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019 - Lucky Peer part 3 · Fairytales and Short Stories by Hans Christian Andersen

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  Speaker 1: Section nineteen of Fans Christian Anderson Fairy Tales and Short Stories,
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  Speaker 1: Volume six. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
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  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Ruhei Huck Hans
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  Speaker 1: Christian Anderson Fairy Tales and Short Stories, Volume six, eighteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty six to eighteen seventy three by Hans Christian Anderson,
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  Speaker 1: translated by HP. Paul. Chapter nineteen, The Lucky Pierre, Part
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  Speaker 1: three six. Now get that comedy out of your head,
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  Speaker 1: said her Gabriel the next morning, and let us squeeze
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  Speaker 1: in some science. Pierre had come near to thinking, like
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  Speaker 1: young Madsen, that one was giving up his fresh youth
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  Speaker 1: when he was shut up and set down with a
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  Speaker 1: book in his hand. But when he sat at his book,
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  Speaker 1: there shone from it so many noble and good thoughts
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  Speaker 1: that Pierre found himself quite absorbed in it. He heard
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  Speaker 1: of the world's great men and their achievements. So many
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  Speaker 1: had been the children of poor people. Thamistocles, the hero
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  Speaker 1: son of a potter Shakespeare, a poor weaver's boy who,
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  Speaker 1: when a young man, held horses at the door of
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  Speaker 1: the theater, where afterward he was the mightiest man in
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  Speaker 1: poetic art of all countries in all time. He heard
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  Speaker 1: of the singing contest at Watburg, where the poets wied
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  Speaker 1: to see who would produce the most beautiful poem, a
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  Speaker 1: contest like the old trial of the Grecian poets at
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  Speaker 1: the great public feats. Her Gabriel talked of these with
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  Speaker 1: a special delight. So Focules had, in his old age
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  Speaker 1: written one of his best tragedies and won the prize
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  Speaker 1: of victory over all the others. In this honor and fortune.
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  Speaker 1: His heart broke with you, Ah, how blessed to die
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  Speaker 1: in the midst of his joy of victory. What could
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  Speaker 1: be more fortunate? Thoughts and dreamings fill the soul of
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  Speaker 1: our little friend. But he had no one to whom
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  Speaker 1: he could tell them. They would not be intelligible to
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  Speaker 1: young Madison, or to Primus, nor to Madame Gabriel. Either
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  Speaker 1: she was either all good humor or the sorrowing mother.
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  Speaker 1: Sitting dissolved in tears. Her two small girls looked with
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  Speaker 1: astonishment at her. Nor could peer either discover why she
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  Speaker 1: was so overwhelmed with sorrow and grief. The poor children,
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  Speaker 1: said she. Then a mother is ever thinking of their future.
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  Speaker 1: The boys can take care of themselves. Caesar falls, but
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  Speaker 1: he gets up again. The two older ones splash in
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  Speaker 1: the water bowl. They want to be in the navy
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  Speaker 1: and make good matches. But my two little girls, what
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  Speaker 1: will their future be. They will reach the age when
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  Speaker 1: the heart feels and then know I well that the
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  Speaker 1: one they get attached to will not be at all
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  Speaker 1: after Gabriel's mind. He will give them one they cannot endure,
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  Speaker 1: and then they will be so unhappy. That is what
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  Speaker 1: I think of as a mother, and that is my
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  Speaker 1: sorrow and my grief. You poor children, you to become
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  Speaker 1: so unhappy. She wept. The little girls looked at her.
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  Speaker 1: Pierre looked at her with a sympathetic look. He could
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  Speaker 1: not think of anything to answer, and so he took
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  Speaker 1: himself back to his little room, sat down at the
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  Speaker 1: old piano, and foth came tones and fantasies which streamed
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  Speaker 1: through his heart. In the early morning, he went with
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  Speaker 1: a clear brain to his studies and performed the part
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  Speaker 1: assigned to him. He was a conscientious, right minded fellow.
