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+Project Gutenberg's Andersen's Fairy Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Andersen's Fairy Tales
+
+Author: Hans Christian Andersen
+
+Posting Date: October 10, 2008 [EBook #1597]
+Release Date: January, 1999
+Last Updated: March 14, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-9
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Dianne Bean
+
+
+
+
+
+ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
+
+By Hans Christian Andersen
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+     The Emperor's New Clothes
+     The Swineherd
+     The Real Princess
+     The Shoes of Fortune
+     The Fir Tree
+     The Snow Queen
+     The Leap-Frog
+     The Elderbush
+     The Bell
+     The Old House
+     The Happy Family
+     The Story of a Mother
+     The False Collar
+     The Shadow
+     The Little Match Girl
+     The Dream of Little Tuk
+     The Naughty Boy
+     The Red Shoes
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES
+
+Many years ago, there was an Emperor, who was so excessively fond of
+new clothes, that he spent all his money in dress. He did not trouble
+himself in the least about his soldiers; nor did he care to go either to
+the theatre or the chase, except for the opportunities then afforded him
+for displaying his new clothes. He had a different suit for each hour of
+the day; and as of any other king or emperor, one is accustomed to say,
+“he is sitting in council,” it was always said of him, “The Emperor is
+sitting in his wardrobe.”
+
+Time passed merrily in the large town which was his capital; strangers
+arrived every day at the court. One day, two rogues, calling themselves
+weavers, made their appearance. They gave out that they knew how to
+weave stuffs of the most beautiful colors and elaborate patterns, the
+clothes manufactured from which should have the wonderful property of
+remaining invisible to everyone who was unfit for the office he held, or
+who was extraordinarily simple in character.
+
+“These must, indeed, be splendid clothes!” thought the Emperor. “Had I
+such a suit, I might at once find out what men in my realms are unfit
+for their office, and also be able to distinguish the wise from the
+foolish! This stuff must be woven for me immediately.” And he caused
+large sums of money to be given to both the weavers in order that they
+might begin their work directly.
+
+So the two pretended weavers set up two looms, and affected to work very
+busily, though in reality they did nothing at all. They asked for the
+most delicate silk and the purest gold thread; put both into their own
+knapsacks; and then continued their pretended work at the empty looms
+until late at night.
+
+“I should like to know how the weavers are getting on with my cloth,”
+ said the Emperor to himself, after some little time had elapsed; he was,
+however, rather embarrassed, when he remembered that a simpleton, or
+one unfit for his office, would be unable to see the manufacture. To be
+sure, he thought he had nothing to risk in his own person; but yet, he
+would prefer sending somebody else, to bring him intelligence about the
+weavers, and their work, before he troubled himself in the affair. All
+the people throughout the city had heard of the wonderful property the
+cloth was to possess; and all were anxious to learn how wise, or how
+ignorant, their neighbors might prove to be.
+
+“I will send my faithful old minister to the weavers,” said the Emperor
+at last, after some deliberation, “he will be best able to see how the
+cloth looks; for he is a man of sense, and no one can be more suitable
+for his office than he is.”
+
+So the faithful old minister went into the hall, where the knaves were
+working with all their might, at their empty looms. “What can be the
+meaning of this?” thought the old man, opening his eyes very wide. “I
+cannot discover the least bit of thread on the looms.” However, he did
+not express his thoughts aloud.
+
+The impostors requested him very courteously to be so good as to come
+nearer their looms; and then asked him whether the design pleased
+him, and whether the colors were not very beautiful; at the same time
+pointing to the empty frames. The poor old minister looked and looked,
+he could not discover anything on the looms, for a very good reason,
+viz: there was nothing there. “What!” thought he again. “Is it possible
+that I am a simpleton? I have never thought so myself; and no one must
+know it now if I am so. Can it be, that I am unfit for my office? No,
+that must not be said either. I will never confess that I could not see
+the stuff.”
+
+“Well, Sir Minister!” said one of the knaves, still pretending to work.
+“You do not say whether the stuff pleases you.”
+
+“Oh, it is excellent!” replied the old minister, looking at the loom
+through his spectacles. “This pattern, and the colors, yes, I will tell
+the Emperor without delay, how very beautiful I think them.”
+
+“We shall be much obliged to you,” said the impostors, and then they
+named the different colors and described the pattern of the pretended
+stuff. The old minister listened attentively to their words, in order
+that he might repeat them to the Emperor; and then the knaves asked for
+more silk and gold, saying that it was necessary to complete what
+they had begun. However, they put all that was given them into their
+knapsacks; and continued to work with as much apparent diligence as
+before at their empty looms.
+
+The Emperor now sent another officer of his court to see how the men
+were getting on, and to ascertain whether the cloth would soon be
+ready. It was just the same with this gentleman as with the minister;
+he surveyed the looms on all sides, but could see nothing at all but the
+empty frames.
+
+“Does not the stuff appear as beautiful to you, as it did to my lord the
+minister?” asked the impostors of the Emperor's second ambassador; at
+the same time making the same gestures as before, and talking of the
+design and colors which were not there.
+
+“I certainly am not stupid!” thought the messenger. “It must be, that I
+am not fit for my good, profitable office! That is very odd; however, no
+one shall know anything about it.” And accordingly he praised the stuff
+he could not see, and declared that he was delighted with both colors
+and patterns. “Indeed, please your Imperial Majesty,” said he to his
+sovereign when he returned, “the cloth which the weavers are preparing
+is extraordinarily magnificent.”
+
+The whole city was talking of the splendid cloth which the Emperor had
+ordered to be woven at his own expense.
+
+And now the Emperor himself wished to see the costly manufacture, while
+it was still in the loom. Accompanied by a select number of officers of
+the court, among whom were the two honest men who had already admired
+the cloth, he went to the crafty impostors, who, as soon as they were
+aware of the Emperor's approach, went on working more diligently than
+ever; although they still did not pass a single thread through the
+looms.
+
+“Is not the work absolutely magnificent?” said the two officers of the
+crown, already mentioned. “If your Majesty will only be pleased to look
+at it! What a splendid design! What glorious colors!” and at the same
+time they pointed to the empty frames; for they imagined that everyone
+else could see this exquisite piece of workmanship.
+
+“How is this?” said the Emperor to himself. “I can see nothing! This
+is indeed a terrible affair! Am I a simpleton, or am I unfit to be an
+Emperor? That would be the worst thing that could happen--Oh! the cloth
+is charming,” said he, aloud. “It has my complete approbation.” And he
+smiled most graciously, and looked closely at the empty looms; for on no
+account would he say that he could not see what two of the officers of
+his court had praised so much. All his retinue now strained their eyes,
+hoping to discover something on the looms, but they could see no more
+than the others; nevertheless, they all exclaimed, “Oh, how beautiful!”
+ and advised his majesty to have some new clothes made from this splendid
+material, for the approaching procession. “Magnificent! Charming!
+Excellent!” resounded on all sides; and everyone was uncommonly gay. The
+Emperor shared in the general satisfaction; and presented the impostors
+with the riband of an order of knighthood, to be worn in their
+button-holes, and the title of “Gentlemen Weavers.”
+
+The rogues sat up the whole of the night before the day on which the
+procession was to take place, and had sixteen lights burning, so that
+everyone might see how anxious they were to finish the Emperor's new
+suit. They pretended to roll the cloth off the looms; cut the air with
+their scissors; and sewed with needles without any thread in them.
+“See!” cried they, at last. “The Emperor's new clothes are ready!”
+
+And now the Emperor, with all the grandees of his court, came to the
+weavers; and the rogues raised their arms, as if in the act of holding
+something up, saying, “Here are your Majesty's trousers! Here is the
+scarf! Here is the mantle! The whole suit is as light as a cobweb;
+one might fancy one has nothing at all on, when dressed in it; that,
+however, is the great virtue of this delicate cloth.”
+
+“Yes indeed!” said all the courtiers, although not one of them could see
+anything of this exquisite manufacture.
+
+“If your Imperial Majesty will be graciously pleased to take off your
+clothes, we will fit on the new suit, in front of the looking glass.”
+
+The Emperor was accordingly undressed, and the rogues pretended to
+array him in his new suit; the Emperor turning round, from side to side,
+before the looking glass.
+
+“How splendid his Majesty looks in his new clothes, and how well they
+fit!” everyone cried out. “What a design! What colors! These are indeed
+royal robes!”
+
+“The canopy which is to be borne over your Majesty, in the procession,
+is waiting,” announced the chief master of the ceremonies.
+
+“I am quite ready,” answered the Emperor. “Do my new clothes fit well?”
+ asked he, turning himself round again before the looking glass, in order
+that he might appear to be examining his handsome suit.
+
+The lords of the bedchamber, who were to carry his Majesty's train felt
+about on the ground, as if they were lifting up the ends of the mantle;
+and pretended to be carrying something; for they would by no means
+betray anything like simplicity, or unfitness for their office.
+
+So now the Emperor walked under his high canopy in the midst of the
+procession, through the streets of his capital; and all the people
+standing by, and those at the windows, cried out, “Oh! How beautiful
+are our Emperor's new clothes! What a magnificent train there is to
+the mantle; and how gracefully the scarf hangs!” in short, no one would
+allow that he could not see these much-admired clothes; because, in
+doing so, he would have declared himself either a simpleton or unfit
+for his office. Certainly, none of the Emperor's various suits, had ever
+made so great an impression, as these invisible ones.
+
+“But the Emperor has nothing at all on!” said a little child.
+
+“Listen to the voice of innocence!” exclaimed his father; and what the
+child had said was whispered from one to another.
+
+“But he has nothing at all on!” at last cried out all the people.
+The Emperor was vexed, for he knew that the people were right; but he
+thought the procession must go on now! And the lords of the bedchamber
+took greater pains than ever, to appear holding up a train, although, in
+reality, there was no train to hold.
+
+
+
+
+THE SWINEHERD
+
+There was once a poor Prince, who had a kingdom. His kingdom was very
+small, but still quite large enough to marry upon; and he wished to
+marry.
+
+It was certainly rather cool of him to say to the Emperor's daughter,
+“Will you have me?” But so he did; for his name was renowned far and
+wide; and there were a hundred princesses who would have answered,
+“Yes!” and “Thank you kindly.” We shall see what this princess said.
+
+Listen!
+
+It happened that where the Prince's father lay buried, there grew a rose
+tree--a most beautiful rose tree, which blossomed only once in every
+five years, and even then bore only one flower, but that was a rose!
+It smelt so sweet that all cares and sorrows were forgotten by him who
+inhaled its fragrance.
+
+And furthermore, the Prince had a nightingale, who could sing in such a
+manner that it seemed as though all sweet melodies dwelt in her little
+throat. So the Princess was to have the rose, and the nightingale; and
+they were accordingly put into large silver caskets, and sent to her.
+
+The Emperor had them brought into a large hall, where the Princess was
+playing at “Visiting,” with the ladies of the court; and when she saw
+the caskets with the presents, she clapped her hands for joy.
+
+“Ah, if it were but a little pussy-cat!” said she; but the rose tree,
+with its beautiful rose came to view.
+
+“Oh, how prettily it is made!” said all the court ladies.
+
+“It is more than pretty,” said the Emperor, “it is charming!”
+
+But the Princess touched it, and was almost ready to cry.
+
+“Fie, papa!” said she. “It is not made at all, it is natural!”
+
+“Let us see what is in the other casket, before we get into a bad
+humor,” said the Emperor. So the nightingale came forth and sang so
+delightfully that at first no one could say anything ill-humored of her.
+
+“Superbe! Charmant!” exclaimed the ladies; for they all used to chatter
+French, each one worse than her neighbor.
+
+“How much the bird reminds me of the musical box that belonged to our
+blessed Empress,” said an old knight. “Oh yes! These are the same tones,
+the same execution.”
+
+“Yes! yes!” said the Emperor, and he wept like a child at the
+remembrance.
+
+“I will still hope that it is not a real bird,” said the Princess.
+
+“Yes, it is a real bird,” said those who had brought it. “Well then let
+the bird fly,” said the Princess; and she positively refused to see the
+Prince.
+
+However, he was not to be discouraged; he daubed his face over brown and
+black; pulled his cap over his ears, and knocked at the door.
+
+“Good day to my lord, the Emperor!” said he. “Can I have employment at
+the palace?”
+
+“Why, yes,” said the Emperor. “I want some one to take care of the pigs,
+for we have a great many of them.”
+
+So the Prince was appointed “Imperial Swineherd.” He had a dirty little
+room close by the pigsty; and there he sat the whole day, and worked. By
+the evening he had made a pretty little kitchen-pot. Little bells were
+hung all round it; and when the pot was boiling, these bells tinkled in
+the most charming manner, and played the old melody,
+
+    “Ach! du lieber Augustin,
+    Alles ist weg, weg, weg!”*
+
+    * “Ah! dear Augustine!
+    All is gone, gone, gone!”
+
+
+But what was still more curious, whoever held his finger in the smoke of
+the kitchen-pot, immediately smelt all the dishes that were cooking on
+every hearth in the city--this, you see, was something quite different
+from the rose.
+
+Now the Princess happened to walk that way; and when she heard the tune,
+she stood quite still, and seemed pleased; for she could play “Lieber
+Augustine”; it was the only piece she knew; and she played it with one
+finger.
+
+“Why there is my piece,” said the Princess. “That swineherd must
+certainly have been well educated! Go in and ask him the price of the
+instrument.”
+
+So one of the court-ladies must run in; however, she drew on wooden
+slippers first.
+
+“What will you take for the kitchen-pot?” said the lady.
+
+“I will have ten kisses from the Princess,” said the swineherd.
+
+“Yes, indeed!” said the lady.
+
+“I cannot sell it for less,” rejoined the swineherd.
+
+“He is an impudent fellow!” said the Princess, and she walked on; but
+when she had gone a little way, the bells tinkled so prettily
+
+    “Ach! du lieber Augustin,
+    Alles ist weg, weg, weg!”
+
+“Stay,” said the Princess. “Ask him if he will have ten kisses from the
+ladies of my court.”
+
+“No, thank you!” said the swineherd. “Ten kisses from the Princess, or I
+keep the kitchen-pot myself.”
+
+“That must not be, either!” said the Princess. “But do you all stand
+before me that no one may see us.”
+
+And the court-ladies placed themselves in front of her, and spread
+out their dresses--the swineherd got ten kisses, and the Princess--the
+kitchen-pot.
+
+That was delightful! The pot was boiling the whole evening, and the
+whole of the following day. They knew perfectly well what was cooking at
+every fire throughout the city, from the chamberlain's to the cobbler's;
+the court-ladies danced and clapped their hands.
+
+“We know who has soup, and who has pancakes for dinner to-day, who has
+cutlets, and who has eggs. How interesting!”
+
+“Yes, but keep my secret, for I am an Emperor's daughter.”
+
+The swineherd--that is to say--the Prince, for no one knew that he was
+other than an ill-favored swineherd, let not a day pass without working
+at something; he at last constructed a rattle, which, when it was swung
+round, played all the waltzes and jig tunes, which have ever been heard
+since the creation of the world.
+
+“Ah, that is superbe!” said the Princess when she passed by. “I have
+never heard prettier compositions! Go in and ask him the price of the
+instrument; but mind, he shall have no more kisses!”
+
+“He will have a hundred kisses from the Princess!” said the lady who had
+been to ask.
+
+“I think he is not in his right senses!” said the Princess, and walked
+on, but when she had gone a little way, she stopped again. “One must
+encourage art,” said she, “I am the Emperor's daughter. Tell him he
+shall, as on yesterday, have ten kisses from me, and may take the rest
+from the ladies of the court.”
+
+“Oh--but we should not like that at all!” said they. “What are you
+muttering?” asked the Princess. “If I can kiss him, surely you can.
+Remember that you owe everything to me.” So the ladies were obliged to
+go to him again.
+
+“A hundred kisses from the Princess,” said he, “or else let everyone
+keep his own!”
+
+“Stand round!” said she; and all the ladies stood round her whilst the
+kissing was going on.
+
+“What can be the reason for such a crowd close by the pigsty?” said the
+Emperor, who happened just then to step out on the balcony; he rubbed
+his eyes, and put on his spectacles. “They are the ladies of the
+court; I must go down and see what they are about!” So he pulled up his
+slippers at the heel, for he had trodden them down.
+
+As soon as he had got into the court-yard, he moved very softly, and the
+ladies were so much engrossed with counting the kisses, that all might
+go on fairly, that they did not perceive the Emperor. He rose on his
+tiptoes.
+
+“What is all this?” said he, when he saw what was going on, and he boxed
+the Princess's ears with his slipper, just as the swineherd was taking
+the eighty-sixth kiss.
+
+“March out!” said the Emperor, for he was very angry; and both Princess
+and swineherd were thrust out of the city.
+
+The Princess now stood and wept, the swineherd scolded, and the rain
+poured down.
+
+“Alas! Unhappy creature that I am!” said the Princess. “If I had but
+married the handsome young Prince! Ah! how unfortunate I am!”
+
+And the swineherd went behind a tree, washed the black and brown color
+from his face, threw off his dirty clothes, and stepped forth in his
+princely robes; he looked so noble that the Princess could not help
+bowing before him.
+
+“I am come to despise thee,” said he. “Thou would'st not have an
+honorable Prince! Thou could'st not prize the rose and the nightingale,
+but thou wast ready to kiss the swineherd for the sake of a trumpery
+plaything. Thou art rightly served.”
+
+He then went back to his own little kingdom, and shut the door of his
+palace in her face. Now she might well sing,
+
+    “Ach! du lieber Augustin,
+    Alles ist weg, weg, weg!”
+
+
+
+
+THE REAL PRINCESS
+
+There was once a Prince who wished to marry a Princess; but then she
+must be a real Princess. He travelled all over the world in hopes of
+finding such a lady; but there was always something wrong. Princesses he
+found in plenty; but whether they were real Princesses it was impossible
+for him to decide, for now one thing, now another, seemed to him not
+quite right about the ladies. At last he returned to his palace quite
+cast down, because he wished so much to have a real Princess for his
+wife.
+
+One evening a fearful tempest arose, it thundered and lightened, and the
+rain poured down from the sky in torrents: besides, it was as dark as
+pitch. All at once there was heard a violent knocking at the door, and
+the old King, the Prince's father, went out himself to open it.
+
+It was a Princess who was standing outside the door. What with the rain
+and the wind, she was in a sad condition; the water trickled down from
+her hair, and her clothes clung to her body. She said she was a real
+Princess.
+
+“Ah! we shall soon see that!” thought the old Queen-mother; however, she
+said not a word of what she was going to do; but went quietly into the
+bedroom, took all the bed-clothes off the bed, and put three little peas
+on the bedstead. She then laid twenty mattresses one upon another over
+the three peas, and put twenty feather beds over the mattresses.
+
+Upon this bed the Princess was to pass the night.
+
+The next morning she was asked how she had slept. “Oh, very badly
+indeed!” she replied. “I have scarcely closed my eyes the whole night
+through. I do not know what was in my bed, but I had something hard
+under me, and am all over black and blue. It has hurt me so much!”
+
+Now it was plain that the lady must be a real Princess, since she had
+been able to feel the three little peas through the twenty mattresses
+and twenty feather beds. None but a real Princess could have had such a
+delicate sense of feeling.
+
+The Prince accordingly made her his wife; being now convinced that he
+had found a real Princess. The three peas were however put into the
+cabinet of curiosities, where they are still to be seen, provided they
+are not lost.
+
+Wasn't this a lady of real delicacy?
+
+
+
+
+THE SHOES OF FORTUNE
+
+I. A Beginning
+
+Every author has some peculiarity in his descriptions or in his style
+of writing. Those who do not like him, magnify it, shrug up their
+shoulders, and exclaim--there he is again! I, for my part, know very
+well how I can bring about this movement and this exclamation. It would
+happen immediately if I were to begin here, as I intended to do, with:
+“Rome has its Corso, Naples its Toledo”--“Ah! that Andersen; there he is
+again!” they would cry; yet I must, to please my fancy, continue quite
+quietly, and add: “But Copenhagen has its East Street.”
+
+Here, then, we will stay for the present. In one of the houses not far
+from the new market a party was invited--a very large party, in order,
+as is often the case, to get a return invitation from the others. One
+half of the company was already seated at the card-table, the other half
+awaited the result of the stereotype preliminary observation of the lady
+of the house:
+
+“Now let us see what we can do to amuse ourselves.”
+
+They had got just so far, and the conversation began to crystallise,
+as it could but do with the scanty stream which the commonplace world
+supplied. Amongst other things they spoke of the middle ages: some
+praised that period as far more interesting, far more poetical than our
+own too sober present; indeed Councillor Knap defended this opinion
+so warmly, that the hostess declared immediately on his side, and both
+exerted themselves with unwearied eloquence. The Councillor boldly
+declared the time of King Hans to be the noblest and the most happy
+period.*
+
+* A.D. 1482-1513
+
+
+While the conversation turned on this subject, and was only for a moment
+interrupted by the arrival of a journal that contained nothing worth
+reading, we will just step out into the antechamber, where cloaks,
+mackintoshes, sticks, umbrellas, and shoes, were deposited. Here sat two
+female figures, a young and an old one. One might have thought at first
+they were servants come to accompany their mistresses home; but on
+looking nearer, one soon saw they could scarcely be mere servants; their
+forms were too noble for that, their skin too fine, the cut of their
+dress too striking. Two fairies were they; the younger, it is true,
+was not Dame Fortune herself, but one of the waiting-maids of her
+handmaidens who carry about the lesser good things that she distributes;
+the other looked extremely gloomy--it was Care. She always attends to
+her own serious business herself, as then she is sure of having it done
+properly.
+
+They were telling each other, with a confidential interchange of ideas,
+where they had been during the day. The messenger of Fortune had only
+executed a few unimportant commissions, such as saving a new bonnet from
+a shower of rain, etc.; but what she had yet to perform was something
+quite unusual.
+
+“I must tell you,” said she, “that to-day is my birthday; and in honor
+of it, a pair of walking-shoes or galoshes has been entrusted to me,
+which I am to carry to mankind. These shoes possess the property of
+instantly transporting him who has them on to the place or the period
+in which he most wishes to be; every wish, as regards time or place, or
+state of being, will be immediately fulfilled, and so at last man will
+be happy, here below.”
+
+“Do you seriously believe it?” replied Care, in a severe tone of
+reproach. “No; he will be very unhappy, and will assuredly bless the
+moment when he feels that he has freed himself from the fatal shoes.”
+
+“Stupid nonsense!” said the other angrily. “I will put them here by
+the door. Some one will make a mistake for certain and take the wrong
+ones--he will be a happy man.”
+
+Such was their conversation.
+
+
+II. What Happened to the Councillor
+
+It was late; Councillor Knap, deeply occupied with the times of King
+Hans, intended to go home, and malicious Fate managed matters so that
+his feet, instead of finding their way to his own galoshes, slipped
+into those of Fortune. Thus caparisoned the good man walked out of the
+well-lighted rooms into East Street. By the magic power of the shoes he
+was carried back to the times of King Hans; on which account his foot
+very naturally sank in the mud and puddles of the street, there having
+been in those days no pavement in Copenhagen.
+
+“Well! This is too bad! How dirty it is here!” sighed the Councillor.
+“As to a pavement, I can find no traces of one, and all the lamps, it
+seems, have gone to sleep.”
+
+The moon was not yet very high; it was besides rather foggy, so that
+in the darkness all objects seemed mingled in chaotic confusion. At the
+next corner hung a votive lamp before a Madonna, but the light it gave
+was little better than none at all; indeed, he did not observe it before
+he was exactly under it, and his eyes fell upon the bright colors of the
+pictures which represented the well-known group of the Virgin and the
+infant Jesus.
+
+“That is probably a wax-work show,” thought he; “and the people delay
+taking down their sign in hopes of a late visitor or two.”
+
+A few persons in the costume of the time of King Hans passed quickly by
+him.
+
+“How strange they look! The good folks come probably from a masquerade!”
+
+Suddenly was heard the sound of drums and fifes; the bright blaze of a
+fire shot up from time to time, and its ruddy gleams seemed to contend
+with the bluish light of the torches. The Councillor stood still, and
+watched a most strange procession pass by. First came a dozen drummers,
+who understood pretty well how to handle their instruments; then came
+halberdiers, and some armed with cross-bows. The principal person in the
+procession was a priest. Astonished at what he saw, the Councillor asked
+what was the meaning of all this mummery, and who that man was.
+
+“That's the Bishop of Zealand,” was the answer.
+
+“Good Heavens! What has taken possession of the Bishop?” sighed the
+Councillor, shaking his head. It certainly could not be the Bishop; even
+though he was considered the most absent man in the whole kingdom, and
+people told the drollest anecdotes about him. Reflecting on the matter,
+and without looking right or left, the Councillor went through East
+Street and across the Habro-Platz. The bridge leading to Palace Square
+was not to be found; scarcely trusting his senses, the nocturnal
+wanderer discovered a shallow piece of water, and here fell in with two
+men who very comfortably were rocking to and fro in a boat.
+
+“Does your honor want to cross the ferry to the Holme?” asked they.
+
+“Across to the Holme!” said the Councillor, who knew nothing of the age
+in which he at that moment was. “No, I am going to Christianshafen, to
+Little Market Street.”
+
+Both men stared at him in astonishment.
+
+“Only just tell me where the bridge is,” said he. “It is really
+unpardonable that there are no lamps here; and it is as dirty as if one
+had to wade through a morass.”
+
+The longer he spoke with the boatmen, the more unintelligible did their
+language become to him.
+
+“I don't understand your Bornholmish dialect,” said he at last, angrily,
+and turning his back upon them. He was unable to find the bridge: there
+was no railway either. “It is really disgraceful what a state this place
+is in,” muttered he to himself. Never had his age, with which, however,
+he was always grumbling, seemed so miserable as on this evening. “I'll
+take a hackney-coach!” thought he. But where were the hackney-coaches?
+Not one was to be seen.
+
+“I must go back to the New Market; there, it is to be hoped, I
+shall find some coaches; for if I don't, I shall never get safe to
+Christianshafen.”
+
+So off he went in the direction of East Street, and had nearly got to
+the end of it when the moon shone forth.
+
+“God bless me! What wooden scaffolding is that which they have set up
+there?” cried he involuntarily, as he looked at East Gate, which, in
+those days, was at the end of East Street.
+
+He found, however, a little side-door open, and through this he went,
+and stepped into our New Market of the present time. It was a huge
+desolate plain; some wild bushes stood up here and there, while across
+the field flowed a broad canal or river. Some wretched hovels for the
+Dutch sailors, resembling great boxes, and after which the place was
+named, lay about in confused disorder on the opposite bank.
+
+“I either behold a fata morgana, or I am regularly tipsy,” whimpered out
+the Councillor. “But what's this?”
+
+He turned round anew, firmly convinced that he was seriously ill. He
+gazed at the street formerly so well known to him, and now so strange in
+appearance, and looked at the houses more attentively: most of them were
+of wood, slightly put together; and many had a thatched roof.
+
+“No--I am far from well,” sighed he; “and yet I drank only one glass of
+punch; but I cannot suppose it--it was, too, really very wrong to give
+us punch and hot salmon for supper. I shall speak about it at the first
+opportunity. I have half a mind to go back again, and say what I suffer.
+But no, that would be too silly; and Heaven only knows if they are up
+still.”
+
+He looked for the house, but it had vanished.
+
+“It is really dreadful,” groaned he with increasing anxiety; “I cannot
+recognise East Street again; there is not a single decent shop from one
+end to the other! Nothing but wretched huts can I see anywhere; just
+as if I were at Ringstead. Oh! I am ill! I can scarcely bear myself any
+longer. Where the deuce can the house be? It must be here on this very
+spot; yet there is not the slightest idea of resemblance, to such a
+degree has everything changed this night! At all events here are some
+people up and stirring. Oh! oh! I am certainly very ill.”
+
+He now hit upon a half-open door, through a chink of which a faint light
+shone. It was a sort of hostelry of those times; a kind of public-house.
+The room had some resemblance to the clay-floored halls in Holstein; a
+pretty numerous company, consisting of seamen, Copenhagen burghers, and
+a few scholars, sat here in deep converse over their pewter cans, and
+gave little heed to the person who entered.
+
+“By your leave!” said the Councillor to the Hostess, who came bustling
+towards him. “I've felt so queer all of a sudden; would you have the
+goodness to send for a hackney-coach to take me to Christianshafen?”
+
+The woman examined him with eyes of astonishment, and shook her head;
+she then addressed him in German. The Councillor thought she did not
+understand Danish, and therefore repeated his wish in German. This, in
+connection with his costume, strengthened the good woman in the belief
+that he was a foreigner. That he was ill, she comprehended directly; so
+she brought him a pitcher of water, which tasted certainly pretty strong
+of the sea, although it had been fetched from the well.
+
+The Councillor supported his head on his hand, drew a long breath, and
+thought over all the wondrous things he saw around him.
+
+“Is this the Daily News of this evening?” he asked mechanically, as he
+saw the Hostess push aside a large sheet of paper.
+
+The meaning of this councillorship query remained, of course, a riddle
+to her, yet she handed him the paper without replying. It was a coarse
+wood-cut, representing a splendid meteor “as seen in the town of
+Cologne,” which was to be read below in bright letters.
+
+“That is very old!” said the Councillor, whom this piece of antiquity
+began to make considerably more cheerful. “Pray how did you come into
+possession of this rare print? It is extremely interesting, although the
+whole is a mere fable. Such meteorous appearances are to be explained in
+this way--that they are the reflections of the Aurora Borealis, and it
+is highly probable they are caused principally by electricity.”
+
+Those persons who were sitting nearest him and heard his speech,
+stared at him in wonderment; and one of them rose, took off his hat
+respectfully, and said with a serious countenance, “You are no doubt a
+very learned man, Monsieur.”
+
+“Oh no,” answered the Councillor, “I can only join in conversation on
+this topic and on that, as indeed one must do according to the demands
+of the world at present.”
+
+“Modestia is a fine virtue,” continued the gentleman; “however, as to
+your speech, I must say mihi secus videtur: yet I am willing to suspend
+my judicium.”
+
+“May I ask with whom I have the pleasure of speaking?” asked the
+Councillor.
+
+“I am a Bachelor in Theologia,” answered the gentleman with a stiff
+reverence.
+
+This reply fully satisfied the Councillor; the title suited the dress.
+“He is certainly,” thought he, “some village schoolmaster--some queer
+old fellow, such as one still often meets with in Jutland.”
+
+“This is no locus docendi, it is true,” began the clerical gentleman;
+“yet I beg you earnestly to let us profit by your learning. Your reading
+in the ancients is, sine dubio, of vast extent?”
+
+“Oh yes, I've read something, to be sure,” replied the Councillor. “I
+like reading all useful works; but I do not on that account despise the
+modern ones; 'tis only the unfortunate 'Tales of Every-day Life' that I
+cannot bear--we have enough and more than enough such in reality.”
+
+“'Tales of Every-day Life?'” said our Bachelor inquiringly.
+
+“I mean those new fangled novels, twisting and writhing themselves in
+the dust of commonplace, which also expect to find a reading public.”
+
+“Oh,” exclaimed the clerical gentleman smiling, “there is much wit in
+them; besides they are read at court. The King likes the history of Sir
+Iffven and Sir Gaudian particularly, which treats of King Arthur, and
+his Knights of the Round Table; he has more than once joked about it
+with his high vassals.”
+
+“I have not read that novel,” said the Councillor; “it must be quite a
+new one, that Heiberg has published lately.”
+
+“No,” answered the theologian of the time of King Hans: “that book is
+not written by a Heiberg, but was imprinted by Godfrey von Gehmen.”
+
+“Oh, is that the author's name?” said the Councillor. “It is a very
+old name, and, as well as I recollect, he was the first printer that
+appeared in Denmark.”
+
+“Yes, he is our first printer,” replied the clerical gentleman hastily.
+
+So far all went on well. Some one of the worthy burghers now spoke of
+the dreadful pestilence that had raged in the country a few years back,
+meaning that of 1484. The Councillor imagined it was the cholera that
+was meant, which people made so much fuss about; and the discourse
+passed off satisfactorily enough. The war of the buccaneers of 1490 was
+so recent that it could not fail being alluded to; the English
+pirates had, they said, most shamefully taken their ships while in the
+roadstead; and the Councillor, before whose eyes the Herostratic [*]
+event of 1801 still floated vividly, agreed entirely with the others in
+abusing the rascally English. With other topics he was not so fortunate;
+every moment brought about some new confusion, and threatened to become
+a perfect Babel; for the worthy Bachelor was really too ignorant, and
+the simplest observations of the Councillor sounded to him too daring
+and phantastical. They looked at one another from the crown of the head
+to the soles of the feet; and when matters grew to too high a
+pitch, then the Bachelor talked Latin, in the hope of being better
+understood--but it was of no use after all.
+
+     * Herostratus, or Eratostratus--an Ephesian, who wantonly
+     set fire to the famous temple of Diana, in order to
+     commemorate his name by so uncommon an action.
+
+“What's the matter?” asked the Hostess, plucking the Councillor by the
+sleeve; and now his recollection returned, for in the course of the
+conversation he had entirely forgotten all that had preceded it.
+
+“Merciful God, where am I!” exclaimed he in agony; and while he so
+thought, all his ideas and feelings of overpowering dizziness, against
+which he struggled with the utmost power of desperation, encompassed
+him with renewed force. “Let us drink claret and mead, and Bremen beer,”
+ shouted one of the guests--“and you shall drink with us!”
+
+Two maidens approached. One wore a cap of two staring colors, denoting
+the class of persons to which she belonged. They poured out the liquor,
+and made the most friendly gesticulations; while a cold perspiration
+trickled down the back of the poor Councillor.
+
+“What's to be the end of this! What's to become of me!” groaned he; but
+he was forced, in spite of his opposition, to drink with the rest. They
+took hold of the worthy man; who, hearing on every side that he was
+intoxicated, did not in the least doubt the truth of this certainly
+not very polite assertion; but on the contrary, implored the ladies
+and gentlemen present to procure him a hackney-coach: they, however,
+imagined he was talking Russian.
+
+Never before, he thought, had he been in such a coarse and ignorant
+company; one might almost fancy the people had turned heathens again.
+“It is the most dreadful moment of my life: the whole world is leagued
+against me!” But suddenly it occurred to him that he might stoop down
+under the table, and then creep unobserved out of the door. He did so;
+but just as he was going, the others remarked what he was about; they
+laid hold of him by the legs; and now, happily for him, off fell his
+fatal shoes--and with them the charm was at an end.
+
+The Councillor saw quite distinctly before him a lantern burning, and
+behind this a large handsome house. All seemed to him in proper order as
+usual; it was East Street, splendid and elegant as we now see it. He lay
+with his feet towards a doorway, and exactly opposite sat the watchman
+asleep.
+
+“Gracious Heaven!” said he. “Have I lain here in the street and dreamed?
+Yes; 'tis East Street! How splendid and light it is! But really it is
+terrible what an effect that one glass of punch must have had on me!”
+
+Two minutes later, he was sitting in a hackney-coach and driving to
+Frederickshafen. He thought of the distress and agony he had endured,
+and praised from the very bottom of his heart the happy reality--our own
+time--which, with all its deficiencies, is yet much better than that in
+which, so much against his inclination, he had lately been.
+
+
+III. The Watchman's Adventure
+
+“Why, there is a pair of galoshes, as sure as I'm alive!” said the
+watchman, awaking from a gentle slumber. “They belong no doubt to the
+lieutenant who lives over the way. They lie close to the door.”
+
+The worthy man was inclined to ring and deliver them at the house, for
+there was still a light in the window; but he did not like disturbing
+the other people in their beds, and so very considerately he left the
+matter alone.
+
+“Such a pair of shoes must be very warm and comfortable,” said he; “the
+leather is so soft and supple.” They fitted his feet as though they
+had been made for him. “'Tis a curious world we live in,” continued he,
+soliloquizing. “There is the lieutenant, now, who might go quietly to
+bed if he chose, where no doubt he could stretch himself at his ease;
+but does he do it? No; he saunters up and down his room, because,
+probably, he has enjoyed too many of the good things of this world at
+his dinner. That's a happy fellow! He has neither an infirm mother, nor
+a whole troop of everlastingly hungry children to torment him. Every
+evening he goes to a party, where his nice supper costs him nothing:
+would to Heaven I could but change with him! How happy should I be!”
+
+While expressing his wish, the charm of the shoes, which he had put on,
+began to work; the watchman entered into the being and nature of the
+lieutenant. He stood in the handsomely furnished apartment, and held
+between his fingers a small sheet of rose-colored paper, on which some
+verses were written--written indeed by the officer himself; for who has
+not, at least once in his life, had a lyrical moment? And if one then
+marks down one's thoughts, poetry is produced. But here was written:
+
+                  OH, WERE I RICH!
+
+     “Oh, were I rich! Such was my wish, yea such
+      When hardly three feet high, I longed for much.
+       Oh, were I rich! an officer were I,
+       With sword, and uniform, and plume so high.
+       And the time came, and officer was I!
+     But yet I grew not rich. Alas, poor me!
+     Have pity, Thou, who all man's wants dost see.
+
+        “I sat one evening sunk in dreams of bliss,
+      A maid of seven years old gave me a kiss,
+       I at that time was rich in poesy
+       And tales of old, though poor as poor could be;
+       But all she asked for was this poesy.
+     Then was I rich, but not in gold, poor me!
+     As Thou dost know, who all men's hearts canst see.
+
+        “Oh, were I rich! Oft asked I for this boon.
+      The child grew up to womanhood full soon.
+       She is so pretty, clever, and so kind
+     Oh, did she know what's hidden in my mind--
+       A tale of old. Would she to me were kind!
+     But I'm condemned to silence! oh, poor me!
+     As Thou dost know, who all men's hearts canst see.
+
+        “Oh, were I rich in calm and peace of mind,
+      My grief you then would not here written find!
+       O thou, to whom I do my heart devote,
+       Oh read this page of glad days now remote,
+       A dark, dark tale, which I tonight devote!
+     Dark is the future now. Alas, poor me!
+     Have pity Thou, who all men's pains dost see.”
+
+Such verses as these people write when they are in love! But no man
+in his senses ever thinks of printing them. Here one of the sorrows of
+life, in which there is real poetry, gave itself vent; not that
+barren grief which the poet may only hint at, but never depict in its
+detail--misery and want: that animal necessity, in short, to snatch
+at least at a fallen leaf of the bread-fruit tree, if not at the fruit
+itself. The higher the position in which one finds oneself transplanted,
+the greater is the suffering. Everyday necessity is the stagnant pool of
+life--no lovely picture reflects itself therein. Lieutenant, love, and
+lack of money--that is a symbolic triangle, or much the same as the
+half of the shattered die of Fortune. This the lieutenant felt most
+poignantly, and this was the reason he leant his head against the
+window, and sighed so deeply.
+
+“The poor watchman out there in the street is far happier than I. He
+knows not what I term privation. He has a home, a wife, and children,
+who weep with him over his sorrows, who rejoice with him when he is
+glad. Oh, far happier were I, could I exchange with him my being--with
+his desires and with his hopes perform the weary pilgrimage of life! Oh,
+he is a hundred times happier than I!”
+
+In the same moment the watchman was again watchman. It was the shoes
+that caused the metamorphosis by means of which, unknown to himself, he
+took upon him the thoughts and feelings of the officer; but, as we have
+just seen, he felt himself in his new situation much less contented,
+and now preferred the very thing which but some minutes before he had
+rejected. So then the watchman was again watchman.
+
+“That was an unpleasant dream,” said he; “but 'twas droll enough
+altogether. I fancied that I was the lieutenant over there: and yet
+the thing was not very much to my taste after all. I missed my good old
+mother and the dear little ones; who almost tear me to pieces for sheer
+love.”
+
+He seated himself once more and nodded: the dream continued to haunt
+him, for he still had the shoes on his feet. A falling star shone in the
+dark firmament.
+
+“There falls another star,” said he: “but what does it matter; there
+are always enough left. I should not much mind examining the little
+glimmering things somewhat nearer, especially the moon; for that would
+not slip so easily through a man's fingers. When we die--so at least
+says the student, for whom my wife does the washing--we shall fly about
+as light as a feather from one such a star to the other. That's, of
+course, not true: but 'twould be pretty enough if it were so. If I could
+but once take a leap up there, my body might stay here on the steps for
+what I care.”
+
+Behold--there are certain things in the world to which one ought never
+to give utterance except with the greatest caution; but doubly careful
+must one be when we have the Shoes of Fortune on our feet. Now just
+listen to what happened to the watchman.
+
+As to ourselves, we all know the speed produced by the employment of
+steam; we have experienced it either on railroads, or in boats when
+crossing the sea; but such a flight is like the travelling of a sloth in
+comparison with the velocity with which light moves. It flies nineteen
+million times faster than the best race-horse; and yet electricity is
+quicker still. Death is an electric shock which our heart receives; the
+freed soul soars upwards on the wings of electricity. The sun's light
+wants eight minutes and some seconds to perform a journey of more than
+twenty million of our Danish [*] miles; borne by electricity, the soul
+wants even some minutes less to accomplish the same flight. To it the
+space between the heavenly bodies is not greater than the distance
+between the homes of our friends in town is for us, even if they live a
+short way from each other; such an electric shock in the heart, however,
+costs us the use of the body here below; unless, like the watchman of
+East Street, we happen to have on the Shoes of Fortune.
+
+     * A Danish mile is nearly 4 3/4 English.
+
+
+In a few seconds the watchman had done the fifty-two thousand of our
+miles up to the moon, which, as everyone knows, was formed out of
+matter much lighter than our earth; and is, so we should say, as soft
+as newly-fallen snow. He found himself on one of the many circumjacent
+mountain-ridges with which we are acquainted by means of Dr. Madler's
+“Map of the Moon.” Within, down it sunk perpendicularly into a caldron,
+about a Danish mile in depth; while below lay a town, whose appearance
+we can, in some measure, realize to ourselves by beating the white of
+an egg in a glass of water. The matter of which it was built was just as
+soft, and formed similar towers, and domes, and pillars, transparent and
+rocking in the thin air; while above his head our earth was rolling like
+a large fiery ball.
+
+He perceived immediately a quantity of beings who were certainly what
+we call “men”; yet they looked different to us. A far more correct
+imagination than that of the pseudo-Herschel* had created them; and
+if they had been placed in rank and file, and copied by some skilful
+painter's hand, one would, without doubt, have exclaimed involuntarily,
+“What a beautiful arabesque!”
+
+*This relates to a book published some years ago in Germany, and said
+to be by Herschel, which contained a description of the moon and its
+inhabitants, written with such a semblance of truth that many were
+deceived by the imposture.
+
+Probably a translation of the celebrated Moon hoax, written by Richard
+A. Locke, and originally published in New York.
+
+
+They had a language too; but surely nobody can expect that the soul of
+the watchman should understand it. Be that as it may, it did comprehend
+it; for in our souls there germinate far greater powers than we poor
+mortals, despite all our cleverness, have any notion of. Does she
+not show us--she the queen in the land of enchantment--her astounding
+dramatic talent in all our dreams? There every acquaintance appears and
+speaks upon the stage, so entirely in character, and with the same tone
+of voice, that none of us, when awake, were able to imitate it. How
+well can she recall persons to our mind, of whom we have not thought for
+years; when suddenly they step forth “every inch a man,” resembling the
+real personages, even to the finest features, and become the heroes
+or heroines of our world of dreams. In reality, such remembrances are
+rather unpleasant: every sin, every evil thought, may, like a clock with
+alarm or chimes, be repeated at pleasure; then the question is if we can
+trust ourselves to give an account of every unbecoming word in our heart
+and on our lips.
+
+The watchman's spirit understood the language of the inhabitants of the
+moon pretty well. The Selenites* disputed variously about our earth,
+and expressed their doubts if it could be inhabited: the air, they said,
+must certainly be too dense to allow any rational dweller in the moon
+the necessary free respiration. They considered the moon alone to
+be inhabited: they imagined it was the real heart of the universe or
+planetary system, on which the genuine Cosmopolites, or citizens of the
+world, dwelt. What strange things men--no, what strange things Selenites
+sometimes take into their heads!
+
+* Dwellers in the moon.
+
+
+About politics they had a good deal to say. But little Denmark must
+take care what it is about, and not run counter to the moon; that
+great realm, that might in an ill-humor bestir itself, and dash down a
+hail-storm in our faces, or force the Baltic to overflow the sides of
+its gigantic basin.
+
+We will, therefore, not listen to what was spoken, and on no condition
+run in the possibility of telling tales out of school; but we will
+rather proceed, like good quiet citizens, to East Street, and observe
+what happened meanwhile to the body of the watchman.
+
+He sat lifeless on the steps: the morning-star,* that is to say, the
+heavy wooden staff, headed with iron spikes, and which had nothing else
+in common with its sparkling brother in the sky, had glided from his
+hand; while his eyes were fixed with glassy stare on the moon, looking
+for the good old fellow of a spirit which still haunted it.
+
+*The watchmen in Germany, had formerly, and in some places they still
+carry with them, on their rounds at night, a sort of mace or club, known
+in ancient times by the above denomination.
+
+
+“What's the hour, watchman?” asked a passer-by. But when the watchman
+gave no reply, the merry roysterer, who was now returning home from a
+noisy drinking bout, took it into his head to try what a tweak of the
+nose would do, on which the supposed sleeper lost his balance, the body
+lay motionless, stretched out on the pavement: the man was dead. When
+the patrol came up, all his comrades, who comprehended nothing of the
+whole affair, were seized with a dreadful fright, for dead he was,
+and he remained so. The proper authorities were informed of the
+circumstance, people talked a good deal about it, and in the morning the
+body was carried to the hospital.
+
+Now that would be a very pretty joke, if the spirit when it came back
+and looked for the body in East Street, were not to find one. No doubt
+it would, in its anxiety, run off to the police, and then to the
+“Hue and Cry” office, to announce that “the finder will be handsomely
+rewarded,” and at last away to the hospital; yet we may boldly assert
+that the soul is shrewdest when it shakes off every fetter, and every
+sort of leading-string--the body only makes it stupid.
+
+The seemingly dead body of the watchman wandered, as we have said, to
+the hospital, where it was brought into the general viewing-room:
+and the first thing that was done here was naturally to pull off the
+galoshes--when the spirit, that was merely gone out on adventures, must
+have returned with the quickness of lightning to its earthly tenement.
+It took its direction towards the body in a straight line; and a few
+seconds after, life began to show itself in the man. He asserted that
+the preceding night had been the worst that ever the malice of fate had
+allotted him; he would not for two silver marks again go through what he
+had endured while moon-stricken; but now, however, it was over.
+
+The same day he was discharged from the hospital as perfectly cured; but
+the Shoes meanwhile remained behind.
+
+
+IV. A Moment of Head Importance--An Evening's “Dramatic Readings”--A
+Most Strange Journey
+
+Every inhabitant of Copenhagen knows, from personal inspection, how
+the entrance to Frederick's Hospital looks; but as it is possible that
+others, who are not Copenhagen people, may also read this little work,
+we will beforehand give a short description of it.
+
+The extensive building is separated from the street by a pretty high
+railing, the thick iron bars of which are so far apart, that in
+all seriousness, it is said, some very thin fellow had of a night
+occasionally squeezed himself through to go and pay his little visits
+in the town. The part of the body most difficult to manage on such
+occasions was, no doubt, the head; here, as is so often the case in
+the world, long-headed people get through best. So much, then, for the
+introduction.
+
+One of the young men, whose head, in a physical sense only, might be
+said to be of the thickest, had the watch that evening. The rain poured
+down in torrents; yet despite these two obstacles, the young man was
+obliged to go out, if it were but for a quarter of an hour; and as
+to telling the door-keeper about it, that, he thought, was quite
+unnecessary, if, with a whole skin, he were able to slip through the
+railings. There, on the floor lay the galoshes, which the watchman
+had forgotten; he never dreamed for a moment that they were those of
+Fortune; and they promised to do him good service in the wet; so he put
+them on. The question now was, if he could squeeze himself through the
+grating, for he had never tried before. Well, there he stood.
+
+“Would to Heaven I had got my head through!” said he, involuntarily; and
+instantly through it slipped, easily and without pain, notwithstanding
+it was pretty large and thick. But now the rest of the body was to be
+got through!
+
+“Ah! I am much too stout,” groaned he aloud, while fixed as in a vice.
+“I had thought the head was the most difficult part of the matter--oh!
+oh! I really cannot squeeze myself through!”
+
+He now wanted to pull his over-hasty head back again, but he could not.
+For his neck there was room enough, but for nothing more. His first
+feeling was of anger; his next that his temper fell to zero. The
+Shoes of Fortune had placed him in the most dreadful situation; and,
+unfortunately, it never occurred to him to wish himself free. The
+pitch-black clouds poured down their contents in still heavier torrents;
+not a creature was to be seen in the streets. To reach up to the bell
+was what he did not like; to cry aloud for help would have availed him
+little; besides, how ashamed would he have been to be found caught in a
+trap, like an outwitted fox! How was he to twist himself through! He saw
+clearly that it was his irrevocable destiny to remain a prisoner till
+dawn, or, perhaps, even late in the morning; then the smith must be
+fetched to file away the bars; but all that would not be done so quickly
+as he could think about it. The whole Charity School, just opposite,
+would be in motion; all the new booths, with their not very
+courtier-like swarm of seamen, would join them out of curiosity, and
+would greet him with a wild “hurrah!” while he was standing in his
+pillory: there would be a mob, a hissing, and rejoicing, and jeering,
+ten times worse than in the rows about the Jews some years ago--“Oh, my
+blood is mounting to my brain; 'tis enough to drive one mad! I shall go
+wild! I know not what to do. Oh! were I but loose; my dizziness would
+then cease; oh, were my head but loose!”
+
+You see he ought to have said that sooner; for the moment he expressed
+the wish his head was free; and cured of all his paroxysms of love, he
+hastened off to his room, where the pains consequent on the fright the
+Shoes had prepared for him, did not so soon take their leave.
+
+But you must not think that the affair is over now; it grows much worse.
+
+The night passed, the next day also; but nobody came to fetch the Shoes.
+
+In the evening “Dramatic Readings” were to be given at the little
+theatre in King Street. The house was filled to suffocation; and among
+other pieces to be recited was a new poem by H. C. Andersen, called, My
+Aunt's Spectacles; the contents of which were pretty nearly as follows:
+
+“A certain person had an aunt, who boasted of particular skill in
+fortune-telling with cards, and who was constantly being stormed by
+persons that wanted to have a peep into futurity. But she was full of
+mystery about her art, in which a certain pair of magic spectacles
+did her essential service. Her nephew, a merry boy, who was his aunt's
+darling, begged so long for these spectacles, that, at last, she lent
+him the treasure, after having informed him, with many exhortations,
+that in order to execute the interesting trick, he need only repair to
+some place where a great many persons were assembled; and then, from a
+higher position, whence he could overlook the crowd, pass the company in
+review before him through his spectacles. Immediately 'the inner man' of
+each individual would be displayed before him, like a game of cards, in
+which he unerringly might read what the future of every person presented
+was to be. Well pleased the little magician hastened away to prove the
+powers of the spectacles in the theatre; no place seeming to him more
+fitted for such a trial. He begged permission of the worthy audience,
+and set his spectacles on his nose. A motley phantasmagoria presents
+itself before him, which he describes in a few satirical touches, yet
+without expressing his opinion openly: he tells the people enough to set
+them all thinking and guessing; but in order to hurt nobody, he wraps
+his witty oracular judgments in a transparent veil, or rather in a lurid
+thundercloud, shooting forth bright sparks of wit, that they may fall in
+the powder-magazine of the expectant audience.”
+
+The humorous poem was admirably recited, and the speaker much applauded.
+Among the audience was the young man of the hospital, who seemed to have
+forgotten his adventure of the preceding night. He had on the Shoes; for
+as yet no lawful owner had appeared to claim them; and besides it was so
+very dirty out-of-doors, they were just the thing for him, he thought.
+
+The beginning of the poem he praised with great generosity: he even
+found the idea original and effective. But that the end of it, like the
+Rhine, was very insignificant, proved, in his opinion, the author's
+want of invention; he was without genius, etc. This was an excellent
+opportunity to have said something clever.
+
+Meanwhile he was haunted by the idea--he should like to possess such a
+pair of spectacles himself; then, perhaps, by using them circumspectly,
+one would be able to look into people's hearts, which, he thought, would
+be far more interesting than merely to see what was to happen next year;
+for that we should all know in proper time, but the other never.
+
+“I can now,” said he to himself, “fancy the whole row of ladies and
+gentlemen sitting there in the front row; if one could but see into
+their hearts--yes, that would be a revelation--a sort of bazar. In that
+lady yonder, so strangely dressed, I should find for certain a large
+milliner's shop; in that one the shop is empty, but it wants cleaning
+plain enough. But there would also be some good stately shops among
+them. Alas!” sighed he, “I know one in which all is stately; but there
+sits already a spruce young shopman, which is the only thing that's
+amiss in the whole shop. All would be splendidly decked out, and we
+should hear, 'Walk in, gentlemen, pray walk in; here you will find all
+you please to want.' Ah! I wish to Heaven I could walk in and take a
+trip right through the hearts of those present!”
+
+And behold! to the Shoes of Fortune this was the cue; the whole man
+shrunk together and a most uncommon journey through the hearts of the
+front row of spectators, now began. The first heart through which he
+came, was that of a middle-aged lady, but he instantly fancied himself
+in the room of the “Institution for the cure of the crooked and
+deformed,” where casts of mis-shapen limbs are displayed in naked
+reality on the wall. Yet there was this difference, in the institution
+the casts were taken at the entry of the patient; but here they were
+retained and guarded in the heart while the sound persons went away.
+They were, namely, casts of female friends, whose bodily or mental
+deformities were here most faithfully preserved.
+
+With the snake-like writhings of an idea he glided into another female
+heart; but this seemed to him like a large holy fane. [*] The white dove of
+innocence fluttered over the altar. How gladly would he have sunk upon
+his knees; but he must away to the next heart; yet he still heard the
+pealing tones of the organ, and he himself seemed to have become a newer
+and a better man; he felt unworthy to tread the neighboring sanctuary
+which a poor garret, with a sick bed-rid mother, revealed. But God's
+warm sun streamed through the open window; lovely roses nodded from
+the wooden flower-boxes on the roof, and two sky-blue birds sang
+rejoicingly, while the sick mother implored God's richest blessings on
+her pious daughter.
+
+     * temple
+
+
+He now crept on hands and feet through a butcher's shop; at least on
+every side, and above and below, there was nought but flesh. It was the
+heart of a most respectable rich man, whose name is certain to be found
+in the Directory.
+
+He was now in the heart of the wife of this worthy gentleman. It was an
+old, dilapidated, mouldering dovecot. The husband's portrait was used as
+a weather-cock, which was connected in some way or other with the doors,
+and so they opened and shut of their own accord, whenever the stern old
+husband turned round.
+
+Hereupon he wandered into a boudoir formed entirely of mirrors, like
+the one in Castle Rosenburg; but here the glasses magnified to an
+astonishing degree. On the floor, in the middle of the room, sat, like a
+Dalai-Lama, the insignificant “Self” of the person, quite confounded at
+his own greatness. He then imagined he had got into a needle-case full
+of pointed needles of every size.
+
+“This is certainly the heart of an old maid,” thought he. But he was
+mistaken. It was the heart of a young military man; a man, as people
+said, of talent and feeling.
+
+In the greatest perplexity, he now came out of the last heart in the
+row; he was unable to put his thoughts in order, and fancied that his
+too lively imagination had run away with him.
+
+“Good Heavens!” sighed he. “I have surely a disposition to madness--'tis
+dreadfully hot here; my blood boils in my veins and my head is burning
+like a coal.” And he now remembered the important event of the evening
+before, how his head had got jammed in between the iron railings of the
+hospital. “That's what it is, no doubt,” said he. “I must do something
+in time: under such circumstances a Russian bath might do me good. I
+only wish I were already on the upper bank.” [*]
+
+     *In these Russian (vapor) baths the person extends himself
+     on a bank or form, and as he gets accustomed to the heat,
+     moves to another higher up towards the ceiling, where, of
+     course, the vapor is warmest. In this manner he ascends
+     gradually to the highest.
+
+And so there he lay on the uppermost bank in the vapor-bath; but with
+all his clothes on, in his boots and galoshes, while the hot drops fell
+scalding from the ceiling on his face.
+
+“Holloa!” cried he, leaping down. The bathing attendant, on his side,
+uttered a loud cry of astonishment when he beheld in the bath, a man
+completely dressed.
+
+The other, however, retained sufficient presence of mind to whisper to
+him, “'Tis a bet, and I have won it!” But the first thing he did as soon
+as he got home, was to have a large blister put on his chest and back to
+draw out his madness.
+
+The next morning he had a sore chest and a bleeding back; and, excepting
+the fright, that was all that he had gained by the Shoes of Fortune.
+
+
+V. Metamorphosis of the Copying-Clerk
+
+The watchman, whom we have certainly not forgotten, thought meanwhile
+of the galoshes he had found and taken with him to the hospital; he now
+went to fetch them; and as neither the lieutenant, nor anybody else in
+the street, claimed them as his property, they were delivered over to
+the police-office.*
+
+*As on the continent, in all law and police practices nothing is verbal,
+but any circumstance, however trifling, is reduced to writing, the
+labor, as well as the number of papers that thus accumulate, is
+enormous. In a police-office, consequently, we find copying-clerks among
+many other scribes of various denominations, of which, it seems, our
+hero was one.
+
+
+“Why, I declare the Shoes look just like my own,” said one of the
+clerks, eying the newly-found treasure, whose hidden powers, even he,
+sharp as he was, was not able to discover. “One must have more than
+the eye of a shoemaker to know one pair from the other,” said he,
+soliloquizing; and putting, at the same time, the galoshes in search of
+an owner, beside his own in the corner.
+
+“Here, sir!” said one of the men, who panting brought him a tremendous
+pile of papers.
+
+The copying-clerk turned round and spoke awhile with the man about the
+reports and legal documents in question; but when he had finished, and
+his eye fell again on the Shoes, he was unable to say whether those to
+the left or those to the right belonged to him. “At all events it must
+be those which are wet,” thought he; but this time, in spite of his
+cleverness, he guessed quite wrong, for it was just those of Fortune
+which played as it were into his hands, or rather on his feet. And why,
+I should like to know, are the police never to be wrong? So he put them
+on quickly, stuck his papers in his pocket, and took besides a few under
+his arm, intending to look them through at home to make the necessary
+notes. It was noon; and the weather, that had threatened rain, began
+to clear up, while gaily dressed holiday folks filled the streets. “A
+little trip to Fredericksburg would do me no great harm,” thought he;
+“for I, poor beast of burden that I am, have so much to annoy me, that I
+don't know what a good appetite is. 'Tis a bitter crust, alas! at which
+I am condemned to gnaw!”
+
+Nobody could be more steady or quiet than this young man; we therefore
+wish him joy of the excursion with all our heart; and it will certainly
+be beneficial for a person who leads so sedentary a life. In the park
+he met a friend, one of our young poets, who told him that the following
+day he should set out on his long-intended tour.
+
+“So you are going away again!” said the clerk. “You are a very free
+and happy being; we others are chained by the leg and held fast to our
+desk.”
+
+“Yes; but it is a chain, friend, which ensures you the blessed bread
+of existence,” answered the poet. “You need feel no care for the coming
+morrow: when you are old, you receive a pension.”
+
+“True,” said the clerk, shrugging his shoulders; “and yet you are
+the better off. To sit at one's ease and poetise--that is a pleasure;
+everybody has something agreeable to say to you, and you are always your
+own master. No, friend, you should but try what it is to sit from one
+year's end to the other occupied with and judging the most trivial
+matters.”
+
+The poet shook his head, the copying-clerk did the same. Each one kept
+to his own opinion, and so they separated.
+
+“It's a strange race, those poets!” said the clerk, who was very fond of
+soliloquizing. “I should like some day, just for a trial, to take such
+nature upon me, and be a poet myself; I am very sure I should make
+no such miserable verses as the others. Today, methinks, is a most
+delicious day for a poet. Nature seems anew to celebrate her awakening
+into life. The air is so unusually clear, the clouds sail on so
+buoyantly, and from the green herbage a fragrance is exhaled that fills
+me with delight. For many a year have I not felt as at this moment.”
+
+We see already, by the foregoing effusion, that he is become a poet; to
+give further proof of it, however, would in most cases be insipid, for
+it is a most foolish notion to fancy a poet different from other men.
+Among the latter there may be far more poetical natures than many an
+acknowledged poet, when examined more closely, could boast of; the
+difference only is, that the poet possesses a better mental memory, on
+which account he is able to retain the feeling and the thought till they
+can be embodied by means of words; a faculty which the others do not
+possess. But the transition from a commonplace nature to one that is
+richly endowed, demands always a more or less breakneck leap over a
+certain abyss which yawns threateningly below; and thus must the sudden
+change with the clerk strike the reader.
+
+“The sweet air!” continued he of the police-office, in his dreamy
+imaginings; “how it reminds me of the violets in the garden of my aunt
+Magdalena! Yes, then I was a little wild boy, who did not go to school
+very regularly. O heavens! 'tis a long time since I have thought on
+those times. The good old soul! She lived behind the Exchange. She
+always had a few twigs or green shoots in water--let the winter rage
+without as it might. The violets exhaled their sweet breath, whilst I
+pressed against the windowpanes covered with fantastic frost-work the
+copper coin I had heated on the stove, and so made peep-holes.
+What splendid vistas were then opened to my view! What change--what
+magnificence! Yonder in the canal lay the ships frozen up, and deserted
+by their whole crews, with a screaming crow for the sole occupant. But
+when the spring, with a gentle stirring motion, announced her arrival,
+a new and busy life arose; with songs and hurrahs the ice was sawn
+asunder, the ships were fresh tarred and rigged, that they might sail
+away to distant lands. But I have remained here--must always remain
+here, sitting at my desk in the office, and patiently see other people
+fetch their passports to go abroad. Such is my fate! Alas!”--sighed he,
+and was again silent. “Great Heaven! What is come to me! Never have I
+thought or felt like this before! It must be the summer air that affects
+me with feelings almost as disquieting as they are refreshing.”
+
+He felt in his pocket for the papers. “These police-reports will soon
+stem the torrent of my ideas, and effectually hinder any rebellious
+overflowing of the time-worn banks of official duties”; he said to
+himself consolingly, while his eye ran over the first page. “DAME
+TIGBRITH, tragedy in five acts.” “What is that? And yet it is undeniably
+my own handwriting. Have I written the tragedy? Wonderful, very
+wonderful!--And this--what have I here? 'INTRIGUE ON THE RAMPARTS; or
+THE DAY OF REPENTANCE: vaudeville with new songs to the most favorite
+airs.' The deuce! Where did I get all this rubbish? Some one must have
+slipped it slyly into my pocket for a joke. There is too a letter to me;
+a crumpled letter and the seal broken.”
+
+Yes; it was not a very polite epistle from the manager of a theatre, in
+which both pieces were flatly refused.
+
+“Hem! hem!” said the clerk breathlessly, and quite exhausted he seated
+himself on a bank. His thoughts were so elastic, his heart so tender;
+and involuntarily he picked one of the nearest flowers. It is a simple
+daisy, just bursting out of the bud. What the botanist tells us after
+a number of imperfect lectures, the flower proclaimed in a minute. It
+related the mythus of its birth, told of the power of the sun-light that
+spread out its delicate leaves, and forced them to impregnate the air
+with their incense--and then he thought of the manifold struggles of
+life, which in like manner awaken the budding flowers of feeling in our
+bosom. Light and air contend with chivalric emulation for the love of
+the fair flower that bestowed her chief favors on the latter; full of
+longing she turned towards the light, and as soon as it vanished, rolled
+her tender leaves together and slept in the embraces of the air. “It is
+the light which adorns me,” said the flower.
+
+“But 'tis the air which enables thee to breathe,” said the poet's voice.
+
+Close by stood a boy who dashed his stick into a wet ditch. The drops of
+water splashed up to the green leafy roof, and the clerk thought of the
+million of ephemera which in a single drop were thrown up to a height,
+that was as great doubtless for their size, as for us if we were to
+be hurled above the clouds. While he thought of this and of the whole
+metamorphosis he had undergone, he smiled and said, “I sleep and dream;
+but it is wonderful how one can dream so naturally, and know besides so
+exactly that it is but a dream. If only to-morrow on awaking, I could
+again call all to mind so vividly! I seem in unusually good spirits; my
+perception of things is clear, I feel as light and cheerful as though
+I were in heaven; but I know for a certainty, that if to-morrow a dim
+remembrance of it should swim before my mind, it will then seem nothing
+but stupid nonsense, as I have often experienced already--especially
+before I enlisted under the banner of the police, for that dispels like
+a whirlwind all the visions of an unfettered imagination. All we hear
+or say in a dream that is fair and beautiful is like the gold of the
+subterranean spirits; it is rich and splendid when it is given us, but
+viewed by daylight we find only withered leaves. Alas!” he sighed quite
+sorrowful, and gazed at the chirping birds that hopped contentedly from
+branch to branch, “they are much better off than I! To fly must be a
+heavenly art; and happy do I prize that creature in which it is innate.
+Yes! Could I exchange my nature with any other creature, I fain would be
+such a happy little lark!”
+
+He had hardly uttered these hasty words when the skirts and sleeves
+of his coat folded themselves together into wings; the clothes became
+feathers, and the galoshes claws. He observed it perfectly, and laughed
+in his heart. “Now then, there is no doubt that I am dreaming; but I
+never before was aware of such mad freaks as these.” And up he flew into
+the green roof and sang; but in the song there was no poetry, for the
+spirit of the poet was gone. The Shoes, as is the case with anybody who
+does what he has to do properly, could only attend to one thing at a
+time. He wanted to be a poet, and he was one; he now wished to be a
+merry chirping bird: but when he was metamorphosed into one, the former
+peculiarities ceased immediately. “It is really pleasant enough,” said
+he: “the whole day long I sit in the office amid the driest
+law-papers, and at night I fly in my dream as a lark in the gardens of
+Fredericksburg; one might really write a very pretty comedy upon it.” He
+now fluttered down into the grass, turned his head gracefully on every
+side, and with his bill pecked the pliant blades of grass, which, in
+comparison to his present size, seemed as majestic as the palm-branches
+of northern Africa.
+
+Unfortunately the pleasure lasted but a moment. Presently black night
+overshadowed our enthusiast, who had so entirely missed his part of
+copying-clerk at a police-office; some vast object seemed to be thrown
+over him. It was a large oil-skin cap, which a sailor-boy of the quay
+had thrown over the struggling bird; a coarse hand sought its way
+carefully in under the broad rim, and seized the clerk over the back
+and wings. In the first moment of fear, he called, indeed, as loud as
+he could--“You impudent little blackguard! I am a copying-clerk at
+the police-office; and you know you cannot insult any belonging to the
+constabulary force without a chastisement. Besides, you good-for-nothing
+rascal, it is strictly forbidden to catch birds in the royal gardens of
+Fredericksburg; but your blue uniform betrays where you come from.”
+ This fine tirade sounded, however, to the ungodly sailor-boy like a mere
+“Pippi-pi.” He gave the noisy bird a knock on his beak, and walked on.
+
+He was soon met by two schoolboys of the upper class--that is to say as
+individuals, for with regard to learning they were in the lowest class
+in the school; and they bought the stupid bird. So the copying-clerk
+came to Copenhagen as guest, or rather as prisoner in a family living in
+Gother Street.
+
+“'Tis well that I'm dreaming,” said the clerk, “or I really should get
+angry. First I was a poet; now sold for a few pence as a lark; no doubt
+it was that accursed poetical nature which has metamorphosed me
+into such a poor harmless little creature. It is really pitiable,
+particularly when one gets into the hands of a little blackguard,
+perfect in all sorts of cruelty to animals: all I should like to know
+is, how the story will end.”
+
+The two schoolboys, the proprietors now of the transformed clerk,
+carried him into an elegant room. A stout stately dame received them
+with a smile; but she expressed much dissatisfaction that a common
+field-bird, as she called the lark, should appear in such high society.
+For to-day, however, she would allow it; and they must shut him in the
+empty cage that was standing in the window. “Perhaps he will amuse my
+good Polly,” added the lady, looking with a benignant smile at a large
+green parrot that swung himself backwards and forwards most comfortably
+in his ring, inside a magnificent brass-wired cage. “To-day is Polly's
+birthday,” said she with stupid simplicity: “and the little brown
+field-bird must wish him joy.”
+
+Mr. Polly uttered not a syllable in reply, but swung to and fro with
+dignified condescension; while a pretty canary, as yellow as gold, that
+had lately been brought from his sunny fragrant home, began to sing
+aloud.
+
+“Noisy creature! Will you be quiet!” screamed the lady of the house,
+covering the cage with an embroidered white pocket handkerchief.
+
+“Chirp, chirp!” sighed he. “That was a dreadful snowstorm”; and he
+sighed again, and was silent.
+
+The copying-clerk, or, as the lady said, the brown field-bird, was
+put into a small cage, close to the Canary, and not far from “my good
+Polly.” The only human sounds that the Parrot could bawl out
+were, “Come, let us be men!” Everything else that he said was as
+unintelligible to everybody as the chirping of the Canary, except to the
+clerk, who was now a bird too: he understood his companion perfectly.
+
+“I flew about beneath the green palms and the blossoming almond-trees,”
+ sang the Canary; “I flew around, with my brothers and sisters, over
+the beautiful flowers, and over the glassy lakes, where the bright
+water-plants nodded to me from below. There, too, I saw many
+splendidly-dressed paroquets, that told the drollest stories, and the
+wildest fairy tales without end.”
+
+“Oh! those were uncouth birds,” answered the Parrot. “They had no
+education, and talked of whatever came into their head.
+
+“If my mistress and all her friends can laugh at what I say, so may you
+too, I should think. It is a great fault to have no taste for what is
+witty or amusing--come, let us be men.”
+
+“Ah, you have no remembrance of love for the charming maidens that
+danced beneath the outspread tents beside the bright fragrant flowers?
+Do you no longer remember the sweet fruits, and the cooling juice in
+the wild plants of our never-to-be-forgotten home?” said the former
+inhabitant of the Canary Isles, continuing his dithyrambic.
+
+“Oh, yes,” said the Parrot; “but I am far better off here. I am well
+fed, and get friendly treatment. I know I am a clever fellow; and that
+is all I care about. Come, let us be men. You are of a poetical nature,
+as it is called--I, on the contrary, possess profound knowledge and
+inexhaustible wit. You have genius; but clear-sighted, calm discretion
+does not take such lofty flights, and utter such high natural tones.
+For this they have covered you over--they never do the like to me; for
+I cost more. Besides, they are afraid of my beak; and I have always a
+witty answer at hand. Come, let us be men!”
+
+“O warm spicy land of my birth,” sang the Canary bird; “I will sing of
+thy dark-green bowers, of the calm bays where the pendent boughs
+kiss the surface of the water; I will sing of the rejoicing of all my
+brothers and sisters where the cactus grows in wanton luxuriance.”
+
+“Spare us your elegiac tones,” said the Parrot giggling. “Rather speak
+of something at which one may laugh heartily. Laughing is an infallible
+sign of the highest degree of mental development. Can a dog, or a horse
+laugh? No, but they can cry. The gift of laughing was given to man
+alone. Ha! ha! ha!” screamed Polly, and added his stereotype witticism.
+“Come, let us be men!”
+
+“Poor little Danish grey-bird,” said the Canary; “you have been caught
+too. It is, no doubt, cold enough in your woods, but there at least
+is the breath of liberty; therefore fly away. In the hurry they have
+forgotten to shut your cage, and the upper window is open. Fly, my
+friend; fly away. Farewell!”
+
+Instinctively the Clerk obeyed; with a few strokes of his wings he was
+out of the cage; but at the same moment the door, which was only ajar,
+and which led to the next room, began to creak, and supple and creeping
+came the large tomcat into the room, and began to pursue him. The
+frightened Canary fluttered about in his cage; the Parrot flapped his
+wings, and cried, “Come, let us be men!” The Clerk felt a mortal fright,
+and flew through the window, far away over the houses and streets. At
+last he was forced to rest a little.
+
+The neighboring house had a something familiar about it; a window stood
+open; he flew in; it was his own room. He perched upon the table.
+
+“Come, let us be men!” said he, involuntarily imitating the chatter of
+the Parrot, and at the same moment he was again a copying-clerk; but he
+was sitting in the middle of the table.
+
+“Heaven help me!” cried he. “How did I get up here--and so buried in
+sleep, too? After all, that was a very unpleasant, disagreeable dream
+that haunted me! The whole story is nothing but silly, stupid nonsense!”
+
+
+VI. The Best That the Galoshes Gave
+
+The following day, early in the morning, while the Clerk was still in
+bed, someone knocked at his door. It was his neighbor, a young Divine,
+who lived on the same floor. He walked in.
+
+“Lend me your Galoshes,” said he; “it is so wet in the garden, though
+the sun is shining most invitingly. I should like to go out a little.”
+
+He got the Galoshes, and he was soon below in a little duodecimo garden,
+where between two immense walls a plumtree and an apple-tree were
+standing. Even such a little garden as this was considered in the
+metropolis of Copenhagen as a great luxury.
+
+The young man wandered up and down the narrow paths, as well as the
+prescribed limits would allow; the clock struck six; without was heard
+the horn of a post-boy.
+
+“To travel! to travel!” exclaimed he, overcome by most painful and
+passionate remembrances. “That is the happiest thing in the world! That
+is the highest aim of all my wishes! Then at last would the agonizing
+restlessness be allayed, which destroys my existence! But it must be
+far, far away! I would behold magnificent Switzerland; I would travel to
+Italy, and--”
+
+It was a good thing that the power of the Galoshes worked as
+instantaneously as lightning in a powder-magazine would do, otherwise
+the poor man with his overstrained wishes would have travelled about
+the world too much for himself as well as for us. In short, he was
+travelling. He was in the middle of Switzerland, but packed up with
+eight other passengers in the inside of an eternally-creaking diligence;
+his head ached till it almost split, his weary neck could hardly bear
+the heavy load, and his feet, pinched by his torturing boots, were
+terribly swollen. He was in an intermediate state between sleeping and
+waking; at variance with himself, with his company, with the country,
+and with the government. In his right pocket he had his letter of
+credit, in the left, his passport, and in a small leathern purse some
+double louis d'or, carefully sewn up in the bosom of his waistcoat.
+Every dream proclaimed that one or the other of these valuables was
+lost; wherefore he started up as in a fever; and the first movement
+which his hand made, described a magic triangle from the right pocket to
+the left, and then up towards the bosom, to feel if he had them all safe
+or not. From the roof inside the carriage, umbrellas, walking-sticks,
+hats, and sundry other articles were depending, and hindered the view,
+which was particularly imposing. He now endeavored as well as he
+was able to dispel his gloom, which was caused by outward chance
+circumstances merely, and on the bosom of nature imbibe the milk of
+purest human enjoyment.
+
+Grand, solemn, and dark was the whole landscape around. The gigantic
+pine-forests, on the pointed crags, seemed almost like little tufts of
+heather, colored by the surrounding clouds. It began to snow, a cold
+wind blew and roared as though it were seeking a bride.
+
+“Augh!” sighed he, “were we only on the other side the Alps, then we
+should have summer, and I could get my letters of credit cashed. The
+anxiety I feel about them prevents me enjoying Switzerland. Were I but
+on the other side!”
+
+And so saying he was on the other side in Italy, between Florence and
+Rome. Lake Thracymene, illumined by the evening sun, lay like flaming
+gold between the dark-blue mountain-ridges; here, where Hannibal
+defeated Flaminius, the rivers now held each other in their green
+embraces; lovely, half-naked children tended a herd of black swine,
+beneath a group of fragrant laurel-trees, hard by the road-side.
+Could we render this inimitable picture properly, then would everybody
+exclaim, “Beautiful, unparalleled Italy!” But neither the young Divine
+said so, nor anyone of his grumbling companions in the coach of the
+vetturino.
+
+The poisonous flies and gnats swarmed around by thousands; in vain one
+waved myrtle-branches about like mad; the audacious insect population
+did not cease to sting; nor was there a single person in the
+well-crammed carriage whose face was not swollen and sore from their
+ravenous bites. The poor horses, tortured almost to death, suffered most
+from this truly Egyptian plague; the flies alighted upon them in large
+disgusting swarms; and if the coachman got down and scraped them off,
+hardly a minute elapsed before they were there again. The sun now set: a
+freezing cold, though of short duration pervaded the whole creation;
+it was like a horrid gust coming from a burial-vault on a warm summer's
+day--but all around the mountains retained that wonderful green tone
+which we see in some old pictures, and which, should we not have seen a
+similar play of color in the South, we declare at once to be unnatural.
+It was a glorious prospect; but the stomach was empty, the body tired;
+all that the heart cared and longed for was good night-quarters; yet
+how would they be? For these one looked much more anxiously than for the
+charms of nature, which every where were so profusely displayed.
+
+The road led through an olive-grove, and here the solitary inn was
+situated. Ten or twelve crippled-beggars had encamped outside. The
+healthiest of them resembled, to use an expression of Marryat's,
+“Hunger's eldest son when he had come of age”; the others were either
+blind, had withered legs and crept about on their hands, or withered
+arms and fingerless hands. It was the most wretched misery, dragged
+from among the filthiest rags. “Excellenza, miserabili!” sighed they,
+thrusting forth their deformed limbs to view. Even the hostess, with
+bare feet, uncombed hair, and dressed in a garment of doubtful color,
+received the guests grumblingly. The doors were fastened with a loop of
+string; the floor of the rooms presented a stone paving half torn
+up; bats fluttered wildly about the ceiling; and as to the smell
+therein--no--that was beyond description.
+
+“You had better lay the cloth below in the stable,” said one of the
+travellers; “there, at all events, one knows what one is breathing.”
+
+The windows were quickly opened, to let in a little fresh air. Quicker,
+however, than the breeze, the withered, sallow arms of the beggars were
+thrust in, accompanied by the eternal whine of “Miserabili, miserabili,
+excellenza!” On the walls were displayed innumerable inscriptions,
+written in nearly every language of Europe, some in verse, some in
+prose, most of them not very laudatory of “bella Italia.”
+
+The meal was served. It consisted of a soup of salted water, seasoned
+with pepper and rancid oil. The last ingredient played a very prominent
+part in the salad; stale eggs and roasted cocks'-combs furnished the
+grand dish of the repast; the wine even was not without a disgusting
+taste--it was like a medicinal draught.
+
+At night the boxes and other effects of the passengers were placed
+against the rickety doors. One of the travellers kept watch while the
+others slept. The sentry was our young Divine. How close it was in the
+chamber! The heat oppressive to suffocation--the gnats hummed and stung
+unceasingly--the “miserabili” without whined and moaned in their sleep.
+
+“Travelling would be agreeable enough,” said he groaning, “if one only
+had no body, or could send it to rest while the spirit went on its
+pilgrimage unhindered, whither the voice within might call it. Wherever
+I go, I am pursued by a longing that is insatiable--that I cannot
+explain to myself, and that tears my very heart. I want something better
+than what is but what is fled in an instant. But what is it, and where
+is it to be found? Yet, I know in reality what it is I wish for. Oh!
+most happy were I, could I but reach one aim--could but reach the
+happiest of all!”
+
+And as he spoke the word he was again in his home; the long white
+curtains hung down from the windows, and in the middle of the floor
+stood the black coffin; in it he lay in the sleep of death. His wish
+was fulfilled--the body rested, while the spirit went unhindered on its
+pilgrimage. “Let no one deem himself happy before his end,” were the
+words of Solon; and here was a new and brilliant proof of the wisdom of
+the old apothegm.
+
+Every corpse is a sphynx of immortality; here too on the black coffin
+the sphynx gave us no answer to what he who lay within had written two
+days before:
+
+     “O mighty Death! thy silence teaches nought,
+       Thou leadest only to the near grave's brink;
+      Is broken now the ladder of my thoughts?
+     Do I instead of mounting only sink?
+
+     Our heaviest grief the world oft seeth not,
+      Our sorest pain we hide from stranger eyes:
+      And for the sufferer there is nothing left
+     But the green mound that o'er the coffin lies.”
+
+Two figures were moving in the chamber. We knew them both; it was the
+fairy of Care, and the emissary of Fortune. They both bent over the
+corpse.
+
+“Do you now see,” said Care, “what happiness your Galoshes have brought
+to mankind?”
+
+“To him, at least, who slumbers here, they have brought an imperishable
+blessing,” answered the other.
+
+“Ah no!” replied Care. “He took his departure himself; he was not called
+away. His mental powers here below were not strong enough to reach the
+treasures lying beyond this life, and which his destiny ordained he
+should obtain. I will now confer a benefit on him.”
+
+And she took the Galoshes from his feet; his sleep of death was ended;
+and he who had been thus called back again to life arose from his
+dread couch in all the vigor of youth. Care vanished, and with her the
+Galoshes. She has no doubt taken them for herself, to keep them to all
+eternity.
+
+
+
+
+THE FIR TREE
+
+Out in the woods stood a nice little Fir Tree. The place he had was a
+very good one: the sun shone on him: as to fresh air, there was enough
+of that, and round him grew many large-sized comrades, pines as well as
+firs. But the little Fir wanted so very much to be a grown-up tree.
+
+He did not think of the warm sun and of the fresh air; he did not care
+for the little cottage children that ran about and prattled when they
+were in the woods looking for wild-strawberries. The children often came
+with a whole pitcher full of berries, or a long row of them threaded on
+a straw, and sat down near the young tree and said, “Oh, how pretty he
+is! What a nice little fir!” But this was what the Tree could not bear
+to hear.
+
+At the end of a year he had shot up a good deal, and after another year
+he was another long bit taller; for with fir trees one can always tell
+by the shoots how many years old they are.
+
+“Oh! Were I but such a high tree as the others are,” sighed he. “Then I
+should be able to spread out my branches, and with the tops to look into
+the wide world! Then would the birds build nests among my branches: and
+when there was a breeze, I could bend with as much stateliness as the
+others!”
+
+Neither the sunbeams, nor the birds, nor the red clouds which morning
+and evening sailed above him, gave the little Tree any pleasure.
+
+In winter, when the snow lay glittering on the ground, a hare would
+often come leaping along, and jump right over the little Tree. Oh, that
+made him so angry! But two winters were past, and in the third the Tree
+was so large that the hare was obliged to go round it. “To grow and
+grow, to get older and be tall,” thought the Tree--“that, after all, is
+the most delightful thing in the world!”
+
+In autumn the wood-cutters always came and felled some of the largest
+trees. This happened every year; and the young Fir Tree, that had now
+grown to a very comely size, trembled at the sight; for the magnificent
+great trees fell to the earth with noise and cracking, the branches were
+lopped off, and the trees looked long and bare; they were hardly to be
+recognised; and then they were laid in carts, and the horses dragged
+them out of the wood.
+
+Where did they go to? What became of them?
+
+In spring, when the swallows and the storks came, the Tree asked them,
+“Don't you know where they have been taken? Have you not met them
+anywhere?”
+
+The swallows did not know anything about it; but the Stork looked
+musing, nodded his head, and said, “Yes; I think I know; I met many
+ships as I was flying hither from Egypt; on the ships were magnificent
+masts, and I venture to assert that it was they that smelt so of fir.
+I may congratulate you, for they lifted themselves on high most
+majestically!”
+
+“Oh, were I but old enough to fly across the sea! But how does the sea
+look in reality? What is it like?”
+
+“That would take a long time to explain,” said the Stork, and with these
+words off he went.
+
+“Rejoice in thy growth!” said the Sunbeams. “Rejoice in thy vigorous
+growth, and in the fresh life that moveth within thee!”
+
+And the Wind kissed the Tree, and the Dew wept tears over him; but the
+Fir understood it not.
+
+When Christmas came, quite young trees were cut down: trees which often
+were not even as large or of the same age as this Fir Tree, who could
+never rest, but always wanted to be off. These young trees, and they
+were always the finest looking, retained their branches; they were laid
+on carts, and the horses drew them out of the wood.
+
+“Where are they going to?” asked the Fir. “They are not taller than
+I; there was one indeed that was considerably shorter; and why do they
+retain all their branches? Whither are they taken?”
+
+“We know! We know!” chirped the Sparrows. “We have peeped in at the
+windows in the town below! We know whither they are taken! The greatest
+splendor and the greatest magnificence one can imagine await them. We
+peeped through the windows, and saw them planted in the middle of the
+warm room and ornamented with the most splendid things, with gilded
+apples, with gingerbread, with toys, and many hundred lights!”
+
+“And then?” asked the Fir Tree, trembling in every bough. “And then?
+What happens then?”
+
+“We did not see anything more: it was incomparably beautiful.”
+
+“I would fain know if I am destined for so glorious a career,” cried
+the Tree, rejoicing. “That is still better than to cross the sea! What
+a longing do I suffer! Were Christmas but come! I am now tall, and my
+branches spread like the others that were carried off last year! Oh!
+were I but already on the cart! Were I in the warm room with all the
+splendor and magnificence! Yes; then something better, something still
+grander, will surely follow, or wherefore should they thus ornament me?
+Something better, something still grander must follow--but what? Oh, how
+I long, how I suffer! I do not know myself what is the matter with me!”
+
+“Rejoice in our presence!” said the Air and the Sunlight. “Rejoice in
+thy own fresh youth!”
+
+But the Tree did not rejoice at all; he grew and grew, and was green
+both winter and summer. People that saw him said, “What a fine tree!”
+ and towards Christmas he was one of the first that was cut down. The axe
+struck deep into the very pith; the Tree fell to the earth with a sigh;
+he felt a pang--it was like a swoon; he could not think of happiness,
+for he was sorrowful at being separated from his home, from the place
+where he had sprung up. He well knew that he should never see his dear
+old comrades, the little bushes and flowers around him, anymore; perhaps
+not even the birds! The departure was not at all agreeable.
+
+The Tree only came to himself when he was unloaded in a court-yard with
+the other trees, and heard a man say, “That one is splendid! We don't
+want the others.” Then two servants came in rich livery and carried the
+Fir Tree into a large and splendid drawing-room. Portraits were hanging
+on the walls, and near the white porcelain stove stood two large Chinese
+vases with lions on the covers. There, too, were large easy-chairs,
+silken sofas, large tables full of picture-books and full of toys, worth
+hundreds and hundreds of crowns--at least the children said so. And the
+Fir Tree was stuck upright in a cask that was filled with sand; but no
+one could see that it was a cask, for green cloth was hung all round it,
+and it stood on a large gaily-colored carpet. Oh! how the Tree quivered!
+What was to happen? The servants, as well as the young ladies, decorated
+it. On one branch there hung little nets cut out of colored paper, and
+each net was filled with sugarplums; and among the other boughs gilded
+apples and walnuts were suspended, looking as though they had grown
+there, and little blue and white tapers were placed among the leaves.
+Dolls that looked for all the world like men--the Tree had never beheld
+such before--were seen among the foliage, and at the very top a
+large star of gold tinsel was fixed. It was really splendid--beyond
+description splendid.
+
+“This evening!” they all said. “How it will shine this evening!”
+
+“Oh!” thought the Tree. “If the evening were but come! If the tapers
+were but lighted! And then I wonder what will happen! Perhaps the other
+trees from the forest will come to look at me! Perhaps the sparrows will
+beat against the windowpanes! I wonder if I shall take root here, and
+winter and summer stand covered with ornaments!”
+
+He knew very much about the matter--but he was so impatient that for
+sheer longing he got a pain in his back, and this with trees is the same
+thing as a headache with us.
+
+The candles were now lighted--what brightness! What splendor! The
+Tree trembled so in every bough that one of the tapers set fire to the
+foliage. It blazed up famously.
+
+“Help! Help!” cried the young ladies, and they quickly put out the fire.
+
+Now the Tree did not even dare tremble. What a state he was in! He was
+so uneasy lest he should lose something of his splendor, that he was
+quite bewildered amidst the glare and brightness; when suddenly both
+folding-doors opened and a troop of children rushed in as if they would
+upset the Tree. The older persons followed quietly; the little ones
+stood quite still. But it was only for a moment; then they shouted that
+the whole place re-echoed with their rejoicing; they danced round the
+Tree, and one present after the other was pulled off.
+
+“What are they about?” thought the Tree. “What is to happen now!” And
+the lights burned down to the very branches, and as they burned down
+they were put out one after the other, and then the children had
+permission to plunder the Tree. So they fell upon it with such violence
+that all its branches cracked; if it had not been fixed firmly in the
+ground, it would certainly have tumbled down.
+
+The children danced about with their beautiful playthings; no one looked
+at the Tree except the old nurse, who peeped between the branches; but
+it was only to see if there was a fig or an apple left that had been
+forgotten.
+
+“A story! A story!” cried the children, drawing a little fat man towards
+the Tree. He seated himself under it and said, “Now we are in the shade,
+and the Tree can listen too. But I shall tell only one story. Now which
+will you have; that about Ivedy-Avedy, or about Humpy-Dumpy, who
+tumbled downstairs, and yet after all came to the throne and married the
+princess?”
+
+“Ivedy-Avedy,” cried some; “Humpy-Dumpy,” cried the others. There was
+such a bawling and screaming--the Fir Tree alone was silent, and he
+thought to himself, “Am I not to bawl with the rest? Am I to do nothing
+whatever?” for he was one of the company, and had done what he had to
+do.
+
+And the man told about Humpy-Dumpy that tumbled down, who
+notwithstanding came to the throne, and at last married the princess.
+And the children clapped their hands, and cried. “Oh, go on! Do go on!”
+ They wanted to hear about Ivedy-Avedy too, but the little man only told
+them about Humpy-Dumpy. The Fir Tree stood quite still and absorbed
+in thought; the birds in the wood had never related the like of this.
+“Humpy-Dumpy fell downstairs, and yet he married the princess! Yes, yes!
+That's the way of the world!” thought the Fir Tree, and believed it all,
+because the man who told the story was so good-looking. “Well, well! who
+knows, perhaps I may fall downstairs, too, and get a princess as wife!”
+ And he looked forward with joy to the morrow, when he hoped to be decked
+out again with lights, playthings, fruits, and tinsel.
+
+“I won't tremble to-morrow!” thought the Fir Tree. “I will enjoy to
+the full all my splendor! To-morrow I shall hear again the story of
+Humpy-Dumpy, and perhaps that of Ivedy-Avedy too.” And the whole night
+the Tree stood still and in deep thought.
+
+In the morning the servant and the housemaid came in.
+
+“Now then the splendor will begin again,” thought the Fir. But they
+dragged him out of the room, and up the stairs into the loft: and here,
+in a dark corner, where no daylight could enter, they left him. “What's
+the meaning of this?” thought the Tree. “What am I to do here? What
+shall I hear now, I wonder?” And he leaned against the wall lost in
+reverie. Time enough had he too for his reflections; for days and nights
+passed on, and nobody came up; and when at last somebody did come, it
+was only to put some great trunks in a corner, out of the way. There
+stood the Tree quite hidden; it seemed as if he had been entirely
+forgotten.
+
+“'Tis now winter out-of-doors!” thought the Tree. “The earth is hard and
+covered with snow; men cannot plant me now, and therefore I have been
+put up here under shelter till the spring-time comes! How thoughtful
+that is! How kind man is, after all! If it only were not so dark here,
+and so terribly lonely! Not even a hare! And out in the woods it was
+so pleasant, when the snow was on the ground, and the hare leaped by;
+yes--even when he jumped over me; but I did not like it then! It is
+really terribly lonely here!”
+
+“Squeak! Squeak!” said a little Mouse, at the same moment, peeping out
+of his hole. And then another little one came. They snuffed about the
+Fir Tree, and rustled among the branches.
+
+“It is dreadfully cold,” said the Mouse. “But for that, it would be
+delightful here, old Fir, wouldn't it?”
+
+“I am by no means old,” said the Fir Tree. “There's many a one
+considerably older than I am.”
+
+“Where do you come from,” asked the Mice; “and what can you do?” They
+were so extremely curious. “Tell us about the most beautiful spot on the
+earth. Have you never been there? Were you never in the larder, where
+cheeses lie on the shelves, and hams hang from above; where one dances
+about on tallow candles: that place where one enters lean, and comes out
+again fat and portly?”
+
+“I know no such place,” said the Tree. “But I know the wood, where the
+sun shines and where the little birds sing.” And then he told all about
+his youth; and the little Mice had never heard the like before; and they
+listened and said,
+
+“Well, to be sure! How much you have seen! How happy you must have
+been!”
+
+“I!” said the Fir Tree, thinking over what he had himself related.
+“Yes, in reality those were happy times.” And then he told about
+Christmas-eve, when he was decked out with cakes and candles.
+
+“Oh,” said the little Mice, “how fortunate you have been, old Fir Tree!”
+
+“I am by no means old,” said he. “I came from the wood this winter; I am
+in my prime, and am only rather short for my age.”
+
+“What delightful stories you know,” said the Mice: and the next night
+they came with four other little Mice, who were to hear what the Tree
+recounted: and the more he related, the more he remembered himself; and
+it appeared as if those times had really been happy times. “But they may
+still come--they may still come! Humpy-Dumpy fell downstairs, and yet
+he got a princess!” and he thought at the moment of a nice little Birch
+Tree growing out in the woods: to the Fir, that would be a real charming
+princess.
+
+“Who is Humpy-Dumpy?” asked the Mice. So then the Fir Tree told the
+whole fairy tale, for he could remember every single word of it; and the
+little Mice jumped for joy up to the very top of the Tree. Next night
+two more Mice came, and on Sunday two Rats even; but they said the
+stories were not interesting, which vexed the little Mice; and they,
+too, now began to think them not so very amusing either.
+
+“Do you know only one story?” asked the Rats.
+
+“Only that one,” answered the Tree. “I heard it on my happiest evening;
+but I did not then know how happy I was.”
+
+“It is a very stupid story! Don't you know one about bacon and tallow
+candles? Can't you tell any larder stories?”
+
+“No,” said the Tree.
+
+“Then good-bye,” said the Rats; and they went home.
+
+At last the little Mice stayed away also; and the Tree sighed: “After
+all, it was very pleasant when the sleek little Mice sat round me, and
+listened to what I told them. Now that too is over. But I will take good
+care to enjoy myself when I am brought out again.”
+
+But when was that to be? Why, one morning there came a quantity of
+people and set to work in the loft. The trunks were moved, the tree was
+pulled out and thrown--rather hard, it is true--down on the floor, but a
+man drew him towards the stairs, where the daylight shone.
+
+“Now a merry life will begin again,” thought the Tree. He felt the fresh
+air, the first sunbeam--and now he was out in the courtyard. All passed
+so quickly, there was so much going on around him, the Tree quite forgot
+to look to himself. The court adjoined a garden, and all was in flower;
+the roses hung so fresh and odorous over the balustrade, the lindens
+were in blossom, the Swallows flew by, and said, “Quirre-vit! My husband
+is come!” but it was not the Fir Tree that they meant.
+
+“Now, then, I shall really enjoy life,” said he exultingly, and spread
+out his branches; but, alas, they were all withered and yellow! It was
+in a corner that he lay, among weeds and nettles. The golden star of
+tinsel was still on the top of the Tree, and glittered in the sunshine.
+
+In the court-yard some of the merry children were playing who had danced
+at Christmas round the Fir Tree, and were so glad at the sight of him.
+One of the youngest ran and tore off the golden star.
+
+“Only look what is still on the ugly old Christmas tree!” said he,
+trampling on the branches, so that they all cracked beneath his feet.
+
+And the Tree beheld all the beauty of the flowers, and the freshness in
+the garden; he beheld himself, and wished he had remained in his dark
+corner in the loft; he thought of his first youth in the wood, of the
+merry Christmas-eve, and of the little Mice who had listened with so
+much pleasure to the story of Humpy-Dumpy.
+
+“'Tis over--'tis past!” said the poor Tree. “Had I but rejoiced when I
+had reason to do so! But now 'tis past, 'tis past!”
+
+And the gardener's boy chopped the Tree into small pieces; there was a
+whole heap lying there. The wood flamed up splendidly under the large
+brewing copper, and it sighed so deeply! Each sigh was like a shot.
+
+The boys played about in the court, and the youngest wore the gold star
+on his breast which the Tree had had on the happiest evening of his
+life. However, that was over now--the Tree gone, the story at an end.
+All, all was over--every tale must end at last.
+
+
+
+
+THE SNOW QUEEN
+
+FIRST STORY. Which Treats of a Mirror and of the Splinters
+
+Now then, let us begin. When we are at the end of the story, we shall
+know more than we know now: but to begin.
+
+Once upon a time there was a wicked sprite, indeed he was the most
+mischievous of all sprites. One day he was in a very good humor, for
+he had made a mirror with the power of causing all that was good and
+beautiful when it was reflected therein, to look poor and mean; but
+that which was good-for-nothing and looked ugly was shown magnified
+and increased in ugliness. In this mirror the most beautiful landscapes
+looked like boiled spinach, and the best persons were turned into
+frights, or appeared to stand on their heads; their faces were so
+distorted that they were not to be recognised; and if anyone had a mole,
+you might be sure that it would be magnified and spread over both nose
+and mouth.
+
+“That's glorious fun!” said the sprite. If a good thought passed through
+a man's mind, then a grin was seen in the mirror, and the sprite laughed
+heartily at his clever discovery. All the little sprites who went to his
+school--for he kept a sprite school--told each other that a miracle had
+happened; and that now only, as they thought, it would be possible to
+see how the world really looked. They ran about with the mirror; and at
+last there was not a land or a person who was not represented distorted
+in the mirror. So then they thought they would fly up to the sky,
+and have a joke there. The higher they flew with the mirror, the more
+terribly it grinned: they could hardly hold it fast. Higher and higher
+still they flew, nearer and nearer to the stars, when suddenly the
+mirror shook so terribly with grinning, that it flew out of their hands
+and fell to the earth, where it was dashed in a hundred million and more
+pieces. And now it worked much more evil than before; for some of these
+pieces were hardly so large as a grain of sand, and they flew about in
+the wide world, and when they got into people's eyes, there they stayed;
+and then people saw everything perverted, or only had an eye for that
+which was evil. This happened because the very smallest bit had the
+same power which the whole mirror had possessed. Some persons even got
+a splinter in their heart, and then it made one shudder, for their heart
+became like a lump of ice. Some of the broken pieces were so large that
+they were used for windowpanes, through which one could not see one's
+friends. Other pieces were put in spectacles; and that was a sad affair
+when people put on their glasses to see well and rightly. Then the
+wicked sprite laughed till he almost choked, for all this tickled his
+fancy. The fine splinters still flew about in the air: and now we shall
+hear what happened next.
+
+
+SECOND STORY. A Little Boy and a Little Girl
+
+In a large town, where there are so many houses, and so many people,
+that there is no roof left for everybody to have a little garden; and
+where, on this account, most persons are obliged to content themselves
+with flowers in pots; there lived two little children, who had a garden
+somewhat larger than a flower-pot. They were not brother and sister; but
+they cared for each other as much as if they were. Their parents lived
+exactly opposite. They inhabited two garrets; and where the roof of the
+one house joined that of the other, and the gutter ran along the extreme
+end of it, there was to each house a small window: one needed only to
+step over the gutter to get from one window to the other.
+
+The children's parents had large wooden boxes there, in which vegetables
+for the kitchen were planted, and little rosetrees besides: there was a
+rose in each box, and they grew splendidly. They now thought of placing
+the boxes across the gutter, so that they nearly reached from one window
+to the other, and looked just like two walls of flowers. The tendrils
+of the peas hung down over the boxes; and the rose-trees shot up long
+branches, twined round the windows, and then bent towards each other: it
+was almost like a triumphant arch of foliage and flowers. The boxes were
+very high, and the children knew that they must not creep over them; so
+they often obtained permission to get out of the windows to each other,
+and to sit on their little stools among the roses, where they could play
+delightfully. In winter there was an end of this pleasure. The windows
+were often frozen over; but then they heated copper farthings on the
+stove, and laid the hot farthing on the windowpane, and then they had a
+capital peep-hole, quite nicely rounded; and out of each peeped a gentle
+friendly eye--it was the little boy and the little girl who were looking
+out. His name was Kay, hers was Gerda. In summer, with one jump, they
+could get to each other; but in winter they were obliged first to
+go down the long stairs, and then up the long stairs again: and
+out-of-doors there was quite a snow-storm.
+
+“It is the white bees that are swarming,” said Kay's old grandmother.
+
+“Do the white bees choose a queen?” asked the little boy; for he knew
+that the honey-bees always have one.
+
+“Yes,” said the grandmother, “she flies where the swarm hangs in the
+thickest clusters. She is the largest of all; and she can never remain
+quietly on the earth, but goes up again into the black clouds. Many a
+winter's night she flies through the streets of the town, and peeps in
+at the windows; and they then freeze in so wondrous a manner that they
+look like flowers.”
+
+“Yes, I have seen it,” said both the children; and so they knew that it
+was true.
+
+“Can the Snow Queen come in?” said the little girl.
+
+“Only let her come in!” said the little boy. “Then I'd put her on the
+stove, and she'd melt.”
+
+And then his grandmother patted his head and told him other stories.
+
+In the evening, when little Kay was at home, and half undressed, he
+climbed up on the chair by the window, and peeped out of the little
+hole. A few snow-flakes were falling, and one, the largest of all,
+remained lying on the edge of a flower-pot.
+
+The flake of snow grew larger and larger; and at last it was like a
+young lady, dressed in the finest white gauze, made of a million little
+flakes like stars. She was so beautiful and delicate, but she was of
+ice, of dazzling, sparkling ice; yet she lived; her eyes gazed fixedly,
+like two stars; but there was neither quiet nor repose in them. She
+nodded towards the window, and beckoned with her hand. The little boy
+was frightened, and jumped down from the chair; it seemed to him as if,
+at the same moment, a large bird flew past the window.
+
+The next day it was a sharp frost--and then the spring came; the sun
+shone, the green leaves appeared, the swallows built their nests, the
+windows were opened, and the little children again sat in their pretty
+garden, high up on the leads at the top of the house.
+
+That summer the roses flowered in unwonted beauty. The little girl had
+learned a hymn, in which there was something about roses; and then she
+thought of her own flowers; and she sang the verse to the little boy,
+who then sang it with her:
+
+     “The rose in the valley is blooming so sweet,
+     And angels descend there the children to greet.”
+
+And the children held each other by the hand, kissed the roses, looked
+up at the clear sunshine, and spoke as though they really saw angels
+there. What lovely summer-days those were! How delightful to be out in
+the air, near the fresh rose-bushes, that seem as if they would never
+finish blossoming!
+
+Kay and Gerda looked at the picture-book full of beasts and of birds;
+and it was then--the clock in the church-tower was just striking
+five--that Kay said, “Oh! I feel such a sharp pain in my heart; and now
+something has got into my eye!”
+
+The little girl put her arms around his neck. He winked his eyes; now
+there was nothing to be seen.
+
+“I think it is out now,” said he; but it was not. It was just one of
+those pieces of glass from the magic mirror that had got into his eye;
+and poor Kay had got another piece right in his heart. It will soon
+become like ice. It did not hurt any longer, but there it was.
+
+“What are you crying for?” asked he. “You look so ugly! There's nothing
+the matter with me. Ah,” said he at once, “that rose is cankered! And
+look, this one is quite crooked! After all, these roses are very ugly!
+They are just like the box they are planted in!” And then he gave the
+box a good kick with his foot, and pulled both the roses up.
+
+“What are you doing?” cried the little girl; and as he perceived her
+fright, he pulled up another rose, got in at the window, and hastened
+off from dear little Gerda.
+
+Afterwards, when she brought her picture-book, he asked, “What horrid
+beasts have you there?” And if his grandmother told them stories, he
+always interrupted her; besides, if he could manage it, he would get
+behind her, put on her spectacles, and imitate her way of speaking; he
+copied all her ways, and then everybody laughed at him. He was soon able
+to imitate the gait and manner of everyone in the street. Everything
+that was peculiar and displeasing in them--that Kay knew how to imitate:
+and at such times all the people said, “The boy is certainly very
+clever!” But it was the glass he had got in his eye; the glass that was
+sticking in his heart, which made him tease even little Gerda, whose
+whole soul was devoted to him.
+
+His games now were quite different to what they had formerly been, they
+were so very knowing. One winter's day, when the flakes of snow were
+flying about, he spread the skirts of his blue coat, and caught the snow
+as it fell.
+
+“Look through this glass, Gerda,” said he. And every flake seemed
+larger, and appeared like a magnificent flower, or beautiful star; it
+was splendid to look at!
+
+“Look, how clever!” said Kay. “That's much more interesting than real
+flowers! They are as exact as possible; there is not a fault in them, if
+they did not melt!”
+
+It was not long after this, that Kay came one day with large gloves on,
+and his little sledge at his back, and bawled right into Gerda's ears,
+“I have permission to go out into the square where the others are
+playing”; and off he was in a moment.
+
+There, in the market-place, some of the boldest of the boys used to tie
+their sledges to the carts as they passed by, and so they were pulled
+along, and got a good ride. It was so capital! Just as they were in the
+very height of their amusement, a large sledge passed by: it was painted
+quite white, and there was someone in it wrapped up in a rough white
+mantle of fur, with a rough white fur cap on his head. The sledge drove
+round the square twice, and Kay tied on his sledge as quickly as he
+could, and off he drove with it. On they went quicker and quicker into
+the next street; and the person who drove turned round to Kay, and
+nodded to him in a friendly manner, just as if they knew each other.
+Every time he was going to untie his sledge, the person nodded to him,
+and then Kay sat quiet; and so on they went till they came outside
+the gates of the town. Then the snow began to fall so thickly that the
+little boy could not see an arm's length before him, but still on he
+went: when suddenly he let go the string he held in his hand in order
+to get loose from the sledge, but it was of no use; still the little
+vehicle rushed on with the quickness of the wind. He then cried as loud
+as he could, but no one heard him; the snow drifted and the sledge flew
+on, and sometimes it gave a jerk as though they were driving over hedges
+and ditches. He was quite frightened, and he tried to repeat the
+Lord's Prayer; but all he could do, he was only able to remember the
+multiplication table.
+
+The snow-flakes grew larger and larger, till at last they looked just
+like great white fowls. Suddenly they flew on one side; the large sledge
+stopped, and the person who drove rose up. It was a lady; her cloak and
+cap were of snow. She was tall and of slender figure, and of a dazzling
+whiteness. It was the Snow Queen.
+
+“We have travelled fast,” said she; “but it is freezingly cold. Come
+under my bearskin.” And she put him in the sledge beside her,
+wrapped the fur round him, and he felt as though he were sinking in a
+snow-wreath.
+
+“Are you still cold?” asked she; and then she kissed his forehead.
+Ah! it was colder than ice; it penetrated to his very heart, which was
+already almost a frozen lump; it seemed to him as if he were about to
+die--but a moment more and it was quite congenial to him, and he did not
+remark the cold that was around him.
+
+“My sledge! Do not forget my sledge!” It was the first thing he thought
+of. It was there tied to one of the white chickens, who flew along with
+it on his back behind the large sledge. The Snow Queen kissed Kay once
+more, and then he forgot little Gerda, grandmother, and all whom he had
+left at his home.
+
+“Now you will have no more kisses,” said she, “or else I should kiss you
+to death!”
+
+Kay looked at her. She was very beautiful; a more clever, or a more
+lovely countenance he could not fancy to himself; and she no longer
+appeared of ice as before, when she sat outside the window, and beckoned
+to him; in his eyes she was perfect, he did not fear her at all, and
+told her that he could calculate in his head and with fractions, even;
+that he knew the number of square miles there were in the different
+countries, and how many inhabitants they contained; and she smiled while
+he spoke. It then seemed to him as if what he knew was not enough, and
+he looked upwards in the large huge empty space above him, and on she
+flew with him; flew high over the black clouds, while the storm moaned
+and whistled as though it were singing some old tune. On they flew
+over woods and lakes, over seas, and many lands; and beneath them the
+chilling storm rushed fast, the wolves howled, the snow crackled; above
+them flew large screaming crows, but higher up appeared the moon, quite
+large and bright; and it was on it that Kay gazed during the long long
+winter's night; while by day he slept at the feet of the Snow Queen.
+
+
+THIRD STORY. Of the Flower-Garden At the Old Woman's Who Understood
+Witchcraft
+
+But what became of little Gerda when Kay did not return? Where could he
+be? Nobody knew; nobody could give any intelligence. All the boys knew
+was, that they had seen him tie his sledge to another large and splendid
+one, which drove down the street and out of the town. Nobody knew
+where he was; many sad tears were shed, and little Gerda wept long and
+bitterly; at last she said he must be dead; that he had been drowned in
+the river which flowed close to the town. Oh! those were very long and
+dismal winter evenings!
+
+At last spring came, with its warm sunshine.
+
+“Kay is dead and gone!” said little Gerda.
+
+“That I don't believe,” said the Sunshine.
+
+“Kay is dead and gone!” said she to the Swallows.
+
+“That I don't believe,” said they: and at last little Gerda did not
+think so any longer either.
+
+“I'll put on my red shoes,” said she, one morning; “Kay has never seen
+them, and then I'll go down to the river and ask there.”
+
+It was quite early; she kissed her old grandmother, who was still
+asleep, put on her red shoes, and went alone to the river.
+
+“Is it true that you have taken my little playfellow? I will make you a
+present of my red shoes, if you will give him back to me.”
+
+And, as it seemed to her, the blue waves nodded in a strange manner;
+then she took off her red shoes, the most precious things she possessed,
+and threw them both into the river. But they fell close to the bank, and
+the little waves bore them immediately to land; it was as if the stream
+would not take what was dearest to her; for in reality it had not got
+little Kay; but Gerda thought that she had not thrown the shoes out far
+enough, so she clambered into a boat which lay among the rushes, went
+to the farthest end, and threw out the shoes. But the boat was not
+fastened, and the motion which she occasioned, made it drift from the
+shore. She observed this, and hastened to get back; but before she could
+do so, the boat was more than a yard from the land, and was gliding
+quickly onward.
+
+Little Gerda was very frightened, and began to cry; but no one heard her
+except the sparrows, and they could not carry her to land; but they flew
+along the bank, and sang as if to comfort her, “Here we are! Here we
+are!” The boat drifted with the stream, little Gerda sat quite still
+without shoes, for they were swimming behind the boat, but she could not
+reach them, because the boat went much faster than they did.
+
+The banks on both sides were beautiful; lovely flowers, venerable trees,
+and slopes with sheep and cows, but not a human being was to be seen.
+
+“Perhaps the river will carry me to little Kay,” said she; and then
+she grew less sad. She rose, and looked for many hours at the beautiful
+green banks. Presently she sailed by a large cherry-orchard, where was
+a little cottage with curious red and blue windows; it was thatched,
+and before it two wooden soldiers stood sentry, and presented arms when
+anyone went past.
+
+Gerda called to them, for she thought they were alive; but they, of
+course, did not answer. She came close to them, for the stream drifted
+the boat quite near the land.
+
+Gerda called still louder, and an old woman then came out of the
+cottage, leaning upon a crooked stick. She had a large broad-brimmed hat
+on, painted with the most splendid flowers.
+
+“Poor little child!” said the old woman. “How did you get upon the large
+rapid river, to be driven about so in the wide world!” And then the
+old woman went into the water, caught hold of the boat with her crooked
+stick, drew it to the bank, and lifted little Gerda out.
+
+And Gerda was so glad to be on dry land again; but she was rather afraid
+of the strange old woman.
+
+“But come and tell me who you are, and how you came here,” said she.
+
+And Gerda told her all; and the old woman shook her head and said,
+“A-hem! a-hem!” and when Gerda had told her everything, and asked her if
+she had not seen little Kay, the woman answered that he had not passed
+there, but he no doubt would come; and she told her not to be cast down,
+but taste her cherries, and look at her flowers, which were finer than
+any in a picture-book, each of which could tell a whole story. She then
+took Gerda by the hand, led her into the little cottage, and locked the
+door.
+
+The windows were very high up; the glass was red, blue, and green, and
+the sunlight shone through quite wondrously in all sorts of colors. On
+the table stood the most exquisite cherries, and Gerda ate as many as
+she chose, for she had permission to do so. While she was eating, the
+old woman combed her hair with a golden comb, and her hair curled and
+shone with a lovely golden color around that sweet little face, which
+was so round and so like a rose.
+
+“I have often longed for such a dear little girl,” said the old woman.
+“Now you shall see how well we agree together”; and while she combed
+little Gerda's hair, the child forgot her foster-brother Kay more and
+more, for the old woman understood magic; but she was no evil being, she
+only practised witchcraft a little for her own private amusement, and
+now she wanted very much to keep little Gerda. She therefore went out
+in the garden, stretched out her crooked stick towards the rose-bushes,
+which, beautifully as they were blowing, all sank into the earth and no
+one could tell where they had stood. The old woman feared that if Gerda
+should see the roses, she would then think of her own, would remember
+little Kay, and run away from her.
+
+She now led Gerda into the flower-garden. Oh, what odour and what
+loveliness was there! Every flower that one could think of, and of every
+season, stood there in fullest bloom; no picture-book could be gayer or
+more beautiful. Gerda jumped for joy, and played till the sun set behind
+the tall cherry-tree; she then had a pretty bed, with a red silken
+coverlet filled with blue violets. She fell asleep, and had as pleasant
+dreams as ever a queen on her wedding-day.
+
+The next morning she went to play with the flowers in the warm sunshine,
+and thus passed away a day. Gerda knew every flower; and, numerous as
+they were, it still seemed to Gerda that one was wanting, though she
+did not know which. One day while she was looking at the hat of the old
+woman painted with flowers, the most beautiful of them all seemed to her
+to be a rose. The old woman had forgotten to take it from her hat
+when she made the others vanish in the earth. But so it is when one's
+thoughts are not collected. “What!” said Gerda. “Are there no roses
+here?” and she ran about amongst the flowerbeds, and looked, and looked,
+but there was not one to be found. She then sat down and wept; but her
+hot tears fell just where a rose-bush had sunk; and when her warm tears
+watered the ground, the tree shot up suddenly as fresh and blooming as
+when it had been swallowed up. Gerda kissed the roses, thought of her
+own dear roses at home, and with them of little Kay.
+
+“Oh, how long I have stayed!” said the little girl. “I intended to look
+for Kay! Don't you know where he is?” she asked of the roses. “Do you
+think he is dead and gone?”
+
+“Dead he certainly is not,” said the Roses. “We have been in the earth
+where all the dead are, but Kay was not there.”
+
+“Many thanks!” said little Gerda; and she went to the other flowers,
+looked into their cups, and asked, “Don't you know where little Kay is?”
+
+But every flower stood in the sunshine, and dreamed its own fairy tale
+or its own story: and they all told her very many things, but not one
+knew anything of Kay.
+
+Well, what did the Tiger-Lily say?
+
+“Hearest thou not the drum? Bum! Bum! Those are the only two tones.
+Always bum! Bum! Hark to the plaintive song of the old woman, to the
+call of the priests! The Hindoo woman in her long robe stands upon the
+funeral pile; the flames rise around her and her dead husband, but the
+Hindoo woman thinks on the living one in the surrounding circle; on him
+whose eyes burn hotter than the flames--on him, the fire of whose eyes
+pierces her heart more than the flames which soon will burn her body to
+ashes. Can the heart's flame die in the flame of the funeral pile?”
+
+“I don't understand that at all,” said little Gerda.
+
+“That is my story,” said the Lily.
+
+What did the Convolvulus say?
+
+“Projecting over a narrow mountain-path there hangs an old feudal
+castle. Thick evergreens grow on the dilapidated walls, and around the
+altar, where a lovely maiden is standing: she bends over the railing and
+looks out upon the rose. No fresher rose hangs on the branches than she;
+no appleblossom carried away by the wind is more buoyant! How her silken
+robe is rustling!
+
+“'Is he not yet come?'”
+
+“Is it Kay that you mean?” asked little Gerda.
+
+“I am speaking about my story--about my dream,” answered the
+Convolvulus.
+
+What did the Snowdrops say?
+
+“Between the trees a long board is hanging--it is a swing. Two little
+girls are sitting in it, and swing themselves backwards and forwards;
+their frocks are as white as snow, and long green silk ribands flutter
+from their bonnets. Their brother, who is older than they are, stands up
+in the swing; he twines his arms round the cords to hold himself fast,
+for in one hand he has a little cup, and in the other a clay-pipe. He is
+blowing soap-bubbles. The swing moves, and the bubbles float in charming
+changing colors: the last is still hanging to the end of the pipe, and
+rocks in the breeze. The swing moves. The little black dog, as light as
+a soap-bubble, jumps up on his hind legs to try to get into the swing.
+It moves, the dog falls down, barks, and is angry. They tease him; the
+bubble bursts! A swing, a bursting bubble--such is my song!”
+
+“What you relate may be very pretty, but you tell it in so melancholy a
+manner, and do not mention Kay.”
+
+What do the Hyacinths say?
+
+“There were once upon a time three sisters, quite transparent, and very
+beautiful. The robe of the one was red, that of the second blue, and
+that of the third white. They danced hand in hand beside the calm
+lake in the clear moonshine. They were not elfin maidens, but mortal
+children. A sweet fragrance was smelt, and the maidens vanished in the
+wood; the fragrance grew stronger--three coffins, and in them three
+lovely maidens, glided out of the forest and across the lake: the
+shining glow-worms flew around like little floating lights. Do the
+dancing maidens sleep, or are they dead? The odour of the flowers says
+they are corpses; the evening bell tolls for the dead!”
+
+“You make me quite sad,” said little Gerda. “I cannot help thinking of
+the dead maidens. Oh! is little Kay really dead? The Roses have been in
+the earth, and they say no.”
+
+“Ding, dong!” sounded the Hyacinth bells. “We do not toll for little
+Kay; we do not know him. That is our way of singing, the only one we
+have.”
+
+And Gerda went to the Ranunculuses, that looked forth from among the
+shining green leaves.
+
+“You are a little bright sun!” said Gerda. “Tell me if you know where I
+can find my playfellow.”
+
+And the Ranunculus shone brightly, and looked again at Gerda. What
+song could the Ranunculus sing? It was one that said nothing about Kay
+either.
+
+“In a small court the bright sun was shining in the first days of
+spring. The beams glided down the white walls of a neighbor's house, and
+close by the fresh yellow flowers were growing, shining like gold in
+the warm sun-rays. An old grandmother was sitting in the air; her
+grand-daughter, the poor and lovely servant just come for a short visit.
+She knows her grandmother. There was gold, pure virgin gold in that
+blessed kiss. There, that is my little story,” said the Ranunculus.
+
+“My poor old grandmother!” sighed Gerda. “Yes, she is longing for me,
+no doubt: she is sorrowing for me, as she did for little Kay. But I
+will soon come home, and then I will bring Kay with me. It is of no use
+asking the flowers; they only know their own old rhymes, and can tell me
+nothing.” And she tucked up her frock, to enable her to run quicker; but
+the Narcissus gave her a knock on the leg, just as she was going to
+jump over it. So she stood still, looked at the long yellow flower, and
+asked, “You perhaps know something?” and she bent down to the Narcissus.
+And what did it say?
+
+“I can see myself--I can see myself! Oh, how odorous I am! Up in the
+little garret there stands, half-dressed, a little Dancer. She stands
+now on one leg, now on both; she despises the whole world; yet she lives
+only in imagination. She pours water out of the teapot over a piece of
+stuff which she holds in her hand; it is the bodice; cleanliness is a
+fine thing. The white dress is hanging on the hook; it was washed in the
+teapot, and dried on the roof. She puts it on, ties a saffron-colored
+kerchief round her neck, and then the gown looks whiter. I can see
+myself--I can see myself!”
+
+“That's nothing to me,” said little Gerda. “That does not concern me.”
+ And then off she ran to the further end of the garden.
+
+The gate was locked, but she shook the rusted bolt till it was loosened,
+and the gate opened; and little Gerda ran off barefooted into the wide
+world. She looked round her thrice, but no one followed her. At last she
+could run no longer; she sat down on a large stone, and when she looked
+about her, she saw that the summer had passed; it was late in the
+autumn, but that one could not remark in the beautiful garden, where
+there was always sunshine, and where there were flowers the whole year
+round.
+
+“Dear me, how long I have staid!” said Gerda. “Autumn is come. I must
+not rest any longer.” And she got up to go further.
+
+Oh, how tender and wearied her little feet were! All around it looked
+so cold and raw: the long willow-leaves were quite yellow, and the fog
+dripped from them like water; one leaf fell after the other: the sloes
+only stood full of fruit, which set one's teeth on edge. Oh, how dark
+and comfortless it was in the dreary world!
+
+
+FOURTH STORY. The Prince and Princess
+
+Gerda was obliged to rest herself again, when, exactly opposite to her,
+a large Raven came hopping over the white snow. He had long been looking
+at Gerda and shaking his head; and now he said, “Caw! Caw!” Good day!
+Good day! He could not say it better; but he felt a sympathy for the
+little girl, and asked her where she was going all alone. The word
+“alone” Gerda understood quite well, and felt how much was expressed
+by it; so she told the Raven her whole history, and asked if he had not
+seen Kay.
+
+The Raven nodded very gravely, and said, “It may be--it may be!”
+
+“What, do you really think so?” cried the little girl; and she nearly
+squeezed the Raven to death, so much did she kiss him.
+
+“Gently, gently,” said the Raven. “I think I know; I think that it may
+be little Kay. But now he has forgotten you for the Princess.”
+
+“Does he live with a Princess?” asked Gerda.
+
+“Yes--listen,” said the Raven; “but it will be difficult for me to
+speak your language. If you understand the Raven language I can tell you
+better.”
+
+“No, I have not learnt it,” said Gerda; “but my grandmother understands
+it, and she can speak gibberish too. I wish I had learnt it.”
+
+“No matter,” said the Raven; “I will tell you as well as I can; however,
+it will be bad enough.” And then he told all he knew.
+
+“In the kingdom where we now are there lives a Princess, who is
+extraordinarily clever; for she has read all the newspapers in the whole
+world, and has forgotten them again--so clever is she. She was lately,
+it is said, sitting on her throne--which is not very amusing after
+all--when she began humming an old tune, and it was just, 'Oh, why
+should I not be married?' 'That song is not without its meaning,' said
+she, and so then she was determined to marry; but she would have a
+husband who knew how to give an answer when he was spoken to--not
+one who looked only as if he were a great personage, for that is so
+tiresome. She then had all the ladies of the court drummed together; and
+when they heard her intention, all were very pleased, and said, 'We are
+very glad to hear it; it is the very thing we were thinking of.' You may
+believe every word I say,” said the Raven; “for I have a tame sweetheart
+that hops about in the palace quite free, and it was she who told me all
+this.
+
+“The newspapers appeared forthwith with a border of hearts and the
+initials of the Princess; and therein you might read that every
+good-looking young man was at liberty to come to the palace and speak to
+the Princess; and he who spoke in such wise as showed he felt himself at
+home there, that one the Princess would choose for her husband.
+
+“Yes, Yes,” said the Raven, “you may believe it; it is as true as I am
+sitting here. People came in crowds; there was a crush and a hurry, but
+no one was successful either on the first or second day. They could all
+talk well enough when they were out in the street; but as soon as
+they came inside the palace gates, and saw the guard richly dressed
+in silver, and the lackeys in gold on the staircase, and the large
+illuminated saloons, then they were abashed; and when they stood before
+the throne on which the Princess was sitting, all they could do was
+to repeat the last word they had uttered, and to hear it again did not
+interest her very much. It was just as if the people within were under
+a charm, and had fallen into a trance till they came out again into the
+street; for then--oh, then--they could chatter enough. There was a whole
+row of them standing from the town-gates to the palace. I was there
+myself to look,” said the Raven. “They grew hungry and thirsty; but from
+the palace they got nothing whatever, not even a glass of water. Some
+of the cleverest, it is true, had taken bread and butter with them:
+but none shared it with his neighbor, for each thought, 'Let him look
+hungry, and then the Princess won't have him.'”
+
+“But Kay--little Kay,” said Gerda, “when did he come? Was he among the
+number?”
+
+“Patience, patience; we are just come to him. It was on the third day
+when a little personage without horse or equipage, came marching right
+boldly up to the palace; his eyes shone like yours, he had beautiful
+long hair, but his clothes were very shabby.”
+
+“That was Kay,” cried Gerda, with a voice of delight. “Oh, now I've
+found him!” and she clapped her hands for joy.
+
+“He had a little knapsack at his back,” said the Raven.
+
+“No, that was certainly his sledge,” said Gerda; “for when he went away
+he took his sledge with him.”
+
+“That may be,” said the Raven; “I did not examine him so minutely; but
+I know from my tame sweetheart, that when he came into the court-yard
+of the palace, and saw the body-guard in silver, the lackeys on the
+staircase, he was not the least abashed; he nodded, and said to them,
+'It must be very tiresome to stand on the stairs; for my part, I shall
+go in.' The saloons were gleaming with lustres--privy councillors and
+excellencies were walking about barefooted, and wore gold keys; it was
+enough to make any one feel uncomfortable. His boots creaked, too, so
+loudly, but still he was not at all afraid.”
+
+“That's Kay for certain,” said Gerda. “I know he had on new boots; I
+have heard them creaking in grandmama's room.”
+
+“Yes, they creaked,” said the Raven. “And on he went boldly up to the
+Princess, who was sitting on a pearl as large as a spinning-wheel.
+All the ladies of the court, with their attendants and attendants'
+attendants, and all the cavaliers, with their gentlemen and gentlemen's
+gentlemen, stood round; and the nearer they stood to the door, the
+prouder they looked. It was hardly possible to look at the gentleman's
+gentleman, so very haughtily did he stand in the doorway.”
+
+“It must have been terrible,” said little Gerda. “And did Kay get the
+Princess?”
+
+“Were I not a Raven, I should have taken the Princess myself, although
+I am promised. It is said he spoke as well as I speak when I talk Raven
+language; this I learned from my tame sweetheart. He was bold and nicely
+behaved; he had not come to woo the Princess, but only to hear her
+wisdom. She pleased him, and he pleased her.”
+
+“Yes, yes; for certain that was Kay,” said Gerda. “He was so clever;
+he could reckon fractions in his head. Oh, won't you take me to the
+palace?”
+
+“That is very easily said,” answered the Raven. “But how are we to
+manage it? I'll speak to my tame sweetheart about it: she must advise
+us; for so much I must tell you, such a little girl as you are will
+never get permission to enter.”
+
+“Oh, yes I shall,” said Gerda; “when Kay hears that I am here, he will
+come out directly to fetch me.”
+
+“Wait for me here on these steps,” said the Raven. He moved his head
+backwards and forwards and flew away.
+
+The evening was closing in when the Raven returned. “Caw--caw!” said he.
+“She sends you her compliments; and here is a roll for you. She took
+it out of the kitchen, where there is bread enough. You are hungry,
+no doubt. It is not possible for you to enter the palace, for you are
+barefooted: the guards in silver, and the lackeys in gold, would not
+allow it; but do not cry, you shall come in still. My sweetheart knows a
+little back stair that leads to the bedchamber, and she knows where she
+can get the key of it.”
+
+And they went into the garden in the large avenue, where one leaf was
+falling after the other; and when the lights in the palace had all
+gradually disappeared, the Raven led little Gerda to the back door,
+which stood half open.
+
+Oh, how Gerda's heart beat with anxiety and longing! It was just as if
+she had been about to do something wrong; and yet she only wanted to
+know if little Kay was there. Yes, he must be there. She called to mind
+his intelligent eyes, and his long hair, so vividly, she could quite see
+him as he used to laugh when they were sitting under the roses at home.
+“He will, no doubt, be glad to see you--to hear what a long way you have
+come for his sake; to know how unhappy all at home were when he did not
+come back.”
+
+Oh, what a fright and a joy it was!
+
+They were now on the stairs. A single lamp was burning there; and on the
+floor stood the tame Raven, turning her head on every side and looking
+at Gerda, who bowed as her grandmother had taught her to do.
+
+“My intended has told me so much good of you, my dear young lady,” said
+the tame Raven. “Your tale is very affecting. If you will take the lamp,
+I will go before. We will go straight on, for we shall meet no one.”
+
+“I think there is somebody just behind us,” said Gerda; and something
+rushed past: it was like shadowy figures on the wall; horses with
+flowing manes and thin legs, huntsmen, ladies and gentlemen on
+horseback.
+
+“They are only dreams,” said the Raven. “They come to fetch the thoughts
+of the high personages to the chase; 'tis well, for now you can observe
+them in bed all the better. But let me find, when you enjoy honor and
+distinction, that you possess a grateful heart.”
+
+“Tut! That's not worth talking about,” said the Raven of the woods.
+
+They now entered the first saloon, which was of rose-colored satin, with
+artificial flowers on the wall. Here the dreams were rushing past,
+but they hastened by so quickly that Gerda could not see the high
+personages. One hall was more magnificent than the other; one might
+indeed well be abashed; and at last they came into the bedchamber. The
+ceiling of the room resembled a large palm-tree with leaves of glass,
+of costly glass; and in the middle, from a thick golden stem, hung two
+beds, each of which resembled a lily. One was white, and in this lay the
+Princess; the other was red, and it was here that Gerda was to look for
+little Kay. She bent back one of the red leaves, and saw a brown neck.
+Oh! that was Kay! She called him quite loud by name, held the lamp
+towards him--the dreams rushed back again into the chamber--he awoke,
+turned his head, and--it was not little Kay!
+
+The Prince was only like him about the neck; but he was young and
+handsome. And out of the white lily leaves the Princess peeped, too,
+and asked what was the matter. Then little Gerda cried, and told her her
+whole history, and all that the Ravens had done for her.
+
+“Poor little thing!” said the Prince and the Princess. They praised the
+Ravens very much, and told them they were not at all angry with them,
+but they were not to do so again. However, they should have a reward.
+“Will you fly about here at liberty,” asked the Princess; “or would you
+like to have a fixed appointment as court ravens, with all the broken
+bits from the kitchen?”
+
+And both the Ravens nodded, and begged for a fixed appointment; for
+they thought of their old age, and said, “It is a good thing to have a
+provision for our old days.”
+
+And the Prince got up and let Gerda sleep in his bed, and more than this
+he could not do. She folded her little hands and thought, “How good men
+and animals are!” and she then fell asleep and slept soundly. All the
+dreams flew in again, and they now looked like the angels; they drew
+a little sledge, in which little Kay sat and nodded his head; but the
+whole was only a dream, and therefore it all vanished as soon as she
+awoke.
+
+The next day she was dressed from head to foot in silk and velvet. They
+offered to let her stay at the palace, and lead a happy life; but she
+begged to have a little carriage with a horse in front, and for a small
+pair of shoes; then, she said, she would again go forth in the wide
+world and look for Kay.
+
+Shoes and a muff were given her; she was, too, dressed very nicely; and
+when she was about to set off, a new carriage stopped before the door.
+It was of pure gold, and the arms of the Prince and Princess shone
+like a star upon it; the coachman, the footmen, and the outriders, for
+outriders were there, too, all wore golden crowns. The Prince and the
+Princess assisted her into the carriage themselves, and wished her all
+success. The Raven of the woods, who was now married, accompanied her
+for the first three miles. He sat beside Gerda, for he could not bear
+riding backwards; the other Raven stood in the doorway, and flapped her
+wings; she could not accompany Gerda, because she suffered from headache
+since she had had a fixed appointment and ate so much. The carriage
+was lined inside with sugar-plums, and in the seats were fruits and
+gingerbread.
