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The Fairy Tales of
Hans Christian
Andersen
WITH UPWAR.|)S of; FOUR HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS
BY HELEN STRATTON
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY EDWARD E. HALE, D.D.
4 c^
\
PHILADELPHIA J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
^f^J^^f^
c 0 c c
Copyright, iSgg,
BY '.'';■'. Thuslove, Hanson aV*d'.Uom»a,
1 -.1
1 INTRODUCTION ^ v^
Hans Christian Andersen, without knowing it, prescribed a healthy tonic for more than one writer in England and America. It would be a pity not to acknowledge this.
He was not well known in either country when Mary Howitt published her translations of his stories in England. Perhaps her intimacy with Frederica Bremer, the Swedish novelist, opened the way to her acquaintance with the Danish story-teller.
The children of England and America had the first benefit of this invasion of the Dane. For, by a rather provoking law, it will happen that the literature of chilj^ood is sadly apt to fall into the ruts of sen- timentalists or of mechanics. " Anybody can write a child's book " is the false theory of publishers in the decline which comes upon children's books once in a generation. As an experienced editor once said to me, ninety-nine hundredths of the articles sent to him about boys and girls are written by ladies who never had the charge of either boy or girl.
Into the midst of books thus written down for children there comes, once in a generation, such a revelation as the publication of Grimm's Fairy Tales made early in this century, as the appearance in England of Andersen's children's stories, made. And again, such as children enjoyed when Stevenson's poems for them appeared. Probably Stevenson's poems would not have been written but for such prose poems as
" The Constant Tin Soldier."
" For certain soldiers lately dead Our reverent dirge shall here be said : Them, when their martial leader called, I No dread preparative appalled,
But leaden-hearted, leaden-heeled, I marked them steadfast in the field.
Death grimly sided with the foe, And smote each leaden hero low ; Proudly they perished one by one ; The dread pea-cannon's work was done I Oh not for them the tears we shed, Consigned to their congenial lead ; But while unmoved their sleep they take, We mourn for their dear captain's sake, — For their dear captain, who shall smart Both in his pocket and his heart, Who saw his heroes shed their gore, And lacked a penny to buy more."
I do not venture to describe the indescribable, and so I will not try to analyze the charm of Ander- sen's children's stories. They can speak for themselves. They do speak for themselves in the memories of all those young people who, if I may say so, were brought up on them. There is sentiment in them, because there is sentiment in all life ; but it is not a morbid or manufactured sentiment. It is the senti- ment which belongs to the occasion. Here is what I have meant when I say that he administered a health- ful tonic to all those writers for children who had sense enough to wish to improve on their own methods. For the mere mechanics, the people who build stories up as a child makes a mud pie, — so much water and so much clay, without going farther than the water and the clay, — no tonic is possible.
People generally speak as if " The Improvisatore " were the autobiography of Andersen, and as if whoever has read that understands his life. This does not seem to me quite broad enough. His own memoir of himself, which has been translated by Mrs. Howitt, gives a very curious picture of life in Den-
mark. It shows us what that gallant little kingdom is, has been, and may be. And in the midst of a charming egotism, — perhaps because of this charming egotism — it reveals Andersen to us in a way which makes us love him more and not less.
It is immensely to the credit of the artists of Copenhagen, of the people of rank there, of what Mrs. Grundy calls " Society," that this boy, only not a beggar boy, landing in the streets there with nothing but hope and one rixthaler, should have pressed his way forward and upward till he became the Dane spoken of most often in the literary circles of the world. It makes one believe in small kingdoms, small common- wealths— may I say, in Brick Moons ? — when one sees the cordiality, the best form of charity, the distin- guished care, with which Copenhagen could take care of such a Danish boy when he needed care. His first attempts at fame are made when he goes upon the stage of the theatre as one of the " populace," dressed in the dress which was made out of his father's coat for his own confirmation. He thinks to be a singer, and is not fit to be a singer. He thinks to be a poet, and they do not accept him as a poet ; this is their fault, not his. But he then does what he can do : he writes, and writes the truth. He tells what he has seen, with that admirable unwillingness to try to tell what he has not seen. Realism, the realism of the nineteenth century, about which much is absurdly said and sung, appears, whether in the story of the tin soldier or in romance so called, made out of the life of a fiddler.
And here, as it seems to me, is the tonic which this Danish peasant administered to the literature of England and America. I do not know whether he did as much good in Denmark as he did here ; I do not know whether they needed it as much as I think it was needed by the writers for children here ; I do know that this quiet use of language, in which there is a nominative case for the thing that is de- scribed, and a good steadfast verb which describes that thing ; in which there is no rushing north, south, east, or west for an effect which is visible and at hand, — I do know that this use of language is an excellent example for young authors or for old.
It is fifty-four years since Mary Howitt introduced this shepherd of the people to people who could not read Danish but could read English. This English nation for whom she wrote, and the American nation which is born from that English nation, would not be what they are if, some thousand years ago, rather more than less, certain Danes, so called, had not occasionally found their way into English seaports, and when they chose colonized the lands of the inhabitants. It is not simply that a quaint word or two slipped from their dialect into ours. There is more than that. The blood of Norsemen is in our veins. Perhaps it is true that the habit of calling a spade a spade was particularly a Danish habit. Perhaps the Danes had the gift of using words of one syllable where the Latin nations preferred to use words of four syllables ; they liked to say Thor, and did not like to say Diispeter. And perhaps, — these are only my guesses, but I am in the habit of thinking that we like to hear Jenny Lind sing, that we like to read the poems of Tegner and the voyages of Nansen, that we like to find the Linnca borealis on the slopes of the White Mountains, because we are all Scandinavians in blood. Perhaps this is the reason why we and our chil- dren like to read Hans Christian Andersen.
It may please the reader to have a little remembrance of Andersen, which I copy from a private note of one of his friends : " I once had the good fortune to pass four months under the same roof with Hans Christian Andersen. I often heard him read his fairy tales, and one beautiful moonlight night he wrote down these lines to me. The following is a literal translation of the autograph :
" ' The moon shines round and full Over field and swamp. And in the stillness of the wood Grows the Rose of Poesy.'
He then gathered this bouquet in the garden where we were, and gave it to me as a remembrance of him, but I shall not forget him even without it." The faded rose is in the letter from which I copy the lines.
EDWARD E. HALE
Contents
PACE
THE RED SHOES *
THE CHIMNEY SWEEP ^
THE NIGHTINGALE "
THE GARDEN OF PARADISE »8
THE LITTLE SWINEHERD 29
A WEEK WITH OLE LUK OIE 33
THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES 42
THE ICE-MAIDEN, OR THE EAGLE'S NEST 47
THE STORKS 78
THE UGLY DUCKLING 82
THE WILD SWANS 89
THE MARSH KING'S DAUGHTER 100
THE LITTLE MERMAID i^S
THE GIRL WHO TROD ON THE LOAF . 141
THE CONSTANT TIN SOLDIER i47
THE SNOW QUEEN '5i
THE FELLOW-TRAVELLER 172
THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL 186
THE REAL PRINCESS 188
UNDER THE WILLOW 191
LITTLE CLAUS AND BIG CLAUS 202
THE SHADOW 210
THE STORY OF A MOTHER 220
THE FLYING TRUNK 225
THE TINDER-BOX 230
THE GOLOSHES OF HAPPINESS 236
HOLGER DANSKE ... 257
THE FIR-TREE .... . , .... 261
LITTLE TUK 268
WHAT THE MOON SAW 271
THE BRONZE PIG 293
IB AND LITTLE CHRISTINE 3°°
THE CRIPPLE 308
THE OLD BACHELOR'S NIGHTCAP 314
ft 0 ...;
List of Illustrations
The Red Shoes
The Princess stood at a window .
She thought only of her shoes .
She could not stop herself.
It was the old soldier
She tapped at the window .
She went across the heath .
All the children made much of her
Her soul was carried up to God
The Chimney bweep
I entreat you to go with me into the wide world . They saw the old cupboard was all in an uproar. She fell on her china knee . . . . . He led her to the door of the stove . The roof of the town lay below . . . . His head had rolled into a corner
1
2
2
3
4 .5 5 6
7 8
9 9
lO 10
The Nightingale
Sat on his golden throne reading the book
Ran up and down, and looked through all the rooms
The nightingale sang exquisitely
She went willingly on hearing the emperor wished it
Each had fastened a ribbon round her leg .
All cried out " Oh ! "
The boys in the street would go about singing . Jumped out of bed, and called for his physician . She sang, and the Emperor fell into a sweet sleep
II
12
13
14 14
15
1.5 16
17
The Garden of Paradise
At every step he slipped on the wet grass ....
" I sat and slept at the helm "
He kissed his mother so roughly that she nearly fell backwards "An ostrich ran a race with me" ..... He sat on the back of the east wind ..... They now entered the cavern . . . ,
TQ 20 21 21 22
viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
She led the Princess into her palace 24
Storks and pelicans flew in long rows 26
The Fairy cried, " Come with me ! come with me ! " 27
He pushed the boughs aside 28
The Little Swineherd ; or. The Prince in Disguise
" Good morning," said he . . ..... 29
The Prince became swineherd .............. 30
The swineherd got ten kisses .............. 30
" What's the meaning of this ? " cried he 31
" What a miserable creature I am," sobbed the Princess 32
A Week with Ole Luk-Oie
On the balcony stood princesses ............. 35
"We shall cook you to-morrow," said Hjalmar ........... 37
Away they went to the mouse's wedding . 37
The mice were near treading each other to death 38
The bridal pair were sitting on the floor ............ 39
01^ Luk-Oie lifted little Hjalmar up to the window 41
" Look how he gallops along ! " 42
The Emperor's New Clothes
Staring as hard as he could 43
" It has our most gracious approval " 43
People could see them at work 44
The Emperor went forth in grand procession ........... 45
" But he has got nothing on ! " 46
The Ice-Maiden ; or. The Eagle's Nest
" Come with me on the roof," said the cat 47
Rudy loved the morning air .............. 48
They still had to cross one great glacier ............ 49
The Queen of the Glaciers .............. 49
The cold kisses which the Queen of the Glaciers had given him 5°
They bleated " Med ! med ! may ! " . . . 5 '
Began to tell tales and legends of the spirits of the Alps 5^
The mysterious shepherd and his black sheep ........••• 53
His uncle would tell tales of his childhood 54
Rudy clung to the stem of a tree .........•••• 54
" Write a letter for me to the Lord Christ ! " 55
" He gave me a kiss at the dance " 5^
The parlour cat stood on the steps ......-.>•••• 57
Offered him an Alpine rose 5^
Singing and playing on all kinds of instruments 59
" Have you a sweetheart ? " said Rudy 60
The snow came down and the wind shrieked . . . . . i • - - • • ^'
Rudy submitted to be kissed .....••.. r .-.«• 62
f tiey trod on me more than once ' ^3
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
IX
PAGE
They opened the door, and both went in 63
They set off with poles, banners, and ropes 64
In the black, gaping depth sat the Ice Maiden 65
It was captured alive 65
Rudy and Babette 67
" They play at masters down below," said the Ice Maiden 68
Peeped through the curtain 7°
Held the bowl to his lips • • 7'
The Ice Maiden gave him a kiss 7*
Therefore Babette lectured him 7*
Only his hunting jacket and hat 73
Hand in hand, seated on the little bench 75
The ring expanded into a sparkling circle 75
The Ice Maiden stood majestic, with Rudy at her feet 76
The Storks
" Stork, stork, fly home and rest " 78
" We then go into the mire and eat frogs " 79
The four youngsters were all obliged to come out on the top of the roof 80
A little fellow, scarcely more than six years old 80
There were evolutions for you ! 81
" Now, we'll fly to the pond and fetch one for every child " 82
" In the pond lies a little infant, who has dreamed itself to death " 82
The Ugly Duckling
" Now bend your neck, and say ' Quack ! ' "
The girl who fed the poultry kicked him .
" What's that ? " said the woman, looking round .
The duckling sat in a corner, very much out of spirits
He turned round and round in the water like a wheel
The children would have played with him .
Some of the children threw bread-crumbs and corn into the water
84 85 8S 86
87 87 88
The Wild Swans
A book full of prints 9°
Helped her to undress and get into the bath 9°
Stole out of the palace in great affliction 9*
An old woman with a basket full of cherries 9'
Elise followed the rivulet v ^^
Just at sunset Elise saw eleven swans flying towards the shore 92
She stroked his wings » 93
The swans carried Elise away from the rock 94
Held him before him on his horse ' • • • • 95
Allowed the women to dress her in regal robes 9^
Until she reached the churchyard ....... = ••••• 97
The rustling of a swan's wings sounded near the grating 98
To see the witch burnt ........••••••• 99
The King plucked it, and placed it in Elise's bosom 99
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Marsh
King's
Daughter
Was found by the King's daughter
'-'.Don't get excited " .
Tore her feather dress into a hundred pieces
It was he who pulled her down .
The stork at first believed it to be the Princess turned a child ag;
Screamed passionately, and stretched out its arms and legs
There, just at the foot of the bed, was a great ugly toad
The Viking's wife sat on the cross bench in the open banqueting hall
The serfs slept for the night in the warm ashes .
All his limbs rigid and stretched out like a mummy
We bound fire under the wings of a swallow
He stood on one leg ......
She was to hold her ear to the lips of the dead .
Came dripping with water into the lofty hall
Then the Viking's wife could take her on her knees
"But he is still the handsomest of them all," said the mother stork
Drove the knife into his side
\Vent away wrathful and sad
" Who art thou ? "
The horse galloped on
Rode through the forest
The sun went down at that moment
Sat there all through the long day
Looked with astonishment at her fine white hands
The Christian priest raised his cross on high
Lay a sleeping woman .....
Trembled and nestled up closer to her foster-mother Stretched out her arms towards them .
There stood two beautiful women, as like as two drops of dew She saw two powerful ostriches running round in narrow circles Placed the golden circlet about his neck ....
Asked him to fly to the beech forest .....
She looked towards the twinkling, sparkling stars
Fell on her knees ........
The Little Mermaid
Ate out of their hands and allowed themselves to be stroked
The youngest planted hers in a circle to imitate the sun
A statue, representing a handsome youth, hewn out of pure white marble
They flew away in great alarm ........
All the vessels scudded past in great alarm ......
As often as the water lifted her up she peeped in through the transparent panes .
She held his head above the water, and then let the waves carry them whither they pleased
It was not long before a young maiden approached the spot where he was lying .
" You must not think about that," said the old dame .......
Crossing her hands over her bosom she darted along .......
Within sat the sea witch, feeding a toad from her mouth
When the sun rose over the sea she awoke and felt a sharp pang. ....
Everybody was enchanted, but most of all the Prince, who called her his little foundling
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Xl;
She would go and sit on the broad marble steps, for it cooled her burning feet to bsthe water .............
He kissed her rosy mouth and played with her long hair ... Gazed through the clear waters, and fancied she saw her father's palace She was fain to laugh and dance, though the thoughts of death were in her heart She then saw her sisters rising out of the flood . . . .
Then jumped overboard, and felt her body dissolving into foam .
|
to |
b)t |
he them in the |
'37 137 138 'i3gi "146 |
The Girl who Trod
on
the Loaf
Inger turned away, for she was ashamed to have for her mother a ragged woman who gathered sticks . 142 Flung the loaf into the mud that she might step on it and come over dry-shod . . . . .145
But the worst of all was the horrible hunger which she felt . . . . . . . . 143
They told her story to the children, and the little ones called her " the wicked Inger " . . . . 144
"T do so wish she would !" said the little girl, and she was quite inconsolable 145
A peasant set up a pole close to the wall, and tied a sheaf of oats to the top 145
" There is a sea-swallow flying away over the sea," said the children . . . . . . .146
The Constant Tin Sold
icr
Though they had nearly trodden upon him they could not manage to find him . The boat flew past, and the rat followed .........
Everybody was desirous of seeing the celebrated man who travelled about inside a fish When the maid raked out the ashes she found him in the shape of a tin heart
148
149 i5>
The Snow Queen
He' climbed up to the window . .
And she placed him beside her in the sledge, and wrapped the skin round him A little house with strange red and blue windows ....
While she was eating, the old woman combed her hair with a golden comb Gerda knew every flower .........
" I don't understand anything about it," said little Gerda .
Little Gerda ran forth with bare feet into the wide world
"No — have you, though ? " cried the little girl, and had nearly hugged the crow to death, so
she kiss him . . ''. She began to sing a song which ran thus ; " Wherefore shouldn't I marry ? And when they approached the throne where sat the Princess, they found nothing to say On the third day there came marching cheerfully along towards the palace a little body, who
horse nor coach ...........
And he was pleased with her, and she with him ......
Gazed at Gerda, who curtsied ........
Horses with flying manes appeared like shadows on the wall
The coach was amply stored inside with sweet cakes, and under the seat were frui
" Oh, la ! " screamed the woman ........
By that time they had reached Lapland .......
The Finlandish woman's intelligent eyes twinkled, though she said nothing . Little Gerda then repeated the Lord's Prayer ......
But he sat quite motionless, stiff and cold .......
Xhere emerged from it a beautiful horse .......
fondly di.
had neither
and gingei bread-nuts
IS? 154 155 156 156 157 158
■59 160 161
162 163
163 164
1 64
166 167 168 169 169
x:i
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Fellow Traveller
The first night he was obliged to lie on a haycock in the open fields
Before the church door stood an aged beggar, leaning on a crutch ......
" Of course," said the ugly men, " if you pay his debt, we will neither of us lay a fuiger upon him " Took out a box, saying that he had an ointment which would immediately make her leg whole again Seized the Queen by the middle of her slender waist, so that it cracked again
The Queen knelt down .
He cut off the two wings of the dead swan, at a single blow, and kept them
He, and all his soldiers use i to kneel and pray that the Princess might grow good
They now heard the mob cheering outside the inn. The Princess was passing by
A frightful sight to behold ! From every tree hung three or four kings' sons
The Princess, wrapped in a flowing white robe, flew over the city ....
The judges sat in their arm-chairs with their heads propped up, because they had so much to I
Thrashed her more violently than before, having taken two rods with him .
But the Princess lay on the sofa, and would not speak a word .....
" So much the belter," said the old King ; " that's just what I wish " .
The Princess shrieked aloud when he dipped her into the water .....
The old King dandled his grandchildren on his knees, and let them play with his sceptre
think about
173 173 174
175 176
176
177 177 178 179 1 80 181 182 182
•83 184
•85
The Little Match Girl
She now sat down, cowering in a corner. She had drawn her little feet under her, but felt colder than
ever 186
And — what was more delightful still — the goose jumped down and waddled along the ground with a
knife and fork in its breast 187
The Real Princess
There came a knock at the town gate, and the old king went and opened it . . . . .189
But she said nothing, and went into a spare room and laid a pea on the sacking of the bedstead . . 190
" I scarcely closed my eyes all night ! I do not know what was in the bed " 190
Under the Willow
It was impossible to get him to go and paddle 191
One evening he told a story, which greatly impressed them ........ 192
And told to a party of children the story of their mute affection, which led to nothing .... 193
He should certainly not be mute, like those two gingerbreads 194
She poured out the tea, and she herself offered him a cup 195
Canute went out into the town and looked up at her window 195
Joan turned as pale as death ; she let go his hand . . . . . . . . . .196
As she had a whole handful of roses, she gave him one also 197
Right opposite there was a great, old willow-tree ... . . . . ... 198
The girls nodded to him from the wooden balconies of the houses, as they made their lace . . .199 Canute looked right into her face and she looked right into Canute's face; but she did not recognise
him . 199
And here stood Joan in all her magnificence, with the golden crown on 200
She bent her head over his face, and ice-cold tears trickled from her eyes 201
Little Claus and Big Claus
She was pouring him out wine, while he was busy with his fork in the fish .
