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ANNE LISBETH 681
of the Bible which lay there, opened at the words of the prophet Joel : ' Rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord ! ' That was just a chance, the people said, as many things happen by chance.
In the face of Anne Lisbeth, illumined by the sun, peace and rest were to be seen. She said she was happy, for now she had conquered. Last night the spectre of the shore, her own child, had come to her, and had said to her,
' Thou hast dug me only half a grave, but thou hast now, for a year and a day, buried me altogether in thy heart, and it is there that a mother can best hide her child ! '
And then he gave her her lost half soul back again, and brought her here into the church.
' Now I am in the house of God,' she said, ' and in that house we are happy.'
And when the sun had set, Anne Lisbeth's soul had risen to that region where there is no more anguish, and Anne Lisbeth's troubles were over. . |
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CHILDREN'S PRATTLE
At the rich merchant's there was a children's party; rich people's children and grand people's children were there. The merchant was a learned man : he had once gone through the college examination, for his honest father had kept him to this, his father who had at first only been a cattle dealer, but always an honest and industrious man. The trade had brought money, and the merchant had managed to increase the store. Clever he was, and he had also a heart, but there was less said of his heart than of his money. At the merchant's, grand people went in and out —people of blood, as it is called, and people of intellect, and people who had both of these, and people who had neither. Now there was a children's party there, and children's prattle, and children speak frankly from the heart. Among the rest there was a beautiful little girl, and the little one was terribly proud. However, the servants had taught her that, not her parents, who were far too
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