great pink straight into Otto's face. "Farewell, farewell!" sounded
from both sides, and, accompanied by the sound of the evening-bell from
the near village, for it was sunset, the carriage rolled away.

CHAPTER XI

"Dance and stamp
Till the shoe-soles drop!"
--Danish Popular Song.

On the following day should the much-talked-of mowing-festival take
place. It was the hay-harvest which occasioned all this merriment.
[Author's Note: It is true that serfdom is abolished, but the peasant
is still not quite free; neither can he be so. For his house and land he
must pay a tribute, and this consists in labor. His own work must give
way to that of his lord. His wagon, which he has had prepared to bring
home his own harvest, must, if such be commanded, go to the nobleman's
land, and there render service. This is, therefore, a kind of tax which
he pays, and for the faithful payment of which he is rewarded by a
harvest and mowing-feast; at the latter he receives a certain quantity
of brandy, and as much ale as he can drink. The dance generally takes
place in the middle of the court-yard, and the dancers themselves must
pay their musicians.]

During three afternoons in succession, in the inner court and under free
heaven, should a ball be held. Along the walls, rough planks, laid upon
logs of wood, formed a row of benches. At both ends of the court lay
two barrels of the newly brewed ale, which had received more malt than
usual, and which, besides, through the silver skilling, and the magic
dance of the maidens round the tub, had acquired extraordinary strength.
A large wooden tankard, containing several measures of brandy, stood
upon a table; the man who watched the bleaching-ground was placed as
a kind of butler to preside at this sideboard. A bread-woman, with new
white bread from Nyborg upon her barrow, wheeled into the court, and
there established her stall for every one; for it was only liquors the
guests received gratis.

The guests now entered the court by pairs; the men, part in jackets,
part in long coats which hung down to their ankles. Out of the
waistcoat-pocket protruded a little nosegay of sweet-williams and musk.
The girls carried their "posies," as they called them, in their neatly
folded pocket-handkerchiefs. Two musicians--one quite a young blade,
in a laced coat with a stiff cravat, mid the other the well-known Peter
Cripple, "Musikanti" as he was called--led the process