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diff --git a/old/hcaft10.txt b/old/hcaft10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ddeef4f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/hcaft10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5756 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Andersen's Fairy Tales by Andersen +#1 in our series by Hans Christian Andersen + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Etext prepared by Dianne Bean using OmniPage Pro software donated by Caere + + + + + +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 + + + diff --git a/old/hcaft10.zip b/old/hcaft10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e431bf6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/hcaft10.zip |