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THE ELDERBUSH
Once upon a time there was a little boy who had taken cold. He had gone
out and got his feet wet; though nobody could imagine how it had happened, for
it was quite dry weather. So his mother undressed him, put him to bed, and
had the tea-pot brought in, to make him a good cup of Elderflower tea.
Just at that moment the merry old man came in who lived up a-top of the house
all alone; for he had neither wife nor children--but he liked children very
much, and knew so many fairy tales, that it was quite delightful.
"Now drink your tea," said the boy's mother; "then, perhaps, you may hear a
fairy tale."
"If I had but something new to tell," said the old man. "But how did the child
get his feet wet?"
"That is the very thing that nobody can make out," said his mother.
"Am I to hear a fairy tale?" asked the little boy.
"Yes, if you can tell me exactly--for I must know that first--how deep the
gutter is in the little street opposite, that you pass through in going to
school."
"Just up to the middle of my boot," said the child; "but then I must go into
the deep hole."
"Ah, ah! That's where the wet feet came from," said the old man. "I ought now
to tell you a story; but I don't know any more."
"You can make one in a moment," said the little boy. "My mother says that all
you look at can be turned into a fairy tale: and that you can find a story in
everything."
"Yes, but such tales and stories are good for nothing. The right sort come of
themselves; they tap at my forehead and say, 'Here we are.'"
"Won't there be a tap soon?" asked the little boy. And his mother laughed, put
some Elder-flowers in the tea-pot, and poured boiling water upon them.
"Do tell me something! Pray do!"
"Yes, if a fairy tale would come of its own accord; but they are proud and
haughty, and come only when they choose. Stop!" said he, all on a sudden. "I
have it! Pay attention! There is one in the tea-pot!"
And the little boy looked at the tea-pot. The cover rose more and more; and
the Elder-flowers came forth so fresh and white, and shot up long branches.
Out of the spout even did they spread themselves on all sides, and grew larger
and larger; it was a splendid Elderbush, a whole tree; and it reached into the
very bed, and pushed the curtains aside. How it bloomed! And what an odour! In
the middle of the bush sat a friendly-looking old woman in a most strange
dress. It was quite green, like the leaves of the elder, and was trimmed with
large white Elder-flowers; so that at first one could not tell whether it was
a stuff, or a natural green and real flowers.
"What's that woman's name?" asked the little boy.
"The Greeks and Romans," said the old man, "called her a Dryad; but that we do
not understand. The people who live in the New Booths* have a much better name
for her; they call her 'old Granny'--and she it is to whom you are to pay
attention. Now listen, and look at the beautiful Elderbush.
* A row of buildings for seamen in Copenhagen.
"Just such another large blooming Elder Tree stands near the New Booths. It
grew there in the corner of a little miserable court-yard; and under it sat,
of an afternoon, in the most splendid sunshine, two old people; an old, old
seaman, and his old, old wife. They had great-grand-children, and were soon to
celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage; but they could not
exactly recollect the date: and old Granny sat in the tree, and looked as
pleased as now. 'I know the date,' said she; but those below did not hear her,
for they were talking about old times.
"'Yes, can't you remember when we were very little,' said the old seaman, 'and
ran and played about? It was the very same court-yard where we now are, and we
stuck slips in the ground, and made a garden.'
"'I remember it well,' said the old woman; 'I remember it quite well. We
watered the slips, and one of them was an Elderbush. It took root, put forth
green shoots, and grew up to be the large tree under which we old folks are
now sitting.'
"'To be sure,' said he. 'And there in the corner stood a waterpail, where I
used to swim my boats.'
"'True; but first we went to school to learn somewhat,' said she; 'and then we
were confirmed. We both cried; but in the afternoon we went up the Round
Tower, and looked down on Copenhagen, and far, far away over the water; then
we went to Friedericksberg, where the King and the Queen were sailing about in
their splendid barges.'
"'But I had a different sort of sailing to that, later; and that, too, for
many a year; a long way off, on great voyages.'
"'Yes, many a time have I wept for your sake,' said she. 'I thought you
were dead and gone, and lying down in the deep waters. Many a night have I got
up to see if the wind had not changed: and changed it had, sure enough; but
you never came. I remember so well one day, when the rain was pouring down in
torrents, the scavengers were before the house where I was in service, and I
had come up with the dust, and remained standing at the door--it was dreadful
weather--when just as I was there, the postman came and gave me a letter. It
was from you! What a tour that letter had made! I opened it instantly and
read: I laughed and wept. I was so happy. In it I read that you were in warm
lands where the coffee-tree grows. What a blessed land that must be! You
related so much, and I saw it all the while the rain was pouring down, and I
standing there with the dust-box. At the same moment came someone who embraced
me.'
