At the same moment the bell sounded deep in the wood, so clear and solemnly
that five or six determined to penetrate somewhat further. It was so thick,
and the foliage so dense, that it was quite fatiguing to proceed. Woodroof and
anemonies grew almost too high; blooming convolvuluses and blackberry-bushes
hung in long garlands from tree to tree, where the nightingale sang and the
sunbeams were playing: it was very beautiful, but it was no place for girls to
go; their clothes would get so torn. Large blocks of stone lay there,
overgrown with moss of every color; the fresh spring bubbled forth, and made a
strange gurgling sound.

"That surely cannot be the bell," said one of the children, lying down and
listening. "This must be looked to." So he remained, and let the others go on
without him.

They afterwards came to a little house, made of branches and the bark of
trees; a large wild apple-tree bent over it, as if it would shower down all
its blessings on the roof, where roses were blooming. The long stems twined
round the gable, on which there hung a small bell.

Was it that which people had heard? Yes, everybody was unanimous on the
subject, except one, who said that the bell was too small and too fine to be
heard at so great a distance, and besides it was very different tones to those
that could move a human heart in such a manner. It was a king's son who spoke;
whereon the others said, "Such people always want to be wiser than everybody
else."

They now let him go on alone; and as he went, his breast was filled more and
more with the forest solitude; but he still heard the little bell with which
the others were so satisfied, and now and then, when the wind blew, he could
also hear the people singing who were sitting at tea where the confectioner
had his tent; but the deep sound of the bell rose louder; it was almost as if
an organ were accompanying it, and the tones came from the left hand, the side
where the heart is placed. A rustling was heard in the bushes, and a little
boy stood before the King's Son, a boy in wooden shoes, and with so short a
jacket that one could see what long wrists he had. Both knew each other: the
boy was that one among the children who could not come because he had to go
home and return his jacket and boots to the innkeeper's son. This he had done,
and was now going on in wooden shoes and in his humble dress, for the bell
sounded with so deep a tone, and with such strange power, that proceed he
must.

"Why, then, we can go together," said the King's Son. But the poor child that
had been confirmed was quite ashamed; he looked at his wooden shoes, pulled at
the short sleeves of his jacket, and said that he was afraid he could not walk
so fast; besides, he thought that the bell must be looked for to the right;
for that was the place where all sorts of beautiful things were to be found.

"But there we shall not meet," said the King's Son, nodding at the same time
to the poor boy, who went into the darkest, thickest part of the wood, where
thorns tore his humble dress, and scratched his face and hands and feet till
they bled. The King's Son got some scratches too; but the sun shone on his
path, and it is him that we will follow, for he was an excellent and resolute
youth.

"I must and will find the bell," said he, "even if I am obliged to go to the
end of the world."

The ugly apes sat upon the trees, and grinned. "Shall we thrash him?" said
they. "Shall we thrash him? He is the son of a king!"

But on he went, without being disheartened, deeper and deeper into the wood,
where the most wonderful flowers were growing. There stood white lilies with
blood-red stamina, skyblue tulips, which shone as they waved in the winds, and
apple-trees, the apples of which looked exactly like large soapbubbles: so
only think how the trees must have sparkled in the sunshine! Around the nicest
green meads, where the deer were playing in the grass, grew magnificent oaks
and beeches; and if the bark of one of the trees was cracked, there grass and
long creeping plants grew in the crevices. And there were large calm lakes
there too, in which white swans were swimming, and beat the air with their
wings. The King's Son often stood still and listened. He thought the bell
sounded from the depths of these still lakes; but then he remarked again that
the tone proceeded not from there, but farther off, from out the depths of the
forest.

The sun now set: the atmosphere glowed like fire. It was still in the woods,
so very still; and he fell on his knees, sung his evening hymn, and said: "I
cannot find what I seek; the sun is going down, and night is coming--the dark,
dark night. Yet perhaps I may be able once more to see the round red sun
before he entirely disappears. I will climb up yonder rock."

And he seized hold of the creeping-plants, and the roots of trees--climbed up
the moist stones where the water-snakes were writhing and the toads were
croaking--and he gained the summit before the sun had quite gone down. How
magnificent was the sight from this height! The sea--the great, the glorious
sea, that dashed its long waves against the coast--was stretched out before
him. And yonder, where sea and sky meet, stood the sun, like a large shining
altar, all melted together in the most glowing colors. And the wood and the
sea sang a song of rejoicing, and his heart sang with the rest: all nature was
a vast holy church, in which the trees and the buoyant clouds were the
pillars, flowers and grass the velvet carpeting, and heaven itself the large
cupola. The red colors above faded away as the sun vanished, but a million
stars were lighted, a million lamps shone; and the King's Son spread out his
arms towards heaven, and wood, and sea; when at the same moment, coming by a
path to the right, appeared, in his wooden shoes and jacket, the poor boy who
had been confirmed with him. He had followed his own path, and had reached the
spot just as soon as the son of the king had done. They ran towards each
other, and stood together hand in hand in the vast church of nature and of
poetry, while over them sounded the invisible holy bell: blessed spirits
floated around them, and lifted up their voices in a rejoicing hallelujah!


<< previous page | next page >>

Jump to page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 |