rald, "that I have found out a way to
have the last word!"

"Have you discovered that, brother-in-law?" said Lexow, laughing; "now,
that is almost a more important discovery than that which Columbus made.
Impart it to me above all things."

"It will serve you nothing at all," said Alette, as, with jesting
defiance, she turned her pretty little head towards him; "because my
last word is, in every case, a different kind of one to yours."

"How?"

"Yes. My last word, as well as my last thought, remains--Alf!"

"My Alette! my sweet Alette! why these tears?"

"Susanna," whispered Harald, "I will prepare you for it in time, that my
last word remains--Sanna!"

"And mine--Harald!"

Susanna went now again on Harald's arm, Alette on her Alf's.

* * * * *

After we have, towards the end of our relation, presented such cheerful
scenes--ah! why must we communicate one of a more tragical nature? But
so fate commands, and we are compelled to relate, that----the grey and
the white ganders--weep not, sentimental reader!--which already, three
weeks before Susanna's marriage, had been put up to fatten, closed a
contentious life a few days before the same, and were united in a
magnificent _a la daube_, which was served up and eaten, to celebrate
the day of Harald's and Susanna's Last Strife and the beginning of an
eternal union.

* * * * *

Often afterwards, during her happy married life, stood Susanna by the
clear spring, surrounded by the feathered herd, which she fed, whilst
she sang to two little, healthy, brown-eyed boys, and to a young
blooming girl, this little song, with the conviction of a happy heart:

At times a little brawl
Injures not at all,
If we only love each other still
Cloudy heaven clears
Itself, and bright appears,
For such is Nature's will.

The heart within its cage
Is a bird in rage,
Which doth madly strive to fly!
Love and truth can best
Flatter it to rest,
Flatter it to rest so speedily.[20]

FOOTNOTES:

[19] The divine service in Norway is not, as still in Sweden, mingled
with worldly affairs. After the sermon merely some short prayers are
read, in which the clergyman blesses the people in the same words which
for thousands of years have been uttered over the wanderers of the
deserts. They have not here the barbaric custom of reading from the
pulpit annou