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diff --git a/31103-h/31103-h.htm b/31103-h/31103-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd24b24 --- /dev/null +++ b/31103-h/31103-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4083 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Christmas Greeting, by Hans Christian Andersen</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: 90%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +p.center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.footnote {font-size: 90%; + text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +div.fig { display:block; + margin:0 auto; + text-align:center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em;} + +p.caption {font-weight: bold; + text-align: center; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> +</head> +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Christmas Greeting, by Hans Christian Andersen</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: A Christmas Greeting</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Hans Christian Andersen</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: January 27, 2010 [eBook #31103]<br /> +[Most recently updated: May 13, 2022]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Jim Adcock</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHRISTMAS GREETING ***</div> + +<h3>New Juveniles for 1864</h3> + +<h5>PUBLISHED BY</h5> + +<h2>JAMES MILLER,</h2> + +<h3>522 BROADWAY, N. Y.</h3> + +<hr /> + +<h3>MAGNET STORIES,</h3> + +<h4>For Summer Days and Winter Nights.</h4> + +<h5>SECOND SERIES.</h5> + +<hr /> + +<h3>IMPULSE AND PRINCIPLE,</h3> + +<h4>AND OTHER STORIES.</h4> + +<h5>BY MISS ABBOTT.</h5> + +<hr /> + +<h3>THE PRIVATE PURSE,</h3> + +<h4>And other Stories.</h4> + +<h4>BY MRS. S. C. HALL.</h4> + +<hr /> + +<h3>TURNS OF FORTUNE</h3> + +<h4>And other Stories.</h4> + +<h5>BY MRS. S. C. HALL.</h5> + +<hr /> + +<h5>Published By James Miller, 522 Broadway.</h5> + +<hr /> + +<h3>PHILIP GREY,</h3> + +<h4>OR THREE MONTHS AT SEA.</h4> + +<h5>BY PETER PARLEY.</h5> + +<hr /> + +<h3>Hans Andersen's Wonderful Tales.</h3> + +<h4>ILLUSTRATED.</h4> + +<hr /> + +<h3>HANS ANDERSEN'S STORY BOOK.</h3> + +<h4>ILLUSTRATED.</h4> + +<hr /> + +<h3>Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales.</h3> + +<h4>ILLUSTRATED.</h4> + +<hr /> + +<h3>GULLIVER'S TRAVELS.</h3> + +<h5>New Edition. Illustrated.</h5> + +<hr /> + +<h3>ESOP'S FABLES.</h3> + +<h5>New Edition. Illustrated.</h5> + +<hr /> + +<h3>Aunt Carrie's Rhymes for Children.</h3> + +<hr /> + +<h3>LIFE OF GEO. WASHINGTON.</h3> + +<h5>With Illustrations by Darley.</h5> + +<hr /> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/img0002.png" width="382" height="567" alt="[The Dream of Little Tuk.]" /> +<p class="caption">THE DREAM OF LITTLE TUK.</p> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<h3>Hans Andersen's Library.</h3> + +<h1>A CHRISTMAS GREETING</h1> + +<h3>A Series of Stories,</h3> + +<h2>BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN</h2> + +<h5>ILLUSTRATED.</h5> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/img0003.png" width="444" height="333" alt="[Children Dancing.]" /> +</div> + +<h5>Published by James Miller,</h5> + +<h5>522 Broadway.</h5> + +<hr /> + +<h2>A CHRISTMAS GREETING</h2> + +<h3>A Series of Stories,</h3> + +<h2>BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN</h2> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/img0004.png" width="367" height="406" alt="[Man Carrying Firewood.]" /> +</div> + +<h5>New York:</h5> + +<h5>(Successor to C.S. Francis & Co.)</h5> + +<h5>Published by James Miller,</h5> + +<h5>522 Broadway.</h5> + +<hr /> + +<h5>TO</h5> + +<h5>CHARLES DICKENS, Esq.</h5> + +<p>I am again in my quiet Danish home, but my thoughts are daily in +dear England, where, a few months ago, my many friends transformed +for me reality into a charming story.</p> + +<p>Whilst occupied with a greater work, there sprung forth—as the +flowers spring forth in the forest—seven short stories.* I feel a +desire, a longing, to transplant in England the first produce of my +poetic garden, as a Christmas greeting: and I send it to you, my +dear, noble, Charles Dickens, who by your works had been previously +dear to me, and since our meeting have taken root for ever in my +heart.</p> + +<p>Your hand was the last that pressed mine on England's coast: it +was you who from her shores wafted me the last farewell. It is +therefore natural that I should send to you, from Denmark, my first +greeting again, as sincerely as an affectionate heart can convey +it.</p> + +<p class="letter"> +Hans Christian Andersen. +</p> + +<p>Copenhagen. 6th December, 1847.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="footnote"> +* The first seven in this volume. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#a_TheOldHouse">I. The Old House</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#a_TheDropOfWater">II. The Drop of Water</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#a_TheHappyFamily">III. The Happy Family</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#a_TheStoryOfAMother">IV. The Story of a Mother</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#a_TheFalseCollar">V. The False Collar</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#a_TheShadow">VI. The Shadow</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#a_TheOldStreetLamp">VII. The Old Street-Lamp</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#a_TheDreamOfLittleTuk">VIII. The Dream of Little Tuk</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#a_TheNaughtyBoy">IX. The Naughty Boy</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#a_TheTwoNeighboringFamilies">X. The Two Neighboring Families</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#a_TheDarningNeedle">XI. The Darning Needle</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#a_TheLittleMatchGirl">XII. The Little Match-Girl</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#a_TheRedShoes">XIII. The Red Shoes</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#a_ToTheYoungReaders">XIV. To The Young Readers</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<hr /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="a_TheOldHouse"></a>THE OLD HOUSE.</h2> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p>All the other houses in the street were so new and so neat, with +large window-panes and smooth walls, one could easily see that they +would have nothing to do with the old house: they certainly thought, +"How long is that old decayed thing to stand here as a spectacle in +the street? And then the protecting 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!"</p> + +<p> +On the other side of the street were also new and neat houses, and they thought +just as the others did; but at the window opposite the old house there sat a +little boy with fresh rosy cheeks and bright beaming eyes: he certainly liked +the old house best, and that both in sunshine and moonshine. And when he looked +across at the wall where the mortar had fallen out, he could sit and find out +there the strangest figures imaginable; exactly as the street had appeared +before, with steps, projecting windows, and pointed gables; he could see +soldiers with halberds, and spouts where the water ran, like dragons and +serpents. <i>That</i> 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!" +</p> + +<p>The Sunday following, the little boy took something, and wrapped +it up in a piece of paper, went down stairs, and stood in the +doorway; and when the man who went on errands came past, he said to +him—</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>And the old errand man looked quite pleased, nodded, and took the +pewter soldier over to the old house. Afterwards there came a +message; it was to ask if the little boy himself had not a wish to +come over and pay a visit; and so he got permission of his parents, +and then went over to the old house.</p> + +<p>And the brass balls on the iron railings shone much brighter than +ever; one would have thought they were polished on account of the +visit; and it was as if the carved-out trumpeters—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.</p> + +<p>The whole passage was hung with portraits of knights in armor, and +ladies in silken gowns; and the armor rattled, and the silken gowns +rustled! And then there was a flight of stairs which went a good way +upwards, and a little way downwards, and then one came on a balcony +which was in a very dilapidated state, sure enough, with large holes +and long crevices, but grass grew there and leaves out of them +altogether, for the whole balcony outside, the yard, and the walls, +were overgrown with so much green stuff, that it looked like a +garden; but it was 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!"</p> + +<p>And then they entered a chamber where the walls were covered, with +hog's leather, and printed with gold flowers.</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"The gilding decays,<br /> +But hog's leather stays!" +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +said the walls.</p> + +<p>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 +clothes-press, ugh!"</p> + +<p>And then the little boy came into the room where the projecting +windows were, and where the old man sat.</p> + +<p>"I thank you for the pewter soldier, my little friend!" said the +old man, "and I thank you because you come over to me."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p> +In the middle of the wall hung a picture representing a beautiful lady, so +young, so glad, but dressed quite as in former times, with clothes that stood +quite stiff, and with powder in her hair; she neither said "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?" +</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p> +Under the picture, in a glazed frame, there hung a <i>bouquet</i> of withered +flowers; they were almost fifty years old; they looked so very old! +</p> + +<p>The pendulum of the great clock went to and fro, and the hands +turned, and every thing in the room became still older; but they did +not observe it.</p> + +<p>"They say at home," said the little boy, "that you are so very, +very lonely!"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p> +Then he took a book with pictures in it down from the shelf; there were whole +long processions and pageants, with the strangest characters, which one never +sees now-a-days; soldiers like the knave of clubs, and citizens with waving +flags: the tailors had theirs, with a pair of shears held by two lions,—and the +shoemakers theirs, without boots, but with an eagle that had two heads, for the +shoemakers must have everything so that they can say, it is a pair!—Yes, that +was a picture book! +</p> + +<p>The old man now went into the other room to fetch preserves, +apples, and nuts;—yes, it was delightful over there in the old +house.</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"But you must!" said the little boy.</p> + +<p>Then in came the old man with the most pleased and happy face, the +most delicious preserves, apples, and nuts, and so the little boy +thought no more about the pewter soldier.</p> + +<p>The little boy returned home happy and pleased, and weeks and days +passed away, and nods were made to the old house, and from the old +house, and then the little boy went over there again.</p> + +<p> +The carved trumpeters blew, "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. +</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"You are given away as a present!" said the little boy; "you must +remain. Can you not understand that?"</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p>"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!</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>What became of him? The old man sought, and the little boy sought; +he was away, and he stayed away.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>That day passed, and the little boy went home, and that week +passed, and several weeks too. The windows were quite frozen, the +little boy was obliged to sit and breathe on them to get a peep-hole +over to the old house, and there the snow had been blown into all the +carved work and inscriptions; it lay quite up over the steps, just as +if there was no one at home;—nor was there any one at home—the old +man was dead!</p> + +<p>In the evening there was a hearse seen before the door, and he was +borne into it in his coffin: he was now to go out into the country, +to lie in his grave. He was driven out there, but no one followed; +all his friends were dead, and the little boy kissed his hand to the +coffin as it was driven away.</p> + +<p>Some days afterwards there was an auction at the old house, and +the little boy saw from his window how they carried the old knights +and the old ladies away, the flower-pots with the long ears, the old +chairs, and the old clothes-presses. Something came here, and +something came there; the portrait of her who had been found at the +broker's came to the broker's again; and there it hung, for no one +knew her more—no one cared about the old picture.</p> + +<p>In the spring they pulled the house down, for, as people said, it +was a ruin. One could see from the street right into the room with +the hog's-leather hanging, which was slashed and torn; and the green +grass and leaves about the balcony hung quite wild about the falling +beams.—And then it was put to rights.</p> + +<p>"That was a relief," said the neighboring houses.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>A fine house was built there, with large windows, and smooth white +walls; but before it, where the old house had in fact stood, was a +little garden laid out, and a wild grapevine ran up the wall of the +neighboring house. Before the garden there was a large iron railing +with an iron door, it looked quite splendid, and people stood still +and peeped in, and the sparrows hung by scores in the vine, and +chattered away at each other as well as they could, but it was not +about the old house, for they could not remember it, so many years +had passed,—so many that the little boy had grown up to a whole man, +yes, a clever man, and a pleasure to his parents; and he had just +been married, and, together with his little wife, had come to live in +the house here, where the garden was; and he stood by her there +whilst she planted a field-flower that she found so pretty; she +planted it with her little hand, and pressed the earth around it with +her fingers. Oh! what was that? She had stuck herself. There sat +something pointed, straight out of the soft mould.</p> + +<p>It was——yes, guess!—it was the pewter soldier, he that was lost up +at the old man's, and had tumbled and turned about amongst the timber +and the rubbish, and had at last laid for many years in the +ground.</p> + +<p>The young wife wiped the dirt off the soldier, first with a green +leaf, and then with her fine handkerchief—it had such a delightful +smell, that it was to the pewter soldier just as if he had awaked +from a trance.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"How very, very lonely he must have been!" said she.</p> + +<p>"Very, very lonely!" said the pewter soldier; "but it is +delightful not to be forgotten!"</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"The gilding decays,<br /> +But hog's leather stays!" +</p> + +<p>This the pewter soldier did not believe.</p> + +<hr /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="a_TheDropOfWater"></a>THE DROP OF WATER.</h2> + +<p>What a magnifying glass is, you surely know—such a round sort of +spectacle-glass that makes everything full a hundred times larger +than it really is. When one holds it before the eye, and looks at a +drop of water out of the pond, then one sees above a thousand strange +creatures. It looks almost like a whole plateful of shrimps springing +about among each other, and they are so ravenous, they tear one +another's arms and legs, tails and sides, and yet they are glad and +pleased in their way.</p> + +<p>Now, there was once an old man, who was called by every body +Creep-and-Crawl; for that was his name. He would always make the best +out of everything, and when he could not make anything out of it he +resorted to witchcraft.