203
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
xiu
" Zounds ! " said the farmer, hastily opening the oven
The farmer opened the lid a little, and peeped in
" What can he want it for ? " thought Big Claus, as he smeared the bottom of it with tar
Fell to belabouring Big Claus's shoulders
Seized his axe, and killed his old grandmother at a blow ......
" The moment I fell upon it the loveliest girl imaginable took me by the hand "
" There's no fear about that," said Little Claus ; still he put a large stone into the bag
The Shadow
In the midst of the flowers stood a slender, lovely maiden .... A light was burning in the room, just behind him ..... He perceived, to his great joy, that a new shadow had sprouted out of his legs " Come in," said he ; but no one came. So he opened the door
" Yes, I will tell you," said the shadow, sitting down
I drew myself up to my full height along the walls, which tickled my vanity very agreeably The shadow always managed to take the precedence .......
She immediately perceived that the newly-arrived stranger was quite a different sort of
everybody else
Being a king's daughter, she was not obliged to stand upon ceremony .
On all of which topics the learned man answered with sense and judgment .
" I will go straight to the king's daughter," said the learned man ....
"It is a hard case, for he was a faithful servant," said the shadow, pretending to sigh
person to
PAGE
204 205 206 207 208 209 209
211 21 1 2:2 213 214
2'5
216
217
217 218
219 220
The Story of a Mother
The mother then wrung her hands, wept, and sang
And she wept and wept till her eyes dissolved into the lake and became two costly pearls .
And Death stretched out his hand towards the little delicate flower
The Flying Trunk
"I say, you Turkish nurse," cried he, "what is that large castle near the town, where the windows are placed so high ?".............••
She lay asleep on the sofa, and looked so beautiful that the merchant's son could not help kissing her .
The king and queen and the whole court were at tea with the princess, and he was received very politely .................
The boys in the streets stood on tip-toe, cried hurrah ! and whistled through their fingers .
She stood on the roof, and waited the whole day long ......-.-
The Tinder Box
And he set the dog on the witch's apron ............
" Do you know what ? " said the soldier. " Vou must either te'l me at once what you mean to do with
it, or I'll draw my sword and cut your head off" .........
She lay asleep on the dog's back, and was so lovely that everybody might see she was a real princess . "But there's one and there's another," said all present, for, whichever way they looked, there were
crosses on all the doors ..............
" I say, you shoemaker's 'prentice, you needn't be in such a hurry," said the soldier ....
The Goloshes of Happiness
These goloshes have the property instantly to transport whomsoever shall put them on, to the place and time he best likes
221 222 223
226 227
228 229 229
232 233
234 235
236
XIV
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
I he more he talked to the boatmen the more incomprehensible they appeared to him
" Excuse me," said the councillor of justice to the landlady .......
" How are you now? " said the landlady, pulling the councillor's sleeve .....
Just as he was going out, the company perceived his intention, and seized him by the feet .
The lieutenant felt this to be the case, and therefore leant his head against the window frame and
sighed deeply ...............
He found himself on one of the countless circular ranges of mountains that we see in Dr. Madler's
large map of the moon .............
The young fellow then filliped his nose, which made him lose his balance .....
The first heart he entered was a lady's, but at first he fancied he had got into an orthopaedic institution Her husband's portrait served as a weathercock ..........
The attendant uttered a loud exclamation at the sight of a man in all his clothes
(.'lose by stood a boy, striking with a stick in a swampy ditch .......
At the same moment the skirts and sleeves of his coat became wings, his clothes turned to feathers, and
his goloshes to claws ..............
They purchased the bird for eightpence, and so the clerk returned to Copenhagen
Lovely half-naked children were tending a herd of coal-black swine, under a knot of fragrant laurels
The shrivelled arms and the monotonous whines of "Afiserabtli eccelenza / " came in much faster than
the breezes ...............
She drew the goloshes off his feet, when the sleep of death ended, and he once more revived
PAGE
238
239
240 241
243
244
245
246
247 248
250
251 252 254
255 256
Holger Danske
As the old man sat talking, he was carving a large wooden figure representing Holger Danske The first flame led him into a dark and narrow prison, where sat captive a beautiful woman " But what you have carved is very fine, grandfather," said she ......
258
259 260
The Fir Tree
They would often bring a pipkin full of berries and seat themselves near the little fir tree . . . 261
"We know, we know," twittered the sparrows, " for we have looked in at the windows in yonder town ! " 262
At length the tapers were lit, and a grand sight it was, to be sure - 263
Told the story of Humpty-Dumpty, who fell downstairs 264
The little mice were fit to jump to the top of the tree with delight 265
"Your servant," answered the rats, and they returned back to their own sets ..... 265 The youngest ran and tore off the gold star. " See what is sticking to the ugly old fir tree," said the
child 266
So the children left off playing, and came and sat near the fire ........ 267
Little Tuk
And Tuk ran off and helped her 269
Large streams of water sprang from the cliff, and close by sat an aged king with a golden crown on his
white hair 27°
What the Moon Saw
Up and down danced the flame, but yet kept alight, and the dark eyes dwelt longingly upon it as it went 272
The hen was terrified, and made a great to do, spreading her wings to protect her chicks . . . 272
She dropt her head, and her eyes brimmed with tears 273
Motionless she sat, as I looked at her, her hands in her lap ........ 273
She knelt down and kissed the purple 274
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
XV
Then came a poor girl, who dropped her load and sat down to rest on the grave of the Hun A shroud of skins was already being sewed upon him by his wife ....
The driver glanced round nervously ..........
The singer stood upon the time-worn stage and sang .......
Away in a corner sat a girl reading a book .........
A little boy came out and stood by his sister. "What .nre you w.ntching ? " said he An angel brings them under his cloak .........
" Come in both of you," she said, "and see the little brother the stork brought".
The wives bore the babies on their backs, while the older ones trotted unsteadily at their sides
As a child among children Nature marked him out for Punch's part ....
Columbine, indeed, was beautiful and kind to h m .
His chin on his hands, his eyes turned to me, he looked like a grotesque sculpture
There stood the little thing stiff and starched ........
He looked at his white cheeks in the glass ........
There she stood barefoot, weeping, daring not to lift the latch to her palace home The leader drew a figure in the sand with his staff .......
In the bell-tower stood two of the sisters, still young, and looked out over tiie world beyond The child wept, for she could neither reach her doll, nor could the doll be helped down The bushes seemed to her fancy crowded with elves in steeple hats ... I laughed at the duck with her leg tied up, she did limp so funnily ....
Just then his mother woke up. She moved the curtain aside .....
Their master stood bareheaded, and reverently kissed her hand — his mother's hnnd "Swe-e-ep," cried a voice— the liitle chimney-sweeper's, who had just climbed the cliiinney his head out .............
Stirred slowly, deep in thought ...........
The white faced child dreamed too, her lashes wet with unshed tears ....
They crept into corners of the room, but he found each one, and snuffed at them, and did The bear lay down, and the baby climbed on him, and hid his head in the shaggy fur.
So they began marching — Right, left ; R'ght, left !
Piling up the clothes round a chair, making out that he was playing statues " Don't be angry, mother dear," I only said, "and a lot of butter, please " .
the
and
no liar
>tuck
PAc.:;
275 276
277 278 278
279 280 280
28t
281 282
283
284
284
28s 28s
286 286
287 287
280
288 289
289 290 291 291 292 292
293
The Bronze Pig
He sat himself on the Bronze Pig's back, and ere he was aware of it sank into slumber
The bronze horse that bears the Duke's statue neighed out loud .
" What do you bring back? " she asked the boy. .....
" Innocent souls know each other." said the woman, and petted dog and child Beheld Bellissima barking, as if to say, " Hallo ! I'm here too " . The creature shivered with cold, and he took to his heels at full speed The woman bemoaned her dog, and the boy wept .....
" You bad, bad boy ! The poor little creature ! " was all she could utter ,
294
295 296 297 298 299 299 300
lb and Little Christine
There they found some snipe's eggs — a great event in their lives
As both wanted it at once, the result was that they let it fall into the water .
At last they were quite lost in the bushes ........
On her back she had a bundle, and in her hand a knoU^d stick. She was a gipsy
" You must have that," said Christine, " and it's so pretty, too " .
He set it in the hinge of the door and broke the shell, but there was little inside .
301 302 302 303 304 304
XVI
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
" Did you know me then, lb ? " she said . So he set himself to write, but the words would not come Where the plough had cut it, it glittered before him . Life and joy reigned there, for there was little Christine
305 305 306
307
The Cripple
But Hans was pleased with it .......... .
" Good-night," said the king ; " now you can go home and curse your folly "
The swineherd sat in the ditch, and laughed and sang. " I am that most fortunate man '
Even people quite out on the high-road could hear it singing .....
He held the cage in his hands, and ran with it out of the door into the road
308 309 311 312 313
The Old Bachelor's Nightcap
Seated on the bed he chanted an evening psalm. ....
One pip the little girl proposed they should plant in the earth
" Lady Holle ! Lady Holle ! " she cried, loud and clear
" I dare kiss him," she would cry, and throw her arms round his neck
He longed to say, " Lady Holle, Lady Holle, open the door to me ! "
Wine, bread, and all the basket held, miraculously changed to roses .
Prone he lay, clasping in death his old nightcap. ....
315
315 316
317 3'8 319 320
iE
The Red Shoes
HERE was once a little c^irl who was delicately pretty, but who
was obliged to walk about with bare feet in summer (for she
was poor), and to wear coarse wooden shoes in winter, so that
her little insteps were red all over.
In the village lived an old shoemaker's wife, who fashioned a little pair of
shoes as well as she could out of some old strips of red cloth ; they were
rather clumsy, but the intention was kind, for the)' were to give to the little
girl, whose name was Karen.
She received the red shoes, and put them on, for the first time, on the
very day her mother was buried. They were not fit for mourning, it is true,
but having no others, she put them on to her bare feet, and followed the
pauper's coffin to its last resting-place.
There happened to pass by a large, old-fashioned carriage, in which sat an old lady, who took
compassion on the little girl, and said to the preacher : " Pray, give me that little girl, and 1 will
adopt her."
And Karen fancied that all this was owing to the red shoes ; but the old lady thought them abominable, and ordered them to be burnt. Karen then was dressed in clean and tidy clothes, and was taught to read and to sew, and people said she was pretty. But the looking-glass said : " You are more than pretty — you are beautiful ! "
The queen once travelled through the land, with her little daughter, who was a princess. And crowds flocked towards the palace, and Karen stood amongst the rest, to see the little princess, who stood at a window, dressed in the finest white clothes. She had neither a train, nor a golden crown, but beautiful red morocco shoes — which, it must be confessed, were a trifle prettier than those the shoemaker's wife had patched together for little Karen. Surely nothing in the world can be compared to red shoes !
Karen was now old enough to be confirmed. She had new clothes given her, and she was to have a pair of new shoes like- wise. The rich shoemaker of the town took the measure of her little foot in his own house, in a room where a number of glass cases were filled with elegant shoes and shining boots. It was a very pretty sight ; but as the old lady could not see very well, she took no pleasure in it. Amongst the shoes was a pair of red ones, just like those the princess wore. How pretty they were, to be sure ! The shoemaker said they had been made for a count's child, but had not fitted well.
" Are they of polished leather ? " asked the old lady, " for they shine so."
"The\' shine, indeed," said Karen ; and they fitted her and were purchased. But the old lady did not know they were red, or she would never have allowed Karen to go to be confirmed in red shoes, which she, however, now did. PT. I.
THE PRINCESS STOOD AT A WINDOW.
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
SUE THUUGUl ONLY OK HKK SHOES.
Everybody looked at her feet. And when she stepped across the church to reach the choir, she fancied that even the old pictures over the graves, the portraits of preachers and their wives, with their stiff collars and long black clothes, were fixing their eyes on her red shoes. And she thought of nothing but them, even when the preacher laid his hand on her head, and descanted on the holy baptism that ad- mitted her within the pale of God's servants, and reminded her that she must now behave like a grown Christian. And the organ pealed solemnly, while the children's voices joined with those of the choristers ; but Karen thought of nothing but her red shoes.
In the afternoon, the old lady heard everybody say that the shoes were red ; and she said it was quite shocking, and highly improper, and that in future Karen must always go to church in black shoes, even though they should be some- what worn.
Next Sunday she was to receive the sacrament ; and Karen looked first at the black shoei: and then at the red ones, and then looked again, and finished by putting on the red ones.
The sun shone brightly. Karen and the old lady went by the footway across the cornfield, which was rather dusty. Near the church door stood an old invalid soldier, with a crutch-stick, and a singularly long beard, that was red rather than white, for he had red hair. And he stooped to the ground, and asked the old lady if he might wipe her shoes. And Karen likewise put out her little foot. " See, what smart dancing pumps ! " said the soldier ; " they will stick
on firmly when you dance " ; and thereupon, he slapped the soles with his hand.
The old lady gave the invalid soldier some alms, and entered the church with Karen.
And everybody inside looked at Karen's red shoes, and all the pictures looked at them ; and
when Karen knelt before the altar, and put the gold cup to her lips, she thought only of her red
shoes : and it seemed to her as though the?y were swimming in the communion cup ; and she
forgot to sing her psalm, and forgot to say the
Lord's prayer.
The congregation now left the church, and
the old lady got into her carriage. As Karen
raised her foot to step in after her, the. old soldier
said : " See, what smart dancing pumps ! " And
Karen could not help making a few dancing
steps, and having once begun, her feet went on
dancing. It was just as if the shoes had some
power over her. She danced round the church
corner, and could not stop herself, and the coach- man was obliged to run after her and catch hold
of her, and lift her into the carriage ; but her feet
went on dancing, so that she trod upon the good
old lady's toes at a great rate. At last the shoes
were taken off her feet, which then obtained rest. The shoes were put by into a closet at home,
but Karen could not cease looking at them.
The old lady now fell ill, and it was said she
could not live. She had to be nursed and waited
on, and it was nobody's business to attend her
so much as Karen's ; but there happened to be
a great ball in the town, to which Karen was
invited, and she gazed at the old lady, who was
not likely to recover, and then looked at her red she could not stop herself.
THE RED SHOES 3
shoes, and thought there could not be any very great sin in putting them on — and so far there was not — but she next went to the ball, and began to dance : only, when she wanted to go to
IT WAS THE OLD SOLDIER.
the right, the shoes would dance to the left : and when she wanted to go up the room, the shoes persisted in going down the room ; and then down the steps into the street, and out through the town gate. And she danced on, in spite of herself, right into the gloomy forest.
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
Something was gleaming through the tops of the trees, and she thought it was the moon — for it was a face — but it was the old soldier with his red beard, who sat and nodded, saying : " See, what pretty dancing pumps ! "
She was now frightened, and tried to fling off the red shoes, but they clung fast ; and she tore
off her stockings. But the shoes had, as it were, grown to her feet, and dance she must, across fields and meadows — in rain or in sunshine- — by day and by night — only by night it was far more dread- ful still.
She danced up to the open churchyard, where the dead did not dance, having something much better to do. She would fain have sat down on some pauper's grave, where grows the bitter fern ; but there was no rest for her. And as she danced towards the open church door, she saw an angel, in long white clothes, and with wings that reached from his shoulders down to the earth. His countenance was stern and grave, and his hand grasped a broad and shining sword.
" Thou shalt dance ! " said he, " dance in thy red shoes, until thou art pale and cold, and till thy skin has shrivelled up to a skeleton. Thou shalt dance from door to door ; and thou shalt knock at the doors where
proud and haughty chil-
that they may hear and take warning ! shalt dance — yea,
dren, thee, Thou dance-
" Mercy ! " cried Karen. But she heard not what the angel answered, for the shoes carried her from the door into the field, away — away — still dancing on and on.
One morning she danced past a well-known door ; she heard the sounds of a dirge from within, and a coffin, decked with flowers, was
brought forth : and she now knew that her old patroness was dead, and she felt as though she
were abandoned by every one, and cursed by God's angel.
On she danced, for dance she must — aye, dance through the gloomy night. The shoes carried
her through brambles and stumps of trees, which scratched her till she bled. And she danced
across the heath, to a little lonely house, where she knew the executioner lived ; and she tapped at
the windows with her fingers, saying :
SHE TAPPED AT THE WINDOW.
THE RED SHOES
SHt WENT ACROSS THE HEATH.
" Come out — come
out. I cannot come in, for
1 am obliged to dance." And the executioner
s?id :
" Do you not know
who 1 am ? It is I who
strike off wicked men's
heads, and I perceive
that my a.xe now clinks." " Do not strike off
my head," said Karen,
" for then I shall not be
able to repent of m\-
sins. But strike my feet
off, that I may get rid of
my red shoes."
And she then con-
fes.sed her sins, and the
executioner struck off her
red shoes only, though
it gave her as sharp a
pang as if her toes had
come off with them. And away the shoes danced, across the fields, and into the depths of the forest. He then gave her crutches, for she felt unable to walk, and taught her the psalm that peni- tents sing, and she kissed the hand that had directed the axe, and went away across the heath.
" I have now suffered enough for the red shoes," said she ; " so now I will go to church, that
people may see me." And she hobbled up to the church door, but had no sooner reached it, than
the red shoes danced before her, and frightened her back.
She was in deep affliction that whole week, and shed many bitter tears ; but when Sunday
came round again, she said : " I have now suffered and struggled enough ! I believe I am quite as
good as many of those who are sitting at church, and bridling up." And she sallied boldly forth,
but she reached no farther than the churchyard gate ; for she saw the red shoes dancing before her,
and was so frightened that she turned back, and heartily repented of her sins.
She then went to the parsonage, and begged, as a favour, to be taken into the family's service, promising to be diligent, and to do everything she could. She did not care about wages ; all she wanted was to have a roof over her head, and to be with good people. The preacher's wife felt com- passion for her, and took her into her ser- vice ; and she proved very industrious and very thoughtful. She sat and listened with deep attention when the preacher read the Bible aloud in the evening. All the children made much of her ; but when they spoke of dress, or finery, or beauty, she would then shake her head.
On the following Sunday they all went to church, and they asked her if she would accompany them ; but she looked at her crutches with tearful eyes. And so the others went forth to listen to the Word of God, while she repaired alone to her little chamber, that was only just large enough to contain a bed and a chair. And here she sat down ALL THE CHILDREN MADE MUCH OP HER. With her psalm-book in her hand ; and as
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
she read its pages, in a pious frame of mind, the wind wafted to her the sounds of the organ from the church, and she raised her tearful countenance, saying : " O Lord, do Thou succour me ! "
Then the sun shone brightly, and before her stood God's angel, in white clothes, such as she had seen him that night near the church door ; only he no longer bore the sharp sword in his hand, but held a beautiful green branch, all full of roses ; and he touched the ceiling with it, and the ceiling forthwith became lofty ; and at the spot where he had touched it shone a golden star. And he touched the walls, and they widened ; and she could see the organ that was being played upon. She saw, too, the old pictures of the preachers and their wives, and the congregation sitting on their neat chairs, and singing out of their psalm-books. For the church itself had come to the poor girl in her small chamber, or she had come to it. She sat on a chair, amongst the rest of the preacher's servants, and when they had finished the psalm, and looked up, they nodded, and said : " That was right of you to come, Karen."
