《安徒生童话英文版》第159章

　　hewhispered. "Oh weep not, thou loveliest of women. Now do I begin tounderstand the happiness of paradise; I feel it to my inmost soul,in every thought. A new life is born within me. One moment of suchhappiness is worth an eternity of darkness and woe." He stooped andkissed the tears from her eyes, and touched her lips with his.

　　A clap of thunder, loud and awful, resounded through the tremblingair. All around him fell into ruin. The lovely fairy, the beautifulgarden, sunk deeper and deeper. The prince saw it sinking down inthe dark night till it shone only like a star in the distancebeneath him. Then he felt a coldness, like death, creeping over him;his eyes closed, and he became insensible.

　　When he recovered, a chilling rain was beating upon him, and asharp wind blew on his head. "Alas! what have I done?" he sighed; "Ihave sinned like Adam, and the garden of paradise has sunk into theearth." He opened his eyes, and saw the star in the distance, but itwas the morning star in heaven which glittered in the darkness.

　　Presently he stood up and found himself in the depths of theforest, close to the cavern of the Winds, and the mother of theWinds sat by his side. She looked angry, and raised her arm in the airas she spoke. "The very first evening!" she said. "Well, I expectedit! If you were my son, you should go into the sack."

　　"And there he will have to go at last," said a strong old man,with large black wings, and a scythe in his hand, whose name wasDeath. "He shall be laid in his coffin, but not yet. I will allowhim to wander about the world for a while, to atone for his sin, andto give him time to become better. But I shall return when he leastexpects me. I shall lay him in a black coffin, place it on my head,and fly away with it beyond the stars. There also blooms a garden ofparadise, and if he is good and pious he will be admitted; but ifhis thoughts are bad, and his heart is full of sin, he will sinkwith his coffin deeper than the garden of paradise has sunk. Once inevery thousand years I shall go and fetch him, when he will eitherbe condemned to sink still deeper, or be raised to a happier life inthe world beyond the stars."

　　THE END.

　　1872

　　FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

　　THE GIRL WHO TROD ON THE LOAF

　　by Hans Christian Andersen

　　THERE was once a girl who trod on a loaf to avoid soiling hershoes, and the misfortunes that happened to her in consequence arewell known. Her name was Inge; she was a poor child, but proud andpresuming, and with a bad and cruel disposition. When quite a littlechild she would delight in catching flies, and tearing off theirwings, so as to make creeping things of them. When older, she wouldtake cockchafers and beetles, and stick pins through them. Then shepushed a green leaf, or a little scrap of paper towards their feet,and when the poor creatures would seize it and hold it fast, andturn over and over in their struggles to get free from the pin, shewould say, "The cockchafer is reading; see how he turns over theleaf." She grew worse instead of better with years, and,unfortunately, she was pretty, which caused her to be excused, whenshe should have been sharply reproved.

　　"Your headstrong will requires severity to conquer it," her motheroften said to her. "As a little child you used to trample on my apron,but one day I fear you will trample on my heart." And, alas! this fearwas realized.

　　Inge was taken to the house of some rich people, who lived at adistance, and who treated her as their own child, and dressed her sofine that her pride and arrogance increased.

　　When she had been there about a year, her patroness said to her,"You ought to go, for once, and see your parents, Inge."

　　So Inge started to go and visit her parents; but she only wantedto show herself in her native place, that the people might see howfine she was. She reached the entrance of the village, and saw theyoung laboring men and maidens standing together chatting, and her ownmother amongst them. Inge's mother was sitting on a stone to rest,with a fagot of sticks lying before her, which she had picked up inthe wood. Then Inge turned back; she who was so finely dressed shefelt ashamed of her mother, a poorly clad woman, who picked up wood inthe forest. She did not turn back out of pity for her mother'spoverty, but from pride.

　　Another half-year went by, and her mistress said, "you ought to gohome again, and visit your parents, Inge, and I will give you alarge wheaten loaf to take to them, they will be glad to see you, I amsure."

　　So Inge put on her best clothes, and her new shoes, drew her dressup around her, and set out, stepping very carefully, that she might beclean and neat about the feet, and there was nothing wrong in doingso. But when she came to the place where the footpath led across themoor, she found small pools of water, and a great deal of mud, soshe threw the loaf into the mud, and trod upon it, that she might passwithout wetting her feet. But as she stood with one foot on the loafand the other lifted up to step forward, the loaf began to sinkunder her, lower and lower, till she disappeared altogether, andonly a few bubbles on the surface of the muddy pool remained to showwhere she had sunk. And this is the story.

　　But where did Inge go?