New Juveniles for 1864
PUBLISHED BY
JAMES MILLER,
522 BROADWAY, N. Y.
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MAGNET STORIES,
For Summer Days and Winter Nights.
SECOND SERIES.
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IMPULSE AND PRINCIPLE,
AND OTHER STORIES.
BY MISS ABBOTT.
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THE PRIVATE PURSE,
And other Stories.
BY MRS. S. C. HALL.
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TURNS OF FORTUNE
And other Stories.
BY MRS. S. C. HALL.
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Published By James Miller, 522 Broadway.
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PHILIP GREY,
OR THREE MONTHS AT SEA.
BY PETER PARLEY.
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Hans Andersen's Wonderful Tales.
ILLUSTRATED.
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HANS ANDERSEN'S STORY BOOK.
ILLUSTRATED.
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Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales.
ILLUSTRATED.
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GULLIVER'S TRAVELS.
New Edition. Illustrated.
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ESOP'S FABLES.
New Edition. Illustrated.
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Aunt Carrie's Rhymes for Children.
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LIFE OF GEO. WASHINGTON.
With Illustrations by Darley.
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[Illustration: "The Dream of Little Tuk."]
THE DREAM OF LITTLE TUK.
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Hans Andersen's Library.
A CHRISTMAS GREETING
A Series of Stories,
BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
ILLUSTRATED.
[Illustration: "Children Dancing."]
Published by James Miller,
522 Broadway.
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A CHRISTMAS GREETING
A Series of Stories,
BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
[Illustration: "Man Carrying Firewood."]
New York:
(Successor to C.S. Francis & Co.)
Published by James Miller,
522 Broadway.
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TO
CHARLES DICKENS, Esq.
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.
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.
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.
Hans Christian Andersen.
Copenhagen. 6th December, 1847.
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* The first seven in this volume.
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CONTENTS
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I. The Old House
II. The Drop of Water
III. The Happy Family
IV. The Story of a Mother
V. The False Collar
VI. The Shadow
VII. The Old Street-Lamp
VIII. The Dream of Little Tuk
IX. The Naughty Boy
X. The Two Neighboring Families
XI. The Darning Needle
XII. The Little Match-Girl
XIII. The Red Shoes
XIV. To The Young Readers
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THE OLD HOUSE.
In the street, up there, was an old, a very old house,--it was almost
three hundred years old, for that might be known by reading the great
beam on which the date of the year was carved: together with tulips
and hop-binds there were whole verses spelled as in former times, and
over every window was a distorted face cut out in the beam. The one
story stood forward a great way over the other; and directly under the
eaves was a leaden spout with a dragon's head; the rain-water should
have run out of the mouth, but it ran out of the belly, for there was
a hole in the spout.
All the other houses in the street were so new and so neat, with large
window-panes and smooth walls, one could easily see that they would
have nothing to do with the old house: they certainly thought, "How
long is that old decayed thing to stand here as a spectacle in the
street? And then the 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!"
On the other side of the street were also new and neat houses, and
they thought just as the others did; but at the window opposite the
old house there sat a little boy with fresh rosy cheeks and bright
beaming eyes: he certainly liked the old house best, and that both in
sunshine and moonshine. And when he looked across at the wall where
the mortar had fallen out, he could sit and find out there the
strangest figures imaginable; exactly as the street had appeared
before, with steps, projecting windows, and pointed gables; he could
see soldiers with halberds, and spouts where the water ran, like
dragons and serpents. _That_ was a house to look at; and there lived
an old man, who wore plush breeches; and he had a coat with large
brass buttons, and a wig that one could see was a real wig. Every
morning there came an old fellow to him who put his rooms in order,
and went on errands; otherwise, the old man in the plush breeches was
quite alone in the old house. Now and then he came to the window and
looked out, and the little boy nodded to him, and the old man nodded
again, and so they became acquaintances, and then they were friends,
although they had never spoken to each other,--but that made no
difference. The little boy heard his parents say, "The old man
opposite is very well off, but he is so very, very lonely!"
The Sunday following, the little boy took something, and wrapped it up
in a piece of paper, went down stairs, and stood in the doorway; and
when the man who went on errands came past, he said to him--
"I say, master! will you give this to the old man over the way from
me? I have two pewter soldiers--this is one of them, and he shall have
it, for I know he is so very, very lonely."
And the old errand man looked quite pleased, nodded, and took the
pewter soldier over to the old house. Afterwards there came a message;
it was to ask if the little boy himself had not a wish to come over
and pay a visit; and so he got permission of his parents, and then
went over to the old house.