+
+“Farewell! Farewell!” cried Prince and Princess; and Gerda wept, and
+the Raven wept. Thus passed the first miles; and then the Raven bade her
+farewell, and this was the most painful separation of all. He flew into
+a tree, and beat his black wings as long as he could see the carriage,
+that shone from afar like a sunbeam.
+
+
+FIFTH STORY. The Little Robber Maiden
+
+They drove through the dark wood; but the carriage shone like a torch,
+and it dazzled the eyes of the robbers, so that they could not bear to
+look at it.
+
+“'Tis gold! 'Tis gold!” they cried; and they rushed forward, seized
+the horses, knocked down the little postilion, the coachman, and the
+servants, and pulled little Gerda out of the carriage.
+
+“How plump, how beautiful she is! She must have been fed on
+nut-kernels,” said the old female robber, who had a long, scrubby beard,
+and bushy eyebrows that hung down over her eyes. “She is as good as a
+fatted lamb! How nice she will be!” And then she drew out a knife, the
+blade of which shone so that it was quite dreadful to behold.
+
+“Oh!” cried the woman at the same moment. She had been bitten in the ear
+by her own little daughter, who hung at her back; and who was so wild
+and unmanageable, that it was quite amusing to see her. “You naughty
+child!” said the mother: and now she had not time to kill Gerda.
+
+“She shall play with me,” said the little robber child. “She shall give
+me her muff, and her pretty frock; she shall sleep in my bed!” And then
+she gave her mother another bite, so that she jumped, and ran round with
+the pain; and the Robbers laughed, and said, “Look, how she is dancing
+with the little one!”
+
+“I will go into the carriage,” said the little robber maiden; and she
+would have her will, for she was very spoiled and very headstrong. She
+and Gerda got in; and then away they drove over the stumps of felled
+trees, deeper and deeper into the woods. The little robber maiden was as
+tall as Gerda, but stronger, broader-shouldered, and of dark complexion;
+her eyes were quite black; they looked almost melancholy. She embraced
+little Gerda, and said, “They shall not kill you as long as I am not
+displeased with you. You are, doubtless, a Princess?”
+
+“No,” said little Gerda; who then related all that had happened to her,
+and how much she cared about little Kay.
+
+The little robber maiden looked at her with a serious air, nodded her
+head slightly, and said, “They shall not kill you, even if I am angry
+with you: then I will do it myself”; and she dried Gerda's eyes, and put
+both her hands in the handsome muff, which was so soft and warm.
+
+At length the carriage stopped. They were in the midst of the court-yard
+of a robber's castle. It was full of cracks from top to bottom; and out
+of the openings magpies and rooks were flying; and the great bull-dogs,
+each of which looked as if he could swallow a man, jumped up, but they
+did not bark, for that was forbidden.
+
+In the midst of the large, old, smoking hall burnt a great fire on the
+stone floor. The smoke disappeared under the stones, and had to seek
+its own egress. In an immense caldron soup was boiling; and rabbits and
+hares were being roasted on a spit.
+
+“You shall sleep with me to-night, with all my animals,” said the little
+robber maiden. They had something to eat and drink; and then went into
+a corner, where straw and carpets were lying. Beside them, on laths and
+perches, sat nearly a hundred pigeons, all asleep, seemingly; but yet
+they moved a little when the robber maiden came. “They are all mine,”
+ said she, at the same time seizing one that was next to her by the legs
+and shaking it so that its wings fluttered. “Kiss it,” cried the little
+girl, and flung the pigeon in Gerda's face. “Up there is the rabble of
+the wood,” continued she, pointing to several laths which were fastened
+before a hole high up in the wall; “that's the rabble; they would all
+fly away immediately, if they were not well fastened in. And here is my
+dear old Bac”; and she laid hold of the horns of a reindeer, that had a
+bright copper ring round its neck, and was tethered to the spot. “We are
+obliged to lock this fellow in too, or he would make his escape. Every
+evening I tickle his neck with my sharp knife; he is so frightened at
+it!” and the little girl drew forth a long knife, from a crack in the
+wall, and let it glide over the Reindeer's neck. The poor animal kicked;
+the girl laughed, and pulled Gerda into bed with her.
+
+“Do you intend to keep your knife while you sleep?” asked Gerda; looking
+at it rather fearfully.
+
+“I always sleep with the knife,” said the little robber maiden. “There
+is no knowing what may happen. But tell me now, once more, all about
+little Kay; and why you have started off in the wide world alone.” And
+Gerda related all, from the very beginning: the Wood-pigeons cooed above
+in their cage, and the others slept. The little robber maiden wound her
+arm round Gerda's neck, held the knife in the other hand, and snored so
+loud that everybody could hear her; but Gerda could not close her eyes,
+for she did not know whether she was to live or die. The robbers sat
+round the fire, sang and drank; and the old female robber jumped about
+so, that it was quite dreadful for Gerda to see her.
+
+Then the Wood-pigeons said, “Coo! Coo! We have seen little Kay! A white
+hen carries his sledge; he himself sat in the carriage of the Snow
+Queen, who passed here, down just over the wood, as we lay in our nest.
+She blew upon us young ones; and all died except we two. Coo! Coo!”
+
+“What is that you say up there?” cried little Gerda. “Where did the Snow
+Queen go to? Do you know anything about it?”
+
+“She is no doubt gone to Lapland; for there is always snow and ice
+there. Only ask the Reindeer, who is tethered there.”
+
+“Ice and snow is there! There it is, glorious and beautiful!” said the
+Reindeer. “One can spring about in the large shining valleys! The Snow
+Queen has her summer-tent there; but her fixed abode is high up towards
+the North Pole, on the Island called Spitzbergen.”
+
+“Oh, Kay! Poor little Kay!” sighed Gerda.
+
+“Do you choose to be quiet?” said the robber maiden. “If you don't, I
+shall make you.”
+
+In the morning Gerda told her all that the Wood-pigeons had said; and
+the little maiden looked very serious, but she nodded her head, and
+said, “That's no matter--that's no matter. Do you know where Lapland
+lies!” she asked of the Reindeer.
+
+“Who should know better than I?” said the animal; and his eyes rolled in
+his head. “I was born and bred there--there I leapt about on the fields
+of snow.”
+
+“Listen,” said the robber maiden to Gerda. “You see that the men are
+gone; but my mother is still here, and will remain. However, towards
+morning she takes a draught out of the large flask, and then she sleeps
+a little: then I will do something for you.” She now jumped out of bed,
+flew to her mother; with her arms round her neck, and pulling her by the
+beard, said, “Good morrow, my own sweet nanny-goat of a mother.” And her
+mother took hold of her nose, and pinched it till it was red and blue;
+but this was all done out of pure love.
+
+When the mother had taken a sup at her flask, and was having a nap, the
+little robber maiden went to the Reindeer, and said, “I should very much
+like to give you still many a tickling with the sharp knife, for then
+you are so amusing; however, I will untether you, and help you out,
+so that you may go back to Lapland. But you must make good use of your
+legs; and take this little girl for me to the palace of the Snow Queen,
+where her playfellow is. You have heard, I suppose, all she said; for
+she spoke loud enough, and you were listening.”
+
+The Reindeer gave a bound for joy. The robber maiden lifted up little
+Gerda, and took the precaution to bind her fast on the Reindeer's back;
+she even gave her a small cushion to sit on. “Here are your worsted
+leggins, for it will be cold; but the muff I shall keep for myself, for
+it is so very pretty. But I do not wish you to be cold. Here is a pair
+of lined gloves of my mother's; they just reach up to your elbow. On
+with them! Now you look about the hands just like my ugly old mother!”
+
+And Gerda wept for joy.
+
+“I can't bear to see you fretting,” said the little robber maiden. “This
+is just the time when you ought to look pleased. Here are two loaves and
+a ham for you, so that you won't starve.” The bread and the meat were
+fastened to the Reindeer's back; the little maiden opened the door,
+called in all the dogs, and then with her knife cut the rope that
+fastened the animal, and said to him, “Now, off with you; but take good
+care of the little girl!”
+
+And Gerda stretched out her hands with the large wadded gloves towards
+the robber maiden, and said, “Farewell!” and the Reindeer flew on over
+bush and bramble through the great wood, over moor and heath, as fast as
+he could go.
+
+“Ddsa! Ddsa!” was heard in the sky. It was just as if somebody was
+sneezing.
+
+“These are my old northern-lights,” said the Reindeer, “look how they
+gleam!” And on he now sped still quicker--day and night on he went: the
+loaves were consumed, and the ham too; and now they were in Lapland.
+
+
+SIXTH STORY. The Lapland Woman and the Finland Woman
+
+Suddenly they stopped before a little house, which looked very
+miserable. The roof reached to the ground; and the door was so low, that
+the family were obliged to creep upon their stomachs when they went in
+or out. Nobody was at home except an old Lapland woman, who was dressing
+fish by the light of an oil lamp. And the Reindeer told her the whole
+of Gerda's history, but first of all his own; for that seemed to him of
+much greater importance. Gerda was so chilled that she could not speak.
+
+“Poor thing,” said the Lapland woman, “you have far to run still. You
+have more than a hundred miles to go before you get to Finland; there
+the Snow Queen has her country-house, and burns blue lights every
+evening. I will give you a few words from me, which I will write on a
+dried haberdine, for paper I have none; this you can take with you to
+the Finland woman, and she will be able to give you more information
+than I can.”
+
+When Gerda had warmed herself, and had eaten and drunk, the Lapland
+woman wrote a few words on a dried haberdine, begged Gerda to take care
+of them, put her on the Reindeer, bound her fast, and away sprang the
+animal. “Ddsa! Ddsa!” was again heard in the air; the most charming
+blue lights burned the whole night in the sky, and at last they came to
+Finland. They knocked at the chimney of the Finland woman; for as to a
+door, she had none.
+
+There was such a heat inside that the Finland woman herself went about
+almost naked. She was diminutive and dirty. She immediately loosened
+little Gerda's clothes, pulled off her thick gloves and boots; for
+otherwise the heat would have been too great--and after laying a piece
+of ice on the Reindeer's head, read what was written on the fish-skin.
+She read it three times: she then knew it by heart; so she put the fish
+into the cupboard--for it might very well be eaten, and she never threw
+anything away.
+
+Then the Reindeer related his own story first, and afterwards that of
+little Gerda; and the Finland woman winked her eyes, but said nothing.
+
+“You are so clever,” said the Reindeer; “you can, I know, twist all the
+winds of the world together in a knot. If the seaman loosens one knot,
+then he has a good wind; if a second, then it blows pretty stiffly; if
+he undoes the third and fourth, then it rages so that the forests are
+upturned. Will you give the little maiden a potion, that she may possess
+the strength of twelve men, and vanquish the Snow Queen?”
+
+“The strength of twelve men!” said the Finland woman. “Much good that
+would be!” Then she went to a cupboard, and drew out a large skin rolled
+up. When she had unrolled it, strange characters were to be seen written
+thereon; and the Finland woman read at such a rate that the perspiration
+trickled down her forehead.
+
+But the Reindeer begged so hard for little Gerda, and Gerda looked so
+imploringly with tearful eyes at the Finland woman, that she winked, and
+drew the Reindeer aside into a corner, where they whispered together,
+while the animal got some fresh ice put on his head.
+
+“'Tis true little Kay is at the Snow Queen's, and finds everything there
+quite to his taste; and he thinks it the very best place in the world;
+but the reason of that is, he has a splinter of glass in his eye, and in
+his heart. These must be got out first; otherwise he will never go back
+to mankind, and the Snow Queen will retain her power over him.”
+
+“But can you give little Gerda nothing to take which will endue her with
+power over the whole?”
+
+“I can give her no more power than what she has already. Don't you see
+how great it is? Don't you see how men and animals are forced to serve
+her; how well she gets through the world barefooted? She must not hear
+of her power from us; that power lies in her heart, because she is
+a sweet and innocent child! If she cannot get to the Snow Queen by
+herself, and rid little Kay of the glass, we cannot help her. Two miles
+hence the garden of the Snow Queen begins; thither you may carry the
+little girl. Set her down by the large bush with red berries, standing
+in the snow; don't stay talking, but hasten back as fast as possible.”
+ And now the Finland woman placed little Gerda on the Reindeer's back,
+and off he ran with all imaginable speed.
+
+“Oh! I have not got my boots! I have not brought my gloves!” cried
+little Gerda. She remarked she was without them from the cutting frost;
+but the Reindeer dared not stand still; on he ran till he came to the
+great bush with the red berries, and there he set Gerda down, kissed her
+mouth, while large bright tears flowed from the animal's eyes, and then
+back he went as fast as possible. There stood poor Gerda now, without
+shoes or gloves, in the very middle of dreadful icy Finland.
+
+She ran on as fast as she could. There then came a whole regiment of
+snow-flakes, but they did not fall from above, and they were quite
+bright and shining from the Aurora Borealis. The flakes ran along
+the ground, and the nearer they came the larger they grew. Gerda well
+remembered how large and strange the snow-flakes appeared when she
+once saw them through a magnifying-glass; but now they were large and
+terrific in another manner--they were all alive. They were the outposts
+of the Snow Queen. They had the most wondrous shapes; some looked like
+large ugly porcupines; others like snakes knotted together, with their
+heads sticking out; and others, again, like small fat bears, with the
+hair standing on end: all were of dazzling whiteness--all were living
+snow-flakes.
+
+Little Gerda repeated the Lord's Prayer. The cold was so intense that
+she could see her own breath, which came like smoke out of her mouth. It
+grew thicker and thicker, and took the form of little angels, that grew
+more and more when they touched the earth. All had helms on their heads,
+and lances and shields in their hands; they increased in numbers; and
+when Gerda had finished the Lord's Prayer, she was surrounded by a whole
+legion. They thrust at the horrid snow-flakes with their spears, so that
+they flew into a thousand pieces; and little Gerda walked on bravely and
+in security. The angels patted her hands and feet; and then she felt the
+cold less, and went on quickly towards the palace of the Snow Queen.
+
+But now we shall see how Kay fared. He never thought of Gerda, and least
+of all that she was standing before the palace.
+
+
+SEVENTH STORY. What Took Place in the Palace of the Snow Queen, and what
+Happened Afterward.
+
+The walls of the palace were of driving snow, and the windows and doors
+of cutting winds. There were more than a hundred halls there, according
+as the snow was driven by the winds. The largest was many miles in
+extent; all were lighted up by the powerful Aurora Borealis, and all
+were so large, so empty, so icy cold, and so resplendent! Mirth never
+reigned there; there was never even a little bear-ball, with the storm
+for music, while the polar bears went on their hind legs and showed off
+their steps. Never a little tea-party of white young lady foxes; vast,
+cold, and empty were the halls of the Snow Queen. The northern-lights
+shone with such precision that one could tell exactly when they were
+at their highest or lowest degree of brightness. In the middle of the
+empty, endless hall of snow, was a frozen lake; it was cracked in a
+thousand pieces, but each piece was so like the other, that it seemed
+the work of a cunning artificer. In the middle of this lake sat the Snow
+Queen when she was at home; and then she said she was sitting in the
+Mirror of Understanding, and that this was the only one and the best
+thing in the world.
+
+Little Kay was quite blue, yes nearly black with cold; but he did not
+observe it, for she had kissed away all feeling of cold from his body,
+and his heart was a lump of ice. He was dragging along some pointed
+flat pieces of ice, which he laid together in all possible ways, for he
+wanted to make something with them; just as we have little flat pieces
+of wood to make geometrical figures with, called the Chinese Puzzle.
+Kay made all sorts of figures, the most complicated, for it was
+an ice-puzzle for the understanding. In his eyes the figures were
+extraordinarily beautiful, and of the utmost importance; for the bit
+of glass which was in his eye caused this. He found whole figures which
+represented a written word; but he never could manage to represent just
+the word he wanted--that word was “eternity”; and the Snow Queen had
+said, “If you can discover that figure, you shall be your own master,
+and I will make you a present of the whole world and a pair of new
+skates.” But he could not find it out.
+
+“I am going now to warm lands,” said the Snow Queen. “I must have a look
+down into the black caldrons.” It was the volcanoes Vesuvius and Etna
+that she meant. “I will just give them a coating of white, for that is
+as it ought to be; besides, it is good for the oranges and the grapes.”
+ And then away she flew, and Kay sat quite alone in the empty halls of
+ice that were miles long, and looked at the blocks of ice, and thought
+and thought till his skull was almost cracked. There he sat quite
+benumbed and motionless; one would have imagined he was frozen to death.
+
+Suddenly little Gerda stepped through the great portal into the palace.
+The gate was formed of cutting winds; but Gerda repeated her evening
+prayer, and the winds were laid as though they slept; and the little
+maiden entered the vast, empty, cold halls. There she beheld Kay: she
+recognised him, flew to embrace him, and cried out, her arms firmly
+holding him the while, “Kay, sweet little Kay! Have I then found you at
+last?”
+
+But he sat quite still, benumbed and cold. Then little Gerda shed
+burning tears; and they fell on his bosom, they penetrated to his
+heart, they thawed the lumps of ice, and consumed the splinters of the
+looking-glass; he looked at her, and she sang the hymn:
+
+“The rose in the valley is blooming so sweet, And angels descend there
+the children to greet.”
+
+Hereupon Kay burst into tears; he wept so much that the splinter rolled
+out of his eye, and he recognised her, and shouted, “Gerda, sweet little
+Gerda! Where have you been so long? And where have I been?” He looked
+round him. “How cold it is here!” said he. “How empty and cold!” And he
+held fast by Gerda, who laughed and wept for joy. It was so beautiful,
+that even the blocks of ice danced about for joy; and when they were
+tired and laid themselves down, they formed exactly the letters which
+the Snow Queen had told him to find out; so now he was his own master,
+and he would have the whole world and a pair of new skates into the
+bargain.
+
+Gerda kissed his cheeks, and they grew quite blooming; she kissed his
+eyes, and they shone like her own; she kissed his hands and feet, and he
+was again well and merry. The Snow Queen might come back as soon as she
+liked; there stood his discharge written in resplendent masses of ice.
+
+They took each other by the hand, and wandered forth out of the large
+hall; they talked of their old grandmother, and of the roses upon the
+roof; and wherever they went, the winds ceased raging, and the sun burst
+forth. And when they reached the bush with the red berries, they found
+the Reindeer waiting for them. He had brought another, a young one, with
+him, whose udder was filled with milk, which he gave to the little ones,
+and kissed their lips. They then carried Kay and Gerda--first to the
+Finland woman, where they warmed themselves in the warm room, and
+learned what they were to do on their journey home; and they went to
+the Lapland woman, who made some new clothes for them and repaired their
+sledges.
+
+The Reindeer and the young hind leaped along beside them, and
+accompanied them to the boundary of the country. Here the first
+vegetation peeped forth; here Kay and Gerda took leave of the Lapland
+woman. “Farewell! Farewell!” they all said. And the first green buds
+appeared, the first little birds began to chirrup; and out of the wood
+came, riding on a magnificent horse, which Gerda knew (it was one of the
+leaders in the golden carriage), a young damsel with a bright-red cap on
+her head, and armed with pistols. It was the little robber maiden, who,
+tired of being at home, had determined to make a journey to the north;
+and afterwards in another direction, if that did not please her. She
+recognised Gerda immediately, and Gerda knew her too. It was a joyful
+meeting.
+
+“You are a fine fellow for tramping about,” said she to little Kay; “I
+should like to know, faith, if you deserve that one should run from one
+end of the world to the other for your sake?”
+
+But Gerda patted her cheeks, and inquired for the Prince and Princess.
+
+“They are gone abroad,” said the other.
+
+“But the Raven?” asked little Gerda.
+
+“Oh! The Raven is dead,” she answered. “His tame sweetheart is a
+widow, and wears a bit of black worsted round her leg; she laments most
+piteously, but it's all mere talk and stuff! Now tell me what you've
+been doing and how you managed to catch him.”
+
+And Gerda and Kay both told their story.
+
+And “Schnipp-schnapp-schnurre-basselurre,” said the robber maiden; and
+she took the hands of each, and promised that if she should some day
+pass through the town where they lived, she would come and visit them;
+and then away she rode. Kay and Gerda took each other's hand: it was
+lovely spring weather, with abundance of flowers and of verdure. The
+church-bells rang, and the children recognised the high towers, and the
+large town; it was that in which they dwelt. They entered and hastened
+up to their grandmother's room, where everything was standing as
+formerly. The clock said “tick! tack!” and the finger moved round; but
+as they entered, they remarked that they were now grown up. The roses
+on the leads hung blooming in at the open window; there stood the little
+children's chairs, and Kay and Gerda sat down on them, holding each
+other by the hand; they both had forgotten the cold empty splendor of
+the Snow Queen, as though it had been a dream. The grandmother sat in
+the bright sunshine, and read aloud from the Bible: “Unless ye become as
+little children, ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.”
+
+And Kay and Gerda looked in each other's eyes, and all at once they
+understood the old hymn:
+
+“The rose in the valley is blooming so sweet, And angels descend there
+the children to greet.”
+
+There sat the two grown-up persons; grown-up, and yet children; children
+at least in heart; and it was summer-time; summer, glorious summer!
+
+
+
+
+THE LEAP-FROG
+
+A Flea, a Grasshopper, and a Leap-frog once wanted to see which could
+jump highest; and they invited the whole world, and everybody else
+besides who chose to come to see the festival. Three famous jumpers were
+they, as everyone would say, when they all met together in the room.
+
+“I will give my daughter to him who jumps highest,” exclaimed the King;
+“for it is not so amusing where there is no prize to jump for.”
+
+The Flea was the first to step forward. He had exquisite manners, and
+bowed to the company on all sides; for he had noble blood, and was,
+moreover, accustomed to the society of man alone; and that makes a great
+difference.
+
+Then came the Grasshopper. He was considerably heavier, but he was
+well-mannered, and wore a green uniform, which he had by right of birth;
+he said, moreover, that he belonged to a very ancient Egyptian family,
+and that in the house where he then was, he was thought much of. The
+fact was, he had been just brought out of the fields, and put in a
+pasteboard house, three stories high, all made of court-cards, with the
+colored side inwards; and doors and windows cut out of the body of
+the Queen of Hearts. “I sing so well,” said he, “that sixteen native
+grasshoppers who have chirped from infancy, and yet got no house built
+of cards to live in, grew thinner than they were before for sheer
+vexation when they heard me.”
+
+It was thus that the Flea and the Grasshopper gave an account of
+themselves, and thought they were quite good enough to marry a Princess.
+
+The Leap-frog said nothing; but people gave it as their opinion, that
+he therefore thought the more; and when the housedog snuffed at him
+with his nose, he confessed the Leap-frog was of good family. The old
+councillor, who had had three orders given him to make him hold his
+tongue, asserted that the Leap-frog was a prophet; for that one could
+see on his back, if there would be a severe or mild winter, and that
+was what one could not see even on the back of the man who writes the
+almanac.
+
+“I say nothing, it is true,” exclaimed the King; “but I have my own
+opinion, notwithstanding.”
+
+Now the trial was to take place. The Flea jumped so high that nobody
+could see where he went to; so they all asserted he had not jumped at
+all; and that was dishonorable.
+
+The Grasshopper jumped only half as high; but he leaped into the King's
+face, who said that was ill-mannered.
+
+The Leap-frog stood still for a long time lost in thought; it was
+believed at last he would not jump at all.
+
+“I only hope he is not unwell,” said the house-dog; when, pop! he made a
+jump all on one side into the lap of the Princess, who was sitting on a
+little golden stool close by.
+
+Hereupon the King said, “There is nothing above my daughter; therefore
+to bound up to her is the highest jump that can be made; but for this,
+one must possess understanding, and the Leap-frog has shown that he has
+understanding. He is brave and intellectual.”
+
+And so he won the Princess.
+
+“It's all the same to me,” said the Flea. “She may have the old
+Leap-frog, for all I care. I jumped the highest; but in this world
+merit seldom meets its reward. A fine exterior is what people look at
+now-a-days.”
+
+The Flea then went into foreign service, where, it is said, he was
+killed.
+
+The Grasshopper sat without on a green bank, and reflected on worldly
+things; and he said too, “Yes, a fine exterior is everything--a fine
+exterior is what people care about.” And then he began chirping his
+peculiar melancholy song, from which we have taken this history; and
+which may, very possibly, be all untrue, although it does stand here
+printed in black and white.
+
+
+
+
+THE ELDERBUSH
+
+Once upon a time there was a little boy who had taken cold. He had
+gone out and got his feet wet; though nobody could imagine how it had
+happened, for it was quite dry weather. So his mother undressed him, put
+him to bed, and had the tea-pot brought in, to make him a good cup of
+Elderflower tea. Just at that moment the merry old man came in who
+lived up a-top of the house all alone; for he had neither wife nor
+children--but he liked children very much, and knew so many fairy tales,
+that it was quite delightful.
+
+“Now drink your tea,” said the boy's mother; “then, perhaps, you may
+hear a fairy tale.”
+
+“If I had but something new to tell,” said the old man. “But how did the
+child get his feet wet?”
+
+“That is the very thing that nobody can make out,” said his mother.
+
+“Am I to hear a fairy tale?” asked the little boy.
+
+“Yes, if you can tell me exactly--for I must know that first--how deep
+the gutter is in the little street opposite, that you pass through in
+going to school.”
+
+“Just up to the middle of my boot,” said the child; “but then I must go
+into the deep hole.”
+
+“Ah, ah! That's where the wet feet came from,” said the old man. “I
+ought now to tell you a story; but I don't know any more.”
+
+“You can make one in a moment,” said the little boy. “My mother says
+that all you look at can be turned into a fairy tale: and that you can
+find a story in everything.”
+
+“Yes, but such tales and stories are good for nothing. The right sort
+come of themselves; they tap at my forehead and say, 'Here we are.'”
+
+“Won't there be a tap soon?” asked the little boy. And his mother
+laughed, put some Elder-flowers in the tea-pot, and poured boiling water
+upon them.
+
+“Do tell me something! Pray do!”
+
+“Yes, if a fairy tale would come of its own accord; but they are proud
+and haughty, and come only when they choose. Stop!” said he, all on a
+sudden. “I have it! Pay attention! There is one in the tea-pot!”
+
+And the little boy looked at the tea-pot. The cover rose more and more;
+and the Elder-flowers came forth so fresh and white, and shot up long
+branches. Out of the spout even did they spread themselves on all sides,
+and grew larger and larger; it was a splendid Elderbush, a whole tree;
+and it reached into the very bed, and pushed the curtains aside. How
+it bloomed! And what an odour! In the middle of the bush sat a
+friendly-looking old woman in a most strange dress. It was quite
+green, like the leaves of the elder, and was trimmed with large white
+Elder-flowers; so that at first one could not tell whether it was a
+stuff, or a natural green and real flowers.
+
+“What's that woman's name?” asked the little boy.
+
+“The Greeks and Romans,” said the old man, “called her a Dryad; but that
+we do not understand. The people who live in the New Booths [*] have a much
+better name for her; they call her 'old Granny'--and she it is to
+whom you are to pay attention. Now listen, and look at the beautiful
+Elderbush.
+
+     * A row of buildings for seamen in Copenhagen.
+
+“Just such another large blooming Elder Tree stands near the New Booths.
+It grew there in the corner of a little miserable court-yard; and under
+it sat, of an afternoon, in the most splendid sunshine, two old
+people; an old, old seaman, and his old, old wife. They had
+great-grand-children, and were soon to celebrate the fiftieth
+anniversary of their marriage; but they could not exactly recollect the
+date: and old Granny sat in the tree, and looked as pleased as now. 'I
+know the date,' said she; but those below did not hear her, for they
+were talking about old times.
+
+“'Yes, can't you remember when we were very little,' said the old
+seaman, 'and ran and played about? It was the very same court-yard where
+we now are, and we stuck slips in the ground, and made a garden.'
+
+“'I remember it well,' said the old woman; 'I remember it quite well. We
+watered the slips, and one of them was an Elderbush. It took root, put
+forth green shoots, and grew up to be the large tree under which we old
+folks are now sitting.'
+
+“'To be sure,' said he. 'And there in the corner stood a waterpail,
+where I used to swim my boats.'
+
+“'True; but first we went to school to learn somewhat,' said she; 'and
+then we were confirmed. We both cried; but in the afternoon we went up
+the Round Tower, and looked down on Copenhagen, and far, far away over
+the water; then we went to Friedericksberg, where the King and the Queen
+were sailing about in their splendid barges.'
+
+“'But I had a different sort of sailing to that, later; and that, too,
+for many a year; a long way off, on great voyages.'
+
+“'Yes, many a time have I wept for your sake,' said she. 'I thought you
+were dead and gone, and lying down in the deep waters. Many a night have
+I got up to see if the wind had not changed: and changed it had, sure
+enough; but you never came. I remember so well one day, when the rain
+was pouring down in torrents, the scavengers were before the house where
+I was in service, and I had come up with the dust, and remained standing
+at the door--it was dreadful weather--when just as I was there, the
+postman came and gave me a letter. It was from you! What a tour that
+letter had made! I opened it instantly and read: I laughed and wept.
+I was so happy. In it I read that you were in warm lands where the
+coffee-tree grows. What a blessed land that must be! You related so
+much, and I saw it all the while the rain was pouring down, and I
+standing there with the dust-box. At the same moment came someone who
+embraced me.'
+
+“'Yes; but you gave him a good box on his ear that made it tingle!'
+
+“'But I did not know it was you. You arrived as soon as your letter,
+and you were so handsome--that you still are--and had a long yellow silk
+handkerchief round your neck, and a bran new hat on; oh, you were so
+dashing! Good heavens! What weather it was, and what a state the street
+was in!'
+
+“'And then we married,' said he. 'Don't you remember? And then we
+had our first little boy, and then Mary, and Nicholas, and Peter, and
+Christian.'
+
+“'Yes, and how they all grew up to be honest people, and were beloved by
+everybody.'
+
+“'And their children also have children,' said the old sailor; 'yes,
+those are our grand-children, full of strength and vigor. It was,
+methinks about this season that we had our wedding.'
+
+“'Yes, this very day is the fiftieth anniversary of the marriage,' said
+old Granny, sticking her head between the two old people; who thought
+it was their neighbor who nodded to them. They looked at each other and
+held one another by the hand. Soon after came their children, and their
+grand-children; for they knew well enough that it was the day of the
+fiftieth anniversary, and had come with their gratulations that very
+morning; but the old people had forgotten it, although they were able
+to remember all that had happened many years ago. And the Elderbush sent
+forth a strong odour in the sun, that was just about to set, and shone
+right in the old people's faces. They both looked so rosy-cheeked; and
+the youngest of the grandchildren danced around them, and called out
+quite delighted, that there was to be something very splendid that
+evening--they were all to have hot potatoes. And old Nanny nodded in the
+bush, and shouted 'hurrah!' with the rest.”
+
+“But that is no fairy tale,” said the little boy, who was listening to
+the story.
+
+“The thing is, you must understand it,” said the narrator; “let us ask
+old Nanny.”
+
+“That was no fairy tale, 'tis true,” said old Nanny; “but now it's
+coming. The most wonderful fairy tales grow out of that which is
+reality; were that not the case, you know, my magnificent Elderbush
+could not have grown out of the tea-pot.” And then she took the little
+boy out of bed, laid him on her bosom, and the branches of the Elder
+Tree, full of flowers, closed around her. They sat in an aerial
+dwelling, and it flew with them through the air. Oh, it was wondrous
+beautiful! Old Nanny had grown all of a sudden a young and pretty
+maiden; but her robe was still the same green stuff with white flowers,
+which she had worn before. On her bosom she had a real Elderflower,
+and in her yellow waving hair a wreath of the flowers; her eyes were so
+large and blue that it was a pleasure to look at them; she kissed the
+boy, and now they were of the same age and felt alike.
+
+Hand in hand they went out of the bower, and they were standing in the
+beautiful garden of their home. Near the green lawn papa's walking-stick
+was tied, and for the little ones it seemed to be endowed with life; for
+as soon as they got astride it, the round polished knob was turned into
+a magnificent neighing head, a long black mane fluttered in the breeze,
+and four slender yet strong legs shot out. The animal was strong and
+handsome, and away they went at full gallop round the lawn.
+
+“Huzza! Now we are riding miles off,” said the boy. “We are riding away
+to the castle where we were last year!”
+
+And on they rode round the grass-plot; and the little maiden, who, we
+know, was no one else but old Nanny, kept on crying out, “Now we are in
+the country! Don't you see the farm-house yonder? And there is an Elder
+Tree standing beside it; and the cock is scraping away the earth for the
+hens, look, how he struts! And now we are close to the church. It lies
+high upon the hill, between the large oak-trees, one of which is half
+decayed. And now we are by the smithy, where the fire is blazing, and
+where the half-naked men are banging with their hammers till the sparks
+fly about. Away! away! To the beautiful country-seat!”
+
+And all that the little maiden, who sat behind on the stick, spoke of,
+flew by in reality. The boy saw it all, and yet they were only going
+round the grass-plot. Then they played in a side avenue, and marked out
+a little garden on the earth; and they took Elder-blossoms from their
+hair, planted them, and they grew just like those the old people planted
+when they were children, as related before. They went hand in hand, as
+the old people had done when they were children; but not to the Round
+Tower, or to Friedericksberg; no, the little damsel wound her arms round
+the boy, and then they flew far away through all Denmark. And spring
+came, and summer; and then it was autumn, and then winter; and a
+thousand pictures were reflected in the eye and in the heart of the boy;
+and the little girl always sang to him, “This you will never forget.”
+ And during their whole flight the Elder Tree smelt so sweet and odorous;
+he remarked the roses and the fresh beeches, but the Elder Tree had
+a more wondrous fragrance, for its flowers hung on the breast of the
+little maiden; and there, too, did he often lay his head during the
+flight.
+
+“It is lovely here in spring!” said the young maiden. And they stood in
+a beech-wood that had just put on its first green, where the woodroof [*]
+at their feet sent forth its fragrance, and the pale-red anemony looked
+so pretty among the verdure. “Oh, would it were always spring in the
+sweetly-smelling Danish beech-forests!”
+
+     * Asperula odorata.
+
+“It is lovely here in summer!” said she. And she flew past old castles
+of by-gone days of chivalry, where the red walls and the embattled
+gables were mirrored in the canal, where the swans were swimming, and
+peered up into the old cool avenues. In the fields the corn was waving
+like the sea; in the ditches red and yellow flowers were growing; while
+wild-drone flowers, and blooming convolvuluses were creeping in the
+hedges; and towards evening the moon rose round and large, and the
+haycocks in the meadows smelt so sweetly. “This one never forgets!”
+
+“It is lovely here in autumn!” said the little maiden. And suddenly the
+atmosphere grew as blue again as before; the forest grew red, and green,
+and yellow-colored. The dogs came leaping along, and whole flocks of
+wild-fowl flew over the cairn, where blackberry-bushes were hanging
+round the old stones. The sea was dark blue, covered with ships full
+of white sails; and in the barn old women, maidens, and children were
+sitting picking hops into a large cask; the young sang songs, but the
+old told fairy tales of mountain-sprites and soothsayers. Nothing could
+be more charming.
+
+“It is delightful here in winter!” said the little maiden. And all the
+trees were covered with hoar-frost; they looked like white corals; the
+snow crackled under foot, as if one had new boots on; and one falling
+star after the other was seen in the sky. The Christmas-tree was lighted
+in the room; presents were there, and good-humor reigned. In the country
+the violin sounded in the room of the peasant; the newly-baked cakes
+were attacked; even the poorest child said, “It is really delightful
+here in winter!”
+
+Yes, it was delightful; and the little maiden showed the boy everything;
+and the Elder Tree still was fragrant, and the red flag, with the white
+cross, was still waving: the flag under which the old seaman in the New
+Booths had sailed. And the boy grew up to be a lad, and was to go forth
+in the wide world-far, far away to warm lands, where the coffee-tree
+grows; but at his departure the little maiden took an Elder-blossom from
+her bosom, and gave it him to keep; and it was placed between the leaves
+of his Prayer-Book; and when in foreign lands he opened the book, it
+was always at the place where the keepsake-flower lay; and the more he
+looked at it, the fresher it became; he felt as it were, the fragrance
+of the Danish groves; and from among the leaves of the flowers he could
+distinctly see the little maiden, peeping forth with her bright blue
+eyes--and then she whispered, “It is delightful here in Spring, Summer,
+Autumn, and Winter”; and a hundred visions glided before his mind.
+
+Thus passed many years, and he was now an old man, and sat with his old
+wife under the blooming tree. They held each other by the hand, as the
+old grand-father and grand-mother yonder in the New Booths did, and they
+talked exactly like them of old times, and of the fiftieth anniversary
+of their wedding. The little maiden, with the blue eyes, and with
+Elder-blossoms in her hair, sat in the tree, nodded to both of them,
+and said, “To-day is the fiftieth anniversary!” And then she took two
+flowers out of her hair, and kissed them. First, they shone like silver,
+then like gold; and when they laid them on the heads of the old people,
+each flower became a golden crown. So there they both sat, like a king
+and a queen, under the fragrant tree, that looked exactly like an elder:
+the old man told his wife the story of “Old Nanny,” as it had been told
+him when a boy. And it seemed to both of them it contained much that
+resembled their own history; and those parts that were like it pleased
+them best.
+
+“Thus it is,” said the little maiden in the tree, “some call me 'Old
+Nanny,' others a 'Dryad,' but, in reality, my name is 'Remembrance';
+'tis I who sit in the tree that grows and grows! I can remember; I can
+tell things! Let me see if you have my flower still?”
+
+And the old man opened his Prayer-Book. There lay the Elder-blossom,
+as fresh as if it had been placed there but a short time before; and
+Remembrance nodded, and the old people, decked with crowns of gold, sat
+in the flush of the evening sun. They closed their eyes, and--and--!
+Yes, that's the end of the story!
+
+The little boy lay in his bed; he did not know if he had dreamed or
+not, or if he had been listening while someone told him the story. The
+tea-pot was standing on the table, but no Elder Tree was growing out
+of it! And the old man, who had been talking, was just on the point of
+going out at the door, and he did go.
+
+“How splendid that was!” said the little boy. “Mother, I have been to
+warm countries.”
+
+“So I should think,” said his mother. “When one has drunk two good
+cupfuls of Elder-flower tea, 'tis likely enough one goes into warm
+climates”; and she tucked him up nicely, least he should take cold. “You
+have had a good sleep while I have been sitting here, and arguing with
+him whether it was a story or a fairy tale.”
+
+“And where is old Nanny?” asked the little boy.
+
+“In the tea-pot,” said his mother; “and there she may remain.”
+
+
+
+
+THE BELL
+
+People said “The Evening Bell is sounding, the sun is setting.” For a
+strange wondrous tone was heard in the narrow streets of a large town.
+It was like the sound of a church-bell: but it was only heard for a
+moment, for the rolling of the carriages and the voices of the multitude
+made too great a noise.
+
+Those persons who were walking outside the town, where the houses were
+farther apart, with gardens or little fields between them, could see
+the evening sky still better, and heard the sound of the bell much
+more distinctly. It was as if the tones came from a church in the still
+forest; people looked thitherward, and felt their minds attuned most
+solemnly.
+
+A long time passed, and people said to each other--“I wonder if there
+is a church out in the wood? The bell has a tone that is wondrous sweet;
+let us stroll thither, and examine the matter nearer.” And the rich
+people drove out, and the poor walked, but the way seemed strangely
+long to them; and when they came to a clump of willows which grew on the
+skirts of the forest, they sat down, and looked up at the long
+branches, and fancied they were now in the depth of the green wood. The
+confectioner of the town came out, and set up his booth there; and soon
+after came another confectioner, who hung a bell over his stand, as
+a sign or ornament, but it had no clapper, and it was tarred over to
+preserve it from the rain. When all the people returned home, they said
+it had been very romantic, and that it was quite a different sort of
+thing to a pic-nic or tea-party. There were three persons who asserted
+they had penetrated to the end of the forest, and that they had always
+heard the wonderful sounds of the bell, but it had seemed to them as if
+it had come from the town. One wrote a whole poem about it, and said the
+bell sounded like the voice of a mother to a good dear child, and
+that no melody was sweeter than the tones of the bell. The king of the
+country was also observant of it, and vowed that he who could discover
+whence the sounds proceeded, should have the title of “Universal
+Bell-ringer,” even if it were not really a bell.
+
+Many persons now went to the wood, for the sake of getting the place,
+but one only returned with a sort of explanation; for nobody went far
+enough, that one not further than the others. However, he said that
+the sound proceeded from a very large owl, in a hollow tree; a sort of
+learned owl, that continually knocked its head against the branches. But
+whether the sound came from his head or from the hollow tree, that no
+one could say with certainty. So now he got the place of “Universal
+Bell-ringer,” and wrote yearly a short treatise “On the Owl”; but
+everybody was just as wise as before.
+
+It was the day of confirmation. The clergyman had spoken so touchingly,
+the children who were confirmed had been greatly moved; it was
+an eventful day for them; from children they become all at once
+grown-up-persons; it was as if their infant souls were now to fly all
+at once into persons with more understanding. The sun was shining
+gloriously; the children that had been confirmed went out of the town;
+and from the wood was borne towards them the sounds of the unknown bell
+with wonderful distinctness. They all immediately felt a wish to go
+thither; all except three. One of them had to go home to try on a
+ball-dress; for it was just the dress and the ball which had caused her
+to be confirmed this time, for otherwise she would not have come;
+the other was a poor boy, who had borrowed his coat and boots to be
+confirmed in from the innkeeper's son, and he was to give them back by
+a certain hour; the third said that he never went to a strange place
+if his parents were not with him--that he had always been a good boy
+hitherto, and would still be so now that he was confirmed, and that one
+ought not to laugh at him for it: the others, however, did make fun of
+him, after all.
+
+There were three, therefore, that did not go; the others hastened on.
+The sun shone, the birds sang, and the children sang too, and each held
+the other by the hand; for as yet they had none of them any high office,
+and were all of equal rank in the eye of God.
+
+But two of the youngest soon grew tired, and both returned to town; two
+little girls sat down, and twined garlands, so they did not go either;
+and when the others reached the willow-tree, where the confectioner was,
+they said, “Now we are there! In reality the bell does not exist; it is
+only a fancy that people have taken into their heads!”
+
+At the same moment the bell sounded deep in the wood, so clear and
+solemnly that five or six determined to penetrate somewhat further. It
+was so thick, and the foliage so dense, that it was quite fatiguing
+to proceed. Woodroof and anemonies grew almost too high; blooming
+convolvuluses and blackberry-bushes hung in long garlands from tree to
+tree, where the nightingale sang and the sunbeams were playing: it was
+very beautiful, but it was no place for girls to go; their clothes would
+get so torn. Large blocks of stone lay there, overgrown with moss of
+every color; the fresh spring bubbled forth, and made a strange gurgling
+sound.
+
+“That surely cannot be the bell,” said one of the children, lying down
+and listening. “This must be looked to.” So he remained, and let the
+others go on without him.
+
+They afterwards came to a little house, made of branches and the bark of
+trees; a large wild apple-tree bent over it, as if it would shower down
+all its blessings on the roof, where roses were blooming. The long stems
+twined round the gable, on which there hung a small bell.
+
+Was it that which people had heard? Yes, everybody was unanimous on the
+subject, except one, who said that the bell was too small and too fine
+to be heard at so great a distance, and besides it was very different
+tones to those that could move a human heart in such a manner. It was a
+king's son who spoke; whereon the others said, “Such people always want
+to be wiser than everybody else.”
+
+They now let him go on alone; and as he went, his breast was filled more
+and more with the forest solitude; but he still heard the little bell
+with which the others were so satisfied, and now and then, when the
+wind blew, he could also hear the people singing who were sitting at tea
+where the confectioner had his tent; but the deep sound of the bell rose
+louder; it was almost as if an organ were accompanying it, and the tones
+came from the left hand, the side where the heart is placed. A rustling
+was heard in the bushes, and a little boy stood before the King's Son, a
+boy in wooden shoes, and with so short a jacket that one could see what
+long wrists he had. Both knew each other: the boy was that one among
+the children who could not come because he had to go home and return his
+jacket and boots to the innkeeper's son. This he had done, and was now
+going on in wooden shoes and in his humble dress, for the bell sounded
+with so deep a tone, and with such strange power, that proceed he must.
+
+“Why, then, we can go together,” said the King's Son. But the poor
+child that had been confirmed was quite ashamed; he looked at his wooden
+shoes, pulled at the short sleeves of his jacket, and said that he was
+afraid he could not walk so fast; besides, he thought that the bell must
+be looked for to the right; for that was the place where all sorts of
+beautiful things were to be found.
+
+“But there we shall not meet,” said the King's Son, nodding at the same
+time to the poor boy, who went into the darkest, thickest part of the
+wood, where thorns tore his humble dress, and scratched his face and
+hands and feet till they bled. The King's Son got some scratches too;
+but the sun shone on his path, and it is him that we will follow, for he
+was an excellent and resolute youth.
+
+“I must and will find the bell,” said he, “even if I am obliged to go to
+the end of the world.”
+
+The ugly apes sat upon the trees, and grinned. “Shall we thrash him?”
+ said they. “Shall we thrash him? He is the son of a king!”
+
+But on he went, without being disheartened, deeper and deeper into the
+wood, where the most wonderful flowers were growing. There stood white
+lilies with blood-red stamina, skyblue tulips, which shone as they waved
+in the winds, and apple-trees, the apples of which looked exactly like
+large soapbubbles: so only think how the trees must have sparkled in the
+sunshine! Around the nicest green meads, where the deer were playing in
+the grass, grew magnificent oaks and beeches; and if the bark of one of
+the trees was cracked, there grass and long creeping plants grew in
+the crevices. And there were large calm lakes there too, in which white
+swans were swimming, and beat the air with their wings. The King's Son
+often stood still and listened. He thought the bell sounded from the
+depths of these still lakes; but then he remarked again that the tone
+proceeded not from there, but farther off, from out the depths of the
+forest.
+
+The sun now set: the atmosphere glowed like fire. It was still in the
+woods, so very still; and he fell on his knees, sung his evening hymn,
+and said: “I cannot find what I seek; the sun is going down, and night
+is coming--the dark, dark night. Yet perhaps I may be able once more
+to see the round red sun before he entirely disappears. I will climb up
+yonder rock.”
+
+And he seized hold of the creeping-plants, and the roots of
+trees--climbed up the moist stones where the water-snakes were writhing
+and the toads were croaking--and he gained the summit before the sun
+had quite gone down. How magnificent was the sight from this height! The
+sea--the great, the glorious sea, that dashed its long waves against the
+coast--was stretched out before him. And yonder, where sea and sky meet,
+stood the sun, like a large shining altar, all melted together in the
+most glowing colors. And the wood and the sea sang a song of rejoicing,
+and his heart sang with the rest: all nature was a vast holy church,
+in which the trees and the buoyant clouds were the pillars, flowers and
+grass the velvet carpeting, and heaven itself the large cupola. The red
+colors above faded away as the sun vanished, but a million stars were
+lighted, a million lamps shone; and the King's Son spread out his arms
+towards heaven, and wood, and sea; when at the same moment, coming by
+a path to the right, appeared, in his wooden shoes and jacket, the poor
+boy who had been confirmed with him. He had followed his own path, and
+had reached the spot just as soon as the son of the king had done. They
+ran towards each other, and stood together hand in hand in the vast
+church of nature and of poetry, while over them sounded the invisible
+holy bell: blessed spirits floated around them, and lifted up their
+voices in a rejoicing hallelujah!
+
+
+
+
+THE OLD HOUSE
+
+In the street, up there, was an old, a very old house--it was almost
+three hundred years old, for that might be known by reading the great
+beam on which the date of the year was carved: together with tulips and
+hop-binds there were whole verses spelled as in former times, and over
+every window was a distorted face cut out in the beam. The one story
+stood forward a great way over the other; and directly under the eaves
+was a leaden spout with a dragon's head; the rain-water should have run
+out of the mouth, but it ran out of the belly, for there was a hole in
+the spout.
+
+All the other houses in the street were so new and so neat, with large
+window panes and smooth walls, one could easily see that they would have
+nothing to do with the old house: they certainly thought, “How long is
+that old decayed thing to stand here as a spectacle in the street? And
+then the projecting windows stand so far out, that no one can see from
+our windows what happens in that direction! The steps are as broad as
+those of a palace, and as high as to a church tower. The iron railings
+look just like the door to an old family vault, and then they have brass
+tops--that's so stupid!”
+
+On the other side of the street were also new and neat houses, and they
+thought just as the others did; but at the window opposite the old house
+there sat a little boy with fresh rosy cheeks and bright beaming eyes:
+he certainly liked the old house best, and that both in sunshine and
+moonshine. And when he looked across at the wall where the mortar
+had fallen out, he could sit and find out there the strangest figures
+imaginable; exactly as the street had appeared before, with steps,
+projecting windows, and pointed gables; he could see soldiers with
+halberds, and spouts where the water ran, like dragons and serpents.
+That was a house to look at; and there lived an old man, who wore plush
+breeches; and he had a coat with large brass buttons, and a wig that one
+could see was a real wig. Every morning there came an old fellow to him
+who put his rooms in order, and went on errands; otherwise, the old man
+in the plush breeches was quite alone in the old house. Now and then he
+came to the window and looked out, and the little boy nodded to him,
+and the old man nodded again, and so they became acquaintances, and then
+they were friends, although they had never spoken to each other--but
+that made no difference. The little boy heard his parents say, “The old
+man opposite is very well off, but he is so very, very lonely!”
+
+The Sunday following, the little boy took something, and wrapped it up
+in a piece of paper, went downstairs, and stood in the doorway; and when
+the man who went on errands came past, he said to him--
+
+“I say, master! will you give this to the old man over the way from me?
+I have two pewter soldiers--this is one of them, and he shall have it,
+for I know he is so very, very lonely.”
+
+And the old errand man looked quite pleased, nodded, and took the pewter
+soldier over to the old house. Afterwards there came a message; it was
+to ask if the little boy himself had not a wish to come over and pay a
+visit; and so he got permission of his parents, and then went over to
+the old house.
+
+And the brass balls on the iron railings shone much brighter than ever;
+one would have thought they were polished on account of the visit; and
+it was as if the carved-out trumpeters--for there were trumpeters, who
+stood in tulips, carved out on the door--blew with all their
+might, their cheeks appeared so much rounder than before. Yes, they
+blew--“Trateratra! The little boy comes! Trateratra!”--and then the door
+opened.
+
+The whole passage was hung with portraits of knights in armor, and
+ladies in silken gowns; and the armor rattled, and the silken gowns
+rustled! And then there was a flight of stairs which went a good way
+upwards, and a little way downwards, and then one came on a balcony
+which was in a very dilapidated state, sure enough, with large holes and
+long crevices, but grass grew there and leaves out of them altogether,
+for the whole balcony outside, the yard, and the walls, were overgrown
+with so much green stuff, that it looked like a garden; only a balcony.
+Here stood old flower-pots with faces and asses' ears, and the flowers
+grew just as they liked. One of the pots was quite overrun on all sides
+with pinks, that is to say, with the green part; shoot stood by shoot,
+and it said quite distinctly, “The air has cherished me, the sun has
+kissed me, and promised me a little flower on Sunday! a little flower on
+Sunday!”
+
+And then they entered a chamber where the walls were covered with hog's
+leather, and printed with gold flowers.
+
+   “The gilding decays,
+   But hog's leather stays!”
+
+said the walls.
+
+And there stood easy-chairs, with such high backs, and so carved out,
+and with arms on both sides. “Sit down! sit down!” said they. “Ugh! how
+I creak; now I shall certainly get the gout, like the old clothespress,
+ugh!”
+
+And then the little boy came into the room where the projecting windows
+were, and where the old man sat.
+
+“I thank you for the pewter soldier, my little friend!” said the old
+man. “And I thank you because you come over to me.”
+
+“Thankee! thankee!” or “cranky! cranky!” sounded from all the furniture;
+there was so much of it, that each article stood in the other's way, to
+get a look at the little boy.
+
+In the middle of the wall hung a picture representing a beautiful lady,
+so young, so glad, but dressed quite as in former times, with clothes
+that stood quite stiff, and with powder in her hair; she neither said
+“thankee, thankee!” nor “cranky, cranky!” but looked with her mild eyes
+at the little boy, who directly asked the old man, “Where did you get
+her?”
+
+“Yonder, at the broker's,” said the old man, “where there are so many
+pictures hanging. No one knows or cares about them, for they are all of
+them buried; but I knew her in by-gone days, and now she has been dead
+and gone these fifty years!”
+
+Under the picture, in a glazed frame, there hung a bouquet of withered
+flowers; they were almost fifty years old; they looked so very old!
+
+The pendulum of the great clock went to and fro, and the hands turned,
+and everything in the room became still older; but they did not observe
+it.
+
+“They say at home,” said the little boy, “that you are so very, very
+lonely!”
+
+“Oh!” said he. “The old thoughts, with what they may bring with them,
+come and visit me, and now you also come! I am very well off!”
+
+Then he took a book with pictures in it down from the shelf; there were
+whole long processions and pageants, with the strangest characters,
+which one never sees now-a-days; soldiers like the knave of clubs,
+and citizens with waving flags: the tailors had theirs, with a pair of
+shears held by two lions--and the shoemakers theirs, without boots,
+but with an eagle that had two heads, for the shoemakers must have
+everything so that they can say, it is a pair! Yes, that was a picture
+book!
+
+The old man now went into the other room to fetch preserves, apples, and
+nuts--yes, it was delightful over there in the old house.
+
+“I cannot bear it any longer!” said the pewter soldier, who sat on the
+drawers. “It is so lonely and melancholy here! But when one has been in
+a family circle one cannot accustom oneself to this life! I cannot bear
+it any longer! The whole day is so long, and the evenings are still
+longer! Here it is not at all as it is over the way at your home, where
+your father and mother spoke so pleasantly, and where you and all your
+sweet children made such a delightful noise. Nay, how lonely the old man
+is--do you think that he gets kisses? Do you think he gets mild eyes,
+or a Christmas tree? He will get nothing but a grave! I can bear it no
+longer!”
+
+“You must not let it grieve you so much,” said the little boy. “I find
+it so very delightful here, and then all the old thoughts, with what
+they may bring with them, they come and visit here.”
+
+“Yes, it's all very well, but I see nothing of them, and I don't know
+them!” said the pewter soldier. “I cannot bear it!”
+
+“But you must!” said the little boy.
+
+Then in came the old man with the most pleased and happy face, the most
+delicious preserves, apples, and nuts, and so the little boy thought no
+more about the pewter soldier.
+
+The little boy returned home happy and pleased, and weeks and days
+passed away, and nods were made to the old house, and from the old
+house, and then the little boy went over there again.
+
+The carved trumpeters blew, “Trateratra! There is the little boy!
+Trateratra!” and the swords and armor on the knights' portraits rattled,
+and the silk gowns rustled; the hog's leather spoke, and the old chairs
+had the gout in their legs and rheumatism in their backs: Ugh! it was
+exactly like the first time, for over there one day and hour was just
+like another.
+
+“I cannot bear it!” said the pewter soldier. “I have shed pewter tears!
+It is too melancholy! Rather let me go to the wars and lose arms and
+legs! It would at least be a change. I cannot bear it longer! Now, I
+know what it is to have a visit from one's old thoughts, with what they
+may bring with them! I have had a visit from mine, and you may be sure
+it is no pleasant thing in the end; I was at last about to jump down
+from the drawers.
+
+“I saw you all over there at home so distinctly, as if you really were
+here; it was again that Sunday morning; all you children stood before
+the table and sung your Psalms, as you do every morning. You stood
+devoutly with folded hands; and father and mother were just as pious;
+and then the door was opened, and little sister Mary, who is not two
+years old yet, and who always dances when she hears music or singing, of
+whatever kind it may be, was put into the room--though she ought not to
+have been there--and then she began to dance, but could not keep time,
+because the tones were so long; and then she stood, first on the one
+leg, and bent her head forwards, and then on the other leg, and bent
+her head forwards--but all would not do. You stood very seriously all
+together, although it was difficult enough; but I laughed to myself, and
+then I fell off the table, and got a bump, which I have still--for it
+was not right of me to laugh. But the whole now passes before me again
+in thought, and everything that I have lived to see; and these are the
+old thoughts, with what they may bring with them.
+
+“Tell me if you still sing on Sundays? Tell me something about little
+Mary! And how my comrade, the other pewter soldier, lives! Yes, he is
+happy enough, that's sure! I cannot bear it any longer!”
+
+“You are given away as a present!” said the little boy. “You must
+remain. Can you not understand that?”
+
+The old man now came with a drawer, in which there was much to be seen,
+both “tin boxes” and “balsam boxes,” old cards, so large and so gilded,
+such as one never sees them now. And several drawers were opened, and
+the piano was opened; it had landscapes on the inside of the lid, and it
+was so hoarse when the old man played on it! and then he hummed a song.
+
+“Yes, she could sing that!” said he, and nodded to the portrait, which
+he had bought at the broker's, and the old man's eyes shone so bright!
+
+“I will go to the wars! I will go to the wars!” shouted the pewter
+soldier as loud as he could, and threw himself off the drawers right
+down on the floor. What became of him? The old man sought, and the
+little boy sought; he was away, and he stayed away.
+
+“I shall find him!” said the old man; but he never found him. The floor
+was too open--the pewter soldier had fallen through a crevice, and there
+he lay as in an open tomb.
+
+That day passed, and the little boy went home, and that week passed,
+and several weeks too. The windows were quite frozen, the little boy was
+obliged to sit and breathe on them to get a peep-hole over to the old
+house, and there the snow had been blown into all the carved work and
+inscriptions; it lay quite up over the steps, just as if there was no
+one at home--nor was there any one at home--the old man was dead!
+
+In the evening there was a hearse seen before the door, and he was borne
+into it in his coffin: he was now to go out into the country, to lie in
+his grave. He was driven out there, but no one followed; all his friends
+were dead, and the little boy kissed his hand to the coffin as it was
+driven away.
+
+Some days afterwards there was an auction at the old house, and the
+little boy saw from his window how they carried the old knights and the
+old ladies away, the flower-pots with the long ears, the old chairs, and
+the old clothes-presses. Something came here, and something came there;
+the portrait of her who had been found at the broker's came to the
+broker's again; and there it hung, for no one knew her more--no one
+cared about the old picture.
+
+In the spring they pulled the house down, for, as people said, it was
+a ruin. One could see from the street right into the room with the
+hog's-leather hanging, which was slashed and torn; and the green grass
+and leaves about the balcony hung quite wild about the falling beams.
+And then it was put to rights.
+
+“That was a relief,” said the neighboring houses.
+
+A fine house was built there, with large windows, and smooth white
+walls; but before it, where the old house had in fact stood, was a
+little garden laid out, and a wild grapevine ran up the wall of the
+neighboring house. Before the garden there was a large iron railing
+with an iron door, it looked quite splendid, and people stood still and
+peeped in, and the sparrows hung by scores in the vine, and chattered
+away at each other as well as they could, but it was not about the old
+house, for they could not remember it, so many years had passed--so many
+that the little boy had grown up to a whole man, yes, a clever man, and
+a pleasure to his parents; and he had just been married, and, together
+with his little wife, had come to live in the house here, where the
+garden was; and he stood by her there whilst she planted a field-flower
+that she found so pretty; she planted it with her little hand, and
+pressed the earth around it with her fingers. Oh! what was that? She
+had stuck herself. There sat something pointed, straight out of the soft
+mould.
+
+It was--yes, guess! It was the pewter soldier, he that was lost up at
+the old man's, and had tumbled and turned about amongst the timber and
+the rubbish, and had at last laid for many years in the ground.
+
+The young wife wiped the dirt off the soldier, first with a green leaf,
+and then with her fine handkerchief--it had such a delightful smell,
+that it was to the pewter soldier just as if he had awaked from a
+trance.
+
+“Let me see him,” said the young man. He laughed, and then shook his
+head. “Nay, it cannot be he; but he reminds me of a story about a pewter
+soldier which I had when I was a little boy!” And then he told his wife
+about the old house, and the old man, and about the pewter soldier that
+he sent over to him because he was so very, very lonely; and he told it
+as correctly as it had really been, so that the tears came into the eyes
+of his young wife, on account of the old house and the old man.
+
+“It may possibly be, however, that it is the same pewter soldier!” said
+she. “I will take care of it, and remember all that you have told me;
+but you must show me the old man's grave!”
+
+“But I do not know it,” said he, “and no one knows it! All his friends
+were dead, no one took care of it, and I was then a little boy!”
+
+“How very, very lonely he must have been!” said she.
+
+“Very, very lonely!” said the pewter soldier. “But it is delightful not
+to be forgotten!”
+
+“Delightful!” shouted something close by; but no one, except the pewter
+soldier, saw that it was a piece of the hog's-leather hangings; it had
+lost all its gilding, it looked like a piece of wet clay, but it had an
+opinion, and it gave it:
+
+   “The gilding decays,
+   But hog's leather stays!”
+
+This the pewter soldier did not believe.
+
+
+
+
+THE HAPPY FAMILY
+
+Really, the largest green leaf in this country is a dock-leaf; if one
+holds it before one, it is like a whole apron, and if one holds it over
+one's head in rainy weather, it is almost as good as an umbrella, for
+it is so immensely large. The burdock never grows alone, but where there
+grows one there always grow several: it is a great delight, and all this
+delightfulness is snails' food. The great white snails which persons of
+quality in former times made fricassees of, ate, and said, “Hem,
+hem! how delicious!” for they thought it tasted so delicate--lived on
+dock-leaves, and therefore burdock seeds were sown.
+
+Now, there was an old manor-house, where they no longer ate snails, they
+were quite extinct; but the burdocks were not extinct, they grew and
+grew all over the walks and all the beds; they could not get the mastery
+over them--it was a whole forest of burdocks. Here and there stood an
+apple and a plum-tree, or else one never would have thought that it was
+a garden; all was burdocks, and there lived the two last venerable old
+snails.
+
+They themselves knew not how old they were, but they could remember
+very well that there had been many more; that they were of a family
+from foreign lands, and that for them and theirs the whole forest was
+planted. They had never been outside it, but they knew that there was
+still something more in the world, which was called the manor-house, and
+that there they were boiled, and then they became black, and were then
+placed on a silver dish; but what happened further they knew not; or, in
+fact, what it was to be boiled, and to lie on a silver dish, they could
+not possibly imagine; but it was said to be delightful, and particularly
+genteel. Neither the chafers, the toads, nor the earth-worms, whom they
+asked about it could give them any information--none of them had been
+boiled or laid on a silver dish.
+
+The old white snails were the first persons of distinction in the
+world, that they knew; the forest was planted for their sake, and the
+manor-house was there that they might be boiled and laid on a silver
+dish.
+
+Now they lived a very lonely and happy life; and as they had no children
+themselves, they had adopted a little common snail, which they brought
+up as their own; but the little one would not grow, for he was of a
+common family; but the old ones, especially Dame Mother Snail, thought
+they could observe how he increased in size, and she begged father,
+if he could not see it, that he would at least feel the little snail's
+shell; and then he felt it, and found the good dame was right.
+
+One day there was a heavy storm of rain.
+
+“Hear how it beats like a drum on the dock-leaves!” said Father Snail.
+
+“There are also rain-drops!” said Mother Snail. “And now the rain pours
+right down the stalk! You will see that it will be wet here! I am very
+happy to think that we have our good house, and the little one has
+his also! There is more done for us than for all other creatures, sure
+enough; but can you not see that we are folks of quality in the world?
+We are provided with a house from our birth, and the burdock forest is
+planted for our sakes! I should like to know how far it extends, and
+what there is outside!”
+
+“There is nothing at all,” said Father Snail. “No place can be better
+than ours, and I have nothing to wish for!”
+
+“Yes,” said the dame. “I would willingly go to the manorhouse, be
+boiled, and laid on a silver dish; all our forefathers have been treated
+so; there is something extraordinary in it, you may be sure!”
+
+“The manor-house has most likely fallen to ruin!” said Father Snail. “Or
+the burdocks have grown up over it, so that they cannot come out. There
+need not, however, be any haste about that; but you are always in such a
+tremendous hurry, and the little one is beginning to be the same. Has he
+not been creeping up that stalk these three days? It gives me a headache
+when I look up to him!”
+
+“You must not scold him,” said Mother Snail. “He creeps so carefully; he
+will afford us much pleasure--and we have nothing but him to live for!
+But have you not thought of it? Where shall we get a wife for him? Do
+you not think that there are some of our species at a great distance in
+the interior of the burdock forest?”
+
+“Black snails, I dare say, there are enough of,” said the old one.
+“Black snails without a house--but they are so common, and so conceited.
+But we might give the ants a commission to look out for us; they run
+to and fro as if they had something to do, and they certainly know of a
+wife for our little snail!”
+
+“I know one, sure enough--the most charming one!” said one of the ants.
+“But I am afraid we shall hardly succeed, for she is a queen!”
+
+“That is nothing!” said the old folks. “Has she a house?”
+
+“She has a palace!” said the ant. “The finest ant's palace, with seven
+hundred passages!”
+
+“I thank you!” said Mother Snail. “Our son shall not go into an
+ant-hill; if you know nothing better than that, we shall give the
+commission to the white gnats. They fly far and wide, in rain and
+sunshine; they know the whole forest here, both within and without.”
+
+“We have a wife for him,” said the gnats. “At a hundred human paces from
+here there sits a little snail in her house, on a gooseberry bush; she
+is quite lonely, and old enough to be married. It is only a hundred
+human paces!”
+
+“Well, then, let her come to him!” said the old ones. “He has a whole
+forest of burdocks, she has only a bush!”
+
+And so they went and fetched little Miss Snail. It was a whole week
+before she arrived; but therein was just the very best of it, for one
+could thus see that she was of the same species.
+
+And then the marriage was celebrated. Six earth-worms shone as well as
+they could. In other respects the whole went off very quietly, for the
+old folks could not bear noise and merriment; but old Dame Snail made
+a brilliant speech. Father Snail could not speak, he was too much
+affected; and so they gave them as a dowry and inheritance, the whole
+forest of burdocks, and said--what they had always said--that it was
+the best in the world; and if they lived honestly and decently, and
+increased and multiplied, they and their children would once in the
+course of time come to the manor-house, be boiled black, and laid on
+silver dishes. After this speech was made, the old ones crept into their
+shells, and never more came out. They slept; the young couple governed
+in the forest, and had a numerous progeny, but they were never boiled,
+and never came on the silver dishes; so from this they concluded that
+the manor-house had fallen to ruins, and that all the men in the world
+were extinct; and as no one contradicted them, so, of course it was so.
+And the rain beat on the dock-leaves to make drum-music for their sake,
+and the sun shone in order to give the burdock forest a color for their
+sakes; and they were very happy, and the whole family was happy; for
+they, indeed were so.
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF A MOTHER
+
+A mother sat there with her little child. She was so downcast, so
+afraid that it should die! It was so pale, the small eyes had closed
+themselves, and it drew its breath so softly, now and then, with a
+deep respiration, as if it sighed; and the mother looked still more
+sorrowfully on the little creature.
+
+Then a knocking was heard at the door, and in came a poor old man
+wrapped up as in a large horse-cloth, for it warms one, and he needed
+it, as it was the cold winter season! Everything out-of-doors was
+covered with ice and snow, and the wind blew so that it cut the face.
+
+As the old man trembled with cold, and the little child slept a moment,
+the mother went and poured some ale into a pot and set it on the stove,
+that it might be warm for him; the old man sat and rocked the cradle,
+and the mother sat down on a chair close by him, and looked at her
+little sick child that drew its breath so deep, and raised its little
+hand.
+
+“Do you not think that I shall save him?” said she. “Our Lord will not
+take him from me!”
+
+And the old man--it was Death himself--he nodded so strangely, it could
+just as well signify yes as no. And the mother looked down in her lap,
+and the tears ran down over her cheeks; her head became so heavy--she
+had not closed her eyes for three days and nights; and now she slept,
+but only for a minute, when she started up and trembled with cold.
+
+“What is that?” said she, and looked on all sides; but the old man was
+gone, and her little child was gone--he had taken it with him; and the
+old clock in the corner burred, and burred, the great leaden weight ran
+down to the floor, bump! and then the clock also stood still.
+
+But the poor mother ran out of the house and cried aloud for her child.
+
+Out there, in the midst of the snow, there sat a woman in long, black
+clothes; and she said, “Death has been in thy chamber, and I saw him
+hasten away with thy little child; he goes faster than the wind, and he
+never brings back what he takes!”
+
+“Oh, only tell me which way he went!” said the mother. “Tell me the way,
+and I shall find him!”
+
+“I know it!” said the woman in the black clothes. “But before I tell it,
+thou must first sing for me all the songs thou hast sung for thy child!
+I am fond of them. I have heard them before; I am Night; I saw thy tears
+whilst thou sang'st them!”
+
+“I will sing them all, all!” said the mother. “But do not stop me now--I
+may overtake him--I may find my child!”
+
+But Night stood still and mute. Then the mother wrung her hands, sang
+and wept, and there were many songs, but yet many more tears; and then
+Night said, “Go to the right, into the dark pine forest; thither I saw
+Death take his way with thy little child!”
+
+The roads crossed each other in the depths of the forest, and she no
+longer knew whither she should go! then there stood a thorn-bush;
+there was neither leaf nor flower on it, it was also in the cold winter
+season, and ice-flakes hung on the branches.
+
+“Hast thou not seen Death go past with my little child?” said the
+mother.
+
+“Yes,” said the thorn-bush; “but I will not tell thee which way he took,
+unless thou wilt first warm me up at thy heart. I am freezing to death;
+I shall become a lump of ice!”
+
+And she pressed the thorn-bush to her breast, so firmly, that it might
+be thoroughly warmed, and the thorns went right into her flesh, and her
+blood flowed in large drops, but the thornbush shot forth fresh green
+leaves, and there came flowers on it in the cold winter night, the heart
+of the afflicted mother was so warm; and the thorn-bush told her the way
+she should go.
+
+She then came to a large lake, where there was neither ship nor boat.
+The lake was not frozen sufficiently to bear her; neither was it open,
+nor low enough that she could wade through it; and across it she must go
+if she would find her child! Then she lay down to drink up the lake, and
+that was an impossibility for a human being, but the afflicted mother
+thought that a miracle might happen nevertheless.
+
+“Oh, what would I not give to come to my child!” said the weeping
+mother; and she wept still more, and her eyes sunk down in the depths of
+the waters, and became two precious pearls; but the water bore her up,
+as if she sat in a swing, and she flew in the rocking waves to the shore
+on the opposite side, where there stood a mile-broad, strange house, one
+knew not if it were a mountain with forests and caverns, or if it were
+built up; but the poor mother could not see it; she had wept her eyes
+out.
+
+“Where shall I find Death, who took away my little child?” said she.
+
+“He has not come here yet!” said the old grave woman, who was appointed
+to look after Death's great greenhouse! “How have you been able to find
+the way hither? And who has helped you?”
+
+“OUR LORD has helped me,” said she. “He is merciful, and you will also
+be so! Where shall I find my little child?”
+
+“Nay, I know not,” said the woman, “and you cannot see! Many flowers and
+trees have withered this night; Death will soon come and plant them over
+again! You certainly know that every person has his or her life's tree
+or flower, just as everyone happens to be settled; they look like other
+plants, but they have pulsations of the heart. Children's hearts can
+also beat; go after yours, perhaps you may know your child's; but what
+will you give me if I tell you what you shall do more?”
+
+“I have nothing to give,” said the afflicted mother, “but I will go to
+the world's end for you!”
+
+“Nay, I have nothing to do there!” said the woman. “But you can give
+me your long black hair; you know yourself that it is fine, and that
+I like! You shall have my white hair instead, and that's always
+something!”
+
+“Do you demand nothing else?” said she. “That I will gladly give you!”
+ And she gave her her fine black hair, and got the old woman's snow-white
+hair instead.
+
+So they went into Death's great greenhouse, where flowers and trees
+grew strangely into one another. There stood fine hyacinths under glass
+bells, and there stood strong-stemmed peonies; there grew water plants,
+some so fresh, others half sick, the water-snakes lay down on them,
+and black crabs pinched their stalks. There stood beautiful palm-trees,
+oaks, and plantains; there stood parsley and flowering thyme: every tree
+and every flower had its name; each of them was a human life, the human
+frame still lived--one in China, and another in Greenland--round about
+in the world. There were large trees in small pots, so that they stood
+so stunted in growth, and ready to burst the pots; in other places,
+there was a little dull flower in rich mould, with moss round about it,
+and it was so petted and nursed. But the distressed mother bent down
+over all the smallest plants, and heard within them how the human heart
+beat; and amongst millions she knew her child's.
+
+“There it is!” cried she, and stretched her hands out over a little blue
+crocus, that hung quite sickly on one side.
+
+“Don't touch the flower!” said the old woman. “But place yourself here,
+and when Death comes--I expect him every moment--do not let him pluck
+the flower up, but threaten him that you will do the same with the
+others. Then he will be afraid! He is responsible for them to OUR LORD,
+and no one dares to pluck them up before HE gives leave.”
+
+All at once an icy cold rushed through the great hall, and the blind
+mother could feel that it was Death that came.
+
+“How hast thou been able to find thy way hither?” he asked. “How couldst
+thou come quicker than I?”
+
+“I am a mother,” said she.
+
+And Death stretched out his long hand towards the fine little flower,
+but she held her hands fast around his, so tight, and yet afraid that
+she should touch one of the leaves. Then Death blew on her hands, and
+she felt that it was colder than the cold wind, and her hands fell down
+powerless.
+
+“Thou canst not do anything against me!” said Death.
+
+“But OUR LORD can!” said she.
+
+“I only do His bidding!” said Death. “I am His gardener, I take all His
+flowers and trees, and plant them out in the great garden of Paradise,
+in the unknown land; but how they grow there, and how it is there I dare
+not tell thee.”
+
+“Give me back my child!” said the mother, and she wept and prayed. At
+once she seized hold of two beautiful flowers close by, with each hand,
+and cried out to Death, “I will tear all thy flowers off, for I am in
+despair.”
+
+“Touch them not!” said Death. “Thou say'st that thou art so unhappy, and
+now thou wilt make another mother equally unhappy.”
+
+“Another mother!” said the poor woman, and directly let go her hold of
+both the flowers.
+
+“There, thou hast thine eyes,” said Death; “I fished them up from the
+lake, they shone so bright; I knew not they were thine. Take them again,
+they are now brighter than before; now look down into the deep well
+close by; I shall tell thee the names of the two flowers thou wouldst
+have torn up, and thou wilt see their whole future life--their whole
+human existence: and see what thou wast about to disturb and destroy.”
+
+And she looked down into the well; and it was a happiness to see how the
+one became a blessing to the world, to see how much happiness and joy
+were felt everywhere. And she saw the other's life, and it was sorrow
+and distress, horror, and wretchedness.
+
+“Both of them are God's will!” said Death.
+
+“Which of them is Misfortune's flower and which is that of Happiness?”
+ asked she.
+
+“That I will not tell thee,” said Death; “but this thou shalt know from
+me, that the one flower was thy own child! it was thy child's fate thou
+saw'st--thy own child's future life!”
+
+Then the mother screamed with terror, “Which of them was my child? Tell
+it me! Save the innocent! Save my child from all that misery! Rather
+take it away! Take it into God's kingdom! Forget my tears, forget my
+prayers, and all that I have done!”
+
+“I do not understand thee!” said Death. “Wilt thou have thy child again,
+or shall I go with it there, where thou dost not know!”
+
+Then the mother wrung her hands, fell on her knees, and prayed to our
+Lord: “Oh, hear me not when I pray against Thy will, which is the best!
+hear me not! hear me not!”
+
+And she bowed her head down in her lap, and Death took her child and
+went with it into the unknown land.
+
+
+
+
+THE FALSE COLLAR
+
+There was once a fine gentleman, all of whose moveables were a boot-jack
+and a hair-comb: but he had the finest false collars in the world; and
+it is about one of these collars that we are now to hear a story.
+
+It was so old, that it began to think of marriage; and it happened that
+it came to be washed in company with a garter.
+
+“Nay!” said the collar. “I never did see anything so slender and so
+fine, so soft and so neat. May I not ask your name?”
+
+“That I shall not tell you!” said the garter.
+
+“Where do you live?” asked the collar.
+
+But the garter was so bashful, so modest, and thought it was a strange
+question to answer.
+
+“You are certainly a girdle,” said the collar; “that is to say an inside
+girdle. I see well that you are both for use and ornament, my dear young
+lady.”
+
+“I will thank you not to speak to me,” said the garter. “I think I have
+not given the least occasion for it.”
+
+“Yes! When one is as handsome as you,” said the collar, “that is
+occasion enough.”
+
+“Don't come so near me, I beg of you!” said the garter. “You look so
+much like those men-folks.”
+
+“I am also a fine gentleman,” said the collar. “I have a bootjack and a
+hair-comb.”
+
+But that was not true, for it was his master who had them: but he
+boasted.
+
+“Don't come so near me,” said the garter: “I am not accustomed to it.”
+
+“Prude!” exclaimed the collar; and then it was taken out of the
+washing-tub. It was starched, hung over the back of a chair in the
+sunshine, and was then laid on the ironing-blanket; then came the warm
+box-iron. “Dear lady!” said the collar. “Dear widow-lady! I feel quite
+hot. I am quite changed. I begin to unfold myself. You will burn a hole
+in me. Oh! I offer you my hand.”
+
+“Rag!” said the box-iron; and went proudly over the collar: for she
+fancied she was a steam-engine, that would go on the railroad and draw
+the waggons. “Rag!” said the box-iron.
+
+The collar was a little jagged at the edge, and so came the long
+scissors to cut off the jagged part. “Oh!” said the collar. “You are
+certainly the first opera dancer. How well you can stretch your legs
+out! It is the most graceful performance I have ever seen. No one can
+imitate you.”
+
+“I know it,” said the scissors.
+
+“You deserve to be a baroness,” said the collar. “All that I have is a
+fine gentleman, a boot-jack, and a hair-comb. If I only had the barony!”
+
+“Do you seek my hand?” said the scissors; for she was angry; and without
+more ado, she CUT HIM, and then he was condemned.
+
+“I shall now be obliged to ask the hair-comb. It is surprising how well
+you preserve your teeth, Miss,” said the collar. “Have you never thought
+of being betrothed?”
+
+“Yes, of course! you may be sure of that,” said the hair-comb. “I AM
+betrothed--to the boot-jack!”
+
+“Betrothed!” exclaimed the collar. Now there was no other to court, and
+so he despised it.
+
+A long time passed away, then the collar came into the rag chest at the
+paper mill; there was a large company of rags, the fine by themselves,
+and the coarse by themselves, just as it should be. They all had much to
+say, but the collar the most; for he was a real boaster.
+
+“I have had such an immense number of sweethearts!” said the collar.
+“I could not be in peace! It is true, I was always a fine starched-up
+gentleman! I had both a boot-jack and a hair-comb, which I never used!
+You should have seen me then, you should have seen me when I lay down!
+I shall never forget MY FIRST LOVE--she was a girdle, so fine, so soft,
+and so charming, she threw herself into a tub of water for my sake!
+There was also a widow, who became glowing hot, but I left her standing
+till she got black again; there was also the first opera dancer, she
+gave me that cut which I now go with, she was so ferocious! My
+own hair-comb was in love with me, she lost all her teeth from the
+heart-ache; yes, I have lived to see much of that sort of thing; but I
+am extremely sorry for the garter--I mean the girdle--that went into the
+water-tub. I have much on my conscience, I want to become white paper!”
+
+And it became so, all the rags were turned into white paper; but the
+collar came to be just this very piece of white paper we here see,
+and on which the story is printed; and that was because it boasted so
+terribly afterwards of what had never happened to it. It would be well
+for us to beware, that we may not act in a similar manner, for we can
+never know if we may not, in the course of time, also come into the
+rag chest, and be made into white paper, and then have our whole life's
+history printed on it, even the most secret, and be obliged to run about
+and tell it ourselves, just like this collar.
+
+
+
+
+THE SHADOW
+
+It is in the hot lands that the sun burns, sure enough! there the people
+become quite a mahogany brown, ay, and in the HOTTEST lands they are
+burnt to Negroes. But now it was only to the HOT lands that a learned
+man had come from the cold; there he thought that he could run about
+just as when at home, but he soon found out his mistake.
+
+He, and all sensible folks, were obliged to stay within doors--the
+window-shutters and doors were closed the whole day; it looked as if the
+whole house slept, or there was no one at home.
+
+The narrow street with the high houses, was built so that the sunshine
+must fall there from morning till evening--it was really not to be
+borne.
+
+The learned man from the cold lands--he was a young man, and seemed to
+be a clever man--sat in a glowing oven; it took effect on him, he became
+quite meagre--even his shadow shrunk in, for the sun had also an effect
+on it. It was first towards evening when the sun was down, that they
+began to freshen up again.
+
+In the warm lands every window has a balcony, and the people came out on
+all the balconies in the street--for one must have air, even if one be
+accustomed to be mahogany!* It was lively both up and down the
+street. Tailors, and shoemakers, and all the folks, moved out into the
+street--chairs and tables were brought forth--and candles burnt--yes,
+above a thousand lights were burning--and the one talked and the other
+sung; and people walked and church-bells rang, and asses went along with
+a dingle-dingle-dong! for they too had bells on. The street boys were
+screaming and hooting, and shouting and shooting, with devils and
+detonating balls--and there came corpse bearers and hood wearers--for
+there were funerals with psalm and hymn--and then the din of carriages
+driving and company arriving: yes, it was, in truth, lively enough down
+in the street. Only in that single house, which stood opposite that in
+which the learned foreigner lived, it was quite still; and yet some one
+lived there, for there stood flowers in the balcony--they grew so
+well in the sun's heat! and that they could not do unless they were
+watered--and some one must water them--there must be somebody there.
+The door opposite was also opened late in the evening, but it was dark
+within, at least in the front room; further in there was heard the sound
+of music. The learned foreigner thought it quite marvellous, but now--it
+might be that he only imagined it--for he found everything marvellous
+out there, in the warm lands, if there had only been no sun. The
+stranger's landlord said that he didn't know who had taken the house
+opposite, one saw no person about, and as to the music, it appeared
+to him to be extremely tiresome. “It is as if some one sat there, and
+practised a piece that he could not master--always the same piece. 'I
+shall master it!' says he; but yet he cannot master it, however long he
+plays.”
+
+* The word mahogany can be understood, in Danish, as having two
+meanings. In general, it means the reddish-brown wood itself; but in
+jest, it signifies “excessively fine,” which arose from an anecdote of
+Nyboder, in Copenhagen, (the seamen's quarter.) A sailor's wife, who was
+always proud and fine, in her way, came to her neighbor, and complained
+that she had got a splinter in her finger. “What of?” asked the
+neighbor's wife. “It is a mahogany splinter,” said the other. “Mahogany!
+It cannot be less with you!” exclaimed the woman--and thence the
+proverb, “It is so mahogany!”--(that is, so excessively fine)--is
+derived.
+
+
+One night the stranger awoke--he slept with the doors of the balcony
+open--the curtain before it was raised by the wind, and he thought
+that a strange lustre came from the opposite neighbor's house; all the
+flowers shone like flames, in the most beautiful colors, and in the
+midst of the flowers stood a slender, graceful maiden--it was as if she
+also shone; the light really hurt his eyes. He now opened them quite
+wide--yes, he was quite awake; with one spring he was on the floor; he
+crept gently behind the curtain, but the maiden was gone; the flowers
+shone no longer, but there they stood, fresh and blooming as ever;
+the door was ajar, and, far within, the music sounded so soft and
+delightful, one could really melt away in sweet thoughts from it. Yet
+it was like a piece of enchantment. And who lived there? Where was the
+actual entrance? The whole of the ground-floor was a row of shops, and
+there people could not always be running through.
+
+One evening the stranger sat out on the balcony. The light burnt in the
+room behind him; and thus it was quite natural that his shadow should
+fall on his opposite neighbor's wall. Yes! there it sat, directly
+opposite, between the flowers on the balcony; and when the stranger
+moved, the shadow also moved: for that it always does.
+
+“I think my shadow is the only living thing one sees over there,” said
+the learned man. “See, how nicely it sits between the flowers. The door
+stands half-open: now the shadow should be cunning, and go into the
+room, look about, and then come and tell me what it had seen. Come, now!
+Be useful, and do me a service,” said he, in jest. “Have the kindness to
+step in. Now! Art thou going?” and then he nodded to the shadow, and the
+shadow nodded again. “Well then, go! But don't stay away.”
+
+The stranger rose, and his shadow on the opposite neighbor's balcony
+rose also; the stranger turned round and the shadow also turned round.
+Yes! if anyone had paid particular attention to it, they would have
+seen, quite distinctly, that the shadow went in through the half-open
+balcony-door of their opposite neighbor, just as the stranger went into
+his own room, and let the long curtain fall down after him.
+
+Next morning, the learned man went out to drink coffee and read the
+newspapers.
+
+“What is that?” said he, as he came out into the sunshine. “I have no
+shadow! So then, it has actually gone last night, and not come again. It
+is really tiresome!”
+
+This annoyed him: not so much because the shadow was gone, but because
+he knew there was a story about a man without a shadow.* It was known
+to everybody at home, in the cold lands; and if the learned man now came
+there and told his story, they would say that he was imitating it, and
+that he had no need to do. He would, therefore, not talk about it at
+all; and that was wisely thought.
+
+*Peter Schlemihl, the shadowless man.
+
+
+In the evening he went out again on the balcony. He had placed the light
+directly behind him, for he knew that the shadow would always have its
+master for a screen, but he could not entice it. He made himself little;
+he made himself great: but no shadow came again. He said, “Hem! hem!”
+ but it was of no use.
+
+It was vexatious; but in the warm lands everything grows so quickly; and
+after the lapse of eight days he observed, to his great joy, that a new
+shadow came in the sunshine. In the course of three weeks he had a very
+fair shadow, which, when he set out for his home in the northern lands,
+grew more and more in the journey, so that at last it was so long and so
+large, that it was more than sufficient.
+
+The learned man then came home, and he wrote books about what was true
+in the world, and about what was good and what was beautiful; and there
+passed days and years--yes! many years passed away.
+
+One evening, as he was sitting in his room, there was a gentle knocking
+at the door.
+
+“Come in!” said he; but no one came in; so he opened the door, and there
+stood before him such an extremely lean man, that he felt quite strange.
+As to the rest, the man was very finely dressed--he must be a gentleman.
+
+“Whom have I the honor of speaking?” asked the learned man.
+
+“Yes! I thought as much,” said the fine man. “I thought you would not
+know me. I have got so much body. I have even got flesh and clothes. You
+certainly never thought of seeing me so well off. Do you not know your
+old shadow? You certainly thought I should never more return. Things
+have gone on well with me since I was last with you. I have, in all
+respects, become very well off. Shall I purchase my freedom from
+service? If so, I can do it”; and then he rattled a whole bunch of
+valuable seals that hung to his watch, and he stuck his hand in the
+thick gold chain he wore around his neck--nay! how all his fingers
+glittered with diamond rings; and then all were pure gems.
+
+“Nay; I cannot recover from my surprise!” said the learned man. “What is
+the meaning of all this?”
+
+“Something common, is it not,” said the shadow. “But you yourself do not
+belong to the common order; and I, as you know well, have from a child
+followed in your footsteps. As soon as you found I was capable to go
+out alone in the world, I went my own way. I am in the most brilliant
+circumstances, but there came a sort of desire over me to see you once
+more before you die; you will die, I suppose? I also wished to see this
+land again--for you know we always love our native land. I know you have
+got another shadow again; have I anything to pay to it or you? If so,
+you will oblige me by saying what it is.”
+
+“Nay, is it really thou?” said the learned man. “It is most remarkable:
+I never imagined that one's old shadow could come again as a man.”
+
+“Tell me what I have to pay,” said the shadow; “for I don't like to be
+in any sort of debt.”
+
+“How canst thou talk so?” said the learned man. “What debt is there to
+talk about? Make thyself as free as anyone else. I am extremely glad to
+hear of thy good fortune: sit down, old friend, and tell me a little
+how it has gone with thee, and what thou hast seen at our opposite
+neighbor's there--in the warm lands.”
+
+“Yes, I will tell you all about it,” said the shadow, and sat down: “but
+then you must also promise me, that, wherever you may meet me, you will
+never say to anyone here in the town that I have been your shadow. I
+intend to get betrothed, for I can provide for more than one family.”
+
+“Be quite at thy ease about that,” said the learned man; “I shall not
+say to anyone who thou actually art: here is my hand--I promise it, and
+a man's bond is his word.”
+
+“A word is a shadow,” said the shadow, “and as such it must speak.”
+
+It was really quite astonishing how much of a man it was. It was dressed
+entirely in black, and of the very finest cloth; it had patent leather
+boots, and a hat that could be folded together, so that it was bare
+crown and brim; not to speak of what we already know it had--seals, gold
+neck-chain, and diamond rings; yes, the shadow was well-dressed, and it
+was just that which made it quite a man.
+
+“Now I shall tell you my adventures,” said the shadow; and then he
+sat, with the polished boots, as heavily as he could, on the arm of the
+learned man's new shadow, which lay like a poodle-dog at his feet.
+Now this was perhaps from arrogance; and the shadow on the ground kept
+itself so still and quiet, that it might hear all that passed: it wished
+to know how it could get free, and work its way up, so as to become its
+own master.
+
+“Do you know who lived in our opposite neighbor's house?” said the
+shadow. “It was the most charming of all beings, it was Poesy! I was
+there for three weeks, and that has as much effect as if one had lived
+three thousand years, and read all that was composed and written;
+that is what I say, and it is right. I have seen everything and I know
+everything!”
+
+“Poesy!” cried the learned man. “Yes, yes, she often dwells a recluse
+in large cities! Poesy! Yes, I have seen her--a single short moment,
+but sleep came into my eyes! She stood on the balcony and shone as the
+Aurora Borealis shines. Go on, go on--thou wert on the balcony, and went
+through the doorway, and then--”
+
+“Then I was in the antechamber,” said the shadow. “You always sat and
+looked over to the antechamber. There was no light; there was a sort
+of twilight, but the one door stood open directly opposite the other
+through a long row of rooms and saloons, and there it was lighted up. I
+should have been completely killed if I had gone over to the maiden; but
+I was circumspect, I took time to think, and that one must always do.”
+
+“And what didst thou then see?” asked the learned man.
+
+“I saw everything, and I shall tell all to you: but--it is no pride on
+my part--as a free man, and with the knowledge I have, not to speak of
+my position in life, my excellent circumstances--I certainly wish that
+you would say YOU* to me!”
+
+* It is the custom in Denmark for intimate acquaintances to use the
+second person singular, “Du,” (thou) when speaking to each other. When
+a friendship is formed between men, they generally affirm it, when
+occasion offers, either in public or private, by drinking to each other
+and exclaiming, “thy health,” at the same time striking their glasses
+together. This is called drinking “Duus”: they are then, “Duus Brodre,”
+ (thou brothers) and ever afterwards use the pronoun “thou,” to each
+other, it being regarded as more familiar than “De,” (you). Father and
+mother, sister and brother say thou to one another--without regard to
+age or rank. Master and mistress say thou to their servants the superior
+to the inferior. But servants and inferiors do not use the same term
+to their masters, or superiors--nor is it ever used when speaking to a
+stranger, or anyone with whom they are but slightly acquainted--they
+then say as in English--you.
+
+
+“I beg your pardon,” said the learned man; “it is an old habit with me.
+YOU are perfectly right, and I shall remember it; but now you must tell
+me all YOU saw!”
+
+“Everything!” said the shadow. “For I saw everything, and I know
+everything!”
+
+“How did it look in the furthest saloon?” asked the learned man. “Was it
+there as in the fresh woods? Was it there as in a holy church? Were the
+saloons like the starlit firmament when we stand on the high mountains?”
+
+“Everything was there!” said the shadow. “I did not go quite in, I
+remained in the foremost room, in the twilight, but I stood there
+quite well; I saw everything, and I know everything! I have been in the
+antechamber at the court of Poesy.”
+
+“But WHAT DID you see? Did all the gods of the olden times pass through
+the large saloons? Did the old heroes combat there? Did sweet children
+play there, and relate their dreams?”
+
+“I tell you I was there, and you can conceive that I saw everything
+there was to be seen. Had you come over there, you would not have been
+a man; but I became so! And besides, I learned to know my inward nature,
+my innate qualities, the relationship I had with Poesy. At the time I
+was with you, I thought not of that, but always--you know it well--when
+the sun rose, and when the sun went down, I became so strangely great;
+in the moonlight I was very near being more distinct than yourself; at
+that time I did not understand my nature; it was revealed to me in the
+antechamber! I became a man! I came out matured; but you were no longer
+in the warm lands; as a man I was ashamed to go as I did. I was in
+want of boots, of clothes, of the whole human varnish that makes a man
+perceptible. I took my way--I tell it to you, but you will not put it in
+any book--I took my way to the cake woman--I hid myself behind her;
+the woman didn't think how much she concealed. I went out first in the
+evening; I ran about the streets in the moonlight; I made myself long up
+the walls--it tickles the back so delightfully! I ran up, and ran down,
+peeped into the highest windows, into the saloons, and on the roofs, I
+peeped in where no one could peep, and I saw what no one else saw, what
+no one else should see! This is, in fact, a base world! I would not be a
+man if it were not now once accepted and regarded as something to be so!
+I saw the most unimaginable things with the women, with the men, with
+parents, and with the sweet, matchless children; I saw,” said the
+shadow, “what no human being must know, but what they would all
+so willingly know--what is bad in their neighbor. Had I written a
+newspaper, it would have been read! But I wrote direct to the persons
+themselves, and there was consternation in all the towns where I came.
+They were so afraid of me, and yet they were so excessively fond of
+me. The professors made a professor of me; the tailors gave me new
+clothes--I am well furnished; the master of the mint struck new coin for
+me, and the women said I was so handsome! And so I became the man I am.
+And I now bid you farewell. Here is my card--I live on the sunny side
+of the street, and am always at home in rainy weather!” And so away went
+the shadow. “That was most extraordinary!” said the learned man. Years
+and days passed away, then the shadow came again. “How goes it?” said
+the shadow.
+
+“Alas!” said the learned man. “I write about the true, and the good,
+and the beautiful, but no one cares to hear such things; I am quite
+desperate, for I take it so much to heart!”
+
+“But I don't!” said the shadow. “I become fat, and it is that one wants
+to become! You do not understand the world. You will become ill by it.
+You must travel! I shall make a tour this summer; will you go with me?
+I should like to have a travelling companion! Will you go with me, as
+shadow? It will be a great pleasure for me to have you with me; I shall
+pay the travelling expenses!”
+
+“Nay, this is too much!” said the learned man.
+
+“It is just as one takes it!” said the shadow. “It will do you much good
+to travel! Will you be my shadow? You shall have everything free on the
+journey!”
+
+“Nay, that is too bad!” said the learned man.
+
+“But it is just so with the world!” said the shadow, “and so it will
+be!” and away it went again.
+
+The learned man was not at all in the most enviable state; grief and
+torment followed him, and what he said about the true, and the good, and
+the beautiful, was, to most persons, like roses for a cow! He was quite
+ill at last.
+
+“You really look like a shadow!” said his friends to him; and the
+learned man trembled, for he thought of it.
+
+“You must go to a watering-place!” said the shadow, who came and visited
+him. “There is nothing else for it! I will take you with me for old
+acquaintance' sake; I will pay the travelling expenses, and you write
+the descriptions--and if they are a little amusing for me on the way!
+I will go to a watering-place--my beard does not grow out as it
+ought--that is also a sickness--and one must have a beard! Now you be
+wise and accept the offer; we shall travel as comrades!”
+
+And so they travelled; the shadow was master, and the master was the
+shadow; they drove with each other, they rode and walked together, side
+by side, before and behind, just as the sun was; the shadow always took
+care to keep itself in the master's place. Now the learned man didn't
+think much about that; he was a very kind-hearted man, and particularly
+mild and friendly, and so he said one day to the shadow: “As we have
+now become companions, and in this way have grown up together from
+childhood, shall we not drink 'thou' together, it is more familiar?”
+
+“You are right,” said the shadow, who was now the proper master. “It is
+said in a very straight-forward and well-meant manner. You, as a learned
+man, certainly know how strange nature is. Some persons cannot bear to
+touch grey paper, or they become ill; others shiver in every limb if one
+rub a pane of glass with a nail: I have just such a feeling on hearing
+you say thou to me; I feel myself as if pressed to the earth in my first
+situation with you. You see that it is a feeling; that it is not pride:
+I cannot allow you to say THOU to me, but I will willingly say THOU to
+you, so it is half done!”
+
+So the shadow said THOU to its former master.
+
+“This is rather too bad,” thought he, “that I must say YOU and he say
+THOU,” but he was now obliged to put up with it.
+
+So they came to a watering-place where there were many strangers, and
+amongst them was a princess, who was troubled with seeing too well; and
+that was so alarming!
+
+She directly observed that the stranger who had just come was quite a
+different sort of person to all the others; “He has come here in order
+to get his beard to grow, they say, but I see the real cause, he cannot
+cast a shadow.”
+
+She had become inquisitive; and so she entered into conversation
+directly with the strange gentleman, on their promenades. As the
+daughter of a king, she needed not to stand upon trifles, so she said,
+“Your complaint is, that you cannot cast a shadow?”
+
+“Your Royal Highness must be improving considerably,” said the shadow,
+“I know your complaint is, that you see too clearly, but it has
+decreased, you are cured. I just happen to have a very unusual shadow!
+Do you not see that person who always goes with me? Other persons have
+a common shadow, but I do not like what is common to all. We give our
+servants finer cloth for their livery than we ourselves use, and so I
+had my shadow trimmed up into a man: yes, you see I have even given him
+a shadow. It is somewhat expensive, but I like to have something for
+myself!”
+
+“What!” thought the princess. “Should I really be cured! These baths are
+the first in the world! In our time water has wonderful powers. But I
+shall not leave the place, for it now begins to be amusing here. I am
+extremely fond of that stranger: would that his beard should not grow,
+for in that case he will leave us!”
+
+In the evening, the princess and the shadow danced together in the large
+ball-room. She was light, but he was still lighter; she had never had
+such a partner in the dance. She told him from what land she came, and
+he knew that land; he had been there, but then she was not at home; he
+had peeped in at the window, above and below--he had seen both the
+one and the other, and so he could answer the princess, and make
+insinuations, so that she was quite astonished; he must be the wisest
+man in the whole world! She felt such respect for what he knew! So that
+when they again danced together she fell in love with him; and that the
+shadow could remark, for she almost pierced him through with her eyes.
+So they danced once more together; and she was about to declare herself,
+but she was discreet; she thought of her country and kingdom, and of the
+many persons she would have to reign over.
+
+“He is a wise man,” said she to herself--“It is well; and he dances
+delightfully--that is also good; but has he solid knowledge? That is
+just as important! He must be examined.”
+
+So she began, by degrees, to question him about the most difficult
+things she could think of, and which she herself could not have
+answered; so that the shadow made a strange face.
+
+“You cannot answer these questions?” said the princess.
+
+“They belong to my childhood's learning,” said the shadow. “I really
+believe my shadow, by the door there, can answer them!”
+
+“Your shadow!” said the princess. “That would indeed be marvellous!”
+
+“I will not say for a certainty that he can,” said the shadow, “but I
+think so; he has now followed me for so many years, and listened to my
+conversation--I should think it possible. But your royal highness will
+permit me to observe, that he is so proud of passing himself off for
+a man, that when he is to be in a proper humor--and he must be so to
+answer well--he must be treated quite like a man.”
+
+“Oh! I like that!” said the princess.
+
+So she went to the learned man by the door, and she spoke to him about
+the sun and the moon, and about persons out of and in the world, and he
+answered with wisdom and prudence.
+
+“What a man that must be who has so wise a shadow!” thought she. “It
+will be a real blessing to my people and kingdom if I choose him for my
+consort--I will do it!”
+
+They were soon agreed, both the princess and the shadow; but no one was
+to know about it before she arrived in her own kingdom.
+
+“No one--not even my shadow!” said the shadow, and he had his own
+thoughts about it!
+
+Now they were in the country where the princess reigned when she was at
+home.
+
+“Listen, my good friend,” said the shadow to the learned man. “I have
+now become as happy and mighty as anyone can be; I will, therefore, do
+something particular for thee! Thou shalt always live with me in the
+palace, drive with me in my royal carriage, and have ten thousand
+pounds a year; but then thou must submit to be called SHADOW by all and
+everyone; thou must not say that thou hast ever been a man; and once
+a year, when I sit on the balcony in the sunshine, thou must lie at my
+feet, as a shadow shall do! I must tell thee: I am going to marry the
+king's daughter, and the nuptials are to take place this evening!”
+
+“Nay, this is going too far!” said the learned man. “I will not have it;
+I will not do it! It is to deceive the whole country and the princess
+too! I will tell everything! That I am a man, and that thou art a
+shadow--thou art only dressed up!”
+
+“There is no one who will believe it!” said the shadow. “Be reasonable,
+or I will call the guard!”
+
+“I will go directly to the princess!” said the learned man.
+
+“But I will go first!” said the shadow. “And thou wilt go to prison!”
+ and that he was obliged to do--for the sentinels obeyed him whom they
+knew the king's daughter was to marry.
+
+“You tremble!” said the princess, as the shadow came into her chamber.
+“Has anything happened? You must not be unwell this evening, now that we
+are to have our nuptials celebrated.”
+
+“I have lived to see the most cruel thing that anyone can live to
+see!” said the shadow. “Only imagine--yes, it is true, such a poor
+shadow-skull cannot bear much--only think, my shadow has become mad;
+he thinks that he is a man, and that I--now only think--that I am his
+shadow!”
+
+“It is terrible!” said the princess; “but he is confined, is he not?”
+
+“That he is. I am afraid that he will never recover.”
+
+“Poor shadow!” said the princess. “He is very unfortunate; it would be
+a real work of charity to deliver him from the little life he has, and,
+when I think properly over the matter, I am of opinion that it will be
+necessary to do away with him in all stillness!”
+
+“It is certainly hard,” said the shadow, “for he was a faithful
+servant!” and then he gave a sort of sigh.
+
+“You are a noble character!” said the princess.
+
+The whole city was illuminated in the evening, and the cannons went off
+with a bum! bum! and the soldiers presented arms. That was a marriage!
+The princess and the shadow went out on the balcony to show themselves,
+and get another hurrah!
+
+The learned man heard nothing of all this--for they had deprived him of
+life.
+
+
+
+
+THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL
+
+Most terribly cold it was; it snowed, and was nearly quite dark, and
+evening--the last evening of the year. In this cold and darkness there
+went along the street a poor little girl, bareheaded, and with naked
+feet. When she left home she had slippers on, it is true; but what was
+the good of that? They were very large slippers, which her mother had
+hitherto worn; so large were they; and the poor little thing lost them
+as she scuffled away across the street, because of two carriages that
+rolled by dreadfully fast.
+
+One slipper was nowhere to be found; the other had been laid hold of by
+an urchin, and off he ran with it; he thought it would do capitally for
+a cradle when he some day or other should have children himself. So the
+little maiden walked on with her tiny naked feet, that were quite red
+and blue from cold. She carried a quantity of matches in an old apron,
+and she held a bundle of them in her hand. Nobody had bought anything of
+her the whole livelong day; no one had given her a single farthing.
+
+She crept along trembling with cold and hunger--a very picture of
+sorrow, the poor little thing!
+
+The flakes of snow covered her long fair hair, which fell in beautiful
+curls around her neck; but of that, of course, she never once now
+thought. From all the windows the candles were gleaming, and it smelt so
+deliciously of roast goose, for you know it was New Year's Eve; yes, of
+that she thought.
+
+In a corner formed by two houses, of which one advanced more than the
+other, she seated herself down and cowered together. Her little feet
+she had drawn close up to her, but she grew colder and colder, and to go
+home she did not venture, for she had not sold any matches and could
+not bring a farthing of money: from her father she would certainly get
+blows, and at home it was cold too, for above her she had only the roof,
+through which the wind whistled, even though the largest cracks were
+stopped up with straw and rags.
+
+Her little hands were almost numbed with cold. Oh! a match might afford
+her a world of comfort, if she only dared take a single one out of the
+bundle, draw it against the wall, and warm her fingers by it. She drew
+one out. “Rischt!” how it blazed, how it burnt! It was a warm, bright
+flame, like a candle, as she held her hands over it: it was a wonderful
+light. It seemed really to the little maiden as though she were sitting
+before a large iron stove, with burnished brass feet and a brass
+ornament at top. The fire burned with such blessed influence; it warmed
+so delightfully. The little girl had already stretched out her feet to
+warm them too; but--the small flame went out, the stove vanished: she
+had only the remains of the burnt-out match in her hand.
+
+She rubbed another against the wall: it burned brightly, and where the
+light fell on the wall, there the wall became transparent like a
+veil, so that she could see into the room. On the table was spread a
+snow-white tablecloth; upon it was a splendid porcelain service, and the
+roast goose was steaming famously with its stuffing of apple and dried
+plums. And what was still more capital to behold was, the goose hopped
+down from the dish, reeled about on the floor with knife and fork in its
+breast, till it came up to the poor little girl; when--the match went
+out and nothing but the thick, cold, damp wall was left behind.
+She lighted another match. Now there she was sitting under the most
+magnificent Christmas tree: it was still larger, and more decorated than
+the one which she had seen through the glass door in the rich merchant's
+house.
+
+Thousands of lights were burning on the green branches, and
+gaily-colored pictures, such as she had seen in the shop-windows, looked
+down upon her. The little maiden stretched out her hands towards them
+when--the match went out. The lights of the Christmas tree rose higher
+and higher, she saw them now as stars in heaven; one fell down and
+formed a long trail of fire.
+
+“Someone is just dead!” said the little girl; for her old grandmother,
+the only person who had loved her, and who was now no more, had told
+her, that when a star falls, a soul ascends to God.
+
+She drew another match against the wall: it was again light, and in the
+lustre there stood the old grandmother, so bright and radiant, so mild,
+and with such an expression of love.
+
+“Grandmother!” cried the little one. “Oh, take me with you! You go
+away when the match burns out; you vanish like the warm stove, like the
+delicious roast goose, and like the magnificent Christmas tree!” And
+she rubbed the whole bundle of matches quickly against the wall, for
+she wanted to be quite sure of keeping her grandmother near her. And
+the matches gave such a brilliant light that it was brighter than at
+noon-day: never formerly had the grandmother been so beautiful and
+so tall. She took the little maiden, on her arm, and both flew in
+brightness and in joy so high, so very high, and then above was neither
+cold, nor hunger, nor anxiety--they were with God.
+
+But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with
+rosy cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the wall--frozen
+to death on the last evening of the old year. Stiff and stark sat the
+child there with her matches, of which one bundle had been burnt. “She
+wanted to warm herself,” people said. No one had the slightest suspicion
+of what beautiful things she had seen; no one even dreamed of the
+splendor in which, with her grandmother she had entered on the joys of a
+new year.
+
+
+
+
+THE DREAM OF LITTLE TUK
+
+Ah! yes, that was little Tuk: in reality his name was not Tuk, but that
+was what he called himself before he could speak plain: he meant it for
+Charles, and it is all well enough if one does but know it. He had now
+to take care of his little sister Augusta, who was much younger than
+himself, and he was, besides, to learn his lesson at the same time; but
+these two things would not do together at all. There sat the poor little
+fellow, with his sister on his lap, and he sang to her all the songs he
+knew; and he glanced the while from time to time into the geography-book
+that lay open before him. By the next morning he was to have learnt
+all the towns in Zealand by heart, and to know about them all that is
+possible to be known.
+
+His mother now came home, for she had been out, and took little Augusta
+on her arm. Tuk ran quickly to the window, and read so eagerly that he
+pretty nearly read his eyes out; for it got darker and darker, but his
+mother had no money to buy a candle.
+
+“There goes the old washerwoman over the way,” said his mother, as she
+looked out of the window. “The poor woman can hardly drag herself along,
+and she must now drag the pail home from the fountain. Be a good boy,
+Tukey, and run across and help the old woman, won't you?”
+
+So Tuk ran over quickly and helped her; but when he came back again into
+the room it was quite dark, and as to a light, there was no thought of
+such a thing. He was now to go to bed; that was an old turn-up bedstead;
+in it he lay and thought about his geography lesson, and of Zealand, and
+of all that his master had told him. He ought, to be sure, to have read
+over his lesson again, but that, you know, he could not do. He therefore
+put his geography-book under his pillow, because he had heard that was
+a very good thing to do when one wants to learn one's lesson; but one
+cannot, however, rely upon it entirely. Well, there he lay, and thought
+and thought, and all at once it was just as if someone kissed his eyes
+and mouth: he slept, and yet he did not sleep; it was as though the old
+washerwoman gazed on him with her mild eyes and said, “It were a great
+sin if you were not to know your lesson tomorrow morning. You have aided
+me, I therefore will now help you; and the loving God will do so at all
+times.” And all of a sudden the book under Tuk's pillow began scraping
+and scratching.
+
+“Kickery-ki! kluk! kluk! kluk!”--that was an old hen who came creeping
+along, and she was from Kjoge. “I am a Kjoger hen,” [*] said she, and then
+she related how many inhabitants there were there, and about the battle
+that had taken place, and which, after all, was hardly worth talking
+about.
+
+     * Kjoge, a town in the bay of Kjoge. “To see the Kjoge
+     hens,” is an expression similar to “showing a child London,”
+      which is said to be done by taking his head in both bands,
+     and so lifting him off the ground. At the invasion of the
+     English in 1807, an encounter of a no very glorious nature
+     took place between the British troops and the undisciplined
+     Danish militia.
+
+“Kribledy, krabledy--plump!” down fell somebody: it was a wooden bird,
+the popinjay used at the shooting-matches at Prastoe. Now he said that
+there were just as many inhabitants as he had nails in his body; and he
+was very proud. “Thorwaldsen lived almost next door to me.* Plump! Here
+I lie capitally.”
+
+* Prastoe, a still smaller town than Kjoge. Some hundred paces from
+it lies the manor-house Ny Soe, where Thorwaldsen, the famed sculptor,
+generally sojourned during his stay in Denmark, and where he called many
+of his immortal works into existence.
+
+
+But little Tuk was no longer lying down: all at once he was on
+horseback. On he went at full gallop, still galloping on and on. A
+knight with a gleaming plume, and most magnificently dressed, held him
+before him on the horse, and thus they rode through the wood to the old
+town of Bordingborg, and that was a large and very lively town. High
+towers rose from the castle of the king, and the brightness of many
+candles streamed from all the windows; within was dance and song,
+and King Waldemar and the young, richly-attired maids of honor danced
+together. The morn now came; and as soon as the sun appeared, the whole
+town and the king's palace crumbled together, and one tower after the
+other; and at last only a single one remained standing where the castle
+had been before,* and the town was so small and poor, and the school
+boys came along with their books under their arms, and said, “2000
+inhabitants!” but that was not true, for there were not so many.
+
+*Bordingborg, in the reign of King Waldemar, a considerable place, now
+an unimportant little town. One solitary tower only, and some remains of
+a wall, show where the castle once stood.
+
+
+And little Tukey lay in his bed: it seemed to him as if he dreamed, and
+yet as if he were not dreaming; however, somebody was close beside him.
+
+“Little Tukey! Little Tukey!” cried someone near. It was a seaman,
+quite a little personage, so little as if he were a midshipman; but a
+midshipman it was not.
+
+“Many remembrances from Corsor.* That is a town that is just rising
+into importance; a lively town that has steam-boats and stagecoaches:
+formerly people called it ugly, but that is no longer true. I lie on
+the sea,” said Corsor; “I have high roads and gardens, and I have given
+birth to a poet who was witty and amusing, which all poets are not. I
+once intended to equip a ship that was to sail all round the earth; but
+I did not do it, although I could have done so: and then, too, I smell
+so deliciously, for close before the gate bloom the most beautiful
+roses.”
+
+*Corsor, on the Great Belt, called, formerly, before the introduction
+of steam-vessels, when travellers were often obliged to wait a long time
+for a favorable wind, “the most tiresome of towns.” The poet Baggesen
+was born here.
+
+
+Little Tuk looked, and all was red and green before his eyes; but as
+soon as the confusion of colors was somewhat over, all of a sudden there
+appeared a wooded slope close to the bay, and high up above stood a
+magnificent old church, with two high pointed towers. From out the
+hill-side spouted fountains in thick streams of water, so that there
+was a continual splashing; and close beside them sat an old king with
+a golden crown upon his white head: that was King Hroar, near the
+fountains, close to the town of Roeskilde, as it is now called. And up
+the slope into the old church went all the kings and queens of Denmark,
+hand in hand, all with their golden crowns; and the organ played and
+the fountains rustled. Little Tuk saw all, heard all. “Do not forget the
+diet,” said King Hroar.*
+
+*Roeskilde, once the capital of Denmark. The town takes its name from
+King Hroar, and the many fountains in the neighborhood. In the beautiful
+cathedral the greater number of the kings and queens of Denmark are
+interred. In Roeskilde, too, the members of the Danish Diet assemble.
+
+
+Again all suddenly disappeared. Yes, and whither? It seemed to him
+just as if one turned over a leaf in a book. And now stood there an
+old peasant-woman, who came from Soroe,* where grass grows in the
+market-place. She had an old grey linen apron hanging over her head and
+back: it was so wet, it certainly must have been raining. “Yes, that it
+has,” said she; and she now related many pretty things out of Holberg's
+comedies, and about Waldemar and Absalon; but all at once she cowered
+together, and her head began shaking backwards and forwards, and she
+looked as she were going to make a spring. “Croak! croak!” said she.
+“It is wet, it is wet; there is such a pleasant deathlike stillness in
+Sorbe!” She was now suddenly a frog, “Croak”; and now she was an old
+woman. “One must dress according to the weather,” said she. “It is wet;
+it is wet. My town is just like a bottle; and one gets in by the neck,
+and by the neck one must get out again! In former times I had the
+finest fish, and now I have fresh rosy-cheeked boys at the bottom of the
+bottle, who learn wisdom, Hebrew, Greek--Croak!”
+
+* Sorbe, a very quiet little town, beautifully situated, surrounded by
+woods and lakes. Holberg, Denmark's Moliere, founded here an academy
+for the sons of the nobles. The poets Hauch and Ingemann were appointed
+professors here. The latter lives there still.
+
+
+When she spoke it sounded just like the noise of frogs, or as if one
+walked with great boots over a moor; always the same tone, so uniform
+and so tiring that little Tuk fell into a good sound sleep, which, by
+the bye, could not do him any harm.
+
+But even in this sleep there came a dream, or whatever else it was: his
+little sister Augusta, she with the blue eyes and the fair curling hair,
+was suddenly a tall, beautiful girl, and without having wings was yet
+able to fly; and she now flew over Zealand--over the green woods and the
+blue lakes.
+
+“Do you hear the cock crow, Tukey? Cock-a-doodle-doo! The cocks are
+flying up from Kjoge! You will have a farm-yard, so large, oh! so very
+large! You will suffer neither hunger nor thirst! You will get on in the
+world! You will be a rich and happy man! Your house will exalt itself
+like King Waldemar's tower, and will be richly decorated with marble
+statues, like that at Prastoe. You understand what I mean. Your name
+shall circulate with renown all round the earth, like unto the ship that
+was to have sailed from Corsor; and in Roeskilde--”
+
+“Do not forget the diet!” said King Hroar.
+
+“Then you will speak well and wisely, little Tukey; and when at last you
+sink into your grave, you shall sleep as quietly--”
+
+“As if I lay in Soroe,” said Tuk, awaking. It was bright day, and he was
+now quite unable to call to mind his dream; that, however, was not at
+all necessary, for one may not know what the future will bring.
+
+And out of bed he jumped, and read in his book, and now all at once he
+knew his whole lesson. And the old washerwoman popped her head in at the
+door, nodded to him friendly, and said, “Thanks, many thanks, my good
+child, for your help! May the good ever-loving God fulfil your loveliest
+dream!”
+
+Little Tukey did not at all know what he had dreamed, but the loving God
+knew it.
+
+
+
+
+THE NAUGHTY BOY
+
+Along time ago, there lived an old poet, a thoroughly kind old poet. As
+he was sitting one evening in his room, a dreadful storm arose without,
+and the rain streamed down from heaven; but the old poet sat warm
+and comfortable in his chimney-corner, where the fire blazed and the
+roasting apple hissed.
+
+“Those who have not a roof over their heads will be wetted to the skin,”
+ said the good old poet.
+
+“Oh let me in! Let me in! I am cold, and I'm so wet!” exclaimed suddenly
+a child that stood crying at the door and knocking for admittance, while
+the rain poured down, and the wind made all the windows rattle.
+
+“Poor thing!” said the old poet, as he went to open the door. There
+stood a little boy, quite naked, and the water ran down from his long
+golden hair; he trembled with cold, and had he not come into a warm room
+he would most certainly have perished in the frightful tempest.
+
+“Poor child!” said the old poet, as he took the boy by the hand. “Come
+in, come in, and I will soon restore thee! Thou shalt have wine and
+roasted apples, for thou art verily a charming child!” And the boy was
+so really. His eyes were like two bright stars; and although the water
+trickled down his hair, it waved in beautiful curls. He looked exactly
+like a little angel, but he was so pale, and his whole body trembled
+with cold. He had a nice little bow in his hand, but it was quite
+spoiled by the rain, and the tints of his many-colored arrows ran one
+into the other.
+
+The old poet seated himself beside his hearth, and took the little
+fellow on his lap; he squeezed the water out of his dripping hair,
+warmed his hands between his own, and boiled for him some sweet wine.
+Then the boy recovered, his cheeks again grew rosy, he jumped down from
+the lap where he was sitting, and danced round the kind old poet.
+
+“You are a merry fellow,” said the old man. “What's your name?”
+
+“My name is Cupid,” answered the boy. “Don't you know me? There lies my
+bow; it shoots well, I can assure you! Look, the weather is now clearing
+up, and the moon is shining clear again through the window.”
+
+“Why, your bow is quite spoiled,” said the old poet.
+
+“That were sad indeed,” said the boy, and he took the bow in his hand
+and examined it on every side. “Oh, it is dry again, and is not hurt at
+all; the string is quite tight. I will try it directly.” And he bent his
+bow, took aim, and shot an arrow at the old poet, right into his heart.
+“You see now that my bow was not spoiled,” said he laughing; and away he
+ran.
+
+The naughty boy, to shoot the old poet in that way; he who had taken him
+into his warm room, who had treated him so kindly, and who had given him
+warm wine and the very best apples!
+
+The poor poet lay on the earth and wept, for the arrow had really flown
+into his heart.
+
+“Fie!” said he. “How naughty a boy Cupid is! I will tell all children
+about him, that they may take care and not play with him, for he will
+only cause them sorrow and many a heartache.”
+
+And all good children to whom he related this story, took great heed
+of this naughty Cupid; but he made fools of them still, for he is
+astonishingly cunning. When the university students come from the
+lectures, he runs beside them in a black coat, and with a book under his
+arm. It is quite impossible for them to know him, and they walk along
+with him arm in arm, as if he, too, were a student like themselves; and
+then, unperceived, he thrusts an arrow to their bosom. When the young
+maidens come from being examined by the clergyman, or go to church to
+be confirmed, there he is again close behind them. Yes, he is forever
+following people. At the play, he sits in the great chandelier and burns
+in bright flames, so that people think it is really a flame, but they
+soon discover it is something else. He roves about in the garden of the
+palace and upon the ramparts: yes, once he even shot your father and
+mother right in the heart. Ask them only and you will hear what they'll
+tell you. Oh, he is a naughty boy, that Cupid; you must never have
+anything to do with him. He is forever running after everybody. Only
+think, he shot an arrow once at your old grandmother! But that is a
+long time ago, and it is all past now; however, a thing of that sort she
+never forgets. Fie, naughty Cupid! But now you know him, and you know,
+too, how ill-behaved he is!
+
+
+
+
+THE RED SHOES
+
+There was once a little girl who was very pretty and delicate, but in
+summer she was forced to run about with bare feet, she was so poor, and
+in winter wear very large wooden shoes, which made her little insteps
+quite red, and that looked so dangerous!
+
+In the middle of the village lived old Dame Shoemaker; she sat and sewed
+together, as well as she could, a little pair of shoes out of old red
+strips of cloth; they were very clumsy, but it was a kind thought. They
+were meant for the little girl. The little girl was called Karen.
+
+On the very day her mother was buried, Karen received the red shoes,
+and wore them for the first time. They were certainly not intended for
+mourning, but she had no others, and with stockingless feet she followed
+the poor straw coffin in them.
+
+Suddenly a large old carriage drove up, and a large old lady sat in it:
+she looked at the little girl, felt compassion for her, and then said to
+the clergyman:
+
+“Here, give me the little girl. I will adopt her!”
+
+And Karen believed all this happened on account of the red shoes, but
+the old lady thought they were horrible, and they were burnt. But Karen
+herself was cleanly and nicely dressed; she must learn to read and sew;
+and people said she was a nice little thing, but the looking-glass said:
+“Thou art more than nice, thou art beautiful!”
+
+Now the queen once travelled through the land, and she had her little
+daughter with her. And this little daughter was a princess, and people
+streamed to the castle, and Karen was there also, and the little
+princess stood in her fine white dress, in a window, and let herself be
+stared at; she had neither a train nor a golden crown, but splendid
+red morocco shoes. They were certainly far handsomer than those Dame
+Shoemaker had made for little Karen. Nothing in the world can be
+compared with red shoes.
+
+Now Karen was old enough to be confirmed; she had new clothes and was to
+have new shoes also. The rich shoemaker in the city took the measure of
+her little foot. This took place at his house, in his room; where stood
+large glass-cases, filled with elegant shoes and brilliant boots. All
+this looked charming, but the old lady could not see well, and so had
+no pleasure in them. In the midst of the shoes stood a pair of red ones,
+just like those the princess had worn. How beautiful they were! The
+shoemaker said also they had been made for the child of a count, but had
+not fitted.
+
+“That must be patent leather!” said the old lady. “They shine so!”
+
+“Yes, they shine!” said Karen, and they fitted, and were bought, but the
+old lady knew nothing about their being red, else she would never have
+allowed Karen to have gone in red shoes to be confirmed. Yet such was
+the case.
+
+Everybody looked at her feet; and when she stepped through the chancel
+door on the church pavement, it seemed to her as if the old figures on
+the tombs, those portraits of old preachers and preachers' wives, with
+stiff ruffs, and long black dresses, fixed their eyes on her red shoes.
+And she thought only of them as the clergyman laid his hand upon her
+head, and spoke of the holy baptism, of the covenant with God, and how
+she should be now a matured Christian; and the organ pealed so solemnly;
+the sweet children's voices sang, and the old music-directors sang, but
+Karen only thought of her red shoes.
+
+In the afternoon, the old lady heard from everyone that the shoes had
+been red, and she said that it was very wrong of Karen, that it was not
+at all becoming, and that in future Karen should only go in black shoes
+to church, even when she should be older.
+
+The next Sunday there was the sacrament, and Karen looked at the black
+shoes, looked at the red ones--looked at them again, and put on the red
+shoes.
+
+The sun shone gloriously; Karen and the old lady walked along the path
+through the corn; it was rather dusty there.
+
+At the church door stood an old soldier with a crutch, and with a
+wonderfully long beard, which was more red than white, and he bowed to
+the ground, and asked the old lady whether he might dust her shoes. And
+Karen stretched out her little foot.
+
+“See, what beautiful dancing shoes!” said the soldier. “Sit firm when
+you dance”; and he put his hand out towards the soles.
+
+And the old lady gave the old soldier alms, and went into the church
+with Karen.
+
+And all the people in the church looked at Karen's red shoes, and all
+the pictures, and as Karen knelt before the altar, and raised the cup to
+her lips, she only thought of the red shoes, and they seemed to swim
+in it; and she forgot to sing her psalm, and she forgot to pray, “Our
+Father in Heaven!”
+
+Now all the people went out of church, and the old lady got into her
+carriage. Karen raised her foot to get in after her, when the old
+soldier said,
+
+“Look, what beautiful dancing shoes!”
+
+And Karen could not help dancing a step or two, and when she began her
+feet continued to dance; it was just as though the shoes had power over
+them. She danced round the church corner, she could not leave off; the
+coachman was obliged to run after and catch hold of her, and he lifted
+her in the carriage, but her feet continued to dance so that she trod on
+the old lady dreadfully. At length she took the shoes off, and then her
+legs had peace.
+
+The shoes were placed in a closet at home, but Karen could not avoid
+looking at them.
+
+Now the old lady was sick, and it was said she could not recover. She
+must be nursed and waited upon, and there was no one whose duty it was
+so much as Karen's. But there was a great ball in the city, to which
+Karen was invited. She looked at the old lady, who could not recover,
+she looked at the red shoes, and she thought there could be no sin in
+it; she put on the red shoes, she might do that also, she thought. But
+then she went to the ball and began to dance.
+
+When she wanted to dance to the right, the shoes would dance to the
+left, and when she wanted to dance up the room, the shoes danced back
+again, down the steps, into the street, and out of the city gate. She
+danced, and was forced to dance straight out into the gloomy wood.
+
+Then it was suddenly light up among the trees, and she fancied it must
+be the moon, for there was a face; but it was the old soldier with
+the red beard; he sat there, nodded his head, and said, “Look, what
+beautiful dancing shoes!”
+
+Then she was terrified, and wanted to fling off the red shoes, but they
+clung fast; and she pulled down her stockings, but the shoes seemed to
+have grown to her feet. And she danced, and must dance, over fields and
+meadows, in rain and sunshine, by night and day; but at night it was the
+most fearful.
+
+She danced over the churchyard, but the dead did not dance--they had
+something better to do than to dance. She wished to seat herself on a
+poor man's grave, where the bitter tansy grew; but for her there was
+neither peace nor rest; and when she danced towards the open church
+door, she saw an angel standing there. He wore long, white garments; he
+had wings which reached from his shoulders to the earth; his countenance
+was severe and grave; and in his hand he held a sword, broad and
+glittering.
+
+“Dance shalt thou!” said he. “Dance in thy red shoes till thou art pale
+and cold! Till thy skin shrivels up and thou art a skeleton! Dance shalt
+thou from door to door, and where proud, vain children dwell, thou shalt
+knock, that they may hear thee and tremble! Dance shalt thou--!”
+
+“Mercy!” cried Karen. But she did not hear the angel's reply, for the
+shoes carried her through the gate into the fields, across roads and
+bridges, and she must keep ever dancing.
+
+One morning she danced past a door which she well knew. Within sounded
+a psalm; a coffin, decked with flowers, was borne forth. Then she knew
+that the old lady was dead, and felt that she was abandoned by all, and
+condemned by the angel of God.
+
+She danced, and she was forced to dance through the gloomy night. The
+shoes carried her over stack and stone; she was torn till she bled; she
+danced over the heath till she came to a little house. Here, she knew,
+dwelt the executioner; and she tapped with her fingers at the window,
+and said, “Come out! Come out! I cannot come in, for I am forced to
+dance!”
+
+And the executioner said, “Thou dost not know who I am, I fancy? I
+strike bad people's heads off; and I hear that my axe rings!”
+
+“Don't strike my head off!” said Karen. “Then I can't repent of my sins!
+But strike off my feet in the red shoes!”
+
+And then she confessed her entire sin, and the executioner struck off
+her feet with the red shoes, but the shoes danced away with the little
+feet across the field into the deep wood.
+
+And he carved out little wooden feet for her, and crutches, taught
+her the psalm criminals always sing; and she kissed the hand which had
+wielded the axe, and went over the heath.
+
+“Now I have suffered enough for the red shoes!” said she. “Now I will
+go into the church that people may see me!” And she hastened towards the
+church door: but when she was near it, the red shoes danced before her,
+and she was terrified, and turned round. The whole week she was unhappy,
+and wept many bitter tears; but when Sunday returned, she said, “Well,
+now I have suffered and struggled enough! I really believe I am as good
+as many a one who sits in the church, and holds her head so high!”
+
+And away she went boldly; but she had not got farther than the
+churchyard gate before she saw the red shoes dancing before her; and she
+was frightened, and turned back, and repented of her sin from her heart.
+
+And she went to the parsonage, and begged that they would take her
+into service; she would be very industrious, she said, and would do
+everything she could; she did not care about the wages, only she wished
+to have a home, and be with good people. And the clergyman's wife was
+sorry for her and took her into service; and she was industrious and
+thoughtful. She sat still and listened when the clergyman read the Bible
+in the evenings. All the children thought a great deal of her; but when
+they spoke of dress, and grandeur, and beauty, she shook her head.
+
+The following Sunday, when the family was going to church, they asked
+her whether she would not go with them; but she glanced sorrowfully,
+with tears in her eyes, at her crutches. The family went to hear the
+word of God; but she went alone into her little chamber; there was only
+room for a bed and chair to stand in it; and here she sat down with her
+Prayer-Book; and whilst she read with a pious mind, the wind bore
+the strains of the organ towards her, and she raised her tearful
+countenance, and said, “O God, help me!”
+
+And the sun shone so clearly, and straight before her stood the angel
+of God in white garments, the same she had seen that night at the church
+door; but he no longer carried the sharp sword, but in its stead a
+splendid green spray, full of roses. And he touched the ceiling with the
+spray, and the ceiling rose so high, and where he had touched it there
+gleamed a golden star. And he touched the walls, and they widened out,
+and she saw the organ which was playing; she saw the old pictures of the
+preachers and the preachers' wives. The congregation sat in cushioned
+seats, and sang out of their Prayer-Books. For the church itself had
+come to the poor girl in her narrow chamber, or else she had come into
+the church. She sat in the pew with the clergyman's family, and when
+they had ended the psalm and looked up, they nodded and said, “It is
+right that thou art come!”
+
+“It was through mercy!” she said.
+
+And the organ pealed, and the children's voices in the choir sounded so
+sweet and soft! The clear sunshine streamed so warmly through the window
+into the pew where Karen sat! Her heart was so full of sunshine, peace,
+and joy, that it broke. Her soul flew on the sunshine to God, and there
+no one asked after the RED SHOES.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Andersen's Fairy Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen
+
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@@ -0,0 +1,7233 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Andersen's Fairy Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+Project Gutenberg's Andersen's Fairy Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Andersen's Fairy Tales
+
+Author: Hans Christian Andersen
+
+Release Date: October 10, 2008 [EBook #1597]
+Last Updated: March 14, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Dianne Bean, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Hans Christian Andersen
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> THE SWINEHERD </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> THE REAL PRINCESS </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> THE SHOES OF FORTUNE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> THE FIR TREE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> THE SNOW QUEEN </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> THE LEAP-FROG </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> THE ELDERBUSH </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> THE BELL </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> THE OLD HOUSE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> THE HAPPY FAMILY </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> THE STORY OF A MOTHER </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> THE FALSE COLLAR </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> THE SHADOW </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> THE DREAM OF LITTLE TUK </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> THE NAUGHTY BOY </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> THE RED SHOES </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Many years ago, there was an Emperor, who was so excessively fond of new
+      clothes, that he spent all his money in dress. He did not trouble himself
+      in the least about his soldiers; nor did he care to go either to the
+      theatre or the chase, except for the opportunities then afforded him for
+      displaying his new clothes. He had a different suit for each hour of the
+      day; and as of any other king or emperor, one is accustomed to say, &ldquo;he is
+      sitting in council,&rdquo; it was always said of him, &ldquo;The Emperor is sitting in
+      his wardrobe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Time passed merrily in the large town which was his capital; strangers
+      arrived every day at the court. One day, two rogues, calling themselves
+      weavers, made their appearance. They gave out that they knew how to weave
+      stuffs of the most beautiful colors and elaborate patterns, the clothes
+      manufactured from which should have the wonderful property of remaining
+      invisible to everyone who was unfit for the office he held, or who was
+      extraordinarily simple in character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These must, indeed, be splendid clothes!&rdquo; thought the Emperor. &ldquo;Had I
+      such a suit, I might at once find out what men in my realms are unfit for
+      their office, and also be able to distinguish the wise from the foolish!
