There were no small children who had small bicycles when Alice was little. It was only the veterinarian’s son and the like, not ordinary children. Alice longed so much to be able to cycle, but she had no bicycle, not even one she could borrow. Jonna had none either; they only had the old tricycle.

But one evening, when Dad came home from work at the workshop, he had a little blue children’s bicycle under one arm, while he steered his own bicycle with the other. There were certainly wide eyes in the little house when he came into the kitchen with the marvel. Alice jumped for joy when she realized that the bicycle was hers; it fit her perfectly.

This had come about because Dad, who was a carpenter, was to do some work for the veterinarian. It took a few days, and during that time Dad and the veterinarian had come to talk about their children and such, and the veterinarian’s son Bent, who was a little older than Alice, had become too big for his first proper bicycle. If Dad’s children could use it, he could have it (possibly as partial payment).

Oh, how exciting it was—just imagine getting your very own little bicycle when you were only 5 years old. It was not long before Alice, with Dad’s help, could keep her balance for a tiny little moment. They practiced and practiced until it was almost dark. No cars came by, because it was 1950, and not many people had cars back then. They had the whole road to themselves.

The days passed, and Alice cycled back and forth on Haltrupvej. But one day she had gone too fast, and she did not know how to brake. So she fell over and badly hurt one of her knees, and it bled.

Mother washed the scrapes with soapy water while Alice howled in distress. Then Mother poured red iodine on it, because that was how one did it, so it would not get infected. Finally she wrapped gauze bandage around the whole knee, leaving a nice white dressing.

The next day Mother and little sister Doris, who was 2 years old, went to Aarhus, where Aunt Elna had just had a little boy. Mother was to look after them for a few days. Alice was sad about her injured knee, because who would change the dressing when the old one got dirty? Dad would have to do that, then, and Alice’s father could do anything.

Mattresses with a Surprise

“Now I’ll surprise Mother with new mattresses,” Dad thought.

Mother had been talking for a long time about how they needed new mattresses. But Dad had not had time to sew any for her. Yes, because mattresses were sewn by hand if one had a certain skill, and Dad did.

One evening, while Mother and Doris were away, Dad put Jonna and Alice up on the kitchen table so he had the entire kitchen floor to himself.

Then he spread a large piece of hessian on the floor. (Hessian is a very coarse fabric that was used for sacks and mattresses.) From it he sewed a very large sack, as long as a mattress. When he had sewn the sack, he fetched the old mattress from the bed and ripped it open so that all the stuffing fell out onto the floor. The stuffing was wood wool. He stuffed all the old wood wool into the new sack together with a lot of new material, so that the mattress became fuller.

Jonna and Alice sat very still on the kitchen table meanwhile. They followed Dad’s work, and soon came the most exciting part. With a long curved needle he sewed fine edges on the new mattress so that it became square instead of sack-shaped. He also attached leather buttons to the mattress at intervals, so it would keep its shape better. It took a very long time. Outside it was getting completely dark.

Dad worked and worked. The whole floor was covered with wood wool, hessian, yarn, scissors, and needles. Alice and Jonna were getting tired. Alice sat down to look out of the kitchen window; it was completely dark out there.

“There comes Mother and Doris!” she suddenly shouted.

Alice and Jonna cheered and jumped down from the table.

Dad did not cheer; he was quite alarmed, because they were not supposed to have come home until the next day. But Mother longed to get home, so she took the train a day early. And all the way home she had longed to sleep in her own bed.

Mother could not stand mess, and she had never seen worse mess in her life. But Dad hurried to make her bed with the new mattress so she could sleep well.

Alice Ravnholt