United States or Costa Rica ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


The families of Iversen and Guldberg received me cordially; and in the little streets I saw the people open their windows to look after me, for everybody knew how remarkably well things had fared with me; nay, I fancied I actually stood upon the pinnacle of fortune, when one of the principal citizens, who had built a high tower to his house, led me up there, and I looked out thence over the city, and the surrounding country, and some old women in the hospital below, who had known me from childhood, pointed up to me.

She therefore appeared to me as the queen of everything, and in my imagination I regarded her as the one who would be able to do everything for me, if I could only obtain her support. Filled with these thoughts, I went to the old printer Iversen, one of the most respectable citizens of Odense, and who, as I heard, had had considerable intercourse with the actors when they were in the town.

"You've thought it out nicely!" laughed the grocer scornfully, and he wrenched the shop-door open. "Here, policeman, here!" The policeman, who was keeping watch at the street corner, came quickly over to the shop. "Here's a lad who plays tricks with other folks' money," said the grocer excitedly. "Take care of him for a bit, Iversen!"

I took one of my childhood's rambles to the Marian-heights which had belonged to the Iversen family; but this family is dispersed; unknown faces looked out from the windows. How many youthful thoughts have been here exchanged!

"You've thought it out nicely!" laughed the grocer scornfully, and he wrenched the shop-door open. "Here, policeman, here!" The policeman, who was keeping watch at the street corner, came quickly over to the shop. "Here's a lad who plays tricks with other folks' money," said the grocer excitedly. "Take care of him for a bit, Iversen!"

In my opinion Andersen never wrote anything finer in the way of description than many parts of this work, though as a story it is not equal to his others. Funen revealed her rural life to me; and, not far from my birth-place of Odense, I passed several weeks at the country seat of the elder Iversen as a welcome guest. Poems sprung forth upon paper, but of the comic fewer and fewer.