asked Ole. "Iwill tell you. There dwell in the glass, first, health, and thenpleasure, then the most complete sensual delight; and misfortune andthe bitterest woe dwell in the glass also. Now, suppose we count theglasses- of course I count the different degrees in the glasses fordifferent people.
  "You see, the first glass, that's the glass of health, and in thatthe herb of health is found growing. Put it up on the beam in theceiling, and at the end of the year you may be sitting in the arbor ofhealth.
  "If you take the second glass- from this a little bird soarsupward, twittering in guileless cheerfulness, so that a man may listento his song, and perhaps join in 'Fair is life! no downcast looks!Take courage, and march onward!'
  "Out of the third glass rises a little winged urchin, who cannotcertainly be called an angel child, for there is goblin blood in hisveins, and he has the spirit of a goblin- not wishing to hurt orharm you, indeed, but very ready to play off tricks upon you. He'llsit at your ear and whisper merry thoughts to you; he'll creep intoyour heart and warm you, so that you grow very merry, and become awit, so far as the wits of the others can judge.
  "In the fourth glass is neither herb, bird, nor urchin. In thatglass is the pause drawn by reason, and one may never go beyond thatsign.
  "Take the fifth glass, and you will weep at yourself, you willfeel such a deep emotion; or it will affect you in a different way.Out of the glass there will spring with a bang Prince Carnival, ninetimes and extravagantly merry. He'll draw you away with him; you'llforget your dignity, if you have any, and you'll forget more thanyou should or ought to forget. All is dance, song and sound: the maskswill carry you away with them, and the daughters of vanity, clad insilk and satin, will come with loose hair and alluring charms; buttear yourself away if you can!
  "The sixth glass! Yes, in that glass sits a demon, in the formof a little, well dressed, attractive and very fascinating man, whothoroughly understands you, agrees with you in everything, and becomesquite a second self to you. He has a lantern with him, to give youlight as he accompanies you home. There is an old legend about a saintwho was allowed to choose one of the seven deadly sins, and whoaccordingly chose drunkenness, which appeared to him the least, butwhich led him to commit all the other six. The man's blood ismingled with that of the demon. It is the sixth glass, and with thatthe germ of all evil shoots up within us; and each one grows up with astrength like that of the grains of mustard-seed, and shoots up into atree, and spreads over the whole world: and most people have no choicebut to go into the oven, to be re-cast in a new form.
  "That's the history of the glasses," said the tower-keeper Ole,"and it can be told with lacquer or only with grease; but I give ityou with both!"
  THIRD VISIT
  On this occasion I chose the general "moving-day" for my visitto Ole, for on that day it is anything but agreeable down in thestreets in the town; for they are full of sweepings, shreds, andremnants of all sorts, to say nothing of the cast-off rubbish in whichone has to wade about. But this time I happened to see two childrenplaying in this wilderness of sweepings. They were playing at "goingto bed," for the occasion seemed especially favorable for thissport. They crept under the straw, and drew an old bit of raggedcurtain over themselves by way of coverlet. "It was splendid!"