aground. The load which I have in the boat, at times so very heavy, but
then again so blissfully beautiful, no one shall see.

I feel a longing to weep away the whole of this northern fairy tale of
mine, and would do it if I could only weep away my life with it. But
why wish to lose all the loveliness, all the illusion, when I must still
bear with me to my dying day the sadness it has laid upon me?

It will be a relief to me in quiet hours to put down my recollections of
this home of mine, which so few down here understand. It is the tale of
a poor mentally-diseased man, and in it there are more of his own
impressions than of outward events.


* * * * *


PART III


* * * * *



CHAPTER I

_HOME_


My father was a country merchant, and owned the trading-place, ----ven