bility of getting, he
would have had a good motive to be rid of the whole business. But
now it was useless to set her free.

***

A fortnight later was the wedding, and a few days after came the
big November gale. One of the boats of the fishing-village was
swept out into the sound. It had neither rudder nor masts, so that
it was quite unmanageable. Old Mattsson and five others were on
board, and they drifted about without food for two days. When they
were rescued, they were in a state of exhaustion from hunger and
cold. Everything in the boat was covered with ice, and their wet
clothes were stiff. Old Mattsson was so chilled that he never was
well again. He lay ill for two years; then death came.

Many thought that it was strange that his idea of marrying came
just before the unlucky adventure, for the little woman he had got
took good care of him. What would he have done if he had been alone
when lying so helpless? The whole fishing-village acknowledged that
he had never done anything more sensible than marrying, and the
little woman won great consideration for the tenderness with which
she took care of her husband.

"She will have no trouble in marrying again," people said.

Old Mattsson told his wife, every day while he lay ill, the story
of the portrait.

"You must take it when I am dead, just as you must take everything
of mine," he said.

"Do not speak of such things."

"And you must listen to my mother's portrait when the young men
propose to you. Truly there is no one in the whole fishing-village
who understands getting married better than that picture."

A FALLEN KING

Mine was the kingdom of fancy, now I am a fallen king.
SNOILSKY.

The wooden shoes clattered in uneasy measure on the pavements. The
street boys hurried by. They shouted, they whistled. The houses
shook, and from the courts the echo rushed out like a chained dog
from his kennel.

Faces appeared behind the window-panes. Had anything happened? Was
anything going on? The noise passed on towards the suburbs. The
servant girls hastened after, following the street boys. They
clasped their hands and screamed: "Preserve us, preserve us! Is it
murder, is it fire?" No one answered. The clattering was heard far
away.

After the maids came hurrying wise matrons of the town. They asked:
"What is it? What is disturbing the morning calm? Is it a wedding?
Is it a funeral? Is it a c