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  Speaker 1: In his diary he recorded what each day he had
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  Speaker 1: read and studied how late he had sat up playing
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  Speaker 1: at the piano, always mutely so as not to awaken
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  Speaker 1: Madame Gabriel. It never read in his diary, except on Sunday,
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  Speaker 1: the day of rest. Thought of Juliet was at the apothecary's.
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  Speaker 1: Wrote a letter to mother and grandmother. Pierre was still
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  Speaker 1: Romeo and a good son, very industrious, said her Gabriel.
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  Speaker 1: Follow that example, young Madsen, you will be reject scoundrel,
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  Speaker 1: said young Madsen to himself. Primus, the Dean's son suffered
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  Speaker 1: from lethargi. It is a disease, said the Dean's wife,
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  Speaker 1: and he was not to be treated with severity. The
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  Speaker 1: dreamery was only two miles distant. Wealth and fine society
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  Speaker 1: were there. He will die a bishop, said Madame Gabriel.
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  Speaker 1: He has good conjugations at the court, and the Denus
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  Speaker 1: is a lady of noble birth. She knows all about haultry.
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  Speaker 1: That means coats of arms. It was whitsuntide. A year
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  Speaker 1: had gone by since Pierre came to her Gabriel's house.
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  Speaker 1: He had acquired education, but his voice had not returned.
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  Speaker 1: Would it ever come? The Gabriel household was invited to
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  Speaker 1: the deans to a great dinner and a ball in
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  Speaker 1: the evening. A good many guests came from the town
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  Speaker 1: and from the manor houses about the Apothecaries family were invited.
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  Speaker 1: Romeo would see Juliet, perhaps dance the first dudce with her.
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  Speaker 1: It was a substantial place, the deanery, whitewashed and without
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  Speaker 1: any manure, heaps in the yard, with a dovecoat painted
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  Speaker 1: green about which twined and ivy vine. The denis was
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  Speaker 1: a corpulent woman, glycopus Athene. Her Gabriel called her the
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  Speaker 1: blue eyed and not the oxide, as Juna was called.
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  Speaker 1: Thought Pierre. There was a certain remarkable mildness about her,
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  Speaker 1: and endeavor to give an invalid look. She certainly had
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  Speaker 1: primuses sickness. She was dressed in a corn colored silk,
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  Speaker 1: wore great curls, caught up on the right by a
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  Speaker 1: large medallion portrait of her great grandmother, a general's wife,
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  Speaker 1: and on the left by an equally large bunch of
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  Speaker 1: crapes of white porcelain. The Dean had a ruddy, well
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  Speaker 1: conditioned countenance, with shining white teeth, well suited to biting
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  Speaker 1: into a roast filet. His conversation was always garnished with anecdotes.
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  Speaker 1: He could discourse with everybody, but no one had ever
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  Speaker 1: succeeded in carrying on a conversation with him. The Councilor,
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  Speaker 1: too was here, and among the strangers from the manners
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  Speaker 1: was Felix, the merchant's son. He had been confirmed and
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  Speaker 1: was now a young gentleman, very elegant in clothes and manners.
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  Speaker 1: He was a millionaire, they said. Madame Gabriel had not
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  Speaker 1: courage to speak to him. Pierre was overjoyed at seeing Felix,
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  Speaker 1: who came forward most cordially to meet him, and said
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  Speaker 1: that he bought greetings from his parents, who read all
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  Speaker 1: the letters which Pierre wrote home to his mother and grandmother.
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  Speaker 1: The dancing began. The apothecary's daughter was to dance the
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  Speaker 1: first dance with the counselor. That was the promise she
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  Speaker 1: had made at home to her mother and the counselor himself.
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  Speaker 1: The second dance was promised to Pierre, but Felix came
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  Speaker 1: and took her out, only vouchsafing a good natured nod.
