In Midsummer Days and Other Tales

In Midsummer Days and Other
Tales
by August Strindberg

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Title: In Midsummer Days and Other Tales
Author: August Strindberg

Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6694] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on January 14,
2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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MIDSUMMER DAYS AND OTHER TALES ***

Produced by Nicole Apostola.

IN MIDSUMMER DAYS AND OTHER TALES.
BY AUGUST STRINDBERG
TRANSLATED BY ELLIE SCHLEUSSNER

CONTENTS
IN MIDSUMMER DAYS THE BIG GRAVEL-SIFTER THE
SLUGGARD THE PILOT'S TROUBLES PHOTOGRAPHER AND
PHILOSOPHER HALF A SHEET OF FOOLSCAP CONQUERING
HERO AND FOOL WHAT THE TREE-SWALLOW SANG IN THE
BUCKTHORN TREE THE MYSTERY OF THE TOBACCO SHED
THE STORY OF THE ST. GOTTHARD THE STORY OF JUBAL
WHO HAD NO "I" THE GOLDEN HELMETS IN THE ALLEBERG
LITTLE BLUEWING FINDS THE GOLDPOWDER

IN MIDSUMMER DAYS

In Midsummer days when in the countries of the North the earth is a
bride, when the ground is full of gladness, when the brooks are still
running, the flowers in the meadows still untouched by the scythe, and
all the birds singing, a dove flew out of the wood and sat down before
the cottage in which the ninety-year-old granny lay in her bed.
The old woman had been bedridden for twenty years, but she could see
through her window everything that happened in the farmyard which
was managed by her two sons. But she saw the world and the people in
her own peculiar manner, for time and the weather had painted her
window-panes with all the colours of the rainbow; she need but turn her
head a little and things appeared successively red, yellow, green, blue,
and violet. If she happened to look out on a cold winter's day when the
trees were covered with hoar-frost and the white foliage looked as if it
were made of silver, she had but to turn her head a little on the pillow,
and all the trees were green; it was summer-time, the ploughed fields
were yellow, and the sky looked blue even if a moment before it had
been ever so grey. And therefore the old granny imagined that she
could work magic, and was never bored.
But the magical window-panes possessed another quality; they bulged
a little and consequently they magnified or reduced every object which
came into their field of vision. Whenever, therefore, her grown-up son
came home in a bad temper and scolded everybody, granny had but to
wish him to be a good little boy again, and straightway she saw him
quite small. Or, when she watched her grandchildren playing in the
yard, and thought of their future--one, two, three--she changed her
position ever so slightly, and they became grown-up men and women,
as tall as giants.
Ail during the summer the window stood open, for then the
window-panes could not show her anything so beautiful as the reality.
And now, on Midsummer Eve, the most beautiful time of all the year,
she lay there and looked at the meadows and towards the wood, where
the dove was singing its song. It sang most beautifully of the Lord
Jesus, and the joy and splendour of the Kingdom of Heaven, where all
are welcome who are weary and heavy laden.

The old woman listened to the song for a little while, and then she laid
that she was much obliged, but that Heaven could be no more beautiful
than the earth itself, and she wanted nothing better.
Thereupon the dove flew away over the meadow into the mountain glen,
where the farmer stood digging a well. He stood in a deep hole which
he had dug, three yards below the surface; it was just as if he were
standing in his grave.
The dove settled on a fir