ned by the beams of the imagination of childhood, would
stand before him in the most brilliant colors. Our description will be
only a shadow; it will be that, perhaps, which the many will find it to
be.

Already in the suburbs the crowd of people, and the outspread
earthenware of the potters, which entirely covered the trottoir,
announced that the fair was in full operation.

The carriage drove down from the bridge across the Odense River.

"See, how beautiful it is here!" exclaimed Wilhelm.

Between the gardens of the city and a space occupied as a bleaching
ground lay the river. The magnificent church of St. Knud, with its lofty
tower, terminated the view.

"What red house was that?" inquired Otto, when they had lost sight of
it.

"That is the nunnery!" replied Louise, knowing what thought it was which
had arisen in his mind.

"There stood in the ancient times the old bishop's palace, where
Beldenak lived!" said Sophie. "Just opposite to the river is the
bell-well, where a bell flew out of St. Albani's tower. The well is
unfathomable. Whenever rich people in Odense die, it rings down below
the water!"

"It is not a pleasant thought," said Otto, "that it rings in the well
when they must die."

"One must not take it in that way now!" said Sophie, laughing, and
turned the subject. "Odense has many lions," continued she, "from a
king's garden with swans in it to a great theatre, which has this in
common with La Scala and many Italian ones, that it is built upon the
ruins of a convent. [Note: That of the Black Brothers.]

"In Odense, aristocracy and democracy held out the longest," said
Wilhelm, smiling; "yet I remember, in my childhood, that when the nobles
and the citizens met on the king's birthday at the town-house ball, that
we danced by ourselves."

"Were not, then, the citizens strong enough to throw the giddy nobles
out of the window?" inquired Otto.

"You forget, Mr. Thostrup, that you yourself are noble!" said Sophie. "I
was really the goddess of fate who gave to you your genealogical tree."

"You still remember that evening?" said Otto, with a gentle voice, and
the thoughts floated as gayly in his mind as the crowd of people floated
up and down in the streets through which they drove.

Somewhere about the middle of the city five streets met; and this
point, which widens itself out into a little square, is called the Cross
Street: here lay the hotel to which the family drove.

"Two hours and a