" It is by the grace of God," said she.
And the organ pealed forth, and the chorus of chil- dren's voices sounded most sweet and lovely ! The bright sunshine shed its warm rays through the window, over the pew where Karen sat ; and her heart was so overwhelmed with sunshine, peace, and joy, that it broke ; and her soul was carried up to God on a sunbeam, and in Heaven there was no one who asked about the red shoes.
HER SOUL WAS CARRIED UP TO GOD.
The Chimney Sweep
THE SHEPHERDESS AND THE CHIMNEY- SWEEPER
AVE you ever seen an old wooden cupboard, quite black with age, and ornamented with carved scrolls and foliage, and nondescript figures? Just such an one stood in a sitting- room ; it was a legacy left by the great-grandmother of the family — it was covered from top to bottom with carved roses and tulips. There were the oddest scrolls, out of which peeped little stags' heads with their antlers. But in the middle of the cupboard was represented the full-length figure of a man ; it is, true he was rather ridiculous to look at, and was grinning — for one could not call it laughing — and, more- over, he had goat's legs, little horns upon his head, and a long beard. The children always called him General-and-Lieutenant- General-Goat-Bandylegs-Field-Sergeant — there's a name for you ! rather difficult to pronounce, certainly, nor are there many who obtain such a title — but to have had him carved was something indeed ! However, there he was. He was always looking at the table under the looking-glass, where stood a pretty little china shepherdess. Her shoes were gilt, and her dress was ornamented with a red rose, besides which she had a golden hat and a crook ; she was marvellously pretty to behold. Close by her side stood a little chimney-sweeper, as black as a coal, though likewise of china ; he was just as clean and
THE CHIMNEY SWEEP
as delicate as another, and as to his being a chimney-sweeper, it was only that he represented one ; the potter might just as well have made a prince out of him, for it would have been all one !
There he stood so elegantly with his ladder, and with a countenance as white and as rosy as a girl's — indeed, this was, properly speaking, a fault, for his face ought to have been rather black. He stood close to the shepherdess ; they had both been placed where they stood ; and having been so placed, they became betrothed to each other. They were well matched, being both young people, made of the same china, and equally fragile.
Close to them sat another figure, three times their size. He was an old Chinese, who could nod his head. He also was made of china, and pretended to be the grandfather of the little shepherdess ; but this he could not prove. He maintained that he was entitled to control her, and, there- fore, when General-and- Lieutenant - General - Goat- Band}-legs - Field - Sergeant asked for the little shepherdess's hand, he had nodded consent.
" You will obtain in him," said the old Chinese, " a husband whom I verily believe to be of mahogany. You will become the lady of General - and - Lieu- tenant - General - Goat - Bandylegs - Field - Ser - geant ! and he has a whole cupboardful of plate, to say nothing of what may be hid in the spring-drawers and se- cret compartments."
" I don't choose to live in the dark cup- board," said the little shepherdess. " I have heard say that he has eleven china wives in it already."
" Then you can be- come the twelfth ! " said the Chinese. To-night,
as soon as you hear a creaking in the old press, your wedding shall take place, as true as I'm a Chinese." And thereupon he nodded his head, and fell asleep.
But the little shepherdess cried, and looked at her sweetheart, the china chimney-sweeper.
" I entreat you," said she, " to go with me into the wide world, for we can't remain here."
" I will do anything you please," said the little chimney-sweeper ; " let us set out immediately. t think I can maintain you with my profession."
I ENTREAT YOU TO GO WITH ,ME INTO THE WIDE WORLD. '
8
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
" I wish we were but safe down from the table ! " said she. " I shall not be easy till we are out in the wide world."
And he comforted her, and showed her how she might set her little foot on the carved pro- jections and gilt foliage of the feet of the table ; besides, he took his ladder to help, and so
they managed to reach the floor. But when they looked towards the old cupboard, they saw it was all in an uproar. The carved stags poked out their heads, raised their antlers, and turned their necks. The Gen- eral - and - Lieutenant - General - Goat - Bandy- legs - Field - Sergeant was cutting tremend- ous capers, and bawling out to the Chinese : " They are running away ! they are running away ! "
The fugitives were somewhat frightened, and jumped into the drawer in the window- seat.
Here lay several packs of cards, that w^re not complete, and a little dolls' theatre, which had been built up as neatly as could be. A play was being represented, and all the queens, whether of hearts or diamonds, spades or clubs, sat in the front row, fanning themselves with their tulips ; and behind them stood all the knaves, and showed that they had heads, both upwards and downwards as playing- cards have. The play was about two lovers, who were not allowed to marry ; and the shepherdess cried, for it seemed just like her own story.
" I cannot bear it," said she ; " I must
leave the drawer." But when they had reached the floor, and looked up at the table, there was the old Chinese awake, and shaking himself— and down he came on the floor like a lump.
" The old Chinese is coming 1 " shrieked the little shepherdess, falling on her china knee, for she was much affected.
THEY SAW THE OLD CUPBOARD WAS ALL IN AN UPROAR.
THE CHIMNEY SWEEP
9
SHE FELL ON HER CHINA KNEE,
" 1 have thoucjht of a plan," said tlie chimney-sweeper. " Suppose we creep into the jar of perfumes that stands in the corner. There we might he upon roses and lavender, .ind throw salt into his eyes if he comes near us."
" That would be of no use," said she. " Besides, I know that the old Chinese and the jar were formerly betrothed, and there always remains a degree of good-will when one has been on such terms. No ! we have nothing for it but to ;_;o out into the wide world ! "
" Have you really the courage to go out into the wide world with me?" asked the chimney-sweeper. " Have you rcHccted how large it is, and that we can never come back hither ? "
" I have," said she.
And the chimney-sweeper looked hard at her, and said : " My way lies through the chimney. Have you really the courage to go with me, not only through the stove itself, but to creep through the flue ? We shall then come out by the chimney, and then I know how to manage. We shall climb so high that they won't be able to reach us, and quite at the top is a hole that leads out into the wide world." And he led her to the door of the stove. " It looks very black," said she ; still, in she went with him, both through the stove and through the pipe, where it was as dark as pitch.
" Now we are in the chimney," said he ; " and look ! there shines the most beautiful star above ! "
And it was a real star in the sky that seemed to shine down upon them as though it would Hght them on their way. And now they climbed and crept, and a frightful way it was — so steep
and so high I But he went first, and smoothed it as much as he could ; he held her, and showed her the best places to set her little china foot upon, and so they managed to reach the edge of the chimney-pot, on which they sat down — for they were vastly tired, as may be imagined.
The sky and all its stars was above them, and all the roofs of the town lay below. They saw far around them, and c great way out into the wide world. It was not like what the poor shepherdess had fancied it. She leaned her little head on her chimney-sweeper's shoulder, and cried till she washed the gilding off her sash. "This is too much ! " said she ; " it is more than I can bear. The world is too lar<je ! I wish I were safe back on the table under
o
the looking-glass. I shall never be happy till I am once more there. Now I have followed )'ou into the wide world, you can accompany me back if you really love me."
Then the chimney-sweeper tried to reason with her, and spoke of the old Chinese, and of General- and - Lieutenant - General - Goat - Bandylegs - Field - Sergeant ; but she sobbed so violently, and kissed her little chimney-sweeper, till he could not do other- wise than what she wished, foolish as it was.
And so they climbed down the chimney with infinite difficulty. They next crept through the flue and the stove, which were anything but pleasant places ; and then they stood in the dark stove, and listened behind the door, to catch what might be
HB LED HER TO THE DOOK OF THE slOVE.
lO
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
going forward in the room. All was quiet ; so they peeped out — and behold ! there lay the old Chinese sprawling in the middle of the floor. He had fallen down from the table, when he attempted to pursue them, and lay broken into three pieces : his whole back had come off in one lump, and his head had rolled into a corner. The General - and - Lieuten- ant - General - Goat - Bandylegs - Field - Sergeant stood where he always had done, and was wrapped in thought.
" This is shocking ! " said the little shepherdess ; " my old grandfather is broken in pieces, and by our fault ! I shall not be able to survive such a mishap ! " And so saying, she wrung her little hands.
" He can be rivetted ! " said the chimney-sweeper — " he can be rivetted. Do not take on so ! If they cement his back, and put a proper rivet through his neck, he will be just as good as new, and will be able to say as many disagreeable things to us as ever."
"Do you think so?" said she. And then they crept up to the table, where they formerly stood.
" Since we have got no farther than this," said the chimney-sweeper, " we might have saved our- selves a deal of trouble."
" I wish grandfather was rivetted," said the shep- herdess ; " I wonder if it costs much ? "
And rivetted sure enough he was. The family had his back cemented, and an efficient rivet run through his neck. He was as good as new, except
that he could no longer nod.
IHE KOOFS OK THE
Mclhinl-
" Yuu have become proud since you were broken to shivers," observed General-and-Lieutenant-General- 5 there is no reason why you should be so captious.
Goat-Bandylegs-Field Sergeant. Am I to have her or not? "
And the chimney-sweeper and the little shepherdess looked most touchingly at the old Chinese. They were afraid he would nod. But he could not ; and it would have been derogatory to have confessed to a stranger that he had a rivet in his neck. And so the china couple remained together, and blessed the grandfather's rivet, and loved each other till they were broken to pieces.
HIS HEAD HAD ROLLED INTO A CORNER.
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
11
The Niahtinorale
N China, you know, the emperor is a Chinese, and all those about him are Chinamen. It is now many years ago — but for that very reason the story is better worth hear- ing before it is quite forgotten — the emperor's palace was the most magnificent in the whole world ; it was built entirely of the finest porcelain, and \n as costly to a degree, but so brittle and so ticklish, that one scarcely dared to touch it. In the garden might be seen the most singular flowers, and to the most beautiful of these were fastened little silver bells that kept jingling, so that one could not pass by without observing them. Everything in the emperor's garden was calculated after the same fashion. The garden itself extended so far that even the gardener did not know where it ended. If one went beyond its limits, one reached the finest forest with lofty trees and deep lakes. The forest sloped down to the deep blue sea : large ships could sail under its branches, in one of which dwelt a nightingale that sang so sweetly, that even the poor fishermen, who had something else to do, were fain to stand still and listen, whenever they heard her, as they went to spread their nets over-night. " Oh dear, how beautiful ! " said they ; and then they were forced to attend to their business, and forget the bird. Yet, if the bird happened to sing again on the following night, and any one of the fishermen came near the spot, he was sure to say to himself: " Dear me, how beautiful that is, to be sure ! "
Travellers flocked from all parts of the earth to the emperor's capital, and admired it, as well as the palace and the garden. Yet when they came to hear the
nightingale, they all declared : " This is better still."
And the travellers, on their return home, related what they had seen, and learned men wrote
many volumes upon the town, the palace, and the garden. Nor did they forget the nightingale,
which was reckoned the most remarkable of all ; and those who could write poetry penned the
most beautiful verses about the nightingale in the forest near the lake.
Tiie books circulated through the world, and some of them fell into the emperor's hands. He
sat on his golden throne, and kept reading and reading, and nodding his head every momf nt, for
he was delighted with the beautiful descriptions of the town, the palace, and the garden. " But the
nightingale is the most lovely of all ! " said the book.
" What is that ? " said the emperor. " I don't know of any nightingale ! Can there be such
a bird in my empire, and in my very garden, without my having .ever heard of it ? Must one learn
such things from books?"
He then called his lord-in-waiting, who was so grand a personage, that if any one of inferior
rank to himself dared to speak to him, or ask him a question, he only answered " P ! "
which meant nothing at all.
"This must be a verj' remark- -^^P^lf* able bird that is called a nightingale," said the
emperor. " They say it is the ^^JK^iT^l finest thing in my large kingdom. Why was
I never told anything about
" I never heard of her ^T^ _!^^iXi#^ .. , before!" said the lord-in-waiting. "She
has never been presented
" I choose that she .a«*^'^.^\J'*' ^^'^3f^ should come and sing before me thi.s
very evening," said
the emperor. " The
whole world knows
what I possess, while
I myself do not ! " " I never heard
her mentioned before,"
repeated the lord-in- waiting ; " but I will
seek for her and find
her."
But where was
she to be found ?
The lord - in - waiting sat on his golden throne reading the book.
12
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
ran up and down all the stairs in the palace, looked through all the rooms and passages, but none of those whom he met had ever heard of the nightmgale. So the lord-in-waiting returned to the emperor, and said that it must be a mere fiction invented by those who wrote the books. " Your imperial majesty is not to believe all that is written," said he ; " these are mere poetical fancies, and what is called the black art."
"But the book in which I read this," said the emperor, "was sent to me by the high-potent Emperor of Japan, and therefore it cannot contain a falsehood. I will hear the nightingale ! She must come hitiier this evening. She enjoys my gracious favour. And if she does not come, the whole court shall have their bodies trampled upon the moment supper is over."
" Tsing-pe ! " said the lord-in-waiting, and he again ran up and down all the stairs, and looked through all the rooms and passages, and half of the courtiers accompanied him in his .search, for they did not relish the thoughts of being trampled upon. And there was a mighty inquiry after the wonderful nightingale, which all the world knew of e.xccpt those who resided at court.
At last they found a little girl in the kitchen, who said : "Oh dear! I know the nightingale
well enough, and beautifully she sings I I have leave to take home to my poor sick mother the remains of the dinner-table ; and she lives down by the shore, and when I come back and am tired, and sit down to rest in the forest, then I hear the nightingale sing. And the tears come into my eyes, and it is just as if my mother kissed me."
" Little cook," said the lord-in-waiting, " I will obtain for you a lasting situation in the kitchen, and the permission to see the emperor dine, if }ou will show us the way to the nightingale, for she is be- spoken for this evening."
And so they all went out into the forest, where the nightingale used to sing. Half the court was there. As they walked along, a cow began lowing.
" Oh," cried some of the joung lords of the court, " now we've found her ! What wonderful strength for so small an animal ! I have certainly heard this before ! "
" Nay, those are cows a-bellowing," said the little cook. " We are at a good distance yet from the spot."
The frogs now began to croak in a neighbouring marsh.
" Magnificent ! " said the Chinese court-preacher ; " now I hear her — it sounds like little church bells."
" Na)', those are frogs," said the little cook ; "but 1 thnik that we shall soon hear her now." The nightingale then began to sing.
" There she is," said the little girl. " Hark ! hark ! and there she sits," added she, pointing to a little grey bird up in the boughs.
" Is it possible?" said the lord-in-waiting. " I should never have fancied her like that 1 How simple she looks I She has certainly lost her colour at seeing so many persons of rank around her."
" Little nightingale," cried the little cook aloud, " our most gracious emperor wishes you to sing before him."
" With the greatest pleasure ! " said the nightingale, and sang so exquisitely, that it was a delight to hear her.
"It sounds like glass bells," said the lord-in-waiting; "and look how her little throat is working I It is surprising that we never heard her before I She will have great success at court." " Shall I sing once more before the emperor ? " asked the nightingale, who thought the emperor was there.
" My sweet little nightingale," said the lord-in-waiting, " I have the pleasure to invite you to a court assembly for this evening, at which you will enchant his Imperial Highness with your delightful singing."
RAN Vf AND DOWN, AND LOOKED THROUGH ALL THE ROO.MS.
THE NIGH'IINGALE
13
" It is best when heard in the greenwood," said the nightingale ; still she went willingly, on hearing the emperor wished it.
The preparations in the palace were magnificent. The walls and the floor, both of porcelain, were shining in the light of several thou- sand golden lamps ; the rarest flowers, such as had a right to ring their bells, were f)laced in the passages. What with the running to and fro, and the draught, there was such a jing- ling of bells that one could scarce!)' hear one's self speak.
In the middle of the state room, where the emperor sat, there was a golden perch for the nightingale. The whole court was present, and the little cook had leave to stand behind the door, as she had now obtained the title of a real court cook. All present were dressed in their best, and all eyes were turned to- wards the little grey bird, to whom the emperor now made a sign by nodding his head.
And the night- ingale sang so ex- quisitely, that tears came into the em- peror's eyes. The tears rolled down his cheeks, and then the nightingale sang in still more touching strains, that went to one's veryheart. And the emperor was so enchanted, that he declared the night- ingale should have his golden slipper to wear round her neck. But the nightingale declined the honour
with thanks ; she was sufficiently rewarded already. " I have seen tears in the emperor's eyes, and these are like the richest treasure to me. An emperor's tears possess a peculiar virtue ! God knows that I am sufficiently rewarded." And thereupon she sang again in her sweet, melodious voice.
THE NIGHTiNGALK SAMG EXQUISITELY.
14
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
SHE WENT WILLINGLY, ON HEARING THE EMI'EROR WISHED IT.
" This is the prettiest piece of coquetry that I know of," said the ladies present ; and they put water into their mouths, to make a kind of liquid, cluck- ing sound when any- body spoke to them. They then fancied themselves nightin- gales. Even the foot- men and the chamber- maids gave out that they were satisfied with the performance: and that is saying a
great deal, for they are the most fastidious to please. In short, the nightingale's success was complete. She was now invited to take up her abode at court, where she was to have her own cage,
besides the liberty of going out twice a day, and once in the night, on which occasions she was
attended by twelve servants, each of whom had fastened a ribbon round her leg to hold her
fast. There was no pleasure to be had in flying after such a fashion as that.
The whole talk of the town ran on no other subject than the wonderful bird.
Eleven old-clothes-men's children were christened after her, but not one of them had
a note in their throat.
One day the emperor received a large parcel, on which was written : " The
Nightingale."
" Here's no doubt a new book about our celebrated bird," said the
emperor. But instead of a book, it was a piece of mechanism that lay
in a box — an artificial nightingale made to imitate the living one,
only set all over with diamonds, rubies and sapphires. As soon
as the artificial bird was wound up, it could sing one of the pieces
that tiie real one sang ; and then it wagged its tail up and
down, all sparkling with silver and gold. Round its neck
was slung a little ribbon, on which was written : " The
Emperor of Japan's
nightingale is poor in- deed compared to that
belonging to the Em- peror of China."
" This is splendid,"
said all present, while
he who had brought the
bird was immediately
invested with the title
of Imperial Chief Night-
ingale-bringer.
" Now they must
sing together," said the
courtiers, " and what a
duet that will be ! "
And they were ac- cordingly set to sing
together. But it did
not do, for the real
nightingale sang after
her fashion, and the
artificial bird according each had fastened a ribbon round her leg.
THE NIGHTINGALE
15
to the barrel. " It is not the fault of the latter," observed the musical conductor, " for the bird is a good timeist, quite after my school." So the artificial bird was made to sing alone. It obtained just as much success as the real bird, and then it was thought so much prettier to look at, for it sparkled like bracelets and breast-pins.
Three-and-thirty times did it sing the same piece without being tired. The company would willingly have heard it anew, but the emperor said that it was time the living nightingale should take her turn. But where was she? Nobody had remarked that she had flown out at the open window and back to her green woods.
