the manor-house they heard during the storm the screaming of rooks and
crows, beating their wings against the windows.
“Now I suppose you are happy, Larsen,” said the master: “the storm has
felled the trees, and the birds have gone off to the woods; there is nothing
left from the good old days; it is all gone, and we are very sorry for it.”
The gardener said nothing, but he thought of what he long had turned
over in his mind, how he could make that pretty sunny spot very useful, so
that it could become an ornament to the garden and a pride to the family.
The great trees which had been blown down had shattered the venerable
hedge of box, that was cut into fanciful shapes.
Here he set out a multitude of plants that were not to be seen in other
gardens. He made an earthen wall, on which he planted all sorts of native
flowers from the fields and woods. What no other gardener had ever
thought of planting in the manor-garden he planted, giving each its
appropriate soil, and the plants were in sunlight or shadow according as
each species required. He cared tenderly for them, and they grew up finely.
The juniper-tree from the heaths of Jutland rose in shape and color like the
Italian cypress; the shining, thorny Christ-thorn, as green in the winter’s
cold as in the summer’s sun, was splendid to see. In the foreground grew
ferns of various species: some of them looked as if they were children of the
palm-tree; others, as if they were parents of the pretty plants called “Venus’s
golden locks” or “Maiden-hair.” Here stood the despised burdock, which is
so beautiful in its freshness that it looks well even in a bouquet. The
burdock stood in a dry place, but below in the moist soil grew the colt’s-
foot, also a despised plant, but yet most picturesque, with its tall stem and
large leaf. Like a candelabrum with a multitude of branches six feet high,
and with flower over against flower, rose the mullein, a mere field plant.
Here stood the woodroof and the lily of the valley, the wild calla and the
fine three-leaved wood-sorrel. It was a wonder to see all this beauty!
In the front grew in rows very small peartrees from French soil, trained
on wires. By plenty of sun and good care they soon bore as juicy fruits as in
their own country. Instead of the two old leafless trees was placed a tall
