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Mother Elder
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Jbout, and scraping up the ground for the hens; see how proudly
he strides! And now we are close to the church ; it stands high
on the hill, among the great oak-trees. Now we are at the
smithy ; the fire is blazing, and the half-naked men are banging
away with their hammers, and the sparks are flying about all
ound. Away, away, to the old manor house!” And all that
‘the little maid described flew past them ; the boy saw it all, and
still they only rode round and round the grass plot. ‘Then the
-hildren played in one of the walks, and marked out a tiny garden
for themselves in the mould, and the girl took one of the elder-
Jlossoms out of her hair, and planted it, and it grew up, just as
the elder-sprig grew which was planted by the old sailor and his
vife when they were little ones. Then the little girl threw her
arms round the little boy’s waist, and away they flew over all
Denmark. Spring deepened into summer, and summer mellowed
into autumn, and autumn faded into pale, cold winter, and a
thousand pictures were mirrored in the boy’s eyes and heart.
And wheresoever they flew, the sweet strong perfume of the elder-
ree floated round them ; the little boy could distinguish the
delicious fragrance of the roses, blooming in the gardens he flew
past, and the wind wafted to him the fresh odour of the beech-
trees ; but the elder-perfume far excelled these, he thought.
“ How beautiful is spring!” exclaimed the young girl, as they
stood together in the beech-wood, where the trees had newly burst
into fresh loveliness, where the sweet-scented woodroof grew at
their feet, the pale-tinted anemones looking so pretty amid its
green. “ Oh, would it were always spring!”
“ How beautiful is summer!” said she again, as they passed
an ancient baronial castle; its red, stained walls and battlements
mirrored in the moat encircling them. A sea of green corn waved
to and fro in the fields; tiny red and golden blossoms peeped
out of the ditches, and the hedges were enwreathed with wild,
wantoning hops, and the bell-flowered white bindweed. It was
evening ; the moon rose large and round; the meadows were
odorous with the scent of haystacks.
“ How beautiful is autumn !” exclaimed the little maiden; and
the vault of heaven seemed to rise higher and to grow more in-
tensely blue, and the woods became flushed with the richest and