"She only said so," replied my mother, "because her son had not done
it." I was comforted, and began a new piece, in which a king and queen
were among the dramatis personae. I thought it was not quite right that
these dignified personages, as in Shakspeare, should speak like other
men and women. I asked my mother and different people how a king ought
properly to speak, but no one knew exactly. They said that it was so
many years since a king had been in Odense, but that he certainly spoke
in a foreign language. I procured myself, therefore, a sort of lexicon,
in which were German, French, and English words with Danish meanings,
and this helped me. I took a word out of each language, and inserted
them into the speeches of my king and queen. It was a regular Babel-
like language, which I considered only suitable for such elevated
personages.

I desired now that everybody should hear my piece. It was a real
felicity to me to read it aloud, and it never occurred to me that
others should not have the same pleasure in listening to it.

The son of one of our neighbors worked in a cloth manufactory, and
every week brought home a sum of money. I was at a loose end, people
said, and got nothing. I was also now to go to the manufactory, "not
for the sake of the money," my mother said, "but that she might know
where I was, and what I was doing."

My old grandmother took me to the place, therefore, and was very much
affected, because, said she, she had not expected to live to see the
time when I should consort with the poor ragged lads that worked there.

Many of the journeymen who were employed in the manufactory were