tch sight of an old
grandmother, she who resided in the lunatic asylum where her husband was
confined. Young Hans was occasionally permitted to visit her; and here
he was a great favourite with certain old crones, who told him many a
marvellous and terrible story. These stories, and the insane figures
which he caught sight of around him, operated, he tells us, so
powerfully upon his imagination that when it grew dark he scarcely dared
to go out of the house. His own mother was extremely superstitious. When
her husband was dying, she sent her son, not to the doctor, but to a
wise-woman, who, after measuring the boy's arm with a woollen thread,
and performing some other ceremonies, bade him go home by the river
side, "and if he did not see the ghost of his father, he was to be sure
that he would not die this time." He did _not_ see the ghost of his
father--which, considering all things, was rather surprising; but his
father died nevertheless.

After the death of her husband, the mother of Andersen found another
object for her affections, for that "heart so full of love." She married
again. But the stepfather was "a grave young man, who would have nothing
to do with Hans Christian's education;" refused, we presume, all
responsibility on so delicate a business. He was still left to himself.
He had now grown a tall lad, with long yellow hair, which the sun
probably had assisted to dye, as he was accustomed to go bare-headed. He
continued to amuse himself with dressing his theatrical puppets. His
mother reconciled herself to the occupation, as it formed, she thought,
no bad introduction to the trade of a tailor, to which she now destined
him. On the other hand, Hans partly reconciled himself to the idea of
being a tailor, because he should then have plenty of cloth, of all
colours, for his puppets. Meanwhile it was to a very different trade or
destiny that these puppets were conducting him.

About this time, not for the money, said the warm-hearted mother, but
that the lad, like the rest of the world, might be doing something, Hans
was sent, for a short interval, to a cloth factory. But it was fated
that he should never work. He had a beautiful voice, and could sing. The
people at the factory asked him to sing. "He began, and all the looms
stood still." He had to sing again and again, whilst the other boys had
his work given them to do. He was not long, however, at the factory. The
coarse jests and behaviour of its inmates d