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  Speaker 1: You promised that I should have one dance. The young
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  Speaker 1: lady will only give permission when you promise Peter kept
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  Speaker 1: a civil face and said nothing, and Felix danced with
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  Speaker 1: the apothecary's daughter, the most beautiful girl at the ball.
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  Speaker 1: He danced the next dance also with her. Will you
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  Speaker 1: grant me the supper dance, asked Pierre, with a pale face. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: the supper dance, she answered with a most charming smile.
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  Speaker 1: You surely will not take my partner from me, said Felix,
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  Speaker 1: who stood close by. It is not friendly. We two
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  Speaker 1: old friends from the town. You say that you are
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  Speaker 1: so very glad to see me, then you must allow
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  Speaker 1: me the pleasure of taking the lady to supper. And
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  Speaker 1: he put his arm round Pierre and laid his forehead
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  Speaker 1: jestingly against his granted, isn't it grunted? No, said Pierre,
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  Speaker 1: his eyes sparkling with anger. Felix gaily raised his arms
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  Speaker 1: and set his elbows akimbo, looking like a frog ready
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  Speaker 1: to spring. You have perfect right, young gentlemen, I would
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  Speaker 1: say the same if the supper dancer promised me, sir.
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  Speaker 1: He drew back with a graceful bow to the young lady.
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  Speaker 1: But not long after, when Pier stood in a corner
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  Speaker 1: and arranged his necktie Felix came, put his arm round
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  Speaker 1: his neck, and with the most coaxing look, said, be splendid.
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  Speaker 1: My mother, and your mother and old grandmother. They will
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  Speaker 1: all say that it is just like you. I'm off tomorrow,
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  Speaker 1: and I shall be horribly bored if I do not
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  Speaker 1: take the young lady to supper, my own friend, my
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  Speaker 1: only friend. At that Pier, as his only friend, could
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  Speaker 1: not hold out, he himself carried Felix to the young beauty.
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  Speaker 1: It was bright morning, and when the guests the next
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  Speaker 1: day drove away from the Deans, the Gabriel household was
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  Speaker 1: in one carriage, and the whole family went to sleep,
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  Speaker 1: except Pierre and Madame. She talked about the young merchant,
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  Speaker 1: the rich man's son, who was really Pierre's friend, as
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  Speaker 1: she had heard him say your health, my friend, mother
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  Speaker 1: and grandmother. There was something so negligent and so gallant
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  Speaker 1: in him, she said, one saw at once that he
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  Speaker 1: was the son of rich people, or else account's child,
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  Speaker 1: that the rest of us can't claim. One must be
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  Speaker 1: able to bow. Pierre said nothing. He was depressed all day.
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  Speaker 1: In the evening, at bedtime, when lying in sleep was
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  Speaker 1: chased away, he said to himself, how they bow and
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  Speaker 1: smirk that had he done the rich young fellow. Because
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  Speaker 1: one is born poor, he's placed under the favor and
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  Speaker 1: condescension of these richly horned people. Are you then better
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  Speaker 1: than we? And why were you created better than we?
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  Speaker 1: There was some vicious rearing up in him, something wrong,
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  Speaker 1: something which his grandmother would be grieved at. Poor Grandmother,
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  Speaker 1: thou also hast been appointed to poverty. God has known
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  Speaker 1: how to do that. And he felt anger in his heart,
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  Speaker 1: and yet at the same time an apprehension that he
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  Speaker 1: was sinning in thought and word against the good God.