And the brass balls on the iron railings shone much brighter than
ever; one would have thought they were polished on account of the
visit; and it was as if the carved-out trumpeters--for there were
trumpeters, who stood in tulips, carved out on the door--blew with all
their might, their cheeks appeared so much rounder than before. Yes,
they blew--"Trateratra! the little boy comes trateratra!"--and then
the door opened.
The whole passage was hung with portraits of knights in armor, and
ladies in silken gowns; and the armor rattled, and the silken gowns
rustled! And then there was a flight of stairs which went a good way
upwards, and a little way downwards, and then one came on a balcony
which was in a very dilapidated state, sure enough, with large holes
and long crevices, but grass grew there and leaves out of them
altogether, for the whole balcony outside, the yard, and the walls,
were overgrown with so much green stuff, that it looked like a garden;
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!"
And then they entered a chamber where the walls were covered, with
hog's leather, and printed with gold flowers.
"The gilding decays,
But hog's leather stays!"
said the walls.
And there stood easy chairs, with such high backs, and so carved out,
and with arms on both sides. "Sit down! sit down!" said they. "Ugh!
how I creak; now I shall certainly get the gout, like the old
clothes-press, ugh!"
And then the little boy came into the room where the projecting
windows were, and where the old man sat.
"I thank you for the pewter soldier, my little friend!" said the old
man, "and I thank you because you come over to me."
"Thankee! thankee!" or "cranky! cranky!" sounded from all the
furniture; there was so much of it, that each article stood in the
other's way, to get a look at the little boy.
In the middle of the wall hung a picture representing a beautiful
lady, so young, so glad, but dressed quite as in former times, with
clothes that stood quite stiff, and with powder in her hair; she
neither said "thankee, thankee!" nor "cranky, cranky!" but looked with
her mild eyes at the little boy, who directly asked the old man,
"Where did you get her?"
"Yonder, at the broker's," said the old man, "where there are so many
pictures hanging. No one knows or cares about them, for they are all
of them buried; but I knew her in by-gone days, and now she has been
dead and gone these fifty years!"
Under the picture, in a glazed frame, there hung a _bouquet_ of
withered flowers; they were almost fifty years old; they looked so
very old!
The pendulum of the great clock went to and fro, and the hands turned,
and every thing in the room became still older; but they did not
observe it.
"They say at home," said the little boy, "that you are so very, very
lonely!"
"Oh!" said he, "the old thoughts, with what they may bring with them,
come and visit me, and now you also come! I am very well off!"
Then he took a book with pictures in it down from the shelf; there
were whole long processions and pageants, with the strangest
characters, which one never sees now-a-days; soldiers like the knave
of clubs, and citizens with waving flags: the tailors had theirs, with
a pair of shears held by two lions,--and the shoemakers theirs,
without boots, but with an eagle that had two heads, for the
shoemakers must have everything so that they can say, it is a
pair!--Yes, that was a picture book!
The old man now went into the other room to fetch preserves, apples,
and nuts;--yes, it was delightful over there in the old house.
"I cannot bear it any longer!" said the pewter soldier, who sat on the
drawers; "it is so lonely and melancholy here! but when one has been
in a family circle one cannot accustom oneself to this life! I cannot
bear it any longer! the whole day is so long, and the evenings are
still longer! here it is not at all as it is over the way at your
home, where your father and mother spoke so pleasantly, and where you
and all your sweet children made such a delightful noise. Nay, how
lonely the old man is!--do you think that he gets kisses? do you think
he gets mild eyes, or a Christmas tree?--He will get nothing but a
grave.--I can bear it no longer!"
"You must not let it grieve you so much," said the little boy; "I find
it so very delightful here, and then all the old thoughts, with what
they may bring with them, they come and visit here."
"Yes, it's all very well, but I see nothing of them, and I don't know
them!" said the pewter soldier, "I cannot bear it!"
"But you must!" said the little boy.
Then in came the old man with the most pleased and happy face, the
most delicious preserves, apples, and nuts, and so the little boy
thought no more about the pewter soldier.
The little boy returned home happy and pleased, and weeks and days
passed away, and nods were made to the old house, and from the old
house, and then the little boy went over there again.
The carved trumpeters blew, "trateratra! there is the little boy!
trateratra!" and the swords and armor on the knights' portraits
rattled, and the silk gowns rustled; the hog's-leather spoke, and the
old chairs had the gout in their legs and rheumatism in their backs:
Ugh!--it was exactly like the first time, for over there one day and
hour was just like another.
"I cannot bear it!" said the pewter soldier, "I have shed pewter
tears! it is too melancholy! rather let me go to the wars and lose
arms and legs! it would at least be a change. I cannot bear it
longer!--Now, I know what it is to have a visit from one's old
thoughts, with what they may bring with them! I have had a visit from
mine, and you may be sure it is no pleasant thing in the end; I was at
last about to jump down from the drawers.
