mbered the past, and his heart beat
wildly at the recollection.

"Ding-dong! ding-dong!" This was one of the bell's stories:--

"There came up to the tower one day an idiot servant of the bishop;
and when I, the bell, who am cast in hard and heavy metal, swung about
and pealed, I could have broken his head, for he seated himself
immediately under me, and began to play with two sticks, exactly as if
it had been a stringed instrument, and he sang to it thus: 'Now I may
venture to sing aloud what elsewhere I dare not whisper--sing of all
that is kept hidden behind locks and bolts. Yonder it is cold and
damp. The rats eat the living bodies. No one knows of it; no one hears
of it--not even now, when the bell is pouring forth its loudest
peal--ding-dong! ding-dong!'

"There was a king: he was called Knud. He humbled himself both before
bishops and monks; but as he unjustly oppressed the people, and laid
heavy taxes on them, they armed themselves with all sorts of weapons,
and chased him away as if he had been a wild beast. He sought shelter
in the church, and had the doors and windows closed. The furious
multitude surrounded the sacred edifice, as I heard related; the
crows and the ravens, and the jackdaws to boot, became scared by the
noise and the tumult; they flew up into the tower, and out again; they
looked on the multitude below, they looked also in at the church
windows, and shrieked out what they saw.

"King Knud knelt before the altar and prayed; his brothers Erik and
Benedict stood guarding him with their drawn swords; but the king's
servitor, the false Blake, betrayed his lord. They knew outside where
he could be reached. A stone was cast in through the window at him,
and the king lay dead. There were shouts and cries among the angry
crowd, and cries among the flocks of frightened birds; and I joined
them too. I pealed forth, 'Ding-dong! ding-dong!'

"The church bell hangs high, sees far around, receives visits from
birds, and understands their language. To it whispers the wind through
the wickets and apertures, and through every little chink; and the
wind knows everything. He hears it from the air, for it encompasses
all living things; it even enters into the lungs of human beings--it
hears every word and every sigh. The air knows all, the wind repeats
all, and the bell understands their speech, and rings it forth to the
whole world--'Ding dong! ding dong!'

"But all this was too much for me to hear and to