</p> + +<p>Now, one day he sat and held his magnifying glass before his eye, +and looked at a drop of water that was taken out of a little pool in +the ditch. What a creeping and crawling was there! all the thousands +of small creatures hopped and jumped about, pulled one another, and +pecked one another.</p> + +<p>"But this is abominable!" said Creep-and-Crawl, "Can one not get +them to live in peace and quiet, and each mind his own business?" And +he thought and thought, but he could come to no conclusion, and so he +was obliged to conjure. "I must give them a color, that they may be +more discernible!" said he; and so he poured something like a little +drop of red wine into the drop of water, but it was bewitched blood +from the lobe of the ear—the very finest sort for a penny; and then +all the strange creatures became rose-colored over the whole body. It +looked like a whole town of naked savages.</p> + +<p>"What have you got there?" said another old wizard, who had no +name, and that was just the best of it.</p> + +<p>"Why," said Creep-and-Crawl, "if you can guess what it is, I will +make you a present of it; but it is not so easy to find out when one +does not know it!"</p> + +<p>The wizard who had no name looked through the magnifying glass. It +actually appeared like a whole town, where all the inhabitants ran +about without clothes! it was terrible, but still more terrible to +see how the one knocked and pushed the other, bit each other, and +drew one another about. What was undermost should be topmost, and +what was topmost should be undermost!—See there, now! his leg is +longer than mine!—whip it off, and away with it! There is one that +has a little lump behind the ear, a little innocent lump, but it +pains him, and so it shall pain him still more! And they pecked at +it, and they dragged him about, and they ate him, and all on account +of the little lump. There sat one as still as a little maid, who only +wished for peace and quietness, but she must be brought out and they +dragged her, and they pulled her, and they devoured her!</p> + +<p>"It is quite amusing!" said the wizard.</p> + +<p>"Yes; but what do you think it is?" asked Creep-and-Crawl. "Can +you find it out!"</p> + +<p>"It is very easy to see," said the other, "it is some great city, +they all resemble each other. A great city it is, that's sure!"</p> + +<p>"It is ditch-water!" said Creep-and-Crawl.</p> + +<hr /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="a_TheHappyFamily"></a>THE HAPPY FAMILY.</h2> + +<p>Really, the largest green leaf in this country is a dock-leaf; if +one holds it before one, it is like a whole apron, and if one holds +it over one's head in rainy weather, it is almost as good as an +umbrella, for it is so immensely large. The burdock never grows +alone, but where there grows one there always grow several: it is a +great delight, and all this delightfulness is snails' food. The great +white snails which persons of quality in former times made fricassees +of, ate, and said, "Hem, hem! how delicious!" for they thought it +tasted so delicate—lived on dock leaves, and therefore burdock seeds +were sown.</p> + +<p>Now, there was an old manor-house, where they no longer ate +snails, they were quite extinct; but the burdocks were not extinct, +they grew and grew all over the walks and all the beds; they could +not get the mastery over them—it was a whole forest of burdocks. Here +and there stood an apple and a plumb-tree, or else one never would +have thought that it was a garden; all was burdocks, and there lived +the two last venerable old snails.</p> + +<p>They themselves knew not how old they were, but they could +remember very well that there had been many more; that they were of a +family from foreign lands, and that for them and theirs the whole +forest was planted. They had never been outside it, but they knew +that there was still something more in the world, which was called +the manor-house, and that there they were boiled, and then they +became black, and were then placed on a silver dish; but what +happened further they knew not; or, in fact, what it was to be +boiled, and to lie on a silver dish, they could not possibly imagine; +but it was said to be delightful, and particularly genteel. Neither +the chafers, the toads, nor the earth-worms, whom they asked about it +could give them any information,—none of them had been boiled or laid +on a silver dish.</p> + +<p>The old white snails were the first persons of distinction in the +world, that they knew; the forest was planted for their sake, and the +manor-house was there that they might be boiled and laid on a silver +dish.</p> + +<p>Now they lived a very lonely and happy life; and as they had no +children themselves, they had adopted a little common snail, which +they brought up as their own; but the little one would not grow, for +he was of a common family; but the old ones, especially Dame Mother +Snail, thought they could observe how he increased in size, and she +begged father, if he could not see it, that he would at least feel +the little snail's shell; and then he felt it, and found the good +dame was right.</p> + +<p>One day there was a heavy storm of rain.</p> + +<p>"Hear how it beats like a drum on the dock leaves!" said Father +Snail.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"There is nothing at all," said Father Snail. "No place can be +better than ours, and I have nothing to wish for!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the dame. "I would willingly go to the manor-house, 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!"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"That is nothing!" said the old folks; "has she a house?"</p> + +<p>"She has a palace!" said the ant—"the finest ant's palace, with +seven hundred passages!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Well, then, let her come to him!" said the old ones; "he has a +whole forest of burdocks, she has only a bush!"</p> + +<p>And so they went and fetched little Miss Snail. It was a whole +week before she arrived; but therein was just the very best of it, +for one could thus see that she was of the same species.</p> + +<p>And then the marriage was celebrated. Six earth-worms shone as +well as they could. In other respects the whole went off very +quietly, for the old folks could not bear noise and merriment; but +old Dame Snail made a brilliant speech. Father Snail could not speak, +he was too much affected; and so they gave them as a dowry and +inheritance, the whole forest of burdocks, and said—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.</p> + +<hr /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="a_TheStoryOfAMother"></a>THE STORY OF A MOTHER</h2> + +<p>A mother sat there with her little child. She was so downcast, so +afraid that it should die! It was so pale, the small eyes had closed +themselves, and it drew its breath so softly, now and then, with a +deep respiration, as if it sighed; and the mother looked still more +sorrowfully on the little creature.</p> + +<p>Then a knocking was heard at the door, and in came a poor old, man +wrapped up as in a large horse-cloth, for it warms one, and he needed +it, as it was the cold winter season! Every thing out of doors was +covered with ice and snow, and the wind blew so that it cut the +face.</p> + +<p>As the old man trembled with cold, and the little child slept a +moment, the mother went and poured some ale into a pot and set it on +the stove, that it might be warm for him; the old man sat and rocked +the cradle, and the mother sat down on a chair close by him, and +looked at her little sick child that drew its breath so deep, and +raised its little hand.</p> + +<p> +"Do you not think that I shall save him?" said she, "<i>Our Lord</i> will not +take him from me!" +</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>But the poor mother ran out of the house and cried aloud for her +child.</p> + +<p>Out there, in the midst of the snow, there sat a woman in long, +black clothes; and she said, "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!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, only tell me which way he went!" said the mother: "Tell me +the way, and I shall find him!"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"I will sing them all, all!" said the mother; "but do not stop me +now;—I may overtake him—I may find my child!"</p> + +<p>But Night stood still and mute. Then the mother wrung her hands, +sang and wept, and there were many songs, but yet many more tears; +and then Night said, "Go to the right, into the dark pine forest; +thither I saw Death take his way with thy little child!"</p> + +<p>The roads crossed each other in the depths of the forest, and she +no longer knew whither she should go; then there stood a thorn-bush; +there was neither leaf nor flower on it, it was also in the cold +winter season, and ice-flakes hung on the branches.</p> + +<p>"Hast thou not seen Death go past with my little child?" said the +mother.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>And she pressed the thorn-bush to her breast, so firmly, that it +might be thoroughly warmed, and the thorns went right into her flesh, +and her blood flowed in large drops, but the thorn-bush shot forth +fresh green leaves, and there came flowers on it in the cold winter +night, the heart of the afflicted mother was so warm; and the +thorn-bush told her the way she should go.</p> + +<p>She then came to a large lake, where there was neither ship nor +boat. The lake was not frozen sufficiently to bear her; neither was +it open, nor low enough that she could wade through it; and across it +she must go if she would find her child! Then she lay down to drink +up the lake, and that was an impossibility for a human being, but the +afflicted mother thought that a miracle might happen +nevertheless.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Where shall I find Death, who took away my little child?" said +she.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Our Lord</i> has helped me," said she. "He is merciful, and +you will also be so! Where shall I find my little child?"</p> + +<p>"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 every one 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?"</p> + +<p>"I have nothing to give," said the afflicted mother, "but I will +go to the world's end for you!"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>So they went into Death's great greenhouse, where flowers and +trees grew strangely into one another. There stood fine hyacinths +under glass bells, and there stood strong-stemmed peonies; there grew +water plants, some so fresh, others half sick, the water-snakes lay +down on them, and black crabs pinched their stalks. There stood +beautiful palm-trees, oaks, and plantains; there stood parsley and +flowering thyme: every tree and every flower had its name; each of +them was a human life, the human frame still lived—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.</p> + +<p>"There it is!" cried she, and stretched her hands out over a +little blue crocus, that hung quite sickly on one side.</p> + +<p>"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 +<i>Our Lord</i>, and no one dares to pluck them up before +<i>He</i> gives leave."</p> + +<p>All at once an icy cold rushed through the great hall, and the +blind mother could feel that it was Death that came.</p> + +<p>"How hast thou been able to find thy way hither?" he asked. "How +couldst thou come quicker than I?"</p> + +<p>"I am a mother," said she.</p> + +<p>And Death stretched out his long hand towards the fine little +flower, but she held her hands fast around his, so tight, and yet +afraid that she should touch one of the leaves. Then Death blew on +her hands, and she felt that it was colder than the cold wind, and +her hands fell down powerless.</p> + +<p>"Thou canst not do anything against me!" said Death.</p> + +<p>"But that <i>Our Lord</i> can!" said she.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Touch them not!" said Death. "Thou say'st that thou art so +unhappy, and now thou wilt make another mother equally unhappy."</p> + +<p>"Another mother!" said the poor woman, and directly let go her +hold of both the flowers.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>And she looked down into the well; and it was a happiness to see +how the one became a blessing to the world, to see how much happiness +and joy were felt everywhere. And she saw the other's life, and it +was sorrow and distress, horror, and wretchedness.</p> + +<p>"Both of them are God's will!" said Death.</p> + +<p>"Which of them is Misfortune's flower? and which is that of +Happiness?" asked she.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>And she bowed her head down in her lap, and Death took her child +and went with it into the unknown land.</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/img0005.png" width="426" height="600" alt="[Mother Praying with Angel Overhead.]" /> +<p class="caption">THE STORY OF A MOTHER</p> +</div> + +<hr /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="a_TheFalseCollar"></a>THE FALSE COLLAR.</h2> + +<p>There was once a fine gentleman, all of whose moveables were a +bootjack and a hair-comb: but he had the finest false collars in the +world; and it is about one of these collars that we are now to hear a +story.</p> + +<p>It was so old, that it began to think of marriage; and it happened +that it came to be washed in company with a garter.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"That I shall not tell you!" said the garter.</p> + +<p>"Where do you live?" asked the collar.</p> + +<p>But the garter was so bashful, so modest, and thought it was a +strange question to answer.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I will thank you not to speak to me," said the garter. "I think I +have not given the least occasion for it."</p> + +<p>"Yes! when one is as handsome as you," said the collar, "that is +occasion enough."</p> + +<p>"Don't come so near me, I beg of you!" said the garter. "You look +so much like those men-folks."</p> + +<p>"I am also a fine gentleman," said the collar. "I have a boot-jack +and a hair-comb."</p> + +<p>But that was not true, for it was his master who had them: but he +boasted.</p> + +<p>"Don't come so near me," said the garter: "I am not accustomed to +it."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>The collar was a little jagged at the edge, and so came the long +scissors to cut off the jagged part.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I know it," said the scissors.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Do you seek my hand?" said the scissors; for she was angry; and +without more ado, she <i>cut him</i>, and then he was +condemned.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course! you may be sure of that," said the hair comb. "I +<i>am</i> betrothed—to the boot-jack!"</p> + +<p>"Betrothed!" exclaimed the collar. Now there was no other to +court, and so he despised it.</p> + +<p>A long time passed away, then the collar came into the rag chest +at the paper mill; there was a large company of rags, the fine by +themselves, and the coarse by themselves, just as it should be. They +all had much to say, but the collar the most; for he was a real +boaster.</p> + +<p>"I have had such an immense number of sweet-hearts!" said the +collar, "I could not be in peace! It is true, I was always a fine +starched-up gentleman! I had both a bootjack 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 <i>my first +love</i>—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!"</p> + +<p>And it became so, all the rags were turned into white paper; but +the collar came to be just this very piece of white paper we here +see, and on which the story is printed; and that was because it +boasted so terribly afterwards of what had never happened to it. It +would be well for us to beware, that we may not act in a similar +manner, for we can never know if we may not, in the course of time, +also come into the rag chest, and be made into white paper, and then +have our whole life's history printed on it, even the most secret, +and be obliged to run about and tell it ourselves, just like this +collar.