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  Speaker 1: He grieved to think he had lost his child's mind,
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  Speaker 1: and yet he possessed it just by this grief, whole
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  Speaker 1: and rich in nature, Happy Pierre. A week after there
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  Speaker 1: came a letter from grandmother. She wrote, as she could,
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  Speaker 1: great letters and small letters, mixed up all her heart's
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  Speaker 1: loving things, small and great. That concerned Beer, my own
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  Speaker 1: sweet blessed boy. I think of THEE. I long for THEE,
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  Speaker 1: and that too does thy mother. She gets along very
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  Speaker 1: well with her washing and the merchant's Felix was in
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  Speaker 1: to see us yesterday with a greeting from THEE. You
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  Speaker 1: had been at the Dean's wall, and thou wort so
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  Speaker 1: honorable that wilt thou always be and rejoice the heart
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  Speaker 1: of thy old grandmother and thy hard working mother. She
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  Speaker 1: has something to tell you about Miss Franson, and then
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  Speaker 1: followed the PostScript from Pierre's mother. Miss Franson is married
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  Speaker 1: the old thing, the book binder Court has become court
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  Speaker 1: bookbinder in accordance with his petition, with a great sign,
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  Speaker 1: court book Binder Court, and she has become Madam Court.
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  Speaker 1: It is an old love that does not trust my
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  Speaker 1: sweet boy, thy mother. Second PostScript, grandmother has knit you
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  Speaker 1: six pair of woolen socks, which you will get by
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  Speaker 1: the first opportunity. I have laid with them a poor pie,
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  Speaker 1: your favorite dish. I know that you never forget it
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  Speaker 1: at her Gabriel's. Since the lady is so afraid of
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  Speaker 1: what I don't know exactly how to spell trachines. You
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  Speaker 1: must not believe that, but only eat thy own mother.
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  Speaker 1: Pierre read the letter and read himself happy. Felix was
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  Speaker 1: so good. What wrong had he done him? They had
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  Speaker 1: separated at the Deans without saying good bye to each other.
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  Speaker 1: Felix is better than I, said Pierre seven in a
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  Speaker 1: quiet life. One day glides into the next, and month
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  Speaker 1: quickly follows month. Pierre was already in the second year
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  Speaker 1: of his stay at Her Gabriels, who, with great earnestness
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  Speaker 1: and determination Madame called it obstinacy, insisted that he should
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  Speaker 1: not again go on the stage. Pierre himself received from
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  Speaker 1: the singing master, who monthly paid the stipend for his
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  Speaker 1: instruction and support, a serious admonition not to think of
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  Speaker 1: comedy playing so long as he was placed there, and
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  Speaker 1: he obeyed. But his thoughts traveled often to the theater
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  Speaker 1: at the Capitol. They had but a fancied life there
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  Speaker 1: on the stage where he was to have stood as
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  Speaker 1: a great singer. Now his voice was gone, nor did
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  Speaker 1: it come back, and often was he sorely oppressed. Thereat
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  Speaker 1: who could comfort him, neither Her Gabriel nor Madam, but
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  Speaker 1: our Lord surely could. Consolation comes to us in many ways.
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  Speaker 1: Pierre found it in sleep. He was indeed a lucky pier.
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  Speaker 1: One night he dreamed that it was with Sunday, and
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  Speaker 1: he was out in the charming green forest, where the
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  Speaker 1: sun shone in through the boughs, and where all the
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  Speaker 1: ground beneath the trees was covered with anemones and cowslips.
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  Speaker 1: Then the cuckoo began, cuckoo. How many years shall I live?
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  Speaker 1: Asked Pier. For that people always ask the cuckoo the
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  Speaker 1: first time in the year that they hear its note.
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  Speaker 1: And the cuckoo answered cuckoo, but uttered no more and
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  Speaker 1: was silent. Shall I only live a single year? Asked Pierre. Truly,
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  Speaker 1: that is too little be so good as to cuckoo.
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  Speaker 1: If it is so, then began the bird cuckoo, cuckoo.
