Translated from the Danish by Hanna Astrup Larsen and Published in Twelve stories as Kjeltringliv, 1829 I HAVE two things to apologize for: the title and the story. The first is low, vulgar, and perhaps disgusting to a refined and delicate taste; the second is like unto the first. [Footnote: Kjeltring, the word applied to the Danish gypsies, means "rogue," "villain," although Blicher claims, in his introduction to this story, that it had lost much of its obnoxious meaning. Blicher's friend, N. V. Dorph (see note on page 303), thought it should be written Keldring and that it was originally Kedeldreng, from Kedel, "kettle," and Dreng, "boy," having reference to the skill of the gypsies as tinkers.--TRANSLATOR.