Poultry Meg's Family · page 31 2 3201Student Holberg wrapped himself up in his woollen cloak, and wanted to go to the town.202Over the ferry-house the crows and daws were flying with loud cries; one could hardly hear the church bells for their screaming.203Mother Soren stood in front of the house, filling a brass pot with snow, which she was going to put on the fire to get drinking water.204She looked up to the crowd of birds, and thought her own thoughts.205Student Holberg went to church.206On his way there and on his return he passed by the house of tax-collector Sivert, by the town-gate.207Here he was invited to take a mug of brown beer with treacle and sugar.208The discourse fell upon Mother Soren, but the tax collector did not know much about her, and, indeed, few knew much about her.209She did not belong to the island of Falster, he said; she had a little property of her own at one time.210Her husband was a common sailor, a fellow of a very hot temper, and had killed a sailor of Dragor; and he beat his wife, and yet she defended him.211"I should not endure such treatment," said the tax-collector's wife. "212I am come of more respectable people.213My father was stocking-weaver to the Court."214"And consequently you have married a governmental official," said Holberg, and made a bow to her and to the collector.215It was on Twelfth Night, the evening of the festival of the Three Kings, Mother Soren lit up for Holberg a three-king candle, that is, a tallow candle with three wicks, which she had herself prepared.216"A light for each man," said Holberg.217"For each man?" repeated the woman, looking sharply at him.218"For each of the wise men from the East," said Holberg.219"You mean it that way," said she, and then she was silent for a long time.220But on this evening he learned more about her than he had yet known.221"You speak very affectionately of your husband," observed Holberg, "and yet the people say that he ill-uses you every day."222"That's no one's business but mine," she replied. "223The blows might have done me good when I was a child; now, I suppose, I get them for my sins.224But I know what good he has done me," and she rose up. "225When I lay sick upon the desolate heath, and no one would have pity on me, and no one would have anything to do with me, except the crows and daws, which came to peck me to bits, he carried me in his arms, and had to bear hard words because of the burden he brought on board ship.226It's not in my nature to be sick, and so I got well.227Every man has his own way, and Soren has his; but the horse must not be judged by the halter.228Taking one thing with another, I have lived more agreeably with him than with the man whom they called the most noble and gallant of the King's subjects.229I have had the Stadtholder Gyldenlowe, the King's half-brother, for my husband; and afterwards I took Palle Dyre.230One is as good as another, each in his own way, and I in mine.231That was a long gossip, but now you know all about me."232And with those words she left the room.233It was Marie Grubbe! so strangely had fate played with her.234She did not live to see many anniversaries of the festival of the Three Kings; Holberg has recorded that she died in June, 1716; but he has not written down, for he did not know, that a number of great black birds circled over the ferry-house, when Mother Soren, as she was called, was lying there a corpse.235They did not scream, as if they knew that at a burial silence should be observed.236So soon as she lay in the earth, the birds disappeared; but on the same evening in Jutland, at the old manor house, an enormous number of crows and choughs were seen; they all cried as loud as they could, as if they had some announcement to make.237Perhaps they talked of him who, as a little boy, had taken away their eggs and their young; of the peasant's son, who had to wear an iron garter, and of the noble young lady, who ended by being a ferryman's wife.238"Brave! brave!" they cried.239And the whole family cried, "Brave! brave!" when the old house was pulled down.240"They are still crying, and yet there's nothing to cry about," said the clerk, when he told the story. "241The family is extinct, the house has been pulled down, and where it stood is now the stately poultry-house, with gilded weathercocks, and the old Poultry Meg.242She rejoices greatly in her beautiful dwelling.243If she had not come here," the old clerk added, "she would have had to go into the work-house."244The pigeons cooed over her, the turkey-cocks gobbled, and the ducks quacked.245"Nobody knew her," they said; "she belongs to no family.246It's pure charity that she is here at all.247She has neither a drake father nor a hen mother, and has no descendants."248She came of a great family, for all that; but she did not know it, and the old clerk did not know it, though he had so much written down; but one of the old crows knew about it, and told about it.249She had heard from her own mother and grandmother about Poultry Meg's mother and grandmother.250And we know the grandmother too.251We saw her ride, as child, over the bridge, looking proudly around her, as if the whole world belonged to her, and all the birds' nests in it; and we saw her on the heath, by the sand-dunes; and, last of all, in the ferry-house.252The granddaughter, the last of her race, had come back to the old home, where the old castle had stood, where the black wild birds were screaming; but she sat among the tame birds, and these knew her and were fond of her.253Poultry Meg had nothing left to wish for; she looked forward with pleasure to her death, and she was old enough to die.254"Grave, grave!" cried the crows.255And Poultry Meg has a good grave, which nobody knew except the old crow, if the old crow is not dead already.256And now we know the story of the old manor house, of its old proprietors, and of all Poultry Meg's family.1 2 3← previousThe Porter's Son, part 3next →The Princess and the Pea↑ back to Fairy Tales of Hans Christian AndersenThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/149/page/3/