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  Speaker 1: I it went on without end, and as it went
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  Speaker 1: Pierre cuckooed with it, and that as lively as if
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  Speaker 1: he too were a cuckoo. But his note was stronger
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  Speaker 1: and clearer. All the little birds wobbled, and Pierre sang
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  Speaker 1: after them, but far more beautifully. He had all the
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  Speaker 1: clear voice of his childhood and Caroldon's song. He was
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  Speaker 1: so glad at heart. And then he awoke, but with
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  Speaker 1: the assurance that the sounding bird still was in him,
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  Speaker 1: and that his voice still lived, and some bright wits
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  Speaker 1: and morning would burst forth in all its freshness, And
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  Speaker 1: so he slept happy in his assurance. But days and
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  Speaker 1: weeks and months past he perceived not that his voice
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  Speaker 1: came again. Every bit of intelligence which he could get
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  Speaker 1: of the theater at the Capitol was a true feast
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  Speaker 1: for his soul. It was meet and to him crumbs
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  Speaker 1: are really bred, and he received crumbs thankfully. The poorest
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  Speaker 1: little story there was a flax dealer's family living near
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  Speaker 1: the Gabriels. The mother, an estimable mistress of her household,
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  Speaker 1: brisk and laughing, but without any acquaintance or knowledge of
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  Speaker 1: the theater, had been at the Capital for the first
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  Speaker 1: time and was enraptured with everything there, even with the people.
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  Speaker 1: They had laughed at everything she had said, she assured them,
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  Speaker 1: and that was very likely. Were you at the theater?
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  Speaker 1: Also asked Pierre that I was, replied the flax dealer's wife,
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  Speaker 1: how I steamed. You ought to have seen me sit
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  Speaker 1: and steam in that hot place. But what did they do?
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  Speaker 1: What piece did they play? That? I will tell you,
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  Speaker 1: said she, I shall give you the whole comedy. I
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  Speaker 1: was there twice. The first evening. It was a talking piece.
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  Speaker 1: She the princess ahbe dabey abbe dabby, and how she
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  Speaker 1: could talk. Next came the people abei dabbi abi dabbi,
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  Speaker 1: And then down came Madame. Now they began again, the
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  Speaker 1: prince he ahbe dabei abe dabbi. Then down came Madame.
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  Speaker 1: She fell down five times that evening. The second time
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  Speaker 1: I was there, it was all singing, ahbei dabi, abei dabbi,
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  Speaker 1: and then down came Madame. There was a country woman
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  Speaker 1: sitting by my side. She had never been in the
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  Speaker 1: theater and supposed that it was all over. But I,
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  Speaker 1: who now knew all about it, and that when I
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  Speaker 1: was there last, Madame was down five times the singing evening.
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  Speaker 1: She only did it three times there I there you
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  Speaker 1: have both the comedies as to life as I saw them.
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  Speaker 1: If it was tragedy she saw, Madame always came down.
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  Speaker 1: Then it flashed over Pierre's mind what she meant. At
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  Speaker 1: the Great theater there was painted upon the curtain which
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  Speaker 1: fell between acts, a great female figure, a muse with
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  Speaker 1: the comic and tragic mask. This was Madame who came down.
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  Speaker 1: That had been the real comedy. What they said and
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  Speaker 1: sang had been to the flax dealer's wife only Abe
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  Speaker 1: d'abbe abe dabe, but it had been a great pleasure,
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  Speaker 1: and so had it also been to Pierre. And not
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  Speaker 1: less to Madame Gabriel, who heard this recital of the pieces.
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  Speaker 1: She sat with an expression of astonishment and a consciousness
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  Speaker 1: of mental superiority. For had she not, as nurse, been
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  Speaker 1: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, as the apothecary said, then down
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  Speaker 1: comes Madame, explained by Pierre, became afterwards a witty by
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  Speaker 1: word in the house. Every time a child, a cup,
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  Speaker 1: or one, or another piece of furniture fell upon the
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  Speaker 1: law in the house. That is the way proverbs and
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: familiar sayings arise, said her Gabriel, who appropriated everything to
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  Speaker 1: scientific use. New Year's eve, at the stroke of twelve,
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  Speaker 1: the Gabriels and their borders stood, each with a glass
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  Speaker 1: of punch, the only one, her Gabriel, drank the whole year,
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  Speaker 1: because punch makes one's stomach ache. They drank a health
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  Speaker 1: to the new year, and counted the strokes of the
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  Speaker 1: clock one two till the twelfth stroke. Down comes, Madame
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  Speaker 1: said they The new year rolled up and on at whitsuntide.
