Part 22 (2/2)

”So they went farther and farther on till they came to a great lake, and it and all about it was so bright and s.h.i.+ning that the bridegroom could scarce bear to look at it--it was so dazzling.

”'Now, you must sit down here,' said the dead man, 'till I come back. I shall be away a little while.'

”With that he set off, and the bridegroom sat down, and as he sat sleep fell on him, and he forgot everything in sweet deep slumber. After a while the dead man came back.

”'It was good of you to sit still here, so that I could find you again.'

”But when the bridegroom tried to get up he was all overgrown with moss and bushes, so that he found himself sitting in a thicket of thorns and brambles.

”So when he had made his way out of it they journeyed back again, and the dead man led him by the same way to the brink of the grave. There they parted and said farewell, and as soon as the bridegroom got out of the grave he went straight home to the house where the wedding was.

”But when he got where he thought the house stood, he could not find his way. Then he looked about on all sides, and asked every one he met, but he could neither hear nor learn anything of the bride, or the wedding, or his kindred, or his father and mother; nay, he could not so much as find any one whom he knew. And all he met wondered at the strange shape, who went about and looked for all the world like a scarecrow.

”Well! as he could find no one he knew, he made his way to the priest, and told him of his kinsmen and all that had happened up to the time he stood bridegroom, and how he had gone away in the midst of his wedding.

But the priest knew nothing at all about it at first; but when he had hunted in his old registers he found out that the marriage he spoke of had happened a long, long time ago, and that all the folk he talked of had lived four hundred years before.

”In that time there had grown up a great stout oak in the priest's yard, and when he saw it he clambered up into it, that he might look about him. But the grey-beard who had sat in Heaven and slumbered for four hundred years, and had now at last come back, did not come down from the oak as well as he went up. He was stiff and gouty, as was likely enough; and so when he was coming down he made a false step, fell down, broke his neck, and that was the end of him.”

THE FATHER OF THE FAMILY.

”Once on a time there was a man who was out on a journey; so at last he came to a big and a fine farm, and there was a house so grand that it might well have been a little palace.

”'Here it would be good to get leave to spend the night,' said the man to himself, as he went inside the gate. Hard by stood an old man with grey hair and beard, who was hewing wood.

”'Good evening, father,' said the wayfarer. 'Can I have house-room here to-night?'

”'I'm not father in the house,' said the grey-beard. 'Go into the kitchen, and talk to my father.'

”The wayfarer went into the kitchen, and there he met a man who was still older, and he lay on his knees before the hearth, and was blowing up the fire.

”'Good evening, father,' said the wayfarer. 'Can I get house-room to-night?'

”I'm not father in the house,' said the old man; 'but go in and talk to my father. You'll find him sitting at the table in the parlour.'

”So the wayfarer went into the parlour, and talked to him who sat at the table. He was much older than either of the other two, and there he sat, with his teeth chattering, and s.h.i.+vered and shook, and read out of a big book, almost like a little child.

”'Good evening, father,' said the man. 'Will you let me have house-room here to-night?'

”'I'm not father in the house,' said the man who sat at the table, whose teeth chattered, and who s.h.i.+vered and shook; 'but speak to my father yonder--he who sits on the bench.'

”So the wayfarer went to him who sat on the bench, and he was trying to fill himself a pipe of tobacco; but he was so withered up and his hands shook so with the palsy that he could scarce hold the pipe.

”'Good evening, father,' said the wayfarer again. 'Can I get house-room here to-night?'

<script>