Recollections of My Childhood and Youth | Page 3

clumsy, very agile if anything; I learnt to be a good high
jumper, to climb and run well, was no contemptible wrestler, and by

degrees became an expert fighter. But I was not muscularly strong, and
never could be compared with those who were so.
IV.
The world, meanwhile, was so new, and still such an unknown country.
About that time I was making the discovery of fresh elements.
I was not afraid of what I did not like. To overcome dislike of a thing
often satisfied one's feeling of honour.
"Are you afraid of the water?" asked my brisk uncle from Fünen one
day. I did not know exactly what there was to be afraid of, but
answered unhesitatingly: "No." I was five years old; it was Summer,
consequently rainy and windy.
I undressed in the bathing establishment; the old sailor fastened a cork
belt round my waist. It was odiously wet, as another boy had just taken
it off, and it made me shiver. Uncle took hold of me round the waist,
tossed me out into the water, and taught me to take care of myself.
Afterwards I learnt to swim properly with the help of a long pole
fastened to the cork belt and held by the bathing-man, but my
familiarity with the salt element dated from the day I was flung out into
it like a little parcel. Without by any means distinguishing myself in
swimming, any more than in any other athletic exercise, I became a
very fair swimmer, and developed a fondness for the water and for
bathing which has made me very loth, all my life, to miss my bath a
single day.
There was another element that I became acquainted with about the
same time, and which was far more terrifying than the water. I had
never seen it uncontrolled: fire.
One evening, when I was asleep in the nursery, I was awaked by my
mother and her brother, my French uncle. The latter said loudly: "We
must take the children out of bed."
I had never been awaked in the night before. I opened my eyes and was
thrilled by a terror, the memory of which has never been effaced. The
room was brightly illuminated without any candle having been lighted,
and when I turned my head I saw a huge blaze shoot up outside the
window. Flames crackled and sparks flew. It was a world of fire. It was
a neighbouring school that was burning. Uncle Jacob put his hand
under my "night gown," a long article of clothing with a narrow cotton
belt round the waist, and said laughing: "Do you have palpitations of

the heart when you are afraid?" I had never heard of palpitations of the
heart before. I felt about with my hand and for the first time found my
heart, which really was beating furiously. Small though I was, I asked
the date and was told that it was the 25th of November; the fright I had
had was so great that I never forgot this date, which became for me the
object of a superstitious dread, and when it drew near the following
year, I was convinced that it would bring me fresh misfortune. This was
in so far the case that next year, at exactly the same time, I fell ill and
was obliged to spend some months in bed.
V.
I was too delicate to be sent to school at five years old, like other boys.
My doctor uncle said it was not to be thought of. Since, however, I
could not grow up altogether in ignorance, it was decided that I should
have a tutor of my own.
So a tutor was engaged who quickly won my unreserved affection and
made me very happy. The tutor came every morning and taught me all I
had to learn. He was a tutor whom one could ask about anything under
the sun and he would always know. First, there was the ABC. That was
mastered in a few lessons. I could read before I knew how to spell.
Then came writing and arithmetic and still more things. I was soon so
far advanced that the tutor could read _Frithiof's Saga_ aloud to me in
Swedish and be tolerably well understood; and, indeed, he could even
take a short German extract, and explain that I must say ich and not ish,
as seemed so natural.
Mr. Voltelen was a poor student, and I quite understood from the
conversation of my elders what a pleasure and advantage it was to him
to get a cup of coffee extra and fine white bread and fresh butter with it
every day. On the stroke of half-past ten the maid brought it in on a tray.
Lessons were stopped, and