"'Yes; but you gave him a good box on his ear that made it tingle!'
"'But I did not know it was you. You arrived as soon as your letter, and you
were so handsome--that you still are--and had a long yellow silk handkerchief
round your neck, and a bran new hat on; oh, you were so dashing! Good heavens!
What weather it was, and what a state the street was in!'
"'And then we married,' said he. 'Don't you remember? And then we had our
first little boy, and then Mary, and Nicholas, and Peter, and Christian.'
"'Yes, and how they all grew up to be honest people, and were beloved by
everybody.'
"'And their children also have children,' said the old sailor; 'yes, those
are our grand-children, full of strength and vigor. It was, methinks about
this season that we had our wedding.'
"'Yes, this very day is the fiftieth anniversary of the marriage,' said old
Granny, sticking her head between the two old people; who thought it was their
neighbor who nodded to them. They looked at each other and held one another by
the hand. Soon after came their children, and their grand-children; for they
knew well enough that it was the day of the fiftieth anniversary, and had come
with their gratulations that very morning; but the old people had forgotten
it, although they were able to remember all that had happened many years ago.
And the Elderbush sent forth a strong odour in the sun, that was just about to
set, and shone right in the old people's faces. They both looked so
rosy-cheeked; and the youngest of the grandchildren danced around them, and
called out quite delighted, that there was to be something very splendid that
evening--they were all to have hot potatoes. And old Nanny nodded in the bush,
and shouted 'hurrah!' with the rest."
"But that is no fairy tale," said the little boy, who was listening to the
story.
"The thing is, you must understand it," said the narrator; "let us ask old
Nanny."
"That was no fairy tale, 'tis true," said old Nanny; "but now it's coming. The
most wonderful fairy tales grow out of that which is reality; were that not
the case, you know, my magnificent Elderbush could not have grown out of the
tea-pot." And then she took the little boy out of bed, laid him on her bosom,
and the branches of the Elder Tree, full of flowers, closed around her. They
sat in an aerial dwelling, and it flew with them through the air. Oh, it was
wondrous beautiful! Old Nanny had grown all of a sudden a young and pretty
maiden; but her robe was still the same green stuff with white flowers, which
she had worn before. On her bosom she had a real Elderflower, and in her
yellow waving hair a wreath of the flowers; her eyes were so large and blue
that it was a pleasure to look at them; she kissed the boy, and now they were
of the same age and felt alike.
Hand in hand they went out of the bower, and they were standing in the
beautiful garden of their home. Near the green lawn papa's walking-stick was
tied, and for the little ones it seemed to be endowed with life; for as soon
as they got astride it, the round polished knob was turned into a magnificent
neighing head, a long black mane fluttered in the breeze, and four slender yet
strong legs shot out. The animal was strong and handsome, and away they went
at full gallop round the lawn.
"Huzza! Now we are riding miles off," said the boy. "We are riding away to
the castle where we were last year!"
And on they rode round the grass-plot; and the little maiden, who, we know,
was no one else but old Nanny, kept on crying out, "Now we are in the country!
Don't you see the farm-house yonder? And there is an Elder Tree standing
beside it; and the cock is scraping away the earth for the hens, look, how he
struts! And now we are close to the church. It lies high upon the hill,
between the large oak-trees, one of which is half decayed. And now we are by
the smithy, where the fire is blazing, and where the half-naked men are
banging with their hammers till the sparks fly about. Away! away! To the
beautiful country-seat!"
And all that the little maiden, who sat behind on the stick, spoke of, flew by
in reality. The boy saw it all, and yet they were only going round the
grass-plot. Then they played in a side avenue, and marked out a little garden
on the earth; and they took Elder-blossoms from their hair, planted them, and
they grew just like those the old people planted when they were children, as
related before. They went hand in hand, as the old people had done when they
were children; but not to the Round Tower, or to Friedericksberg; no, the
little damsel wound her arms round the boy, and then they flew far away
through all Denmark. And spring came, and summer; and then it was autumn, and
then winter; and a thousand pictures were reflected in the eye and in the
heart of the boy; and the little girl always sang to him, "This you will never
forget." And during their whole flight the Elder Tree smelt so sweet and
odorous; he remarked the roses and the fresh beeches, but the Elder Tree had a
more wondrous fragrance, for its flowers hung on the breast of the little
maiden; and there, too, did he often lay his head during the flight.