+      This stuff must be woven for me immediately.&rdquo; And he caused large sums of
+      money to be given to both the weavers in order that they might begin their
+      work directly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the two pretended weavers set up two looms, and affected to work very
+      busily, though in reality they did nothing at all. They asked for the most
+      delicate silk and the purest gold thread; put both into their own
+      knapsacks; and then continued their pretended work at the empty looms
+      until late at night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should like to know how the weavers are getting on with my cloth,&rdquo; said
+      the Emperor to himself, after some little time had elapsed; he was,
+      however, rather embarrassed, when he remembered that a simpleton, or one
+      unfit for his office, would be unable to see the manufacture. To be sure,
+      he thought he had nothing to risk in his own person; but yet, he would
+      prefer sending somebody else, to bring him intelligence about the weavers,
+      and their work, before he troubled himself in the affair. All the people
+      throughout the city had heard of the wonderful property the cloth was to
+      possess; and all were anxious to learn how wise, or how ignorant, their
+      neighbors might prove to be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will send my faithful old minister to the weavers,&rdquo; said the Emperor at
+      last, after some deliberation, &ldquo;he will be best able to see how the cloth
+      looks; for he is a man of sense, and no one can be more suitable for his
+      office than he is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the faithful old minister went into the hall, where the knaves were
+      working with all their might, at their empty looms. &ldquo;What can be the
+      meaning of this?&rdquo; thought the old man, opening his eyes very wide. &ldquo;I
+      cannot discover the least bit of thread on the looms.&rdquo; However, he did not
+      express his thoughts aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The impostors requested him very courteously to be so good as to come
+      nearer their looms; and then asked him whether the design pleased him, and
+      whether the colors were not very beautiful; at the same time pointing to
+      the empty frames. The poor old minister looked and looked, he could not
+      discover anything on the looms, for a very good reason, viz: there was
+      nothing there. &ldquo;What!&rdquo; thought he again. &ldquo;Is it possible that I am a
+      simpleton? I have never thought so myself; and no one must know it now if
+      I am so. Can it be, that I am unfit for my office? No, that must not be
+      said either. I will never confess that I could not see the stuff.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Sir Minister!&rdquo; said one of the knaves, still pretending to work.
+      &ldquo;You do not say whether the stuff pleases you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, it is excellent!&rdquo; replied the old minister, looking at the loom
+      through his spectacles. &ldquo;This pattern, and the colors, yes, I will tell
+      the Emperor without delay, how very beautiful I think them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall be much obliged to you,&rdquo; said the impostors, and then they named
+      the different colors and described the pattern of the pretended stuff. The
+      old minister listened attentively to their words, in order that he might
+      repeat them to the Emperor; and then the knaves asked for more silk and
+      gold, saying that it was necessary to complete what they had begun.
+      However, they put all that was given them into their knapsacks; and
+      continued to work with as much apparent diligence as before at their empty
+      looms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor now sent another officer of his court to see how the men were
+      getting on, and to ascertain whether the cloth would soon be ready. It was
+      just the same with this gentleman as with the minister; he surveyed the
+      looms on all sides, but could see nothing at all but the empty frames.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does not the stuff appear as beautiful to you, as it did to my lord the
+      minister?&rdquo; asked the impostors of the Emperor's second ambassador; at the
+      same time making the same gestures as before, and talking of the design
+      and colors which were not there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I certainly am not stupid!&rdquo; thought the messenger. &ldquo;It must be, that I am
+      not fit for my good, profitable office! That is very odd; however, no one
+      shall know anything about it.&rdquo; And accordingly he praised the stuff he
+      could not see, and declared that he was delighted with both colors and
+      patterns. &ldquo;Indeed, please your Imperial Majesty,&rdquo; said he to his sovereign
+      when he returned, &ldquo;the cloth which the weavers are preparing is
+      extraordinarily magnificent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole city was talking of the splendid cloth which the Emperor had
+      ordered to be woven at his own expense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now the Emperor himself wished to see the costly manufacture, while it
+      was still in the loom. Accompanied by a select number of officers of the
+      court, among whom were the two honest men who had already admired the
+      cloth, he went to the crafty impostors, who, as soon as they were aware of
+      the Emperor's approach, went on working more diligently than ever;
+      although they still did not pass a single thread through the looms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is not the work absolutely magnificent?&rdquo; said the two officers of the
+      crown, already mentioned. &ldquo;If your Majesty will only be pleased to look at
+      it! What a splendid design! What glorious colors!&rdquo; and at the same time
+      they pointed to the empty frames; for they imagined that everyone else
+      could see this exquisite piece of workmanship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is this?&rdquo; said the Emperor to himself. &ldquo;I can see nothing! This is
+      indeed a terrible affair! Am I a simpleton, or am I unfit to be an
+      Emperor? That would be the worst thing that could happen&mdash;Oh! the
+      cloth is charming,&rdquo; said he, aloud. &ldquo;It has my complete approbation.&rdquo; And
+      he smiled most graciously, and looked closely at the empty looms; for on
+      no account would he say that he could not see what two of the officers of
+      his court had praised so much. All his retinue now strained their eyes,
+      hoping to discover something on the looms, but they could see no more than
+      the others; nevertheless, they all exclaimed, &ldquo;Oh, how beautiful!&rdquo; and
+      advised his majesty to have some new clothes made from this splendid
+      material, for the approaching procession. &ldquo;Magnificent! Charming!
+      Excellent!&rdquo; resounded on all sides; and everyone was uncommonly gay. The
+      Emperor shared in the general satisfaction; and presented the impostors
+      with the riband of an order of knighthood, to be worn in their
+      button-holes, and the title of &ldquo;Gentlemen Weavers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The rogues sat up the whole of the night before the day on which the
+      procession was to take place, and had sixteen lights burning, so that
+      everyone might see how anxious they were to finish the Emperor's new suit.
+      They pretended to roll the cloth off the looms; cut the air with their
+      scissors; and sewed with needles without any thread in them. &ldquo;See!&rdquo; cried
+      they, at last. &ldquo;The Emperor's new clothes are ready!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And now the Emperor, with all the grandees of his court, came to the
+      weavers; and the rogues raised their arms, as if in the act of holding
+      something up, saying, &ldquo;Here are your Majesty's trousers! Here is the
+      scarf! Here is the mantle! The whole suit is as light as a cobweb; one
+      might fancy one has nothing at all on, when dressed in it; that, however,
+      is the great virtue of this delicate cloth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes indeed!&rdquo; said all the courtiers, although not one of them could see
+      anything of this exquisite manufacture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If your Imperial Majesty will be graciously pleased to take off your
+      clothes, we will fit on the new suit, in front of the looking glass.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor was accordingly undressed, and the rogues pretended to array
+      him in his new suit; the Emperor turning round, from side to side, before
+      the looking glass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How splendid his Majesty looks in his new clothes, and how well they
+      fit!&rdquo; everyone cried out. &ldquo;What a design! What colors! These are indeed
+      royal robes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The canopy which is to be borne over your Majesty, in the procession, is
+      waiting,&rdquo; announced the chief master of the ceremonies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am quite ready,&rdquo; answered the Emperor. &ldquo;Do my new clothes fit well?&rdquo;
+       asked he, turning himself round again before the looking glass, in order
+      that he might appear to be examining his handsome suit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lords of the bedchamber, who were to carry his Majesty's train felt
+      about on the ground, as if they were lifting up the ends of the mantle;
+      and pretended to be carrying something; for they would by no means betray
+      anything like simplicity, or unfitness for their office.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So now the Emperor walked under his high canopy in the midst of the
+      procession, through the streets of his capital; and all the people
+      standing by, and those at the windows, cried out, &ldquo;Oh! How beautiful are
+      our Emperor's new clothes! What a magnificent train there is to the
+      mantle; and how gracefully the scarf hangs!&rdquo; in short, no one would allow
+      that he could not see these much-admired clothes; because, in doing so, he
+      would have declared himself either a simpleton or unfit for his office.
+      Certainly, none of the Emperor's various suits, had ever made so great an
+      impression, as these invisible ones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the Emperor has nothing at all on!&rdquo; said a little child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen to the voice of innocence!&rdquo; exclaimed his father; and what the
+      child had said was whispered from one to another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But he has nothing at all on!&rdquo; at last cried out all the people. The
+      Emperor was vexed, for he knew that the people were right; but he thought
+      the procession must go on now! And the lords of the bedchamber took
+      greater pains than ever, to appear holding up a train, although, in
+      reality, there was no train to hold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE SWINEHERD
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      There was once a poor Prince, who had a kingdom. His kingdom was very
+      small, but still quite large enough to marry upon; and he wished to marry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was certainly rather cool of him to say to the Emperor's daughter,
+      &ldquo;Will you have me?&rdquo; But so he did; for his name was renowned far and wide;
+      and there were a hundred princesses who would have answered, &ldquo;Yes!&rdquo; and
+      &ldquo;Thank you kindly.&rdquo; We shall see what this princess said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Listen!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It happened that where the Prince's father lay buried, there grew a rose
+      tree&mdash;a most beautiful rose tree, which blossomed only once in every
+      five years, and even then bore only one flower, but that was a rose! It
+      smelt so sweet that all cares and sorrows were forgotten by him who
+      inhaled its fragrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And furthermore, the Prince had a nightingale, who could sing in such a
+      manner that it seemed as though all sweet melodies dwelt in her little
+      throat. So the Princess was to have the rose, and the nightingale; and
+      they were accordingly put into large silver caskets, and sent to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Emperor had them brought into a large hall, where the Princess was
+      playing at &ldquo;Visiting,&rdquo; with the ladies of the court; and when she saw the
+      caskets with the presents, she clapped her hands for joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, if it were but a little pussy-cat!&rdquo; said she; but the rose tree, with
+      its beautiful rose came to view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, how prettily it is made!&rdquo; said all the court ladies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is more than pretty,&rdquo; said the Emperor, &ldquo;it is charming!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Princess touched it, and was almost ready to cry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fie, papa!&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;It is not made at all, it is natural!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us see what is in the other casket, before we get into a bad humor,&rdquo;
+       said the Emperor. So the nightingale came forth and sang so delightfully
+      that at first no one could say anything ill-humored of her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Superbe! Charmant!&rdquo; exclaimed the ladies; for they all used to chatter
+      French, each one worse than her neighbor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How much the bird reminds me of the musical box that belonged to our
+      blessed Empress,&rdquo; said an old knight. &ldquo;Oh yes! These are the same tones,
+      the same execution.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes! yes!&rdquo; said the Emperor, and he wept like a child at the remembrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will still hope that it is not a real bird,&rdquo; said the Princess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it is a real bird,&rdquo; said those who had brought it. &ldquo;Well then let
+      the bird fly,&rdquo; said the Princess; and she positively refused to see the
+      Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, he was not to be discouraged; he daubed his face over brown and
+      black; pulled his cap over his ears, and knocked at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good day to my lord, the Emperor!&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Can I have employment at the
+      palace?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, yes,&rdquo; said the Emperor. &ldquo;I want some one to take care of the pigs,
+      for we have a great many of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the Prince was appointed &ldquo;Imperial Swineherd.&rdquo; He had a dirty little
+      room close by the pigsty; and there he sat the whole day, and worked. By
+      the evening he had made a pretty little kitchen-pot. Little bells were
+      hung all round it; and when the pot was boiling, these bells tinkled in
+      the most charming manner, and played the old melody,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+    &ldquo;Ach! du lieber Augustin,
+    Alles ist weg, weg, weg!&rdquo;*
+
+    * &ldquo;Ah! dear Augustine!
+    All is gone, gone, gone!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      But what was still more curious, whoever held his finger in the smoke of
+      the kitchen-pot, immediately smelt all the dishes that were cooking on
+      every hearth in the city&mdash;this, you see, was something quite
+      different from the rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the Princess happened to walk that way; and when she heard the tune,
+      she stood quite still, and seemed pleased; for she could play &ldquo;Lieber
+      Augustine&rdquo;; it was the only piece she knew; and she played it with one
+      finger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why there is my piece,&rdquo; said the Princess. &ldquo;That swineherd must certainly
+      have been well educated! Go in and ask him the price of the instrument.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So one of the court-ladies must run in; however, she drew on wooden
+      slippers first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What will you take for the kitchen-pot?&rdquo; said the lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will have ten kisses from the Princess,&rdquo; said the swineherd.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, indeed!&rdquo; said the lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot sell it for less,&rdquo; rejoined the swineherd.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is an impudent fellow!&rdquo; said the Princess, and she walked on; but when
+      she had gone a little way, the bells tinkled so prettily
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+    &ldquo;Ach! du lieber Augustin,
+    Alles ist weg, weg, weg!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay,&rdquo; said the Princess. &ldquo;Ask him if he will have ten kisses from the
+      ladies of my court.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, thank you!&rdquo; said the swineherd. &ldquo;Ten kisses from the Princess, or I
+      keep the kitchen-pot myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That must not be, either!&rdquo; said the Princess. &ldquo;But do you all stand
+      before me that no one may see us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the court-ladies placed themselves in front of her, and spread out
+      their dresses&mdash;the swineherd got ten kisses, and the Princess&mdash;the
+      kitchen-pot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That was delightful! The pot was boiling the whole evening, and the whole
+      of the following day. They knew perfectly well what was cooking at every
+      fire throughout the city, from the chamberlain's to the cobbler's; the
+      court-ladies danced and clapped their hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We know who has soup, and who has pancakes for dinner to-day, who has
+      cutlets, and who has eggs. How interesting!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but keep my secret, for I am an Emperor's daughter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The swineherd&mdash;that is to say&mdash;the Prince, for no one knew that
+      he was other than an ill-favored swineherd, let not a day pass without
+      working at something; he at last constructed a rattle, which, when it was
+      swung round, played all the waltzes and jig tunes, which have ever been
+      heard since the creation of the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, that is superbe!&rdquo; said the Princess when she passed by. &ldquo;I have never
+      heard prettier compositions! Go in and ask him the price of the
+      instrument; but mind, he shall have no more kisses!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He will have a hundred kisses from the Princess!&rdquo; said the lady who had
+      been to ask.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think he is not in his right senses!&rdquo; said the Princess, and walked on,
+      but when she had gone a little way, she stopped again. &ldquo;One must encourage
+      art,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;I am the Emperor's daughter. Tell him he shall, as on
+      yesterday, have ten kisses from me, and may take the rest from the ladies
+      of the court.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh&mdash;but we should not like that at all!&rdquo; said they. &ldquo;What are you
+      muttering?&rdquo; asked the Princess. &ldquo;If I can kiss him, surely you can.
+      Remember that you owe everything to me.&rdquo; So the ladies were obliged to go
+      to him again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A hundred kisses from the Princess,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;or else let everyone keep
+      his own!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stand round!&rdquo; said she; and all the ladies stood round her whilst the
+      kissing was going on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can be the reason for such a crowd close by the pigsty?&rdquo; said the
+      Emperor, who happened just then to step out on the balcony; he rubbed his
+      eyes, and put on his spectacles. &ldquo;They are the ladies of the court; I must
+      go down and see what they are about!&rdquo; So he pulled up his slippers at the
+      heel, for he had trodden them down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as he had got into the court-yard, he moved very softly, and the
+      ladies were so much engrossed with counting the kisses, that all might go
+      on fairly, that they did not perceive the Emperor. He rose on his tiptoes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is all this?&rdquo; said he, when he saw what was going on, and he boxed
+      the Princess's ears with his slipper, just as the swineherd was taking the
+      eighty-sixth kiss.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;March out!&rdquo; said the Emperor, for he was very angry; and both Princess
+      and swineherd were thrust out of the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Princess now stood and wept, the swineherd scolded, and the rain
+      poured down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas! Unhappy creature that I am!&rdquo; said the Princess. &ldquo;If I had but
+      married the handsome young Prince! Ah! how unfortunate I am!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the swineherd went behind a tree, washed the black and brown color
+      from his face, threw off his dirty clothes, and stepped forth in his
+      princely robes; he looked so noble that the Princess could not help bowing
+      before him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am come to despise thee,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Thou would'st not have an honorable
+      Prince! Thou could'st not prize the rose and the nightingale, but thou
+      wast ready to kiss the swineherd for the sake of a trumpery plaything.
+      Thou art rightly served.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He then went back to his own little kingdom, and shut the door of his
+      palace in her face. Now she might well sing,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+    &ldquo;Ach! du lieber Augustin,
+    Alles ist weg, weg, weg!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE REAL PRINCESS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      There was once a Prince who wished to marry a Princess; but then she must
+      be a real Princess. He travelled all over the world in hopes of finding
+      such a lady; but there was always something wrong. Princesses he found in
+      plenty; but whether they were real Princesses it was impossible for him to
+      decide, for now one thing, now another, seemed to him not quite right
+      about the ladies. At last he returned to his palace quite cast down,
+      because he wished so much to have a real Princess for his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening a fearful tempest arose, it thundered and lightened, and the
+      rain poured down from the sky in torrents: besides, it was as dark as
+      pitch. All at once there was heard a violent knocking at the door, and the
+      old King, the Prince's father, went out himself to open it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a Princess who was standing outside the door. What with the rain
+      and the wind, she was in a sad condition; the water trickled down from her
+      hair, and her clothes clung to her body. She said she was a real Princess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! we shall soon see that!&rdquo; thought the old Queen-mother; however, she
+      said not a word of what she was going to do; but went quietly into the
+      bedroom, took all the bed-clothes off the bed, and put three little peas
+      on the bedstead. She then laid twenty mattresses one upon another over the
+      three peas, and put twenty feather beds over the mattresses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon this bed the Princess was to pass the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning she was asked how she had slept. &ldquo;Oh, very badly indeed!&rdquo;
+       she replied. &ldquo;I have scarcely closed my eyes the whole night through. I do
+      not know what was in my bed, but I had something hard under me, and am all
+      over black and blue. It has hurt me so much!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now it was plain that the lady must be a real Princess, since she had been
+      able to feel the three little peas through the twenty mattresses and
+      twenty feather beds. None but a real Princess could have had such a
+      delicate sense of feeling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Prince accordingly made her his wife; being now convinced that he had
+      found a real Princess. The three peas were however put into the cabinet of
+      curiosities, where they are still to be seen, provided they are not lost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wasn't this a lady of real delicacy?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE SHOES OF FORTUNE
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      I. A Beginning
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Every author has some peculiarity in his descriptions or in his style of
+      writing. Those who do not like him, magnify it, shrug up their shoulders,
+      and exclaim&mdash;there he is again! I, for my part, know very well how I
+      can bring about this movement and this exclamation. It would happen
+      immediately if I were to begin here, as I intended to do, with: &ldquo;Rome has
+      its Corso, Naples its Toledo&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Ah! that Andersen; there he is
+      again!&rdquo; they would cry; yet I must, to please my fancy, continue quite
+      quietly, and add: &ldquo;But Copenhagen has its East Street.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here, then, we will stay for the present. In one of the houses not far
+      from the new market a party was invited&mdash;a very large party, in
+      order, as is often the case, to get a return invitation from the others.
+      One half of the company was already seated at the card-table, the other
+      half awaited the result of the stereotype preliminary observation of the
+      lady of the house:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now let us see what we can do to amuse ourselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They had got just so far, and the conversation began to crystallise, as it
+      could but do with the scanty stream which the commonplace world supplied.
+      Amongst other things they spoke of the middle ages: some praised that
+      period as far more interesting, far more poetical than our own too sober
+      present; indeed Councillor Knap defended this opinion so warmly, that the
+      hostess declared immediately on his side, and both exerted themselves with
+      unwearied eloquence. The Councillor boldly declared the time of King Hans
+      to be the noblest and the most happy period.*
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      * A.D. 1482-1513
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the conversation turned on this subject, and was only for a moment
+      interrupted by the arrival of a journal that contained nothing worth
+      reading, we will just step out into the antechamber, where cloaks,
+      mackintoshes, sticks, umbrellas, and shoes, were deposited. Here sat two
+      female figures, a young and an old one. One might have thought at first
+      they were servants come to accompany their mistresses home; but on looking
+      nearer, one soon saw they could scarcely be mere servants; their forms
+      were too noble for that, their skin too fine, the cut of their dress too
+      striking. Two fairies were they; the younger, it is true, was not Dame
+      Fortune herself, but one of the waiting-maids of her handmaidens who carry
+      about the lesser good things that she distributes; the other looked
+      extremely gloomy&mdash;it was Care. She always attends to her own serious
+      business herself, as then she is sure of having it done properly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were telling each other, with a confidential interchange of ideas,
+      where they had been during the day. The messenger of Fortune had only
+      executed a few unimportant commissions, such as saving a new bonnet from a
+      shower of rain, etc.; but what she had yet to perform was something quite
+      unusual.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must tell you,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;that to-day is my birthday; and in honor of
+      it, a pair of walking-shoes or galoshes has been entrusted to me, which I
+      am to carry to mankind. These shoes possess the property of instantly
+      transporting him who has them on to the place or the period in which he
+      most wishes to be; every wish, as regards time or place, or state of
+      being, will be immediately fulfilled, and so at last man will be happy,
+      here below.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you seriously believe it?&rdquo; replied Care, in a severe tone of reproach.
+      &ldquo;No; he will be very unhappy, and will assuredly bless the moment when he
+      feels that he has freed himself from the fatal shoes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stupid nonsense!&rdquo; said the other angrily. &ldquo;I will put them here by the
+      door. Some one will make a mistake for certain and take the wrong ones&mdash;he
+      will be a happy man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was their conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      II. What Happened to the Councillor
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was late; Councillor Knap, deeply occupied with the times of King Hans,
+      intended to go home, and malicious Fate managed matters so that his feet,
+      instead of finding their way to his own galoshes, slipped into those of
+      Fortune. Thus caparisoned the good man walked out of the well-lighted
+      rooms into East Street. By the magic power of the shoes he was carried
+      back to the times of King Hans; on which account his foot very naturally
+      sank in the mud and puddles of the street, there having been in those days
+      no pavement in Copenhagen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well! This is too bad! How dirty it is here!&rdquo; sighed the Councillor. &ldquo;As
+      to a pavement, I can find no traces of one, and all the lamps, it seems,
+      have gone to sleep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The moon was not yet very high; it was besides rather foggy, so that in
+      the darkness all objects seemed mingled in chaotic confusion. At the next
+      corner hung a votive lamp before a Madonna, but the light it gave was
+      little better than none at all; indeed, he did not observe it before he
+      was exactly under it, and his eyes fell upon the bright colors of the
+      pictures which represented the well-known group of the Virgin and the
+      infant Jesus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is probably a wax-work show,&rdquo; thought he; &ldquo;and the people delay
+      taking down their sign in hopes of a late visitor or two.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A few persons in the costume of the time of King Hans passed quickly by
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How strange they look! The good folks come probably from a masquerade!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly was heard the sound of drums and fifes; the bright blaze of a
+      fire shot up from time to time, and its ruddy gleams seemed to contend
+      with the bluish light of the torches. The Councillor stood still, and
+      watched a most strange procession pass by. First came a dozen drummers,
+      who understood pretty well how to handle their instruments; then came
+      halberdiers, and some armed with cross-bows. The principal person in the
+      procession was a priest. Astonished at what he saw, the Councillor asked
+      what was the meaning of all this mummery, and who that man was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's the Bishop of Zealand,&rdquo; was the answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good Heavens! What has taken possession of the Bishop?&rdquo; sighed the
+      Councillor, shaking his head. It certainly could not be the Bishop; even
+      though he was considered the most absent man in the whole kingdom, and
+      people told the drollest anecdotes about him. Reflecting on the matter,
+      and without looking right or left, the Councillor went through East Street
+      and across the Habro-Platz. The bridge leading to Palace Square was not to
+      be found; scarcely trusting his senses, the nocturnal wanderer discovered
+      a shallow piece of water, and here fell in with two men who very
+      comfortably were rocking to and fro in a boat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does your honor want to cross the ferry to the Holme?&rdquo; asked they.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Across to the Holme!&rdquo; said the Councillor, who knew nothing of the age in
+      which he at that moment was. &ldquo;No, I am going to Christianshafen, to Little
+      Market Street.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Both men stared at him in astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only just tell me where the bridge is,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;It is really
+      unpardonable that there are no lamps here; and it is as dirty as if one
+      had to wade through a morass.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The longer he spoke with the boatmen, the more unintelligible did their
+      language become to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't understand your Bornholmish dialect,&rdquo; said he at last, angrily,
+      and turning his back upon them. He was unable to find the bridge: there
+      was no railway either. &ldquo;It is really disgraceful what a state this place
+      is in,&rdquo; muttered he to himself. Never had his age, with which, however, he
+      was always grumbling, seemed so miserable as on this evening. &ldquo;I'll take a
+      hackney-coach!&rdquo; thought he. But where were the hackney-coaches? Not one
+      was to be seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must go back to the New Market; there, it is to be hoped, I shall find
+      some coaches; for if I don't, I shall never get safe to Christianshafen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So off he went in the direction of East Street, and had nearly got to the
+      end of it when the moon shone forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God bless me! What wooden scaffolding is that which they have set up
+      there?&rdquo; cried he involuntarily, as he looked at East Gate, which, in those
+      days, was at the end of East Street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He found, however, a little side-door open, and through this he went, and
+      stepped into our New Market of the present time. It was a huge desolate
+      plain; some wild bushes stood up here and there, while across the field
+      flowed a broad canal or river. Some wretched hovels for the Dutch sailors,
+      resembling great boxes, and after which the place was named, lay about in
+      confused disorder on the opposite bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I either behold a fata morgana, or I am regularly tipsy,&rdquo; whimpered out
+      the Councillor. &ldquo;But what's this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned round anew, firmly convinced that he was seriously ill. He gazed
+      at the street formerly so well known to him, and now so strange in
+      appearance, and looked at the houses more attentively: most of them were
+      of wood, slightly put together; and many had a thatched roof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;I am far from well,&rdquo; sighed he; &ldquo;and yet I drank only one glass
+      of punch; but I cannot suppose it&mdash;it was, too, really very wrong to
+      give us punch and hot salmon for supper. I shall speak about it at the
+      first opportunity. I have half a mind to go back again, and say what I
+      suffer. But no, that would be too silly; and Heaven only knows if they are
+      up still.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked for the house, but it had vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is really dreadful,&rdquo; groaned he with increasing anxiety; &ldquo;I cannot
+      recognise East Street again; there is not a single decent shop from one
+      end to the other! Nothing but wretched huts can I see anywhere; just as if
+      I were at Ringstead. Oh! I am ill! I can scarcely bear myself any longer.
+      Where the deuce can the house be? It must be here on this very spot; yet
+      there is not the slightest idea of resemblance, to such a degree has
+      everything changed this night! At all events here are some people up and
+      stirring. Oh! oh! I am certainly very ill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He now hit upon a half-open door, through a chink of which a faint light
+      shone. It was a sort of hostelry of those times; a kind of public-house.
+      The room had some resemblance to the clay-floored halls in Holstein; a
+      pretty numerous company, consisting of seamen, Copenhagen burghers, and a
+      few scholars, sat here in deep converse over their pewter cans, and gave
+      little heed to the person who entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By your leave!&rdquo; said the Councillor to the Hostess, who came bustling
+      towards him. &ldquo;I've felt so queer all of a sudden; would you have the
+      goodness to send for a hackney-coach to take me to Christianshafen?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman examined him with eyes of astonishment, and shook her head; she
+      then addressed him in German. The Councillor thought she did not
+      understand Danish, and therefore repeated his wish in German. This, in
+      connection with his costume, strengthened the good woman in the belief
+      that he was a foreigner. That he was ill, she comprehended directly; so
+      she brought him a pitcher of water, which tasted certainly pretty strong
+      of the sea, although it had been fetched from the well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Councillor supported his head on his hand, drew a long breath, and
+      thought over all the wondrous things he saw around him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this the Daily News of this evening?&rdquo; he asked mechanically, as he saw
+      the Hostess push aside a large sheet of paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The meaning of this councillorship query remained, of course, a riddle to
+      her, yet she handed him the paper without replying. It was a coarse
+      wood-cut, representing a splendid meteor &ldquo;as seen in the town of Cologne,&rdquo;
+       which was to be read below in bright letters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is very old!&rdquo; said the Councillor, whom this piece of antiquity
+      began to make considerably more cheerful. &ldquo;Pray how did you come into
+      possession of this rare print? It is extremely interesting, although the
+      whole is a mere fable. Such meteorous appearances are to be explained in
+      this way&mdash;that they are the reflections of the Aurora Borealis, and
+      it is highly probable they are caused principally by electricity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Those persons who were sitting nearest him and heard his speech, stared at
+      him in wonderment; and one of them rose, took off his hat respectfully,
+      and said with a serious countenance, &ldquo;You are no doubt a very learned man,
+      Monsieur.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh no,&rdquo; answered the Councillor, &ldquo;I can only join in conversation on this
+      topic and on that, as indeed one must do according to the demands of the
+      world at present.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Modestia is a fine virtue,&rdquo; continued the gentleman; &ldquo;however, as to your
+      speech, I must say mihi secus videtur: yet I am willing to suspend my
+      judicium.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I ask with whom I have the pleasure of speaking?&rdquo; asked the
+      Councillor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am a Bachelor in Theologia,&rdquo; answered the gentleman with a stiff
+      reverence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This reply fully satisfied the Councillor; the title suited the dress. &ldquo;He
+      is certainly,&rdquo; thought he, &ldquo;some village schoolmaster&mdash;some queer old
+      fellow, such as one still often meets with in Jutland.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is no locus docendi, it is true,&rdquo; began the clerical gentleman; &ldquo;yet
+      I beg you earnestly to let us profit by your learning. Your reading in the
+      ancients is, sine dubio, of vast extent?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh yes, I've read something, to be sure,&rdquo; replied the Councillor. &ldquo;I like
+      reading all useful works; but I do not on that account despise the modern
+      ones; 'tis only the unfortunate 'Tales of Every-day Life' that I cannot
+      bear&mdash;we have enough and more than enough such in reality.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tales of Every-day Life?'&rdquo; said our Bachelor inquiringly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean those new fangled novels, twisting and writhing themselves in the
+      dust of commonplace, which also expect to find a reading public.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh,&rdquo; exclaimed the clerical gentleman smiling, &ldquo;there is much wit in
+      them; besides they are read at court. The King likes the history of Sir
+      Iffven and Sir Gaudian particularly, which treats of King Arthur, and his
+      Knights of the Round Table; he has more than once joked about it with his
+      high vassals.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have not read that novel,&rdquo; said the Councillor; &ldquo;it must be quite a new
+      one, that Heiberg has published lately.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; answered the theologian of the time of King Hans: &ldquo;that book is not
+      written by a Heiberg, but was imprinted by Godfrey von Gehmen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, is that the author's name?&rdquo; said the Councillor. &ldquo;It is a very old
+      name, and, as well as I recollect, he was the first printer that appeared
+      in Denmark.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he is our first printer,&rdquo; replied the clerical gentleman hastily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So far all went on well. Some one of the worthy burghers now spoke of the
+      dreadful pestilence that had raged in the country a few years back,
+      meaning that of 1484. The Councillor imagined it was the cholera that was
+      meant, which people made so much fuss about; and the discourse passed off
+      satisfactorily enough. The war of the buccaneers of 1490 was so recent
+      that it could not fail being alluded to; the English pirates had, they
+      said, most shamefully taken their ships while in the roadstead; and the
+      Councillor, before whose eyes the Herostratic [*] event of 1801 still
+      floated vividly, agreed entirely with the others in abusing the rascally
+      English. With other topics he was not so fortunate; every moment brought
+      about some new confusion, and threatened to become a perfect Babel; for
+      the worthy Bachelor was really too ignorant, and the simplest observations
+      of the Councillor sounded to him too daring and phantastical. They looked
+      at one another from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet; and
+      when matters grew to too high a pitch, then the Bachelor talked Latin, in
+      the hope of being better understood&mdash;but it was of no use after all.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Herostratus, or Eratostratus&mdash;an Ephesian, who wantonly
+     set fire to the famous temple of Diana, in order to
+     commemorate his name by so uncommon an action.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the matter?&rdquo; asked the Hostess, plucking the Councillor by the
+      sleeve; and now his recollection returned, for in the course of the
+      conversation he had entirely forgotten all that had preceded it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Merciful God, where am I!&rdquo; exclaimed he in agony; and while he so
+      thought, all his ideas and feelings of overpowering dizziness, against
+      which he struggled with the utmost power of desperation, encompassed him
+      with renewed force. &ldquo;Let us drink claret and mead, and Bremen beer,&rdquo;
+       shouted one of the guests&mdash;&ldquo;and you shall drink with us!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Two maidens approached. One wore a cap of two staring colors, denoting the
+      class of persons to which she belonged. They poured out the liquor, and
+      made the most friendly gesticulations; while a cold perspiration trickled
+      down the back of the poor Councillor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's to be the end of this! What's to become of me!&rdquo; groaned he; but he
+      was forced, in spite of his opposition, to drink with the rest. They took
+      hold of the worthy man; who, hearing on every side that he was
+      intoxicated, did not in the least doubt the truth of this certainly not
+      very polite assertion; but on the contrary, implored the ladies and
+      gentlemen present to procure him a hackney-coach: they, however, imagined
+      he was talking Russian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Never before, he thought, had he been in such a coarse and ignorant
+      company; one might almost fancy the people had turned heathens again. &ldquo;It
+      is the most dreadful moment of my life: the whole world is leagued against
+      me!&rdquo; But suddenly it occurred to him that he might stoop down under the
+      table, and then creep unobserved out of the door. He did so; but just as
+      he was going, the others remarked what he was about; they laid hold of him
+      by the legs; and now, happily for him, off fell his fatal shoes&mdash;and
+      with them the charm was at an end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Councillor saw quite distinctly before him a lantern burning, and
+      behind this a large handsome house. All seemed to him in proper order as
+      usual; it was East Street, splendid and elegant as we now see it. He lay
+      with his feet towards a doorway, and exactly opposite sat the watchman
+      asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gracious Heaven!&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Have I lain here in the street and dreamed?
+      Yes; 'tis East Street! How splendid and light it is! But really it is
+      terrible what an effect that one glass of punch must have had on me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Two minutes later, he was sitting in a hackney-coach and driving to
+      Frederickshafen. He thought of the distress and agony he had endured, and
+      praised from the very bottom of his heart the happy reality&mdash;our own
+      time&mdash;which, with all its deficiencies, is yet much better than that
+      in which, so much against his inclination, he had lately been.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      III. The Watchman's Adventure
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, there is a pair of galoshes, as sure as I'm alive!&rdquo; said the
+      watchman, awaking from a gentle slumber. &ldquo;They belong no doubt to the
+      lieutenant who lives over the way. They lie close to the door.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The worthy man was inclined to ring and deliver them at the house, for
+      there was still a light in the window; but he did not like disturbing the
+      other people in their beds, and so very considerately he left the matter
+      alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Such a pair of shoes must be very warm and comfortable,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;the
+      leather is so soft and supple.&rdquo; They fitted his feet as though they had
+      been made for him. &ldquo;'Tis a curious world we live in,&rdquo; continued he,
+      soliloquizing. &ldquo;There is the lieutenant, now, who might go quietly to bed
+      if he chose, where no doubt he could stretch himself at his ease; but does
+      he do it? No; he saunters up and down his room, because, probably, he has
+      enjoyed too many of the good things of this world at his dinner. That's a
+      happy fellow! He has neither an infirm mother, nor a whole troop of
+      everlastingly hungry children to torment him. Every evening he goes to a
+      party, where his nice supper costs him nothing: would to Heaven I could
+      but change with him! How happy should I be!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While expressing his wish, the charm of the shoes, which he had put on,
+      began to work; the watchman entered into the being and nature of the
+      lieutenant. He stood in the handsomely furnished apartment, and held
+      between his fingers a small sheet of rose-colored paper, on which some
+      verses were written&mdash;written indeed by the officer himself; for who
+      has not, at least once in his life, had a lyrical moment? And if one then
+      marks down one's thoughts, poetry is produced. But here was written:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                  OH, WERE I RICH!
+
+     &ldquo;Oh, were I rich! Such was my wish, yea such
+      When hardly three feet high, I longed for much.
+       Oh, were I rich! an officer were I,
+       With sword, and uniform, and plume so high.
+       And the time came, and officer was I!
+     But yet I grew not rich. Alas, poor me!
+     Have pity, Thou, who all man's wants dost see.
+
+        &ldquo;I sat one evening sunk in dreams of bliss,
+      A maid of seven years old gave me a kiss,
+       I at that time was rich in poesy
+       And tales of old, though poor as poor could be;
+       But all she asked for was this poesy.
+     Then was I rich, but not in gold, poor me!
+     As Thou dost know, who all men's hearts canst see.
+
+        &ldquo;Oh, were I rich! Oft asked I for this boon.
+      The child grew up to womanhood full soon.
+       She is so pretty, clever, and so kind
+     Oh, did she know what's hidden in my mind&mdash;
+       A tale of old. Would she to me were kind!
+     But I'm condemned to silence! oh, poor me!
+     As Thou dost know, who all men's hearts canst see.
+
+        &ldquo;Oh, were I rich in calm and peace of mind,
+      My grief you then would not here written find!
+       O thou, to whom I do my heart devote,
+       Oh read this page of glad days now remote,
+       A dark, dark tale, which I tonight devote!
+     Dark is the future now. Alas, poor me!
+     Have pity Thou, who all men's pains dost see.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Such verses as these people write when they are in love! But no man in his
+      senses ever thinks of printing them. Here one of the sorrows of life, in
+      which there is real poetry, gave itself vent; not that barren grief which
+      the poet may only hint at, but never depict in its detail&mdash;misery and
+      want: that animal necessity, in short, to snatch at least at a fallen leaf
+      of the bread-fruit tree, if not at the fruit itself. The higher the
+      position in which one finds oneself transplanted, the greater is the
+      suffering. Everyday necessity is the stagnant pool of life&mdash;no lovely
+      picture reflects itself therein. Lieutenant, love, and lack of money&mdash;that
+      is a symbolic triangle, or much the same as the half of the shattered die
+      of Fortune. This the lieutenant felt most poignantly, and this was the
+      reason he leant his head against the window, and sighed so deeply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The poor watchman out there in the street is far happier than I. He knows
+      not what I term privation. He has a home, a wife, and children, who weep
+      with him over his sorrows, who rejoice with him when he is glad. Oh, far
+      happier were I, could I exchange with him my being&mdash;with his desires
+      and with his hopes perform the weary pilgrimage of life! Oh, he is a
+      hundred times happier than I!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the same moment the watchman was again watchman. It was the shoes that
+      caused the metamorphosis by means of which, unknown to himself, he took
+      upon him the thoughts and feelings of the officer; but, as we have just
+      seen, he felt himself in his new situation much less contented, and now
+      preferred the very thing which but some minutes before he had rejected. So
+      then the watchman was again watchman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was an unpleasant dream,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;but 'twas droll enough
+      altogether. I fancied that I was the lieutenant over there: and yet the
+      thing was not very much to my taste after all. I missed my good old mother
+      and the dear little ones; who almost tear me to pieces for sheer love.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He seated himself once more and nodded: the dream continued to haunt him,
+      for he still had the shoes on his feet. A falling star shone in the dark
+      firmament.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There falls another star,&rdquo; said he: &ldquo;but what does it matter; there are
+      always enough left. I should not much mind examining the little glimmering
+      things somewhat nearer, especially the moon; for that would not slip so
+      easily through a man's fingers. When we die&mdash;so at least says the
+      student, for whom my wife does the washing&mdash;we shall fly about as
+      light as a feather from one such a star to the other. That's, of course,
+      not true: but 'twould be pretty enough if it were so. If I could but once
+      take a leap up there, my body might stay here on the steps for what I
+      care.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Behold&mdash;there are certain things in the world to which one ought
+      never to give utterance except with the greatest caution; but doubly
+      careful must one be when we have the Shoes of Fortune on our feet. Now
+      just listen to what happened to the watchman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As to ourselves, we all know the speed produced by the employment of
+      steam; we have experienced it either on railroads, or in boats when
+      crossing the sea; but such a flight is like the travelling of a sloth in
+      comparison with the velocity with which light moves. It flies nineteen
+      million times faster than the best race-horse; and yet electricity is
+      quicker still. Death is an electric shock which our heart receives; the
+      freed soul soars upwards on the wings of electricity. The sun's light
+      wants eight minutes and some seconds to perform a journey of more than
+      twenty million of our Danish [*] miles; borne by electricity, the soul
+      wants even some minutes less to accomplish the same flight. To it the
+      space between the heavenly bodies is not greater than the distance between
+      the homes of our friends in town is for us, even if they live a short way
+      from each other; such an electric shock in the heart, however, costs us
+      the use of the body here below; unless, like the watchman of East Street,
+      we happen to have on the Shoes of Fortune.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * A Danish mile is nearly 4 3/4 English.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In a few seconds the watchman had done the fifty-two thousand of our miles
+      up to the moon, which, as everyone knows, was formed out of matter much
+      lighter than our earth; and is, so we should say, as soft as newly-fallen
+      snow. He found himself on one of the many circumjacent mountain-ridges
+      with which we are acquainted by means of Dr. Madler's &ldquo;Map of the Moon.&rdquo;
+       Within, down it sunk perpendicularly into a caldron, about a Danish mile
+      in depth; while below lay a town, whose appearance we can, in some
+      measure, realize to ourselves by beating the white of an egg in a glass of
+      water. The matter of which it was built was just as soft, and formed
+      similar towers, and domes, and pillars, transparent and rocking in the
+      thin air; while above his head our earth was rolling like a large fiery
+      ball.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He perceived immediately a quantity of beings who were certainly what we
+      call &ldquo;men&rdquo;; yet they looked different to us. A far more correct
+      imagination than that of the pseudo-Herschel* had created them; and if
+      they had been placed in rank and file, and copied by some skilful
+      painter's hand, one would, without doubt, have exclaimed involuntarily,
+      &ldquo;What a beautiful arabesque!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      *This relates to a book published some years ago in Germany, and said to
+      be by Herschel, which contained a description of the moon and its
+      inhabitants, written with such a semblance of truth that many were
+      deceived by the imposture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Probably a translation of the celebrated Moon hoax, written by Richard A.
+      Locke, and originally published in New York.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had a language too; but surely nobody can expect that the soul of the
+      watchman should understand it. Be that as it may, it did comprehend it;
+      for in our souls there germinate far greater powers than we poor mortals,
+      despite all our cleverness, have any notion of. Does she not show us&mdash;she
+      the queen in the land of enchantment&mdash;her astounding dramatic talent
+      in all our dreams? There every acquaintance appears and speaks upon the
+      stage, so entirely in character, and with the same tone of voice, that
+      none of us, when awake, were able to imitate it. How well can she recall
+      persons to our mind, of whom we have not thought for years; when suddenly
+      they step forth &ldquo;every inch a man,&rdquo; resembling the real personages, even
+      to the finest features, and become the heroes or heroines of our world of
+      dreams. In reality, such remembrances are rather unpleasant: every sin,
+      every evil thought, may, like a clock with alarm or chimes, be repeated at
+      pleasure; then the question is if we can trust ourselves to give an
+      account of every unbecoming word in our heart and on our lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The watchman's spirit understood the language of the inhabitants of the
+      moon pretty well. The Selenites* disputed variously about our earth, and
+      expressed their doubts if it could be inhabited: the air, they said, must
+      certainly be too dense to allow any rational dweller in the moon the
+      necessary free respiration. They considered the moon alone to be
+      inhabited: they imagined it was the real heart of the universe or
+      planetary system, on which the genuine Cosmopolites, or citizens of the
+      world, dwelt. What strange things men&mdash;no, what strange things
+      Selenites sometimes take into their heads!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      * Dwellers in the moon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About politics they had a good deal to say. But little Denmark must take
+      care what it is about, and not run counter to the moon; that great realm,
+      that might in an ill-humor bestir itself, and dash down a hail-storm in
+      our faces, or force the Baltic to overflow the sides of its gigantic
+      basin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We will, therefore, not listen to what was spoken, and on no condition run
+      in the possibility of telling tales out of school; but we will rather
+      proceed, like good quiet citizens, to East Street, and observe what
+      happened meanwhile to the body of the watchman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sat lifeless on the steps: the morning-star,* that is to say, the heavy
+      wooden staff, headed with iron spikes, and which had nothing else in
+      common with its sparkling brother in the sky, had glided from his hand;
+      while his eyes were fixed with glassy stare on the moon, looking for the
+      good old fellow of a spirit which still haunted it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      *The watchmen in Germany, had formerly, and in some places they still
+      carry with them, on their rounds at night, a sort of mace or club, known
+      in ancient times by the above denomination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the hour, watchman?&rdquo; asked a passer-by. But when the watchman gave
+      no reply, the merry roysterer, who was now returning home from a noisy
+      drinking bout, took it into his head to try what a tweak of the nose would
+      do, on which the supposed sleeper lost his balance, the body lay
+      motionless, stretched out on the pavement: the man was dead. When the
+      patrol came up, all his comrades, who comprehended nothing of the whole
+      affair, were seized with a dreadful fright, for dead he was, and he
+      remained so. The proper authorities were informed of the circumstance,
+      people talked a good deal about it, and in the morning the body was
+      carried to the hospital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now that would be a very pretty joke, if the spirit when it came back and
+      looked for the body in East Street, were not to find one. No doubt it
+      would, in its anxiety, run off to the police, and then to the &ldquo;Hue and
+      Cry&rdquo; office, to announce that &ldquo;the finder will be handsomely rewarded,&rdquo;
+       and at last away to the hospital; yet we may boldly assert that the soul
+      is shrewdest when it shakes off every fetter, and every sort of
+      leading-string&mdash;the body only makes it stupid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The seemingly dead body of the watchman wandered, as we have said, to the
+      hospital, where it was brought into the general viewing-room: and the
+      first thing that was done here was naturally to pull off the galoshes&mdash;when
+      the spirit, that was merely gone out on adventures, must have returned
+      with the quickness of lightning to its earthly tenement. It took its
+      direction towards the body in a straight line; and a few seconds after,
+      life began to show itself in the man. He asserted that the preceding night
+      had been the worst that ever the malice of fate had allotted him; he would
+      not for two silver marks again go through what he had endured while
+      moon-stricken; but now, however, it was over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The same day he was discharged from the hospital as perfectly cured; but
+      the Shoes meanwhile remained behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      IV. A Moment of Head Importance&mdash;An Evening's &ldquo;Dramatic Readings&rdquo;&mdash;A
+      Most Strange Journey
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every inhabitant of Copenhagen knows, from personal inspection, how the
+      entrance to Frederick's Hospital looks; but as it is possible that others,
+      who are not Copenhagen people, may also read this little work, we will
+      beforehand give a short description of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The extensive building is separated from the street by a pretty high
+      railing, the thick iron bars of which are so far apart, that in all
+      seriousness, it is said, some very thin fellow had of a night occasionally
+      squeezed himself through to go and pay his little visits in the town. The
+      part of the body most difficult to manage on such occasions was, no doubt,
+      the head; here, as is so often the case in the world, long-headed people
+      get through best. So much, then, for the introduction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the young men, whose head, in a physical sense only, might be said
+      to be of the thickest, had the watch that evening. The rain poured down in
+      torrents; yet despite these two obstacles, the young man was obliged to go
+      out, if it were but for a quarter of an hour; and as to telling the
+      door-keeper about it, that, he thought, was quite unnecessary, if, with a
+      whole skin, he were able to slip through the railings. There, on the floor
+      lay the galoshes, which the watchman had forgotten; he never dreamed for a
+      moment that they were those of Fortune; and they promised to do him good
+      service in the wet; so he put them on. The question now was, if he could
+      squeeze himself through the grating, for he had never tried before. Well,
+      there he stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would to Heaven I had got my head through!&rdquo; said he, involuntarily; and
+      instantly through it slipped, easily and without pain, notwithstanding it
+      was pretty large and thick. But now the rest of the body was to be got
+      through!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! I am much too stout,&rdquo; groaned he aloud, while fixed as in a vice. &ldquo;I
+      had thought the head was the most difficult part of the matter&mdash;oh!
+      oh! I really cannot squeeze myself through!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He now wanted to pull his over-hasty head back again, but he could not.
+      For his neck there was room enough, but for nothing more. His first
+      feeling was of anger; his next that his temper fell to zero. The Shoes of
+      Fortune had placed him in the most dreadful situation; and, unfortunately,
+      it never occurred to him to wish himself free. The pitch-black clouds
+      poured down their contents in still heavier torrents; not a creature was
+      to be seen in the streets. To reach up to the bell was what he did not
+      like; to cry aloud for help would have availed him little; besides, how
+      ashamed would he have been to be found caught in a trap, like an outwitted
+      fox! How was he to twist himself through! He saw clearly that it was his
+      irrevocable destiny to remain a prisoner till dawn, or, perhaps, even late
+      in the morning; then the smith must be fetched to file away the bars; but
+      all that would not be done so quickly as he could think about it. The
+      whole Charity School, just opposite, would be in motion; all the new
+      booths, with their not very courtier-like swarm of seamen, would join them
+      out of curiosity, and would greet him with a wild &ldquo;hurrah!&rdquo; while he was
+      standing in his pillory: there would be a mob, a hissing, and rejoicing,
+      and jeering, ten times worse than in the rows about the Jews some years
+      ago&mdash;&ldquo;Oh, my blood is mounting to my brain; 'tis enough to drive one
+      mad! I shall go wild! I know not what to do. Oh! were I but loose; my
+      dizziness would then cease; oh, were my head but loose!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      You see he ought to have said that sooner; for the moment he expressed the
+      wish his head was free; and cured of all his paroxysms of love, he
+      hastened off to his room, where the pains consequent on the fright the
+      Shoes had prepared for him, did not so soon take their leave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But you must not think that the affair is over now; it grows much worse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The night passed, the next day also; but nobody came to fetch the Shoes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the evening &ldquo;Dramatic Readings&rdquo; were to be given at the little theatre
+      in King Street. The house was filled to suffocation; and among other
+      pieces to be recited was a new poem by H. C. Andersen, called, My Aunt's
+      Spectacles; the contents of which were pretty nearly as follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A certain person had an aunt, who boasted of particular skill in
+      fortune-telling with cards, and who was constantly being stormed by
+      persons that wanted to have a peep into futurity. But she was full of
+      mystery about her art, in which a certain pair of magic spectacles did her
+      essential service. Her nephew, a merry boy, who was his aunt's darling,
+      begged so long for these spectacles, that, at last, she lent him the
+      treasure, after having informed him, with many exhortations, that in order
+      to execute the interesting trick, he need only repair to some place where
+      a great many persons were assembled; and then, from a higher position,
+      whence he could overlook the crowd, pass the company in review before him
+      through his spectacles. Immediately 'the inner man' of each individual
+      would be displayed before him, like a game of cards, in which he
+      unerringly might read what the future of every person presented was to be.
+      Well pleased the little magician hastened away to prove the powers of the
+      spectacles in the theatre; no place seeming to him more fitted for such a
+      trial. He begged permission of the worthy audience, and set his spectacles
+      on his nose. A motley phantasmagoria presents itself before him, which he
+      describes in a few satirical touches, yet without expressing his opinion
+      openly: he tells the people enough to set them all thinking and guessing;
+      but in order to hurt nobody, he wraps his witty oracular judgments in a
+      transparent veil, or rather in a lurid thundercloud, shooting forth bright
+      sparks of wit, that they may fall in the powder-magazine of the expectant
+      audience.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The humorous poem was admirably recited, and the speaker much applauded.
+      Among the audience was the young man of the hospital, who seemed to have
+      forgotten his adventure of the preceding night. He had on the Shoes; for
+      as yet no lawful owner had appeared to claim them; and besides it was so
+      very dirty out-of-doors, they were just the thing for him, he thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The beginning of the poem he praised with great generosity: he even found
+      the idea original and effective. But that the end of it, like the Rhine,
+      was very insignificant, proved, in his opinion, the author's want of
+      invention; he was without genius, etc. This was an excellent opportunity
+      to have said something clever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile he was haunted by the idea&mdash;he should like to possess such
+      a pair of spectacles himself; then, perhaps, by using them circumspectly,
+      one would be able to look into people's hearts, which, he thought, would
+      be far more interesting than merely to see what was to happen next year;
+      for that we should all know in proper time, but the other never.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can now,&rdquo; said he to himself, &ldquo;fancy the whole row of ladies and
+      gentlemen sitting there in the front row; if one could but see into their
+      hearts&mdash;yes, that would be a revelation&mdash;a sort of bazar. In
+      that lady yonder, so strangely dressed, I should find for certain a large
+      milliner's shop; in that one the shop is empty, but it wants cleaning
+      plain enough. But there would also be some good stately shops among them.
+      Alas!&rdquo; sighed he, &ldquo;I know one in which all is stately; but there sits
+      already a spruce young shopman, which is the only thing that's amiss in
+      the whole shop. All would be splendidly decked out, and we should hear,
+      'Walk in, gentlemen, pray walk in; here you will find all you please to
+      want.' Ah! I wish to Heaven I could walk in and take a trip right through
+      the hearts of those present!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And behold! to the Shoes of Fortune this was the cue; the whole man shrunk
+      together and a most uncommon journey through the hearts of the front row
+      of spectators, now began. The first heart through which he came, was that
+      of a middle-aged lady, but he instantly fancied himself in the room of the
+      &ldquo;Institution for the cure of the crooked and deformed,&rdquo; where casts of
+      mis-shapen limbs are displayed in naked reality on the wall. Yet there was
+      this difference, in the institution the casts were taken at the entry of
+      the patient; but here they were retained and guarded in the heart while
+      the sound persons went away. They were, namely, casts of female friends,
+      whose bodily or mental deformities were here most faithfully preserved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the snake-like writhings of an idea he glided into another female
+      heart; but this seemed to him like a large holy fane. [*] The white dove
+      of innocence fluttered over the altar. How gladly would he have sunk upon
+      his knees; but he must away to the next heart; yet he still heard the
+      pealing tones of the organ, and he himself seemed to have become a newer
+      and a better man; he felt unworthy to tread the neighboring sanctuary
+      which a poor garret, with a sick bed-rid mother, revealed. But God's warm
+      sun streamed through the open window; lovely roses nodded from the wooden
+      flower-boxes on the roof, and two sky-blue birds sang rejoicingly, while
+      the sick mother implored God's richest blessings on her pious daughter.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * temple
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He now crept on hands and feet through a butcher's shop; at least on every
+      side, and above and below, there was nought but flesh. It was the heart of
+      a most respectable rich man, whose name is certain to be found in the
+      Directory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was now in the heart of the wife of this worthy gentleman. It was an
+      old, dilapidated, mouldering dovecot. The husband's portrait was used as a
+      weather-cock, which was connected in some way or other with the doors, and
+      so they opened and shut of their own accord, whenever the stern old
+      husband turned round.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hereupon he wandered into a boudoir formed entirely of mirrors, like the
+      one in Castle Rosenburg; but here the glasses magnified to an astonishing
+      degree. On the floor, in the middle of the room, sat, like a Dalai-Lama,
+      the insignificant &ldquo;Self&rdquo; of the person, quite confounded at his own
+      greatness. He then imagined he had got into a needle-case full of pointed
+      needles of every size.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is certainly the heart of an old maid,&rdquo; thought he. But he was
+      mistaken. It was the heart of a young military man; a man, as people said,
+      of talent and feeling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the greatest perplexity, he now came out of the last heart in the row;
+      he was unable to put his thoughts in order, and fancied that his too
+      lively imagination had run away with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good Heavens!&rdquo; sighed he. &ldquo;I have surely a disposition to madness&mdash;'tis
+      dreadfully hot here; my blood boils in my veins and my head is burning
+      like a coal.&rdquo; And he now remembered the important event of the evening
+      before, how his head had got jammed in between the iron railings of the
+      hospital. &ldquo;That's what it is, no doubt,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;I must do something in
+      time: under such circumstances a Russian bath might do me good. I only
+      wish I were already on the upper bank.&rdquo; [*]
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     *In these Russian (vapor) baths the person extends himself
+     on a bank or form, and as he gets accustomed to the heat,
+     moves to another higher up towards the ceiling, where, of
+     course, the vapor is warmest. In this manner he ascends
+     gradually to the highest.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And so there he lay on the uppermost bank in the vapor-bath; but with all
+      his clothes on, in his boots and galoshes, while the hot drops fell
+      scalding from the ceiling on his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Holloa!&rdquo; cried he, leaping down. The bathing attendant, on his side,
+      uttered a loud cry of astonishment when he beheld in the bath, a man
+      completely dressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other, however, retained sufficient presence of mind to whisper to
+      him, &ldquo;'Tis a bet, and I have won it!&rdquo; But the first thing he did as soon
+      as he got home, was to have a large blister put on his chest and back to
+      draw out his madness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning he had a sore chest and a bleeding back; and, excepting
+      the fright, that was all that he had gained by the Shoes of Fortune.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      V. Metamorphosis of the Copying-Clerk
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The watchman, whom we have certainly not forgotten, thought meanwhile of
+      the galoshes he had found and taken with him to the hospital; he now went
+      to fetch them; and as neither the lieutenant, nor anybody else in the
+      street, claimed them as his property, they were delivered over to the
+      police-office.*
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      *As on the continent, in all law and police practices nothing is verbal,
+      but any circumstance, however trifling, is reduced to writing, the labor,
+      as well as the number of papers that thus accumulate, is enormous. In a
+      police-office, consequently, we find copying-clerks among many other
+      scribes of various denominations, of which, it seems, our hero was one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, I declare the Shoes look just like my own,&rdquo; said one of the clerks,
+      eying the newly-found treasure, whose hidden powers, even he, sharp as he
+      was, was not able to discover. &ldquo;One must have more than the eye of a
+      shoemaker to know one pair from the other,&rdquo; said he, soliloquizing; and
+      putting, at the same time, the galoshes in search of an owner, beside his
+      own in the corner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here, sir!&rdquo; said one of the men, who panting brought him a tremendous
+      pile of papers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The copying-clerk turned round and spoke awhile with the man about the
+      reports and legal documents in question; but when he had finished, and his
+      eye fell again on the Shoes, he was unable to say whether those to the
+      left or those to the right belonged to him. &ldquo;At all events it must be
+      those which are wet,&rdquo; thought he; but this time, in spite of his
+      cleverness, he guessed quite wrong, for it was just those of Fortune which
+      played as it were into his hands, or rather on his feet. And why, I should
+      like to know, are the police never to be wrong? So he put them on quickly,
+      stuck his papers in his pocket, and took besides a few under his arm,
+      intending to look them through at home to make the necessary notes. It was
+      noon; and the weather, that had threatened rain, began to clear up, while
+      gaily dressed holiday folks filled the streets. &ldquo;A little trip to
+      Fredericksburg would do me no great harm,&rdquo; thought he; &ldquo;for I, poor beast
+      of burden that I am, have so much to annoy me, that I don't know what a
+      good appetite is. 'Tis a bitter crust, alas! at which I am condemned to
+      gnaw!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nobody could be more steady or quiet than this young man; we therefore
+      wish him joy of the excursion with all our heart; and it will certainly be
+      beneficial for a person who leads so sedentary a life. In the park he met
+      a friend, one of our young poets, who told him that the following day he
+      should set out on his long-intended tour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you are going away again!&rdquo; said the clerk. &ldquo;You are a very free and
+      happy being; we others are chained by the leg and held fast to our desk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; but it is a chain, friend, which ensures you the blessed bread of
+      existence,&rdquo; answered the poet. &ldquo;You need feel no care for the coming
+      morrow: when you are old, you receive a pension.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True,&rdquo; said the clerk, shrugging his shoulders; &ldquo;and yet you are the
+      better off. To sit at one's ease and poetise&mdash;that is a pleasure;
+      everybody has something agreeable to say to you, and you are always your
+      own master. No, friend, you should but try what it is to sit from one
+      year's end to the other occupied with and judging the most trivial
+      matters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The poet shook his head, the copying-clerk did the same. Each one kept to
+      his own opinion, and so they separated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's a strange race, those poets!&rdquo; said the clerk, who was very fond of
+      soliloquizing. &ldquo;I should like some day, just for a trial, to take such
+      nature upon me, and be a poet myself; I am very sure I should make no such
+      miserable verses as the others. Today, methinks, is a most delicious day
+      for a poet. Nature seems anew to celebrate her awakening into life. The
+      air is so unusually clear, the clouds sail on so buoyantly, and from the
+      green herbage a fragrance is exhaled that fills me with delight. For many
+      a year have I not felt as at this moment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      We see already, by the foregoing effusion, that he is become a poet; to
+      give further proof of it, however, would in most cases be insipid, for it
+      is a most foolish notion to fancy a poet different from other men. Among
+      the latter there may be far more poetical natures than many an
+      acknowledged poet, when examined more closely, could boast of; the
+      difference only is, that the poet possesses a better mental memory, on
+      which account he is able to retain the feeling and the thought till they
+      can be embodied by means of words; a faculty which the others do not
+      possess. But the transition from a commonplace nature to one that is
+      richly endowed, demands always a more or less breakneck leap over a
+      certain abyss which yawns threateningly below; and thus must the sudden
+      change with the clerk strike the reader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sweet air!&rdquo; continued he of the police-office, in his dreamy
+      imaginings; &ldquo;how it reminds me of the violets in the garden of my aunt
+      Magdalena! Yes, then I was a little wild boy, who did not go to school
+      very regularly. O heavens! 'tis a long time since I have thought on those
+      times. The good old soul! She lived behind the Exchange. She always had a
+      few twigs or green shoots in water&mdash;let the winter rage without as it
+      might. The violets exhaled their sweet breath, whilst I pressed against
+      the windowpanes covered with fantastic frost-work the copper coin I had
+      heated on the stove, and so made peep-holes. What splendid vistas were
+      then opened to my view! What change&mdash;what magnificence! Yonder in the
+      canal lay the ships frozen up, and deserted by their whole crews, with a
+      screaming crow for the sole occupant. But when the spring, with a gentle
+      stirring motion, announced her arrival, a new and busy life arose; with
+      songs and hurrahs the ice was sawn asunder, the ships were fresh tarred
+      and rigged, that they might sail away to distant lands. But I have
+      remained here&mdash;must always remain here, sitting at my desk in the
+      office, and patiently see other people fetch their passports to go abroad.
+      Such is my fate! Alas!&rdquo;&mdash;sighed he, and was again silent. &ldquo;Great
+      Heaven! What is come to me! Never have I thought or felt like this before!
+      It must be the summer air that affects me with feelings almost as
+      disquieting as they are refreshing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He felt in his pocket for the papers. &ldquo;These police-reports will soon stem
+      the torrent of my ideas, and effectually hinder any rebellious overflowing
+      of the time-worn banks of official duties&rdquo;; he said to himself
+      consolingly, while his eye ran over the first page. &ldquo;DAME TIGBRITH,
+      tragedy in five acts.&rdquo; &ldquo;What is that? And yet it is undeniably my own
+      handwriting. Have I written the tragedy? Wonderful, very wonderful!&mdash;And
+      this&mdash;what have I here? 'INTRIGUE ON THE RAMPARTS; or THE DAY OF
+      REPENTANCE: vaudeville with new songs to the most favorite airs.' The
+      deuce! Where did I get all this rubbish? Some one must have slipped it
+      slyly into my pocket for a joke. There is too a letter to me; a crumpled
+      letter and the seal broken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes; it was not a very polite epistle from the manager of a theatre, in
+      which both pieces were flatly refused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hem! hem!&rdquo; said the clerk breathlessly, and quite exhausted he seated
+      himself on a bank. His thoughts were so elastic, his heart so tender; and
+      involuntarily he picked one of the nearest flowers. It is a simple daisy,
+      just bursting out of the bud. What the botanist tells us after a number of
+      imperfect lectures, the flower proclaimed in a minute. It related the
+      mythus of its birth, told of the power of the sun-light that spread out
+      its delicate leaves, and forced them to impregnate the air with their
+      incense&mdash;and then he thought of the manifold struggles of life, which
+      in like manner awaken the budding flowers of feeling in our bosom. Light
+      and air contend with chivalric emulation for the love of the fair flower
+      that bestowed her chief favors on the latter; full of longing she turned
+      towards the light, and as soon as it vanished, rolled her tender leaves
+      together and slept in the embraces of the air. &ldquo;It is the light which
+      adorns me,&rdquo; said the flower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But 'tis the air which enables thee to breathe,&rdquo; said the poet's voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Close by stood a boy who dashed his stick into a wet ditch. The drops of
+      water splashed up to the green leafy roof, and the clerk thought of the
+      million of ephemera which in a single drop were thrown up to a height,
+      that was as great doubtless for their size, as for us if we were to be
+      hurled above the clouds. While he thought of this and of the whole
+      metamorphosis he had undergone, he smiled and said, &ldquo;I sleep and dream;
+      but it is wonderful how one can dream so naturally, and know besides so
+      exactly that it is but a dream. If only to-morrow on awaking, I could
+      again call all to mind so vividly! I seem in unusually good spirits; my
+      perception of things is clear, I feel as light and cheerful as though I
+      were in heaven; but I know for a certainty, that if to-morrow a dim
+      remembrance of it should swim before my mind, it will then seem nothing
+      but stupid nonsense, as I have often experienced already&mdash;especially
+      before I enlisted under the banner of the police, for that dispels like a
+      whirlwind all the visions of an unfettered imagination. All we hear or say
+      in a dream that is fair and beautiful is like the gold of the subterranean
+      spirits; it is rich and splendid when it is given us, but viewed by
+      daylight we find only withered leaves. Alas!&rdquo; he sighed quite sorrowful,
+      and gazed at the chirping birds that hopped contentedly from branch to
+      branch, &ldquo;they are much better off than I! To fly must be a heavenly art;
+      and happy do I prize that creature in which it is innate. Yes! Could I
+      exchange my nature with any other creature, I fain would be such a happy
+      little lark!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had hardly uttered these hasty words when the skirts and sleeves of his
+      coat folded themselves together into wings; the clothes became feathers,
+      and the galoshes claws. He observed it perfectly, and laughed in his
+      heart. &ldquo;Now then, there is no doubt that I am dreaming; but I never before
+      was aware of such mad freaks as these.&rdquo; And up he flew into the green roof
+      and sang; but in the song there was no poetry, for the spirit of the poet
+      was gone. The Shoes, as is the case with anybody who does what he has to
+      do properly, could only attend to one thing at a time. He wanted to be a
+      poet, and he was one; he now wished to be a merry chirping bird: but when
+      he was metamorphosed into one, the former peculiarities ceased
+      immediately. &ldquo;It is really pleasant enough,&rdquo; said he: &ldquo;the whole day long
+      I sit in the office amid the driest law-papers, and at night I fly in my
+      dream as a lark in the gardens of Fredericksburg; one might really write a
+      very pretty comedy upon it.&rdquo; He now fluttered down into the grass, turned
+      his head gracefully on every side, and with his bill pecked the pliant
+      blades of grass, which, in comparison to his present size, seemed as
+      majestic as the palm-branches of northern Africa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Unfortunately the pleasure lasted but a moment. Presently black night
+      overshadowed our enthusiast, who had so entirely missed his part of
+      copying-clerk at a police-office; some vast object seemed to be thrown
+      over him. It was a large oil-skin cap, which a sailor-boy of the quay had
+      thrown over the struggling bird; a coarse hand sought its way carefully in
+      under the broad rim, and seized the clerk over the back and wings. In the
+      first moment of fear, he called, indeed, as loud as he could&mdash;&ldquo;You
+      impudent little blackguard! I am a copying-clerk at the police-office; and
+      you know you cannot insult any belonging to the constabulary force without
+      a chastisement. Besides, you good-for-nothing rascal, it is strictly
+      forbidden to catch birds in the royal gardens of Fredericksburg; but your
+      blue uniform betrays where you come from.&rdquo; This fine tirade sounded,
+      however, to the ungodly sailor-boy like a mere &ldquo;Pippi-pi.&rdquo; He gave the
+      noisy bird a knock on his beak, and walked on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was soon met by two schoolboys of the upper class&mdash;that is to say
+      as individuals, for with regard to learning they were in the lowest class
+      in the school; and they bought the stupid bird. So the copying-clerk came
+      to Copenhagen as guest, or rather as prisoner in a family living in Gother
+      Street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis well that I'm dreaming,&rdquo; said the clerk, &ldquo;or I really should get
+      angry. First I was a poet; now sold for a few pence as a lark; no doubt it
+      was that accursed poetical nature which has metamorphosed me into such a
+      poor harmless little creature. It is really pitiable, particularly when
+      one gets into the hands of a little blackguard, perfect in all sorts of
+      cruelty to animals: all I should like to know is, how the story will end.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The two schoolboys, the proprietors now of the transformed clerk, carried
+      him into an elegant room. A stout stately dame received them with a smile;
+      but she expressed much dissatisfaction that a common field-bird, as she
+      called the lark, should appear in such high society. For to-day, however,
+      she would allow it; and they must shut him in the empty cage that was
+      standing in the window. &ldquo;Perhaps he will amuse my good Polly,&rdquo; added the
+      lady, looking with a benignant smile at a large green parrot that swung
+      himself backwards and forwards most comfortably in his ring, inside a
+      magnificent brass-wired cage. &ldquo;To-day is Polly's birthday,&rdquo; said she with
+      stupid simplicity: &ldquo;and the little brown field-bird must wish him joy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Polly uttered not a syllable in reply, but swung to and fro with
+      dignified condescension; while a pretty canary, as yellow as gold, that
+      had lately been brought from his sunny fragrant home, began to sing aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Noisy creature! Will you be quiet!&rdquo; screamed the lady of the house,
+      covering the cage with an embroidered white pocket handkerchief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Chirp, chirp!&rdquo; sighed he. &ldquo;That was a dreadful snowstorm&rdquo;; and he sighed
+      again, and was silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The copying-clerk, or, as the lady said, the brown field-bird, was put
+      into a small cage, close to the Canary, and not far from &ldquo;my good Polly.&rdquo;
+       The only human sounds that the Parrot could bawl out were, &ldquo;Come, let us
+      be men!&rdquo; Everything else that he said was as unintelligible to everybody
+      as the chirping of the Canary, except to the clerk, who was now a bird
+      too: he understood his companion perfectly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I flew about beneath the green palms and the blossoming almond-trees,&rdquo;
+       sang the Canary; &ldquo;I flew around, with my brothers and sisters, over the
+      beautiful flowers, and over the glassy lakes, where the bright
+      water-plants nodded to me from below. There, too, I saw many
+      splendidly-dressed paroquets, that told the drollest stories, and the
+      wildest fairy tales without end.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! those were uncouth birds,&rdquo; answered the Parrot. &ldquo;They had no
+      education, and talked of whatever came into their head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If my mistress and all her friends can laugh at what I say, so may you
+      too, I should think. It is a great fault to have no taste for what is
+      witty or amusing&mdash;come, let us be men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, you have no remembrance of love for the charming maidens that danced
+      beneath the outspread tents beside the bright fragrant flowers? Do you no
+      longer remember the sweet fruits, and the cooling juice in the wild plants
+      of our never-to-be-forgotten home?&rdquo; said the former inhabitant of the
+      Canary Isles, continuing his dithyrambic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes,&rdquo; said the Parrot; &ldquo;but I am far better off here. I am well fed,
+      and get friendly treatment. I know I am a clever fellow; and that is all I
+      care about. Come, let us be men. You are of a poetical nature, as it is
+      called&mdash;I, on the contrary, possess profound knowledge and
+      inexhaustible wit. You have genius; but clear-sighted, calm discretion
+      does not take such lofty flights, and utter such high natural tones. For
+      this they have covered you over&mdash;they never do the like to me; for I
+      cost more. Besides, they are afraid of my beak; and I have always a witty
+      answer at hand. Come, let us be men!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O warm spicy land of my birth,&rdquo; sang the Canary bird; &ldquo;I will sing of thy
+      dark-green bowers, of the calm bays where the pendent boughs kiss the
+      surface of the water; I will sing of the rejoicing of all my brothers and
+      sisters where the cactus grows in wanton luxuriance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spare us your elegiac tones,&rdquo; said the Parrot giggling. &ldquo;Rather speak of
+      something at which one may laugh heartily. Laughing is an infallible sign
+      of the highest degree of mental development. Can a dog, or a horse laugh?
+      No, but they can cry. The gift of laughing was given to man alone. Ha! ha!
+      ha!&rdquo; screamed Polly, and added his stereotype witticism. &ldquo;Come, let us be
+      men!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor little Danish grey-bird,&rdquo; said the Canary; &ldquo;you have been caught
+      too. It is, no doubt, cold enough in your woods, but there at least is the
+      breath of liberty; therefore fly away. In the hurry they have forgotten to
+      shut your cage, and the upper window is open. Fly, my friend; fly away.
+      Farewell!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Instinctively the Clerk obeyed; with a few strokes of his wings he was out
+      of the cage; but at the same moment the door, which was only ajar, and
+      which led to the next room, began to creak, and supple and creeping came
+      the large tomcat into the room, and began to pursue him. The frightened
+      Canary fluttered about in his cage; the Parrot flapped his wings, and
+      cried, &ldquo;Come, let us be men!&rdquo; The Clerk felt a mortal fright, and flew
+      through the window, far away over the houses and streets. At last he was
+      forced to rest a little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The neighboring house had a something familiar about it; a window stood
+      open; he flew in; it was his own room. He perched upon the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, let us be men!&rdquo; said he, involuntarily imitating the chatter of the
+      Parrot, and at the same moment he was again a copying-clerk; but he was
+      sitting in the middle of the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heaven help me!&rdquo; cried he. &ldquo;How did I get up here&mdash;and so buried in
+      sleep, too? After all, that was a very unpleasant, disagreeable dream that
+      haunted me! The whole story is nothing but silly, stupid nonsense!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      VI. The Best That the Galoshes Gave
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The following day, early in the morning, while the Clerk was still in bed,
+      someone knocked at his door. It was his neighbor, a young Divine, who
+      lived on the same floor. He walked in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lend me your Galoshes,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;it is so wet in the garden, though the
+      sun is shining most invitingly. I should like to go out a little.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He got the Galoshes, and he was soon below in a little duodecimo garden,
+      where between two immense walls a plumtree and an apple-tree were
+      standing. Even such a little garden as this was considered in the
+      metropolis of Copenhagen as a great luxury.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man wandered up and down the narrow paths, as well as the
+      prescribed limits would allow; the clock struck six; without was heard the
+      horn of a post-boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To travel! to travel!&rdquo; exclaimed he, overcome by most painful and
+      passionate remembrances. &ldquo;That is the happiest thing in the world! That is
+      the highest aim of all my wishes! Then at last would the agonizing
+      restlessness be allayed, which destroys my existence! But it must be far,
+      far away! I would behold magnificent Switzerland; I would travel to Italy,
+      and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a good thing that the power of the Galoshes worked as
+      instantaneously as lightning in a powder-magazine would do, otherwise the
+      poor man with his overstrained wishes would have travelled about the world
+      too much for himself as well as for us. In short, he was travelling. He
+      was in the middle of Switzerland, but packed up with eight other
+      passengers in the inside of an eternally-creaking diligence; his head
+      ached till it almost split, his weary neck could hardly bear the heavy
+      load, and his feet, pinched by his torturing boots, were terribly swollen.
+      He was in an intermediate state between sleeping and waking; at variance
+      with himself, with his company, with the country, and with the government.
+      In his right pocket he had his letter of credit, in the left, his
+      passport, and in a small leathern purse some double louis d'or, carefully
+      sewn up in the bosom of his waistcoat. Every dream proclaimed that one or
+      the other of these valuables was lost; wherefore he started up as in a
+      fever; and the first movement which his hand made, described a magic
+      triangle from the right pocket to the left, and then up towards the bosom,
+      to feel if he had them all safe or not. From the roof inside the carriage,
+      umbrellas, walking-sticks, hats, and sundry other articles were depending,
+      and hindered the view, which was particularly imposing. He now endeavored
+      as well as he was able to dispel his gloom, which was caused by outward
+      chance circumstances merely, and on the bosom of nature imbibe the milk of
+      purest human enjoyment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Grand, solemn, and dark was the whole landscape around. The gigantic
+      pine-forests, on the pointed crags, seemed almost like little tufts of
+      heather, colored by the surrounding clouds. It began to snow, a cold wind
+      blew and roared as though it were seeking a bride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Augh!&rdquo; sighed he, &ldquo;were we only on the other side the Alps, then we
+      should have summer, and I could get my letters of credit cashed. The
+      anxiety I feel about them prevents me enjoying Switzerland. Were I but on
+      the other side!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so saying he was on the other side in Italy, between Florence and
+      Rome. Lake Thracymene, illumined by the evening sun, lay like flaming gold
+      between the dark-blue mountain-ridges; here, where Hannibal defeated
+      Flaminius, the rivers now held each other in their green embraces; lovely,
+      half-naked children tended a herd of black swine, beneath a group of
+      fragrant laurel-trees, hard by the road-side. Could we render this
+      inimitable picture properly, then would everybody exclaim, &ldquo;Beautiful,
+      unparalleled Italy!&rdquo; But neither the young Divine said so, nor anyone of
+      his grumbling companions in the coach of the vetturino.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The poisonous flies and gnats swarmed around by thousands; in vain one
+      waved myrtle-branches about like mad; the audacious insect population did
+      not cease to sting; nor was there a single person in the well-crammed
+      carriage whose face was not swollen and sore from their ravenous bites.
+      The poor horses, tortured almost to death, suffered most from this truly
+      Egyptian plague; the flies alighted upon them in large disgusting swarms;
+      and if the coachman got down and scraped them off, hardly a minute elapsed
+      before they were there again. The sun now set: a freezing cold, though of
+      short duration pervaded the whole creation; it was like a horrid gust
+      coming from a burial-vault on a warm summer's day&mdash;but all around the
+      mountains retained that wonderful green tone which we see in some old
+      pictures, and which, should we not have seen a similar play of color in
+      the South, we declare at once to be unnatural. It was a glorious prospect;
+      but the stomach was empty, the body tired; all that the heart cared and
+      longed for was good night-quarters; yet how would they be? For these one
+      looked much more anxiously than for the charms of nature, which every
+      where were so profusely displayed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The road led through an olive-grove, and here the solitary inn was
+      situated. Ten or twelve crippled-beggars had encamped outside. The
+      healthiest of them resembled, to use an expression of Marryat's, &ldquo;Hunger's
+      eldest son when he had come of age&rdquo;; the others were either blind, had
+      withered legs and crept about on their hands, or withered arms and
+      fingerless hands. It was the most wretched misery, dragged from among the
+      filthiest rags. &ldquo;Excellenza, miserabili!&rdquo; sighed they, thrusting forth
+      their deformed limbs to view. Even the hostess, with bare feet, uncombed
+      hair, and dressed in a garment of doubtful color, received the guests
+      grumblingly. The doors were fastened with a loop of string; the floor of
+      the rooms presented a stone paving half torn up; bats fluttered wildly
+      about the ceiling; and as to the smell therein&mdash;no&mdash;that was
+      beyond description.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You had better lay the cloth below in the stable,&rdquo; said one of the
+      travellers; &ldquo;there, at all events, one knows what one is breathing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The windows were quickly opened, to let in a little fresh air. Quicker,
+      however, than the breeze, the withered, sallow arms of the beggars were
+      thrust in, accompanied by the eternal whine of &ldquo;Miserabili, miserabili,
+      excellenza!&rdquo; On the walls were displayed innumerable inscriptions, written
+      in nearly every language of Europe, some in verse, some in prose, most of
+      them not very laudatory of &ldquo;bella Italia.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The meal was served. It consisted of a soup of salted water, seasoned with
+      pepper and rancid oil. The last ingredient played a very prominent part in
+      the salad; stale eggs and roasted cocks'-combs furnished the grand dish of
+      the repast; the wine even was not without a disgusting taste&mdash;it was
+      like a medicinal draught.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At night the boxes and other effects of the passengers were placed against
+      the rickety doors. One of the travellers kept watch while the others
+      slept. The sentry was our young Divine. How close it was in the chamber!
+      The heat oppressive to suffocation&mdash;the gnats hummed and stung
+      unceasingly&mdash;the &ldquo;miserabili&rdquo; without whined and moaned in their
+      sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Travelling would be agreeable enough,&rdquo; said he groaning, &ldquo;if one only had
+      no body, or could send it to rest while the spirit went on its pilgrimage
+      unhindered, whither the voice within might call it. Wherever I go, I am
+      pursued by a longing that is insatiable&mdash;that I cannot explain to
+      myself, and that tears my very heart. I want something better than what is
+      but what is fled in an instant. But what is it, and where is it to be
+      found? Yet, I know in reality what it is I wish for. Oh! most happy were
+      I, could I but reach one aim&mdash;could but reach the happiest of all!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And as he spoke the word he was again in his home; the long white curtains
+      hung down from the windows, and in the middle of the floor stood the black
+      coffin; in it he lay in the sleep of death. His wish was fulfilled&mdash;the
+      body rested, while the spirit went unhindered on its pilgrimage. &ldquo;Let no
+      one deem himself happy before his end,&rdquo; were the words of Solon; and here
+      was a new and brilliant proof of the wisdom of the old apothegm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every corpse is a sphynx of immortality; here too on the black coffin the
+      sphynx gave us no answer to what he who lay within had written two days
+      before:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;O mighty Death! thy silence teaches nought,
+       Thou leadest only to the near grave's brink;
+      Is broken now the ladder of my thoughts?
+     Do I instead of mounting only sink?
+
+     Our heaviest grief the world oft seeth not,
+      Our sorest pain we hide from stranger eyes:
+      And for the sufferer there is nothing left
+     But the green mound that o'er the coffin lies.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Two figures were moving in the chamber. We knew them both; it was the
+      fairy of Care, and the emissary of Fortune. They both bent over the
+      corpse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you now see,&rdquo; said Care, &ldquo;what happiness your Galoshes have brought to
+      mankind?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To him, at least, who slumbers here, they have brought an imperishable
+      blessing,&rdquo; answered the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah no!&rdquo; replied Care. &ldquo;He took his departure himself; he was not called
+      away. His mental powers here below were not strong enough to reach the
+      treasures lying beyond this life, and which his destiny ordained he should
+      obtain. I will now confer a benefit on him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And she took the Galoshes from his feet; his sleep of death was ended; and
+      he who had been thus called back again to life arose from his dread couch
+      in all the vigor of youth. Care vanished, and with her the Galoshes. She
+      has no doubt taken them for herself, to keep them to all eternity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE FIR TREE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Out in the woods stood a nice little Fir Tree. The place he had was a very
+      good one: the sun shone on him: as to fresh air, there was enough of that,
+      and round him grew many large-sized comrades, pines as well as firs. But
+      the little Fir wanted so very much to be a grown-up tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not think of the warm sun and of the fresh air; he did not care for
+      the little cottage children that ran about and prattled when they were in
+      the woods looking for wild-strawberries. The children often came with a
+      whole pitcher full of berries, or a long row of them threaded on a straw,
+      and sat down near the young tree and said, &ldquo;Oh, how pretty he is! What a
+      nice little fir!&rdquo; But this was what the Tree could not bear to hear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the end of a year he had shot up a good deal, and after another year he
+      was another long bit taller; for with fir trees one can always tell by the
+      shoots how many years old they are.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! Were I but such a high tree as the others are,&rdquo; sighed he. &ldquo;Then I
+      should be able to spread out my branches, and with the tops to look into
+      the wide world! Then would the birds build nests among my branches: and
+      when there was a breeze, I could bend with as much stateliness as the
+      others!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither the sunbeams, nor the birds, nor the red clouds which morning and
+      evening sailed above him, gave the little Tree any pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In winter, when the snow lay glittering on the ground, a hare would often
+      come leaping along, and jump right over the little Tree. Oh, that made him
+      so angry! But two winters were past, and in the third the Tree was so
+      large that the hare was obliged to go round it. &ldquo;To grow and grow, to get
+      older and be tall,&rdquo; thought the Tree&mdash;&ldquo;that, after all, is the most
+      delightful thing in the world!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In autumn the wood-cutters always came and felled some of the largest
+      trees. This happened every year; and the young Fir Tree, that had now
+      grown to a very comely size, trembled at the sight; for the magnificent
+      great trees fell to the earth with noise and cracking, the branches were
+      lopped off, and the trees looked long and bare; they were hardly to be
+      recognised; and then they were laid in carts, and the horses dragged them
+      out of the wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where did they go to? What became of them?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In spring, when the swallows and the storks came, the Tree asked them,
+      &ldquo;Don't you know where they have been taken? Have you not met them
+      anywhere?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The swallows did not know anything about it; but the Stork looked musing,
+      nodded his head, and said, &ldquo;Yes; I think I know; I met many ships as I was
+      flying hither from Egypt; on the ships were magnificent masts, and I
+      venture to assert that it was they that smelt so of fir. I may
+      congratulate you, for they lifted themselves on high most majestically!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, were I but old enough to fly across the sea! But how does the sea
+      look in reality? What is it like?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would take a long time to explain,&rdquo; said the Stork, and with these
+      words off he went.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rejoice in thy growth!&rdquo; said the Sunbeams. &ldquo;Rejoice in thy vigorous
+      growth, and in the fresh life that moveth within thee!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the Wind kissed the Tree, and the Dew wept tears over him; but the Fir
+      understood it not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Christmas came, quite young trees were cut down: trees which often
+      were not even as large or of the same age as this Fir Tree, who could
+      never rest, but always wanted to be off. These young trees, and they were
+      always the finest looking, retained their branches; they were laid on
+      carts, and the horses drew them out of the wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where are they going to?&rdquo; asked the Fir. &ldquo;They are not taller than I;
+      there was one indeed that was considerably shorter; and why do they retain
+      all their branches? Whither are they taken?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We know! We know!&rdquo; chirped the Sparrows. &ldquo;We have peeped in at the
+      windows in the town below! We know whither they are taken! The greatest
+      splendor and the greatest magnificence one can imagine await them. We
+      peeped through the windows, and saw them planted in the middle of the warm
+      room and ornamented with the most splendid things, with gilded apples,
+      with gingerbread, with toys, and many hundred lights!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then?&rdquo; asked the Fir Tree, trembling in every bough. &ldquo;And then? What
+      happens then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We did not see anything more: it was incomparably beautiful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would fain know if I am destined for so glorious a career,&rdquo; cried the
+      Tree, rejoicing. &ldquo;That is still better than to cross the sea! What a
+      longing do I suffer! Were Christmas but come! I am now tall, and my
+      branches spread like the others that were carried off last year! Oh! were
+      I but already on the cart! Were I in the warm room with all the splendor
+      and magnificence! Yes; then something better, something still grander,
+      will surely follow, or wherefore should they thus ornament me? Something
+      better, something still grander must follow&mdash;but what? Oh, how I
+      long, how I suffer! I do not know myself what is the matter with me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rejoice in our presence!&rdquo; said the Air and the Sunlight. &ldquo;Rejoice in thy
+      own fresh youth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Tree did not rejoice at all; he grew and grew, and was green both
+      winter and summer. People that saw him said, &ldquo;What a fine tree!&rdquo; and
+      towards Christmas he was one of the first that was cut down. The axe
+      struck deep into the very pith; the Tree fell to the earth with a sigh; he
+      felt a pang&mdash;it was like a swoon; he could not think of happiness,
+      for he was sorrowful at being separated from his home, from the place
+      where he had sprung up. He well knew that he should never see his dear old
+      comrades, the little bushes and flowers around him, anymore; perhaps not
+      even the birds! The departure was not at all agreeable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Tree only came to himself when he was unloaded in a court-yard with
+      the other trees, and heard a man say, &ldquo;That one is splendid! We don't want
+      the others.&rdquo; Then two servants came in rich livery and carried the Fir
+      Tree into a large and splendid drawing-room. Portraits were hanging on the
+      walls, and near the white porcelain stove stood two large Chinese vases
+      with lions on the covers. There, too, were large easy-chairs, silken
+      sofas, large tables full of picture-books and full of toys, worth hundreds
+      and hundreds of crowns&mdash;at least the children said so. And the Fir
+      Tree was stuck upright in a cask that was filled with sand; but no one
+      could see that it was a cask, for green cloth was hung all round it, and
+      it stood on a large gaily-colored carpet. Oh! how the Tree quivered! What
+      was to happen? The servants, as well as the young ladies, decorated it. On
+      one branch there hung little nets cut out of colored paper, and each net
+      was filled with sugarplums; and among the other boughs gilded apples and
+      walnuts were suspended, looking as though they had grown there, and little
+      blue and white tapers were placed among the leaves. Dolls that looked for
+      all the world like men&mdash;the Tree had never beheld such before&mdash;were
+      seen among the foliage, and at the very top a large star of gold tinsel
+      was fixed. It was really splendid&mdash;beyond description splendid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This evening!&rdquo; they all said. &ldquo;How it will shine this evening!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; thought the Tree. &ldquo;If the evening were but come! If the tapers were
+      but lighted! And then I wonder what will happen! Perhaps the other trees
+      from the forest will come to look at me! Perhaps the sparrows will beat
+      against the windowpanes! I wonder if I shall take root here, and winter
+      and summer stand covered with ornaments!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He knew very much about the matter&mdash;but he was so impatient that for
+      sheer longing he got a pain in his back, and this with trees is the same
+      thing as a headache with us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The candles were now lighted&mdash;what brightness! What splendor! The
+      Tree trembled so in every bough that one of the tapers set fire to the
+      foliage. It blazed up famously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Help! Help!&rdquo; cried the young ladies, and they quickly put out the fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the Tree did not even dare tremble. What a state he was in! He was so
+      uneasy lest he should lose something of his splendor, that he was quite
+      bewildered amidst the glare and brightness; when suddenly both
+      folding-doors opened and a troop of children rushed in as if they would
+      upset the Tree. The older persons followed quietly; the little ones stood
+      quite still. But it was only for a moment; then they shouted that the
+      whole place re-echoed with their rejoicing; they danced round the Tree,
+      and one present after the other was pulled off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are they about?&rdquo; thought the Tree. &ldquo;What is to happen now!&rdquo; And the
+      lights burned down to the very branches, and as they burned down they were
+      put out one after the other, and then the children had permission to
+      plunder the Tree. So they fell upon it with such violence that all its
+      branches cracked; if it had not been fixed firmly in the ground, it would
+      certainly have tumbled down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The children danced about with their beautiful playthings; no one looked
+      at the Tree except the old nurse, who peeped between the branches; but it
+      was only to see if there was a fig or an apple left that had been
+      forgotten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A story! A story!&rdquo; cried the children, drawing a little fat man towards
+      the Tree. He seated himself under it and said, &ldquo;Now we are in the shade,
+      and the Tree can listen too. But I shall tell only one story. Now which
+      will you have; that about Ivedy-Avedy, or about Humpy-Dumpy, who tumbled
+      downstairs, and yet after all came to the throne and married the
+      princess?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ivedy-Avedy,&rdquo; cried some; &ldquo;Humpy-Dumpy,&rdquo; cried the others. There was such
+      a bawling and screaming&mdash;the Fir Tree alone was silent, and he
+      thought to himself, &ldquo;Am I not to bawl with the rest? Am I to do nothing
+      whatever?&rdquo; for he was one of the company, and had done what he had to do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the man told about Humpy-Dumpy that tumbled down, who notwithstanding
+      came to the throne, and at last married the princess. And the children
+      clapped their hands, and cried. &ldquo;Oh, go on! Do go on!&rdquo; They wanted to hear
+      about Ivedy-Avedy too, but the little man only told them about
+      Humpy-Dumpy. The Fir Tree stood quite still and absorbed in thought; the
+      birds in the wood had never related the like of this. &ldquo;Humpy-Dumpy fell
+      downstairs, and yet he married the princess! Yes, yes! That's the way of
+      the world!&rdquo; thought the Fir Tree, and believed it all, because the man who
+      told the story was so good-looking. &ldquo;Well, well! who knows, perhaps I may
+      fall downstairs, too, and get a princess as wife!&rdquo; And he looked forward
+      with joy to the morrow, when he hoped to be decked out again with lights,
+      playthings, fruits, and tinsel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won't tremble to-morrow!&rdquo; thought the Fir Tree. &ldquo;I will enjoy to the
+      full all my splendor! To-morrow I shall hear again the story of
+      Humpy-Dumpy, and perhaps that of Ivedy-Avedy too.&rdquo; And the whole night the
+      Tree stood still and in deep thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the morning the servant and the housemaid came in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now then the splendor will begin again,&rdquo; thought the Fir. But they
+      dragged him out of the room, and up the stairs into the loft: and here, in
+      a dark corner, where no daylight could enter, they left him. &ldquo;What's the
+      meaning of this?&rdquo; thought the Tree. &ldquo;What am I to do here? What shall I
+      hear now, I wonder?&rdquo; And he leaned against the wall lost in reverie. Time
+      enough had he too for his reflections; for days and nights passed on, and
+      nobody came up; and when at last somebody did come, it was only to put
+      some great trunks in a corner, out of the way. There stood the Tree quite
+      hidden; it seemed as if he had been entirely forgotten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis now winter out-of-doors!&rdquo; thought the Tree. &ldquo;The earth is hard and
+      covered with snow; men cannot plant me now, and therefore I have been put
+      up here under shelter till the spring-time comes! How thoughtful that is!
+      How kind man is, after all! If it only were not so dark here, and so
+      terribly lonely! Not even a hare! And out in the woods it was so pleasant,
+      when the snow was on the ground, and the hare leaped by; yes&mdash;even
+      when he jumped over me; but I did not like it then! It is really terribly
+      lonely here!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Squeak! Squeak!&rdquo; said a little Mouse, at the same moment, peeping out of
+      his hole. And then another little one came. They snuffed about the Fir
+      Tree, and rustled among the branches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is dreadfully cold,&rdquo; said the Mouse. &ldquo;But for that, it would be
+      delightful here, old Fir, wouldn't it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am by no means old,&rdquo; said the Fir Tree. &ldquo;There's many a one
+      considerably older than I am.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where do you come from,&rdquo; asked the Mice; &ldquo;and what can you do?&rdquo; They were
+      so extremely curious. &ldquo;Tell us about the most beautiful spot on the earth.
+      Have you never been there? Were you never in the larder, where cheeses lie
+      on the shelves, and hams hang from above; where one dances about on tallow
+      candles: that place where one enters lean, and comes out again fat and
+      portly?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know no such place,&rdquo; said the Tree. &ldquo;But I know the wood, where the sun
+      shines and where the little birds sing.&rdquo; And then he told all about his
+      youth; and the little Mice had never heard the like before; and they
+      listened and said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, to be sure! How much you have seen! How happy you must have been!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I!&rdquo; said the Fir Tree, thinking over what he had himself related. &ldquo;Yes,
+      in reality those were happy times.&rdquo; And then he told about Christmas-eve,
+      when he was decked out with cakes and candles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh,&rdquo; said the little Mice, &ldquo;how fortunate you have been, old Fir Tree!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am by no means old,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;I came from the wood this winter; I am
+      in my prime, and am only rather short for my age.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What delightful stories you know,&rdquo; said the Mice: and the next night they
+      came with four other little Mice, who were to hear what the Tree
+      recounted: and the more he related, the more he remembered himself; and it
+      appeared as if those times had really been happy times. &ldquo;But they may
+      still come&mdash;they may still come! Humpy-Dumpy fell downstairs, and yet
+      he got a princess!&rdquo; and he thought at the moment of a nice little Birch
+      Tree growing out in the woods: to the Fir, that would be a real charming
+      princess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is Humpy-Dumpy?&rdquo; asked the Mice. So then the Fir Tree told the whole
+      fairy tale, for he could remember every single word of it; and the little
+      Mice jumped for joy up to the very top of the Tree. Next night two more
+      Mice came, and on Sunday two Rats even; but they said the stories were not
+      interesting, which vexed the little Mice; and they, too, now began to
+      think them not so very amusing either.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know only one story?&rdquo; asked the Rats.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only that one,&rdquo; answered the Tree. &ldquo;I heard it on my happiest evening;
+      but I did not then know how happy I was.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a very stupid story! Don't you know one about bacon and tallow
+      candles? Can't you tell any larder stories?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said the Tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then good-bye,&rdquo; said the Rats; and they went home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last the little Mice stayed away also; and the Tree sighed: &ldquo;After all,
+      it was very pleasant when the sleek little Mice sat round me, and listened
+      to what I told them. Now that too is over. But I will take good care to
+      enjoy myself when I am brought out again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But when was that to be? Why, one morning there came a quantity of people
+      and set to work in the loft. The trunks were moved, the tree was pulled
+      out and thrown&mdash;rather hard, it is true&mdash;down on the floor, but
+      a man drew him towards the stairs, where the daylight shone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now a merry life will begin again,&rdquo; thought the Tree. He felt the fresh
+      air, the first sunbeam&mdash;and now he was out in the courtyard. All
+      passed so quickly, there was so much going on around him, the Tree quite
+      forgot to look to himself. The court adjoined a garden, and all was in
+      flower; the roses hung so fresh and odorous over the balustrade, the
+      lindens were in blossom, the Swallows flew by, and said, &ldquo;Quirre-vit! My
+      husband is come!&rdquo; but it was not the Fir Tree that they meant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, then, I shall really enjoy life,&rdquo; said he exultingly, and spread out
+      his branches; but, alas, they were all withered and yellow! It was in a
+      corner that he lay, among weeds and nettles. The golden star of tinsel was
+      still on the top of the Tree, and glittered in the sunshine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the court-yard some of the merry children were playing who had danced
+      at Christmas round the Fir Tree, and were so glad at the sight of him. One
+      of the youngest ran and tore off the golden star.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only look what is still on the ugly old Christmas tree!&rdquo; said he,
+      trampling on the branches, so that they all cracked beneath his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the Tree beheld all the beauty of the flowers, and the freshness in
+      the garden; he beheld himself, and wished he had remained in his dark
+      corner in the loft; he thought of his first youth in the wood, of the
+      merry Christmas-eve, and of the little Mice who had listened with so much
+      pleasure to the story of Humpy-Dumpy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis over&mdash;'tis past!&rdquo; said the poor Tree. &ldquo;Had I but rejoiced when
+      I had reason to do so! But now 'tis past, 'tis past!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the gardener's boy chopped the Tree into small pieces; there was a
+      whole heap lying there. The wood flamed up splendidly under the large
+      brewing copper, and it sighed so deeply! Each sigh was like a shot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boys played about in the court, and the youngest wore the gold star on
+      his breast which the Tree had had on the happiest evening of his life.
+      However, that was over now&mdash;the Tree gone, the story at an end. All,
+      all was over&mdash;every tale must end at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE SNOW QUEEN
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      FIRST STORY. Which Treats of a Mirror and of the Splinters
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Now then, let us begin. When we are at the end of the story, we shall know
+      more than we know now: but to begin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once upon a time there was a wicked sprite, indeed he was the most
+      mischievous of all sprites. One day he was in a very good humor, for he
+      had made a mirror with the power of causing all that was good and
+      beautiful when it was reflected therein, to look poor and mean; but that
+      which was good-for-nothing and looked ugly was shown magnified and
+      increased in ugliness. In this mirror the most beautiful landscapes looked
+      like boiled spinach, and the best persons were turned into frights, or
+      appeared to stand on their heads; their faces were so distorted that they
+      were not to be recognised; and if anyone had a mole, you might be sure
+      that it would be magnified and spread over both nose and mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's glorious fun!&rdquo; said the sprite. If a good thought passed through a
+      man's mind, then a grin was seen in the mirror, and the sprite laughed
+      heartily at his clever discovery. All the little sprites who went to his
+      school&mdash;for he kept a sprite school&mdash;told each other that a
+      miracle had happened; and that now only, as they thought, it would be
+      possible to see how the world really looked. They ran about with the
+      mirror; and at last there was not a land or a person who was not
+      represented distorted in the mirror. So then they thought they would fly
+      up to the sky, and have a joke there. The higher they flew with the
+      mirror, the more terribly it grinned: they could hardly hold it fast.
+      Higher and higher still they flew, nearer and nearer to the stars, when
+      suddenly the mirror shook so terribly with grinning, that it flew out of
+      their hands and fell to the earth, where it was dashed in a hundred
+      million and more pieces. And now it worked much more evil than before; for
+      some of these pieces were hardly so large as a grain of sand, and they
+      flew about in the wide world, and when they got into people's eyes, there
+      they stayed; and then people saw everything perverted, or only had an eye
+      for that which was evil. This happened because the very smallest bit had
+      the same power which the whole mirror had possessed. Some persons even got
+      a splinter in their heart, and then it made one shudder, for their heart
+      became like a lump of ice. Some of the broken pieces were so large that
+      they were used for windowpanes, through which one could not see one's
+      friends. Other pieces were put in spectacles; and that was a sad affair
+      when people put on their glasses to see well and rightly. Then the wicked
+      sprite laughed till he almost choked, for all this tickled his fancy. The
+      fine splinters still flew about in the air: and now we shall hear what
+      happened next.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SECOND STORY. A Little Boy and a Little Girl
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a large town, where there are so many houses, and so many people, that
+      there is no roof left for everybody to have a little garden; and where, on
+      this account, most persons are obliged to content themselves with flowers
+      in pots; there lived two little children, who had a garden somewhat larger
+      than a flower-pot. They were not brother and sister; but they cared for
+      each other as much as if they were. Their parents lived exactly opposite.
+      They inhabited two garrets; and where the roof of the one house joined
+      that of the other, and the gutter ran along the extreme end of it, there
+      was to each house a small window: one needed only to step over the gutter
+      to get from one window to the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The children's parents had large wooden boxes there, in which vegetables
+      for the kitchen were planted, and little rosetrees besides: there was a
+      rose in each box, and they grew splendidly. They now thought of placing
+      the boxes across the gutter, so that they nearly reached from one window
+      to the other, and looked just like two walls of flowers. The tendrils of
+      the peas hung down over the boxes; and the rose-trees shot up long
+      branches, twined round the windows, and then bent towards each other: it
+      was almost like a triumphant arch of foliage and flowers. The boxes were
+      very high, and the children knew that they must not creep over them; so
+      they often obtained permission to get out of the windows to each other,
+      and to sit on their little stools among the roses, where they could play
+      delightfully. In winter there was an end of this pleasure. The windows
+      were often frozen over; but then they heated copper farthings on the
+      stove, and laid the hot farthing on the windowpane, and then they had a
+      capital peep-hole, quite nicely rounded; and out of each peeped a gentle
+      friendly eye&mdash;it was the little boy and the little girl who were
+      looking out. His name was Kay, hers was Gerda. In summer, with one jump,
+      they could get to each other; but in winter they were obliged first to go
+      down the long stairs, and then up the long stairs again: and out-of-doors
+      there was quite a snow-storm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the white bees that are swarming,&rdquo; said Kay's old grandmother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do the white bees choose a queen?&rdquo; asked the little boy; for he knew that
+      the honey-bees always have one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the grandmother, &ldquo;she flies where the swarm hangs in the
+      thickest clusters. She is the largest of all; and she can never remain
+      quietly on the earth, but goes up again into the black clouds. Many a
+      winter's night she flies through the streets of the town, and peeps in at
+      the windows; and they then freeze in so wondrous a manner that they look
+      like flowers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I have seen it,&rdquo; said both the children; and so they knew that it
+      was true.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can the Snow Queen come in?&rdquo; said the little girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only let her come in!&rdquo; said the little boy. &ldquo;Then I'd put her on the
+      stove, and she'd melt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And then his grandmother patted his head and told him other stories.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the evening, when little Kay was at home, and half undressed, he
+      climbed up on the chair by the window, and peeped out of the little hole.
+      A few snow-flakes were falling, and one, the largest of all, remained
+      lying on the edge of a flower-pot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The flake of snow grew larger and larger; and at last it was like a young
+      lady, dressed in the finest white gauze, made of a million little flakes
+      like stars. She was so beautiful and delicate, but she was of ice, of
+      dazzling, sparkling ice; yet she lived; her eyes gazed fixedly, like two
+      stars; but there was neither quiet nor repose in them. She nodded towards
+      the window, and beckoned with her hand. The little boy was frightened, and
+      jumped down from the chair; it seemed to him as if, at the same moment, a
+      large bird flew past the window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day it was a sharp frost&mdash;and then the spring came; the sun
+      shone, the green leaves appeared, the swallows built their nests, the
+      windows were opened, and the little children again sat in their pretty
+      garden, high up on the leads at the top of the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That summer the roses flowered in unwonted beauty. The little girl had
+      learned a hymn, in which there was something about roses; and then she
+      thought of her own flowers; and she sang the verse to the little boy, who
+      then sang it with her:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;The rose in the valley is blooming so sweet,
+     And angels descend there the children to greet.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      And the children held each other by the hand, kissed the roses, looked up
+      at the clear sunshine, and spoke as though they really saw angels there.
+      What lovely summer-days those were! How delightful to be out in the air,
+      near the fresh rose-bushes, that seem as if they would never finish
+      blossoming!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Kay and Gerda looked at the picture-book full of beasts and of birds; and
+      it was then&mdash;the clock in the church-tower was just striking five&mdash;that
+      Kay said, &ldquo;Oh! I feel such a sharp pain in my heart; and now something has
+      got into my eye!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The little girl put her arms around his neck. He winked his eyes; now
+      there was nothing to be seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think it is out now,&rdquo; said he; but it was not. It was just one of those
+      pieces of glass from the magic mirror that had got into his eye; and poor
+      Kay had got another piece right in his heart. It will soon become like
+      ice. It did not hurt any longer, but there it was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you crying for?&rdquo; asked he. &ldquo;You look so ugly! There's nothing
+      the matter with me. Ah,&rdquo; said he at once, &ldquo;that rose is cankered! And
+      look, this one is quite crooked! After all, these roses are very ugly!
+      They are just like the box they are planted in!&rdquo; And then he gave the box
+      a good kick with his foot, and pulled both the roses up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you doing?&rdquo; cried the little girl; and as he perceived her
+      fright, he pulled up another rose, got in at the window, and hastened off
+      from dear little Gerda.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Afterwards, when she brought her picture-book, he asked, &ldquo;What horrid
+      beasts have you there?&rdquo; And if his grandmother told them stories, he
+      always interrupted her; besides, if he could manage it, he would get
+      behind her, put on her spectacles, and imitate her way of speaking; he
+      copied all her ways, and then everybody laughed at him. He was soon able
+      to imitate the gait and manner of everyone in the street. Everything that
+      was peculiar and displeasing in them&mdash;that Kay knew how to imitate:
+      and at such times all the people said, &ldquo;The boy is certainly very clever!&rdquo;
+       But it was the glass he had got in his eye; the glass that was sticking in
+      his heart, which made him tease even little Gerda, whose whole soul was
+      devoted to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His games now were quite different to what they had formerly been, they
+      were so very knowing. One winter's day, when the flakes of snow were
+      flying about, he spread the skirts of his blue coat, and caught the snow
+      as it fell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look through this glass, Gerda,&rdquo; said he. And every flake seemed larger,
+      and appeared like a magnificent flower, or beautiful star; it was splendid
+      to look at!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look, how clever!&rdquo; said Kay. &ldquo;That's much more interesting than real
+      flowers! They are as exact as possible; there is not a fault in them, if
+      they did not melt!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not long after this, that Kay came one day with large gloves on,
+      and his little sledge at his back, and bawled right into Gerda's ears, &ldquo;I
+      have permission to go out into the square where the others are playing&rdquo;;
+      and off he was in a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There, in the market-place, some of the boldest of the boys used to tie
+      their sledges to the carts as they passed by, and so they were pulled
+      along, and got a good ride. It was so capital! Just as they were in the
+      very height of their amusement, a large sledge passed by: it was painted
+      quite white, and there was someone in it wrapped up in a rough white
+      mantle of fur, with a rough white fur cap on his head. The sledge drove
+      round the square twice, and Kay tied on his sledge as quickly as he could,
+      and off he drove with it. On they went quicker and quicker into the next
+      street; and the person who drove turned round to Kay, and nodded to him in
+      a friendly manner, just as if they knew each other. Every time he was
+      going to untie his sledge, the person nodded to him, and then Kay sat
+      quiet; and so on they went till they came outside the gates of the town.
+      Then the snow began to fall so thickly that the little boy could not see
+      an arm's length before him, but still on he went: when suddenly he let go
+      the string he held in his hand in order to get loose from the sledge, but
+      it was of no use; still the little vehicle rushed on with the quickness of
+      the wind. He then cried as loud as he could, but no one heard him; the
+      snow drifted and the sledge flew on, and sometimes it gave a jerk as
+      though they were driving over hedges and ditches. He was quite frightened,
+      and he tried to repeat the Lord's Prayer; but all he could do, he was only
+      able to remember the multiplication table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The snow-flakes grew larger and larger, till at last they looked just like
+      great white fowls. Suddenly they flew on one side; the large sledge
+      stopped, and the person who drove rose up. It was a lady; her cloak and
+      cap were of snow. She was tall and of slender figure, and of a dazzling
+      whiteness. It was the Snow Queen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have travelled fast,&rdquo; said she; &ldquo;but it is freezingly cold. Come under
+      my bearskin.&rdquo; And she put him in the sledge beside her, wrapped the fur
+      round him, and he felt as though he were sinking in a snow-wreath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you still cold?&rdquo; asked she; and then she kissed his forehead. Ah! it
+      was colder than ice; it penetrated to his very heart, which was already
+      almost a frozen lump; it seemed to him as if he were about to die&mdash;but
+      a moment more and it was quite congenial to him, and he did not remark the
+      cold that was around him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My sledge! Do not forget my sledge!&rdquo; It was the first thing he thought
+      of. It was there tied to one of the white chickens, who flew along with it
+      on his back behind the large sledge. The Snow Queen kissed Kay once more,
+      and then he forgot little Gerda, grandmother, and all whom he had left at
+      his home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now you will have no more kisses,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;or else I should kiss you
+      to death!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Kay looked at her. She was very beautiful; a more clever, or a more lovely
+      countenance he could not fancy to himself; and she no longer appeared of
+      ice as before, when she sat outside the window, and beckoned to him; in
+      his eyes she was perfect, he did not fear her at all, and told her that he
+      could calculate in his head and with fractions, even; that he knew the
+      number of square miles there were in the different countries, and how many
+      inhabitants they contained; and she smiled while he spoke. It then seemed
+      to him as if what he knew was not enough, and he looked upwards in the
+      large huge empty space above him, and on she flew with him; flew high over
+      the black clouds, while the storm moaned and whistled as though it were
+      singing some old tune. On they flew over woods and lakes, over seas, and
+      many lands; and beneath them the chilling storm rushed fast, the wolves
+      howled, the snow crackled; above them flew large screaming crows, but
+      higher up appeared the moon, quite large and bright; and it was on it that
+      Kay gazed during the long long winter's night; while by day he slept at
+      the feet of the Snow Queen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THIRD STORY. Of the Flower-Garden At the Old Woman's Who Understood
+      Witchcraft
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But what became of little Gerda when Kay did not return? Where could he
+      be? Nobody knew; nobody could give any intelligence. All the boys knew
+      was, that they had seen him tie his sledge to another large and splendid
+      one, which drove down the street and out of the town. Nobody knew where he
+      was; many sad tears were shed, and little Gerda wept long and bitterly; at
+      last she said he must be dead; that he had been drowned in the river which
+      flowed close to the town. Oh! those were very long and dismal winter
+      evenings!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last spring came, with its warm sunshine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kay is dead and gone!&rdquo; said little Gerda.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I don't believe,&rdquo; said the Sunshine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kay is dead and gone!&rdquo; said she to the Swallows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I don't believe,&rdquo; said they: and at last little Gerda did not think
+      so any longer either.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll put on my red shoes,&rdquo; said she, one morning; &ldquo;Kay has never seen
+      them, and then I'll go down to the river and ask there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was quite early; she kissed her old grandmother, who was still asleep,
+      put on her red shoes, and went alone to the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it true that you have taken my little playfellow? I will make you a
+      present of my red shoes, if you will give him back to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And, as it seemed to her, the blue waves nodded in a strange manner; then
+      she took off her red shoes, the most precious things she possessed, and
+      threw them both into the river. But they fell close to the bank, and the
+      little waves bore them immediately to land; it was as if the stream would
+      not take what was dearest to her; for in reality it had not got little
+      Kay; but Gerda thought that she had not thrown the shoes out far enough,
+      so she clambered into a boat which lay among the rushes, went to the
+      farthest end, and threw out the shoes. But the boat was not fastened, and
+      the motion which she occasioned, made it drift from the shore. She
+      observed this, and hastened to get back; but before she could do so, the
+      boat was more than a yard from the land, and was gliding quickly onward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Little Gerda was very frightened, and began to cry; but no one heard her
+      except the sparrows, and they could not carry her to land; but they flew
+      along the bank, and sang as if to comfort her, &ldquo;Here we are! Here we are!&rdquo;
+       The boat drifted with the stream, little Gerda sat quite still without
+      shoes, for they were swimming behind the boat, but she could not reach
+      them, because the boat went much faster than they did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The banks on both sides were beautiful; lovely flowers, venerable trees,
+      and slopes with sheep and cows, but not a human being was to be seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps the river will carry me to little Kay,&rdquo; said she; and then she
+      grew less sad. She rose, and looked for many hours at the beautiful green
+      banks. Presently she sailed by a large cherry-orchard, where was a little
+      cottage with curious red and blue windows; it was thatched, and before it
+      two wooden soldiers stood sentry, and presented arms when anyone went
+      past.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gerda called to them, for she thought they were alive; but they, of
+      course, did not answer. She came close to them, for the stream drifted the
+      boat quite near the land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gerda called still louder, and an old woman then came out of the cottage,
+      leaning upon a crooked stick. She had a large broad-brimmed hat on,
+      painted with the most splendid flowers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor little child!&rdquo; said the old woman. &ldquo;How did you get upon the large
+      rapid river, to be driven about so in the wide world!&rdquo; And then the old
+      woman went into the water, caught hold of the boat with her crooked stick,
+      drew it to the bank, and lifted little Gerda out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Gerda was so glad to be on dry land again; but she was rather afraid
+      of the strange old woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But come and tell me who you are, and how you came here,&rdquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Gerda told her all; and the old woman shook her head and said, &ldquo;A-hem!
+      a-hem!&rdquo; and when Gerda had told her everything, and asked her if she had
+      not seen little Kay, the woman answered that he had not passed there, but
+      he no doubt would come; and she told her not to be cast down, but taste
+      her cherries, and look at her flowers, which were finer than any in a
+      picture-book, each of which could tell a whole story. She then took Gerda
+      by the hand, led her into the little cottage, and locked the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The windows were very high up; the glass was red, blue, and green, and the
+      sunlight shone through quite wondrously in all sorts of colors. On the
+      table stood the most exquisite cherries, and Gerda ate as many as she
+      chose, for she had permission to do so. While she was eating, the old
+      woman combed her hair with a golden comb, and her hair curled and shone
+      with a lovely golden color around that sweet little face, which was so
+      round and so like a rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have often longed for such a dear little girl,&rdquo; said the old woman.
+      &ldquo;Now you shall see how well we agree together&rdquo;; and while she combed
+      little Gerda's hair, the child forgot her foster-brother Kay more and
+      more, for the old woman understood magic; but she was no evil being, she
+      only practised witchcraft a little for her own private amusement, and now
+      she wanted very much to keep little Gerda. She therefore went out in the
+      garden, stretched out her crooked stick towards the rose-bushes, which,
+      beautifully as they were blowing, all sank into the earth and no one could
+      tell where they had stood. The old woman feared that if Gerda should see
+      the roses, she would then think of her own, would remember little Kay, and
+      run away from her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She now led Gerda into the flower-garden. Oh, what odour and what
+      loveliness was there! Every flower that one could think of, and of every
+      season, stood there in fullest bloom; no picture-book could be gayer or
+      more beautiful. Gerda jumped for joy, and played till the sun set behind
+      the tall cherry-tree; she then had a pretty bed, with a red silken
+      coverlet filled with blue violets. She fell asleep, and had as pleasant
+      dreams as ever a queen on her wedding-day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning she went to play with the flowers in the warm sunshine,
+      and thus passed away a day. Gerda knew every flower; and, numerous as they
+      were, it still seemed to Gerda that one was wanting, though she did not
+      know which. One day while she was looking at the hat of the old woman
+      painted with flowers, the most beautiful of them all seemed to her to be a
+      rose. The old woman had forgotten to take it from her hat when she made
+      the others vanish in the earth. But so it is when one's thoughts are not
+      collected. &ldquo;What!&rdquo; said Gerda. &ldquo;Are there no roses here?&rdquo; and she ran
+      about amongst the flowerbeds, and looked, and looked, but there was not
+      one to be found. She then sat down and wept; but her hot tears fell just
+      where a rose-bush had sunk; and when her warm tears watered the ground,
+      the tree shot up suddenly as fresh and blooming as when it had been
+      swallowed up. Gerda kissed the roses, thought of her own dear roses at
+      home, and with them of little Kay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, how long I have stayed!&rdquo; said the little girl. &ldquo;I intended to look
+      for Kay! Don't you know where he is?&rdquo; she asked of the roses. &ldquo;Do you
+      think he is dead and gone?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dead he certainly is not,&rdquo; said the Roses. &ldquo;We have been in the earth
+      where all the dead are, but Kay was not there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Many thanks!&rdquo; said little Gerda; and she went to the other flowers,
+      looked into their cups, and asked, &ldquo;Don't you know where little Kay is?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But every flower stood in the sunshine, and dreamed its own fairy tale or
+      its own story: and they all told her very many things, but not one knew
+      anything of Kay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, what did the Tiger-Lily say?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hearest thou not the drum? Bum! Bum! Those are the only two tones. Always
+      bum! Bum! Hark to the plaintive song of the old woman, to the call of the
+      priests! The Hindoo woman in her long robe stands upon the funeral pile;
+      the flames rise around her and her dead husband, but the Hindoo woman
+      thinks on the living one in the surrounding circle; on him whose eyes burn
+      hotter than the flames&mdash;on him, the fire of whose eyes pierces her
+      heart more than the flames which soon will burn her body to ashes. Can the
+      heart's flame die in the flame of the funeral pile?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't understand that at all,&rdquo; said little Gerda.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is my story,&rdquo; said the Lily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What did the Convolvulus say?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Projecting over a narrow mountain-path there hangs an old feudal castle.
+      Thick evergreens grow on the dilapidated walls, and around the altar,
+      where a lovely maiden is standing: she bends over the railing and looks
+      out upon the rose. No fresher rose hangs on the branches than she; no
+      appleblossom carried away by the wind is more buoyant! How her silken robe
+      is rustling!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Is he not yet come?'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it Kay that you mean?&rdquo; asked little Gerda.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am speaking about my story&mdash;about my dream,&rdquo; answered the
+      Convolvulus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What did the Snowdrops say?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Between the trees a long board is hanging&mdash;it is a swing. Two little
+      girls are sitting in it, and swing themselves backwards and forwards;
+      their frocks are as white as snow, and long green silk ribands flutter
+      from their bonnets. Their brother, who is older than they are, stands up
+      in the swing; he twines his arms round the cords to hold himself fast, for
+      in one hand he has a little cup, and in the other a clay-pipe. He is
+      blowing soap-bubbles. The swing moves, and the bubbles float in charming
+      changing colors: the last is still hanging to the end of the pipe, and
+      rocks in the breeze. The swing moves. The little black dog, as light as a
+      soap-bubble, jumps up on his hind legs to try to get into the swing. It
+      moves, the dog falls down, barks, and is angry. They tease him; the bubble
+      bursts! A swing, a bursting bubble&mdash;such is my song!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What you relate may be very pretty, but you tell it in so melancholy a
+      manner, and do not mention Kay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      What do the Hyacinths say?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There were once upon a time three sisters, quite transparent, and very
+      beautiful. The robe of the one was red, that of the second blue, and that
+      of the third white. They danced hand in hand beside the calm lake in the
+      clear moonshine. They were not elfin maidens, but mortal children. A sweet
+      fragrance was smelt, and the maidens vanished in the wood; the fragrance
+      grew stronger&mdash;three coffins, and in them three lovely maidens,
+      glided out of the forest and across the lake: the shining glow-worms flew
+      around like little floating lights. Do the dancing maidens sleep, or are
+      they dead? The odour of the flowers says they are corpses; the evening
+      bell tolls for the dead!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You make me quite sad,&rdquo; said little Gerda. &ldquo;I cannot help thinking of the
+      dead maidens. Oh! is little Kay really dead? The Roses have been in the
+      earth, and they say no.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ding, dong!&rdquo; sounded the Hyacinth bells. &ldquo;We do not toll for little Kay;
+      we do not know him. That is our way of singing, the only one we have.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Gerda went to the Ranunculuses, that looked forth from among the
+      shining green leaves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a little bright sun!&rdquo; said Gerda. &ldquo;Tell me if you know where I
+      can find my playfellow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the Ranunculus shone brightly, and looked again at Gerda. What song
+      could the Ranunculus sing? It was one that said nothing about Kay either.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In a small court the bright sun was shining in the first days of spring.
+      The beams glided down the white walls of a neighbor's house, and close by
+      the fresh yellow flowers were growing, shining like gold in the warm
+      sun-rays. An old grandmother was sitting in the air; her grand-daughter,
+      the poor and lovely servant just come for a short visit. She knows her
+      grandmother. There was gold, pure virgin gold in that blessed kiss. There,
+      that is my little story,&rdquo; said the Ranunculus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My poor old grandmother!&rdquo; sighed Gerda. &ldquo;Yes, she is longing for me, no
+      doubt: she is sorrowing for me, as she did for little Kay. But I will soon
+      come home, and then I will bring Kay with me. It is of no use asking the
+      flowers; they only know their own old rhymes, and can tell me nothing.&rdquo;
+       And she tucked up her frock, to enable her to run quicker; but the
+      Narcissus gave her a knock on the leg, just as she was going to jump over
+      it. So she stood still, looked at the long yellow flower, and asked, &ldquo;You
+      perhaps know something?&rdquo; and she bent down to the Narcissus. And what did
+      it say?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can see myself&mdash;I can see myself! Oh, how odorous I am! Up in the
+      little garret there stands, half-dressed, a little Dancer. She stands now
+      on one leg, now on both; she despises the whole world; yet she lives only
+      in imagination. She pours water out of the teapot over a piece of stuff
+      which she holds in her hand; it is the bodice; cleanliness is a fine
+      thing. The white dress is hanging on the hook; it was washed in the
+      teapot, and dried on the roof. She puts it on, ties a saffron-colored
+      kerchief round her neck, and then the gown looks whiter. I can see myself&mdash;I
+      can see myself!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's nothing to me,&rdquo; said little Gerda. &ldquo;That does not concern me.&rdquo; And
+      then off she ran to the further end of the garden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gate was locked, but she shook the rusted bolt till it was loosened,
+      and the gate opened; and little Gerda ran off barefooted into the wide
+      world. She looked round her thrice, but no one followed her. At last she
+      could run no longer; she sat down on a large stone, and when she looked
+      about her, she saw that the summer had passed; it was late in the autumn,
+      but that one could not remark in the beautiful garden, where there was
+      always sunshine, and where there were flowers the whole year round.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear me, how long I have staid!&rdquo; said Gerda. &ldquo;Autumn is come. I must not
+      rest any longer.&rdquo; And she got up to go further.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oh, how tender and wearied her little feet were! All around it looked so
+      cold and raw: the long willow-leaves were quite yellow, and the fog
+      dripped from them like water; one leaf fell after the other: the sloes
+      only stood full of fruit, which set one's teeth on edge. Oh, how dark and
+      comfortless it was in the dreary world!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      FOURTH STORY. The Prince and Princess
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gerda was obliged to rest herself again, when, exactly opposite to her, a
+      large Raven came hopping over the white snow. He had long been looking at
+      Gerda and shaking his head; and now he said, &ldquo;Caw! Caw!&rdquo; Good day! Good
+      day! He could not say it better; but he felt a sympathy for the little
+      girl, and asked her where she was going all alone. The word &ldquo;alone&rdquo; Gerda
+      understood quite well, and felt how much was expressed by it; so she told
+      the Raven her whole history, and asked if he had not seen Kay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Raven nodded very gravely, and said, &ldquo;It may be&mdash;it may be!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, do you really think so?&rdquo; cried the little girl; and she nearly
+      squeezed the Raven to death, so much did she kiss him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gently, gently,&rdquo; said the Raven. &ldquo;I think I know; I think that it may be
+      little Kay. But now he has forgotten you for the Princess.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does he live with a Princess?&rdquo; asked Gerda.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;listen,&rdquo; said the Raven; &ldquo;but it will be difficult for me to
+      speak your language. If you understand the Raven language I can tell you
+      better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I have not learnt it,&rdquo; said Gerda; &ldquo;but my grandmother understands
+      it, and she can speak gibberish too. I wish I had learnt it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No matter,&rdquo; said the Raven; &ldquo;I will tell you as well as I can; however,
+      it will be bad enough.&rdquo; And then he told all he knew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the kingdom where we now are there lives a Princess, who is
+      extraordinarily clever; for she has read all the newspapers in the whole
+      world, and has forgotten them again&mdash;so clever is she. She was
+      lately, it is said, sitting on her throne&mdash;which is not very amusing
+      after all&mdash;when she began humming an old tune, and it was just, 'Oh,
+      why should I not be married?' 'That song is not without its meaning,' said
+      she, and so then she was determined to marry; but she would have a husband
+      who knew how to give an answer when he was spoken to&mdash;not one who
+      looked only as if he were a great personage, for that is so tiresome. She
+      then had all the ladies of the court drummed together; and when they heard
+      her intention, all were very pleased, and said, 'We are very glad to hear
+      it; it is the very thing we were thinking of.' You may believe every word
+      I say,&rdquo; said the Raven; &ldquo;for I have a tame sweetheart that hops about in
+      the palace quite free, and it was she who told me all this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The newspapers appeared forthwith with a border of hearts and the
+      initials of the Princess; and therein you might read that every
+      good-looking young man was at liberty to come to the palace and speak to
+      the Princess; and he who spoke in such wise as showed he felt himself at
+      home there, that one the Princess would choose for her husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Yes,&rdquo; said the Raven, &ldquo;you may believe it; it is as true as I am
+      sitting here. People came in crowds; there was a crush and a hurry, but no
+      one was successful either on the first or second day. They could all talk
+      well enough when they were out in the street; but as soon as they came
+      inside the palace gates, and saw the guard richly dressed in silver, and
+      the lackeys in gold on the staircase, and the large illuminated saloons,
+      then they were abashed; and when they stood before the throne on which the
+      Princess was sitting, all they could do was to repeat the last word they
+      had uttered, and to hear it again did not interest her very much. It was
+      just as if the people within were under a charm, and had fallen into a
+      trance till they came out again into the street; for then&mdash;oh, then&mdash;they
+      could chatter enough. There was a whole row of them standing from the
+      town-gates to the palace. I was there myself to look,&rdquo; said the Raven.
+      &ldquo;They grew hungry and thirsty; but from the palace they got nothing
+      whatever, not even a glass of water. Some of the cleverest, it is true,
+      had taken bread and butter with them: but none shared it with his
+      neighbor, for each thought, 'Let him look hungry, and then the Princess
+      won't have him.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Kay&mdash;little Kay,&rdquo; said Gerda, &ldquo;when did he come? Was he among
+      the number?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Patience, patience; we are just come to him. It was on the third day when
+      a little personage without horse or equipage, came marching right boldly
+      up to the palace; his eyes shone like yours, he had beautiful long hair,
+      but his clothes were very shabby.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was Kay,&rdquo; cried Gerda, with a voice of delight. &ldquo;Oh, now I've found
+      him!&rdquo; and she clapped her hands for joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He had a little knapsack at his back,&rdquo; said the Raven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, that was certainly his sledge,&rdquo; said Gerda; &ldquo;for when he went away he
+      took his sledge with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That may be,&rdquo; said the Raven; &ldquo;I did not examine him so minutely; but I
+      know from my tame sweetheart, that when he came into the court-yard of the
+      palace, and saw the body-guard in silver, the lackeys on the staircase, he
+      was not the least abashed; he nodded, and said to them, 'It must be very
+      tiresome to stand on the stairs; for my part, I shall go in.' The saloons
+      were gleaming with lustres&mdash;privy councillors and excellencies were
+      walking about barefooted, and wore gold keys; it was enough to make any
+      one feel uncomfortable. His boots creaked, too, so loudly, but still he
+      was not at all afraid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's Kay for certain,&rdquo; said Gerda. &ldquo;I know he had on new boots; I have
+      heard them creaking in grandmama's room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, they creaked,&rdquo; said the Raven. &ldquo;And on he went boldly up to the
+      Princess, who was sitting on a pearl as large as a spinning-wheel. All the
+      ladies of the court, with their attendants and attendants' attendants, and
+      all the cavaliers, with their gentlemen and gentlemen's gentlemen, stood
+      round; and the nearer they stood to the door, the prouder they looked. It
+      was hardly possible to look at the gentleman's gentleman, so very
+      haughtily did he stand in the doorway.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must have been terrible,&rdquo; said little Gerda. &ldquo;And did Kay get the
+      Princess?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Were I not a Raven, I should have taken the Princess myself, although I
+      am promised. It is said he spoke as well as I speak when I talk Raven
+      language; this I learned from my tame sweetheart. He was bold and nicely
+      behaved; he had not come to woo the Princess, but only to hear her wisdom.
+      She pleased him, and he pleased her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes; for certain that was Kay,&rdquo; said Gerda. &ldquo;He was so clever; he
+      could reckon fractions in his head. Oh, won't you take me to the palace?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is very easily said,&rdquo; answered the Raven. &ldquo;But how are we to manage
+      it? I'll speak to my tame sweetheart about it: she must advise us; for so
+      much I must tell you, such a little girl as you are will never get
+      permission to enter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes I shall,&rdquo; said Gerda; &ldquo;when Kay hears that I am here, he will
+      come out directly to fetch me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait for me here on these steps,&rdquo; said the Raven. He moved his head
+      backwards and forwards and flew away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The evening was closing in when the Raven returned. &ldquo;Caw&mdash;caw!&rdquo; said
+      he. &ldquo;She sends you her compliments; and here is a roll for you. She took
+      it out of the kitchen, where there is bread enough. You are hungry, no
+      doubt. It is not possible for you to enter the palace, for you are
+      barefooted: the guards in silver, and the lackeys in gold, would not allow
+      it; but do not cry, you shall come in still. My sweetheart knows a little
+      back stair that leads to the bedchamber, and she knows where she can get
+      the key of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And they went into the garden in the large avenue, where one leaf was
+      falling after the other; and when the lights in the palace had all
+      gradually disappeared, the Raven led little Gerda to the back door, which
+      stood half open.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oh, how Gerda's heart beat with anxiety and longing! It was just as if she
+      had been about to do something wrong; and yet she only wanted to know if
+      little Kay was there. Yes, he must be there. She called to mind his
+      intelligent eyes, and his long hair, so vividly, she could quite see him
+      as he used to laugh when they were sitting under the roses at home. &ldquo;He
+      will, no doubt, be glad to see you&mdash;to hear what a long way you have
+      come for his sake; to know how unhappy all at home were when he did not
+      come back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Oh, what a fright and a joy it was!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were now on the stairs. A single lamp was burning there; and on the
+      floor stood the tame Raven, turning her head on every side and looking at
+      Gerda, who bowed as her grandmother had taught her to do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My intended has told me so much good of you, my dear young lady,&rdquo; said
+      the tame Raven. &ldquo;Your tale is very affecting. If you will take the lamp, I
+      will go before. We will go straight on, for we shall meet no one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think there is somebody just behind us,&rdquo; said Gerda; and something
+      rushed past: it was like shadowy figures on the wall; horses with flowing
+      manes and thin legs, huntsmen, ladies and gentlemen on horseback.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are only dreams,&rdquo; said the Raven. &ldquo;They come to fetch the thoughts
+      of the high personages to the chase; 'tis well, for now you can observe
+      them in bed all the better. But let me find, when you enjoy honor and
+      distinction, that you possess a grateful heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tut! That's not worth talking about,&rdquo; said the Raven of the woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They now entered the first saloon, which was of rose-colored satin, with
+      artificial flowers on the wall. Here the dreams were rushing past, but
+      they hastened by so quickly that Gerda could not see the high personages.