"How comes this?" said the emperor. And all the courtiers blamed her, and set down the nightingale for a most ungrateful animal.
" But we have the best bird left," said they ; and accordingly the artificial bird was made to sing again, and they heard the same tune for the four-and- thirtieth time. Only they had not yet learned it by heart completely, for it was difficult to catch. And the conductor praised the bird to the skies, and even maintained that it was superior to a real nightingale, not only as regards out- ward appearance and the profusion of diamonds, but in point of intrinsic merit.
" For you perceive, my gracious lord and emperor of us all," said he, " wi real nightingale you can never depend on what is coming ; but with an artif bird all is laid out beforehand. One can analyze it, one can open it, and show the human skill that contrived its mechanism, and how the barrels lie, how they work, and how one thing proceeds from another."
" Those are quite my own thoughts," said all present ; and the musical conductor was allowed to exhibit the bird to the people on the following* Sunday. And the emperor commanded that the people should likewise hear it sing. They accordingly heard it, and were as delighted as though they had got drunk with tea, for it was so thoroughly Chinese. And they all cried out " Oh ! " and held up their forefingers, and nodded their heads. But the poor fisherman, who had heard the real nightingale, said : " It sounds prettily enough, and the melodies are all alike ; but there's a something wanting, though I can't tell what."
The real nightingale was banished from the land.
The artificial bird was placed on a sifk cushion beside the emperor's bed. All the presents of gold and precious stones which had been showered upon it lay around, and the bird had risen to the title of Imperial Toilet-singer, and to the rank of number one on the left side. For the emperor reckoned the left side the noblest, as being the seat of the heart ; for an emperor's
heart is on the left.
THE BOYS IN THE STREET WOULD GO ABOUT SINGING.
ALL CRIED OUT " OH !
just as Other people's
are. And the conductor of the music wrote a work in twenty-five volumes about the artificial bird, which was so learned, and so long, and so full of the hardest Chinese words, that everybody said they had read it and understood it, for fear of being thought stupid, or being trampled to death.
A whole year passed by. The emperor and his court, and all other Chinese, now knew by heart every little flourish in the artificial bird's song. But that was the very reason why it pleased them better than ever, because they could now sing with the bird — which they accordingly did. The boys in the street would go about singing " Zi-zi-zi — cluck- cluck — cooo-00 " ; and the emperor sang it likewise. It was really quite delightful 1
But one evening, when the artificial bird was singing its best, and the emperor lay in
.6
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
lied listening, sometliing inside the bird seemed to say "crick ! " Then a spring flew — whirr-r-r-r ! All the wheels ran round, and suddenly the music came to a standstill.
The emperor jumped out of bed and called for his physician. ]5ut of what use could he be?
JUMPED OUT OF BED AND CALLED FOR HIS I'll VSICL\N.
They next fetched a watchmaker, and after a deal of talking and examination, he managed to set the bird in order to a certain degree ; but he said it must be used sparingly, for the uvula was worn away, and it was impossible to put in a new one so as to be sure not to injure the music.
THE NIGHTINGALE
17
Here was a cause for deep mourning ! The artificial bird was now only to be heard once a year, and that was almost too often for its safety. But the conductor of the music made a speech, consisting of very hard words, in order to prove that it was just as good as ever ; and so, of course, it was considered.
Five years had now flown past, when a real affliction threatened the land. The Chinese all loved their emperor, and he now lay so ill that it was said he could not recover. A new emperor was already chosen ; and the people who stood outside in the street asked the lord-in-waiting how it fared with their old emperor ? " P ! " said he, shaking his head.
The emperor lay pale and cold in his fine large bed. The whole court thought he was dead, and everybody had run away from him to pay their respects to the new emperor. The valets had run away to prate about the event, and the chambermaids had a large company to coffee. Cloth coverings had been laid down in all the rooms and passages, that nobody's step might be heard, and therefore all was silent as the grave. But the emperor was not yet dead, though he lay stiff and pale in his magnificent bed, with its long velvet curtains and heavy gold tassels. High above was an open window, through which the moon shone down upon the emperor and the artificial bird.
The poor emperor could scarcely breathe ; he felt as if a weight were lying on his chest, and on opening his eyes he saw that it was Death who was sitting on his breast, and had put on his gold crown, and was holding the imperial sword in one hand and his beautiful banner in the other. Strange heads were peeping out on all sides through the velvet bed-curtains, some of which were quite ugly, while others were mild and lovely. These were the em- peror's good and bad actions, which looked him in the face now that Death was at his heart
" Do you remember this ? " whispered one after another. " Do you remember that ? " And they told him so many things that the perspiration stood on his brow.
" I never knew it," said the emperor. " Music ! music ! — the large Chinese drum ! " cried he, " to drown what they say ! "
But they went on, and Death nodded to all they said, like a true Chinese.
" Music ! music ! " vociferated the emperor. " You little charming golden bird, sing away ! — sing, can't you ? I have given you gold and precious stones, and I have even hung my golden slipper round your neck. Sing, I tell you, sing ! "
But the bird remained silent. There was nobody there to wind it up, and without that it could not sing a note. And Death went on staring at the emperor with his hollow sockets, and a frightful stillness reigned around.
Suddenly a gust of melody sounded through the window. It proceeded from the little living nightingale who sat on a bough. She had heard of her emperor's danger, and had hastened hither to sing hope and comfort to his soul. And as she sang, the phantoms grew fainter and fainter, while the blood began to circulate faster and faster through the emperor's weak limbs, and even Death listened, and said, " Go on, little nightingale, go on."
" But will you give me that costly golden sword ? Will you give me that rich banner ? Will you give me the emperor's crown ? "
And Death gave each of the baubles for a song, and the nightingale continued singing. She sang of the quiet churchyard, where the white roses blossom, where the elder sheds its perfumes, and where the cool grass is moistened by the tears of the survivors. Then Death longed to go to his garden, and he floated out through the window, like a cold, white mist.
SHE SANG, AND THE EMPEROR FELL INTO A SWEET SLEEP.
i8
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
"Thanks! thanks!" said the emperor, " you heavenly little bird ! I know you well. I banished you from my dominions, and yet have you sung away those tvil faces from my bedside, and expelled Death from my heart. How can 1 reward you ?"
"You have rewarded me," said the nightingale. "I beguiled tears from your eyes the first time I sang — I shall never forget that ! Those are the jewels that rejoice a singer's heart. But now sleep and grow strong and healthy. I will sing to you."
And she sang, and the emperor fell into a sweet sleep. And most mild and beneficent was that slumber.
The sun was shining through the window when he awoke, refreshed and restored to health. None bf his servants had returned, for they thought he was dead ; but the nightingale still sat and sang.
" You must always remain with me," said the emperor. " You shall only sing v\hen you choose, and I will break the artificial bird into a thousand pieces."
" Do not do that," said the nightingale ; "the bird did good as long as it could. Keep it as before. I cannot build my nest and live in the palace, but let me come when I have a mind, and I will sit on the bough near the window of an evening and sing to you, that )'ou may be at once glad and thoughtful. I will sing of the happy, and of those who suffer. I will tell of the bad and the good that is concealed from you by those about your person. For the little songster flies far around to the poor fishermen, and to the peasants' humble roof, and to all who live at so great a distance from yourself and your court. I love your heart better than your crown, and yet the crown has a perfume of sacredness about it too. I will come and sing to you, but you must promise me one thing."
"All I possess !" said the emperor, as he stood in his imperial robes, which he had himself put on, and pressed his sword of weighty gold to his heart.
" One thing only I require of you : that is, to let no one know you have a little bird who tells you everything, and all will be for the best." And away the nightingale flew.
The servants came in to look after their late emperor, amazement on hearing the emperor say " Good morning ! "
When there, they stood in
*Sr
The Garden of Paradise
THE FOUR WINDS
HERE once lived a king's son, who possessed a larger and more beautiful collection of books than anybody ever had before. He could read in their pages all the events that had ever taken place in the world, and see them illustrated by the most exquisite engravings. He could obtain information about any people or any country, only not a word could he ever find as to the geographical position of the Garden of the World ; and this was just what he was most desirous of ascertain-
His grandmother had told him, when he was quite a little boy, and beginning to go to school, that each flower in the Garden of the World was the most delicious cake, and had its stamina filled with luscious wine ; on one stood written historical facts, on another geography or arithmetical tables — and so one need only eat cakes to learn one's lesson, and the more one ate, the more history, geography, and arithmetic one acquired.
He used to believe this. But when he grew a little older, and had learned more and become wiser, he began to understand that there must be better delights than these in the Garden of the World.
He was now seventeen, and nothing ran in his head but this garden. One day he went to take a walk in the forest, all alone, as he best liked to be.
THEVKA^DEN OK PARADISE
19
As eveniiig caifie on, the sky grew overcast, and there came on such a shower, that it seemed as if the heavens had become one yast sluice that kept pouring down water ; besides this, it was darker than it usually is, even at night, except at the bottom of the deepest well. At every step, he either slipped on the.wet grass; or stumbled over some bare rock. Everything was dripping wet, and the poor prince had not a dry thread about him. He was' obliged to climb over huge blocks of stone, where water was running down from the thick moss. - He was near fainting away, when he heard a singular rushing noise, and perceived a large cavern, lighted up by a huge fire, piled up in the middle, and fit to roast a whole deer. And this, indeed, was being done. A very fine deer, with its branching horns, was placed on a spit, and slowly turned round between the felled trunks of two pine-trees. An elderly woman, as bony and masculine as though she were a man in female attire, sat by the fire, and kept throwing in one log" of wood after another.
" Come nearer," said she, " and sit by the fire, and dry your clothes."
" There is a great draught here," observed the prince, sitting down on the ground.
" It will be much worse when my sons come home," returned the woman. " You are in the Cavern of the Winds. My sons are the Four Winds of Heaven — can you understand that ? "
" Where are your sons ? " asked the prince.
" It is difficult to answer a silly question," said the woman. " My sons are now at it, with their own hands. They are playing at shuttle- cock with the clouds, up there in the King's hall." And she pointed above.
" Oh, that's it ! " quoth the prince. " But you seem to speak rather harshly, and are not as gentle as the women I am accustomed to see."
" Because they have nothing else to do. But I must be harsh, to keep my boys in any order ; which I manage to do, headstrong as they are. You see those four bags hanging on the wall ? Well, they are every bit as much afraid of them as you used to be of the rod behind the looking-glass. I bend the boys in two, I can tell you, and then pop them into the bag, without their making the least resist- ance. There they stay, and don't dare come out till I think it proper they should. But here comes one of them."
It was the North Wind who came in, diffusing an icy coldness around. Large hailstones jumped about on the floor, and snow-flakes were scattered in all directions. He wore a bearskin jacket and clothes ; his cap of sea-dog's skin came down over his ears ; long icicles clung to his beard, and one hailstone after another fell from the collar of his jacket.
" Don't go too near the fire at once," said the prince, " or your face and hands might easily get frozen."
" Frozen, quotha ! " said the North Wind, with a loud laugh. " Why, cold is my greatest delight! But what kind of little snip are you? How did you come into the Cavern of the Winds ? "
" He is my guest," said the old woman ; " and if that does not satisfy you, why, you need only get into the bag. Do you understand me now ? "
Well, this did the business at once ; and the North Wind then began to relate whence he came, and where he had been staying for nearly a month past.
" I come from the Arctic Sea," said he, " and I have been on Bear's Island, with the Russian sea-cow hunters. I sat and slept at the helm, as they sailed away from the North Cape ; but
AT EVERY STEP HB SLIPPED ON THE WET GRASS.
20
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
whenever I happened to wake, the petrels were flying about my legs. What comical birds they are ! They will flap their wings suddenly, and then remain poised upon them, and quite motion- less, as if they had had enough of flying."
" Don't be so diffuse," said the mother of the Winds. " And so you reached Bear's Island ? " " It's a beautiful place ! There's a ball-room floor for you, as smooth as a plate ! Heaps of half-thawed snow, slightly covered with moss, sharp stones, and skeletons of sea-cows and bears were lying about, together with the arms and legs of giants in a state of green decay. It looks as if the sun had never shone there. I blew slightly on the mist, that the hovels might be visible, and there appeared a hut, built from the remains of a ship that had been wrecked, and covered over with sea-cows' skins. The fleshy side was turned outwards, and it was both red and green. A living bear sat growling on the roof I went to the shore, and looked after birds' nests, and saw the unfledged youngsters opening their beaks and screaming lustily ; so I blew into their thousands of throats, and they learned to shut their mouths. A little farther on, the sea-cows were rolling
about like giant worms with pigs' heads, and teeth a yard long."
" You tell your adventures right pleasantly, my son," said his mother ; " it makes my mouth water to hear you."
" Then the hunting began. The harpoon was flung right into the sea-cow's chest, so that a smoking jet of blood spurted forth like water from a fountain, and besprinkled the ice. Then I thought of my part of the game. I began to l)low, and set my vessels, the towering icebergs, to stick the boats fast. Oh ! what a whist- ling and a bawling there was ! Only I whistled louder than all of them. They were obliged to unpack the dead sea-cows, the chests, and the tackle upon the ice ; I then shook snow- flakes over them, and left them and their spoils to sail in their pent-up vessels towards the south, to drink salt-water. They will never return to Bear's Island." " Then you have done mischief? " said the mother of the Winds.
" Let others tell of the good I may have done ! " said he. " But here comes my brother from the West. I like him the best, because he smacks of the sea, and brings a nice bracing cold with him." " Is that the little Zephyr?" asked the prince.
" Yes, that is the Zephyr ! " said the old woman ; " but he's not so very little either. Some years ago he was a pretty boy ; but that is now over."
He looked like a wild man ; but he wore a roller round his head, that he might not get hurt. In his hand he held a mahogany club, hewn from an American mahogany forest. It was no small weight to carry.
" Whence do you come ? " asked the mother.
" From the wild forests," said he, " where tangled bindweed forms a hedge between each tree, where water-snakes lie in the damp grass, and where man seems to be a superfluous nonentity." " What have you been doing there ? "
" I looked into the deep river, and saw it had rushed down from the rocks, and then became dust, and flew towards the clouds to support the rainbow. I saw a wild buffalo swimming in the river, but he was carried away by the tide. He had joined a flock of wild ducks, who flew up into the air the moment the waters dashed downwards. The buffalo was obliged to be hurled into the precipice. This pleased me, and I raised a storm, so that the oldest trees sailed down the river, and were reduced to splinters."
SAT AND SLEPT AT THE HELM.
THE GARDEN OF PARADISE
21
KB KISSED HIS MOTHER SO ROUGHLY, THAT SHE NEARLY FELL BACKWARDS.
" And was that all you did ? " asked the old woman.
" I cut capers in the savannahs ; I stroked wild horses, and shook cocoa- nut trees. Oh ! I have plenty of tales to tell ! Only one must not tell all one knows, as you well know,good mammy." And he kissed his mother so roughly, that she had nearly fallen backwards. He was a shocking wild lad.
Now, in came the South Wind in a turban and Bedouin's flying mantle.
"It is very cold here- abouts ! " said he, tlirow- ing wood upon the fire. "It is easy to perceive that the North Wind has preceded me."
"It is hot enough here to roast a northern bear ! " said the North Wind. " You are a bear yourself! " answered the South Wind.
" Have you a mind to be both put into the bag? " asked the old woman. " There! sit down on that stone, and tell us where you have been."
" In Africa, mother," returned he. " I was amongst the Hottentots, who were lion-hunting in Caffraria. The grass in tlicir plains looks as green as an olive. An ostrich ran a race with me,
but I beat him hollow. I reached the yellow -sands of the desert, which loo' like the bottom of the ? I met a caravan. T^ killed their last cami
obtain some water •.1 — . ^ • -, •
scorching beneath feet. The desert stre out into boundless exj 1 then rolled in the fine, loose sand, and made it whirl about in large columns. A fine dance I led it ! You should have seen how dejected the dromedaries looked as they stood stock still, and how the merchants pulled their caftans over their heads. They threw them- selves on the ground be- fore me as they would before Allah, their God They are now all buried
AN OSTRICH RAN A RACB WITH ME.'
22
, ANI^ERSKN'S FAIRY TALES
beneath a pyramid oP sand ]"'and~when^l~cbme"f6puflrit away, the sun will bleach their' bones, and travellers will see that others have been there before them : a fact which is seldom believed in the desert, short of some tangible proof"
"Then you have done nothing but mischief! " said his mother. " Into the bag with you ! " And before he had time to perceive it, she had taken the South Wind round the waist, and popjjed him into the bag. He wriggled about on the ground ; but she sat upon him, and then he was forced to lie still.
" Your sons are a set of lively boys ! " said the prince.
" Yes," answered she ; " and I know how to correct them. Here comes the fourth." This was the East Wind, who was dressed like a Chinese.
" Oh ! you come from that neighbourhood, do you ? " said his mother. " I thought you had
been to the Garden of the World ? "
" I am going there to-morrow," said the East Wind. " To-morrow it will be a hundred _\ears since I was there. 1 iiave just returned from China, .vhere I danced round the porcelain tower till all the bells were set a-jingling. The government officers were being beaten in the street ; the bamboo stick was broken across their shoulders ; and these were people belonging to the several degrees from the first to the ninth. They cried out : ' Many thanks, my fatherly benefactor ! ' But the words did not come from their hearts, so I made the bells jingle, and sang : ' Tsing ! tsang ! tsu ! ' "
"You are a wanton boy !" said the old woman. " It is well you are going to-morrow to the Garden of the World, for that always improves your mind. Pray drink abun- dantly from the fountain of wisdom, and take a small phial and bring it home full for me."
" I will," said the East Wind. " But \\h)' hav^e you put my brother from the South into the bag ? Take him out again ; I want him to tell me about the phoenix, for the princess in the Garden of the World always asks after him when I pay her my visit every hundredth year. Open the bag, there's a dear mammy, and I'll give you two pocketfuls of tea-leaves, all green and fresh, just as I plucked them from the bush on the spot where it grew."
" Well, for the sake of the tea, and because you are mammy's own boy, I will open the bag."
This she accordingly did, and out crept the South Wind, f rather foolish, because the strange prince had wit- nessed-his d-'sg-ace.
" There is a palm-tree leaf for the princess," said the South Wind. " The old phoenix, the only bird of his sort in the wide world, gave me this leaf He has traced upon it with his beak the whole history of his life during the hundred years that form its span. She may, therefore, be now enabled to read how the phoenix set fire to his nest, and sat upon it as it was burning, like the widow of a Hindoo. How the dried twigs did crackle ! and what a smoke there was ! At length out burst the flames ; the old phoenix was burnt to ashes, but an egg lay glowing hot in the fire. It burst with a loud report, and the young bird flew out ; and now he is king over all the other birds, and the only phoenix in the world. He has bitten a hole in the leaf which I gave you, and that is his way of sending his duty to the princess."
" Now let us eat something," said the mother of the Winds. And they all sat down to partake of the roast deer. The prince sat beside the East Wind ; therefore, they soon became good friends.
" And pray what kind of a princess may she be whom you are talking so much about, and where lies the Garden of the World ? "
" Ho, ho ! " said the East Wind. " What ! have you a mind to go there ? Well, you can fly over with me to-morrow ; though I must tell you no mortal ever visited it before. It is inhabited by a fairy queen, and in it lies the Island of Happiness, a lovely spot, where death never intrudes.
