Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 19, 2025
A few years before, the couple had caused their gravestone to be prepared, and their names to be engraved on it, with the inscription, all but the date. In the evening the stone was taken to the churchyard, and laid over the grave; and the year afterwards it was taken up, that old Preben Schwane might be laid to rest beside his wife.
"You can still see on it an mountain-sides and a piece of an angel, but the inscription is almost quite worn out, except the name 'Preben, and a capital 'S' a little further on, and underneath it 'Martha, but it is impossible to make out any more, and that you can only read after if has been raining, or when we have washed it."
And so now it lies in the yard for the little ones to roll over, and to make a shelf for the kitchen pots and pans. And the paved street now covers the resting-place of old Preben and his wife, and nobody thinks of them any more." And the old man who related all this shook his head sadly. "Forgotten! All things are forgotten!"
They had had their gravestone carved with names and inscriptions, all except the dates of their death, some years before; that same evening the stone was taken to the grave, and put into its place. The next year the grave had to be reopened, and old Preben rejoined his wife. They did not turn out to be so rich as people had fancied, and what they did leave went to distant relations very far off.
The high-road now goes over the resting-place of old Preben and his wife. No one thinks of them any more." And the old man who had told all this shook his head scornfully. "Forgotten! Everything will be forgotten!" he said.
And then he talked of his wedding-day; and his eyes brightened, and he seemed to be carried back, by his words, to that joyful time. And yet there she was, lying in the next room, dead an old woman, and he was an old man, speaking of the days of hope, long passed away. Ah, well, so it is; then I was but a child, and now I am old, as old as Preben Schwane then was.
"Any one can see that it is a grave-stone," said the eldest of the children; "the representation of an hour-glass and part of the figure of an angel can still be traced, but the inscription beneath is quite worn out, excepting the name 'Preben, and a large 'S' close by it, and a little farther down the name of 'Martha' can be easily read.
Time passes away, and all things changed. I can remember quite well the day on which she was buried, and how Old Preben walked close behind the coffin. "A few years before this time the old couple had had their grave-stone prepared, with an inscription and their names, but not the date. In the evening the stone was taken to the churchyard, and laid on the grave.
Folk said they had more than a barrelful of gold, and yet they went about simply clad, in the coarsest cloth, only their linen was always of dazzling whiteness. Yes, that was a charming old pair, Preben and Martha. One was always so glad to see them, sitting together on the bench at the top of their stone staircase, under the old lime-tree's shade.
The old wooden house, with the bench at the top of the high stone staircase under the lime-tree, was ordered to be pulled down, for it was too ruinous to stand any longer. And afterward, when the convent chapel and cemetery were destroyed, the gravestone of Preben and Martha was sold, like others, to whomsoever chose to buy it.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking