Ch. 21 - What the Straws Said - Page 2

oracle speaks well for me," said
he, "then I will tell you the silent wish and prayer, with which I
bind these knots on the grass straw; but if I have no better success
than you have had, I will then be silent!" and he bound straw to
straw, and as he bound, he repeated: "it signifies nothing!" He now
opened his hand, his eyes shone brighter, his heart beat faster. The
straws formed a square! "It will happen, it will happen!" cried the
young girls. "What did you wish for?" "That Denmark may soon gain an
honourable peace!"

"It will happen! it will happen!" said the young girls; "and when it
happens, we will remember that the straws have told it before-hand."

"I will keep these four straws, bound in a prophetic wreath for
victory and peace!" said the stranger; "and if the oracle speaks
truth, then I will draw the whole picture for you, as we sit here
under the hanging birch by the lake, and look on Zäther's blue
mountains, each of us binding straw to straw."

A red mark was made in the almanack; it was the 6th of July, 1849. The
same day a red page was written in Denmark's history. The Danish
soldier made a red, victorious mark with his blood, at the battle of
Fredericia.