Under the Willow-Tree Page #2

"Under the Willow-Tree" is a sentimental tale by renowned author Hans Christian Andersen. This children's novel portrays the story of Knud, a gardener's boy who falls in love with a girl named Joanna. They play together under a willow tree, and their friendship grows into love. But when Joanna is sent off to school and eventually marries another man, Knud is devastated. His heartache, however, propels him to travel, encounter new experiences, and learn about life and love. The narrative emphasizes the impermanence of romantic love and the possibilities for self-growth and self-discovery that come from enduring sorrow.

• Children

								

but their parents promised that they should write to each other at
least once a year.

After this, Knud was bound apprentice to a shoemaker; he was
growing a great boy, and could not be allowed to run wild any
longer. Besides, he was going to be confirmed. Ah, how happy he
would have been on that festal day in Copenhagen with little Joanna;
but he still remained at Kjoge, and had never seen the great city,
though the town is not five miles from it. But far across the bay,
when the sky was clear, the towers of Copenhagen could be seen; and on
the day of his confirmation he saw distinctly the golden cross on
the principal church glittering in the sun. How often his thoughts
were with Joanna! but did she think of him? Yes. About Christmas
came a letter from her father to Knud's parents, which stated that
they were going on very well in Copenhagen, and mentioning
particularly that Joanna's beautiful voice was likely to bring her a
brilliant fortune in the future. She was engaged to sing at a concert,
and she had already earned money by singing, out of which she sent her
dear neighbors at Kjoge a whole dollar, for them to make merry on
Christmas eve, and they were to drink her health. She had herself
added this in a postscript, and in the same postscript she wrote,
"Kind regards to Knud."

The good neighbors wept, although the news was so pleasant; but
they wept tears of joy. Knud's thoughts had been daily with Joanna,
and now he knew that she also had thought of him; and the nearer the
time came for his apprenticeship to end, the clearer did it appear
to him that he loved Joanna, and that she must be his wife; and a
smile came on his lips at the thought, and at one time he drew the
thread so fast as he worked, and pressed his foot so hard against
the knee strap, that he ran the awl into his finger; but what did he
care for that? He was determined not to play the dumb lover as both
the gingerbread cakes had done; the story was a good lesson to him.

At length he become a journeyman; and then, for the first time, he
prepared for a journey to Copenhagen, with his knapsack packed and
ready. A master was expecting him there, and he thought of Joanna, and
how glad she would be to see him. She was now seventeen, and he
nineteen years old. He wanted to buy a gold ring for her in Kjoge, but
then he recollected how far more beautiful such things would be in
Copenhagen. So he took leave of his parents, and on a rainy day,
late in the autumn, wandered forth on foot from the town of his birth.
The leaves were falling from the trees; and, by the time he arrived at
his new master's in the great metropolis, he was wet through. On the
following Sunday he intended to pay his first visit to Joanna's
father. When the day came, the new journeyman's clothes were brought
out, and a new hat, which he had brought in Kjoge. The hat became
him very well, for hitherto he had only worn a cap. He found the house
that he sought easily, but had to mount so many stairs that he
became quite giddy; it surprised him to find how people lived over one
another in this dreadful town.

On entering a room in which everything denoted prosperity,
Joanna's father received him very kindly. The new wife was a
stranger to him, but she shook hands with him, and offered him coffee.

"Joanna will be very glad to see you," said her father. "You
have grown quite a nice young man, you shall see her presently; she is
a good child, and is the joy of my heart, and, please God, she will
continue to be so; she has her own room now, and pays us rent for it."
And the father knocked quite politely at a door, as if he were a
stranger, and then they both went in. How pretty everything was in
that room! a more beautiful apartment could not be found in the
whole town of Kjoge; the queen herself could scarcely be better
accommodated. There were carpets, and rugs, and window curtains
hanging to the ground. Pictures and flowers were scattered about.
There was a velvet chair, and a looking-glass against the wall, into
which a person might be in danger of stepping, for it was as large
as a door. All this Knud saw at a glance, and yet, in truth, he saw
nothing but Joanna. She was quite grown up, and very different from
what Knud had fancied her, and a great deal more beautiful. In all
Kjoge there was not a girl like her; and how graceful she looked,
although her glance at first was odd, and not familiar; but for a
moment only, then she rushed towards him as if she would have kissed
him; she did not, however, although she was very near it. Yes, she
really was joyful at seeing the friend of her childhood once more, and
the tears even stood in her eyes. Then she asked so many questions
about Knud's parents, and everything, even to the elder-tree and the
willow, which she called "elder-mother and willow-father," as if
they had been human beings; and so, indeed, they might be, quite as
much as the gingerbread cakes. Then she talked about them, and the
story of their silent love, and how they lay on the counter together
and split in two; and then she laughed heartily; but the blood
rushed into Knud's cheeks, and his heart beat quickly. Joanna was
not proud at all; he noticed that through her he was invited by her
parents to remain the whole evening with them, and she poured out
the tea and gave him a cup herself; and afterwards she took a book and
read aloud to them, and it seemed to Knud as if the story was all
about himself and his love, for it agreed so well with his own
thoughts. And then she sang a simple song, which, through her singing,
became a true story, and as if she poured forth the feelings of her
own heart.

"Oh," he thought, "she knows I am fond of her." The tears he could
not restrain rolled down his cheeks, and he was unable to utter a
single word; it seemed as if he had been struck dumb.

When he left, she pressed his hand, and said, "You have a kind
heart, Knud: remain always as you are now." What an evening of
happiness this had been; to sleep after it was impossible, and Knud
did not sleep.

At parting, Joanna's father had said, "Now, you won't quite forget
us; you must not let the whole winter go by without paying us
another visit;" so that Knud felt himself free to go again the
following Sunday evening, and so he did. But every evening after
working hours--and they worked by candle-light then--he walked out
into the town, and through the street in which Joanna lived, to look
up at her window. It was almost always lighted up; and one evening
he saw the shadow of her face quite plainly on the window blind;
that was a glorious evening for him. His master's wife did not like
his always going out in the evening, idling, wasting time, as she
called it, and she shook her head.

But his master only smiled, and said, "He is a young man, my dear,
you know."

"On Sunday I shall see her," said Knud to himself, "and I will
tell her that I love her with my whole heart and soul, and that she
must be my little wife. I know I am now only a poor journeyman
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