Tímarit Þjóðræknisfélags Íslendinga - 01.01.1966, Síða 70

52
TÍMARIT ÞJÓÐRÆKNISFÉLAGS ÍSLENDINGA
tures of ships and boats which I pre-
sumed that he had sketched himself
with red, yellow and blue pencils. I
felt that I undestood everything to
which he referred and he seemed to
understand me fully although I
spoke Icelandic but he Danish. I
immediately found out that his name
was Markús and since then I have
always considered that a beautiful
name. I recall that once Markús was
weeping and I felt certain that the
helmsman had beaten him. After
that I never felt kindly towards the
helmsman. Another time i noticed
that Markús was limping and that
one foot was bandaged. I then pre-
sumed that he had burned himself
with boiling hot pea soup. No one
told me that this had happened, yet
I was certain that such was the case.
From these incidents I know that
children can sometimes get queer
ideas about things that take place
about them and they consider these
ideas of theirs virtual truths. Al-
though they are not aware of this,
their ideas are founded on keen,
clear observation. I have frequently
noticed, since I reached maturity,
that most children examine more
carefully the causes of events in our
daily lives than do most mature per-
sons; but on the other hand they
give less thought to the consequences
of daily events that occur about
them — but on with the story.
The ship Maria delivered us safely
to Hull, England. The voyage had,
however, taken full three weeks be-
cause wind and weather were con-
stantly unfavorable and then per-
haps she was not a particularly fast
sailing ship.
Hull is a large city far renowned
for her immense docks and com-
merce; but to be sure I knew nothing
of this at the time. I remember only
that I gazed with stupefaction at the
huge buildings and the multitude of
ships that I saw there. Some of them
were so big that our ship looked like
a small skiff compared with them.
In some places ships without masts
were moored. On the decks of some
of those I saw women and children,
children who were barefooted and
bareheaded — boys in short pants
and girls in short sleeveless dresses.
I remember that my grandmother
expressed her amazement at the pov-
erty that no doubt existed among
these people, for she thought that
the children were so dressed because
the parents had not the means to
dress them otherwise. Everywhere
along the pier were large stacks of
boxes and sacks and various other
merchandise and everywhere men
were coming and going. Wagons and
horses came and went; everywhere
there were jolting noises most un-
pleasant to our ears as we had come
from a peaceful countryside in the
interior of Iceland. To us, everything
and everyone bore an unfamiliar dis-
pleasing air. I was completely be-
wildered at seeing all these wonders
at the same time. I undestood none
of it and all that I saw seemed at
first to converge into one indistin-
guishable chaos. All the shouting
and calling, all the jolting, squeak-
ing and creaking blended together
into one terrifying sound wave which
struck my ears with such force that
I felt dizzy, — if such an expression
were appropriate. I, however, re-
markably quickly, became accustom-
ed to this noise until I almost ceased