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Chap. XXXI.
FATE OF THE STUBBES.
41
very nicely. Well, the fortunes of the noble house of
Stubbe depended upon the mystic number seven:—
7 churches, 7 mills, 7 islands, 7 lakes, 7 forests,
77 ploughs, 777 windows in their manor; cows, pigs,
horses, all in proportion; and 7 children, or 77 if they
could get them,—so much the better, but 7 they must
have. This last, as he proved to be, of the Stubbes,
was a bad small boy, always making game of the
young storks as they sat in their mother’s nest on the
house-top. “ Stork, long-legged stork,” he sang : I’m
sure I forget what besides, but something very rude, at
which they were highly affronted. “ All very fine now,
Mr. Stubbe; wait a little, and our turn will come;
who ’ll laugh then ? ” muttered the old mother.
The young squire grew up and was sent to
Aalborg College, where he received a first-rate
education : learnt Italian and dancing,—and very useful he
must have found the former accomplishment, living on
his estates in Jutland, among the moors and forests; he
spoke it however with a first-rate (Aalborg) accent.
Young Stubbe grows apace, and somehow does not
tame down. He is thirty now, and should think of
settling: forty finds him an old bachelor, and fifty still.
“ Marry before it is too late and I close my eyes,”
exclaims his venerable mother; so many he did—a
neighbour’s daughter. “ Plenty of time, mother,” he
laughingly exclaimed; “ you know we Stubbes always throw
doublets; I shall have my seven children before five
years are over.” There is great joy at Stubbesholm, an
heir expected daily. Young Stubbe rubs his hands—
“ Triplets, you ’ll see, mother, like the old lady on her
epitaphium in the church-aisle—our grandam.” “ Hah,
hah I” laughed the old stork from the top of the chimney,
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