"That voice I have not heard for a year and a day!" replied the old
woman, and raised her head, as if she would see him with her dead
eyes. "Are not you Major Thostrup's Otto? You resemble him in the
voice. I thought, truly, that if you came here you would pay us a
visit. Ide shall leave the baits and put on the kettle, that you
may have a cup of coffee. Formerly you did not use to despise our
entertainment. You have not grown proud with your journey, have
you? The coffee-vetch [Author's Note: Astragalus baeticus is used
as a substitute for coffee, and is principally grown upon the
sand-hills west of Holmsland. It is first freed from the husk, and then
dried and roasted a little.] is good; it is from Holmsland, and
tastes better than the merchant's beans." The dogs still growled at
Otto. "Cannot you stupid beasts, who have still eyes in your heads
to see with, recognize that this is the Major's Otto?" cried she
wrathfully, and gave them several good blows with her hand.

Otto's arrival created a great stir in the little household that he
was welcome, you might see by every countenance.

"Yes," said the grandmother, "now you are grown much wiser in the
town, could, very likely, were it needful, write an almanac! You
will very likely have found for yourself a little bride there, or
will you fetch one out of Lemvig? for no doubt she must be from a
town! Yes, I have known him ever since he was a little fellow;
yonder, on the wall, he made, out of herrings' heads, the living
devil, just as he lives and breathes. He thrust our sucking-pig
into the eel-cart, between the casks. We sought a whole day after
the sucking-pig without finding him, and he was forced to make the
journey with them to Holstebro. Yes, he was a wild fellow! Later,
when he was obliged to learn so much, he became sad. Yes, yes,