“Stine lay in the bottom of the boat and gave up all the good dinner they served us in the inn. It was a good thing she had not eaten more.
“I tried to cheer her up, but I don’t think she heard me.
“Niels and I were dripping wet, the sails were dripping wet, and so was Stine. I haven’t sailed like that before or since.
“I didn’t dare sail all the way home with her like that, so put up at the dock of the town.
“The old skipper who bought 'The Pail’ came down to the water. 'What sort of weather is that for full sail?’ he asked. 'Have you a cargo?’
“'A wedding cargo,’ I answered, 'but it’s more dead than alive, I guess. Come, help us get the old woman ashore, or she will give up the ghost right here.’ We handed Stine up. She couldn’t stand on her legs at all, and we had to leave her at the house of a good friend in the town. She stayed there three days and nights, and I had to go round with dry mouth, couldn’t get even so much as a kiss.
“It was all right afterward, but she was angry at me for some time because I had 'made a fool of her in that way.’ What can one expect from such land lubbers, who have never seen more water than a pool in a village street in all their lives?
“Whenever I speak of that day Stine gets cross, but I rub my nose with the back of my hand and say: 'Well, anyway, that was the most wonderful wedding trip I ever heard of.’
“And that is why I haven’t made any more like it.”
JALO THE TROTTER