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Doc. 292.] 729
SWEDENBORG’S GARDENER-FOLKS.
a corner when a smooth-tongued, courteous man of the world
.
desires to flatter them
. We can always rest assured that
children will gather around a man who loves them, though
he may not have expressed his fondness by a single word. In
short, I saw through my good old father, how his words belied
his inner feeling; and this contradiction increased my curiosity
to know something of our absent kinsman, who, it seemed to
me, was himself a sort of spirit-being.
"But he was not at home ; the little building in which he
used to live was in the rear of a large garden, full of berry
bushes and fruit-trees. How simple and unassuming was this
house ! Nothing like the enchanted castle in the Arabian
Nights, which I had pictured to myself. Instead of the castle,
I found a one-story dwelling-house, with a few dark rooms ;
and instead of an enchanted dwarf, there came out a cheerful,
friendly little woman, who asked whether we wished to see
the assessor’s room.
"When the good old woman learned that we were distantly
related to her assessor, the band of her tongue was loosened,
and she related to us a little story, which I have never seen
in print, and which, perhaps better than anything else, cha
racterizes Swedenborg as a man. ’
Yes’ said the little old
woman, ’people judge without seeing, and this almost cost me
and Andersson our places. You see my old man who goes
yonder, raking the flower-beds ; it almost cost us our whole
happiness.’
"How so," asked my father.
"You know, dear pastor, there were so many among our
friends who said to me, ’You ought not to serve in Sweden
borg’s house, for he is no Christian,’ they said. Now, the
truth is, that then, as now, we thought ever so much of our
assessor, but when I heard that he had not the true faith
which leads to blessedness, I began to doubt whether it was
right to serve in his house. It was a hard struggle, for I
thought as much of the assessor as of my own father; and so
I lay many a night weeping bitterly that the assessor was not
a Christian, and praying for the salvation of his soul. I really
fretted myself ill out of mere sorrow, for you see my friends
worried me so much, and insisted that I should leave the
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