"It is lovely here in spring!" said the young maiden. And they stood in a
beech-wood that had just put on its first green, where the woodroof* at their
feet sent forth its fragrance, and the pale-red anemony looked so pretty among
the verdure. "Oh, would it were always spring in the sweetly-smelling Danish
beech-forests!"
* Asperula odorata.
"It is lovely here in summer!" said she. And she flew past old castles of
by-gone days of chivalry, where the red walls and the embattled gables were
mirrored in the canal, where the swans were swimming, and peered up into the
old cool avenues. In the fields the corn was waving like the sea; in the
ditches red and yellow flowers were growing; while wild-drone flowers, and
blooming convolvuluses were creeping in the hedges; and towards evening the
moon rose round and large, and the haycocks in the meadows smelt so sweetly.
"This one never forgets!"
"It is lovely here in autumn!" said the little maiden. And suddenly the
atmosphere grew as blue again as before; the forest grew red, and green, and
yellow-colored. The dogs came leaping along, and whole flocks of wild-fowl
flew over the cairn, where blackberry-bushes were hanging round the old
stones. The sea was dark blue, covered with ships full of white sails; and in
the barn old women, maidens, and children were sitting picking hops into a
large cask; the young sang songs, but the old told fairy tales of
mountain-sprites and soothsayers. Nothing could be more charming.
"It is delightful here in winter!" said the little maiden. And all the trees
were covered with hoar-frost; they looked like white corals; the snow crackled
under foot, as if one had new boots on; and one falling star after the other
was seen in the sky. The Christmas-tree was lighted in the room; presents were
there, and good-humor reigned. In the country the violin sounded in the room
of the peasant; the newly-baked cakes were attacked; even the poorest child
said, "It is really delightful here in winter!"
Yes, it was delightful; and the little maiden showed the boy everything; and
the Elder Tree still was fragrant, and the red flag, with the white cross, was
still waving: the flag under which the old seaman in the New Booths had
sailed. And the boy grew up to be a lad, and was to go forth in the wide
world-far, far away to warm lands, where the coffee-tree grows; but at his
departure the little maiden took an Elder-blossom from her bosom, and
gave it him to keep; and it was placed between the leaves of his Prayer-Book;
and when in foreign lands he opened the book, it was always at the place where
the keepsake-flower lay; and the more he looked at it, the fresher it became;
he felt as it were, the fragrance of the Danish groves; and from among the
leaves of the flowers he could distinctly see the little maiden, peeping forth
with her bright blue eyes--and then she whispered, "It is delightful here in
Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter"; and a hundred visions glided before his
mind.
Thus passed many years, and he was now an old man, and sat with his old wife
under the blooming tree. They held each other by the hand, as the old
grand-father and grand-mother yonder in the New Booths did, and they talked
exactly like them of old times, and of the fiftieth anniversary of their
wedding. The little maiden, with the blue eyes, and with Elder-blossoms in her
hair, sat in the tree, nodded to both of them, and said, "To-day is the
fiftieth anniversary!" And then she took two flowers out of her hair, and
kissed them. First, they shone like silver, then like gold; and when they laid
them on the heads of the old people, each flower became a golden crown. So
there they both sat, like a king and a queen, under the fragrant tree, that
looked exactly like an elder: the old man told his wife the story of "Old
Nanny," as it had been told him when a boy. And it seemed to both of them it
contained much that resembled their own history; and those parts that were
like it pleased them best.
"Thus it is," said the little maiden in the tree, "some call me 'Old Nanny,'
others a 'Dryad,' but, in reality, my name is 'Remembrance'; 'tis I who sit in
the tree that grows and grows! I can remember; I can tell things! Let me see
if you have my flower still?"
And the old man opened his Prayer-Book. There lay the Elder-blossom, as fresh
as if it had been placed there but a short time before; and Remembrance
nodded, and the old people, decked with crowns of gold, sat in the flush of
the evening sun. They closed their eyes, and--and--! Yes, that's the end of
the story!
The little boy lay in his bed; he did not know if he had dreamed or not, or if
he had been listening while someone told him the story. The tea-pot was
standing on the table, but no Elder Tree was growing out of it! And the old
man, who had been talking, was just on the point of going out at the door, and
he did go.
"How splendid that was!" said the little boy. "Mother, I have been to warm
countries."
"So I should think," said his mother. "When one has drunk two good cupfuls of
Elder-flower tea, 'tis likely enough one goes into warm climates"; and she
tucked him up nicely, least he should take cold. "You have had a good sleep
while I have been sitting here, and arguing with him whether it was a story or
a fairy tale."
"And where is old Nanny?" asked the little boy.
"In the tea-pot," said his mother; "and there she may remain."
