enjoying myself. I can't join in all that riot and uproar;
there's no pleasure in it, for me. You go away, my dear child! Sing and
shout like the rest of them, if you can, and let the gloomy, melancholy
Elis stay out here by himself; he would only spoil your pleasure. Wait
a minute, though! I like you, and I should wish you to think of me
sometimes, when I'm away on the sea again.'

"With that he took two shining ducats out of his pocket, and a
beautiful Indian handkerchief from his breast, and gave them to the
girl. But her eyes streamed with tears; she rose, laid the money on the
bench, and said:

"'Oh, keep your ducats; they only make me miserable; but I'll wear the
handkerchief in dear remembrance of you. You're not likely to find me
next year when you hold your Hoensning in the Haga.'

"And she crept slowly away down the street, with her hands pressed to
her face.

"Elis fell back into his gloomy reveries. At length, as the uproar in
the tavern grew loud and wild, he cried:

"'Oh, that I were lying deep, deep beneath the sea! for there's nobody
left in the wide, wide world that I can be happy with now!'

"A deep, harsh voice spoke, close behind him: 'You must have been most
unfortunate, youngster, to wish to die, just when life should be
opening before you.'

"Elis looked round, and saw an old miner standing leaning against the
boarded wall of the tavern, with folded arms, looking down at him with
a grave, penetrating glance.

"As Elis looked at him, a feeling came to him as if some familiar
figure had suddenly come into the deep, wild solitude in which he had
thought himself lost. He pulled himself together, and told the old
miner that his father had been a stout sailor, but had perished in the
storm from which he himself had been saved as by a miracle; that his
two soldier brothers had died in battle, and he had supported his
mother with the liberal pay he drew for sailing to the East Indies. He
said he had been obliged to follow the life of a sailor, having been
brought up to it from childhood, and it had been a great piece of good
fortune that he got into the service of the East-India Company. This
voyage, the profits had been greater than usual, and each of the crew
had been given a sum of money over and above his pay; so that he had
hastened, in the highest spirits, with his pockets full of ducats, to
the little cottage where his mother lived. But strange faces looked at
him from the windows, and a