psalm, and the sweet, holy tones brought tears into his eyes, which
relieved him. The sun shone brightly down on the green trees, as if it
would say, "You must not be so sorrowful, John. Do you see the
beautiful blue sky above you? Your father is up there, and he prays to
the loving Father of all, that you may do well in the future."
"I will always be good," said John, "and then I shall go to be
with my father in heaven. What joy it will be when we see each other
again! How much I shall have to relate to him, and how many things
he will be able to explain to me of the delights of heaven, and
teach me as he once did on earth. Oh, what joy it will be!"
He pictured it all so plainly to himself, that he smiled even
while the tears ran down his cheeks.
The little birds in the chestnut-trees twittered, "Tweet,
tweet;" they were so happy, although they had seen the funeral; but
they seemed as if they knew that the dead man was now in heaven, and
that he had wings much larger and more beautiful than their own; and
he was happy now, because he had been good here on earth, and they
were glad of it. John saw them fly away out of the green trees into
the wide world, and he longed to fly with them; but first he cut out a
large wooden cross, to place on his father's grave; and when he
brought it there in the evening, he found the grave decked out with
gravel and flowers. Strangers had done this; they who had known the
good old father who was now dead, and who had loved him very much.
Early the next morning, John packed up his little bundle of
clothes, and placed all his money, which consisted of fifty dollars
and a few shillings, in his girdle; with this he determined to try his
fortune in the world. But first he went into the churchyard; and, by
his father's grave, he offered up a prayer, and said, "Farewell."
As he passed through the fields, all the flowers looked fresh
and beautiful in the warm sunshine, and nodded in the wind, as if they
wished to say, "Welcome to the green wood, where all is fresh and
bright."
Then John turned to have one more look at the old church, in which
he had been christened in his infancy, and where his father had
taken him every Sunday to hear the service and join in singing the
psalms. As he looked at the old tower, he espied the ringer standing
at one of the narrow openings, with his little pointed red cap on
his head, and shading his eyes from the sun with his bent arm. John
nodded farewell to him, and the little ringer waved his red cap,
laid his hand on his heart, and kissed his hand to him a great many
times, to show that he felt kindly towards him, and wished him a
prosperous journey.
John continued his journey, and thought of all the wonderful
things he should see in the large, beautiful world, till he found
himself farther away from home than ever he had been before. He did
not even know the names of the places he passed through, and could
scarcely understand the language of the people he met, for he was
far away, in a strange land. The first night he slept on a haystack,
out in the fields, for there was no other bed for him; but it seemed
to him so nice and comfortable that even a king need not wish for a
better. The field, the brook, the haystack, with the blue sky above,
formed a beautiful sleeping-room. The green grass, with the little red
and white flowers, was the carpet; the elder-bushes and the hedges
of wild roses looked like garlands on the walls; and for a bath he
could have the clear, fresh water of the brook; while the rushes bowed
their heads to him, to wish him good morning and good evening. The
moon, like a large lamp, hung high up in the blue ceiling, and he
had no fear of its setting fire to his curtains. John slept here quite
safely all night; and when he awoke, the sun was up, and all the
little birds were singing round him, "Good morning, good morning.
Are you not up yet?"
It was Sunday, and the bells were ringing for church. As the
people went in, John followed them; he heard God's word, joined in
singing the psalms, and listened to the preacher. It seemed to him
just as if he were in his own church, where he had been christened,
and had sung the psalms with his father. Out in the churchyard were
several graves, and on some of them the grass had grown very high.
John thought of his father's grave, which he knew at last would look
like these, as he was not there to weed and attend to it. Then he
set to work, pulled up the high grass, raised the wooden crosses which
had fallen down, and replaced the wreaths which had been blown away
from their places by the wind, thinking all the time, "Perhaps some
one is doing the same for my father's grave, as I am not there to do
it "
Outside the church door stood an old beggar, leaning on his
crutch. John gave him his silver shillings, and then he continued
his journey, feeling lighter and happier than ever. Towards evening,
the weather became very stormy, and he hastened on as quickly as he
could, to get shelter; but it was quite dark by the time he reached
a little lonely church which stood on a hill. "I will go in here,"
he said, "and sit down in a corner; for I am quite tired, and want
rest."
So he went in, and seated himself; then he folded his hands, and
offered up his evening prayer, and was soon fast asleep and
dreaming, while the thunder rolled and the lightning flashed
without. When he awoke, it was still night; but the storm had
ceased, and the moon shone in upon him through the windows. Then he
saw an open coffin standing in the centre of the church, which
contained a dead man, waiting for burial. John was not at all timid;
he had a good conscience, and he knew also that the dead can never
injure any one. It is living wicked men who do harm to others. Two
such wicked persons stood now by the dead man, who had been brought to
the church to be buried. Their evil intentions were to throw the
poor dead body outside the church door, and not leave him to rest in
his coffin.
"Why do you do this?" asked John, when he saw what they were going
to do; "it is very wicked. Leave him to rest in peace, in Christ's
name."
"Nonsense," replied the two dreadful men. "He has cheated us; he
owed us money which he could not pay, and now he is dead we shall
not get a penny; so we mean to have our revenge, and let him lie
like a dog outside the church door."
"I have only fifty dollars," said John, "it is all I possess in
the world, but I will give it to you if you will promise me faithfully
to leave the dead man in peace. I shall be able to get on without
the money; I have strong and healthy limbs, and God will always help
me."
