Denmark | Page 4

Sound with its innumerable yachts skimming over the blue water, and is a delightful place for pedestrians. A walk round the moat of the Citadel, on the waters of which the children sail their little boats, is also enjoyable. This Citadel, now used as barracks, was built by Frederik III. in 1663, and formerly served as a political prison. Struensee, the notorious Prime Minister, was imprisoned here and beheaded for treason. A few narrow, picturesque streets surrounding this fort are all that remain of old Copenhagen.
The art treasures contained in the museums of Copenhagen being renowned, I must tell you a little about them. Two or three of the palaces not now required by the Royal Family are used to store some of these treasures. Rosenborg Castle, built by Christian IV., and in which he died, contains a collection of family treasures belonging to the Oldenburg dynasty. This historical collection of these art-loving Kings is always open to the public. Besides Thorvaldsen's Museum, which contains the greater portion of his works, there is the Carlsberg Glyptotek, which contains the most beautiful sculpture of the French School outside France. The Danish Folk-Museum is another interesting collection. This illustrates the life and customs of citizens and peasants from the seventeenth century to the present day, partly by single objects, and partly by representations of their dwellings. The "Kunstmus?et" contains a superb collection of pictures, sculpture, engravings, and national relics. Here a table may be seen which formerly stood in Christian II.'s prison. History tells how the unhappy King was wont to pace round this table for hours taking his daily exercise, leaning upon his hand, which in time ploughed a groove in its hard surface. The Amalienborg, a fine tessellated square, contains four Royal palaces, in one of which our Queen Alexandra spent her girlhood. From the windows of these palaces the daily spectacle of changing the guard is witnessed by the King and young Princes.
Copenhagen is celebrated for its palaces, its parks, porcelain, statuary, art-treasures, and last, but not least, its gaiety.
CHAPTER III
HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN, THE "FAIRY TALE" OF HIS LIFE
I suppose the Dane best known to English boys and girls is Hans Christian Andersen, whose charming fairy-tales are well known and loved by them all. Most of you, however, know little about his life, but are interested enough in him, I dare say, to wish to learn more, especially as the knowledge will give you keener delight--if that is possible--in reading the works of this "Prince of Story-tellers."
Andersen himself said: "My life has been so wonderful and so like a fairy-tale, that I think I had a fairy godmother who granted my every wish, for if I had chosen my own life's way, I could not have chosen better."
Hans C. Andersen was the son of a poor shoemaker, an only child, born in Odense, the capital of the Island of Funen. His parents were devoted to him, and his father, who was of a studious turn of mind, delighted in teaching his little son and interesting him in Nature. Very early in life Hans was taken for long Sunday rambles, his father pointing out to him the beauties of woods and meadows, or enchanting him with stories from the "Arabian Nights."
At home the evenings were spent in dressing puppets for his favourite show, or else, sitting on his father's knee, he listened while the latter read aloud to his mother scenes from Holberg's plays. All day Hans played with his puppet theatre, and soon began to imagine plays and characters for the dolls, writing out programmes for them as soon as he was able. Occasionally his grandmother would come and take the child to play in the garden of the big house where she lived in the gardener's lodge. These were red-letter days for little Hans, as he loved his granny and enjoyed most thoroughly the pleasant garden and pretty flowers.
The boy's first great trouble came when his father caught a fever and died, leaving his mother without any means of support. To keep the little home together his mother went out washing for her neighbours, leaving little Hans to take care of himself. Being left to his own devices, Hans developed his theatrical tendencies by constructing costumes for his puppets, and making them perform his plays on the stage of his toy theatre. Soon he varied this employment by reading plays and also writing some himself. His mother, though secretly rejoicing in her son's talent, soon saw the necessity for his doing something more practical with his time and assisting her to keep the home together. So at twelve years of age Hans was sent to a cloth-weaving factory, where he earned a small weekly wage. The weavers soon discovered that Hans could sing, and the men frequently made