which, according to the fashion of the time,
were worn outside his breeches—he pulled
watches, breast-pins, tobacco-boxes, rings, and
other valuables. I lay there immoveable,
staring at him, whilst he was exclaiming,
'Nay, don't lie staring there! Go and fetch
me Jens the coachman.'

"'Have you won all these, Johan?' asked
I, in terror, for the fearful thought suddenly
occurred to me that perhaps in his drunkenness
he had got them by some other means.

"'Yes, I have won them,' said he. 'I don't
know,' he added, clasping his hands upon his
forehead, 'I don't know how it has happened.
I am almost terrified, Christian!'

"He seated himself upon the bed. 'I had
staked the last piece of my goods, and they sat
all together and laughed, and were so merry;
I was in such an ill humour, I could have
murdered them! Just when the cards were
shuffled and my all in this world was at stake,
and my soul and my eternal happiness—
for it concerned that, Christian!— it occurred
to me that people in the old times used to
give themselves up to the devil to secure his
aid at such times, and I thought to myself—
'If the devil were but here!  but then he is
now so overstocked with human beings it is
not worth his while to be here tonight!'
Whilst I thought thus, the cards were dealt.
I turned mine, and that very moment I
seemed to hear quite plain somebody laughing
behind me. I won, and the strange laughter
behind me continued, but I did not dare to
look round. I went on winning and winning
until I won everything of value on the table,
and they broke up. Although I came home
immediately, the laughter has followed me to
this very door. But I have not sold myself to
the fiend, have I, Christian, because I thought
about him? Oh, never again, as long as I
live, will I touch a card! I will go home!
Fetch me coachman Jens, Christian, for I am
so bewildered in my head that I don't know
how to find the way to him. Get up, Christian,
make haste!'

"I went to coachman Jens, but he could
not at all understand why the goods he had
brought should be carried back unopened;
and, to my brother's great terror, declared
that the devil must be at the bottom
of it. When my brother took his seat, and
the carriage began to drive off, he cast a long
glance over the tents and the booths, exclaiming,
'Farewell, Hjembek! We two will see
each other no more!'"

Within a very short time after Johan's
return, the whole town began to talk
of the sudden change which had occurred in
him. On his side, too, Johan found that a
great change had taken place in the town.
There seemed now to be many more friendly
countenances there than formerly. Many of
the old tradespeople who had formerly shook
their heads when he went by, now came into
his shop and had a little chat with him, and
one and another let him know in a delicate
way that if, on any occasion, he needed a
little assistance, they would not object to let
him have two or three hundred dollars, more
or less. More than one of the respectable
ladies in whose houses he visited treated
him with motherly care. They showed him
such tenderness as they would show to a
child who had too early become motherless,
and Johan could not but observe that
these ladies were especially such as had
marriageable daughters. But either uncle
Johan had at that time a hard impenetrable
heart, or he felt himself unworthy of the
great honour which was shown to him; for he
continued to live on a bachelor.

Johan's trade increased. He enlarged his
premises. He had a brandy-distillery, a
brewery and warehouses, and each hiring
day his domestics became more numerous.
But he had no beloved wedded wife to
manage his house, to keep a watchful eye
over the maid-servants, and to care for
his comfort; and the female population of the
town spoke often of the poor man, who, without
any doubt, must be shamefully cheated
and robbed. Johan, alone, seemed to be blind
to these discomforts. True enough it was
noticed that he changed his female servants
about every half year; but as, in a general
way, they very soon afterwards married, and
had a good portion from him, people were
not justified in believing that there had been,
any dissatisfaction on his side.

At length, in the year 1802, it happened
that Johan made a journey to Lubeck. Such
a journey in those days was something so
unusual as to excite general attention; and,
from this time, Johan Falsen came to be
esteemed as among the first shopkeepers of
the town. The journey was very successful;
but on his return the ship in which he sailed
was overtaken by a violent storm on the
coast of Pomerania. The masts were carried
overboard; there was every prospect of a
wreck; all order ceased among the crew;
and the unmanageable vessel drove like a toy
before the excited billows. There appeared
no hope whatever.

Johan lay down in his cabin; and, in that
fearful moment—when the mast was carried
away, and the crew screamed in terror of
their danger—he was occupying his mind,
strange to say, with his maid-servants. He
reckoned them up by name, from Marie to
Anna Kirstine; and, when he had come to the
last, he fell upon his knees and vowed to God
that if he would deliver him from this
danger he would take for wife the first
citizen's daughter whom he met after his
return to Denmark. As if satisfied by this
voluntary sacrifice the storm abated, the
raging billows subsided, the ship came safely
to land; and, two months afterwards, Uncle
Johan was married to Aunt Regina.

It is long after this event that my
remembrance of the house commences. The first
time I was introduced into it, its youth—as