Part 32 (1/2)

”Nothing could be better or kinder, Mrs. Hardy,” replied Helga. ”I will write for the priest who generally does my father's duty in his absence, at once.”

”Stay,” said Mrs. Hardy, ”if your father leaves with us, it will enable you to get ready for your wedding in his absence; it will be better so. And here is a little packet. It will meet any expense; it is not from John, it is from me;” and Mrs. Hardy kissed her affectionately and was gone.

CHAPTER XXIV.

”_Piscator._--But, my worthy friend, I would rather prove myself a gentleman by being learned and humble, valiant and inoffensive, virtuous and communicable, than by any fond ostentation of riches.”

--_The Complete Angler._

Pastor Lindal accepted the invitation to join the yacht. He was anxious to know more of Mrs. Hardy, in whose hands he felt so much of his daughter's future lay.

Mrs. Hardy had, as she had done before every Sunday, attended the parish church, and Helga thanked her for the contents of the packet of Danish bank notes. It was more in amount, she said, than she wanted, and would return Mrs. Hardy three-fourths of it.

”It is very kind,” said Helga; ”but I can only accept what is positively necessary, and I accept that because it would relieve my father from an expense that he cannot well bear, and because John might wish to see me well dressed when I am married to him.”

”Would you not like to make Kirstin and your father's other servants a present when you are married?” said Mrs. Hardy.

”Yes, I shall; but I cannot use your money to do that, Mrs. Hardy. I shall give them what I have of my own, and what they know I have valued; it is not much, but they would like it best.”

This conversation had ended when they reached the parsonage, where Robert Garth was waiting with the carriage to drive Mrs. Hardy and her son to Rosendal.

”John,” said Mrs. Hardy, as they drove away, ”she is worthy of your best affection. There is not a day pa.s.ses but that something arises which makes me love her more and more.” Mrs. Hardy loved again with her son's love.

”Mother,” said John, ”she is so dear to me; there is nothing that is not truth with her.”

”You are right, John,” said his mother. ”Give her all your heart, and she will give you hers.”

”I know it, mother,” said John.

Pastor Lindal accompanied them to Aarhus, and when they came on board the yacht, John Hardy spread out the chart of the Danish islands before him.

”We can reach Nyborg to-night, Herr Pastor,” said he, ”and call and stop at Svendborg, and run round Men's Klint to Copenhagen, and pa.s.sing Elsinore to Aarhus again, stopping at any place on the way.”

”But the time?” asked the Pastor.

”A week,” replied John; ”or you can land at any place, and return by rail in a few hours.”

”No, Herr Pastor,” interposed Mrs. Hardy, ”you must not bind us to time. We shall see if the cruise is a benefit to you, and if so, you must prolong it.”

The Pastor always surrendered when challenged by Mrs. Hardy.

Whilst they were at lunch, the _Rosendal_ steam yacht was pa.s.sing Sams.

”This island,” said John Hardy, ”appears from the chart to be a sand bank washed up by the sea.”

”So is all Denmark,” said Pastor Lindal. ”The legends and traditions belonging to Sams, however, are not as old as those of Jutland, and it would therefore appear not to have been inhabited at so early a period. There is an historical tradition that in 1576 a mermaid appeared to a man of Sams, and directed him to go to Kallundborg, where King Frederick II. was then staying with his court, and tell him that his queen would have a son, which would become a mighty ruler.

The king questioned the man, who stated that the mermaid's name was Isbrand, and that she lived in the sea, not far from land, with her mother and grandmother, and that it was the latter that had foretold the birth of Queen Margrethe, who united the three Scandinavian kingdoms under one crown. King Frederick sent the man home, and commanded him not to come to the court again.

The king's son was Christian IV., under whose rule Denmark attained its zenith of power. Once, when Christian IV. was driven ash.o.r.e by a storm on Sams, he saw the priest's man ploughing. The king took the plough and ploughed a furrow, and told the man to tell his master that the king had ploughed for him.”