etter, and you looked so handsome, and, indeed, so you
are still. You had a large yellow silk handkerchief in your pocket and
a shiny hat on your head. You looked quite fine. And all the time what
weather it was, and how dismal the street looked!'

"'And then do you remember,' said he, 'when we were married, and our
first boy came, and then Marie, and Niels, and Peter, and Hans
Christian?'

"'Indeed I do,' she replied; 'and they are all grown up respectable men
and women, whom every one likes.'

"'And now their children have little ones,' said the old sailor. 'There
are great-grandchildren for us, strong and healthy too. Was it not about
this time of year that we were married?'

"'Yes, and to-day is the golden-wedding day,' said Elder-tree Mother,
popping her head out just between the two old people; and they thought
it was a neighbor nodding to them. Then they looked at each other and
clasped their hands together. Presently came their children and
grand*-children, who knew very well that it was the golden-wedding day.
They had already wished them joy on that very morning, but the old
people had forgotten it, although they remembered so well all that had
happened many years before. And the elder tree smelled sweet, and the
setting sun shone upon the faces of the old people till they looked
quite ruddy. And the youngest of their grandchildren danced round them
joyfully, and said they were going to have a feast in the evening, and
there were to be hot potatoes. Then the Elder Mother nodded in the tree
and cried 'Hurrah!' with all the rest."

"But that is not a story," said the little boy who had been listening.

"Not till you understand it," said the old man. "But let us ask the
Elder Mother to explain it."

"It was not exactly a story," said the Elder Mother, "but the story is
coming now, and it is a true one. For out of truth the most wonderful
stories grow, just as my beautiful elder bush has sprung out of the
teapot." And then she took the little boy out of bed and laid him on her
bosom, and the blooming branches of elder closed over them so that they
sat, as it were, in a leafy bower, and the bower flew with them through
the air in the most delightful manner.

Then the Elder Mother all at once changed to a beautiful young maiden,
but her dress was still of the same green stuff, ornamented with a
border of white elder blossoms such as the Elder Mother had worn. In her
bosom she wore a real elder flower, and a