gin. Its appearance is thus and thus. It cannot be mistaken."

"I fancy it was taken up in my bundle, and burnt to ashes long ago,"
said the swineherd; "but I did not know any better."

"You didn't know any better! Ignorance of ignorances!"

And those words the swineherd might well take to himself, for they
were meant for him, and for no one else.

Not another leaf was to be found; the only one lay in the coffin of
the dead girl, and no one knew anything about that.

And the king himself, in his melancholy, wandered out to the spot in
the wood.

"Here is where the plant stood," he said; "it is a sacred place."

And the place was surrounded with a golden railing, and a sentry was
posted there.

The botanical professor wrote a long treatise upon the heavenly plant.
For this he was gilded all over, and this gilding suited him and his
family very well. And indeed that was the most agreeable part of the
whole story. But the king remained as low-spirited as before; but that
he had always been, at least so the sentry said.

THE DUMB BOOK.

By the high-road in the forest lay a lonely peasant's hut; the road
went right through the farmyard. The sun shone down, and all the
windows were open. In the house was bustle and movement; but in the
garden, in an arbour of blossoming elder, stood an open coffin. A dead
man had been carried out here, and he was to be buried this morning.
Nobody stood by the coffin and looked sorrowfully at the dead man; no
one shed a tear for him: his face was covered with a white cloth, and
under his head lay a great thick book, whose leaves consisted of whole
sheets of blotting paper, and on each leaf lay a faded flower. It was
a complete herbanum, gathered by him in various places; it was to be
buried with him, for so he had wished it. With each flower a chapter
in his life was associated.

[Illustration: THE POWER OF THE BOOK.]

"Who is the dead man?" we asked; and the answer was:

"The Old Student. They say he was once a brisk lad, and studied the
old languages, and sang, and even wrote poems. Then something happened
to him that made him turn his thoughts to brandy, and take to it; and
when at last he had ruined his health, he came out here into the
country, where somebody paid for his board and lodging. He was as
gentle as a child, except when the dark mood came upon him; but when
it came he became like a giant, and then ran about in the woods like a
hunted stag; but when we on