HE SAT ON THE BACK OF THE EAST WIND.
THE GARDEN OF PARADISE
23
Get upon my back to-morrow, and I'll take you with me; for I think it can be managed. But now don't 'jpeak any more, for I want to sleep."
And ihen to sleep they all went.
The prince awoke at an early hour next morning, and was not a little surprised on finding himself high above the clouds. He sat on the back of the East Wind, who was holding him faith- fully ; ^nd they were so high in the air that forests, fields, rivers, and lakes lay beneath them like a painted map.
"Good morning!" said the East Wind. "You might just as well have slept a bit longer, for there is not much to be seen in the flat country beneath us, except you have a mind to count the churches. The\' look like chalk dots on the green board."
It was the fields and the meadows that he called the "green board."
" It was uncivil of me not to take leave of your mother and brothers," observed the prince.
" When one is asleep, one is to be ex- cused," replied the East Wind.
And they began to fly quicker than ever. When they swept across the tree-tops, you might have heard a rustling in all their leaves and branches. On the sea and on the lakes, wherever they flew, the waves rose higher and the large ships dipped down into the water like swimming swans.
Towards evening, when it grew dark, the large towns looked beautiful. They were dotted here and there with lights, much after the fashion of a piece of paper that has burned till it is black, when one sees all the little sparks going out one after another. The prince clapped his hands with delight ; but the East VVind begged him to let such demonstrations alone, and rather attend to holding fast, or else he might easily fall down and remain dangling on a church steeple.
Fast as the eagle flew through the black forests, the East Wind flew still faster. The Cossack was scouring the plains on his little horse, but the prince soon outstripped him.
" You can now see Himalaya," said the East Wind, " the highest mountain in Asia — and now we shall soon reach the Garden of the World." They then turned more south- wards, and the air was soon perfumed with spices and flowers. Figs and pomegranates
grew wild, and clusters of blue and red grapes hung from wild vines. They now descended to the earth, and reclined on the soft grass, where the flowers seemed to nod to the wind as though they had said — " Welcome ! "
" Are we now in the Garden of the World ? " asked the prince.
" No, indeed ! " replied the East Wind ; " but we soon shall be. Do you see yon wall of rocks, and that broad cavern, where the vines hang down like a huge green curtain ? That's the road through which we must pass. Wrap yourself in your mantle, for burning hot as the sun is just hereabouts, it is as cold as ice a few steps farther. The bird who flies past the cavern foels one wing to be in the warm summer abroad while the other is in the depth of winter."
" So then this seems to be the way to the Garden of the World ? " asked the prince.
ThL-y now entered the cavern. Oh, how icy cold it was ! Only it did not last long. The East Wind spread out his wings, and they beamed like the brightest fire. But what a cavern it was, to be sure ! The huge blocks of stone, from which the water kept dripping down, hung over them in the oddest shapes, sometimes narrowing up till they were obliged to creep on all-fours,
THEY NOW ENTERED THE CAVERN.
24
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
at other times widening into an expanse as lofty as though situated in the open air. It looked like a chapel for the dead, with petrified organs and dumb organ-pipes.
" We seem to be crossing through an abode of Death to reach the Garden of the World ! " said the prince. But the East Wind did not answer a syllable, and merely pointed forwards where the loveliest blue light met their eyes. The blocks of stone above their heads rolled away into a mist that finished by assuming the shape of a white cloud on a moonlight night. They were now in a most delightfully mild atmosphere, as cool as the mountain breeze, and as perfumed as a valley of roses. A river, clear as the air itself, was running along, filled with gold and silver fishes ; scarlet eels, that emitted blue sparks at every motion, were disporting in the depths of the waters ; while the broad leaves of the water-lilies that lay on its surface showed all the tints of the rainbow ; the flower itself was a reddish-yellow burning flame that received its nourishment from the water as oil feeds the flame of a lamp. A marble bridge, as delicately sculptured as though it had been made of lace and glass beads, led across the water to the Island of Happiness,
where bloomed the Gar- den of the World.
The East Wind took the prince on his arm and carried him over. And the flowers and leaves sang the sweetest songs of his childhood, but in so lovely a strain of melody as no human voice ever yet sang.
Were they palm- trees or gigantic water- plants that grew on this favoured spot ? The prince could not tell, for never had he seen such large and luxuriant trees before. The most singular creepers, too, such as one only sees represented in gold and colours in the margins of illuminated old mis- sals, or twined around the first letter in a chapter, were hanging in long festoons on all
sides. It was a most curious mixture of birds, and flowers, and scrolls. Just by a flock of pea- cocks were standing on the grass displaying their gorgeous fan-like tails. The prince took them for live creatures, but found, on touching them, that they were onl}' plants— large burdock leaves, which, in this favoured spot, beamed with all the glorious colours of the peacock's tail. A lion and tiger were disporting with all the pliancy of cats amongst the green hedges, that were per- fumed like the flower of the olive-tree ; and both the lion and the tiger were tame. The wild wood-pigeon's plumage sparkled like the fairest pearl, and the bird flapped the lion's mane with its wings ; while the antelope, usually .so shy, stood near and nodded its head, as if willing to join them at play.
Now came the fairy of the garden. Her clothes were radiant as the sun, and her countenance was as serene as that of a happy mother rejoicing over her child. She was young and beautiful, and was followed by a train of lovely girls, each wearing a beaming star in her hair. The East Wind gave her the leaf sent by the phoenix, when her eyes sparkled with joy. She took the prince by the hand and led him into her palace, whose walls were of the hues of the most splendid tulip when it is turned towards the sun. The ceiling was a large radiant flower, and the more one looked at it, the deeper its calyx appeared to grow. The prince stepped to the window, and looked through one of the panes, on which was depicted Jacob's dream. The ladder seemed to reach to
SHli LED IHE I'RINCE l.NTO HER PALACE.
THE GARDEN OF PARADISE 25
the real sky, and the angels seemed to be flapping their wings. The fairy smiled at his astonished look, and explained that time had engraved its events on each pane, but they were not merely lifeless images, for the leaves rustled, and the persons went and came as in a looking-glass. He then looked through other panes, where he saw depicted the events of ancient history. For all that had happened in the world lived and moved upon these panes ; time only could have engraved so cunning a masterpiece.
The fairy then led him into a lofty, noble hall, with transparent walls. Here were a number of portraits, each of which seemed more beautiful than the other. There were millions of happy faces whose laughing and singing seemed to melt into one harmonious whole ; those above were so small that they appeared less than the smallest rosebud when represented on paper by a mere dot. In the midst of the hall stood a large tree with luxuriant drooping branches. Golden apples, both great and small, hung like china oranges amid the green leaves. From each leaf fell a sparkhng red dewdrop, as if the tree were shedding tears of blood.
" We will now get into the boat," said the fairy, " and enjoy the coolness of the water. The boat rocks, but does not stir from the spot, while all the countries of the earth glide past us." And it was wonderful to behold how the whole coast moved. First came the lofty snow-capped Alps, overhung with clouds and overgrown with fir-trees. The horn was sounding its melancholy notes, while the shepherd was carolling in the vale. Then banana-trees flung their drooping branches over the boat ; coal-black swans swam on the water, and flowers and animals of the strangest description might be seen on the shore. This was New Holland, the fifth part of the world, that glided past, with a view of the blue mountains. One could hear the hymns of the priests and see the savages dancing to the sound of drums and trumpets made of bones. Egypt's pyramids reaching to the clouds, overturned columns and sphinxes, half buried in the sand, followed in their turn. The aurora borealis next shined upon the extinguished volcanoes of the north. These were fireworks that nobody could have imitated ! The prince was delighted ; and he saw a hundred times more than what we have mentioned.
" Can 1 remain here for ever ? " asked he.
"That depends on yourself," replied the fairy. " If you do not long for what is forbidden, you may stay here for ever."
" I will not touch the apple on the Tree of Knowledge," said the prince ; " here are thousands of fruits equally fine."
" Examine your own heart, and if you do not feel sufficient strength, return with the East Wind who brought you hither. He is now about to fly back, and will not appear again in this place for the next hundred years. The time would seem to you here to be only a hundred hours, but even that is a long span for temptation and sin. Every evening, on leaving you, I shall be obliged to say : 'Come with me ! ' 1 shall make a sign with my hand, yet )ou must stay away. If once you followed, your longing would increase at every step. You would then enter the hall where grows the Tree of Knowledge. I sleep beneath its perfumed, drooping branches. You would bend over me, and I should be forced to smile. But if you pressed a kiss on my lips, then would the garden sink into the earth and be lost for you. The sharp winds of the desert would howl around you, the cold rain would trickle over your head, and sorrow and distress would fall to your lot."
" I will remain here," said the prince. And the East Wind kissed his forehead, saying, " Be firm, and then we shall meet again in a hundred years. Farewell ! farewell ! " And the East Wind spread his large wings, and they shined like the lightning in harvest time, or like the nor- thern lights in a cold winter.
" Farewell ! farewell ! " sounded from the flowers and the trees. Storks and pelicans flew in long rows, like streaming ribbons, to accompany him to the boundaries of the garden.
" We will now begin our dances," said the fairy. " At the close, when I'm dancing with you, and just as the sun is sinking, you will see me make a sign, and you will hear me say, 'Come with me.' But do not do it. For a hundred }-ears shall I be obliged to repeat the same thing every evening ; and each time when it is over will you gain fresh strength. In the end you'll cease to think about it. This evening will be the first time — and now you are warned."
The fairy then led him into a large room made of white transparent lilies. The yellow stamina in each flower pictured a little golden harp that yielded a sweet music partaking of the combined sounds of stringed instruments and the tones of the flute. Lovely girls with slender, aerial figures, and dressed in lightest gauze, floated through the mazes of the dance, and sang of the delights of living and being immortal, and blooming for ever in the Garden of the World.
The sun now set. The whole sky was one mass of gold that imparted the tints of the richest PT. II.
26
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
roses to the lilies ; and the prince drank of the sparkling wine handed to him by the young maidens, and felt a bliss he had never before experienced, f^e saw the background of the ball-
STORKS A^D PliLICAN'S FLEW IN LONG ROWS.
room now opening, and the Tree of Knowledge stood before him in such streams of light that his eyes were dazzled. The singing that rang in his ears was soft and lovely as his mother's voice, and it seemed as if she sang, " Mv child ! my beloved child ! "
THE ^GARDENi OFi PARADISE
27
_. The fairy then made him a si^n with her eyes, and cried most sweetly: "Come with me! Come with me ! " And he rushed towards her, forgetting his promise, though it was but the first evening, and she continued to beckon to him- and to smile. The spicy perfumes around grew yet more intoxicating ; the harps sounded sweeter ; and it was as if the millions of smiling faces in the room, where grew the tree, nodded and sang: "' We must know everything ! Man is the lord of the earth ! " And there were no more tears of blood dropping down from the leaves of the Tree of Knowledge ; but he thought he saw red sparkling star^ instead.
" Come with me I come with me ! " said the thrilling tones ; and at each step the prince's cheeks glow- ed more intensely, and his blood rushed more wild!)'.
" I must ! " said he ; " it is no sin, and cannot be one ! VVh\' not follow when beauty calls? I will see her asleep ; and provided I do not kiss her, there will be no harm done — and kiss I will not. for I have strength to resist, and a firm will."
And the fair\ cast aside herdazzling attire, bent back the boughs, and in an- other moment was completely concealed.
" I have not y<. i sinned," said tlu prince, "and do not intend to sin ! " And then he pushed the boughs aside ; there she lay already asleep, and lovely as only
the fairy of the Garden of the World is privileged to be. She smiled in her dreams ; yet as he bent over her, he saw tear-< trembling between her eyelashes.
" And do you weep for me ? " whispered he. " Oh, wrep not, most admirable of women ! I
THE FAIRY CRIEU, "COME WITH ME! COME WITH ME!
28
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
HE PUSHED THE BOUGHS ASIDE
' now begin to understand the happiness to be found in this place. It penetrates into my blood, and I feel the joys of the blessed in this my earthly form ! Though it were ever after eternally dark for me, one moment like this is happiness enough ! " And he kissed the tears in her eyes, and his mouth pressed her lips.
Then came a thunder-clap, so loud and so tremen- dous as never was heard before. Down everything fell to ruins — the beautiful fairy, the blooming garden, all sank deeper and deeper still. The prince saw the garden sinking into the dark abyss below, and it soon only shone like a little star in the distance. He turned as cold as death, and closed his eyes, and lay senseless.
The cold rain fell on his face, and the sharp wind blew over his head. He then returned to consciousness. " What have I done ? " sighed he. " Alas ! I have sinned, and the Island of Happiness has sunk down into the earth ! " And he opened his eyes and saw a distant star like that of the sinking garden ; but it was the morning star in the sky.
He got up and found himself in the large forest close to the Caverrii of the Winds. The mother of the Winds sat by him, and looked angry.
I thought it would be so ! If you were my son, you
and raised her arm aloft.
" The very first evening," said she. should be put into the bag presently."
" Into it he shall go, sure enough ! " said Death. He was a stalwart man with a scythe in his hand, and large black wings. " In his coffin shall he be laid, but not yet. I'll only mark him now, and allow him to wander about the world yet awhile, to expiate his sins and to grow better. But I shall come at last. When he least expects it, I shall put him into the black bag, place it on my head, and fly up to the stars. There, too, blooms a lovely garden, and if he be good and pious, he will be allowed to enter it ; but should his thoughts be wicked, and his heart still full of sin, then will he sink in his coffin yet lower than he saw the Garden of the World sink down ; and it will be only once in every thousand years that I shall go and fetch him, when he will either be condemned to sink still deeper, or be borne aloft to the beaming stars above."
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
29
The Little Swineherd
THE PRINCE IN DISGUISE
emperor
It is
I II*' RE was once a poor prince, who had but a very small kingdom ; still, as it was large enough to support a wife, he had a mind to marry.
It was, to be sure, rather bold of him to venture to say
to the emperor's daughter : " Will you have me ? " Yet,
venture he did ; for his name was celebrated both far and
near, and there were scores of princesses who would gladly have said
" Yes " ; but the question was, whether she would say so or not ?
Now we shall see, prcsentl)'.
Over the grave of the prince's father there grew a rose-tree, and a beautiful rose-tree it was. It only bloomed once in every five years, and then it only bore one rose ; but what a rose it was ! Its perfume was so exquisite, that everybody forgot their cares and sorrows when they smelt it. Besides this, he had a nightingale, who sang as though all the lovely melodies in the world had been assembled in its little throat. He resolved to make the princess a present of this rose and this nightingale, and accordingly they were placed in two large silver shrines, and sent to her.
The emperor had them brought to him in a large room, where the princess was playing at " There came a knight a-wooing " with her ladies-in-waiting ; and when she saw the silver shrines containing the presents, she clap[je<l her hands for joy.
"If it could but be a kitten!" said she. But out came the rose-tree with the beautiful rose.
" How very elegantly it is made ! " exclaimed all the court ladies.
"It is more than elegant," said the charming."
But the princess, having felt it, was ready to cry. " Fie, papa ! " said she ; " it is not an artificial rose, but merely a natural one." " Fie ! " echoed all natural rose."
" Let's see what the other shrine may contain, before we fly into a passion," said his majesty; and then out came the nightingale, and sang so sweetly, that nobody at first thought of any spiteful fault-finding.
" Superbe ! charmant ! " cried the court ladies ; for they all chattered French, however badly.
" The bird reminds me of the late empress's musical-bo.x," observed an old lord-in-waiting ; " it has the same tone and the same execution "
" Yes," said the emperor, crying like a little child. " But it is not a real bird, I trust ? " asked the princess. " Yes, it is a real bird," said those who had brought it. " Then let it fly away," said the princess, who would not hear of the prince coming to pay his respects to her.
But he was not to be discouraged. He painted his countenance brown and black, drew his cap over his fore- head, and then knocked at the palace door.
" Good morning, fcmperor," said he ; " can I find any employment at the palace ? "
Why," said the emperor, " there are so many that apply
the ladies-in-waiting ; " it is merely a
for places, that I really don't know whether we can do any-
"good morning," said he.
30
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES^
THE PRINCE BECAME SWINEHERD.
thiiifj; for you ; however, I'll bear it in mind. But, nnw I think of it, I am in want of somebody
to take care of the swine ; for I have a vast number of pig.s."
So the prince became the imperial swineherd. They ga\e him a wretched little room near
the pig-sty, and here he was obliged to remain. But he sat and worked the whole day, and by the even- ing he had made a neat little pipkin, and round it was a set of bells, and the moment the pot began to boil, they fell to jingling most sweetly, and played the old meludv : —
" Oh ! clearest Augustine, All's gone clean away !"
But the most in- genious part of the business was, that if one held one's finger in the steam of the pipkin, one could im- mediately smell what dinner was cooking on every hearth in the town. This was indeed something far superior to the rose !
The princess now happened to be walking out with her ladies-in-waiting ; and on hearing the melody, she stood still, and appeared highly delighted ; for she could play " Oh ! dearest Augustine." It was, indeed, the only tune she could play, but then she played it with one inger.
" Why, that's what I play ! " cried she. " He must be a very intellectual swineherd. I say, go and ask him the price of his instrument."
So one of the ladies-in-waiting was obliged to go down to speak to him ; but she put on pattens.
" How much do you ask for your pipkin ? " inquired the lady. " I ask ten kisses from the princess," said the swineherd. " Good gracious ! " said the lady-in-wait- ing.
" I will not take less," answered the swineherd.
" Well, what did he say ? " asked the princess.
" I dare not repeat it," replied the lady-in- waiting.
" Then whisper it into my ear."
" He is very ill bred ! " observed the princess, as she turned
THE SWINEHERD GOT TEN KIsSlib.
away. But after walking a few steps, the bells jingled so sweetly-
'•Oh ! dearesi AugUitir.^. All's gone clean away ! '
THE LITTLE SWINEHERD
that the princess said, "I say, go and ask him if hc'M take ten kisses from my ladies-
waitin"." ■■
3'
'V.HAl's THE MEANING OF THIS?" CRIED HE.
" I'm much obliged to you," said the swineherd ; " eitlier I'll nave ten kisses from the princess, or else I'll keep my pipkin."
" How tiresome he is ! " said the princess. " Then you mu t stand round me. so that nobody may see me."
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
Accordingly, the ladies-in-waiting stood before her, and spread out their clothes, and the swineherd got the ten kisses, and she obtained the pipkin.
And how delighted she was ! All that evening, and the whole day following, was the pipkin set to boil ; and there was not a hearth in the kingdom on which anything could be cooked without their knowing it — from my lord-chamberlain's down to the shoemaker's. The ladies-in-waiting
clapped their hands and jumped with joy.
" VVe now know who is going to eat sweet porridge and an omelet, or who will have gruel and broiled meat. How interesting, to be sure ! "
" Very interesting," quoth the mistress of the robes.
" But you must not blab, because I am the emperor's daughter."
" Of course not," said they in a breath.
The swineherd, or rather, the prince — though they took him to be a real swineherd — did not let a day go by without working at something ; and so he next fashioned a rattle, which only required springing to play all the waltzes, galops and polkas known since the creation of the world.