</p> + +<hr /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="a_TheShadow"></a>THE SHADOW.</h2> + +<p>It is in the hot lands that the sun burns, sure enough!—there the +people become quite a mahogany brown, ay, and in the <i>hottest</i> lands they are burnt to negroes. But now it was +only to the <i>hot</i> lands that a learned man had +come from the cold; there he thought that he could run about just as +when at home, but he soon found out his mistake.</p> + +<p>He, and all sensible folks, were obliged to stay within doors,—the +window-shutters and doors were closed the whole day; it looked as if +the whole house slept, or there was no one at home.</p> + +<p>The narrow street with the high houses, was built so that the +sunshine must fall there from morning till evening—it was really not +to be borne.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +* The word <i>mahogany</i> 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. +</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>One evening the stranger sat out on the balcony. The light burnt +in the room behind him; and thus it was quite natural that his shadow +should fall on his opposite neighbor's wall. Yes! there it sat, +directly opposite, between the flowers on the balcony; and when the +stranger moved, the shadow also moved: for that it always does.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The stranger rose, and his shadow on the opposite neighbor's +balcony rose also; the stranger turned round and the shadow also +turned round. Yes! if any one had paid particular attention to it, +they would have seen, quite distinctly, that the shadow went in +through the half-open balcony-door of their opposite neighbor, just +as the stranger went into his own room, and let the long curtain fall +down after him.</p> + +<p>Next morning, the learned man went out to drink coffee and read +the newspapers.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p> +This annoyed him: not so much because the shadow was gone, but because he knew +there was a story about a man without a shadow.* It was known to everybody at +home, in the cold lands; and if the learned man now came there and told his +story, they would say that he was imitating it, and that he had no need to do. +He would, therefore, not talk about it at all; and that was wisely thought. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +* Peter Schlemihl, the shadowless man. +</p> + +<p>In the evening he went out again on the balcony. He had placed the +light directly behind him, for he knew that the shadow would always +have its master for a screen, but he could not entice it. He made +himself little; he made himself great: but no shadow came again. He +said, "Hem! hem!" but it was of no use.<br/> +</p> + +<p>It was vexatious; but in the warm lands every thing grows so +quickly; and after the lapse of eight days he observed, to his great +joy, that a new shadow came in the sunshine. In the course of three +weeks he had a very fair shadow, which, when he set out for his home +in the northern lands, grew more and more in the journey, so that at +last it was so long and so large, that it was more than +sufficient.</p> + +<p>The learned man then came home, and he wrote books about what was +true in the world, and about what was good and what was beautiful; +and there passed days and years,—yes! many years passed away.</p> + +<p>One evening, as he was sitting in his room, there was a gentle +knocking at the door.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Whom have I the honor of speaking to?" asked the learned man.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Nay; I cannot recover from my surprise!" said the learned man: +"what is the meaning of all this?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Tell me what I have to pay," said the shadow; "for I don't like +to be in any sort of debt."</p> + +<p>"How canst thou talk so?" said the learned man; "what debt is +there to talk about? Make thyself as free as any one 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."</p> + +<p>"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 any one here in the town that I have been +your shadow. I intend to get betrothed, for I can provide for more +than one family."</p> + +<p>"Be quite at thy ease about that," said the learned man; "I shall +not say to any one who thou actually art: here is my hand—I promise +it, and a man's bond is his word."</p> + +<p>"A word is a shadow," said the shadow, "and as such it must +speak."</p> + +<p>It was really quite astonishing how much of a man it was. It was +dressed entirely in black, and of the very finest cloth; it had +patent leather boots, and a hat that could be folded together, so +that it was bare crown and brim; not to speak of what we already know +it had—seals, gold neck-chain, and diamond rings; yes, the shadow was +well-dressed, and it was just that which made it quite a man.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"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———"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"And what didst thou then see?" asked the learned man.</p> + +<p> +"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 +<i>you</i>* to me!" +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +* 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, "<i>thy +health</i>," at the same time striking their glasses together.—This is called +drinking "<i>Duus</i>:"—they are then, "<i>Duus Brodre</i>," (thou brothers,) +and ever afterwards use the pronoun "<i>thou</i>," to each other, it being +regarded as more familiar than "De," (you). Father and mother, sister and +brother, say <i>thou</i> to one another—without regard to age or rank. Master +and mistress say <i>thou</i> 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 any one with whom +they are but slightly acquainted—they then say as in English—<i>you.</i> +</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," said the learned man; "it is an old habit +with me. <i>You</i> are perfectly right, and I shall +remember it; but now <i>you</i> must tell me all <i>you</i> saw!"</p> + +<p>"Everything!" said the shadow, "for I saw everything, and I know +everything!"</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p>"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."<br/> +</p> + +<p>"But <i>what did</i> 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?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"That was most extraordinary!" said the learned man.</p> + +<p>Years and days passed away, then the shadow came again.</p> + +<p>"How goes it?" said the shadow.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Nay, this is too much!" said the learned man.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Nay, that is too bad!" said the learned man.</p> + +<p>"But it is just so with the world!" said the shadow,—"and so it +will be!"—and away it went again.</p> + +<p>The learned man was not at all in the most enviable state; grief +and torment followed him, and what he said about the true, and the +good, and the beautiful, was, to most persons, like roses for a +cow!—he was quite ill at last.</p> + +<p>"You really look like a shadow!" said his friends to him; and the +learned man trembled, for he thought of it.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p> +And so they travelled; the shadow was master, and the master was the shadow; +they drove with each other, they rode and walked together, side by side, before +and behind, just as the sun was; the shadow always took care to keep itself in +the master's place. Now the learned man didn't think much about that; he was a +very kind-hearted man, and particularly mild and friendly, and so he said one +day to the shadow: "As we have now become companions, and in this way have +grown up together from childhood, shall we not drink '<i>thou</i>' together, it +is more familiar?" +</p> + +<p>"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 <i>thou</i> 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 <i>thou</i> to me, but I will willingly say <i>thou</i> to you, so it is half done!"</p> + +<p> +So the shadow said <i>thou</i> to its former master. +</p> + +<p> +"This is rather too bad," thought he, that I must say <i>you</i> and he say +"thou," but he was now obliged to put up with it. +</p> + +<p>So they came to a watering-place where there were many strangers, +and amongst them was a princess, who was troubled with seeing too +well; and that was so alarming!</p> + +<p>She directly observed that the stranger who had just come was +quite a different sort of person to all the others;—"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."</p> + +<p>She had become inquisitive; and so she entered into conversation +directly with the strange gentleman, on their promenades. As the +daughter of a king, she needed not to stand upon trifles, so she +said, "Your complaint is, that you cannot cast a shadow?"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>In the evening, the princess and the shadow danced together in the +large ball-room. She was light, but he was still lighter; she had +never had such a partner in the dance. She told him from what land +she came, and he knew that land; he had been there, but then she was +not at home; he had peeped in at the window, above and below—he had +seen both the one and the other, and so he could answer the princess, +and make insinuations, so that she was quite astonished; he must be +the wisest man in the whole world! she felt such respect for what he +knew! So that when they again danced together she fell in love with +him; and that the shadow could remark, for she almost pierced him +through with her eyes. So they danced once more together; and she was +about to declare herself, but she was discreet; she thought of her +country and kingdom, and of the many persons she would have to reign +over.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>So she began, by degrees, to question him about the most difficult +things she could think of, and which she herself could not have +answered; so that the shadow made a strange face.</p> + +<p>"You cannot answer these questions?" said the princess.</p> + +<p>"They belong to my childhood's learning," said the shadow. "I +really believe my shadow, by the door there, can answer them!"</p> + +<p>"Your shadow!" said the princess; "that would indeed be +marvellous!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh! I like that!" said the princess.</p> + +<p>So she went to the learned man by the door, and she spoke to him +about the sun and the moon, and about persons out of and in the +world, and he answered with wisdom and prudence.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>They were soon agreed, both the princess and the shadow; but no +one was to know about it before she arrived in her own kingdom.</p> + +<p>"No one—not even my shadow!" said the shadow, and he had his own +thoughts about it!</p> + +<p>Now they were in the country where the princess reigned when she +was at home.</p> + +<p>"Listen, my good friend," said the shadow to the learned man. "I +have now become as happy and mighty as any one 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 every one; 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!"</p> + +<p>"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 every thing!—that I am a man, and that thou +art a shadow—thou art only dressed up!"</p> + +<p>"There is no one who will believe it!" said the shadow; "be +reasonable, or I will call the guard!"</p> + +<p>"I will go directly to the princess!" said the learned man.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I have lived to see the most cruel thing that any one 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!"</p> + +<p>"It is terrible!" said the princess; "but he is confined, is he +not?"</p> + +<p>"That he is. I am afraid that he will never recover."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"It is certainly hard!" said the shadow, "for he was a faithful +servant!" and then he gave a sort of sigh.</p> + +<p>"You are a noble character!" said the princess.</p> + +<p>The whole city was illuminated in the evening, and the cannons +went off with a bum! bum! and the soldiers presented arms. That was a +marriage! The princess and the shadow went out on the balcony to show +themselves, and get another hurrah!</p> + +<p>The learned man heard nothing of all this—for they had deprived +him of life.</p> + +<hr /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="a_TheOldStreetLamp"></a>THE OLD STREET-LAMP.</h2> + +<p>Have you heard the story about the old street lamp? It is not so +very amusing, but one may very well hear it once. It was such a +decent old street-lamp, that had done its duty for many, many years, +but now it was to be condemned. It was the last evening,—it sat there +on the post and lighted the street; and it was in just such a humor +as an old figurante in a ballet, who dances for the last evening, and +knows that she is to be put on the shelf to-morrow. The lamp had such +a fear of the coming day, for it knew that it should then be carried +to the town-hall for the first time, and examined by the authorities +of the city, who should decide if it could be used or not. It would +then be determined whether it should be sent out to one of the +suburbs, or in to the country to a manufactory; perhaps it would be +sent direct to the ironfounder's and be re-cast; in that case it +could certainly be all sorts of things: but it pained it not to know +whether it would then retain the remembrance of its having been a +street-lamp.</p> + +<p>However it might be, whether it went into the country or not, it +would be separated from the watchman and his wife, whom it regarded +as its family. It became a street-lamp when he became watchman. His +wife was a very fine woman at that time; it was only in the evening +when she went past the lamp that she looked at it, but never in the +daytime. Now, on the contrary, of late years, as they had all three +grown old,—the watchman, his wife, and the lamp,—the wife had always +attended to it, polished it up, and put oil in it. They were honest +folks that married couple, they had not cheated the lamp of a single +drop. It was its last evening in the street, and to-morrow it was to +be taken to the town-hall; these were two dark thoughts in the lamp, +and so one can know how it burnt. But other thoughts also passed +through it; there was so much it had seen, so much it had a desire +for, perhaps just as much as the whole of the city authorities; but +it didn't say so, for it was a well-behaved old lamp—it would not +insult any one, least of all its superiors. It remembered so much, +and now and then the flames within it blazed up,—it was as if it had +a feeling of—yes, they will also remember me! There was now that +handsome young man—but that is many years since,—he came with a +letter, it was on rose-colored paper; so fine—so fine! and with a +gilt edge; it was so neatly written, it was a lady's hand; he read it +twice, and he kissed it, and he looked up to me with his two bright +eyes—they said, "I am the happiest of men!" Yes, only he and I knew +what stood in that first letter from his beloved.</p> + +<p>I also remember two other eyes—it is strange how one's thoughts +fly about!—there was a grand funeral here in the street, the +beautiful young wife lay in the coffin on the velvet-covered funeral +car; there were so many flowers and wreaths, there were so many +torches burning, that I was quite forgotten—out of sight; the whole +footpath was filled with persons; they all followed in the +procession; but when the torches were out of sight, and I looked +about, there stood one who leaned against my post and wept. I shall +never forget those two sorrowful eyes that looked into me. Thus there +passed many thoughts through the old street-lamp, which this evening +burnt for the last time. The sentinel who is relieved from his post +knows his successor, and can say a few words to him, but the lamp +knew not its successor; and yet it could have given him a hint about +rain and drizzle, and how far the moon shone on the footpath, and +from what corner the wind blew.