TO BE, OR NOT TO BE?

CHAPTER I.

THE OLD CLERGYMAN, “ THE GENERAL’S BROTHER,” AND
SEVERAL NOTABLE PERSONS.

“ Bring me a good book when you come home,” said the clergyman’s daughter.

“And bring me a bad boy—the son of wicked parents—that I may make a good Christian of him,” added the clergyman’s wife, while the worthy divine was settling himself in the carriage, and they were wrapping his cloak well round him, on account of the sharp westerly wind.

The clergyman—the old Japetus Mollerup — was once more about to re-visit Copenhagen, where he had not been for thirty years. It is easy to get there now, for there is a steamer to it from Aarhuus. He was a lively, warm-hearted old man, and a devout and truthful expounder of the Word of God;—he had hut one foible, and, if that must he named, it was that he

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smoked a great deal of tobacco, and very bad tobacco to boot: this was not to be denied, and was the first impression one always had of him. Every portion of his clothing, to the most minute article, was so impregnated with this tobacco smoke, that if it were sent over every sea in the world, it would still retain the odour of the close, nasty, cherished canister; though at the place where he put up on first arriving at Copenhagen it was not likely to be remarked: it was at Regentsen,* with a relation, who was a student there, and who, moreover, resided in the same apartments in which Japetus Mollerup, with a chum, had lived in his student days.

In these two rooms everything was neatly arranged, and well dusted; the coats and pantaloons were hung up in a comer, concealed from view; the books stood in orderly rows; and the table, where, in general, papers, lectures, a plate with bread and butter, an inkstand, and sundry false collars, were to be seen lying together in dire confusion, sported a clean cover; and all this had been the work of the student himself, who was then the tenant of the rooms—for there were too many other things to be looked after by Poul, which could only be done by him. Poul, the common attendant on several of the students, a tall, respectable-looking person, was called by the witty lodgers a man who occupied the highest position in “ the King’s Copenhagen.” He was the porter, and also the janitor of

* A college in Copenhagen

TO BE, OR NOT TO BE ?

the astronomical observatory up in the round tower: there he resided above all authorities, with the exception of the watchman of the church tower. He descended every morning from his altitude, to blacken the students’ boots and brush their clothes; and in the afternoon he went errands into the town, in which he had a good assistant in his little son Niels, who was clever and wide awake, and, indeed, somewhat of a Latin scholar, as we shall perceive by-and-by. On this occasion there was much to be sent for—a flask of the extract of punch, some good cheese, and sausages of different kinds, were absolutely required.

The honoured guest of the evening—old Japetus— was the first to make his appearance. He was equipped in his best clothes, made by a Jutland village tailor, who travelled through different districts, and did the needful in the way of clothing, both for the masters and their servants. The old clergyman looked exceedingly respectable in his black coat and with his silver gray hair; his countenance beamed with joy as he stood once more in his old well-known rooms, and saw around him there his nephew and the sons of some old friends. “ It was so strange,” he said, “ to be again with young people in these old scenes of bygone days ”

It is delightful to find people who are advanced in life able to be young among the youthful.

The little party was entirely composed of Jutlanders, with one exception, and he might have been supposed

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