"I saw you all over there at home so distinctly, as if you really were
here; it was again that Sunday morning; all you children stood before
the table and sung your Psalms, as you do every morning. You stood
devoutly with folded hands; and father and mother were just as pious;
and then the door was opened, and little sister Mary, who is not two
years old yet, and who always dances when she hears music or singing,
of whatever kind it may be, was put into the room--though she ought
not to have been there--and then she began to dance, but could not
keep time, because the tones were so long; and then she stood, first
on the one leg, and bent her head forwards, and then on the other leg,
and bent her head forwards--but all would not do. You stood very
seriously all together, although it was difficult enough; but I
laughed to myself, and then I fell off the table, and got a bump,
which I have still--for it was not right of me to laugh. But the whole
now passes before me again in thought, and everything that I have
lived to see; and these are the old thoughts, with what they may bring
with them.
"Tell me if you still sing on Sundays? Tell me something about little
Mary! and how my comrade, the other pewter soldier, lives! Yes, he is
happy enough, that's sure! I cannot bear it any longer!"
"You are given away as a present!" said the little boy; "you must
remain. Can you not understand that?"
The old man now came with a drawer, in which there was much to be
seen, both "tin boxes" and "balsam boxes," old cards, so large and so
gilded, such as one never sees them now. And several drawers were
opened, and the piano was opened; it had landscapes on the inside of
the lid, and it was so hoarse when the old man played on it! and then
he hummed a song.
"Yes, she could sing that!" said he, and nodded to the portrait, which
he had bought at the broker's, and the old man's eyes shone so bright!
"I will go to the wars! I will go to the wars!" shouted the pewter
soldier as loud as he could, and threw himself off the drawers right
down on the floor.
What became of him? The old man sought, and the little boy sought; he
was away, and he stayed away.
"I shall find him!" said the old man; but he never found him. The
floor was too open--the pewter soldier had fallen through a crevice,
and there he lay as in an open tomb.
That day passed, and the little boy went home, and that week passed,
and several weeks too. The windows were quite frozen, the little boy
was obliged to sit and breathe on them to get a peep-hole over to the
old house, and there the snow had been blown into all the carved work
and inscriptions; it lay quite up over the steps, just as if there was
no one at home;--nor was there any one at home--the old man was dead!
In the evening there was a hearse seen before the door, and he was
borne into it in his coffin: he was now to go out into the country, to
lie in his grave. He was driven out there, but no one followed; all
his friends were dead, and the little boy kissed his hand to the
coffin as it was driven away.
Some days afterwards there was an auction at the old house, and the
little boy saw from his window how they carried the old knights and
the old ladies away, the flower-pots with the long ears, the old
chairs, and the old clothes-presses. Something came here, and
something came there; the portrait of her who had been found at the
broker's came to the broker's again; and there it hung, for no one
knew her more--no one cared about the old picture.
In the spring they pulled the house down, for, as people said, it was
a ruin. One could see from the street right into the room with the
hog's-leather hanging, which was slashed and torn; and the green grass
and leaves about the balcony hung quite wild about the falling
beams.--And then it was put to rights.
"That was a relief," said the neighboring houses.
* * * * *
A fine house was built there, with large windows, and smooth white
walls; but before it, where the old house had in fact stood, was a
little garden laid out, and a wild grapevine ran up the wall of the
neighboring house. Before the garden there was a large iron railing
with an iron door, it looked quite splendid, and people stood still
and peeped in, and the sparrows hung by scores in the vine, and
chattered away at each other as well as they could, but it was not
about the old house, for they could not remember it, so many years had
passed,--so many that the little boy had grown up to a whole man, yes,
a clever man, and a pleasure to his parents; and he had just been
married, and, together with his little wife, had come to live in the
house here, where the garden was; and he stood by her there whilst she
planted a field-flower that she found so pretty; she planted it with
her little hand, and pressed the earth around it with her fingers. Oh!
what was that? She had stuck herself. There sat something pointed,
straight out of the soft mould.
It was----yes, guess!--it was the pewter soldier, he that was lost up
at the old man's, and had tumbled and turned about amongst the timber
and the rubbish, and had at last laid for many years in the ground.
The young wife wiped the dirt off the soldier, first with a green
leaf, and then with her fine handkerchief--it had such a delightful
smell, that it was to the pewter soldier just as if he had awaked from
a trance.
"Let me see him," said the young man. He laughed, and then shook his
head. "Nay, it cannot be he; but he reminds me of a story about a
pewter soldier which I had when I was a little boy!" And then he told
his wife about the old house, and the old man, and about the pewter
soldier that he sent over to him because he was so very, very lonely;
and he told it as correctly as it had really been, so that the tears
came into the eyes of his young wife, on account of the old house and
the old man.
