cheeks. Again she repeated the word “brother,” which was a great
consolation certainly; and thus they parted.
She sailed to France, and Knud wandered about the muddy streets of
Copenhagen. The other journeymen in the shop asked him why he looked
so gloomy, and wanted him to go and amuse himself with them, as he was
still a young man. So he went with them to a dancing-room. He saw many
handsome girls there, but none like Joanna; and here, where he thought to
forget her, she was more life-like before his mind than ever. “God gives us
strength to bear much, if we try to do our best,” she had said; and as he
thought of this, a devout feeling came into his mind, and he folded his
hands. Then, as the violins played and the girls danced round the room, he
started; for it seemed to him as if he were in a place where he ought not to
have brought Joanna, for she was here with him in his heart; and so he went
out at once. As he went through the streets at a quick pace, he passed the
house where she used to live; it was all dark, empty, and lonely. But the
world went on its course, and Knud was obliged to go on too.
Winter came; the water was frozen, and everything seemed buried in a
cold grave. But when spring returned, and the first steamer prepared to sail,
Knud was seized with a longing to wander forth into the world, but not to
France. So he packed his knapsack, and travelled through Germany, going
from town to town, but finding neither rest or peace. It was not till he
arrived at the glorious old town of Nuremberg that he gained the mastery
over himself, and rested his weary feet; and here he remained.
Nuremberg is a wonderful old city, and looks as if it had been cut out of
an old picture-book. The streets seem to have arranged themselves
according to their own fancy, and as if the houses objected to stand in rows
or rank and file. Gables, with little towers, ornamented columns, and
statues, can be seen even to the city gate; and from the singular-shaped
roofs, waterspouts, formed like dragons, or long lean dogs, extend far
across to the middle of the street. Here, in the market-place, stood Knud,
with his knapsack on his back, close to one of the old fountains which are
so beautifully adorned with figures, scriptural and historical, and which