+      One hall was more magnificent than the other; one might indeed well be
+      abashed; and at last they came into the bedchamber. The ceiling of the
+      room resembled a large palm-tree with leaves of glass, of costly glass;
+      and in the middle, from a thick golden stem, hung two beds, each of which
+      resembled a lily. One was white, and in this lay the Princess; the other
+      was red, and it was here that Gerda was to look for little Kay. She bent
+      back one of the red leaves, and saw a brown neck. Oh! that was Kay! She
+      called him quite loud by name, held the lamp towards him&mdash;the dreams
+      rushed back again into the chamber&mdash;he awoke, turned his head, and&mdash;it
+      was not little Kay!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Prince was only like him about the neck; but he was young and
+      handsome. And out of the white lily leaves the Princess peeped, too, and
+      asked what was the matter. Then little Gerda cried, and told her her whole
+      history, and all that the Ravens had done for her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor little thing!&rdquo; said the Prince and the Princess. They praised the
+      Ravens very much, and told them they were not at all angry with them, but
+      they were not to do so again. However, they should have a reward. &ldquo;Will
+      you fly about here at liberty,&rdquo; asked the Princess; &ldquo;or would you like to
+      have a fixed appointment as court ravens, with all the broken bits from
+      the kitchen?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And both the Ravens nodded, and begged for a fixed appointment; for they
+      thought of their old age, and said, &ldquo;It is a good thing to have a
+      provision for our old days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the Prince got up and let Gerda sleep in his bed, and more than this
+      he could not do. She folded her little hands and thought, &ldquo;How good men
+      and animals are!&rdquo; and she then fell asleep and slept soundly. All the
+      dreams flew in again, and they now looked like the angels; they drew a
+      little sledge, in which little Kay sat and nodded his head; but the whole
+      was only a dream, and therefore it all vanished as soon as she awoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day she was dressed from head to foot in silk and velvet. They
+      offered to let her stay at the palace, and lead a happy life; but she
+      begged to have a little carriage with a horse in front, and for a small
+      pair of shoes; then, she said, she would again go forth in the wide world
+      and look for Kay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shoes and a muff were given her; she was, too, dressed very nicely; and
+      when she was about to set off, a new carriage stopped before the door. It
+      was of pure gold, and the arms of the Prince and Princess shone like a
+      star upon it; the coachman, the footmen, and the outriders, for outriders
+      were there, too, all wore golden crowns. The Prince and the Princess
+      assisted her into the carriage themselves, and wished her all success. The
+      Raven of the woods, who was now married, accompanied her for the first
+      three miles. He sat beside Gerda, for he could not bear riding backwards;
+      the other Raven stood in the doorway, and flapped her wings; she could not
+      accompany Gerda, because she suffered from headache since she had had a
+      fixed appointment and ate so much. The carriage was lined inside with
+      sugar-plums, and in the seats were fruits and gingerbread.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Farewell! Farewell!&rdquo; cried Prince and Princess; and Gerda wept, and the
+      Raven wept. Thus passed the first miles; and then the Raven bade her
+      farewell, and this was the most painful separation of all. He flew into a
+      tree, and beat his black wings as long as he could see the carriage, that
+      shone from afar like a sunbeam.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      FIFTH STORY. The Little Robber Maiden
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They drove through the dark wood; but the carriage shone like a torch, and
+      it dazzled the eyes of the robbers, so that they could not bear to look at
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis gold! 'Tis gold!&rdquo; they cried; and they rushed forward, seized the
+      horses, knocked down the little postilion, the coachman, and the servants,
+      and pulled little Gerda out of the carriage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How plump, how beautiful she is! She must have been fed on nut-kernels,&rdquo;
+       said the old female robber, who had a long, scrubby beard, and bushy
+      eyebrows that hung down over her eyes. &ldquo;She is as good as a fatted lamb!
+      How nice she will be!&rdquo; And then she drew out a knife, the blade of which
+      shone so that it was quite dreadful to behold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; cried the woman at the same moment. She had been bitten in the ear
+      by her own little daughter, who hung at her back; and who was so wild and
+      unmanageable, that it was quite amusing to see her. &ldquo;You naughty child!&rdquo;
+       said the mother: and now she had not time to kill Gerda.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She shall play with me,&rdquo; said the little robber child. &ldquo;She shall give me
+      her muff, and her pretty frock; she shall sleep in my bed!&rdquo; And then she
+      gave her mother another bite, so that she jumped, and ran round with the
+      pain; and the Robbers laughed, and said, &ldquo;Look, how she is dancing with
+      the little one!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go into the carriage,&rdquo; said the little robber maiden; and she
+      would have her will, for she was very spoiled and very headstrong. She and
+      Gerda got in; and then away they drove over the stumps of felled trees,
+      deeper and deeper into the woods. The little robber maiden was as tall as
+      Gerda, but stronger, broader-shouldered, and of dark complexion; her eyes
+      were quite black; they looked almost melancholy. She embraced little
+      Gerda, and said, &ldquo;They shall not kill you as long as I am not displeased
+      with you. You are, doubtless, a Princess?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said little Gerda; who then related all that had happened to her,
+      and how much she cared about little Kay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The little robber maiden looked at her with a serious air, nodded her head
+      slightly, and said, &ldquo;They shall not kill you, even if I am angry with you:
+      then I will do it myself&rdquo;; and she dried Gerda's eyes, and put both her
+      hands in the handsome muff, which was so soft and warm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length the carriage stopped. They were in the midst of the court-yard
+      of a robber's castle. It was full of cracks from top to bottom; and out of
+      the openings magpies and rooks were flying; and the great bull-dogs, each
+      of which looked as if he could swallow a man, jumped up, but they did not
+      bark, for that was forbidden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the midst of the large, old, smoking hall burnt a great fire on the
+      stone floor. The smoke disappeared under the stones, and had to seek its
+      own egress. In an immense caldron soup was boiling; and rabbits and hares
+      were being roasted on a spit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shall sleep with me to-night, with all my animals,&rdquo; said the little
+      robber maiden. They had something to eat and drink; and then went into a
+      corner, where straw and carpets were lying. Beside them, on laths and
+      perches, sat nearly a hundred pigeons, all asleep, seemingly; but yet they
+      moved a little when the robber maiden came. &ldquo;They are all mine,&rdquo; said she,
+      at the same time seizing one that was next to her by the legs and shaking
+      it so that its wings fluttered. &ldquo;Kiss it,&rdquo; cried the little girl, and
+      flung the pigeon in Gerda's face. &ldquo;Up there is the rabble of the wood,&rdquo;
+       continued she, pointing to several laths which were fastened before a hole
+      high up in the wall; &ldquo;that's the rabble; they would all fly away
+      immediately, if they were not well fastened in. And here is my dear old
+      Bac&rdquo;; and she laid hold of the horns of a reindeer, that had a bright
+      copper ring round its neck, and was tethered to the spot. &ldquo;We are obliged
+      to lock this fellow in too, or he would make his escape. Every evening I
+      tickle his neck with my sharp knife; he is so frightened at it!&rdquo; and the
+      little girl drew forth a long knife, from a crack in the wall, and let it
+      glide over the Reindeer's neck. The poor animal kicked; the girl laughed,
+      and pulled Gerda into bed with her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you intend to keep your knife while you sleep?&rdquo; asked Gerda; looking
+      at it rather fearfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I always sleep with the knife,&rdquo; said the little robber maiden. &ldquo;There is
+      no knowing what may happen. But tell me now, once more, all about little
+      Kay; and why you have started off in the wide world alone.&rdquo; And Gerda
+      related all, from the very beginning: the Wood-pigeons cooed above in
+      their cage, and the others slept. The little robber maiden wound her arm
+      round Gerda's neck, held the knife in the other hand, and snored so loud
+      that everybody could hear her; but Gerda could not close her eyes, for she
+      did not know whether she was to live or die. The robbers sat round the
+      fire, sang and drank; and the old female robber jumped about so, that it
+      was quite dreadful for Gerda to see her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the Wood-pigeons said, &ldquo;Coo! Coo! We have seen little Kay! A white
+      hen carries his sledge; he himself sat in the carriage of the Snow Queen,
+      who passed here, down just over the wood, as we lay in our nest. She blew
+      upon us young ones; and all died except we two. Coo! Coo!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that you say up there?&rdquo; cried little Gerda. &ldquo;Where did the Snow
+      Queen go to? Do you know anything about it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is no doubt gone to Lapland; for there is always snow and ice there.
+      Only ask the Reindeer, who is tethered there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ice and snow is there! There it is, glorious and beautiful!&rdquo; said the
+      Reindeer. &ldquo;One can spring about in the large shining valleys! The Snow
+      Queen has her summer-tent there; but her fixed abode is high up towards
+      the North Pole, on the Island called Spitzbergen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Kay! Poor little Kay!&rdquo; sighed Gerda.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you choose to be quiet?&rdquo; said the robber maiden. &ldquo;If you don't, I
+      shall make you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the morning Gerda told her all that the Wood-pigeons had said; and the
+      little maiden looked very serious, but she nodded her head, and said,
+      &ldquo;That's no matter&mdash;that's no matter. Do you know where Lapland lies!&rdquo;
+       she asked of the Reindeer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who should know better than I?&rdquo; said the animal; and his eyes rolled in
+      his head. &ldquo;I was born and bred there&mdash;there I leapt about on the
+      fields of snow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen,&rdquo; said the robber maiden to Gerda. &ldquo;You see that the men are gone;
+      but my mother is still here, and will remain. However, towards morning she
+      takes a draught out of the large flask, and then she sleeps a little: then
+      I will do something for you.&rdquo; She now jumped out of bed, flew to her
+      mother; with her arms round her neck, and pulling her by the beard, said,
+      &ldquo;Good morrow, my own sweet nanny-goat of a mother.&rdquo; And her mother took
+      hold of her nose, and pinched it till it was red and blue; but this was
+      all done out of pure love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the mother had taken a sup at her flask, and was having a nap, the
+      little robber maiden went to the Reindeer, and said, &ldquo;I should very much
+      like to give you still many a tickling with the sharp knife, for then you
+      are so amusing; however, I will untether you, and help you out, so that
+      you may go back to Lapland. But you must make good use of your legs; and
+      take this little girl for me to the palace of the Snow Queen, where her
+      playfellow is. You have heard, I suppose, all she said; for she spoke loud
+      enough, and you were listening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Reindeer gave a bound for joy. The robber maiden lifted up little
+      Gerda, and took the precaution to bind her fast on the Reindeer's back;
+      she even gave her a small cushion to sit on. &ldquo;Here are your worsted
+      leggins, for it will be cold; but the muff I shall keep for myself, for it
+      is so very pretty. But I do not wish you to be cold. Here is a pair of
+      lined gloves of my mother's; they just reach up to your elbow. On with
+      them! Now you look about the hands just like my ugly old mother!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Gerda wept for joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't bear to see you fretting,&rdquo; said the little robber maiden. &ldquo;This
+      is just the time when you ought to look pleased. Here are two loaves and a
+      ham for you, so that you won't starve.&rdquo; The bread and the meat were
+      fastened to the Reindeer's back; the little maiden opened the door, called
+      in all the dogs, and then with her knife cut the rope that fastened the
+      animal, and said to him, &ldquo;Now, off with you; but take good care of the
+      little girl!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Gerda stretched out her hands with the large wadded gloves towards the
+      robber maiden, and said, &ldquo;Farewell!&rdquo; and the Reindeer flew on over bush
+      and bramble through the great wood, over moor and heath, as fast as he
+      could go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ddsa! Ddsa!&rdquo; was heard in the sky. It was just as if somebody was
+      sneezing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These are my old northern-lights,&rdquo; said the Reindeer, &ldquo;look how they
+      gleam!&rdquo; And on he now sped still quicker&mdash;day and night on he went:
+      the loaves were consumed, and the ham too; and now they were in Lapland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SIXTH STORY. The Lapland Woman and the Finland Woman
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly they stopped before a little house, which looked very miserable.
+      The roof reached to the ground; and the door was so low, that the family
+      were obliged to creep upon their stomachs when they went in or out. Nobody
+      was at home except an old Lapland woman, who was dressing fish by the
+      light of an oil lamp. And the Reindeer told her the whole of Gerda's
+      history, but first of all his own; for that seemed to him of much greater
+      importance. Gerda was so chilled that she could not speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor thing,&rdquo; said the Lapland woman, &ldquo;you have far to run still. You have
+      more than a hundred miles to go before you get to Finland; there the Snow
+      Queen has her country-house, and burns blue lights every evening. I will
+      give you a few words from me, which I will write on a dried haberdine, for
+      paper I have none; this you can take with you to the Finland woman, and
+      she will be able to give you more information than I can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When Gerda had warmed herself, and had eaten and drunk, the Lapland woman
+      wrote a few words on a dried haberdine, begged Gerda to take care of them,
+      put her on the Reindeer, bound her fast, and away sprang the animal.
+      &ldquo;Ddsa! Ddsa!&rdquo; was again heard in the air; the most charming blue lights
+      burned the whole night in the sky, and at last they came to Finland. They
+      knocked at the chimney of the Finland woman; for as to a door, she had
+      none.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was such a heat inside that the Finland woman herself went about
+      almost naked. She was diminutive and dirty. She immediately loosened
+      little Gerda's clothes, pulled off her thick gloves and boots; for
+      otherwise the heat would have been too great&mdash;and after laying a
+      piece of ice on the Reindeer's head, read what was written on the
+      fish-skin. She read it three times: she then knew it by heart; so she put
+      the fish into the cupboard&mdash;for it might very well be eaten, and she
+      never threw anything away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the Reindeer related his own story first, and afterwards that of
+      little Gerda; and the Finland woman winked her eyes, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are so clever,&rdquo; said the Reindeer; &ldquo;you can, I know, twist all the
+      winds of the world together in a knot. If the seaman loosens one knot,
+      then he has a good wind; if a second, then it blows pretty stiffly; if he
+      undoes the third and fourth, then it rages so that the forests are
+      upturned. Will you give the little maiden a potion, that she may possess
+      the strength of twelve men, and vanquish the Snow Queen?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The strength of twelve men!&rdquo; said the Finland woman. &ldquo;Much good that
+      would be!&rdquo; Then she went to a cupboard, and drew out a large skin rolled
+      up. When she had unrolled it, strange characters were to be seen written
+      thereon; and the Finland woman read at such a rate that the perspiration
+      trickled down her forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Reindeer begged so hard for little Gerda, and Gerda looked so
+      imploringly with tearful eyes at the Finland woman, that she winked, and
+      drew the Reindeer aside into a corner, where they whispered together,
+      while the animal got some fresh ice put on his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis true little Kay is at the Snow Queen's, and finds everything there
+      quite to his taste; and he thinks it the very best place in the world; but
+      the reason of that is, he has a splinter of glass in his eye, and in his
+      heart. These must be got out first; otherwise he will never go back to
+      mankind, and the Snow Queen will retain her power over him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But can you give little Gerda nothing to take which will endue her with
+      power over the whole?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can give her no more power than what she has already. Don't you see how
+      great it is? Don't you see how men and animals are forced to serve her;
+      how well she gets through the world barefooted? She must not hear of her
+      power from us; that power lies in her heart, because she is a sweet and
+      innocent child! If she cannot get to the Snow Queen by herself, and rid
+      little Kay of the glass, we cannot help her. Two miles hence the garden of
+      the Snow Queen begins; thither you may carry the little girl. Set her down
+      by the large bush with red berries, standing in the snow; don't stay
+      talking, but hasten back as fast as possible.&rdquo; And now the Finland woman
+      placed little Gerda on the Reindeer's back, and off he ran with all
+      imaginable speed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! I have not got my boots! I have not brought my gloves!&rdquo; cried little
+      Gerda. She remarked she was without them from the cutting frost; but the
+      Reindeer dared not stand still; on he ran till he came to the great bush
+      with the red berries, and there he set Gerda down, kissed her mouth, while
+      large bright tears flowed from the animal's eyes, and then back he went as
+      fast as possible. There stood poor Gerda now, without shoes or gloves, in
+      the very middle of dreadful icy Finland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She ran on as fast as she could. There then came a whole regiment of
+      snow-flakes, but they did not fall from above, and they were quite bright
+      and shining from the Aurora Borealis. The flakes ran along the ground, and
+      the nearer they came the larger they grew. Gerda well remembered how large
+      and strange the snow-flakes appeared when she once saw them through a
+      magnifying-glass; but now they were large and terrific in another manner&mdash;they
+      were all alive. They were the outposts of the Snow Queen. They had the
+      most wondrous shapes; some looked like large ugly porcupines; others like
+      snakes knotted together, with their heads sticking out; and others, again,
+      like small fat bears, with the hair standing on end: all were of dazzling
+      whiteness&mdash;all were living snow-flakes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Little Gerda repeated the Lord's Prayer. The cold was so intense that she
+      could see her own breath, which came like smoke out of her mouth. It grew
+      thicker and thicker, and took the form of little angels, that grew more
+      and more when they touched the earth. All had helms on their heads, and
+      lances and shields in their hands; they increased in numbers; and when
+      Gerda had finished the Lord's Prayer, she was surrounded by a whole
+      legion. They thrust at the horrid snow-flakes with their spears, so that
+      they flew into a thousand pieces; and little Gerda walked on bravely and
+      in security. The angels patted her hands and feet; and then she felt the
+      cold less, and went on quickly towards the palace of the Snow Queen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But now we shall see how Kay fared. He never thought of Gerda, and least
+      of all that she was standing before the palace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SEVENTH STORY. What Took Place in the Palace of the Snow Queen, and what
+      Happened Afterward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The walls of the palace were of driving snow, and the windows and doors of
+      cutting winds. There were more than a hundred halls there, according as
+      the snow was driven by the winds. The largest was many miles in extent;
+      all were lighted up by the powerful Aurora Borealis, and all were so
+      large, so empty, so icy cold, and so resplendent! Mirth never reigned
+      there; there was never even a little bear-ball, with the storm for music,
+      while the polar bears went on their hind legs and showed off their steps.
+      Never a little tea-party of white young lady foxes; vast, cold, and empty
+      were the halls of the Snow Queen. The northern-lights shone with such
+      precision that one could tell exactly when they were at their highest or
+      lowest degree of brightness. In the middle of the empty, endless hall of
+      snow, was a frozen lake; it was cracked in a thousand pieces, but each
+      piece was so like the other, that it seemed the work of a cunning
+      artificer. In the middle of this lake sat the Snow Queen when she was at
+      home; and then she said she was sitting in the Mirror of Understanding,
+      and that this was the only one and the best thing in the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Little Kay was quite blue, yes nearly black with cold; but he did not
+      observe it, for she had kissed away all feeling of cold from his body, and
+      his heart was a lump of ice. He was dragging along some pointed flat
+      pieces of ice, which he laid together in all possible ways, for he wanted
+      to make something with them; just as we have little flat pieces of wood to
+      make geometrical figures with, called the Chinese Puzzle. Kay made all
+      sorts of figures, the most complicated, for it was an ice-puzzle for the
+      understanding. In his eyes the figures were extraordinarily beautiful, and
+      of the utmost importance; for the bit of glass which was in his eye caused
+      this. He found whole figures which represented a written word; but he
+      never could manage to represent just the word he wanted&mdash;that word
+      was &ldquo;eternity&rdquo;; and the Snow Queen had said, &ldquo;If you can discover that
+      figure, you shall be your own master, and I will make you a present of the
+      whole world and a pair of new skates.&rdquo; But he could not find it out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am going now to warm lands,&rdquo; said the Snow Queen. &ldquo;I must have a look
+      down into the black caldrons.&rdquo; It was the volcanoes Vesuvius and Etna that
+      she meant. &ldquo;I will just give them a coating of white, for that is as it
+      ought to be; besides, it is good for the oranges and the grapes.&rdquo; And then
+      away she flew, and Kay sat quite alone in the empty halls of ice that were
+      miles long, and looked at the blocks of ice, and thought and thought till
+      his skull was almost cracked. There he sat quite benumbed and motionless;
+      one would have imagined he was frozen to death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly little Gerda stepped through the great portal into the palace.
+      The gate was formed of cutting winds; but Gerda repeated her evening
+      prayer, and the winds were laid as though they slept; and the little
+      maiden entered the vast, empty, cold halls. There she beheld Kay: she
+      recognised him, flew to embrace him, and cried out, her arms firmly
+      holding him the while, &ldquo;Kay, sweet little Kay! Have I then found you at
+      last?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But he sat quite still, benumbed and cold. Then little Gerda shed burning
+      tears; and they fell on his bosom, they penetrated to his heart, they
+      thawed the lumps of ice, and consumed the splinters of the looking-glass;
+      he looked at her, and she sang the hymn:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The rose in the valley is blooming so sweet, And angels descend there the
+      children to greet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hereupon Kay burst into tears; he wept so much that the splinter rolled
+      out of his eye, and he recognised her, and shouted, &ldquo;Gerda, sweet little
+      Gerda! Where have you been so long? And where have I been?&rdquo; He looked
+      round him. &ldquo;How cold it is here!&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;How empty and cold!&rdquo; And he
+      held fast by Gerda, who laughed and wept for joy. It was so beautiful,
+      that even the blocks of ice danced about for joy; and when they were tired
+      and laid themselves down, they formed exactly the letters which the Snow
+      Queen had told him to find out; so now he was his own master, and he would
+      have the whole world and a pair of new skates into the bargain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gerda kissed his cheeks, and they grew quite blooming; she kissed his
+      eyes, and they shone like her own; she kissed his hands and feet, and he
+      was again well and merry. The Snow Queen might come back as soon as she
+      liked; there stood his discharge written in resplendent masses of ice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They took each other by the hand, and wandered forth out of the large
+      hall; they talked of their old grandmother, and of the roses upon the
+      roof; and wherever they went, the winds ceased raging, and the sun burst
+      forth. And when they reached the bush with the red berries, they found the
+      Reindeer waiting for them. He had brought another, a young one, with him,
+      whose udder was filled with milk, which he gave to the little ones, and
+      kissed their lips. They then carried Kay and Gerda&mdash;first to the
+      Finland woman, where they warmed themselves in the warm room, and learned
+      what they were to do on their journey home; and they went to the Lapland
+      woman, who made some new clothes for them and repaired their sledges.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Reindeer and the young hind leaped along beside them, and accompanied
+      them to the boundary of the country. Here the first vegetation peeped
+      forth; here Kay and Gerda took leave of the Lapland woman. &ldquo;Farewell!
+      Farewell!&rdquo; they all said. And the first green buds appeared, the first
+      little birds began to chirrup; and out of the wood came, riding on a
+      magnificent horse, which Gerda knew (it was one of the leaders in the
+      golden carriage), a young damsel with a bright-red cap on her head, and
+      armed with pistols. It was the little robber maiden, who, tired of being
+      at home, had determined to make a journey to the north; and afterwards in
+      another direction, if that did not please her. She recognised Gerda
+      immediately, and Gerda knew her too. It was a joyful meeting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a fine fellow for tramping about,&rdquo; said she to little Kay; &ldquo;I
+      should like to know, faith, if you deserve that one should run from one
+      end of the world to the other for your sake?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Gerda patted her cheeks, and inquired for the Prince and Princess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are gone abroad,&rdquo; said the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the Raven?&rdquo; asked little Gerda.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! The Raven is dead,&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;His tame sweetheart is a widow,
+      and wears a bit of black worsted round her leg; she laments most
+      piteously, but it's all mere talk and stuff! Now tell me what you've been
+      doing and how you managed to catch him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Gerda and Kay both told their story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And &ldquo;Schnipp-schnapp-schnurre-basselurre,&rdquo; said the robber maiden; and she
+      took the hands of each, and promised that if she should some day pass
+      through the town where they lived, she would come and visit them; and then
+      away she rode. Kay and Gerda took each other's hand: it was lovely spring
+      weather, with abundance of flowers and of verdure. The church-bells rang,
+      and the children recognised the high towers, and the large town; it was
+      that in which they dwelt. They entered and hastened up to their
+      grandmother's room, where everything was standing as formerly. The clock
+      said &ldquo;tick! tack!&rdquo; and the finger moved round; but as they entered, they
+      remarked that they were now grown up. The roses on the leads hung blooming
+      in at the open window; there stood the little children's chairs, and Kay
+      and Gerda sat down on them, holding each other by the hand; they both had
+      forgotten the cold empty splendor of the Snow Queen, as though it had been
+      a dream. The grandmother sat in the bright sunshine, and read aloud from
+      the Bible: &ldquo;Unless ye become as little children, ye cannot enter the
+      kingdom of heaven.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Kay and Gerda looked in each other's eyes, and all at once they
+      understood the old hymn:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The rose in the valley is blooming so sweet, And angels descend there the
+      children to greet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There sat the two grown-up persons; grown-up, and yet children; children
+      at least in heart; and it was summer-time; summer, glorious summer!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE LEAP-FROG
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A Flea, a Grasshopper, and a Leap-frog once wanted to see which could jump
+      highest; and they invited the whole world, and everybody else besides who
+      chose to come to see the festival. Three famous jumpers were they, as
+      everyone would say, when they all met together in the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will give my daughter to him who jumps highest,&rdquo; exclaimed the King;
+      &ldquo;for it is not so amusing where there is no prize to jump for.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Flea was the first to step forward. He had exquisite manners, and
+      bowed to the company on all sides; for he had noble blood, and was,
+      moreover, accustomed to the society of man alone; and that makes a great
+      difference.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then came the Grasshopper. He was considerably heavier, but he was
+      well-mannered, and wore a green uniform, which he had by right of birth;
+      he said, moreover, that he belonged to a very ancient Egyptian family, and
+      that in the house where he then was, he was thought much of. The fact was,
+      he had been just brought out of the fields, and put in a pasteboard house,
+      three stories high, all made of court-cards, with the colored side
+      inwards; and doors and windows cut out of the body of the Queen of Hearts.
+      &ldquo;I sing so well,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;that sixteen native grasshoppers who have
+      chirped from infancy, and yet got no house built of cards to live in, grew
+      thinner than they were before for sheer vexation when they heard me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was thus that the Flea and the Grasshopper gave an account of
+      themselves, and thought they were quite good enough to marry a Princess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Leap-frog said nothing; but people gave it as their opinion, that he
+      therefore thought the more; and when the housedog snuffed at him with his
+      nose, he confessed the Leap-frog was of good family. The old councillor,
+      who had had three orders given him to make him hold his tongue, asserted
+      that the Leap-frog was a prophet; for that one could see on his back, if
+      there would be a severe or mild winter, and that was what one could not
+      see even on the back of the man who writes the almanac.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say nothing, it is true,&rdquo; exclaimed the King; &ldquo;but I have my own
+      opinion, notwithstanding.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the trial was to take place. The Flea jumped so high that nobody could
+      see where he went to; so they all asserted he had not jumped at all; and
+      that was dishonorable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Grasshopper jumped only half as high; but he leaped into the King's
+      face, who said that was ill-mannered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Leap-frog stood still for a long time lost in thought; it was believed
+      at last he would not jump at all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I only hope he is not unwell,&rdquo; said the house-dog; when, pop! he made a
+      jump all on one side into the lap of the Princess, who was sitting on a
+      little golden stool close by.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hereupon the King said, &ldquo;There is nothing above my daughter; therefore to
+      bound up to her is the highest jump that can be made; but for this, one
+      must possess understanding, and the Leap-frog has shown that he has
+      understanding. He is brave and intellectual.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so he won the Princess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's all the same to me,&rdquo; said the Flea. &ldquo;She may have the old Leap-frog,
+      for all I care. I jumped the highest; but in this world merit seldom meets
+      its reward. A fine exterior is what people look at now-a-days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Flea then went into foreign service, where, it is said, he was killed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Grasshopper sat without on a green bank, and reflected on worldly
+      things; and he said too, &ldquo;Yes, a fine exterior is everything&mdash;a fine
+      exterior is what people care about.&rdquo; And then he began chirping his
+      peculiar melancholy song, from which we have taken this history; and which
+      may, very possibly, be all untrue, although it does stand here printed in
+      black and white.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE ELDERBUSH
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Once upon a time there was a little boy who had taken cold. He had gone
+      out and got his feet wet; though nobody could imagine how it had happened,
+      for it was quite dry weather. So his mother undressed him, put him to bed,
+      and had the tea-pot brought in, to make him a good cup of Elderflower tea.
+      Just at that moment the merry old man came in who lived up a-top of the
+      house all alone; for he had neither wife nor children&mdash;but he liked
+      children very much, and knew so many fairy tales, that it was quite
+      delightful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now drink your tea,&rdquo; said the boy's mother; &ldquo;then, perhaps, you may hear
+      a fairy tale.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I had but something new to tell,&rdquo; said the old man. &ldquo;But how did the
+      child get his feet wet?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is the very thing that nobody can make out,&rdquo; said his mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Am I to hear a fairy tale?&rdquo; asked the little boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, if you can tell me exactly&mdash;for I must know that first&mdash;how
+      deep the gutter is in the little street opposite, that you pass through in
+      going to school.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just up to the middle of my boot,&rdquo; said the child; &ldquo;but then I must go
+      into the deep hole.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, ah! That's where the wet feet came from,&rdquo; said the old man. &ldquo;I ought
+      now to tell you a story; but I don't know any more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can make one in a moment,&rdquo; said the little boy. &ldquo;My mother says that
+      all you look at can be turned into a fairy tale: and that you can find a
+      story in everything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but such tales and stories are good for nothing. The right sort come
+      of themselves; they tap at my forehead and say, 'Here we are.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won't there be a tap soon?&rdquo; asked the little boy. And his mother laughed,
+      put some Elder-flowers in the tea-pot, and poured boiling water upon them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do tell me something! Pray do!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, if a fairy tale would come of its own accord; but they are proud and
+      haughty, and come only when they choose. Stop!&rdquo; said he, all on a sudden.
+      &ldquo;I have it! Pay attention! There is one in the tea-pot!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the little boy looked at the tea-pot. The cover rose more and more;
+      and the Elder-flowers came forth so fresh and white, and shot up long
+      branches. Out of the spout even did they spread themselves on all sides,
+      and grew larger and larger; it was a splendid Elderbush, a whole tree; and
+      it reached into the very bed, and pushed the curtains aside. How it
+      bloomed! And what an odour! In the middle of the bush sat a
+      friendly-looking old woman in a most strange dress. It was quite green,
+      like the leaves of the elder, and was trimmed with large white
+      Elder-flowers; so that at first one could not tell whether it was a stuff,
+      or a natural green and real flowers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's that woman's name?&rdquo; asked the little boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Greeks and Romans,&rdquo; said the old man, &ldquo;called her a Dryad; but that
+      we do not understand. The people who live in the New Booths [*] have a
+      much better name for her; they call her 'old Granny'&mdash;and she it is
+      to whom you are to pay attention. Now listen, and look at the beautiful
+      Elderbush.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * A row of buildings for seamen in Copenhagen.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just such another large blooming Elder Tree stands near the New Booths.
+      It grew there in the corner of a little miserable court-yard; and under it
+      sat, of an afternoon, in the most splendid sunshine, two old people; an
+      old, old seaman, and his old, old wife. They had great-grand-children, and
+      were soon to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage; but
+      they could not exactly recollect the date: and old Granny sat in the tree,
+      and looked as pleased as now. 'I know the date,' said she; but those below
+      did not hear her, for they were talking about old times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Yes, can't you remember when we were very little,' said the old seaman,
+      'and ran and played about? It was the very same court-yard where we now
+      are, and we stuck slips in the ground, and made a garden.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'I remember it well,' said the old woman; 'I remember it quite well. We
+      watered the slips, and one of them was an Elderbush. It took root, put
+      forth green shoots, and grew up to be the large tree under which we old
+      folks are now sitting.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'To be sure,' said he. 'And there in the corner stood a waterpail, where
+      I used to swim my boats.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'True; but first we went to school to learn somewhat,' said she; 'and
+      then we were confirmed. We both cried; but in the afternoon we went up the
+      Round Tower, and looked down on Copenhagen, and far, far away over the
+      water; then we went to Friedericksberg, where the King and the Queen were
+      sailing about in their splendid barges.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'But I had a different sort of sailing to that, later; and that, too, for
+      many a year; a long way off, on great voyages.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Yes, many a time have I wept for your sake,' said she. 'I thought you
+      were dead and gone, and lying down in the deep waters. Many a night have I
+      got up to see if the wind had not changed: and changed it had, sure
+      enough; but you never came. I remember so well one day, when the rain was
+      pouring down in torrents, the scavengers were before the house where I was
+      in service, and I had come up with the dust, and remained standing at the
+      door&mdash;it was dreadful weather&mdash;when just as I was there, the
+      postman came and gave me a letter. It was from you! What a tour that
+      letter had made! I opened it instantly and read: I laughed and wept. I was
+      so happy. In it I read that you were in warm lands where the coffee-tree
+      grows. What a blessed land that must be! You related so much, and I saw it
+      all the while the rain was pouring down, and I standing there with the
+      dust-box. At the same moment came someone who embraced me.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Yes; but you gave him a good box on his ear that made it tingle!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'But I did not know it was you. You arrived as soon as your letter, and
+      you were so handsome&mdash;that you still are&mdash;and had a long yellow
+      silk handkerchief round your neck, and a bran new hat on; oh, you were so
+      dashing! Good heavens! What weather it was, and what a state the street
+      was in!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'And then we married,' said he. 'Don't you remember? And then we had our
+      first little boy, and then Mary, and Nicholas, and Peter, and Christian.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Yes, and how they all grew up to be honest people, and were beloved by
+      everybody.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'And their children also have children,' said the old sailor; 'yes, those
+      are our grand-children, full of strength and vigor. It was, methinks about
+      this season that we had our wedding.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Yes, this very day is the fiftieth anniversary of the marriage,' said
+      old Granny, sticking her head between the two old people; who thought it
+      was their neighbor who nodded to them. They looked at each other and held
+      one another by the hand. Soon after came their children, and their
+      grand-children; for they knew well enough that it was the day of the
+      fiftieth anniversary, and had come with their gratulations that very
+      morning; but the old people had forgotten it, although they were able to
+      remember all that had happened many years ago. And the Elderbush sent
+      forth a strong odour in the sun, that was just about to set, and shone
+      right in the old people's faces. They both looked so rosy-cheeked; and the
+      youngest of the grandchildren danced around them, and called out quite
+      delighted, that there was to be something very splendid that evening&mdash;they
+      were all to have hot potatoes. And old Nanny nodded in the bush, and
+      shouted 'hurrah!' with the rest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But that is no fairy tale,&rdquo; said the little boy, who was listening to the
+      story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The thing is, you must understand it,&rdquo; said the narrator; &ldquo;let us ask old
+      Nanny.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was no fairy tale, 'tis true,&rdquo; said old Nanny; &ldquo;but now it's coming.
+      The most wonderful fairy tales grow out of that which is reality; were
+      that not the case, you know, my magnificent Elderbush could not have grown
+      out of the tea-pot.&rdquo; And then she took the little boy out of bed, laid him
+      on her bosom, and the branches of the Elder Tree, full of flowers, closed
+      around her. They sat in an aerial dwelling, and it flew with them through
+      the air. Oh, it was wondrous beautiful! Old Nanny had grown all of a
+      sudden a young and pretty maiden; but her robe was still the same green
+      stuff with white flowers, which she had worn before. On her bosom she had
+      a real Elderflower, and in her yellow waving hair a wreath of the flowers;
+      her eyes were so large and blue that it was a pleasure to look at them;
+      she kissed the boy, and now they were of the same age and felt alike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hand in hand they went out of the bower, and they were standing in the
+      beautiful garden of their home. Near the green lawn papa's walking-stick
+      was tied, and for the little ones it seemed to be endowed with life; for
+      as soon as they got astride it, the round polished knob was turned into a
+      magnificent neighing head, a long black mane fluttered in the breeze, and
+      four slender yet strong legs shot out. The animal was strong and handsome,
+      and away they went at full gallop round the lawn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Huzza! Now we are riding miles off,&rdquo; said the boy. &ldquo;We are riding away to
+      the castle where we were last year!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And on they rode round the grass-plot; and the little maiden, who, we
+      know, was no one else but old Nanny, kept on crying out, &ldquo;Now we are in
+      the country! Don't you see the farm-house yonder? And there is an Elder
+      Tree standing beside it; and the cock is scraping away the earth for the
+      hens, look, how he struts! And now we are close to the church. It lies
+      high upon the hill, between the large oak-trees, one of which is half
+      decayed. And now we are by the smithy, where the fire is blazing, and
+      where the half-naked men are banging with their hammers till the sparks
+      fly about. Away! away! To the beautiful country-seat!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And all that the little maiden, who sat behind on the stick, spoke of,
+      flew by in reality. The boy saw it all, and yet they were only going round
+      the grass-plot. Then they played in a side avenue, and marked out a little
+      garden on the earth; and they took Elder-blossoms from their hair, planted
+      them, and they grew just like those the old people planted when they were
+      children, as related before. They went hand in hand, as the old people had
+      done when they were children; but not to the Round Tower, or to
+      Friedericksberg; no, the little damsel wound her arms round the boy, and
+      then they flew far away through all Denmark. And spring came, and summer;
+      and then it was autumn, and then winter; and a thousand pictures were
+      reflected in the eye and in the heart of the boy; and the little girl
+      always sang to him, &ldquo;This you will never forget.&rdquo; And during their whole
+      flight the Elder Tree smelt so sweet and odorous; he remarked the roses
+      and the fresh beeches, but the Elder Tree had a more wondrous fragrance,
+      for its flowers hung on the breast of the little maiden; and there, too,
+      did he often lay his head during the flight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is lovely here in spring!&rdquo; said the young maiden. And they stood in a
+      beech-wood that had just put on its first green, where the woodroof [*] at
+      their feet sent forth its fragrance, and the pale-red anemony looked so
+      pretty among the verdure. &ldquo;Oh, would it were always spring in the
+      sweetly-smelling Danish beech-forests!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Asperula odorata.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is lovely here in summer!&rdquo; said she. And she flew past old castles of
+      by-gone days of chivalry, where the red walls and the embattled gables
+      were mirrored in the canal, where the swans were swimming, and peered up
+      into the old cool avenues. In the fields the corn was waving like the sea;
+      in the ditches red and yellow flowers were growing; while wild-drone
+      flowers, and blooming convolvuluses were creeping in the hedges; and
+      towards evening the moon rose round and large, and the haycocks in the
+      meadows smelt so sweetly. &ldquo;This one never forgets!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is lovely here in autumn!&rdquo; said the little maiden. And suddenly the
+      atmosphere grew as blue again as before; the forest grew red, and green,
+      and yellow-colored. The dogs came leaping along, and whole flocks of
+      wild-fowl flew over the cairn, where blackberry-bushes were hanging round
+      the old stones. The sea was dark blue, covered with ships full of white
+      sails; and in the barn old women, maidens, and children were sitting
+      picking hops into a large cask; the young sang songs, but the old told
+      fairy tales of mountain-sprites and soothsayers. Nothing could be more
+      charming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is delightful here in winter!&rdquo; said the little maiden. And all the
+      trees were covered with hoar-frost; they looked like white corals; the
+      snow crackled under foot, as if one had new boots on; and one falling star
+      after the other was seen in the sky. The Christmas-tree was lighted in the
+      room; presents were there, and good-humor reigned. In the country the
+      violin sounded in the room of the peasant; the newly-baked cakes were
+      attacked; even the poorest child said, &ldquo;It is really delightful here in
+      winter!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, it was delightful; and the little maiden showed the boy everything;
+      and the Elder Tree still was fragrant, and the red flag, with the white
+      cross, was still waving: the flag under which the old seaman in the New
+      Booths had sailed. And the boy grew up to be a lad, and was to go forth in
+      the wide world-far, far away to warm lands, where the coffee-tree grows;
+      but at his departure the little maiden took an Elder-blossom from her
+      bosom, and gave it him to keep; and it was placed between the leaves of
+      his Prayer-Book; and when in foreign lands he opened the book, it was
+      always at the place where the keepsake-flower lay; and the more he looked
+      at it, the fresher it became; he felt as it were, the fragrance of the
+      Danish groves; and from among the leaves of the flowers he could
+      distinctly see the little maiden, peeping forth with her bright blue eyes&mdash;and
+      then she whispered, &ldquo;It is delightful here in Spring, Summer, Autumn, and
+      Winter&rdquo;; and a hundred visions glided before his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus passed many years, and he was now an old man, and sat with his old
+      wife under the blooming tree. They held each other by the hand, as the old
+      grand-father and grand-mother yonder in the New Booths did, and they
+      talked exactly like them of old times, and of the fiftieth anniversary of
+      their wedding. The little maiden, with the blue eyes, and with
+      Elder-blossoms in her hair, sat in the tree, nodded to both of them, and
+      said, &ldquo;To-day is the fiftieth anniversary!&rdquo; And then she took two flowers
+      out of her hair, and kissed them. First, they shone like silver, then like
+      gold; and when they laid them on the heads of the old people, each flower
+      became a golden crown. So there they both sat, like a king and a queen,
+      under the fragrant tree, that looked exactly like an elder: the old man
+      told his wife the story of &ldquo;Old Nanny,&rdquo; as it had been told him when a
+      boy. And it seemed to both of them it contained much that resembled their
+      own history; and those parts that were like it pleased them best.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thus it is,&rdquo; said the little maiden in the tree, &ldquo;some call me 'Old
+      Nanny,' others a 'Dryad,' but, in reality, my name is 'Remembrance'; 'tis
+      I who sit in the tree that grows and grows! I can remember; I can tell
+      things! Let me see if you have my flower still?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the old man opened his Prayer-Book. There lay the Elder-blossom, as
+      fresh as if it had been placed there but a short time before; and
+      Remembrance nodded, and the old people, decked with crowns of gold, sat in
+      the flush of the evening sun. They closed their eyes, and&mdash;and&mdash;!
+      Yes, that's the end of the story!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The little boy lay in his bed; he did not know if he had dreamed or not,
+      or if he had been listening while someone told him the story. The tea-pot
+      was standing on the table, but no Elder Tree was growing out of it! And
+      the old man, who had been talking, was just on the point of going out at
+      the door, and he did go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How splendid that was!&rdquo; said the little boy. &ldquo;Mother, I have been to warm
+      countries.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I should think,&rdquo; said his mother. &ldquo;When one has drunk two good cupfuls
+      of Elder-flower tea, 'tis likely enough one goes into warm climates&rdquo;; and
+      she tucked him up nicely, least he should take cold. &ldquo;You have had a good
+      sleep while I have been sitting here, and arguing with him whether it was
+      a story or a fairy tale.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where is old Nanny?&rdquo; asked the little boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the tea-pot,&rdquo; said his mother; &ldquo;and there she may remain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE BELL
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      People said &ldquo;The Evening Bell is sounding, the sun is setting.&rdquo; For a
+      strange wondrous tone was heard in the narrow streets of a large town. It
+      was like the sound of a church-bell: but it was only heard for a moment,
+      for the rolling of the carriages and the voices of the multitude made too
+      great a noise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Those persons who were walking outside the town, where the houses were
+      farther apart, with gardens or little fields between them, could see the
+      evening sky still better, and heard the sound of the bell much more
+      distinctly. It was as if the tones came from a church in the still forest;
+      people looked thitherward, and felt their minds attuned most solemnly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A long time passed, and people said to each other&mdash;&ldquo;I wonder if there
+      is a church out in the wood? The bell has a tone that is wondrous sweet;
+      let us stroll thither, and examine the matter nearer.&rdquo; And the rich people
+      drove out, and the poor walked, but the way seemed strangely long to them;
+      and when they came to a clump of willows which grew on the skirts of the
+      forest, they sat down, and looked up at the long branches, and fancied
+      they were now in the depth of the green wood. The confectioner of the town
+      came out, and set up his booth there; and soon after came another
+      confectioner, who hung a bell over his stand, as a sign or ornament, but
+      it had no clapper, and it was tarred over to preserve it from the rain.
+      When all the people returned home, they said it had been very romantic,
+      and that it was quite a different sort of thing to a pic-nic or tea-party.
+      There were three persons who asserted they had penetrated to the end of
+      the forest, and that they had always heard the wonderful sounds of the
+      bell, but it had seemed to them as if it had come from the town. One wrote
+      a whole poem about it, and said the bell sounded like the voice of a
+      mother to a good dear child, and that no melody was sweeter than the tones
+      of the bell. The king of the country was also observant of it, and vowed
+      that he who could discover whence the sounds proceeded, should have the
+      title of &ldquo;Universal Bell-ringer,&rdquo; even if it were not really a bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many persons now went to the wood, for the sake of getting the place, but
+      one only returned with a sort of explanation; for nobody went far enough,
+      that one not further than the others. However, he said that the sound
+      proceeded from a very large owl, in a hollow tree; a sort of learned owl,
+      that continually knocked its head against the branches. But whether the
+      sound came from his head or from the hollow tree, that no one could say
+      with certainty. So now he got the place of &ldquo;Universal Bell-ringer,&rdquo; and
+      wrote yearly a short treatise &ldquo;On the Owl&rdquo;; but everybody was just as wise
+      as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the day of confirmation. The clergyman had spoken so touchingly,
+      the children who were confirmed had been greatly moved; it was an eventful
+      day for them; from children they become all at once grown-up-persons; it
+      was as if their infant souls were now to fly all at once into persons with
+      more understanding. The sun was shining gloriously; the children that had
+      been confirmed went out of the town; and from the wood was borne towards
+      them the sounds of the unknown bell with wonderful distinctness. They all
+      immediately felt a wish to go thither; all except three. One of them had
+      to go home to try on a ball-dress; for it was just the dress and the ball
+      which had caused her to be confirmed this time, for otherwise she would
+      not have come; the other was a poor boy, who had borrowed his coat and
+      boots to be confirmed in from the innkeeper's son, and he was to give them
+      back by a certain hour; the third said that he never went to a strange
+      place if his parents were not with him&mdash;that he had always been a
+      good boy hitherto, and would still be so now that he was confirmed, and
+      that one ought not to laugh at him for it: the others, however, did make
+      fun of him, after all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were three, therefore, that did not go; the others hastened on. The
+      sun shone, the birds sang, and the children sang too, and each held the
+      other by the hand; for as yet they had none of them any high office, and
+      were all of equal rank in the eye of God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But two of the youngest soon grew tired, and both returned to town; two
+      little girls sat down, and twined garlands, so they did not go either; and
+      when the others reached the willow-tree, where the confectioner was, they
+      said, &ldquo;Now we are there! In reality the bell does not exist; it is only a
+      fancy that people have taken into their heads!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same moment the bell sounded deep in the wood, so clear and
+      solemnly that five or six determined to penetrate somewhat further. It was
+      so thick, and the foliage so dense, that it was quite fatiguing to
+      proceed. Woodroof and anemonies grew almost too high; blooming
+      convolvuluses and blackberry-bushes hung in long garlands from tree to
+      tree, where the nightingale sang and the sunbeams were playing: it was
+      very beautiful, but it was no place for girls to go; their clothes would
+      get so torn. Large blocks of stone lay there, overgrown with moss of every
+      color; the fresh spring bubbled forth, and made a strange gurgling sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That surely cannot be the bell,&rdquo; said one of the children, lying down and
+      listening. &ldquo;This must be looked to.&rdquo; So he remained, and let the others go
+      on without him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They afterwards came to a little house, made of branches and the bark of
+      trees; a large wild apple-tree bent over it, as if it would shower down
+      all its blessings on the roof, where roses were blooming. The long stems
+      twined round the gable, on which there hung a small bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Was it that which people had heard? Yes, everybody was unanimous on the
+      subject, except one, who said that the bell was too small and too fine to
+      be heard at so great a distance, and besides it was very different tones
+      to those that could move a human heart in such a manner. It was a king's
+      son who spoke; whereon the others said, &ldquo;Such people always want to be
+      wiser than everybody else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They now let him go on alone; and as he went, his breast was filled more
+      and more with the forest solitude; but he still heard the little bell with
+      which the others were so satisfied, and now and then, when the wind blew,
+      he could also hear the people singing who were sitting at tea where the
+      confectioner had his tent; but the deep sound of the bell rose louder; it
+      was almost as if an organ were accompanying it, and the tones came from
+      the left hand, the side where the heart is placed. A rustling was heard in
+      the bushes, and a little boy stood before the King's Son, a boy in wooden
+      shoes, and with so short a jacket that one could see what long wrists he
+      had. Both knew each other: the boy was that one among the children who
+      could not come because he had to go home and return his jacket and boots
+      to the innkeeper's son. This he had done, and was now going on in wooden
+      shoes and in his humble dress, for the bell sounded with so deep a tone,
+      and with such strange power, that proceed he must.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, then, we can go together,&rdquo; said the King's Son. But the poor child
+      that had been confirmed was quite ashamed; he looked at his wooden shoes,
+      pulled at the short sleeves of his jacket, and said that he was afraid he
+      could not walk so fast; besides, he thought that the bell must be looked
+      for to the right; for that was the place where all sorts of beautiful
+      things were to be found.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But there we shall not meet,&rdquo; said the King's Son, nodding at the same
+      time to the poor boy, who went into the darkest, thickest part of the
+      wood, where thorns tore his humble dress, and scratched his face and hands
+      and feet till they bled. The King's Son got some scratches too; but the
+      sun shone on his path, and it is him that we will follow, for he was an
+      excellent and resolute youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must and will find the bell,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;even if I am obliged to go to
+      the end of the world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ugly apes sat upon the trees, and grinned. &ldquo;Shall we thrash him?&rdquo; said
+      they. &ldquo;Shall we thrash him? He is the son of a king!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But on he went, without being disheartened, deeper and deeper into the
+      wood, where the most wonderful flowers were growing. There stood white
+      lilies with blood-red stamina, skyblue tulips, which shone as they waved
+      in the winds, and apple-trees, the apples of which looked exactly like
+      large soapbubbles: so only think how the trees must have sparkled in the
+      sunshine! Around the nicest green meads, where the deer were playing in
+      the grass, grew magnificent oaks and beeches; and if the bark of one of
+      the trees was cracked, there grass and long creeping plants grew in the
+      crevices. And there were large calm lakes there too, in which white swans
+      were swimming, and beat the air with their wings. The King's Son often
+      stood still and listened. He thought the bell sounded from the depths of
+      these still lakes; but then he remarked again that the tone proceeded not
+      from there, but farther off, from out the depths of the forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun now set: the atmosphere glowed like fire. It was still in the
+      woods, so very still; and he fell on his knees, sung his evening hymn, and
+      said: &ldquo;I cannot find what I seek; the sun is going down, and night is
+      coming&mdash;the dark, dark night. Yet perhaps I may be able once more to
+      see the round red sun before he entirely disappears. I will climb up
+      yonder rock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he seized hold of the creeping-plants, and the roots of trees&mdash;climbed
+      up the moist stones where the water-snakes were writhing and the toads
+      were croaking&mdash;and he gained the summit before the sun had quite gone
+      down. How magnificent was the sight from this height! The sea&mdash;the
+      great, the glorious sea, that dashed its long waves against the coast&mdash;was
+      stretched out before him. And yonder, where sea and sky meet, stood the
+      sun, like a large shining altar, all melted together in the most glowing
+      colors. And the wood and the sea sang a song of rejoicing, and his heart
+      sang with the rest: all nature was a vast holy church, in which the trees
+      and the buoyant clouds were the pillars, flowers and grass the velvet
+      carpeting, and heaven itself the large cupola. The red colors above faded
+      away as the sun vanished, but a million stars were lighted, a million
+      lamps shone; and the King's Son spread out his arms towards heaven, and
+      wood, and sea; when at the same moment, coming by a path to the right,
+      appeared, in his wooden shoes and jacket, the poor boy who had been
+      confirmed with him. He had followed his own path, and had reached the spot
+      just as soon as the son of the king had done. They ran towards each other,
+      and stood together hand in hand in the vast church of nature and of
+      poetry, while over them sounded the invisible holy bell: blessed spirits
+      floated around them, and lifted up their voices in a rejoicing hallelujah!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE OLD HOUSE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      In the street, up there, was an old, a very old house&mdash;it was almost
+      three hundred years old, for that might be known by reading the great beam
+      on which the date of the year was carved: together with tulips and
+      hop-binds there were whole verses spelled as in former times, and over
+      every window was a distorted face cut out in the beam. The one story stood
+      forward a great way over the other; and directly under the eaves was a
+      leaden spout with a dragon's head; the rain-water should have run out of
+      the mouth, but it ran out of the belly, for there was a hole in the spout.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the other houses in the street were so new and so neat, with large
+      window panes and smooth walls, one could easily see that they would have
+      nothing to do with the old house: they certainly thought, &ldquo;How long is
+      that old decayed thing to stand here as a spectacle in the street? And
+      then the projecting windows stand so far out, that no one can see from our
+      windows what happens in that direction! The steps are as broad as those of
+      a palace, and as high as to a church tower. The iron railings look just
+      like the door to an old family vault, and then they have brass tops&mdash;that's
+      so stupid!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On the other side of the street were also new and neat houses, and they
+      thought just as the others did; but at the window opposite the old house
+      there sat a little boy with fresh rosy cheeks and bright beaming eyes: he
+      certainly liked the old house best, and that both in sunshine and
+      moonshine. And when he looked across at the wall where the mortar had
+      fallen out, he could sit and find out there the strangest figures
+      imaginable; exactly as the street had appeared before, with steps,
+      projecting windows, and pointed gables; he could see soldiers with
+      halberds, and spouts where the water ran, like dragons and serpents. That
+      was a house to look at; and there lived an old man, who wore plush
+      breeches; and he had a coat with large brass buttons, and a wig that one
+      could see was a real wig. Every morning there came an old fellow to him
+      who put his rooms in order, and went on errands; otherwise, the old man in
+      the plush breeches was quite alone in the old house. Now and then he came
+      to the window and looked out, and the little boy nodded to him, and the
+      old man nodded again, and so they became acquaintances, and then they were
+      friends, although they had never spoken to each other&mdash;but that made
+      no difference. The little boy heard his parents say, &ldquo;The old man opposite
+      is very well off, but he is so very, very lonely!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Sunday following, the little boy took something, and wrapped it up in
+      a piece of paper, went downstairs, and stood in the doorway; and when the
+      man who went on errands came past, he said to him&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say, master! will you give this to the old man over the way from me? I
+      have two pewter soldiers&mdash;this is one of them, and he shall have it,
+      for I know he is so very, very lonely.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the old errand man looked quite pleased, nodded, and took the pewter
+      soldier over to the old house. Afterwards there came a message; it was to
+      ask if the little boy himself had not a wish to come over and pay a visit;
+      and so he got permission of his parents, and then went over to the old
+      house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the brass balls on the iron railings shone much brighter than ever;
+      one would have thought they were polished on account of the visit; and it
+      was as if the carved-out trumpeters&mdash;for there were trumpeters, who
+      stood in tulips, carved out on the door&mdash;blew with all their might,
+      their cheeks appeared so much rounder than before. Yes, they blew&mdash;&ldquo;Trateratra!
+      The little boy comes! Trateratra!&rdquo;&mdash;and then the door opened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole passage was hung with portraits of knights in armor, and ladies
+      in silken gowns; and the armor rattled, and the silken gowns rustled! And
+      then there was a flight of stairs which went a good way upwards, and a
+      little way downwards, and then one came on a balcony which was in a very
+      dilapidated state, sure enough, with large holes and long crevices, but
+      grass grew there and leaves out of them altogether, for the whole balcony
+      outside, the yard, and the walls, were overgrown with so much green stuff,
+      that it looked like a garden; only a balcony. Here stood old flower-pots
+      with faces and asses' ears, and the flowers grew just as they liked. One
+      of the pots was quite overrun on all sides with pinks, that is to say,
+      with the green part; shoot stood by shoot, and it said quite distinctly,
+      &ldquo;The air has cherished me, the sun has kissed me, and promised me a little
+      flower on Sunday! a little flower on Sunday!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And then they entered a chamber where the walls were covered with hog's
+      leather, and printed with gold flowers.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   &ldquo;The gilding decays,
+   But hog's leather stays!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      said the walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And there stood easy-chairs, with such high backs, and so carved out, and
+      with arms on both sides. &ldquo;Sit down! sit down!&rdquo; said they. &ldquo;Ugh! how I
+      creak; now I shall certainly get the gout, like the old clothespress,
+      ugh!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And then the little boy came into the room where the projecting windows
+      were, and where the old man sat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you for the pewter soldier, my little friend!&rdquo; said the old man.
+      &ldquo;And I thank you because you come over to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thankee! thankee!&rdquo; or &ldquo;cranky! cranky!&rdquo; sounded from all the furniture;
+      there was so much of it, that each article stood in the other's way, to
+      get a look at the little boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the middle of the wall hung a picture representing a beautiful lady, so
+      young, so glad, but dressed quite as in former times, with clothes that
+      stood quite stiff, and with powder in her hair; she neither said &ldquo;thankee,
+      thankee!&rdquo; nor &ldquo;cranky, cranky!&rdquo; but looked with her mild eyes at the
+      little boy, who directly asked the old man, &ldquo;Where did you get her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yonder, at the broker's,&rdquo; said the old man, &ldquo;where there are so many
+      pictures hanging. No one knows or cares about them, for they are all of
+      them buried; but I knew her in by-gone days, and now she has been dead and
+      gone these fifty years!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the picture, in a glazed frame, there hung a bouquet of withered
+      flowers; they were almost fifty years old; they looked so very old!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pendulum of the great clock went to and fro, and the hands turned, and
+      everything in the room became still older; but they did not observe it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They say at home,&rdquo; said the little boy, &ldquo;that you are so very, very
+      lonely!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;The old thoughts, with what they may bring with them, come
+      and visit me, and now you also come! I am very well off!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he took a book with pictures in it down from the shelf; there were
+      whole long processions and pageants, with the strangest characters, which
+      one never sees now-a-days; soldiers like the knave of clubs, and citizens
+      with waving flags: the tailors had theirs, with a pair of shears held by
+      two lions&mdash;and the shoemakers theirs, without boots, but with an
+      eagle that had two heads, for the shoemakers must have everything so that
+      they can say, it is a pair! Yes, that was a picture book!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man now went into the other room to fetch preserves, apples, and
+      nuts&mdash;yes, it was delightful over there in the old house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot bear it any longer!&rdquo; said the pewter soldier, who sat on the
+      drawers. &ldquo;It is so lonely and melancholy here! But when one has been in a
+      family circle one cannot accustom oneself to this life! I cannot bear it
+      any longer! The whole day is so long, and the evenings are still longer!
+      Here it is not at all as it is over the way at your home, where your
+      father and mother spoke so pleasantly, and where you and all your sweet
+      children made such a delightful noise. Nay, how lonely the old man is&mdash;do
+      you think that he gets kisses? Do you think he gets mild eyes, or a
+      Christmas tree? He will get nothing but a grave! I can bear it no longer!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must not let it grieve you so much,&rdquo; said the little boy. &ldquo;I find it
+      so very delightful here, and then all the old thoughts, with what they may
+      bring with them, they come and visit here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it's all very well, but I see nothing of them, and I don't know
+      them!&rdquo; said the pewter soldier. &ldquo;I cannot bear it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you must!&rdquo; said the little boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then in came the old man with the most pleased and happy face, the most
+      delicious preserves, apples, and nuts, and so the little boy thought no
+      more about the pewter soldier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The little boy returned home happy and pleased, and weeks and days passed
+      away, and nods were made to the old house, and from the old house, and
+      then the little boy went over there again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The carved trumpeters blew, &ldquo;Trateratra! There is the little boy!
+      Trateratra!&rdquo; and the swords and armor on the knights' portraits rattled,
+      and the silk gowns rustled; the hog's leather spoke, and the old chairs
+      had the gout in their legs and rheumatism in their backs: Ugh! it was
+      exactly like the first time, for over there one day and hour was just like
+      another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot bear it!&rdquo; said the pewter soldier. &ldquo;I have shed pewter tears! It
+      is too melancholy! Rather let me go to the wars and lose arms and legs! It
+      would at least be a change. I cannot bear it longer! Now, I know what it
+      is to have a visit from one's old thoughts, with what they may bring with
+      them! I have had a visit from mine, and you may be sure it is no pleasant
+      thing in the end; I was at last about to jump down from the drawers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I saw you all over there at home so distinctly, as if you really were
+      here; it was again that Sunday morning; all you children stood before the
+      table and sung your Psalms, as you do every morning. You stood devoutly
+      with folded hands; and father and mother were just as pious; and then the
+      door was opened, and little sister Mary, who is not two years old yet, and
+      who always dances when she hears music or singing, of whatever kind it may
+      be, was put into the room&mdash;though she ought not to have been there&mdash;and
+      then she began to dance, but could not keep time, because the tones were
+      so long; and then she stood, first on the one leg, and bent her head
+      forwards, and then on the other leg, and bent her head forwards&mdash;but
+      all would not do. You stood very seriously all together, although it was
+      difficult enough; but I laughed to myself, and then I fell off the table,
+      and got a bump, which I have still&mdash;for it was not right of me to
+      laugh. But the whole now passes before me again in thought, and everything
+      that I have lived to see; and these are the old thoughts, with what they
+      may bring with them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me if you still sing on Sundays? Tell me something about little
+      Mary! And how my comrade, the other pewter soldier, lives! Yes, he is
+      happy enough, that's sure! I cannot bear it any longer!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are given away as a present!&rdquo; said the little boy. &ldquo;You must remain.
+      Can you not understand that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man now came with a drawer, in which there was much to be seen,
+      both &ldquo;tin boxes&rdquo; and &ldquo;balsam boxes,&rdquo; old cards, so large and so gilded,
+      such as one never sees them now. And several drawers were opened, and the
+      piano was opened; it had landscapes on the inside of the lid, and it was
+      so hoarse when the old man played on it! and then he hummed a song.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, she could sing that!&rdquo; said he, and nodded to the portrait, which he
+      had bought at the broker's, and the old man's eyes shone so bright!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go to the wars! I will go to the wars!&rdquo; shouted the pewter soldier
+      as loud as he could, and threw himself off the drawers right down on the
+      floor. What became of him? The old man sought, and the little boy sought;
+      he was away, and he stayed away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall find him!&rdquo; said the old man; but he never found him. The floor
+      was too open&mdash;the pewter soldier had fallen through a crevice, and
+      there he lay as in an open tomb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That day passed, and the little boy went home, and that week passed, and
+      several weeks too. The windows were quite frozen, the little boy was
+      obliged to sit and breathe on them to get a peep-hole over to the old
+      house, and there the snow had been blown into all the carved work and
+      inscriptions; it lay quite up over the steps, just as if there was no one
+      at home&mdash;nor was there any one at home&mdash;the old man was dead!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the evening there was a hearse seen before the door, and he was borne
+      into it in his coffin: he was now to go out into the country, to lie in
+      his grave. He was driven out there, but no one followed; all his friends
+      were dead, and the little boy kissed his hand to the coffin as it was
+      driven away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some days afterwards there was an auction at the old house, and the little
+      boy saw from his window how they carried the old knights and the old
+      ladies away, the flower-pots with the long ears, the old chairs, and the
+      old clothes-presses. Something came here, and something came there; the
+      portrait of her who had been found at the broker's came to the broker's
+      again; and there it hung, for no one knew her more&mdash;no one cared
+      about the old picture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the spring they pulled the house down, for, as people said, it was a
+      ruin. One could see from the street right into the room with the
+      hog's-leather hanging, which was slashed and torn; and the green grass and
+      leaves about the balcony hung quite wild about the falling beams. And then
+      it was put to rights.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was a relief,&rdquo; said the neighboring houses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A fine house was built there, with large windows, and smooth white walls;
+      but before it, where the old house had in fact stood, was a little garden
+      laid out, and a wild grapevine ran up the wall of the neighboring house.
+      Before the garden there was a large iron railing with an iron door, it
+      looked quite splendid, and people stood still and peeped in, and the
+      sparrows hung by scores in the vine, and chattered away at each other as
+      well as they could, but it was not about the old house, for they could not
+      remember it, so many years had passed&mdash;so many that the little boy
+      had grown up to a whole man, yes, a clever man, and a pleasure to his
+      parents; and he had just been married, and, together with his little wife,
+      had come to live in the house here, where the garden was; and he stood by
+      her there whilst she planted a field-flower that she found so pretty; she
+      planted it with her little hand, and pressed the earth around it with her
+      fingers. Oh! what was that? She had stuck herself. There sat something
+      pointed, straight out of the soft mould.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was&mdash;yes, guess! It was the pewter soldier, he that was lost up at
+      the old man's, and had tumbled and turned about amongst the timber and the
+      rubbish, and had at last laid for many years in the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young wife wiped the dirt off the soldier, first with a green leaf,
+      and then with her fine handkerchief&mdash;it had such a delightful smell,
+      that it was to the pewter soldier just as if he had awaked from a trance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me see him,&rdquo; said the young man. He laughed, and then shook his head.
+      &ldquo;Nay, it cannot be he; but he reminds me of a story about a pewter soldier
+      which I had when I was a little boy!&rdquo; And then he told his wife about the
+      old house, and the old man, and about the pewter soldier that he sent over
+      to him because he was so very, very lonely; and he told it as correctly as
+      it had really been, so that the tears came into the eyes of his young
+      wife, on account of the old house and the old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may possibly be, however, that it is the same pewter soldier!&rdquo; said
+      she. &ldquo;I will take care of it, and remember all that you have told me; but
+      you must show me the old man's grave!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I do not know it,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;and no one knows it! All his friends
+      were dead, no one took care of it, and I was then a little boy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How very, very lonely he must have been!&rdquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very, very lonely!&rdquo; said the pewter soldier. &ldquo;But it is delightful not to
+      be forgotten!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Delightful!&rdquo; shouted something close by; but no one, except the pewter
+      soldier, saw that it was a piece of the hog's-leather hangings; it had
+      lost all its gilding, it looked like a piece of wet clay, but it had an
+      opinion, and it gave it:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   &ldquo;The gilding decays,
+   But hog's leather stays!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      This the pewter soldier did not believe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE HAPPY FAMILY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Really, the largest green leaf in this country is a dock-leaf; if one
+      holds it before one, it is like a whole apron, and if one holds it over
+      one's head in rainy weather, it is almost as good as an umbrella, for it
+      is so immensely large. The burdock never grows alone, but where there
+      grows one there always grow several: it is a great delight, and all this
+      delightfulness is snails' food. The great white snails which persons of
+      quality in former times made fricassees of, ate, and said, &ldquo;Hem, hem! how
+      delicious!&rdquo; for they thought it tasted so delicate&mdash;lived on
+      dock-leaves, and therefore burdock seeds were sown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, there was an old manor-house, where they no longer ate snails, they
+      were quite extinct; but the burdocks were not extinct, they grew and grew
+      all over the walks and all the beds; they could not get the mastery over
+      them&mdash;it was a whole forest of burdocks. Here and there stood an
+      apple and a plum-tree, or else one never would have thought that it was a
+      garden; all was burdocks, and there lived the two last venerable old
+      snails.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They themselves knew not how old they were, but they could remember very
+      well that there had been many more; that they were of a family from
+      foreign lands, and that for them and theirs the whole forest was planted.
+      They had never been outside it, but they knew that there was still
+      something more in the world, which was called the manor-house, and that
+      there they were boiled, and then they became black, and were then placed
+      on a silver dish; but what happened further they knew not; or, in fact,
+      what it was to be boiled, and to lie on a silver dish, they could not
+      possibly imagine; but it was said to be delightful, and particularly
+      genteel. Neither the chafers, the toads, nor the earth-worms, whom they
+      asked about it could give them any information&mdash;none of them had been
+      boiled or laid on a silver dish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old white snails were the first persons of distinction in the world,
+      that they knew; the forest was planted for their sake, and the manor-house
+      was there that they might be boiled and laid on a silver dish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now they lived a very lonely and happy life; and as they had no children
+      themselves, they had adopted a little common snail, which they brought up
+      as their own; but the little one would not grow, for he was of a common
+      family; but the old ones, especially Dame Mother Snail, thought they could
+      observe how he increased in size, and she begged father, if he could not
+      see it, that he would at least feel the little snail's shell; and then he
+      felt it, and found the good dame was right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day there was a heavy storm of rain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hear how it beats like a drum on the dock-leaves!&rdquo; said Father Snail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are also rain-drops!&rdquo; said Mother Snail. &ldquo;And now the rain pours
+      right down the stalk! You will see that it will be wet here! I am very
+      happy to think that we have our good house, and the little one has his
+      also! There is more done for us than for all other creatures, sure enough;
+      but can you not see that we are folks of quality in the world? We are
+      provided with a house from our birth, and the burdock forest is planted
+      for our sakes! I should like to know how far it extends, and what there is
+      outside!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is nothing at all,&rdquo; said Father Snail. &ldquo;No place can be better than
+      ours, and I have nothing to wish for!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the dame. &ldquo;I would willingly go to the manorhouse, be boiled,
+      and laid on a silver dish; all our forefathers have been treated so; there
+      is something extraordinary in it, you may be sure!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The manor-house has most likely fallen to ruin!&rdquo; said Father Snail. &ldquo;Or
+      the burdocks have grown up over it, so that they cannot come out. There
+      need not, however, be any haste about that; but you are always in such a
+      tremendous hurry, and the little one is beginning to be the same. Has he
+      not been creeping up that stalk these three days? It gives me a headache
+      when I look up to him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must not scold him,&rdquo; said Mother Snail. &ldquo;He creeps so carefully; he
+      will afford us much pleasure&mdash;and we have nothing but him to live
+      for! But have you not thought of it? Where shall we get a wife for him? Do
+      you not think that there are some of our species at a great distance in
+      the interior of the burdock forest?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Black snails, I dare say, there are enough of,&rdquo; said the old one. &ldquo;Black
+      snails without a house&mdash;but they are so common, and so conceited. But
+      we might give the ants a commission to look out for us; they run to and
+      fro as if they had something to do, and they certainly know of a wife for
+      our little snail!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know one, sure enough&mdash;the most charming one!&rdquo; said one of the
+      ants. &ldquo;But I am afraid we shall hardly succeed, for she is a queen!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is nothing!&rdquo; said the old folks. &ldquo;Has she a house?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She has a palace!&rdquo; said the ant. &ldquo;The finest ant's palace, with seven
+      hundred passages!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you!&rdquo; said Mother Snail. &ldquo;Our son shall not go into an ant-hill;
+      if you know nothing better than that, we shall give the commission to the
+      white gnats. They fly far and wide, in rain and sunshine; they know the
+      whole forest here, both within and without.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have a wife for him,&rdquo; said the gnats. &ldquo;At a hundred human paces from
+      here there sits a little snail in her house, on a gooseberry bush; she is
+      quite lonely, and old enough to be married. It is only a hundred human
+      paces!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, let her come to him!&rdquo; said the old ones. &ldquo;He has a whole
+      forest of burdocks, she has only a bush!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so they went and fetched little Miss Snail. It was a whole week before
+      she arrived; but therein was just the very best of it, for one could thus
+      see that she was of the same species.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then the marriage was celebrated. Six earth-worms shone as well as
+      they could. In other respects the whole went off very quietly, for the old
+      folks could not bear noise and merriment; but old Dame Snail made a
+      brilliant speech. Father Snail could not speak, he was too much affected;
+      and so they gave them as a dowry and inheritance, the whole forest of
+      burdocks, and said&mdash;what they had always said&mdash;that it was the
+      best in the world; and if they lived honestly and decently, and increased
+      and multiplied, they and their children would once in the course of time
+      come to the manor-house, be boiled black, and laid on silver dishes. After
+      this speech was made, the old ones crept into their shells, and never more
+      came out. They slept; the young couple governed in the forest, and had a
+      numerous progeny, but they were never boiled, and never came on the silver
+      dishes; so from this they concluded that the manor-house had fallen to
+      ruins, and that all the men in the world were extinct; and as no one
+      contradicted them, so, of course it was so. And the rain beat on the
+      dock-leaves to make drum-music for their sake, and the sun shone in order
+      to give the burdock forest a color for their sakes; and they were very
+      happy, and the whole family was happy; for they, indeed were so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE STORY OF A MOTHER
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A mother sat there with her little child. She was so downcast, so afraid
+      that it should die! It was so pale, the small eyes had closed themselves,
+      and it drew its breath so softly, now and then, with a deep respiration,
+      as if it sighed; and the mother looked still more sorrowfully on the
+      little creature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then a knocking was heard at the door, and in came a poor old man wrapped
+      up as in a large horse-cloth, for it warms one, and he needed it, as it
+      was the cold winter season! Everything out-of-doors was covered with ice
+      and snow, and the wind blew so that it cut the face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the old man trembled with cold, and the little child slept a moment,
+      the mother went and poured some ale into a pot and set it on the stove,
+      that it might be warm for him; the old man sat and rocked the cradle, and
+      the mother sat down on a chair close by him, and looked at her little sick
+      child that drew its breath so deep, and raised its little hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you not think that I shall save him?&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;Our Lord will not
+      take him from me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the old man&mdash;it was Death himself&mdash;he nodded so strangely,
+      it could just as well signify yes as no. And the mother looked down in her
+      lap, and the tears ran down over her cheeks; her head became so heavy&mdash;she
+      had not closed her eyes for three days and nights; and now she slept, but
+      only for a minute, when she started up and trembled with cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that?&rdquo; said she, and looked on all sides; but the old man was
+      gone, and her little child was gone&mdash;he had taken it with him; and
+      the old clock in the corner burred, and burred, the great leaden weight
+      ran down to the floor, bump! and then the clock also stood still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the poor mother ran out of the house and cried aloud for her child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Out there, in the midst of the snow, there sat a woman in long, black
+      clothes; and she said, &ldquo;Death has been in thy chamber, and I saw him
+      hasten away with thy little child; he goes faster than the wind, and he
+      never brings back what he takes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, only tell me which way he went!&rdquo; said the mother. &ldquo;Tell me the way,
+      and I shall find him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it!&rdquo; said the woman in the black clothes. &ldquo;But before I tell it,
+      thou must first sing for me all the songs thou hast sung for thy child! I
+      am fond of them. I have heard them before; I am Night; I saw thy tears
+      whilst thou sang'st them!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will sing them all, all!&rdquo; said the mother. &ldquo;But do not stop me now&mdash;I
+      may overtake him&mdash;I may find my child!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Night stood still and mute. Then the mother wrung her hands, sang and
+      wept, and there were many songs, but yet many more tears; and then Night
+      said, &ldquo;Go to the right, into the dark pine forest; thither I saw Death
+      take his way with thy little child!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The roads crossed each other in the depths of the forest, and she no
+      longer knew whither she should go! then there stood a thorn-bush; there
+      was neither leaf nor flower on it, it was also in the cold winter season,
+      and ice-flakes hung on the branches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hast thou not seen Death go past with my little child?&rdquo; said the mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the thorn-bush; &ldquo;but I will not tell thee which way he took,
+      unless thou wilt first warm me up at thy heart. I am freezing to death; I
+      shall become a lump of ice!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And she pressed the thorn-bush to her breast, so firmly, that it might be
+      thoroughly warmed, and the thorns went right into her flesh, and her blood
+      flowed in large drops, but the thornbush shot forth fresh green leaves,
+      and there came flowers on it in the cold winter night, the heart of the
+      afflicted mother was so warm; and the thorn-bush told her the way she
+      should go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She then came to a large lake, where there was neither ship nor boat. The
+      lake was not frozen sufficiently to bear her; neither was it open, nor low
+      enough that she could wade through it; and across it she must go if she
+      would find her child! Then she lay down to drink up the lake, and that was
+      an impossibility for a human being, but the afflicted mother thought that
+      a miracle might happen nevertheless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, what would I not give to come to my child!&rdquo; said the weeping mother;
+      and she wept still more, and her eyes sunk down in the depths of the
+      waters, and became two precious pearls; but the water bore her up, as if
+      she sat in a swing, and she flew in the rocking waves to the shore on the
+      opposite side, where there stood a mile-broad, strange house, one knew not
+      if it were a mountain with forests and caverns, or if it were built up;
+      but the poor mother could not see it; she had wept her eyes out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where shall I find Death, who took away my little child?&rdquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has not come here yet!&rdquo; said the old grave woman, who was appointed to
+      look after Death's great greenhouse! &ldquo;How have you been able to find the
+      way hither? And who has helped you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;OUR LORD has helped me,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;He is merciful, and you will also be
+      so! Where shall I find my little child?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, I know not,&rdquo; said the woman, &ldquo;and you cannot see! Many flowers and
+      trees have withered this night; Death will soon come and plant them over
+      again! You certainly know that every person has his or her life's tree or
+      flower, just as everyone happens to be settled; they look like other
+      plants, but they have pulsations of the heart. Children's hearts can also
+      beat; go after yours, perhaps you may know your child's; but what will you
+      give me if I tell you what you shall do more?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have nothing to give,&rdquo; said the afflicted mother, &ldquo;but I will go to the
+      world's end for you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, I have nothing to do there!&rdquo; said the woman. &ldquo;But you can give me
+      your long black hair; you know yourself that it is fine, and that I like!
+      You shall have my white hair instead, and that's always something!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you demand nothing else?&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;That I will gladly give you!&rdquo; And
+      she gave her her fine black hair, and got the old woman's snow-white hair
+      instead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they went into Death's great greenhouse, where flowers and trees grew
+      strangely into one another. There stood fine hyacinths under glass bells,
+      and there stood strong-stemmed peonies; there grew water plants, some so
+      fresh, others half sick, the water-snakes lay down on them, and black
+      crabs pinched their stalks. There stood beautiful palm-trees, oaks, and
+      plantains; there stood parsley and flowering thyme: every tree and every
+      flower had its name; each of them was a human life, the human frame still
+      lived&mdash;one in China, and another in Greenland&mdash;round about in
+      the world. There were large trees in small pots, so that they stood so
+      stunted in growth, and ready to burst the pots; in other places, there was
+      a little dull flower in rich mould, with moss round about it, and it was
+      so petted and nursed. But the distressed mother bent down over all the
+      smallest plants, and heard within them how the human heart beat; and
+      amongst millions she knew her child's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There it is!&rdquo; cried she, and stretched her hands out over a little blue
+      crocus, that hung quite sickly on one side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't touch the flower!&rdquo; said the old woman. &ldquo;But place yourself here,
+      and when Death comes&mdash;I expect him every moment&mdash;do not let him
+      pluck the flower up, but threaten him that you will do the same with the
+      others. Then he will be afraid! He is responsible for them to OUR LORD,
+      and no one dares to pluck them up before HE gives leave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All at once an icy cold rushed through the great hall, and the blind
+      mother could feel that it was Death that came.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How hast thou been able to find thy way hither?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;How couldst
+      thou come quicker than I?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am a mother,&rdquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Death stretched out his long hand towards the fine little flower, but
+      she held her hands fast around his, so tight, and yet afraid that she
+      should touch one of the leaves. Then Death blew on her hands, and she felt
+      that it was colder than the cold wind, and her hands fell down powerless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou canst not do anything against me!&rdquo; said Death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But OUR LORD can!&rdquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I only do His bidding!&rdquo; said Death. &ldquo;I am His gardener, I take all His
+      flowers and trees, and plant them out in the great garden of Paradise, in
+      the unknown land; but how they grow there, and how it is there I dare not
+      tell thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give me back my child!&rdquo; said the mother, and she wept and prayed. At once
+      she seized hold of two beautiful flowers close by, with each hand, and
+      cried out to Death, &ldquo;I will tear all thy flowers off, for I am in
+      despair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Touch them not!&rdquo; said Death. &ldquo;Thou say'st that thou art so unhappy, and
+      now thou wilt make another mother equally unhappy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Another mother!&rdquo; said the poor woman, and directly let go her hold of
+      both the flowers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, thou hast thine eyes,&rdquo; said Death; &ldquo;I fished them up from the
+      lake, they shone so bright; I knew not they were thine. Take them again,
+      they are now brighter than before; now look down into the deep well close
+      by; I shall tell thee the names of the two flowers thou wouldst have torn
+      up, and thou wilt see their whole future life&mdash;their whole human
+      existence: and see what thou wast about to disturb and destroy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And she looked down into the well; and it was a happiness to see how the
+      one became a blessing to the world, to see how much happiness and joy were
+      felt everywhere. And she saw the other's life, and it was sorrow and
+      distress, horror, and wretchedness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Both of them are God's will!&rdquo; said Death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which of them is Misfortune's flower and which is that of Happiness?&rdquo;
+       asked she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I will not tell thee,&rdquo; said Death; &ldquo;but this thou shalt know from
+      me, that the one flower was thy own child! it was thy child's fate thou
+      saw'st&mdash;thy own child's future life!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the mother screamed with terror, &ldquo;Which of them was my child? Tell it
+      me! Save the innocent! Save my child from all that misery! Rather take it
+      away! Take it into God's kingdom! Forget my tears, forget my prayers, and
+      all that I have done!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not understand thee!&rdquo; said Death. &ldquo;Wilt thou have thy child again,
+      or shall I go with it there, where thou dost not know!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the mother wrung her hands, fell on her knees, and prayed to our
+      Lord: &ldquo;Oh, hear me not when I pray against Thy will, which is the best!
+      hear me not! hear me not!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And she bowed her head down in her lap, and Death took her child and went
+      with it into the unknown land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE FALSE COLLAR
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      There was once a fine gentleman, all of whose moveables were a boot-jack
+      and a hair-comb: but he had the finest false collars in the world; and it
+      is about one of these collars that we are now to hear a story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was so old, that it began to think of marriage; and it happened that it
+      came to be washed in company with a garter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay!&rdquo; said the collar. &ldquo;I never did see anything so slender and so fine,
+      so soft and so neat. May I not ask your name?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I shall not tell you!&rdquo; said the garter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where do you live?&rdquo; asked the collar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the garter was so bashful, so modest, and thought it was a strange
+      question to answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are certainly a girdle,&rdquo; said the collar; &ldquo;that is to say an inside
+      girdle. I see well that you are both for use and ornament, my dear young
+      lady.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will thank you not to speak to me,&rdquo; said the garter. &ldquo;I think I have
+      not given the least occasion for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes! When one is as handsome as you,&rdquo; said the collar, &ldquo;that is occasion
+      enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't come so near me, I beg of you!&rdquo; said the garter. &ldquo;You look so much
+      like those men-folks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am also a fine gentleman,&rdquo; said the collar. &ldquo;I have a bootjack and a
+      hair-comb.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But that was not true, for it was his master who had them: but he boasted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't come so near me,&rdquo; said the garter: &ldquo;I am not accustomed to it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Prude!&rdquo; exclaimed the collar; and then it was taken out of the
+      washing-tub. It was starched, hung over the back of a chair in the
+      sunshine, and was then laid on the ironing-blanket; then came the warm
+      box-iron. &ldquo;Dear lady!&rdquo; said the collar. &ldquo;Dear widow-lady! I feel quite
+      hot. I am quite changed. I begin to unfold myself. You will burn a hole in
+      me. Oh! I offer you my hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rag!&rdquo; said the box-iron; and went proudly over the collar: for she
+      fancied she was a steam-engine, that would go on the railroad and draw the
+      waggons. &ldquo;Rag!&rdquo; said the box-iron.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The collar was a little jagged at the edge, and so came the long scissors
+      to cut off the jagged part. &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; said the collar. &ldquo;You are certainly the
+      first opera dancer. How well you can stretch your legs out! It is the most
+      graceful performance I have ever seen. No one can imitate you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it,&rdquo; said the scissors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You deserve to be a baroness,&rdquo; said the collar. &ldquo;All that I have is a
+      fine gentleman, a boot-jack, and a hair-comb. If I only had the barony!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you seek my hand?&rdquo; said the scissors; for she was angry; and without
+      more ado, she CUT HIM, and then he was condemned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall now be obliged to ask the hair-comb. It is surprising how well
+      you preserve your teeth, Miss,&rdquo; said the collar. &ldquo;Have you never thought
+      of being betrothed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, of course! you may be sure of that,&rdquo; said the hair-comb. &ldquo;I AM
+      betrothed&mdash;to the boot-jack!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Betrothed!&rdquo; exclaimed the collar. Now there was no other to court, and so
+      he despised it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A long time passed away, then the collar came into the rag chest at the
+      paper mill; there was a large company of rags, the fine by themselves, and
+      the coarse by themselves, just as it should be. They all had much to say,
+      but the collar the most; for he was a real boaster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have had such an immense number of sweethearts!&rdquo; said the collar. &ldquo;I
+      could not be in peace! It is true, I was always a fine starched-up
+      gentleman! I had both a boot-jack and a hair-comb, which I never used! You
+      should have seen me then, you should have seen me when I lay down! I shall
+      never forget MY FIRST LOVE&mdash;she was a girdle, so fine, so soft, and
+      so charming, she threw herself into a tub of water for my sake! There was
+      also a widow, who became glowing hot, but I left her standing till she got
+      black again; there was also the first opera dancer, she gave me that cut
+      which I now go with, she was so ferocious! My own hair-comb was in love
+      with me, she lost all her teeth from the heart-ache; yes, I have lived to
+      see much of that sort of thing; but I am extremely sorry for the garter&mdash;I
+      mean the girdle&mdash;that went into the water-tub. I have much on my
+      conscience, I want to become white paper!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And it became so, all the rags were turned into white paper; but the
+      collar came to be just this very piece of white paper we here see, and on
+      which the story is printed; and that was because it boasted so terribly
+      afterwards of what had never happened to it. It would be well for us to
+      beware, that we may not act in a similar manner, for we can never know if
+      we may not, in the course of time, also come into the rag chest, and be
+      made into white paper, and then have our whole life's history printed on
+      it, even the most secret, and be obliged to run about and tell it
+      ourselves, just like this collar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE SHADOW
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It is in the hot lands that the sun burns, sure enough! there the people
+      become quite a mahogany brown, ay, and in the HOTTEST lands they are burnt
+      to Negroes. But now it was only to the HOT lands that a learned man had
+      come from the cold; there he thought that he could run about just as when
+      at home, but he soon found out his mistake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He, and all sensible folks, were obliged to stay within doors&mdash;the
+      window-shutters and doors were closed the whole day; it looked as if the
+      whole house slept, or there was no one at home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The narrow street with the high houses, was built so that the sunshine
+      must fall there from morning till evening&mdash;it was really not to be
+      borne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The learned man from the cold lands&mdash;he was a young man, and seemed
+      to be a clever man&mdash;sat in a glowing oven; it took effect on him, he
+      became quite meagre&mdash;even his shadow shrunk in, for the sun had also
+      an effect on it. It was first towards evening when the sun was down, that
+      they began to freshen up again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the warm lands every window has a balcony, and the people came out on
+      all the balconies in the street&mdash;for one must have air, even if one
+      be accustomed to be mahogany!* It was lively both up and down the street.
+      Tailors, and shoemakers, and all the folks, moved out into the street&mdash;chairs
+      and tables were brought forth&mdash;and candles burnt&mdash;yes, above a
+      thousand lights were burning&mdash;and the one talked and the other sung;
+      and people walked and church-bells rang, and asses went along with a
+      dingle-dingle-dong! for they too had bells on. The street boys were
+      screaming and hooting, and shouting and shooting, with devils and
+      detonating balls&mdash;and there came corpse bearers and hood wearers&mdash;for
+      there were funerals with psalm and hymn&mdash;and then the din of
+      carriages driving and company arriving: yes, it was, in truth, lively
+      enough down in the street. Only in that single house, which stood opposite
+      that in which the learned foreigner lived, it was quite still; and yet
+      some one lived there, for there stood flowers in the balcony&mdash;they
+      grew so well in the sun's heat! and that they could not do unless they
+      were watered&mdash;and some one must water them&mdash;there must be
+      somebody there. The door opposite was also opened late in the evening, but
+      it was dark within, at least in the front room; further in there was heard
+      the sound of music. The learned foreigner thought it quite marvellous, but
+      now&mdash;it might be that he only imagined it&mdash;for he found
+      everything marvellous out there, in the warm lands, if there had only been
+      no sun. The stranger's landlord said that he didn't know who had taken the
+      house opposite, one saw no person about, and as to the music, it appeared
+      to him to be extremely tiresome. &ldquo;It is as if some one sat there, and
+      practised a piece that he could not master&mdash;always the same piece. 'I
+      shall master it!' says he; but yet he cannot master it, however long he
+      plays.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      * The word mahogany can be understood, in Danish, as having two meanings.
+      In general, it means the reddish-brown wood itself; but in jest, it
+      signifies &ldquo;excessively fine,&rdquo; which arose from an anecdote of Nyboder, in
+      Copenhagen, (the seamen's quarter.) A sailor's wife, who was always proud
+      and fine, in her way, came to her neighbor, and complained that she had
+      got a splinter in her finger. &ldquo;What of?&rdquo; asked the neighbor's wife. &ldquo;It is
+      a mahogany splinter,&rdquo; said the other. &ldquo;Mahogany! It cannot be less with
+      you!&rdquo; exclaimed the woman&mdash;and thence the proverb, &ldquo;It is so
+      mahogany!&rdquo;&mdash;(that is, so excessively fine)&mdash;is derived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One night the stranger awoke&mdash;he slept with the doors of the balcony
+      open&mdash;the curtain before it was raised by the wind, and he thought
+      that a strange lustre came from the opposite neighbor's house; all the
+      flowers shone like flames, in the most beautiful colors, and in the midst
+      of the flowers stood a slender, graceful maiden&mdash;it was as if she
+      also shone; the light really hurt his eyes. He now opened them quite wide&mdash;yes,
+      he was quite awake; with one spring he was on the floor; he crept gently
+      behind the curtain, but the maiden was gone; the flowers shone no longer,
+      but there they stood, fresh and blooming as ever; the door was ajar, and,
+      far within, the music sounded so soft and delightful, one could really
+      melt away in sweet thoughts from it. Yet it was like a piece of
+      enchantment. And who lived there? Where was the actual entrance? The whole
+      of the ground-floor was a row of shops, and there people could not always
+      be running through.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening the stranger sat out on the balcony. The light burnt in the
+      room behind him; and thus it was quite natural that his shadow should fall
+      on his opposite neighbor's wall. Yes! there it sat, directly opposite,
+      between the flowers on the balcony; and when the stranger moved, the
+      shadow also moved: for that it always does.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think my shadow is the only living thing one sees over there,&rdquo; said the
+      learned man. &ldquo;See, how nicely it sits between the flowers. The door stands
+      half-open: now the shadow should be cunning, and go into the room, look
+      about, and then come and tell me what it had seen. Come, now! Be useful,
+      and do me a service,&rdquo; said he, in jest. &ldquo;Have the kindness to step in.
+      Now! Art thou going?&rdquo; and then he nodded to the shadow, and the shadow
+      nodded again. &ldquo;Well then, go! But don't stay away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The stranger rose, and his shadow on the opposite neighbor's balcony rose
+      also; the stranger turned round and the shadow also turned round. Yes! if
+      anyone had paid particular attention to it, they would have seen, quite
+      distinctly, that the shadow went in through the half-open balcony-door of
+      their opposite neighbor, just as the stranger went into his own room, and
+      let the long curtain fall down after him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next morning, the learned man went out to drink coffee and read the
+      newspapers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that?&rdquo; said he, as he came out into the sunshine. &ldquo;I have no
+      shadow! So then, it has actually gone last night, and not come again. It
+      is really tiresome!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This annoyed him: not so much because the shadow was gone, but because he
+      knew there was a story about a man without a shadow.* It was known to
+      everybody at home, in the cold lands; and if the learned man now came
+      there and told his story, they would say that he was imitating it, and
+      that he had no need to do. He would, therefore, not talk about it at all;
+      and that was wisely thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      *Peter Schlemihl, the shadowless man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the evening he went out again on the balcony. He had placed the light
+      directly behind him, for he knew that the shadow would always have its
+      master for a screen, but he could not entice it. He made himself little;
+      he made himself great: but no shadow came again. He said, &ldquo;Hem! hem!&rdquo; but
+      it was of no use.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was vexatious; but in the warm lands everything grows so quickly; and
+      after the lapse of eight days he observed, to his great joy, that a new
+      shadow came in the sunshine. In the course of three weeks he had a very
+      fair shadow, which, when he set out for his home in the northern lands,
+      grew more and more in the journey, so that at last it was so long and so
+      large, that it was more than sufficient.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The learned man then came home, and he wrote books about what was true in
+      the world, and about what was good and what was beautiful; and there
+      passed days and years&mdash;yes! many years passed away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening, as he was sitting in his room, there was a gentle knocking at
+      the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come in!&rdquo; said he; but no one came in; so he opened the door, and there
+      stood before him such an extremely lean man, that he felt quite strange.
+      As to the rest, the man was very finely dressed&mdash;he must be a
+      gentleman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whom have I the honor of speaking?&rdquo; asked the learned man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes! I thought as much,&rdquo; said the fine man. &ldquo;I thought you would not know
+      me. I have got so much body. I have even got flesh and clothes. You
+      certainly never thought of seeing me so well off. Do you not know your old
+      shadow? You certainly thought I should never more return. Things have gone
+      on well with me since I was last with you. I have, in all respects, become
+      very well off. Shall I purchase my freedom from service? If so, I can do
+      it&rdquo;; and then he rattled a whole bunch of valuable seals that hung to his
+      watch, and he stuck his hand in the thick gold chain he wore around his
+      neck&mdash;nay! how all his fingers glittered with diamond rings; and then
+      all were pure gems.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay; I cannot recover from my surprise!&rdquo; said the learned man. &ldquo;What is
+      the meaning of all this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something common, is it not,&rdquo; said the shadow. &ldquo;But you yourself do not
+      belong to the common order; and I, as you know well, have from a child
+      followed in your footsteps. As soon as you found I was capable to go out
+      alone in the world, I went my own way. I am in the most brilliant
+      circumstances, but there came a sort of desire over me to see you once
+      more before you die; you will die, I suppose? I also wished to see this
+      land again&mdash;for you know we always love our native land. I know you
+      have got another shadow again; have I anything to pay to it or you? If so,
+      you will oblige me by saying what it is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, is it really thou?&rdquo; said the learned man. &ldquo;It is most remarkable: I
+      never imagined that one's old shadow could come again as a man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me what I have to pay,&rdquo; said the shadow; &ldquo;for I don't like to be in
+      any sort of debt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How canst thou talk so?&rdquo; said the learned man. &ldquo;What debt is there to
+      talk about? Make thyself as free as anyone else. I am extremely glad to
+      hear of thy good fortune: sit down, old friend, and tell me a little how
+      it has gone with thee, and what thou hast seen at our opposite neighbor's
+      there&mdash;in the warm lands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I will tell you all about it,&rdquo; said the shadow, and sat down: &ldquo;but
+      then you must also promise me, that, wherever you may meet me, you will
+      never say to anyone here in the town that I have been your shadow. I
+      intend to get betrothed, for I can provide for more than one family.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be quite at thy ease about that,&rdquo; said the learned man; &ldquo;I shall not say
+      to anyone who thou actually art: here is my hand&mdash;I promise it, and a
+      man's bond is his word.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A word is a shadow,&rdquo; said the shadow, &ldquo;and as such it must speak.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was really quite astonishing how much of a man it was. It was dressed
+      entirely in black, and of the very finest cloth; it had patent leather
+      boots, and a hat that could be folded together, so that it was bare crown
+      and brim; not to speak of what we already know it had&mdash;seals, gold
+      neck-chain, and diamond rings; yes, the shadow was well-dressed, and it
+      was just that which made it quite a man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now I shall tell you my adventures,&rdquo; said the shadow; and then he sat,
+      with the polished boots, as heavily as he could, on the arm of the learned
+      man's new shadow, which lay like a poodle-dog at his feet. Now this was
+      perhaps from arrogance; and the shadow on the ground kept itself so still
+      and quiet, that it might hear all that passed: it wished to know how it
+      could get free, and work its way up, so as to become its own master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know who lived in our opposite neighbor's house?&rdquo; said the shadow.
+      &ldquo;It was the most charming of all beings, it was Poesy! I was there for
+      three weeks, and that has as much effect as if one had lived three
+      thousand years, and read all that was composed and written; that is what I
+      say, and it is right. I have seen everything and I know everything!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poesy!&rdquo; cried the learned man. &ldquo;Yes, yes, she often dwells a recluse in
+      large cities! Poesy! Yes, I have seen her&mdash;a single short moment, but
+      sleep came into my eyes! She stood on the balcony and shone as the Aurora
+      Borealis shines. Go on, go on&mdash;thou wert on the balcony, and went
+      through the doorway, and then&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I was in the antechamber,&rdquo; said the shadow. &ldquo;You always sat and
+      looked over to the antechamber. There was no light; there was a sort of
+      twilight, but the one door stood open directly opposite the other through
+      a long row of rooms and saloons, and there it was lighted up. I should
+      have been completely killed if I had gone over to the maiden; but I was
+      circumspect, I took time to think, and that one must always do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what didst thou then see?&rdquo; asked the learned man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I saw everything, and I shall tell all to you: but&mdash;it is no pride
+      on my part&mdash;as a free man, and with the knowledge I have, not to
+      speak of my position in life, my excellent circumstances&mdash;I certainly
+      wish that you would say YOU* to me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      * It is the custom in Denmark for intimate acquaintances to use the second
+      person singular, &ldquo;Du,&rdquo; (thou) when speaking to each other. When a
+      friendship is formed between men, they generally affirm it, when occasion
+      offers, either in public or private, by drinking to each other and
+      exclaiming, &ldquo;thy health,&rdquo; at the same time striking their glasses
+      together. This is called drinking &ldquo;Duus&rdquo;: they are then, &ldquo;Duus Brodre,&rdquo;
+       (thou brothers) and ever afterwards use the pronoun &ldquo;thou,&rdquo; to each other,
+      it being regarded as more familiar than &ldquo;De,&rdquo; (you). Father and mother,
+      sister and brother say thou to one another&mdash;without regard to age or
+      rank. Master and mistress say thou to their servants the superior to the
+      inferior. But servants and inferiors do not use the same term to their
+      masters, or superiors&mdash;nor is it ever used when speaking to a
+      stranger, or anyone with whom they are but slightly acquainted&mdash;they
+      then say as in English&mdash;you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I beg your pardon,&rdquo; said the learned man; &ldquo;it is an old habit with me.
+      YOU are perfectly right, and I shall remember it; but now you must tell me
+      all YOU saw!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Everything!&rdquo; said the shadow. &ldquo;For I saw everything, and I know
+      everything!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How did it look in the furthest saloon?&rdquo; asked the learned man. &ldquo;Was it
+      there as in the fresh woods? Was it there as in a holy church? Were the
+      saloons like the starlit firmament when we stand on the high mountains?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Everything was there!&rdquo; said the shadow. &ldquo;I did not go quite in, I
+      remained in the foremost room, in the twilight, but I stood there quite
+      well; I saw everything, and I know everything! I have been in the
+      antechamber at the court of Poesy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But WHAT DID you see? Did all the gods of the olden times pass through
+      the large saloons? Did the old heroes combat there? Did sweet children
+      play there, and relate their dreams?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell you I was there, and you can conceive that I saw everything there
+      was to be seen. Had you come over there, you would not have been a man;
+      but I became so! And besides, I learned to know my inward nature, my
+      innate qualities, the relationship I had with Poesy. At the time I was
+      with you, I thought not of that, but always&mdash;you know it well&mdash;when
+      the sun rose, and when the sun went down, I became so strangely great; in
+      the moonlight I was very near being more distinct than yourself; at that
+      time I did not understand my nature; it was revealed to me in the
+      antechamber! I became a man! I came out matured; but you were no longer in
+      the warm lands; as a man I was ashamed to go as I did. I was in want of
+      boots, of clothes, of the whole human varnish that makes a man
+      perceptible. I took my way&mdash;I tell it to you, but you will not put it
+      in any book&mdash;I took my way to the cake woman&mdash;I hid myself
+      behind her; the woman didn't think how much she concealed. I went out
+      first in the evening; I ran about the streets in the moonlight; I made
+      myself long up the walls&mdash;it tickles the back so delightfully! I ran
+      up, and ran down, peeped into the highest windows, into the saloons, and
+      on the roofs, I peeped in where no one could peep, and I saw what no one
+      else saw, what no one else should see! This is, in fact, a base world! I
+      would not be a man if it were not now once accepted and regarded as
+      something to be so! I saw the most unimaginable things with the women,
+      with the men, with parents, and with the sweet, matchless children; I
+      saw,&rdquo; said the shadow, &ldquo;what no human being must know, but what they would
+      all so willingly know&mdash;what is bad in their neighbor. Had I written a
+      newspaper, it would have been read! But I wrote direct to the persons
+      themselves, and there was consternation in all the towns where I came.
+      They were so afraid of me, and yet they were so excessively fond of me.
+      The professors made a professor of me; the tailors gave me new clothes&mdash;I
+      am well furnished; the master of the mint struck new coin for me, and the
+      women said I was so handsome! And so I became the man I am. And I now bid
+      you farewell. Here is my card&mdash;I live on the sunny side of the
+      street, and am always at home in rainy weather!&rdquo; And so away went the
+      shadow. &ldquo;That was most extraordinary!&rdquo; said the learned man. Years and
+      days passed away, then the shadow came again. &ldquo;How goes it?&rdquo; said the
+      shadow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; said the learned man. &ldquo;I write about the true, and the good, and
+      the beautiful, but no one cares to hear such things; I am quite desperate,
+      for I take it so much to heart!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I don't!&rdquo; said the shadow. &ldquo;I become fat, and it is that one wants to
+      become! You do not understand the world. You will become ill by it. You
+      must travel! I shall make a tour this summer; will you go with me? I
+      should like to have a travelling companion! Will you go with me, as
+      shadow? It will be a great pleasure for me to have you with me; I shall
+      pay the travelling expenses!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, this is too much!&rdquo; said the learned man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is just as one takes it!&rdquo; said the shadow. &ldquo;It will do you much good
+      to travel! Will you be my shadow? You shall have everything free on the
+      journey!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, that is too bad!&rdquo; said the learned man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But it is just so with the world!&rdquo; said the shadow, &ldquo;and so it will be!&rdquo;
+       and away it went again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The learned man was not at all in the most enviable state; grief and
+      torment followed him, and what he said about the true, and the good, and
+      the beautiful, was, to most persons, like roses for a cow! He was quite
+      ill at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You really look like a shadow!&rdquo; said his friends to him; and the learned
+      man trembled, for he thought of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must go to a watering-place!&rdquo; said the shadow, who came and visited
+      him. &ldquo;There is nothing else for it! I will take you with me for old
+      acquaintance' sake; I will pay the travelling expenses, and you write the
+      descriptions&mdash;and if they are a little amusing for me on the way! I
+      will go to a watering-place&mdash;my beard does not grow out as it ought&mdash;that
+      is also a sickness&mdash;and one must have a beard! Now you be wise and
+      accept the offer; we shall travel as comrades!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so they travelled; the shadow was master, and the master was the
+      shadow; they drove with each other, they rode and walked together, side by
+      side, before and behind, just as the sun was; the shadow always took care
+      to keep itself in the master's place. Now the learned man didn't think
+      much about that; he was a very kind-hearted man, and particularly mild and
+      friendly, and so he said one day to the shadow: &ldquo;As we have now become
+      companions, and in this way have grown up together from childhood, shall
+      we not drink 'thou' together, it is more familiar?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are right,&rdquo; said the shadow, who was now the proper master. &ldquo;It is
+      said in a very straight-forward and well-meant manner. You, as a learned
+      man, certainly know how strange nature is. Some persons cannot bear to
+      touch grey paper, or they become ill; others shiver in every limb if one
+      rub a pane of glass with a nail: I have just such a feeling on hearing you
+      say thou to me; I feel myself as if pressed to the earth in my first
+      situation with you. You see that it is a feeling; that it is not pride: I
+      cannot allow you to say THOU to me, but I will willingly say THOU to you,
+      so it is half done!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the shadow said THOU to its former master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is rather too bad,&rdquo; thought he, &ldquo;that I must say YOU and he say
+      THOU,&rdquo; but he was now obliged to put up with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they came to a watering-place where there were many strangers, and
+      amongst them was a princess, who was troubled with seeing too well; and
+      that was so alarming!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She directly observed that the stranger who had just come was quite a
+      different sort of person to all the others; &ldquo;He has come here in order to
+      get his beard to grow, they say, but I see the real cause, he cannot cast
+      a shadow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She had become inquisitive; and so she entered into conversation directly
+      with the strange gentleman, on their promenades. As the daughter of a
+      king, she needed not to stand upon trifles, so she said, &ldquo;Your complaint
+      is, that you cannot cast a shadow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your Royal Highness must be improving considerably,&rdquo; said the shadow, &ldquo;I
+      know your complaint is, that you see too clearly, but it has decreased,
+      you are cured. I just happen to have a very unusual shadow! Do you not see
+      that person who always goes with me? Other persons have a common shadow,
+      but I do not like what is common to all. We give our servants finer cloth
+      for their livery than we ourselves use, and so I had my shadow trimmed up
+      into a man: yes, you see I have even given him a shadow. It is somewhat
+      expensive, but I like to have something for myself!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What!&rdquo; thought the princess. &ldquo;Should I really be cured! These baths are
+      the first in the world! In our time water has wonderful powers. But I
+      shall not leave the place, for it now begins to be amusing here. I am
+      extremely fond of that stranger: would that his beard should not grow, for
+      in that case he will leave us!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the evening, the princess and the shadow danced together in the large
+      ball-room. She was light, but he was still lighter; she had never had such
+      a partner in the dance. She told him from what land she came, and he knew
+      that land; he had been there, but then she was not at home; he had peeped
+      in at the window, above and below&mdash;he had seen both the one and the
+      other, and so he could answer the princess, and make insinuations, so that
+      she was quite astonished; he must be the wisest man in the whole world!
+      She felt such respect for what he knew! So that when they again danced
+      together she fell in love with him; and that the shadow could remark, for
+      she almost pierced him through with her eyes. So they danced once more
+      together; and she was about to declare herself, but she was discreet; she
+      thought of her country and kingdom, and of the many persons she would have
+      to reign over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is a wise man,&rdquo; said she to herself&mdash;&ldquo;It is well; and he dances
+      delightfully&mdash;that is also good; but has he solid knowledge? That is
+      just as important! He must be examined.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So she began, by degrees, to question him about the most difficult things
+      she could think of, and which she herself could not have answered; so that
+      the shadow made a strange face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You cannot answer these questions?&rdquo; said the princess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They belong to my childhood's learning,&rdquo; said the shadow. &ldquo;I really
+      believe my shadow, by the door there, can answer them!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your shadow!&rdquo; said the princess. &ldquo;That would indeed be marvellous!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not say for a certainty that he can,&rdquo; said the shadow, &ldquo;but I
+      think so; he has now followed me for so many years, and listened to my
+      conversation&mdash;I should think it possible. But your royal highness
+      will permit me to observe, that he is so proud of passing himself off for
+      a man, that when he is to be in a proper humor&mdash;and he must be so to
+      answer well&mdash;he must be treated quite like a man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! I like that!&rdquo; said the princess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So she went to the learned man by the door, and she spoke to him about the
+      sun and the moon, and about persons out of and in the world, and he
+      answered with wisdom and prudence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a man that must be who has so wise a shadow!&rdquo; thought she. &ldquo;It will
+      be a real blessing to my people and kingdom if I choose him for my consort&mdash;I
+      will do it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They were soon agreed, both the princess and the shadow; but no one was to
+      know about it before she arrived in her own kingdom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one&mdash;not even my shadow!&rdquo; said the shadow, and he had his own
+      thoughts about it!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now they were in the country where the princess reigned when she was at
+      home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen, my good friend,&rdquo; said the shadow to the learned man. &ldquo;I have now
+      become as happy and mighty as anyone can be; I will, therefore, do
+      something particular for thee! Thou shalt always live with me in the
+      palace, drive with me in my royal carriage, and have ten thousand pounds a
+      year; but then thou must submit to be called SHADOW by all and everyone;
+      thou must not say that thou hast ever been a man; and once a year, when I
+      sit on the balcony in the sunshine, thou must lie at my feet, as a shadow
+      shall do! I must tell thee: I am going to marry the king's daughter, and
+      the nuptials are to take place this evening!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, this is going too far!&rdquo; said the learned man. &ldquo;I will not have it; I
+      will not do it! It is to deceive the whole country and the princess too! I
+      will tell everything! That I am a man, and that thou art a shadow&mdash;thou
+      art only dressed up!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no one who will believe it!&rdquo; said the shadow. &ldquo;Be reasonable, or
+      I will call the guard!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go directly to the princess!&rdquo; said the learned man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I will go first!&rdquo; said the shadow. &ldquo;And thou wilt go to prison!&rdquo; and
+      that he was obliged to do&mdash;for the sentinels obeyed him whom they
+      knew the king's daughter was to marry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You tremble!&rdquo; said the princess, as the shadow came into her chamber.
+      &ldquo;Has anything happened? You must not be unwell this evening, now that we
+      are to have our nuptials celebrated.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have lived to see the most cruel thing that anyone can live to see!&rdquo;
+       said the shadow. &ldquo;Only imagine&mdash;yes, it is true, such a poor
+      shadow-skull cannot bear much&mdash;only think, my shadow has become mad;
+      he thinks that he is a man, and that I&mdash;now only think&mdash;that I
+      am his shadow!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is terrible!&rdquo; said the princess; &ldquo;but he is confined, is he not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That he is. I am afraid that he will never recover.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor shadow!&rdquo; said the princess. &ldquo;He is very unfortunate; it would be a
+      real work of charity to deliver him from the little life he has, and, when
+      I think properly over the matter, I am of opinion that it will be
+      necessary to do away with him in all stillness!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is certainly hard,&rdquo; said the shadow, &ldquo;for he was a faithful servant!&rdquo;
+       and then he gave a sort of sigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a noble character!&rdquo; said the princess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole city was illuminated in the evening, and the cannons went off
+      with a bum! bum! and the soldiers presented arms. That was a marriage! The
+      princess and the shadow went out on the balcony to show themselves, and
+      get another hurrah!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The learned man heard nothing of all this&mdash;for they had deprived him
+      of life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Most terribly cold it was; it snowed, and was nearly quite dark, and
+      evening&mdash;the last evening of the year. In this cold and darkness
+      there went along the street a poor little girl, bareheaded, and with naked
+      feet. When she left home she had slippers on, it is true; but what was the
+      good of that? They were very large slippers, which her mother had hitherto
+      worn; so large were they; and the poor little thing lost them as she
+      scuffled away across the street, because of two carriages that rolled by
+      dreadfully fast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One slipper was nowhere to be found; the other had been laid hold of by an
+      urchin, and off he ran with it; he thought it would do capitally for a
+      cradle when he some day or other should have children himself. So the
+      little maiden walked on with her tiny naked feet, that were quite red and
+      blue from cold. She carried a quantity of matches in an old apron, and she
+      held a bundle of them in her hand. Nobody had bought anything of her the
+      whole livelong day; no one had given her a single farthing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She crept along trembling with cold and hunger&mdash;a very picture of
+      sorrow, the poor little thing!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The flakes of snow covered her long fair hair, which fell in beautiful
+      curls around her neck; but of that, of course, she never once now thought.
+      From all the windows the candles were gleaming, and it smelt so
+      deliciously of roast goose, for you know it was New Year's Eve; yes, of
+      that she thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a corner formed by two houses, of which one advanced more than the
+      other, she seated herself down and cowered together. Her little feet she
+      had drawn close up to her, but she grew colder and colder, and to go home
+      she did not venture, for she had not sold any matches and could not bring
+      a farthing of money: from her father she would certainly get blows, and at
+      home it was cold too, for above her she had only the roof, through which
+      the wind whistled, even though the largest cracks were stopped up with
+      straw and rags.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her little hands were almost numbed with cold. Oh! a match might afford
+      her a world of comfort, if she only dared take a single one out of the
+      bundle, draw it against the wall, and warm her fingers by it. She drew one
+      out. &ldquo;Rischt!&rdquo; how it blazed, how it burnt! It was a warm, bright flame,
+      like a candle, as she held her hands over it: it was a wonderful light. It
+      seemed really to the little maiden as though she were sitting before a
+      large iron stove, with burnished brass feet and a brass ornament at top.
+      The fire burned with such blessed influence; it warmed so delightfully.
+      The little girl had already stretched out her feet to warm them too; but&mdash;the
+      small flame went out, the stove vanished: she had only the remains of the
+      burnt-out match in her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She rubbed another against the wall: it burned brightly, and where the
+      light fell on the wall, there the wall became transparent like a veil, so
+      that she could see into the room. On the table was spread a snow-white
+      tablecloth; upon it was a splendid porcelain service, and the roast goose
+      was steaming famously with its stuffing of apple and dried plums. And what
+      was still more capital to behold was, the goose hopped down from the dish,
+      reeled about on the floor with knife and fork in its breast, till it came
+      up to the poor little girl; when&mdash;the match went out and nothing but
+      the thick, cold, damp wall was left behind. She lighted another match. Now
+      there she was sitting under the most magnificent Christmas tree: it was
+      still larger, and more decorated than the one which she had seen through
+      the glass door in the rich merchant's house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thousands of lights were burning on the green branches, and gaily-colored
+      pictures, such as she had seen in the shop-windows, looked down upon her.
+      The little maiden stretched out her hands towards them when&mdash;the
+      match went out. The lights of the Christmas tree rose higher and higher,
+      she saw them now as stars in heaven; one fell down and formed a long trail
+      of fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Someone is just dead!&rdquo; said the little girl; for her old grandmother, the
+      only person who had loved her, and who was now no more, had told her, that
+      when a star falls, a soul ascends to God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She drew another match against the wall: it was again light, and in the
+      lustre there stood the old grandmother, so bright and radiant, so mild,
+      and with such an expression of love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Grandmother!&rdquo; cried the little one. &ldquo;Oh, take me with you! You go away
+      when the match burns out; you vanish like the warm stove, like the
+      delicious roast goose, and like the magnificent Christmas tree!&rdquo; And she
+      rubbed the whole bundle of matches quickly against the wall, for she
+      wanted to be quite sure of keeping her grandmother near her. And the
+      matches gave such a brilliant light that it was brighter than at noon-day:
+      never formerly had the grandmother been so beautiful and so tall. She took
+      the little maiden, on her arm, and both flew in brightness and in joy so
+      high, so very high, and then above was neither cold, nor hunger, nor
+      anxiety&mdash;they were with God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with rosy
+      cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the wall&mdash;frozen to
+      death on the last evening of the old year. Stiff and stark sat the child
+      there with her matches, of which one bundle had been burnt. &ldquo;She wanted to
+      warm herself,&rdquo; people said. No one had the slightest suspicion of what
+      beautiful things she had seen; no one even dreamed of the splendor in
+      which, with her grandmother she had entered on the joys of a new year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE DREAM OF LITTLE TUK
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Ah! yes, that was little Tuk: in reality his name was not Tuk, but that
+      was what he called himself before he could speak plain: he meant it for
+      Charles, and it is all well enough if one does but know it. He had now to
+      take care of his little sister Augusta, who was much younger than himself,
+      and he was, besides, to learn his lesson at the same time; but these two
+      things would not do together at all. There sat the poor little fellow,
+      with his sister on his lap, and he sang to her all the songs he knew; and
+      he glanced the while from time to time into the geography-book that lay
+      open before him. By the next morning he was to have learnt all the towns
+      in Zealand by heart, and to know about them all that is possible to be
+      known.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His mother now came home, for she had been out, and took little Augusta on
+      her arm. Tuk ran quickly to the window, and read so eagerly that he pretty
+      nearly read his eyes out; for it got darker and darker, but his mother had
+      no money to buy a candle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There goes the old washerwoman over the way,&rdquo; said his mother, as she
+      looked out of the window. &ldquo;The poor woman can hardly drag herself along,
+      and she must now drag the pail home from the fountain. Be a good boy,
+      Tukey, and run across and help the old woman, won't you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Tuk ran over quickly and helped her; but when he came back again into
+      the room it was quite dark, and as to a light, there was no thought of
+      such a thing. He was now to go to bed; that was an old turn-up bedstead;
+      in it he lay and thought about his geography lesson, and of Zealand, and
+      of all that his master had told him. He ought, to be sure, to have read
+      over his lesson again, but that, you know, he could not do. He therefore
+      put his geography-book under his pillow, because he had heard that was a
+      very good thing to do when one wants to learn one's lesson; but one
+      cannot, however, rely upon it entirely. Well, there he lay, and thought
+      and thought, and all at once it was just as if someone kissed his eyes and
+      mouth: he slept, and yet he did not sleep; it was as though the old
+      washerwoman gazed on him with her mild eyes and said, &ldquo;It were a great sin
+      if you were not to know your lesson tomorrow morning. You have aided me, I
+      therefore will now help you; and the loving God will do so at all times.&rdquo;
+       And all of a sudden the book under Tuk's pillow began scraping and
+      scratching.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kickery-ki! kluk! kluk! kluk!&rdquo;&mdash;that was an old hen who came
+      creeping along, and she was from Kjoge. &ldquo;I am a Kjoger hen,&rdquo; [*] said she,
+      and then she related how many inhabitants there were there, and about the
+      battle that had taken place, and which, after all, was hardly worth
+      talking about.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Kjoge, a town in the bay of Kjoge. &ldquo;To see the Kjoge
+     hens,&rdquo; is an expression similar to &ldquo;showing a child London,&rdquo;
+      which is said to be done by taking his head in both bands,
+     and so lifting him off the ground. At the invasion of the
+     English in 1807, an encounter of a no very glorious nature
+     took place between the British troops and the undisciplined
+     Danish militia.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kribledy, krabledy&mdash;plump!&rdquo; down fell somebody: it was a wooden
+      bird, the popinjay used at the shooting-matches at Prastoe. Now he said
+      that there were just as many inhabitants as he had nails in his body; and
+      he was very proud. &ldquo;Thorwaldsen lived almost next door to me.* Plump! Here
+      I lie capitally.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      * Prastoe, a still smaller town than Kjoge. Some hundred paces from it
+      lies the manor-house Ny Soe, where Thorwaldsen, the famed sculptor,
+      generally sojourned during his stay in Denmark, and where he called many
+      of his immortal works into existence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But little Tuk was no longer lying down: all at once he was on horseback.
+      On he went at full gallop, still galloping on and on. A knight with a
+      gleaming plume, and most magnificently dressed, held him before him on the
+      horse, and thus they rode through the wood to the old town of Bordingborg,
+      and that was a large and very lively town. High towers rose from the
+      castle of the king, and the brightness of many candles streamed from all
+      the windows; within was dance and song, and King Waldemar and the young,
+      richly-attired maids of honor danced together. The morn now came; and as
+      soon as the sun appeared, the whole town and the king's palace crumbled
+      together, and one tower after the other; and at last only a single one
+      remained standing where the castle had been before,* and the town was so
+      small and poor, and the school boys came along with their books under
+      their arms, and said, &ldquo;2000 inhabitants!&rdquo; but that was not true, for there
+      were not so many.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      *Bordingborg, in the reign of King Waldemar, a considerable place, now an
+      unimportant little town. One solitary tower only, and some remains of a
+      wall, show where the castle once stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And little Tukey lay in his bed: it seemed to him as if he dreamed, and
+      yet as if he were not dreaming; however, somebody was close beside him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Little Tukey! Little Tukey!&rdquo; cried someone near. It was a seaman, quite a
+      little personage, so little as if he were a midshipman; but a midshipman
+      it was not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Many remembrances from Corsor.* That is a town that is just rising into
+      importance; a lively town that has steam-boats and stagecoaches: formerly
+      people called it ugly, but that is no longer true. I lie on the sea,&rdquo; said
+      Corsor; &ldquo;I have high roads and gardens, and I have given birth to a poet
+      who was witty and amusing, which all poets are not. I once intended to
+      equip a ship that was to sail all round the earth; but I did not do it,
+      although I could have done so: and then, too, I smell so deliciously, for
+      close before the gate bloom the most beautiful roses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      *Corsor, on the Great Belt, called, formerly, before the introduction of
+      steam-vessels, when travellers were often obliged to wait a long time for
+      a favorable wind, &ldquo;the most tiresome of towns.&rdquo; The poet Baggesen was born
+      here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Little Tuk looked, and all was red and green before his eyes; but as soon
+      as the confusion of colors was somewhat over, all of a sudden there
+      appeared a wooded slope close to the bay, and high up above stood a
+      magnificent old church, with two high pointed towers. From out the
+      hill-side spouted fountains in thick streams of water, so that there was a
+      continual splashing; and close beside them sat an old king with a golden
+      crown upon his white head: that was King Hroar, near the fountains, close
+      to the town of Roeskilde, as it is now called. And up the slope into the
+      old church went all the kings and queens of Denmark, hand in hand, all
+      with their golden crowns; and the organ played and the fountains rustled.
+      Little Tuk saw all, heard all. &ldquo;Do not forget the diet,&rdquo; said King Hroar.*
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      *Roeskilde, once the capital of Denmark. The town takes its name from King
+      Hroar, and the many fountains in the neighborhood. In the beautiful
+      cathedral the greater number of the kings and queens of Denmark are
+      interred. In Roeskilde, too, the members of the Danish Diet assemble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again all suddenly disappeared. Yes, and whither? It seemed to him just as
+      if one turned over a leaf in a book. And now stood there an old
+      peasant-woman, who came from Soroe,* where grass grows in the
+      market-place. She had an old grey linen apron hanging over her head and
+      back: it was so wet, it certainly must have been raining. &ldquo;Yes, that it
+      has,&rdquo; said she; and she now related many pretty things out of Holberg's
+      comedies, and about Waldemar and Absalon; but all at once she cowered
+      together, and her head began shaking backwards and forwards, and she
+      looked as she were going to make a spring. &ldquo;Croak! croak!&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;It
+      is wet, it is wet; there is such a pleasant deathlike stillness in Sorbe!&rdquo;
+       She was now suddenly a frog, &ldquo;Croak&rdquo;; and now she was an old woman. &ldquo;One
+      must dress according to the weather,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;It is wet; it is wet. My
+      town is just like a bottle; and one gets in by the neck, and by the neck
+      one must get out again! In former times I had the finest fish, and now I
+      have fresh rosy-cheeked boys at the bottom of the bottle, who learn
+      wisdom, Hebrew, Greek&mdash;Croak!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      * Sorbe, a very quiet little town, beautifully situated, surrounded by
+      woods and lakes. Holberg, Denmark's Moliere, founded here an academy for
+      the sons of the nobles. The poets Hauch and Ingemann were appointed
+      professors here. The latter lives there still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When she spoke it sounded just like the noise of frogs, or as if one
+      walked with great boots over a moor; always the same tone, so uniform and
+      so tiring that little Tuk fell into a good sound sleep, which, by the bye,
+      could not do him any harm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But even in this sleep there came a dream, or whatever else it was: his
+      little sister Augusta, she with the blue eyes and the fair curling hair,
+      was suddenly a tall, beautiful girl, and without having wings was yet able
+      to fly; and she now flew over Zealand&mdash;over the green woods and the
+      blue lakes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you hear the cock crow, Tukey? Cock-a-doodle-doo! The cocks are flying
+      up from Kjoge! You will have a farm-yard, so large, oh! so very large! You
+      will suffer neither hunger nor thirst! You will get on in the world! You
+      will be a rich and happy man! Your house will exalt itself like King
+      Waldemar's tower, and will be richly decorated with marble statues, like
+      that at Prastoe. You understand what I mean. Your name shall circulate
+      with renown all round the earth, like unto the ship that was to have
+      sailed from Corsor; and in Roeskilde&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not forget the diet!&rdquo; said King Hroar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you will speak well and wisely, little Tukey; and when at last you
+      sink into your grave, you shall sleep as quietly&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As if I lay in Soroe,&rdquo; said Tuk, awaking. It was bright day, and he was
+      now quite unable to call to mind his dream; that, however, was not at all
+      necessary, for one may not know what the future will bring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And out of bed he jumped, and read in his book, and now all at once he
+      knew his whole lesson. And the old washerwoman popped her head in at the
+      door, nodded to him friendly, and said, &ldquo;Thanks, many thanks, my good
+      child, for your help! May the good ever-loving God fulfil your loveliest
+      dream!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Little Tukey did not at all know what he had dreamed, but the loving God
+      knew it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE NAUGHTY BOY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Along time ago, there lived an old poet, a thoroughly kind old poet. As he
+      was sitting one evening in his room, a dreadful storm arose without, and
+      the rain streamed down from heaven; but the old poet sat warm and
+      comfortable in his chimney-corner, where the fire blazed and the roasting
+      apple hissed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those who have not a roof over their heads will be wetted to the skin,&rdquo;
+       said the good old poet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh let me in! Let me in! I am cold, and I'm so wet!&rdquo; exclaimed suddenly a
+      child that stood crying at the door and knocking for admittance, while the
+      rain poured down, and the wind made all the windows rattle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor thing!&rdquo; said the old poet, as he went to open the door. There stood
+      a little boy, quite naked, and the water ran down from his long golden
+      hair; he trembled with cold, and had he not come into a warm room he would
+      most certainly have perished in the frightful tempest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor child!&rdquo; said the old poet, as he took the boy by the hand. &ldquo;Come in,
+      come in, and I will soon restore thee! Thou shalt have wine and roasted
+      apples, for thou art verily a charming child!&rdquo; And the boy was so really.
+      His eyes were like two bright stars; and although the water trickled down
+      his hair, it waved in beautiful curls. He looked exactly like a little
+      angel, but he was so pale, and his whole body trembled with cold. He had a
+      nice little bow in his hand, but it was quite spoiled by the rain, and the
+      tints of his many-colored arrows ran one into the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old poet seated himself beside his hearth, and took the little fellow
+      on his lap; he squeezed the water out of his dripping hair, warmed his
+      hands between his own, and boiled for him some sweet wine. Then the boy
+      recovered, his cheeks again grew rosy, he jumped down from the lap where
+      he was sitting, and danced round the kind old poet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a merry fellow,&rdquo; said the old man. &ldquo;What's your name?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name is Cupid,&rdquo; answered the boy. &ldquo;Don't you know me? There lies my
+      bow; it shoots well, I can assure you! Look, the weather is now clearing
+      up, and the moon is shining clear again through the window.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, your bow is quite spoiled,&rdquo; said the old poet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That were sad indeed,&rdquo; said the boy, and he took the bow in his hand and
+      examined it on every side. &ldquo;Oh, it is dry again, and is not hurt at all;
+      the string is quite tight. I will try it directly.&rdquo; And he bent his bow,
+      took aim, and shot an arrow at the old poet, right into his heart. &ldquo;You
+      see now that my bow was not spoiled,&rdquo; said he laughing; and away he ran.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The naughty boy, to shoot the old poet in that way; he who had taken him
+      into his warm room, who had treated him so kindly, and who had given him
+      warm wine and the very best apples!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The poor poet lay on the earth and wept, for the arrow had really flown
+      into his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fie!&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;How naughty a boy Cupid is! I will tell all children
+      about him, that they may take care and not play with him, for he will only
+      cause them sorrow and many a heartache.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And all good children to whom he related this story, took great heed of
+      this naughty Cupid; but he made fools of them still, for he is
+      astonishingly cunning. When the university students come from the
+      lectures, he runs beside them in a black coat, and with a book under his
+      arm. It is quite impossible for them to know him, and they walk along with
+      him arm in arm, as if he, too, were a student like themselves; and then,
+      unperceived, he thrusts an arrow to their bosom. When the young maidens
+      come from being examined by the clergyman, or go to church to be
+      confirmed, there he is again close behind them. Yes, he is forever
+      following people. At the play, he sits in the great chandelier and burns
+      in bright flames, so that people think it is really a flame, but they soon
+      discover it is something else. He roves about in the garden of the palace
+      and upon the ramparts: yes, once he even shot your father and mother right
+      in the heart. Ask them only and you will hear what they'll tell you. Oh,
+      he is a naughty boy, that Cupid; you must never have anything to do with
+      him. He is forever running after everybody. Only think, he shot an arrow
+      once at your old grandmother! But that is a long time ago, and it is all
+      past now; however, a thing of that sort she never forgets. Fie, naughty
+      Cupid! But now you know him, and you know, too, how ill-behaved he is!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE RED SHOES
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      There was once a little girl who was very pretty and delicate, but in
+      summer she was forced to run about with bare feet, she was so poor, and in
+      winter wear very large wooden shoes, which made her little insteps quite
+      red, and that looked so dangerous!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the middle of the village lived old Dame Shoemaker; she sat and sewed
+      together, as well as she could, a little pair of shoes out of old red
+      strips of cloth; they were very clumsy, but it was a kind thought. They
+      were meant for the little girl. The little girl was called Karen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the very day her mother was buried, Karen received the red shoes, and
+      wore them for the first time. They were certainly not intended for
+      mourning, but she had no others, and with stockingless feet she followed
+      the poor straw coffin in them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly a large old carriage drove up, and a large old lady sat in it:
+      she looked at the little girl, felt compassion for her, and then said to
+      the clergyman:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here, give me the little girl. I will adopt her!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Karen believed all this happened on account of the red shoes, but the
+      old lady thought they were horrible, and they were burnt. But Karen
+      herself was cleanly and nicely dressed; she must learn to read and sew;
+      and people said she was a nice little thing, but the looking-glass said:
+      &ldquo;Thou art more than nice, thou art beautiful!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the queen once travelled through the land, and she had her little
+      daughter with her. And this little daughter was a princess, and people
+      streamed to the castle, and Karen was there also, and the little princess
+      stood in her fine white dress, in a window, and let herself be stared at;
+      she had neither a train nor a golden crown, but splendid red morocco
+      shoes. They were certainly far handsomer than those Dame Shoemaker had
+      made for little Karen. Nothing in the world can be compared with red
+      shoes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Karen was old enough to be confirmed; she had new clothes and was to
+      have new shoes also. The rich shoemaker in the city took the measure of
+      her little foot. This took place at his house, in his room; where stood
+      large glass-cases, filled with elegant shoes and brilliant boots. All this
+      looked charming, but the old lady could not see well, and so had no
+      pleasure in them. In the midst of the shoes stood a pair of red ones, just
+      like those the princess had worn. How beautiful they were! The shoemaker
+      said also they had been made for the child of a count, but had not fitted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That must be patent leather!&rdquo; said the old lady. &ldquo;They shine so!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, they shine!&rdquo; said Karen, and they fitted, and were bought, but the
+      old lady knew nothing about their being red, else she would never have
+      allowed Karen to have gone in red shoes to be confirmed. Yet such was the
+      case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everybody looked at her feet; and when she stepped through the chancel
+      door on the church pavement, it seemed to her as if the old figures on the
+      tombs, those portraits of old preachers and preachers' wives, with stiff
+      ruffs, and long black dresses, fixed their eyes on her red shoes. And she
+      thought only of them as the clergyman laid his hand upon her head, and
+      spoke of the holy baptism, of the covenant with God, and how she should be
+      now a matured Christian; and the organ pealed so solemnly; the sweet
+      children's voices sang, and the old music-directors sang, but Karen only
+      thought of her red shoes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the afternoon, the old lady heard from everyone that the shoes had been
+      red, and she said that it was very wrong of Karen, that it was not at all
+      becoming, and that in future Karen should only go in black shoes to
+      church, even when she should be older.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next Sunday there was the sacrament, and Karen looked at the black
+      shoes, looked at the red ones&mdash;looked at them again, and put on the
+      red shoes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun shone gloriously; Karen and the old lady walked along the path
+      through the corn; it was rather dusty there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the church door stood an old soldier with a crutch, and with a
+      wonderfully long beard, which was more red than white, and he bowed to the
+      ground, and asked the old lady whether he might dust her shoes. And Karen
+      stretched out her little foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See, what beautiful dancing shoes!&rdquo; said the soldier. &ldquo;Sit firm when you
+      dance&rdquo;; and he put his hand out towards the soles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the old lady gave the old soldier alms, and went into the church with
+      Karen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And all the people in the church looked at Karen's red shoes, and all the
+      pictures, and as Karen knelt before the altar, and raised the cup to her
+      lips, she only thought of the red shoes, and they seemed to swim in it;
+      and she forgot to sing her psalm, and she forgot to pray, &ldquo;Our Father in
+      Heaven!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now all the people went out of church, and the old lady got into her
+      carriage. Karen raised her foot to get in after her, when the old soldier
+      said,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look, what beautiful dancing shoes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Karen could not help dancing a step or two, and when she began her
+      feet continued to dance; it was just as though the shoes had power over
+      them. She danced round the church corner, she could not leave off; the
+      coachman was obliged to run after and catch hold of her, and he lifted her
+      in the carriage, but her feet continued to dance so that she trod on the
+      old lady dreadfully. At length she took the shoes off, and then her legs
+      had peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shoes were placed in a closet at home, but Karen could not avoid
+      looking at them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the old lady was sick, and it was said she could not recover. She must
+      be nursed and waited upon, and there was no one whose duty it was so much
+      as Karen's. But there was a great ball in the city, to which Karen was
+      invited. She looked at the old lady, who could not recover, she looked at
+      the red shoes, and she thought there could be no sin in it; she put on the
+      red shoes, she might do that also, she thought. But then she went to the
+      ball and began to dance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When she wanted to dance to the right, the shoes would dance to the left,
+      and when she wanted to dance up the room, the shoes danced back again,
+      down the steps, into the street, and out of the city gate. She danced, and
+      was forced to dance straight out into the gloomy wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then it was suddenly light up among the trees, and she fancied it must be
+      the moon, for there was a face; but it was the old soldier with the red
+      beard; he sat there, nodded his head, and said, &ldquo;Look, what beautiful
+      dancing shoes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she was terrified, and wanted to fling off the red shoes, but they
+      clung fast; and she pulled down her stockings, but the shoes seemed to
+      have grown to her feet. And she danced, and must dance, over fields and
+      meadows, in rain and sunshine, by night and day; but at night it was the
+      most fearful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She danced over the churchyard, but the dead did not dance&mdash;they had
+      something better to do than to dance. She wished to seat herself on a poor
+      man's grave, where the bitter tansy grew; but for her there was neither
+      peace nor rest; and when she danced towards the open church door, she saw
+      an angel standing there. He wore long, white garments; he had wings which
+      reached from his shoulders to the earth; his countenance was severe and
+      grave; and in his hand he held a sword, broad and glittering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dance shalt thou!&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Dance in thy red shoes till thou art pale
+      and cold! Till thy skin shrivels up and thou art a skeleton! Dance shalt
+      thou from door to door, and where proud, vain children dwell, thou shalt
+      knock, that they may hear thee and tremble! Dance shalt thou&mdash;!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mercy!&rdquo; cried Karen. But she did not hear the angel's reply, for the
+      shoes carried her through the gate into the fields, across roads and
+      bridges, and she must keep ever dancing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One morning she danced past a door which she well knew. Within sounded a
+      psalm; a coffin, decked with flowers, was borne forth. Then she knew that
+      the old lady was dead, and felt that she was abandoned by all, and
+      condemned by the angel of God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She danced, and she was forced to dance through the gloomy night. The
+      shoes carried her over stack and stone; she was torn till she bled; she
+      danced over the heath till she came to a little house. Here, she knew,
+      dwelt the executioner; and she tapped with her fingers at the window, and
+      said, &ldquo;Come out! Come out! I cannot come in, for I am forced to dance!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the executioner said, &ldquo;Thou dost not know who I am, I fancy? I strike
+      bad people's heads off; and I hear that my axe rings!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't strike my head off!&rdquo; said Karen. &ldquo;Then I can't repent of my sins!
