towards the sea. Little soil, but lots of
sunshine; wherever there is a tiny crevice, fine long blades of grass,
buttercups, and yellow broom will immediately start up. Wild rose bushes
and juniper cling to the hillside here and there, and then the heather
away up on the top;--all over the whole flat top nothing but purple
heather. Above is the clear blue sky; and out there the sea in a great
wide circle--nothing to shut off the view; oh, it is glorious!

This has really nothing to do with the dean's wife, but I only wanted to
explain what it was like up there on the hill. For it was up there that
Nils Trap, Ezekiel, Peter, Karsten, Mina, Massa, and I played, many a
pleasant day.

Right at our yard the hill begins to be steeper; first comes a little
walled-in garden, then terraces and cliffs, big rocks and little rocks,
then down a steep precipice, and then up a few steps again where you
have to use hands and feet both, and grab hold of the heather and
juniper if you want to go farther up.

About half-way up the hill there is a great big rock jutting out, which
you can only climb on one side, and that with the greatest difficulty.
This is our fort. Here we have both batteries and bastions, a room for
bullets and cannon-balls, a room for powder, and a dungeon. From up
there we have the most splendid view down over the town with its low
gaily painted wooden houses, and the small leafy linden-trees that creep
up through the streets. From our fort people down there look just like
darning-needles; from the very top of the hill they look like a swarming
mass of little pins.

I remember distinctly that particular Seventeenth of May; the spring had
come so early that we already had fine young birch leaves and clear mild
air. For several days we had been talking about a feast that we wanted
to have in the dungeon, for there we should be wholly out of sight.
There was to be a salute, speeches and songs. Peter and Karsten were
always the gunners. With much trouble we had carried big stones up to
the fort; these we threw with all our might down again over the
precipice. This was our way of giving a salute; it made no little
racket, you may be sure! The boys were to provide something to drink,
and we the cake and glasses. We were never allowed to take any glasses
up on the hill, except old goblets with the feet broken off. I thought
then it was terribly stingy of Mother not to let us have proper glasses.

Ezekiel made the spee