er wormwood. A good person would not fill such for a
child: would, then, the Almighty Father, who is all love, do so?

"Let all that has taken place be now buried and forgotten," said the
worthy Mr. Broenne. "We shall draw a thick line over last year. We
shall burn the almanac. In two days we shall start for that blessed,
peaceful, pleasant Skagen. It is said to be only a little
insignificant nook in the country; but a nice warm nook it is, with
windows open to the wide world."

That _was_ a journey--that _was_ to breathe the fresh air again--to
come from the cold, damp prison-cell out into the warm sunshine!

The heather was blooming on the moorlands; the shepherd boys sat on
the tumuli and played their flutes, which were manufactured out of the
bones of sheep; the FATA MORGANA, the beautiful mirage of the desert,
with its hanging seas and undulating woods, showed itself; and that
bright, wonderful phenomenon in the air, which is called the "Lokeman
driving his sheep."

Towards Limfiorden they passed over the Vandal's land; and towards
Skagen they journeyed where the men with the long beards,
_Langbarderne_,[1] came from. In that locality it was that, during the
famine under King Snio, all old people and young children were
ordered to be put to death; but the noble lady, Gambaruk, who was the
heiress of that part of the country, insisted that the children should
rather be sent out of the country. Joergen was learned enough to know
all about this; and, though he was not acquainted with the
Langobarders' country beyond the lofty Alps, he had a good idea what
it must be, as he had himself, when a boy, been in the south of
Europe, in Spain. Well did he remember the heaped-up piles of fruit,
the red pomegranate flowers, the din, the clamour, the tolling of
bells in the Spanish city's great hive; but all was more charming at
home, and Denmark was Joergen's home.

[Footnote 1: Langobarder, a northern tribe, which, in very ancient
times, dwelt in the north of Jutland. From thence they migrated to the
north of Germany, where, according to Tacitus, they lived bout the
period of the birth of Christ, and were a poor but brave people. Their
original name was Vinuler, or Viniler. "When these Viniler," say the
traditions, or rather fables of Scandinavia, "were at war with the
Vandals, and the latter went to Odin to beseech him to grant them the
victory, and received for answer that Odin would award the victory to
those whom he