(1853)
The region round the little town of Kjøge is very bleak and cold. The
town lies on the sea shore, which is always beautiful; but here it might be
more beautiful than it is, for on every side the fields are flat, and it is a long
way to the forest. But when persons reside in a place and get used to it, they
can always find something beautiful in it,-something for which they long,
even in the most charming spot in the world which is not home. It must be
owned that there are in the outskirts of the town some humble gardens on
the banks of a little stream that runs on towards the sea, and in summer
these gardens look very pretty. Such indeed was the opinion of two little
children, whose parents were neighbors, and who played in these gardens,
and forced their way from one garden to the other through the gooseberry-
bushes that divided them. In one of the gardens grew an elder-tree, and in
the other an old willow, under which the children were very fond of
playing. They had permission to do so, although the tree stood close by the
stream, and they might easily have fallen into the water; but the eye of God
watches over the little ones, otherwise they would never be safe. At the
same time, these children were very careful not to go too near the water;
indeed, the boy was so afraid of it, that in the summer, while the other
children were splashing about in the sea, nothing could entice him to join
them. They jeered and laughed at him, and he was obliged to bear it all as
patiently as he could. Once the neighbor’s little girl, Joanna, dreamed that
she was sailing in a boat, and the boy-Knud was his name-waded out in the
water to join her, and the water came up to his neck, and at last closed over
his head, and in a moment he had disappeared. When little Knud heard this
dream, it seemed as if he could not bear the mocking and jeering again; how
could he dare to go into the water now, after Joanna’s dream! He never
would do it, for this dream always satisfied him. The parents of these
children, who were poor, often sat together while Knud and Joanna played