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  Speaker 1: Pier had been two years in the house. Eight two
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  Speaker 1: years were god, but the voice had not come back.
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  Speaker 1: How would the future be for our little friend? He
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  Speaker 1: could always be a tutor in a school. That was
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  Speaker 1: in her Gabriel's mind. There was a livelihood in that,
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  Speaker 1: though nothing to be married. Nor was Peer's mind quite
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  Speaker 1: made up as to how large a share of his heart.
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  Speaker 1: Theopothecary's daughter had. Be a tutor, said Madame Gabriel. A schoolmaster,
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  Speaker 1: then be the veriest humdrum on her, just like by Gabriel. No,
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  Speaker 1: you're born for the theater. Be the greatest actor in
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  Speaker 1: the world. That is something else than being a tutor.
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  Speaker 1: An actor. I that was the goal. He gave vent
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  Speaker 1: to his feelings in a letter to the singing Master.
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  Speaker 1: He told of his longing and his hope. Most earnestly
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  Speaker 1: did he long for the great city where his mother
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  Speaker 1: and grandmother lived, whom he had not seen for two years.
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  Speaker 1: The distance was only thirty miles footnote one Danish measure
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  Speaker 1: end of footnote in six hours by the quick train
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  Speaker 1: that could be passed. Why had they not seen one another?
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  Speaker 1: That is easily explained. We had, on leaving, been made
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  Speaker 1: to give his promise to stay where he should be placed,
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  Speaker 1: and not to think of a visit. His mother was
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  Speaker 1: busy enough with her washing and ironing. Yet for all
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  Speaker 1: that She thought a good many times of making the
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  Speaker 1: great journey, though it would cost a deal of money,
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  Speaker 1: but she never did. Grandmother had a horror of railways.
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  Speaker 1: She thought to go by them was to fly in
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  Speaker 1: the face of providence. Nothing could induce her to travel
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  Speaker 1: by steam. She was too an old woman, and she
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  Speaker 1: would take no journey until she took her last one
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  Speaker 1: up to her lord. That she said in May. But
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  Speaker 1: in June the old thing did travel, and quite alone too,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: the thirty long miles to this strange town, to strange people,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: and all to go to pier. It was a great occasion,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: the most sorrowful one that could occur to mother and grandmother.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: The cuckoo had said, cuckoo without end. When Pierre the
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: second time asked it, many years shall I live? His
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: health and spirits were good, the future shone brightly. He
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: had received a delightful letter from his fatherly friend, the
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: singing Master. Pierre was to go home, and they would
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: see what could be done for him, what course he
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: could pursue if his voice was really gone. A peer,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: as Romeo said, Madame Gabriel, you're old enough now for
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the lover's part, and have got some color in your cheeks.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: You don't need to paint be Romeo, said the apothecary,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: and the apothecary's daughter. Many thoughts went sounding through his
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: head and heart. But nobody knows what to morrow shall be.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: He sat below in the garden and stretched out to
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: the meadow. It was evening in moonlight. His cheeks burned,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: his blood was on fire. The air brought a grateful coolness.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: There over the moor a mist hung that rose and sank,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: and made him think of the dance of the Elfin maiden.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: There came into his mind the old say of the
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: night o'lap, who rode out to ask the guests to
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: his wedding, which was stopped by the elfint maidens, who
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: drew him into their dancing sport, and thereby came his death.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: It was a piece of folklore, an old poem, the
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Moonlight and the Mist over the more painted pictures for it.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: This evening Pierre sat and soon was in a half
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: dreaming state, looking out upon it. All the bushes seemed
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: to have shapes of human sort and half of beastly form.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: They stood motionless, while the mist rose like a great
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: waving veil. Something like this had peer seen in a
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: ballet at the theater, where elfin maidens were represented, whirling
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: and waving with wails of gauze. But here it was
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: far more charming and more wonderful. So great a scene
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: as this, no theater could show. None had so clear
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: an air, so shining a moonlight just in front. In
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: the mist appeared most distinctly a female shape, and it
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: became three, and the three many. They danced, hand in hand,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: floating girls. The air bore them along to the hedge
