hich the maids often laid the
cleaned copper kitchen utensils that they might dry in the sun, and
where the children were fond of playing. It was, in fact, an old
gravestone.

"Yes," said the master of the house, "I believe the stone comes from
the old convent churchyard; for from the church yonder, the pulpit,
the memorial boards, and the gravestones were sold. My father bought
the latter, and they were cut in two to be used as paving-stones; but
that old stone was kept back, and has been lying in the courtyard ever
since."

[Illustration: PREBEN SCHWANE AND HIS WIFE MARTHA.]

"One can very well see that it is a gravestone," observed the eldest
of the children; "we can still decipher on it an hour-glass and a
piece of an angel; but the inscription which stood below it is quite
effaced, except that you may read the name of _Preben_, and a great
_S_ close behind it, and a little farther down the name of _Martha_.
But nothing more can be distinguished, and even that is only plain
when it has been raining, or when we have washed the stone.

"On my word, that must be the gravestone of Preben Schwane and his
wife!"

These words were spoken by an old man; so old, that he might well have
been the grandfather of all who were present in the room.

"Yes, they were one of the last pairs that were buried in the old
churchyard of the convent. They were an honest old couple. I can
remember them from the days of my boyhood. Every one knew them, and
every one esteemed them. They were the oldest pair here in the town.
The people declared that they had more than a tubful of gold; and yet
they went about very plainly dressed, in the coarsest stuffs, but
always with splendidly clean linen. They were a fine old pair, Preben
and Martha! When both of them sat on the bench at the top of the steep
stone stairs in front of the house, with the old linden tree spreading
its branches above them, and nodded at one in their kind gentle way,
it seemed quite to do one good. They were very kind to the poor; they
fed them and clothed them; and there was judgment in their benevolence
and true Christianity. The old woman died first: that day is still
quite clear before my mind. I was a little boy, and had accompanied my
father over there, and we were just there when she fell asleep. The
old man was very much moved, and wept like a child. The corpse lay in
the room next to the one where we sat; and he spoke to my father and
to a few neighbours who w