"It may possibly be, however, that it is the same pewter soldier!"
said she, "I will take care of it, and remember all that you have told
me; but you must show me the old man's grave!"
"But I do not know it," said he, "and no one knows it! all his friends
were dead, no one took care of it, and I was then a little boy!"
"How very, very lonely he must have been!" said she.
"Very, very lonely!" said the pewter soldier; "but it is delightful
not to be forgotten!"
"Delightful!" shouted something close by; but no one, except the
pewter soldier, saw that it was a piece of the hog's-leather hangings;
it had lost all its gilding, it looked like a piece of wet clay, but
it had an opinion, and it gave it:
"The gilding decays,
But hog's leather stays!"
This the pewter soldier did not believe.
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THE DROP OF WATER.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
"What have you got there?" said another old wizard, who had no name,
and that was just the best of it.
"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!"
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!
"It is quite amusing!" said the wizard.
"Yes; but what do you think it is?" asked Creep-and-Crawl. "Can you
find it out!"
"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!"
"It is ditch-water!" said Creep-and-Crawl.
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THE HAPPY FAMILY.
Really, the largest green leaf in this country is a dock-leaf; if one
holds it before one, it is like a whole apron, and if one holds it
over one's head in rainy weather, it is almost as good as an umbrella,
for it is so immensely large. The burdock never grows alone, but where
there grows one there always grow several: it is a great delight, and
all this delightfulness is snails' food. The great white snails which
persons of quality in former times made fricassees of, ate, and said,
"Hem, hem! how delicious!" for they thought it tasted so
delicate--lived on dock leaves, and therefore burdock seeds were sown.
Now, there was an old manor-house, where they no longer ate snails,
they were quite extinct; but the burdocks were not extinct, they grew
and grew all over the walks and all the beds; they could not get the
mastery over them--it was a whole forest of burdocks. Here and there
stood an apple and a 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.
They themselves knew not how old they were, but they could remember
very well that there had been many more; that they were of a family
from foreign lands, and that for them and theirs the whole forest was
planted. They had never been outside it, but they knew that there was
still something more in the world, which was called the manor-house,
and that there they were boiled, and then they became black, and were
then placed on a silver dish; but what happened further they knew not;
or, in fact, what it was to be boiled, and to lie on a silver dish,
they could not possibly imagine; but it was said to be delightful, and
particularly genteel. Neither the chafers, the toads, nor the
earth-worms, whom they asked about it could give them any
information,--none of them had been boiled or laid on a silver dish.
The old white snails were the first persons of distinction in the
world, that they knew; the forest was planted for their sake, and the
manor-house was there that they might be boiled and laid on a silver
dish.
Now they lived a very lonely and happy life; and as they had no
children themselves, they had adopted a little common snail, which
they brought up as their own; but the little one would not grow, for
he was of a common family; but the old ones, especially Dame Mother
Snail, thought they could observe how he increased in size, and she
begged father, if he could not see it, that he would at least feel the
little snail's shell; and then he felt it, and found the good dame was
right.
One day there was a heavy storm of rain.
"Hear how it beats like a drum on the dock leaves!" said Father Snail.
"There are also rain-drops!" said Mother Snail; "and now the rain
pours right down the stalk! You will see that it will be wet here! I
am very happy to think that we have our good house, and the little one
has his also! There is more done for us than for all other creatures,
sure enough; but can you not see that we are folks of quality in the
world? We are provided with a house from our birth, and the burdock
forest is planted for our sakes! I should like to know how far it
extends, and what there is outside!"
"There is nothing at all," said Father Snail. "No place can be better
than ours, and I have nothing to wish for!"
"Yes," said the dame. "I would willingly go to the 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!"
"The manor-house has most likely fallen to ruin!" said Father Snail.
"or the burdocks have grown up over it, so that they cannot come out.
There need not, however, be any haste about that; but you are always
in such a tremendous hurry, and the little one is beginning to be the
same. Has he not been creeping up that stalk these three days? It
gives me a headache when I look up to him!"
"You must not scold him," said Mother Snail; "he creeps so carefully;
he will afford us much pleasure--and we have nothing but him to live
for! But have you not thought of it?--where shall we get a wife for
him? Do you not think that there are some of our species at a great
distance in the interior of the burdock forest?"
"Black snails, I dare say, there are enough of," said the old
one--"black snails without a house--but they are so common, and so
conceited. But we might give the ants a commission to look out for us;
they run to and fro as if they had something to do, and they certainly
know of a wife for our little snail!"