+      But strike off my feet in the red shoes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And then she confessed her entire sin, and the executioner struck off her
+      feet with the red shoes, but the shoes danced away with the little feet
+      across the field into the deep wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And he carved out little wooden feet for her, and crutches, taught her the
+      psalm criminals always sing; and she kissed the hand which had wielded the
+      axe, and went over the heath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now I have suffered enough for the red shoes!&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;Now I will go
+      into the church that people may see me!&rdquo; And she hastened towards the
+      church door: but when she was near it, the red shoes danced before her,
+      and she was terrified, and turned round. The whole week she was unhappy,
+      and wept many bitter tears; but when Sunday returned, she said, &ldquo;Well, now
+      I have suffered and struggled enough! I really believe I am as good as
+      many a one who sits in the church, and holds her head so high!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And away she went boldly; but she had not got farther than the churchyard
+      gate before she saw the red shoes dancing before her; and she was
+      frightened, and turned back, and repented of her sin from her heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And she went to the parsonage, and begged that they would take her into
+      service; she would be very industrious, she said, and would do everything
+      she could; she did not care about the wages, only she wished to have a
+      home, and be with good people. And the clergyman's wife was sorry for her
+      and took her into service; and she was industrious and thoughtful. She sat
+      still and listened when the clergyman read the Bible in the evenings. All
+      the children thought a great deal of her; but when they spoke of dress,
+      and grandeur, and beauty, she shook her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The following Sunday, when the family was going to church, they asked her
+      whether she would not go with them; but she glanced sorrowfully, with
+      tears in her eyes, at her crutches. The family went to hear the word of
+      God; but she went alone into her little chamber; there was only room for a
+      bed and chair to stand in it; and here she sat down with her Prayer-Book;
+      and whilst she read with a pious mind, the wind bore the strains of the
+      organ towards her, and she raised her tearful countenance, and said, &ldquo;O
+      God, help me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the sun shone so clearly, and straight before her stood the angel of
+      God in white garments, the same she had seen that night at the church
+      door; but he no longer carried the sharp sword, but in its stead a
+      splendid green spray, full of roses. And he touched the ceiling with the
+      spray, and the ceiling rose so high, and where he had touched it there
+      gleamed a golden star. And he touched the walls, and they widened out, and
+      she saw the organ which was playing; she saw the old pictures of the
+      preachers and the preachers' wives. The congregation sat in cushioned
+      seats, and sang out of their Prayer-Books. For the church itself had come
+      to the poor girl in her narrow chamber, or else she had come into the
+      church. She sat in the pew with the clergyman's family, and when they had
+      ended the psalm and looked up, they nodded and said, &ldquo;It is right that
+      thou art come!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was through mercy!&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the organ pealed, and the children's voices in the choir sounded so
+      sweet and soft! The clear sunshine streamed so warmly through the window
+      into the pew where Karen sat! Her heart was so full of sunshine, peace,
+      and joy, that it broke. Her soul flew on the sunshine to God, and there no
+      one asked after the RED SHOES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
diff --git a/1597.txt b/1597.txt
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+Project Gutenberg's Andersen's Fairy Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Andersen's Fairy Tales
+
+Author: Hans Christian Andersen
+
+Posting Date: October 10, 2008 [EBook #1597]
+Release Date: January, 1999
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Dianne Bean
+
+
+
+
+
+ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
+
+By Hans Christian Andersen
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+     The Emperor's New Clothes
+     The Swineherd
+     The Real Princess
+     The Shoes of Fortune
+     The Fir Tree
+     The Snow Queen
+     The Leap-Frog
+     The Elderbush
+     The Bell
+     The Old House
+     The Happy Family
+     The Story of a Mother
+     The False Collar
+     The Shadow
+     The Little Match Girl
+     The Dream of Little Tuk
+     The Naughty Boy
+     The Red Shoes
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES
+
+Many years ago, there was an Emperor, who was so excessively fond of
+new clothes, that he spent all his money in dress. He did not trouble
+himself in the least about his soldiers; nor did he care to go either to
+the theatre or the chase, except for the opportunities then afforded him
+for displaying his new clothes. He had a different suit for each hour of
+the day; and as of any other king or emperor, one is accustomed to say,
+"he is sitting in council," it was always said of him, "The Emperor is
+sitting in his wardrobe."
+
+Time passed merrily in the large town which was his capital; strangers
+arrived every day at the court. One day, two rogues, calling themselves
+weavers, made their appearance. They gave out that they knew how to
+weave stuffs of the most beautiful colors and elaborate patterns, the
+clothes manufactured from which should have the wonderful property of
+remaining invisible to everyone who was unfit for the office he held, or
+who was extraordinarily simple in character.
+
+"These must, indeed, be splendid clothes!" thought the Emperor. "Had I
+such a suit, I might at once find out what men in my realms are unfit
+for their office, and also be able to distinguish the wise from the
+foolish! This stuff must be woven for me immediately." And he caused
+large sums of money to be given to both the weavers in order that they
+might begin their work directly.
+
+So the two pretended weavers set up two looms, and affected to work very
+busily, though in reality they did nothing at all. They asked for the
+most delicate silk and the purest gold thread; put both into their own
+knapsacks; and then continued their pretended work at the empty looms
+until late at night.
+
+"I should like to know how the weavers are getting on with my cloth,"
+said the Emperor to himself, after some little time had elapsed; he was,
+however, rather embarrassed, when he remembered that a simpleton, or
+one unfit for his office, would be unable to see the manufacture. To be
+sure, he thought he had nothing to risk in his own person; but yet, he
+would prefer sending somebody else, to bring him intelligence about the
+weavers, and their work, before he troubled himself in the affair. All
+the people throughout the city had heard of the wonderful property the
+cloth was to possess; and all were anxious to learn how wise, or how
+ignorant, their neighbors might prove to be.
+
+"I will send my faithful old minister to the weavers," said the Emperor
+at last, after some deliberation, "he will be best able to see how the
+cloth looks; for he is a man of sense, and no one can be more suitable
+for his office than he is."
+
+So the faithful old minister went into the hall, where the knaves were
+working with all their might, at their empty looms. "What can be the
+meaning of this?" thought the old man, opening his eyes very wide. "I
+cannot discover the least bit of thread on the looms." However, he did
+not express his thoughts aloud.
+
+The impostors requested him very courteously to be so good as to come
+nearer their looms; and then asked him whether the design pleased
+him, and whether the colors were not very beautiful; at the same time
+pointing to the empty frames. The poor old minister looked and looked,
+he could not discover anything on the looms, for a very good reason,
+viz: there was nothing there. "What!" thought he again. "Is it possible
+that I am a simpleton? I have never thought so myself; and no one must
+know it now if I am so. Can it be, that I am unfit for my office? No,
+that must not be said either. I will never confess that I could not see
+the stuff."
+
+"Well, Sir Minister!" said one of the knaves, still pretending to work.
+"You do not say whether the stuff pleases you."
+
+"Oh, it is excellent!" replied the old minister, looking at the loom
+through his spectacles. "This pattern, and the colors, yes, I will tell
+the Emperor without delay, how very beautiful I think them."
+
+"We shall be much obliged to you," said the impostors, and then they
+named the different colors and described the pattern of the pretended
+stuff. The old minister listened attentively to their words, in order
+that he might repeat them to the Emperor; and then the knaves asked for
+more silk and gold, saying that it was necessary to complete what
+they had begun. However, they put all that was given them into their
+knapsacks; and continued to work with as much apparent diligence as
+before at their empty looms.
+
+The Emperor now sent another officer of his court to see how the men
+were getting on, and to ascertain whether the cloth would soon be
+ready. It was just the same with this gentleman as with the minister;
+he surveyed the looms on all sides, but could see nothing at all but the
+empty frames.
+
+"Does not the stuff appear as beautiful to you, as it did to my lord the
+minister?" asked the impostors of the Emperor's second ambassador; at
+the same time making the same gestures as before, and talking of the
+design and colors which were not there.
+
+"I certainly am not stupid!" thought the messenger. "It must be, that I
+am not fit for my good, profitable office! That is very odd; however, no
+one shall know anything about it." And accordingly he praised the stuff
+he could not see, and declared that he was delighted with both colors
+and patterns. "Indeed, please your Imperial Majesty," said he to his
+sovereign when he returned, "the cloth which the weavers are preparing
+is extraordinarily magnificent."
+
+The whole city was talking of the splendid cloth which the Emperor had
+ordered to be woven at his own expense.
+
+And now the Emperor himself wished to see the costly manufacture, while
+it was still in the loom. Accompanied by a select number of officers of
+the court, among whom were the two honest men who had already admired
+the cloth, he went to the crafty impostors, who, as soon as they were
+aware of the Emperor's approach, went on working more diligently than
+ever; although they still did not pass a single thread through the
+looms.
+
+"Is not the work absolutely magnificent?" said the two officers of the
+crown, already mentioned. "If your Majesty will only be pleased to look
+at it! What a splendid design! What glorious colors!" and at the same
+time they pointed to the empty frames; for they imagined that everyone
+else could see this exquisite piece of workmanship.
+
+"How is this?" said the Emperor to himself. "I can see nothing! This
+is indeed a terrible affair! Am I a simpleton, or am I unfit to be an
+Emperor? That would be the worst thing that could happen--Oh! the cloth
+is charming," said he, aloud. "It has my complete approbation." And he
+smiled most graciously, and looked closely at the empty looms; for on no
+account would he say that he could not see what two of the officers of
+his court had praised so much. All his retinue now strained their eyes,
+hoping to discover something on the looms, but they could see no more
+than the others; nevertheless, they all exclaimed, "Oh, how beautiful!"
+and advised his majesty to have some new clothes made from this splendid
+material, for the approaching procession. "Magnificent! Charming!
+Excellent!" resounded on all sides; and everyone was uncommonly gay. The
+Emperor shared in the general satisfaction; and presented the impostors
+with the riband of an order of knighthood, to be worn in their
+button-holes, and the title of "Gentlemen Weavers."
+
+The rogues sat up the whole of the night before the day on which the
+procession was to take place, and had sixteen lights burning, so that
+everyone might see how anxious they were to finish the Emperor's new
+suit. They pretended to roll the cloth off the looms; cut the air with
+their scissors; and sewed with needles without any thread in them.
+"See!" cried they, at last. "The Emperor's new clothes are ready!"
+
+And now the Emperor, with all the grandees of his court, came to the
+weavers; and the rogues raised their arms, as if in the act of holding
+something up, saying, "Here are your Majesty's trousers! Here is the
+scarf! Here is the mantle! The whole suit is as light as a cobweb;
+one might fancy one has nothing at all on, when dressed in it; that,
+however, is the great virtue of this delicate cloth."
+
+"Yes indeed!" said all the courtiers, although not one of them could see
+anything of this exquisite manufacture.
+
+"If your Imperial Majesty will be graciously pleased to take off your
+clothes, we will fit on the new suit, in front of the looking glass."
+
+The Emperor was accordingly undressed, and the rogues pretended to
+array him in his new suit; the Emperor turning round, from side to side,
+before the looking glass.
+
+"How splendid his Majesty looks in his new clothes, and how well they
+fit!" everyone cried out. "What a design! What colors! These are indeed
+royal robes!"
+
+"The canopy which is to be borne over your Majesty, in the procession,
+is waiting," announced the chief master of the ceremonies.
+
+"I am quite ready," answered the Emperor. "Do my new clothes fit well?"
+asked he, turning himself round again before the looking glass, in order
+that he might appear to be examining his handsome suit.
+
+The lords of the bedchamber, who were to carry his Majesty's train felt
+about on the ground, as if they were lifting up the ends of the mantle;
+and pretended to be carrying something; for they would by no means
+betray anything like simplicity, or unfitness for their office.
+
+So now the Emperor walked under his high canopy in the midst of the
+procession, through the streets of his capital; and all the people
+standing by, and those at the windows, cried out, "Oh! How beautiful
+are our Emperor's new clothes! What a magnificent train there is to
+the mantle; and how gracefully the scarf hangs!" in short, no one would
+allow that he could not see these much-admired clothes; because, in
+doing so, he would have declared himself either a simpleton or unfit
+for his office. Certainly, none of the Emperor's various suits, had ever
+made so great an impression, as these invisible ones.
+
+"But the Emperor has nothing at all on!" said a little child.
+
+"Listen to the voice of innocence!" exclaimed his father; and what the
+child had said was whispered from one to another.
+
+"But he has nothing at all on!" at last cried out all the people.
+The Emperor was vexed, for he knew that the people were right; but he
+thought the procession must go on now! And the lords of the bedchamber
+took greater pains than ever, to appear holding up a train, although, in
+reality, there was no train to hold.
+
+
+
+
+THE SWINEHERD
+
+There was once a poor Prince, who had a kingdom. His kingdom was very
+small, but still quite large enough to marry upon; and he wished to
+marry.
+
+It was certainly rather cool of him to say to the Emperor's daughter,
+"Will you have me?" But so he did; for his name was renowned far and
+wide; and there were a hundred princesses who would have answered,
+"Yes!" and "Thank you kindly." We shall see what this princess said.
+
+Listen!
+
+It happened that where the Prince's father lay buried, there grew a rose
+tree--a most beautiful rose tree, which blossomed only once in every
+five years, and even then bore only one flower, but that was a rose!
+It smelt so sweet that all cares and sorrows were forgotten by him who
+inhaled its fragrance.
+
+And furthermore, the Prince had a nightingale, who could sing in such a
+manner that it seemed as though all sweet melodies dwelt in her little
+throat. So the Princess was to have the rose, and the nightingale; and
+they were accordingly put into large silver caskets, and sent to her.
+
+The Emperor had them brought into a large hall, where the Princess was
+playing at "Visiting," with the ladies of the court; and when she saw
+the caskets with the presents, she clapped her hands for joy.
+
+"Ah, if it were but a little pussy-cat!" said she; but the rose tree,
+with its beautiful rose came to view.
+
+"Oh, how prettily it is made!" said all the court ladies.
+
+"It is more than pretty," said the Emperor, "it is charming!"
+
+But the Princess touched it, and was almost ready to cry.
+
+"Fie, papa!" said she. "It is not made at all, it is natural!"
+
+"Let us see what is in the other casket, before we get into a bad
+humor," said the Emperor. So the nightingale came forth and sang so
+delightfully that at first no one could say anything ill-humored of her.
+
+"Superbe! Charmant!" exclaimed the ladies; for they all used to chatter
+French, each one worse than her neighbor.
+
+"How much the bird reminds me of the musical box that belonged to our
+blessed Empress," said an old knight. "Oh yes! These are the same tones,
+the same execution."
+
+"Yes! yes!" said the Emperor, and he wept like a child at the
+remembrance.
+
+"I will still hope that it is not a real bird," said the Princess.
+
+"Yes, it is a real bird," said those who had brought it. "Well then let
+the bird fly," said the Princess; and she positively refused to see the
+Prince.
+
+However, he was not to be discouraged; he daubed his face over brown and
+black; pulled his cap over his ears, and knocked at the door.
+
+"Good day to my lord, the Emperor!" said he. "Can I have employment at
+the palace?"
+
+"Why, yes," said the Emperor. "I want some one to take care of the pigs,
+for we have a great many of them."
+
+So the Prince was appointed "Imperial Swineherd." He had a dirty little
+room close by the pigsty; and there he sat the whole day, and worked. By
+the evening he had made a pretty little kitchen-pot. Little bells were
+hung all round it; and when the pot was boiling, these bells tinkled in
+the most charming manner, and played the old melody,
+
+    "Ach! du lieber Augustin,
+    Alles ist weg, weg, weg!"*
+
+    * "Ah! dear Augustine!
+    All is gone, gone, gone!"
+
+
+But what was still more curious, whoever held his finger in the smoke of
+the kitchen-pot, immediately smelt all the dishes that were cooking on
+every hearth in the city--this, you see, was something quite different
+from the rose.
+
+Now the Princess happened to walk that way; and when she heard the tune,
+she stood quite still, and seemed pleased; for she could play "Lieber
+Augustine"; it was the only piece she knew; and she played it with one
+finger.
+
+"Why there is my piece," said the Princess. "That swineherd must
+certainly have been well educated! Go in and ask him the price of the
+instrument."
+
+So one of the court-ladies must run in; however, she drew on wooden
+slippers first.
+
+"What will you take for the kitchen-pot?" said the lady.
+
+"I will have ten kisses from the Princess," said the swineherd.
+
+"Yes, indeed!" said the lady.
+
+"I cannot sell it for less," rejoined the swineherd.
+
+"He is an impudent fellow!" said the Princess, and she walked on; but
+when she had gone a little way, the bells tinkled so prettily
+
+    "Ach! du lieber Augustin,
+    Alles ist weg, weg, weg!"
+
+"Stay," said the Princess. "Ask him if he will have ten kisses from the
+ladies of my court."
+
+"No, thank you!" said the swineherd. "Ten kisses from the Princess, or I
+keep the kitchen-pot myself."
+
+"That must not be, either!" said the Princess. "But do you all stand
+before me that no one may see us."
+
+And the court-ladies placed themselves in front of her, and spread
+out their dresses--the swineherd got ten kisses, and the Princess--the
+kitchen-pot.
+
+That was delightful! The pot was boiling the whole evening, and the
+whole of the following day. They knew perfectly well what was cooking at
+every fire throughout the city, from the chamberlain's to the cobbler's;
+the court-ladies danced and clapped their hands.
+
+"We know who has soup, and who has pancakes for dinner to-day, who has
+cutlets, and who has eggs. How interesting!"
+
+"Yes, but keep my secret, for I am an Emperor's daughter."
+
+The swineherd--that is to say--the Prince, for no one knew that he was
+other than an ill-favored swineherd, let not a day pass without working
+at something; he at last constructed a rattle, which, when it was swung
+round, played all the waltzes and jig tunes, which have ever been heard
+since the creation of the world.
+
+"Ah, that is superbe!" said the Princess when she passed by. "I have
+never heard prettier compositions! Go in and ask him the price of the
+instrument; but mind, he shall have no more kisses!"
+
+"He will have a hundred kisses from the Princess!" said the lady who had
+been to ask.
+
+"I think he is not in his right senses!" said the Princess, and walked
+on, but when she had gone a little way, she stopped again. "One must
+encourage art," said she, "I am the Emperor's daughter. Tell him he
+shall, as on yesterday, have ten kisses from me, and may take the rest
+from the ladies of the court."
+
+"Oh--but we should not like that at all!" said they. "What are you
+muttering?" asked the Princess. "If I can kiss him, surely you can.
+Remember that you owe everything to me." So the ladies were obliged to
+go to him again.
+
+"A hundred kisses from the Princess," said he, "or else let everyone
+keep his own!"
+
+"Stand round!" said she; and all the ladies stood round her whilst the
+kissing was going on.
+
+"What can be the reason for such a crowd close by the pigsty?" said the
+Emperor, who happened just then to step out on the balcony; he rubbed
+his eyes, and put on his spectacles. "They are the ladies of the
+court; I must go down and see what they are about!" So he pulled up his
+slippers at the heel, for he had trodden them down.
+
+As soon as he had got into the court-yard, he moved very softly, and the
+ladies were so much engrossed with counting the kisses, that all might
+go on fairly, that they did not perceive the Emperor. He rose on his
+tiptoes.
+
+"What is all this?" said he, when he saw what was going on, and he boxed
+the Princess's ears with his slipper, just as the swineherd was taking
+the eighty-sixth kiss.
+
+"March out!" said the Emperor, for he was very angry; and both Princess
+and swineherd were thrust out of the city.
+
+The Princess now stood and wept, the swineherd scolded, and the rain
+poured down.
+
+"Alas! Unhappy creature that I am!" said the Princess. "If I had but
+married the handsome young Prince! Ah! how unfortunate I am!"
+
+And the swineherd went behind a tree, washed the black and brown color
+from his face, threw off his dirty clothes, and stepped forth in his
+princely robes; he looked so noble that the Princess could not help
+bowing before him.
+
+"I am come to despise thee," said he. "Thou would'st not have an
+honorable Prince! Thou could'st not prize the rose and the nightingale,
+but thou wast ready to kiss the swineherd for the sake of a trumpery
+plaything. Thou art rightly served."
+
+He then went back to his own little kingdom, and shut the door of his
+palace in her face. Now she might well sing,
+
+    "Ach! du lieber Augustin,
+    Alles ist weg, weg, weg!"
+
+
+
+
+THE REAL PRINCESS
+
+There was once a Prince who wished to marry a Princess; but then she
+must be a real Princess. He travelled all over the world in hopes of
+finding such a lady; but there was always something wrong. Princesses he
+found in plenty; but whether they were real Princesses it was impossible
+for him to decide, for now one thing, now another, seemed to him not
+quite right about the ladies. At last he returned to his palace quite
+cast down, because he wished so much to have a real Princess for his
+wife.
+
+One evening a fearful tempest arose, it thundered and lightened, and the
+rain poured down from the sky in torrents: besides, it was as dark as
+pitch. All at once there was heard a violent knocking at the door, and
+the old King, the Prince's father, went out himself to open it.
+
+It was a Princess who was standing outside the door. What with the rain
+and the wind, she was in a sad condition; the water trickled down from
+her hair, and her clothes clung to her body. She said she was a real
+Princess.
+
+"Ah! we shall soon see that!" thought the old Queen-mother; however, she
+said not a word of what she was going to do; but went quietly into the
+bedroom, took all the bed-clothes off the bed, and put three little peas
+on the bedstead. She then laid twenty mattresses one upon another over
+the three peas, and put twenty feather beds over the mattresses.
+
+Upon this bed the Princess was to pass the night.
+
+The next morning she was asked how she had slept. "Oh, very badly
+indeed!" she replied. "I have scarcely closed my eyes the whole night
+through. I do not know what was in my bed, but I had something hard
+under me, and am all over black and blue. It has hurt me so much!"
+
+Now it was plain that the lady must be a real Princess, since she had
+been able to feel the three little peas through the twenty mattresses
+and twenty feather beds. None but a real Princess could have had such a
+delicate sense of feeling.
+
+The Prince accordingly made her his wife; being now convinced that he
+had found a real Princess. The three peas were however put into the
+cabinet of curiosities, where they are still to be seen, provided they
+are not lost.
+
+Wasn't this a lady of real delicacy?
+
+
+
+
+THE SHOES OF FORTUNE
+
+I. A Beginning
+
+Every author has some peculiarity in his descriptions or in his style
+of writing. Those who do not like him, magnify it, shrug up their
+shoulders, and exclaim--there he is again! I, for my part, know very
+well how I can bring about this movement and this exclamation. It would
+happen immediately if I were to begin here, as I intended to do, with:
+"Rome has its Corso, Naples its Toledo"--"Ah! that Andersen; there he is
+again!" they would cry; yet I must, to please my fancy, continue quite
+quietly, and add: "But Copenhagen has its East Street."
+
+Here, then, we will stay for the present. In one of the houses not far
+from the new market a party was invited--a very large party, in order,
+as is often the case, to get a return invitation from the others. One
+half of the company was already seated at the card-table, the other half
+awaited the result of the stereotype preliminary observation of the lady
+of the house:
+
+"Now let us see what we can do to amuse ourselves."
+
+They had got just so far, and the conversation began to crystallise,
+as it could but do with the scanty stream which the commonplace world
+supplied. Amongst other things they spoke of the middle ages: some
+praised that period as far more interesting, far more poetical than our
+own too sober present; indeed Councillor Knap defended this opinion
+so warmly, that the hostess declared immediately on his side, and both
+exerted themselves with unwearied eloquence. The Councillor boldly
+declared the time of King Hans to be the noblest and the most happy
+period.*
+
+* A.D. 1482-1513
+
+
+While the conversation turned on this subject, and was only for a moment
+interrupted by the arrival of a journal that contained nothing worth
+reading, we will just step out into the antechamber, where cloaks,
+mackintoshes, sticks, umbrellas, and shoes, were deposited. Here sat two
+female figures, a young and an old one. One might have thought at first
+they were servants come to accompany their mistresses home; but on
+looking nearer, one soon saw they could scarcely be mere servants; their
+forms were too noble for that, their skin too fine, the cut of their
+dress too striking. Two fairies were they; the younger, it is true,
+was not Dame Fortune herself, but one of the waiting-maids of her
+handmaidens who carry about the lesser good things that she distributes;
+the other looked extremely gloomy--it was Care. She always attends to
+her own serious business herself, as then she is sure of having it done
+properly.
+
+They were telling each other, with a confidential interchange of ideas,
+where they had been during the day. The messenger of Fortune had only
+executed a few unimportant commissions, such as saving a new bonnet from
+a shower of rain, etc.; but what she had yet to perform was something
+quite unusual.
+
+"I must tell you," said she, "that to-day is my birthday; and in honor
+of it, a pair of walking-shoes or galoshes has been entrusted to me,
+which I am to carry to mankind. These shoes possess the property of
+instantly transporting him who has them on to the place or the period
+in which he most wishes to be; every wish, as regards time or place, or
+state of being, will be immediately fulfilled, and so at last man will
+be happy, here below."
+
+"Do you seriously believe it?" replied Care, in a severe tone of
+reproach. "No; he will be very unhappy, and will assuredly bless the
+moment when he feels that he has freed himself from the fatal shoes."
+
+"Stupid nonsense!" said the other angrily. "I will put them here by
+the door. Some one will make a mistake for certain and take the wrong
+ones--he will be a happy man."
+
+Such was their conversation.
+
+
+II. What Happened to the Councillor
+
+It was late; Councillor Knap, deeply occupied with the times of King
+Hans, intended to go home, and malicious Fate managed matters so that
+his feet, instead of finding their way to his own galoshes, slipped
+into those of Fortune. Thus caparisoned the good man walked out of the
+well-lighted rooms into East Street. By the magic power of the shoes he
+was carried back to the times of King Hans; on which account his foot
+very naturally sank in the mud and puddles of the street, there having
+been in those days no pavement in Copenhagen.
+
+"Well! This is too bad! How dirty it is here!" sighed the Councillor.
+"As to a pavement, I can find no traces of one, and all the lamps, it
+seems, have gone to sleep."
+
+The moon was not yet very high; it was besides rather foggy, so that
+in the darkness all objects seemed mingled in chaotic confusion. At the
+next corner hung a votive lamp before a Madonna, but the light it gave
+was little better than none at all; indeed, he did not observe it before
+he was exactly under it, and his eyes fell upon the bright colors of the
+pictures which represented the well-known group of the Virgin and the
+infant Jesus.
+
+"That is probably a wax-work show," thought he; "and the people delay
+taking down their sign in hopes of a late visitor or two."
+
+A few persons in the costume of the time of King Hans passed quickly by
+him.
+
+"How strange they look! The good folks come probably from a masquerade!"
+
+Suddenly was heard the sound of drums and fifes; the bright blaze of a
+fire shot up from time to time, and its ruddy gleams seemed to contend
+with the bluish light of the torches. The Councillor stood still, and
+watched a most strange procession pass by. First came a dozen drummers,
+who understood pretty well how to handle their instruments; then came
+halberdiers, and some armed with cross-bows. The principal person in the
+procession was a priest. Astonished at what he saw, the Councillor asked
+what was the meaning of all this mummery, and who that man was.
+
+"That's the Bishop of Zealand," was the answer.
+
+"Good Heavens! What has taken possession of the Bishop?" sighed the
+Councillor, shaking his head. It certainly could not be the Bishop; even
+though he was considered the most absent man in the whole kingdom, and
+people told the drollest anecdotes about him. Reflecting on the matter,
+and without looking right or left, the Councillor went through East
+Street and across the Habro-Platz. The bridge leading to Palace Square
+was not to be found; scarcely trusting his senses, the nocturnal
+wanderer discovered a shallow piece of water, and here fell in with two
+men who very comfortably were rocking to and fro in a boat.
+
+"Does your honor want to cross the ferry to the Holme?" asked they.
+
+"Across to the Holme!" said the Councillor, who knew nothing of the age
+in which he at that moment was. "No, I am going to Christianshafen, to
+Little Market Street."
+
+Both men stared at him in astonishment.
+
+"Only just tell me where the bridge is," said he. "It is really
+unpardonable that there are no lamps here; and it is as dirty as if one
+had to wade through a morass."
+
+The longer he spoke with the boatmen, the more unintelligible did their
+language become to him.
+
+"I don't understand your Bornholmish dialect," said he at last, angrily,
+and turning his back upon them. He was unable to find the bridge: there
+was no railway either. "It is really disgraceful what a state this place
+is in," muttered he to himself. Never had his age, with which, however,
+he was always grumbling, seemed so miserable as on this evening. "I'll
+take a hackney-coach!" thought he. But where were the hackney-coaches?
+Not one was to be seen.
+
+"I must go back to the New Market; there, it is to be hoped, I
+shall find some coaches; for if I don't, I shall never get safe to
+Christianshafen."
+
+So off he went in the direction of East Street, and had nearly got to
+the end of it when the moon shone forth.
+
+"God bless me! What wooden scaffolding is that which they have set up
+there?" cried he involuntarily, as he looked at East Gate, which, in
+those days, was at the end of East Street.
+
+He found, however, a little side-door open, and through this he went,
+and stepped into our New Market of the present time. It was a huge
+desolate plain; some wild bushes stood up here and there, while across
+the field flowed a broad canal or river. Some wretched hovels for the
+Dutch sailors, resembling great boxes, and after which the place was
+named, lay about in confused disorder on the opposite bank.
+
+"I either behold a fata morgana, or I am regularly tipsy," whimpered out
+the Councillor. "But what's this?"
+
+He turned round anew, firmly convinced that he was seriously ill. He
+gazed at the street formerly so well known to him, and now so strange in
+appearance, and looked at the houses more attentively: most of them were
+of wood, slightly put together; and many had a thatched roof.
+
+"No--I am far from well," sighed he; "and yet I drank only one glass of
+punch; but I cannot suppose it--it was, too, really very wrong to give
+us punch and hot salmon for supper. I shall speak about it at the first
+opportunity. I have half a mind to go back again, and say what I suffer.
+But no, that would be too silly; and Heaven only knows if they are up
+still."
+
+He looked for the house, but it had vanished.
+
+"It is really dreadful," groaned he with increasing anxiety; "I cannot
+recognise East Street again; there is not a single decent shop from one
+end to the other! Nothing but wretched huts can I see anywhere; just
+as if I were at Ringstead. Oh! I am ill! I can scarcely bear myself any
+longer. Where the deuce can the house be? It must be here on this very
+spot; yet there is not the slightest idea of resemblance, to such a
+degree has everything changed this night! At all events here are some
+people up and stirring. Oh! oh! I am certainly very ill."
+
+He now hit upon a half-open door, through a chink of which a faint light
+shone. It was a sort of hostelry of those times; a kind of public-house.
+The room had some resemblance to the clay-floored halls in Holstein; a
+pretty numerous company, consisting of seamen, Copenhagen burghers, and
+a few scholars, sat here in deep converse over their pewter cans, and
+gave little heed to the person who entered.
+
+"By your leave!" said the Councillor to the Hostess, who came bustling
+towards him. "I've felt so queer all of a sudden; would you have the
+goodness to send for a hackney-coach to take me to Christianshafen?"
+
+The woman examined him with eyes of astonishment, and shook her head;
+she then addressed him in German. The Councillor thought she did not
+understand Danish, and therefore repeated his wish in German. This, in
+connection with his costume, strengthened the good woman in the belief
+that he was a foreigner. That he was ill, she comprehended directly; so
+she brought him a pitcher of water, which tasted certainly pretty strong
+of the sea, although it had been fetched from the well.
+
+The Councillor supported his head on his hand, drew a long breath, and
+thought over all the wondrous things he saw around him.
+
+"Is this the Daily News of this evening?" he asked mechanically, as he
+saw the Hostess push aside a large sheet of paper.
+
+The meaning of this councillorship query remained, of course, a riddle
+to her, yet she handed him the paper without replying. It was a coarse
+wood-cut, representing a splendid meteor "as seen in the town of
+Cologne," which was to be read below in bright letters.
+
+"That is very old!" said the Councillor, whom this piece of antiquity
+began to make considerably more cheerful. "Pray how did you come into
+possession of this rare print? It is extremely interesting, although the
+whole is a mere fable. Such meteorous appearances are to be explained in
+this way--that they are the reflections of the Aurora Borealis, and it
+is highly probable they are caused principally by electricity."
+
+Those persons who were sitting nearest him and heard his speech,
+stared at him in wonderment; and one of them rose, took off his hat
+respectfully, and said with a serious countenance, "You are no doubt a
+very learned man, Monsieur."
+
+"Oh no," answered the Councillor, "I can only join in conversation on
+this topic and on that, as indeed one must do according to the demands
+of the world at present."
+
+"Modestia is a fine virtue," continued the gentleman; "however, as to
+your speech, I must say mihi secus videtur: yet I am willing to suspend
+my judicium."
+
+"May I ask with whom I have the pleasure of speaking?" asked the
+Councillor.
+
+"I am a Bachelor in Theologia," answered the gentleman with a stiff
+reverence.
+
+This reply fully satisfied the Councillor; the title suited the dress.
+"He is certainly," thought he, "some village schoolmaster--some queer
+old fellow, such as one still often meets with in Jutland."
+
+"This is no locus docendi, it is true," began the clerical gentleman;
+"yet I beg you earnestly to let us profit by your learning. Your reading
+in the ancients is, sine dubio, of vast extent?"
+
+"Oh yes, I've read something, to be sure," replied the Councillor. "I
+like reading all useful works; but I do not on that account despise the
+modern ones; 'tis only the unfortunate 'Tales of Every-day Life' that I
+cannot bear--we have enough and more than enough such in reality."
+
+"'Tales of Every-day Life?'" said our Bachelor inquiringly.
+
+"I mean those new fangled novels, twisting and writhing themselves in
+the dust of commonplace, which also expect to find a reading public."
+
+"Oh," exclaimed the clerical gentleman smiling, "there is much wit in
+them; besides they are read at court. The King likes the history of Sir
+Iffven and Sir Gaudian particularly, which treats of King Arthur, and
+his Knights of the Round Table; he has more than once joked about it
+with his high vassals."
+
+"I have not read that novel," said the Councillor; "it must be quite a
+new one, that Heiberg has published lately."
+
+"No," answered the theologian of the time of King Hans: "that book is
+not written by a Heiberg, but was imprinted by Godfrey von Gehmen."
+
+"Oh, is that the author's name?" said the Councillor. "It is a very
+old name, and, as well as I recollect, he was the first printer that
+appeared in Denmark."
+
+"Yes, he is our first printer," replied the clerical gentleman hastily.
+
+So far all went on well. Some one of the worthy burghers now spoke of
+the dreadful pestilence that had raged in the country a few years back,
+meaning that of 1484. The Councillor imagined it was the cholera that
+was meant, which people made so much fuss about; and the discourse
+passed off satisfactorily enough. The war of the buccaneers of 1490 was
+so recent that it could not fail being alluded to; the English
+pirates had, they said, most shamefully taken their ships while in the
+roadstead; and the Councillor, before whose eyes the Herostratic [*]
+event of 1801 still floated vividly, agreed entirely with the others in
+abusing the rascally English. With other topics he was not so fortunate;
+every moment brought about some new confusion, and threatened to become
+a perfect Babel; for the worthy Bachelor was really too ignorant, and
+the simplest observations of the Councillor sounded to him too daring
+and phantastical. They looked at one another from the crown of the head
+to the soles of the feet; and when matters grew to too high a
+pitch, then the Bachelor talked Latin, in the hope of being better
+understood--but it was of no use after all.
+
+     * Herostratus, or Eratostratus--an Ephesian, who wantonly
+     set fire to the famous temple of Diana, in order to
+     commemorate his name by so uncommon an action.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked the Hostess, plucking the Councillor by the
+sleeve; and now his recollection returned, for in the course of the
+conversation he had entirely forgotten all that had preceded it.
+
+"Merciful God, where am I!" exclaimed he in agony; and while he so
+thought, all his ideas and feelings of overpowering dizziness, against
+which he struggled with the utmost power of desperation, encompassed
+him with renewed force. "Let us drink claret and mead, and Bremen beer,"
+shouted one of the guests--"and you shall drink with us!"
+
+Two maidens approached. One wore a cap of two staring colors, denoting
+the class of persons to which she belonged. They poured out the liquor,
+and made the most friendly gesticulations; while a cold perspiration
+trickled down the back of the poor Councillor.
+
+"What's to be the end of this! What's to become of me!" groaned he; but
+he was forced, in spite of his opposition, to drink with the rest. They
+took hold of the worthy man; who, hearing on every side that he was
+intoxicated, did not in the least doubt the truth of this certainly
+not very polite assertion; but on the contrary, implored the ladies
+and gentlemen present to procure him a hackney-coach: they, however,
+imagined he was talking Russian.
+
+Never before, he thought, had he been in such a coarse and ignorant
+company; one might almost fancy the people had turned heathens again.
+"It is the most dreadful moment of my life: the whole world is leagued
+against me!" But suddenly it occurred to him that he might stoop down
+under the table, and then creep unobserved out of the door. He did so;
+but just as he was going, the others remarked what he was about; they
+laid hold of him by the legs; and now, happily for him, off fell his
+fatal shoes--and with them the charm was at an end.
+
+The Councillor saw quite distinctly before him a lantern burning, and
+behind this a large handsome house. All seemed to him in proper order as
+usual; it was East Street, splendid and elegant as we now see it. He lay
+with his feet towards a doorway, and exactly opposite sat the watchman
+asleep.
+
+"Gracious Heaven!" said he. "Have I lain here in the street and dreamed?
+Yes; 'tis East Street! How splendid and light it is! But really it is
+terrible what an effect that one glass of punch must have had on me!"
+
+Two minutes later, he was sitting in a hackney-coach and driving to
+Frederickshafen. He thought of the distress and agony he had endured,
+and praised from the very bottom of his heart the happy reality--our own
+time--which, with all its deficiencies, is yet much better than that in
+which, so much against his inclination, he had lately been.
+
+
+III. The Watchman's Adventure
+
+"Why, there is a pair of galoshes, as sure as I'm alive!" said the
+watchman, awaking from a gentle slumber. "They belong no doubt to the
+lieutenant who lives over the way. They lie close to the door."
+
+The worthy man was inclined to ring and deliver them at the house, for
+there was still a light in the window; but he did not like disturbing
+the other people in their beds, and so very considerately he left the
+matter alone.
+
+"Such a pair of shoes must be very warm and comfortable," said he; "the
+leather is so soft and supple." They fitted his feet as though they
+had been made for him. "'Tis a curious world we live in," continued he,
+soliloquizing. "There is the lieutenant, now, who might go quietly to
+bed if he chose, where no doubt he could stretch himself at his ease;
+but does he do it? No; he saunters up and down his room, because,
+probably, he has enjoyed too many of the good things of this world at
+his dinner. That's a happy fellow! He has neither an infirm mother, nor
+a whole troop of everlastingly hungry children to torment him. Every
+evening he goes to a party, where his nice supper costs him nothing:
+would to Heaven I could but change with him! How happy should I be!"
+
+While expressing his wish, the charm of the shoes, which he had put on,
+began to work; the watchman entered into the being and nature of the
+lieutenant. He stood in the handsomely furnished apartment, and held
+between his fingers a small sheet of rose-colored paper, on which some
+verses were written--written indeed by the officer himself; for who has
+not, at least once in his life, had a lyrical moment? And if one then
+marks down one's thoughts, poetry is produced. But here was written:
+
+                  OH, WERE I RICH!
+
+     "Oh, were I rich! Such was my wish, yea such
+      When hardly three feet high, I longed for much.
+       Oh, were I rich! an officer were I,
+       With sword, and uniform, and plume so high.
+       And the time came, and officer was I!
+     But yet I grew not rich. Alas, poor me!
+     Have pity, Thou, who all man's wants dost see.
+
+        "I sat one evening sunk in dreams of bliss,
+      A maid of seven years old gave me a kiss,
+       I at that time was rich in poesy
+       And tales of old, though poor as poor could be;
+       But all she asked for was this poesy.
+     Then was I rich, but not in gold, poor me!
+     As Thou dost know, who all men's hearts canst see.
+
+        "Oh, were I rich! Oft asked I for this boon.
+      The child grew up to womanhood full soon.
+       She is so pretty, clever, and so kind
+     Oh, did she know what's hidden in my mind--
+       A tale of old. Would she to me were kind!
+     But I'm condemned to silence! oh, poor me!
+     As Thou dost know, who all men's hearts canst see.
+
+        "Oh, were I rich in calm and peace of mind,
+      My grief you then would not here written find!
+       O thou, to whom I do my heart devote,
+       Oh read this page of glad days now remote,
+       A dark, dark tale, which I tonight devote!
+     Dark is the future now. Alas, poor me!
+     Have pity Thou, who all men's pains dost see."
+
+Such verses as these people write when they are in love! But no man
+in his senses ever thinks of printing them. Here one of the sorrows of
+life, in which there is real poetry, gave itself vent; not that
+barren grief which the poet may only hint at, but never depict in its
+detail--misery and want: that animal necessity, in short, to snatch
+at least at a fallen leaf of the bread-fruit tree, if not at the fruit
+itself. The higher the position in which one finds oneself transplanted,
+the greater is the suffering. Everyday necessity is the stagnant pool of
+life--no lovely picture reflects itself therein. Lieutenant, love, and
+lack of money--that is a symbolic triangle, or much the same as the
+half of the shattered die of Fortune. This the lieutenant felt most
+poignantly, and this was the reason he leant his head against the
+window, and sighed so deeply.
+
+"The poor watchman out there in the street is far happier than I. He
+knows not what I term privation. He has a home, a wife, and children,
+who weep with him over his sorrows, who rejoice with him when he is
+glad. Oh, far happier were I, could I exchange with him my being--with
+his desires and with his hopes perform the weary pilgrimage of life! Oh,
+he is a hundred times happier than I!"
+
+In the same moment the watchman was again watchman. It was the shoes
+that caused the metamorphosis by means of which, unknown to himself, he
+took upon him the thoughts and feelings of the officer; but, as we have
+just seen, he felt himself in his new situation much less contented,
+and now preferred the very thing which but some minutes before he had
+rejected. So then the watchman was again watchman.
+
+"That was an unpleasant dream," said he; "but 'twas droll enough
+altogether. I fancied that I was the lieutenant over there: and yet
+the thing was not very much to my taste after all. I missed my good old
+mother and the dear little ones; who almost tear me to pieces for sheer
+love."
+
+He seated himself once more and nodded: the dream continued to haunt
+him, for he still had the shoes on his feet. A falling star shone in the
+dark firmament.
+
+"There falls another star," said he: "but what does it matter; there
+are always enough left. I should not much mind examining the little
+glimmering things somewhat nearer, especially the moon; for that would
+not slip so easily through a man's fingers. When we die--so at least
+says the student, for whom my wife does the washing--we shall fly about
+as light as a feather from one such a star to the other. That's, of
+course, not true: but 'twould be pretty enough if it were so. If I could
+but once take a leap up there, my body might stay here on the steps for
+what I care."
+
+Behold--there are certain things in the world to which one ought never
+to give utterance except with the greatest caution; but doubly careful
+must one be when we have the Shoes of Fortune on our feet. Now just
+listen to what happened to the watchman.
+
+As to ourselves, we all know the speed produced by the employment of
+steam; we have experienced it either on railroads, or in boats when
+crossing the sea; but such a flight is like the travelling of a sloth in
+comparison with the velocity with which light moves. It flies nineteen
+million times faster than the best race-horse; and yet electricity is
+quicker still. Death is an electric shock which our heart receives; the
+freed soul soars upwards on the wings of electricity. The sun's light
+wants eight minutes and some seconds to perform a journey of more than
+twenty million of our Danish [*] miles; borne by electricity, the soul
+wants even some minutes less to accomplish the same flight. To it the
+space between the heavenly bodies is not greater than the distance
+between the homes of our friends in town is for us, even if they live a
+short way from each other; such an electric shock in the heart, however,
+costs us the use of the body here below; unless, like the watchman of
+East Street, we happen to have on the Shoes of Fortune.
+
+     * A Danish mile is nearly 4 3/4 English.
+
+
+In a few seconds the watchman had done the fifty-two thousand of our
+miles up to the moon, which, as everyone knows, was formed out of
+matter much lighter than our earth; and is, so we should say, as soft
+as newly-fallen snow. He found himself on one of the many circumjacent
+mountain-ridges with which we are acquainted by means of Dr. Madler's
+"Map of the Moon." Within, down it sunk perpendicularly into a caldron,
+about a Danish mile in depth; while below lay a town, whose appearance
+we can, in some measure, realize to ourselves by beating the white of
+an egg in a glass of water. The matter of which it was built was just as
+soft, and formed similar towers, and domes, and pillars, transparent and
+rocking in the thin air; while above his head our earth was rolling like
+a large fiery ball.
+
+He perceived immediately a quantity of beings who were certainly what
+we call "men"; yet they looked different to us. A far more correct
+imagination than that of the pseudo-Herschel* had created them; and
+if they had been placed in rank and file, and copied by some skilful
+painter's hand, one would, without doubt, have exclaimed involuntarily,
+"What a beautiful arabesque!"
+
+*This relates to a book published some years ago in Germany, and said
+to be by Herschel, which contained a description of the moon and its
+inhabitants, written with such a semblance of truth that many were
+deceived by the imposture.
+
+Probably a translation of the celebrated Moon hoax, written by Richard
+A. Locke, and originally published in New York.
+
+
+They had a language too; but surely nobody can expect that the soul of
+the watchman should understand it. Be that as it may, it did comprehend
+it; for in our souls there germinate far greater powers than we poor
+mortals, despite all our cleverness, have any notion of. Does she
+not show us--she the queen in the land of enchantment--her astounding
+dramatic talent in all our dreams? There every acquaintance appears and
+speaks upon the stage, so entirely in character, and with the same tone
+of voice, that none of us, when awake, were able to imitate it. How
+well can she recall persons to our mind, of whom we have not thought for
+years; when suddenly they step forth "every inch a man," resembling the
+real personages, even to the finest features, and become the heroes
+or heroines of our world of dreams. In reality, such remembrances are
+rather unpleasant: every sin, every evil thought, may, like a clock with
+alarm or chimes, be repeated at pleasure; then the question is if we can
+trust ourselves to give an account of every unbecoming word in our heart
+and on our lips.
+
+The watchman's spirit understood the language of the inhabitants of the
+moon pretty well. The Selenites* disputed variously about our earth,
+and expressed their doubts if it could be inhabited: the air, they said,
+must certainly be too dense to allow any rational dweller in the moon
+the necessary free respiration. They considered the moon alone to
+be inhabited: they imagined it was the real heart of the universe or
+planetary system, on which the genuine Cosmopolites, or citizens of the
+world, dwelt. What strange things men--no, what strange things Selenites
+sometimes take into their heads!
+
+* Dwellers in the moon.
+
+
+About politics they had a good deal to say. But little Denmark must
+take care what it is about, and not run counter to the moon; that
+great realm, that might in an ill-humor bestir itself, and dash down a
+hail-storm in our faces, or force the Baltic to overflow the sides of
+its gigantic basin.
+
+We will, therefore, not listen to what was spoken, and on no condition
+run in the possibility of telling tales out of school; but we will
+rather proceed, like good quiet citizens, to East Street, and observe
+what happened meanwhile to the body of the watchman.
+
+He sat lifeless on the steps: the morning-star,* that is to say, the
+heavy wooden staff, headed with iron spikes, and which had nothing else
+in common with its sparkling brother in the sky, had glided from his
+hand; while his eyes were fixed with glassy stare on the moon, looking
+for the good old fellow of a spirit which still haunted it.
+
+*The watchmen in Germany, had formerly, and in some places they still
+carry with them, on their rounds at night, a sort of mace or club, known
+in ancient times by the above denomination.
+
+
+"What's the hour, watchman?" asked a passer-by. But when the watchman
+gave no reply, the merry roysterer, who was now returning home from a
+noisy drinking bout, took it into his head to try what a tweak of the
+nose would do, on which the supposed sleeper lost his balance, the body
+lay motionless, stretched out on the pavement: the man was dead. When
+the patrol came up, all his comrades, who comprehended nothing of the
+whole affair, were seized with a dreadful fright, for dead he was,
+and he remained so. The proper authorities were informed of the
+circumstance, people talked a good deal about it, and in the morning the
+body was carried to the hospital.
+
+Now that would be a very pretty joke, if the spirit when it came back
+and looked for the body in East Street, were not to find one. No doubt
+it would, in its anxiety, run off to the police, and then to the
+"Hue and Cry" office, to announce that "the finder will be handsomely
+rewarded," and at last away to the hospital; yet we may boldly assert
+that the soul is shrewdest when it shakes off every fetter, and every
+sort of leading-string--the body only makes it stupid.
+
+The seemingly dead body of the watchman wandered, as we have said, to
+the hospital, where it was brought into the general viewing-room:
+and the first thing that was done here was naturally to pull off the
+galoshes--when the spirit, that was merely gone out on adventures, must
+have returned with the quickness of lightning to its earthly tenement.
+It took its direction towards the body in a straight line; and a few
+seconds after, life began to show itself in the man. He asserted that
+the preceding night had been the worst that ever the malice of fate had
+allotted him; he would not for two silver marks again go through what he
+had endured while moon-stricken; but now, however, it was over.
+
+The same day he was discharged from the hospital as perfectly cured; but
+the Shoes meanwhile remained behind.
+
+
+IV. A Moment of Head Importance--An Evening's "Dramatic Readings"--A
+Most Strange Journey
+
+Every inhabitant of Copenhagen knows, from personal inspection, how
+the entrance to Frederick's Hospital looks; but as it is possible that
+others, who are not Copenhagen people, may also read this little work,
+we will beforehand give a short description of it.
+
+The extensive building is separated from the street by a pretty high
+railing, the thick iron bars of which are so far apart, that in
+all seriousness, it is said, some very thin fellow had of a night
+occasionally squeezed himself through to go and pay his little visits
+in the town. The part of the body most difficult to manage on such
+occasions was, no doubt, the head; here, as is so often the case in
+the world, long-headed people get through best. So much, then, for the
+introduction.
+
+One of the young men, whose head, in a physical sense only, might be
+said to be of the thickest, had the watch that evening. The rain poured
+down in torrents; yet despite these two obstacles, the young man was
+obliged to go out, if it were but for a quarter of an hour; and as
+to telling the door-keeper about it, that, he thought, was quite
+unnecessary, if, with a whole skin, he were able to slip through the
+railings. There, on the floor lay the galoshes, which the watchman
+had forgotten; he never dreamed for a moment that they were those of
+Fortune; and they promised to do him good service in the wet; so he put
+them on. The question now was, if he could squeeze himself through the
+grating, for he had never tried before. Well, there he stood.
+
+"Would to Heaven I had got my head through!" said he, involuntarily; and
+instantly through it slipped, easily and without pain, notwithstanding
+it was pretty large and thick. But now the rest of the body was to be
+got through!
+
+"Ah! I am much too stout," groaned he aloud, while fixed as in a vice.
+"I had thought the head was the most difficult part of the matter--oh!
+oh! I really cannot squeeze myself through!"
+
+He now wanted to pull his over-hasty head back again, but he could not.
+For his neck there was room enough, but for nothing more. His first
+feeling was of anger; his next that his temper fell to zero. The
+Shoes of Fortune had placed him in the most dreadful situation; and,
+unfortunately, it never occurred to him to wish himself free. The
+pitch-black clouds poured down their contents in still heavier torrents;
+not a creature was to be seen in the streets. To reach up to the bell
+was what he did not like; to cry aloud for help would have availed him
+little; besides, how ashamed would he have been to be found caught in a
+trap, like an outwitted fox! How was he to twist himself through! He saw
+clearly that it was his irrevocable destiny to remain a prisoner till
+dawn, or, perhaps, even late in the morning; then the smith must be
+fetched to file away the bars; but all that would not be done so quickly
+as he could think about it. The whole Charity School, just opposite,
+would be in motion; all the new booths, with their not very
+courtier-like swarm of seamen, would join them out of curiosity, and
+would greet him with a wild "hurrah!" while he was standing in his
+pillory: there would be a mob, a hissing, and rejoicing, and jeering,
+ten times worse than in the rows about the Jews some years ago--"Oh, my
+blood is mounting to my brain; 'tis enough to drive one mad! I shall go
+wild! I know not what to do. Oh! were I but loose; my dizziness would
+then cease; oh, were my head but loose!"
+
+You see he ought to have said that sooner; for the moment he expressed
+the wish his head was free; and cured of all his paroxysms of love, he
+hastened off to his room, where the pains consequent on the fright the
+Shoes had prepared for him, did not so soon take their leave.
+
+But you must not think that the affair is over now; it grows much worse.
+
+The night passed, the next day also; but nobody came to fetch the Shoes.
+
+In the evening "Dramatic Readings" were to be given at the little
+theatre in King Street. The house was filled to suffocation; and among
+other pieces to be recited was a new poem by H. C. Andersen, called, My
+Aunt's Spectacles; the contents of which were pretty nearly as follows:
+
+"A certain person had an aunt, who boasted of particular skill in
+fortune-telling with cards, and who was constantly being stormed by
+persons that wanted to have a peep into futurity. But she was full of
+mystery about her art, in which a certain pair of magic spectacles
+did her essential service. Her nephew, a merry boy, who was his aunt's
+darling, begged so long for these spectacles, that, at last, she lent
+him the treasure, after having informed him, with many exhortations,
+that in order to execute the interesting trick, he need only repair to
+some place where a great many persons were assembled; and then, from a
+higher position, whence he could overlook the crowd, pass the company in
+review before him through his spectacles. Immediately 'the inner man' of
+each individual would be displayed before him, like a game of cards, in
+which he unerringly might read what the future of every person presented
+was to be. Well pleased the little magician hastened away to prove the
+powers of the spectacles in the theatre; no place seeming to him more
+fitted for such a trial. He begged permission of the worthy audience,
+and set his spectacles on his nose. A motley phantasmagoria presents
+itself before him, which he describes in a few satirical touches, yet
+without expressing his opinion openly: he tells the people enough to set
+them all thinking and guessing; but in order to hurt nobody, he wraps
+his witty oracular judgments in a transparent veil, or rather in a lurid
+thundercloud, shooting forth bright sparks of wit, that they may fall in
+the powder-magazine of the expectant audience."
+
+The humorous poem was admirably recited, and the speaker much applauded.
+Among the audience was the young man of the hospital, who seemed to have
+forgotten his adventure of the preceding night. He had on the Shoes; for
+as yet no lawful owner had appeared to claim them; and besides it was so
+very dirty out-of-doors, they were just the thing for him, he thought.
+
+The beginning of the poem he praised with great generosity: he even
+found the idea original and effective. But that the end of it, like the
+Rhine, was very insignificant, proved, in his opinion, the author's
+want of invention; he was without genius, etc. This was an excellent
+opportunity to have said something clever.
+
+Meanwhile he was haunted by the idea--he should like to possess such a
+pair of spectacles himself; then, perhaps, by using them circumspectly,
+one would be able to look into people's hearts, which, he thought, would
+be far more interesting than merely to see what was to happen next year;
+for that we should all know in proper time, but the other never.
+
+"I can now," said he to himself, "fancy the whole row of ladies and
+gentlemen sitting there in the front row; if one could but see into
+their hearts--yes, that would be a revelation--a sort of bazar. In that
+lady yonder, so strangely dressed, I should find for certain a large
+milliner's shop; in that one the shop is empty, but it wants cleaning
+plain enough. But there would also be some good stately shops among
+them. Alas!" sighed he, "I know one in which all is stately; but there
+sits already a spruce young shopman, which is the only thing that's
+amiss in the whole shop. All would be splendidly decked out, and we
+should hear, 'Walk in, gentlemen, pray walk in; here you will find all
+you please to want.' Ah! I wish to Heaven I could walk in and take a
+trip right through the hearts of those present!"
+
+And behold! to the Shoes of Fortune this was the cue; the whole man
+shrunk together and a most uncommon journey through the hearts of the
+front row of spectators, now began. The first heart through which he
+came, was that of a middle-aged lady, but he instantly fancied himself
+in the room of the "Institution for the cure of the crooked and
+deformed," where casts of mis-shapen limbs are displayed in naked
+reality on the wall. Yet there was this difference, in the institution
+the casts were taken at the entry of the patient; but here they were
+retained and guarded in the heart while the sound persons went away.
+They were, namely, casts of female friends, whose bodily or mental
+deformities were here most faithfully preserved.
+
+With the snake-like writhings of an idea he glided into another female
+heart; but this seemed to him like a large holy fane. [*] The white dove of
+innocence fluttered over the altar. How gladly would he have sunk upon
+his knees; but he must away to the next heart; yet he still heard the
+pealing tones of the organ, and he himself seemed to have become a newer
+and a better man; he felt unworthy to tread the neighboring sanctuary
+which a poor garret, with a sick bed-rid mother, revealed. But God's
+warm sun streamed through the open window; lovely roses nodded from
+the wooden flower-boxes on the roof, and two sky-blue birds sang
+rejoicingly, while the sick mother implored God's richest blessings on
+her pious daughter.
+
+     * temple
+
+
+He now crept on hands and feet through a butcher's shop; at least on
+every side, and above and below, there was nought but flesh. It was the
+heart of a most respectable rich man, whose name is certain to be found
+in the Directory.
+
+He was now in the heart of the wife of this worthy gentleman. It was an
+old, dilapidated, mouldering dovecot. The husband's portrait was used as
+a weather-cock, which was connected in some way or other with the doors,
+and so they opened and shut of their own accord, whenever the stern old
+husband turned round.
+
+Hereupon he wandered into a boudoir formed entirely of mirrors, like
+the one in Castle Rosenburg; but here the glasses magnified to an
+astonishing degree. On the floor, in the middle of the room, sat, like a
+Dalai-Lama, the insignificant "Self" of the person, quite confounded at
+his own greatness. He then imagined he had got into a needle-case full
+of pointed needles of every size.
+
+"This is certainly the heart of an old maid," thought he. But he was
+mistaken. It was the heart of a young military man; a man, as people
+said, of talent and feeling.
+
+In the greatest perplexity, he now came out of the last heart in the
+row; he was unable to put his thoughts in order, and fancied that his
+too lively imagination had run away with him.
+
+"Good Heavens!" sighed he. "I have surely a disposition to madness--'tis
+dreadfully hot here; my blood boils in my veins and my head is burning
+like a coal." And he now remembered the important event of the evening
+before, how his head had got jammed in between the iron railings of the
+hospital. "That's what it is, no doubt," said he. "I must do something
+in time: under such circumstances a Russian bath might do me good. I
+only wish I were already on the upper bank." [*]
+
+     *In these Russian (vapor) baths the person extends himself
+     on a bank or form, and as he gets accustomed to the heat,
+     moves to another higher up towards the ceiling, where, of
+     course, the vapor is warmest. In this manner he ascends
+     gradually to the highest.
+
+And so there he lay on the uppermost bank in the vapor-bath; but with
+all his clothes on, in his boots and galoshes, while the hot drops fell
+scalding from the ceiling on his face.
+
+"Holloa!" cried he, leaping down. The bathing attendant, on his side,
+uttered a loud cry of astonishment when he beheld in the bath, a man
+completely dressed.
+
+The other, however, retained sufficient presence of mind to whisper to
+him, "'Tis a bet, and I have won it!" But the first thing he did as soon
+as he got home, was to have a large blister put on his chest and back to
+draw out his madness.
+
+The next morning he had a sore chest and a bleeding back; and, excepting
+the fright, that was all that he had gained by the Shoes of Fortune.
+
+
+V. Metamorphosis of the Copying-Clerk
+
+The watchman, whom we have certainly not forgotten, thought meanwhile
+of the galoshes he had found and taken with him to the hospital; he now
+went to fetch them; and as neither the lieutenant, nor anybody else in
+the street, claimed them as his property, they were delivered over to
+the police-office.*
+
+*As on the continent, in all law and police practices nothing is verbal,
+but any circumstance, however trifling, is reduced to writing, the
+labor, as well as the number of papers that thus accumulate, is
+enormous. In a police-office, consequently, we find copying-clerks among
+many other scribes of various denominations, of which, it seems, our
+hero was one.
+
+
+"Why, I declare the Shoes look just like my own," said one of the
+clerks, eying the newly-found treasure, whose hidden powers, even he,
+sharp as he was, was not able to discover. "One must have more than
+the eye of a shoemaker to know one pair from the other," said he,
+soliloquizing; and putting, at the same time, the galoshes in search of
+an owner, beside his own in the corner.
+
+"Here, sir!" said one of the men, who panting brought him a tremendous
+pile of papers.
+
+The copying-clerk turned round and spoke awhile with the man about the
+reports and legal documents in question; but when he had finished, and
+his eye fell again on the Shoes, he was unable to say whether those to
+the left or those to the right belonged to him. "At all events it must
+be those which are wet," thought he; but this time, in spite of his
+cleverness, he guessed quite wrong, for it was just those of Fortune
+which played as it were into his hands, or rather on his feet. And why,
+I should like to know, are the police never to be wrong? So he put them
+on quickly, stuck his papers in his pocket, and took besides a few under
+his arm, intending to look them through at home to make the necessary
+notes. It was noon; and the weather, that had threatened rain, began
+to clear up, while gaily dressed holiday folks filled the streets. "A
+little trip to Fredericksburg would do me no great harm," thought he;
+"for I, poor beast of burden that I am, have so much to annoy me, that I
+don't know what a good appetite is. 'Tis a bitter crust, alas! at which
+I am condemned to gnaw!"
+
+Nobody could be more steady or quiet than this young man; we therefore
+wish him joy of the excursion with all our heart; and it will certainly
+be beneficial for a person who leads so sedentary a life. In the park
+he met a friend, one of our young poets, who told him that the following
+day he should set out on his long-intended tour.
+
+"So you are going away again!" said the clerk. "You are a very free
+and happy being; we others are chained by the leg and held fast to our
+desk."
+
+"Yes; but it is a chain, friend, which ensures you the blessed bread
+of existence," answered the poet. "You need feel no care for the coming
+morrow: when you are old, you receive a pension."
+
+"True," said the clerk, shrugging his shoulders; "and yet you are
+the better off. To sit at one's ease and poetise--that is a pleasure;
+everybody has something agreeable to say to you, and you are always your
+own master. No, friend, you should but try what it is to sit from one
+year's end to the other occupied with and judging the most trivial
+matters."
+
+The poet shook his head, the copying-clerk did the same. Each one kept
+to his own opinion, and so they separated.
+
+"It's a strange race, those poets!" said the clerk, who was very fond of
+soliloquizing. "I should like some day, just for a trial, to take such
+nature upon me, and be a poet myself; I am very sure I should make
+no such miserable verses as the others. Today, methinks, is a most
+delicious day for a poet. Nature seems anew to celebrate her awakening
+into life. The air is so unusually clear, the clouds sail on so
+buoyantly, and from the green herbage a fragrance is exhaled that fills
+me with delight. For many a year have I not felt as at this moment."
+
+We see already, by the foregoing effusion, that he is become a poet; to
+give further proof of it, however, would in most cases be insipid, for
+it is a most foolish notion to fancy a poet different from other men.
+Among the latter there may be far more poetical natures than many an
+acknowledged poet, when examined more closely, could boast of; the
+difference only is, that the poet possesses a better mental memory, on
+which account he is able to retain the feeling and the thought till they
+can be embodied by means of words; a faculty which the others do not
+possess. But the transition from a commonplace nature to one that is
+richly endowed, demands always a more or less breakneck leap over a
+certain abyss which yawns threateningly below; and thus must the sudden
+change with the clerk strike the reader.
+
+"The sweet air!" continued he of the police-office, in his dreamy
+imaginings; "how it reminds me of the violets in the garden of my aunt
+Magdalena! Yes, then I was a little wild boy, who did not go to school
+very regularly. O heavens! 'tis a long time since I have thought on
+those times. The good old soul! She lived behind the Exchange. She
+always had a few twigs or green shoots in water--let the winter rage
+without as it might. The violets exhaled their sweet breath, whilst I
+pressed against the windowpanes covered with fantastic frost-work the
+copper coin I had heated on the stove, and so made peep-holes.
+What splendid vistas were then opened to my view! What change--what
+magnificence! Yonder in the canal lay the ships frozen up, and deserted
+by their whole crews, with a screaming crow for the sole occupant. But
+when the spring, with a gentle stirring motion, announced her arrival,
+a new and busy life arose; with songs and hurrahs the ice was sawn
+asunder, the ships were fresh tarred and rigged, that they might sail
+away to distant lands. But I have remained here--must always remain
+here, sitting at my desk in the office, and patiently see other people
+fetch their passports to go abroad. Such is my fate! Alas!"--sighed he,
+and was again silent. "Great Heaven! What is come to me! Never have I
+thought or felt like this before! It must be the summer air that affects
+me with feelings almost as disquieting as they are refreshing."
+
+He felt in his pocket for the papers. "These police-reports will soon
+stem the torrent of my ideas, and effectually hinder any rebellious
+overflowing of the time-worn banks of official duties"; he said to
+himself consolingly, while his eye ran over the first page. "DAME
+TIGBRITH, tragedy in five acts." "What is that? And yet it is undeniably
+my own handwriting. Have I written the tragedy? Wonderful, very
+wonderful!--And this--what have I here? 'INTRIGUE ON THE RAMPARTS; or
+THE DAY OF REPENTANCE: vaudeville with new songs to the most favorite
+airs.' The deuce! Where did I get all this rubbish? Some one must have
+slipped it slyly into my pocket for a joke. There is too a letter to me;
+a crumpled letter and the seal broken."
+
+Yes; it was not a very polite epistle from the manager of a theatre, in
+which both pieces were flatly refused.
+
+"Hem! hem!" said the clerk breathlessly, and quite exhausted he seated
+himself on a bank. His thoughts were so elastic, his heart so tender;
+and involuntarily he picked one of the nearest flowers. It is a simple
+daisy, just bursting out of the bud. What the botanist tells us after
+a number of imperfect lectures, the flower proclaimed in a minute. It
+related the mythus of its birth, told of the power of the sun-light that
+spread out its delicate leaves, and forced them to impregnate the air
+with their incense--and then he thought of the manifold struggles of
+life, which in like manner awaken the budding flowers of feeling in our
+bosom. Light and air contend with chivalric emulation for the love of
+the fair flower that bestowed her chief favors on the latter; full of
+longing she turned towards the light, and as soon as it vanished, rolled
+her tender leaves together and slept in the embraces of the air. "It is
+the light which adorns me," said the flower.
+
+"But 'tis the air which enables thee to breathe," said the poet's voice.
+
+Close by stood a boy who dashed his stick into a wet ditch. The drops of
+water splashed up to the green leafy roof, and the clerk thought of the
+million of ephemera which in a single drop were thrown up to a height,
+that was as great doubtless for their size, as for us if we were to
+be hurled above the clouds. While he thought of this and of the whole
+metamorphosis he had undergone, he smiled and said, "I sleep and dream;
+but it is wonderful how one can dream so naturally, and know besides so
+exactly that it is but a dream. If only to-morrow on awaking, I could
+again call all to mind so vividly! I seem in unusually good spirits; my
+perception of things is clear, I feel as light and cheerful as though
+I were in heaven; but I know for a certainty, that if to-morrow a dim
+remembrance of it should swim before my mind, it will then seem nothing
+but stupid nonsense, as I have often experienced already--especially
+before I enlisted under the banner of the police, for that dispels like
+a whirlwind all the visions of an unfettered imagination. All we hear
+or say in a dream that is fair and beautiful is like the gold of the
+subterranean spirits; it is rich and splendid when it is given us, but
+viewed by daylight we find only withered leaves. Alas!" he sighed quite
+sorrowful, and gazed at the chirping birds that hopped contentedly from
+branch to branch, "they are much better off than I! To fly must be a
+heavenly art; and happy do I prize that creature in which it is innate.
+Yes! Could I exchange my nature with any other creature, I fain would be
+such a happy little lark!"
+
+He had hardly uttered these hasty words when the skirts and sleeves
+of his coat folded themselves together into wings; the clothes became
+feathers, and the galoshes claws. He observed it perfectly, and laughed
+in his heart. "Now then, there is no doubt that I am dreaming; but I
+never before was aware of such mad freaks as these." And up he flew into
+the green roof and sang; but in the song there was no poetry, for the
+spirit of the poet was gone. The Shoes, as is the case with anybody who
+does what he has to do properly, could only attend to one thing at a
+time. He wanted to be a poet, and he was one; he now wished to be a
+merry chirping bird: but when he was metamorphosed into one, the former
+peculiarities ceased immediately. "It is really pleasant enough," said
+he: "the whole day long I sit in the office amid the driest
+law-papers, and at night I fly in my dream as a lark in the gardens of
+Fredericksburg; one might really write a very pretty comedy upon it." He
+now fluttered down into the grass, turned his head gracefully on every
+side, and with his bill pecked the pliant blades of grass, which, in
+comparison to his present size, seemed as majestic as the palm-branches
+of northern Africa.
+
+Unfortunately the pleasure lasted but a moment. Presently black night
+overshadowed our enthusiast, who had so entirely missed his part of
+copying-clerk at a police-office; some vast object seemed to be thrown
+over him. It was a large oil-skin cap, which a sailor-boy of the quay
+had thrown over the struggling bird; a coarse hand sought its way
+carefully in under the broad rim, and seized the clerk over the back
+and wings. In the first moment of fear, he called, indeed, as loud as
+he could--"You impudent little blackguard! I am a copying-clerk at
+the police-office; and you know you cannot insult any belonging to the
+constabulary force without a chastisement. Besides, you good-for-nothing
+rascal, it is strictly forbidden to catch birds in the royal gardens of
+Fredericksburg; but your blue uniform betrays where you come from."
+This fine tirade sounded, however, to the ungodly sailor-boy like a mere
+"Pippi-pi." He gave the noisy bird a knock on his beak, and walked on.
+
+He was soon met by two schoolboys of the upper class--that is to say as
+individuals, for with regard to learning they were in the lowest class
+in the school; and they bought the stupid bird. So the copying-clerk
+came to Copenhagen as guest, or rather as prisoner in a family living in
+Gother Street.
+
+"'Tis well that I'm dreaming," said the clerk, "or I really should get
+angry. First I was a poet; now sold for a few pence as a lark; no doubt
+it was that accursed poetical nature which has metamorphosed me
+into such a poor harmless little creature. It is really pitiable,
+particularly when one gets into the hands of a little blackguard,
+perfect in all sorts of cruelty to animals: all I should like to know
+is, how the story will end."
+
+The two schoolboys, the proprietors now of the transformed clerk,
+carried him into an elegant room. A stout stately dame received them
+with a smile; but she expressed much dissatisfaction that a common
+field-bird, as she called the lark, should appear in such high society.
+For to-day, however, she would allow it; and they must shut him in the
+empty cage that was standing in the window. "Perhaps he will amuse my
+good Polly," added the lady, looking with a benignant smile at a large
+green parrot that swung himself backwards and forwards most comfortably
+in his ring, inside a magnificent brass-wired cage. "To-day is Polly's
+birthday," said she with stupid simplicity: "and the little brown
+field-bird must wish him joy."
+
+Mr. Polly uttered not a syllable in reply, but swung to and fro with
+dignified condescension; while a pretty canary, as yellow as gold, that
+had lately been brought from his sunny fragrant home, began to sing
+aloud.
+
+"Noisy creature! Will you be quiet!" screamed the lady of the house,
+covering the cage with an embroidered white pocket handkerchief.
+
+"Chirp, chirp!" sighed he. "That was a dreadful snowstorm"; and he
+sighed again, and was silent.
+
+The copying-clerk, or, as the lady said, the brown field-bird, was
+put into a small cage, close to the Canary, and not far from "my good
+Polly." The only human sounds that the Parrot could bawl out
+were, "Come, let us be men!" Everything else that he said was as
+unintelligible to everybody as the chirping of the Canary, except to the
+clerk, who was now a bird too: he understood his companion perfectly.
+
+"I flew about beneath the green palms and the blossoming almond-trees,"
+sang the Canary; "I flew around, with my brothers and sisters, over
+the beautiful flowers, and over the glassy lakes, where the bright
+water-plants nodded to me from below. There, too, I saw many
+splendidly-dressed paroquets, that told the drollest stories, and the
+wildest fairy tales without end."
+
+"Oh! those were uncouth birds," answered the Parrot. "They had no
+education, and talked of whatever came into their head.
+
+"If my mistress and all her friends can laugh at what I say, so may you
+too, I should think. It is a great fault to have no taste for what is
+witty or amusing--come, let us be men."
+
+"Ah, you have no remembrance of love for the charming maidens that
+danced beneath the outspread tents beside the bright fragrant flowers?
+Do you no longer remember the sweet fruits, and the cooling juice in
+the wild plants of our never-to-be-forgotten home?" said the former
+inhabitant of the Canary Isles, continuing his dithyrambic.
+
+"Oh, yes," said the Parrot; "but I am far better off here. I am well
+fed, and get friendly treatment. I know I am a clever fellow; and that
+is all I care about. Come, let us be men. You are of a poetical nature,
+as it is called--I, on the contrary, possess profound knowledge and
+inexhaustible wit. You have genius; but clear-sighted, calm discretion
+does not take such lofty flights, and utter such high natural tones.
+For this they have covered you over--they never do the like to me; for
+I cost more. Besides, they are afraid of my beak; and I have always a
+witty answer at hand. Come, let us be men!"
+
+"O warm spicy land of my birth," sang the Canary bird; "I will sing of
+thy dark-green bowers, of the calm bays where the pendent boughs
+kiss the surface of the water; I will sing of the rejoicing of all my
+brothers and sisters where the cactus grows in wanton luxuriance."
+
+"Spare us your elegiac tones," said the Parrot giggling. "Rather speak
+of something at which one may laugh heartily. Laughing is an infallible
+sign of the highest degree of mental development. Can a dog, or a horse
+laugh? No, but they can cry. The gift of laughing was given to man
+alone. Ha! ha! ha!" screamed Polly, and added his stereotype witticism.
+"Come, let us be men!"
+
+"Poor little Danish grey-bird," said the Canary; "you have been caught
+too. It is, no doubt, cold enough in your woods, but there at least
+is the breath of liberty; therefore fly away. In the hurry they have
+forgotten to shut your cage, and the upper window is open. Fly, my
+friend; fly away. Farewell!"
+
+Instinctively the Clerk obeyed; with a few strokes of his wings he was
+out of the cage; but at the same moment the door, which was only ajar,
+and which led to the next room, began to creak, and supple and creeping
+came the large tomcat into the room, and began to pursue him. The
+frightened Canary fluttered about in his cage; the Parrot flapped his
+wings, and cried, "Come, let us be men!" The Clerk felt a mortal fright,
+and flew through the window, far away over the houses and streets. At
+last he was forced to rest a little.
+
+The neighboring house had a something familiar about it; a window stood
+open; he flew in; it was his own room. He perched upon the table.
+
+"Come, let us be men!" said he, involuntarily imitating the chatter of
+the Parrot, and at the same moment he was again a copying-clerk; but he
+was sitting in the middle of the table.
+
+"Heaven help me!" cried he. "How did I get up here--and so buried in
+sleep, too? After all, that was a very unpleasant, disagreeable dream
+that haunted me! The whole story is nothing but silly, stupid nonsense!"
+
+
+VI. The Best That the Galoshes Gave
+
+The following day, early in the morning, while the Clerk was still in
+bed, someone knocked at his door. It was his neighbor, a young Divine,
+who lived on the same floor. He walked in.
+
+"Lend me your Galoshes," said he; "it is so wet in the garden, though
+the sun is shining most invitingly. I should like to go out a little."
+
+He got the Galoshes, and he was soon below in a little duodecimo garden,
+where between two immense walls a plumtree and an apple-tree were
+standing. Even such a little garden as this was considered in the
+metropolis of Copenhagen as a great luxury.
+
+The young man wandered up and down the narrow paths, as well as the
+prescribed limits would allow; the clock struck six; without was heard
+the horn of a post-boy.
+
+"To travel! to travel!" exclaimed he, overcome by most painful and
+passionate remembrances. "That is the happiest thing in the world! That
+is the highest aim of all my wishes! Then at last would the agonizing
+restlessness be allayed, which destroys my existence! But it must be
+far, far away! I would behold magnificent Switzerland; I would travel to
+Italy, and--"
+
+It was a good thing that the power of the Galoshes worked as
+instantaneously as lightning in a powder-magazine would do, otherwise
+the poor man with his overstrained wishes would have travelled about
+the world too much for himself as well as for us. In short, he was
+travelling. He was in the middle of Switzerland, but packed up with
+eight other passengers in the inside of an eternally-creaking diligence;
+his head ached till it almost split, his weary neck could hardly bear
+the heavy load, and his feet, pinched by his torturing boots, were
+terribly swollen. He was in an intermediate state between sleeping and
+waking; at variance with himself, with his company, with the country,
+and with the government. In his right pocket he had his letter of
+credit, in the left, his passport, and in a small leathern purse some
+double louis d'or, carefully sewn up in the bosom of his waistcoat.
+Every dream proclaimed that one or the other of these valuables was
+lost; wherefore he started up as in a fever; and the first movement
+which his hand made, described a magic triangle from the right pocket to
+the left, and then up towards the bosom, to feel if he had them all safe
+or not. From the roof inside the carriage, umbrellas, walking-sticks,
+hats, and sundry other articles were depending, and hindered the view,
+which was particularly imposing. He now endeavored as well as he
+was able to dispel his gloom, which was caused by outward chance
+circumstances merely, and on the bosom of nature imbibe the milk of
+purest human enjoyment.
+
+Grand, solemn, and dark was the whole landscape around. The gigantic
+pine-forests, on the pointed crags, seemed almost like little tufts of
+heather, colored by the surrounding clouds. It began to snow, a cold
+wind blew and roared as though it were seeking a bride.
+
+"Augh!" sighed he, "were we only on the other side the Alps, then we
+should have summer, and I could get my letters of credit cashed. The
+anxiety I feel about them prevents me enjoying Switzerland. Were I but
+on the other side!"
+
+And so saying he was on the other side in Italy, between Florence and
+Rome. Lake Thracymene, illumined by the evening sun, lay like flaming
+gold between the dark-blue mountain-ridges; here, where Hannibal
+defeated Flaminius, the rivers now held each other in their green
+embraces; lovely, half-naked children tended a herd of black swine,
+beneath a group of fragrant laurel-trees, hard by the road-side.
+Could we render this inimitable picture properly, then would everybody
+exclaim, "Beautiful, unparalleled Italy!" But neither the young Divine
+said so, nor anyone of his grumbling companions in the coach of the
+vetturino.
+
+The poisonous flies and gnats swarmed around by thousands; in vain one
+waved myrtle-branches about like mad; the audacious insect population
+did not cease to sting; nor was there a single person in the
+well-crammed carriage whose face was not swollen and sore from their
+ravenous bites. The poor horses, tortured almost to death, suffered most
+from this truly Egyptian plague; the flies alighted upon them in large
+disgusting swarms; and if the coachman got down and scraped them off,
+hardly a minute elapsed before they were there again. The sun now set: a
+freezing cold, though of short duration pervaded the whole creation;
+it was like a horrid gust coming from a burial-vault on a warm summer's
+day--but all around the mountains retained that wonderful green tone
+which we see in some old pictures, and which, should we not have seen a
+similar play of color in the South, we declare at once to be unnatural.
+It was a glorious prospect; but the stomach was empty, the body tired;
+all that the heart cared and longed for was good night-quarters; yet
+how would they be? For these one looked much more anxiously than for the
+charms of nature, which every where were so profusely displayed.
+
+The road led through an olive-grove, and here the solitary inn was
+situated. Ten or twelve crippled-beggars had encamped outside. The
+healthiest of them resembled, to use an expression of Marryat's,
+"Hunger's eldest son when he had come of age"; the others were either
+blind, had withered legs and crept about on their hands, or withered
+arms and fingerless hands. It was the most wretched misery, dragged
+from among the filthiest rags. "Excellenza, miserabili!" sighed they,
+thrusting forth their deformed limbs to view. Even the hostess, with
+bare feet, uncombed hair, and dressed in a garment of doubtful color,
+received the guests grumblingly. The doors were fastened with a loop of
+string; the floor of the rooms presented a stone paving half torn
+up; bats fluttered wildly about the ceiling; and as to the smell
+therein--no--that was beyond description.
+
+"You had better lay the cloth below in the stable," said one of the
+travellers; "there, at all events, one knows what one is breathing."
+
+The windows were quickly opened, to let in a little fresh air. Quicker,
+however, than the breeze, the withered, sallow arms of the beggars were
+thrust in, accompanied by the eternal whine of "Miserabili, miserabili,
+excellenza!" On the walls were displayed innumerable inscriptions,
+written in nearly every language of Europe, some in verse, some in
+prose, most of them not very laudatory of "bella Italia."
+
+The meal was served. It consisted of a soup of salted water, seasoned
+with pepper and rancid oil. The last ingredient played a very prominent
+part in the salad; stale eggs and roasted cocks'-combs furnished the
+grand dish of the repast; the wine even was not without a disgusting
+taste--it was like a medicinal draught.
+
+At night the boxes and other effects of the passengers were placed
+against the rickety doors. One of the travellers kept watch while the
+others slept. The sentry was our young Divine. How close it was in the
+chamber! The heat oppressive to suffocation--the gnats hummed and stung
+unceasingly--the "miserabili" without whined and moaned in their sleep.
+
+"Travelling would be agreeable enough," said he groaning, "if one only
+had no body, or could send it to rest while the spirit went on its
+pilgrimage unhindered, whither the voice within might call it. Wherever
+I go, I am pursued by a longing that is insatiable--that I cannot
+explain to myself, and that tears my very heart. I want something better
+than what is but what is fled in an instant. But what is it, and where
+is it to be found? Yet, I know in reality what it is I wish for. Oh!
+most happy were I, could I but reach one aim--could but reach the
+happiest of all!"
+
+And as he spoke the word he was again in his home; the long white
+curtains hung down from the windows, and in the middle of the floor
+stood the black coffin; in it he lay in the sleep of death. His wish
+was fulfilled--the body rested, while the spirit went unhindered on its
+pilgrimage. "Let no one deem himself happy before his end," were the
+words of Solon; and here was a new and brilliant proof of the wisdom of
+the old apothegm.
+
+Every corpse is a sphynx of immortality; here too on the black coffin
+the sphynx gave us no answer to what he who lay within had written two
+days before:
+
+     "O mighty Death! thy silence teaches nought,
+       Thou leadest only to the near grave's brink;
+      Is broken now the ladder of my thoughts?
+     Do I instead of mounting only sink?
+
+     Our heaviest grief the world oft seeth not,
+      Our sorest pain we hide from stranger eyes:
+      And for the sufferer there is nothing left
+     But the green mound that o'er the coffin lies."
+
+Two figures were moving in the chamber. We knew them both; it was the
+fairy of Care, and the emissary of Fortune. They both bent over the
+corpse.
+
+"Do you now see," said Care, "what happiness your Galoshes have brought
+to mankind?"
+
+"To him, at least, who slumbers here, they have brought an imperishable
+blessing," answered the other.
+
+"Ah no!" replied Care. "He took his departure himself; he was not called
+away. His mental powers here below were not strong enough to reach the
+treasures lying beyond this life, and which his destiny ordained he
+should obtain. I will now confer a benefit on him."
+
+And she took the Galoshes from his feet; his sleep of death was ended;
+and he who had been thus called back again to life arose from his
+dread couch in all the vigor of youth. Care vanished, and with her the
+Galoshes. She has no doubt taken them for herself, to keep them to all
+eternity.
+
+
+
+
+THE FIR TREE
+
+Out in the woods stood a nice little Fir Tree. The place he had was a
+very good one: the sun shone on him: as to fresh air, there was enough
+of that, and round him grew many large-sized comrades, pines as well as
+firs. But the little Fir wanted so very much to be a grown-up tree.
+
+He did not think of the warm sun and of the fresh air; he did not care
+for the little cottage children that ran about and prattled when they
+were in the woods looking for wild-strawberries. The children often came
+with a whole pitcher full of berries, or a long row of them threaded on
+a straw, and sat down near the young tree and said, "Oh, how pretty he
+is! What a nice little fir!" But this was what the Tree could not bear
+to hear.
+
+At the end of a year he had shot up a good deal, and after another year
+he was another long bit taller; for with fir trees one can always tell
+by the shoots how many years old they are.
+
+"Oh! Were I but such a high tree as the others are," sighed he. "Then I
+should be able to spread out my branches, and with the tops to look into
+the wide world! Then would the birds build nests among my branches: and
+when there was a breeze, I could bend with as much stateliness as the
+others!"
+
+Neither the sunbeams, nor the birds, nor the red clouds which morning
+and evening sailed above him, gave the little Tree any pleasure.
+
+In winter, when the snow lay glittering on the ground, a hare would
+often come leaping along, and jump right over the little Tree. Oh, that
+made him so angry! But two winters were past, and in the third the Tree
+was so large that the hare was obliged to go round it. "To grow and
+grow, to get older and be tall," thought the Tree--"that, after all, is
+the most delightful thing in the world!"
+
+In autumn the wood-cutters always came and felled some of the largest
+trees. This happened every year; and the young Fir Tree, that had now
+grown to a very comely size, trembled at the sight; for the magnificent
+great trees fell to the earth with noise and cracking, the branches were
+lopped off, and the trees looked long and bare; they were hardly to be
+recognised; and then they were laid in carts, and the horses dragged
+them out of the wood.
+
+Where did they go to? What became of them?
+
+In spring, when the swallows and the storks came, the Tree asked them,
+"Don't you know where they have been taken? Have you not met them
+anywhere?"
+
+The swallows did not know anything about it; but the Stork looked
+musing, nodded his head, and said, "Yes; I think I know; I met many
+ships as I was flying hither from Egypt; on the ships were magnificent
+masts, and I venture to assert that it was they that smelt so of fir.
+I may congratulate you, for they lifted themselves on high most
+majestically!"
+
+"Oh, were I but old enough to fly across the sea! But how does the sea
+look in reality? What is it like?"
+
+"That would take a long time to explain," said the Stork, and with these
+words off he went.
+
+"Rejoice in thy growth!" said the Sunbeams. "Rejoice in thy vigorous
+growth, and in the fresh life that moveth within thee!"
+
+And the Wind kissed the Tree, and the Dew wept tears over him; but the
+Fir understood it not.
+
+When Christmas came, quite young trees were cut down: trees which often
+were not even as large or of the same age as this Fir Tree, who could
+never rest, but always wanted to be off. These young trees, and they
+were always the finest looking, retained their branches; they were laid
+on carts, and the horses drew them out of the wood.
+
+"Where are they going to?" asked the Fir. "They are not taller than
+I; there was one indeed that was considerably shorter; and why do they
+retain all their branches? Whither are they taken?"
+
+"We know! We know!" chirped the Sparrows. "We have peeped in at the
+windows in the town below! We know whither they are taken! The greatest
+splendor and the greatest magnificence one can imagine await them. We
+peeped through the windows, and saw them planted in the middle of the
+warm room and ornamented with the most splendid things, with gilded
+apples, with gingerbread, with toys, and many hundred lights!"
+
+"And then?" asked the Fir Tree, trembling in every bough. "And then?
+What happens then?"
+
+"We did not see anything more: it was incomparably beautiful."
+
+"I would fain know if I am destined for so glorious a career," cried
+the Tree, rejoicing. "That is still better than to cross the sea! What
+a longing do I suffer! Were Christmas but come! I am now tall, and my
+branches spread like the others that were carried off last year! Oh!
+were I but already on the cart! Were I in the warm room with all the
+splendor and magnificence! Yes; then something better, something still
+grander, will surely follow, or wherefore should they thus ornament me?
+Something better, something still grander must follow--but what? Oh, how
+I long, how I suffer! I do not know myself what is the matter with me!"
+
+"Rejoice in our presence!" said the Air and the Sunlight. "Rejoice in
+thy own fresh youth!"
+
+But the Tree did not rejoice at all; he grew and grew, and was green
+both winter and summer. People that saw him said, "What a fine tree!"
+and towards Christmas he was one of the first that was cut down. The axe
+struck deep into the very pith; the Tree fell to the earth with a sigh;
+he felt a pang--it was like a swoon; he could not think of happiness,
+for he was sorrowful at being separated from his home, from the place
+where he had sprung up. He well knew that he should never see his dear
+old comrades, the little bushes and flowers around him, anymore; perhaps
+not even the birds! The departure was not at all agreeable.
+
+The Tree only came to himself when he was unloaded in a court-yard with
+the other trees, and heard a man say, "That one is splendid! We don't
+want the others." Then two servants came in rich livery and carried the
+Fir Tree into a large and splendid drawing-room. Portraits were hanging
+on the walls, and near the white porcelain stove stood two large Chinese
+vases with lions on the covers. There, too, were large easy-chairs,
+silken sofas, large tables full of picture-books and full of toys, worth
+hundreds and hundreds of crowns--at least the children said so. And the
+Fir Tree was stuck upright in a cask that was filled with sand; but no
+one could see that it was a cask, for green cloth was hung all round it,
+and it stood on a large gaily-colored carpet. Oh! how the Tree quivered!
+What was to happen? The servants, as well as the young ladies, decorated
+it. On one branch there hung little nets cut out of colored paper, and
+each net was filled with sugarplums; and among the other boughs gilded
+apples and walnuts were suspended, looking as though they had grown
+there, and little blue and white tapers were placed among the leaves.
+Dolls that looked for all the world like men--the Tree had never beheld
+such before--were seen among the foliage, and at the very top a
+large star of gold tinsel was fixed. It was really splendid--beyond
+description splendid.
+
+"This evening!" they all said. "How it will shine this evening!"
+
+"Oh!" thought the Tree. "If the evening were but come! If the tapers
+were but lighted! And then I wonder what will happen! Perhaps the other
+trees from the forest will come to look at me! Perhaps the sparrows will
+beat against the windowpanes! I wonder if I shall take root here, and
+winter and summer stand covered with ornaments!"
+
+He knew very much about the matter--but he was so impatient that for
+sheer longing he got a pain in his back, and this with trees is the same
+thing as a headache with us.
+
+The candles were now lighted--what brightness! What splendor! The
+Tree trembled so in every bough that one of the tapers set fire to the
+foliage. It blazed up famously.
+
+"Help! Help!" cried the young ladies, and they quickly put out the fire.
+
+Now the Tree did not even dare tremble. What a state he was in! He was
+so uneasy lest he should lose something of his splendor, that he was
+quite bewildered amidst the glare and brightness; when suddenly both
+folding-doors opened and a troop of children rushed in as if they would
+upset the Tree. The older persons followed quietly; the little ones
+stood quite still. But it was only for a moment; then they shouted that
+the whole place re-echoed with their rejoicing; they danced round the
+Tree, and one present after the other was pulled off.
+
+"What are they about?" thought the Tree. "What is to happen now!" And
+the lights burned down to the very branches, and as they burned down
+they were put out one after the other, and then the children had
+permission to plunder the Tree. So they fell upon it with such violence
+that all its branches cracked; if it had not been fixed firmly in the
+ground, it would certainly have tumbled down.
+
+The children danced about with their beautiful playthings; no one looked
+at the Tree except the old nurse, who peeped between the branches; but
+it was only to see if there was a fig or an apple left that had been
+forgotten.
+
+"A story! A story!" cried the children, drawing a little fat man towards
+the Tree. He seated himself under it and said, "Now we are in the shade,
+and the Tree can listen too. But I shall tell only one story. Now which
+will you have; that about Ivedy-Avedy, or about Humpy-Dumpy, who
+tumbled downstairs, and yet after all came to the throne and married the
+princess?"
+
+"Ivedy-Avedy," cried some; "Humpy-Dumpy," cried the others. There was
+such a bawling and screaming--the Fir Tree alone was silent, and he
+thought to himself, "Am I not to bawl with the rest? Am I to do nothing
+whatever?" for he was one of the company, and had done what he had to
+do.
+
+And the man told about Humpy-Dumpy that tumbled down, who
+notwithstanding came to the throne, and at last married the princess.
+And the children clapped their hands, and cried. "Oh, go on! Do go on!"
+They wanted to hear about Ivedy-Avedy too, but the little man only told
+them about Humpy-Dumpy. The Fir Tree stood quite still and absorbed
+in thought; the birds in the wood had never related the like of this.
+"Humpy-Dumpy fell downstairs, and yet he married the princess! Yes, yes!
+That's the way of the world!" thought the Fir Tree, and believed it all,
+because the man who told the story was so good-looking. "Well, well! who
+knows, perhaps I may fall downstairs, too, and get a princess as wife!"
+And he looked forward with joy to the morrow, when he hoped to be decked
+out again with lights, playthings, fruits, and tinsel.
+
+"I won't tremble to-morrow!" thought the Fir Tree. "I will enjoy to
+the full all my splendor! To-morrow I shall hear again the story of
+Humpy-Dumpy, and perhaps that of Ivedy-Avedy too." And the whole night
+the Tree stood still and in deep thought.
+
+In the morning the servant and the housemaid came in.
+
+"Now then the splendor will begin again," thought the Fir. But they
+dragged him out of the room, and up the stairs into the loft: and here,
+in a dark corner, where no daylight could enter, they left him. "What's
+the meaning of this?" thought the Tree. "What am I to do here? What
+shall I hear now, I wonder?" And he leaned against the wall lost in
+reverie. Time enough had he too for his reflections; for days and nights
+passed on, and nobody came up; and when at last somebody did come, it
+was only to put some great trunks in a corner, out of the way. There
+stood the Tree quite hidden; it seemed as if he had been entirely
+forgotten.
+
+"'Tis now winter out-of-doors!" thought the Tree. "The earth is hard and
+covered with snow; men cannot plant me now, and therefore I have been
+put up here under shelter till the spring-time comes! How thoughtful
+that is! How kind man is, after all! If it only were not so dark here,
+and so terribly lonely! Not even a hare! And out in the woods it was
+so pleasant, when the snow was on the ground, and the hare leaped by;
+yes--even when he jumped over me; but I did not like it then! It is
+really terribly lonely here!"
+
+"Squeak! Squeak!" said a little Mouse, at the same moment, peeping out
+of his hole. And then another little one came. They snuffed about the
+Fir Tree, and rustled among the branches.
+
+"It is dreadfully cold," said the Mouse. "But for that, it would be
+delightful here, old Fir, wouldn't it?"
+
+"I am by no means old," said the Fir Tree. "There's many a one
+considerably older than I am."
+
+"Where do you come from," asked the Mice; "and what can you do?" They
+were so extremely curious. "Tell us about the most beautiful spot on the
+earth. Have you never been there? Were you never in the larder, where
+cheeses lie on the shelves, and hams hang from above; where one dances
+about on tallow candles: that place where one enters lean, and comes out
+again fat and portly?"
+
+"I know no such place," said the Tree. "But I know the wood, where the
+sun shines and where the little birds sing." And then he told all about
+his youth; and the little Mice had never heard the like before; and they
+listened and said,
+
+"Well, to be sure! How much you have seen! How happy you must have
+been!"
+
+"I!" said the Fir Tree, thinking over what he had himself related.
+"Yes, in reality those were happy times." And then he told about
+Christmas-eve, when he was decked out with cakes and candles.
+
+"Oh," said the little Mice, "how fortunate you have been, old Fir Tree!"
+
+"I am by no means old," said he. "I came from the wood this winter; I am
+in my prime, and am only rather short for my age."
+
+"What delightful stories you know," said the Mice: and the next night
+they came with four other little Mice, who were to hear what the Tree
+recounted: and the more he related, the more he remembered himself; and
+it appeared as if those times had really been happy times. "But they may
+still come--they may still come! Humpy-Dumpy fell downstairs, and yet
+he got a princess!" and he thought at the moment of a nice little Birch
+Tree growing out in the woods: to the Fir, that would be a real charming
+princess.
+
+"Who is Humpy-Dumpy?" asked the Mice. So then the Fir Tree told the
+whole fairy tale, for he could remember every single word of it; and the
+little Mice jumped for joy up to the very top of the Tree. Next night
+two more Mice came, and on Sunday two Rats even; but they said the
+stories were not interesting, which vexed the little Mice; and they,
+too, now began to think them not so very amusing either.
+
+"Do you know only one story?" asked the Rats.
+
+"Only that one," answered the Tree. "I heard it on my happiest evening;
+but I did not then know how happy I was."
+
+"It is a very stupid story! Don't you know one about bacon and tallow
+candles? Can't you tell any larder stories?"
+
+"No," said the Tree.
+
+"Then good-bye," said the Rats; and they went home.
+
+At last the little Mice stayed away also; and the Tree sighed: "After
+all, it was very pleasant when the sleek little Mice sat round me, and
+listened to what I told them. Now that too is over. But I will take good
+care to enjoy myself when I am brought out again."
+
+But when was that to be? Why, one morning there came a quantity of
+people and set to work in the loft. The trunks were moved, the tree was
+pulled out and thrown--rather hard, it is true--down on the floor, but a
+man drew him towards the stairs, where the daylight shone.
+
+"Now a merry life will begin again," thought the Tree. He felt the fresh
+air, the first sunbeam--and now he was out in the courtyard. All passed
+so quickly, there was so much going on around him, the Tree quite forgot
+to look to himself. The court adjoined a garden, and all was in flower;
+the roses hung so fresh and odorous over the balustrade, the lindens
+were in blossom, the Swallows flew by, and said, "Quirre-vit! My husband
+is come!" but it was not the Fir Tree that they meant.
+
+"Now, then, I shall really enjoy life," said he exultingly, and spread
+out his branches; but, alas, they were all withered and yellow! It was
+in a corner that he lay, among weeds and nettles. The golden star of
+tinsel was still on the top of the Tree, and glittered in the sunshine.
+
+In the court-yard some of the merry children were playing who had danced
+at Christmas round the Fir Tree, and were so glad at the sight of him.
+One of the youngest ran and tore off the golden star.
+
+"Only look what is still on the ugly old Christmas tree!" said he,
+trampling on the branches, so that they all cracked beneath his feet.
+
+And the Tree beheld all the beauty of the flowers, and the freshness in
+the garden; he beheld himself, and wished he had remained in his dark
+corner in the loft; he thought of his first youth in the wood, of the
+merry Christmas-eve, and of the little Mice who had listened with so
+much pleasure to the story of Humpy-Dumpy.
+
+"'Tis over--'tis past!" said the poor Tree. "Had I but rejoiced when I
+had reason to do so! But now 'tis past, 'tis past!"
+
+And the gardener's boy chopped the Tree into small pieces; there was a
+whole heap lying there. The wood flamed up splendidly under the large
+brewing copper, and it sighed so deeply! Each sigh was like a shot.
+
+The boys played about in the court, and the youngest wore the gold star
+on his breast which the Tree had had on the happiest evening of his
+life. However, that was over now--the Tree gone, the story at an end.
+All, all was over--every tale must end at last.
+
+
+
+
+THE SNOW QUEEN
+
+FIRST STORY. Which Treats of a Mirror and of the Splinters
+
+Now then, let us begin. When we are at the end of the story, we shall
+know more than we know now: but to begin.
+
+Once upon a time there was a wicked sprite, indeed he was the most
+mischievous of all sprites. One day he was in a very good humor, for
+he had made a mirror with the power of causing all that was good and
+beautiful when it was reflected therein, to look poor and mean; but
+that which was good-for-nothing and looked ugly was shown magnified
+and increased in ugliness. In this mirror the most beautiful landscapes
+looked like boiled spinach, and the best persons were turned into
+frights, or appeared to stand on their heads; their faces were so
+distorted that they were not to be recognised; and if anyone had a mole,
+you might be sure that it would be magnified and spread over both nose
+and mouth.
+
+"That's glorious fun!" said the sprite. If a good thought passed through
+a man's mind, then a grin was seen in the mirror, and the sprite laughed
+heartily at his clever discovery. All the little sprites who went to his
+school--for he kept a sprite school--told each other that a miracle had
+happened; and that now only, as they thought, it would be possible to
+see how the world really looked. They ran about with the mirror; and at
+last there was not a land or a person who was not represented distorted
+in the mirror. So then they thought they would fly up to the sky,
+and have a joke there. The higher they flew with the mirror, the more
+terribly it grinned: they could hardly hold it fast. Higher and higher
+still they flew, nearer and nearer to the stars, when suddenly the
+mirror shook so terribly with grinning, that it flew out of their hands
+and fell to the earth, where it was dashed in a hundred million and more
+pieces. And now it worked much more evil than before; for some of these
+pieces were hardly so large as a grain of sand, and they flew about in
+the wide world, and when they got into people's eyes, there they stayed;
+and then people saw everything perverted, or only had an eye for that
+which was evil. This happened because the very smallest bit had the
+same power which the whole mirror had possessed. Some persons even got
+a splinter in their heart, and then it made one shudder, for their heart
+became like a lump of ice. Some of the broken pieces were so large that
+they were used for windowpanes, through which one could not see one's
+friends. Other pieces were put in spectacles; and that was a sad affair
+when people put on their glasses to see well and rightly. Then the
+wicked sprite laughed till he almost choked, for all this tickled his
+fancy. The fine splinters still flew about in the air: and now we shall
+hear what happened next.
+
+
+SECOND STORY. A Little Boy and a Little Girl
+
+In a large town, where there are so many houses, and so many people,
+that there is no roof left for everybody to have a little garden; and
+where, on this account, most persons are obliged to content themselves
+with flowers in pots; there lived two little children, who had a garden
+somewhat larger than a flower-pot. They were not brother and sister; but
+they cared for each other as much as if they were. Their parents lived
+exactly opposite. They inhabited two garrets; and where the roof of the
+one house joined that of the other, and the gutter ran along the extreme
+end of it, there was to each house a small window: one needed only to
+step over the gutter to get from one window to the other.
+
+The children's parents had large wooden boxes there, in which vegetables
+for the kitchen were planted, and little rosetrees besides: there was a
+rose in each box, and they grew splendidly. They now thought of placing
+the boxes across the gutter, so that they nearly reached from one window
+to the other, and looked just like two walls of flowers. The tendrils
+of the peas hung down over the boxes; and the rose-trees shot up long
+branches, twined round the windows, and then bent towards each other: it
+was almost like a triumphant arch of foliage and flowers. The boxes were
+very high, and the children knew that they must not creep over them; so
+they often obtained permission to get out of the windows to each other,
+and to sit on their little stools among the roses, where they could play
+delightfully. In winter there was an end of this pleasure. The windows
+were often frozen over; but then they heated copper farthings on the
+stove, and laid the hot farthing on the windowpane, and then they had a
+capital peep-hole, quite nicely rounded; and out of each peeped a gentle
+friendly eye--it was the little boy and the little girl who were looking
+out. His name was Kay, hers was Gerda. In summer, with one jump, they
+could get to each other; but in winter they were obliged first to
+go down the long stairs, and then up the long stairs again: and
+out-of-doors there was quite a snow-storm.
+
+"It is the white bees that are swarming," said Kay's old grandmother.
+
+"Do the white bees choose a queen?" asked the little boy; for he knew
+that the honey-bees always have one.
+
+"Yes," said the grandmother, "she flies where the swarm hangs in the
+thickest clusters. She is the largest of all; and she can never remain
+quietly on the earth, but goes up again into the black clouds. Many a
+winter's night she flies through the streets of the town, and peeps in
+at the windows; and they then freeze in so wondrous a manner that they
+look like flowers."
+
+"Yes, I have seen it," said both the children; and so they knew that it
+was true.
+
+"Can the Snow Queen come in?" said the little girl.
+
+"Only let her come in!" said the little boy. "Then I'd put her on the
+stove, and she'd melt."
+
+And then his grandmother patted his head and told him other stories.
+
+In the evening, when little Kay was at home, and half undressed, he
+climbed up on the chair by the window, and peeped out of the little
+hole. A few snow-flakes were falling, and one, the largest of all,
+remained lying on the edge of a flower-pot.
+
+The flake of snow grew larger and larger; and at last it was like a
+young lady, dressed in the finest white gauze, made of a million little
+flakes like stars. She was so beautiful and delicate, but she was of
+ice, of dazzling, sparkling ice; yet she lived; her eyes gazed fixedly,
+like two stars; but there was neither quiet nor repose in them. She
+nodded towards the window, and beckoned with her hand. The little boy
+was frightened, and jumped down from the chair; it seemed to him as if,
+at the same moment, a large bird flew past the window.
+
+The next day it was a sharp frost--and then the spring came; the sun
+shone, the green leaves appeared, the swallows built their nests, the
+windows were opened, and the little children again sat in their pretty
+garden, high up on the leads at the top of the house.
+
+That summer the roses flowered in unwonted beauty. The little girl had
+learned a hymn, in which there was something about roses; and then she
+thought of her own flowers; and she sang the verse to the little boy,
+who then sang it with her:
+
+     "The rose in the valley is blooming so sweet,
+     And angels descend there the children to greet."
+
+And the children held each other by the hand, kissed the roses, looked
+up at the clear sunshine, and spoke as though they really saw angels
+there. What lovely summer-days those were! How delightful to be out in
+the air, near the fresh rose-bushes, that seem as if they would never
+finish blossoming!
+
+Kay and Gerda looked at the picture-book full of beasts and of birds;
+and it was then--the clock in the church-tower was just striking
+five--that Kay said, "Oh! I feel such a sharp pain in my heart; and now
+something has got into my eye!"
+
+The little girl put her arms around his neck. He winked his eyes; now
+there was nothing to be seen.
+
+"I think it is out now," said he; but it was not. It was just one of
+those pieces of glass from the magic mirror that had got into his eye;
+and poor Kay had got another piece right in his heart. It will soon
+become like ice. It did not hurt any longer, but there it was.
+
+"What are you crying for?" asked he. "You look so ugly! There's nothing
+the matter with me. Ah," said he at once, "that rose is cankered! And
+look, this one is quite crooked! After all, these roses are very ugly!
+They are just like the box they are planted in!" And then he gave the
+box a good kick with his foot, and pulled both the roses up.
+
+"What are you doing?" cried the little girl; and as he perceived her
+fright, he pulled up another rose, got in at the window, and hastened
+off from dear little Gerda.
+
+Afterwards, when she brought her picture-book, he asked, "What horrid
+beasts have you there?" And if his grandmother told them stories, he
+always interrupted her; besides, if he could manage it, he would get
+behind her, put on her spectacles, and imitate her way of speaking; he
+copied all her ways, and then everybody laughed at him. He was soon able
+to imitate the gait and manner of everyone in the street. Everything
+that was peculiar and displeasing in them--that Kay knew how to imitate:
+and at such times all the people said, "The boy is certainly very
+clever!" But it was the glass he had got in his eye; the glass that was
+sticking in his heart, which made him tease even little Gerda, whose
+whole soul was devoted to him.
+
+His games now were quite different to what they had formerly been, they
+were so very knowing. One winter's day, when the flakes of snow were
+flying about, he spread the skirts of his blue coat, and caught the snow
+as it fell.
+
+"Look through this glass, Gerda," said he. And every flake seemed
+larger, and appeared like a magnificent flower, or beautiful star; it
+was splendid to look at!
+
+"Look, how clever!" said Kay. "That's much more interesting than real
+flowers! They are as exact as possible; there is not a fault in them, if
+they did not melt!"
+
+It was not long after this, that Kay came one day with large gloves on,
+and his little sledge at his back, and bawled right into Gerda's ears,
+"I have permission to go out into the square where the others are
+playing"; and off he was in a moment.
+
+There, in the market-place, some of the boldest of the boys used to tie
+their sledges to the carts as they passed by, and so they were pulled
+along, and got a good ride. It was so capital! Just as they were in the
+very height of their amusement, a large sledge passed by: it was painted
+quite white, and there was someone in it wrapped up in a rough white
+mantle of fur, with a rough white fur cap on his head. The sledge drove
+round the square twice, and Kay tied on his sledge as quickly as he
+could, and off he drove with it. On they went quicker and quicker into
+the next street; and the person who drove turned round to Kay, and
+nodded to him in a friendly manner, just as if they knew each other.
+Every time he was going to untie his sledge, the person nodded to him,
+and then Kay sat quiet; and so on they went till they came outside
+the gates of the town. Then the snow began to fall so thickly that the
+little boy could not see an arm's length before him, but still on he
+went: when suddenly he let go the string he held in his hand in order
+to get loose from the sledge, but it was of no use; still the little
+vehicle rushed on with the quickness of the wind. He then cried as loud
+as he could, but no one heard him; the snow drifted and the sledge flew
+on, and sometimes it gave a jerk as though they were driving over hedges
+and ditches. He was quite frightened, and he tried to repeat the
+Lord's Prayer; but all he could do, he was only able to remember the
+multiplication table.
+
+The snow-flakes grew larger and larger, till at last they looked just
+like great white fowls. Suddenly they flew on one side; the large sledge
+stopped, and the person who drove rose up. It was a lady; her cloak and
+cap were of snow. She was tall and of slender figure, and of a dazzling
+whiteness. It was the Snow Queen.
+
+"We have travelled fast," said she; "but it is freezingly cold. Come
+under my bearskin." And she put him in the sledge beside her,
+wrapped the fur round him, and he felt as though he were sinking in a
+snow-wreath.
+
+"Are you still cold?" asked she; and then she kissed his forehead.
+Ah! it was colder than ice; it penetrated to his very heart, which was
+already almost a frozen lump; it seemed to him as if he were about to
+die--but a moment more and it was quite congenial to him, and he did not
+remark the cold that was around him.
+
+"My sledge! Do not forget my sledge!" It was the first thing he thought
+of. It was there tied to one of the white chickens, who flew along with
+it on his back behind the large sledge. The Snow Queen kissed Kay once
+more, and then he forgot little Gerda, grandmother, and all whom he had
+left at his home.
+
+"Now you will have no more kisses," said she, "or else I should kiss you
+to death!"
+
+Kay looked at her. She was very beautiful; a more clever, or a more
+lovely countenance he could not fancy to himself; and she no longer
+appeared of ice as before, when she sat outside the window, and beckoned
+to him; in his eyes she was perfect, he did not fear her at all, and
+told her that he could calculate in his head and with fractions, even;
+that he knew the number of square miles there were in the different
+countries, and how many inhabitants they contained; and she smiled while
+he spoke. It then seemed to him as if what he knew was not enough, and
+he looked upwards in the large huge empty space above him, and on she
+flew with him; flew high over the black clouds, while the storm moaned
+and whistled as though it were singing some old tune. On they flew
+over woods and lakes, over seas, and many lands; and beneath them the
+chilling storm rushed fast, the wolves howled, the snow crackled; above
+them flew large screaming crows, but higher up appeared the moon, quite
+large and bright; and it was on it that Kay gazed during the long long
+winter's night; while by day he slept at the feet of the Snow Queen.
+
+
+THIRD STORY. Of the Flower-Garden At the Old Woman's Who Understood
+Witchcraft
+
+But what became of little Gerda when Kay did not return? Where could he
+be? Nobody knew; nobody could give any intelligence. All the boys knew
+was, that they had seen him tie his sledge to another large and splendid
+one, which drove down the street and out of the town. Nobody knew
+where he was; many sad tears were shed, and little Gerda wept long and
+bitterly; at last she said he must be dead; that he had been drowned in
+the river which flowed close to the town. Oh! those were very long and
+dismal winter evenings!
+
+At last spring came, with its warm sunshine.
+
+"Kay is dead and gone!" said little Gerda.
+
+"That I don't believe," said the Sunshine.
+
+"Kay is dead and gone!" said she to the Swallows.
+
+"That I don't believe," said they: and at last little Gerda did not
+think so any longer either.
+
+"I'll put on my red shoes," said she, one morning; "Kay has never seen
+them, and then I'll go down to the river and ask there."
+
+It was quite early; she kissed her old grandmother, who was still
+asleep, put on her red shoes, and went alone to the river.
+
+"Is it true that you have taken my little playfellow? I will make you a
+present of my red shoes, if you will give him back to me."
+
+And, as it seemed to her, the blue waves nodded in a strange manner;
+then she took off her red shoes, the most precious things she possessed,
+and threw them both into the river. But they fell close to the bank, and
+the little waves bore them immediately to land; it was as if the stream
+would not take what was dearest to her; for in reality it had not got
+little Kay; but Gerda thought that she had not thrown the shoes out far
+enough, so she clambered into a boat which lay among the rushes, went
+to the farthest end, and threw out the shoes. But the boat was not
+fastened, and the motion which she occasioned, made it drift from the
+shore. She observed this, and hastened to get back; but before she could
+do so, the boat was more than a yard from the land, and was gliding
+quickly onward.
+
+Little Gerda was very frightened, and began to cry; but no one heard her
+except the sparrows, and they could not carry her to land; but they flew
+along the bank, and sang as if to comfort her, "Here we are! Here we
+are!" The boat drifted with the stream, little Gerda sat quite still
+without shoes, for they were swimming behind the boat, but she could not
+reach them, because the boat went much faster than they did.
+
+The banks on both sides were beautiful; lovely flowers, venerable trees,
+and slopes with sheep and cows, but not a human being was to be seen.
+
+"Perhaps the river will carry me to little Kay," said she; and then
+she grew less sad. She rose, and looked for many hours at the beautiful
+green banks. Presently she sailed by a large cherry-orchard, where was
+a little cottage with curious red and blue windows; it was thatched,
+and before it two wooden soldiers stood sentry, and presented arms when
+anyone went past.
+
+Gerda called to them, for she thought they were alive; but they, of
+course, did not answer. She came close to them, for the stream drifted
+the boat quite near the land.
+
+Gerda called still louder, and an old woman then came out of the
+cottage, leaning upon a crooked stick. She had a large broad-brimmed hat
+on, painted with the most splendid flowers.
+
+"Poor little child!" said the old woman. "How did you get upon the large
+rapid river, to be driven about so in the wide world!" And then the
+old woman went into the water, caught hold of the boat with her crooked
+stick, drew it to the bank, and lifted little Gerda out.
+
+And Gerda was so glad to be on dry land again; but she was rather afraid
+of the strange old woman.
+
+"But come and tell me who you are, and how you came here," said she.
+
+And Gerda told her all; and the old woman shook her head and said,
+"A-hem! a-hem!" and when Gerda had told her everything, and asked her if
+she had not seen little Kay, the woman answered that he had not passed
+there, but he no doubt would come; and she told her not to be cast down,
+but taste her cherries, and look at her flowers, which were finer than
+any in a picture-book, each of which could tell a whole story. She then
+took Gerda by the hand, led her into the little cottage, and locked the
+door.
+
+The windows were very high up; the glass was red, blue, and green, and
+the sunlight shone through quite wondrously in all sorts of colors. On
+the table stood the most exquisite cherries, and Gerda ate as many as
+she chose, for she had permission to do so. While she was eating, the
+old woman combed her hair with a golden comb, and her hair curled and
+shone with a lovely golden color around that sweet little face, which
+was so round and so like a rose.
+
+"I have often longed for such a dear little girl," said the old woman.
+"Now you shall see how well we agree together"; and while she combed
+little Gerda's hair, the child forgot her foster-brother Kay more and
+more, for the old woman understood magic; but she was no evil being, she
+only practised witchcraft a little for her own private amusement, and
+now she wanted very much to keep little Gerda. She therefore went out
+in the garden, stretched out her crooked stick towards the rose-bushes,
+which, beautifully as they were blowing, all sank into the earth and no
+one could tell where they had stood. The old woman feared that if Gerda
+should see the roses, she would then think of her own, would remember
+little Kay, and run away from her.
+
+She now led Gerda into the flower-garden. Oh, what odour and what
+loveliness was there! Every flower that one could think of, and of every
+season, stood there in fullest bloom; no picture-book could be gayer or
+more beautiful. Gerda jumped for joy, and played till the sun set behind
+the tall cherry-tree; she then had a pretty bed, with a red silken
+coverlet filled with blue violets. She fell asleep, and had as pleasant
+dreams as ever a queen on her wedding-day.
+
+The next morning she went to play with the flowers in the warm sunshine,
+and thus passed away a day. Gerda knew every flower; and, numerous as
+they were, it still seemed to Gerda that one was wanting, though she
+did not know which. One day while she was looking at the hat of the old
+woman painted with flowers, the most beautiful of them all seemed to her
+to be a rose. The old woman had forgotten to take it from her hat
+when she made the others vanish in the earth. But so it is when one's
+thoughts are not collected. "What!" said Gerda. "Are there no roses
+here?" and she ran about amongst the flowerbeds, and looked, and looked,
+but there was not one to be found. She then sat down and wept; but her
+hot tears fell just where a rose-bush had sunk; and when her warm tears
+watered the ground, the tree shot up suddenly as fresh and blooming as
+when it had been swallowed up. Gerda kissed the roses, thought of her
+own dear roses at home, and with them of little Kay.
+
+"Oh, how long I have stayed!" said the little girl. "I intended to look
+for Kay! Don't you know where he is?" she asked of the roses. "Do you
+think he is dead and gone?"
+
+"Dead he certainly is not," said the Roses. "We have been in the earth
+where all the dead are, but Kay was not there."
+
+"Many thanks!" said little Gerda; and she went to the other flowers,
+looked into their cups, and asked, "Don't you know where little Kay is?"
+
+But every flower stood in the sunshine, and dreamed its own fairy tale
+or its own story: and they all told her very many things, but not one
+knew anything of Kay.
+
+Well, what did the Tiger-Lily say?
+
+"Hearest thou not the drum? Bum! Bum! Those are the only two tones.
+Always bum! Bum! Hark to the plaintive song of the old woman, to the
+call of the priests! The Hindoo woman in her long robe stands upon the
+funeral pile; the flames rise around her and her dead husband, but the
+Hindoo woman thinks on the living one in the surrounding circle; on him
+whose eyes burn hotter than the flames--on him, the fire of whose eyes
+pierces her heart more than the flames which soon will burn her body to
+ashes. Can the heart's flame die in the flame of the funeral pile?"
+
+"I don't understand that at all," said little Gerda.
+
+"That is my story," said the Lily.
+
+What did the Convolvulus say?
+
+"Projecting over a narrow mountain-path there hangs an old feudal
+castle. Thick evergreens grow on the dilapidated walls, and around the
+altar, where a lovely maiden is standing: she bends over the railing and
+looks out upon the rose. No fresher rose hangs on the branches than she;
+no appleblossom carried away by the wind is more buoyant! How her silken
+robe is rustling!
+
+"'Is he not yet come?'"
+
+"Is it Kay that you mean?" asked little Gerda.
+
+"I am speaking about my story--about my dream," answered the
+Convolvulus.
+
+What did the Snowdrops say?
+
+"Between the trees a long board is hanging--it is a swing. Two little
+girls are sitting in it, and swing themselves backwards and forwards;
+their frocks are as white as snow, and long green silk ribands flutter
+from their bonnets. Their brother, who is older than they are, stands up
+in the swing; he twines his arms round the cords to hold himself fast,
+for in one hand he has a little cup, and in the other a clay-pipe. He is
+blowing soap-bubbles. The swing moves, and the bubbles float in charming
+changing colors: the last is still hanging to the end of the pipe, and
+rocks in the breeze. The swing moves. The little black dog, as light as
+a soap-bubble, jumps up on his hind legs to try to get into the swing.
+It moves, the dog falls down, barks, and is angry. They tease him; the
+bubble bursts! A swing, a bursting bubble--such is my song!"
+
+"What you relate may be very pretty, but you tell it in so melancholy a
+manner, and do not mention Kay."
+
+What do the Hyacinths say?
+
+"There were once upon a time three sisters, quite transparent, and very
+beautiful. The robe of the one was red, that of the second blue, and
+that of the third white. They danced hand in hand beside the calm
+lake in the clear moonshine. They were not elfin maidens, but mortal
+children. A sweet fragrance was smelt, and the maidens vanished in the
+wood; the fragrance grew stronger--three coffins, and in them three
+lovely maidens, glided out of the forest and across the lake: the
+shining glow-worms flew around like little floating lights. Do the
+dancing maidens sleep, or are they dead? The odour of the flowers says
+they are corpses; the evening bell tolls for the dead!"
+
+"You make me quite sad," said little Gerda. "I cannot help thinking of
+the dead maidens. Oh! is little Kay really dead? The Roses have been in
+the earth, and they say no."
+
+"Ding, dong!" sounded the Hyacinth bells. "We do not toll for little
+Kay; we do not know him. That is our way of singing, the only one we
+have."
+
+And Gerda went to the Ranunculuses, that looked forth from among the
+shining green leaves.
+
+"You are a little bright sun!" said Gerda. "Tell me if you know where I
+can find my playfellow."
+
+And the Ranunculus shone brightly, and looked again at Gerda. What
+song could the Ranunculus sing? It was one that said nothing about Kay
+either.
+
+"In a small court the bright sun was shining in the first days of
+spring. The beams glided down the white walls of a neighbor's house, and
+close by the fresh yellow flowers were growing, shining like gold in
+the warm sun-rays. An old grandmother was sitting in the air; her
+grand-daughter, the poor and lovely servant just come for a short visit.
+She knows her grandmother. There was gold, pure virgin gold in that
+blessed kiss. There, that is my little story," said the Ranunculus.
+
+"My poor old grandmother!" sighed Gerda. "Yes, she is longing for me,
+no doubt: she is sorrowing for me, as she did for little Kay. But I
+will soon come home, and then I will bring Kay with me. It is of no use
+asking the flowers; they only know their own old rhymes, and can tell me
+nothing." And she tucked up her frock, to enable her to run quicker; but
+the Narcissus gave her a knock on the leg, just as she was going to
+jump over it. So she stood still, looked at the long yellow flower, and
+asked, "You perhaps know something?" and she bent down to the Narcissus.
+And what did it say?
+
+"I can see myself--I can see myself! Oh, how odorous I am! Up in the
+little garret there stands, half-dressed, a little Dancer. She stands
+now on one leg, now on both; she despises the whole world; yet she lives
+only in imagination. She pours water out of the teapot over a piece of
+stuff which she holds in her hand; it is the bodice; cleanliness is a
+fine thing. The white dress is hanging on the hook; it was washed in the
+teapot, and dried on the roof. She puts it on, ties a saffron-colored
+kerchief round her neck, and then the gown looks whiter. I can see
+myself--I can see myself!"
+
+"That's nothing to me," said little Gerda. "That does not concern me."
+And then off she ran to the further end of the garden.
+
+The gate was locked, but she shook the rusted bolt till it was loosened,
+and the gate opened; and little Gerda ran off barefooted into the wide
+world. She looked round her thrice, but no one followed her. At last she
+could run no longer; she sat down on a large stone, and when she looked
+about her, she saw that the summer had passed; it was late in the
+autumn, but that one could not remark in the beautiful garden, where
+there was always sunshine, and where there were flowers the whole year
+round.
+
+"Dear me, how long I have staid!" said Gerda. "Autumn is come. I must
+not rest any longer." And she got up to go further.
+
+Oh, how tender and wearied her little feet were! All around it looked
+so cold and raw: the long willow-leaves were quite yellow, and the fog
+dripped from them like water; one leaf fell after the other: the sloes
+only stood full of fruit, which set one's teeth on edge. Oh, how dark
+and comfortless it was in the dreary world!
+
+
+FOURTH STORY. The Prince and Princess
+
+Gerda was obliged to rest herself again, when, exactly opposite to her,
+a large Raven came hopping over the white snow. He had long been looking
+at Gerda and shaking his head; and now he said, "Caw! Caw!" Good day!
+Good day! He could not say it better; but he felt a sympathy for the
+little girl, and asked her where she was going all alone. The word
+"alone" Gerda understood quite well, and felt how much was expressed
+by it; so she told the Raven her whole history, and asked if he had not
+seen Kay.
+
+The Raven nodded very gravely, and said, "It may be--it may be!"
+
+"What, do you really think so?" cried the little girl; and she nearly
+squeezed the Raven to death, so much did she kiss him.
+
+"Gently, gently," said the Raven. "I think I know; I think that it may
+be little Kay. But now he has forgotten you for the Princess."
+
+"Does he live with a Princess?" asked Gerda.
+
+"Yes--listen," said the Raven; "but it will be difficult for me to
+speak your language. If you understand the Raven language I can tell you
+better."
+
+"No, I have not learnt it," said Gerda; "but my grandmother understands
+it, and she can speak gibberish too. I wish I had learnt it."
+
+"No matter," said the Raven; "I will tell you as well as I can; however,
+it will be bad enough." And then he told all he knew.
+
+"In the kingdom where we now are there lives a Princess, who is
+extraordinarily clever; for she has read all the newspapers in the whole
+world, and has forgotten them again--so clever is she. She was lately,
+it is said, sitting on her throne--which is not very amusing after
+all--when she began humming an old tune, and it was just, 'Oh, why
+should I not be married?' 'That song is not without its meaning,' said
+she, and so then she was determined to marry; but she would have a
+husband who knew how to give an answer when he was spoken to--not
+one who looked only as if he were a great personage, for that is so
+tiresome. She then had all the ladies of the court drummed together; and
+when they heard her intention, all were very pleased, and said, 'We are
+very glad to hear it; it is the very thing we were thinking of.' You may
+believe every word I say," said the Raven; "for I have a tame sweetheart
+that hops about in the palace quite free, and it was she who told me all
+this.
+
+"The newspapers appeared forthwith with a border of hearts and the
+initials of the Princess; and therein you might read that every
+good-looking young man was at liberty to come to the palace and speak to
+the Princess; and he who spoke in such wise as showed he felt himself at
+home there, that one the Princess would choose for her husband.
+
+"Yes, Yes," said the Raven, "you may believe it; it is as true as I am
+sitting here. People came in crowds; there was a crush and a hurry, but
+no one was successful either on the first or second day. They could all
+talk well enough when they were out in the street; but as soon as
+they came inside the palace gates, and saw the guard richly dressed
+in silver, and the lackeys in gold on the staircase, and the large
+illuminated saloons, then they were abashed; and when they stood before
+the throne on which the Princess was sitting, all they could do was
+to repeat the last word they had uttered, and to hear it again did not
+interest her very much. It was just as if the people within were under
+a charm, and had fallen into a trance till they came out again into the
+street; for then--oh, then--they could chatter enough. There was a whole
+row of them standing from the town-gates to the palace. I was there
+myself to look," said the Raven. "They grew hungry and thirsty; but from
+the palace they got nothing whatever, not even a glass of water. Some
+of the cleverest, it is true, had taken bread and butter with them:
+but none shared it with his neighbor, for each thought, 'Let him look
+hungry, and then the Princess won't have him.'"
+
+"But Kay--little Kay," said Gerda, "when did he come? Was he among the
+number?"
+
+"Patience, patience; we are just come to him. It was on the third day
+when a little personage without horse or equipage, came marching right
+boldly up to the palace; his eyes shone like yours, he had beautiful
+long hair, but his clothes were very shabby."
+
+"That was Kay," cried Gerda, with a voice of delight. "Oh, now I've
+found him!" and she clapped her hands for joy.
+
+"He had a little knapsack at his back," said the Raven.
+
+"No, that was certainly his sledge," said Gerda; "for when he went away
+he took his sledge with him."
