed red cap, shading his eyes from the sun with his arm. John nodded good-bye to him, and the little Nissé waved his hand and kissed his fingers to him to show that he was sending his good wishes for a pleasant journey.

John now began to think how many beautiful things he would see in the great beautiful world before him, and he went on and on till he found himself much farther away than he had ever been before. He did not know the towns through which he passed, or the people he met; he was quite among strangers. The first night he had to sleep under a haystack in a field, for he had no other bed. But he thought it was lovely; no king could have had a better. The field by the river, the haystack, and the deep-blue sky above made a charming room. The green grass dotted with red and white flowers was the carpet, the elders and the rosebushes were growing bouquets, and he had the whole river for a bath, with its clear fresh water, and the rushes which nodded their heads bidding him both "Good-night" and "Good-morning." The moon was a great night