The Twenty-Krone Piece
65
all the time with a piece of gold in his pocket which he would not change in order that I might have it.
A coin is an emblem of wealth, but this gold piece is an emblem of a rarer currency, of that wealth which is—in a peculiar sense—"beyond the dream of avarice," a something that no money could buy, for what sum could express the bounty or the sentiment of this generous heart?
It would be described, by those ignorant of its history, as a gold coin from Norway; but I prefer to think that it belongs to that "land of Havilah where there is gold" and of which it is truly said "and the gold of that land is good."