+
+"That may be," said the Raven; "I did not examine him so minutely; but
+I know from my tame sweetheart, that when he came into the court-yard
+of the palace, and saw the body-guard in silver, the lackeys on the
+staircase, he was not the least abashed; he nodded, and said to them,
+'It must be very tiresome to stand on the stairs; for my part, I shall
+go in.' The saloons were gleaming with lustres--privy councillors and
+excellencies were walking about barefooted, and wore gold keys; it was
+enough to make any one feel uncomfortable. His boots creaked, too, so
+loudly, but still he was not at all afraid."
+
+"That's Kay for certain," said Gerda. "I know he had on new boots; I
+have heard them creaking in grandmama's room."
+
+"Yes, they creaked," said the Raven. "And on he went boldly up to the
+Princess, who was sitting on a pearl as large as a spinning-wheel.
+All the ladies of the court, with their attendants and attendants'
+attendants, and all the cavaliers, with their gentlemen and gentlemen's
+gentlemen, stood round; and the nearer they stood to the door, the
+prouder they looked. It was hardly possible to look at the gentleman's
+gentleman, so very haughtily did he stand in the doorway."
+
+"It must have been terrible," said little Gerda. "And did Kay get the
+Princess?"
+
+"Were I not a Raven, I should have taken the Princess myself, although
+I am promised. It is said he spoke as well as I speak when I talk Raven
+language; this I learned from my tame sweetheart. He was bold and nicely
+behaved; he had not come to woo the Princess, but only to hear her
+wisdom. She pleased him, and he pleased her."
+
+"Yes, yes; for certain that was Kay," said Gerda. "He was so clever;
+he could reckon fractions in his head. Oh, won't you take me to the
+palace?"
+
+"That is very easily said," answered the Raven. "But how are we to
+manage it? I'll speak to my tame sweetheart about it: she must advise
+us; for so much I must tell you, such a little girl as you are will
+never get permission to enter."
+
+"Oh, yes I shall," said Gerda; "when Kay hears that I am here, he will
+come out directly to fetch me."
+
+"Wait for me here on these steps," said the Raven. He moved his head
+backwards and forwards and flew away.
+
+The evening was closing in when the Raven returned. "Caw--caw!" said he.
+"She sends you her compliments; and here is a roll for you. She took
+it out of the kitchen, where there is bread enough. You are hungry,
+no doubt. It is not possible for you to enter the palace, for you are
+barefooted: the guards in silver, and the lackeys in gold, would not
+allow it; but do not cry, you shall come in still. My sweetheart knows a
+little back stair that leads to the bedchamber, and she knows where she
+can get the key of it."
+
+And they went into the garden in the large avenue, where one leaf was
+falling after the other; and when the lights in the palace had all
+gradually disappeared, the Raven led little Gerda to the back door,
+which stood half open.
+
+Oh, how Gerda's heart beat with anxiety and longing! It was just as if
+she had been about to do something wrong; and yet she only wanted to
+know if little Kay was there. Yes, he must be there. She called to mind
+his intelligent eyes, and his long hair, so vividly, she could quite see
+him as he used to laugh when they were sitting under the roses at home.
+"He will, no doubt, be glad to see you--to hear what a long way you have
+come for his sake; to know how unhappy all at home were when he did not
+come back."
+
+Oh, what a fright and a joy it was!
+
+They were now on the stairs. A single lamp was burning there; and on the
+floor stood the tame Raven, turning her head on every side and looking
+at Gerda, who bowed as her grandmother had taught her to do.
+
+"My intended has told me so much good of you, my dear young lady," said
+the tame Raven. "Your tale is very affecting. If you will take the lamp,
+I will go before. We will go straight on, for we shall meet no one."
+
+"I think there is somebody just behind us," said Gerda; and something
+rushed past: it was like shadowy figures on the wall; horses with
+flowing manes and thin legs, huntsmen, ladies and gentlemen on
+horseback.
+
+"They are only dreams," said the Raven. "They come to fetch the thoughts
+of the high personages to the chase; 'tis well, for now you can observe
+them in bed all the better. But let me find, when you enjoy honor and
+distinction, that you possess a grateful heart."
+
+"Tut! That's not worth talking about," said the Raven of the woods.
+
+They now entered the first saloon, which was of rose-colored satin, with
+artificial flowers on the wall. Here the dreams were rushing past,
+but they hastened by so quickly that Gerda could not see the high
+personages. One hall was more magnificent than the other; one might
+indeed well be abashed; and at last they came into the bedchamber. The
+ceiling of the room resembled a large palm-tree with leaves of glass,
+of costly glass; and in the middle, from a thick golden stem, hung two
+beds, each of which resembled a lily. One was white, and in this lay the
+Princess; the other was red, and it was here that Gerda was to look for
+little Kay. She bent back one of the red leaves, and saw a brown neck.
+Oh! that was Kay! She called him quite loud by name, held the lamp
+towards him--the dreams rushed back again into the chamber--he awoke,
+turned his head, and--it was not little Kay!
+
+The Prince was only like him about the neck; but he was young and
+handsome. And out of the white lily leaves the Princess peeped, too,
+and asked what was the matter. Then little Gerda cried, and told her her
+whole history, and all that the Ravens had done for her.
+
+"Poor little thing!" said the Prince and the Princess. They praised the
+Ravens very much, and told them they were not at all angry with them,
+but they were not to do so again. However, they should have a reward.
+"Will you fly about here at liberty," asked the Princess; "or would you
+like to have a fixed appointment as court ravens, with all the broken
+bits from the kitchen?"
+
+And both the Ravens nodded, and begged for a fixed appointment; for
+they thought of their old age, and said, "It is a good thing to have a
+provision for our old days."
+
+And the Prince got up and let Gerda sleep in his bed, and more than this
+he could not do. She folded her little hands and thought, "How good men
+and animals are!" and she then fell asleep and slept soundly. All the
+dreams flew in again, and they now looked like the angels; they drew
+a little sledge, in which little Kay sat and nodded his head; but the
+whole was only a dream, and therefore it all vanished as soon as she
+awoke.
+
+The next day she was dressed from head to foot in silk and velvet. They
+offered to let her stay at the palace, and lead a happy life; but she
+begged to have a little carriage with a horse in front, and for a small
+pair of shoes; then, she said, she would again go forth in the wide
+world and look for Kay.
+
+Shoes and a muff were given her; she was, too, dressed very nicely; and
+when she was about to set off, a new carriage stopped before the door.
+It was of pure gold, and the arms of the Prince and Princess shone
+like a star upon it; the coachman, the footmen, and the outriders, for
+outriders were there, too, all wore golden crowns. The Prince and the
+Princess assisted her into the carriage themselves, and wished her all
+success. The Raven of the woods, who was now married, accompanied her
+for the first three miles. He sat beside Gerda, for he could not bear
+riding backwards; the other Raven stood in the doorway, and flapped her
+wings; she could not accompany Gerda, because she suffered from headache
+since she had had a fixed appointment and ate so much. The carriage
+was lined inside with sugar-plums, and in the seats were fruits and
+gingerbread.
+
+"Farewell! Farewell!" cried Prince and Princess; and Gerda wept, and
+the Raven wept. Thus passed the first miles; and then the Raven bade her
+farewell, and this was the most painful separation of all. He flew into
+a tree, and beat his black wings as long as he could see the carriage,
+that shone from afar like a sunbeam.
+
+
+FIFTH STORY. The Little Robber Maiden
+
+They drove through the dark wood; but the carriage shone like a torch,
+and it dazzled the eyes of the robbers, so that they could not bear to
+look at it.
+
+"'Tis gold! 'Tis gold!" they cried; and they rushed forward, seized
+the horses, knocked down the little postilion, the coachman, and the
+servants, and pulled little Gerda out of the carriage.
+
+"How plump, how beautiful she is! She must have been fed on
+nut-kernels," said the old female robber, who had a long, scrubby beard,
+and bushy eyebrows that hung down over her eyes. "She is as good as a
+fatted lamb! How nice she will be!" And then she drew out a knife, the
+blade of which shone so that it was quite dreadful to behold.
+
+"Oh!" cried the woman at the same moment. She had been bitten in the ear
+by her own little daughter, who hung at her back; and who was so wild
+and unmanageable, that it was quite amusing to see her. "You naughty
+child!" said the mother: and now she had not time to kill Gerda.
+
+"She shall play with me," said the little robber child. "She shall give
+me her muff, and her pretty frock; she shall sleep in my bed!" And then
+she gave her mother another bite, so that she jumped, and ran round with
+the pain; and the Robbers laughed, and said, "Look, how she is dancing
+with the little one!"
+
+"I will go into the carriage," said the little robber maiden; and she
+would have her will, for she was very spoiled and very headstrong. She
+and Gerda got in; and then away they drove over the stumps of felled
+trees, deeper and deeper into the woods. The little robber maiden was as
+tall as Gerda, but stronger, broader-shouldered, and of dark complexion;
+her eyes were quite black; they looked almost melancholy. She embraced
+little Gerda, and said, "They shall not kill you as long as I am not
+displeased with you. You are, doubtless, a Princess?"
+
+"No," said little Gerda; who then related all that had happened to her,
+and how much she cared about little Kay.
+
+The little robber maiden looked at her with a serious air, nodded her
+head slightly, and said, "They shall not kill you, even if I am angry
+with you: then I will do it myself"; and she dried Gerda's eyes, and put
+both her hands in the handsome muff, which was so soft and warm.
+
+At length the carriage stopped. They were in the midst of the court-yard
+of a robber's castle. It was full of cracks from top to bottom; and out
+of the openings magpies and rooks were flying; and the great bull-dogs,
+each of which looked as if he could swallow a man, jumped up, but they
+did not bark, for that was forbidden.
+
+In the midst of the large, old, smoking hall burnt a great fire on the
+stone floor. The smoke disappeared under the stones, and had to seek
+its own egress. In an immense caldron soup was boiling; and rabbits and
+hares were being roasted on a spit.
+
+"You shall sleep with me to-night, with all my animals," said the little
+robber maiden. They had something to eat and drink; and then went into
+a corner, where straw and carpets were lying. Beside them, on laths and
+perches, sat nearly a hundred pigeons, all asleep, seemingly; but yet
+they moved a little when the robber maiden came. "They are all mine,"
+said she, at the same time seizing one that was next to her by the legs
+and shaking it so that its wings fluttered. "Kiss it," cried the little
+girl, and flung the pigeon in Gerda's face. "Up there is the rabble of
+the wood," continued she, pointing to several laths which were fastened
+before a hole high up in the wall; "that's the rabble; they would all
+fly away immediately, if they were not well fastened in. And here is my
+dear old Bac"; and she laid hold of the horns of a reindeer, that had a
+bright copper ring round its neck, and was tethered to the spot. "We are
+obliged to lock this fellow in too, or he would make his escape. Every
+evening I tickle his neck with my sharp knife; he is so frightened at
+it!" and the little girl drew forth a long knife, from a crack in the
+wall, and let it glide over the Reindeer's neck. The poor animal kicked;
+the girl laughed, and pulled Gerda into bed with her.
+
+"Do you intend to keep your knife while you sleep?" asked Gerda; looking
+at it rather fearfully.
+
+"I always sleep with the knife," said the little robber maiden. "There
+is no knowing what may happen. But tell me now, once more, all about
+little Kay; and why you have started off in the wide world alone." And
+Gerda related all, from the very beginning: the Wood-pigeons cooed above
+in their cage, and the others slept. The little robber maiden wound her
+arm round Gerda's neck, held the knife in the other hand, and snored so
+loud that everybody could hear her; but Gerda could not close her eyes,
+for she did not know whether she was to live or die. The robbers sat
+round the fire, sang and drank; and the old female robber jumped about
+so, that it was quite dreadful for Gerda to see her.
+
+Then the Wood-pigeons said, "Coo! Coo! We have seen little Kay! A white
+hen carries his sledge; he himself sat in the carriage of the Snow
+Queen, who passed here, down just over the wood, as we lay in our nest.
+She blew upon us young ones; and all died except we two. Coo! Coo!"
+
+"What is that you say up there?" cried little Gerda. "Where did the Snow
+Queen go to? Do you know anything about it?"
+
+"She is no doubt gone to Lapland; for there is always snow and ice
+there. Only ask the Reindeer, who is tethered there."
+
+"Ice and snow is there! There it is, glorious and beautiful!" said the
+Reindeer. "One can spring about in the large shining valleys! The Snow
+Queen has her summer-tent there; but her fixed abode is high up towards
+the North Pole, on the Island called Spitzbergen."
+
+"Oh, Kay! Poor little Kay!" sighed Gerda.
+
+"Do you choose to be quiet?" said the robber maiden. "If you don't, I
+shall make you."
+
+In the morning Gerda told her all that the Wood-pigeons had said; and
+the little maiden looked very serious, but she nodded her head, and
+said, "That's no matter--that's no matter. Do you know where Lapland
+lies!" she asked of the Reindeer.
+
+"Who should know better than I?" said the animal; and his eyes rolled in
+his head. "I was born and bred there--there I leapt about on the fields
+of snow."
+
+"Listen," said the robber maiden to Gerda. "You see that the men are
+gone; but my mother is still here, and will remain. However, towards
+morning she takes a draught out of the large flask, and then she sleeps
+a little: then I will do something for you." She now jumped out of bed,
+flew to her mother; with her arms round her neck, and pulling her by the
+beard, said, "Good morrow, my own sweet nanny-goat of a mother." And her
+mother took hold of her nose, and pinched it till it was red and blue;
+but this was all done out of pure love.
+
+When the mother had taken a sup at her flask, and was having a nap, the
+little robber maiden went to the Reindeer, and said, "I should very much
+like to give you still many a tickling with the sharp knife, for then
+you are so amusing; however, I will untether you, and help you out,
+so that you may go back to Lapland. But you must make good use of your
+legs; and take this little girl for me to the palace of the Snow Queen,
+where her playfellow is. You have heard, I suppose, all she said; for
+she spoke loud enough, and you were listening."
+
+The Reindeer gave a bound for joy. The robber maiden lifted up little
+Gerda, and took the precaution to bind her fast on the Reindeer's back;
+she even gave her a small cushion to sit on. "Here are your worsted
+leggins, for it will be cold; but the muff I shall keep for myself, for
+it is so very pretty. But I do not wish you to be cold. Here is a pair
+of lined gloves of my mother's; they just reach up to your elbow. On
+with them! Now you look about the hands just like my ugly old mother!"
+
+And Gerda wept for joy.
+
+"I can't bear to see you fretting," said the little robber maiden. "This
+is just the time when you ought to look pleased. Here are two loaves and
+a ham for you, so that you won't starve." The bread and the meat were
+fastened to the Reindeer's back; the little maiden opened the door,
+called in all the dogs, and then with her knife cut the rope that
+fastened the animal, and said to him, "Now, off with you; but take good
+care of the little girl!"
+
+And Gerda stretched out her hands with the large wadded gloves towards
+the robber maiden, and said, "Farewell!" and the Reindeer flew on over
+bush and bramble through the great wood, over moor and heath, as fast as
+he could go.
+
+"Ddsa! Ddsa!" was heard in the sky. It was just as if somebody was
+sneezing.
+
+"These are my old northern-lights," said the Reindeer, "look how they
+gleam!" And on he now sped still quicker--day and night on he went: the
+loaves were consumed, and the ham too; and now they were in Lapland.
+
+
+SIXTH STORY. The Lapland Woman and the Finland Woman
+
+Suddenly they stopped before a little house, which looked very
+miserable. The roof reached to the ground; and the door was so low, that
+the family were obliged to creep upon their stomachs when they went in
+or out. Nobody was at home except an old Lapland woman, who was dressing
+fish by the light of an oil lamp. And the Reindeer told her the whole
+of Gerda's history, but first of all his own; for that seemed to him of
+much greater importance. Gerda was so chilled that she could not speak.
+
+"Poor thing," said the Lapland woman, "you have far to run still. You
+have more than a hundred miles to go before you get to Finland; there
+the Snow Queen has her country-house, and burns blue lights every
+evening. I will give you a few words from me, which I will write on a
+dried haberdine, for paper I have none; this you can take with you to
+the Finland woman, and she will be able to give you more information
+than I can."
+
+When Gerda had warmed herself, and had eaten and drunk, the Lapland
+woman wrote a few words on a dried haberdine, begged Gerda to take care
+of them, put her on the Reindeer, bound her fast, and away sprang the
+animal. "Ddsa! Ddsa!" was again heard in the air; the most charming
+blue lights burned the whole night in the sky, and at last they came to
+Finland. They knocked at the chimney of the Finland woman; for as to a
+door, she had none.
+
+There was such a heat inside that the Finland woman herself went about
+almost naked. She was diminutive and dirty. She immediately loosened
+little Gerda's clothes, pulled off her thick gloves and boots; for
+otherwise the heat would have been too great--and after laying a piece
+of ice on the Reindeer's head, read what was written on the fish-skin.
+She read it three times: she then knew it by heart; so she put the fish
+into the cupboard--for it might very well be eaten, and she never threw
+anything away.
+
+Then the Reindeer related his own story first, and afterwards that of
+little Gerda; and the Finland woman winked her eyes, but said nothing.
+
+"You are so clever," said the Reindeer; "you can, I know, twist all the
+winds of the world together in a knot. If the seaman loosens one knot,
+then he has a good wind; if a second, then it blows pretty stiffly; if
+he undoes the third and fourth, then it rages so that the forests are
+upturned. Will you give the little maiden a potion, that she may possess
+the strength of twelve men, and vanquish the Snow Queen?"
+
+"The strength of twelve men!" said the Finland woman. "Much good that
+would be!" Then she went to a cupboard, and drew out a large skin rolled
+up. When she had unrolled it, strange characters were to be seen written
+thereon; and the Finland woman read at such a rate that the perspiration
+trickled down her forehead.
+
+But the Reindeer begged so hard for little Gerda, and Gerda looked so
+imploringly with tearful eyes at the Finland woman, that she winked, and
+drew the Reindeer aside into a corner, where they whispered together,
+while the animal got some fresh ice put on his head.
+
+"'Tis true little Kay is at the Snow Queen's, and finds everything there
+quite to his taste; and he thinks it the very best place in the world;
+but the reason of that is, he has a splinter of glass in his eye, and in
+his heart. These must be got out first; otherwise he will never go back
+to mankind, and the Snow Queen will retain her power over him."
+
+"But can you give little Gerda nothing to take which will endue her with
+power over the whole?"
+
+"I can give her no more power than what she has already. Don't you see
+how great it is? Don't you see how men and animals are forced to serve
+her; how well she gets through the world barefooted? She must not hear
+of her power from us; that power lies in her heart, because she is
+a sweet and innocent child! If she cannot get to the Snow Queen by
+herself, and rid little Kay of the glass, we cannot help her. Two miles
+hence the garden of the Snow Queen begins; thither you may carry the
+little girl. Set her down by the large bush with red berries, standing
+in the snow; don't stay talking, but hasten back as fast as possible."
+And now the Finland woman placed little Gerda on the Reindeer's back,
+and off he ran with all imaginable speed.
+
+"Oh! I have not got my boots! I have not brought my gloves!" cried
+little Gerda. She remarked she was without them from the cutting frost;
+but the Reindeer dared not stand still; on he ran till he came to the
+great bush with the red berries, and there he set Gerda down, kissed her
+mouth, while large bright tears flowed from the animal's eyes, and then
+back he went as fast as possible. There stood poor Gerda now, without
+shoes or gloves, in the very middle of dreadful icy Finland.
+
+She ran on as fast as she could. There then came a whole regiment of
+snow-flakes, but they did not fall from above, and they were quite
+bright and shining from the Aurora Borealis. The flakes ran along
+the ground, and the nearer they came the larger they grew. Gerda well
+remembered how large and strange the snow-flakes appeared when she
+once saw them through a magnifying-glass; but now they were large and
+terrific in another manner--they were all alive. They were the outposts
+of the Snow Queen. They had the most wondrous shapes; some looked like
+large ugly porcupines; others like snakes knotted together, with their
+heads sticking out; and others, again, like small fat bears, with the
+hair standing on end: all were of dazzling whiteness--all were living
+snow-flakes.
+
+Little Gerda repeated the Lord's Prayer. The cold was so intense that
+she could see her own breath, which came like smoke out of her mouth. It
+grew thicker and thicker, and took the form of little angels, that grew
+more and more when they touched the earth. All had helms on their heads,
+and lances and shields in their hands; they increased in numbers; and
+when Gerda had finished the Lord's Prayer, she was surrounded by a whole
+legion. They thrust at the horrid snow-flakes with their spears, so that
+they flew into a thousand pieces; and little Gerda walked on bravely and
+in security. The angels patted her hands and feet; and then she felt the
+cold less, and went on quickly towards the palace of the Snow Queen.
+
+But now we shall see how Kay fared. He never thought of Gerda, and least
+of all that she was standing before the palace.
+
+
+SEVENTH STORY. What Took Place in the Palace of the Snow Queen, and what
+Happened Afterward.
+
+The walls of the palace were of driving snow, and the windows and doors
+of cutting winds. There were more than a hundred halls there, according
+as the snow was driven by the winds. The largest was many miles in
+extent; all were lighted up by the powerful Aurora Borealis, and all
+were so large, so empty, so icy cold, and so resplendent! Mirth never
+reigned there; there was never even a little bear-ball, with the storm
+for music, while the polar bears went on their hind legs and showed off
+their steps. Never a little tea-party of white young lady foxes; vast,
+cold, and empty were the halls of the Snow Queen. The northern-lights
+shone with such precision that one could tell exactly when they were
+at their highest or lowest degree of brightness. In the middle of the
+empty, endless hall of snow, was a frozen lake; it was cracked in a
+thousand pieces, but each piece was so like the other, that it seemed
+the work of a cunning artificer. In the middle of this lake sat the Snow
+Queen when she was at home; and then she said she was sitting in the
+Mirror of Understanding, and that this was the only one and the best
+thing in the world.
+
+Little Kay was quite blue, yes nearly black with cold; but he did not
+observe it, for she had kissed away all feeling of cold from his body,
+and his heart was a lump of ice. He was dragging along some pointed
+flat pieces of ice, which he laid together in all possible ways, for he
+wanted to make something with them; just as we have little flat pieces
+of wood to make geometrical figures with, called the Chinese Puzzle.
+Kay made all sorts of figures, the most complicated, for it was
+an ice-puzzle for the understanding. In his eyes the figures were
+extraordinarily beautiful, and of the utmost importance; for the bit
+of glass which was in his eye caused this. He found whole figures which
+represented a written word; but he never could manage to represent just
+the word he wanted--that word was "eternity"; and the Snow Queen had
+said, "If you can discover that figure, you shall be your own master,
+and I will make you a present of the whole world and a pair of new
+skates." But he could not find it out.
+
+"I am going now to warm lands," said the Snow Queen. "I must have a look
+down into the black caldrons." It was the volcanoes Vesuvius and Etna
+that she meant. "I will just give them a coating of white, for that is
+as it ought to be; besides, it is good for the oranges and the grapes."
+And then away she flew, and Kay sat quite alone in the empty halls of
+ice that were miles long, and looked at the blocks of ice, and thought
+and thought till his skull was almost cracked. There he sat quite
+benumbed and motionless; one would have imagined he was frozen to death.
+
+Suddenly little Gerda stepped through the great portal into the palace.
+The gate was formed of cutting winds; but Gerda repeated her evening
+prayer, and the winds were laid as though they slept; and the little
+maiden entered the vast, empty, cold halls. There she beheld Kay: she
+recognised him, flew to embrace him, and cried out, her arms firmly
+holding him the while, "Kay, sweet little Kay! Have I then found you at
+last?"
+
+But he sat quite still, benumbed and cold. Then little Gerda shed
+burning tears; and they fell on his bosom, they penetrated to his
+heart, they thawed the lumps of ice, and consumed the splinters of the
+looking-glass; he looked at her, and she sang the hymn:
+
+"The rose in the valley is blooming so sweet, And angels descend there
+the children to greet."
+
+Hereupon Kay burst into tears; he wept so much that the splinter rolled
+out of his eye, and he recognised her, and shouted, "Gerda, sweet little
+Gerda! Where have you been so long? And where have I been?" He looked
+round him. "How cold it is here!" said he. "How empty and cold!" And he
+held fast by Gerda, who laughed and wept for joy. It was so beautiful,
+that even the blocks of ice danced about for joy; and when they were
+tired and laid themselves down, they formed exactly the letters which
+the Snow Queen had told him to find out; so now he was his own master,
+and he would have the whole world and a pair of new skates into the
+bargain.
+
+Gerda kissed his cheeks, and they grew quite blooming; she kissed his
+eyes, and they shone like her own; she kissed his hands and feet, and he
+was again well and merry. The Snow Queen might come back as soon as she
+liked; there stood his discharge written in resplendent masses of ice.
+
+They took each other by the hand, and wandered forth out of the large
+hall; they talked of their old grandmother, and of the roses upon the
+roof; and wherever they went, the winds ceased raging, and the sun burst
+forth. And when they reached the bush with the red berries, they found
+the Reindeer waiting for them. He had brought another, a young one, with
+him, whose udder was filled with milk, which he gave to the little ones,
+and kissed their lips. They then carried Kay and Gerda--first to the
+Finland woman, where they warmed themselves in the warm room, and
+learned what they were to do on their journey home; and they went to
+the Lapland woman, who made some new clothes for them and repaired their
+sledges.
+
+The Reindeer and the young hind leaped along beside them, and
+accompanied them to the boundary of the country. Here the first
+vegetation peeped forth; here Kay and Gerda took leave of the Lapland
+woman. "Farewell! Farewell!" they all said. And the first green buds
+appeared, the first little birds began to chirrup; and out of the wood
+came, riding on a magnificent horse, which Gerda knew (it was one of the
+leaders in the golden carriage), a young damsel with a bright-red cap on
+her head, and armed with pistols. It was the little robber maiden, who,
+tired of being at home, had determined to make a journey to the north;
+and afterwards in another direction, if that did not please her. She
+recognised Gerda immediately, and Gerda knew her too. It was a joyful
+meeting.
+
+"You are a fine fellow for tramping about," said she to little Kay; "I
+should like to know, faith, if you deserve that one should run from one
+end of the world to the other for your sake?"
+
+But Gerda patted her cheeks, and inquired for the Prince and Princess.
+
+"They are gone abroad," said the other.
+
+"But the Raven?" asked little Gerda.
+
+"Oh! The Raven is dead," she answered. "His tame sweetheart is a
+widow, and wears a bit of black worsted round her leg; she laments most
+piteously, but it's all mere talk and stuff! Now tell me what you've
+been doing and how you managed to catch him."
+
+And Gerda and Kay both told their story.
+
+And "Schnipp-schnapp-schnurre-basselurre," said the robber maiden; and
+she took the hands of each, and promised that if she should some day
+pass through the town where they lived, she would come and visit them;
+and then away she rode. Kay and Gerda took each other's hand: it was
+lovely spring weather, with abundance of flowers and of verdure. The
+church-bells rang, and the children recognised the high towers, and the
+large town; it was that in which they dwelt. They entered and hastened
+up to their grandmother's room, where everything was standing as
+formerly. The clock said "tick! tack!" and the finger moved round; but
+as they entered, they remarked that they were now grown up. The roses
+on the leads hung blooming in at the open window; there stood the little
+children's chairs, and Kay and Gerda sat down on them, holding each
+other by the hand; they both had forgotten the cold empty splendor of
+the Snow Queen, as though it had been a dream. The grandmother sat in
+the bright sunshine, and read aloud from the Bible: "Unless ye become as
+little children, ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven."
+
+And Kay and Gerda looked in each other's eyes, and all at once they
+understood the old hymn:
+
+"The rose in the valley is blooming so sweet, And angels descend there
+the children to greet."
+
+There sat the two grown-up persons; grown-up, and yet children; children
+at least in heart; and it was summer-time; summer, glorious summer!
+
+
+
+
+THE LEAP-FROG
+
+A Flea, a Grasshopper, and a Leap-frog once wanted to see which could
+jump highest; and they invited the whole world, and everybody else
+besides who chose to come to see the festival. Three famous jumpers were
+they, as everyone would say, when they all met together in the room.
+
+"I will give my daughter to him who jumps highest," exclaimed the King;
+"for it is not so amusing where there is no prize to jump for."
+
+The Flea was the first to step forward. He had exquisite manners, and
+bowed to the company on all sides; for he had noble blood, and was,
+moreover, accustomed to the society of man alone; and that makes a great
+difference.
+
+Then came the Grasshopper. He was considerably heavier, but he was
+well-mannered, and wore a green uniform, which he had by right of birth;
+he said, moreover, that he belonged to a very ancient Egyptian family,
+and that in the house where he then was, he was thought much of. The
+fact was, he had been just brought out of the fields, and put in a
+pasteboard house, three stories high, all made of court-cards, with the
+colored side inwards; and doors and windows cut out of the body of
+the Queen of Hearts. "I sing so well," said he, "that sixteen native
+grasshoppers who have chirped from infancy, and yet got no house built
+of cards to live in, grew thinner than they were before for sheer
+vexation when they heard me."
+
+It was thus that the Flea and the Grasshopper gave an account of
+themselves, and thought they were quite good enough to marry a Princess.
+
+The Leap-frog said nothing; but people gave it as their opinion, that
+he therefore thought the more; and when the housedog snuffed at him
+with his nose, he confessed the Leap-frog was of good family. The old
+councillor, who had had three orders given him to make him hold his
+tongue, asserted that the Leap-frog was a prophet; for that one could
+see on his back, if there would be a severe or mild winter, and that
+was what one could not see even on the back of the man who writes the
+almanac.
+
+"I say nothing, it is true," exclaimed the King; "but I have my own
+opinion, notwithstanding."
+
+Now the trial was to take place. The Flea jumped so high that nobody
+could see where he went to; so they all asserted he had not jumped at
+all; and that was dishonorable.
+
+The Grasshopper jumped only half as high; but he leaped into the King's
+face, who said that was ill-mannered.
+
+The Leap-frog stood still for a long time lost in thought; it was
+believed at last he would not jump at all.
+
+"I only hope he is not unwell," said the house-dog; when, pop! he made a
+jump all on one side into the lap of the Princess, who was sitting on a
+little golden stool close by.
+
+Hereupon the King said, "There is nothing above my daughter; therefore
+to bound up to her is the highest jump that can be made; but for this,
+one must possess understanding, and the Leap-frog has shown that he has
+understanding. He is brave and intellectual."
+
+And so he won the Princess.
+
+"It's all the same to me," said the Flea. "She may have the old
+Leap-frog, for all I care. I jumped the highest; but in this world
+merit seldom meets its reward. A fine exterior is what people look at
+now-a-days."
+
+The Flea then went into foreign service, where, it is said, he was
+killed.
+
+The Grasshopper sat without on a green bank, and reflected on worldly
+things; and he said too, "Yes, a fine exterior is everything--a fine
+exterior is what people care about." And then he began chirping his
+peculiar melancholy song, from which we have taken this history; and
+which may, very possibly, be all untrue, although it does stand here
+printed in black and white.
+
+
+
+
+THE ELDERBUSH
+
+Once upon a time there was a little boy who had taken cold. He had
+gone out and got his feet wet; though nobody could imagine how it had
+happened, for it was quite dry weather. So his mother undressed him, put
+him to bed, and had the tea-pot brought in, to make him a good cup of
+Elderflower tea. Just at that moment the merry old man came in who
+lived up a-top of the house all alone; for he had neither wife nor
+children--but he liked children very much, and knew so many fairy tales,
+that it was quite delightful.
+
+"Now drink your tea," said the boy's mother; "then, perhaps, you may
+hear a fairy tale."
+
+"If I had but something new to tell," said the old man. "But how did the
+child get his feet wet?"
+
+"That is the very thing that nobody can make out," said his mother.
+
+"Am I to hear a fairy tale?" asked the little boy.
+
+"Yes, if you can tell me exactly--for I must know that first--how deep
+the gutter is in the little street opposite, that you pass through in
+going to school."
+
+"Just up to the middle of my boot," said the child; "but then I must go
+into the deep hole."
+
+"Ah, ah! That's where the wet feet came from," said the old man. "I
+ought now to tell you a story; but I don't know any more."
+
+"You can make one in a moment," said the little boy. "My mother says
+that all you look at can be turned into a fairy tale: and that you can
+find a story in everything."
+
+"Yes, but such tales and stories are good for nothing. The right sort
+come of themselves; they tap at my forehead and say, 'Here we are.'"
+
+"Won't there be a tap soon?" asked the little boy. And his mother
+laughed, put some Elder-flowers in the tea-pot, and poured boiling water
+upon them.
+
+"Do tell me something! Pray do!"
+
+"Yes, if a fairy tale would come of its own accord; but they are proud
+and haughty, and come only when they choose. Stop!" said he, all on a
+sudden. "I have it! Pay attention! There is one in the tea-pot!"
+
+And the little boy looked at the tea-pot. The cover rose more and more;
+and the Elder-flowers came forth so fresh and white, and shot up long
+branches. Out of the spout even did they spread themselves on all sides,
+and grew larger and larger; it was a splendid Elderbush, a whole tree;
+and it reached into the very bed, and pushed the curtains aside. How
+it bloomed! And what an odour! In the middle of the bush sat a
+friendly-looking old woman in a most strange dress. It was quite
+green, like the leaves of the elder, and was trimmed with large white
+Elder-flowers; so that at first one could not tell whether it was a
+stuff, or a natural green and real flowers.
+
+"What's that woman's name?" asked the little boy.
+
+"The Greeks and Romans," said the old man, "called her a Dryad; but that
+we do not understand. The people who live in the New Booths [*] have a much
+better name for her; they call her 'old Granny'--and she it is to
+whom you are to pay attention. Now listen, and look at the beautiful
+Elderbush.
+
+     * A row of buildings for seamen in Copenhagen.
+
+"Just such another large blooming Elder Tree stands near the New Booths.
+It grew there in the corner of a little miserable court-yard; and under
+it sat, of an afternoon, in the most splendid sunshine, two old
+people; an old, old seaman, and his old, old wife. They had
+great-grand-children, and were soon to celebrate the fiftieth
+anniversary of their marriage; but they could not exactly recollect the
+date: and old Granny sat in the tree, and looked as pleased as now. 'I
+know the date,' said she; but those below did not hear her, for they
+were talking about old times.
+
+"'Yes, can't you remember when we were very little,' said the old
+seaman, 'and ran and played about? It was the very same court-yard where
+we now are, and we stuck slips in the ground, and made a garden.'
+
+"'I remember it well,' said the old woman; 'I remember it quite well. We
+watered the slips, and one of them was an Elderbush. It took root, put
+forth green shoots, and grew up to be the large tree under which we old
+folks are now sitting.'
+
+"'To be sure,' said he. 'And there in the corner stood a waterpail,
+where I used to swim my boats.'
+
+"'True; but first we went to school to learn somewhat,' said she; 'and
+then we were confirmed. We both cried; but in the afternoon we went up
+the Round Tower, and looked down on Copenhagen, and far, far away over
+the water; then we went to Friedericksberg, where the King and the Queen
+were sailing about in their splendid barges.'
+
+"'But I had a different sort of sailing to that, later; and that, too,
+for many a year; a long way off, on great voyages.'
+
+"'Yes, many a time have I wept for your sake,' said she. 'I thought you
+were dead and gone, and lying down in the deep waters. Many a night have
+I got up to see if the wind had not changed: and changed it had, sure
+enough; but you never came. I remember so well one day, when the rain
+was pouring down in torrents, the scavengers were before the house where
+I was in service, and I had come up with the dust, and remained standing
+at the door--it was dreadful weather--when just as I was there, the
+postman came and gave me a letter. It was from you! What a tour that
+letter had made! I opened it instantly and read: I laughed and wept.
+I was so happy. In it I read that you were in warm lands where the
+coffee-tree grows. What a blessed land that must be! You related so
+much, and I saw it all the while the rain was pouring down, and I
+standing there with the dust-box. At the same moment came someone who
+embraced me.'
+
+"'Yes; but you gave him a good box on his ear that made it tingle!'
+
+"'But I did not know it was you. You arrived as soon as your letter,
+and you were so handsome--that you still are--and had a long yellow silk
+handkerchief round your neck, and a bran new hat on; oh, you were so
+dashing! Good heavens! What weather it was, and what a state the street
+was in!'
+
+"'And then we married,' said he. 'Don't you remember? And then we
+had our first little boy, and then Mary, and Nicholas, and Peter, and
+Christian.'
+
+"'Yes, and how they all grew up to be honest people, and were beloved by
+everybody.'
+
+"'And their children also have children,' said the old sailor; 'yes,
+those are our grand-children, full of strength and vigor. It was,
+methinks about this season that we had our wedding.'
+
+"'Yes, this very day is the fiftieth anniversary of the marriage,' said
+old Granny, sticking her head between the two old people; who thought
+it was their neighbor who nodded to them. They looked at each other and
+held one another by the hand. Soon after came their children, and their
+grand-children; for they knew well enough that it was the day of the
+fiftieth anniversary, and had come with their gratulations that very
+morning; but the old people had forgotten it, although they were able
+to remember all that had happened many years ago. And the Elderbush sent
+forth a strong odour in the sun, that was just about to set, and shone
+right in the old people's faces. They both looked so rosy-cheeked; and
+the youngest of the grandchildren danced around them, and called out
+quite delighted, that there was to be something very splendid that
+evening--they were all to have hot potatoes. And old Nanny nodded in the
+bush, and shouted 'hurrah!' with the rest."
+
+"But that is no fairy tale," said the little boy, who was listening to
+the story.
+
+"The thing is, you must understand it," said the narrator; "let us ask
+old Nanny."
+
+"That was no fairy tale, 'tis true," said old Nanny; "but now it's
+coming. The most wonderful fairy tales grow out of that which is
+reality; were that not the case, you know, my magnificent Elderbush
+could not have grown out of the tea-pot." And then she took the little
+boy out of bed, laid him on her bosom, and the branches of the Elder
+Tree, full of flowers, closed around her. They sat in an aerial
+dwelling, and it flew with them through the air. Oh, it was wondrous
+beautiful! Old Nanny had grown all of a sudden a young and pretty
+maiden; but her robe was still the same green stuff with white flowers,
+which she had worn before. On her bosom she had a real Elderflower,
+and in her yellow waving hair a wreath of the flowers; her eyes were so
+large and blue that it was a pleasure to look at them; she kissed the
+boy, and now they were of the same age and felt alike.
+
+Hand in hand they went out of the bower, and they were standing in the
+beautiful garden of their home. Near the green lawn papa's walking-stick
+was tied, and for the little ones it seemed to be endowed with life; for
+as soon as they got astride it, the round polished knob was turned into
+a magnificent neighing head, a long black mane fluttered in the breeze,
+and four slender yet strong legs shot out. The animal was strong and
+handsome, and away they went at full gallop round the lawn.
+
+"Huzza! Now we are riding miles off," said the boy. "We are riding away
+to the castle where we were last year!"
+
+And on they rode round the grass-plot; and the little maiden, who, we
+know, was no one else but old Nanny, kept on crying out, "Now we are in
+the country! Don't you see the farm-house yonder? And there is an Elder
+Tree standing beside it; and the cock is scraping away the earth for the
+hens, look, how he struts! And now we are close to the church. It lies
+high upon the hill, between the large oak-trees, one of which is half
+decayed. And now we are by the smithy, where the fire is blazing, and
+where the half-naked men are banging with their hammers till the sparks
+fly about. Away! away! To the beautiful country-seat!"
+
+And all that the little maiden, who sat behind on the stick, spoke of,
+flew by in reality. The boy saw it all, and yet they were only going
+round the grass-plot. Then they played in a side avenue, and marked out
+a little garden on the earth; and they took Elder-blossoms from their
+hair, planted them, and they grew just like those the old people planted
+when they were children, as related before. They went hand in hand, as
+the old people had done when they were children; but not to the Round
+Tower, or to Friedericksberg; no, the little damsel wound her arms round
+the boy, and then they flew far away through all Denmark. And spring
+came, and summer; and then it was autumn, and then winter; and a
+thousand pictures were reflected in the eye and in the heart of the boy;
+and the little girl always sang to him, "This you will never forget."
+And during their whole flight the Elder Tree smelt so sweet and odorous;
+he remarked the roses and the fresh beeches, but the Elder Tree had
+a more wondrous fragrance, for its flowers hung on the breast of the
+little maiden; and there, too, did he often lay his head during the
+flight.
+
+"It is lovely here in spring!" said the young maiden. And they stood in
+a beech-wood that had just put on its first green, where the woodroof [*]
+at their feet sent forth its fragrance, and the pale-red anemony looked
+so pretty among the verdure. "Oh, would it were always spring in the
+sweetly-smelling Danish beech-forests!"
+
+     * Asperula odorata.
+
+"It is lovely here in summer!" said she. And she flew past old castles
+of by-gone days of chivalry, where the red walls and the embattled
+gables were mirrored in the canal, where the swans were swimming, and
+peered up into the old cool avenues. In the fields the corn was waving
+like the sea; in the ditches red and yellow flowers were growing; while
+wild-drone flowers, and blooming convolvuluses were creeping in the
+hedges; and towards evening the moon rose round and large, and the
+haycocks in the meadows smelt so sweetly. "This one never forgets!"
+
+"It is lovely here in autumn!" said the little maiden. And suddenly the
+atmosphere grew as blue again as before; the forest grew red, and green,
+and yellow-colored. The dogs came leaping along, and whole flocks of
+wild-fowl flew over the cairn, where blackberry-bushes were hanging
+round the old stones. The sea was dark blue, covered with ships full
+of white sails; and in the barn old women, maidens, and children were
+sitting picking hops into a large cask; the young sang songs, but the
+old told fairy tales of mountain-sprites and soothsayers. Nothing could
+be more charming.
+
+"It is delightful here in winter!" said the little maiden. And all the
+trees were covered with hoar-frost; they looked like white corals; the
+snow crackled under foot, as if one had new boots on; and one falling
+star after the other was seen in the sky. The Christmas-tree was lighted
+in the room; presents were there, and good-humor reigned. In the country
+the violin sounded in the room of the peasant; the newly-baked cakes
+were attacked; even the poorest child said, "It is really delightful
+here in winter!"
+
+Yes, it was delightful; and the little maiden showed the boy everything;
+and the Elder Tree still was fragrant, and the red flag, with the white
+cross, was still waving: the flag under which the old seaman in the New
+Booths had sailed. And the boy grew up to be a lad, and was to go forth
+in the wide world-far, far away to warm lands, where the coffee-tree
+grows; but at his departure the little maiden took an Elder-blossom from
+her bosom, and gave it him to keep; and it was placed between the leaves
+of his Prayer-Book; and when in foreign lands he opened the book, it
+was always at the place where the keepsake-flower lay; and the more he
+looked at it, the fresher it became; he felt as it were, the fragrance
+of the Danish groves; and from among the leaves of the flowers he could
+distinctly see the little maiden, peeping forth with her bright blue
+eyes--and then she whispered, "It is delightful here in Spring, Summer,
+Autumn, and Winter"; and a hundred visions glided before his mind.
+
+Thus passed many years, and he was now an old man, and sat with his old
+wife under the blooming tree. They held each other by the hand, as the
+old grand-father and grand-mother yonder in the New Booths did, and they
+talked exactly like them of old times, and of the fiftieth anniversary
+of their wedding. The little maiden, with the blue eyes, and with
+Elder-blossoms in her hair, sat in the tree, nodded to both of them,
+and said, "To-day is the fiftieth anniversary!" And then she took two
+flowers out of her hair, and kissed them. First, they shone like silver,
+then like gold; and when they laid them on the heads of the old people,
+each flower became a golden crown. So there they both sat, like a king
+and a queen, under the fragrant tree, that looked exactly like an elder:
+the old man told his wife the story of "Old Nanny," as it had been told
+him when a boy. And it seemed to both of them it contained much that
+resembled their own history; and those parts that were like it pleased
+them best.
+
+"Thus it is," said the little maiden in the tree, "some call me 'Old
+Nanny,' others a 'Dryad,' but, in reality, my name is 'Remembrance';
+'tis I who sit in the tree that grows and grows! I can remember; I can
+tell things! Let me see if you have my flower still?"
+
+And the old man opened his Prayer-Book. There lay the Elder-blossom,
+as fresh as if it had been placed there but a short time before; and
+Remembrance nodded, and the old people, decked with crowns of gold, sat
+in the flush of the evening sun. They closed their eyes, and--and--!
+Yes, that's the end of the story!
+
+The little boy lay in his bed; he did not know if he had dreamed or
+not, or if he had been listening while someone told him the story. The
+tea-pot was standing on the table, but no Elder Tree was growing out
+of it! And the old man, who had been talking, was just on the point of
+going out at the door, and he did go.
+
+"How splendid that was!" said the little boy. "Mother, I have been to
+warm countries."
+
+"So I should think," said his mother. "When one has drunk two good
+cupfuls of Elder-flower tea, 'tis likely enough one goes into warm
+climates"; and she tucked him up nicely, least he should take cold. "You
+have had a good sleep while I have been sitting here, and arguing with
+him whether it was a story or a fairy tale."
+
+"And where is old Nanny?" asked the little boy.
+
+"In the tea-pot," said his mother; "and there she may remain."
+
+
+
+
+THE BELL
+
+People said "The Evening Bell is sounding, the sun is setting." For a
+strange wondrous tone was heard in the narrow streets of a large town.
+It was like the sound of a church-bell: but it was only heard for a
+moment, for the rolling of the carriages and the voices of the multitude
+made too great a noise.
+
+Those persons who were walking outside the town, where the houses were
+farther apart, with gardens or little fields between them, could see
+the evening sky still better, and heard the sound of the bell much
+more distinctly. It was as if the tones came from a church in the still
+forest; people looked thitherward, and felt their minds attuned most
+solemnly.
+
+A long time passed, and people said to each other--"I wonder if there
+is a church out in the wood? The bell has a tone that is wondrous sweet;
+let us stroll thither, and examine the matter nearer." And the rich
+people drove out, and the poor walked, but the way seemed strangely
+long to them; and when they came to a clump of willows which grew on the
+skirts of the forest, they sat down, and looked up at the long
+branches, and fancied they were now in the depth of the green wood. The
+confectioner of the town came out, and set up his booth there; and soon
+after came another confectioner, who hung a bell over his stand, as
+a sign or ornament, but it had no clapper, and it was tarred over to
+preserve it from the rain. When all the people returned home, they said
+it had been very romantic, and that it was quite a different sort of
+thing to a pic-nic or tea-party. There were three persons who asserted
+they had penetrated to the end of the forest, and that they had always
+heard the wonderful sounds of the bell, but it had seemed to them as if
+it had come from the town. One wrote a whole poem about it, and said the
+bell sounded like the voice of a mother to a good dear child, and
+that no melody was sweeter than the tones of the bell. The king of the
+country was also observant of it, and vowed that he who could discover
+whence the sounds proceeded, should have the title of "Universal
+Bell-ringer," even if it were not really a bell.
+
+Many persons now went to the wood, for the sake of getting the place,
+but one only returned with a sort of explanation; for nobody went far
+enough, that one not further than the others. However, he said that
+the sound proceeded from a very large owl, in a hollow tree; a sort of
+learned owl, that continually knocked its head against the branches. But
+whether the sound came from his head or from the hollow tree, that no
+one could say with certainty. So now he got the place of "Universal
+Bell-ringer," and wrote yearly a short treatise "On the Owl"; but
+everybody was just as wise as before.
+
+It was the day of confirmation. The clergyman had spoken so touchingly,
+the children who were confirmed had been greatly moved; it was
+an eventful day for them; from children they become all at once
+grown-up-persons; it was as if their infant souls were now to fly all
+at once into persons with more understanding. The sun was shining
+gloriously; the children that had been confirmed went out of the town;
+and from the wood was borne towards them the sounds of the unknown bell
+with wonderful distinctness. They all immediately felt a wish to go
+thither; all except three. One of them had to go home to try on a
+ball-dress; for it was just the dress and the ball which had caused her
+to be confirmed this time, for otherwise she would not have come;
+the other was a poor boy, who had borrowed his coat and boots to be
+confirmed in from the innkeeper's son, and he was to give them back by
+a certain hour; the third said that he never went to a strange place
+if his parents were not with him--that he had always been a good boy
+hitherto, and would still be so now that he was confirmed, and that one
+ought not to laugh at him for it: the others, however, did make fun of
+him, after all.
+
+There were three, therefore, that did not go; the others hastened on.
+The sun shone, the birds sang, and the children sang too, and each held
+the other by the hand; for as yet they had none of them any high office,
+and were all of equal rank in the eye of God.
+
+But two of the youngest soon grew tired, and both returned to town; two
+little girls sat down, and twined garlands, so they did not go either;
+and when the others reached the willow-tree, where the confectioner was,
+they said, "Now we are there! In reality the bell does not exist; it is
+only a fancy that people have taken into their heads!"
+
+At the same moment the bell sounded deep in the wood, so clear and
+solemnly that five or six determined to penetrate somewhat further. It
+was so thick, and the foliage so dense, that it was quite fatiguing
+to proceed. Woodroof and anemonies grew almost too high; blooming
+convolvuluses and blackberry-bushes hung in long garlands from tree to
+tree, where the nightingale sang and the sunbeams were playing: it was
+very beautiful, but it was no place for girls to go; their clothes would
+get so torn. Large blocks of stone lay there, overgrown with moss of
+every color; the fresh spring bubbled forth, and made a strange gurgling
+sound.
+
+"That surely cannot be the bell," said one of the children, lying down
+and listening. "This must be looked to." So he remained, and let the
+others go on without him.
+
+They afterwards came to a little house, made of branches and the bark of
+trees; a large wild apple-tree bent over it, as if it would shower down
+all its blessings on the roof, where roses were blooming. The long stems
+twined round the gable, on which there hung a small bell.
+
+Was it that which people had heard? Yes, everybody was unanimous on the
+subject, except one, who said that the bell was too small and too fine
+to be heard at so great a distance, and besides it was very different
+tones to those that could move a human heart in such a manner. It was a
+king's son who spoke; whereon the others said, "Such people always want
+to be wiser than everybody else."
+
+They now let him go on alone; and as he went, his breast was filled more
+and more with the forest solitude; but he still heard the little bell
+with which the others were so satisfied, and now and then, when the
+wind blew, he could also hear the people singing who were sitting at tea
+where the confectioner had his tent; but the deep sound of the bell rose
+louder; it was almost as if an organ were accompanying it, and the tones
+came from the left hand, the side where the heart is placed. A rustling
+was heard in the bushes, and a little boy stood before the King's Son, a
+boy in wooden shoes, and with so short a jacket that one could see what
+long wrists he had. Both knew each other: the boy was that one among
+the children who could not come because he had to go home and return his
+jacket and boots to the innkeeper's son. This he had done, and was now
+going on in wooden shoes and in his humble dress, for the bell sounded
+with so deep a tone, and with such strange power, that proceed he must.
+
+"Why, then, we can go together," said the King's Son. But the poor
+child that had been confirmed was quite ashamed; he looked at his wooden
+shoes, pulled at the short sleeves of his jacket, and said that he was
+afraid he could not walk so fast; besides, he thought that the bell must
+be looked for to the right; for that was the place where all sorts of
+beautiful things were to be found.
+
+"But there we shall not meet," said the King's Son, nodding at the same
+time to the poor boy, who went into the darkest, thickest part of the
+wood, where thorns tore his humble dress, and scratched his face and
+hands and feet till they bled. The King's Son got some scratches too;
+but the sun shone on his path, and it is him that we will follow, for he
+was an excellent and resolute youth.
+
+"I must and will find the bell," said he, "even if I am obliged to go to
+the end of the world."
+
+The ugly apes sat upon the trees, and grinned. "Shall we thrash him?"
+said they. "Shall we thrash him? He is the son of a king!"
+
+But on he went, without being disheartened, deeper and deeper into the
+wood, where the most wonderful flowers were growing. There stood white
+lilies with blood-red stamina, skyblue tulips, which shone as they waved
+in the winds, and apple-trees, the apples of which looked exactly like
+large soapbubbles: so only think how the trees must have sparkled in the
+sunshine! Around the nicest green meads, where the deer were playing in
+the grass, grew magnificent oaks and beeches; and if the bark of one of
+the trees was cracked, there grass and long creeping plants grew in
+the crevices. And there were large calm lakes there too, in which white
+swans were swimming, and beat the air with their wings. The King's Son
+often stood still and listened. He thought the bell sounded from the
+depths of these still lakes; but then he remarked again that the tone
+proceeded not from there, but farther off, from out the depths of the
+forest.
+
+The sun now set: the atmosphere glowed like fire. It was still in the
+woods, so very still; and he fell on his knees, sung his evening hymn,
+and said: "I cannot find what I seek; the sun is going down, and night
+is coming--the dark, dark night. Yet perhaps I may be able once more
+to see the round red sun before he entirely disappears. I will climb up
+yonder rock."
+
+And he seized hold of the creeping-plants, and the roots of
+trees--climbed up the moist stones where the water-snakes were writhing
+and the toads were croaking--and he gained the summit before the sun
+had quite gone down. How magnificent was the sight from this height! The
+sea--the great, the glorious sea, that dashed its long waves against the
+coast--was stretched out before him. And yonder, where sea and sky meet,
+stood the sun, like a large shining altar, all melted together in the
+most glowing colors. And the wood and the sea sang a song of rejoicing,
+and his heart sang with the rest: all nature was a vast holy church,
+in which the trees and the buoyant clouds were the pillars, flowers and
+grass the velvet carpeting, and heaven itself the large cupola. The red
+colors above faded away as the sun vanished, but a million stars were
+lighted, a million lamps shone; and the King's Son spread out his arms
+towards heaven, and wood, and sea; when at the same moment, coming by
+a path to the right, appeared, in his wooden shoes and jacket, the poor
+boy who had been confirmed with him. He had followed his own path, and
+had reached the spot just as soon as the son of the king had done. They
+ran towards each other, and stood together hand in hand in the vast
+church of nature and of poetry, while over them sounded the invisible
+holy bell: blessed spirits floated around them, and lifted up their
+voices in a rejoicing hallelujah!
+
+
+
+
+THE OLD HOUSE
+
+In the street, up there, was an old, a very old house--it was almost
+three hundred years old, for that might be known by reading the great
+beam on which the date of the year was carved: together with tulips and
+hop-binds there were whole verses spelled as in former times, and over
+every window was a distorted face cut out in the beam. The one story
+stood forward a great way over the other; and directly under the eaves
+was a leaden spout with a dragon's head; the rain-water should have run
+out of the mouth, but it ran out of the belly, for there was a hole in
+the spout.
+
+All the other houses in the street were so new and so neat, with large
+window panes and smooth walls, one could easily see that they would have
+nothing to do with the old house: they certainly thought, "How long is
+that old decayed thing to stand here as a spectacle in the street? And
+then the projecting windows stand so far out, that no one can see from
+our windows what happens in that direction! The steps are as broad as
+those of a palace, and as high as to a church tower. The iron railings
+look just like the door to an old family vault, and then they have brass
+tops--that's so stupid!"
+
+On the other side of the street were also new and neat houses, and they
+thought just as the others did; but at the window opposite the old house
+there sat a little boy with fresh rosy cheeks and bright beaming eyes:
+he certainly liked the old house best, and that both in sunshine and
+moonshine. And when he looked across at the wall where the mortar
+had fallen out, he could sit and find out there the strangest figures
+imaginable; exactly as the street had appeared before, with steps,
+projecting windows, and pointed gables; he could see soldiers with
+halberds, and spouts where the water ran, like dragons and serpents.
+That was a house to look at; and there lived an old man, who wore plush
+breeches; and he had a coat with large brass buttons, and a wig that one
+could see was a real wig. Every morning there came an old fellow to him
+who put his rooms in order, and went on errands; otherwise, the old man
+in the plush breeches was quite alone in the old house. Now and then he
+came to the window and looked out, and the little boy nodded to him,
+and the old man nodded again, and so they became acquaintances, and then
+they were friends, although they had never spoken to each other--but
+that made no difference. The little boy heard his parents say, "The old
+man opposite is very well off, but he is so very, very lonely!"
+
+The Sunday following, the little boy took something, and wrapped it up
+in a piece of paper, went downstairs, and stood in the doorway; and when
+the man who went on errands came past, he said to him--
+
+"I say, master! will you give this to the old man over the way from me?
+I have two pewter soldiers--this is one of them, and he shall have it,
+for I know he is so very, very lonely."
+
+And the old errand man looked quite pleased, nodded, and took the pewter
+soldier over to the old house. Afterwards there came a message; it was
+to ask if the little boy himself had not a wish to come over and pay a
+visit; and so he got permission of his parents, and then went over to
+the old house.
+
+And the brass balls on the iron railings shone much brighter than ever;
+one would have thought they were polished on account of the visit; and
+it was as if the carved-out trumpeters--for there were trumpeters, who
+stood in tulips, carved out on the door--blew with all their
+might, their cheeks appeared so much rounder than before. Yes, they
+blew--"Trateratra! The little boy comes! Trateratra!"--and then the door
+opened.
+
+The whole passage was hung with portraits of knights in armor, and
+ladies in silken gowns; and the armor rattled, and the silken gowns
+rustled! And then there was a flight of stairs which went a good way
+upwards, and a little way downwards, and then one came on a balcony
+which was in a very dilapidated state, sure enough, with large holes and
+long crevices, but grass grew there and leaves out of them altogether,
+for the whole balcony outside, the yard, and the walls, were overgrown
+with so much green stuff, that it looked like a garden; only a balcony.
+Here stood old flower-pots with faces and asses' ears, and the flowers
+grew just as they liked. One of the pots was quite overrun on all sides
+with pinks, that is to say, with the green part; shoot stood by shoot,
+and it said quite distinctly, "The air has cherished me, the sun has
+kissed me, and promised me a little flower on Sunday! a little flower on
+Sunday!"
+
+And then they entered a chamber where the walls were covered with hog's
+leather, and printed with gold flowers.
+
+   "The gilding decays,
+   But hog's leather stays!"
+
+said the walls.
+
+And there stood easy-chairs, with such high backs, and so carved out,
+and with arms on both sides. "Sit down! sit down!" said they. "Ugh! how
+I creak; now I shall certainly get the gout, like the old clothespress,
+ugh!"
+
+And then the little boy came into the room where the projecting windows
+were, and where the old man sat.
+
+"I thank you for the pewter soldier, my little friend!" said the old
+man. "And I thank you because you come over to me."
+
+"Thankee! thankee!" or "cranky! cranky!" sounded from all the furniture;
+there was so much of it, that each article stood in the other's way, to
+get a look at the little boy.
+
+In the middle of the wall hung a picture representing a beautiful lady,
+so young, so glad, but dressed quite as in former times, with clothes
+that stood quite stiff, and with powder in her hair; she neither said
+"thankee, thankee!" nor "cranky, cranky!" but looked with her mild eyes
+at the little boy, who directly asked the old man, "Where did you get
+her?"
+
+"Yonder, at the broker's," said the old man, "where there are so many
+pictures hanging. No one knows or cares about them, for they are all of
+them buried; but I knew her in by-gone days, and now she has been dead
+and gone these fifty years!"
+
+Under the picture, in a glazed frame, there hung a bouquet of withered
+flowers; they were almost fifty years old; they looked so very old!
+
+The pendulum of the great clock went to and fro, and the hands turned,
+and everything in the room became still older; but they did not observe
+it.
+
+"They say at home," said the little boy, "that you are so very, very
+lonely!"
+
+"Oh!" said he. "The old thoughts, with what they may bring with them,
+come and visit me, and now you also come! I am very well off!"
+
+Then he took a book with pictures in it down from the shelf; there were
+whole long processions and pageants, with the strangest characters,
+which one never sees now-a-days; soldiers like the knave of clubs,
+and citizens with waving flags: the tailors had theirs, with a pair of
+shears held by two lions--and the shoemakers theirs, without boots,
+but with an eagle that had two heads, for the shoemakers must have
+everything so that they can say, it is a pair! Yes, that was a picture
+book!
+
+The old man now went into the other room to fetch preserves, apples, and
+nuts--yes, it was delightful over there in the old house.
+
+"I cannot bear it any longer!" said the pewter soldier, who sat on the
+drawers. "It is so lonely and melancholy here! But when one has been in
+a family circle one cannot accustom oneself to this life! I cannot bear
+it any longer! The whole day is so long, and the evenings are still
+longer! Here it is not at all as it is over the way at your home, where
+your father and mother spoke so pleasantly, and where you and all your
+sweet children made such a delightful noise. Nay, how lonely the old man
+is--do you think that he gets kisses? Do you think he gets mild eyes,
+or a Christmas tree? He will get nothing but a grave! I can bear it no
+longer!"
+
+"You must not let it grieve you so much," said the little boy. "I find
+it so very delightful here, and then all the old thoughts, with what
+they may bring with them, they come and visit here."
+
+"Yes, it's all very well, but I see nothing of them, and I don't know
+them!" said the pewter soldier. "I cannot bear it!"
+
+"But you must!" said the little boy.
+
+Then in came the old man with the most pleased and happy face, the most
+delicious preserves, apples, and nuts, and so the little boy thought no
+more about the pewter soldier.
+
+The little boy returned home happy and pleased, and weeks and days
+passed away, and nods were made to the old house, and from the old
+house, and then the little boy went over there again.
+
+The carved trumpeters blew, "Trateratra! There is the little boy!
+Trateratra!" and the swords and armor on the knights' portraits rattled,
+and the silk gowns rustled; the hog's leather spoke, and the old chairs
+had the gout in their legs and rheumatism in their backs: Ugh! it was
+exactly like the first time, for over there one day and hour was just
+like another.
+
+"I cannot bear it!" said the pewter soldier. "I have shed pewter tears!
+It is too melancholy! Rather let me go to the wars and lose arms and
+legs! It would at least be a change. I cannot bear it longer! Now, I
+know what it is to have a visit from one's old thoughts, with what they
+may bring with them! I have had a visit from mine, and you may be sure
+it is no pleasant thing in the end; I was at last about to jump down
+from the drawers.
+
+"I saw you all over there at home so distinctly, as if you really were
+here; it was again that Sunday morning; all you children stood before
+the table and sung your Psalms, as you do every morning. You stood
+devoutly with folded hands; and father and mother were just as pious;
+and then the door was opened, and little sister Mary, who is not two
+years old yet, and who always dances when she hears music or singing, of
+whatever kind it may be, was put into the room--though she ought not to
+have been there--and then she began to dance, but could not keep time,
+because the tones were so long; and then she stood, first on the one
+leg, and bent her head forwards, and then on the other leg, and bent
+her head forwards--but all would not do. You stood very seriously all
+together, although it was difficult enough; but I laughed to myself, and
+then I fell off the table, and got a bump, which I have still--for it
+was not right of me to laugh. But the whole now passes before me again
+in thought, and everything that I have lived to see; and these are the
+old thoughts, with what they may bring with them.
+
+"Tell me if you still sing on Sundays? Tell me something about little
+Mary! And how my comrade, the other pewter soldier, lives! Yes, he is
+happy enough, that's sure! I cannot bear it any longer!"
+
+"You are given away as a present!" said the little boy. "You must
+remain. Can you not understand that?"
+
+The old man now came with a drawer, in which there was much to be seen,
+both "tin boxes" and "balsam boxes," old cards, so large and so gilded,
+such as one never sees them now. And several drawers were opened, and
+the piano was opened; it had landscapes on the inside of the lid, and it
+was so hoarse when the old man played on it! and then he hummed a song.
+
+"Yes, she could sing that!" said he, and nodded to the portrait, which
+he had bought at the broker's, and the old man's eyes shone so bright!
+
+"I will go to the wars! I will go to the wars!" shouted the pewter
+soldier as loud as he could, and threw himself off the drawers right
+down on the floor. What became of him? The old man sought, and the
+little boy sought; he was away, and he stayed away.
+
+"I shall find him!" said the old man; but he never found him. The floor
+was too open--the pewter soldier had fallen through a crevice, and there
+he lay as in an open tomb.
+
+That day passed, and the little boy went home, and that week passed,
+and several weeks too. The windows were quite frozen, the little boy was
+obliged to sit and breathe on them to get a peep-hole over to the old
+house, and there the snow had been blown into all the carved work and
+inscriptions; it lay quite up over the steps, just as if there was no
+one at home--nor was there any one at home--the old man was dead!
+
+In the evening there was a hearse seen before the door, and he was borne
+into it in his coffin: he was now to go out into the country, to lie in
+his grave. He was driven out there, but no one followed; all his friends
+were dead, and the little boy kissed his hand to the coffin as it was
+driven away.
+
+Some days afterwards there was an auction at the old house, and the
+little boy saw from his window how they carried the old knights and the
+old ladies away, the flower-pots with the long ears, the old chairs, and
+the old clothes-presses. Something came here, and something came there;
+the portrait of her who had been found at the broker's came to the
+broker's again; and there it hung, for no one knew her more--no one
+cared about the old picture.
+
+In the spring they pulled the house down, for, as people said, it was
+a ruin. One could see from the street right into the room with the
+hog's-leather hanging, which was slashed and torn; and the green grass
+and leaves about the balcony hung quite wild about the falling beams.
+And then it was put to rights.
+
+"That was a relief," said the neighboring houses.
+
+A fine house was built there, with large windows, and smooth white
+walls; but before it, where the old house had in fact stood, was a
+little garden laid out, and a wild grapevine ran up the wall of the
+neighboring house. Before the garden there was a large iron railing
+with an iron door, it looked quite splendid, and people stood still and
+peeped in, and the sparrows hung by scores in the vine, and chattered
+away at each other as well as they could, but it was not about the old
+house, for they could not remember it, so many years had passed--so many
+that the little boy had grown up to a whole man, yes, a clever man, and
+a pleasure to his parents; and he had just been married, and, together
+with his little wife, had come to live in the house here, where the
+garden was; and he stood by her there whilst she planted a field-flower
+that she found so pretty; she planted it with her little hand, and
+pressed the earth around it with her fingers. Oh! what was that? She
+had stuck herself. There sat something pointed, straight out of the soft
+mould.
+
+It was--yes, guess! It was the pewter soldier, he that was lost up at
+the old man's, and had tumbled and turned about amongst the timber and
+the rubbish, and had at last laid for many years in the ground.
+
+The young wife wiped the dirt off the soldier, first with a green leaf,
+and then with her fine handkerchief--it had such a delightful smell,
+that it was to the pewter soldier just as if he had awaked from a
+trance.
+
+"Let me see him," said the young man. He laughed, and then shook his
+head. "Nay, it cannot be he; but he reminds me of a story about a pewter
+soldier which I had when I was a little boy!" And then he told his wife
+about the old house, and the old man, and about the pewter soldier that
+he sent over to him because he was so very, very lonely; and he told it
+as correctly as it had really been, so that the tears came into the eyes
+of his young wife, on account of the old house and the old man.
+
+"It may possibly be, however, that it is the same pewter soldier!" said
+she. "I will take care of it, and remember all that you have told me;
+but you must show me the old man's grave!"
+
+"But I do not know it," said he, "and no one knows it! All his friends
+were dead, no one took care of it, and I was then a little boy!"
+
+"How very, very lonely he must have been!" said she.
+
+"Very, very lonely!" said the pewter soldier. "But it is delightful not
+to be forgotten!"
+
+"Delightful!" shouted something close by; but no one, except the pewter
+soldier, saw that it was a piece of the hog's-leather hangings; it had
+lost all its gilding, it looked like a piece of wet clay, but it had an
+opinion, and it gave it:
+
+   "The gilding decays,
+   But hog's leather stays!"
+
+This the pewter soldier did not believe.
+
+
+
+
+THE HAPPY FAMILY
+
+Really, the largest green leaf in this country is a dock-leaf; if one
+holds it before one, it is like a whole apron, and if one holds it over
+one's head in rainy weather, it is almost as good as an umbrella, for
+it is so immensely large. The burdock never grows alone, but where there
+grows one there always grow several: it is a great delight, and all this
+delightfulness is snails' food. The great white snails which persons of
+quality in former times made fricassees of, ate, and said, "Hem,
+hem! how delicious!" for they thought it tasted so delicate--lived on
+dock-leaves, and therefore burdock seeds were sown.
+
+Now, there was an old manor-house, where they no longer ate snails, they
+were quite extinct; but the burdocks were not extinct, they grew and
+grew all over the walks and all the beds; they could not get the mastery
+over them--it was a whole forest of burdocks. Here and there stood an
+apple and a plum-tree, or else one never would have thought that it was
+a garden; all was burdocks, and there lived the two last venerable old
+snails.
+
+They themselves knew not how old they were, but they could remember
+very well that there had been many more; that they were of a family
+from foreign lands, and that for them and theirs the whole forest was
+planted. They had never been outside it, but they knew that there was
+still something more in the world, which was called the manor-house, and
+that there they were boiled, and then they became black, and were then
+placed on a silver dish; but what happened further they knew not; or, in
+fact, what it was to be boiled, and to lie on a silver dish, they could
+not possibly imagine; but it was said to be delightful, and particularly
+genteel. Neither the chafers, the toads, nor the earth-worms, whom they
+asked about it could give them any information--none of them had been
+boiled or laid on a silver dish.
+
+The old white snails were the first persons of distinction in the
+world, that they knew; the forest was planted for their sake, and the
+manor-house was there that they might be boiled and laid on a silver
+dish.
+
+Now they lived a very lonely and happy life; and as they had no children
+themselves, they had adopted a little common snail, which they brought
+up as their own; but the little one would not grow, for he was of a
+common family; but the old ones, especially Dame Mother Snail, thought
+they could observe how he increased in size, and she begged father,
+if he could not see it, that he would at least feel the little snail's
+shell; and then he felt it, and found the good dame was right.
+
+One day there was a heavy storm of rain.
+
+"Hear how it beats like a drum on the dock-leaves!" said Father Snail.
+
+"There are also rain-drops!" said Mother Snail. "And now the rain pours
+right down the stalk! You will see that it will be wet here! I am very
+happy to think that we have our good house, and the little one has
+his also! There is more done for us than for all other creatures, sure
+enough; but can you not see that we are folks of quality in the world?
+We are provided with a house from our birth, and the burdock forest is
+planted for our sakes! I should like to know how far it extends, and
+what there is outside!"
+
+"There is nothing at all," said Father Snail. "No place can be better
+than ours, and I have nothing to wish for!"
+
+"Yes," said the dame. "I would willingly go to the manorhouse, be
+boiled, and laid on a silver dish; all our forefathers have been treated
+so; there is something extraordinary in it, you may be sure!"
+
+"The manor-house has most likely fallen to ruin!" said Father Snail. "Or
+the burdocks have grown up over it, so that they cannot come out. There
+need not, however, be any haste about that; but you are always in such a
+tremendous hurry, and the little one is beginning to be the same. Has he
+not been creeping up that stalk these three days? It gives me a headache
+when I look up to him!"
+
+"You must not scold him," said Mother Snail. "He creeps so carefully; he
+will afford us much pleasure--and we have nothing but him to live for!
+But have you not thought of it? Where shall we get a wife for him? Do
+you not think that there are some of our species at a great distance in
+the interior of the burdock forest?"
+
+"Black snails, I dare say, there are enough of," said the old one.
+"Black snails without a house--but they are so common, and so conceited.
+But we might give the ants a commission to look out for us; they run
+to and fro as if they had something to do, and they certainly know of a
+wife for our little snail!"
+
+"I know one, sure enough--the most charming one!" said one of the ants.
+"But I am afraid we shall hardly succeed, for she is a queen!"
+
+"That is nothing!" said the old folks. "Has she a house?"
+
+"She has a palace!" said the ant. "The finest ant's palace, with seven
+hundred passages!"
+
+"I thank you!" said Mother Snail. "Our son shall not go into an
+ant-hill; if you know nothing better than that, we shall give the
+commission to the white gnats. They fly far and wide, in rain and
+sunshine; they know the whole forest here, both within and without."
+
+"We have a wife for him," said the gnats. "At a hundred human paces from
+here there sits a little snail in her house, on a gooseberry bush; she
+is quite lonely, and old enough to be married. It is only a hundred
+human paces!"
+
+"Well, then, let her come to him!" said the old ones. "He has a whole
+forest of burdocks, she has only a bush!"
+
+And so they went and fetched little Miss Snail. It was a whole week
+before she arrived; but therein was just the very best of it, for one
+could thus see that she was of the same species.
+
+And then the marriage was celebrated. Six earth-worms shone as well as
+they could. In other respects the whole went off very quietly, for the
+old folks could not bear noise and merriment; but old Dame Snail made
+a brilliant speech. Father Snail could not speak, he was too much
+affected; and so they gave them as a dowry and inheritance, the whole
+forest of burdocks, and said--what they had always said--that it was
+the best in the world; and if they lived honestly and decently, and
+increased and multiplied, they and their children would once in the
+course of time come to the manor-house, be boiled black, and laid on
+silver dishes. After this speech was made, the old ones crept into their
+shells, and never more came out. They slept; the young couple governed
+in the forest, and had a numerous progeny, but they were never boiled,
+and never came on the silver dishes; so from this they concluded that
+the manor-house had fallen to ruins, and that all the men in the world
+were extinct; and as no one contradicted them, so, of course it was so.
+And the rain beat on the dock-leaves to make drum-music for their sake,
+and the sun shone in order to give the burdock forest a color for their
+sakes; and they were very happy, and the whole family was happy; for
+they, indeed were so.
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF A MOTHER
+
+A mother sat there with her little child. She was so downcast, so
+afraid that it should die! It was so pale, the small eyes had closed
+themselves, and it drew its breath so softly, now and then, with a
+deep respiration, as if it sighed; and the mother looked still more
+sorrowfully on the little creature.
+
+Then a knocking was heard at the door, and in came a poor old man
+wrapped up as in a large horse-cloth, for it warms one, and he needed
+it, as it was the cold winter season! Everything out-of-doors was
+covered with ice and snow, and the wind blew so that it cut the face.
+
+As the old man trembled with cold, and the little child slept a moment,
+the mother went and poured some ale into a pot and set it on the stove,
+that it might be warm for him; the old man sat and rocked the cradle,
+and the mother sat down on a chair close by him, and looked at her
+little sick child that drew its breath so deep, and raised its little
+hand.
+
+"Do you not think that I shall save him?" said she. "Our Lord will not
+take him from me!"
+
+And the old man--it was Death himself--he nodded so strangely, it could
+just as well signify yes as no. And the mother looked down in her lap,
+and the tears ran down over her cheeks; her head became so heavy--she
+had not closed her eyes for three days and nights; and now she slept,
+but only for a minute, when she started up and trembled with cold.
+
+"What is that?" said she, and looked on all sides; but the old man was
+gone, and her little child was gone--he had taken it with him; and the
+old clock in the corner burred, and burred, the great leaden weight ran
+down to the floor, bump! and then the clock also stood still.
+
+But the poor mother ran out of the house and cried aloud for her child.
+
+Out there, in the midst of the snow, there sat a woman in long, black
+clothes; and she said, "Death has been in thy chamber, and I saw him
+hasten away with thy little child; he goes faster than the wind, and he
+never brings back what he takes!"
+
+"Oh, only tell me which way he went!" said the mother. "Tell me the way,
+and I shall find him!"
+
+"I know it!" said the woman in the black clothes. "But before I tell it,
+thou must first sing for me all the songs thou hast sung for thy child!
+I am fond of them. I have heard them before; I am Night; I saw thy tears
+whilst thou sang'st them!"
+
+"I will sing them all, all!" said the mother. "But do not stop me now--I
+may overtake him--I may find my child!"
+
+But Night stood still and mute. Then the mother wrung her hands, sang
+and wept, and there were many songs, but yet many more tears; and then
+Night said, "Go to the right, into the dark pine forest; thither I saw
+Death take his way with thy little child!"
+
+The roads crossed each other in the depths of the forest, and she no
+longer knew whither she should go! then there stood a thorn-bush;
+there was neither leaf nor flower on it, it was also in the cold winter
+season, and ice-flakes hung on the branches.
+
+"Hast thou not seen Death go past with my little child?" said the
+mother.
+
+"Yes," said the thorn-bush; "but I will not tell thee which way he took,
+unless thou wilt first warm me up at thy heart. I am freezing to death;
+I shall become a lump of ice!"
+
+And she pressed the thorn-bush to her breast, so firmly, that it might
+be thoroughly warmed, and the thorns went right into her flesh, and her
+blood flowed in large drops, but the thornbush shot forth fresh green
+leaves, and there came flowers on it in the cold winter night, the heart
+of the afflicted mother was so warm; and the thorn-bush told her the way
+she should go.
+
+She then came to a large lake, where there was neither ship nor boat.
+The lake was not frozen sufficiently to bear her; neither was it open,
+nor low enough that she could wade through it; and across it she must go
+if she would find her child! Then she lay down to drink up the lake, and
+that was an impossibility for a human being, but the afflicted mother
+thought that a miracle might happen nevertheless.
+
+"Oh, what would I not give to come to my child!" said the weeping
+mother; and she wept still more, and her eyes sunk down in the depths of
+the waters, and became two precious pearls; but the water bore her up,
+as if she sat in a swing, and she flew in the rocking waves to the shore
+on the opposite side, where there stood a mile-broad, strange house, one
+knew not if it were a mountain with forests and caverns, or if it were
+built up; but the poor mother could not see it; she had wept her eyes
+out.
+
+"Where shall I find Death, who took away my little child?" said she.
+
+"He has not come here yet!" said the old grave woman, who was appointed
+to look after Death's great greenhouse! "How have you been able to find
+the way hither? And who has helped you?"
+
+"OUR LORD has helped me," said she. "He is merciful, and you will also
+be so! Where shall I find my little child?"
+
+"Nay, I know not," said the woman, "and you cannot see! Many flowers and
+trees have withered this night; Death will soon come and plant them over
+again! You certainly know that every person has his or her life's tree
+or flower, just as everyone happens to be settled; they look like other
+plants, but they have pulsations of the heart. Children's hearts can
+also beat; go after yours, perhaps you may know your child's; but what
+will you give me if I tell you what you shall do more?"
+
+"I have nothing to give," said the afflicted mother, "but I will go to
+the world's end for you!"
+
+"Nay, I have nothing to do there!" said the woman. "But you can give
+me your long black hair; you know yourself that it is fine, and that
+I like! You shall have my white hair instead, and that's always
+something!"
+
+"Do you demand nothing else?" said she. "That I will gladly give you!"
+And she gave her her fine black hair, and got the old woman's snow-white
+hair instead.
+
+So they went into Death's great greenhouse, where flowers and trees
+grew strangely into one another. There stood fine hyacinths under glass
+bells, and there stood strong-stemmed peonies; there grew water plants,
+some so fresh, others half sick, the water-snakes lay down on them,
+and black crabs pinched their stalks. There stood beautiful palm-trees,
+oaks, and plantains; there stood parsley and flowering thyme: every tree
+and every flower had its name; each of them was a human life, the human
+frame still lived--one in China, and another in Greenland--round about
+in the world. There were large trees in small pots, so that they stood
+so stunted in growth, and ready to burst the pots; in other places,
+there was a little dull flower in rich mould, with moss round about it,
+and it was so petted and nursed. But the distressed mother bent down
+over all the smallest plants, and heard within them how the human heart
+beat; and amongst millions she knew her child's.
+
+"There it is!" cried she, and stretched her hands out over a little blue
+crocus, that hung quite sickly on one side.
+
+"Don't touch the flower!" said the old woman. "But place yourself here,
+and when Death comes--I expect him every moment--do not let him pluck
+the flower up, but threaten him that you will do the same with the
+others. Then he will be afraid! He is responsible for them to OUR LORD,
+and no one dares to pluck them up before HE gives leave."
+
+All at once an icy cold rushed through the great hall, and the blind
+mother could feel that it was Death that came.
+
+"How hast thou been able to find thy way hither?" he asked. "How couldst
+thou come quicker than I?"
+
+"I am a mother," said she.
+
+And Death stretched out his long hand towards the fine little flower,
+but she held her hands fast around his, so tight, and yet afraid that
+she should touch one of the leaves. Then Death blew on her hands, and
+she felt that it was colder than the cold wind, and her hands fell down
+powerless.
+
+"Thou canst not do anything against me!" said Death.
+
+"But OUR LORD can!" said she.
+
+"I only do His bidding!" said Death. "I am His gardener, I take all His
+flowers and trees, and plant them out in the great garden of Paradise,
+in the unknown land; but how they grow there, and how it is there I dare
+not tell thee."
+
+"Give me back my child!" said the mother, and she wept and prayed. At
+once she seized hold of two beautiful flowers close by, with each hand,
+and cried out to Death, "I will tear all thy flowers off, for I am in
+despair."
+
+"Touch them not!" said Death. "Thou say'st that thou art so unhappy, and
+now thou wilt make another mother equally unhappy."
+
+"Another mother!" said the poor woman, and directly let go her hold of
+both the flowers.
+
+"There, thou hast thine eyes," said Death; "I fished them up from the
+lake, they shone so bright; I knew not they were thine. Take them again,
+they are now brighter than before; now look down into the deep well
+close by; I shall tell thee the names of the two flowers thou wouldst
+have torn up, and thou wilt see their whole future life--their whole
+human existence: and see what thou wast about to disturb and destroy."
+
+And she looked down into the well; and it was a happiness to see how the
+one became a blessing to the world, to see how much happiness and joy
+were felt everywhere. And she saw the other's life, and it was sorrow
+and distress, horror, and wretchedness.
+
+"Both of them are God's will!" said Death.
+
+"Which of them is Misfortune's flower and which is that of Happiness?"
+asked she.
+
+"That I will not tell thee," said Death; "but this thou shalt know from
+me, that the one flower was thy own child! it was thy child's fate thou
+saw'st--thy own child's future life!"
+
+Then the mother screamed with terror, "Which of them was my child? Tell
+it me! Save the innocent! Save my child from all that misery! Rather
+take it away! Take it into God's kingdom! Forget my tears, forget my
+prayers, and all that I have done!"
+
+"I do not understand thee!" said Death. "Wilt thou have thy child again,
+or shall I go with it there, where thou dost not know!"
+
+Then the mother wrung her hands, fell on her knees, and prayed to our
+Lord: "Oh, hear me not when I pray against Thy will, which is the best!
+hear me not! hear me not!"
+
+And she bowed her head down in her lap, and Death took her child and
+went with it into the unknown land.
+
+
+
+
+THE FALSE COLLAR
+
+There was once a fine gentleman, all of whose moveables were a boot-jack
+and a hair-comb: but he had the finest false collars in the world; and
+it is about one of these collars that we are now to hear a story.
+
+It was so old, that it began to think of marriage; and it happened that
+it came to be washed in company with a garter.
+
+"Nay!" said the collar. "I never did see anything so slender and so
+fine, so soft and so neat. May I not ask your name?"
+
+"That I shall not tell you!" said the garter.
+
+"Where do you live?" asked the collar.
+
+But the garter was so bashful, so modest, and thought it was a strange
+question to answer.
+
+"You are certainly a girdle," said the collar; "that is to say an inside
+girdle. I see well that you are both for use and ornament, my dear young
+lady."
+
+"I will thank you not to speak to me," said the garter. "I think I have
+not given the least occasion for it."
+
+"Yes! When one is as handsome as you," said the collar, "that is
+occasion enough."
+
+"Don't come so near me, I beg of you!" said the garter. "You look so
+much like those men-folks."
+
+"I am also a fine gentleman," said the collar. "I have a bootjack and a
+hair-comb."
+
+But that was not true, for it was his master who had them: but he
+boasted.
+
+"Don't come so near me," said the garter: "I am not accustomed to it."
+
+"Prude!" exclaimed the collar; and then it was taken out of the
+washing-tub. It was starched, hung over the back of a chair in the
+sunshine, and was then laid on the ironing-blanket; then came the warm
+box-iron. "Dear lady!" said the collar. "Dear widow-lady! I feel quite
+hot. I am quite changed. I begin to unfold myself. You will burn a hole
+in me. Oh! I offer you my hand."
+
+"Rag!" said the box-iron; and went proudly over the collar: for she
+fancied she was a steam-engine, that would go on the railroad and draw
+the waggons. "Rag!" said the box-iron.
+
+The collar was a little jagged at the edge, and so came the long
+scissors to cut off the jagged part. "Oh!" said the collar. "You are
+certainly the first opera dancer. How well you can stretch your legs
+out! It is the most graceful performance I have ever seen. No one can
+imitate you."
+
+"I know it," said the scissors.
+
+"You deserve to be a baroness," said the collar. "All that I have is a
+fine gentleman, a boot-jack, and a hair-comb. If I only had the barony!"
+
+"Do you seek my hand?" said the scissors; for she was angry; and without
+more ado, she CUT HIM, and then he was condemned.
+
+"I shall now be obliged to ask the hair-comb. It is surprising how well
+you preserve your teeth, Miss," said the collar. "Have you never thought
+of being betrothed?"
+
+"Yes, of course! you may be sure of that," said the hair-comb. "I AM
+betrothed--to the boot-jack!"
+
+"Betrothed!" exclaimed the collar. Now there was no other to court, and
+so he despised it.
+
+A long time passed away, then the collar came into the rag chest at the
+paper mill; there was a large company of rags, the fine by themselves,
+and the coarse by themselves, just as it should be. They all had much to
+say, but the collar the most; for he was a real boaster.
+
+"I have had such an immense number of sweethearts!" said the collar.
+"I could not be in peace! It is true, I was always a fine starched-up
+gentleman! I had both a boot-jack and a hair-comb, which I never used!
+You should have seen me then, you should have seen me when I lay down!
+I shall never forget MY FIRST LOVE--she was a girdle, so fine, so soft,
+and so charming, she threw herself into a tub of water for my sake!
+There was also a widow, who became glowing hot, but I left her standing
+till she got black again; there was also the first opera dancer, she
+gave me that cut which I now go with, she was so ferocious! My
+own hair-comb was in love with me, she lost all her teeth from the
+heart-ache; yes, I have lived to see much of that sort of thing; but I
+am extremely sorry for the garter--I mean the girdle--that went into the
+water-tub. I have much on my conscience, I want to become white paper!"
+
+And it became so, all the rags were turned into white paper; but the
+collar came to be just this very piece of white paper we here see,
+and on which the story is printed; and that was because it boasted so
+terribly afterwards of what had never happened to it. It would be well
+for us to beware, that we may not act in a similar manner, for we can
+never know if we may not, in the course of time, also come into the
+rag chest, and be made into white paper, and then have our whole life's
+history printed on it, even the most secret, and be obliged to run about
+and tell it ourselves, just like this collar.
+
+
+
+
+THE SHADOW
+
+It is in the hot lands that the sun burns, sure enough! there the people
+become quite a mahogany brown, ay, and in the HOTTEST lands they are
+burnt to Negroes. But now it was only to the HOT lands that a learned
+man had come from the cold; there he thought that he could run about
+just as when at home, but he soon found out his mistake.
+
+He, and all sensible folks, were obliged to stay within doors--the
+window-shutters and doors were closed the whole day; it looked as if the
+whole house slept, or there was no one at home.
+
+The narrow street with the high houses, was built so that the sunshine
+must fall there from morning till evening--it was really not to be
+borne.
+
+The learned man from the cold lands--he was a young man, and seemed to
+be a clever man--sat in a glowing oven; it took effect on him, he became
+quite meagre--even his shadow shrunk in, for the sun had also an effect
+on it. It was first towards evening when the sun was down, that they
+began to freshen up again.
+
+In the warm lands every window has a balcony, and the people came out on
+all the balconies in the street--for one must have air, even if one be
+accustomed to be mahogany!* It was lively both up and down the
+street. Tailors, and shoemakers, and all the folks, moved out into the
+street--chairs and tables were brought forth--and candles burnt--yes,
+above a thousand lights were burning--and the one talked and the other
+sung; and people walked and church-bells rang, and asses went along with
+a dingle-dingle-dong! for they too had bells on. The street boys were
+screaming and hooting, and shouting and shooting, with devils and
+detonating balls--and there came corpse bearers and hood wearers--for
+there were funerals with psalm and hymn--and then the din of carriages
+driving and company arriving: yes, it was, in truth, lively enough down
+in the street. Only in that single house, which stood opposite that in
+which the learned foreigner lived, it was quite still; and yet some one
+lived there, for there stood flowers in the balcony--they grew so
+well in the sun's heat! and that they could not do unless they were
+watered--and some one must water them--there must be somebody there.
+The door opposite was also opened late in the evening, but it was dark
+within, at least in the front room; further in there was heard the sound
+of music. The learned foreigner thought it quite marvellous, but now--it
+might be that he only imagined it--for he found everything marvellous
+out there, in the warm lands, if there had only been no sun. The
+stranger's landlord said that he didn't know who had taken the house
+opposite, one saw no person about, and as to the music, it appeared
+to him to be extremely tiresome. "It is as if some one sat there, and
+practised a piece that he could not master--always the same piece. 'I
+shall master it!' says he; but yet he cannot master it, however long he
+plays."
+
+* The word mahogany can be understood, in Danish, as having two
+meanings. In general, it means the reddish-brown wood itself; but in
+jest, it signifies "excessively fine," which arose from an anecdote of
+Nyboder, in Copenhagen, (the seamen's quarter.) A sailor's wife, who was
+always proud and fine, in her way, came to her neighbor, and complained
+that she had got a splinter in her finger. "What of?" asked the
+neighbor's wife. "It is a mahogany splinter," said the other. "Mahogany!
+It cannot be less with you!" exclaimed the woman--and thence the
+proverb, "It is so mahogany!"--(that is, so excessively fine)--is
+derived.
+
+
+One night the stranger awoke--he slept with the doors of the balcony
+open--the curtain before it was raised by the wind, and he thought
+that a strange lustre came from the opposite neighbor's house; all the
+flowers shone like flames, in the most beautiful colors, and in the
+midst of the flowers stood a slender, graceful maiden--it was as if she
+also shone; the light really hurt his eyes. He now opened them quite
+wide--yes, he was quite awake; with one spring he was on the floor; he
+crept gently behind the curtain, but the maiden was gone; the flowers
+shone no longer, but there they stood, fresh and blooming as ever;
+the door was ajar, and, far within, the music sounded so soft and
+delightful, one could really melt away in sweet thoughts from it. Yet
+it was like a piece of enchantment. And who lived there? Where was the
+actual entrance? The whole of the ground-floor was a row of shops, and
+there people could not always be running through.
+
+One evening the stranger sat out on the balcony. The light burnt in the
+room behind him; and thus it was quite natural that his shadow should
+fall on his opposite neighbor's wall. Yes! there it sat, directly
+opposite, between the flowers on the balcony; and when the stranger
+moved, the shadow also moved: for that it always does.
+
+"I think my shadow is the only living thing one sees over there," said
+the learned man. "See, how nicely it sits between the flowers. The door
+stands half-open: now the shadow should be cunning, and go into the
+room, look about, and then come and tell me what it had seen. Come, now!
+Be useful, and do me a service," said he, in jest. "Have the kindness to
+step in. Now! Art thou going?" and then he nodded to the shadow, and the
+shadow nodded again. "Well then, go! But don't stay away."
+
+The stranger rose, and his shadow on the opposite neighbor's balcony
+rose also; the stranger turned round and the shadow also turned round.
+Yes! if anyone had paid particular attention to it, they would have
+seen, quite distinctly, that the shadow went in through the half-open
+balcony-door of their opposite neighbor, just as the stranger went into
+his own room, and let the long curtain fall down after him.
+
+Next morning, the learned man went out to drink coffee and read the
+newspapers.
+
+"What is that?" said he, as he came out into the sunshine. "I have no
+shadow! So then, it has actually gone last night, and not come again. It
+is really tiresome!"
+
+This annoyed him: not so much because the shadow was gone, but because
+he knew there was a story about a man without a shadow.* It was known
+to everybody at home, in the cold lands; and if the learned man now came
+there and told his story, they would say that he was imitating it, and
+that he had no need to do. He would, therefore, not talk about it at
+all; and that was wisely thought.
+
+*Peter Schlemihl, the shadowless man.
+
+
+In the evening he went out again on the balcony. He had placed the light
+directly behind him, for he knew that the shadow would always have its
+master for a screen, but he could not entice it. He made himself little;
+he made himself great: but no shadow came again. He said, "Hem! hem!"
+but it was of no use.
+
+It was vexatious; but in the warm lands everything grows so quickly; and
+after the lapse of eight days he observed, to his great joy, that a new
+shadow came in the sunshine. In the course of three weeks he had a very
+fair shadow, which, when he set out for his home in the northern lands,
+grew more and more in the journey, so that at last it was so long and so
+large, that it was more than sufficient.
+
+The learned man then came home, and he wrote books about what was true
+in the world, and about what was good and what was beautiful; and there
+passed days and years--yes! many years passed away.
+
+One evening, as he was sitting in his room, there was a gentle knocking
+at the door.
+
+"Come in!" said he; but no one came in; so he opened the door, and there
+stood before him such an extremely lean man, that he felt quite strange.
+As to the rest, the man was very finely dressed--he must be a gentleman.
+
+"Whom have I the honor of speaking?" asked the learned man.
+
+"Yes! I thought as much," said the fine man. "I thought you would not
+know me. I have got so much body. I have even got flesh and clothes. You
+certainly never thought of seeing me so well off. Do you not know your
+old shadow? You certainly thought I should never more return. Things
+have gone on well with me since I was last with you. I have, in all
+respects, become very well off. Shall I purchase my freedom from
+service? If so, I can do it"; and then he rattled a whole bunch of
+valuable seals that hung to his watch, and he stuck his hand in the
+thick gold chain he wore around his neck--nay! how all his fingers
+glittered with diamond rings; and then all were pure gems.
+
+"Nay; I cannot recover from my surprise!" said the learned man. "What is
+the meaning of all this?"
+
+"Something common, is it not," said the shadow. "But you yourself do not
+belong to the common order; and I, as you know well, have from a child
+followed in your footsteps. As soon as you found I was capable to go
+out alone in the world, I went my own way. I am in the most brilliant
+circumstances, but there came a sort of desire over me to see you once
+more before you die; you will die, I suppose? I also wished to see this
+land again--for you know we always love our native land. I know you have
+got another shadow again; have I anything to pay to it or you? If so,
+you will oblige me by saying what it is."
+
+"Nay, is it really thou?" said the learned man. "It is most remarkable:
+I never imagined that one's old shadow could come again as a man."
+
+"Tell me what I have to pay," said the shadow; "for I don't like to be
+in any sort of debt."
+
+"How canst thou talk so?" said the learned man. "What debt is there to
+talk about? Make thyself as free as anyone else. I am extremely glad to
+hear of thy good fortune: sit down, old friend, and tell me a little
+how it has gone with thee, and what thou hast seen at our opposite
+neighbor's there--in the warm lands."
+
+"Yes, I will tell you all about it," said the shadow, and sat down: "but
+then you must also promise me, that, wherever you may meet me, you will
+never say to anyone here in the town that I have been your shadow. I
+intend to get betrothed, for I can provide for more than one family."
+
+"Be quite at thy ease about that," said the learned man; "I shall not
+say to anyone who thou actually art: here is my hand--I promise it, and
+a man's bond is his word."
+
+"A word is a shadow," said the shadow, "and as such it must speak."
+
+It was really quite astonishing how much of a man it was. It was dressed
+entirely in black, and of the very finest cloth; it had patent leather
+boots, and a hat that could be folded together, so that it was bare
+crown and brim; not to speak of what we already know it had--seals, gold
+neck-chain, and diamond rings; yes, the shadow was well-dressed, and it
+was just that which made it quite a man.
+
+"Now I shall tell you my adventures," said the shadow; and then he
+sat, with the polished boots, as heavily as he could, on the arm of the
+learned man's new shadow, which lay like a poodle-dog at his feet.
+Now this was perhaps from arrogance; and the shadow on the ground kept
+itself so still and quiet, that it might hear all that passed: it wished
+to know how it could get free, and work its way up, so as to become its
+own master.
+
+"Do you know who lived in our opposite neighbor's house?" said the
+shadow. "It was the most charming of all beings, it was Poesy! I was
+there for three weeks, and that has as much effect as if one had lived
+three thousand years, and read all that was composed and written;
+that is what I say, and it is right. I have seen everything and I know
+everything!"
+
+"Poesy!" cried the learned man. "Yes, yes, she often dwells a recluse
+in large cities! Poesy! Yes, I have seen her--a single short moment,
+but sleep came into my eyes! She stood on the balcony and shone as the
+Aurora Borealis shines. Go on, go on--thou wert on the balcony, and went
+through the doorway, and then--"
+
+"Then I was in the antechamber," said the shadow. "You always sat and
+looked over to the antechamber. There was no light; there was a sort
+of twilight, but the one door stood open directly opposite the other
+through a long row of rooms and saloons, and there it was lighted up. I
+should have been completely killed if I had gone over to the maiden; but
+I was circumspect, I took time to think, and that one must always do."
+
+"And what didst thou then see?" asked the learned man.
+
+"I saw everything, and I shall tell all to you: but--it is no pride on
+my part--as a free man, and with the knowledge I have, not to speak of
+my position in life, my excellent circumstances--I certainly wish that
+you would say YOU* to me!"
+
+* It is the custom in Denmark for intimate acquaintances to use the
+second person singular, "Du," (thou) when speaking to each other. When
+a friendship is formed between men, they generally affirm it, when
+occasion offers, either in public or private, by drinking to each other
+and exclaiming, "thy health," at the same time striking their glasses
+together. This is called drinking "Duus": they are then, "Duus Brodre,"
+(thou brothers) and ever afterwards use the pronoun "thou," to each
+other, it being regarded as more familiar than "De," (you). Father and
+mother, sister and brother say thou to one another--without regard to
+age or rank. Master and mistress say thou to their servants the superior
+to the inferior. But servants and inferiors do not use the same term
+to their masters, or superiors--nor is it ever used when speaking to a
+stranger, or anyone with whom they are but slightly acquainted--they
+then say as in English--you.
+
+
+"I beg your pardon," said the learned man; "it is an old habit with me.
+YOU are perfectly right, and I shall remember it; but now you must tell
+me all YOU saw!"
+
+"Everything!" said the shadow. "For I saw everything, and I know
+everything!"
+
+"How did it look in the furthest saloon?" asked the learned man. "Was it
+there as in the fresh woods? Was it there as in a holy church? Were the
+saloons like the starlit firmament when we stand on the high mountains?"
+
+"Everything was there!" said the shadow. "I did not go quite in, I
+remained in the foremost room, in the twilight, but I stood there
+quite well; I saw everything, and I know everything! I have been in the
+antechamber at the court of Poesy."
+
+"But WHAT DID you see? Did all the gods of the olden times pass through
+the large saloons? Did the old heroes combat there? Did sweet children
+play there, and relate their dreams?"
+
+"I tell you I was there, and you can conceive that I saw everything
+there was to be seen. Had you come over there, you would not have been
+a man; but I became so! And besides, I learned to know my inward nature,
+my innate qualities, the relationship I had with Poesy. At the time I
+was with you, I thought not of that, but always--you know it well--when
+the sun rose, and when the sun went down, I became so strangely great;
+in the moonlight I was very near being more distinct than yourself; at
+that time I did not understand my nature; it was revealed to me in the
+antechamber! I became a man! I came out matured; but you were no longer
+in the warm lands; as a man I was ashamed to go as I did. I was in
+want of boots, of clothes, of the whole human varnish that makes a man
+perceptible. I took my way--I tell it to you, but you will not put it in
+any book--I took my way to the cake woman--I hid myself behind her;
+the woman didn't think how much she concealed. I went out first in the
+evening; I ran about the streets in the moonlight; I made myself long up
+the walls--it tickles the back so delightfully! I ran up, and ran down,
+peeped into the highest windows, into the saloons, and on the roofs, I
+peeped in where no one could peep, and I saw what no one else saw, what
+no one else should see! This is, in fact, a base world! I would not be a
+man if it were not now once accepted and regarded as something to be so!
+I saw the most unimaginable things with the women, with the men, with
+parents, and with the sweet, matchless children; I saw," said the
+shadow, "what no human being must know, but what they would all
+so willingly know--what is bad in their neighbor. Had I written a
+newspaper, it would have been read! But I wrote direct to the persons
+themselves, and there was consternation in all the towns where I came.
+They were so afraid of me, and yet they were so excessively fond of
+me. The professors made a professor of me; the tailors gave me new
+clothes--I am well furnished; the master of the mint struck new coin for
+me, and the women said I was so handsome! And so I became the man I am.
+And I now bid you farewell. Here is my card--I live on the sunny side
+of the street, and am always at home in rainy weather!" And so away went
+the shadow. "That was most extraordinary!" said the learned man. Years
+and days passed away, then the shadow came again. "How goes it?" said
+the shadow.
+
+"Alas!" said the learned man. "I write about the true, and the good,
+and the beautiful, but no one cares to hear such things; I am quite
+desperate, for I take it so much to heart!"
+
+"But I don't!" said the shadow. "I become fat, and it is that one wants
+to become! You do not understand the world. You will become ill by it.
+You must travel! I shall make a tour this summer; will you go with me?
+I should like to have a travelling companion! Will you go with me, as
+shadow? It will be a great pleasure for me to have you with me; I shall
+pay the travelling expenses!"
+
+"Nay, this is too much!" said the learned man.
+
+"It is just as one takes it!" said the shadow. "It will do you much good
+to travel! Will you be my shadow? You shall have everything free on the
+journey!"
+
+"Nay, that is too bad!" said the learned man.
+
+"But it is just so with the world!" said the shadow, "and so it will
+be!" and away it went again.
+
+The learned man was not at all in the most enviable state; grief and
+torment followed him, and what he said about the true, and the good, and
+the beautiful, was, to most persons, like roses for a cow! He was quite
+ill at last.
+
+"You really look like a shadow!" said his friends to him; and the
+learned man trembled, for he thought of it.
+
+"You must go to a watering-place!" said the shadow, who came and visited
+him. "There is nothing else for it! I will take you with me for old
+acquaintance' sake; I will pay the travelling expenses, and you write
+the descriptions--and if they are a little amusing for me on the way!
+I will go to a watering-place--my beard does not grow out as it
+ought--that is also a sickness--and one must have a beard! Now you be
+wise and accept the offer; we shall travel as comrades!"
+
+And so they travelled; the shadow was master, and the master was the
+shadow; they drove with each other, they rode and walked together, side
+by side, before and behind, just as the sun was; the shadow always took
+care to keep itself in the master's place. Now the learned man didn't
+think much about that; he was a very kind-hearted man, and particularly
+mild and friendly, and so he said one day to the shadow: "As we have
+now become companions, and in this way have grown up together from
+childhood, shall we not drink 'thou' together, it is more familiar?"
+
+"You are right," said the shadow, who was now the proper master. "It is
+said in a very straight-forward and well-meant manner. You, as a learned
+man, certainly know how strange nature is. Some persons cannot bear to
+touch grey paper, or they become ill; others shiver in every limb if one
+rub a pane of glass with a nail: I have just such a feeling on hearing
+you say thou to me; I feel myself as if pressed to the earth in my first
+situation with you. You see that it is a feeling; that it is not pride:
+I cannot allow you to say THOU to me, but I will willingly say THOU to
+you, so it is half done!"
+
+So the shadow said THOU to its former master.
+
+"This is rather too bad," thought he, "that I must say YOU and he say
+THOU," but he was now obliged to put up with it.
+
+So they came to a watering-place where there were many strangers, and
+amongst them was a princess, who was troubled with seeing too well; and
+that was so alarming!
+
+She directly observed that the stranger who had just come was quite a
+different sort of person to all the others; "He has come here in order
+to get his beard to grow, they say, but I see the real cause, he cannot
+cast a shadow."
+
+She had become inquisitive; and so she entered into conversation
+directly with the strange gentleman, on their promenades. As the
+daughter of a king, she needed not to stand upon trifles, so she said,
+"Your complaint is, that you cannot cast a shadow?"
+
+"Your Royal Highness must be improving considerably," said the shadow,
+"I know your complaint is, that you see too clearly, but it has
+decreased, you are cured. I just happen to have a very unusual shadow!
+Do you not see that person who always goes with me? Other persons have
+a common shadow, but I do not like what is common to all. We give our
+servants finer cloth for their livery than we ourselves use, and so I
+had my shadow trimmed up into a man: yes, you see I have even given him
+a shadow. It is somewhat expensive, but I like to have something for
+myself!"
+
+"What!" thought the princess. "Should I really be cured! These baths are
+the first in the world! In our time water has wonderful powers. But I
+shall not leave the place, for it now begins to be amusing here. I am
+extremely fond of that stranger: would that his beard should not grow,
+for in that case he will leave us!"
+
+In the evening, the princess and the shadow danced together in the large
+ball-room. She was light, but he was still lighter; she had never had
+such a partner in the dance. She told him from what land she came, and
+he knew that land; he had been there, but then she was not at home; he
+had peeped in at the window, above and below--he had seen both the
+one and the other, and so he could answer the princess, and make
+insinuations, so that she was quite astonished; he must be the wisest
+man in the whole world! She felt such respect for what he knew! So that
+when they again danced together she fell in love with him; and that the
+shadow could remark, for she almost pierced him through with her eyes.
+So they danced once more together; and she was about to declare herself,
+but she was discreet; she thought of her country and kingdom, and of the
+many persons she would have to reign over.
+
+"He is a wise man," said she to herself--"It is well; and he dances
+delightfully--that is also good; but has he solid knowledge? That is
+just as important! He must be examined."
+
+So she began, by degrees, to question him about the most difficult
+things she could think of, and which she herself could not have
+answered; so that the shadow made a strange face.
+
+"You cannot answer these questions?" said the princess.
+
+"They belong to my childhood's learning," said the shadow. "I really
+believe my shadow, by the door there, can answer them!"
+
+"Your shadow!" said the princess. "That would indeed be marvellous!"
+
+"I will not say for a certainty that he can," said the shadow, "but I
+think so; he has now followed me for so many years, and listened to my
+conversation--I should think it possible. But your royal highness will
+permit me to observe, that he is so proud of passing himself off for
+a man, that when he is to be in a proper humor--and he must be so to
+answer well--he must be treated quite like a man."
+
+"Oh! I like that!" said the princess.
+
+So she went to the learned man by the door, and she spoke to him about
+the sun and the moon, and about persons out of and in the world, and he
+answered with wisdom and prudence.
+
+"What a man that must be who has so wise a shadow!" thought she. "It
+will be a real blessing to my people and kingdom if I choose him for my
+consort--I will do it!"
+
+They were soon agreed, both the princess and the shadow; but no one was
+to know about it before she arrived in her own kingdom.
+
+"No one--not even my shadow!" said the shadow, and he had his own
+thoughts about it!
+
+Now they were in the country where the princess reigned when she was at
+home.
+
+"Listen, my good friend," said the shadow to the learned man. "I have
+now become as happy and mighty as anyone can be; I will, therefore, do
+something particular for thee! Thou shalt always live with me in the
+palace, drive with me in my royal carriage, and have ten thousand
+pounds a year; but then thou must submit to be called SHADOW by all and
+everyone; thou must not say that thou hast ever been a man; and once
+a year, when I sit on the balcony in the sunshine, thou must lie at my
+feet, as a shadow shall do! I must tell thee: I am going to marry the
+king's daughter, and the nuptials are to take place this evening!"
+
+"Nay, this is going too far!" said the learned man. "I will not have it;
+I will not do it! It is to deceive the whole country and the princess
+too! I will tell everything! That I am a man, and that thou art a
+shadow--thou art only dressed up!"
+
+"There is no one who will believe it!" said the shadow. "Be reasonable,
+or I will call the guard!"
+
+"I will go directly to the princess!" said the learned man.
+
+"But I will go first!" said the shadow. "And thou wilt go to prison!"
+and that he was obliged to do--for the sentinels obeyed him whom they
+knew the king's daughter was to marry.
+
+"You tremble!" said the princess, as the shadow came into her chamber.
+"Has anything happened? You must not be unwell this evening, now that we
+are to have our nuptials celebrated."
+
+"I have lived to see the most cruel thing that anyone can live to
+see!" said the shadow. "Only imagine--yes, it is true, such a poor
+shadow-skull cannot bear much--only think, my shadow has become mad;
+he thinks that he is a man, and that I--now only think--that I am his
+shadow!"
+
+"It is terrible!" said the princess; "but he is confined, is he not?"
+
+"That he is. I am afraid that he will never recover."
+
+"Poor shadow!" said the princess. "He is very unfortunate; it would be
+a real work of charity to deliver him from the little life he has, and,
+when I think properly over the matter, I am of opinion that it will be
+necessary to do away with him in all stillness!"
+
+"It is certainly hard," said the shadow, "for he was a faithful
+servant!" and then he gave a sort of sigh.
+
+"You are a noble character!" said the princess.
+
+The whole city was illuminated in the evening, and the cannons went off
+with a bum! bum! and the soldiers presented arms. That was a marriage!
+The princess and the shadow went out on the balcony to show themselves,
+and get another hurrah!
+
+The learned man heard nothing of all this--for they had deprived him of
+life.
+
+
+
+
+THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL
+
+Most terribly cold it was; it snowed, and was nearly quite dark, and
+evening--the last evening of the year. In this cold and darkness there
+went along the street a poor little girl, bareheaded, and with naked
+feet. When she left home she had slippers on, it is true; but what was
+the good of that? They were very large slippers, which her mother had
+hitherto worn; so large were they; and the poor little thing lost them
+as she scuffled away across the street, because of two carriages that
+rolled by dreadfully fast.
+
+One slipper was nowhere to be found; the other had been laid hold of by
+an urchin, and off he ran with it; he thought it would do capitally for
+a cradle when he some day or other should have children himself. So the
+little maiden walked on with her tiny naked feet, that were quite red
+and blue from cold. She carried a quantity of matches in an old apron,
+and she held a bundle of them in her hand. Nobody had bought anything of
+her the whole livelong day; no one had given her a single farthing.
+
+She crept along trembling with cold and hunger--a very picture of
+sorrow, the poor little thing!
+
+The flakes of snow covered her long fair hair, which fell in beautiful
+curls around her neck; but of that, of course, she never once now
+thought. From all the windows the candles were gleaming, and it smelt so
+deliciously of roast goose, for you know it was New Year's Eve; yes, of
+that she thought.
+
+In a corner formed by two houses, of which one advanced more than the
+other, she seated herself down and cowered together. Her little feet
+she had drawn close up to her, but she grew colder and colder, and to go
+home she did not venture, for she had not sold any matches and could
+not bring a farthing of money: from her father she would certainly get
+blows, and at home it was cold too, for above her she had only the roof,
+through which the wind whistled, even though the largest cracks were
+stopped up with straw and rags.
+
+Her little hands were almost numbed with cold. Oh! a match might afford
+her a world of comfort, if she only dared take a single one out of the
+bundle, draw it against the wall, and warm her fingers by it. She drew
+one out. "Rischt!" how it blazed, how it burnt! It was a warm, bright
+flame, like a candle, as she held her hands over it: it was a wonderful
+light. It seemed really to the little maiden as though she were sitting
+before a large iron stove, with burnished brass feet and a brass
+ornament at top. The fire burned with such blessed influence; it warmed
+so delightfully. The little girl had already stretched out her feet to
+warm them too; but--the small flame went out, the stove vanished: she
+had only the remains of the burnt-out match in her hand.
+
+She rubbed another against the wall: it burned brightly, and where the
+light fell on the wall, there the wall became transparent like a
+veil, so that she could see into the room. On the table was spread a
+snow-white tablecloth; upon it was a splendid porcelain service, and the
+roast goose was steaming famously with its stuffing of apple and dried
+plums. And what was still more capital to behold was, the goose hopped
+down from the dish, reeled about on the floor with knife and fork in its
+breast, till it came up to the poor little girl; when--the match went
+out and nothing but the thick, cold, damp wall was left behind.
+She lighted another match. Now there she was sitting under the most
+magnificent Christmas tree: it was still larger, and more decorated than
+the one which she had seen through the glass door in the rich merchant's
+house.
+
+Thousands of lights were burning on the green branches, and
+gaily-colored pictures, such as she had seen in the shop-windows, looked
+down upon her. The little maiden stretched out her hands towards them
+when--the match went out. The lights of the Christmas tree rose higher
+and higher, she saw them now as stars in heaven; one fell down and
+formed a long trail of fire.
+
+"Someone is just dead!" said the little girl; for her old grandmother,
+the only person who had loved her, and who was now no more, had told
+her, that when a star falls, a soul ascends to God.
+
+She drew another match against the wall: it was again light, and in the
+lustre there stood the old grandmother, so bright and radiant, so mild,
+and with such an expression of love.
+
+"Grandmother!" cried the little one. "Oh, take me with you! You go
+away when the match burns out; you vanish like the warm stove, like the
+delicious roast goose, and like the magnificent Christmas tree!" And
+she rubbed the whole bundle of matches quickly against the wall, for
+she wanted to be quite sure of keeping her grandmother near her. And
+the matches gave such a brilliant light that it was brighter than at
+noon-day: never formerly had the grandmother been so beautiful and
+so tall. She took the little maiden, on her arm, and both flew in
+brightness and in joy so high, so very high, and then above was neither
+cold, nor hunger, nor anxiety--they were with God.
+
+But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with
+rosy cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the wall--frozen
+to death on the last evening of the old year. Stiff and stark sat the
+child there with her matches, of which one bundle had been burnt. "She
+wanted to warm herself," people said. No one had the slightest suspicion
+of what beautiful things she had seen; no one even dreamed of the
+splendor in which, with her grandmother she had entered on the joys of a
+new year.
+
+
+
+
+THE DREAM OF LITTLE TUK
+
+Ah! yes, that was little Tuk: in reality his name was not Tuk, but that
+was what he called himself before he could speak plain: he meant it for
+Charles, and it is all well enough if one does but know it. He had now
+to take care of his little sister Augusta, who was much younger than
+himself, and he was, besides, to learn his lesson at the same time; but
+these two things would not do together at all. There sat the poor little
+fellow, with his sister on his lap, and he sang to her all the songs he
+knew; and he glanced the while from time to time into the geography-book
+that lay open before him. By the next morning he was to have learnt
+all the towns in Zealand by heart, and to know about them all that is
+possible to be known.
+
+His mother now came home, for she had been out, and took little Augusta
+on her arm. Tuk ran quickly to the window, and read so eagerly that he
+pretty nearly read his eyes out; for it got darker and darker, but his
+mother had no money to buy a candle.
+
+"There goes the old washerwoman over the way," said his mother, as she
+looked out of the window. "The poor woman can hardly drag herself along,
+and she must now drag the pail home from the fountain. Be a good boy,
+Tukey, and run across and help the old woman, won't you?"
+
+So Tuk ran over quickly and helped her; but when he came back again into
+the room it was quite dark, and as to a light, there was no thought of
+such a thing. He was now to go to bed; that was an old turn-up bedstead;
+in it he lay and thought about his geography lesson, and of Zealand, and
+of all that his master had told him. He ought, to be sure, to have read
+over his lesson again, but that, you know, he could not do. He therefore
+put his geography-book under his pillow, because he had heard that was
+a very good thing to do when one wants to learn one's lesson; but one
+cannot, however, rely upon it entirely. Well, there he lay, and thought
+and thought, and all at once it was just as if someone kissed his eyes
+and mouth: he slept, and yet he did not sleep; it was as though the old
+washerwoman gazed on him with her mild eyes and said, "It were a great
+sin if you were not to know your lesson tomorrow morning. You have aided
+me, I therefore will now help you; and the loving God will do so at all
+times." And all of a sudden the book under Tuk's pillow began scraping
+and scratching.
+
+"Kickery-ki! kluk! kluk! kluk!"--that was an old hen who came creeping
+along, and she was from Kjoge. "I am a Kjoger hen," [*] said she, and then
+she related how many inhabitants there were there, and about the battle
+that had taken place, and which, after all, was hardly worth talking
+about.
+
+     * Kjoge, a town in the bay of Kjoge. "To see the Kjoge
+     hens," is an expression similar to "showing a child London,"
+     which is said to be done by taking his head in both bands,
+     and so lifting him off the ground. At the invasion of the
+     English in 1807, an encounter of a no very glorious nature
+     took place between the British troops and the undisciplined
+     Danish militia.
+
+"Kribledy, krabledy--plump!" down fell somebody: it was a wooden bird,
+the popinjay used at the shooting-matches at Prastoe. Now he said that
+there were just as many inhabitants as he had nails in his body; and he
+was very proud. "Thorwaldsen lived almost next door to me.* Plump! Here
+I lie capitally."
+
+* Prastoe, a still smaller town than Kjoge. Some hundred paces from
+it lies the manor-house Ny Soe, where Thorwaldsen, the famed sculptor,
+generally sojourned during his stay in Denmark, and where he called many
+of his immortal works into existence.
+
+
+But little Tuk was no longer lying down: all at once he was on
+horseback. On he went at full gallop, still galloping on and on. A
+knight with a gleaming plume, and most magnificently dressed, held him
+before him on the horse, and thus they rode through the wood to the old
+town of Bordingborg, and that was a large and very lively town. High
+towers rose from the castle of the king, and the brightness of many
+candles streamed from all the windows; within was dance and song,
+and King Waldemar and the young, richly-attired maids of honor danced
+together. The morn now came; and as soon as the sun appeared, the whole
+town and the king's palace crumbled together, and one tower after the
+other; and at last only a single one remained standing where the castle
+had been before,* and the town was so small and poor, and the school
+boys came along with their books under their arms, and said, "2000
+inhabitants!" but that was not true, for there were not so many.
+
+*Bordingborg, in the reign of King Waldemar, a considerable place, now
+an unimportant little town. One solitary tower only, and some remains of
+a wall, show where the castle once stood.
+
+
+And little Tukey lay in his bed: it seemed to him as if he dreamed, and
+yet as if he were not dreaming; however, somebody was close beside him.
+
+"Little Tukey! Little Tukey!" cried someone near. It was a seaman,
+quite a little personage, so little as if he were a midshipman; but a
+midshipman it was not.
+
+"Many remembrances from Corsor.* That is a town that is just rising
+into importance; a lively town that has steam-boats and stagecoaches:
+formerly people called it ugly, but that is no longer true. I lie on
+the sea," said Corsor; "I have high roads and gardens, and I have given
+birth to a poet who was witty and amusing, which all poets are not. I
+once intended to equip a ship that was to sail all round the earth; but
+I did not do it, although I could have done so: and then, too, I smell
+so deliciously, for close before the gate bloom the most beautiful
+roses."
+
+*Corsor, on the Great Belt, called, formerly, before the introduction
+of steam-vessels, when travellers were often obliged to wait a long time
+for a favorable wind, "the most tiresome of towns." The poet Baggesen
+was born here.
+
+
+Little Tuk looked, and all was red and green before his eyes; but as
+soon as the confusion of colors was somewhat over, all of a sudden there
+appeared a wooded slope close to the bay, and high up above stood a
+magnificent old church, with two high pointed towers. From out the
+hill-side spouted fountains in thick streams of water, so that there
+was a continual splashing; and close beside them sat an old king with
+a golden crown upon his white head: that was King Hroar, near the
+fountains, close to the town of Roeskilde, as it is now called. And up
+the slope into the old church went all the kings and queens of Denmark,
+hand in hand, all with their golden crowns; and the organ played and
+the fountains rustled. Little Tuk saw all, heard all. "Do not forget the
+diet," said King Hroar.*
+
+*Roeskilde, once the capital of Denmark. The town takes its name from
+King Hroar, and the many fountains in the neighborhood. In the beautiful
+cathedral the greater number of the kings and queens of Denmark are
+interred. In Roeskilde, too, the members of the Danish Diet assemble.
+
+
+Again all suddenly disappeared. Yes, and whither? It seemed to him
+just as if one turned over a leaf in a book. And now stood there an
+old peasant-woman, who came from Soroe,* where grass grows in the
+market-place. She had an old grey linen apron hanging over her head and
+back: it was so wet, it certainly must have been raining. "Yes, that it
+has," said she; and she now related many pretty things out of Holberg's
+comedies, and about Waldemar and Absalon; but all at once she cowered
+together, and her head began shaking backwards and forwards, and she
+looked as she were going to make a spring. "Croak! croak!" said she.
+"It is wet, it is wet; there is such a pleasant deathlike stillness in
+Sorbe!" She was now suddenly a frog, "Croak"; and now she was an old
+woman. "One must dress according to the weather," said she. "It is wet;
+it is wet. My town is just like a bottle; and one gets in by the neck,
+and by the neck one must get out again! In former times I had the
+finest fish, and now I have fresh rosy-cheeked boys at the bottom of the
+bottle, who learn wisdom, Hebrew, Greek--Croak!"
+
+* Sorbe, a very quiet little town, beautifully situated, surrounded by
+woods and lakes. Holberg, Denmark's Moliere, founded here an academy
+for the sons of the nobles. The poets Hauch and Ingemann were appointed
+professors here. The latter lives there still.
+
+
+When she spoke it sounded just like the noise of frogs, or as if one
+walked with great boots over a moor; always the same tone, so uniform
+and so tiring that little Tuk fell into a good sound sleep, which, by
+the bye, could not do him any harm.
+
+But even in this sleep there came a dream, or whatever else it was: his
+little sister Augusta, she with the blue eyes and the fair curling hair,
+was suddenly a tall, beautiful girl, and without having wings was yet
+able to fly; and she now flew over Zealand--over the green woods and the
+blue lakes.
+
+"Do you hear the cock crow, Tukey? Cock-a-doodle-doo! The cocks are
+flying up from Kjoge! You will have a farm-yard, so large, oh! so very
+large! You will suffer neither hunger nor thirst! You will get on in the
+world! You will be a rich and happy man! Your house will exalt itself
+like King Waldemar's tower, and will be richly decorated with marble
+statues, like that at Prastoe. You understand what I mean. Your name
+shall circulate with renown all round the earth, like unto the ship that
+was to have sailed from Corsor; and in Roeskilde--"
+
+"Do not forget the diet!" said King Hroar.
+
+"Then you will speak well and wisely, little Tukey; and when at last you
+sink into your grave, you shall sleep as quietly--"
+
+"As if I lay in Soroe," said Tuk, awaking. It was bright day, and he was
+now quite unable to call to mind his dream; that, however, was not at
+all necessary, for one may not know what the future will bring.
+
+And out of bed he jumped, and read in his book, and now all at once he
+knew his whole lesson. And the old washerwoman popped her head in at the
+door, nodded to him friendly, and said, "Thanks, many thanks, my good
+child, for your help! May the good ever-loving God fulfil your loveliest
+dream!"
+
+Little Tukey did not at all know what he had dreamed, but the loving God
+knew it.
+
+
+
+
+THE NAUGHTY BOY
+
+Along time ago, there lived an old poet, a thoroughly kind old poet. As
+he was sitting one evening in his room, a dreadful storm arose without,
+and the rain streamed down from heaven; but the old poet sat warm
+and comfortable in his chimney-corner, where the fire blazed and the
+roasting apple hissed.
+
+"Those who have not a roof over their heads will be wetted to the skin,"
+said the good old poet.
+
+"Oh let me in! Let me in! I am cold, and I'm so wet!" exclaimed suddenly
+a child that stood crying at the door and knocking for admittance, while
+the rain poured down, and the wind made all the windows rattle.
+
+"Poor thing!" said the old poet, as he went to open the door. There
+stood a little boy, quite naked, and the water ran down from his long
+golden hair; he trembled with cold, and had he not come into a warm room
+he would most certainly have perished in the frightful tempest.
+
+"Poor child!" said the old poet, as he took the boy by the hand. "Come
+in, come in, and I will soon restore thee! Thou shalt have wine and
+roasted apples, for thou art verily a charming child!" And the boy was
+so really. His eyes were like two bright stars; and although the water
+trickled down his hair, it waved in beautiful curls. He looked exactly
+like a little angel, but he was so pale, and his whole body trembled
+with cold. He had a nice little bow in his hand, but it was quite
+spoiled by the rain, and the tints of his many-colored arrows ran one
+into the other.
+
+The old poet seated himself beside his hearth, and took the little
+fellow on his lap; he squeezed the water out of his dripping hair,
+warmed his hands between his own, and boiled for him some sweet wine.
+Then the boy recovered, his cheeks again grew rosy, he jumped down from
+the lap where he was sitting, and danced round the kind old poet.
+
+"You are a merry fellow," said the old man. "What's your name?"
+
+"My name is Cupid," answered the boy. "Don't you know me? There lies my
+bow; it shoots well, I can assure you! Look, the weather is now clearing
+up, and the moon is shining clear again through the window."
+
+"Why, your bow is quite spoiled," said the old poet.
+
+"That were sad indeed," said the boy, and he took the bow in his hand
+and examined it on every side. "Oh, it is dry again, and is not hurt at
+all; the string is quite tight. I will try it directly." And he bent his
+bow, took aim, and shot an arrow at the old poet, right into his heart.
+"You see now that my bow was not spoiled," said he laughing; and away he
+ran.
+
+The naughty boy, to shoot the old poet in that way; he who had taken him
+into his warm room, who had treated him so kindly, and who had given him
+warm wine and the very best apples!
+
+The poor poet lay on the earth and wept, for the arrow had really flown
+into his heart.
+
+"Fie!" said he. "How naughty a boy Cupid is! I will tell all children
+about him, that they may take care and not play with him, for he will
+only cause them sorrow and many a heartache."
+
+And all good children to whom he related this story, took great heed
+of this naughty Cupid; but he made fools of them still, for he is
+astonishingly cunning. When the university students come from the
+lectures, he runs beside them in a black coat, and with a book under his
+arm. It is quite impossible for them to know him, and they walk along
+with him arm in arm, as if he, too, were a student like themselves; and
+then, unperceived, he thrusts an arrow to their bosom. When the young
+maidens come from being examined by the clergyman, or go to church to
+be confirmed, there he is again close behind them. Yes, he is forever
+following people. At the play, he sits in the great chandelier and burns
+in bright flames, so that people think it is really a flame, but they
+soon discover it is something else. He roves about in the garden of the
+palace and upon the ramparts: yes, once he even shot your father and
+mother right in the heart. Ask them only and you will hear what they'll
+tell you. Oh, he is a naughty boy, that Cupid; you must never have
+anything to do with him. He is forever running after everybody. Only
+think, he shot an arrow once at your old grandmother! But that is a
+long time ago, and it is all past now; however, a thing of that sort she
+never forgets. Fie, naughty Cupid! But now you know him, and you know,
+too, how ill-behaved he is!
+
+
+
+
+THE RED SHOES
+
+There was once a little girl who was very pretty and delicate, but in
+summer she was forced to run about with bare feet, she was so poor, and
+in winter wear very large wooden shoes, which made her little insteps
+quite red, and that looked so dangerous!
+
+In the middle of the village lived old Dame Shoemaker; she sat and sewed
+together, as well as she could, a little pair of shoes out of old red
+strips of cloth; they were very clumsy, but it was a kind thought. They
+were meant for the little girl. The little girl was called Karen.
+
+On the very day her mother was buried, Karen received the red shoes,
+and wore them for the first time. They were certainly not intended for
+mourning, but she had no others, and with stockingless feet she followed
+the poor straw coffin in them.
+
+Suddenly a large old carriage drove up, and a large old lady sat in it:
+she looked at the little girl, felt compassion for her, and then said to
+the clergyman:
+
+"Here, give me the little girl. I will adopt her!"
+
+And Karen believed all this happened on account of the red shoes, but
+the old lady thought they were horrible, and they were burnt. But Karen
+herself was cleanly and nicely dressed; she must learn to read and sew;
+and people said she was a nice little thing, but the looking-glass said:
+"Thou art more than nice, thou art beautiful!"
+
+Now the queen once travelled through the land, and she had her little
+daughter with her. And this little daughter was a princess, and people
+streamed to the castle, and Karen was there also, and the little
+princess stood in her fine white dress, in a window, and let herself be
+stared at; she had neither a train nor a golden crown, but splendid
+red morocco shoes. They were certainly far handsomer than those Dame
+Shoemaker had made for little Karen. Nothing in the world can be
+compared with red shoes.
+
+Now Karen was old enough to be confirmed; she had new clothes and was to
+have new shoes also. The rich shoemaker in the city took the measure of
+her little foot. This took place at his house, in his room; where stood
+large glass-cases, filled with elegant shoes and brilliant boots. All
+this looked charming, but the old lady could not see well, and so had
+no pleasure in them. In the midst of the shoes stood a pair of red ones,
+just like those the princess had worn. How beautiful they were! The
+shoemaker said also they had been made for the child of a count, but had
+not fitted.
+
+"That must be patent leather!" said the old lady. "They shine so!"
+
+"Yes, they shine!" said Karen, and they fitted, and were bought, but the
+old lady knew nothing about their being red, else she would never have
+allowed Karen to have gone in red shoes to be confirmed. Yet such was
+the case.
+
+Everybody looked at her feet; and when she stepped through the chancel
+door on the church pavement, it seemed to her as if the old figures on
+the tombs, those portraits of old preachers and preachers' wives, with
+stiff ruffs, and long black dresses, fixed their eyes on her red shoes.
+And she thought only of them as the clergyman laid his hand upon her
+head, and spoke of the holy baptism, of the covenant with God, and how
+she should be now a matured Christian; and the organ pealed so solemnly;
+the sweet children's voices sang, and the old music-directors sang, but
+Karen only thought of her red shoes.
+
+In the afternoon, the old lady heard from everyone that the shoes had
+been red, and she said that it was very wrong of Karen, that it was not
+at all becoming, and that in future Karen should only go in black shoes
+to church, even when she should be older.
+
+The next Sunday there was the sacrament, and Karen looked at the black
+shoes, looked at the red ones--looked at them again, and put on the red
+shoes.
+
+The sun shone gloriously; Karen and the old lady walked along the path
+through the corn; it was rather dusty there.
+
+At the church door stood an old soldier with a crutch, and with a
+wonderfully long beard, which was more red than white, and he bowed to
+the ground, and asked the old lady whether he might dust her shoes. And
+Karen stretched out her little foot.
+
+"See, what beautiful dancing shoes!" said the soldier. "Sit firm when
+you dance"; and he put his hand out towards the soles.
+
+And the old lady gave the old soldier alms, and went into the church
+with Karen.
+
+And all the people in the church looked at Karen's red shoes, and all
+the pictures, and as Karen knelt before the altar, and raised the cup to
+her lips, she only thought of the red shoes, and they seemed to swim
+in it; and she forgot to sing her psalm, and she forgot to pray, "Our
+Father in Heaven!"
+
+Now all the people went out of church, and the old lady got into her
+carriage. Karen raised her foot to get in after her, when the old
+soldier said,
+
+"Look, what beautiful dancing shoes!"
+
+And Karen could not help dancing a step or two, and when she began her
+feet continued to dance; it was just as though the shoes had power over
+them. She danced round the church corner, she could not leave off; the
+coachman was obliged to run after and catch hold of her, and he lifted
+her in the carriage, but her feet continued to dance so that she trod on
+the old lady dreadfully. At length she took the shoes off, and then her
+legs had peace.
+
+The shoes were placed in a closet at home, but Karen could not avoid
+looking at them.
+
+Now the old lady was sick, and it was said she could not recover. She
+must be nursed and waited upon, and there was no one whose duty it was
+so much as Karen's. But there was a great ball in the city, to which
+Karen was invited. She looked at the old lady, who could not recover,
+she looked at the red shoes, and she thought there could be no sin in
+it; she put on the red shoes, she might do that also, she thought. But
+then she went to the ball and began to dance.
+
+When she wanted to dance to the right, the shoes would dance to the
+left, and when she wanted to dance up the room, the shoes danced back
+again, down the steps, into the street, and out of the city gate. She
+danced, and was forced to dance straight out into the gloomy wood.
+
+Then it was suddenly light up among the trees, and she fancied it must
+be the moon, for there was a face; but it was the old soldier with
+the red beard; he sat there, nodded his head, and said, "Look, what
+beautiful dancing shoes!"