"Why, of course," said the horrid men, "if you will pay his debt
we will both promise not to touch him. You may depend upon that;"
and then they took the money he offered them, laughed at him for his
good nature, and went their way.
Then he laid the dead body back in the coffin, folded the hands,
and took leave of it; and went away contentedly through the great
forest. All around him he could see the prettiest little elves dancing
in the moonlight, which shone through the trees. They were not
disturbed by his appearance, for they knew he was good and harmless
among men. They are wicked people only who can never obtain a
glimpse of fairies. Some of them were not taller than the breadth of a
finger, and they wore golden combs in their long, yellow hair. They
were rocking themselves two together on the large dew-drops with which
the leaves and the high grass were sprinkled. Sometimes the
dew-drops would roll away, and then they fell down between the stems
of the long grass, and caused a great deal of laughing and noise among
the other little people. It was quite charming to watch them at
play. Then they sang songs, and John remembered that he had learnt
those pretty songs when he was a little boy. Large speckled spiders,
with silver crowns on their heads, were employed to spin suspension
bridges and palaces from one hedge to another, and when the tiny drops
fell upon them, they glittered in the moonlight like shining glass.
This continued till sunrise. Then the little elves crept into the
flower-buds, and the wind seized the bridges and palaces, and
fluttered them in the air like cobwebs.
As John left the wood, a strong man's voice called after him,
"Hallo, comrade, where are you travelling?"
"Into the wide world," he replied; "I am only a poor lad, I have
neither father nor mother, but God will help me."
"I am going into the wide world also," replied the stranger;
"shall we keep each other company?"
"With all my heart," he said, and so they went on together. Soon
they began to like each other very much, for they were both good;
but John found out that the stranger was much more clever than
himself. He had travelled all over the world, and could describe
almost everything. The sun was high in the heavens when they seated
themselves under a large tree to eat their breakfast, and at the
same moment an old woman came towards them. She was very old and
almost bent double. She leaned upon a stick and carried on her back
a bundle of firewood, which she had collected in the forest; her apron
was tied round it, and John saw three great stems of fern and some
willow twigs peeping out. just as she came close up to them, her
foot slipped and she fell to the ground screaming loudly; poor old
woman, she had broken her leg! John proposed directly that they should
carry the old woman home to her cottage; but the stranger opened his
knapsack and took out a box, in which he said he had a salve that
would quickly make her leg well and strong again, so that she would be
able to walk home herself, as if her leg had never been broken. And
all that he would ask in return was the three fern stems which she
carried in her apron.
"That is rather too high a price," said the old woman, nodding her
head quite strangely. She did not seem at all inclined to part with
the fern stems. However, it was not very agreeable to lie there with a
broken leg, so she gave them to him; and such was the power of the
ointment, that no sooner had he rubbed her leg with it than the old
mother rose up and walked even better than she had done before. But
then this wonderful ointment could not be bought at a chemist's.
"What can you want with those three fern rods?" asked John of
his fellow-traveller.
"Oh, they will make capital brooms," said he; "and I like them
because I have strange whims sometimes." Then they walked on
together for a long distance.
"How dark the sky is becoming," said John; "and look at those
thick, heavy clouds."
"Those are not clouds," replied his fellow-traveller; "they are
mountains- large lofty mountains- on the tops of which we should be
above the clouds, in the pure, free air. Believe me, it is
delightful to ascend so high, tomorrow we shall be there." But the
mountains were not so near as they appeared; they had to travel a
whole day before they reached them, and pass through black forests and
piles of rock as large as a town. The journey had been so fatiguing
that John and his fellow-traveller stopped to rest at a roadside
inn, so that they might gain strength for their journey on the morrow.
In the large public room of the inn a great many persons were
assembled to see a comedy performed by dolls. The showman had just
erected his little theatre, and the people were sitting round the room
to witness the performance. Right in front, in the very best place,
sat a stout butcher, with a great bull-dog by his side who seemed very
much inclined to bite. He sat staring with all his eyes, and so indeed
did every one else in the room. And then the play began. It was a
pretty piece, with a king and a queen in it, who sat on a beautiful
throne, and had gold crowns on their heads. The trains to their
dresses were very long, according to the fashion; while the
prettiest of wooden dolls, with glass eyes and large mustaches,
stood at the doors, and opened and shut them, that the fresh air might
come into the room. It was a very pleasant play, not at all
mournful; but just as the queen stood up and walked across the
stage, the great bull-dog, who should have been held back by his
master, made a spring forward, and caught the queen in the teeth by
the slender wrist, so that it snapped in two. This was a very dreadful
disaster. The poor man, who was exhibiting the dolls, was much
annoyed, and quite sad about his queen; she was the prettiest doll
he had, and the bull-dog had broken her head and shoulders off. But
after all the people were gone away, the stranger, who came with John,
said that he could soon set her to rights. And then he brought out his
box and rubbed the doll with some of the salve with which he had cured
the old woman when she broke her leg. As soon as this was done the
doll's back became quite right again; her head and shoulders were
fixed on, and she could even move her limbs herself: there was now
no occasion to pull the wires, for the doll acted just like a living
creature, excepting that she could not speak. The man to whom the show
belonged was quite delighted at having a doll who could dance of
herself without being pulled by the wires; none of the other dolls
could do this.
During the night, when all the people at the inn were gone to bed,
some one was heard to sigh so deeply and painfully, and the sighing
continued for so long a time, that every one got up to see what
could be the matter. The showman went at once to his little theatre
and found that it proceeded from the dolls, who all lay on the floor
sighing piteously, and staring with their glass eyes; they all
