“Will not one knock soon?” asked the boy; and the mother smiled while
she put elder-tree blossoms into the teapot and poured boiling water over
them. “Pray, tell me a story.”
“Yes, if stories came by themselves; they are so proud, they only come
when they please.-But wait,” he said suddenly, “there is one. Look at the
teapot; there is a story in it now.”
And the little boy looked at the teapot; the lid rose up gradually, the
elder-tree blossoms sprang forth one by one, fresh and white; long boughs
came forth; even out of the spout they grew up in all directions, and formed
a bush-nay, a large elder tree, which stretched its branches up to the bed and
pushed the curtains aside; and there were so many blossoms and such a
sweet fragrance! In the midst of the tree sat a kindly-looking old woman
with a strange dress; it was as green as the leaves, and trimmed with large
white blossoms, so that it was difficult to say whether it was real cloth, or
the leaves and blossoms of the elder-tree.
“What is this woman’s name?” asked the little boy.
“Well, the Romans and Greeks used to call her a Dryad,” said the old
man; “but we do not understand that. Out in the sailors’ quarter they give
her a better name; there she is called elder-tree mother. Now, you must
attentively listen to her and look at the beautiful elder-tree.
“Just such a large tree, covered with flowers, stands out there; it grew in
the corner of an humble little yard; under this tree sat two old people one
afternoon in the beautiful sunshine. He was an old, old sailor, and she his
old wife; they had already great-grandchildren, and were soon to celebrate
their golden wedding, but they could not remember the date, and the elder-
tree mother was sitting in the tree and looked as pleased as this one here. ‘I
know very well when the golden wedding is to take place,’ she said; but
they did not hear it-they were talking of bygone days.
“‘Well, do you remember?’ said the old sailor, ‘when we were quite small
and used to run about and play-it was in the very same yard where we now
are-we used to put little branches into the ground and make a garden.’