</p> + +<p>Now, there stood three on the kerb-stone; they had presented +themselves before the lamp, because they thought it was the +street-lamp who gave away the office; the one of these three was a +herring's head, for it shines in the dark, and it thought that it +could be of great service, and a real saving of oil, if it came to be +placed on the lamp-post. The other was a piece of touchwood, which +also shines, and always more than a stock-fish; besides, it said so +itself, it was the last piece of a tree that had once been the pride +of the forest. The third was a glow-worm; but where it had come from +the lamp could not imagine; but the glow-worm was there, and it also +shone, but the touchwood and the herring's head took their oaths that +it only shone at certain times, and therefore it could never be taken +into consideration.</p> + +<p>The old lamp said that none of them shone well enough to be a +street-lamp; but not one of them thought so; and as they heard that +it was not the lamp itself that gave away the office, they said that +it was a very happy thing, for that it was too infirm and broken down +to be able to choose.</p> + +<p>At the same moment the wind came from the street corner, it +whistled through the cowl of the old lamp, and said to it, "What is +it that I hear, are you going away to-morrow? Is it the last evening +I shall meet you here? Then you shall have a present!—now I will blow +up your brain-box so that you shall not only remember, clearly and +distinctly, what you have seen and heard, but when anything is told +or read in your presence, you shall be so clear-headed that you will +also see it."</p> + +<p>"That is certainly much!" said the old street-lamp; "I thank you +much; if I be only not re-cast."</p> + +<p>"It will not happen yet awhile," said the wind; "and now I will +blow up your memory; if you get more presents than that you may have +quite a pleasant old age."</p> + +<p>"If I be only not re-cast," said the lamp; "or can you then assure +me my memory?"</p> + +<p>"Old lamp, be reasonable!" said the wind, and then it blew. The +moon came forth at the same time. "What do you give?" asked the +wind.</p> + +<p> +"I give nothing!" said the moon; "I am waning, and the lamps have never shone +for me, but I have shone for the lamps."* So the moon went behind the clouds +again, for it would not be plagued. A drop of rain then fell straight down on +the lamp's cowl, it was like a drop of water from the eaves, but the drop said +that it came from the grey clouds, and was also a present,—-and perhaps the +best of all. "I penetrate into you, so that you have the power, if you wish it, +in one night to pass over to rust, so that you may fall in pieces and become +dust." But the lamp thought this was a poor present, and the wind thought the +same. "Is there no better—is there no better?" it whistled, as loud as it +could. A shooting-star then fell, it shone in a long stripe. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +* It is the custom in Denmark, and one deserving the severest censure, that, on +those nights in which the moon shines; or, according to almanac authority, +ought to shine, the street lamps are not lighted; so that, as it too frequently +happens, when the moon is overclouded, or on rainy evenings when she is totally +obscured, the streets are for the most part in perfect darkness. This petty +economy is called "the magistrates' light," they having the direction of the +lighting, paving, and cleansing of towns.<br/> + The same management may be met with in some other countries besides Denmark. +</p> + +<p>"What was that?" exclaimed the herring's head; "did not a star +fall right down? I think it went into the lamp! Well, if persons who +stand so high seek the office, we may as well take ourselves +off."<br/> +</p> + +<p>And it did so, and the others did so too; but the old lamp shone +all at once so singularly bright.</p> + +<p>"That was a fine present!" it said; "the bright stars which I have +always pleased myself so much about, and which shine so +beautifully,—as I really have never been able to shine, although it +was my whole aim and endeavor,—have noticed me, a poor old-lamp, and +sent one down with a present to me, which consists of that quality, +that everything I myself remember and see quite distinctly, shall +also be seen by those I am fond of; and that is, above all, a true +pleasure, for what one cannot share with others is but a half +delight."</p> + +<p>"It is a very estimable thought," said the wind; "but you +certainly don't know that there must be wax-candles; for unless a +wax-candle be lighted in you there are none of the others that will +be able to see anything particular about you. The stars have not +thought of that; they think that everything which shines has, at +least, a wax-candle in it. But now I am tired," said the wind, "I +will now lie down;" and so it lay down to rest.</p> + +<p> +The next day—yes, the next day we will spring over: the next evening the lamp +lay in the arm chair,—and where? At the old watchman's. He had, for his long +and faithful services, begged of the authorities that he might be allowed to +keep the old lamp; they laughed at him when he begged for it, and then gave him +it; and now the lamp lay in the arm-chair, close by the warm stove, and it was +really just as if it had become larger on that account,—it almost filled the +whole chair. The old folks now sat at their supper, and cast mild looks at the +old lamp, which they would willingly have given a place at the table with them. +It is true they lived in a cellar, a yard or so below ground: one had to go +through a paved front-room to come into the room they lived in; but it was warm +here, for there was list round the door to keep it so. It looked clean and +neat, with curtains round the bed and over the small windows, where two +strange-looking flowerpots stood on the sill. Christian, the sailor, had +brought them from the East or West Indies; they were of clay in the form of two +elephants, the backs of which were wanting: but in their place there came +flourishing plants out of the earth that was in them; in the one was the finest +chive,—It was the old folks' kitchen-garden,—and in the other was a large +flowering geranium—this was their flower-garden. On the wall hung a large +colored print of "The Congress of Vienna;" there they had all the kings and +emperors at once. A Bornholm* clock, with heavy leaden weights went "tic-tac!" +and always too fast; but the old folks said it was better than if it went too +slow. They ate their suppers, and the old lamp, as we have said, lay in the +armchair close by the warm stove. It was, for the old lamp, as if the whole +world was turned upside down. But when the old watchman looked at it, and spoke +about what they had lived to see with each other, in rain and drizzle, in the +clear, short summer nights, and when the snow drove about so that it was good +to get into the pent-house of the cellar,—then all was again in order for the +old lamp, it saw it all just as if it were now present;—yes! the wind had blown +it up right well,—it had enlightened it. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +* Bornholm, a Danish island in the Baltic is famous for its +manufactures of clocks, potteries, and cement; it contains also +considerable coal mines, though not worked to any extent. It is +fertile in minerals, chalks, potters' clay of the finest quality, and +other valuable natural productions; but, on account of the jealous +nature of the inhabitants, which deters foreigners from settling +there, these productions are not made so available or profitable as +they otherwise might be. +</p> + +<p>The old folks were so clever and industrious, not an hour was +quietly dozed away; on Sunday afternoons some book was always brought +forth, particularly a book of travels, and the old man read aloud +about Africa, about the great forests and the elephants that were +there quite wild; and the old woman listened so attentively, and now +and then took a side glance at the clay elephants—her flower-pots. "I +can almost imagine it!" said she; and the lamp wished so much that +there was a wax candle to light and be put in it, so that she could +plainly see everything just as the lamp saw it; the tall trees, the +thick branches twining into one another, the black men on horseback, +and whole trains of elephants, which, with their broad feet, crushed +the canes and bushes.<br/> +</p> + +<p>"Of what use are all my abilities when there is no wax candle?" +sighed the lamp; "they have only train oil and tallow candles, and +they are not sufficient."</p> + +<p>One day there came a whole bundle of stumps of wax candles into +the cellar, the largest pieces were burnt, and the old woman used the +smaller pieces to wax her thread with when she sewed; there were wax +candle ends, but they never thought of putting a little piece in the +lamp.</p> + +<p>"Here I stand with my rare abilities," said the lamp; "I have +everything within me, but I cannot share any part with them. They +know not that I can transform the white walls to the prettiest +paper-hangings, to rich forests, to everything that they may wish +for. They know it not!"</p> + +<p>For the rest, the lamp stood in a corner, where it always met the +eye, and it was neat and well scoured; folks certainly said it was an +old piece of rubbish; but the old man and his wife didn't care about +that, they were fond of the lamp.</p> + +<p>One day it was the old watchman's birth day; the old woman came up +to the lamp, smiled, and said, "I will illuminate for him," and the +lamp's cowl creaked, for it thought, "They will now be enlightened!" +But she put in train oil, and no wax candle; it burnt the whole +evening; but now it knew that the gift which the stars had given it, +the best gift of all, was a dead treasure for this life. It then +dreamt—and when one has such abilities, one can surely dream,—that +the old folks were dead, and that it had come to an ironfounder's to +be cast anew; it was in as much anxiety as when it had to go to the +town-hall to be examined by the authorities; but although it had the +power to fall to pieces in rust and dust, when it wished it, yet it +did not do it; and so it came into the furnace and was re-cast as a +pretty iron candlestick, in which any one might set a wax candle. It +had the form of an angel, bearing a nosegay, and in the centre of the +nosegay they put a wax taper and it was placed on a green +writing-table; and the room was so snug and comfortable: there hung +beautiful pictures—there stood many books; it was at a poet's, and +everything that he wrote, unveiled itself round about: the room +became a deep, dark forest,—a sun-lit meadow where the stork stalked +about; and a ship's deck high aloft on the swelling sea!</p> + +<p>"What power I have!" said the old lamp, as it awoke. "I almost +long to be re-cast;—but no, it must not be as long as the old folks +live. They are fond of me for the sake of my person. I am to them as +a child, and they have scoured me, and they have given me train oil. +After all, I am as well off as 'The Congress,'—which is something so +very grand."</p> + +<p>From that time it had more inward peace, which was merited by the +old street-lamp.</p> + +<hr /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="a_TheDreamOfLittleTuk"></a>THE DREAM OF LITTLE TUK.</h2> + +<p>Ah! yes, that was little Tuk: in reality his name was not Tuk, but +that was what he called himself before he could speak plain: he meant +it for Charles, and it is all well enough if one do but know it. He +had now to take care of his little sister Augusta, who was much less +than himself, and he was, besides, to learn his lesson at the same +time; but these two things would not do together at all. There sat +the poor little fellow with his sister on his lap, and he sang to her +all the songs he knew; and he glanced the while from time to time +into the geography-book that lay open before him. By the next morning +he was to have learnt all the towns in Zealand by heart, and to know +about them all that is possible to be known.</p> + +<p>His mother now came home, for she had been out, and took little +Augusta on her arm. Tuk ran quickly to the window, and read so +eagerly that he pretty nearly read his eyes out; for it got darker +and darker, but his mother had no money to buy a candle.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>So Tuk ran over quickly and helped her; but when he came back +again into the room it was quite dark, and as to a light, there was +no thought of such a thing. He was now to go to bed; that was an old +turn-up bedstead; in it he lay and thought about his geography +lesson, and of Zealand, and of all that his master had told him. He +ought, to be sure, to have read over his lesson again, but that, you +know, he could not do. He therefore put his geography-book under his +pillow, because he had heard that was a very good thing to do when +one wants to learn one's lesson; but one cannot, however, rely upon +it entirely. Well there he lay, and thought and thought, and all at +once it was just as if some one 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.</p> + +<p> +"Kickery-ki! kluk! kluk! kluk!"—that was an old hen who came creeping along, +and she was from Kjöge. I am a Kjöger 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. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +* Kjöge a town in the bay of Kjöge "To see the Kjöge hens," is an +expression similar to "showing a child London," which is said to be +done by taking his head in both hands, 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.</p> + +<p> +"Kribledy, krabledy—plump!" down fell somebody: it was a wooden bird, the +popinjay used at the shooting-matches at Prästöe. Now <i>he</i> 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." +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +* Prästöe, a still smaller town than Kjöge. Some hundred paces +from it lies the manor-house Ny Söe, where Thorwaldsen generally +sojourned during his stay in Denmark, and where he called many of his +immortal works into existence. +</p> + +<p> +But little Tuk was no longer lying down: all at once he was on horseback. On he +went at full gallop, still galloping on and on. A knight with a gleaming plume, +and most magnificently dressed, held him before him on the horse, and thus they +rode through the wood to the old town of Bordingborg, and that was a large and +very lively town. High towers rose from the castle of the king, and the +brightness of many candles streamed from all the windows; within was dance and +song, and King Waldemar and the young, richly-attired maids of honor danced +together. The morn now came; and as soon as the sun appeared, the whole town +and the king's palace crumbled together, and one tower after the other; and at +last only a single one remained standing where the castle had been before,* and +the town was so small and poor, and the school boys came along with their books +under their arms, and said, "2000 inhabitants!" but that was not true, for +there were not so many. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +* Bordingborg, in the reign of King Waldemar a considerable place, now an +unimportant little town. One solitary tower only, and some remains of a wall, +show where the castle once stood. +</p> + +<p>And little Tukey lay in his bed: it seemed to him as if he +dreamed, and yet as if he were not dreaming; however, somebody was +close beside him.</p> + +<p> +"Little Tukey! little Tukey!" cried some one near. It was a seaman, quite a +little personage, so little as if he were a midshipman; but a midshipman it was +not. +</p> + +<p>"Many remembrances from Cörsör.* 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 Cörsör; "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."</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +* Cörsör, 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.