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688 A STRING OF PEARLS
came to Slagelse, and beyond, on the other side of Slagelse, it was not much better, and we wished to arrive early at the " Crab ", so that we might walk into Soro by daylight and visit the miller's Emil, as we called him ; yes, it was your grandfather, my late husband, the dean ; he was a student at Soro, and had just passed his second examination.
'We came to the "Crab" in the afternoon; it was a fashionable place at that time, the best inn on the whole of the journey, and the most charming district; yes, you must all allow it is still that. She was an active hostess, Mrs. Plambek ; everything in the house was like a well-scoured table. On the wall hung Baggesen's letter to her, framed and under glass, and well worth seeing ; to me it was something very notable. Then we went up to Soro, and there met Emil. You may suppose that he was glad to see us, and we to see him, and he was so good and attentive. With him we saw the church with Absalon's grave and Holberg's coffin ; we saw the old monkish inscriptions, and we sailed over the lake to " Parnassus "; the most beautiful evening I can remember ! It seemed to me that if one could make poetry anywhere in the world, it must be at Soro, in this peace and beauty of nature. Then in the moonlight we went along the " Philosopher's Walk ", as they call it, the lovely, lonely path by the lake and the stream, out towards the high-road leading to the "Crab". Emil stayed to supper with us; Father and Mother thought he had grown so sensible and looked so well. He promised us that he would be in Copenhagen in five days, at his own home and together with us, for Whitsuntide. These hours in Soro and the " Crab " belong to my life's loveliest pearls.
• Next morning we set out very early, for we had a long way to go before we reached Roskilde, and we must get there betimes, so that the cathedral might be seen, and in the evening father could have time to visit an old school friend. This was duly carried out, and then we spent the night in Roskilde, and next day, but only by dinnertime, for it was the worst and most cut-up road that we had yet to travel, we arrived in Copenhagen. We had spent about three days from Korsor to Copenhagen; |
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