"I know one, sure enough--the most charming one!" said one of the
ants; "but I am afraid we shall hardly succeed, for she is a queen!"
"That is nothing!" said the old folks; "has she a house?"
"She has a palace!" said the ant--"the finest ant's palace, with seven
hundred passages!"
"I thank you!" said Mother Snail; "our son shall not go into an
ant-hill; if you know nothing better than that, we shall give the
commission to the white gnats. They fly far and wide, in rain and
sunshine; they know the whole forest here, both within and without."
"We have a wife for him," said the gnats; "at a hundred human paces
from here there sits a little snail in her house, on a gooseberry
bush; she is quite lonely, and old enough to be married. It is only a
hundred human paces!"
"Well, then, let her come to him!" said the old ones; "he has a whole
forest of burdocks, she has only a bush!"
And so they went and fetched little Miss Snail. It was a whole week
before she arrived; but therein was just the very best of it, for one
could thus see that she was of the same species.
And then the marriage was celebrated. Six earth-worms shone as well as
they could. In other respects the whole went off very quietly, for the
old folks could not bear noise and merriment; but old Dame Snail made
a brilliant speech. Father Snail could not speak, he was too much
affected; and so they gave them as a dowry and inheritance, the whole
forest of burdocks, and said--what they had always said--that it was
the best in the world; and if they lived honestly and decently, and
increased and multiplied, they and their children would once in the
course of time come to the manor-house, be boiled black, and laid on
silver dishes. After this speech was made, the old ones crept into
their shells, and never more came out. They slept; the young couple
governed in the forest, and had a numerous progeny, but they were
never boiled, and never came on the silver dishes; so from this they
concluded that the manor-house had fallen to ruins, and that all the
men in the world were extinct; and as no one contradicted them, so, of
course it was so. And the rain beat on the dock-leaves to make
drum-music for their sake, and the sun shone in order to give the
burdock forest a color for their sakes; and they were very happy, and
the whole family was happy; for they, indeed were so.
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THE STORY OF A MOTHER
A mother sat there with her little child. She was so downcast, so
afraid that it should die! It was so pale, the small eyes had closed
themselves, and it drew its breath so softly, now and then, with a
deep respiration, as if it sighed; and the mother looked still more
sorrowfully on the little creature.
Then a knocking was heard at the door, and in came a poor old, man
wrapped up as in a large horse-cloth, for it warms one, and he needed
it, as it was the cold winter season! Every thing out of doors was
covered with ice and snow, and the wind blew so that it cut the face.
As the old man trembled with cold, and the little child slept a
moment, the mother went and poured some ale into a pot and set it on
the stove, that it might be warm for him; the old man sat and rocked
the cradle, and the mother sat down on a chair close by him, and
looked at her little sick child that drew its breath so deep, and
raised its little hand.
"Do you not think that I shall save him?" said she, "_Our Lord_ will
not take him from me!"
And the old man,--it was Death himself,--he nodded so strangely, it
could just as well signify yes as no. And the mother looked down in
her lap, and the tears ran down over her cheeks; her head became so
heavy--she had not closed her eyes for three days and nights; and now
she slept, but only for a minute, when she started up and trembled
with cold: "What is that?" said she, and looked on all sides; but the
old man was gone, and her little child was gone--he had taken it with
him; and the old clock in the corner burred, and burred, the great
leaden weight ran down to the floor, bump! and then the clock also
stood still.
But the poor mother ran out of the house and cried aloud for her
child.
Out there, in the midst of the snow, there sat a woman in long, black
clothes; and she said, "Death has been in thy chamber, and I saw him
hasten away with thy little child; he goes faster than the wind, and
he never brings back what he takes!"
"Oh, only tell me which way he went!" said the mother: "Tell me the
way, and I shall find him!"
"I know it!" said the woman in the black clothes, "but before I tell
it, thou must first sing for me all the songs thou hast sung for thy
child!--I am fond of them; I have heard them before; I am Night; I saw
thy tears whilst thou sang'st them!"
"I will sing them all, all!" said the mother; "but do not stop me
now;--I may overtake him--I may find my child!"
But Night stood still and mute. Then the mother wrung her hands, sang
and wept, and there were many songs, but yet many more tears; and then
Night said, "Go to the right, into the dark pine forest; thither I saw
Death take his way with thy little child!"
The roads crossed each other in the depths of the forest, and she no
longer knew whither she should go; then there stood a thorn-bush;
there was neither leaf nor flower on it, it was also in the cold
winter season, and ice-flakes hung on the branches.
"Hast thou not seen Death go past with my little child?" said the
mother.
"Yes," said the thorn-bush; "but I will not tell thee which way he
took, unless thou wilt first warm me up at thy heart. I am freezing to
death; I shall become a lump of ice!"
