young woman who opened the door to him at
last told him, in a cold, harsh tone, that his mother had died three
months before, and that he would find the few bits of things that were
left, after paying the funeral expenses, waiting for him at the Town
Hall. The death of his mother broke his heart. He felt alone in the
world--as much so as if he had been wrecked on some lonely reef,
helpless and miserable. All his life at sea seemed to him to have been
a mistaken, purposeless driving. And when he thought of his mother,
perhaps badly looked after by strangers, he thought it a wrong and
horrible thing that he should have gone to sea at all, instead of
staying at home and taking proper care of her. His comrades had dragged
him to the Hoensning in spite of himself, and he had thought, too, that
the uproar, and even the drink, might have deadened his pain; but
instead of that, all the veins in his breast seemed to be bursting, and
he felt as if he must bleed to death.

"'Well,' said the old miner, 'you'll soon be off to sea again, Elis,
and then your sorrow will soon be over. Old folks must die; there's no
help for that: she has only gone from this miserable world to a
better.'

"Ah!' said Elis, 'it is just because nobody believes in my sorrow, and
that they all think me a fool to feel it--I say it's that which is
driving me out of the world! I shan't go to sea any more; I'm sick of
existence altogether. When the ship used to go flying along through the
water, with all sail set, spreading like glorious wings, the waves
playing and dashing in exquisite music, and the wind singing in the
rigging, my heart used to bound. Then I could hurrah and shout on deck
like the best of them. And when I was on look-out duty of dark, quiet
nights, I used to think about getting home, and how glad my dear old
mother would be to have me back. I could enjoy a Hoensning like the
rest of them, then. And when I had shaken the ducats into mother's lap,
and given her the handkerchiefs and all the other pretty things I had
brought home, her eyes would sparkle with pleasure, and she would clap
her hands for joy, and run out and in, and fetch me the "Aehl" which
she had kept for my homecoming. And when I sat with her of an evening,
I would tell her of all the strange folks I had seen, and their ways
and customs, and about the wonderful things I had come across in my
long voyages. This delighted her; and she would tell me of my father's
wonderful cruize