The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1875-09-15
tlhensne-s to- poke aabuut

Etins;;at lbegiin u.poke abuut
on the ground with his invariable stick,
looking exactly like All old bone-picker,
until he had found a bone, pebble, a
twig, bit of rag, any unconsidered trife
of the wayside, when he would stand still,
scratching his left cheek, and look fixed.
ly at the thing he had in the palm of his
hand. After little he would call his
companion up with a gesture, and begin:
'Once in far-land there lived" &C., and
trace the bit of bone back to the animal
it had belonged to-, and to it's brief life in
the pastures; the twig to it's forest kin,
the pebble to its countless fellows on the
illimitable shore in the morning Of time,
the rag to its threads in the loom and its
share in court costume or an infants
robe, until one began to wonder whether
it could be fancy, or were all true. He
loved children, storks and flowers with
something approaching passion, of which
otherwise, there was no trace in him.
To children he yielded place, which no
s'big people, ever expected from him.
He would bear interruption by child,
and patiently answer its questions, al
ways becoming more chiltlike himself in
doing so; He understood children and
they understood him. after the occult
fashion OF the higher animals, and he
might be commonly seen built mp in a
bower of children, with one on each foot
where there was plenty of room for it
and an outer hedge of them as the less
privileged audience. 10 them he was
dear Andersen too, and play fellow,
also a conidant and helper. Many a
tooth has been extracted, many dose of
medicine administered, under the influ-
ence of story from Andersen; and the
Copenhagen children's favorite toys are
the personages of his stories made in ter
ra-cotta. The chief favorite is sole Luck.
OIL who comes to visit the little ones in
their sleep - never until they are fast
asleep, though--and whispers to 'them
pleasant dreams of coming Santa Claus.
cole Luckoi' is a comical little fellow,
with two umbrellas tucked under his arm.
one, to be held over the heads of good
children, bringing good dreams; the 9TH
err, to be held over the heads of children
who have thought or done ''what
the good God does not like
bringing dreams ofdiscomhture. Ander-
son never invented story or created
parsonage to frighten child, to produce
any feeling Of suspense or repulsion
Luckio was not to be waited for in the
dark, with trembling limbs and beating
heart; he could never be seen. and he
always knew, Wien he trod upon the
stair, whether the child was really sleep
ing. In every order his descriptions, and
the accessories of his stories, impromptu
as they always were, were wonderfully &C
curate, and people wondered, for he never
studied botany Or any other science from
costume to flower, he never departed
from its color or character for instance,
in his wonderful story of the despotic
father.carrot, and his lovely daughter,
in her pale yellow gown, with the
feathery green necklace. This story he
improved to award a little girl who had
obeyed her mothers injunctions that she
should eat tough old carrot which was
in her plate of soup. To get him on the
subject of storks was whim>ically pleas
ant. He had so closely studied colony
of these birds, that every one had char
acter and history for him; stork family
life, stork heart, stork brain, every real
ity and every fancy that even his imag.
nation could bring out, would reward
the questioner as to stork character and
qualities. "What a pity it is Andersen
cannot have a stork wife!'' was more
than once said. All things animate and
the things we call inanimate responded to
the call of his delightful fancy, and he re-
veled in his own power. That it could
have a rival in attractiveness, or that it
! ever could bore others, no more occurred
| to him than it occurs to an only child to
suspect the existence of a rival with it's
parents. Wherever he was, he was not
only first, but all, as 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 sew
eral other guests were also there. After
the pretty Danish fashion, her hostess
gave name fete, Of which the Rose was
queen, with the right to chose king for
the day. Her privileges were explained,
and she prepared to declare her choice,
but she had reckoned without ''dear
And SEM who greeted her at once with,
]"l-I-yes, And sen himself will be your
choice; you shall say that And sen was
vOaf name'Qay king, land so 1t mad to
be. He never left her side all day; he
was as constant as one of his own storks,
and his entire conviction of her proud
content was so simple and so manifest,
that no one could have ridiculed it who
boasted any heart or the faintest sense Of
numor' l. =. Fl. Il. Il T.
He had no power of enduring physical
pain, or any notion that it was undignifed
to bemoan himself. He would continue
to talk to his friends of every ailment
and sensation with quite pathetic earnest