, 1875-09-08

trace in him. To children he yielded place,
which no big people,. ever expected from
him. He would bear interruption by a
child, and patiently answer its questions, al.
ways becoming more child like himself in doing
SO; he understood children and they under
stood him, after the occult fashion of the high.
er animals, and he might be commonly seen
Quit up In a bower of children, with one on
eaoh toot-where there was plenty of room for
lt-and an outer hedge of them as the less
privileged audience. To them he was {" dear
AndSen," too, and a playfellow, also a conf.
dant and'helper. Many a tooth has been ex-
tracted, many a dose of medicine administer
ed under the influence of a story from Ander-
sen and the Copenhagen children's f~avourite
toys are the persOnages of his stories made in
terra-ootta. The chief ~favOurite is "Oie
Lukole," who comes to visit the little ones in
their sleep-never until they are fast asleep,
though-and whispers to them pleasant dreams
of the coming of Santa Claus. &" ole Luk0ie'
ls a cCmical little fellow, with two umbrellas
tucked under his arm, one, to be- held over
the heads of good children, bringing good
dreams the other, to be held over the
heads OF children who have thought or done
what the good God does not like
bringing dreams of discontinue. Andersen
never Invented a story or created a person
. " AtSH' q OhAIut W plOAQOO III COAibS
Of suspense or ~repulsion Luk6ie was not to be
waited for in the dark, with trembling limbs
and beating heart he could never be seen, and
he always knew, when he trod upon the stair,
whether the child was really sleeping. In
every order his descriptions, and the acces.
sorles OF his stories, imprOmptu as they always
were, were wonderfully accurate, and people
wondered, for he never studied botany or any
other science from books, yet when he gave q
soul and a costume to a flower, he never do.
parted from its colour or Its character, for
instance, in bis wonderful story of the despotic
father-carrot, and his lovely daughter, in her
pale yellow gown, with the feathery green
necklace. This story he improVised to reward
a little girl who had obeyed her mothers in
functions that she should eat a tough old carrot
which was in her plate of soup. To get
him on the subject of st0rks was whimsically
pleasant. He had so closely studied a.
colony of these birds, that every one had a
character and a history for him stork family
life, stork heart, stork brain, every reality and
every fancy that even las Imagination
could bring out, would reward the questioner
as to stork character and qualities. "What
a pity it is Andersen cannot have q
Storkwife :" was more than once said.
All things animate and the things we call
inanimate responded to the call Of his delightful
LanCyJ ana ne reVelIeQ IN MS own power. 1nA6
it could have q rival nattractiveness or that il
ever could bore others, no more occurred 10
him than it occurs to an only child to suspect
the existence of a rival with its parents.
Wherever he was, he was not only FIRST, but
all, as a matter of course. The "name-day"
of the " English Rose" as he called her, befell
while she was in The same house with the poet,
and several other guests were also there. After
the pretty Danish fashion, her hostess gave a
nameJete, of which the Rose was queen, with
the right to choose a king for the day. Her
privileges were explained, and she prepared to
declare her choice, but she had reckoned With
out dear And'sen," who greeted her at once
with,-"I-I-yes, And'seu himself will be
your choice you shall say that And'sen was
your name-day king,"-and so it had to be.
He never left her side all day be was as
constant as one of his own storks, and his entire
conviction of her proud content was SO simple
and so manifest, that 10 one could have ridf-
culed it who boosted any heart or the fainteSs
sense of humour.
He had no power of enduring physical pain,
or any notion that it was undignified to bemoan
himself. He would talk to his friends of
every ailment and sensation with quite pathetic
earnestness. To see Andersen rub his stomach
slowly and heavily, while he explained, st was
bad all The night, and when the pain came
l asked the good God to take me away, but
when it went l thought I should like to live,"
and to hear him gravely repeat the gesture