And she pressed the thorn-bush to her breast, so firmly, that it might
be thoroughly warmed, and the thorns went right into her flesh, and
her blood flowed in large drops, but the 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.
She then came to a large lake, where there was neither ship nor boat.
The lake was not frozen sufficiently to bear her; neither was it open,
nor low enough that she could wade through it; and across it she must
go if she would find her child! Then she lay down to drink up the
lake, and that was an impossibility for a human being, but the
afflicted mother thought that a miracle might happen nevertheless.
"Oh, what would I not give to come to my child!" said the weeping
mother; and she wept still more, and her eyes sunk down in the depths
of the waters, and became two precious pearls; but the water bore her
up, as if she sat in a swing, and she flew in the rocking waves to the
shore on the opposite side, where there stood a mile-broad, strange
house, one knew not if it were a mountain with forests and caverns, or
if it were built up; but the poor mother could not see it; she had
wept her eyes out.
"Where shall I find Death, who took away my little child?" said she.
"He has not come here yet!" said the old grave woman, who was
appointed to look after Death's great greenhouse! "How have you been
able to find the way hither? and who has helped you?"
"_Our Lord_ has helped me," said she. "He is merciful, and you will
also be so! Where shall I find my little child?"
"Nay, I know not," said the woman, "and you cannot see! Many flowers
and trees have withered this night; Death will soon come and plant
them over again! You certainly know that every person has his or her
life's tree or flower, just as 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?"
"I have nothing to give," said the afflicted mother, "but I will go to
the world's end for you!"
"Nay, I have nothing to do there!" said the woman, "but you can give
me your long black hair; you know yourself that it is fine, and that I
like! You shall have my white hair instead! and that's always
something!"
"Do you demand nothing else?" said she,--"that I will gladly give
you!" And she gave her her fine black hair, and got the old woman's
snow-white hair instead.
So they went into Death's great greenhouse, where flowers and trees
grew strangely into one another. There stood fine hyacinths under
glass bells, and there stood strong-stemmed peonies; there grew water
plants, some so fresh, others half sick, the water-snakes lay down on
them, and black crabs pinched their stalks. There stood beautiful
palm-trees, oaks, and plantains; there stood parsley and flowering
thyme: every tree and every flower had its name; each of them was a
human life, the human frame still lived--one in China, and another in
Greenland--round about in the world. There were large trees in small
pots, so that they stood so stunted in growth, and ready to burst the
pots; in other places, there was a little dull flower in rich mould,
with moss round about it, and it was so petted and nursed. But the
distressed mother bent down over all the smallest plants, and heard
within them how the human heart beat; and amongst millions she knew
her child's.
"There it is!" cried she, and stretched her hands out over a little
blue crocus, that hung quite sickly on one side.
"Don't touch the flower!" said the old woman, "but place yourself
here, and when Death comes,--I expect him every moment,--do not let
him pluck the flower up, but threaten him that you will do the same
with the others. Then he will be afraid! he is responsible for them to
_Our Lord_, and no one dares to pluck them up before _He_ gives
leave."
All at once an icy cold rushed through the great hall, and the blind
mother could feel that it was Death that came.
"How hast thou been able to find thy way hither?" he asked. "How
couldst thou come quicker than I?"
"I am a mother," said she.
And Death stretched out his long hand towards the fine little flower,
but she held her hands fast around his, so tight, and yet afraid that
she should touch one of the leaves. Then Death blew on her hands, and
she felt that it was colder than the cold wind, and her hands fell
down powerless.
"Thou canst not do anything against me!" said Death.
"But that _Our Lord_ can!" said she.
"I only do His bidding!" said Death. "I am His gardener, I take all
His flowers and trees, and plant them out in the great garden of
Paradise, in the unknown land; but how they grow there, and how it is
there I dare not tell thee."
"Give me back my child!" said the mother, and she wept and prayed. At
once she seized hold of two beautiful flowers close by, with each
hand, and cried out to Death, "I will tear all thy flowers off, for I
am in despair."
"Touch them not!" said Death. "Thou say'st that thou art so unhappy,
and now thou wilt make another mother equally unhappy."
"Another mother!" said the poor woman, and directly let go her hold of
both the flowers.
"There, thou hast thine eyes," said Death; "I fished them up from the
lake, they shone so bright; I knew not they were thine. Take them
again, they are now brighter than before; now look down into the deep
well close by; I shall tell thee the names of the two flowers thou
wouldst have torn up, and thou wilt see their whole future life--their
whole human existence: and see what thou wast about to disturb and
destroy."
And she looked down into the well; and it was a happiness to see how
the one became a blessing to the world, to see how much happiness and
joy were felt everywhere. And she saw the other's life, and it was
sorrow and distress, horror, and wretchedness.
