lk said they had more than a barrelful of gold, and yet they
went about simply clad, in the coarsest cloth, only their linen was
always of dazzling whiteness. Yes, that was a charming old pair, Preben
and Martha. One was always so glad to see them, sitting together on the
bench at the top of their stone staircase, under the old lime-tree's
shade. They were so good to the poor! they feasted them, clothed them,
and there was good sense and a true Christian spirit in all their
benevolence.

"The wife died first; I remember the day quite well; I was then a little
boy, and went with my father to see old Preben: the old man was so
grieved, he cried like a child. The corpse still lay in her bedroom,
close to the chamber where we sat; she looked as if she had just fallen
asleep. And the old man told my father how he should now be so lonely,
and how many years, they had spent together, and how they had first made
acquaintance and came to love each other. As I said before, I was a
child, but it moved me strangely to listen to the old man, and watch how
he grew more animated as he went on speaking, a faint color coming into
his cheeks as he talked of their youthful days, how pretty she had been,
how many little innocent tricks he had played, in order to meet her. And
when he spoke of his wedding-day his eyes quite sparkled; he seemed to
be living his happy time over again--and all the while she was lying
dead in the next chamber, an old lady, and he was an old man--ah, how
time passes! I was a child then, and now I am as old as Preben Swan.
Yes, time and change come to all. I remember as well as possible the
funeral-day, and Preben Swan following the coffin. They had had their
gravestone carved with names and inscriptions, all except the dates of
their death, some years before; that same evening the stone was taken to
the grave, and put into its place. The next year the grave had to be
reopened, and old Preben rejoined his wife. They did not turn out to be
so rich as people had fancied, and what they did leave went to distant
relations very far off. The old wooden house, with the bench at the top
of the high stone staircase under the lime-tree, was ordered to be
pulled down, for it was too ruinous to stand any longer. And afterward,
when the convent chapel and cemetery were destroyed, the gravestone of
Preben and Martha was sold, like others, to whomsoever chose to buy it.
And so now it lies in the yard for the little ones to roll