+
+Then she was terrified, and wanted to fling off the red shoes, but they
+clung fast; and she pulled down her stockings, but the shoes seemed to
+have grown to her feet. And she danced, and must dance, over fields and
+meadows, in rain and sunshine, by night and day; but at night it was the
+most fearful.
+
+She danced over the churchyard, but the dead did not dance--they had
+something better to do than to dance. She wished to seat herself on a
+poor man's grave, where the bitter tansy grew; but for her there was
+neither peace nor rest; and when she danced towards the open church
+door, she saw an angel standing there. He wore long, white garments; he
+had wings which reached from his shoulders to the earth; his countenance
+was severe and grave; and in his hand he held a sword, broad and
+glittering.
+
+"Dance shalt thou!" said he. "Dance in thy red shoes till thou art pale
+and cold! Till thy skin shrivels up and thou art a skeleton! Dance shalt
+thou from door to door, and where proud, vain children dwell, thou shalt
+knock, that they may hear thee and tremble! Dance shalt thou--!"
+
+"Mercy!" cried Karen. But she did not hear the angel's reply, for the
+shoes carried her through the gate into the fields, across roads and
+bridges, and she must keep ever dancing.
+
+One morning she danced past a door which she well knew. Within sounded
+a psalm; a coffin, decked with flowers, was borne forth. Then she knew
+that the old lady was dead, and felt that she was abandoned by all, and
+condemned by the angel of God.
+
+She danced, and she was forced to dance through the gloomy night. The
+shoes carried her over stack and stone; she was torn till she bled; she
+danced over the heath till she came to a little house. Here, she knew,
+dwelt the executioner; and she tapped with her fingers at the window,
+and said, "Come out! Come out! I cannot come in, for I am forced to
+dance!"
+
+And the executioner said, "Thou dost not know who I am, I fancy? I
+strike bad people's heads off; and I hear that my axe rings!"
+
+"Don't strike my head off!" said Karen. "Then I can't repent of my sins!
+But strike off my feet in the red shoes!"
+
+And then she confessed her entire sin, and the executioner struck off
+her feet with the red shoes, but the shoes danced away with the little
+feet across the field into the deep wood.
+
+And he carved out little wooden feet for her, and crutches, taught
+her the psalm criminals always sing; and she kissed the hand which had
+wielded the axe, and went over the heath.
+
+"Now I have suffered enough for the red shoes!" said she. "Now I will
+go into the church that people may see me!" And she hastened towards the
+church door: but when she was near it, the red shoes danced before her,
+and she was terrified, and turned round. The whole week she was unhappy,
+and wept many bitter tears; but when Sunday returned, she said, "Well,
+now I have suffered and struggled enough! I really believe I am as good
+as many a one who sits in the church, and holds her head so high!"
+
+And away she went boldly; but she had not got farther than the
+churchyard gate before she saw the red shoes dancing before her; and she
+was frightened, and turned back, and repented of her sin from her heart.
+
+And she went to the parsonage, and begged that they would take her
+into service; she would be very industrious, she said, and would do
+everything she could; she did not care about the wages, only she wished
+to have a home, and be with good people. And the clergyman's wife was
+sorry for her and took her into service; and she was industrious and
+thoughtful. She sat still and listened when the clergyman read the Bible
+in the evenings. All the children thought a great deal of her; but when
+they spoke of dress, and grandeur, and beauty, she shook her head.
+
+The following Sunday, when the family was going to church, they asked
+her whether she would not go with them; but she glanced sorrowfully,
+with tears in her eyes, at her crutches. The family went to hear the
+word of God; but she went alone into her little chamber; there was only
+room for a bed and chair to stand in it; and here she sat down with her
+Prayer-Book; and whilst she read with a pious mind, the wind bore
+the strains of the organ towards her, and she raised her tearful
+countenance, and said, "O God, help me!"
+
+And the sun shone so clearly, and straight before her stood the angel
+of God in white garments, the same she had seen that night at the church
+door; but he no longer carried the sharp sword, but in its stead a
+splendid green spray, full of roses. And he touched the ceiling with the
+spray, and the ceiling rose so high, and where he had touched it there
+gleamed a golden star. And he touched the walls, and they widened out,
+and she saw the organ which was playing; she saw the old pictures of the
+preachers and the preachers' wives. The congregation sat in cushioned
+seats, and sang out of their Prayer-Books. For the church itself had
+come to the poor girl in her narrow chamber, or else she had come into
+the church. She sat in the pew with the clergyman's family, and when
+they had ended the psalm and looked up, they nodded and said, "It is
+right that thou art come!"
+
+"It was through mercy!" she said.
+
+And the organ pealed, and the children's voices in the choir sounded so
+sweet and soft! The clear sunshine streamed so warmly through the window
+into the pew where Karen sat! Her heart was so full of sunshine, peace,
+and joy, that it broke. Her soul flew on the sunshine to God, and there
+no one asked after the RED SHOES.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Andersen's Fairy Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen
+
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Andersen's Fairy Tales by Andersen
+#1 in our series by Hans Christian Andersen
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+Andersen's Fairy Tales
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+by Hans Christian Andersen
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+January, 1999 [Etext #1597]
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+
+ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+The Emperor's New Clothes
+The Swineherd
+The Real Princess
+The Shoes of Fortune
+The Fir Tree
+The Snow Queen
+The Leap-Frog
+The Elderbush
+The Bell
+The Old House
+The Happy Family
+The Story of a Mother
+The False Collar
+The Shadow
+The Little Match Girl
+The Dream of Little Tuk
+The Naughty Boy
+The Red Shoes
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES
+
+Many years ago, there was an Emperor, who was so excessively fond of new
+clothes, that he spent all his money in dress. He did not trouble himself in
+the least about his soldiers; nor did he care to go either to the theatre or
+the chase, except for the opportunities then afforded him for displaying his
+new clothes. He had a different suit for each hour of the day; and as of any
+other king or emperor, one is accustomed to say, "he is sitting in council,"
+it was always said of him, "The Emperor is sitting in his wardrobe."
+
+Time passed merrily in the large town which was his capital; strangers arrived
+every day at the court. One day, two rogues, calling themselves weavers, made
+their appearance. They gave out that they knew how to weave stuffs of the most
+beautiful colors and elaborate patterns, the clothes manufactured from which
+should have the wonderful property of remaining invisible to everyone who was
+unfit for the office he held, or who was extraordinarily simple in character.
+
+"These must, indeed, be splendid clothes!" thought the Emperor. "Had I such a
+suit, I might at once find out what men in my realms are unfit for their
+office, and also be able to distinguish the wise from the foolish! This stuff
+must be woven for me immediately." And he caused large sums of money to be
+given to both the weavers in order that they might begin their work directly.
+
+So the two pretended weavers set up two looms, and affected to work very
+busily, though in reality they did nothing at all. They asked for the most
+delicate silk and the purest gold thread; put both into their own knapsacks;
+and then continued their pretended work at the empty looms until late at
+night.
+
+"I should like to know how the weavers are getting on with my cloth," said the
+Emperor to himself, after some little time had elapsed; he was, however,
+rather embarrassed, when he remembered that a simpleton, or one unfit for his
+office, would be unable to see the manufacture. To be sure, he thought he had
+nothing to risk in his own person; but yet, he would prefer sending somebody
+else, to bring him intelligence about the weavers, and their work, before he
+troubled himself in the affair. All the people throughout the city had heard
+of the wonderful property the cloth was to possess; and all were anxious to
+learn how wise, or how ignorant, their neighbors might prove to be.
+
+"I will send my faithful old minister to the weavers," said the Emperor at
+last, after some deliberation, "he will be best able to see how the cloth
+looks; for he is a man of sense, and no one can be more suitable for his
+office than he is."
+
+So the faithful old minister went into the hall, where the knaves were working
+with all their might, at their empty looms. "What can be the meaning of this?"
+thought the old man, opening his eyes very wide. "I cannot discover the least
+bit of thread on the looms." However, he did not express his thoughts aloud.
+
+The impostors requested him very courteously to be so good as to come nearer
+their looms; and then asked him whether the design pleased him, and whether
+the colors were not very beautiful; at the same time pointing to the empty
+frames. The poor old minister looked and looked, he could not discover
+anything on the looms, for a very good reason, viz: there was nothing there.
+"What!" thought he again. "Is it possible that I am a simpleton? I have never
+thought so myself; and no one must know it now if I am so. Can it be, that I
+am unfit for my office? No, that must not be said either. I will never confess
+that I could not see the stuff."
+
+"Well, Sir Minister!" said one of the knaves, still pretending to work. "You
+do not say whether the stuff pleases you."
+
+"Oh, it is excellent!" replied the old minister, looking at the loom through
+his spectacles. "This pattern, and the colors, yes, I will tell the Emperor
+without delay, how very beautiful I think them."
+
+"We shall be much obliged to you," said the impostors, and then they named the
+different colors and described the pattern of the pretended stuff. The old
+minister listened attentively to their words, in order that he might repeat
+them to the Emperor; and then the knaves asked for more silk and gold, saying
+that it was necessary to complete what they had begun. However, they put all
+that was given them into their knapsacks; and continued to work with as much
+apparent diligence as before at their empty looms.
+
+The Emperor now sent another officer of his court to see how the men were
+getting on, and to ascertain whether the cloth would soon be ready. It was
+just the same with this gentleman as with the minister; he surveyed the looms
+on all sides, but could see nothing at all but the empty frames.
+
+"Does not the stuff appear as beautiful to you, as it did to my lord the
+minister?" asked the impostors of the Emperor's second ambassador; at the same
+time making the same gestures as before, and talking of the design and colors
+which were not there.
+
+"I certainly am not stupid!" thought the messenger. "It must be, that I am not
+fit for my good, profitable office! That is very odd; however, no one shall
+know anything about it." And accordingly he praised the stuff he could not
+see, and declared that he was delighted with both colors and patterns.
+"Indeed, please your Imperial Majesty," said he to his sovereign when he
+returned, "the cloth which the weavers are preparing is extraordinarily
+magnificent."
+
+The whole city was talking of the splendid cloth which the Emperor had ordered
+to be woven at his own expense.
+
+And now the Emperor himself wished to see the costly manufacture, while it was
+still in the loom. Accompanied by a select number of officers of the court,
+among whom were the two honest men who had already admired the cloth, he went
+to the crafty impostors, who, as soon as they were aware of the Emperor's
+approach, went on working more diligently than ever; although they still did
+not pass a single thread through the looms.
+
+"Is not the work absolutely magnificent?" said the two officers of the crown,
+already mentioned. "If your Majesty will only be pleased to look at it! What a
+splendid design! What glorious colors!" and at the same time they pointed to
+the empty frames; for they imagined that everyone else could see this
+exquisite piece of workmanship.
+
+"How is this?" said the Emperor to himself. "I can see nothing! This is indeed
+a terrible affair! Am I a simpleton, or am I unfit to be an Emperor? That
+would be the worst thing that could happen--Oh! the cloth is charming," said
+he, aloud. "It has my complete approbation." And he smiled most graciously,
+and looked closely at the empty looms; for on no account would he say that he
+could not see what two of the officers of his court had praised so much. All
+his retinue now strained their eyes, hoping to discover something on the
+looms, but they could see no more than the others; nevertheless, they all
+exclaimed, "Oh, how beautiful!" and advised his majesty to have some new
+clothes made from this splendid material, for the approaching procession.
+"Magnificent! Charming! Excellent!" resounded on all sides; and everyone was
+uncommonly gay. The Emperor shared in the general satisfaction; and presented
+the impostors with the riband of an order of knighthood, to be worn in their
+button-holes, and the title of "Gentlemen Weavers."
+
+The rogues sat up the whole of the night before the day on which the
+procession was to take place, and had sixteen lights burning, so that everyone
+might see how anxious they were to finish the Emperor's new suit. They
+pretended to roll the cloth off the looms; cut the air with their scissors;
+and sewed with needles without any thread in them. "See!" cried they, at last.
+"The Emperor's new clothes are ready!"
+
+And now the Emperor, with all the grandees of his court, came to the weavers;
+and the rogues raised their arms, as if in the act of holding something up,
+saying, "Here are your Majesty's trousers! Here is the scarf! Here is the
+mantle! The whole suit is as light as a cobweb; one might fancy one has
+nothing at all on, when dressed in it; that, however, is the great virtue of
+this delicate cloth."
+
+"Yes indeed!" said all the courtiers, although not one of them could see
+anything of this exquisite manufacture.
+
+"If your Imperial Majesty will be graciously pleased to take off your clothes,
+we will fit on the new suit, in front of the looking glass."
+
+The Emperor was accordingly undressed, and the rogues pretended to array him
+in his new suit; the Emperor turning round, from side to side, before the
+looking glass.
+
+"How splendid his Majesty looks in his new clothes, and how well they fit!"
+everyone cried out. "What a design! What colors! These are indeed royal
+robes!"
+
+"The canopy which is to be borne over your Majesty, in the procession, is
+waiting," announced the chief master of the ceremonies.
+
+"I am quite ready," answered the Emperor. "Do my new clothes fit well?" asked
+he, turning himself round again before the looking glass, in order that he
+might appear to be examining his handsome suit.
+
+The lords of the bedchamber, who were to carry his Majesty's train felt about
+on the ground, as if they were lifting up the ends of the mantle; and
+pretended to be carrying something; for they would by no means betray anything
+like simplicity, or unfitness for their office.
+
+So now the Emperor walked under his high canopy in the midst of the
+procession, through the streets of his capital; and all the people standing
+by, and those at the windows, cried out, "Oh! How beautiful are our Emperor's
+new clothes! What a magnificent train there is to the mantle; and how
+gracefully the scarf hangs!" in short, no one would allow that he could not
+see these much-admired clothes; because, in doing so, he would have declared
+himself either a simpleton or unfit for his office. Certainly, none of the
+Emperor's various suits, had ever made so great an impression, as these
+invisible ones.
+
+"But the Emperor has nothing at all on!" said a little child.
+
+"Listen to the voice of innocence!" exclaimed his father; and what the child
+had said was whispered from one to another.
+
+"But he has nothing at all on!" at last cried out all the people. The Emperor
+was vexed, for he knew that the people were right; but he thought the
+procession must go on now! And the lords of the bedchamber took greater pains
+than ever, to appear holding up a train, although, in reality, there was no
+train to hold.
+
+
+
+THE SWINEHERD
+
+There was once a poor Prince, who had a kingdom. His kingdom was very small,
+but still quite large enough to marry upon; and he wished to marry.
+
+It was certainly rather cool of him to say to the Emperor's daughter, "Will
+you have me?" But so he did; for his name was renowned far and wide; and there
+were a hundred princesses who would have answered, "Yes!" and "Thank you
+kindly." We shall see what this princess said.
+
+Listen!
+
+It happened that where the Prince's father lay buried, there grew a rose
+tree--a most beautiful rose tree, which blossomed only once in every five
+years, and even then bore only one flower, but that was a rose! It smelt so
+sweet that all cares and sorrows were forgotten by him who inhaled its
+fragrance.
+
+And furthermore, the Prince had a nightingale, who could sing in such a manner
+that it seemed as though all sweet melodies dwelt in her little throat. So the
+Princess was to have the rose, and the nightingale; and they were accordingly
+put into large silver caskets, and sent to her.
+
+The Emperor had them brought into a large hall, where the Princess was playing
+at "Visiting," with the ladies of the court; and when she saw the caskets with
+the presents, she clapped her hands for joy.
+
+"Ah, if it were but a little pussy-cat!" said she; but the rose tree, with its
+beautiful rose came to view.
+
+"Oh, how prettily it is made!" said all the court ladies.
+
+"It is more than pretty," said the Emperor, "it is charming!"
+
+But the Princess touched it, and was almost ready to cry.
+
+"Fie, papa!" said she. "It is not made at all, it is natural!"
+
+"Let us see what is in the other casket, before we get into a bad humor," said
+the Emperor. So the nightingale came forth and sang so delightfully that at
+first no one could say anything ill-humored of her.
+
+"Superbe! Charmant!" exclaimed the ladies; for they all used to chatter French,
+each one worse than her neighbor.
+
+"How much the bird reminds me of the musical box that belonged to our blessed
+Empress," said an old knight. "Oh yes! These are the same tones, the same
+execution."
+
+"Yes! yes!" said the Emperor, and he wept like a child at the remembrance.
+
+"I will still hope that it is not a real bird," said the Princess.
+
+"Yes, it is a real bird," said those who had brought it. "Well then let the
+bird fly," said the Princess; and she positively refused to see the Prince.
+
+However, he was not to be discouraged; he daubed his face over brown and
+black; pulled his cap over his ears, and knocked at the door.
+
+"Good day to my lord, the Emperor!" said he. "Can I have employment at the
+palace?"
+
+"Why, yes," said the Emperor. "I want some one to take care of the pigs, for
+we have a great many of them."
+
+So the Prince was appointed "Imperial Swineherd." He had a dirty little room
+close by the pigsty; and there he sat the whole day, and worked. By the
+evening he had made a pretty little kitchen-pot. Little bells were hung all
+round it; and when the pot was boiling, these bells tinkled in the most
+charming manner, and played the old melody,
+
+    "Ach! du lieber Augustin,
+    Alles ist weg, weg, weg!"*
+
+    * "Ah! dear Augustine!
+    All is gone, gone, gone!"
+
+
+But what was still more curious, whoever held his finger in the smoke of the
+kitchen-pot, immediately smelt all the dishes that were cooking on every
+hearth in the city--this, you see, was something quite different from the
+rose.
+
+Now the Princess happened to walk that way; and when she heard the tune, she
+stood quite still, and seemed pleased; for she could play "Lieber Augustine";
+it was the only piece she knew; and she played it with one finger.
+
+"Why there is my piece," said the Princess. "That swineherd must certainly
+have been well educated! Go in and ask him the price of the instrument."
+
+So one of the court-ladies must run in; however, she drew on wooden slippers
+first.
+
+"What will you take for the kitchen-pot?" said the lady.
+
+"I will have ten kisses from the Princess," said the swineherd.
+
+"Yes, indeed!" said the lady.
+
+"I cannot sell it for less," rejoined the swineherd.
+
+"He is an impudent fellow!" said the Princess, and she walked on; but when she
+had gone a little way, the bells tinkled so prettily
+
+    "Ach! du lieber Augustin,
+    Alles ist weg, weg, weg!"
+
+"Stay," said the Princess. "Ask him if he will have ten kisses from the ladies
+of my court."
+
+"No, thank you!" said the swineherd. "Ten kisses from the Princess, or I keep
+the kitchen-pot myself."
+
+"That must not be, either!" said the Princess. "But do you all stand before me
+that no one may see us."
+
+And the court-ladies placed themselves in front of her, and spread out their
+dresses--the swineherd got ten kisses, and the Princess--the kitchen-pot.
+
+That was delightful! The pot was boiling the whole evening, and the whole of
+the following day. They knew perfectly well what was cooking at every fire
+throughout the city, from the chamberlain's to the cobbler's; the court-ladies
+danced and clapped their hands.
+
+"We know who has soup, and who has pancakes for dinner to-day, who has
+cutlets, and who has eggs. How interesting!"
+
+"Yes, but keep my secret, for I am an Emperor's daughter."
+
+The swineherd--that is to say--the Prince, for no one knew that he was other
+than an ill-favored swineherd, let not a day pass without working at
+something; he at last constructed a rattle, which, when it was swung round,
+played all the waltzes and jig tunes, which have ever been heard since the
+creation of the world.
+
+"Ah, that is superbe!" said the Princess when she passed by. "I have never
+heard prettier compositions! Go in and ask him the price of the instrument;
+but mind, he shall have no more kisses!"
+
+"He will have a hundred kisses from the Princess!" said the lady who had been
+to ask.
+
+"I think he is not in his right senses!" said the Princess, and walked on, but
+when she had gone a little way, she stopped again. "One must encourage art,"
+said she, "I am the Emperor's daughter. Tell him he shall, as on yesterday,
+have ten kisses from me, and may take the rest from the ladies of the court."
+
+"Oh--but we should not like that at all!" said they. "What are you muttering?"
+asked the Princess. "If I can kiss him, surely you can. Remember that you owe
+everything to me." So the ladies were obliged to go to him again.
+
+"A hundred kisses from the Princess," said he, "or else let everyone keep his
+own!"
+
+"Stand round!" said she; and all the ladies stood round her whilst the
+kissing was going on.
+
+"What can be the reason for such a crowd close by the pigsty?" said the
+Emperor, who happened just then to step out on the balcony; he rubbed his
+eyes, and put on his spectacles. "They are the ladies of the court; I must go
+down and see what they are about!" So he pulled up his slippers at the heel,
+for he had trodden them down.
+
+As soon as he had got into the court-yard, he moved very softly, and the
+ladies were so much engrossed with counting the kisses, that all might go on
+fairly, that they did not perceive the Emperor. He rose on his tiptoes.
+
+"What is all this?" said he, when he saw what was going on, and he boxed the
+Princess's ears with his slipper, just as the swineherd was taking the
+eighty-sixth kiss.
+
+"March out!" said the Emperor, for he was very angry; and both Princess and
+swineherd were thrust out of the city.
+
+The Princess now stood and wept, the swineherd scolded, and the rain poured
+down.
+
+"Alas! Unhappy creature that I am!" said the Princess. "If I had but married
+the handsome young Prince! Ah! how unfortunate I am!"
+
+And the swineherd went behind a tree, washed the black and brown color from
+his face, threw off his dirty clothes, and stepped forth in his princely
+robes; he looked so noble that the Princess could not help bowing before him.
+
+"I am come to despise thee," said he. "Thou would'st not have an honorable
+Prince! Thou could'st not prize the rose and the nightingale, but thou wast
+ready to kiss the swineherd for the sake of a trumpery plaything. Thou art
+rightly served."
+
+He then went back to his own little kingdom, and shut the door of his palace
+in her face. Now she might well sing,
+
+    "Ach! du lieber Augustin,
+    Alles ist weg, weg, weg!"
+
+
+
+THE REAL PRINCESS
+
+There was once a Prince who wished to marry a Princess; but then she must be a
+real Princess. He travelled all over the world in hopes of finding such a
+lady; but there was always something wrong. Princesses he found in plenty; but
+whether they were real Princesses it was impossible for him to decide, for now
+one thing, now another, seemed to him not quite right about the ladies. At
+last he returned to his palace quite cast down, because he wished so much to
+have a real Princess for his wife.
+
+One evening a fearful tempest arose, it thundered and lightened, and the rain
+poured down from the sky in torrents: besides, it was as dark as pitch. All at
+once there was heard a violent knocking at the door, and the old King, the
+Prince's father, went out himself to open it.
+
+It was a Princess who was standing outside the door. What with the rain and
+the wind, she was in a sad condition; the water trickled down from her hair,
+and her clothes clung to her body. She said she was a real Princess.
+
+"Ah! we shall soon see that!" thought the old Queen-mother; however, she said
+not a word of what she was going to do; but went quietly into the bedroom,
+took all the bed-clothes off the bed, and put three little peas on the
+bedstead. She then laid twenty mattresses one upon another over the three
+peas, and put twenty feather beds over the mattresses.
+
+Upon this bed the Princess was to pass the night.
+
+The next morning she was asked how she had slept. "Oh, very badly indeed!" she
+replied. "I have scarcely closed my eyes the whole night through. I do not
+know what was in my bed, but I had something hard under me, and am all over
+black and blue. It has hurt me so much!"
+
+Now it was plain that the lady must be a real Princess, since she had been
+able to feel the three little peas through the twenty mattresses and twenty
+feather beds. None but a real Princess could have had such a delicate sense of
+feeling.
+
+The Prince accordingly made her his wife; being now convinced that he had
+found a real Princess. The three peas were however put into the cabinet of
+curiosities, where they are still to be seen, provided they are not lost.
+
+Wasn't this a lady of real delicacy?
+
+
+
+THE SHOES OF FORTUNE
+
+I. A Beginning
+
+Every author has some peculiarity in his descriptions or in his style of
+writing. Those who do not like him, magnify it, shrug up their shoulders, and
+exclaim--there he is again! I, for my part, know very well how I can bring
+about this movement and this exclamation. It would happen immediately if I
+were to begin here, as I intended to do, with: "Rome has its Corso, Naples its
+Toledo"--"Ah! that Andersen; there he is again!" they would cry; yet I must,
+to please my fancy, continue quite quietly, and add: "But Copenhagen has its
+East Street."
+
+Here, then, we will stay for the present. In one of the houses not far from
+the new market a party was invited--a very large party, in order, as is often
+the case, to get a return invitation from the others. One half of the company
+was already seated at the card-table, the other half awaited the result of the
+stereotype preliminary observation of the lady of the house:
+
+"Now let us see what we can do to amuse ourselves."
+
+They had got just so far, and the conversation began to crystallise, as it
+could but do with the scanty stream which the commonplace world supplied.
+Amongst other things they spoke of the middle ages: some praised that period
+as far more interesting, far more poetical than our own too sober present;
+indeed Councillor Knap defended this opinion so warmly, that the hostess
+declared immediately on his side, and both exerted themselves with unwearied
+eloquence. The Councillor boldly declared the time of King Hans to be the
+noblest and the most happy period.*
+
+* A.D. 1482-1513
+
+
+While the conversation turned on this subject, and was only for a moment
+interrupted by the arrival of a journal that contained nothing worth reading,
+we will just step out into the antechamber, where cloaks, mackintoshes,
+sticks, umbrellas, and shoes, were deposited. Here sat two female figures, a
+young and an old one. One might have thought at first they were servants come
+to accompany their mistresses home; but on looking nearer, one soon saw they
+could scarcely be mere servants; their forms were too noble for that, their
+skin too fine, the cut of their dress too striking. Two fairies were they; the
+younger, it is true, was not Dame Fortune herself, but one of the
+waiting-maids of her handmaidens who carry about the lesser good things that
+she distributes; the other looked extremely gloomy--it was Care. She always
+attends to her own serious business herself, as then she is sure of having it
+done properly.
+
+They were telling each other, with a confidential interchange of ideas, where
+they had been during the day. The messenger of Fortune had only executed a few
+unimportant commissions, such as saving a new bonnet from a shower of rain,
+etc.; but what she had yet to perform was something quite unusual.
+
+"I must tell you," said she, "that to-day is my birthday; and in honor of it,
+a pair of walking-shoes or galoshes has been entrusted to me, which I am to
+carry to mankind. These shoes possess the property of instantly transporting
+him who has them on to the place or the period in which he most wishes to be;
+every wish, as regards time or place, or state of being, will be immediately
+fulfilled, and so at last man will be happy, here below."
+
+"Do you seriously believe it?" replied Care, in a severe tone of reproach.
+"No; he will be very unhappy, and will assuredly bless the moment when he
+feels that he has freed himself from the fatal shoes."
+
+"Stupid nonsense!" said the other angrily. "I will put them here by the door.
+Some one will make a mistake for certain and take the wrong ones--he will be a
+happy man."
+
+Such was their conversation.
+
+
+II. What Happened to the Councillor
+
+It was late; Councillor Knap, deeply occupied with the times of King Hans,
+intended to go home, and malicious Fate managed matters so that his feet,
+instead of finding their way to his own galoshes, slipped into those of
+Fortune. Thus caparisoned the good man walked out of the well-lighted rooms
+into East Street. By the magic power of the shoes he was carried back to the
+times of King Hans; on which account his foot very naturally sank in the mud
+and puddles of the street, there having been in those days no pavement in
+Copenhagen.
+
+"Well! This is too bad! How dirty it is here!" sighed the Councillor. "As to a
+pavement, I can find no traces of one, and all the lamps, it seems, have gone
+to sleep."
+
+The moon was not yet very high; it was besides rather foggy, so that in the
+darkness all objects seemed mingled in chaotic confusion. At the next corner
+hung a votive lamp before a Madonna, but the light it gave was little better
+than none at all; indeed, he did not observe it before he was exactly under
+it, and his eyes fell upon the bright colors of the pictures which represented
+the well-known group of the Virgin and the infant Jesus.
+
+"That is probably a wax-work show," thought he; "and the people delay taking
+down their sign in hopes of a late visitor or two."
+
+A few persons in the costume of the time of King Hans passed quickly by him.
+
+"How strange they look! The good folks come probably from a masquerade!"
+
+Suddenly was heard the sound of drums and fifes; the bright blaze of a fire
+shot up from time to time, and its ruddy gleams seemed to contend with the
+bluish light of the torches. The Councillor stood still, and watched a most
+strange procession pass by. First came a dozen drummers, who understood pretty
+well how to handle their instruments; then came halberdiers, and some armed
+with cross-bows. The principal person in the procession was a priest.
+Astonished at what he saw, the Councillor asked what was the meaning of
+all this mummery, and who that man was.
+
+"That's the Bishop of Zealand," was the answer.
+
+"Good Heavens! What has taken possession of the Bishop?" sighed the
+Councillor, shaking his head. It certainly could not be the Bishop; even
+though he was considered the most absent man in the whole kingdom, and people
+told the drollest anecdotes about him. Reflecting on the matter, and without
+looking right or left, the Councillor went through East Street and across the
+Habro-Platz. The bridge leading to Palace Square was not to be found; scarcely
+trusting his senses, the nocturnal wanderer discovered a shallow piece of
+water, and here fell in with two men who very comfortably were rocking to and
+fro in a boat.
+
+"Does your honor want to cross the ferry to the Holme?" asked they.
+
+"Across to the Holme!" said the Councillor, who knew nothing of the age in
+which he at that moment was. "No, I am going to Christianshafen, to Little
+Market Street."
+
+Both men stared at him in astonishment.
+
+"Only just tell me where the bridge is," said he. "It is really unpardonable
+that there are no lamps here; and it is as dirty as if one had to wade through
+a morass."
+
+The longer he spoke with the boatmen, the more unintelligible did their
+language become to him.
+
+"I don't understand your Bornholmish dialect," said he at last, angrily, and
+turning his back upon them. He was unable to find the bridge: there was no
+railway either. "It is really disgraceful what a state this place is in,"
+muttered he to himself. Never had his age, with which, however, he was always
+grumbling, seemed so miserable as on this evening. "I'll take a
+hackney-coach!" thought he. But where were the hackney-coaches? Not one
+was to be seen.
+
+"I must go back to the New Market; there, it is to be hoped, I shall find some
+coaches; for if I don't, I shall never get safe to Christianshafen."
+
+So off he went in the direction of East Street, and had nearly got to the end
+of it when the moon shone forth.
+
+"God bless me! What wooden scaffolding is that which they have set up there?"
+cried he involuntarily, as he looked at East Gate, which, in those days, was
+at the end of East Street.
+
+He found, however, a little side-door open, and through this he went, and
+stepped into our New Market of the present time. It was a huge desolate plain;
+some wild bushes stood up here and there, while across the field flowed a
+broad canal or river. Some wretched hovels for the Dutch sailors, resembling
+great boxes, and after which the place was named, lay about in confused
+disorder on the opposite bank.
+
+"I either behold a fata morgana, or I am regularly tipsy," whimpered out the
+Councillor. "But what's this?"
+
+He turned round anew, firmly convinced that he was seriously ill. He gazed at
+the street formerly so well known to him, and now so strange in appearance,
+and looked at the houses more attentively: most of them were of wood, slightly
+put together; and many had a thatched roof.
+
+"No--I am far from well," sighed he; "and yet I drank only one glass of punch;
+but I cannot suppose it--it was, too, really very wrong to give us punch and
+hot salmon for supper. I shall speak about it at the first opportunity. I have
+half a mind to go back again, and say what I suffer. But no, that would be too
+silly; and Heaven only knows if they are up still."
+
+He looked for the house, but it had vanished.
+
+"It is really dreadful," groaned he with increasing anxiety; "I cannot
+recognise East Street again; there is not a single decent shop from one end to
+the other! Nothing but wretched huts can I see anywhere; just as if I were at
+Ringstead. Oh! I am ill! I can scarcely bear myself any longer. Where the
+deuce can the house be? It must be here on this very spot; yet there is not
+the slightest idea of resemblance, to such a degree has everything changed
+this night! At all events here are some people up and stirring. Oh! oh! I am
+certainly very ill."
+
+He now hit upon a half-open door, through a chink of which a faint light
+shone. It was a sort of hostelry of those times; a kind of public-house. The
+room had some resemblance to the clay-floored halls in Holstein; a pretty
+numerous company, consisting of seamen, Copenhagen burghers, and a few
+scholars, sat here in deep converse over their pewter cans, and gave little
+heed to the person who entered.
+
+"By your leave!" said the Councillor to the Hostess, who came bustling towards
+him. "I've felt so queer all of a sudden; would you have the goodness to send
+for a hackney-coach to take me to Christianshafen?"
+
+The woman examined him with eyes of astonishment, and shook her head; she then
+addressed him in German. The Councillor thought she did not understand Danish,
+and therefore repeated his wish in German. This, in connection with his
+costume, strengthened the good woman in the belief that he was a foreigner.
+That he was ill, she comprehended directly; so she brought him a pitcher of
+water, which tasted certainly pretty strong of the sea, although it had been
+fetched from the well.
+
+The Councillor supported his head on his hand, drew a long breath, and thought
+over all the wondrous things he saw around him.
+
+"Is this the Daily News of this evening?" he asked mechanically, as he saw the
+Hostess push aside a large sheet of paper.
+
+The meaning of this councillorship query remained, of course, a riddle to her,
+yet she handed him the paper without replying. It was a coarse wood-cut,
+representing a splendid meteor "as seen in the town of Cologne," which was to
+be read below in bright letters.
+
+"That is very old!" said the Councillor, whom this piece of antiquity began to
+make considerably more cheerful. "Pray how did you come into possession of
+this rare print? It is extremely interesting, although the whole is a mere
+fable. Such meteorous appearances are to be explained in this way--that they
+are the reflections of the Aurora Borealis, and it is highly probable they are
+caused principally by electricity."
+
+Those persons who were sitting nearest him and heard his speech, stared at him
+in wonderment; and one of them rose, took off his hat respectfully, and said
+with a serious countenance, "You are no doubt a very learned man, Monsieur."
+
+"Oh no," answered the Councillor, "I can only join in conversation on this
+topic and on that, as indeed one must do according to the demands of the world
+at present."
+
+"Modestia is a fine virtue," continued the gentleman; "however, as to your
+speech, I must say mihi secus videtur: yet I am willing to suspend my
+judicium."
+
+"May I ask with whom I have the pleasure of speaking?" asked the Councillor.
+
+"I am a Bachelor in Theologia," answered the gentleman with a stiff reverence.
+
+This reply fully satisfied the Councillor; the title suited the dress. "He is
+certainly," thought he, "some village schoolmaster--some queer old fellow,
+such as one still often meets with in Jutland."
+
+"This is no locus docendi, it is true," began the clerical gentleman; "yet I
+beg you earnestly to let us profit by your learning. Your reading in the
+ancients is, sine dubio, of vast extent?"
+
+"Oh yes, I've read something, to be sure," replied the Councillor. "I like
+reading all useful works; but I do not on that account despise the modern
+ones; 'tis only the unfortunate 'Tales of Every-day Life' that I cannot
+bear--we have enough and more than enough such in reality."
+
+"'Tales of Every-day Life?'" said our Bachelor inquiringly.
+
+"I mean those new fangled novels, twisting and writhing themselves in the dust
+of commonplace, which also expect to find a reading public."
+
+"Oh," exclaimed the clerical gentleman smiling, "there is much wit in them;
+besides they are read at court. The King likes the history of Sir Iffven and
+Sir Gaudian particularly, which treats of King Arthur, and his Knights of the
+Round Table; he has more than once joked about it with his high vassals."
+
+"I have not read that novel," said the Councillor; "it must be quite a new
+one, that Heiberg has published lately."
+
+"No," answered the theologian of the time of King Hans: "that book is not
+written by a Heiberg, but was imprinted by Godfrey von Gehmen."
+
+"Oh, is that the author's name?" said the Councillor. "It is a very old name,
+and, as well as I recollect, he was the first printer that appeared in
+Denmark."
+
+"Yes, he is our first printer," replied the clerical gentleman hastily.
+
+So far all went on well. Some one of the worthy burghers now spoke of the
+dreadful pestilence that had raged in the country a few years back, meaning
+that of 1484. The Councillor imagined it was the cholera that was meant, which
+people made so much fuss about; and the discourse passed off satisfactorily
+enough. The war of the buccaneers of 1490 was so recent that it could not fail
+being alluded to; the English pirates had, they said, most shamefully taken
+their ships while in the roadstead; and the Councillor, before whose eyes the
+Herostratic* event of 1801 still floated vividly, agreed entirely with the
+others in abusing the rascally English. With other topics he was not so
+fortunate; every moment brought about some new confusion, and threatened to
+become a perfect Babel; for the worthy Bachelor was really too ignorant, and
+the simplest observations of the Councillor sounded to him too daring and
+phantastical. They looked at one another from the crown of the head to the
+soles of the feet; and when matters grew to too high a pitch, then the
+Bachelor talked Latin, in the hope of being better understood--but it was of
+no use after all.
+
+* Herostratus, or Eratostratus--an Ephesian, who wantonly set fire to the
+famous temple of Diana, in order to commemorate his name by so uncommon an
+action.
+
+
+"What's the matter?" asked the Hostess, plucking the Councillor by the sleeve;
+and now his recollection returned, for in the course of the conversation he
+had entirely forgotten all that had preceded it.
+
+"Merciful God, where am I!" exclaimed he in agony; and while he so thought,
+all his ideas and feelings of overpowering dizziness, against which he
+struggled with the utmost power of desperation, encompassed him with renewed
+force. "Let us drink claret and mead, and Bremen beer," shouted one of the
+guests--"and you shall drink with us!"
+
+Two maidens approached. One wore a cap of two staring colors, denoting the
+class of persons to which she belonged. They poured out the liquor, and made
+the most friendly gesticulations; while a cold perspiration trickled down the
+back of the poor Councillor.
+
+"What's to be the end of this! What's to become of me!" groaned he; but he was
+forced, in spite of his opposition, to drink with the rest. They took hold of
+the worthy man; who, hearing on every side that he was intoxicated, did not in
+the least doubt the truth of this certainly not very polite assertion; but on
+the contrary, implored the ladies and gentlemen present to procure him a
+hackney-coach: they, however, imagined he was talking Russian.
+
+Never before, he thought, had he been in such a coarse and ignorant company;
+one might almost fancy the people had turned heathens again. "It is the most
+dreadful moment of my life: the whole world is leagued against me!" But
+suddenly it occurred to him that he might stoop down under the table, and then
+creep unobserved out of the door. He did so; but just as he was going, the
+others remarked what he was about; they laid hold of him by the legs; and now,
+happily for him, off fell his fatal shoes--and with them the charm was at an
+end.
+
+The Councillor saw quite distinctly before him a lantern burning, and behind
+this a large handsome house. All seemed to him in proper order as usual; it
+was East Street, splendid and elegant as we now see it. He lay with his feet
+towards a doorway, and exactly opposite sat the watchman asleep.
+
+"Gracious Heaven!" said he. "Have I lain here in the street and dreamed? Yes;
+'tis East Street! How splendid and light it is! But really it is terrible
+what an effect that one glass of punch must have had on me!"
+
+Two minutes later, he was sitting in a hackney-coach and driving to
+Frederickshafen. He thought of the distress and agony he had endured, and
+praised from the very bottom of his heart the happy reality--our own
+time--which, with all its deficiencies, is yet much better than that in which,
+so much against his inclination, he had lately been.
+
+
+III. The Watchman's Adventure
+
+"Why, there is a pair of galoshes, as sure as I'm alive!" said the watchman,
+awaking from a gentle slumber. "They belong no doubt to the lieutenant who
+lives over the way. They lie close to the door."
+
+The worthy man was inclined to ring and deliver them at the house, for there
+was still a light in the window; but he did not like disturbing the other
+people in their beds, and so very considerately he left the matter alone.
+
+"Such a pair of shoes must be very warm and comfortable," said he; "the
+leather is so soft and supple." They fitted his feet as though they had been
+made for him. "'Tis a curious world we live in," continued he, soliloquizing.
+"There is the lieutenant, now, who might go quietly to bed if he chose, where
+no doubt he could stretch himself at his ease; but does he do it? No; he
+saunters up and down his room, because, probably, he has enjoyed too many of
+the good things of this world at his dinner. That's a happy fellow! He has
+neither an infirm mother, nor a whole troop of everlastingly hungry children
+to torment him. Every evening he goes to a party, where his nice supper costs
+him nothing: would to Heaven I could but change with him! How happy should I
+be!"
+
+While expressing his wish, the charm of the shoes, which he had put on, began
+to work; the watchman entered into the being and nature of the lieutenant. He
+stood in the handsomely furnished apartment, and held between his fingers a
+small sheet of rose-colored paper, on which some verses were written--written
+indeed by the officer himself; for who has not, at least once in his life,
+had a lyrical moment? And if one then marks down one's thoughts, poetry is
+produced. But here was written:
+
+  OH, WERE I RICH!
+
+"Oh, were I rich! Such was my wish, yea such
+ When hardly three feet high, I longed for much.
+  Oh, were I rich! an officer were I,
+  With sword, and uniform, and plume so high.
+  And the time came, and officer was I!
+But yet I grew not rich. Alas, poor me!
+Have pity, Thou, who all man's wants dost see.
+
+   "I sat one evening sunk in dreams of bliss,
+ A maid of seven years old gave me a kiss,
+  I at that time was rich in poesy
+  And tales of old, though poor as poor could be;
+  But all she asked for was this poesy.
+Then was I rich, but not in gold, poor me!
+As Thou dost know, who all men's hearts canst see.
+
+   "Oh, were I rich! Oft asked I for this boon.
+ The child grew up to womanhood full soon.
+  She is so pretty, clever, and so kind
+Oh, did she know what's hidden in my mind--
+  A tale of old. Would she to me were kind!
+But I'm condemned to silence! oh, poor me!
+As Thou dost know, who all men's hearts canst see.
+
+   "Oh, were I rich in calm and peace of mind,
+ My grief you then would not here written find!
+  O thou, to whom I do my heart devote,
+  Oh read this page of glad days now remote,
+  A dark, dark tale, which I tonight devote!
+Dark is the future now. Alas, poor me!
+Have pity Thou, who all men's pains dost see."
+
+Such verses as these people write when they are in love! But no man in his
+senses ever thinks of printing them. Here one of the sorrows of life, in which
+there is real poetry, gave itself vent; not that barren grief which the poet
+may only hint at, but never depict in its detail--misery and want: that animal
+necessity, in short, to snatch at least at a fallen leaf of the bread-fruit
+tree, if not at the fruit itself. The higher the position in which one finds
+oneself transplanted, the greater is the suffering. Everyday necessity is the
+stagnant pool of life--no lovely picture reflects itself therein. Lieutenant,
+love, and lack of money--that is a symbolic triangle, or much the same as the
+half of the shattered die of Fortune. This the lieutenant felt most
+poignantly, and this was the reason he leant his head against the window, and
+sighed so deeply.
+
+"The poor watchman out there in the street is far happier than I. He knows not
+what I term privation. He has a home, a wife, and children, who weep with him
+over his sorrows, who rejoice with him when he is glad. Oh, far happier were
+I, could I exchange with him my being--with his desires and with his hopes
+perform the weary pilgrimage of life! Oh, he is a hundred times happier than
+I!"
+
+In the same moment the watchman was again watchman. It was the shoes that
+caused the metamorphosis by means of which, unknown to himself, he took upon
+him the thoughts and feelings of the officer; but, as we have just seen, he
+felt himself in his new situation much less contented, and now preferred the
+very thing which but some minutes before he had rejected. So then the watchman
+was again watchman.
+
+"That was an unpleasant dream," said he; "but 'twas droll enough altogether. I
+fancied that I was the lieutenant over there: and yet the thing was not very
+much to my taste after all. I missed my good old mother and the dear little
+ones; who almost tear me to pieces for sheer love."
+
+He seated himself once more and nodded: the dream continued to haunt him, for
+he still had the shoes on his feet. A falling star shone in the dark
+firmament.
+
+"There falls another star," said he: "but what does it matter; there are
+always enough left. I should not much mind examining the little glimmering
+things somewhat nearer, especially the moon; for that would not slip so easily
+through a man's fingers. When we die--so at least says the student, for whom
+my wife does the washing--we shall fly about as light as a feather from one
+such a star to the other. That's, of course, not true: but 'twould be pretty
+enough if it were so. If I could but once take a leap up there, my body might
+stay here on the steps for what I care."
+
+Behold--there are certain things in the world to which one ought never to give
+utterance except with the greatest caution; but doubly careful must one be
+when we have the Shoes of Fortune on our feet. Now just listen to what
+happened to the watchman.
+
+As to ourselves, we all know the speed produced by the employment of steam; we
+have experienced it either on railroads, or in boats when crossing the sea;
+but such a flight is like the travelling of a sloth in comparison with the
+velocity with which light moves. It flies nineteen million times faster than
+the best race-horse; and yet electricity is quicker still. Death is an
+electric shock which our heart receives; the freed soul soars upwards on the
+wings of electricity. The sun's light wants eight minutes and some seconds to
+perform a journey of more than twenty million of our Danish* miles; borne by
+electricity, the soul wants even some minutes less to accomplish the same
+flight. To it the space between the heavenly bodies is not greater than the
+distance between the homes of our friends in town is for us, even if they live
+a short way from each other; such an electric shock in the heart, however,
+costs us the use of the body here below; unless, like the watchman of East
+Street, we happen to have on the Shoes of Fortune.
+
+* A Danish mile is nearly 4 3/4 English.
+
+
+In a few seconds the watchman had done the fifty-two thousand of our miles up
+to the moon, which, as everyone knows, was formed out of matter much lighter
+than our earth; and is, so we should say, as soft as newly-fallen snow. He
+found himself on one of the many circumjacent mountain-ridges with which we
+are acquainted by means of Dr. Madler's "Map of the Moon." Within, down it
+sunk perpendicularly into a caldron, about a Danish mile in depth; while below
+lay a town, whose appearance we can, in some measure, realize to ourselves by
+beating the white of an egg in a glass of water. The matter of which it was
+built was just as soft, and formed similar towers, and domes, and pillars,
+transparent and rocking in the thin air; while above his head our earth was
+rolling like a large fiery ball.
+
+He perceived immediately a quantity of beings who were certainly what we call
+"men"; yet they looked different to us. A far more correct imagination than
+that of the pseudo-Herschel* had created them; and if they had been placed in
+rank and file, and copied by some skilful painter's hand, one would, without
+doubt, have exclaimed involuntarily, "What a beautiful arabesque!"
+
+*This relates to a book published some years ago in Germany, and said to be by
+Herschel, which contained a description of the moon and its inhabitants,
+written with such a semblance of truth that many were deceived by the
+imposture.
+
+Probably a translation of the celebrated Moon hoax, written by Richard A.
+Locke, and originally published in New York.
+
+
+They had a language too; but surely nobody can expect that the soul of the
+watchman should understand it. Be that as it may, it did comprehend it; for in
+our souls there germinate far greater powers than we poor mortals, despite all
+our cleverness, have any notion of. Does she not show us--she the queen in the
+land of enchantment--her astounding dramatic talent in all our dreams? There
+every acquaintance appears and speaks upon the stage, so entirely in
+character, and with the same tone of voice, that none of us, when awake, were
+able to imitate it. How well can she recall persons to our mind, of whom we
+have not thought for years; when suddenly they step forth "every inch a man,"
+resembling the real personages, even to the finest features, and become the
+heroes or heroines of our world of dreams. In reality, such remembrances are
+rather unpleasant: every sin, every evil thought, may, like a clock with alarm
+or chimes, be repeated at pleasure; then the question is if we can trust
+ourselves to give an account of every unbecoming word in our heart and on our
+lips.
+
+The watchman's spirit understood the language of the inhabitants of the moon
+pretty well. The Selenites* disputed variously about our earth, and expressed
+their doubts if it could be inhabited: the air, they said, must certainly be
+too dense to allow any rational dweller in the moon the necessary free
+respiration. They considered the moon alone to be inhabited: they imagined it
+was the real heart of the universe or planetary system, on which the genuine
+Cosmopolites, or citizens of the world, dwelt. What strange things men--no,
+what strange things Selenites sometimes take into their heads!
+
+* Dwellers in the moon.
+
+
+About politics they had a good deal to say. But little Denmark must take care
+what it is about, and not run counter to the moon; that great realm, that
+might in an ill-humor bestir itself, and dash down a hail-storm in our faces,
+or force the Baltic to overflow the sides of its gigantic basin.
+
+We will, therefore, not listen to what was spoken, and on no condition run in
+the possibility of telling tales out of school; but we will rather proceed,
+like good quiet citizens, to East Street, and observe what happened meanwhile
+to the body of the watchman.
+
+He sat lifeless on the steps: the morning-star,* that is to say, the heavy
+wooden staff, headed with iron spikes, and which had nothing else in common
+with its sparkling brother in the sky, had glided from his hand; while his
+eyes were fixed with glassy stare on the moon, looking for the good old fellow
+of a spirit which still haunted it.
+
+*The watchmen in Germany, had formerly, and in some places they still carry
+with them, on their rounds at night, a sort of mace or club, known in ancient
+times by the above denomination.
+
+
+"What's the hour, watchman?" asked a passer-by. But when the watchman gave no
+reply, the merry roysterer, who was now returning home from a noisy drinking
+bout, took it into his head to try what a tweak of the nose would do, on which
+the supposed sleeper lost his balance, the body lay motionless, stretched out
+on the pavement: the man was dead. When the patrol came up, all his comrades,
+who comprehended nothing of the whole affair, were seized with a dreadful
+fright, for dead he was, and he remained so. The proper authorities were
+informed of the circumstance, people talked a good deal about it, and in the
+morning the body was carried to the hospital.
+
+Now that would be a very pretty joke, if the spirit when it came back and
+looked for the body in East Street, were not to find one. No doubt it would,
+in its anxiety, run off to the police, and then to the "Hue and Cry" office,
+to announce that "the finder will be handsomely rewarded," and at last away to
+the hospital; yet we may boldly assert that the soul is shrewdest when it
+shakes off every fetter, and every sort of leading-string--the body only makes
+it stupid.
+
+The seemingly dead body of the watchman wandered, as we have said, to the
+hospital, where it was brought into the general viewing-room: and the first
+thing that was done here was naturally to pull off the galoshes--when the
+spirit, that was merely gone out on adventures, must have returned with the
+quickness of lightning to its earthly tenement. It took its direction towards
+the body in a straight line; and a few seconds after, life began to show
+itself in the man. He asserted that the preceding night had been the worst
+that ever the malice of fate had allotted him; he would not for two silver
+marks again go through what he had endured while moon-stricken; but now,
+however, it was over.
+
+The same day he was discharged from the hospital as perfectly cured; but the
+Shoes meanwhile remained behind.
+
+
+IV. A Moment of Head Importance--An Evening's "Dramatic Readings"--A Most
+Strange Journey
+
+Every inhabitant of Copenhagen knows, from personal inspection, how the
+entrance to Frederick's Hospital looks; but as it is possible that others, who
+are not Copenhagen people, may also read this little work, we will beforehand
+give a short description of it.
+
+The extensive building is separated from the street by a pretty high railing,
+the thick iron bars of which are so far apart, that in all seriousness, it is
+said, some very thin fellow had of a night occasionally squeezed himself
+through to go and pay his little visits in the town. The part of the body most
+difficult to manage on such occasions was, no doubt, the head; here, as is so
+often the case in the world, long-headed people get through best. So much,
+then, for the introduction.
+
+One of the young men, whose head, in a physical sense only, might be said to
+be of the thickest, had the watch that evening. The rain poured down in
+torrents; yet despite these two obstacles, the young man was obliged to go
+out, if it were but for a quarter of an hour; and as to telling the
+door-keeper about it, that, he thought, was quite unnecessary, if, with a
+whole skin, he were able to slip through the railings. There, on the floor lay
+the galoshes, which the watchman had forgotten; he never dreamed for a moment
+that they were those of Fortune; and they promised to do him good service in
+the wet; so he put them on. The question now was, if he could squeeze himself
+through the grating, for he had never tried before. Well, there he stood.
+
+"Would to Heaven I had got my head through!" said he, involuntarily; and
+instantly through it slipped, easily and without pain, notwithstanding it was
+pretty large and thick. But now the rest of the body was to be got through!
+
+"Ah! I am much too stout," groaned he aloud, while fixed as in a vice. "I had
+thought the head was the most difficult part of the matter--oh! oh! I really
+cannot squeeze myself through!"
+
+He now wanted to pull his over-hasty head back again, but he could not. For
+his neck there was room enough, but for nothing more. His first feeling was of
+anger; his next that his temper fell to zero. The Shoes of Fortune had placed
+him in the most dreadful situation; and, unfortunately, it never occurred to
+him to wish himself free. The pitch-black clouds poured down their contents in
+still heavier torrents; not a creature was to be seen in the streets. To reach
+up to the bell was what he did not like; to cry aloud for help would have
+availed him little; besides, how ashamed would he have been to be found caught
+in a trap, like an outwitted fox! How was he to twist himself through! He saw
+clearly that it was his irrevocable destiny to remain a prisoner till dawn,
+or, perhaps, even late in the morning; then the smith must be fetched to file
+away the bars; but all that would not be done so quickly as he could think
+about it. The whole Charity School, just opposite, would be in motion; all the
+new booths, with their not very courtier-like swarm of seamen, would join them
+out of curiosity, and would greet him with a wild "hurrah!" while he was
+standing in his pillory: there would be a mob, a hissing, and rejoicing, and
+jeering, ten times worse than in the rows about the Jews some years ago--"Oh,
+my blood is mounting to my brain; 'tis enough to drive one mad! I shall go
+wild! I know not what to do. Oh! were I but loose; my dizziness would then
+cease; oh, were my head but loose!"
+
+You see he ought to have said that sooner; for the moment he expressed the
+wish his head was free; and cured of all his paroxysms of love, he hastened
+off to his room, where the pains consequent on the fright the Shoes had
+prepared for him, did not so soon take their leave.
+
+But you must not think that the affair is over now; it grows much worse.
+
+The night passed, the next day also; but nobody came to fetch the Shoes.
+
+In the evening "Dramatic Readings" were to be given at the little theatre in
+King Street. The house was filled to suffocation; and among other pieces to be
+recited was a new poem by H. C. Andersen, called, My Aunt's Spectacles; the
+contents of which were pretty nearly as follows:
+
+"A certain person had an aunt, who boasted of particular skill in
+fortune-telling with cards, and who was constantly being stormed by persons
+that wanted to have a peep into futurity. But she was full of mystery about
+her art, in which a certain pair of magic spectacles did her essential
+service. Her nephew, a merry boy, who was his aunt's darling, begged so long
+for these spectacles, that, at last, she lent him the treasure, after having
+informed him, with many exhortations, that in order to execute the interesting
+trick, he need only repair to some place where a great many persons were
+assembled; and then, from a higher position, whence he could overlook the
+crowd, pass the company in review before him through his spectacles.
+Immediately 'the inner man' of each individual would be displayed before him,
+like a game of cards, in which he unerringly might read what the future of
+every person presented was to be. Well pleased the little magician hastened
+away to prove the powers of the spectacles in the theatre; no place seeming to
+him more fitted for such a trial. He begged permission of the worthy audience,
+and set his spectacles on his nose. A motley phantasmagoria presents itself
+before him, which he describes in a few satirical touches, yet without
+expressing his opinion openly: he tells the people enough to set them all
+thinking and guessing; but in order to hurt nobody, he wraps his witty
+oracular judgments in a transparent veil, or rather in a lurid thundercloud,
+shooting forth bright sparks of wit, that they may fall in the powder-magazine
+of the expectant audience."
+
+The humorous poem was admirably recited, and the speaker much applauded. Among
+the audience was the young man of the hospital, who seemed to have forgotten
+his adventure of the preceding night. He had on the Shoes; for as yet no
+lawful owner had appeared to claim them; and besides it was so very dirty
+out-of-doors, they were just the thing for him, he thought.
+
+The beginning of the poem he praised with great generosity: he even found the
+idea original and effective. But that the end of it, like the Rhine, was very
+insignificant, proved, in his opinion, the author's want of invention; he was
+without genius, etc. This was an excellent opportunity to have said something
+clever.
+
+Meanwhile he was haunted by the idea--he should like to possess such a pair of
+spectacles himself; then, perhaps, by using them circumspectly, one would be
+able to look into people's hearts, which, he thought, would be far more
+interesting than merely to see what was to happen next year; for that we
+should all know in proper time, but the other never.
+
+"I can now," said he to himself, "fancy the whole row of ladies and gentlemen
+sitting there in the front row; if one could but see into their hearts--yes,
+that would be a revelation--a sort of bazar. In that lady yonder, so strangely
+dressed, I should find for certain a large milliner's shop; in that one the
+shop is empty, but it wants cleaning plain enough. But there would also be
+some good stately shops among them. Alas!" sighed he, "I know one in which all
+is stately; but there sits already a spruce young shopman, which is the only
+thing that's amiss in the whole shop. All would be splendidly decked out, and
+we should hear, 'Walk in, gentlemen, pray walk in; here you will find all you
+please to want.' Ah! I wish to Heaven I could walk in and take a trip right
+through the hearts of those present!"
+
+And behold! to the Shoes of Fortune this was the cue; the whole man shrunk
+together and a most uncommon journey through the hearts of the front row of
+spectators, now began. The first heart through which he came, was that of a
+middle-aged lady, but he instantly fancied himself in the room of the
+"Institution for the cure of the crooked and deformed," where casts of
+mis-shapen limbs are displayed in naked reality on the wall. Yet there was
+this difference, in the institution the casts were taken at the entry of the
+patient; but here they were retained and guarded in the heart while the sound
+persons went away. They were, namely, casts of female friends, whose bodily or
+mental deformities were here most faithfully preserved.
+
+With the snake-like writhings of an idea he glided into another female heart;
+but this seemed to him like a large holy fane.* The white dove of innocence
+fluttered over the altar. How gladly would he have sunk upon his knees; but he
+must away to the next heart; yet he still heard the pealing tones of the
+organ, and he himself seemed to have become a newer and a better man; he felt
+unworthy to tread the neighboring sanctuary which a poor garret, with a sick
+bed-rid mother, revealed. But God's warm sun streamed through the open window;
+lovely roses nodded from the wooden flower-boxes on the roof, and two sky-blue
+birds sang rejoicingly, while the sick mother implored God's richest blessings
+on her pious daughter.
+
+* temple
+
+
+He now crept on hands and feet through a butcher's shop; at least on every
+side, and above and below, there was nought but flesh. It was the heart of a
+most respectable rich man, whose name is certain to be found in the Directory.
+
+He was now in the heart of the wife of this worthy gentleman. It was an old,
+dilapidated, mouldering dovecot. The husband's portrait was used as a
+weather-cock, which was connected in some way or other with the doors, and so
+they opened and shut of their own accord, whenever the stern old husband
+turned round.
+
+Hereupon he wandered into a boudoir formed entirely of mirrors, like the one
+in Castle Rosenburg; but here the glasses magnified to an astonishing degree.
+On the floor, in the middle of the room, sat, like a Dalai-Lama, the
+insignificant "Self" of the person, quite confounded at his own greatness. He
+then imagined he had got into a needle-case full of pointed needles of every
+size.
+
+"This is certainly the heart of an old maid," thought he. But he was mistaken.
+It was the heart of a young military man; a man, as people said, of talent and
+feeling.
+
+In the greatest perplexity, he now came out of the last heart in the row; he
+was unable to put his thoughts in order, and fancied that his too lively
+imagination had run away with him.
+
+"Good Heavens!" sighed he. "I have surely a disposition to madness--'tis
+dreadfully hot here; my blood boils in my veins and my head is burning like a
+coal." And he now remembered the important event of the evening before, how
+his head had got jammed in between the iron railings of the hospital. "That's
+what it is, no doubt," said he. "I must do something in time: under such
+circumstances a Russian bath might do me good. I only wish I were already on
+the upper bank."*
+
+*In these Russian (vapor) baths the person extends himself on a bank or form,
+and as he gets accustomed to the heat, moves to another higher up towards the
+ceiling, where, of course, the vapor is warmest. In this manner he ascends
+gradually to the highest.
+
+
+And so there he lay on the uppermost bank in the vapor-bath; but with all his
+clothes on, in his boots and galoshes, while the hot drops fell scalding from
+the ceiling on his face.
+
+"Holloa!" cried he, leaping down. The bathing attendant, on his side, uttered
+a loud cry of astonishment when he beheld in the bath, a man completely
+dressed.
+
+The other, however, retained sufficient presence of mind to whisper to him,
+"'Tis a bet, and I have won it!" But the first thing he did as soon as he got
+home, was to have a large blister put on his chest and back to draw out his
+madness.
+
+The next morning he had a sore chest and a bleeding back; and, excepting the
+fright, that was all that he had gained by the Shoes of Fortune.
+
+
+V. Metamorphosis of the Copying-Clerk
+
+The watchman, whom we have certainly not forgotten, thought meanwhile of the
+galoshes he had found and taken with him to the hospital; he now went to fetch
+them; and as neither the lieutenant, nor anybody else in the street, claimed
+them as his property, they were delivered over to the police-office.*
+
+*As on the continent, in all law and police practices nothing is verbal, but
+any circumstance, however trifling, is reduced to writing, the labor, as well
+as the number of papers that thus accumulate, is enormous. In a
+police-office, consequently, we find copying-clerks among many other scribes
+of various denominations, of which, it seems, our hero was one.
+
+
+"Why, I declare the Shoes look just like my own," said one of the clerks,
+eying the newly-found treasure, whose hidden powers, even he, sharp as he was,
+was not able to discover. "One must have more than the eye of a shoemaker to
+know one pair from the other," said he, soliloquizing; and putting, at the
+same time, the galoshes in search of an owner, beside his own in the corner.
+
+"Here, sir!" said one of the men, who panting brought him a tremendous pile of
+papers.
+
+The copying-clerk turned round and spoke awhile with the man about the reports
+and legal documents in question; but when he had finished, and his eye fell
+again on the Shoes, he was unable to say whether those to the left or those to
+the right belonged to him. "At all events it must be those which are wet,"
+thought he; but this time, in spite of his cleverness, he guessed quite wrong,
+for it was just those of Fortune which played as it were into his hands, or
+rather on his feet. And why, I should like to know, are the police never to be
+wrong? So he put them on quickly, stuck his papers in his pocket, and took
+besides a few under his arm, intending to look them through at home to make
+the necessary notes. It was noon; and the weather, that had threatened rain,
+began to clear up, while gaily dressed holiday folks filled the streets. "A
+little trip to Fredericksburg would do me no great harm," thought he; "for I,
+poor beast of burden that I am, have so much to annoy me, that I don't know
+what a good appetite is. 'Tis a bitter crust, alas! at which I am condemned to
+gnaw!"
+
+Nobody could be more steady or quiet than this young man; we therefore wish
+him joy of the excursion with all our heart; and it will certainly be
+beneficial for a person who leads so sedentary a life. In the park he met a
+friend, one of our young poets, who told him that the following day he should
+set out on his long-intended tour.
+
+"So you are going away again!" said the clerk. "You are a very free and happy
+being; we others are chained by the leg and held fast to our desk."
+
+"Yes; but it is a chain, friend, which ensures you the blessed bread of
+existence," answered the poet. "You need feel no care for the coming morrow:
+when you are old, you receive a pension."
+
+"True," said the clerk, shrugging his shoulders; "and yet you are the better
+off. To sit at one's ease and poetise--that is a pleasure; everybody has
+something agreeable to say to you, and you are always your own master. No,
+friend, you should but try what it is to sit from one year's end to the other
+occupied with and judging the most trivial matters."
+
+The poet shook his head, the copying-clerk did the same. Each one kept to his
+own opinion, and so they separated.
+
+"It's a strange race, those poets!" said the clerk, who was very fond of
+soliloquizing. "I should like some day, just for a trial, to take such nature
+upon me, and be a poet myself; I am very sure I should make no such miserable
+verses as the others. Today, methinks, is a most delicious day for a poet.
+Nature seems anew to celebrate her awakening into life. The air is so
+unusually clear, the clouds sail on so buoyantly, and from the green herbage a
+fragrance is exhaled that fills me with delight. For many a year have I not
+felt as at this moment."
+
+We see already, by the foregoing effusion, that he is become a poet; to give
+further proof of it, however, would in most cases be insipid, for it is a most
+foolish notion to fancy a poet different from other men. Among the latter
+there may be far more poetical natures than many an acknowledged poet, when
+examined more closely, could boast of; the difference only is, that the poet
+possesses a better mental memory, on which account he is able to retain the
+feeling and the thought till they can be embodied by means of words; a faculty
+which the others do not possess. But the transition from a commonplace nature
+to one that is richly endowed, demands always a more or less breakneck leap
+over a certain abyss which yawns threateningly below; and thus must the sudden
+change with the clerk strike the reader.
+
+"The sweet air!" continued he of the police-office, in his dreamy imaginings;
+"how it reminds me of the violets in the garden of my aunt Magdalena! Yes,
+then I was a little wild boy, who did not go to school very regularly. O
+heavens! 'tis a long time since I have thought on those times. The good old
+soul! She lived behind the Exchange. She always had a few twigs or green
+shoots in water--let the winter rage without as it might. The violets exhaled
+their sweet breath, whilst I pressed against the windowpanes covered with
+fantastic frost-work the copper coin I had heated on the stove, and so made
+peep-holes. What splendid vistas were then opened to my view! What change--what
+magnificence! Yonder in the canal lay the ships frozen up, and deserted by
+their whole crews, with a screaming crow for the sole occupant. But when the
+spring, with a gentle stirring motion, announced her arrival, a new and busy
+life arose; with songs and hurrahs the ice was sawn asunder, the ships were
+fresh tarred and rigged, that they might sail away to distant lands. But I
+have remained here--must always remain here, sitting at my desk in the office,
+and patiently see other people fetch their passports to go abroad. Such is my
+fate! Alas!"--sighed he, and was again silent. "Great Heaven! What is come to
+me! Never have I thought or felt like this before! It must be the summer air
+that affects me with feelings almost as disquieting as they are refreshing."
+
+He felt in his pocket for the papers. "These police-reports will soon stem the
+torrent of my ideas, and effectually hinder any rebellious overflowing of the
+time-worn banks of official duties"; he said to himself consolingly, while his
+eye ran over the first page. "DAME TIGBRITH, tragedy in five acts." "What is
+that? And yet it is undeniably my own handwriting. Have I written the tragedy?
+Wonderful, very wonderful!--And this--what have I here? 'INTRIGUE ON THE
+RAMPARTS; or THE DAY OF REPENTANCE: vaudeville with new songs to the most
+favorite airs.' The deuce! Where did I get all this rubbish? Some one must
+have slipped it slyly into my pocket for a joke. There is too a letter to me;
+a crumpled letter and the seal broken."
+
+Yes; it was not a very polite epistle from the manager of a theatre, in which
+both pieces were flatly refused.
+
+"Hem! hem!" said the clerk breathlessly, and quite exhausted he seated himself
+on a bank. His thoughts were so elastic, his heart so tender; and
+involuntarily he picked one of the nearest flowers. It is a simple daisy, just
+bursting out of the bud. What the botanist tells us after a number of
+imperfect lectures, the flower proclaimed in a minute. It related the mythus
+of its birth, told of the power of the sun-light that spread out its delicate
+leaves, and forced them to impregnate the air with their incense--and then he
+thought of the manifold struggles of life, which in like manner awaken the
+budding flowers of feeling in our bosom. Light and air contend with chivalric
+emulation for the love of the fair flower that bestowed her chief favors on
+the latter; full of longing she turned towards the light, and as soon as it
+vanished, rolled her tender leaves together and slept in the embraces of the
+air. "It is the light which adorns me," said the flower.
+
+"But 'tis the air which enables thee to breathe," said the poet's voice.
+
+Close by stood a boy who dashed his stick into a wet ditch. The drops of water
+splashed up to the green leafy roof, and the clerk thought of the million of
+ephemera which in a single drop were thrown up to a height, that was as great
+doubtless for their size, as for us if we were to be hurled above the clouds.
+While he thought of this and of the whole metamorphosis he had undergone, he
+smiled and said, "I sleep and dream; but it is wonderful how one can dream so
+naturally, and know besides so exactly that it is but a dream. If only
+to-morrow on awaking, I could again call all to mind so vividly! I seem in
+unusually good spirits; my perception of things is clear, I feel as light and
+cheerful as though I were in heaven; but I know for a certainty, that if
+to-morrow a dim remembrance of it should swim before my mind, it will then
+seem nothing but stupid nonsense, as I have often experienced
+already--especially before I enlisted under the banner of the police, for that
+dispels like a whirlwind all the visions of an unfettered imagination. All we
+hear or say in a dream that is fair and beautiful is like the gold of the
+subterranean spirits; it is rich and splendid when it is given us, but viewed
+by daylight we find only withered leaves. Alas!" he sighed quite sorrowful,
+and gazed at the chirping birds that hopped contentedly from branch to branch,
+"they are much better off than I! To fly must be a heavenly art; and happy do
+I prize that creature in which it is innate. Yes! Could I exchange my nature
+with any other creature, I fain would be such a happy little lark!"
+
+He had hardly uttered these hasty words when the skirts and sleeves of his
+coat folded themselves together into wings; the clothes became feathers, and
+the galoshes claws. He observed it perfectly, and laughed in his heart. "Now
+then, there is no doubt that I am dreaming; but I never before was aware of
+such mad freaks as these." And up he flew into the green roof and sang; but in
+the song there was no poetry, for the spirit of the poet was gone. The Shoes,
+as is the case with anybody who does what he has to do properly, could only
+attend to one thing at a time. He wanted to be a poet, and he was one; he now
+wished to be a merry chirping bird: but when he was metamorphosed into one,
+the former peculiarities ceased immediately. "It is really pleasant enough,"
+said he: "the whole day long I sit in the office amid the driest law-papers,
+and at night I fly in my dream as a lark in the gardens of Fredericksburg; one
+might really write a very pretty comedy upon it." He now fluttered down into
+the grass, turned his head gracefully on every side, and with his bill pecked
+the pliant blades of grass, which, in comparison to his present size, seemed
+as majestic as the palm-branches of northern Africa.
+
+Unfortunately the pleasure lasted but a moment. Presently black night
+overshadowed our enthusiast, who had so entirely missed his part of
+copying-clerk at a police-office; some vast object seemed to be thrown over
+him. It was a large oil-skin cap, which a sailor-boy of the quay had thrown
+over the struggling bird; a coarse hand sought its way carefully in under the
+broad rim, and seized the clerk over the back and wings. In the first moment
+of fear, he called, indeed, as loud as he could--"You impudent little
+blackguard! I am a copying-clerk at the police-office; and you know you cannot
+insult any belonging to the constabulary force without a chastisement.
+Besides, you good-for-nothing rascal, it is strictly forbidden to catch birds
+in the royal gardens of Fredericksburg; but your blue uniform betrays where
+you come from." This fine tirade sounded, however, to the ungodly sailor-boy
+like a mere "Pippi-pi." He gave the noisy bird a knock on his beak, and walked
+on.
+
+He was soon met by two schoolboys of the upper class--that is to say as
+individuals, for with regard to learning they were in the lowest class in the
+school; and they bought the stupid bird. So the copying-clerk came to
+Copenhagen as guest, or rather as prisoner in a family living in Gother
+Street.
+
+"'Tis well that I'm dreaming," said the clerk, "or I really should get angry.
+First I was a poet; now sold for a few pence as a lark; no doubt it was that
+accursed poetical nature which has metamorphosed me into such a poor harmless
+little creature. It is really pitiable, particularly when one gets into the
+hands of a little blackguard, perfect in all sorts of cruelty to animals: all
+I should like to know is, how the story will end."
+
+The two schoolboys, the proprietors now of the transformed clerk, carried him
+into an elegant room. A stout stately dame received them with a smile; but she
+expressed much dissatisfaction that a common field-bird, as she called the
+lark, should appear in such high society. For to-day, however, she would allow
+it; and they must shut him in the empty cage that was standing in the window.
+"Perhaps he will amuse my good Polly," added the lady, looking with a
+benignant smile at a large green parrot that swung himself backwards and
+forwards most comfortably in his ring, inside a magnificent brass-wired cage.
+"To-day is Polly's birthday," said she with stupid simplicity: "and the little
+brown field-bird must wish him joy."
+
+Mr. Polly uttered not a syllable in reply, but swung to and fro with dignified
+condescension; while a pretty canary, as yellow as gold, that had lately been
+brought from his sunny fragrant home, began to sing aloud.
+
+"Noisy creature! Will you be quiet!" screamed the lady of the house, covering
+the cage with an embroidered white pocket handkerchief.
+
+"Chirp, chirp!" sighed he. "That was a dreadful snowstorm"; and he sighed
+again, and was silent.
+
+The copying-clerk, or, as the lady said, the brown field-bird, was put into a
+small cage, close to the Canary, and not far from "my good Polly." The only
+human sounds that the Parrot could bawl out were, "Come, let us be men!"
+Everything else that he said was as unintelligible to everybody as the
+chirping of the Canary, except to the clerk, who was now a bird too: he
+understood his companion perfectly.
+
+"I flew about beneath the green palms and the blossoming almond-trees," sang
+the Canary; "I flew around, with my brothers and sisters, over the beautiful
+flowers, and over the glassy lakes, where the bright water-plants nodded to me
+from below. There, too, I saw many splendidly-dressed paroquets, that told the
+drollest stories, and the wildest fairy tales without end."
+
+"Oh! those were uncouth birds," answered the Parrot. "They had no education,
+and talked of whatever came into their head.
+
+"If my mistress and all her friends can laugh at what I say, so may you too,
+I should think. It is a great fault to have no taste for what is witty or
+amusing--come, let us be men."
+
+"Ah, you have no remembrance of love for the charming maidens that danced
+beneath the outspread tents beside the bright fragrant flowers? Do you no
+longer remember the sweet fruits, and the cooling juice in the wild plants of
+our never-to-be-forgotten home?" said the former inhabitant of the Canary
+Isles, continuing his dithyrambic.
+
+"Oh, yes," said the Parrot; "but I am far better off here. I am well fed, and
+get friendly treatment. I know I am a clever fellow; and that is all I care
+about. Come, let us be men. You are of a poetical nature, as it is called--I,
+on the contrary, possess profound knowledge and inexhaustible wit. You have
+genius; but clear-sighted, calm discretion does not take such lofty flights,
+and utter such high natural tones. For this they have covered you over--they
+never do the like to me; for I cost more. Besides, they are afraid of my beak;
+and I have always a witty answer at hand. Come, let us be men!"
+
+"O warm spicy land of my birth," sang the Canary bird; "I will sing of thy
+dark-green bowers, of the calm bays where the pendent boughs kiss the surface
+of the water; I will sing of the rejoicing of all my brothers and sisters
+where the cactus grows in wanton luxuriance."
+
+"Spare us your elegiac tones," said the Parrot giggling. "Rather speak of
+something at which one may laugh heartily. Laughing is an infallible sign of
+the highest degree of mental development. Can a dog, or a horse laugh? No, but
+they can cry. The gift of laughing was given to man alone. Ha! ha! ha!"
+screamed Polly, and added his stereotype witticism. "Come, let us be men!"
+
+"Poor little Danish grey-bird," said the Canary; "you have been caught too. It
+is, no doubt, cold enough in your woods, but there at least is the breath of
+liberty; therefore fly away. In the hurry they have forgotten to shut your
+cage, and the upper window is open. Fly, my friend; fly away. Farewell!"
+
+Instinctively the Clerk obeyed; with a few strokes of his wings he was out of
+the cage; but at the same moment the door, which was only ajar, and which led
+to the next room, began to creak, and supple and creeping came the large
+tomcat into the room, and began to pursue him. The frightened Canary fluttered
+about in his cage; the Parrot flapped his wings, and cried, "Come, let us be
+men!" The Clerk felt a mortal fright, and flew through the window, far away
+over the houses and streets. At last he was forced to rest a little.
+
+The neighboring house had a something familiar about it; a window stood open;
+he flew in; it was his own room. He perched upon the table.
+
+"Come, let us be men!" said he, involuntarily imitating the chatter of the
+Parrot, and at the same moment he was again a copying-clerk; but he was
+sitting in the middle of the table.
+
+"Heaven help me!" cried he. "How did I get up here--and so buried in sleep,
+too? After all, that was a very unpleasant, disagreeable dream that haunted
+me! The whole story is nothing but silly, stupid nonsense!"
+
+
+VI. The Best That the Galoshes Gave
+
+The following day, early in the morning, while the Clerk was still in bed,
+someone knocked at his door. It was his neighbor, a young Divine, who lived on
+the same floor. He walked in.
+
+"Lend me your Galoshes," said he; "it is so wet in the garden, though the sun
+is shining most invitingly. I should like to go out a little."
+
+He got the Galoshes, and he was soon below in a little duodecimo garden, where
+between two immense walls a plumtree and an apple-tree were standing. Even
+such a little garden as this was considered in the metropolis of Copenhagen as
+a great luxury.
+
+The young man wandered up and down the narrow paths, as well as the prescribed
+limits would allow; the clock struck six; without was heard the horn of a
+post-boy.
+
+"To travel! to travel!" exclaimed he, overcome by most painful and passionate
+remembrances. "That is the happiest thing in the world! That is the highest
+aim of all my wishes! Then at last would the agonizing restlessness be
+allayed, which destroys my existence! But it must be far, far away! I would
+behold magnificent Switzerland; I would travel to Italy, and--"
+
+It was a good thing that the power of the Galoshes worked as instantaneously
+as lightning in a powder-magazine would do, otherwise the poor man with his
+overstrained wishes would have travelled about the world too much for himself
+as well as for us. In short, he was travelling. He was in the middle of
+Switzerland, but packed up with eight other passengers in the inside of an
+eternally-creaking diligence; his head ached till it almost split, his weary
+neck could hardly bear the heavy load, and his feet, pinched by his torturing
+boots, were terribly swollen. He was in an intermediate state between sleeping
+and waking; at variance with himself, with his company, with the country, and
+with the government. In his right pocket he had his letter of credit, in the
+left, his passport, and in a small leathern purse some double louis d'or,
+carefully sewn up in the bosom of his waistcoat. Every dream proclaimed that
+one or the other of these valuables was lost; wherefore he started up as in a
+fever; and the first movement which his hand made, described a magic triangle
+from the right pocket to the left, and then up towards the bosom, to feel if
+he had them all safe or not. From the roof inside the carriage, umbrellas,
+walking-sticks, hats, and sundry other articles were depending, and hindered
+the view, which was particularly imposing. He now endeavored as well as he was
+able to dispel his gloom, which was caused by outward chance circumstances
+merely, and on the bosom of nature imbibe the milk of purest human enjoyment.
+
+Grand, solemn, and dark was the whole landscape around. The gigantic
+pine-forests, on the pointed crags, seemed almost like little tufts of
+heather, colored by the surrounding clouds. It began to snow, a cold wind blew
+and roared as though it were seeking a bride.
+
+"Augh!" sighed he, "were we only on the other side the Alps, then we should
+have summer, and I could get my letters of credit cashed. The anxiety I feel
+about them prevents me enjoying Switzerland. Were I but on the other side!"
+
+And so saying he was on the other side in Italy, between Florence and Rome.
+Lake Thracymene, illumined by the evening sun, lay like flaming gold between
+the dark-blue mountain-ridges; here, where Hannibal defeated Flaminius, the
+rivers now held each other in their green embraces; lovely, half-naked
+children tended a herd of black swine, beneath a group of fragrant
+laurel-trees, hard by the road-side. Could we render this inimitable picture
+properly, then would everybody exclaim, "Beautiful, unparalleled Italy!" But
+neither the young Divine said so, nor anyone of his grumbling companions in
+the coach of the vetturino.
+
+The poisonous flies and gnats swarmed around by thousands; in vain one waved
+myrtle-branches about like mad; the audacious insect population did not cease
+to sting; nor was there a single person in the well-crammed carriage whose
+face was not swollen and sore from their ravenous bites. The poor horses,
+tortured almost to death, suffered most from this truly Egyptian plague; the
+flies alighted upon them in large disgusting swarms; and if the coachman got
+down and scraped them off, hardly a minute elapsed before they were there
+again. The sun now set: a freezing cold, though of short duration pervaded the
+whole creation; it was like a horrid gust coming from a burial-vault on a warm
+summer's day--but all around the mountains retained that wonderful green tone
+which we see in some old pictures, and which, should we not have seen a
+similar play of color in the South, we declare at once to be unnatural. It was
+a glorious prospect; but the stomach was empty, the body tired; all that the
+heart cared and longed for was good night-quarters; yet how would they be? For
+these one looked much more anxiously than for the charms of nature, which
+every where were so profusely displayed.
+
+The road led through an olive-grove, and here the solitary inn was situated.
+Ten or twelve crippled-beggars had encamped outside. The healthiest of them
+resembled, to use an expression of Marryat's, "Hunger's eldest son when he had
+come of age"; the others were either blind, had withered legs and crept about
+on their hands, or withered arms and fingerless hands. It was the most
+wretched misery, dragged from among the filthiest rags. "Excellenza,
+miserabili!" sighed they, thrusting forth their deformed limbs to view. Even
+the hostess, with bare feet, uncombed hair, and dressed in a garment of
+doubtful color, received the guests grumblingly. The doors were fastened with
+a loop of string; the floor of the rooms presented a stone paving half torn
+up; bats fluttered wildly about the ceiling; and as to the smell
+therein--no--that was beyond description.
+
+"You had better lay the cloth below in the stable," said one of the
+travellers; "there, at all events, one knows what one is breathing."
+
+The windows were quickly opened, to let in a little fresh air. Quicker,
+however, than the breeze, the withered, sallow arms of the beggars were thrust
+in, accompanied by the eternal whine of "Miserabili, miserabili, excellenza!"
+On the walls were displayed innumerable inscriptions, written in nearly every
+language of Europe, some in verse, some in prose, most of them not very
+laudatory of "bella Italia."
+
+The meal was served. It consisted of a soup of salted water, seasoned with
+pepper and rancid oil. The last ingredient played a very prominent part in the
+salad; stale eggs and roasted cocks'-combs furnished the grand dish of the
+repast; the wine even was not without a disgusting taste--it was like a
+medicinal draught.
+
+At night the boxes and other effects of the passengers were placed against the
+rickety doors. One of the travellers kept watch while the others slept. The
+sentry was our young Divine. How close it was in the chamber! The heat
+oppressive to suffocation--the gnats hummed and stung unceasingly--the
+"miserabili" without whined and moaned in their sleep.
+
+"Travelling would be agreeable enough," said he groaning, "if one only had no
+body, or could send it to rest while the spirit went on its pilgrimage
+unhindered, whither the voice within might call it. Wherever I go, I am
+pursued by a longing that is insatiable--that I cannot explain to myself, and
+that tears my very heart. I want something better than what is but what is
+fled in an instant. But what is it, and where is it to be found? Yet, I know
+in reality what it is I wish for. Oh! most happy were I, could I but reach one
+aim--could but reach the happiest of all!"
+
+And as he spoke the word he was again in his home; the long white curtains
+hung down from the windows, and in the middle of the floor stood the black
+coffin; in it he lay in the sleep of death. His wish was fulfilled--the body
+rested, while the spirit went unhindered on its pilgrimage. "Let no one deem
+himself happy before his end," were the words of Solon; and here was a new and
+brilliant proof of the wisdom of the old apothegm.
+
+Every corpse is a sphynx of immortality; here too on the black coffin the
+sphynx gave us no answer to what he who lay within had written two days
+before:
+
+"O mighty Death! thy silence teaches nought,
+  Thou leadest only to the near grave's brink;
+ Is broken now the ladder of my thoughts?
+Do I instead of mounting only sink?
+
+Our heaviest grief the world oft seeth not,
+ Our sorest pain we hide from stranger eyes:
+ And for the sufferer there is nothing left
+But the green mound that o'er the coffin lies."
+
+Two figures were moving in the chamber. We knew them both; it was the fairy of
+Care, and the emissary of Fortune. They both bent over the corpse.
+
+"Do you now see," said Care, "what happiness your Galoshes have brought to
+mankind?"
+
+"To him, at least, who slumbers here, they have brought an imperishable
+blessing," answered the other.
+
+"Ah no!" replied Care. "He took his departure himself; he was not called away.
+His mental powers here below were not strong enough to reach the treasures
+lying beyond this life, and which his destiny ordained he should obtain. I
+will now confer a benefit on him."
+
+And she took the Galoshes from his feet; his sleep of death was ended; and he
+who had been thus called back again to life arose from his dread couch in all
+the vigor of youth. Care vanished, and with her the Galoshes. She has no doubt
+taken them for herself, to keep them to all eternity.
+
+
+
+THE FIR TREE
+
+Out in the woods stood a nice little Fir Tree. The place he had was a very
+good one: the sun shone on him: as to fresh air, there was enough of that, and
+round him grew many large-sized comrades, pines as well as firs. But the
+little Fir wanted so very much to be a grown-up tree.
+
+He did not think of the warm sun and of the fresh air; he did not care for the
+little cottage children that ran about and prattled when they were in the
+woods looking for wild-strawberries. The children often came with a whole
+pitcher full of berries, or a long row of them threaded on a straw, and sat
+down near the young tree and said, "Oh, how pretty he is! What a nice little
+fir!" But this was what the Tree could not bear to hear.
+
+At the end of a year he had shot up a good deal, and after another year he was
+another long bit taller; for with fir trees one can always tell by the shoots
+how many years old they are.
+
+"Oh! Were I but such a high tree as the others are," sighed he. "Then I should
+be able to spread out my branches, and with the tops to look into the wide
+world! Then would the birds build nests among my branches: and when there was
+a breeze, I could bend with as much stateliness as the others!"
+
+Neither the sunbeams, nor the birds, nor the red clouds which morning and
+evening sailed above him, gave the little Tree any pleasure.
+
+In winter, when the snow lay glittering on the ground, a hare would often come
+leaping along, and jump right over the little Tree. Oh, that made him so
+angry! But two winters were past, and in the third the Tree was so large that
+the hare was obliged to go round it. "To grow and grow, to get older and be
+tall," thought the Tree--"that, after all, is the most delightful thing in the
+world!"
+
+In autumn the wood-cutters always came and felled some of the largest trees.
+This happened every year; and the young Fir Tree, that had now grown to a very
+comely size, trembled at the sight; for the magnificent great trees fell to
+the earth with noise and cracking, the branches were lopped off, and the trees
+looked long and bare; they were hardly to be recognised; and then they were
+laid in carts, and the horses dragged them out of the wood.
+
+Where did they go to? What became of them?
+
+In spring, when the swallows and the storks came, the Tree asked them, "Don't
+you know where they have been taken? Have you not met them anywhere?"
+
+The swallows did not know anything about it; but the Stork looked musing,
+nodded his head, and said, "Yes; I think I know; I met many ships as I was
+flying hither from Egypt; on the ships were magnificent masts, and I venture
+to assert that it was they that smelt so of fir. I may congratulate you, for
+they lifted themselves on high most majestically!"
+
+"Oh, were I but old enough to fly across the sea! But how does the sea look in
+reality? What is it like?"
+
+"That would take a long time to explain," said the Stork, and with these words
+off he went.
+
+"Rejoice in thy growth!" said the Sunbeams. "Rejoice in thy vigorous growth,
+and in the fresh life that moveth within thee!"
+
+And the Wind kissed the Tree, and the Dew wept tears over him; but the Fir
+understood it not.
+
+When Christmas came, quite young trees were cut down: trees which often were
+not even as large or of the same age as this Fir Tree, who could never rest,
+but always wanted to be off. These young trees, and they were always the
+finest looking, retained their branches; they were laid on carts, and the
+horses drew them out of the wood.
+
+"Where are they going to?" asked the Fir. "They are not taller than I; there
+was one indeed that was considerably shorter; and why do they retain all their
+branches? Whither are they taken?"
+
+"We know! We know!" chirped the Sparrows. "We have peeped in at the windows in
+the town below! We know whither they are taken! The greatest splendor and the
+greatest magnificence one can imagine await them. We peeped through the
+windows, and saw them planted in the middle of the warm room and ornamented
+with the most splendid things, with gilded apples, with gingerbread, with
+toys, and many hundred lights!"
+
+"And then?" asked the Fir Tree, trembling in every bough. "And then? What
+happens then?"
+
+"We did not see anything more: it was incomparably beautiful."
+
+"I would fain know if I am destined for so glorious a career," cried the Tree,
+rejoicing. "That is still better than to cross the sea! What a longing do I
+suffer! Were Christmas but come! I am now tall, and my branches spread like
+the others that were carried off last year! Oh! were I but already on the
+cart! Were I in the warm room with all the splendor and magnificence! Yes;
+then something better, something still grander, will surely follow, or
+wherefore should they thus ornament me? Something better, something still
+grander must follow--but what? Oh, how I long, how I suffer! I do not know
+myself what is the matter with me!"
+
+"Rejoice in our presence!" said the Air and the Sunlight. "Rejoice in thy own
+fresh youth!"
+
+But the Tree did not rejoice at all; he grew and grew, and was green both
+winter and summer. People that saw him said, "What a fine tree!" and towards
+Christmas he was one of the first that was cut down. The axe struck deep into
+the very pith; the Tree fell to the earth with a sigh; he felt a pang--it was
+like a swoon; he could not think of happiness, for he was sorrowful at being
+separated from his home, from the place where he had sprung up. He well knew
+that he should never see his dear old comrades, the little bushes and flowers
+around him, anymore; perhaps not even the birds! The departure was not at all
+agreeable.
+
+The Tree only came to himself when he was unloaded in a court-yard with the
+other trees, and heard a man say, "That one is splendid! We don't want the
+others." Then two servants came in rich livery and carried the Fir Tree into a
+large and splendid drawing-room. Portraits were hanging on the walls, and near
+the white porcelain stove stood two large Chinese vases with lions on the
+covers. There, too, were large easy-chairs, silken sofas, large tables full of
+picture-books and full of toys, worth hundreds and hundreds of crowns--at
+least the children said so. And the Fir Tree was stuck upright in a cask that
+was filled with sand; but no one could see that it was a cask, for green cloth
+was hung all round it, and it stood on a large gaily-colored carpet. Oh! how
+the Tree quivered! What was to happen? The servants, as well as the young
+ladies, decorated it. On one branch there hung little nets cut out of colored
+paper, and each net was filled with sugarplums; and among the other boughs
+gilded apples and walnuts were suspended, looking as though they had grown
+there, and little blue and white tapers were placed among the leaves. Dolls
+that looked for all the world like men--the Tree had never beheld such
+before--were seen among the foliage, and at the very top a large star of gold
+tinsel was fixed. It was really splendid--beyond description splendid.
+
+"This evening!" they all said. "How it will shine this evening!"
+
+"Oh!" thought the Tree. "If the evening were but come! If the tapers were but
+lighted! And then I wonder what will happen! Perhaps the other trees from the
+forest will come to look at me! Perhaps the sparrows will beat against the
+windowpanes! I wonder if I shall take root here, and winter and summer stand
+covered with ornaments!"
+
+He knew very much about the matter--but he was so impatient that for sheer
+longing he got a pain in his back, and this with trees is the same thing as a
+headache with us.
+
+The candles were now lighted--what brightness! What splendor! The Tree
+trembled so in every bough that one of the tapers set fire to the foliage. It
+blazed up famously.
+
+"Help! Help!" cried the young ladies, and they quickly put out the fire.
+
+Now the Tree did not even dare tremble. What a state he was in! He was so
+uneasy lest he should lose something of his splendor, that he was quite
+bewildered amidst the glare and brightness; when suddenly both folding-doors
+opened and a troop of children rushed in as if they would upset the Tree. The
+older persons followed quietly; the little ones stood quite still. But it was
+only for a moment; then they shouted that the whole place re-echoed with their
+rejoicing; they danced round the Tree, and one present after the other was
+pulled off.
+
+"What are they about?" thought the Tree. "What is to happen now!" And the
+lights burned down to the very branches, and as they burned down they were put
+out one after the other, and then the children had permission to plunder the
+Tree. So they fell upon it with such violence that all its branches cracked;
+if it had not been fixed firmly in the ground, it would certainly have tumbled
+down.
+
+The children danced about with their beautiful playthings; no one looked at
+the Tree except the old nurse, who peeped between the branches; but it was
+only to see if there was a fig or an apple left that had been forgotten.
+
+"A story! A story!" cried the children, drawing a little fat man towards the
+Tree. He seated himself under it and said, "Now we are in the shade, and the
+Tree can listen too. But I shall tell only one story. Now which will you have;
+that about Ivedy-Avedy, or about Humpy-Dumpy, who tumbled downstairs, and yet
+after all came to the throne and married the princess?"
+
+"Ivedy-Avedy," cried some; "Humpy-Dumpy," cried the others. There was such a
+bawling and screaming--the Fir Tree alone was silent, and he thought to
+himself, "Am I not to bawl with the rest? Am I to do nothing whatever?" for he
+was one of the company, and had done what he had to do.
+
+And the man told about Humpy-Dumpy that tumbled down, who notwithstanding came
+to the throne, and at last married the princess. And the children clapped
+their hands, and cried. "Oh, go on! Do go on!" They wanted to hear about
+Ivedy-Avedy too, but the little man only told them about Humpy-Dumpy. The Fir
+Tree stood quite still and absorbed in thought; the birds in the wood had
+never related the like of this. "Humpy-Dumpy fell downstairs, and yet he
+married the princess! Yes, yes! That's the way of the world!" thought the Fir
+Tree, and believed it all, because the man who told the story was so
+good-looking. "Well, well! who knows, perhaps I may fall downstairs, too, and
+get a princess as wife!" And he looked forward with joy to the morrow, when
+he hoped to be decked out again with lights, playthings, fruits, and tinsel.
+
+"I won't tremble to-morrow!" thought the Fir Tree. "I will enjoy to the full
+all my splendor! To-morrow I shall hear again the story of Humpy-Dumpy, and
+perhaps that of Ivedy-Avedy too." And the whole night the Tree stood still and
+in deep thought.
+
+In the morning the servant and the housemaid came in.
+
+"Now then the splendor will begin again," thought the Fir. But they dragged
+him out of the room, and up the stairs into the loft: and here, in a dark
+corner, where no daylight could enter, they left him. "What's the meaning of
+this?" thought the Tree. "What am I to do here? What shall I hear now, I
+wonder?" And he leaned against the wall lost in reverie. Time enough had he
+too for his reflections; for days and nights passed on, and nobody came up;
+and when at last somebody did come, it was only to put some great trunks in a
+corner, out of the way. There stood the Tree quite hidden; it seemed as if he
+had been entirely forgotten.
+
+"'Tis now winter out-of-doors!" thought the Tree. "The earth is hard and
+covered with snow; men cannot plant me now, and therefore I have been put up
+here under shelter till the spring-time comes! How thoughtful that is! How
+kind man is, after all! If it only were not so dark here, and so terribly
+lonely! Not even a hare! And out in the woods it was so pleasant, when the
+snow was on the ground, and the hare leaped by; yes--even when he jumped over
+me; but I did not like it then! It is really terribly lonely here!"
+
+"Squeak! Squeak!" said a little Mouse, at the same moment, peeping out of his
+hole. And then another little one came. They snuffed about the Fir Tree, and
+rustled among the branches.
+
+"It is dreadfully cold," said the Mouse. "But for that, it would be delightful
+here, old Fir, wouldn't it?"
+
+"I am by no means old," said the Fir Tree. "There's many a one considerably
+older than I am."
+
+"Where do you come from," asked the Mice; "and what can you do?" They were so
+extremely curious. "Tell us about the most beautiful spot on the earth. Have
+you never been there? Were you never in the larder, where cheeses lie on the
+shelves, and hams hang from above; where one dances about on tallow candles:
+that place where one enters lean, and comes out again fat and portly?"
+
+"I know no such place," said the Tree. "But I know the wood, where the sun
+shines and where the little birds sing." And then he told all about his youth;
+and the little Mice had never heard the like before; and they listened and
+said,
+
+"Well, to be sure! How much you have seen! How happy you must have been!"
+
+"I!" said the Fir Tree, thinking over what he had himself related. "Yes, in
+reality those were happy times." And then he told about Christmas-eve, when he
+was decked out with cakes and candles.
+
+"Oh," said the little Mice, "how fortunate you have been, old Fir Tree!"
+
+"I am by no means old," said he. "I came from the wood this winter; I am in my
+prime, and am only rather short for my age."
+
+"What delightful stories you know," said the Mice: and the next night they
+came with four other little Mice, who were to hear what the Tree recounted:
+and the more he related, the more he remembered himself; and it appeared as if
+those times had really been happy times. "But they may still come--they may
+still come! Humpy-Dumpy fell downstairs, and yet he got a princess!" and he
+thought at the moment of a nice little Birch Tree growing out in the woods: to
+the Fir, that would be a real charming princess.
+
+"Who is Humpy-Dumpy?" asked the Mice. So then the Fir Tree told the whole
+fairy tale, for he could remember every single word of it; and the little Mice
+jumped for joy up to the very top of the Tree. Next night two more Mice came,
+and on Sunday two Rats even; but they said the stories were not interesting,
+which vexed the little Mice; and they, too, now began to think them not so
+very amusing either.
+
+"Do you know only one story?" asked the Rats.
+
+"Only that one," answered the Tree. "I heard it on my happiest evening; but I
+did not then know how happy I was."
+
+"It is a very stupid story! Don't you know one about bacon and tallow candles?
+Can't you tell any larder stories?"
+
+"No," said the Tree.
+
+"Then good-bye," said the Rats; and they went home.
+
+At last the little Mice stayed away also; and the Tree sighed: "After all, it
+was very pleasant when the sleek little Mice sat round me, and listened to
+what I told them. Now that too is over. But I will take good care to enjoy
+myself when I am brought out again."
+
+But when was that to be? Why, one morning there came a quantity of people and
+set to work in the loft. The trunks were moved, the tree was pulled out and
+thrown--rather hard, it is true--down on the floor, but a man drew him towards
+the stairs, where the daylight shone.
+
+"Now a merry life will begin again," thought the Tree. He felt the fresh air,
+the first sunbeam--and now he was out in the courtyard. All passed so quickly,
+there was so much going on around him, the Tree quite forgot to look to
+himself. The court adjoined a garden, and all was in flower; the roses hung so
+fresh and odorous over the balustrade, the lindens were in blossom, the
+Swallows flew by, and said, "Quirre-vit! My husband is come!" but it was not
+the Fir Tree that they meant.
+
+"Now, then, I shall really enjoy life," said he exultingly, and spread out his
+branches; but, alas, they were all withered and yellow! It was in a corner
+that he lay, among weeds and nettles. The golden star of tinsel was still on
+the top of the Tree, and glittered in the sunshine.
+
+In the court-yard some of the merry children were playing who had danced at
+Christmas round the Fir Tree, and were so glad at the sight of him. One of the
+youngest ran and tore off the golden star.
+
+"Only look what is still on the ugly old Christmas tree!" said he, trampling
+on the branches, so that they all cracked beneath his feet.
+
+And the Tree beheld all the beauty of the flowers, and the freshness in the
+garden; he beheld himself, and wished he had remained in his dark corner in
+the loft; he thought of his first youth in the wood, of the merry
+Christmas-eve, and of the little Mice who had listened with so much pleasure
+to the story of Humpy-Dumpy.
+
+"'Tis over--'tis past!" said the poor Tree. "Had I but rejoiced when I had
+reason to do so! But now 'tis past, 'tis past!"
+
+And the gardener's boy chopped the Tree into small pieces; there was a whole
+heap lying there. The wood flamed up splendidly under the large brewing
+copper, and it sighed so deeply! Each sigh was like a shot.
+
+The boys played about in the court, and the youngest wore the gold star on his
+breast which the Tree had had on the happiest evening of his life. However,
+that was over now--the Tree gone, the story at an end. All, all was
+over--every tale must end at last.
+
+
+
+THE SNOW QUEEN
+
+FIRST STORY. Which Treats of a Mirror and of the Splinters
+
+Now then, let us begin. When we are at the end of the story, we shall know
+more than we know now: but to begin.
+
+Once upon a time there was a wicked sprite, indeed he was the most mischievous
+of all sprites. One day he was in a very good humor, for he had made a mirror
+with the power of causing all that was good and beautiful when it was
+reflected therein, to look poor and mean; but that which was good-for-nothing
+and looked ugly was shown magnified and increased in ugliness. In this mirror
+the most beautiful landscapes looked like boiled spinach, and the best persons
+were turned into frights, or appeared to stand on their heads; their faces
+were so distorted that they were not to be recognised; and if anyone had a
+mole, you might be sure that it would be magnified and spread over both nose
+and mouth.
+
+"That's glorious fun!" said the sprite. If a good thought passed through a
+man's mind, then a grin was seen in the mirror, and the sprite laughed
+heartily at his clever discovery. All the little sprites who went to his
+school--for he kept a sprite school--told each other that a miracle had
+happened; and that now only, as they thought, it would be possible to see how
+the world really looked. They ran about with the mirror; and at last there was
+not a land or a person who was not represented distorted in the mirror. So
+then they thought they would fly up to the sky, and have a joke there. The
+higher they flew with the mirror, the more terribly it grinned: they could
+hardly hold it fast. Higher and higher still they flew, nearer and nearer to
+the stars, when suddenly the mirror shook so terribly with grinning, that it
+flew out of their hands and fell to the earth, where it was dashed in a
+hundred million and more pieces. And now it worked much more evil than before;
+for some of these pieces were hardly so large as a grain of sand, and they
+flew about in the wide world, and when they got into people's eyes, there they
+stayed; and then people saw everything perverted, or only had an eye for that
+which was evil. This happened because the very smallest bit had the same power
+which the whole mirror had possessed. Some persons even got a splinter in
+their heart, and then it made one shudder, for their heart became like a lump
+of ice. Some of the broken pieces were so large that they were used for
+windowpanes, through which one could not see one's friends. Other pieces were
+put in spectacles; and that was a sad affair when people put on their glasses
+to see well and rightly. Then the wicked sprite laughed till he almost choked,
+for all this tickled his fancy. The fine splinters still flew about in the
+air: and now we shall hear what happened next.
+
+
+SECOND STORY. A Little Boy and a Little Girl
+
+In a large town, where there are so many houses, and so many people, that
+there is no roof left for everybody to have a little garden; and where, on
+this account, most persons are obliged to content themselves with flowers in
+pots; there lived two little children, who had a garden somewhat larger than a
+flower-pot. They were not brother and sister; but they cared for each other as
+much as if they were. Their parents lived exactly opposite. They inhabited two
+garrets; and where the roof of the one house joined that of the other, and the
+gutter ran along the extreme end of it, there was to each house a small
+window: one needed only to step over the gutter to get from one window to the
+other.
+
+The children's parents had large wooden boxes there, in which vegetables for
+the kitchen were planted, and little rosetrees besides: there was a rose in
+each box, and they grew splendidly. They now thought of placing the boxes
+across the gutter, so that they nearly reached from one window to the other,
+and looked just like two walls of flowers. The tendrils of the peas hung down
+over the boxes; and the rose-trees shot up long branches, twined round the
+windows, and then bent towards each other: it was almost like a triumphant
+arch of foliage and flowers. The boxes were very high, and the children knew
+that they must not creep over them; so they often obtained permission to get
+out of the windows to each other, and to sit on their little stools among the
+roses, where they could play delightfully. In winter there was an end of this
+pleasure. The windows were often frozen over; but then they heated copper
+farthings on the stove, and laid the hot farthing on the windowpane, and then
+they had a capital peep-hole, quite nicely rounded; and out of each peeped a
+gentle friendly eye--it was the little boy and the little girl who were
+looking out. His name was Kay, hers was Gerda. In summer, with one jump, they
+could get to each other; but in winter they were obliged first to go down the
+long stairs, and then up the long stairs again: and out-of-doors there was
+quite a snow-storm.
+
+"It is the white bees that are swarming," said Kay's old grandmother.
+
+"Do the white bees choose a queen?" asked the little boy; for he knew that the
+honey-bees always have one.
+
+"Yes," said the grandmother, "she flies where the swarm hangs in the thickest
+clusters. She is the largest of all; and she can never remain quietly on the
+earth, but goes up again into the black clouds. Many a winter's night she
+flies through the streets of the town, and peeps in at the windows; and they
+then freeze in so wondrous a manner that they look like flowers."
+
+"Yes, I have seen it," said both the children; and so they knew that it was
+true.
+
+"Can the Snow Queen come in?" said the little girl.
+
+"Only let her come in!" said the little boy. "Then I'd put her on the stove,
+and she'd melt."
+
+And then his grandmother patted his head and told him other stories.
+
+In the evening, when little Kay was at home, and half undressed, he climbed up
+on the chair by the window, and peeped out of the little hole. A few
+snow-flakes were falling, and one, the largest of all, remained lying on the
+edge of a flower-pot.
+
+The flake of snow grew larger and larger; and at last it was like a young
+lady, dressed in the finest white gauze, made of a million little flakes like
+stars. She was so beautiful and delicate, but she was of ice, of dazzling,
+sparkling ice; yet she lived; her eyes gazed fixedly, like two stars; but
+there was neither quiet nor repose in them. She nodded towards the window, and
+beckoned with her hand. The little boy was frightened, and jumped down from
+the chair; it seemed to him as if, at the same moment, a large bird flew past
+the window.
+
+The next day it was a sharp frost--and then the spring came; the sun shone,
+the green leaves appeared, the swallows built their nests, the windows were
+opened, and the little children again sat in their pretty garden, high up on
+the leads at the top of the house.
+
+That summer the roses flowered in unwonted beauty. The little girl had learned
+a hymn, in which there was something about roses; and then she thought of her
+own flowers; and she sang the verse to the little boy, who then sang it with
+her:
+
+ "The rose in the valley is blooming so sweet,
+ And angels descend there the children to greet."
+
+And the children held each other by the hand, kissed the roses, looked up at
+the clear sunshine, and spoke as though they really saw angels there. What
+lovely summer-days those were! How delightful to be out in the air, near the
+fresh rose-bushes, that seem as if they would never finish blossoming!
+
+Kay and Gerda looked at the picture-book full of beasts and of birds; and it
+was then--the clock in the church-tower was just striking five--that Kay said,
+"Oh! I feel such a sharp pain in my heart; and now something has got into my
+eye!"
+
+The little girl put her arms around his neck. He winked his eyes; now there
+was nothing to be seen.
+
+"I think it is out now," said he; but it was not. It was just one of those
+pieces of glass from the magic mirror that had got into his eye; and poor Kay
+had got another piece right in his heart. It will soon become like ice. It did
+not hurt any longer, but there it was.
+
+"What are you crying for?" asked he. "You look so ugly! There's nothing the
+matter with me. Ah," said he at once, "that rose is cankered! And look, this
+one is quite crooked! After all, these roses are very ugly! They are just like
+the box they are planted in!" And then he gave the box a good kick with his
+foot, and pulled both the roses up.
+
+"What are you doing?" cried the little girl; and as he perceived her fright,
+he pulled up another rose, got in at the window, and hastened off from dear
+little Gerda.
+
+Afterwards, when she brought her picture-book, he asked, "What horrid beasts
+have you there?" And if his grandmother told them stories, he always
+interrupted her; besides, if he could manage it, he would get behind her, put
+on her spectacles, and imitate her way of speaking; he copied all her ways,
+and then everybody laughed at him. He was soon able to imitate the gait and
+manner of everyone in the street. Everything that was peculiar and displeasing
+in them--that Kay knew how to imitate: and at such times all the people said,
+"The boy is certainly very clever!" But it was the glass he had got in his
+eye; the glass that was sticking in his heart, which made him tease even
+little Gerda, whose whole soul was devoted to him.
+
+His games now were quite different to what they had formerly been, they were
+so very knowing. One winter's day, when the flakes of snow were flying about,
+he spread the skirts of his blue coat, and caught the snow as it fell.
+
+"Look through this glass, Gerda," said he. And every flake seemed larger, and
+appeared like a magnificent flower, or beautiful star; it was splendid to look
+at!
+
+"Look, how clever!" said Kay. "That's much more interesting than real flowers!
+They are as exact as possible; there is not a fault in them, if they did not
+melt!"
+
+It was not long after this, that Kay came one day with large gloves on, and
+his little sledge at his back, and bawled right into Gerda's ears, "I have
+permission to go out into the square where the others are playing"; and off he
+was in a moment.
+
+There, in the market-place, some of the boldest of the boys used to tie their
+sledges to the carts as they passed by, and so they were pulled along, and got
+a good ride. It was so capital! Just as they were in the very height of their
+amusement, a large sledge passed by: it was painted quite white, and there was
+someone in it wrapped up in a rough white mantle of fur, with a rough white
+fur cap on his head. The sledge drove round the square twice, and Kay tied on
+his sledge as quickly as he could, and off he drove with it. On they went
+quicker and quicker into the next street; and the person who drove turned
+round to Kay, and nodded to him in a friendly manner, just as if they knew
+each other. Every time he was going to untie his sledge, the person nodded to
+him, and then Kay sat quiet; and so on they went till they came outside the
+gates of the town. Then the snow began to fall so thickly that the little boy
+could not see an arm's length before him, but still on he went: when suddenly
+he let go the string he held in his hand in order to get loose from the
+sledge, but it was of no use; still the little vehicle rushed on with the
+quickness of the wind. He then cried as loud as he could, but no one heard
+him; the snow drifted and the sledge flew on, and sometimes it gave a jerk as
+though they were driving over hedges and ditches. He was quite frightened, and
+he tried to repeat the Lord's Prayer; but all he could do, he was only able to
+remember the multiplication table.
+
+The snow-flakes grew larger and larger, till at last they looked just like
+great white fowls. Suddenly they flew on one side; the large sledge stopped,
+and the person who drove rose up. It was a lady; her cloak and cap were of
+snow. She was tall and of slender figure, and of a dazzling whiteness. It was
+the Snow Queen.
+
+"We have travelled fast," said she; "but it is freezingly cold. Come under my
+bearskin." And she put him in the sledge beside her, wrapped the fur round
+him, and he felt as though he were sinking in a snow-wreath.
+
+"Are you still cold?" asked she; and then she kissed his forehead. Ah! it was
+colder than ice; it penetrated to his very heart, which was already almost a
+frozen lump; it seemed to him as if he were about to die--but a moment more
+and it was quite congenial to him, and he did not remark the cold that was
+around him.
+
+"My sledge! Do not forget my sledge!" It was the first thing he thought of. It
+was there tied to one of the white chickens, who flew along with it on his
+back behind the large sledge. The Snow Queen kissed Kay once more, and then he
+forgot little Gerda, grandmother, and all whom he had left at his home.
+
+"Now you will have no more kisses," said she, "or else I should kiss you to
+death!"
+
+Kay looked at her. She was very beautiful; a more clever, or a more lovely
+countenance he could not fancy to himself; and she no longer appeared of ice
+as before, when she sat outside the window, and beckoned to him; in his eyes
+she was perfect, he did not fear her at all, and told her that he could
+calculate in his head and with fractions, even; that he knew the number of
+square miles there were in the different countries, and how many inhabitants
+they contained; and she smiled while he spoke. It then seemed to him as if
+what he knew was not enough, and he looked upwards in the large huge empty
+space above him, and on she flew with him; flew high over the black clouds,
+while the storm moaned and whistled as though it were singing some old tune.
+On they flew over woods and lakes, over seas, and many lands; and beneath them
+the chilling storm rushed fast, the wolves howled, the snow crackled; above
+them flew large screaming crows, but higher up appeared the moon, quite large
+and bright; and it was on it that Kay gazed during the long long winter's
+night; while by day he slept at the feet of the Snow Queen.
+
+
+THIRD STORY. Of the Flower-Garden At the Old Woman's Who Understood Witchcraft
+
+But what became of little Gerda when Kay did not return? Where could he be?
+Nobody knew; nobody could give any intelligence. All the boys knew was, that
+they had seen him tie his sledge to another large and splendid one, which
+drove down the street and out of the town. Nobody knew where he was; many sad
+tears were shed, and little Gerda wept long and bitterly; at last she said he
+must be dead; that he had been drowned in the river which flowed close to the
+town. Oh! those were very long and dismal winter evenings!
+
+At last spring came, with its warm sunshine.
+
+"Kay is dead and gone!" said little Gerda.
+
+"That I don't believe," said the Sunshine.
+
+"Kay is dead and gone!" said she to the Swallows.
+
+"That I don't believe," said they: and at last little Gerda did not think so
+any longer either.
+
+"I'll put on my red shoes," said she, one morning; "Kay has never seen them,
+and then I'll go down to the river and ask there."
+
+It was quite early; she kissed her old grandmother, who was still asleep, put
+on her red shoes, and went alone to the river.
+
+"Is it true that you have taken my little playfellow? I will make you a
+present of my red shoes, if you will give him back to me."
+
+And, as it seemed to her, the blue waves nodded in a strange manner; then she
+took off her red shoes, the most precious things she possessed, and threw them
+both into the river. But they fell close to the bank, and the little waves
+bore them immediately to land; it was as if the stream would not take what was
+dearest to her; for in reality it had not got little Kay; but Gerda thought
+that she had not thrown the shoes out far enough, so she clambered into a boat
+which lay among the rushes, went to the farthest end, and threw out the shoes.
+But the boat was not fastened, and the motion which she occasioned, made it
+drift from the shore. She observed this, and hastened to get back; but before
+she could do so, the boat was more than a yard from the land, and was gliding
+quickly onward.
+
+Little Gerda was very frightened, and began to cry; but no one heard her
+except the sparrows, and they could not carry her to land; but they flew along
+the bank, and sang as if to comfort her, "Here we are! Here we are!" The boat
+drifted with the stream, little Gerda sat quite still without shoes, for they
+were swimming behind the boat, but she could not reach them, because the boat
+went much faster than they did.
+
+The banks on both sides were beautiful; lovely flowers, venerable trees, and
+slopes with sheep and cows, but not a human being was to be seen.
+
+"Perhaps the river will carry me to little Kay," said she; and then she grew
+less sad. She rose, and looked for many hours at the beautiful green banks.
+Presently she sailed by a large cherry-orchard, where was a little cottage
+with curious red and blue windows; it was thatched, and before it two wooden
+soldiers stood sentry, and presented arms when anyone went past.
+
+Gerda called to them, for she thought they were alive; but they, of course,
+did not answer. She came close to them, for the stream drifted the boat quite
+near the land.
+
+Gerda called still louder, and an old woman then came out of the cottage,
+leaning upon a crooked stick. She had a large broad-brimmed hat on, painted
+with the most splendid flowers.
+
+"Poor little child!" said the old woman. "How did you get upon the large rapid
+river, to be driven about so in the wide world!" And then the old woman went
+into the water, caught hold of the boat with her crooked stick, drew it to the
+bank, and lifted little Gerda out.
+
+And Gerda was so glad to be on dry land again; but she was rather afraid of
+the strange old woman.
+
+"But come and tell me who you are, and how you came here," said she.
+
+And Gerda told her all; and the old woman shook her head and said, "A-hem!
+a-hem!" and when Gerda had told her everything, and asked her if she had not
+seen little Kay, the woman answered that he had not passed there, but he no
+doubt would come; and she told her not to be cast down, but taste her
+cherries, and look at her flowers, which were finer than any in a
+picture-book, each of which could tell a whole story. She then took Gerda by
+the hand, led her into the little cottage, and locked the door.
+
+The windows were very high up; the glass was red, blue, and green, and the
+sunlight shone through quite wondrously in all sorts of colors. On the table
+stood the most exquisite cherries, and Gerda ate as many as she chose, for she
+had permission to do so. While she was eating, the old woman combed her hair
+with a golden comb, and her hair curled and shone with a lovely golden color
+around that sweet little face, which was so round and so like a rose.
+
+"I have often longed for such a dear little girl," said the old woman. "Now
+you shall see how well we agree together"; and while she combed little Gerda's
+hair, the child forgot her foster-brother Kay more and more, for the old woman
+understood magic; but she was no evil being, she only practised witchcraft a
+little for her own private amusement, and now she wanted very much to keep
+little Gerda. She therefore went out in the garden, stretched out her crooked
+stick towards the rose-bushes, which, beautifully as they were blowing, all
+sank into the earth and no one could tell where they had stood. The old woman
+feared that if Gerda should see the roses, she would then think of her own,
+would remember little Kay, and run away from her.
+
+She now led Gerda into the flower-garden. Oh, what odour and what loveliness
+was there! Every flower that one could think of, and of every season, stood
+there in fullest bloom; no picture-book could be gayer or more beautiful.
+Gerda jumped for joy, and played till the sun set behind the tall cherry-tree;
+she then had a pretty bed, with a red silken coverlet filled with blue
+violets. She fell asleep, and had as pleasant dreams as ever a queen on her
+wedding-day.
+
+The next morning she went to play with the flowers in the warm sunshine, and
+thus passed away a day. Gerda knew every flower; and, numerous as they were,
+it still seemed to Gerda that one was wanting, though she did not know which.
+One day while she was looking at the hat of the old woman painted with
+flowers, the most beautiful of them all seemed to her to be a rose. The old
+woman had forgotten to take it from her hat when she made the others vanish in
+the earth. But so it is when one's thoughts are not collected. "What!" said
+Gerda. "Are there no roses here?" and she ran about amongst the flowerbeds,
+and looked, and looked, but there was not one to be found. She then sat down
+and wept; but her hot tears fell just where a rose-bush had sunk; and when her
+warm tears watered the ground, the tree shot up suddenly as fresh and blooming
+as when it had been swallowed up. Gerda kissed the roses, thought of her own
+dear roses at home, and with them of little Kay.
+
+"Oh, how long I have stayed!" said the little girl. "I intended to look for
+Kay! Don't you know where he is?" she asked of the roses. "Do you think he is
+dead and gone?"
+
+"Dead he certainly is not," said the Roses. "We have been in the earth where
+all the dead are, but Kay was not there."
+
+"Many thanks!" said little Gerda; and she went to the other flowers, looked
+into their cups, and asked, "Don't you know where little Kay is?"
+
+But every flower stood in the sunshine, and dreamed its own fairy tale or its
+own story: and they all told her very many things, but not one knew anything
+of Kay.
+
+Well, what did the Tiger-Lily say?
+
+"Hearest thou not the drum? Bum! Bum! Those are the only two tones. Always
+bum! Bum! Hark to the plaintive song of the old woman, to the call of the
+priests! The Hindoo woman in her long robe stands upon the funeral pile; the
+flames rise around her and her dead husband, but the Hindoo woman thinks on
+the living one in the surrounding circle; on him whose eyes burn hotter than
+the flames--on him, the fire of whose eyes pierces her heart more than the
+flames which soon will burn her body to ashes. Can the heart's flame die in
+the flame of the funeral pile?"
+
+"I don't understand that at all," said little Gerda.
+
+"That is my story," said the Lily.
+
+What did the Convolvulus say?
+
+"Projecting over a narrow mountain-path there hangs an old feudal castle.
+Thick evergreens grow on the dilapidated walls, and around the altar, where a
+lovely maiden is standing: she bends over the railing and looks out upon the
+rose. No fresher rose hangs on the branches than she; no appleblossom carried
+away by the wind is more buoyant! How her silken robe is rustling!
+
+"'Is he not yet come?'"
+
+"Is it Kay that you mean?" asked little Gerda.
+
+"I am speaking about my story--about my dream," answered the Convolvulus.
+
+What did the Snowdrops say?
+
+"Between the trees a long board is hanging--it is a swing. Two little girls
+are sitting in it, and swing themselves backwards and forwards; their frocks
+are as white as snow, and long green silk ribands flutter from their bonnets.
+Their brother, who is older than they are, stands up in the swing; he twines
+his arms round the cords to hold himself fast, for in one hand he has a little
+cup, and in the other a clay-pipe. He is blowing soap-bubbles. The swing
+moves, and the bubbles float in charming changing colors: the last is still
+hanging to the end of the pipe, and rocks in the breeze. The swing moves. The
+little black dog, as light as a soap-bubble, jumps up on his hind legs to try
+to get into the swing. It moves, the dog falls down, barks, and is angry. They
+tease him; the bubble bursts! A swing, a bursting bubble--such is my song!"
+
+"What you relate may be very pretty, but you tell it in so melancholy a
+manner, and do not mention Kay."
+
+What do the Hyacinths say?
+
+"There were once upon a time three sisters, quite transparent, and very
+beautiful. The robe of the one was red, that of the second blue, and that of
+the third white. They danced hand in hand beside the calm lake in the clear
+moonshine. They were not elfin maidens, but mortal children. A sweet fragrance
+was smelt, and the maidens vanished in the wood; the fragrance grew
+stronger--three coffins, and in them three lovely maidens, glided out of the
+forest and across the lake: the shining glow-worms flew around like little
+floating lights. Do the dancing maidens sleep, or are they dead? The odour of
+the flowers says they are corpses; the evening bell tolls for the dead!"
+
+"You make me quite sad," said little Gerda. "I cannot help thinking of the
+dead maidens. Oh! is little Kay really dead? The Roses have been in the earth,
+and they say no."
+
+"Ding, dong!" sounded the Hyacinth bells. "We do not toll for little Kay; we
+do not know him. That is our way of singing, the only one we have."
+
+And Gerda went to the Ranunculuses, that looked forth from among the shining
+green leaves.
+
+"You are a little bright sun!" said Gerda. "Tell me if you know where I can
+find my playfellow."
+
+And the Ranunculus shone brightly, and looked again at Gerda. What song could
+the Ranunculus sing? It was one that said nothing about Kay either.
+
+"In a small court the bright sun was shining in the first days of spring. The
+beams glided down the white walls of a neighbor's house, and close by the
+fresh yellow flowers were growing, shining like gold in the warm sun-rays. An
+old grandmother was sitting in the air; her grand-daughter, the poor and
+lovely servant just come for a short visit. She knows her grandmother. There
+was gold, pure virgin gold in that blessed kiss. There, that is my little
+story," said the Ranunculus.
+
+"My poor old grandmother!" sighed Gerda. "Yes, she is longing for me, no
+doubt: she is sorrowing for me, as she did for little Kay. But I will soon
+come home, and then I will bring Kay with me. It is of no use asking the
+flowers; they only know their own old rhymes, and can tell me nothing." And
+she tucked up her frock, to enable her to run quicker; but the Narcissus gave
+her a knock on the leg, just as she was going to jump over it. So she stood
+still, looked at the long yellow flower, and asked, "You perhaps know
+something?" and she bent down to the Narcissus. And what did it say?
+
+"I can see myself--I can see myself! Oh, how odorous I am! Up in the little
+garret there stands, half-dressed, a little Dancer. She stands now on one leg,
+now on both; she despises the whole world; yet she lives only in imagination.
+She pours water out of the teapot over a piece of stuff which she holds in her
+hand; it is the bodice; cleanliness is a fine thing. The white dress is
+hanging on the hook; it was washed in the teapot, and dried on the roof. She
+puts it on, ties a saffron-colored kerchief round her neck, and then the gown
+looks whiter. I can see myself--I can see myself!"
+
+"That's nothing to me," said little Gerda. "That does not concern me." And
+then off she ran to the further end of the garden.
+
+The gate was locked, but she shook the rusted bolt till it was loosened, and
+the gate opened; and little Gerda ran off barefooted into the wide world. She
+looked round her thrice, but no one followed her. At last she could run no
+longer; she sat down on a large stone, and when she looked about her, she saw
+that the summer had passed; it was late in the autumn, but that one could not
+remark in the beautiful garden, where there was always sunshine, and where
+there were flowers the whole year round.
+
+"Dear me, how long I have staid!" said Gerda. "Autumn is come. I must not rest
+any longer." And she got up to go further.
+
+Oh, how tender and wearied her little feet were! All around it looked so cold
+and raw: the long willow-leaves were quite yellow, and the fog dripped from
+them like water; one leaf fell after the other: the sloes only stood full of
+fruit, which set one's teeth on edge. Oh, how dark and comfortless it was in
+the dreary world!
+
+
+FOURTH STORY. The Prince and Princess
+
+Gerda was obliged to rest herself again, when, exactly opposite to her, a
+large Raven came hopping over the white snow. He had long been looking at
+Gerda and shaking his head; and now he said, "Caw! Caw!" Good day! Good day!
+He could not say it better; but he felt a sympathy for the little girl, and
+asked her where she was going all alone. The word "alone" Gerda understood
+quite well, and felt how much was expressed by it; so she told the Raven her
+whole history, and asked if he had not seen Kay.
+
+The Raven nodded very gravely, and said, "It may be--it may be!"
+
+"What, do you really think so?" cried the little girl; and she nearly squeezed
+the Raven to death, so much did she kiss him.
+
+"Gently, gently," said the Raven. "I think I know; I think that it may be
+little Kay. But now he has forgotten you for the Princess."
+
+"Does he live with a Princess?" asked Gerda.
+
+"Yes--listen," said the Raven; "but it will be difficult for me to speak your
+language. If you understand the Raven language I can tell you better."
+
+"No, I have not learnt it," said Gerda; "but my grandmother understands it,
+and she can speak gibberish too. I wish I had learnt it."
+
+"No matter," said the Raven; "I will tell you as well as I can; however, it
+will be bad enough." And then he told all he knew.
+
+"In the kingdom where we now are there lives a Princess, who is
+extraordinarily clever; for she has read all the newspapers in the whole
+world, and has forgotten them again--so clever is she. She was lately, it is
+said, sitting on her throne--which is not very amusing after all--when she
+began humming an old tune, and it was just, 'Oh, why should I not be married?'
+'That song is not without its meaning,' said she, and so then she was
+determined to marry; but she would have a husband who knew how to give an
+answer when he was spoken to--not one who looked only as if he were a great
+personage, for that is so tiresome. She then had all the ladies of the court
+drummed together; and when they heard her intention, all were very pleased,
+and said, 'We are very glad to hear it; it is the very thing we were thinking
+of.' You may believe every word I say," said the Raven; "for I have a tame
+sweetheart that hops about in the palace quite free, and it was she who told
+me all this.
+
+"The newspapers appeared forthwith with a border of hearts and the initials of
+the Princess; and therein you might read that every good-looking young man was
+at liberty to come to the palace and speak to the Princess; and he who spoke
+in such wise as showed he felt himself at home there, that one the Princess
+would choose for her husband.
+
+"Yes, Yes," said the Raven, "you may believe it; it is as true as I am sitting
+here. People came in crowds; there was a crush and a hurry, but no one was
+successful either on the first or second day. They could all talk well enough
+when they were out in the street; but as soon as they came inside the
+palace gates, and saw the guard richly dressed in silver, and the lackeys in
+gold on the staircase, and the large illuminated saloons, then they were
+abashed; and when they stood before the throne on which the Princess was
+sitting, all they could do was to repeat the last word they had uttered, and
+to hear it again did not interest her very much. It was just as if the people
+within were under a charm, and had fallen into a trance till they came out
+again into the street; for then--oh, then--they could chatter enough. There
+was a whole row of them standing from the town-gates to the palace. I was
+there myself to look," said the Raven. "They grew hungry and thirsty; but from
+the palace they got nothing whatever, not even a glass of water. Some of the
+cleverest, it is true, had taken bread and butter with them: but none shared
+it with his neighbor, for each thought, 'Let him look hungry, and then the
+Princess won't have him.'"
+
+"But Kay--little Kay," said Gerda, "when did he come? Was he among the
+number?"
+
+"Patience, patience; we are just come to him. It was on the third day when a
+little personage without horse or equipage, came marching right boldly up to
+the palace; his eyes shone like yours, he had beautiful long hair, but his
+clothes were very shabby."
+
+"That was Kay," cried Gerda, with a voice of delight. "Oh, now I've found
+him!" and she clapped her hands for joy.
+
+"He had a little knapsack at his back," said the Raven.
+
+"No, that was certainly his sledge," said Gerda; "for when he went away he
+took his sledge with him."
+
+"That may be," said the Raven; "I did not examine him so minutely; but I know
+from my tame sweetheart, that when he came into the court-yard of the palace,
+and saw the body-guard in silver, the lackeys on the staircase, he was not the
+least abashed; he nodded, and said to them, 'It must be very tiresome to stand
+on the stairs; for my part, I shall go in.' The saloons were gleaming with
+lustres--privy councillors and excellencies were walking about barefooted, and
+wore gold keys; it was enough to make any one feel uncomfortable. His boots
+creaked, too, so loudly, but still he was not at all afraid."
+
+"That's Kay for certain," said Gerda. "I know he had on new boots; I have
+heard them creaking in grandmama's room."
+
+"Yes, they creaked," said the Raven. "And on he went boldly up to the
+Princess, who was sitting on a pearl as large as a spinning-wheel. All the
+ladies of the court, with their attendants and attendants' attendants, and all
+the cavaliers, with their gentlemen and gentlemen's gentlemen, stood round;
+and the nearer they stood to the door, the prouder they looked. It was hardly
+possible to look at the gentleman's gentleman, so very haughtily did he stand
+in the doorway."
+
+"It must have been terrible," said little Gerda. "And did Kay get the
+Princess?"
+
+"Were I not a Raven, I should have taken the Princess myself, although I am
+promised. It is said he spoke as well as I speak when I talk Raven language;
+this I learned from my tame sweetheart. He was bold and nicely behaved; he had
+not come to woo the Princess, but only to hear her wisdom. She pleased him,
+and he pleased her."
+
+"Yes, yes; for certain that was Kay," said Gerda. "He was so clever; he could
+reckon fractions in his head. Oh, won't you take me to the palace?"
+
+"That is very easily said," answered the Raven. "But how are we to manage it?
+I'll speak to my tame sweetheart about it: she must advise us; for so much I
+must tell you, such a little girl as you are will never get permission to
+enter."
+
+"Oh, yes I shall," said Gerda; "when Kay hears that I am here, he will come
+out directly to fetch me."
+
+"Wait for me here on these steps," said the Raven. He moved his head backwards
+and forwards and flew away.
+
+The evening was closing in when the Raven returned. "Caw--caw!" said he. "She
+sends you her compliments; and here is a roll for you. She took it out of the
+kitchen, where there is bread enough. You are hungry, no doubt. It is not
+possible for you to enter the palace, for you are barefooted: the guards in
+silver, and the lackeys in gold, would not allow it; but do not cry, you shall
+come in still. My sweetheart knows a little back stair that leads to the
+bedchamber, and she knows where she can get the key of it."
+
+And they went into the garden in the large avenue, where one leaf was falling
+after the other; and when the lights in the palace had all gradually
+disappeared, the Raven led little Gerda to the back door, which stood half
+open.
+
+Oh, how Gerda's heart beat with anxiety and longing! It was just as if she had
+been about to do something wrong; and yet she only wanted to know if little
+Kay was there. Yes, he must be there. She called to mind his intelligent eyes,
+and his long hair, so vividly, she could quite see him as he used to laugh
+when they were sitting under the roses at home. "He will, no doubt, be glad to
+see you--to hear what a long way you have come for his sake; to know how
+unhappy all at home were when he did not come back."
+
+Oh, what a fright and a joy it was!
+
+They were now on the stairs. A single lamp was burning there; and on the floor
+stood the tame Raven, turning her head on every side and looking at Gerda, who
+bowed as her grandmother had taught her to do.
+
+"My intended has told me so much good of you, my dear young lady," said the
+tame Raven. "Your tale is very affecting. If you will take the lamp, I will go
+before. We will go straight on, for we shall meet no one."
+
+"I think there is somebody just behind us," said Gerda; and something rushed
+past: it was like shadowy figures on the wall; horses with flowing manes and
+thin legs, huntsmen, ladies and gentlemen on horseback.
+
+"They are only dreams," said the Raven. "They come to fetch the thoughts of
+the high personages to the chase; 'tis well, for now you can observe them in
+bed all the better. But let me find, when you enjoy honor and distinction,
+that you possess a grateful heart."