"Both of them are God's will!" said Death.
"Which of them is Misfortune's flower? and which is that of
Happiness?" asked she.
"That I will not tell thee," said Death; "but this thou shalt know
from me, that the one flower was thy own child! it was thy child's
fate thou saw'st,--thy own child's future life!"
Then the mother screamed with terror, "Which of them was my child?
Tell it me! save the innocent! save my child from all that misery!
rather take it away! take it into God's kingdom! Forget my tears,
forget my prayers, and all that I have done!"
"I do not understand thee!" said Death. "Wilt thou have thy child
again, or shall I go with it there, where thou dost not know!"
Then the mother wrung her hands, fell on her knees, and prayed to our
Lord: "Oh, hear me not when I pray against Thy will, which is the
best! hear me not! hear me not!"
And she bowed her head down in her lap, and Death took her child and
went with it into the unknown land.
[Illustration: "THE STORY OF A MOTHER."]
------------
THE FALSE COLLAR.
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.
It was so old, that it began to think of marriage; and it happened
that it came to be washed in company with a garter.
"Nay!" said the collar, "I never did see anything so slender and so
fine, so soft and so neat. May I not ask your name?"
"That I shall not tell you!" said the garter.
"Where do you live?" asked the collar.
But the garter was so bashful, so modest, and thought it was a strange
question to answer.
"You are certainly a girdle," said the collar; "that is to say an
inside girdle. I see well that you are both for use and ornament, my
dear young lady."
"I will thank you not to speak to me," said the garter. "I think I
have not given the least occasion for it."
"Yes! when one is as handsome as you," said the collar, "that is
occasion enough."
"Don't come so near me, I beg of you!" said the garter. "You look so
much like those men-folks."
"I am also a fine gentleman," said the collar. "I have a boot-jack and
a hair-comb."
But that was not true, for it was his master who had them: but he
boasted.
"Don't come so near me," said the garter: "I am not accustomed to it."
"Prude!" exclaimed the collar; and then it was taken out of the
washing-tub. It was starched, hung over the back of a chair in the
sunshine, and was then laid on the ironing-blanket; then came the warm
box-iron. "Dear lady!" said the collar. "Dear widow-lady! I feel quite
hot. I am quite changed. I begin to unfold myself. You will burn a
hole in me. Oh! I offer you my hand."
"Rag!" said the box-iron; and went proudly over the collar: for she
fancied she was a steam-engine, that would go on the railroad and draw
the waggons. "Rag!" said the box-iron.
The collar was a little jagged at the edge, and so came the long
scissors to cut off the jagged part.
"Oh!" said the collar, "you are certainly the first opera dancer. How
well you can stretch your legs out! It is the most graceful
performance I have ever seen. No one can imitate you."
"I know it," said the scissors.
"You deserve to be a baroness," said the collar. "All that I have is a
fine gentleman, a boot-jack, and a hair-comb. If I only had the
barony!"
"Do you seek my hand?" said the scissors; for she was angry; and
without more ado, she _cut him_, and then he was condemned.
"I shall now be obliged to ask the hair-comb. It is surprising how
well you preserve your teeth, Miss," said the collar. "Have you never
thought of being betrothed?"
"Yes, of course! you may be sure of that," said the hair comb. "I _am_
betrothed--to the boot-jack!"
"Betrothed!" exclaimed the collar. Now there was no other to court,
and so he despised it.
A long time passed away, then the collar came into the rag chest at
the paper mill; there was a large company of rags, the fine by
themselves, and the coarse by themselves, just as it should be. They
all had much to say, but the collar the most; for he was a real
boaster.
"I have had such an immense number of 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 _my first love_--she was a girdle, so
fine, so soft, and so charming, she threw herself into a tub of water
for my sake! There was also a widow, who became glowing hot, but I
left her standing till she got black again; there was also the first
opera dancer, she gave me that cut which I now go with, she was so
ferocious! my own hair-comb was in love with me, she lost all her
teeth from the heart-ache; yes, I have lived to see much of that sort
of thing; but I am extremely sorry for the garter--I mean the
girdle--that went into the water-tub. I have much on my conscience, I
want to become white paper!"
And it became so, all the rags were turned into white paper; but the
collar came to be just this very piece of white paper we here see, and
on which the story is printed; and that was because it boasted so
terribly afterwards of what had never happened to it. It would be well
for us to beware, that we may not act in a similar manner, for we can
never know if we may not, in the course of time, also come into the
rag chest, and be made into white paper, and then have our whole
life's history printed on it, even the most secret, and be obliged to
run about and tell it ourselves, just like this collar.
------------
THE SHADOW.
