an time the garden had its own extraordinary circumstances, and
all here did not go on in the usual mode; for although the place was yet
not laid out, and the April snow covered the earth, and still hung in
great masses on the low fruit-trees, which were the only wealth of the
garden, yet these, not at all according to the commonly established laws
of nature, were covered with fruit the most beautiful; rennets and
oranges clustered the twigs, and shone in the sun. Exclamations were
uttered in every variety of tone; and although both Jacobi and Henrik
protested that they could not discover any way of accounting for this
supernatural phenomenon, still they did not escape the suspicion of
being instrumental in the witchcraft, spite of all the means they used
to establish their innocence. The opinion, however, was universally
adopted, that good and not bad elves had been thus busily at work; and
the fruit, therefore, was gathered without fear of bad consequences, and
laid in baskets. The elves were praised both in prose and verse; and
there never was a merrier harvest-feast.

The Judge had some trouble to get anybody to listen to all his plans of
lilac-hedges, strawberry-beds, of his arbour, and his garden-house. The
narrow space, however, in which he had to work troubled him.

"If one could only get possession of the piece of land beyond this!"
said he, striking with his stick upon the tall red-boarded fence which
bounded one side of the garden. "Look here, Elise, peep through that
gap; what a magnificent site it is for building--it extends down to the
river!--what a magnificent promenade it would make, properly laid out
and planted! It might be a real treasure to the whole city, which needs
a regular walk in its neighbourhood; and now it lies there desolate, and
useful to nobody, but only for a few cows, because the proprietor does
not know how to make use of it; and our good men of the city have not
public spirit enough to purchase it out of the common fund for the
general good. If I were but rich enough to buy the place, it should soon
have a different appearance, and instead of cows human beings should be
walking there; these boards should be torn down, and our garden should
be united to the great promenade. What a situation it would be!"

"Would not beehives answer very well here?" asked our sensible
Queen-bee; "the sun strikes directly on these boards."

"You are perfectly right, Louise," said her father, well plea