</p> + +<p> +Little Tuk looked, and all was red and green before his eyes; but as soon as +the confusion of colors was somewhat over, all of a sudden there appeared a +wooded slope close to the bay, and high up above stood a magnificent old +church, with two high pointed towers. From out the hill-side spouted fountains +in thick streams of water, so that there was a continual splashing; and close +beside them sat an old king with a golden crown upon his white head: that was +King Hroar, near the fountains, close to the town of Roeskilde, as it is now +called. And up the slope into the old church went all the kings and queens of +Denmark, hand in hand, all with their golden crowns; and the organ played and +the fountains rustled. Little Tuk saw all, heard all. "Do not forget the diet," +said King Hroar.[1] 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 Soröe,[2] where grass grows in the marketplace. +<br/> +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>[1] Roeskilde, once the capital of Denmark. The town takes its +name from King Hroar, and the many fountains in the neighborhood. In +the beautiful cathedral the greater number of the kings and queens of +Denmark are interred. In Roeskilde, too, the members of the Danish +Diet assemble.</p> + +<p>[2] Soröe, a very quiet little town, beautifully situated, +surrounded by woods and lakes. Holberg, Denmark's Molière, founded +here an academy for the sons of the nobles. The poets Hauch and +Ingemann were appointed professors here. The latter lives there +still.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>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 death-like stillness +in Soröe!" 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!" When +she spoke it sounded just like the noise of frogs, or as if one +walked with great boots over a moor; always the same tone, so uniform +and so tiring that little Tuk fell into a good sound sleep, which, by +the bye, could not do him any harm.</p> + +<p>But even in this sleep there came a dream, or whatever else it +was: his little sister Augusta, she with the blue eyes and the fair +curling hair, was suddenly a tall, beautiful girl, and without having +wings was yet able to fly; and she now flew over Zealand—over the +green woods and the blue lakes.</p> + +<p>"Do you hear the cock crow, Tukey? cock-a-doodle-doo! The cocks +are flying up from Kjöge! 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 Prästöe. 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 Cörsör; and in +Roeskilde"——</p> + +<p>"Do not forget the diet!" said King Hroar.</p> + +<p>"Then you will speak well and wisely, little Tukey; and when at +last you sink into your grave, you shall sleep as quietly"——</p> + +<p>"As if I lay in Soröe," said Tuk, awaking. It was bright day, and +he was now quite unable to call to mind his dream; that, however, was +not at all necessary, for one may not know what the future will +bring.</p> + +<p>And out of bed he jumped, and read in his book, and now all at +once he knew his whole lesson. And the old washerwoman popped her +head in at the door, nodded to him friendly, and said, "Thanks, many +thanks, my good child, for your help! May the good ever-loving God +fulfil your loveliest dream!"</p> + +<p>Little Tukey did not at all know what he had dreamed, but the +loving God knew it.</p> + +<hr /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="a_TheNaughtyBoy"></a>THE NAUGHTY BOY.</h2> + +<p>A long time ago there lived an old poet, a thoroughly kind old +poet. As he was sitting one evening in his room, a dreadful storm +arose without, and the rain streamed down from heaven; but the old +poet sat warm and comfortable in his chimney-corner, where the fire +blazed and the roasting apple hissed.</p> + +<p>"Those who have not a roof over their heads will be wetted to the +skin," said the good old poet.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>The old poet seated himself beside his hearth, and took the little +fellow on his lap; he squeezed the water out of his dripping hair, +warmed his hands between his own, and boiled for him some sweet wine. +Then the boy recovered, his cheeks again grew rosy, he jumped down +from the lap where he was sitting, and danced round the kind old +poet.</p> + +<p>"You are a merry fellow," said the old man; "what's your +name?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Why, your bow is quite spoiled," said the old poet.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>The naughty boy! to shoot the old poet in that way; he who had +taken him into his warm room, who had treated him so kindly, and who +had given him warm wine and the very best apples!</p> + +<p>The poor poet lay on the earth and wept, for the arrow had really +flown into his heart.</p> + +<p>"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 heart-ache."</p> + +<p>And all good children to whom he related this story, took great +heed of this naughty Cupid; but he made fools of them still, for he +is astonishingly cunning. When the university students come from the +lectures, he runs beside them in a black coat, and with a book under +his arm. It is quite impossible for them to know him, and they walk +along with him arm in arm, as if he, too, were a student like +themselves; and then, unperceived, he thrusts an arrow to their +bosom. When the young maidens come from being examined by the +clergyman, or go to church to be confirmed, there he is again close +behind them. Yes, he is for ever 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 for ever running after everybody. Only think, he +shot an arrow once at your old grandmother! But that is a long time +ago, and it is all past now; however, a thing of that sort she never +forgets. Fie, naughty Cupid! But now you know him, and you know, too, +how ill-behaved he is!</p> + +<hr /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="a_TheTwoNeighboringFamilies"></a>THE TWO NEIGHBORING FAMILIES.</h2> + +<p>We really might have thought something of importance was going on +in the duck-pond, but there was nothing going on. All the ducks that +were resting tranquilly on the water, or were standing in it on their +heads—for that they were able to do—swam suddenly to the shore: you +could see in the wet ground the traces of their feet, and hear their +quacking far and near. The water, which but just now was smooth and +bright as a mirror, was quite put into commotion. Before, one saw +every tree reflected in it, every bush that was near: the old +farm-house, with the holes in the roof and with the swallow's nest +under the eaves; but principally, however, the great rose-bush, sown, +as it were, with flowers. It covered the wall, and hung forwards over +the water, in which one beheld the whole as in a picture, except that +everything was upside down; but when the water was agitated, all swam +away and the picture was gone. Two duck's feathers, which the +fluttering ducks had lost, were rocking to and fro: suddenly they +flew forwards as if the wind were coming, but it did not come: they +were, therefore, obliged to remain where they were, and the water +grew quiet and smooth again, and again the roses reflected +themselves—they were so beautiful, but that they did not know, for +nobody had told them. The sun shone in between the tender leaves—all +breathed the most beautiful fragrance; and to them it was as with us, +when right joyfully we are filled with the thought of our +happiness.</p> + +<p>"How beautiful is existence!" said each rose. "There is but one +thing I should wish for,—to kiss the sun, because it is so bright and +warm.* The roses yonder, too, below in the water, the exact image of +ourselves—them also I should like to kiss, and the nice little birds +below in their nest. There are some above, too; they stretch out +their heads and chirrup quite loud: they have no feathers at all, as +their fathers and mothers have. They are good neighbors, those below +as well as those above. How beautiful existence is!"</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +* In Danish the sun is of the feminine gender, and not, as with +us, when personified, spoken of as "he." We beg to make this +observation, lest the roses' wish "to kiss the sun," be thought +unmaidenly. We are anxious, also, to remove a stumbling block, which +might perchance trip up exquisitely-refined modern notions, sadly +shocked, no doubt, as they would be, at such an apparent breach of +modesty and decorum.—(Note of the Translator.) +</p> + +<p>The young birds above and below—those below of course the +reflection only in the water—were sparrows: their parents were +likewise sparrows; and they had taken possession of the empty +swallow's nest of the preceding year, and now dwelt therein as if it +had been their own property.</p> + +<p>"Are those little duck children that are swimming there?" asked +the young sparrows, when they discovered the duck's feathers on the +water.</p> + +<p>"If you <i>will</i> ask questions, do let them be a +little rational at least," said the mother. "Don't you see that they +are feathers, living stuff for clothing such as I wear, and such as +you will wear also? But ours is finer. I should, however, be glad if +we had it up here in our nest, for it keeps one warm. I am curious to +know at what the ducks were so frightened; at us, surely not; 'tis +true I said 'chirp,' to you rather loud. In reality, the thick-headed +roses ought to know, but they know nothing; they only gaze on +themselves and smell: for my part, I am heartily tired of these +neighbors."</p> + +<p>"Listen to the charming little birds above," said the roses, "they +begin to want to sing too, but they cannot as yet. However, they will +do so by and by: what pleasure that must afford! It is so pleasant to +have such merry neighbors!"</p> + +<p>Suddenly two horses came galloping along to be watered. A peasant +boy rode on one, and he had taken off all his clothes except his +large broad black hat. The youth whistled like a bird, and rode into +the pond where it was deepest; and as he passed by the rosebush he +gathered a rose and stuck it in his hat; and now he fancied himself +very fine, and rode on. The other roses looked after their sister, +and asked each other, "Whither is she going?" but that no one +knew.</p> + +<p>"I should like to go out into the world," thought one; "yet here +at home amid our foliage it is also beautiful. By day the sun shines +so warm, and in the night the sky shines still more beautifully: we +can see that through all the little holes that are in it." By this +they meant the stars, but they did not know any better.</p> + +<p>"We enliven the place," said the mamma sparrow; "and the swallow's +nest brings luck, so people say, and therefore people are pleased to +have us. But our neighbors! Such a rose-bush against the wall +produces damp; it will doubtless be cleared away, and then, perhaps, +some corn at least may grow there. The roses are good for nothing +except to look at and to smell, and, at most to put into one's hat. +Every year—that I know from my mother—they fall away; the peasants +wife collects them together and strews salt among them; they then +receive a French name which I neither can nor care to pronounce, and +are put upon the fire, when they are to give a pleasant odor. Look +ye, such is their life; they are only here to please the eye and +nose! And so now you know the whole matter."</p> + +<p>As the evening came on, and the gnats played in the warm air and +in the red clouds, the nightingale came and sang to the roses; sang +that the beautiful is as the sunshine in this world, and that the +beautiful lives for ever. But the roses thought that the nightingale +sang his own praise, which one might very well have fancied; for that +the song related to them, of that they never thought: they rejoiced +in it, however, and meditated if perhaps all the little sparrows +could become nightingales too.</p> + +<p> +"I understood <i>the song of that bird quite well</i>," said the young +sparrows; "one word only was not quite clear to me. What was the meaning of +'the beautiful?'" +</p> + +<p>"That is nothing," said the mamma sparrow, "that is only something +external. Yonder at the mansion, where the pigeons have a house of +their own, and where every day peas and corn is strewn before them—I +have myself eaten there with them, and you shall, too, in time; tell +me what company you keep, and I'll tell you who you are—yes, yonder +at the mansion they have got two birds with green necks and a comb on +their head; they can spread out their tail like a great wheel, and in +it plays every color, that it quite hurts one's eyes to look at it. +These birds are called peacocks, and that is 'THE BEAUTIFUL.' They +only want to be plucked a little, and then they would not look at all +different from the rest of us. I would already have plucked them, if +they had not been quite so big."</p> + +<p>"I will pluck them," chirped the smallest sparrow, that as yet had +not a single feather.</p> + +<p>In the peasant's cottage dwelt a young married couple; they loved +each other dearly, and were industrious and active: everything in +their house looked so neat and pretty. On Sunday morning early the +young woman came out, gathered a handful of the most beautiful roses, +and put them into a glass of water, which she placed on the +shelf.</p> + +<p>"Now I see that it is Sunday," said the man, and kissed his little +wife. They sat down, read in the hymn-book, and held each other by +the hand: the sun beamed on the fresh roses and on the young married +couple.</p> + +<p>"This is really too tiring a sight," said the mamma sparrow, who +from her nest could look into the room, and away she flew.</p> + +<p>The next Sunday it was the same, for every Sunday fresh roses were +put in the glass: yet the rose-tree bloomed on equally beautiful. The +young sparrows had now feathers, and wanted much to fly with their +mother; she, however, would not allow it, so they were forced to +remain. Off she flew; but, however, it happened, before she was +aware, she got entangled in a springe of horse-hair, which some boys +had set upon a bough. The horse-hair drew itself tightly round her +leg, so tightly as though it would cut it in two. That was an agony, +a fright! The boys ran to the spot and caught hold of the bird, and +that too in no very gentle manner.</p> + +<p>"It's only a sparrow," said they; but they, nevertheless, did not +let her fly, but took her home with them, and every time she cried +they gave her a tap on the beak.</p> + +<p>There stood in the farm-yard an old man, who knew how to make +shaving-soap and soap for washing, in square cakes as well as in +round balls. He was a merry, wandering old man. When he saw the +sparrow that the boys had caught, and which, as they said, they did +not care about at all, he asked, "Shall we make something very fine +of him?" Mamma sparrow felt an icy coldness creep over her. Out of +the box, in which were the most beautiful colors, the old man took a +quantity of gold leaf, and the boys were obliged to go and fetch the +white of an egg, with which the sparrow was painted all over; on this +the gold was stuck, and mamma sparrow was now entirely gilded; but +she did not think of adornment, for she trembled in every limb. And +the soap-dealer tore a bit off the lining of his old jacket, cut +scollops in it so that it might look like a cock's comb, and stuck it +on the head of the bird.</p> + +<p>"Now, then, you shall see master gold-coat fly," said the old man, +and let the sparrow go, who, in deadly fright, flew off, illumined by +the beaming sun. How she shone! All the sparrows, even a crow, +although an old fellow, were much frightened at the sight; they, +however flew on after him, in order to learn what foreign bird it +was.</p> + +<p>Impelled by anguish and terror, he flew homewards: he was near +falling exhausted to the earth. The crowd of pursuing birds +increased; yes, some indeed even tried to peck at him.</p> + +<p>"Look! there's a fellow! Look! there's a fellow!" screamed they +all.</p> + +<p>"Look! there's a fellow! Look! there's a fellow!" cried the young +sparrows, as the old one approached the nest. "That, for certain, is +a young peacock; all sorts of colors are playing in his feathers: it +quite hurts one's eyes to look at him, just as our mother told us. +Chirp! chirp! That is the beautiful!" And now they began pecking at +the bird with their little beaks, so that it was quite impossible for +the sparrow to get into the nest: she was so sadly used that she +could not even say "Chirrup," still less, "Why, I am your own +mother!" The other birds, too, now set upon the sparrow, and plucked +out feather after feather; so that at last she fell bleeding in the +rose-bush below.