Fiction > Book editions > London, 1888 - Prince Otto

A ROMANCE 33
' With all my heart/ said Otto, gravely. ' And
so you have lived your life here ? ' he added, as
they turned to go.
' Here I was born,' replied the farmer, ' and
here I wish I could say I was to die. But for-
tune, sir, fortune turns the wheel. They say
she is blind, but we will hope she only sees a
little farther on. My grandfather and my father
and I, we have all tilled these acres, my furrow
following theirs. All the three names are on the
garden bench, two Kilhans and one Johann.
Yes, sir, good men have prepared themselves for
the great change in my old garden. Well do I
mind my father, in a woollen night-cap, the good
soul, going round and round to see the last of it.
" Killian," said he, " do you see the smoke of my
tobacco ? Why," said he, " that is man's life." It
was his last pipe, and I believe he knew it ; and
it was a strange thing, without doubt, to leave
the trees that he had planted, and the son that
he had begotten, ay, sir, and even the old pipe
with the Turk's head that he had smoked since
he was a lad and went a-courting. But here we
have no continuing city ; and as for the eternal,
it's a comfortable thought that we have other
merits than our own. And yet you would hardly
think how sore it goes against the grain with me,
to die in a strange bed.'