(Adapted from Hans Andersen)
_To show that it all depends upon how we look at things._
Once there was a wicked sprite; indeed, he was one of the worst
sprites you ever knew. He was always in mischief. One day he was
in a fine humor; he had just made a mirror that had the power of
changing every lovely thing that looked into it into something
hideous, and when anything ugly looked into it, it became ten times
worse than it really was.
A beautiful landscape looked like boiled spinach. It made a person
appear to stand on his head and sometimes appear as if he had no
body at all. The face of a girl looked for all the world like an
old potato, and if she had a mole or a freckle it seemed to spread
all over her nose and mouth.
This sprite kept a school--a school for sprites, of course--and he
showed all the other sprites the mirror and said to them:
“Now you can see what the world and the people really look like.”
The sprites took the mirror around and had everybody look in it,
and said:
“That is the very way you look! What do you think of yourself?”
At last there was not a land nor any people who had not seen the
mirror. And you may be sure that everybody who looked in the mirror
had a very poor opinion of himself.
And now the sprites thought of a good joke. They flew with the
mirror high up into the sky. The mirror grinned as it went up,
and kept on grinning until it became so slippery the sprites
could hardly hold it. Up they flew until they came near reaching
the stars. The joke they had in view was so good that the mirror
grinned until it wriggled out of their hands and fell and fell and
fell, until it struck the ground. It was broken into a million
pieces and the wind scattered them everywhere, until you would have
thought that was the end of the mirror.
But not so fast! Each tiny bit was now as bad as the whole mirror
itself. Some bits were like dust and flew into people’s eyes. Then
their eyes saw everything crooked, or looked evil at all the good
things. They would say of such a one: “He has a bad eye, do not
trust him.”
Some bits flew into people’s hearts and it made them shudder for
their hearts became hard and cold like lumps of ice. They did
not love anybody at all, not even their own children. Some bits
flew into people’s minds, and then they thought evil thoughts and
planned wicked things. They oppressed the poor and even had designs
on the mayor and councilmen.
At all this the sprites laughed as if it were a good joke. But I
tell you it was very wicked of them, for some bits of the mirror
are floating about yet and we must look out not to have them come
near us.