</p> + +<p>"Oh! poor thing!" said all the roses, "be quieted; we will hide +you. Lean your little head on us."</p> + +<p>The sparrow spread out her wings once more, then folded them close +to her body, and lay dead in the midst of the family who were her +neighbors,—the beautiful fresh roses.</p> + +<p>"Chirp! chirp!" sounded from the nest. "Where can our mother be? +It is quite inconceivable! It cannot surely be a trick of hers by +which she means to tell us that we are now to provide for ourselves? +She has left us the house as an inheritance; but to which of us is it +exclusively to belong, when we ourselves have families?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that will never do that you stay here with me when my +household is increased by the addition of a wife and children," said +the smallest.</p> + +<p>"I shall have, I should think, more wives and children than you," +said the second.</p> + +<p>"But I am the eldest," said the third. They all now grew +passionate; they beat each other with their wings, pecked with their +beaks, when, plump! one after the other was tumbled out of the nest. +There they lay with their rage; they turned their heads on one side, +and winked their eyes as they looked upward: that was their way of +playing the simpleton. They could fly a little, and by practice they +learned to do so still better; and they finally were unanimous as to +a sign by which, when at some future time they should meet again in +the world, they might recognise each other. It was to consist in a +"Chirrup!" and in a thrice-repeated scratching on the ground with the +left leg.</p> + +<p>The young sparrow that had been left behind in the nest spread +himself out to his full size. He was now, you know, a householder; +but his grandeur did not last long: in the night red fire broke +through the windows, the flames seized on the roof, the dry thatch +blazed up high, the whole house was burnt, and the young sparrow with +it; but the young married couple escaped, fortunately, with life. +When the sun rose again, and every thing looked so refreshed and +invigorated, as after a peaceful sleep, there was nothing left of the +cottage except some charred black beams leaning against the chimney, +which now was its own master. A great deal of smoke still rose from +the ground, but without, quite uninjured, stood the rose-bush, fresh +and blooming, and mirrored every flower, every branch, in the clear +water.</p> + +<p>"Oh! how beautifully the roses are blooming in front of the +burnt-down house!" cried a passer-by. "It is impossible to fancy a +more lovely picture. I must have that!"</p> + +<p>And the man took a little book with white leaves out of his +pocket: he was a painter, and with a pencil he drew the smoking +house, the charred beams, and the toppling chimney, which now hung +over more and more. But the large and blooming rose-tree, quite in +the foreground, afforded a magnificent sight; it was on its account +alone that the whole picture had been made.</p> + +<p>Later in the day two of the sparrows who had been born here passed +by. "Where is the house?" asked they. "Where the nest? Chirp! chirp! +All is burnt down, and our strong brother,—that is what he has got +for keeping the nest. The roses have escaped well; there they are yet +standing with their red cheeks. They, forsooth, do not mourn at the +misfortune of their neighbors. I have no wish whatever to address +them; and, besides, it is very ugly here, that's my opinion." And off +and away they flew.</p> + +<p>On a beautiful, bright, sunny autumn day—one might almost have +thought it was still the middle of summer—the pigeons were strutting +about the dry and nicely-swept court-yard in front of the great +steps—black and white and party-colored—and they shone in the +sunshine. The old mamma pigeon said to the young ones: "Form +yourselves in groups, form yourselves in groups, for that makes a +much better appearance."</p> + +<p>"What little brown creatures are those running about amongst us?" +asked an old pigeon, whose eyes were green and yellow. "Poor little +brownies! poor little brownies!"</p> + +<p>"They are sparrows: we have always had the reputation of being +kind and gentle; we will, therefore, allow them to pick up the grain +with us. They never mix in the conversation, and they scrape a leg so +prettily."</p> + +<p>"Yes, they scratched three times with their leg, and with the left +leg too, and said also "Chirrup!" It is by this they recognised each +other; for they were three sparrows out of the nest of the house that +had been burnt down.</p> + +<p>"Very good eating here," said one of the sparrows. The pigeons +strutted round each other, drew themselves up, and had inwardly their +own views and opinions.</p> + +<p>"Do you see the cropper pigeon?" said one of the others. "Do you +see how she swallows the peas? She takes too many, and the very best +into the bargain!"—"Coo! coo!"—"How she puts up her top-knot, the +ugly, mischievous creature!" "Coo! coo! coo!"</p> + +<p>And every eye sparkled with malice. "Form yourselves in groups! +form yourselves in groups! Little brown creatures! Poor little +brownies! Coo! coo!" So it went on unceasingly, and so will they go +on chattering in a thousand years to come.</p> + +<p>The sparrows ate right bravely. They listened attentively to what +was said, and even placed themselves in a row side by side, with the +others. It was not at all becoming to them, however. They were not +satisfied, and they therefore quitted the pigeons, and exchanged +opinions about them; nestled along under the garden palisades, and, +as they found the door of the room open that led upon the lawn, one +of them, who was filled to satiety, and was therefore over-bold, +hopped upon the threshold. "Chirrup!" said he, "I dare to +venture!"</p> + +<p>"Chirrup!" said another, "I dare, too, and more besides!" and he +hopped into the chamber. No one was present: the third saw this, and +flew still further into the room, calling out, "Either all or +nothing! However, 'tis a curious human nest that we have here; and +what have they put up there? What is that?"</p> + +<p>Close in front of the sparrows bloomed the roses; they mirrored +themselves in the water, and the charred rafters leaned against the +over-hanging chimney. But what can that be? how comes this in the +room of the mansion? And all three sparrows were about to fly away +over the roses and the chimney, but they flew against a flat wall. It +was all a picture, a large, beautiful picture, which the painter had +executed after the little sketch.</p> + +<p>"Chirrup!" said the sparrows, "it is nothing! It only looks like +something. Chirrup! That is beautiful! Can you comprehend it? I +cannot!" And away they flew, for people came into the room.</p> + +<p>Days and months passed, the pigeons had often cooed, the sparrows +had suffered cold in winter, and in summer lived right jollily; they +were all betrothed and married, or whatever you choose to call it. +They had young ones, and each naturally considered his the handsomest +and the cleverest: one flew here, another there; and if they met they +recognised each other by the "Chirrup?" and by the thrice-repeated +scratching with the left leg. The eldest sparrow had remained an old +maid, who had no nest and no family; her favorite notion was to see a +large town, so away she flew to Copenhagen.</p> + +<p>There one beheld a large house, painted with many bright colors, +quite close to the canal, in which lay many barges laden with earthen +pots and apples. The windows were broader below than above, and when +the sparrow pressed through, every room appeared like a tulip, with +the most varied colors and shades, but in the middle of the tulip +white men were standing: they were of marble, some, too, were of +plaister; but when viewed with a sparrow's eyes, they are the same. +Up above on the roof stood a metal chariot, with metal horses +harnessed to it; and the goddess of victory, also of metal, held the +reins. It was <i>Thorwaldsen's Museum.</i></p> + +<p>"How it shines! How it shines!'' said the old maiden sparrow. +That, doubtless, is 'the beautiful.' Chirrup! But here it is larger +than a peacock!" She remembered still what her mother, when she was a +child, had looked upon as the grandest among all beautiful things. +The sparrow fled down into the court: all was so magnificent. Palms +and foliage were painted on the walls. In the middle of the court +stood a large, blooming rose-tree; it spread out its fresh branches, +with its many roses, over a grave. Thither flew the old maiden +sparrow, for she saw there many of her sort. "Chirrup!" and three +scrapes with the left leg. Thus had she often saluted, from one +year's end to the other, and nobody had answered the greeting—for +those who are once separated do not meet again every day—till at last +the salutation had grown into a habit. But to-day, however, two old +sparrows and one young one answered with a "Chirrup!" and with a +thrice-repeated scrape of the left leg.</p> + +<p>"Ah, good day, good day!" It was two old birds from the nest, and +a little one besides, of the family. "That we should meet here! It is +a very grand sort of place, but there is nothing to eat here: that is +'the beautiful!' Chirrup!"</p> + +<p>And many persons advanced from the side apartments, where the +magnificent marble figures stood, and approached the grave that hid +the great master who had formed the marble figures. All stood with, +glorified countenances around Thorwaldsen's grave, and some picked up +the shed rose-leaves and carefully guarded them. They had come from +far—one from mighty England, others from Germany and France: the most +lovely lady gathered one of the roses and hid it in her bosom. Then +the sparrows thought that the roses governed here, and that the whole +house had been built on account of them. Now, this seemed to them, at +all events, too much; however, as it was for the roses that the +persons showed all their love, they would remain no longer. +"Chirrup!" said they, and swept the floor with their tails, and +winked with one eye at the roses. They had not looked at them long +before they convinced themselves that they were their old neighbors. +And they really were so. The painter who had drawn the rose-bush +beside the burned-down house, had afterwards obtained permission to +dig it up, and had given it to the architect—for more beautiful roses +had never been seen—and the architect had planted it on Thorwaldsen's +grave, where it bloomed as a symbol of the beautiful, and gave up its +red fragrant leaves to be carried to distant lands as a +remembrance.</p> + +<p>"Have you got an appointment here in town?" asked the +sparrows.</p> + +<p>And the roses nodded: they recognised their brown neighbors, and +rejoiced to see them again. "How delightful it is to live and to +bloom, to see old friends again, and every day to look on happy +faces! It is as if every day were a holy-day."</p> + +<p>"Chirrup!" said the sparrows. "Yes, it is in truth our old +neighbors; their origin—from the pond—is still quite clear in our +memory! Chirrup! How they have risen in the world! Yes, Fortune +favors some while they sleep! Ah! there is a withered leaf that I see +quite plainly." And they pecked at it so long till the leaf fell off; +and the tree stood there greener and more fresh, the roses gave forth +their fragrance in the sunshine over Thorwaldsen's grave, with whose +immortal name, they were united.</p> + +<hr /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="a_TheDarningNeedle"></a>THE DARNING-NEEDLE.</h2> + +<p>There was once upon a time a darning needle, that imagined itself +so fine, that at last it fancied it was a sewing-needle.</p> + +<p>"Now, pay attention, and hold me firmly!" said the darning-needle +to the fingers that were taking it out. "Do not let me fall! If I +fall on the ground, I shall certainly never be found again, so fine +am I."</p> + +<p>"Pretty well as to that," answered the fingers; and so saying, +they took hold of it by the body.</p> + +<p>"Look, I come with a train!" said the darning-needle, drawing a +long thread after it, but there was no knot to the thread.</p> + +<p>The fingers directed the needle against an old pair of shoes +belonging to the cook. The upper-leather was torn, and it was now to +be sewed together.</p> + +<p>"That is vulgar work," said the needle; "I can never get through +it. I shall break! I shall break!" And it really did break. "Did I +not say so?" said the needle; "I am too delicate."</p> + +<p>"Now it's good for nothing," said the fingers, but they were +obliged to hold it still; the cook dropped sealing-wax upon it, and +pinned her neckerchief together with it.</p> + +<p>"Well, now I am a breast-pin," said the darning-needle. "I was +sure I should be raised to honor: if one is something, one is sure to +get on!" and at the same time it laughed inwardly; for one can never +see when a darning-needle laughs. So there it sat now as proudly as +in a state-carriage, and looked around on every side.</p> + +<p>"May I take the liberty to inquire if you are of gold?" asked the +needle of a pin that was its neighbor. "You have a splendid exterior, +and a head of your own, but it is small, however. You must do what +you can to grow, for it is not every one that is bedropped with +sealing-wax!" And then the darning-needle drew itself up so high that +it fell out of the kerchief, and tumbled right into the sink, which +the cook was at that moment rinsing out.</p> + +<p>"Now we are going on our travels," said the needle. "If only I do +not get lost!" But it really did get lost.</p> + +<p>"I am too delicate for this world!" said the needle, as it lay in +the sink, "but I know who I am, and that is always a consolation;" +and the darning-needle maintained its proud demeanor, and lost none +of its good-humor.</p> + +<p>And all sorts of things swam over it—shavings, straws, and scraps +of old newspapers.</p> + +<p>"Only look how they sail by," said the needle. "They do not know +what is hidden below them! I stick fast here: here I sit. Look! there +goes a shaving: it thinks of nothing in the world but of itself—but +of a shaving! There drifts a straw; and how it tacks about, how it +turns round! Think of something else besides yourself, or else +perhaps you'll run against a stone! There swims a bit of a newspaper. +What's written there is long ago forgotten, and yet out it spreads +itself, as if it were mighty important! I sit here patient and still: +I know who I am, and that I shall remain after all!"</p> + +<p>One day there lay something close beside the needle. It glittered +so splendidly, that the needle thought it must be a diamond: but it +was only a bit of a broken bottle, and because it glittered the +darning-needle addressed it, and introduced itself to the other as a +breast-pin.</p> + +<p>"You are, no doubt, a diamond?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, something of that sort." And so each thought the other +something very precious, and they talked together of the world, and +of how haughty it is.</p> + +<p>"I was with a certain miss, in a little box," said the +darning-needle, "and this miss was cook; and on each hand she had +five fingers. In my whole life I have never seen anything so +conceited as these fingers! And yet they were only there to take me +out of the box and to put me back into it again!"</p> + +<p>"Were they, then, of noble birth?" asked the broken bottle.</p> + +<p>"Noble!" said the darning-needle; "no, but high-minded! There were +five brothers, all descendants of the 'Finger' family. They always +kept together, although they were of different lengths. The outermost +one, little Thumb, was short and stout; he went at the side, a little +in front of the ranks: he had, too, but one joint in his back, so +that he could only make one bow; but he said, if a man were to cut +him off, such a one were no longer fit for military service. +Sweet-tooth, the second finger, pryed into what was sweet, as well as +into what was sour, pointed to the sun and moon, and he it was that +gave stress when they wrote. Longman, the third brother, looked at +the others contemptuously over his shoulder. Goldrim, the fourth, +wore a golden girdle round his body! and the little Peter Playallday +did nothing at all, of which he was very proud. 