er a stone, which he collected; but one day, he was sick, and told
a comrade to fetch the dollar, but no dollars were placed under the
stone after. Queen Helvig was imprisoned there for a long time, under
a charge frequently preferred in those days."

"Had you not particular days called Maerkedage, to which particular
importance was attached?" asked Hardy.

"They were principally the greater festivals of the Church, or on New
Year's Day," replied the Pastor. "Thus, for instance, if the sun shone
out so long on New Year's Day that a horse could be saddled, it was a
sign of a fruitful year; also, if a girl or a young man wished to know
whom she or he would marry, they write the names of suspected persons
on different pieces of paper, and put them under their pillows on New
Year's Eve, and the one thus dreamt of is the one selected; also, if a
turf is cut from the churchyard New Year's Eve, the person who puts it
on his or her head can see who will die in the year, as their ghosts
will appear in the churchyard. There is also another means to the same
end, and that is when people sit at a table New Year's Eve; those that
will die in the year cast a shadow, but without a head. Tyge Brahe has
particularized many days in the year as being unlucky, on which to
attend to any business or to do anything important, but they are so
numerous that they are not regarded."

"Herr Pastor," said Mrs. Hardy, "you are tired with your walk about
Nyborg, and your speaking so much in English; I wish to suggest a
subject that will give you something to think of."

"What may that be?" asked the Pastor.

"I have thought," said Mrs. Hardy, "that you might like to see us at
home in England before the winter. John will leave at the end of
August, and you might go with him. What I feel is, that I should like
during the winter you should feel that your daughter is well cared
for."

"I will go," said the Pastor; and he held out his hand to Mrs. Hardy
in his Danish manner, and the matter was at an end. Mrs. Hardy's
kindly tact always overcame him.

The visit to Svendborg entailed so much to see and explore, that it
was not until late in the evening that the yacht was reached. The
Pastor was, however, fresher than the evening before, possibly because
they had not walked so much, but had driven.

"What we have seen at Svendborg, Herr Pastor, is very pretty," said
Mrs. Hardy, "but it differs from an English landscape; and it is only
by seeing bot