member?' said he. 'And then out first little boy came, and then Marie, and Niels, and Peter, and Hans Christian?'

" 'Yes, indeed,' she nodded. 'And how they've grown up to be useful people. Everyone likes them.'

" 'And their children have had little ones in their turn,' said the old sailor. 'Yes, they are our great-grandchildren; they're fine children. If I'm not mistaken, it was at this very time of the year that we were married.'

" 'Yes. This is the very day of your golden wedding anniversary!' said the Elder Tree Mother, stretching her head down between the two old people. They thought it was the neighbor woman nodding to them, and they looked at each other and took hold of each other's hands.

"Then the children and the grandchildren came; they knew very well that this was the old people's golden wedding day - they had already brought their congratulations that morning. But the old people had forgotten that, although they remembered everything that had happened years and years ago.

"And the elder tree smelled so fragrant, and the setting sun shone right in the faces of the old people so that their cheeks looked quite red and young; and the littlest of the grandchildren danced around them, and cried out happily that there was to be a grand feast that evening with hot potatoes! And the Elder Mother nodded in the tree and called out 'Hurrah!' with all the others."

"But that wasn't a fairy tale," said the little boy, who had been listening to the story.

"Yes, it was, if you could understand it," said the old man. "But let's ask the Elder Mother about it."

"No," the Elder Mother said, "that wasn't a story. But now the story is coming. For the strangest fairy tales come from real life; otherwise my beautiful elderbush couldn't have sprouted out of the teapot."

Then she took the little boy out of his bed and laid him against her breast, and the blossoming elder branches wound close around them so that it was as if they were sitting in a thick arbor, and this arbor flew with them through the air! How very wonderful it was! Elder Mother all at once changed into a pretty young girl, but the dress was still green with the white blossoms trimming it, such as the Elder Tree Mother had worn. In her bosom she had a real elder blossom, and a wreath of the flowers was about her yellow, curly hair. Her eyes were so large and so blue, and, oh, she was so beautiful to look at! She and the little boy were of the same age now, and they kissed each other and were happy together.

Hand in hand they went out of the arbor, and now they were standing in the beautiful flower garden at home. Near the green lawn the walking stick of the little boy's father was tied to a post, and for the little children there was magical life in that stick. When they seated themselves upon it, the polished head turned into the head of a noble neighing horse with a long, black flowing mane. Four slender, strong legs shot out; the animal was strong and spirited; and they galloped around the grass plot!

"Now we'll ride for miles!" said the boy. "We'll ride to that nobleman's estate, where we went last year!"

So they rode round and round the grass plot, a

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