The Danish glee: the national version of cheerfulness.

Just about this time, when in imagination I was so great a warrior, I had good use in real life for more strength, as I was no longer taken to school by the nurse, but instead had myself to protect my brother, two years my junior.

I encountered among my comrades the most varied human traits, from frankness to reserve, from goodness, uprightness and kindness, to brutality and baseness.

My father, though, could run very much faster. It was impossible to compete with him on the grass. But it was astonishing how slow old people were. Some of them could not run up a hill and called it trying to climb stairs.

I was not afraid of what I did not like. To overcome dislike of a thing often satisfied one's feeling of honour.

I was not given to looking at life in a rosy light.

On the whole, the world was friendly. It chiefly depended on whether one were good or not.