Epics Of Alexander I

by

Per Jespersen

It is so nice in the country-side – as nowhere else. The trees blossom, the butterflies are fluttering as thoughts in a human mind. Oh, it is so beautiful and peaceful! Even the old houses are cute – with red roses and yellow dandelions in the deep green lawns. It is so charming as only a dream can be.

And perhaps it is only a dream. Watch, there is a cute house with old windows and such a nice door, that it is unbelievable. There could be a fairy living there – but it is not so. Where there is beauty, there is also sadness. And old Grandpa is living here. Poor man – he looks so kind and warmhearted – and yet he is so sad. He has lost his only daughter and her son, Samuel. His eyes are filled with tears – oh, what a sadness! But he tries to comfort himself with his fiddle. Listen, he is playing and old sad tune, but switches over to a song about happiness and joy – just to comfort himself.

In the neighbouring house a poor, poor family is living. They have no work, and they do not even have money enough to send their boy Alexander to school. Oh, what poorness can do! Alexander’s mother do not see the beauty of their surroundings – the poorness is too heavy, and you can not see beauty and joy, if your mind is sad.

But watch out: the door opens, and a beautiful boy is coming out. It is Alexander. His eyes are shining from a spiritual light, he does not know he is possessing. He takes his ball – he is in the mood for playing, but there are no children in the area. So he has to play with himself – oh, he would have liked another boy to play with. But he makes the ball jump along the narrow path. “Oh, my dear ball – you are the only friend I have – my dear ball.”

Is it not sad to be a lonesome boy?

Perhaps Alexander thinks the same – or perhapsThe Good Lord has seen it, too. The ball lands in Grandpa’s lawn, and Alexander gets scared, that the old man will scold him.

Then Alexander hears a tune being played from Grandpa’s house. A happy tune. Oh, it is so beautiful! He tiptoes up to the windows of the house in order to listen to the tune.

Then the music stops. “My dear boy, what are you doing at my window?”

“Sorry. I just heard your fiddle. It has such a happy sound.”

“Sure. I am happy again. What is your name, my boy?”

“Alexander.”

“Oh, what a handsome name! I wish I had that name. Do come in!”

Alexander steps inside, and Grandpa takes his fiddle to play for him. Oh, what a cute tune, he is playing! And watch Alexander’s eyes --- they are twinkling as happily as can be.

Grandpa takes a sheet of paper and writes some notes on it.

“What are you writing, Grandpa?”

“The beginning of a tune.”

“So you can make tunes yourself! But a tune cannot be written in paper, can it?”

Grandpa smiles. “Yes, it is strange, is it not?” He takes the fiddle and plays the new tune.

Alexander listens profoundly. Then he says, ”Can you play that tune in major? Just to make it more joyful.”

Grandpa is surprised. How can a boy of ten know about major and minor?

“I can hear it,” Alexander says. But poor Alexander: he is trying to learn to read, but his family does not have the money to send him to school, as we have heard.

“I can teach you,” Grandpa says.

“We have no money!”

“I do not need money for teaching such a clever boy like you. “He takes a blank sheet of paper and writes an “A” there. Then he says, “Apple, arm, ash-tree.”

“Oh, I see. And Alexander and art.”

Oh, Grandpa is smiling for the first time in ten years. “You can learn”!”

Watch the happy smile on Alexander’s face! Is it not marvellous?

They make an agreement. Alexander will come to Grandpa’s house every day, and he will learn a new letter every day.

A happy meeting. This could go for the newspaper, as I have seen their meeting myself. So you can trust it.

Chapter II