d that he was very
well satisfied with himself.

When towards sunset he was going home the councilor and Camilla
accompanied him a little way. And as they were going home she said to
her father that perhaps they ought to invite that lonesome young man
rather frequently during the month, while it was still possible to stay
in the country. He knew no one here about, and the councilor said "yes,"
and smiled at being thought so guileless, but Camilla walked along and
looked so gentle and serious, that one would not doubt but that she was
the very personification of benevolence itself.

The autumn weather remained so mild that the councilor stayed on at Cape
Trafalgar for another whole month, and the effect of the benevolence was
that Mogens came twice the first week and about every day the third.

It was one of the last days of fair weather.

It had rained early in the morning and had remained overclouded far
down into the forenoon; but now the sun had come forth. Its rays were
so strong and warm, that the garden-paths, the lawns and the branches
of the trees were enveloped in a fine filmy mist. The councilor walked
about cutting asters. Mogens and Camilla were in a corner of the garden
to take down some late winter apples. He stood on a table with a basket
on his arm, she stood on a chair holding out a big white apron by the
corners.

"Well, and what happened then?" she called impatiently to Mogens, who
had interrupted the fairy-tale he was telling in order to reach an apple
which hung high up.

"Then," he continued, "the peasant began to run three times round
himself and to sing: 'To Babylon, to Babylon, with an iron ring through
my head.' Then he and his calf, his great-grandmother, and his black
rooster flew away. They flew across oceans as broad as Arup Vejle, over
mountains as high as the church at Jannerup, over Himmerland and through
the Holstein lands even to the end of the world. There the kobold sat
and ate breakfast; he had just finished when they came.

"'You ought to be a little more god-fearing, little father,' said the
peasant, 'otherwise it might happen that you might miss the kingdom of
heaven.'"

"Well, he would gladly be god-fearing."

"'Then you must say grace after meals,' said the peasant...."

"No, I won't go on with the story," said Mogens impatiently.

"Very well, then don't," said Camilla, and looked at him in surprise.

"I might as well say it at once," continued Mogens, "I want to