UNDER THE WILLOW TREE. 475

asked him why he went about so gloomily, and told him he should
go and amuse himself with them, for he was a young fellow.

And they went with him to the dancing-rooms. He saw many
handsome girls there, but certainly not one like Joanna; and here,
where he thought to forget her, she stood more vividly than ever
before the eyes of his soul. “Heaven gives us strength for a
great deal, if we only try to do our best,” she had said; and holy
thoughts came into his mind, and he folded his hands. The
violins played, and the girls danced round ina circle; and he was
quite startled, for it seemed to him as if he were in a place-to
which he ought not to have brought Joanna—for she was there
with him, in his heart; and accordingly he went out. He ran
through the streets, and passed by the house where she had
dwelt ; it was dark there, dark everywhere, and empty, and lonely.
The world went on in its course, but Knud pursued his lonely
way, unheedingly.

The winter came, and the streams were frozen. Everything
seemed to be preparing for a burial. But when spring returned,
and the first steamer was to start, a longing seized him to go away,
far, far into the world, but not to France. So he packed his knap-
sack, and wandered far into the German land, from city to city,
without rest or peace; and it was not till he came to the glorious
old city of Nuremberg that he could master his restless spirit ;
and in Nuremberg, therefore, he decided to remain.

Nuremberg is a wonderful old city, and looks as if it were cut
out of an old picture-book. The strests seem to stretch them-
selves along justas they please. The houses do not like standing
in regular ranks. Gables with little towers, arabesques, and
pillars, start out over the pathway, and from the strange peaked
roofs water-spouts, formed like dragons or great slim dogs, extend
far over the street.

Here in the market-place stood Knud, with his knapsack on
his back. He stood by. one of the old fountains, that are adorned
with splendid bronze figures, scriptural and historical, rising up
between the gushing jets of water. A pretty servant-maid was
just filling her pails, and she gave Knud a refreshing draught ;
and as her hand was full of roses, she gave him one of the flowers,
and he accepted it as a good omen.

From the neighbouring church the strains of the organ were
sounding: they seemed to him as familiar as the tones of the
organ at home at Kjoge; and he went into the great cathedral.
The sunlight streamed in through the stained glass windows, be-
tween the two lofty slender pillars. His spirit became prayerful,
and peace returned. to his soul.

And he sought and found a good master in Nuremberg, with
whom he stayed, and in whose house he learned the German
language.

The old moat round the town has been converted into a num-