until
with their axes they cut their Runic signs into a few of these stones,
which then came into the calendar of time. But as for me, I had gone
quite beyond all lapse of time, and had become a cipher and a nothing.
Then three or four beautiful falling stars came down, which cleared
the air, and gave my thoughts another direction. You know what a
falling star is, do you not? The learned men are not at all clear
about it. I have my own ideas about shooting stars, as the common
people in many parts call them, and my idea is this: How often are
silent thanksgivings offered up for one who has done a good and noble
action! the thanks are often speechless, but they are not lost for all
that. I think these thanks are caught up, and the sunbeams bring the
silent, hidden thankfulness over the head of the benefactor; and if it
be a whole people that has been expressing its gratitude through a
long lapse of time, the thankfulness appears as a nosegay of flowers,
and at length falls in the form of a shooting star upon the good man's
grave. I am always very much pleased when I see a shooting star,
especially in the New Year's-night, and then find out for whom the
gift of gratitude was intended. Lately a gleaming star fell in the
south-west, as a tribute of thanksgiving to many, many! 'For whom was
that star intended?' thought I. It fell, no doubt, on the hill by the
Bay of Flensberg, where the Danebrog waves over the graves of
Schleppegrell, Laesloees, and their comrades. One star also fell in the
midst of the land, fell upon Soroe, a flower on the grave of Holberg,
the thanks of the year from a great many--thanks for his charming
plays!

"It is a great and pleasant thought to know that a shooting star falls
upon our graves; on mine certainly none will fall--no sunbeam brings
thanks to me, for here there is nothing worthy of thanks. I shall not
get the patent lacquer," said Ole; "for my fate on earth is only
grease, after all."

SECOND VISIT.

It was New Year's-day, and I went up on the tower. Ole spoke of the
toasts that were drunk on the transition from the old year into the
new, from one grave into the other, as he said. And he told me a story
about the glasses, and this story had a very deep meaning. It was
this:

"When on the New Year's-night the clock strikes twelve, the people at
the table rise up, with full glasses in their hands, and drain these
glasses, and drink success to the New Year. They begin the year with