"What is the use of that!"said the tailor."Nowhe has neither life nor property.We have still one ofthese!"
"Don't say such things!"said Maren,"he
has everlasting life in the heavenly kingdom!"
"Who has told you that,Maren?"said the tailor."Dead men are good manure!but this man was too superiorto make profit to the earth,he must lie in a chapel vault!"
"Don't talk so unChristian-like!"said Maren."I tellyou again,he has everlasting life!"
"Who has told you that,Maren?"repeated the tailor.And Maren threw her apron over little Rasmus so that hemight not hear the conversation.She carried him over tothe turf-house and wept.
"The talk you heard over there,little Rasmus,wasnot your father's;it was the wicked one who wentthrough the room,and took your father's voice!Say'OurFather'.We will both say it!"She folded the child'shands.
"Now I am glad again!"she said;"hold fast byyourself and our Father!"
The year of mourning was ended,the widow wasdressed in half-mourning,and she was quite light-heart-ed.There were rumours that she had a wooer and alreadythought of a second marriage.Maren knew something ofit,and the priest knew a little more.
On Palm Sunday,after the service,the banns werepublished for the marriage of the widow and her be-trothed.He was a sculptor,the name of his occupationwas not well known;at that time Thorwaldsen and his artwere not yet in the mouths of the people.The new squirewas not of noble birth,but yet a very splendid man;hewas one who was something no one understood,they said;he carved statues,was clever in his work,young andgood-looking.
"What use is that!"said the tailor Olse.
On Palm Sunday the banns were published from thepulpit,and then followed psalm-singing and communion.The tailor,his wife,and little Rasmus were in thechurch;the parents went to the communion,Rasmus satin the pew—he was not confirmed yet.There had been alack of clothes lately in the tailor's house.The old onesthey had,had been turned again and again,sewed andpatched;now all three were in new clothes,but black,asif for a funeral;they were dressed in the covering fromthe mourning-coach.The man had got a coat and trousersfrom it,Maren a high-necked dress,and Rasmus a wholesuit to grow in till his confirmation.Both the inside andoutside covering of the mourning-coach had been used.No one need know what it had been used for before,butpeople got to know it very quickly;the wise woman Stine,and others just as wise,who did not live by their wisdom,said that the clothes would bring sickness into the house."One dares not dress oneself in the trappings of a hearseexcept to drive to the grave."
The shoemaker's Johanna wept when she heard thattalk;and when it happened that the tailor grew worsefrom day to day,it would assuredly appear who was to bethe victim.
And it showed itself.
The first Sunday after Trinity,tailor Olse died,andnow Maren was alone to keep the whole thing together;sheheld to that,to herself,and to our Father.
The following year Rasmus was confirmed;then hewent to town as apprentice to a big tailor,not with twelvemen on the board,but with one:little Rasmus could becounted as a half:he was glad looked contented,but
little Johanna wept;she thought more of him,than sheherself knew.The tailor's wife remained in the old houseand carried on the business.
It was just at that time that the new high road wasopened;the old one,past the willow tree and the tailor'shouse,became the field way,the pond became overgrown, duck-weed covered the little pool of water that remained, the milestone fell down—it had nothing to stand up for,—but the tree held itself up,strong and beautiful;the windwhistled in the leaves and branches.The swallows flewaway,the starlings flew away,but they came again in thespring,and when they came back for the fourth time,Ras-mus came back to his home.He had finished his appren-ticeship,was a good-looking but slender young fellow;nowhe would tie up his knapsack and go to see foreign lands;his mind was bent on that.But his mother hung on to him; home was best!all the other children were scattered,hewas the youngest,the house should be his.He could getplenty of work if he would stay in the district and be atravelling tailor,sew fourteen days at one farm,and four-teen days at another.That was also travelling.And Rasmusfollowed his mother's advice.So he slept again under theroof of his birthplace,and sat again under the old willowtree,and heard it moan.