" Reall}', this is superbe\" said the princess, as she passed by. " I never heard a finer composition. I say, go in and ask him what's the price of the instrument. Only I will not give any more kisses."
" He wants a hundred kisses from her royal highness ! " said the lady-in-waiting, who had been in to inquire.
" He must be crazy, I should think ! " said the princess, turn- ing away. But after going a few steps, she stopped short. " We must encourage the fine arts," said she, " and I am the emperor's daughter. So tell him that he shall have ten kisses as before, and he may take the rest from my ladies-in- waiting."
" Nay, but we should not much relish that," said the ladies-in-waiting.
"Nonsense!" said the princess ; "if I can kiss him, surely you .may. Remember I give you board, and lodging, and wages." And so the ladies-in-waiting were obliged to go in once more to speak to him.
* A hundred kisses from the princess," said he, " or it's no bargain."
" Stand before me," said she ; and the ladies-in-waiting did as they were bid, and he began kissing the princess.
" What's that mob after, near the pig-sty? " asked the emperor, who had just stepped into the
'WHAT A MISERABLE CREATURE I AM
SOBBED THE PRINCESS.
A WEEK WITH OLE LUK-OIE
33
balcony. He rubbed his eyes, and then put on his spectacles. " Why, it's the ladies-in-waiting, who are after some trick, I'll be bound. I must go down and see." So he drew up his slippers, for they were shoes down at heel.
My goodness ! what haste he did make !
As soon as he had reached the yard, he walked very softly, and the ladies-ir-waiting were so busy counting the kisses, that there might be no cheating, that they did not perceive the emperor. He stood on tiptoe.
" What's the meaning of this ? " cried he, on seeing them kissing away at such a rate, and he flung his slipper at their heads just as the swineherd had received the eighty-sixth kiss.
" Get out of my sight," said the emperor, who was very angry ; and both the princess and the swineherd were turned out of his empire.
There she stood and wept, while the swineherd grumbled, and the rain fell in torrents.
" What a miserable creature I am ! " sobbed the princess. " Would that I had married the handsome prince ! Oh, how unhappy am I ! "
The swineherd then went behind a tree, and rubbed the black and brown paint off his face, and threw off his shabby clothes, and appeared in his princely garb, and looking so handsome, that the princess involuntarily curtseyed to him.
" I have now learned to despise you," said he. " You refused an honourable prince — you could not appreciate a rose or a nightingale — but you could stoop to kiss a swineherd to obtain a toy.
You must now suffer the punishment.'
So saying, he went back into his outside to sing —
kingdom, and shut the door in her face ; and she was left
'Oh 1 dearest Augustine, All's gone clean away ! "
A Week with Ole Luk-OIe
OLE LUK-OIE; OR, THE DUSTMAN
HERE is no one in the world who knows so many stories as Ole Luk-Oie, and nobody can tell them so prettil)-.
Towards evening when the children are sitting round the table, or upon their stools, in steals Ole Luk-Oie. He comes up- stairs very softly, for he walks about in his socks, and then opens the doors so gently — and, heigh presto ! he squirts dust into the children's eyes, in very, very small quantities, yet sufficient to prevent their keeping their eyes open, and that's why they can't ever see him. He slinks behind them, and breathes softly over their necks, and then their heads begin to feel heavy. But don't think he hurts them. Oh, no ! 016 Luk-Oie means kindly to- wards all children — he only wants them to be quiet, and that they never are till they have been put to bed ; and he merely wishes them to be quiet in order that he may tell them pretty stories
So, when the children have fallen to sleep, Ole Luk- Oie sits upon their bed. He is very well dressed, for his coat is made of some silk stuff, though it is impossible to tell its colour, for it changes from green to red or to blue, according to which side he turns. He carries an umbrella under each arm, and he spreads one of these, all lined with pretty pictures, over the heads of good children, which makes them dream of amusing stories all night long ; but as for the other umbrella, which is completely blank, he spreads that over naughty children, who then sleep so heavily that next morning when they wake they find they have dreamed nothing at all.
34
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
Now we are going to hear how Ole Luk-Oie came every evening, for a whole week, to a little boy named Hjalmar, and what he told him. There were seven stories, as there are seven days in the week.
Monday
ISTEN to me," said Ole Luk-Oie at night, after he had sent Hjalmar to bed ; " I am going to deck out the room." Accordingly all the flowers in the flower-pots shot up into large trees, that spread their wide branches beneath the ceiling and along the walls, so that the whole room looked an enchanting summer-house ; and all the branches were loaded with blossoms, and each blossom was lovelier than a rose, and smelt most deliciously, and if you had tasted them you would have said they were sweeter than sweetmeats ! The fruit sparkled like gold, and there were, besides, cakes literally bursting with plums. It was a rare sight indeed ! But at the same moment a woeful groan arose from the box that stood on the table, and contained Hjalmar's school- books.
" What is that ? " said Ol^ Luk-Oie, going to the table and opening the box. It was the slate that was all up in arms because there was a wrong figure in a sum, and threatened to fall to pieces. The pencil was hopping about and leaping as far as its string would allow, just as if it had been a little dog trying to help the sum, but not able to manage it. And then there came a groan from Hjalmar's copy-book — and an ugly one it was too. On each leaf stood the capital letters according to order, and every one had a small letter by its side — these formed the copy. Next to them stood other letters that thought they looked like the former, and these had been penned by Hjalmar, but they lay very much as if they had fallen over the pencil line on which they ought to have stood upright.
" Look ! this is the way you ought to stand upright I " said the copy ; " you seem as if you had been bent double by a violent blow."
" Oh, we should be willing enough to stand upright," said Hjalmar's letters, "only we can't. We are such deplorable things."
" Then you must take physic," said Ole Luk-Oie. " Oh, no ! " cried they, placing themselves as straight as could be.
" There, now — we shan't be able to have any stories ! " said Old Luk-Oie ; " for I must drill them. One, two — one, two 1" and he drilled the letters till they all stood as slim and as straight as ever copy could be. But when Ole Luk-Oie was gone, and Hjalmar looked at them next morn- ing, they were just as deplorable as ever.
Tuesday
S soon as Hjalmar was in bed, 0\6 Luk-Oie touched all the pieces of furniture in his room with his little magic wand, and they immediately began to talk, and each talked of nothing but itself
Over the chest of drawers hung a large picture in a gilt frame, that represented a landscape. In it might be seen old trees, flowery meadows, and a broad river skirting a forest and flowing past a number of castles, till it reached the open sea.
Ole Luk-Oie touched the picture with his magic wand, and immediately the birds began to sing, the branches to rustle, and the clouds to sail ; even the shadows of the latter might be seen gliding over the landscape.
Ole Luk-Oie now lifted little Hjalmar up to the frame, and placed his feet in the tall grass inside the picture ; and there he stood, with the sun shining upon him through the branches of the trees. He then ran to the water's edge, and got into a little boat that was lying there ; the
A WEEK WITH OLE LUK-OIE
35
boat was painted red and white, the sails were as dazzling as silver, and six swans all wearincr gold crowns round their necks, and a brightly beaming blue star on their heads, towed the boat
ON THE BALCONIES STOOD PRINCESSES.
past the green forest, where the trees related stories of robbers and witches, and the flowers told all about pretty little elves, as well as what the butterflies had said to them.
The most beautiful fishes with gold and silver scales swam after the boat; and every now
36
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
and then they gave a leap that ruffled the surface of the water, while birds both red and blue, great and small, flew behind in two long rows. The gnats kept dancing, and the cockchafers saying : " Buzz ! buzz ! " They all wanted to follow Hjalmar, and they each had a story to tell.
What a pleasant sail he had ! Sometimes the woods were quite thick and dark, at other times they were laid out like the most enchanting garden, full of flowers and sunshine ; then there were castles built of glass or of marble, and on the balconies stood princesses, all of whom wore the familiar faces of the little girls Hjalmar knew and had played with. Each held out her hand to offer him the prettiest sugar heart that ever confectioner sold; and Hjalmar caught hold of one side of the sugar heart, as he sailed past, and the princess kept firm hold of the other, so that each had a piece, the smallest falling to her share and the largest to Hjalmar's. At each castle little princes stood upon guard as sentinels ; they presented arms with tiny golden swords, and made it rain plums and tin soldiers, so that one saw at once they were real princes.
Hjalmar went on sailing, now through forests, now through vast halls, now through the middle of some city ; and he passed through the town where lived the nurse who had carried him in her arms when he was quite a little boy, and had been so kind to him. And she nodded and smiled, and sang the pretty little stanza that she had herself composed and sent to Hjalmar: —
" How oft thine image doth arise, Hjahnar dear ! beloie mine eyes, As I recall those days of joy When I might kiss my baby boy. Oh, it was hard to part from thee. Whose first sweet words were Hsped to me. But may kind Heaven grant my prayer, And bless my angel here and there."
And all the birds joined in the song, the flowers danced on their stems, and the old trees nodded, just as if Ole Luk-Oie were telling them stories.
Wednesday
OW it did rain, to be sure ! Hjalmar could hear it in
his sleep ; and when Ole Luk-Oie opened the window,
the water stood as high as the window-seat. There
was a complete lake outside, but the prettiest ship in
the world stood close to the house.
" Will you sail with me, little Hjalmar ? " asked Ole Luk-Oie ; " if so, you can reach foreign lands to-night and yet be back by morning."
And Hjalmar found himself suddenly standing, in his holiday clothes, on the beautiful ship, when the weather immediately grew fine, and they sailed through the streets, rounded the church, and then emerged into the open sea. They sailed till they lost sight of land, when they saw a flock of storks who were likewise leaving their home to go to a warmer climate ; one stork flew behind the other, and they had already flown a long, long way. One of them was so tired that his wings could scarcely carry him any further ; he was the last in the row, and was a good bit behind the others. At last he kept sinking, with outspread wings, lower and lower still ; then he flapped his wings twice more, but to no purpose ; his feet now touched the rigging of the vessel, then he glided down from the sails, and, plump I there he stood on the deck.
A sailor-boy now took him and put him into the hen-house, amongst ducks, hens and guinea- fowls. The poor stork remained quite confounded in the midst of them. " Look at that chap ! " said the hens.
And the guinea-fowl puffed himself out to look as big as he could, and inquired who he might be, while the ducks walked backwards, cackling, "Quack! quack!"
And the stork told all about warm Africa and the Pyramids, and the ostriches that run through the desert like wild horses. But the ducks could not understand what he said, and they
A WEEK WITH OLE LUK-OIE
37
then cackled amongst each other : " I think we are all of opinion that he is very stupid."
" Yes, stupid enough in all conscience," said the guinea-fowl, and fell into a rage. So the stork re- mained silent, and thought of his dear Africa.
"Those are very dainty, thin legs of yours," said the guinea-fowl ; " pray, what may they cost per yard ? "
" Quack ! quack ! quack ! " tittered all the ducks, but the stork pretended not to have heard what had been said.
" You may as well laugh too," said the guinea- fowl to him, " for it was very witty. Or was it above your understanding? In truth, I fancy he is not very deep ; we must try and lower ourselves to his level." And then he clucked, and the ducks cackled, " Ghick, ghack ! Ghick, ghack ! "
It was quite abominable to hear how they amused themselves.
But Hjalmar went to the hen-house, and opened the door, and called to the stork, who hopped out to him upon deck. He was now rested, and it seemed as if he nodded to Hjalmar to thank him. He then spread his wings, and flew to warmer lands ; while the hens clucked, the ducks set up a cackling, and the guinea-fowl turned scarlet in the head.
" We shall cook you to-morow for broth," said Hjalmar, and thereupon he awoke, and found him- self in his little bed.
It was a singular voyage, to be sure, that Ole Luk-Oie had made him take during that night !
Thursday.
" WE SHALL COOK YOU TO-MORROW," SAID HJALMAR,
" Leave that to me," said Ole Luk- Oie ; "I'll contrive to make you little enough." And he touched Hjalmar with his little magic wand, whereupon he be- came less and less, till at last he was not so long as one's finger. " Now you can borrow the clothes of the lead soldier, which I think will ju.st fit you ; and it looks well to wear a uniform when one goes into company."
" That's true," said Hjalmar ; and in a moment he was dressed like the sprucest lead soldier.
HAT do you think I have here?" said Ole Luk-Oie, "only you must not be frightened. It is a little mouse " ; and then he stretched forth his hand, in which lay the elegant little creature. " She is come to invite you to a wedding. There are two little mice about to be married to-night. They live under your mother's store-room floor, which must be a very pretty dwelling."
" But how can I creep through a little mouse's hole in the floor?" asked Hjalmar.
AWAY THEY WENT TO THE MOUSES WEDDING.
38
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
THE MICE WERE NEAR TREADING EACH OTHER TO DEATH.
"Will you have the goodness to sit in your mamma's thimble ? " said the little mouse, " and then I shall have the honour to draw you."
" Dear me ! will you take all that trouble yourself, madam ? " said Hjal- mar. And away they went to the mouse's wedding.
First of all they descended be- neath the floor into a long passage that was only just high enough to admit of their driving through it with the thimble. The whole passage was lit up with phosphorescent wood.
" Does it not smell nice here ? " asked the mouse that drew him. " The whole passage is smeared with rinds of bacon. Nothing can be more delicious."
They now came into the room where the wedding party was assembled. On the right side stood all the lady mice, who were whispering and gossiping, as if they were making game of each other. To the left stood the gentlemen mice, stroking their moustaches with their paws ; and in the middle of the room were seen the bridal pair standing side by side in a scooped-out cheese- rind, and kissing each other most heartily before all the company, for they were betrothed, and were just about to be married.
More and more strangers kept arriving ; the mice were near treading each other to death ; and the bridal pair had placed themselves in the doorway, so that it was impossible to go in or to come out. The room had been daubed over with rinds of bacon like the passage, and that was all the refreshment offered to the guests ; but at dessert they brought out a pea in which a mouse belonging to the family had bitten the name of the bride and bridegroom — that is to say, the first letter of their name. And this was something quite extraordinary.
All the mice declared that it was a very grand wedding, and that the entertainment had
been very agreeable.
Hjalmar then went home. He had certainly been into very genteel society ; but then, on the other hand, he had been obliged to creep into a little hole, and make himself small, and put on the uniform of the lead soldier.
Friday
T is wonderful how many persons more advanced in years would like to have me come to them!" said Ole Luk-Oie, "especially those who have done bad actions. ' Dear little Ole,' say they, ' we cannot get a wink of sleep, and we lie the whole night long looking at all our wicked deeds that are sitting like so many ugly little kobolds on our bed, sprinkling hot water over us ; do come and drive them away, that we may have a good night's rest' And then they sigh so heavily. ' We would gladly pay you handsomely ! Good night, Ole ; the money lies on the window-seat.' But I wouldn't do it for money," added 01^ Luk-Oie.
"What shall we do to-night?" asked Hjalmar.
"Why, I don't know whether you'll care to go to another wedding to-night, though it is a different one from }-esterday's. Your sister's large doll that looks like a man, and is called Hermann, is going to marry the doll Bertha. It is, moreover, the doll's birthday, and so they will receive a great many presents."
"Yes, I know," said Hjalmar. "Whenever the dolls wants new clothes, my sister is sure to celebrate their birthday or their wedding, s happened, at least, a hundred times."
This ha
A WEEK WITH OLE LUK-OIE
39
" So it has ; only to-night is the hundred wedding ; and when that has taken place, it m last ; therefore, this one will surpass all the magnificence. Only look ! "
Hjalmar turned towards the table. There the little pasteboard dolls'-house, with lights in windows, and all the lead soldiers outside were presenting arms. The bridal pair were sitting on the floor in a pensive mood, as they had good cause to be, leaning against the leg of the tabl But 0\6 Luk-Oie, dressed up in grandmamma's black gown, soon married them.
When the ceremony was over, all the furniture in the room joined in the following beautiful song, which the lead-pencil had written, and which was adapted to a military tattoo :
THE BRIDAL PAIR WERE SITTING ON THE FLOOR.
"Our song shall float upon the wind, And celebrate the ties that bind This bridal couple, stiff and blind,
Who both are made of white glove leather ! Hurrah ! let's hope the deaf and blind
At least may live in peace together."
And they now received presents ; but all eatables were prohibited, as love was their food.
" Shall we go to a country-seat, or shall we travel ? " asked the bridegroom. And they con- sulted the swallow, who had travelled so much, and the old hen in the yard, who had sat upon five batches of chickens. The swallow told of beautiful warm climates, where large bunches of grapes hung heavily on the vines, where the air was so mild, and where the mountains are tinged with colours that we know nothing about here.
" But they haven't our red cabbage ! " said the hen. " I was one whole summer in the country, with all my chickens ; and there was a sand-pit, where we could walk about and scratch up the earth ; and, besides this, we had admittance to a garden, where grew red cabbages. Oh, how nice they were ! I can't imagine anything finer ! "
" But one cabbage-stalk is as good as another," observed the swallow ; " and we have bad weather so often here."
" Oh, yes ; but we're accustomed to it," said the hen.
" But it is so cold here, and it freezes ! "
" That is good for cabbages," said the hen ; " besides, we have warm weather sometimes. Had not we a summer that lasted five whole weeks, some four years ago ? — and wasn't it so hot one couldn't breathe ? And then we have none of the venomous animals that they have yonder ; and we are free from robbers. Wicked, indeed, must he be, who does not think our country the finest of any ! Such an one does not deserve to be here ! " And the hen then wept, and added, " I, too, have travelled. I once went above twelve miles in a tub. I can assure you there is no pleasure in travelling."
" The hen is a sensible person," said the doll Bertha. " I don't care, either, for travelling over mountains ; it is but going up here and down there. No ; let's go to the sand-pit in front of the gate, and then walk about in the cabbage-garden."
And this was accordingly agreed upon.
4-0
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
Saturday
M I to hear any stories?" asked little Hjalmar, as soon as Ole Luk-Oie had laid him to sleep.
We shall not have time for any this evening," said Ole Luk-Oie, spreading his prettiest umbrella over the little boy. " Now, look at these Chinese." And the umbrella seemed like a large china bowl, with blue trees and pointed bridges, with little Chinese upon them, who stood nodding their heads. " We must put the whole world to rights, that it may look smart to-morrow," said Old Luk-Oie ; " for it will be a holi- day, as it is Sunday. I must be off to the steeples, to see if the little elves that live in the church turrets have polished all the bells, so that they may sound prettily ; I must go into the fields, and see if the wind has swept all the dust off the grass and leaves, and, what's the longest job of all, I must take down all the stars, to furbish them up a bit. I put them into my apron ; but they have all to be numbered first, and the holes I take them from must be numbered likewise, in order that they may be put back
else they would not stick fast, too many falling stars, as they
into the same places, or and then we should have would all tumble down one after the other."
" I say. Master Ole Luk-Oie," cried an old portrait, that hung on the wall against which was placed Hjalmar's bed, " I am Hjalmar's great grandfather. I am obliged to you for telling the boy stories ; only you must not warp his understanding. The stars cannot be taken down and polished. The stars are spheres like our earth, and that is their principal merit."
" Thank you, old great-grandfather ! " said Ole Luk-Oie — " thank you ! You are unquestion- ably the head of the family, and a very aged head, too ; but I happen to be older still than you. I am an ancient heathen. The Greeks and Romans used to call me the God of Dreams. I have been into the highest houses, and still visit such to this day. I know how to behave towards the humblest, as well as towards the greatest, upon earth. So you may just tell stories your- self, if you please." And Ole Luk-Oie went away, taking his umbrella with him.
