"It seems extraordinary, when both parents are musical, don't you think so, Wachenfeldt? I can't understand how Gustaf endures it!"
"He does not hear it as it sounds to us," said the Sergeant. "He loves those children."
"People are wont to speak of seeing with the eyes of love," observed Mamselle Lovisa, "and there may be such a thing as hearing with the ears of love.…"
"Be sure of that!" responded the Colour-Sergeant, who knew whereof he spoke.
One of the little singers chanced to overhear those remarks, and repeated them to the others, and perhaps it was due to that that the Bellman "concerts" at Mårbacka were suddenly discontinued.
But long afterward—aye, always—the love of the Bellman songs lived in the hearts of the Mårbacka children. They loved them not only for their humour and pathos and their haunting beauty; but the faintest tone from the Bellman lute called up memories of the never-failing love and tenderness that had made their childhood such a happy one!
