ne side of him
lay the enormous red house, in front of which horses were tied; little
children were playing on a hill, dogs were sitting watching them. But
everywhere there penetrated a long, heavy tone, that shook him from head
to foot, and everything he saw seemed to vibrate with that tone. Then
suddenly he saw a large, straight house, with a tall, glittering staff
reaching up to the skies. And below, a hundred windows blazed, so that
the house seemed to be enveloped in flames. This must be the church, the
boy thought, and the music must come from it! Round about stood a vast
multitude of people, and they all looked alike! He put them forthwith
into relations with the church, and thus acquired a respect mingled with
awe for the smallest child he saw.

"Now I must play," thought Thrond, and tried to do so.

But what was this? The fiddle had no longer any sound in it. There must
be some defect in the strings; he examined, but could find none.

"Then it must be because I do not press on hard enough," and he drew his
bow with a firmer hand; but the fiddle seemed as if it were cracked.

He changed the tune that was meant to represent the church into
another, but with equally bad results; no music was produced, only
squeaking and wailing. He felt the cold sweat start out over his face;
he thought of all these wise people who were standing here and perhaps
laughing him to scorn, this boy who at home could play so beautifully,
but who here failed to bring out a single tone!

"Thank God that mother is not here to see my shame!" said he softly to
himself, as he played among the people; but lo! there she stood, in her
black dress, and she shrank farther and farther away.

At that moment he beheld far up on the spire the black-haired man who
had given him the fiddle. "Give it back to me," he now shouted,
laughing, and stretching out his arms, and the spire went up and down
with him, up and down. But the boy took the fiddle under one arm,
screaming, "You shall not have it!" and, turning, ran away from the
people, beyond the houses, onward through meadow and field, until his
strength forsook him, and then sank to the ground.

There he lay for a long time, with his face toward the earth, and when
finally he looked round he saw and heard only God's infinite blue sky
that floated above him, with its everlasting sough. This was so terrible
to him that he had to turn his face to the ground again. When he raised
his head once more