'Twas boasting, and +boasting, and nothing but boasting, and so away I went."</p> + +<p>"And now we sit here and glitter," said the broken glass +bottle.</p> + +<p>At the same moment more water came along the gutter; it streamed +over the sides and carried the bit of bottle away with it.</p> + +<p>"Well, that's an advancement," said the darning-needle. "I remain +where I am: I am too fine; but that is just my pride, and as such is +to be respected." And there it sat so proudly, and had many grand +thoughts.</p> + +<p>"I should almost think that I was born of a sunbeam, so fine am I! +It seems to me, too, as if the sunbeams were always seeking me +beneath the surface of the water. Ah! I am so fine, that my mother is +unable to find me! Had I my old eye that broke, I verily think I +could weep; but I would not—weep! no, it's not genteel to weep!"</p> + +<p>One day two boys came rummaging about in the sink, where they +found old nails, farthings, and such sort of things. It was dirty +work; however, they took pleasure in it.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" cried one who had pricked himself with the needle, "there's +a fellow for you."</p> + +<p>"I am no fellow, I am a lady!" said the darning-needle; but no one +heard it. The sealing-wax had worn off, and it had become quite +black; but black makes one look more slender, and the needle fancied +it looked more delicate than ever.</p> + +<p>"Here comes an egg-shell sailing along!" said the boys; and then +they stuck the needle upright in the egg-shell.</p> + +<p>"The walls white and myself black," said the needle. "That is +becoming! People can see me now! If only I do not get seasick, for +then I shall snap."</p> + +<p>But it was not sea-sick, and did not snap.</p> + +<p>"It is good for sea-sickness to have a stomach of steel, and not +to forget that one is something more than a human being! Now my +sea-sickness is over. The finer one is, the more one can endure!"</p> + +<p>"Crack!" said the egg-shell: a wheel went over it.</p> + +<p>"Good heavens! how heavy that presses!" said the needle. "Now I +shall be sea-sick! I snap!" But it did not snap, although a wheel +went over it. It lay there at full length, and there it may lie +still.</p> + +<hr /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="a_TheLittleMatchGirl"></a>THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL.</h2> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>She crept along trembling with cold and hunger—a very picture of +sorrow, the poor little thing!</p> + +<p>The flakes of snow covered her long fair hair, which fell in +beautiful curls around her neck; but of that, of course, she never +once now thought. From all the windows the candles were gleaming, and +it smelt so deliciously of roast goose, for you know it was new +year's eve; yes, of that she thought.</p> + +<p>In a corner formed by two houses, of which one advanced more than +the other, she seated herself down and cowered together. Her little +feet she had drawn close up to her, but she grew colder and colder, +and to go home she did not venture, for she had not sold any matches +and could not bring a farthing of money: from her father she would +certainly get blows, and at home it was cold too, for above her she +had only the roof, through which the wind whistled, even though the +largest cracks were stopped up with straw and rags.</p> + +<p>Her little hands were almost numbed with cold. Oh! a match might +afford her a world of comfort, if she only dared take a single one +out of the bundle, draw it against the wall, and warm her fingers by +it. She drew one out. "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.</p> + +<p>She rubbed another against the wall: it burned brightly, and where +the light fell on the wall, there the wall became transparent like a +veil, so that she could see into the room. On the table was spread a +snow-white tablecloth; upon it was a splendid porcelain service, and +the roast goose was steaming famously with its stuffing of apple and +dried plums. And what was still more capital to behold was, the goose +hopped down from the dish, reeled about on the floor with knife and +fork in its breast, till it came up to the poor little girl; when—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 trees: it was still larger, and more +decorated than the one which she had seen through the glass door in +the rich merchant's house.</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/img0006.png" width="355" height="600" alt="[The Little Match Girl.]" /> +<p class="caption">THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL.</p> +</div> + +<p>Thousands of lights were burning on the green branches, and +gaily-colored pictures, such as she had seen in the shop-windows +looked down upon her. The little maiden stretched out her hands +towards them when—the match went out. The lights of the Christmas +tree rose higher and higher, she saw them now as stars in heaven; one +fell down and formed a long trail of fire.</p> + +<p>"Some one 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.</p> + +<p>She drew another match against the wall: it was again light, and +in the lustre there stood the old grandmother, so bright and radiant, +so mild, and with such an expression of love.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, +with rosy cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the +wall—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.</p> + +<hr /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="a_TheRedShoes"></a>THE RED SHOES.</h2> + +<p>There was once a little girl who was very pretty and delicate, but +in summer she was forced to run about with bare feet, she was so +poor, and in winter wear very large wooden shoes, which made her +little insteps quite red, and that looked so dangerous!</p> + +<p>In the middle of the village lived old Dame Shoemaker; she sate +and sewed together, as well as she could, a little pair of shoes out +of old red strips of cloth; they were very clumsy, but it was a kind +thought. They were meant for the little girl. The little girl was +called Karen.</p> + +<p>On the very day her mother was buried, Karen received the red +shoes, and wore them for the first time. They were certainly not +intended for mourning, but she had no others, and with stockingless +feet she followed the poor straw coffin in them.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a large old carriage drove up and a large old lady sate +in it: she looked at the little girl, felt compassion for her, and +then said to the clergyman:</p> + +<p>"Here, give me the little girl, I will adopt her!"</p> + +<p>And Karen believed all this happened on account of the red shoes, +but the old lady thought they were horrible, and they were burnt. But +Karen herself was cleanly and nicely dressed; she must learn to read +and sew; and people said she was a nice little thing, but the +looking-glass said: "Thou art more than nice, thou art +beautiful!"</p> + +<p>Now the queen once traveled through the land, and she had her +little daughter with her. And this little daughter was a princess, +and people streamed to the castle, and Karen was there also, and the +little princess stood in her fine white dress, in a window, and let +herself be stared at; she had neither a train nor a golden crown, but +splendid red morocco shoes. They were certainly far handsomer than +those Dame Shoemaker had made for little Karen. Nothing in the world +can be compared with red shoes.</p> + +<p>Now Karen was old enough to be confirmed; she had new clothes and +was to have new shoes also. The rich shoemaker in the city took the +measure of her little foot. This took place at his house, in his +room; where stood large glass-cases, filled with elegant shoes and +brilliant boots. All this looked charming, but the old lady could not +see well, and so had no pleasure in them. In the midst of the shoes +stood a pair of red ones, just like those the princess had worn. How +beautiful they were! The shoemaker said also they had been made for +the child of a count, but had not fitted.</p> + +<p>"That must be patent leather!" said the old lady, "they shine +so!'"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>Everybody looked at her feet; and when she stepped through the +chancel door on the church pavement, it seemed to her as if the old +figures on the tombs, those portraits of old preachers and preachers' +wives, with stiff ruffs, and long black dresses, fixed their eyes on +her red shoes. And she thought only of them as the clergyman laid his +hand upon her head, and spoke of the holy baptism, of the covenant +with God, and how she should be now a matured Christian; and the +organ pealed so solemnly; the sweet children's voices sang, and the +old music-directors sang, but Karen only thought of her red +shoes.</p> + +<p>In the afternoon, the old lady heard from every one that the shoes +had been red, and she said that it was very wrong of Karen, that it +was not at all becoming, and that in future Karen should only go in +black shoes to church, even when she should be older.</p> + +<p>The next Sunday there was the sacrament, and Karen looked at the +black shoes, looked at the red ones—looked at them again, and put on +the red shoes.</p> + +<p>The sun shone gloriously; Karen and the old lady walked along the +path through the corn; it was rather dusty there.</p> + +<p>At the church door stood an old soldier with a crutch, and with a +wonderfully long beard, which was more red than white, and he bowed +to the ground, and asked the old lady whether he might dust her +shoes. And Karen stretched out her little foot.</p> + +<p>"See! what beautiful dancing-shoes!" said the soldier, "sit firm +when you dance;" and he put his hand out towards the soles.</p> + +<p>And the old lady gave the old soldier an alms, and went into the +church with Karen.</p> + +<p>And all the people in the church looked at Karen's red shoes, and +all the pictures, and as Karen knelt before the altar, and raised the +cup to her lips, she only thought of the red shoes, and they seemed +to swim in it; and she forgot to sing her psalm, and she forgot to +pray, "Our father in Heaven!"</p> + +<p>Now all the people went out of church, and the old lady got into +her carriage. Karen raised her foot to get in after her, when the old +soldier said,</p> + +<p>"Look, what beautiful dancing shoes!"</p> + +<p>And Karen could not help dancing a step or two, and when she began +her feet continued to dance; it was just as though the shoes had +power over them. She danced round the church corner, she could not +leave off; the coachman was obliged to run after and catch hold of +her, and he lifted her in the carriage, but her feet continued to +dance so that she trod on the old lady dreadfully. At length she took +the shoes off, and then her legs had peace.</p> + +<p>The shoes were placed in a closet at home, but Karen could not +avoid looking at them.</p> + +<p>Now the old lady was sick, and it was said she could not recover. +She must be nursed and waited upon, and there was no one whose duty +it was so much as Karen's. But there was a great ball in the city, to +which Karen was invited. She looked at the old lady, who could not +recover, she looked at the red shoes, and she thought there could be +no sin in it;—she put on the red shoes, she might do that also, she +thought. But then she went to the ball and began to dance.</p> + +<p>When she wanted to dance to the right, the shoes would dance to +the left, and when she wanted to dance up the room, the shoes danced +back again, down the steps, into the street, and out of the city +gate. She danced, and was forced to dance straight out into the +gloomy wood.</p> + +<p>Then it was suddenly light up among the trees, and she fancied it +must be the moon, for there was a face; but it was the old soldier +with the red beard; he sate there, nodded his head, and said, "Look, +what beautiful dancing shoes!"</p> + +<p>Then she was terrified, and wanted to fling off the red shoes, but +they clung fast; and she pulled down her stockings, but the shoes +seemed to have grown to her feet. And she danced, and must dance, +over fields and meadows, in rain and sunshine, by night and day; but +at night it was the most fearful.</p> + +<p>She danced over the churchyard, but the dead did not dance,—they +had something better to do than to dance. She wished to seat herself +on a poor man's grave, where the bitter tansy grew; but for her there +was neither peace nor rest; and when she danced towards the open +church door, she saw an angel standing there. He wore long, white +garments; he had wings which reached from his shoulders to the earth; +his countenance was severe and grave; and in his hand he held a +sword, broad and glittering.</p> + +<p>"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———!"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>One morning she danced past a door which she well knew. Within +sounded a psalm; a coffin, decked with flowers, was borne forth. Then +she knew that the old lady was dead, and felt that she was abandoned +by all, and condemned by the angel of God.</p> + +<p>She danced, and she was forced to dance through the gloomy night. +The shoes carried her over stack and stone; she was torn till she +bled; she danced over the heath till she came to a little house. +Here, she knew, dwelt the executioner; and she tapped with her +fingers at the window, and said, "Come out! come out! I cannot come +in, for I am forced to dance!"</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>And then she confessed her entire sin, and the executioner struck +off her feet with the red shoes, but the shoes danced away with the +little feet across the field into the deep wood.</p> + +<p>And he carved out little wooden feet for her, and crutches, taught +her the psalm criminals always sing; and she kissed the hand which +had wielded the axe, and went over the heath.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>And away she went boldly; but she had not got farther than the +churchyard gate before she saw the red shoes dancing before her; and +she was frightened, and turned back, and repented of her sin from her +heart.</p> + +<p>And she went to the parsonage, and begged that they would take her +into service; she would be very industrious, she said, and would do +everything she could; she did not care about the wages, only she +wished to have a home, and be with good people. And the clergyman's +wife was sorry for her and took her into service; and she was +industrious and thoughtful. She sate still and listened when the +clergyman read the Bible in the evenings. All the children thought a +deal of her; but when they spoke of dress, and grandeur, and beauty, +she shook her head.</p> + +<p>The following Sunday, when the family was going to church, they +asked her whether she would not go with them; but she glanced +sorrowfully, with tears in her eyes, at her crutches. The family went +to hear the word of God; but she went alone into her little chamber; +there was only room for a bed and chair to stand in it; and here she +sate 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!"</p> + +<p>And the sun shone so clearly! and straight before her stood the +angel of God in white garments, the same she had seen that night at +the church door; but he no longer carried the sharp sword, but in its +stead a splendid green spray, full of roses. And he touched the +ceiling with the spray, and the ceiling rose so high, and where he +had touched it there gleamed a golden star. And he touched the walls, +and they widened out, and she saw the organ which was playing; she +saw the old pictures of the preachers and the preachers' wives. The +congregation sat in cushioned seats, and sang out of their +prayer-books. For the church itself had come to the poor girl in her +narrow chamber, or else she had come into the church. She sate 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!"</p> + +<p>"It was through mercy!" she said.