My uncle arranged all Lauge's affairs with
his creditors; and, after the October quarter-
day, Lange flitted out of his great premises to
a small place outside the town.

It was at this time that my uncle built his
large middle court with the lofty arched
entrance.

In later years, when I more closely observed
these buildings with their tiled gables,
projecting angles and gloomy recesses, I have
understood how it was that, in this house,
there should be so many mysterious legends
and ghost stories. They were not
confined to the timber-yard and the
maidservants' room. In Falstaff's chamber, for
instance, no one would have dared to sleep
on Christmas night; therefore the shopmen
always sat up that night and had a jollification
in the counting-house. In the stable,
there were certain stalls in which no animal
ever throve. In the brandy-distillery one
might, on almost every one of the great
holidays, hear them mashing the malt; but
if one went in and looked about, all the tubs
stood just as they had been left, with their
lids and the tarpauling over them, but the
moment the door was locked, the sound of the
mashing was heard just as before.

Thus, every portion of the domestics
knew of some place which they regarded
as more severely haunted than any other.
Jens, the coachman, maintained that there
was no worse corner in the whole premises
than that little dark warehouse just by
the entrance to his lock-up. "Every evening,"
said he, "when I come from the bar"
—for my uncle also dealt in wine and
spirits—"I can see sparkling eyes and red
tongues there. I go past without venturing
to speak a word; for it is not worth while for
me to meddle with the matter, or to stand
talking with devils who are sure to gain
the best of the argument. But master, he
may go to it, just as I can go to Hercules
the dog, which is so quarrelsome with everybody
else. Every evening when he goes his
round in the dusk, he sticks his head into
that corner, and when he moves off again,
he puts his hands behind his back and
saunters slowly to the counting-house."

There was certainly a sort of connection
between my uncle and this dark corner or
warehouse. My uncle used to relate the
following in explanation of it:—"When I first
began business in the town, I put the whole
of my merchandise into this little warehouse;
but afterwards, when I had built that large
wing in the principal building, I removed
everything out of it, and left nothing there
but some old rubbish, which I brought with
me when I was obliged to leave my father's
house. Some years afterwards, when I was
married and my father had been long dead, I
had occasion to look for something—I forget
now what it was—and after I had searched
through the whole house without finding it,
it occurred to me to seek for it in the old
warehouse. I cannot to this day comprehend
how it came there, but there it certainly
was.

"The following night I dreamed that as I
passed by the warehouse somebody called me
from within. I put my head in through the
half-door, and though it was quite dark
within, I could yet plainly see that my father
stood there. He had his nightcap on, and a
lance in his hand: one dreams such extraordinary
things. 'Johan,' said he to me, 'here
are three numbers. You must buy these
in the lottery, and stake all that you have
upon them. In this way you can make your
whole family happy.' With this he offered
me a lottery ticket, on which were three
numbers.—The next morning, although I
remembered the dream quite distinctly, yet I
could not recall the lucky numbers. I walked
about the whole day tormenting myself to
remember them; I was quite vexed with
myself because 1 had been so forgetful and
had lost so much money, but it was to no
purpose.

"The night after I had precisely the same
dream. Only it seemed to me that my father
was angry, and turned the thick end of the
lance threateningly against me, because I had
not obeyed him. The following morning,
however, I had again forgotten the numbers.
—The third night, and the dream was still
the same, only that my father held the point
of the lance in displeasure against me,
exclaiming, ' Precisely the same as when I was
alive, you cursed rascal! You cannot keep
two or three figures in your stupid head.
Fifteen, twenty-seven, sixty-eight!'

"'Fifteen, twenty-seven, sixty-eight!' I
exclaimed, and seized my wife by the arm,
so that we both awoke. When I opened my
eyes I had again forgotten the numbers; but
my wife, who had heard me call them out,
remembered them distinctly. I got up,
ordered a carriage, and drove immediately to
Ringsted—for at that time we had no lottery
agent in the town. I staked as high a sum
as I could afford to spare on the numbers;
desired my brother-in-law to go again and
again, if they did not immediately come up,
and then drove home.

"But you shall hear what the fool did.
The second post day he went up to the
collector, and asked if the numbers were come
up, and when the collector answered No, he
said, 'It is not worth while to throw away
so many five-dollar pieces. It is a sin to risk
more than sixpence in the lottery; put a
penny on the three.'

"On the third post day the first thing that
I cast my eyes upon in the public Advertiser
was, all three numbers—fifteen, twenty-
seven, and sixty-eight! I rushed into the
kitchen to my wife, exclaiming, 'Hurrah,
Gine! Forty thousand rix dollars! The
numbers are all come up. This evening we
will have a feast!'