+
+"Tut! That's not worth talking about," said the Raven of the woods.
+
+They now entered the first saloon, which was of rose-colored satin, with
+artificial flowers on the wall. Here the dreams were rushing past, but they
+hastened by so quickly that Gerda could not see the high personages. One hall
+was more magnificent than the other; one might indeed well be abashed; and at
+last they came into the bedchamber. The ceiling of the room resembled a large
+palm-tree with leaves of glass, of costly glass; and in the middle, from a
+thick golden stem, hung two beds, each of which resembled a lily. One was
+white, and in this lay the Princess; the other was red, and it was here that
+Gerda was to look for little Kay. She bent back one of the red leaves, and saw
+a brown neck. Oh! that was Kay! She called him quite loud by name, held the
+lamp towards him--the dreams rushed back again into the chamber--he awoke,
+turned his head, and--it was not little Kay!
+
+The Prince was only like him about the neck; but he was young and handsome.
+And out of the white lily leaves the Princess peeped, too, and asked what was
+the matter. Then little Gerda cried, and told her her whole history, and all
+that the Ravens had done for her.
+
+"Poor little thing!" said the Prince and the Princess. They praised the Ravens
+very much, and told them they were not at all angry with them, but they were
+not to do so again. However, they should have a reward. "Will you fly about
+here at liberty," asked the Princess; "or would you like to have a fixed
+appointment as court ravens, with all the broken bits from the kitchen?"
+
+And both the Ravens nodded, and begged for a fixed appointment; for they
+thought of their old age, and said, "It is a good thing to have a provision
+for our old days."
+
+And the Prince got up and let Gerda sleep in his bed, and more than this he
+could not do. She folded her little hands and thought, "How good men and
+animals are!" and she then fell asleep and slept soundly. All the dreams flew
+in again, and they now looked like the angels; they drew a little sledge, in
+which little Kay sat and nodded his head; but the whole was only a dream, and
+therefore it all vanished as soon as she awoke.
+
+The next day she was dressed from head to foot in silk and velvet. They
+offered to let her stay at the palace, and lead a happy life; but she begged
+to have a little carriage with a horse in front, and for a small pair of
+shoes; then, she said, she would again go forth in the wide world and look for
+Kay.
+
+Shoes and a muff were given her; she was, too, dressed very nicely; and when
+she was about to set off, a new carriage stopped before the door. It was of
+pure gold, and the arms of the Prince and Princess shone like a star upon it;
+the coachman, the footmen, and the outriders, for outriders were there, too,
+all wore golden crowns. The Prince and the Princess assisted her into the
+carriage themselves, and wished her all success. The Raven of the woods, who
+was now married, accompanied her for the first three miles. He sat beside
+Gerda, for he could not bear riding backwards; the other Raven stood in the
+doorway, and flapped her wings; she could not accompany Gerda, because she
+suffered from headache since she had had a fixed appointment and ate so much.
+The carriage was lined inside with sugar-plums, and in the seats were fruits
+and gingerbread.
+
+"Farewell! Farewell!" cried Prince and Princess; and Gerda wept, and the Raven
+wept. Thus passed the first miles; and then the Raven bade her farewell, and
+this was the most painful separation of all. He flew into a tree, and beat his
+black wings as long as he could see the carriage, that shone from afar like a
+sunbeam.
+
+
+FIFTH STORY. The Little Robber Maiden
+
+They drove through the dark wood; but the carriage shone like a torch, and it
+dazzled the eyes of the robbers, so that they could not bear to look at it.
+
+"'Tis gold! 'Tis gold!" they cried; and they rushed forward, seized the
+horses, knocked down the little postilion, the coachman, and the servants, and
+pulled little Gerda out of the carriage.
+
+"How plump, how beautiful she is! She must have been fed on nut-kernels," said
+the old female robber, who had a long, scrubby beard, and bushy eyebrows that
+hung down over her eyes. "She is as good as a fatted lamb! How nice she will
+be!" And then she drew out a knife, the blade of which shone so that it was
+quite dreadful to behold.
+
+"Oh!" cried the woman at the same moment. She had been bitten in the ear by
+her own little daughter, who hung at her back; and who was so wild and
+unmanageable, that it was quite amusing to see her. "You naughty child!" said
+the mother: and now she had not time to kill Gerda.
+
+"She shall play with me," said the little robber child. "She shall give me her
+muff, and her pretty frock; she shall sleep in my bed!" And then she gave her
+mother another bite, so that she jumped, and ran round with the pain; and the
+Robbers laughed, and said, "Look, how she is dancing with the little one!"
+
+"I will go into the carriage," said the little robber maiden; and she would
+have her will, for she was very spoiled and very headstrong. She and Gerda got
+in; and then away they drove over the stumps of felled trees, deeper and
+deeper into the woods. The little robber maiden was as tall as Gerda, but
+stronger, broader-shouldered, and of dark complexion; her eyes were quite
+black; they looked almost melancholy. She embraced little Gerda, and said,
+"They shall not kill you as long as I am not displeased with you. You are,
+doubtless, a Princess?"
+
+"No," said little Gerda; who then related all that had happened to her, and
+how much she cared about little Kay.
+
+The little robber maiden looked at her with a serious air, nodded her head
+slightly, and said, "They shall not kill you, even if I am angry with you:
+then I will do it myself"; and she dried Gerda's eyes, and put both her hands
+in the handsome muff, which was so soft and warm.
+
+At length the carriage stopped. They were in the midst of the court-yard of a
+robber's castle. It was full of cracks from top to bottom; and out of the
+openings magpies and rooks were flying; and the great bull-dogs, each of which
+looked as if he could swallow a man, jumped up, but they did not bark, for
+that was forbidden.
+
+In the midst of the large, old, smoking hall burnt a great fire on the stone
+floor. The smoke disappeared under the stones, and had to seek its own egress.
+In an immense caldron soup was boiling; and rabbits and hares were being
+roasted on a spit.
+
+"You shall sleep with me to-night, with all my animals," said the little
+robber maiden. They had something to eat and drink; and then went into a
+corner, where straw and carpets were lying. Beside them, on laths and perches,
+sat nearly a hundred pigeons, all asleep, seemingly; but yet they moved a
+little when the robber maiden came. "They are all mine," said she, at the
+same time seizing one that was next to her by the legs and shaking it so that
+its wings fluttered. "Kiss it," cried the little girl, and flung the pigeon in
+Gerda's face. "Up there is the rabble of the wood," continued she, pointing to
+several laths which were fastened before a hole high up in the wall; "that's
+the rabble; they would all fly away immediately, if they were not well
+fastened in. And here is my dear old Bac"; and she laid hold of the horns of a
+reindeer, that had a bright copper ring round its neck, and was tethered to
+the spot. "We are obliged to lock this fellow in too, or he would make his
+escape. Every evening I tickle his neck with my sharp knife; he is so
+frightened at it!" and the little girl drew forth a long knife, from a crack
+in the wall, and let it glide over the Reindeer's neck. The poor animal
+kicked; the girl laughed, and pulled Gerda into bed with her.
+
+"Do you intend to keep your knife while you sleep?" asked Gerda; looking at it
+rather fearfully.
+
+"I always sleep with the knife," said the little robber maiden. "There is no
+knowing what may happen. But tell me now, once more, all about little Kay; and
+why you have started off in the wide world alone." And Gerda related all, from
+the very beginning: the Wood-pigeons cooed above in their cage, and the others
+slept. The little robber maiden wound her arm round Gerda's neck, held the
+knife in the other hand, and snored so loud that everybody could hear her; but
+Gerda could not close her eyes, for she did not know whether she was to live
+or die. The robbers sat round the fire, sang and drank; and the old female
+robber jumped about so, that it was quite dreadful for Gerda to see her.
+
+Then the Wood-pigeons said, "Coo! Coo! We have seen little Kay! A white hen
+carries his sledge; he himself sat in the carriage of the Snow Queen, who
+passed here, down just over the wood, as we lay in our nest. She blew upon us
+young ones; and all died except we two. Coo! Coo!"
+
+"What is that you say up there?" cried little Gerda. "Where did the Snow Queen
+go to? Do you know anything about it?"
+
+"She is no doubt gone to Lapland; for there is always snow and ice there. Only
+ask the Reindeer, who is tethered there."
+
+"Ice and snow is there! There it is, glorious and beautiful!" said the
+Reindeer. "One can spring about in the large shining valleys! The Snow Queen
+has her summer-tent there; but her fixed abode is high up towards the North
+Pole, on the Island called Spitzbergen."
+
+"Oh, Kay! Poor little Kay!" sighed Gerda.
+
+"Do you choose to be quiet?" said the robber maiden. "If you don't, I shall
+make you."
+
+In the morning Gerda told her all that the Wood-pigeons had said; and the
+little maiden looked very serious, but she nodded her head, and said, "That's
+no matter--that's no matter. Do you know where Lapland lies!" she asked of the
+Reindeer.
+
+"Who should know better than I?" said the animal; and his eyes rolled in his
+head. "I was born and bred there--there I leapt about on the fields of snow."
+
+"Listen," said the robber maiden to Gerda. "You see that the men are gone;
+but my mother is still here, and will remain. However, towards morning she
+takes a draught out of the large flask, and then she sleeps a little: then I
+will do something for you." She now jumped out of bed, flew to her mother;
+with her arms round her neck, and pulling her by the beard, said, "Good
+morrow, my own sweet nanny-goat of a mother." And her mother took hold of her
+nose, and pinched it till it was red and blue; but this was all done out of
+pure love.
+
+When the mother had taken a sup at her flask, and was having a nap, the little
+robber maiden went to the Reindeer, and said, "I should very much like to give
+you still many a tickling with the sharp knife, for then you are so amusing;
+however, I will untether you, and help you out, so that you may go back to
+Lapland. But you must make good use of your legs; and take this little girl
+for me to the palace of the Snow Queen, where her playfellow is. You have
+heard, I suppose, all she said; for she spoke loud enough, and you were
+listening."
+
+The Reindeer gave a bound for joy. The robber maiden lifted up little Gerda,
+and took the precaution to bind her fast on the Reindeer's back; she even gave
+her a small cushion to sit on. "Here are your worsted leggins, for it will be
+cold; but the muff I shall keep for myself, for it is so very pretty. But I
+do not wish you to be cold. Here is a pair of lined gloves of my mother's;
+they just reach up to your elbow. On with them! Now you look about the hands
+just like my ugly old mother!"
+
+And Gerda wept for joy.
+
+"I can't bear to see you fretting," said the little robber maiden. "This is
+just the time when you ought to look pleased. Here are two loaves and a ham
+for you, so that you won't starve." The bread and the meat were fastened to
+the Reindeer's back; the little maiden opened the door, called in all the
+dogs, and then with her knife cut the rope that fastened the animal, and said
+to him, "Now, off with you; but take good care of the little girl!"
+
+And Gerda stretched out her hands with the large wadded gloves towards the
+robber maiden, and said, "Farewell!" and the Reindeer flew on over bush and
+bramble through the great wood, over moor and heath, as fast as he could go.
+
+"Ddsa! Ddsa!" was heard in the sky. It was just as if somebody was sneezing.
+
+"These are my old northern-lights," said the Reindeer, "look how they gleam!"
+And on he now sped still quicker--day and night on he went: the loaves were
+consumed, and the ham too; and now they were in Lapland.
+
+
+SIXTH STORY. The Lapland Woman and the Finland Woman
+
+Suddenly they stopped before a little house, which looked very miserable. The
+roof reached to the ground; and the door was so low, that the family were
+obliged to creep upon their stomachs when they went in or out. Nobody was at
+home except an old Lapland woman, who was dressing fish by the light of an oil
+lamp. And the Reindeer told her the whole of Gerda's history, but first of all
+his own; for that seemed to him of much greater importance. Gerda was so
+chilled that she could not speak.
+
+"Poor thing," said the Lapland woman, "you have far to run still. You have
+more than a hundred miles to go before you get to Finland; there the Snow
+Queen has her country-house, and burns blue lights every evening. I will give
+you a few words from me, which I will write on a dried haberdine, for paper I
+have none; this you can take with you to the Finland woman, and she will be
+able to give you more information than I can."
+
+When Gerda had warmed herself, and had eaten and drunk, the Lapland woman
+wrote a few words on a dried haberdine, begged Gerda to take care of them, put
+her on the Reindeer, bound her fast, and away sprang the animal. "Ddsa! Ddsa!"
+was again heard in the air; the most charming blue lights burned the whole
+night in the sky, and at last they came to Finland. They knocked at the
+chimney of the Finland woman; for as to a door, she had none.
+
+There was such a heat inside that the Finland woman herself went about
+almost naked. She was diminutive and dirty. She immediately loosened little
+Gerda's clothes, pulled off her thick gloves and boots; for otherwise the heat
+would have been too great--and after laying a piece of ice on the Reindeer's
+head, read what was written on the fish-skin. She read it three times: she
+then knew it by heart; so she put the fish into the cupboard--for it might
+very well be eaten, and she never threw anything away.
+
+Then the Reindeer related his own story first, and afterwards that of little
+Gerda; and the Finland woman winked her eyes, but said nothing.
+
+"You are so clever," said the Reindeer; "you can, I know, twist all the winds
+of the world together in a knot. If the seaman loosens one knot, then he has a
+good wind; if a second, then it blows pretty stiffly; if he undoes the third
+and fourth, then it rages so that the forests are upturned. Will you give the
+little maiden a potion, that she may possess the strength of twelve men, and
+vanquish the Snow Queen?"
+
+"The strength of twelve men!" said the Finland woman. "Much good that would
+be!" Then she went to a cupboard, and drew out a large skin rolled up. When
+she had unrolled it, strange characters were to be seen written thereon; and
+the Finland woman read at such a rate that the perspiration trickled down her
+forehead.
+
+But the Reindeer begged so hard for little Gerda, and Gerda looked so
+imploringly with tearful eyes at the Finland woman, that she winked, and drew
+the Reindeer aside into a corner, where they whispered together, while the
+animal got some fresh ice put on his head.
+
+"'Tis true little Kay is at the Snow Queen's, and finds everything there quite
+to his taste; and he thinks it the very best place in the world; but the
+reason of that is, he has a splinter of glass in his eye, and in his heart.
+These must be got out first; otherwise he will never go back to mankind, and
+the Snow Queen will retain her power over him."
+
+"But can you give little Gerda nothing to take which will endue her with power
+over the whole?"
+
+"I can give her no more power than what she has already. Don't you see how
+great it is? Don't you see how men and animals are forced to serve her; how
+well she gets through the world barefooted? She must not hear of her power
+from us; that power lies in her heart, because she is a sweet and innocent
+child! If she cannot get to the Snow Queen by herself, and rid little Kay of
+the glass, we cannot help her. Two miles hence the garden of the Snow Queen
+begins; thither you may carry the little girl. Set her down by the large bush
+with red berries, standing in the snow; don't stay talking, but hasten back as
+fast as possible." And now the Finland woman placed little Gerda on the
+Reindeer's back, and off he ran with all imaginable speed.
+
+"Oh! I have not got my boots! I have not brought my gloves!" cried little
+Gerda. She remarked she was without them from the cutting frost; but the
+Reindeer dared not stand still; on he ran till he came to the great bush with
+the red berries, and there he set Gerda down, kissed her mouth, while large
+bright tears flowed from the animal's eyes, and then back he went as fast as
+possible. There stood poor Gerda now, without shoes or gloves, in the very
+middle of dreadful icy Finland.
+
+She ran on as fast as she could. There then came a whole regiment of
+snow-flakes, but they did not fall from above, and they were quite bright and
+shining from the Aurora Borealis. The flakes ran along the ground, and the
+nearer they came the larger they grew. Gerda well remembered how large and
+strange the snow-flakes appeared when she once saw them through a
+magnifying-glass; but now they were large and terrific in another
+manner--they were all alive. They were the outposts of the Snow Queen. They
+had the most wondrous shapes; some looked like large ugly porcupines; others
+like snakes knotted together, with their heads sticking out; and others,
+again, like small fat bears, with the hair standing on end: all were of
+dazzling whiteness--all were living snow-flakes.
+
+Little Gerda repeated the Lord's Prayer. The cold was so intense that she
+could see her own breath, which came like smoke out of her mouth. It grew
+thicker and thicker, and took the form of little angels, that grew more and
+more when they touched the earth. All had helms on their heads, and lances
+and shields in their hands; they increased in numbers; and when Gerda had
+finished the Lord's Prayer, she was surrounded by a whole legion. They thrust
+at the horrid snow-flakes with their spears, so that they flew into a thousand
+pieces; and little Gerda walked on bravely and in security. The angels patted
+her hands and feet; and then she felt the cold less, and went on quickly
+towards the palace of the Snow Queen.
+
+But now we shall see how Kay fared. He never thought of Gerda, and least of
+all that she was standing before the palace.
+
+
+SEVENTH STORY. What Took Place in the Palace of the Snow Queen, and what
+Happened Afterward
+
+The walls of the palace were of driving snow, and the windows and doors of
+cutting winds. There were more than a hundred halls there, according as the
+snow was driven by the winds. The largest was many miles in extent; all were
+lighted up by the powerful Aurora Borealis, and all were so large, so empty,
+so icy cold, and so resplendent! Mirth never reigned there; there was never
+even a little bear-ball, with the storm for music, while the polar bears went
+on their hind legs and showed off their steps. Never a little tea-party of
+white young lady foxes; vast, cold, and empty were the halls of the Snow
+Queen. The northern-lights shone with such precision that one could tell
+exactly when they were at their highest or lowest degree of brightness. In the
+middle of the empty, endless hall of snow, was a frozen lake; it was cracked
+in a thousand pieces, but each piece was so like the other, that it seemed the
+work of a cunning artificer. In the middle of this lake sat the Snow Queen
+when she was at home; and then she said she was sitting in the Mirror of
+Understanding, and that this was the only one and the best thing in the world.
+
+Little Kay was quite blue, yes nearly black with cold; but he did not observe
+it, for she had kissed away all feeling of cold from his body, and his heart
+was a lump of ice. He was dragging along some pointed flat pieces of ice,
+which he laid together in all possible ways, for he wanted to make something
+with them; just as we have little flat pieces of wood to make geometrical
+figures with, called the Chinese Puzzle. Kay made all sorts of figures, the
+most complicated, for it was an ice-puzzle for the understanding. In his eyes
+the figures were extraordinarily beautiful, and of the utmost importance; for
+the bit of glass which was in his eye caused this. He found whole figures
+which represented a written word; but he never could manage to represent just
+the word he wanted--that word was "eternity"; and the Snow Queen had said, "If
+you can discover that figure, you shall be your own master, and I will make
+you a present of the whole world and a pair of new skates." But he could not
+find it out.
+
+"I am going now to warm lands," said the Snow Queen. "I must have a look down
+into the black caldrons." It was the volcanoes Vesuvius and Etna that she
+meant. "I will just give them a coating of white, for that is as it ought to
+be; besides, it is good for the oranges and the grapes." And then away she
+flew, and Kay sat quite alone in the empty halls of ice that were miles long,
+and looked at the blocks of ice, and thought and thought till his skull was
+almost cracked. There he sat quite benumbed and motionless; one would have
+imagined he was frozen to death.
+
+Suddenly little Gerda stepped through the great portal into the palace. The
+gate was formed of cutting winds; but Gerda repeated her evening prayer, and
+the winds were laid as though they slept; and the little maiden entered the
+vast, empty, cold halls. There she beheld Kay: she recognised him, flew to
+embrace him, and cried out, her arms firmly holding him the while, "Kay, sweet
+little Kay! Have I then found you at last?"
+
+But he sat quite still, benumbed and cold. Then little Gerda shed burning
+tears; and they fell on his bosom, they penetrated to his heart, they thawed
+the lumps of ice, and consumed the splinters of the looking-glass; he looked
+at her, and she sang the hymn:
+
+"The rose in the valley is blooming so sweet,
+And angels descend there the children to greet."
+
+Hereupon Kay burst into tears; he wept so much that the splinter rolled out of
+his eye, and he recognised her, and shouted, "Gerda, sweet little Gerda! Where
+have you been so long? And where have I been?" He looked round him. "How cold
+it is here!" said he. "How empty and cold!" And he held fast by Gerda, who
+laughed and wept for joy. It was so beautiful, that even the blocks of ice
+danced about for joy; and when they were tired and laid themselves down, they
+formed exactly the letters which the Snow Queen had told him to find out; so
+now he was his own master, and he would have the whole world and a pair of new
+skates into the bargain.
+
+Gerda kissed his cheeks, and they grew quite blooming; she kissed his eyes,
+and they shone like her own; she kissed his hands and feet, and he was again
+well and merry. The Snow Queen might come back as soon as she liked; there
+stood his discharge written in resplendent masses of ice.
+
+They took each other by the hand, and wandered forth out of the large hall;
+they talked of their old grandmother, and of the roses upon the roof; and
+wherever they went, the winds ceased raging, and the sun burst forth. And when
+they reached the bush with the red berries, they found the Reindeer waiting
+for them. He had brought another, a young one, with him, whose udder was
+filled with milk, which he gave to the little ones, and kissed their lips.
+They then carried Kay and Gerda--first to the Finland woman, where they
+warmed themselves in the warm room, and learned what they were to do on their
+journey home; and they went to the Lapland woman, who made some new
+clothes for them and repaired their sledges.
+
+The Reindeer and the young hind leaped along beside them, and accompanied them
+to the boundary of the country. Here the first vegetation peeped forth; here
+Kay and Gerda took leave of the Lapland woman. "Farewell! Farewell!" they all
+said. And the first green buds appeared, the first little birds began to
+chirrup; and out of the wood came, riding on a magnificent horse, which Gerda
+knew (it was one of the leaders in the golden carriage), a young damsel with a
+bright-red cap on her head, and armed with pistols. It was the little robber
+maiden, who, tired of being at home, had determined to make a journey to the
+north; and afterwards in another direction, if that did not please her. She
+recognised Gerda immediately, and Gerda knew her too. It was a joyful meeting.
+
+"You are a fine fellow for tramping about," said she to little Kay; "I should
+like to know, faith, if you deserve that one should run from one end of the
+world to the other for your sake?"
+
+But Gerda patted her cheeks, and inquired for the Prince and Princess.
+
+"They are gone abroad," said the other.
+
+"But the Raven?" asked little Gerda.
+
+"Oh! The Raven is dead," she answered. "His tame sweetheart is a widow, and
+wears a bit of black worsted round her leg; she laments most piteously, but
+it's all mere talk and stuff! Now tell me what you've been doing and how you
+managed to catch him."
+
+And Gerda and Kay both told their story.
+
+And "Schnipp-schnapp-schnurre-basselurre," said the robber maiden; and she
+took the hands of each, and promised that if she should some day pass through
+the town where they lived, she would come and visit them; and then away she
+rode. Kay and Gerda took each other's hand: it was lovely spring weather, with
+abundance of flowers and of verdure. The church-bells rang, and the children
+recognised the high towers, and the large town; it was that in which they
+dwelt. They entered and hastened up to their grandmother's room, where
+everything was standing as formerly. The clock said "tick! tack!" and the
+finger moved round; but as they entered, they remarked that they were now
+grown up. The roses on the leads hung blooming in at the open window; there
+stood the little children's chairs, and Kay and Gerda sat down on them,
+holding each other by the hand; they both had forgotten the cold empty
+splendor of the Snow Queen, as though it had been a dream. The grandmother sat
+in the bright sunshine, and read aloud from the Bible: "Unless ye become as
+little children, ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven."
+
+And Kay and Gerda looked in each other's eyes, and all at once they understood
+the old hymn:
+
+"The rose in the valley is blooming so sweet,
+And angels descend there the children to greet."
+
+There sat the two grown-up persons; grown-up, and yet children; children at
+least in heart; and it was summer-time; summer, glorious summer!
+
+
+
+THE LEAP-FROG
+
+A Flea, a Grasshopper, and a Leap-frog once wanted to see which could jump
+highest; and they invited the whole world, and everybody else besides who
+chose to come to see the festival. Three famous jumpers were they, as
+everyone would say, when they all met together in the room.
+
+"I will give my daughter to him who jumps highest," exclaimed the King; "for
+it is not so amusing where there is no prize to jump for."
+
+The Flea was the first to step forward. He had exquisite manners, and bowed to
+the company on all sides; for he had noble blood, and was, moreover,
+accustomed to the society of man alone; and that makes a great difference.
+
+Then came the Grasshopper. He was considerably heavier, but he was
+well-mannered, and wore a green uniform, which he had by right of birth; he
+said, moreover, that he belonged to a very ancient Egyptian family, and that
+in the house where he then was, he was thought much of. The fact was, he had
+been just brought out of the fields, and put in a pasteboard house, three
+stories high, all made of court-cards, with the colored side inwards; and
+doors and windows cut out of the body of the Queen of Hearts. "I sing so
+well," said he, "that sixteen native grasshoppers who have chirped from
+infancy, and yet got no house built of cards to live in, grew thinner than
+they were before for sheer vexation when they heard me."
+
+It was thus that the Flea and the Grasshopper gave an account of themselves,
+and thought they were quite good enough to marry a Princess.
+
+The Leap-frog said nothing; but people gave it as their opinion, that he
+therefore thought the more; and when the housedog snuffed at him with his
+nose, he confessed the Leap-frog was of good family. The old councillor, who
+had had three orders given him to make him hold his tongue, asserted that the
+Leap-frog was a prophet; for that one could see on his back, if there would be
+a severe or mild winter, and that was what one could not see even on the back
+of the man who writes the almanac.
+
+"I say nothing, it is true," exclaimed the King; "but I have my own opinion,
+notwithstanding."
+
+Now the trial was to take place. The Flea jumped so high that nobody could see
+where he went to; so they all asserted he had not jumped at all; and that was
+dishonorable.
+
+The Grasshopper jumped only half as high; but he leaped into the King's face,
+who said that was ill-mannered.
+
+The Leap-frog stood still for a long time lost in thought; it was believed at
+last he would not jump at all.
+
+"I only hope he is not unwell," said the house-dog; when, pop! he made a jump
+all on one side into the lap of the Princess, who was sitting on a little
+golden stool close by.
+
+Hereupon the King said, "There is nothing above my daughter; therefore to
+bound up to her is the highest jump that can be made; but for this, one must
+possess understanding, and the Leap-frog has shown that he has understanding.
+He is brave and intellectual."
+
+And so he won the Princess.
+
+"It's all the same to me," said the Flea. "She may have the old Leap-frog, for
+all I care. I jumped the highest; but in this world merit seldom meets its
+reward. A fine exterior is what people look at now-a-days."
+
+The Flea then went into foreign service, where, it is said, he was killed.
+
+The Grasshopper sat without on a green bank, and reflected on worldly things;
+and he said too, "Yes, a fine exterior is everything--a fine exterior is what
+people care about." And then he began chirping his peculiar melancholy song,
+from which we have taken this history; and which may, very possibly, be all
+untrue, although it does stand here printed in black and white.
+
+
+
+THE ELDERBUSH
+
+Once upon a time there was a little boy who had taken cold. He had gone
+out and got his feet wet; though nobody could imagine how it had happened, for
+it was quite dry weather. So his mother undressed him, put him to bed, and
+had the tea-pot brought in, to make him a good cup of Elderflower tea.
+Just at that moment the merry old man came in who lived up a-top of the house
+all alone; for he had neither wife nor children--but he liked children very
+much, and knew so many fairy tales, that it was quite delightful.
+
+"Now drink your tea," said the boy's mother; "then, perhaps, you may hear a
+fairy tale."
+
+"If I had but something new to tell," said the old man. "But how did the child
+get his feet wet?"
+
+"That is the very thing that nobody can make out," said his mother.
+
+"Am I to hear a fairy tale?" asked the little boy.
+
+"Yes, if you can tell me exactly--for I must know that first--how deep the
+gutter is in the little street opposite, that you pass through in going to
+school."
+
+"Just up to the middle of my boot," said the child; "but then I must go into
+the deep hole."
+
+"Ah, ah! That's where the wet feet came from," said the old man. "I ought now
+to tell you a story; but I don't know any more."
+
+"You can make one in a moment," said the little boy. "My mother says that all
+you look at can be turned into a fairy tale: and that you can find a story in
+everything."
+
+"Yes, but such tales and stories are good for nothing. The right sort come of
+themselves; they tap at my forehead and say, 'Here we are.'"
+
+"Won't there be a tap soon?" asked the little boy. And his mother laughed, put
+some Elder-flowers in the tea-pot, and poured boiling water upon them.
+
+"Do tell me something! Pray do!"
+
+"Yes, if a fairy tale would come of its own accord; but they are proud and
+haughty, and come only when they choose. Stop!" said he, all on a sudden. "I
+have it! Pay attention! There is one in the tea-pot!"
+
+And the little boy looked at the tea-pot. The cover rose more and more; and
+the Elder-flowers came forth so fresh and white, and shot up long branches.
+Out of the spout even did they spread themselves on all sides, and grew larger
+and larger; it was a splendid Elderbush, a whole tree; and it reached into the
+very bed, and pushed the curtains aside. How it bloomed! And what an odour! In
+the middle of the bush sat a friendly-looking old woman in a most strange
+dress. It was quite green, like the leaves of the elder, and was trimmed with
+large white Elder-flowers; so that at first one could not tell whether it was
+a stuff, or a natural green and real flowers.
+
+"What's that woman's name?" asked the little boy.
+
+"The Greeks and Romans," said the old man, "called her a Dryad; but that we do
+not understand. The people who live in the New Booths* have a much better name
+for her; they call her 'old Granny'--and she it is to whom you are to pay
+attention. Now listen, and look at the beautiful Elderbush.
+
+* A row of buildings for seamen in Copenhagen.
+
+
+"Just such another large blooming Elder Tree stands near the New Booths. It
+grew there in the corner of a little miserable court-yard; and under it sat,
+of an afternoon, in the most splendid sunshine, two old people; an old, old
+seaman, and his old, old wife. They had great-grand-children, and were soon to
+celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage; but they could not
+exactly recollect the date: and old Granny sat in the tree, and looked as
+pleased as now. 'I know the date,' said she; but those below did not hear her,
+for they were talking about old times.
+
+"'Yes, can't you remember when we were very little,' said the old seaman, 'and
+ran and played about? It was the very same court-yard where we now are, and we
+stuck slips in the ground, and made a garden.'
+
+"'I remember it well,' said the old woman; 'I remember it quite well. We
+watered the slips, and one of them was an Elderbush. It took root, put forth
+green shoots, and grew up to be the large tree under which we old folks are
+now sitting.'
+
+"'To be sure,' said he. 'And there in the corner stood a waterpail, where I
+used to swim my boats.'
+
+"'True; but first we went to school to learn somewhat,' said she; 'and then we
+were confirmed. We both cried; but in the afternoon we went up the Round
+Tower, and looked down on Copenhagen, and far, far away over the water; then
+we went to Friedericksberg, where the King and the Queen were sailing about in
+their splendid barges.'
+
+"'But I had a different sort of sailing to that, later; and that, too, for
+many a year; a long way off, on great voyages.'
+
+"'Yes, many a time have I wept for your sake,' said she. 'I thought you
+were dead and gone, and lying down in the deep waters. Many a night have I got
+up to see if the wind had not changed: and changed it had, sure enough; but
+you never came. I remember so well one day, when the rain was pouring down in
+torrents, the scavengers were before the house where I was in service, and I
+had come up with the dust, and remained standing at the door--it was dreadful
+weather--when just as I was there, the postman came and gave me a letter. It
+was from you! What a tour that letter had made! I opened it instantly and
+read: I laughed and wept. I was so happy. In it I read that you were in warm
+lands where the coffee-tree grows. What a blessed land that must be! You
+related so much, and I saw it all the while the rain was pouring down, and I
+standing there with the dust-box. At the same moment came someone who embraced
+me.'
+
+"'Yes; but you gave him a good box on his ear that made it tingle!'
+
+"'But I did not know it was you. You arrived as soon as your letter, and you
+were so handsome--that you still are--and had a long yellow silk handkerchief
+round your neck, and a bran new hat on; oh, you were so dashing! Good heavens!
+What weather it was, and what a state the street was in!'
+
+"'And then we married,' said he. 'Don't you remember? And then we had our
+first little boy, and then Mary, and Nicholas, and Peter, and Christian.'
+
+"'Yes, and how they all grew up to be honest people, and were beloved by
+everybody.'
+
+"'And their children also have children,' said the old sailor; 'yes, those
+are our grand-children, full of strength and vigor. It was, methinks about
+this season that we had our wedding.'
+
+"'Yes, this very day is the fiftieth anniversary of the marriage,' said old
+Granny, sticking her head between the two old people; who thought it was their
+neighbor who nodded to them. They looked at each other and held one another by
+the hand. Soon after came their children, and their grand-children; for they
+knew well enough that it was the day of the fiftieth anniversary, and had come
+with their gratulations that very morning; but the old people had forgotten
+it, although they were able to remember all that had happened many years ago.
+And the Elderbush sent forth a strong odour in the sun, that was just about to
+set, and shone right in the old people's faces. They both looked so
+rosy-cheeked; and the youngest of the grandchildren danced around them, and
+called out quite delighted, that there was to be something very splendid that
+evening--they were all to have hot potatoes. And old Nanny nodded in the bush,
+and shouted 'hurrah!' with the rest."
+
+"But that is no fairy tale," said the little boy, who was listening to the
+story.
+
+"The thing is, you must understand it," said the narrator; "let us ask old
+Nanny."
+
+"That was no fairy tale, 'tis true," said old Nanny; "but now it's coming. The
+most wonderful fairy tales grow out of that which is reality; were that not
+the case, you know, my magnificent Elderbush could not have grown out of the
+tea-pot." And then she took the little boy out of bed, laid him on her bosom,
+and the branches of the Elder Tree, full of flowers, closed around her. They
+sat in an aerial dwelling, and it flew with them through the air. Oh, it was
+wondrous beautiful! Old Nanny had grown all of a sudden a young and pretty
+maiden; but her robe was still the same green stuff with white flowers, which
+she had worn before. On her bosom she had a real Elderflower, and in her
+yellow waving hair a wreath of the flowers; her eyes were so large and blue
+that it was a pleasure to look at them; she kissed the boy, and now they were
+of the same age and felt alike.
+
+Hand in hand they went out of the bower, and they were standing in the
+beautiful garden of their home. Near the green lawn papa's walking-stick was
+tied, and for the little ones it seemed to be endowed with life; for as soon
+as they got astride it, the round polished knob was turned into a magnificent
+neighing head, a long black mane fluttered in the breeze, and four slender yet
+strong legs shot out. The animal was strong and handsome, and away they went
+at full gallop round the lawn.
+
+"Huzza! Now we are riding miles off," said the boy. "We are riding away to
+the castle where we were last year!"
+
+And on they rode round the grass-plot; and the little maiden, who, we know,
+was no one else but old Nanny, kept on crying out, "Now we are in the country!
+Don't you see the farm-house yonder? And there is an Elder Tree standing
+beside it; and the cock is scraping away the earth for the hens, look, how he
+struts! And now we are close to the church. It lies high upon the hill,
+between the large oak-trees, one of which is half decayed. And now we are by
+the smithy, where the fire is blazing, and where the half-naked men are
+banging with their hammers till the sparks fly about. Away! away! To the
+beautiful country-seat!"
+
+And all that the little maiden, who sat behind on the stick, spoke of, flew by
+in reality. The boy saw it all, and yet they were only going round the
+grass-plot. Then they played in a side avenue, and marked out a little garden
+on the earth; and they took Elder-blossoms from their hair, planted them, and
+they grew just like those the old people planted when they were children, as
+related before. They went hand in hand, as the old people had done when they
+were children; but not to the Round Tower, or to Friedericksberg; no, the
+little damsel wound her arms round the boy, and then they flew far away
+through all Denmark. And spring came, and summer; and then it was autumn, and
+then winter; and a thousand pictures were reflected in the eye and in the
+heart of the boy; and the little girl always sang to him, "This you will never
+forget." And during their whole flight the Elder Tree smelt so sweet and
+odorous; he remarked the roses and the fresh beeches, but the Elder Tree had a
+more wondrous fragrance, for its flowers hung on the breast of the little
+maiden; and there, too, did he often lay his head during the flight.
+
+"It is lovely here in spring!" said the young maiden. And they stood in a
+beech-wood that had just put on its first green, where the woodroof* at their
+feet sent forth its fragrance, and the pale-red anemony looked so pretty among
+the verdure. "Oh, would it were always spring in the sweetly-smelling Danish
+beech-forests!"
+
+* Asperula odorata.
+
+
+"It is lovely here in summer!" said she. And she flew past old castles of
+by-gone days of chivalry, where the red walls and the embattled gables were
+mirrored in the canal, where the swans were swimming, and peered up into the
+old cool avenues. In the fields the corn was waving like the sea; in the
+ditches red and yellow flowers were growing; while wild-drone flowers, and
+blooming convolvuluses were creeping in the hedges; and towards evening the
+moon rose round and large, and the haycocks in the meadows smelt so sweetly.
+"This one never forgets!"
+
+"It is lovely here in autumn!" said the little maiden. And suddenly the
+atmosphere grew as blue again as before; the forest grew red, and green, and
+yellow-colored. The dogs came leaping along, and whole flocks of wild-fowl
+flew over the cairn, where blackberry-bushes were hanging round the old
+stones. The sea was dark blue, covered with ships full of white sails; and in
+the barn old women, maidens, and children were sitting picking hops into a
+large cask; the young sang songs, but the old told fairy tales of
+mountain-sprites and soothsayers. Nothing could be more charming.
+
+"It is delightful here in winter!" said the little maiden. And all the trees
+were covered with hoar-frost; they looked like white corals; the snow crackled
+under foot, as if one had new boots on; and one falling star after the other
+was seen in the sky. The Christmas-tree was lighted in the room; presents were
+there, and good-humor reigned. In the country the violin sounded in the room
+of the peasant; the newly-baked cakes were attacked; even the poorest child
+said, "It is really delightful here in winter!"
+
+Yes, it was delightful; and the little maiden showed the boy everything; and
+the Elder Tree still was fragrant, and the red flag, with the white cross, was
+still waving: the flag under which the old seaman in the New Booths had
+sailed. And the boy grew up to be a lad, and was to go forth in the wide
+world-far, far away to warm lands, where the coffee-tree grows; but at his
+departure the little maiden took an Elder-blossom from her bosom, and
+gave it him to keep; and it was placed between the leaves of his Prayer-Book;
+and when in foreign lands he opened the book, it was always at the place where
+the keepsake-flower lay; and the more he looked at it, the fresher it became;
+he felt as it were, the fragrance of the Danish groves; and from among the
+leaves of the flowers he could distinctly see the little maiden, peeping forth
+with her bright blue eyes--and then she whispered, "It is delightful here in
+Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter"; and a hundred visions glided before his
+mind.
+
+Thus passed many years, and he was now an old man, and sat with his old wife
+under the blooming tree. They held each other by the hand, as the old
+grand-father and grand-mother yonder in the New Booths did, and they talked
+exactly like them of old times, and of the fiftieth anniversary of their
+wedding. The little maiden, with the blue eyes, and with Elder-blossoms in her
+hair, sat in the tree, nodded to both of them, and said, "To-day is the
+fiftieth anniversary!" And then she took two flowers out of her hair, and
+kissed them. First, they shone like silver, then like gold; and when they laid
+them on the heads of the old people, each flower became a golden crown. So
+there they both sat, like a king and a queen, under the fragrant tree, that
+looked exactly like an elder: the old man told his wife the story of "Old
+Nanny," as it had been told him when a boy. And it seemed to both of them it
+contained much that resembled their own history; and those parts that were
+like it pleased them best.
+
+"Thus it is," said the little maiden in the tree, "some call me 'Old Nanny,'
+others a 'Dryad,' but, in reality, my name is 'Remembrance'; 'tis I who sit in
+the tree that grows and grows! I can remember; I can tell things! Let me see
+if you have my flower still?"
+
+And the old man opened his Prayer-Book. There lay the Elder-blossom, as fresh
+as if it had been placed there but a short time before; and Remembrance
+nodded, and the old people, decked with crowns of gold, sat in the flush of
+the evening sun. They closed their eyes, and--and--! Yes, that's the end of
+the story!
+
+The little boy lay in his bed; he did not know if he had dreamed or not, or if
+he had been listening while someone told him the story. The tea-pot was
+standing on the table, but no Elder Tree was growing out of it! And the old
+man, who had been talking, was just on the point of going out at the door, and
+he did go.
+
+"How splendid that was!" said the little boy. "Mother, I have been to warm
+countries."
+
+"So I should think," said his mother. "When one has drunk two good cupfuls of
+Elder-flower tea, 'tis likely enough one goes into warm climates"; and she
+tucked him up nicely, least he should take cold. "You have had a good sleep
+while I have been sitting here, and arguing with him whether it was a story or
+a fairy tale."
+
+"And where is old Nanny?" asked the little boy.
+
+"In the tea-pot," said his mother; "and there she may remain."
+
+
+
+THE BELL
+
+People said "The Evening Bell is sounding, the sun is setting." For a strange
+wondrous tone was heard in the narrow streets of a large town. It was like the
+sound of a church-bell: but it was only heard for a moment, for the rolling of
+the carriages and the voices of the multitude made too great a noise.
+
+Those persons who were walking outside the town, where the houses were farther
+apart, with gardens or little fields between them, could see the evening sky
+still better, and heard the sound of the bell much more distinctly. It was as
+if the tones came from a church in the still forest; people looked
+thitherward, and felt their minds attuned most solemnly.
+
+A long time passed, and people said to each other--"I wonder if there is a
+church out in the wood? The bell has a tone that is wondrous sweet; let us
+stroll thither, and examine the matter nearer." And the rich people drove out,
+and the poor walked, but the way seemed strangely long to them; and when they
+came to a clump of willows which grew on the skirts of the forest, they sat
+down, and looked up at the long branches, and fancied they were now in the
+depth of the green wood. The confectioner of the town came out, and set up his
+booth there; and soon after came another confectioner, who hung a bell over
+his stand, as a sign or ornament, but it had no clapper, and it was tarred
+over to preserve it from the rain. When all the people returned home, they
+said it had been very romantic, and that it was quite a different sort of
+thing to a pic-nic or tea-party. There were three persons who asserted they
+had penetrated to the end of the forest, and that they had always heard the
+wonderful sounds of the bell, but it had seemed to them as if it had come from
+the town. One wrote a whole poem about it, and said the bell sounded like the
+voice of a mother to a good dear child, and that no melody was sweeter than
+the tones of the bell. The king of the country was also observant of it, and
+vowed that he who could discover whence the sounds proceeded, should have the
+title of "Universal Bell-ringer," even if it were not really a bell.
+
+Many persons now went to the wood, for the sake of getting the place, but one
+only returned with a sort of explanation; for nobody went far enough, that one
+not further than the others. However, he said that the sound proceeded from a
+very large owl, in a hollow tree; a sort of learned owl, that continually
+knocked its head against the branches. But whether the sound came from
+his head or from the hollow tree, that no one could say with certainty. So now
+he got the place of "Universal Bell-ringer," and wrote yearly a short treatise
+"On the Owl"; but everybody was just as wise as before.
+
+It was the day of confirmation. The clergyman had spoken so touchingly, the
+children who were confirmed had been greatly moved; it was an eventful day for
+them; from children they become all at once grown-up-persons; it was as if
+their infant souls were now to fly all at once into persons with more
+understanding. The sun was shining gloriously; the children that had been
+confirmed went out of the town; and from the wood was borne towards them the
+sounds of the unknown bell with wonderful distinctness. They all immediately
+felt a wish to go thither; all except three. One of them had to go home to try
+on a ball-dress; for it was just the dress and the ball which had caused her
+to be confirmed this time, for otherwise she would not have come; the other
+was a poor boy, who had borrowed his coat and boots to be confirmed in from
+the innkeeper's son, and he was to give them back by a certain hour; the third
+said that he never went to a strange place if his parents were not with
+him--that he had always been a good boy hitherto, and would still be so now
+that he was confirmed, and that one ought not to laugh at him for it: the
+others, however, did make fun of him, after all.
+
+There were three, therefore, that did not go; the others hastened on. The sun
+shone, the birds sang, and the children sang too, and each held the other by
+the hand; for as yet they had none of them any high office, and were all of
+equal rank in the eye of God.
+
+But two of the youngest soon grew tired, and both returned to town; two little
+girls sat down, and twined garlands, so they did not go either; and when the
+others reached the willow-tree, where the confectioner was, they said, "Now we
+are there! In reality the bell does not exist; it is only a fancy that people
+have taken into their heads!"
+
+At the same moment the bell sounded deep in the wood, so clear and solemnly
+that five or six determined to penetrate somewhat further. It was so thick,
+and the foliage so dense, that it was quite fatiguing to proceed. Woodroof and
+anemonies grew almost too high; blooming convolvuluses and blackberry-bushes
+hung in long garlands from tree to tree, where the nightingale sang and the
+sunbeams were playing: it was very beautiful, but it was no place for girls to
+go; their clothes would get so torn. Large blocks of stone lay there,
+overgrown with moss of every color; the fresh spring bubbled forth, and made a
+strange gurgling sound.
+
+"That surely cannot be the bell," said one of the children, lying down and
+listening. "This must be looked to." So he remained, and let the others go on
+without him.
+
+They afterwards came to a little house, made of branches and the bark of
+trees; a large wild apple-tree bent over it, as if it would shower down all
+its blessings on the roof, where roses were blooming. The long stems twined
+round the gable, on which there hung a small bell.
+
+Was it that which people had heard? Yes, everybody was unanimous on the
+subject, except one, who said that the bell was too small and too fine to be
+heard at so great a distance, and besides it was very different tones to those
+that could move a human heart in such a manner. It was a king's son who spoke;
+whereon the others said, "Such people always want to be wiser than everybody
+else."
+
+They now let him go on alone; and as he went, his breast was filled more and
+more with the forest solitude; but he still heard the little bell with which
+the others were so satisfied, and now and then, when the wind blew, he could
+also hear the people singing who were sitting at tea where the confectioner
+had his tent; but the deep sound of the bell rose louder; it was almost as if
+an organ were accompanying it, and the tones came from the left hand, the side
+where the heart is placed. A rustling was heard in the bushes, and a little
+boy stood before the King's Son, a boy in wooden shoes, and with so short a
+jacket that one could see what long wrists he had. Both knew each other: the
+boy was that one among the children who could not come because he had to go
+home and return his jacket and boots to the innkeeper's son. This he had done,
+and was now going on in wooden shoes and in his humble dress, for the bell
+sounded with so deep a tone, and with such strange power, that proceed he
+must.
+
+"Why, then, we can go together," said the King's Son. But the poor child that
+had been confirmed was quite ashamed; he looked at his wooden shoes, pulled at
+the short sleeves of his jacket, and said that he was afraid he could not walk
+so fast; besides, he thought that the bell must be looked for to the right;
+for that was the place where all sorts of beautiful things were to be found.
+
+"But there we shall not meet," said the King's Son, nodding at the same time
+to the poor boy, who went into the darkest, thickest part of the wood, where
+thorns tore his humble dress, and scratched his face and hands and feet till
+they bled. The King's Son got some scratches too; but the sun shone on his
+path, and it is him that we will follow, for he was an excellent and resolute
+youth.
+
+"I must and will find the bell," said he, "even if I am obliged to go to the
+end of the world."
+
+The ugly apes sat upon the trees, and grinned. "Shall we thrash him?" said
+they. "Shall we thrash him? He is the son of a king!"
+
+But on he went, without being disheartened, deeper and deeper into the wood,
+where the most wonderful flowers were growing. There stood white lilies with
+blood-red stamina, skyblue tulips, which shone as they waved in the winds, and
+apple-trees, the apples of which looked exactly like large soapbubbles: so
+only think how the trees must have sparkled in the sunshine! Around the nicest
+green meads, where the deer were playing in the grass, grew magnificent oaks
+and beeches; and if the bark of one of the trees was cracked, there grass and
+long creeping plants grew in the crevices. And there were large calm lakes
+there too, in which white swans were swimming, and beat the air with their
+wings. The King's Son often stood still and listened. He thought the bell
+sounded from the depths of these still lakes; but then he remarked again that
+the tone proceeded not from there, but farther off, from out the depths of the
+forest.
+
+The sun now set: the atmosphere glowed like fire. It was still in the woods,
+so very still; and he fell on his knees, sung his evening hymn, and said: "I
+cannot find what I seek; the sun is going down, and night is coming--the dark,
+dark night. Yet perhaps I may be able once more to see the round red sun
+before he entirely disappears. I will climb up yonder rock."
+
+And he seized hold of the creeping-plants, and the roots of trees--climbed up
+the moist stones where the water-snakes were writhing and the toads were
+croaking--and he gained the summit before the sun had quite gone down. How
+magnificent was the sight from this height! The sea--the great, the glorious
+sea, that dashed its long waves against the coast--was stretched out before
+him. And yonder, where sea and sky meet, stood the sun, like a large shining
+altar, all melted together in the most glowing colors. And the wood and the
+sea sang a song of rejoicing, and his heart sang with the rest: all nature was
+a vast holy church, in which the trees and the buoyant clouds were the
+pillars, flowers and grass the velvet carpeting, and heaven itself the large
+cupola. The red colors above faded away as the sun vanished, but a million
+stars were lighted, a million lamps shone; and the King's Son spread out his
+arms towards heaven, and wood, and sea; when at the same moment, coming by a
+path to the right, appeared, in his wooden shoes and jacket, the poor boy who
+had been confirmed with him. He had followed his own path, and had reached the
+spot just as soon as the son of the king had done. They ran towards each
+other, and stood together hand in hand in the vast church of nature and of
+poetry, while over them sounded the invisible holy bell: blessed spirits
+floated around them, and lifted up their voices in a rejoicing hallelujah!
+
+
+
+THE OLD HOUSE
+
+In the street, up there, was an old, a very old house--it was almost three
+hundred years old, for that might be known by reading the great beam on which
+the date of the year was carved: together with tulips and hop-binds there were
+whole verses spelled as in former times, and over every window was a distorted
+face cut out in the beam. The one story stood forward a great way over the
+other; and directly under the eaves was a leaden spout with a dragon's head;
+the rain-water should have run out of the mouth, but it ran out of the belly,
+for there was a hole in the spout.
+
+All the other houses in the street were so new and so neat, with large window
+panes and smooth walls, one could easily see that they would have nothing to
+do with the old house: they certainly thought, "How long is that old decayed
+thing to stand here as a spectacle in the street? And then the projecting
+windows stand so far out, that no one can see from our windows what happens in
+that direction! The steps are as broad as those of a palace, and as high as to
+a church tower. The iron railings look just like the door to an old family
+vault, and then they have brass tops--that's so stupid!"
+
+On the other side of the street were also new and neat houses, and they
+thought just as the others did; but at the window opposite the old house there
+sat a little boy with fresh rosy cheeks and bright beaming eyes: he certainly
+liked the old house best, and that both in sunshine and moonshine. And when he
+looked across at the wall where the mortar had fallen out, he could sit and
+find out there the strangest figures imaginable; exactly as the street had
+appeared before, with steps, projecting windows, and pointed gables; he could
+see soldiers with halberds, and spouts where the water ran, like dragons and
+serpents. That was a house to look at; and there lived an old man, who wore
+plush breeches; and he had a coat with large brass buttons, and a wig that one
+could see was a real wig. Every morning there came an old fellow to him who
+put his rooms in order, and went on errands; otherwise, the old man in the
+plush breeches was quite alone in the old house. Now and then he came to the
+window and looked out, and the little boy nodded to him, and the old man
+nodded again, and so they became acquaintances, and then they were friends,
+although they had never spoken to each other--but that made no difference. The
+little boy heard his parents say, "The old man opposite is very well off, but
+he is so very, very lonely!"
+
+The Sunday following, the little boy took something, and wrapped it up in a
+piece of paper, went downstairs, and stood in the doorway; and when the man
+who went on errands came past, he said to him--
+
+"I say, master! will you give this to the old man over the way from me? I have
+two pewter soldiers--this is one of them, and he shall have it, for I know he
+is so very, very lonely."
+
+And the old errand man looked quite pleased, nodded, and took the pewter
+soldier over to the old house. Afterwards there came a message; it was to ask
+if the little boy himself had not a wish to come over and pay a visit; and so
+he got permission of his parents, and then went over to the old house.
+
+And the brass balls on the iron railings shone much brighter than ever; one
+would have thought they were polished on account of the visit; and it was as
+if the carved-out trumpeters--for there were trumpeters, who stood in tulips,
+carved out on the door--blew with all their might, their cheeks appeared so
+much rounder than before. Yes, they blew--"Trateratra! The little boy comes!
+Trateratra!"--and then the door opened.
+
+The whole passage was hung with portraits of knights in armor, and ladies in
+silken gowns; and the armor rattled, and the silken gowns rustled! And then
+there was a flight of stairs which went a good way upwards, and a little way
+downwards, and then one came on a balcony which was in a very dilapidated
+state, sure enough, with large holes and long crevices, but grass grew there
+and leaves out of them altogether, for the whole balcony outside, the yard,
+and the walls, were overgrown with so much green stuff, that it looked like a
+garden; only a balcony. Here stood old flower-pots with faces and asses' ears,
+and the flowers grew just as they liked. One of the pots was quite overrun on
+all sides with pinks, that is to say, with the green part; shoot stood by
+shoot, and it said quite distinctly, "The air has cherished me, the sun has
+kissed me, and promised me a little flower on Sunday! a little flower on
+Sunday!"
+
+And then they entered a chamber where the walls were covered with hog's
+leather, and printed with gold flowers.
+
+   "The gilding decays,
+   But hog's leather stays!"
+
+   said the walls.
+
+And there stood easy-chairs, with such high backs, and so carved out, and with
+arms on both sides. "Sit down! sit down!" said they. "Ugh! how I creak; now I
+shall certainly get the gout, like the old clothespress, ugh!"
+
+And then the little boy came into the room where the projecting windows were,
+and where the old man sat.
+
+"I thank you for the pewter soldier, my little friend!" said the old man. "And
+I thank you because you come over to me."
+
+"Thankee! thankee!" or "cranky! cranky!" sounded from all the furniture; there
+was so much of it, that each article stood in the other's way, to get a look
+at the little boy.
+
+In the middle of the wall hung a picture representing a beautiful lady, so
+young, so glad, but dressed quite as in former times, with clothes that stood
+quite stiff, and with powder in her hair; she neither said "thankee, thankee!"
+nor "cranky, cranky!" but looked with her mild eyes at the little boy, who
+directly asked the old man, "Where did you get her?"
+
+"Yonder, at the broker's," said the old man, "where there are so many pictures
+hanging. No one knows or cares about them, for they are all of them buried;
+but I knew her in by-gone days, and now she has been dead and gone these fifty
+years!"
+
+Under the picture, in a glazed frame, there hung a bouquet of withered
+flowers; they were almost fifty years old; they looked so very old!
+
+The pendulum of the great clock went to and fro, and the hands turned, and
+everything in the room became still older; but they did not observe it.
+
+"They say at home," said the little boy, "that you are so very, very lonely!"
+
+"Oh!" said he. "The old thoughts, with what they may bring with them, come and
+visit me, and now you also come! I am very well off!"
+
+Then he took a book with pictures in it down from the shelf; there were
+whole long processions and pageants, with the strangest characters, which one
+never sees now-a-days; soldiers like the knave of clubs, and citizens with
+waving flags: the tailors had theirs, with a pair of shears held by two
+lions--and the shoemakers theirs, without boots, but with an eagle that had
+two heads, for the shoemakers must have everything so that they can say, it is
+a pair! Yes, that was a picture book!
+
+The old man now went into the other room to fetch preserves, apples, and
+nuts--yes, it was delightful over there in the old house.
+
+"I cannot bear it any longer!" said the pewter soldier, who sat on the
+drawers. "It is so lonely and melancholy here! But when one has been in a
+family circle one cannot accustom oneself to this life! I cannot bear it any
+longer! The whole day is so long, and the evenings are still longer! Here it
+is not at all as it is over the way at your home, where your father and
+mother spoke so pleasantly, and where you and all your sweet children made
+such a delightful noise. Nay, how lonely the old man is--do you think that he
+gets kisses? Do you think he gets mild eyes, or a Christmas tree? He will get
+nothing but a grave! I can bear it no longer!"
+
+"You must not let it grieve you so much," said the little boy. "I find it so
+very delightful here, and then all the old thoughts, with what they may bring
+with them, they come and visit here."
+
+"Yes, it's all very well, but I see nothing of them, and I don't know them!"
+said the pewter soldier. "I cannot bear it!"
+
+"But you must!" said the little boy.
+
+Then in came the old man with the most pleased and happy face, the most
+delicious preserves, apples, and nuts, and so the little boy thought no more
+about the pewter soldier.
+
+The little boy returned home happy and pleased, and weeks and days passed
+away, and nods were made to the old house, and from the old house, and then
+the little boy went over there again.
+
+The carved trumpeters blew, "Trateratra! There is the little boy! Trateratra!"
+and the swords and armor on the knights' portraits rattled, and the silk gowns
+rustled; the hog's leather spoke, and the old chairs had the gout in their
+legs and rheumatism in their backs: Ugh! it was exactly like the first time,
+for over there one day and hour was just like another.
+
+"I cannot bear it!" said the pewter soldier. "I have shed pewter tears! It is
+too melancholy! Rather let me go to the wars and lose arms and legs! It would
+at least be a change. I cannot bear it longer! Now, I know what it is to have
+a visit from one's old thoughts, with what they may bring with them! I have
+had a visit from mine, and you may be sure it is no pleasant thing in the end;
+I was at last about to jump down from the drawers.
+
+"I saw you all over there at home so distinctly, as if you really were here;
+it was again that Sunday morning; all you children stood before the table and
+sung your Psalms, as you do every morning. You stood devoutly with folded
+hands; and father and mother were just as pious; and then the door was opened,
+and little sister Mary, who is not two years old yet, and who always dances
+when she hears music or singing, of whatever kind it may be, was put into the
+room--though she ought not to have been there--and then she began to dance,
+but could not keep time, because the tones were so long; and then she stood,
+first on the one leg, and bent her head forwards, and then on the other leg,
+and bent her head forwards--but all would not do. You stood very seriously all
+together, although it was difficult enough; but I laughed to myself, and then
+I fell off the table, and got a bump, which I have still--for it was not
+right of me to laugh. But the whole now passes before me again in thought, and
+everything that I have lived to see; and these are the old thoughts, with what
+they may bring with them.
+
+"Tell me if you still sing on Sundays? Tell me something about little Mary!
+And how my comrade, the other pewter soldier, lives! Yes, he is happy enough,
+that's sure! I cannot bear it any longer!"
+
+"You are given away as a present!" said the little boy. "You must remain. Can
+you not understand that?"
+
+The old man now came with a drawer, in which there was much to be seen, both
+"tin boxes" and "balsam boxes," old cards, so large and so gilded, such as one
+never sees them now. And several drawers were opened, and the piano was
+opened; it had landscapes on the inside of the lid, and it was so hoarse when
+the old man played on it! and then he hummed a song.
+
+"Yes, she could sing that!" said he, and nodded to the portrait, which he
+had bought at the broker's, and the old man's eyes shone so bright!
+
+"I will go to the wars! I will go to the wars!" shouted the pewter soldier as
+loud as he could, and threw himself off the drawers right down on the floor.
+What became of him? The old man sought, and the little boy sought; he was
+away, and he stayed away.
+
+"I shall find him!" said the old man; but he never found him. The floor was
+too open--the pewter soldier had fallen through a crevice, and there he lay as
+in an open tomb.
+
+That day passed, and the little boy went home, and that week passed, and
+several weeks too. The windows were quite frozen, the little boy was obliged
+to sit and breathe on them to get a peep-hole over to the old house, and there
+the snow had been blown into all the carved work and inscriptions; it lay
+quite up over the steps, just as if there was no one at home--nor was there
+any one at home--the old man was dead!
+
+In the evening there was a hearse seen before the door, and he was borne into
+it in his coffin: he was now to go out into the country, to lie in his grave.
+He was driven out there, but no one followed; all his friends were dead, and
+the little boy kissed his hand to the coffin as it was driven away.
+
+Some days afterwards there was an auction at the old house, and the little boy
+saw from his window how they carried the old knights and the old ladies away,
+the flower-pots with the long ears, the old chairs, and the old
+clothes-presses. Something came here, and something came there; the portrait
+of her who had been found at the broker's came to the broker's again; and
+there it hung, for no one knew her more--no one cared about the old picture.
+
+In the spring they pulled the house down, for, as people said, it was a ruin.
+One could see from the street right into the room with the hog's-leather
+hanging, which was slashed and torn; and the green grass and leaves about the
+balcony hung quite wild about the falling beams. And then it was put to
+rights.
+
+"That was a relief," said the neighboring houses.
+
+A fine house was built there, with large windows, and smooth white walls; but
+before it, where the old house had in fact stood, was a little garden laid
+out, and a wild grapevine ran up the wall of the neighboring house. Before the
+garden there was a large iron railing with an iron door, it looked quite
+splendid, and people stood still and peeped in, and the sparrows hung by
+scores in the vine, and chattered away at each other as well as they could,
+but it was not about the old house, for they could not remember it, so many
+years had passed--so many that the little boy had grown up to a whole man,
+yes, a clever man, and a pleasure to his parents; and he had just been
+married, and, together with his little wife, had come to live in the house
+here, where the garden was; and he stood by her there whilst she planted a
+field-flower that she found so pretty; she planted it with her little hand,
+and pressed the earth around it with her fingers. Oh! what was that? She had
+stuck herself. There sat something pointed, straight out of the soft mould.
+
+It was--yes, guess! It was the pewter soldier, he that was lost up at the old
+man's, and had tumbled and turned about amongst the timber and the rubbish,
+and had at last laid for many years in the ground.
+
+The young wife wiped the dirt off the soldier, first with a green leaf, and
+then with her fine handkerchief--it had such a delightful smell, that it was
+to the pewter soldier just as if he had awaked from a trance.
+
+"Let me see him," said the young man. He laughed, and then shook his head.
+"Nay, it cannot be he; but he reminds me of a story about a pewter soldier
+which I had when I was a little boy!" And then he told his wife about the old
+house, and the old man, and about the pewter soldier that he sent over to him
+because he was so very, very lonely; and he told it as correctly as it had
+really been, so that the tears came into the eyes of his young wife, on
+account of the old house and the old man.
+
+"It may possibly be, however, that it is the same pewter soldier!" said she.
+"I will take care of it, and remember all that you have told me; but you must
+show me the old man's grave!"
+
+"But I do not know it," said he, "and no one knows it! All his friends were
+dead, no one took care of it, and I was then a little boy!"
+
+"How very, very lonely he must have been!" said she.
+
+"Very, very lonely!" said the pewter soldier. "But it is delightful not to be
+forgotten!"
+
+"Delightful!" shouted something close by; but no one, except the pewter
+soldier, saw that it was a piece of the hog's-leather hangings; it had lost
+all its gilding, it looked like a piece of wet clay, but it had an opinion,
+and it gave it:
+
+   "The gilding decays,
+   But hog's leather stays!"
+
+This the pewter soldier did not believe.
+
+
+
+THE HAPPY FAMILY
+
+Really, the largest green leaf in this country is a dock-leaf; if one holds it
+before one, it is like a whole apron, and if one holds it over one's head in
+rainy weather, it is almost as good as an umbrella, for it is so immensely
+large. The burdock never grows alone, but where there grows one there always
+grow several: it is a great delight, and all this delightfulness is snails'
+food. The great white snails which persons of quality in former times made
+fricassees of, ate, and said, "Hem, hem! how delicious!" for they thought it
+tasted so delicate--lived on dock-leaves, and therefore burdock seeds were
+sown.
+
+Now, there was an old manor-house, where they no longer ate snails, they were
+quite extinct; but the burdocks were not extinct, they grew and grew all over
+the walks and all the beds; they could not get the mastery over them--it was a
+whole forest of burdocks. Here and there stood an apple and a plum-tree, or
+else one never would have thought that it was a garden; all was burdocks, and
+there lived the two last venerable old snails.
+
+They themselves knew not how old they were, but they could remember very well
+that there had been many more; that they were of a family from foreign lands,
+and that for them and theirs the whole forest was planted. They had never been
+outside it, but they knew that there was still something more in the world,
+which was called the manor-house, and that there they were boiled, and then
+they became black, and were then placed on a silver dish; but what happened
+further they knew not; or, in fact, what it was to be boiled, and to lie on a
+silver dish, they could not possibly imagine; but it was said to be
+delightful, and particularly genteel. Neither the chafers, the toads, nor the
+earth-worms, whom they asked about it could give them any information--none of
+them had been boiled or laid on a silver dish.
+
+The old white snails were the first persons of distinction in the world, that
+they knew; the forest was planted for their sake, and the manor-house was
+there that they might be boiled and laid on a silver dish.
+
+Now they lived a very lonely and happy life; and as they had no children
+themselves, they had adopted a little common snail, which they brought up as
+their own; but the little one would not grow, for he was of a common family;
+but the old ones, especially Dame Mother Snail, thought they could observe how
+he increased in size, and she begged father, if he could not see it, that he
+would at least feel the little snail's shell; and then he felt it, and found
+the good dame was right.
+
+One day there was a heavy storm of rain.
+
+"Hear how it beats like a drum on the dock-leaves!" said Father Snail.
+
+"There are also rain-drops!" said Mother Snail. "And now the rain pours right
+down the stalk! You will see that it will be wet here! I am very happy to
+think that we have our good house, and the little one has his also! There is
+more done for us than for all other creatures, sure enough; but can you not
+see that we are folks of quality in the world? We are provided with a house
+from our birth, and the burdock forest is planted for our sakes! I should like
+to know how far it extends, and what there is outside!"
+
+"There is nothing at all," said Father Snail. "No place can be better than
+ours, and I have nothing to wish for!"
+
+"Yes," said the dame. "I would willingly go to the manorhouse, be boiled, and
+laid on a silver dish; all our forefathers have been treated so; there is
+something extraordinary in it, you may be sure!"
+
+"The manor-house has most likely fallen to ruin!" said Father Snail. "Or the
+burdocks have grown up over it, so that they cannot come out. There need not,
+however, be any haste about that; but you are always in such a tremendous
+hurry, and the little one is beginning to be the same. Has he not been
+creeping up that stalk these three days? It gives me a headache when I look up
+to him!"
+
+"You must not scold him," said Mother Snail. "He creeps so carefully; he will
+afford us much pleasure--and we have nothing but him to live for! But have
+you not thought of it? Where shall we get a wife for him? Do you not think
+that there are some of our species at a great distance in the interior of the
+burdock forest?"
+
+"Black snails, I dare say, there are enough of," said the old one. "Black
+snails without a house--but they are so common, and so conceited. But we might
+give the ants a commission to look out for us; they run to and fro as if they
+had something to do, and they certainly know of a wife for our little snail!"
+
+"I know one, sure enough--the most charming one!" said one of the ants. "But I
+am afraid we shall hardly succeed, for she is a queen!"
+
+"That is nothing!" said the old folks. "Has she a house?"
+
+"She has a palace!" said the ant. "The finest ant's palace, with seven hundred
+passages!"
+
+"I thank you!" said Mother Snail. "Our son shall not go into an ant-hill; if
+you know nothing better than that, we shall give the commission to the white
+gnats. They fly far and wide, in rain and sunshine; they know the whole forest
+here, both within and without."
+
+"We have a wife for him," said the gnats. "At a hundred human paces from here
+there sits a little snail in her house, on a gooseberry bush; she is quite
+lonely, and old enough to be married. It is only a hundred human paces!"
+
+"Well, then, let her come to him!" said the old ones. "He has a whole forest
+of burdocks, she has only a bush!"
+
+And so they went and fetched little Miss Snail. It was a whole week before she
+arrived; but therein was just the very best of it, for one could thus see that
+she was of the same species.
+
+And then the marriage was celebrated. Six earth-worms shone as well as they
+could. In other respects the whole went off very quietly, for the old folks
+could not bear noise and merriment; but old Dame Snail made a brilliant
+speech. Father Snail could not speak, he was too much affected; and so they
+gave them as a dowry and inheritance, the whole forest of burdocks, and
+said--what they had always said--that it was the best in the world; and if
+they lived honestly and decently, and increased and multiplied, they and their
+children would once in the course of time come to the manor-house, be boiled
+black, and laid on silver dishes. After this speech was made, the old ones
+crept into their shells, and never more came out. They slept; the young couple
+governed in the forest, and had a numerous progeny, but they were never
+boiled, and never came on the silver dishes; so from this they concluded that
+the manor-house had fallen to ruins, and that all the men in the world were
+extinct; and as no one contradicted them, so, of course it was so. And the
+rain beat on the dock-leaves to make drum-music for their sake, and the sun
+shone in order to give the burdock forest a color for their sakes; and they
+were very happy, and the whole family was happy; for they, indeed were so.
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF A MOTHER
+
+A mother sat there with her little child. She was so downcast, so afraid that
+it should die! It was so pale, the small eyes had closed themselves, and it
+drew its breath so softly, now and then, with a deep respiration, as if it
+sighed; and the mother looked still more sorrowfully on the little creature.
+
+Then a knocking was heard at the door, and in came a poor old man wrapped up
+as in a large horse-cloth, for it warms one, and he needed it, as it was the
+cold winter season! Everything out-of-doors was covered with ice and snow, and
+the wind blew so that it cut the face.
+
+As the old man trembled with cold, and the little child slept a moment, the
+mother went and poured some ale into a pot and set it on the stove, that it
+might be warm for him; the old man sat and rocked the cradle, and the mother
+sat down on a chair close by him, and looked at her little sick child that
+drew its breath so deep, and raised its little hand.
+
+"Do you not think that I shall save him?" said she. "Our Lord will not take
+him from me!"
+
+And the old man--it was Death himself--he nodded so strangely, it could just
+as well signify yes as no. And the mother looked down in her lap, and the
+tears ran down over her cheeks; her head became so heavy--she had not closed
+her eyes for three days and nights; and now she slept, but only for a minute,
+when she started up and trembled with cold.
+
+"What is that?" said she, and looked on all sides; but the old man was gone,
+and her little child was gone--he had taken it with him; and the old clock in
+the corner burred, and burred, the great leaden weight ran down to the floor,
+bump! and then the clock also stood still.
+
+But the poor mother ran out of the house and cried aloud for her child.
+
+Out there, in the midst of the snow, there sat a woman in long, black clothes;
+and she said, "Death has been in thy chamber, and I saw him hasten away with
+thy little child; he goes faster than the wind, and he never brings back what
+he takes!"
+
+"Oh, only tell me which way he went!" said the mother. "Tell me the way, and I
+shall find him!"
+
+"I know it!" said the woman in the black clothes. "But before I tell it, thou
+must first sing for me all the songs thou hast sung for thy child! I am fond
+of them. I have heard them before; I am Night; I saw thy tears whilst thou
+sang'st them!"
+
+"I will sing them all, all!" said the mother. "But do not stop me now--I may
+overtake him--I may find my child!"
+
+But Night stood still and mute. Then the mother wrung her hands, sang and
+wept, and there were many songs, but yet many more tears; and then Night said,
+"Go to the right, into the dark pine forest; thither I saw Death take his way
+with thy little child!"
+
+The roads crossed each other in the depths of the forest, and she no longer
+knew whither she should go! then there stood a thorn-bush; there was neither
+leaf nor flower on it, it was also in the cold winter season, and ice-flakes
+hung on the branches.
+
+"Hast thou not seen Death go past with my little child?" said the mother.
+
+"Yes," said the thorn-bush; "but I will not tell thee which way he took,
+unless thou wilt first warm me up at thy heart. I am freezing to death; I
+shall become a lump of ice!"
+
+And she pressed the thorn-bush to her breast, so firmly, that it might be
+thoroughly warmed, and the thorns went right into her flesh, and her blood
+flowed in large drops, but the thornbush shot forth fresh green leaves, and
+there came flowers on it in the cold winter night, the heart of the afflicted
+mother was so warm; and the thorn-bush told her the way she should go.
+
+She then came to a large lake, where there was neither ship nor boat. The lake
+was not frozen sufficiently to bear her; neither was it open, nor low enough
+that she could wade through it; and across it she must go if she would find
+her child! Then she lay down to drink up the lake, and that was an
+impossibility for a human being, but the afflicted mother thought that a
+miracle might happen nevertheless.
+
+"Oh, what would I not give to come to my child!" said the weeping mother; and
+she wept still more, and her eyes sunk down in the depths of the waters, and
+became two precious pearls; but the water bore her up, as if she sat in a
+swing, and she flew in the rocking waves to the shore on the opposite side,
+where there stood a mile-broad, strange house, one knew not if it were a
+mountain with forests and caverns, or if it were built up; but the poor mother
+could not see it; she had wept her eyes out.
+
+"Where shall I find Death, who took away my little child?" said she.
+
+"He has not come here yet!" said the old grave woman, who was appointed to
+look after Death's great greenhouse! "How have you been able to find the way
+hither? And who has helped you?"
+
+"OUR LORD has helped me," said she. "He is merciful, and you will also be so!
+Where shall I find my little child?"
+
+"Nay, I know not," said the woman, "and you cannot see! Many flowers and trees
+have withered this night; Death will soon come and plant them over again!
+You certainly know that every person has his or her life's tree or flower,
+just as everyone happens to be settled; they look like other plants, but they
+have pulsations of the heart. Children's hearts can also beat; go after yours,
+perhaps you may know your child's; but what will you give me if I tell you
+what you shall do more?"
+
+"I have nothing to give," said the afflicted mother, "but I will go to the
+world's end for you!"
+
+"Nay, I have nothing to do there!" said the woman. "But you can give me your
+long black hair; you know yourself that it is fine, and that I like! You shall
+have my white hair instead, and that's always something!"
+
+"Do you demand nothing else?" said she. "That I will gladly give you!" And she
+gave her her fine black hair, and got the old woman's snow-white hair instead.
+
+So they went into Death's great greenhouse, where flowers and trees grew
+strangely into one another. There stood fine hyacinths under glass bells, and
+there stood strong-stemmed peonies; there grew water plants, some so fresh,
+others half sick, the water-snakes lay down on them, and black crabs pinched
+their stalks. There stood beautiful palm-trees, oaks, and plantains; there
+stood parsley and flowering thyme: every tree and every flower had its name;
+each of them was a human life, the human frame still lived--one in China, and
+another in Greenland--round about in the world. There were large trees in
+small pots, so that they stood so stunted in growth, and ready to burst the
+pots; in other places, there was a little dull flower in rich mould, with moss
+round about it, and it was so petted and nursed. But the distressed mother
+bent down over all the smallest plants, and heard within them how the human
+heart beat; and amongst millions she knew her child's.
+
+"There it is!" cried she, and stretched her hands out over a little blue
+crocus, that hung quite sickly on one side.
+
+"Don't touch the flower!" said the old woman. "But place yourself here, and
+when Death comes--I expect him every moment--do not let him pluck the flower
+up, but threaten him that you will do the same with the others. Then he will
+be afraid! He is responsible for them to OUR LORD, and no one dares to pluck
+them up before HE gives leave."
+
+All at once an icy cold rushed through the great hall, and the blind mother
+could feel that it was Death that came.
+
+"How hast thou been able to find thy way hither?" he asked. "How couldst thou
+come quicker than I?"
+
+"I am a mother," said she.
+
+And Death stretched out his long hand towards the fine little flower, but she
+held her hands fast around his, so tight, and yet afraid that she should touch
+one of the leaves. Then Death blew on her hands, and she felt that it was
+colder than the cold wind, and her hands fell down powerless.
+
+"Thou canst not do anything against me!" said Death.
+
+"But OUR LORD can!" said she.
+
+"I only do His bidding!" said Death. "I am His gardener, I take all His
+flowers and trees, and plant them out in the great garden of Paradise, in the
+unknown land; but how they grow there, and how it is there I dare not tell
+thee."
+
+"Give me back my child!" said the mother, and she wept and prayed. At once she
+seized hold of two beautiful flowers close by, with each hand, and cried out
+to Death, "I will tear all thy flowers off, for I am in despair."
+
+"Touch them not!" said Death. "Thou say'st that thou art so unhappy, and now
+thou wilt make another mother equally unhappy."
+
+"Another mother!" said the poor woman, and directly let go her hold of both
+the flowers.
+
+"There, thou hast thine eyes," said Death; "I fished them up from the lake,
+they shone so bright; I knew not they were thine. Take them again, they are
+now brighter than before; now look down into the deep well close by; I shall
+tell thee the names of the two flowers thou wouldst have torn up, and thou
+wilt see their whole future life--their whole human existence: and see what
+thou wast about to disturb and destroy."
+
+And she looked down into the well; and it was a happiness to see how the one
+became a blessing to the world, to see how much happiness and joy were felt
+everywhere. And she saw the other's life, and it was sorrow and distress,
+horror, and wretchedness.
+
+"Both of them are God's will!" said Death.
+
+"Which of them is Misfortune's flower and which is that of Happiness?" asked
+she.
+
+"That I will not tell thee," said Death; "but this thou shalt know from me,
+that the one flower was thy own child! it was thy child's fate thou
+saw'st--thy own child's future life!"
+
+Then the mother screamed with terror, "Which of them was my child? Tell it me!
+Save the innocent! Save my child from all that misery! Rather take it away!
+Take it into God's kingdom! Forget my tears, forget my prayers, and all that I
+have done!"
+
+"I do not understand thee!" said Death. "Wilt thou have thy child again, or
+shall I go with it there, where thou dost not know!"
+
+Then the mother wrung her hands, fell on her knees, and prayed to our Lord:
+"Oh, hear me not when I pray against Thy will, which is the best! hear me not!
+hear me not!"
+
+And she bowed her head down in her lap, and Death took her child and went with
+it into the unknown land.
+
+
+
+THE FALSE COLLAR
+
+There was once a fine gentleman, all of whose moveables were a boot-jack and a
+hair-comb: but he had the finest false collars in the world; and it is about
+one of these collars that we are now to hear a story.
+
+It was so old, that it began to think of marriage; and it happened that it
+came to be washed in company with a garter.
+
+"Nay!" said the collar. "I never did see anything so slender and so fine, so
+soft and so neat. May I not ask your name?"
+
+"That I shall not tell you!" said the garter.
+
+"Where do you live?" asked the collar.
+
+But the garter was so bashful, so modest, and thought it was a strange
+question to answer.
+
+"You are certainly a girdle," said the collar; "that is to say an inside
+girdle. I see well that you are both for use and ornament, my dear young
+lady."
+
+"I will thank you not to speak to me," said the garter. "I think I have not
+given the least occasion for it."
+
+"Yes! When one is as handsome as you," said the collar, "that is occasion
+enough."
+
+"Don't come so near me, I beg of you!" said the garter. "You look so much like
+those men-folks."
+
+"I am also a fine gentleman," said the collar. "I have a bootjack and a
+hair-comb."
+
+But that was not true, for it was his master who had them: but he boasted.
+
+"Don't come so near me," said the garter: "I am not accustomed to it."
+
+"Prude!" exclaimed the collar; and then it was taken out of the washing-tub.
+It was starched, hung over the back of a chair in the sunshine, and was then
+laid on the ironing-blanket; then came the warm box-iron. "Dear lady!" said
+the collar. "Dear widow-lady! I feel quite hot. I am quite changed. I begin to
+unfold myself. You will burn a hole in me. Oh! I offer you my hand."
+
+"Rag!" said the box-iron; and went proudly over the collar: for she fancied
+she was a steam-engine, that would go on the railroad and draw the waggons.
+"Rag!" said the box-iron.
+
+The collar was a little jagged at the edge, and so came the long scissors to
+cut off the jagged part. "Oh!" said the collar. "You are certainly the first
+opera dancer. How well you can stretch your legs out! It is the most graceful
+performance I have ever seen. No one can imitate you."
+
+"I know it," said the scissors.
+
+"You deserve to be a baroness," said the collar. "All that I have is a fine
+gentleman, a boot-jack, and a hair-comb. If I only had the barony!"
+
+"Do you seek my hand?" said the scissors; for she was angry; and without more
+ado, she CUT HIM, and then he was condemned.
+
+"I shall now be obliged to ask the hair-comb. It is surprising how well you
+preserve your teeth, Miss," said the collar. "Have you never thought of being
+betrothed?"
+
+"Yes, of course! you may be sure of that," said the hair-comb. "I AM
+betrothed--to the boot-jack!"
+
+"Betrothed!" exclaimed the collar. Now there was no other to court, and so he
+despised it.
+
+A long time passed away, then the collar came into the rag chest at the paper
+mill; there was a large company of rags, the fine by themselves, and the
+coarse by themselves, just as it should be. They all had much to say, but the
+collar the most; for he was a real boaster.
+
+"I have had such an immense number of sweethearts!" said the collar. "I could
+not be in peace! It is true, I was always a fine starched-up gentleman! I had
+both a boot-jack and a hair-comb, which I never used! You should have seen me
+then, you should have seen me when I lay down! I shall never forget MY FIRST
+LOVE--she was a girdle, so fine, so soft, and so charming, she threw herself
+into a tub of water for my sake! There was also a widow, who became glowing
+hot, but I left her standing till she got black again; there was also the
+first opera dancer, she gave me that cut which I now go with, she was so
+ferocious! My own hair-comb was in love with me, she lost all her teeth from
+the heart-ache; yes, I have lived to see much of that sort of thing;
+but I am extremely sorry for the garter--I mean the girdle--that went into the
+water-tub. I have much on my conscience, I want to become white paper!"
+
+And it became so, all the rags were turned into white paper; but the collar
+came to be just this very piece of white paper we here see, and on which the
+story is printed; and that was because it boasted so terribly afterwards of
+what had never happened to it. It would be well for us to beware, that we may
+not act in a similar manner, for we can never know if we may not, in the
+course of time, also come into the rag chest, and be made into white paper,
+and then have our whole life's history printed on it, even the most secret,
+and be obliged to run about and tell it ourselves, just like this collar.
+
+
+
+THE SHADOW
+
+It is in the hot lands that the sun burns, sure enough! there the people
+become quite a mahogany brown, ay, and in the HOTTEST lands they are burnt to
+Negroes. But now it was only to the HOT lands that a learned man had come from
+the cold; there he thought that he could run about just as when at home, but
+he soon found out his mistake.
+
+He, and all sensible folks, were obliged to stay within doors--the
+window-shutters and doors were closed the whole day; it looked as if the whole
+house slept, or there was no one at home.
+
+The narrow street with the high houses, was built so that the sunshine must
+fall there from morning till evening--it was really not to be borne.
+
+The learned man from the cold lands--he was a young man, and seemed to be a
+clever man--sat in a glowing oven; it took effect on him, he became quite
+meagre--even his shadow shrunk in, for the sun had also an effect on it. It
+was first towards evening when the sun was down, that they began to freshen up
+again.
+
+In the warm lands every window has a balcony, and the people came out on all
+the balconies in the street--for one must have air, even if one be accustomed
+to be mahogany!* It was lively both up and down the street. Tailors, and
+shoemakers, and all the folks, moved out into the street--chairs and tables
+were brought forth--and candles burnt--yes, above a thousand lights were
+burning--and the one talked and the other sung; and people walked and
+church-bells rang, and asses went along with a dingle-dingle-dong! for they
+too had bells on. The street boys were screaming and hooting, and shouting and
+shooting, with devils and detonating balls--and there came corpse bearers and
+hood wearers--for there were funerals with psalm and hymn--and then the din of
+carriages driving and company arriving: yes, it was, in truth, lively enough
+down in the street. Only in that single house, which stood opposite that in
+which the learned foreigner lived, it was quite still; and yet some one lived
+there, for there stood flowers in the balcony--they grew so well in the sun's
+heat! and that they could not do unless they were watered--and some one must
+water them--there must be somebody there. The door opposite was also opened
+late in the evening, but it was dark within, at least in the front room;
+further in there was heard the sound of music. The learned foreigner thought
+it quite marvellous, but now--it might be that he only imagined it--for he
+found everything marvellous out there, in the warm lands, if there had only
+been no sun. The stranger's landlord said that he didn't know who had taken
+the house opposite, one saw no person about, and as to the music, it appeared
+to him to be extremely tiresome. "It is as if some one sat there, and
+practised a piece that he could not master--always the same piece. 'I shall
+master it!' says he; but yet he cannot master it, however long he plays."
+
+* The word mahogany can be understood, in Danish, as having two meanings.
+In general, it means the reddish-brown wood itself; but in jest, it signifies
+"excessively fine," which arose from an anecdote of Nyboder, in Copenhagen,
+(the seamen's quarter.) A sailor's wife, who was always proud and fine, in her
+way, came to her neighbor, and complained that she had got a splinter in her
+finger. "What of?" asked the neighbor's wife. "It is a mahogany splinter,"
+said the other. "Mahogany! It cannot be less with you!" exclaimed the
+woman--and thence the proverb, "It is so mahogany!"--(that is, so excessively
+fine)--is derived.
+
+
+One night the stranger awoke--he slept with the doors of the balcony open--the
+curtain before it was raised by the wind, and he thought that a strange lustre
+came from the opposite neighbor's house; all the flowers shone like flames, in
+the most beautiful colors, and in the midst of the flowers stood a slender,
+graceful maiden--it was as if she also shone; the light really hurt his eyes.
+He now opened them quite wide--yes, he was quite awake; with one spring he was
+on the floor; he crept gently behind the curtain, but the maiden was gone; the
+flowers shone no longer, but there they stood, fresh and blooming as ever; the
+door was ajar, and, far within, the music sounded so soft and delightful, one
+could really melt away in sweet thoughts from it. Yet it was like a piece of
+enchantment. And who lived there? Where was the actual entrance? The whole of
+the ground-floor was a row of shops, and there people could not always be
+running through.
+
+One evening the stranger sat out on the balcony. The light burnt in the room
+behind him; and thus it was quite natural that his shadow should fall on his
+opposite neighbor's wall. Yes! there it sat, directly opposite, between the
+flowers on the balcony; and when the stranger moved, the shadow also moved:
+for that it always does.
+
+"I think my shadow is the only living thing one sees over there," said the
+learned man. "See, how nicely it sits between the flowers. The door stands
+half-open: now the shadow should be cunning, and go into the room, look about,
+and then come and tell me what it had seen. Come, now! Be useful, and do me a
+service," said he, in jest. "Have the kindness to step in. Now! Art thou
+going?" and then he nodded to the shadow, and the shadow nodded again. "Well
+then, go! But don't stay away."
+
+The stranger rose, and his shadow on the opposite neighbor's balcony rose
+also; the stranger turned round and the shadow also turned round. Yes! if
+anyone had paid particular attention to it, they would have seen, quite
+distinctly, that the shadow went in through the half-open balcony-door of
+their opposite neighbor, just as the stranger went into his own room, and let
+the long curtain fall down after him.
+
+Next morning, the learned man went out to drink coffee and read the
+newspapers.
+
+"What is that?" said he, as he came out into the sunshine. "I have no shadow!
+So then, it has actually gone last night, and not come again. It is really
+tiresome!"
+
+This annoyed him: not so much because the shadow was gone, but because he knew
+there was a story about a man without a shadow.* It was known to everybody at
+home, in the cold lands; and if the learned man now came there and told his
+story, they would say that he was imitating it, and that he had no need to do.
+He would, therefore, not talk about it at all; and that was wisely thought.
+
+*Peter Schlemihl, the shadowless man.
+
+
+In the evening he went out again on the balcony. He had placed the light
+directly behind him, for he knew that the shadow would always have its master
+for a screen, but he could not entice it. He made himself little; he made
+himself great: but no shadow came again. He said, "Hem! hem!" but it was of no
+use.
+
+It was vexatious; but in the warm lands everything grows so quickly; and after
+the lapse of eight days he observed, to his great joy, that a new shadow came
+in the sunshine. In the course of three weeks he had a very fair shadow,
+which, when he set out for his home in the northern lands, grew more and more
+in the journey, so that at last it was so long and so large, that it was more
+than sufficient.
+
+The learned man then came home, and he wrote books about what was true in the
+world, and about what was good and what was beautiful; and there passed days
+and years--yes! many years passed away.
+
+One evening, as he was sitting in his room, there was a gentle knocking at the
+door.
+
+"Come in!" said he; but no one came in; so he opened the door, and there stood
+before him such an extremely lean man, that he felt quite strange. As to the
+rest, the man was very finely dressed--he must be a gentleman.
+
+"Whom have I the honor of speaking?" asked the learned man.
+
+"Yes! I thought as much," said the fine man. "I thought you would not know
+me. I have got so much body. I have even got flesh and clothes. You certainly
+never thought of seeing me so well off. Do you not know your old shadow? You
+certainly thought I should never more return. Things have gone on well with me
+since I was last with you. I have, in all respects, become very well off.
+Shall I purchase my freedom from service? If so, I can do it"; and then he
+rattled a whole bunch of valuable seals that hung to his watch, and he stuck
+his hand in the thick gold chain he wore around his neck--nay! how all his
+fingers glittered with diamond rings; and then all were pure gems.
+
+"Nay; I cannot recover from my surprise!" said the learned man. "What is the
+meaning of all this?"
+
+"Something common, is it not," said the shadow. "But you yourself do not
+belong to the common order; and I, as you know well, have from a child
+followed in your footsteps. As soon as you found I was capable to go out alone
+in the world, I went my own way. I am in the most brilliant circumstances, but
+there came a sort of desire over me to see you once more before you die; you
+will die, I suppose? I also wished to see this land again--for you know we
+always love our native land. I know you have got another shadow again; have I
+anything to pay to it or you? If so, you will oblige me by saying what it is."
+
+"Nay, is it really thou?" said the learned man. "It is most remarkable: I
+never imagined that one's old shadow could come again as a man."
+
+"Tell me what I have to pay," said the shadow; "for I don't like to be in any
+sort of debt."
+
+"How canst thou talk so?" said the learned man. "What debt is there to talk
+about? Make thyself as free as anyone else. I am extremely glad to hear of thy
+good fortune: sit down, old friend, and tell me a little how it has gone with
+thee, and what thou hast seen at our opposite neighbor's there--in the warm
+lands."
+
+"Yes, I will tell you all about it," said the shadow, and sat down: "but then
+you must also promise me, that, wherever you may meet me, you will never say
+to anyone here in the town that I have been your shadow. I intend to get
+betrothed, for I can provide for more than one family."
+
+"Be quite at thy ease about that," said the learned man; "I shall not say to
+anyone who thou actually art: here is my hand--I promise it, and a man's bond
+is his word."
+
+"A word is a shadow," said the shadow, "and as such it must speak."
+
+It was really quite astonishing how much of a man it was. It was dressed
+entirely in black, and of the very finest cloth; it had patent leather boots,
+and a hat that could be folded together, so that it was bare crown and brim;
+not to speak of what we already know it had--seals, gold neck-chain, and
+diamond rings; yes, the shadow was well-dressed, and it was just that which
+made it quite a man.
+
+"Now I shall tell you my adventures," said the shadow; and then he sat, with
+the polished boots, as heavily as he could, on the arm of the learned man's
+new shadow, which lay like a poodle-dog at his feet. Now this was perhaps from
+arrogance; and the shadow on the ground kept itself so still and quiet, that
+it might hear all that passed: it wished to know how it could get free, and
+work its way up, so as to become its own master.
+
+"Do you know who lived in our opposite neighbor's house?" said the shadow. "It
+was the most charming of all beings, it was Poesy! I was there for three
+weeks, and that has as much effect as if one had lived three thousand years,
+and read all that was composed and written; that is what I say, and it is
+right. I have seen everything and I know everything!"
+
+"Poesy!" cried the learned man. "Yes, yes, she often dwells a recluse in
+large cities! Poesy! Yes, I have seen her--a single short moment, but sleep
+came into my eyes! She stood on the balcony and shone as the Aurora Borealis
+shines. Go on, go on--thou wert on the balcony, and went through the doorway,
+and then--"
+
+"Then I was in the antechamber," said the shadow. "You always sat and looked
+over to the antechamber. There was no light; there was a sort of twilight, but
+the one door stood open directly opposite the other through a long row of
+rooms and saloons, and there it was lighted up. I should have been completely
+killed if I had gone over to the maiden; but I was circumspect, I took time to
+think, and that one must always do."
+
+"And what didst thou then see?" asked the learned man.
+
+"I saw everything, and I shall tell all to you: but--it is no pride on my
+part--as a free man, and with the knowledge I have, not to speak of my
+position in life, my excellent circumstances--I certainly wish that you would
+say YOU* to me!"
+
+* It is the custom in Denmark for intimate acquaintances to use the
+second person singular, "Du," (thou) when speaking to each other. When a
+friendship is formed between men, they generally affirm it, when occasion
+offers, either in public or private, by drinking to each other and exclaiming,
+"thy health," at the same time striking their glasses together. This is called
+drinking "Duus": they are then, "Duus Brodre," (thou brothers) and ever
+afterwards use the pronoun "thou," to each other, it being regarded as more
+familiar than "De," (you). Father and mother, sister and brother say thou to
+one another--without regard to age or rank. Master and mistress say thou to
+their servants the superior to the inferior. But servants and inferiors do not
+use the same term to their masters, or superiors--nor is it ever used when
+speaking to a stranger, or anyone with whom they are but slightly acquainted
+--they then say as in English--you.
+
+
+"I beg your pardon," said the learned man; "it is an old habit with me. YOU
+are perfectly right, and I shall remember it; but now you must tell me all YOU
+saw!"
+
+"Everything!" said the shadow. "For I saw everything, and I know everything!"
+
+"How did it look in the furthest saloon?" asked the learned man. "Was it there
+as in the fresh woods? Was it there as in a holy
+church? Were the saloons like the starlit firmament when we stand on the high
+mountains?"
+
+"Everything was there!" said the shadow. "I did not go quite in, I remained in
+the foremost room, in the twilight, but I stood there quite well; I saw
+everything, and I know everything! I have been in the antechamber at the court
+of Poesy."
+
+"But WHAT DID you see? Did all the gods of the olden times pass through the
+large saloons? Did the old heroes combat there? Did sweet children play there,
+and relate their dreams?"
+
+"I tell you I was there, and you can conceive that I saw everything there was
+to be seen. Had you come over there, you would not have been a man; but I
+became so! And besides, I learned to know my inward nature, my innate
+qualities, the relationship I had with Poesy. At the time I was with you, I
+thought not of that, but always--you know it well--when the sun rose, and when
+the sun went down, I became so strangely great; in the moonlight I was very
+near being more distinct than yourself; at that time I did not understand my
+nature; it was revealed to me in the antechamber! I became a man! I came out
+matured; but you were no longer in the warm lands; as a man I was ashamed to
+go as I did. I was in want of boots, of clothes, of the whole human varnish
+that makes a man perceptible. I took my way--I tell it to you, but you will
+not put it in any book--I took my way to the cake woman--I hid myself behind
+her; the woman didn't think how much she concealed. I went out first in the
+evening; I ran about the streets in the moonlight; I made myself long up the
+walls--it tickles the back so delightfully! I ran up, and ran down, peeped
+into the highest windows, into the saloons, and on the roofs, I peeped in
+where no one could peep, and I saw what no one else saw, what no one else
+should see! This is, in fact, a base world! I would not be a man if it were
+not now once accepted and regarded as something to be so! I saw the most
+unimaginable things with the women, with the men, with parents, and with the
+sweet, matchless children; I saw," said the shadow, "what no human being must
+know, but what they would all so willingly know--what is bad in their
+neighbor. Had I written a newspaper, it would have been read! But I wrote
+direct to the persons themselves, and there was consternation in all the
+towns where I came. They were so afraid of me, and yet they were so
+excessively fond of me. The professors made a professor of me; the tailors
+gave me new clothes--I am well furnished; the master of the mint struck new
+coin for me, and the women said I was so handsome! And so I became the man I
+am. And I now bid you farewell. Here is my card--I live on the sunny side of
+the street, and am always at home in rainy weather!" And so away went the
+shadow. "That was most extraordinary!" said the learned man. Years and days
+passed away, then the shadow came again. "How goes it?" said the shadow.
+
+"Alas!" said the learned man. "I write about the true, and the good, and the
+beautiful, but no one cares to hear such things; I am quite desperate, for I
+take it so much to heart!"
+
+"But I don't!" said the shadow. "I become fat, and it is that one wants to
+become! You do not understand the world. You will become ill by it. You must
+travel! I shall make a tour this summer; will you go with me? I should like to
+have a travelling companion! Will you go with me, as shadow? It will be a
+great pleasure for me to have you with me; I shall pay the travelling
+expenses!"
+
+"Nay, this is too much!" said the learned man.
+
+"It is just as one takes it!" said the shadow. "It will do you much good to
+travel! Will you be my shadow? You shall have everything free on the journey!"
+
+"Nay, that is too bad!" said the learned man.
+
+"But it is just so with the world!" said the shadow, "and so it will be!" and
+away it went again.
+
+The learned man was not at all in the most enviable state; grief and torment
+followed him, and what he said about the true, and the good, and the
+beautiful, was, to most persons, like roses for a cow! He was quite ill at
+last.
+
+"You really look like a shadow!" said his friends to him; and the learned man
+trembled, for he thought of it.
+
+"You must go to a watering-place!" said the shadow, who came and visited him.
+"There is nothing else for it! I will take you with me for old acquaintance'
+sake; I will pay the travelling expenses, and you write the descriptions--and
+if they are a little amusing for me on the way! I will go to a
+watering-place--my beard does not grow out as it ought--that is also a
+sickness--and one must have a beard! Now you be wise and accept the offer; we
+shall travel as comrades!"
+
+And so they travelled; the shadow was master, and the master was the shadow;
+they drove with each other, they rode and walked together, side by side,
+before and behind, just as the sun was; the shadow always took care to keep
+itself in the master's place. Now the learned man didn't think much about
+that; he was a very kind-hearted man, and particularly mild and friendly, and
+so he said one day to the shadow: "As we have now become companions, and in
+this way have grown up together from childhood, shall we not drink 'thou'
+together, it is more familiar?"
+
+"You are right," said the shadow, who was now the proper master. "It is said
+in a very straight-forward and well-meant manner. You, as a learned man,
+certainly know how strange nature is. Some persons cannot bear to touch grey
+paper, or they become ill; others shiver in every limb if one rub a pane of
+glass with a nail: I have just such a feeling on hearing you say thou to me; I
+feel myself as if pressed to the earth in my first situation with you. You see
+that it is a feeling; that it is not pride: I cannot allow you to say THOU to
+me, but I will willingly say THOU to you, so it is half done!"
+
+So the shadow said THOU to its former master.
+
+"This is rather too bad," thought he, "that I must say YOU and he say THOU,"
+but he was now obliged to put up with it.
+
+So they came to a watering-place where there were many strangers, and amongst
+them was a princess, who was troubled with seeing too well; and that was so
+alarming!
+
+She directly observed that the stranger who had just come was quite a
+different sort of person to all the others; "He has come here in order to get
+his beard to grow, they say, but I see the real cause, he cannot cast a
+shadow."
+
+She had become inquisitive; and so she entered into conversation directly with
+the strange gentleman, on their promenades. As the daughter of a king, she
+needed not to stand upon trifles, so she said, "Your complaint is, that you
+cannot cast a shadow?"
+
+"Your Royal Highness must be improving considerably," said the shadow, "I know
+your complaint is, that you see too clearly, but it has decreased, you are
+cured. I just happen to have a very unusual shadow! Do you not see that person
+who always goes with me? Other persons have a common shadow, but I do not like
+what is common to all. We give our servants finer cloth for their livery than
+we ourselves use, and so I had my shadow trimmed up into a man: yes, you see I
+have even given him a shadow. It is somewhat expensive, but I like to have
+something for myself!"
+
+"What!" thought the princess. "Should I really be cured! These baths are the
+first in the world! In our time water has wonderful powers. But I shall not
+leave the place, for it now begins to be amusing here. I am extremely fond of
+that stranger: would that his beard should not grow, for in that case he will
+leave us!"
+
+In the evening, the princess and the shadow danced together in the large
+ball-room. She was light, but he was still lighter; she had never had such a
+partner in the dance. She told him from what land she came, and he knew that
+land; he had been there, but then she was not at home; he had peeped in at the
+window, above and below--he had seen both the one and the other, and so he
+could answer the princess, and make insinuations, so that she was quite
+astonished; he must be the wisest man in the whole world! She felt such
+respect for what he knew! So that when they again danced together she fell in
+love with him; and that the shadow could remark, for she almost pierced him
+through with her eyes. So they danced once more together; and she was about to
+declare herself, but she was discreet; she thought of her country and kingdom,
+and of the many persons she would have to reign over.
+
+"He is a wise man," said she to herself--"It is well; and he dances
+delightfully--that is also good; but has he solid knowledge? That is just as
+important! He must be examined."
+
+So she began, by degrees, to question him about the most difficult things she
+could think of, and which she herself could not have answered; so that the
+shadow made a strange face.
+
+"You cannot answer these questions?" said the princess.
+
+"They belong to my childhood's learning," said the shadow. "I really believe
+my shadow, by the door there, can answer them!"
+
+"Your shadow!" said the princess. "That would indeed be marvellous!"
+
+"I will not say for a certainty that he can," said the shadow, "but I think
+so; he has now followed me for so many years, and listened to my
+conversation--I should think it possible. But your royal highness will permit
+me to observe, that he is so proud of passing himself off for a man, that when
+he is to be in a proper humor--and he must be so to answer well--he must be
+treated quite like a man."
+
+"Oh! I like that!" said the princess.
+
+So she went to the learned man by the door, and she spoke to him about the sun
+and the moon, and about persons out of and in the world, and he answered with
+wisdom and prudence.
+
+"What a man that must be who has so wise a shadow!" thought she. "It will be a
+real blessing to my people and kingdom if I choose him for my consort--I will
+do it!"
+
+They were soon agreed, both the princess and the shadow; but no one was to
+know about it before she arrived in her own kingdom.
+
+"No one--not even my shadow!" said the shadow, and he had his own thoughts
+about it!
+
+Now they were in the country where the princess reigned when she was at home.
+
+"Listen, my good friend," said the shadow to the learned man. "I have now
+become as happy and mighty as anyone can be; I will, therefore, do something
+particular for thee! Thou shalt always live with me in the palace, drive with
+me in my royal carriage, and have ten thousand pounds a year; but then thou
+must submit to be called SHADOW by all and everyone; thou must not say that
+thou hast ever been a man; and once a year, when I sit on the balcony in the
+sunshine, thou must lie at my feet, as a shadow shall do! I must tell thee: I
+am going to marry the king's daughter, and the nuptials are to take place this
+evening!"
+
+"Nay, this is going too far!" said the learned man. "I will not have it; I
+will not do it! It is to deceive the whole country and the princess too! I
+will tell everything! That I am a man, and that thou art a shadow--thou art
+only dressed up!"
+
+"There is no one who will believe it!" said the shadow. "Be reasonable, or I
+will call the guard!"
+
+"I will go directly to the princess!" said the learned man.
+
+"But I will go first!" said the shadow. "And thou wilt go to prison!" and
+that he was obliged to do--for the sentinels obeyed him whom they knew the
+king's daughter was to marry.
+
+"You tremble!" said the princess, as the shadow came into her chamber. "Has
+anything happened? You must not be unwell this evening, now that we are to
+have our nuptials celebrated."
+
+"I have lived to see the most cruel thing that anyone can live to see!" said
+the shadow. "Only imagine--yes, it is true, such a poor shadow-skull cannot
+bear much--only think, my shadow has become mad; he thinks that he is a man,
+and that I--now only think--that I am his shadow!"
+
+"It is terrible!" said the princess; "but he is confined, is he not?"
+
+"That he is. I am afraid that he will never recover."
+
+"Poor shadow!" said the princess. "He is very unfortunate; it would be a real
+work of charity to deliver him from the little life he has, and, when I think
+properly over the matter, I am of opinion that it will be necessary to do away
+with him in all stillness!"
+
+"It is certainly hard," said the shadow, "for he was a faithful servant!" and
+then he gave a sort of sigh.
+
+"You are a noble character!" said the princess.
+
+The whole city was illuminated in the evening, and the cannons went off with a
+bum! bum! and the soldiers presented arms. That was a marriage! The princess
+and the shadow went out on the balcony to show themselves, and get another
+hurrah!
+
+The learned man heard nothing of all this--for they had deprived him of life.
+
+
+
+THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL
+
+Most terribly cold it was; it snowed, and was nearly quite dark, and evening--
+the last evening of the year. In this cold and darkness there went along the
+street a poor little girl, bareheaded, and with naked feet. When she left home
+she had slippers on, it is true; but what was the good of that? They were very
+large slippers, which her mother had hitherto worn; so large were they; and
+the poor little thing lost them as she scuffled away across the street,
+because of two carriages that rolled by dreadfully fast.
+
+One slipper was nowhere to be found; the other had been laid hold of by an
+urchin, and off he ran with it; he thought it would do capitally for a cradle
+when he some day or other should have children himself. So the little maiden
+walked on with her tiny naked feet, that were quite red and blue from cold.
+She carried a quantity of matches in an old apron, and she held a bundle of
+them in her hand. Nobody had bought anything of her the whole livelong day; no
+one had given her a single farthing.
+
+She crept along trembling with cold and hunger--a very picture of sorrow, the
+poor little thing!
+
+The flakes of snow covered her long fair hair, which fell in beautiful curls
+around her neck; but of that, of course, she never once now thought. From all
+the windows the candles were gleaming, and it smelt so deliciously of roast
+goose, for you know it was New Year's Eve; yes, of that she thought.
+
+In a corner formed by two houses, of which one advanced more than the other,
+she seated herself down and cowered together. Her little feet she had drawn
+close up to her, but she grew colder and colder, and to go home she did not
+venture, for she had not sold any matches and could not bring a farthing of
+money: from her father she would certainly get blows, and at home it was cold
+too, for above her she had only the roof, through which the wind whistled,
+even though the largest cracks were stopped up with straw and rags.
+
+Her little hands were almost numbed with cold. Oh! a match might afford her a
+world of comfort, if she only dared take a single one out of the bundle, draw
+it against the wall, and warm her fingers by it. She drew one out. "Rischt!"
+how it blazed, how it burnt! It was a warm, bright flame, like a candle, as
+she held her hands over it: it was a wonderful light. It seemed really to the
+little maiden as though she were sitting before a large iron stove, with
+burnished brass feet and a brass ornament at top. The fire burned with such
+blessed influence; it warmed so delightfully. The little girl had already
+stretched out her feet to warm them too; but--the small flame went out, the
+stove vanished: she had only the remains of the burnt-out match in her hand.
+
+She rubbed another against the wall: it burned brightly, and where the light
+fell on the wall, there the wall became transparent like a veil, so that she
+could see into the room. On the table was spread a snow-white tablecloth; upon
+it was a splendid porcelain service, and the roast goose was steaming famously
+with its stuffing of apple and dried plums. And what was still more capital to
+behold was, the goose hopped down from the dish, reeled about on the floor
+with knife and fork in its breast, till it came up to the poor little girl;
+when--the match went out and nothing but the thick, cold, damp wall was left
+behind. She lighted another match. Now there she was sitting under the most
+magnificent Christmas tree: it was still larger, and more decorated than the
+one which she had seen through the glass door in the rich merchant's house.
+
+Thousands of lights were burning on the green branches, and gaily-colored
+pictures, such as she had seen in the shop-windows, looked down upon her.
+The little maiden stretched out her hands towards them when--the match went
+out. The lights of the Christmas tree rose higher and higher, she saw them now
+as stars in heaven; one fell down and formed a long trail of fire.
+
+"Someone is just dead!" said the little girl; for her old grandmother, the
+only person who had loved her, and who was now no more, had told her, that
+when a star falls, a soul ascends to God.
+
+She drew another match against the wall: it was again light, and in the lustre
+there stood the old grandmother, so bright and radiant, so mild, and with such
+an expression of love.
+
+"Grandmother!" cried the little one. "Oh, take me with you! You go away when
+the match burns out; you vanish like the warm stove, like the delicious roast
+goose, and like the magnificent Christmas tree!" And she rubbed the whole
+bundle of matches quickly against the wall, for she wanted to be quite sure of
+keeping her grandmother near her. And the matches gave such a brilliant light
+that it was brighter than at noon-day: never formerly had the grandmother been
+so beautiful and so tall. She took the little maiden, on her arm, and both
+flew in brightness and in joy so high, so very high, and then above was
+neither cold, nor hunger, nor anxiety--they were with God.
+
+But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with rosy
+cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the wall--frozen to death on
+the last evening of the old year. Stiff and stark sat the child there with her
+matches, of which one bundle had been burnt. "She wanted to warm herself,"
+people said. No one had the slightest suspicion of what beautiful things she
+had seen; no one even dreamed of the splendor in which, with her grandmother
+she had entered on the joys of a new year.
+
+
+
+THE DREAM OF LITTLE TUK
+
+Ah! yes, that was little Tuk: in reality his name was not Tuk, but that was
+what he called himself before he could speak plain: he meant it for Charles,
+and it is all well enough if one does but know it. He had now to take care of
+his little sister Augusta, who was much younger than himself, and he was,
+besides, to learn his lesson at the same time; but these two things would not
+do together at all. There sat the poor little fellow, with his sister on his
+lap, and he sang to her all the songs he knew; and he glanced the while from
+time to time into the geography-book that lay open before him. By the next
+morning he was to have learnt all the towns in Zealand by heart, and to know
+about them all that is possible to be known.
+
+His mother now came home, for she had been out, and took little Augusta on her
+arm. Tuk ran quickly to the window, and read so eagerly that he pretty nearly
+read his eyes out; for it got darker and darker, but his mother had no money
+to buy a candle.
+
+"There goes the old washerwoman over the way," said his mother, as she looked
+out of the window. "The poor woman can hardly drag herself along, and she must
+now drag the pail home from the fountain. Be a good boy, Tukey, and run across
+and help the old woman, won't you?"
+
+So Tuk ran over quickly and helped her; but when he came back again into the
+room it was quite dark, and as to a light, there was no thought of such a
+thing. He was now to go to bed; that was an old turn-up bedstead; in it he lay
+and thought about his geography lesson, and of Zealand, and of all that his
+master had told him. He ought, to be sure, to have read over his lesson again,
+but that, you know, he could not do. He therefore put his geography-book under
+his pillow, because he had heard that was a very good thing to do when one
+wants to learn one's lesson; but one cannot, however, rely upon it entirely.
+Well, there he lay, and thought and thought, and all at once it was just as if
+someone kissed his eyes and mouth: he slept, and yet he did not sleep; it was
+as though the old washerwoman gazed on him with her mild eyes and said, "It
+were a great sin if you were not to know your lesson tomorrow morning. You
+have aided me, I therefore will now help you; and the loving God will do so at
+all times." And all of a sudden the book under Tuk's pillow began scraping and
+scratching.
+
+"Kickery-ki! kluk! kluk! kluk!"--that was an old hen who came creeping along,
+and she was from Kjoge. "I am a Kjoger hen,"* said she, and then she related
+how many inhabitants there were there, and about the battle that had taken
+place, and which, after all, was hardly worth talking about.
+
+* Kjoge, a town in the bay of Kjoge. "To see the Kjoge hens," is an
+expression similar to "showing a child London," which is said to be done by
+taking his head in both bands, and so lifting him off the ground. At the
+invasion of the English in 1807, an encounter of a no very glorious nature
+took place between the British troops and the undisciplined Danish militia.
+
+
+"Kribledy, krabledy--plump!" down fell somebody: it was a wooden bird, the
+popinjay used at the shooting-matches at Prastoe. Now he said that there were
+just as many inhabitants as he had nails in his body; and he was very proud.
+"Thorwaldsen lived almost next door to me.* Plump! Here I lie capitally."
+
+* Prastoe, a still smaller town than Kjoge. Some hundred paces from it lies
+the manor-house Ny Soe, where Thorwaldsen, the famed sculptor, generally
+sojourned during his stay in Denmark, and where he called many of his immortal
+works into existence.
+
+
+But little Tuk was no longer lying down: all at once he was on horseback. On
+he went at full gallop, still galloping on and on. A knight with a gleaming
+plume, and most magnificently dressed, held him before him on the horse, and
+thus they rode through the wood to the old town of Bordingborg, and that was a
+large and very lively town. High towers rose from the castle of the king, and
+the brightness of many candles streamed from all the windows; within was dance
+and song, and King Waldemar and the young, richly-attired maids of honor
+danced together. The morn now came; and as soon as the sun appeared, the whole
+town and the king's palace crumbled together, and one tower after the other;
+and at last only a single one remained standing where the castle had been
+before,* and the town was so small and poor, and the school boys came along
+with their books under their arms, and said, "2000 inhabitants!" but that was
+not true, for there were not so many.
+
+*Bordingborg, in the reign of King Waldemar, a considerable place, now an
+unimportant little town. One solitary tower only, and some remains of a wall,
+show where the castle once stood.
+
+
+And little Tukey lay in his bed: it seemed to him as if he dreamed, and yet as
+if he were not dreaming; however, somebody was close beside him.
+
+"Little Tukey! Little Tukey!" cried someone near. It was a seaman, quite a
+little personage, so little as if he were a midshipman; but a midshipman it
+was not.
+
+"Many remembrances from Corsor.* That is a town that is just rising into
+importance; a lively town that has steam-boats and stagecoaches: formerly
+people called it ugly, but that is no longer true. I lie on the sea," said
+Corsor; "I have high roads and gardens, and I have given birth to a poet who
+was witty and amusing, which all poets are not. I once intended to equip a
+ship that was to sail all round the earth; but I did not do it, although I
+could have done so: and then, too, I smell so deliciously, for close before
+the gate bloom the most beautiful roses."
+
+*Corsor, on the Great Belt, called, formerly, before the introduction of
+steam-vessels, when travellers were often obliged to wait a long time for a
+favorable wind, "the most tiresome of towns." The poet Baggesen was born here.
+
+
+Little Tuk looked, and all was red and green before his eyes; but as soon as
+the confusion of colors was somewhat over, all of a sudden there appeared a
+wooded slope close to the bay, and high up above stood a magnificent old
+church, with two high pointed towers. From out the hill-side spouted fountains
+in thick streams of water, so that there was a continual splashing; and close
+beside them sat an old king with a golden crown upon his white head: that was
+King Hroar, near the fountains, close to the town of Roeskilde, as it is now
+called. And up the slope into the old church went all the kings and queens of
+Denmark, hand in hand, all with their golden crowns; and the organ played and
+the fountains rustled. Little Tuk saw all, heard all. "Do not forget the
+diet," said King Hroar.*
+
+*Roeskilde, once the capital of Denmark. The town takes its name from
+King Hroar, and the many fountains in the neighborhood. In the beautiful
+cathedral the greater number of the kings and queens of Denmark are interred.
+In Roeskilde, too, the members of the Danish Diet assemble.
+
+
+Again all suddenly disappeared. Yes, and whither? It seemed to him just as if
+one turned over a leaf in a book. And now stood there an old peasant-woman,
+who came from Soroe,* where grass grows in the market-place. She had an old
+grey linen apron hanging over her head and back: it was so wet, it certainly
+must have been raining. "Yes, that it has," said she; and she now related many
+pretty things out of Holberg's comedies, and about Waldemar and Absalon; but
+all at once she cowered together, and her head began shaking backwards and
+forwards, and she looked as she were going to make a spring. "Croak! croak!"
+said she. "It is wet, it is wet; there is such a pleasant deathlike stillness
+in Sorbe!" She was now suddenly a frog, "Croak"; and now she was an old woman.
+"One must dress according to the weather," said she. "It is wet; it is wet. My
+town is just like a bottle; and one gets in by the neck, and by the neck one
+must get out again! In former times I had the finest fish, and now I have
+fresh rosy-cheeked boys at the bottom of the bottle, who learn wisdom, Hebrew,
+Greek--Croak!"
+
+* Sorbe, a very quiet little town, beautifully situated, surrounded by woods
+and lakes. Holberg, Denmark's Moliere, founded here an academy for the sons of
+the nobles. The poets Hauch and Ingemann were appointed professors here. The
+latter lives there still.
+
+
+When she spoke it sounded just like the noise of frogs, or as if one walked
+with great boots over a moor; always the same tone, so uniform and so tiring
+that little Tuk fell into a good sound sleep, which, by the bye, could not do
+him any harm.
+
+But even in this sleep there came a dream, or whatever else it was: his little
+sister Augusta, she with the blue eyes and the fair curling hair, was suddenly
+a tall, beautiful girl, and without having wings was yet able to fly; and she
+now flew over Zealand--over the green woods and the blue lakes.
+
+"Do you hear the cock crow, Tukey? Cock-a-doodle-doo! The cocks are flying up
+from Kjoge! You will have a farm-yard, so large, oh! so very large! You will
+suffer neither hunger nor thirst! You will get on in the world! You will be a
+rich and happy man! Your house will exalt itself like King Waldemar's tower,
+and will be richly decorated with marble statues, like that at Prastoe. You
+understand what I mean. Your name shall circulate with renown all round the
+earth, like unto the ship that was to have sailed from Corsor; and in
+Roeskilde--"
+
+"Do not forget the diet!" said King Hroar.
+
+"Then you will speak well and wisely, little Tukey; and when at last you sink
+into your grave, you shall sleep as quietly--"
+
+"As if I lay in Soroe," said Tuk, awaking. It was bright day, and he was now
+quite unable to call to mind his dream; that, however, was not at all
+necessary, for one may not know what the future will bring.
+
+And out of bed he jumped, and read in his book, and now all at once he knew
+his whole lesson. And the old washerwoman popped her head in at the door,
+nodded to him friendly, and said, "Thanks, many thanks, my good child, for
+your help! May the good ever-loving God fulfil your loveliest dream!"
+
+Little Tukey did not at all know what he had dreamed, but the loving God knew
+it.
+
+
+
+THE NAUGHTY BOY
+
+Along time ago, there lived an old poet, a thoroughly kind old poet. As he was
+sitting one evening in his room, a dreadful storm arose without, and the rain
+streamed down from heaven; but the old poet sat warm and comfortable in his
+chimney-corner, where the fire blazed and the roasting apple hissed.
+
+"Those who have not a roof over their heads will be wetted to the skin," said
+the good old poet.
+
+"Oh let me in! Let me in! I am cold, and I'm so wet!" exclaimed suddenly a
+child that stood crying at the door and knocking for admittance, while the
+rain poured down, and the wind made all the windows rattle.
+
+"Poor thing!" said the old poet, as he went to open the door. There stood a
+little boy, quite naked, and the water ran down from his long golden hair; he
+trembled with cold, and had he not come into a warm room he would most
+certainly have perished in the frightful tempest.
+
+"Poor child!" said the old poet, as he took the boy by the hand. "Come in,
+come in, and I will soon restore thee! Thou shalt have wine and roasted
+apples, for thou art verily a charming child!" And the boy was so really. His
+eyes were like two bright stars; and although the water trickled down his
+hair, it waved in beautiful curls. He looked exactly like a little angel, but
+he was so pale, and his whole body trembled with cold. He had a nice little
+bow in his hand, but it was quite spoiled by the rain, and the tints of his
+many-colored arrows ran one into the other.
+
+The old poet seated himself beside his hearth, and took the little fellow on
+his lap; he squeezed the water out of his dripping hair, warmed his hands
+between his own, and boiled for him some sweet wine. Then the boy recovered,
+his cheeks again grew rosy, he jumped down from the lap where he was sitting,
+and danced round the kind old poet.
+
+"You are a merry fellow," said the old man. "What's your name?"
+
+"My name is Cupid," answered the boy. "Don't you know me? There lies my bow;
+it shoots well, I can assure you! Look, the weather is now clearing up, and
+the moon is shining clear again through the window."
+
+"Why, your bow is quite spoiled," said the old poet.
+
+"That were sad indeed," said the boy, and he took the bow in his hand and
+examined it on every side. "Oh, it is dry again, and is not hurt at all; the
+string is quite tight. I will try it directly." And he bent his bow, took aim,
+and shot an arrow at the old poet, right into his heart. "You see now that my
+bow was not spoiled," said he laughing; and away he ran.
+
+The naughty boy, to shoot the old poet in that way; he who had taken him into
+his warm room, who had treated him so kindly, and who had given him warm wine
+and the very best apples!
+
+The poor poet lay on the earth and wept, for the arrow had really flown into
+his heart.
+
+"Fie!" said he. "How naughty a boy Cupid is! I will tell all children about
+him, that they may take care and not play with him, for he will only cause
+them sorrow and many a heartache."
+
+And all good children to whom he related this story, took great heed of this
+naughty Cupid; but he made fools of them still, for he is astonishingly
+cunning. When the university students come from the lectures, he runs beside
+them in a black coat, and with a book under his arm. It is quite impossible
+for them to know him, and they walk along with him arm in arm, as if he, too,
+were a student like themselves; and then, unperceived, he thrusts an arrow to
+their bosom. When the young maidens come from being examined by the clergyman,
+or go to church to be confirmed, there he is again close behind them. Yes, he
+is forever following people. At the play, he sits in the great chandelier and
+burns in bright flames, so that people think it is really a flame, but they
+soon discover it is something else. He roves about in the garden of the palace
+and upon the ramparts: yes, once he even shot your father and mother right in
+the heart. Ask them only and you will hear what they'll tell you. Oh, he is a
+naughty boy, that Cupid; you must never have anything to do with him. He is
+forever running after everybody. Only think, he shot an arrow once at your old
+grandmother! But that is a long time ago, and it is all past now; however, a
+thing of that sort she never forgets. Fie, naughty Cupid! But now you know
+him, and you know, too, how ill-behaved he is!
+
+
+
+THE RED SHOES
+
+There was once a little girl who was very pretty and delicate, but in summer
+she was forced to run about with bare feet, she was so poor, and in winter
+wear very large wooden shoes, which made her little insteps quite red, and
+that looked so dangerous!
+
+In the middle of the village lived old Dame Shoemaker; she sat and sewed
+together, as well as she could, a little pair of shoes out of old red strips
+of cloth; they were very clumsy, but it was a kind thought. They were meant
+for the little girl. The little girl was called Karen.
+
+On the very day her mother was buried, Karen received the red shoes, and wore
+them for the first time. They were certainly not intended for mourning, but
+she had no others, and with stockingless feet she followed the poor straw
+coffin in them.
+
+Suddenly a large old carriage drove up, and a large old lady sat in it: she
+looked at the little girl, felt compassion for her, and then said to the
+clergyman:
+
+"Here, give me the little girl. I will adopt her!"
+
+And Karen believed all this happened on account of the red shoes, but the old
+lady thought they were horrible, and they were burnt. But Karen herself was
+cleanly and nicely dressed; she must learn to read and sew; and people said
+she was a nice little thing, but the looking-glass said: "Thou art more than
+nice, thou art beautiful!"
+
+Now the queen once travelled through the land, and she had her little daughter
+with her. And this little daughter was a princess, and people streamed to the
+castle, and Karen was there also, and the little princess stood in her fine
+white dress, in a window, and let herself be stared at; she had neither a
+train nor a golden crown, but splendid red morocco shoes. They were certainly
+far handsomer than those Dame Shoemaker had made for little Karen. Nothing in
+the world can be compared with red shoes.
+
+Now Karen was old enough to be confirmed; she had new clothes and was to have
+new shoes also. The rich shoemaker in the city took the measure of her little
+foot. This took place at his house, in his room; where stood large
+glass-cases, filled with elegant shoes and brilliant boots. All this looked
+charming, but the old lady could not see well, and so had no pleasure in them.
+In the midst of the shoes stood a pair of red ones, just like those the
+princess had worn. How beautiful they were! The shoemaker said also they had
+been made for the child of a count, but had not fitted.
+
+"That must be patent leather!" said the old lady. "They shine so!"
+
+"Yes, they shine!" said Karen, and they fitted, and were bought, but the old
+lady knew nothing about their being red, else she would never have allowed
+Karen to have gone in red shoes to be confirmed. Yet such was the case.
+
+Everybody looked at her feet; and when she stepped through the chancel door on
+the church pavement, it seemed to her as if the old figures on the tombs,
+those portraits of old preachers and preachers' wives, with stiff ruffs, and
+long black dresses, fixed their eyes on her red shoes. And she thought only of
+them as the clergyman laid his hand upon her head, and spoke of the holy
+baptism, of the covenant with God, and how she should be now a matured
+Christian; and the organ pealed so solemnly; the sweet children's voices sang,
+and the old music-directors sang, but Karen only thought of her red shoes.
+
+In the afternoon, the old lady heard from everyone that the shoes had been
+red, and she said that it was very wrong of Karen, that it was not at all
+becoming, and that in future Karen should only go in black shoes to church,
+even when she should be older.
+
+The next Sunday there was the sacrament, and Karen looked at the black shoes,
+looked at the red ones--looked at them again, and put on the red shoes.
+
+The sun shone gloriously; Karen and the old lady walked along the path through
+the corn; it was rather dusty there.
+
+At the church door stood an old soldier with a crutch, and with a wonderfully
+long beard, which was more red than white, and he bowed to the ground, and
+asked the old lady whether he might dust her shoes. And Karen stretched out
+her little foot.
+
+"See, what beautiful dancing shoes!" said the soldier. "Sit firm when you
+dance"; and he put his hand out towards the soles.
+
+And the old lady gave the old soldier alms, and went into the church with
+Karen.
+
+And all the people in the church looked at Karen's red shoes, and all the
+pictures, and as Karen knelt before the altar, and raised the cup to her
+lips, she only thought of the red shoes, and they seemed to swim in it; and
+she forgot to sing her psalm, and she forgot to pray, "Our Father in Heaven!"
+
+Now all the people went out of church, and the old lady got into her carriage.
+Karen raised her foot to get in after her, when the old soldier said,
+
+"Look, what beautiful dancing shoes!"
+
+And Karen could not help dancing a step or two, and when she began her feet
+continued to dance; it was just as though the shoes had power over them. She
+danced round the church corner, she could not leave off; the coachman was
+obliged to run after and catch hold of her, and he lifted her in the carriage,
+but her feet continued to dance so that she trod on the old lady dreadfully.
+At length she took the shoes off, and then her legs had peace.
+
+The shoes were placed in a closet at home, but Karen could not avoid looking
+at them.
+
+Now the old lady was sick, and it was said she could not recover. She must be
+nursed and waited upon, and there was no one whose duty it was so much as
+Karen's. But there was a great ball in the city, to which Karen was invited.
+She looked at the old lady, who could not recover, she looked at the red
+shoes, and she thought there could be no sin in it; she put on the red shoes,
+she might do that also, she thought. But then she went to the ball and began
+to dance.
+
+When she wanted to dance to the right, the shoes would dance to the left, and
+when she wanted to dance up the room, the shoes danced back again, down the
+steps, into the street, and out of the city gate. She danced, and was forced
+to dance straight out into the gloomy wood.
+
+Then it was suddenly light up among the trees, and she fancied it must be the
+moon, for there was a face; but it was the old soldier with the red beard; he
+sat there, nodded his head, and said, "Look, what beautiful dancing shoes!"
+
+Then she was terrified, and wanted to fling off the red shoes, but they clung
+fast; and she pulled down her stockings, but the shoes seemed to have grown to
+her feet. And she danced, and must dance, over fields and meadows, in rain and
+sunshine, by night and day; but at night it was the most fearful.
+
+She danced over the churchyard, but the dead did not dance--they had
+something better to do than to dance. She wished to seat herself on a poor
+man's grave, where the bitter tansy grew; but for her there was neither peace
+nor rest; and when she danced towards the open church door, she saw an angel
+standing there. He wore long, white garments; he had wings which reached from
+his shoulders to the earth; his countenance was severe and grave; and in his
+hand he held a sword, broad and glittering.
+
+"Dance shalt thou!" said he. "Dance in thy red shoes till thou art pale and
+cold! Till thy skin shrivels up and thou art a skeleton! Dance shalt thou from
+door to door, and where proud, vain children dwell, thou shalt knock, that
+they may hear thee and tremble! Dance shalt thou--!"
+
+"Mercy!" cried Karen. But she did not hear the angel's reply, for the shoes
+carried her through the gate into the fields, across roads and bridges, and
+she must keep ever dancing.
+
+One morning she danced past a door which she well knew. Within sounded a
+psalm; a coffin, decked with flowers, was borne forth. Then she knew that the
+old lady was dead, and felt that she was abandoned by all, and condemned by
+the angel of God.
+
+She danced, and she was forced to dance through the gloomy night. The shoes
+carried her over stack and stone; she was torn till she bled; she danced over
+the heath till she came to a little house. Here, she knew, dwelt the
+executioner; and she tapped with her fingers at the window, and said, "Come
+out! Come out! I cannot come in, for I am forced to dance!"
+
+And the executioner said, "Thou dost not know who I am, I fancy? I strike bad
+people's heads off; and I hear that my axe rings!"
+
+"Don't strike my head off!" said Karen. "Then I can't repent of my sins! But
+strike off my feet in the red shoes!"
+
+And then she confessed her entire sin, and the executioner struck off her feet
+with the red shoes, but the shoes danced away with the little feet across the
+field into the deep wood.
+
+And he carved out little wooden feet for her, and crutches, taught her the
+psalm criminals always sing; and she kissed the hand which had wielded the
+axe, and went over the heath.
+
+"Now I have suffered enough for the red shoes!" said she. "Now I will go into
+the church that people may see me!" And she hastened towards the church door:
+but when she was near it, the red shoes danced before her, and she was
+terrified, and turned round. The whole week she was unhappy, and wept many
+bitter tears; but when Sunday returned, she said, "Well, now I have suffered
+and struggled enough! I really believe I am as good as many a one who sits in
+the church, and holds her head so high!"
+
+And away she went boldly; but she had not got farther than the churchyard gate
+before she saw the red shoes dancing before her; and she was frightened, and
+turned back, and repented of her sin from her heart.
+
+And she went to the parsonage, and begged that they would take her into
+service; she would be very industrious, she said, and would do everything she
+could; she did not care about the wages, only she wished to have a home, and
+be with good people. And the clergyman's wife was sorry for her and took her
+into service; and she was industrious and thoughtful. She sat still and
+listened when the clergyman read the Bible in the evenings. All the children
+thought a great deal of her; but when they spoke of dress, and grandeur, and
+beauty, she shook her head.
+
+The following Sunday, when the family was going to church, they asked her
+whether she would not go with them; but she glanced sorrowfully, with tears in
+her eyes, at her crutches. The family went to hear the word of God; but she
+went alone into her little chamber; there was only room for a bed and chair to
+stand in it; and here she sat down with her Prayer-Book; and whilst she read
+with a pious mind, the wind bore the strains of the organ towards her, and she
+raised her tearful countenance, and said, "O God, help me!"
+
+And the sun shone so clearly, and straight before her stood the angel of God
+in white garments, the same she had seen that night at the church door; but he
+no longer carried the sharp sword, but in its stead a splendid green spray,
+full of roses. And he touched the ceiling with the spray, and the ceiling rose
+so high, and where he had touched it there gleamed a golden star. And he
+touched the walls, and they widened out, and she saw the organ which was
+playing; she saw the old pictures of the preachers and the preachers' wives.
+The congregation sat in cushioned seats, and sang out of their Prayer-Books.
+For the church itself had come to the poor girl in her narrow chamber, or else
+she had come into the church. She sat in the pew with the clergyman's family,
+and when they had ended the psalm and looked up, they nodded and said, "It is
+right that thou art come!"
+
+"It was through mercy!" she said.
+
+And the organ pealed, and the children's voices in the choir sounded so sweet
+and soft! The clear sunshine streamed so warmly through the window into the
+pew where Karen sat! Her heart was so full of sunshine, peace, and joy, that
+it broke. Her soul flew on the sunshine to God, and there no one asked after
+the RED SHOES.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg etext of Andersen's Fairy Tales
+
+
+
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