</p> + +<p>And the organ pealed, and the children's voices in the choir +sounded so sweet and soft! The clear sunshine streamed so warmly +through the window into the pew where Karen sate! Her heart was so +full of sunshine, peace, and joy, that it broke. Her soul flew on the +sunshine to God, and there no one asked after the Red Shoes.</p> + +<hr /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="a_ToTheYoungReaders"></a>TO THE YOUNG READERS</h2> + +<p>Here is another volume of Andersen's charming stories for you; and +I am sure you will be glad to get it. For my part, I am always +delighted to find one that I do not happen to have yet seen; and as I +know the others pleased you—for I have heard so, both directly and +indirectly, from a great many people, there can be no doubt that you +all will be overjoyed to have a few more of these stories told +you.</p> + +<p> +And there is no one who participates in this delight more than—whom do you +think? Why, than Andersen himself! He is so happy that his Tales have been thus +joyfully received, and that they have found their way to the hearts and +sympathies of you all. He speaks of it with evident pleasure; and it is not +vanity, but his kind affectionate nature, which inclines him to mention such +little occurrences as prove how firm a hold his writings have taken on the +minds of the young and gentle-natured. "So much praise might," he says, "spoil +a man, and make him vain. Yet no, it does not spoil him: on the contrary, it +makes him better; it purifies his thoughts, and this must give one the impulse +and the will to deserve it all." He was so pleased to hear, and I, you may be +sure, was equally pleased to tell him, what had been written to me by a friend +a short time before—that several little boys and girls, Miss Edgeworth's +nephews and nieces were so delighted with the "<b>Tales From Denmark</b>," that +they not only read and re-read them continually, but used <i>to act the +stories</i> together in their play-hours! +</p> + +<p>And a certain little dark-eyed thing of my acquaintance, "little +Nelly," or "the little gipsey," as I sometimes call her, knows the +whole story of "Ellie and the Pretty Swallow," by heart; and another +"wee thing," that cannot yet read, but is always wanting to have +stories told her, knows all about Kay and Gerda, and the +flower-garden, and how Gerda went to look for her brother, inquiring +of every body she met, and how at last the good sister found him.</p> + +<p>In Copenhegan, as Andersen himself told me, all the children know +him. "And," he said, with such a countenance that showed such homage +was dearer to him than the more splendid honors paid as tributes to +his genius, "as I walk along the street, the little darlings nod and +kiss their hands to me; and they say to one another, 'There's +Andersen!' and then some more run and wave their hands. Oh yes, they +all know me. But sometimes, if there be one who does not, then, +perhaps, his mamma will say, 'Look, that is he who wrote the story +you read the other day, and that you liked so much;' and so we soon +get acquainted." And <i>this</i> popularity delights +him more than anything; and you surely cannot call it vanity.</p> + +<p>In the account he has written of his life, he relates a +circumstance that happened to him at Dresden; and it is so pretty +that I insert it here. He writes: "An evening that for me was +particularly interesting I spent with the royal family, who received +me most graciously. Here reigned the same quiet that is found in +private life in a happy family. A whole troop of amiable children, +all belonging to Prince John, were present. The youngest of the +princesses, a little girl who knew that I had written the story of +'The Fir-tree,' began familiarly her conversation with me in these +words: 'Last Christmas we also had a fir-tree, and it stood here in +this very room.' Afterwards, when she was taken to bed earlier than +the others, and had wished her parents and the king and queen 'Good +night,' she turned round once more at the half-closed door, and +nodded to me in a friendly manner, and as though we were old +acquaintance. I was her prince of the fairy tale."</p> + +<p>But it is not the praise of the great, or the admiration of a +court, on which he sets most value, as you will see by the following +extract from a letter which I received from him to-day, only an hour +or two ago. It is about his stay in England, and his visit to the +north, after I had left him, and I am sure he will not mind my +sharing thus much of what he writes to me with you. "The hearty +welcome I met with in Scotland moved me greatly. My writings were so +well known, I found so many friends, that I can hardly take in so +much happiness. But I must relate you one instance: in Edinburgh I +went with a party of friends to Heriot's Hospital, where orphan +children are taken care of and educated. We were all obliged to +inscribe our names in the visitors' book. The porter read the names, +and asked if that was Andersen the author: and when some one answered +'Yes,' the old man folded his hands and gazed quite in ecstacy at an +old gentleman who was with us, and said: 'Yes, yes! he is just as I +had always fancied him to myself—the venerable white hair—the mild +expression—yes, that is Andersen!' They then explained to him that I +was the person. 'That young man!' he exclaimed; 'Why generally such +people, when one hears about them, are either dead or very old.' When +the story was told me, I at first thought it was a joke; but the +porter came up to me in a most touching manner, and told me how he +and all the boys entered so entirely and heartily into my stories. It +so affected me that I almost shed tears."</p> + +<p>This is indeed popularity!</p> + +<p>Now I dare say you thought that the little princes and princesses +in a king's palace had tastes and feelings very different from a poor +charity-boy; but you see, although so different in rank, they were +alike in one thing—they were both children; and childhood, if left to +itself, is in all situations the same.</p> + +<p>And do you know, too, my little friends, that you are very +excellent critics? Yes, most sage and excellent critics; though I +dare say not one of you even ever dreamt of such a thing. But it is, +nevertheless, true; and not some, but all of you, whether in England, +Scotland, or Ireland—the little boys in Heriot's Hospital, and the +little princess at Dresden who knew the story of "The Fir-Tree." For +without one dissentient voice you have passed favorable judgment on +these stories: in your estimation of them your were unanimous.</p> + +<p>Yet when they first appeared in Denmark some of the critics by +profession found fault with them, and wondered, as they said, how an +author who had written works of greater pretension, could think of +making his appearance with something so childish as these tales. And +some kind friends, grown-up people, whose opinion was not +unimportant, advised him by all means to give up writing such stories +as he had no talent for them; and it was only later, that, to use +Andersen's own words, "every door and heart in Denmark was open to +them." But all of you, not critics by profession, you welcomed them +at once; as soon as you saw them you perceived their beauty—you +cherished and gave them a place in your heart. And this is the reason +why I say that you are sage and excellent critics; and if you can +preserve the same simple-heartedness, finding pleasure in what is +natural and truthful, and allow yourselves to be guided by the +instincts of your pure uncorrupted nature, you may always be so.</p> + +<p>You will like to know that Thorwaldsen, the great Thorwaldsen, +loved to hear Andersen repeat these tales. It is true he has quite a +peculiar way of relating them, which adds greatly to their charm. I +begged him one day to tell me the story of "The Top and Ball," and he +immediately sat down on the sofa and began. Though I knew it by heart +from beginning to end, so often had I read it over, yet it now seemed +quite new, from his manner of telling it; and I was as amused and +laughed as much as though I had never heard it before. That very +pretty one, "Ole Luckoie," was written when in the society of +Thorwaldsen; and "often at dusk," so Andersen relates, "when the +family circle were sitting in the summer house, would Thorwaldsen +glide gently in, and, tapping me on the shoulder, ask, 'Are we little +ones to have no story tonight?' It pleased him to hear the same story +over and over again; and often, while employed on his grandest works, +he would stand with a smiling countenance and listen to the tale of +'Top and Ball,' and 'The Ugly Duck.'" The last is my favorite +also.</p> + +<p>From Rome, where this occurred, you must now take a jump with me +to Hamburg; for I have to tell you an anecdote that happened there to +Andersen, also, about his stories which he relates in his "Life." He +had gone to see Otto Speckter, whose clever and characteristic +pictures most of you will certainly know, and he intended to go +afterwards to the play. Speckter accompanied him. "We passed an +elegant house. 'We must first go in here, my dear friend,' said he; +'a very rich family lives there, friends of mine, friends of your +tales; the children will be overjoyed—' 'But the opera,' said I. +'Only for two minutes,' he replied, and drew me into the house, told +my name, and the circle of children collected round me. 'And now +repeat a story,' he said: 'only a single one.' I did so, and hurried +to the theatre. 'That was a strange visit,' I said. 'A capital one! a +most excellent one!' shouted he. 'Only think! the children are full +of Andersen and his fairy tales: all of a sudden he stands in the +midst of them, and relates one himself, and then he is gone—vanished. +Why, that very circumstance is a fairy tale for the children, and +will remain vividly in their memory.' It amused me too."</p> + +<p>You will be getting impatient, I am afraid. However, before I +finish I must tell you something about the stories in this volume. +The translation of them I had begun in Andersen's room, and when he +came in we began talking about them, one of which, "The Little Girl +with the Matches," I had read in his absence. I told him how +delighted I was with it—that I found it most exquisitely narrated; +but that how such a thing came into his head, I could not conceive. +He then said, "That was written when I was on a visit at The Duke of +Augustenburg's. I received a letter from Copenhagen from the editor +of a Danish almanac for the people, in which he said he was very +anxious to have something of mine for it, but that the book was +already nearly printed. In the letter were two woodcuts, and these he +wished to make use of, if only I would write something to which they +might serve as illustrations. One was the picture of a little +match-girl, exactly as I have described her. It was from the picture +that I wrote the story—wrote it surrounded by splendor and rejoicing, +at the castle of Grauenstein, in Schleswig."</p> + +<p>"And Little Tuk," said I.—"Oh! 'Little Tuk,'" answered he, +laughing; "I will tell you all about him. When in Oldenburg I lived +for some time at the house of a friend, the Counsellor von E***. The +children's names were Charles and Gustave (Augusta?) but the little +boy always called himself 'Tuk.' He meant to say 'Charles,' but he +could not pronounce it otherwise. Now once I promised the dear little +things that I would put them in a fairy tale, and so both of them +appeared, but as poor children in the story of 'Little Tuk.' So you +see, as reward for all the hospitality I received in Germany, I take +the German children and make Danes of them."</p> + +<p>You see he can make a story out of anything. "They peep over his +shoulder," as he once wrote to me, a long time ago. And one time, +when he was just going to set off on a journey, his friend said to +him, "My little Erich possesses two leaden soldiers, and he has given +one of them to me for you, that you may take it with you on your +travels."</p> + +<p> +Now I should not at all wonder if this were the very "Resolute Leaden Soldier" +you read of in the "<b>Tales From Denmark</b>;" but this one, it is true, was a +Turk, and I don't think the other was. And then, too, there is nothing said +about this one having but one leg. However, it may be the same, after all. +</p> + +<p>As to the tale called "The Naughty Boy," that, it is true, is an +old story. The poet Anacreon wrote it long, long ago; but Andersen +has here re-told it in so humorous a manner, that it will no doubt +amuse you as much as though it had been written originally by him. He +has given the whole, too, quite another dress; and "the naughty boy" +himself he has tricked out so drolly, and related such amusing tricks +of him, that I think Mr. Andersen had better take care the young +rogue does not play him a sly turn some day or other, for the little +incorrigible rascal respects nobody.</p> + +<p>Before I say farewell, there is one thing I must tell you; which +is, there are two persons you certainly little think of, to whom you +owe some thanks for the pretty tales of Anderson that have so greatly +delighted you, as well as for those he may still write. You will +never guess who they are, so I will tell you. They are Frederick VI., +the late, and Christian VIII., the present King of Denmark. The +former gave Andersen a pension to relieve him from the necessity of +depending on his pen for bread; so that, free from cares, he was able +to pursue his own varied fancies. Though not much, it was sufficient; +but the present king, who has always been most kind to your friend +Andersen—for so you surely consider him—increased his pension +considerably, in order that, he might be able to travel, and follow +in full liberty the bent of his genius.</p> + +<p>Now do you not like a king who thus holds out his hand to genius, +who delights to honor the man who has done honor to their common +country, and who is proud to interest himself in his fate as in that +of a friend? And this King Christian VIII. does. Am I not right, +then, in saying that you owe him your thanks?</p> + +<p>Farewell, my little friends, and believe that I am always ready +and willing to serve you.</p> + +<p>Charles Boner.*</p> + +<p>Donau Stauf, near Ratisbon.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="footnote"> +* By whom several of the stories in this volume were translated +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center"> +Published by James Miller, New York.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center">THE STORY</p> + +<p class="center">OF THE</p> + +<p class="center">RED BOOK OF APPIN:</p> + +<p class="center">A Fairy Tale of the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p class="center">WITH</p> + +<p class="center">AN INTERPRETATION.</p> + +<p class="center">By the Author of "Alchemy and the Alchemists," +"Swedenborg a Hermetic Philosopher," and "Christ the Spirit."</p> + +<p class="center">Price 50 cents.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center">THE ICE MAIDEN,</p> + +<p class="center">And other Tales.</p> + +<p class="center">By Hans Christian Andersen.</p> + +<p class="center">Translated by Fanny Fuller. Price 75 cents.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center">ON THE</p> + +<p class="center">CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE</p> + +<p class="center">of</p> + +<p class="center">WASHINGTON.</p> + +<p class="center">By M. Guizot.</p> + +<p class="center">50 cents.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center">FRIENDS IN COUNCIL.</p> + +<p class="center">A SERIES OF READINGS, AND DISCOURSES THEREON.</p> + +<p class="center">4 vols. 12mo.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center">THE</p> + +<p class="center">UGLY DUCK,</p> + +<p class="center">And other Tales.</p> + +<p class="center">BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.</p> + +<p class="center">Illustrated.</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/img0007.png" width="351" height="379" alt="[Mother Holding Mistletoe Above Infant.]" /> +</div> + +<p class="center">New York:</p> + +<p class="center">Published by James Miller,</p> + +<p class="center">(Successor To C. S. 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