It is in the hot lands that the sun burns, sure enough!--there the
people become quite a mahogany brown, ay, and in the _hottest_ lands
they are burnt to negroes. But now it was only to the _hot_ lands that
a learned man had come from the cold; there he thought that he could
run about just as when at home, but he soon found out his mistake.
He, and all sensible folks, were obliged to stay within doors,--the
window-shutters and doors were closed the whole day; it looked as if
the whole house slept, or there was no one at home.
The narrow street with the high houses, was built so that the sunshine
must fall there from morning till evening--it was really not to be
borne.
The learned man from the cold lands--he was a young man, and seemed to
be a clever man--sat in a glowing oven; it took effect on him, he
became quite meagre--even his shadow shrunk in, for the sun had also
an effect on it. It was first towards evening when the sun was down,
that they began to freshen up again.
In the warm lands every window has a balcony, and the people came out
on all the balconies in the street--for one must have air, even if one
be accustomed to be mahogany!* It was lively both up and down the
street. Tailors, and shoemakers, and all the folks, moved out into the
street--chairs and tables were brought forth--and candles burnt--yes,
above a thousand lights were burning--and the one talked and the other
sung; and people walked and church-bells rang, and asses went along
with a dingle-dingle-dong! for they too had bells on. The street boys
were screaming and hooting, and shouting and shooting, with devils and
detonating balls:--and there came corpse bearers and hood
wearers,--for there were funerals with psalm and hymn,--and then the
din of carriages driving and company arriving:--yes, it was, in truth,
lively enough down in the street. Only in that single house, which
stood opposite that in which the learned foreigner lived, it was quite
still; and yet some one lived there, for there stood flowers in the
balcony--they grew so well in the sun's heat--and that they could not
do unless they were watered--and some one must water them--there must
be somebody there. The door opposite was also opened late in the
evening, but it was dark within, at least in the front room; further
in there was heard the sound of music. The learned foreigner thought
it quite marvellous, but now--it might be that he only imagined
it--for he found everything marvellous out there, in the warm lands,
if there had only been no sun. The stranger's landlord said that he
didn't know who had taken the house opposite, one saw no person about,
and as to the music, it appeared to him to be extremely tiresome. "It
is as if some one sat there, and practised a piece that he could not
master--always the same piece. 'I shall master it!' says he; but yet
he cannot master it, however long he plays."
------
* The word _mahogany_ can be understood, in Danish, as having two
meanings. In general, it means the reddish-brown wood itself; but in
jest, it signifies "excessively fine," which arose from an anecdote of
Nyboder, in Copenhagen, (the seamen's quarter.) A sailor's wife, who
was always proud and fine, in her way, came to her neighbor, and
complained that she had got a splinter in her finger. "What of?" asked
the neighbor's wife. "It is a mahogany splinter;" said the other.
"Mahogany! it cannot be less with you!" exclaimed the woman;--and
thence the proverb, "It is so mahogany!"--(that is, so excessively
fine)--is derived.
------
One night the stranger awoke--he slept with the doors of the balcony
open--the curtain before it was raised by the wind, and he thought
that a strange lustre came from the opposite neighbor's house; all the
flowers shone like flames, in the most beautiful colors, and in the
midst of the flowers stood a slender, graceful maiden,--it was as if
she also shone; the light really hurt his eyes. He now opened them
quite wide--yes, he was quite awake; with one spring he was on the
floor; he crept gently behind the curtain but the maiden was gone; the
flowers shone no longer, but there they stood, fresh and blooming as
ever; the door was ajar, and, far within, the music sounded so soft
and delightful, one could really melt away in sweet thoughts from it.
Yet it was like a piece of enchantment. And who lived there? Where was
the actual entrance? The whole of the ground-floor was a row of shops,
and there people could not always be running through.
One evening the stranger sat out on the balcony. The light burnt in
the room behind him; and thus it was quite natural that his shadow
should fall on his opposite neighbor's wall. Yes! there it sat,
directly opposite, between the flowers on the balcony; and when the
stranger moved, the shadow also moved: for that it always does.
"I think my shadow is the only living thing one sees over there," said
the learned man. "See! how nicely it sits between the flowers. The
door stands half-open: now the shadow should be cunning, and go into
the room, look about, and then come and tell me what it had seen.
Come, now! be useful, and do me a service," said he, in jest. "Have
the kindness to step in. Now! art thou going?" and then he nodded to
the shadow, and the shadow nodded again. "Well then, go! but don't
stay away."
The stranger rose, and his shadow on the opposite neighbor's balcony
rose also; the stranger turned round and the shadow also turned round.
Yes! if 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.
Next morning, the learned man went out to drink coffee and read the
newspapers.