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: where peers stood. They nodded to him, they spake. It
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: was like the cling clang of silver bell. They danced
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: into the garden, and about him they enclosed him in
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: their circuit. Without thought. He danced with them, but not
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: their dance. He whirled about as in the memorable vampire dance.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: But he thought not of that. He thought not at
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: all of aught more, but was enveloped in the wondrous
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: beauty he saw around him. The moor was a sea
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: so deep and dark blue, with water lilies that were
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: bright with all conceivable colors dancing over the waves. They
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: bore him upon their veil to the opposite shore, where
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: the giant mound had torn aside its grassy sword, and
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: rose into a castle of clouds. But the clouds were
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: of marble, flowering vines of gold and costly stones twined
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: about the mighty blocks of marble. Each flower was a
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: radiant bud that sang with human voice. It was like
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: a choir of thousands and thousands of happy children. Was
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: it heaven or was it the elphint hill? The castle
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: walls stirred, they moved toward each other, they closed about him.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: He was within them, and the world of men was without.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Then he felt a pain, a strange yearning as never before.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: No outlet could he find. But from the floor away
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: up to the roof, there smiled upon him, sweet young girls.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: They were so loving as he looked upon them. And
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: yet the thought came, are ye but paintings? He would
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: speak with them, But his tongue found no words. His
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: speech was gone. Not a sound came from his lips.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Then he threw himself upon the earth with a misery
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: he never before had known. One of the elfin maidens
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: came to him. Surely she meant well to him. In
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: her manner, she had taken the shape he would boast
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: like to see. It was the likeness of the Apotheculears daughter.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: He was almost ready to believe that it was she,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: But soon he saw that she was hollow in the back,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: charming front view, but open behind, and nothing at all
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: inside one hour here is a hundred years outside, said she.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: Thou hast already been here a whole hour, All whom
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: you know and love. Without these walls are dead. Stay
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: with us, yes, stay thou must, or the walls will
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: hold THEE in a vice, till the blood spurts from
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: thy forehead, and the walls trembled, and the air became
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: like that of a glowing furnace. He found his voice,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Lord Lord, hast thou forsaken me? He cried from the
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: depths of his soul. Then Grandmother stood beside him. She
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: took him in her arms. She kissed his brow and
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: kissed his mouth. My sweet little one, said she. Our
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Lord doth not let THEE go. He lets none of
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: us go. Not the greatest sinner to God be praised
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: and honor for evermore. And she took out her psalm book,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the same one from which she and Pierre many a
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Sunday had sung. How her voice rang, how full her
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: tones all the elphant maidens laid their heads down to
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: the rest. They longed for Pierre sang with Grandmother as
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: before he had sung each Sunday. How strong and mighty
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: all at once was his voice. The walls of the
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: castle trembled, they became clouds and mist. Grandmother went with
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: him out of the hill into the high grass, where
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: the glow worms made light and the moon shone. But
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: his feet were so weary he could not move them.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: He sank down on the sword. It was the softest bed.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: There he rested and awoke to the sound of a psalm.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Grandmother sat beside him, sat by his bed in the
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: little chamber in her Gabriel's house. The fever was over
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: life and reason had returned. But he had been at
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: the door of death down in the guard garden that evening.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: They had found him in a swoon. A violent fever followed.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: The doctor thought that he would not get up from
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: it again, but must die, and so they had written
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: thus to his mother. She and grandmother felt that they
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: must go to him. Both could not leave, and so
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: the old grandmother went and went by the railway. It
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: was for peer only that I did it, said she,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: I did it in God's name, or I must believe
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: that I flew with the evil one on a broomstick
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: on Midsummer's Eve. And the Lucky Pierre Part three,