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Page 45
Thus passed many years, and he was now an old man, and sat with his old wife
under the blooming tree. They held each other by the hand, as the old
grand-father and grand-mother yonder in the New Booths did, and they talked
exactly like them of old times, and of the fiftieth anniversary of their
wedding. The little maiden, with the blue eyes, and with Elder-blossoms in her
hair, sat in the tree, nodded to both of them, and said, "To-day is the
fiftieth anniversary!" And then she took two flowers out of her hair, and
kissed them. First, they shone like silver, then like gold; and when they laid
them on the heads of the old people, each flower became a golden crown. So
there they both sat, like a king and a queen, under the fragrant tree, that
looked exactly like an elder: the old man told his wife the story of "Old
Nanny," as it had been told him when a boy. And it seemed to both of them it
contained much that resembled their own history; and those parts that were
like it pleased them best.
"Thus it is," said the little maiden in the tree, "some call me 'Old Nanny,'
others a 'Dryad,' but, in reality, my name is 'Remembrance'; 'tis I who sit in
the tree that grows and grows! I can remember; I can tell things! Let me see
if you have my flower still?"
And the old man opened his Prayer-Book. There lay the Elder-blossom, as fresh
as if it had been placed there but a short time before; and Remembrance
nodded, and the old people, decked with crowns of gold, sat in the flush of
the evening sun. They closed their eyes, and--and--! Yes, that's the end of
the story!
The little boy lay in his bed; he did not know if he had dreamed or not, or if
he had been listening while someone told him the story. The tea-pot was
standing on the table, but no Elder Tree was growing out of it! And the old
man, who had been talking, was just on the point of going out at the door, and
he did go.
"How splendid that was!" said the little boy. "Mother, I have been to warm
countries."
"So I should think," said his mother. "When one has drunk two good cupfuls of
Elder-flower tea, 'tis likely enough one goes into warm climates"; and she
tucked him up nicely, least he should take cold. "You have had a good sleep
while I have been sitting here, and arguing with him whether it was a story or
a fairy tale."
"And where is old Nanny?" asked the little boy.
"In the tea-pot," said his mother; "and there she may remain."
THE BELL
People said "The Evening Bell is sounding, the sun is setting." For a strange
wondrous tone was heard in the narrow streets of a large town. It was like the
sound of a church-bell: but it was only heard for a moment, for the rolling of
the carriages and the voices of the multitude made too great a noise.
Those persons who were walking outside the town, where the houses were farther
apart, with gardens or little fields between them, could see the evening sky
still better, and heard the sound of the bell much more distinctly. It was as
if the tones came from a church in the still forest; people looked
thitherward, and felt their minds attuned most solemnly.
A long time passed, and people said to each other--"I wonder if there is a
church out in the wood? The bell has a tone that is wondrous sweet; let us
stroll thither, and examine the matter nearer." And the rich people drove out,
and the poor walked, but the way seemed strangely long to them; and when they
came to a clump of willows which grew on the skirts of the forest, they sat
down, and looked up at the long branches, and fancied they were now in the
depth of the green wood. The confectioner of the town came out, and set up his
booth there; and soon after came another confectioner, who hung a bell over
his stand, as a sign or ornament, but it had no clapper, and it was tarred
over to preserve it from the rain. When all the people returned home, they
said it had been very romantic, and that it was quite a different sort of
thing to a pic-nic or tea-party. There were three persons who asserted they
had penetrated to the end of the forest, and that they had always heard the
wonderful sounds of the bell, but it had seemed to them as if it had come from
the town. One wrote a whole poem about it, and said the bell sounded like the
voice of a mother to a good dear child, and that no melody was sweeter than
the tones of the bell. The king of the country was also observant of it, and
vowed that he who could discover whence the sounds proceeded, should have the
title of "Universal Bell-ringer," even if it were not really a bell.
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