one day he went to see her.

"Don't you know me?" he asked.

"What is your name?" asked the mother.

"My name is your son's name. Don't you know it?"

"My son's name was Peal, but yours is Jubal, and I don't know Jubal."

"You disown me?"

"As you disowned yourself and your mother."

"Why did you rob me of my will when I was a little child?"

"You gave your will to a woman."

"I had to, because it was the only way of winning her. But why did you
tell me I had no will?"

"Well, your father told you that, my boy, and he knew no better;
you must forgive him, for he is dead now. Children, you see, are not
supposed to have a will of their own, but grown-up people are."

"How well you explain it all, mother! Children are not supposed to have
a will, but grown-up people are."

"Now, listen to me, Gustav," said his mother, "Gustav Peal...."

These were his two real names, and when he heard them from her lips, he
became himself again. All the parts he had played--kings and demons,
the maestro and the model--cut and ran, and he was but the son of his
mother.

He put his head on her knees and said, "Now, let me die here, for at
last I am at home."

THE GOLDEN HELMETS IN THE ALLEBERG

Anders was the son of poor people, and in his youth he had wandered
through many kingdoms, with a bale of cloth and a yard-measure on his
back. But as he grew older he came to the conclusion that it would be
better to wear the king's uniform and carry a rifle on his shoulder, and
therefore he went and enlisted in the Vaestgotadal regiment. And one day
it happened that he was sent to Stockholm on sentry duty.

Friend Cask, as he was now called, was on leave one day, and he made
up his mind to spend it at the "Fort." But when he came to the gate
he found that he had not a sixpence, and consequently he had to remain
outside.

For a long time he stood staring at the railings, and then he thought,
"I'll just walk round; perhaps I'll come across a stile; if the worst
comes to the worst, I'll climb over."

The sun was setting; he walked along the shore, at the foot of the
mountain, and the railings were high above him; he could hear the sound
of music and singing. Cask went round and round, but found no stile, and
at last the railings disappeared in a forest of nut trees. When he was
tired he sat down on a hillock and began to crack nuts.

Suddenly a squirrel appeared before him and put up its tail.

"Leave my nuts alone!"