" Well, well I I suppose next, one must not even give one's opinion," grumbled the old portrait.
And thereupon Hjalmar awoke.
the five green
skeleton.
Sunday
OOD evening ! " said 016 Luk-Oie ; and Hjalmar nodded, and sprang forward and turned his great-grandfather's picture to the wall, that it might not interrupt them as it did yesterday. " Now you must tell me the stories of peas that lived in a pod, and of the ranunculus that made love to the chick-weed, and of the darning-needle that was so grand that it fancied itself a sewing-needle."
" One may have too much of a good thing," said 0\6 Luk- Oie. " You know that I like better to show you something ; so I'll show you my brother. His name is Ole Luk-Oie, like mine ; but he never comes to anybody more than once ; and whomsoever he comes to, he takes him away on his horse, and tells him stories. He only knows two stories, however, one of which is so wonderfully beautiful, that nobody in the world can imagine anything like it ; and the other so ugly and so frightful, that it is bev'ond description ! " And then Ole Luk-Oie lifted little Hjalmar up to the window, and said. " There, now, you may see my brother, the other Ole Luk-Oie, who is likewise called Death. You may perceive that he does not look as dreadful as in the picture-books, where he is No, his clothes are embroidered with silver, and he wears a most splendid
A WEEK WITH OLE LUK-OIE
41
hussar's uniform ; a black velvet mantle Qies behind him over his horse. Only look how he ralloos alon"!" ■' fa H
OLE LUK-OIE LIFTED LITTLE HJAI.MAR VV TO THE UTNDDW.
And Hjalmar saw this Ole Luk-Oie rode on, taking up both young and old, and carrying them away on his horse. He placed some before, and others behind ; but he always inquired first, " How stands your book of merit ? "
42
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
" Very satisfactorily," was the universal answer.
" Let me see it myself," then they were obliged to hand over the book. And all those who could show upon its pages the words " Very good," or " Remarkably good," were placed on the front of the horse, and were treated to the pretty story ; while those who could show nothing but the words " Toler- ably good," or " Middling," were obliged to sit behind, and were forced to hear the frightful story, while they trembled and cried, and would fain have jumped down from the horse ; but they could not, for they had immediately grown rooted to it.
" Why, Death is the prettier Ol^ Luk- Oie of the two," said Hjalmar. " I am not at all afraid of him."
" No more you need be," said 0\6 Luk- Oie, " if you only mind and keep a good book of merit."
' LOOK HOW HE GALLOPS ALONG."
It is
" Now, that I call something instructive," murmured the great-grandfather's picture, some use, after all, to speak one's mind." And he felt quite satisfied.
So that is the story of 01^ Luk-Oie ; and now let us hope he will himself tell you some others this evening.
«ff
The Emperor's New Clothes
ANY years ago there lived an emperor, who was so fond of having new clothes that he spent all his money upon dress and finery. He did not trouble himself about his army, nor had he any taste for theatrical amusements, nor did he care even to drive out, except it was to show his new clothes. He had a coat for every hour in the day ; and just as in other countries they say of a king, " His majesty is in his council-chamber," they said of him, " The emperor is in his dressing-room."
The large city which he inhabited was very gay, and was daily visited by numerous foreigners. One day, there came, amongst the rest, a couple of impostors, who gave themselves out as weavers, and pretended that they could weave the most beautiful stuff imaginable. Not only were the colours and the pattern of remarkable beauty, but the clothes made of this material possessed the wonderful quality of being invisible to the eyes of such persons as were either not fit for the office they held, or were irremediably stupid.
" Those would, indeed, be valuable clothes," thought the emperor ; " for when I put them on I should be able to find out which men in my «mpire are unfit for their offices, and I should be able to distinguish the wise from the stupid ones. I must have some of this stuff woven for me directly." And he gave the two impostors a handsome sum as earnest-money to begin their work with.
They then put up two looms, and did as if they were at work, though there was nothing
THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES
43
STARING AS HARD AS HB COULD.
whatever upon the looms. They next asked for the finest silk that could
be had, and the most splendid gold thread ; all of which they put into
their pockets, and continued working at the empty looms till late at
night.
" I should like to know how they are getting on with the stuff,"
thought the emperor. Yet he felt some misgivings when he recollected
that stupid persons, or such as were unfit for their office, could not see
the material ; and though he trusted that he had nothing to fear per-
sonall)', still he preferred sending some one else to see how the mattei
stood. All the inhabitants of the town had heard of the singular pro- perties of the stuff, and everybody was curious to see how unfit or how
stupid his neighbour might be.
" I will send my worthy old minister to the weavers," thought the
emperor ; "he is best capable of judging of this stuff, for he has a great
deal of good sense, and nobody is more fit for his office than he."
The good old minister accordingly went into the room where the
two impostors sat working at the empty looms. " Mercy on us ! " thought
the old minister, staring with all his might ; " I can see nothing at all."
But he took care not to say so.
The two impostors requested him to step nearer, and asked if he did not think the pattern
very pretty and the colours extremely beautiful. They then pointed to the empty loom, while the
poor old minister kept staring as hard as he could, but without being able to see what in fact, was not there to be seen. " Have mercy on us ! " thought he ; " can I be so stupid, after all ? I never thought myself so, and I must not let any one know it. Can I be unfit for my office ? No ! it will never do for me to own that I could not see the stuff."
" You have not told us what you think of our stuff," said one of the weavers.
" Oh ! it is most elegant — most lovely !" answered the minister, look- ing through his spectacles ; " both the pattern and the colours. I shall be sure to tell the emperor how pleased I am with the stuff."
" We are delighted to hear you say so," observed the weavers ; and hereupon they mentioned the names of the colours, and explained the peculiarities of the pattern. The old minister listened very attentively, in order to be able to repeat what they said to the emperor, which he accord- ingly did.
The two impostors now asked for more money, more silk, and more gold, to go on with their work. They put it all into their pockets, as before, and not a thread was fastened to either shuttle, though they continued pretending to work at the empty looms.
The emperor soon sent another IT HAS OUR MOST GRACIOUS APPRovAi,. honourable statesman to see how the
44
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
PEOPLE COULD SEE
THEM AT WORK.
weaving was getting on, and whether the stuff would soon be ready. The same thing happened to him as had befallen the minister. He looked and looked, and as there was nothing but an empty loom, he could not contrive to see anything.
" Is not this a beautiful stuff? " asked the two impostors, pre- tending to show and expatiate on the beau- tiful pattern which was not there.
" I am not stupid,"
thought the statesman ;
" it would therefore
seem I were unfit for
my office. That would be comical, indeed ; only I must not let
anybody perceive it." So he praised the tissue which he did not
see, and assured them that he admired its beautiful colours and
remarkable pattern. " It is really exquisite," reported he to the
emperor.
Everybody in the town spoke of the splendid stuff that was being woven.
The emperor had now a mind to see it himself, while it was still on the loom. So he went into the room where the two cunning impostors were working away at a great rate, without either woof or warp, followed by a retinue of picked men, amongst whom were the two worthy statesmen who had been there already. " Is it not magnificent? " said the two latter. " Will your majesty be pleased just to examine the pattern and the colours?" And they pointed to the empty loom, concluding that those present would be able to see the tissue.
" Why, how's this ? " thought the emperor. " I see nothing whatever. This is quite alarming. Can I be stupid? Am I not fit to be emperor? That would be the most shocking thing that could happen to me. Oh ! its very pretty ! " cried he ; " it has our most gracious approval." And he nodded condescendingly as he gazed at the empty loom, for he would not own that he saw nothing.
His whole retinue looked and looked in turn, but could not make anything more out of it than the others had done ; still they repeated after the emperor, " Oh ! it's very pretty ! " And they advised him to wear these beautiful new clothes on the occasion of a grand procession that was about to take place.
The words " elegant ! " " splendid ! " " magnificent ! " were bandied about from mouth to mouth. Everybody seemed vastly delighted, and the emperor conferred on the two impostors the title of •' weavers to the imperial court."
The two impostors sat up the whole of the night preceding the day on which the procession was to take place, and had lit up more than sixteen tapers. People could see them busy at work, finishing the emperor's new clothes. They imitated the action of taking the stuff off the loom ; then they cut it out in the air with large scissors, and proceeded to sew the garments without either needles or thread, till at length they said : " The clothes are now read}-."
The emperor then came in, accompanied by the principal lords of his court, when the two impostors each raised an arm as if they were holding something up, saying : " Here are the trunk- hose ; here is the vest ; here is the mantle " ; and so forth. " The tissue is as light as a cobweb, and one might fancy one had nothing on ; but that is just its greatest beauty."
" So it is," said the courtiers ; though they could see nothing, as nothing was there to be seen.
THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES
45
"Will your imperial majesty be graciously pleased to take off your clothes?" said the impostors ; " and we will dress you in the new ones before this large glass."
THE EMl'EKOR WENT FORTH IN GRAND fROCliSSION.
The emperor accordingly took off all his clothes, and the impostors made believe to put on each of the new garments they had just finished ; while his majesty turned and twisted himself round before the looking-glass.
46
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
" How capitally the clothes fit ! " said all present. " What a beautiful pattern, and what vivid colours! What a costly attire ! "
" They are waiting outside with the canopy that is to be carried over your majesty's head in the procession," said the master of the ceremonies, now com- ing in.
" 1 am quite ready, as you may per- ceive," answered the emperor. " My dress fits nicely — does it not ? " added he, turning once more to the glass, to make it appear as if he were examin- ing its beauties most minutely.
The lords of the bedchamber, who were to bear the train, pretended to pick it up from the floor with both hands, and then did as if they were holding something in the air ; for they did not venture to show that they saw nothing.
The emperor then went forth, in grand procession, under the splendid canopy, while the people in the street, and others at their windows, all ex- claimed : " Dear me ! how incomparably beautiful are the emperor's new clothes ! What a fine train he has, and how well it is cut ! " No one, in short, would let his neighbour think that he saw nothing, for it would have been like declaring himself unfit for his office, whatever that might be, or, at best, extremely stupid. None of the emperor's clothes had ever met with such universal approbation as these. " But he has got nothing on ! " cried at length one little child.
" Only listen to that innocent creature," said the father ; and the child's remark was whis- pered from one to the other as a piece of laughable simplicity.
" But he has got nothing on ! " cried at length the whole crowd.
This startled the emperor, for he had an inkling that they were in the right, after all ; but he thought : " I must, nevertheless, face it out till the end, and go on with the procession."
And the lords-in-waiting went on marching as stiffly as ever, and carrying the train that did not exist.
"BUT HE HAS GOT NOTHING ON !"
i:
i^
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
-tl
The Ice-Maiden j or, The Eagle's Nest
LITTLE RUDY
ET us now go to Switzerland, and see its wonderful mountains, whose steep, rocky sides are covered with trees. We will climb up to the fields of snow, and then make our way down to the grassy valleys, with their countless streams and rivulets, impetuously rushing to lose themselves in the sea. The sunshine is hot in the narrow valley ; the snow becomes firm and solid, and in the course of time it either descends as an avalanche, or creeps along as a glacier. There are two of these glaciers in the valle}'s below the Schreckhorn and the Wetterhorn, near the long village of Grindelwald. They are a re- markable sight, and therefore many travellers from all countries come in the summer to visit them : they come over the high mountains covered with snow, they traverse the deep valleys ; and to do this they must climb, hour after hour, leaving the valley far beneath them, till they see it as if they were in an air-balloon. The clouds hang above them like thick mists over the mountains, and the sun's rays make their way through the openings between the clouds to where the brown houses lie spread, lighting up some chance spot with a vivid green. Below, the stream foams and blusters ! but above it murmurs and ripples, and looks like a band of silver hang- ing down the side of the rock.
On either side of the path up the mountain lie wooden houses. Each house has its little plot of potatoes ; and this they all require, for there are many children, and they all have good appetites. The children come out to meet every stranger, whether walking or riding, and ask him to buy their carved wooden chalets, made like the houses they live in. Be it fine or be it wet, the children try to sell their carvings.
About twenty years since you might have seen one little boy standing apart from the others, but evidently very desirous to dispose of his wares. He looked grave and sad, and held his little tray tightly with both bands as if he was afraid of losing it. This serious look and his small size caused him to be much noticed by travellers, who often called him and purchased many of his toys, though he did not know why he was so favoured. His grandfather lived two miles off among the mountains, where he did his carving. He had a cabinet full o<" the things he had made. There were nut-crackers, knives and forks, boxes carved with leaves and chamois, and many toys for children ; but little Rudy cared
r.
for nothing so much as for an old gun, hanging from a rafter in the ceiling, for his grand- fat ler had told him it should be his own when he was big enough to know how to use it. Though the boy was little, he wab set in charge of the goats ; and Rudy could climb as high as any of his flock, and was fond of climbing tall trees after birds' nests. He was brave and high-spirited, but he never smiled except when lie watched the foaming cataract, or heard the thundering roar of an avalanche. He never joined in the children's games,
' COMR WITH ME ON THE ROOF, SAID THE CAT.
48
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
and only met them when his grandfather sent him to sell his carvings ; and this employment Rudy did not much like. He would rather wander alone amongst the mountains, or sit by his grandfather while he told him stories of former ages, or of the people who lived at Meiringen, from whence he had come. He told him they had not always lived there, but had come from a distant northern country called Sweden. Rudy took great pride in this knowledge ; but he also learnt much from his four-fioted friends. He had a large dog, named Ajola, who had been his father's ; and he had also a tom-cat who was his particular friend, for it was from him he had learnt how to climb.
" Come with me on the roDf," the cat said to him ; for when children have not learnt to talk, they can understand the speech of birds and animals quite as well as that of their father and mother ; but that is only while they are very little, and their grandfather's stick seems as good as a live horse, with head, legs, and tail. Some children lose this later than others, and we call them backward. People say such funnv things !
"Come with me, little Rudy, on the roof," was one of the first things the cat had said which Rudy had understood : " it is all imagination about falling ; \'ou don't fall if }'ou are not afraid. Come ; put one of your paws so, and the other so ! Feel for yourself with your forepaws ! Use your eyes and be active ; and if there's a crevice, just spring and take firm hold, as I do I "
Rudy did as he was told, and you might often have seen him sitting beside the cat on the top of the roof ; afterwards they climbed together to the tops of the trees, and Rudy even found his way to the rocky ledges which were quite out of the cat's reach.
" Higher ! higher ! " said the trees and the bushes ; " see how we can climb. We stretch upwards, and take firm hold of the highest and nar- rowest ledges of the rocks."
So Rudy found his way to the very top of the mountain, and often got up there before sunrise ; for he enjoyed the pure invigorating air, fresh from the hands of the Creator, which men say combines the delicate perfume of the mountain herbs with the sweet scent of the wild thyme and the mint found in the valley. The grosser part of it is taken up by the clouds, and as they are carried by the winds, the lofty trees catch the fragrance and make the air pure and fresh. And so Rudy loved the morning air.
The happy sunbeams kissed his cheek, and Giddiness, who was always near, was afraid to touch him ; the swallows, who had built seven little nests under his grandfather's eaves, circled about him and his goats, singing : " We and you ! and you and we!" They reminded him of his home, his grand- father, and of the fowls ; but although the fowls lived with them in the same house, Rudy had never made friends with them.
Although he was such a little boy, he had already travelled a considerable distance. His birthplace was in the canton of Vallais, whence he had been brought over the mountains to where he now lived. He had even made his way on foot to the Staubbach, which descends through the air gleaming like silver below the snow-clad mountain called the Jungfrau. He had also been to the great glacier at Grindelwald ; but that was a sad stor)-. His mother lost her life at that spot; and Rudy's grandfather said that it was there he had lost his happy spirits. Before he was a twelvemonth old his mother used to say that he laughed more than he cried, but since he had been rescued from the crevasse in the ice, a different spirit seemed to have possession of him. His grandfather would not talk of it, but every one in that district knew the story.
Rudy's father had been a postillion. The large dog, which was now lying in the grandfather's room, was his constant companion when travelling over the Simplon on his way to the Lake of Geneva. Some of his relations lived in the Valley of the Rhone, in the canton of Vallais. His uncle was a successful chamois-hunter and an experienced guide. When Rudy was only a twelve- month old, his father died, and his mother now wished to return to her own relations in the Bernese Oberland. Her father lived not many miles from Grindelwald ; he was able to maintain himself by wood-carving. So she started on her journey in the month of June, with her child in her arms, and in the company of two chamois-hunters, over the Gemmi towards Grindelwald.
r.OVED THE
MORNING AIR.
THE ICE-MAIDEN ; OR, THE EAGLE'S NEST 49
They had accomplished the greater part of their journey, had passed the highest ridge and reached the snow-field, and were now come in sight of the valley where her home was, with its well-remem- bered wooden houses, but still had to cross one great glacier. It was covered with recent snow, which hid a crevasse which was much deeper than the height of a man, although it did not extend to where the water rushed below the glacier. The mother, while carrying her baby, slipped, fell into the cleft, and disappeared from sight. She did not utter a sound, but they could hear the child crying. It was more than an hour before they could fetch ropes and poles from the nearest house, and recover what seemed to be two corpses from the cleft in the ice. They tried every possible means, and suc- ceeded in restoring the child, but not his mother, to life ; so the old man had his daughter's son brought into his home, a little orphan, the boy who used to laugh more than he cried ; but he seemed to be entirely changed, and this change was made down in the crevasse, in the cold world of ice, where, as the Swiss peasants think, lost souls are imprisoned until Doomsday.
The immense glacier looks like the waves of the sea frozen
into ice, the great
greenish blocks
heaped together,
while the cold
stream of melted
ice rushes below
towards the valley,
caverns and immense
retch far away beneath it.
abode of the Ice-Maiden
THEY STILL HAD TO CROSS ONE GREAT GLACIER.
It is like a palace of glass,
the Queen of the Glaciers.
the overwhelming one, is in part a spirit of the air,
though she also rules over the river ; therefore she can rise to the
topmost peak of the snow mountain, where the adventurous
climbers have to cut every step in the ice before they can place
their feet ; she can float on the smallest branch down the torrent, and
leap from block to block with her white hair
flying about her, and resembling the water
lakes.
" I have the power to crush and to seize ! " robbed me of a lovely boy whom I have kissed, but have not killed. He now lives among men : he keeps his goats amid the hills, he ever climbs higher and higher away from his fellows, but not away from me. He belongs to me, and I will again have him ! "
So she charged Giddiness to seize him for her, for the Ice-Maiden dared not venture among the woods in the hot summer time ; and Giddi- ness and his brethren — for there are many of them — mounted up to the Ice-Maiden, and she selected the strongest of them for her purpose. They sit on the edge of the staircase, and on the rails at the top of the tower ; they scamper like squirrels on the ridge of the rock, they leap from the rails and the footpath, and tread the air like a swimmer treading water, to tempt their victirrs after them and dash them into the abyss. Both Giddiness and the Ice- Maiden seize a man as an octopus seizes all within its reach. And now Giddiness had been charged to seize little Rudy.
