Chapter 2 By
the Almshouse WindowNEAR the grass-covered rampart which encircles Copenhagen
lies a great red house. Balsams and other flowers greet us from the
long rows of windows in the house, whose interior is sufficiently
poverty-stricken; and poor and old are the people who inhabit it.
The building is the Warton Almshouse.
Look! at the window there leans an old maid. She plucks
the withered leaf from the balsam, and looks at the grass-covered
rampart, on which many children are playing. What is the old maid
thinking of? A whole life drama is unfolding itself before her
inward gaze.
"The poor little children, how happy they are—how merrily
they play and romp together! What red cheeks and what angels' eyes!
but they have no shoes nor stockings. They dance on the green
rampa
