At length he become a journeyman; and then, for the first time, he
prepared for a journey to Copenhagen, with his knapsack packed and ready.
A master was expecting him there, and he thought of Joanna, and how glad
she would be to see him. She was now seventeen, and he nineteen years old.
He wanted to buy a gold ring for her in Kjøge, but then he recollected how
far more beautiful such things would be in Copenhagen. So he took leave of
his parents, and on a rainy day, late in the autumn, wandered forth on foot
from the town of his birth. The leaves were falling from the trees; and, by
the time he arrived at his new master’s in the great metropolis, he was wet
through. On the following Sunday he intended to pay his first visit to
Joanna’s father. When the day came, the new journeyman’s clothes were
brought out, and a new hat, which he had brought in Kjøge. The hat became
him very well, for hitherto he had only worn a cap. He found the house that
he sought easily, but had to mount so many stairs that he became quite
giddy; it surprised him to find how people lived over one another in this
dreadful town.
On entering a room in which everything denoted prosperity, Joanna’s
father received him very kindly. The new wife was a stranger to him, but
she shook hands with him, and offered him coffee.
“Joanna will be very glad to see you,” said her father. “You have grown
quite a nice young man, you shall see her presently; she is a good child, and
is the joy of my heart, and, please God, she will continue to be so; she has
her own room now, and pays us rent for it.” And the father knocked quite
politely at a door, as if he were a stranger, and then they both went in. How
pretty everything was in that room! a more beautiful apartment could not be
found in the whole town of Kjøge; the queen herself could scarcely be
better accommodated. There were carpets, and rugs, and window curtains
hanging to the ground. Pictures and flowers were scattered about. There
was a velvet chair, and a looking-glass against the wall, into which a person
might be in danger of stepping, for it was as large as a door. All this Knud
saw at a glance, and yet, in truth, he saw nothing but Joanna. She was quite
grown up, and very different from what Knud had fancied her, and a great