" I seize hin? ! " said Giddiness ; " I cannot. The miserable cat has taught him all her trick.' The boj- possesses a power which keeps me from him ; I
and her pale blue robe in the beautiful Swiss
she cries. " They have
TUE QUEEN OF THE GLACIERS. PT. Ill,
50
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
cannot seize him even when he hangs by a branch above the precipice. I should be delighted to tickle his feet, or pitch him headlong through the air ; but I cannot ! "
" We will succeed between us," said the Ice-Maiden. " Thou or I ! I ! I ! "
" No, no ! " an unseen voice replied, sounding like distant church bells ; the joyful singing of good spirits — the Daughters of the Sun. These float above the mountain every evening ; they expand their rosy wings which glow more and more like fire as the sun nears to setting over the snowy peaks. People call it the "Alpine glow." And after sunset they withdraw into the snow and rest there until sunrise, when they again show themselves. They love flowers, and but- terflies, and human beings ; and they were particularly fond of Rudy.
" You shall never catch him — you shall never have him," said they.
" I have captured bigger and stronger boys than he," said the Ice-Maiden.
The Daughters of the Sun now sang a song of a traveller whose cloak was carried away by the storm : " The storm took the cloak, but not the man. You can grasp at him, but not hold him, ye strong ones. He is stronger, he is more spiritual than we are ! He will ascend above the sun, our mother ! He has the power to bind the winds and the waves, and make them serve him and do his bidding. If you unloose the weight that holds him down, you will set him free to rise yet higher."
Thus ran the chorus which sounded like distant church bells.
Each morning the sunbeams shone through the little window of the grandfather's house, and lighted on the silent boy. The Daughters of the Sun kissed him, and tried to thaw the cold kisses which the Queen of the Glaciers had given him, while he was in the arms of his dead mother, in the deep crevasse, whence he had been so wonderfully rescued.
THE COI.n KISSES WHICH THE QUEEN OF THE GLACIERS HAD C.IVEN HIM.
see that things
II
GOING TO THE NEW HOME
UDY was now a boy of eight. His uncle, who lived in the Rhone valley at the other side of the mountains, wished him to come to him, and learn how to make his way in the world ; his grandfather approved of this, and let him go.
Rudy therefore said good-bye. He had to take leave of others besides his grandfather ; and the first of these was his old dog, Ajola.
" When your father was postillion, I was his post-dog," said Ajola. " We travelled backwards and forwards together ; and I know some dogs at the other side of the mountains and some of the people. I was never a chatterer ; but now that we are not likely to have many more chances of talking, I want to tell you a few things. I will tell you something I have had in my head and thought over for a long time I can't make it out, and you won't make it out ; but that doesn't matter. At least I can are not fairly divided in this world, whether for dogs or for men. Only a few
THE ICE-MAIDEN; OR, THE EAGLE'S NEST 51
are privileged to sit in a lady's lap and have milk to drink. I've never been used to it myself, but I've seen a little lap-dog riding in the coach, and occupying the place of a passenger. The lad}- to whom It belonged, or who belonged to it, took a bottle of milk with her for the dog to drink"; and she offered him sweets, but he sniffed at them and refused them, so she ate them herself I had to run in the mud beside the coach, and was very hungry, thinking all the time that this couldn't be right ; but they say that there are a great many things that aren't right. Would you like to sit in a lady's lap and ride in a carriage ? I wish you could. But you can't arrange that for yourself I never could, bark and howl as I might ! "
This is what Ajola said ; and Rudy put his arms round him, and kissed his cold, wet nose. Then he took up the cat, but puss tried to get away, and said,
" You're too strong ! and I don't want to scratch you. Climb over the mountains, as I taught you. Don't fancy you can fall, and then you will always keep firm hold." As he said this, the "cat ran away ; for he did not wish Rudy to see that he was crying.
The fowls strutted about the room. One of them had lost its tail feathers. A tourist, who imagined he was a sportsman, had shot its tail off, as he thought it was a wild bird.
" Rud)' is going away over the mountains," said one of the fowls.
The other one replied, " He's in too great a hurry : I don't want to say good-bye." And then they both made off.
He then said good-bye to the goats ; they bleated " Med ! med ! may ! " and that made him feel sad.
Two neighbouring guides, who wanted to cross the mountains to be- yond the Gemmi, took Rudy with them, going on foot. It was a fatiguing walk for such a little boy ; but he was strong, and never feared anything.
The swallows flew part of the way with them. " We and you ! and you and we ! " they sang. Their route lay across the roaring Liitschine, which flows in many little streams from the Grindel glacier, and some fallen trees served for a bridge. When they gained the forest at the other side, they began to mount the slope where the glacier had quitted the mountain, and then they had to climb over or make their
way round the blocks of ice on the glacier. Rudy sometimes was obliged to crawl instead of walking ; but his eyes sparkled with pleasure, and he planted his feet so firmly that you would think he wanted to leave the mark of his spiked shoes behind him at every step. The dark earth which the mountain torrent had scattered over the glacier made it look almost black, but still you could catch sight of the bluish-green ice. They had to skirt the countless little pools which lay amongst the huge blocks of ice ; and sometimes they passed by a great stone that had rested at the edge of a cleft, and then the stone would be upset, and crash down into the crevasse, and the echoes would reverberate from all the deep clefts in the glacier.
So they went on climbing. The mighty glacier seemed like a great river frozen into ice, hemmed in by the steep rocks. Rudy remembered what he had been told, of how he and his mother had been pulled up out of one of those deep, cold crevasses ; but he soon thought no more of it, and it seemed no more than many other stories which he had been told. Occasionally, when the men thought the path too rough for the boy, they offered him a hand ; but he was not easily tired, and stood on the ice as securely as a chamois. Now they got on rock, and clambered over the rough stones ; then they would have to walk through the pine-trees, or over pasture- lands, whilst the landscape was constantly changing. Around them were the great snow moun- tains— the Jungfrau, the Monch, and the Eiger. Every child knew their names, and, of course, Rudy knew them. Rudy had never before been up so high ; he had never walked over the wide snow-fields : like the ocean with its waves immovable, the wind now and again blowing off some of the snow as if it were the foam of the sea. The glaciers meet here as if they were joining hands ; each forms one of the palaces of the Ice-Maiden, whose power and aim is to capture and over-
THEY BLEATED " .MED ! MED ! .MAY ! "
52
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
whelm. The sunshine was hot, the snow was brilliantly uliite, and seemed to sparkle as if covered with diamonds. Countless insects, most of them butterflies or bees, were lying dead on the snow ; they had gone up too high, or been carried by the wind, and had been frozen to death. A threatening cloud hung over the VVetterhorn, looking hke a bundle of black wool ; it hung down, heavy with its own weight, ready to burst with the resistless force of a whirlwind. The recollection
of this whole journey — the encamping for the night at such a height, the walk in the dark, the deep clefts in the rock, worn away by the force of water during countless years — all this was fixed in Rudy's memory.
An empty stone hut beyond the nier de glace gave them shelter for the night. Here they found pine branches fur fuel, and they quickly made a fire and arranged the bed as comfortably as they could. They then seated themselves about the fire, Hghted their pipes, and drank the hot drink which they had prepared. They gave Rudy some of their supper, and then began to tell tales and legends of the spirits of the Alps ; of the mighty serpents that lay coiled in the lakes ; of the spirits who were re- ported to have carried men in their sleep to the marvellous floating city, Venice ; . of the m\-sterious shepherd, who tended his black sheep on the mountain pastures, and how no one had seen him, al- though many had heard the tones of his bell and the bleating of his flock. Rudy listened to all this, though he was not fright- ened, as he did not know what fear was ; and as he was listening he thought he heard the weird bleating ; it grew more and more distinct till the men heard it too, and left off talking to listen, and told Rudy to keep awake. This was the Fohn, the blast, the terrible tempest, which sweeps down from the mountains upon the valleys, rending the trees as if they were reeds, and sweeping away the houses by a flood as easily as one moves chessmen.
After a time they said to Rudy that it was all over, and he might go to sleep ; and he was so tired with his long tramp that he obeyed at once.
BEGAN TO TELL TALES AND LEGENDS OF THE SPIRITS OF THE ALI'S.
THE ICE-MAIDEN ; OR, THE EAGLE'S NEST 53
When day broke, they pushed forward. The sun now shone for on new mountains, new glaciers, and snow-fields. They were now canton of Vallais, and had crossed the range which could be seen from Grindelwald, but were yet far v
from his new home. Other ravines, other pastures, woods, and mountain- paths now came into sight, other houses, and other people ; but they were strange and deformed- looking beings, with pale faces, ^-^■^'-. t<\J.- and huge wens hanging from their necks. They were cretins, feebly moving about, and looking listlessly at Rudy and his companions — the women were particularly repulsive to look at. Should he find such peopL
Rudy n the
THE MYSTERIOUS SHEPHERD AND HIS BLACK SHEEP.
in his new home ?
Ill
UNCLE
UDY had now come to his uncle's house, and found to his reh'ef that the people were like those he had been used to. There was only one cretin, a poor silly boy — one of those who rove from one house to another in the canton of Vallais, staying a month or two in each house, and the unfortunate Saperli was there when Rudy came.
Uncle was a great hunter, and also knew the cooper's trade. His wife was a lively little person, and almost looked like a bird ; her eyes were like those of an eagle, and her long neck was quite downy.
Rudy found everything new to him — dress, habits and customs,
and language, though he would soon get u.sed to that. They seemed
more comfortably off than in his grandfather's house. The rooms
were large, and the wails were decorated with chamois' horns and polished guns, and there
was a picture of the Virgin over the door ; fresh Alpine roses and a burning lamp stood before
it.
Uncle was, as I have said, one of the most successful chamois-hunters in the neighbourhood, and also one of the best guides. Rudy soon became the pet of the household. They had one pet already, an old hound, blind and deaf ; he was no longer able to go out hunting, but they took care of him in return for his former services. Rudy patted the dog, and wished to make friends ; but he did not care to make friends with strangers, though Rudy was not long a stranger there.
" We live very well here in the canton of Vallais," said uncle ; " we have chamois, who are not so easily killed as the steinbock, but we get on better than in the old days. It is all very well to praise former times, but we are better off now. An opening has been made, and the air blows through our secluded vale. We always get something better when the old thing is done with," said he ; for uncle had much to say, and would tell tales of his childhood, and of the days when his father was vigorous, when Vallais was, as he said, a closed bag, full of sick folk and unfortunate cretins ; " but the French soldiers came, and they were the right sort of doctors, for they killed both the disease and the persons who had it. The French knew all about fighting ; they struck their blows in many ways, and their maidens could strike too I " and here uncle nodded at his wife, who was a Frenchwoman. " The French struck at our stones in fine style I They struck the Simplon road through the rocks ; they struck the road, so that I may say to a child of three years old, ' Go to Italy, keep right on the highway ! ' and the child will find himself in Italy if he only keeps right on the road ! " and then uncle sang a French song, " Hurrah for Napoleon Buonaparte ! "
5 +
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
HIS UNCLE WOULD TELL TALES OF HIS CHILDHOOD.
to look out ; but the hunter must be still them so stupid that if he hung his coat and alpenstock, the chamois took the coat for a man. Uncle played this trick one day when he and Rudy were out hunting.
The mountain paths were narrow ; they were often a mere cornice or ledge projecting over a giddy precipice. The snow was half melted, and the rock crumbled beneath the feet ; so the uncle laid himself down at full length and crept along. Each stone, as it broke off, fell, strik- ing and rolling from ledge to ledge till it was out of sight. Rudy stood about a hundred paces from his uncle on a projecting rock, and from this point he saw a great bearded vulture swooping over his uncle, whom it seemed to be about to strike over the precipice with its wings, to make him its prey. Uncle had his eye on the chamois, which he could see with its kid on the other side of the ravine ; Rudy kept his eye on the bird, knew what it would do, and had his hands on his gun ready to fire ; the chamois suddenly sprang up, uncle fired, the animal fell dead, the kid made off as if it was used to dangers. At the sound of the gun the bird flew away, and uncle knew nothing of his danger until told of it by Rudy.
As they were going home in the best of humours, uncle whistling one of his songs, they suddenly heard a strange noise not far off; they looked round them, and saw that the snow on the side of the mountain was all in motion. It waved up and down, broke into pieces, and came down with a roar like thunder. It was an avalanche, not over Rudy and uncle, but near, too near, to them.
" Hold fast, Rudy ! " he shouted ; " fast, with all your power ! "
And Rudy clung to the stem of a tree ; uncle climbed
Rudy now heard for the first time of France, and of Lyons, a great town on the river Rhone, where his uncle had been.
In a few years Rudy was to be- come an active chamois-hunter. His uncle said he was capable of it ; he therefore taught him to handle a gun and to shoot. In the hunting season he took him to the mountains, and made him drink the warm blood from the chamois, which keeps a hunter from giddiness. He taught him to know the seasons when avalanches would roll down the mountain sides, at mid-day or in the afternoon, according to whether the sun had been strong on the places. He taught him to watch how the chamois sprang, and notice how his feet fell that he might stand firm ; and that where he could obtain no foothold he must catch hold with his elbows, grasp with his muscles, and hold with his thighs and knees — that he might even hold with his neck if necessary. The chamois were very wary, — they would send one more wary, — put them off the scent. He had known hat on an
^^.r^.,^::^=T
'//
'//
/>
RUDY CLUNG TO THE STEM OF A TREE.
THE ICE-MAIDEN; OR, THE EAGLE'S NEST 55
a distance reeds, and
above him up to the branches and held fast, while the avalanche rolled past at of a few yards ; but the rush of air broke the trees and bushes all around like cast the fragments down, and left Rudy pressed to the earth. The tree-stem to which he had held was broken, and the top flung to a distance ; there, among the broken branches, lay imcle, his head crushed ; his hand was still warm, but you would not know his face. Rudy stood pale and trembl- ing ; it was the first shock in his life, the first time he had felt horror.
It was late when he brought the tidings of death to what was now a sorrowful home. The wife was speechless and tearless until they brought the body home, then her grief broke forth. The unfortunate cretin hid himself in his bed, nor did they see him all the next day ; but in the evening he came to Rudy.
" Write a letter for me ! Saperli can- not write ! Saperli can go with the letter to the post ! "
" A letter from thee ? " exclaimed Rudy. " And to whom ? "
" To the Lord Christ ! "
" What do you mean ? "
And the half-idiot, as they called the cretin, cast a pathetic glance at Rudy, folded his hands, and said solemnly and slowly :
" Jesus Christ ! Saperli wishes to send a letter to ask Him that Saperli may lie dead, and not the man in this house."
And Rudy took him by the hand. " That letter would not go there ! that letter would not bring him back."
But it was impossible for Rudy to make him understand..
" Now thou art the support of the house," said the widow, and Rudy became so
'WRITE A LErrEK KOR ME
IHIC LORD CHRIST.
IV BABETTE
HO is the best shot in the canton of Vallais ? Even the chamois knew. " Take care of Rudy's shooting ! " they said. " Who is the handsomest huntsman ? " "Rudy is!" said the maidens, but they did not say, " Take care of Rudy's shooting ! " nor did their serious mothers say so either ; he nodded to them as lightly as he did to a young girl ; for he was brave and joyous, his cheeks were brown, his teeth sound and white, and his eyes coal-black and sparkling ; he was a handsome fellow, and not more than twenty. The ice-cold water did not hurt him in swimming ; he swam like a fish, could climb better than any other man, could hold fast like a snail to the walls of rock, for his muscles and sinews
56
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
were good ; and you saw when he leapt that he had taken lessons from the cat and from the chamois. Rudy was the surest guide to depend on, and might have made his fortune in that way ; his uncle had also taught him coopering, but he gave little thought to that, for his pleasure and delight was in shooting the chamois ; and in this way he earned money. Rudy was a good match, as they say, if he did not look above his own position. And he was a dancer among dancers so that the maidens dreamt of him, and some of them even thought of him when waking.
" He gave me a kiss at the dance ! " said Annette, the schoolmaster's daughter, to her dearest friend ; but she ought not to have said that even to her dearest friend. Such a secret is not easy to keep : it is like sand in a bag full of holes, it will run out ; and they all soon knew that Rudy had given her a kiss at the dance, though he had not kissed the one that he wanted to kiss.
"Just watch him!" said an old huntsman; "he has kissed Annette ; he has begun w iih A, and he will kiss all through the alphabet."
A kiss at the dance was all that the gossips could say against Rudy so far ; but although he had kissed Annette, she was not the flower of his heart.
Down at Bex, among the great walnut-trees, close to a little rapid mountain stream, there lived a rich miller ; his dwelling-house was a big building of three floors, with small turrets, roofed with shingle and ornamented with metal plates which shone in the rays of the sun or the moon ; the biggest turret had for a weather-cock a glittering arrow which had transfixed an apple, in memory of Tell's marksmanship. The mill appeared fine and prosperous, and one could both sketch and describe it, but one could not sketch or describe the miller's daughter ; at least, Rudy says one could not, and yet he had her image in his heart. Her eyes had so beamed upon him that they had quite kindled a flame ; this had come quite suddenly, as other fires come, and the strangest thing was, that the miller's daughter, the charming Babette, had no thought of it, as she and Rudy had never spoken to each other.
The miller was rich, and his riches made Babette hard to a])proach ; " But nothing is so high," said Rudy to himself, " that a man can't get up to it ; a man must climb, and he need not fall, nor lose faith in himself." This lesson he had learnt at home.
It happened one day that Rudy had business at Bex, and it was quite a journey, for the railway did not then go there. From the Rhone glacier, at the foot of the Simplon, between many and various mountain-heights, stretches the broad valley of the Rhone, whose flood often overflows its banks, overwhelming everything. Between the towns of Sion and St. Maurice the valley bends in the shape of an elbow, and below St. Maurice it is so narrow that it hardly allows room for more than the river itself and a narrow road. An old tower stands here on the mountain side, as a sentry to mark the boundary of the canton of Vallais, opposite the stone bridge by the toll-house ; and here begins the canton Vaud, not far from the town of Bex. As you advance you notice the increase of fertility, you .seem to have come into a garden of chestnuts and walnut-trees ; here and there are cypresses and pomegranates in flower ; there is a southern warmth, as if you had come into Italy.
Rudy arrived at Bex, finished his business, and looked about him ; but never a lad from the mill, not to mention Babette, could he see. This was not what he wished.
It was now towards evening ; the air was full of the scent of the wild th\me and of the flowers of the limes ; a shining veil seemed to hang over the wooded mountains, with a stillness, not of sleep, nor of death, but rather as if nature were holding its breath, in order to have its likeness photographed on the blue vault of heaven. Here and there between the trees, and across the green fields stood poles, to support the telegraph wires, already carried through that tranquil valley ; by
" HE GAVE ME A KISS AT THE DANCE."
THE ICE-MAIDEN ; OR, THE EAGLE'S NEST 57
one of these leaned an object, so still that it might have been mistaken for a tree-stump, but it was Rudy, who was as still and quiet as everything about him ; he was not asleep, and he certainly was not dead. But thoughts were rushing through his brain, thoughts mighty and overwhelming, which were to mould his future.
His eyes were directed to one point amidst the leaves, one light in the miller's parlour where Babette lived. So still was Rudy standing, that you might believe he was taking aim at a chamois, for the chamois will sometimes stand for an instant as if a part of the rock, and then suddenly, startled by the rolling of a stone, will spring