《安徒生童话英文版》第161章

　　And she heard the reply, "No, she will never come up again."

　　"But if she were to say she was sorry, and ask pardon, and promisenever to do so again?" asked the little one.

　　"Yes, then she might come; but she will not beg pardon," was theanswer.

　　"Oh, I wish she would!" said the child, who was quite unhappyabout it. "I should be so glad. I would give up my doll and all myplaythings, if she could only come here again. Poor Inge! it is sodreadful for her."

　　These pitying words penetrated to Inge's inmost heart, andseemed to do her good. It was the first time any one had said, "PoorInge!" without saying something about her faults. A little innocentchild was weeping, and praying for mercy for her. It made her feelquite strange, and she would gladly have wept herself, and it added toher torment to find she could not do so. And while she thus sufferedin a place where nothing changed, years passed away on earth, andshe heard her name less frequently mentioned. But one day a sighreached her ear, and the words, "Inge! Inge! what a grief thou hastbeen to me! I said it would be so." It was the last sigh of herdying mother.

　　After this, Inge heard her kind mistress say, "Ah, poor Inge!shall I ever see thee again? Perhaps I may, for we know not what mayhappen in the future." But Inge knew right well that her mistresswould never come to that dreadful place.

　　Time-passed- a long bitter time- then Inge heard her namepronounced once more, and saw what seemed two bright stars shiningabove her. They were two gentle eyes closing on earth. Many yearshad passed since the little girl had lamented and wept about "poorInge." That child was now an old woman, whom God was taking toHimself. In the last hour of existence the events of a whole lifeoften appear before us; and this hour the old woman remembered how,when a child, she had shed tears over the story of Inge, and sheprayed for her now. As the eyes of the old woman closed to earth,the eyes of the soul opened upon the hidden things of eternity, andthen she, in whose last thoughts Inge had been so vividly present, sawhow deeply the poor girl had sunk. She burst into tears at thesight, and in heaven, as she had done when a little child on earth,she wept and prayed for poor Inge. Her tears and her prayers echoedthrough the dark void that surrounded the tormented captive soul,and the unexpected mercy was obtained for it through an angel's tears.As in thought Inge seemed to act over again every sin she hadcommitted on earth, she trembled, and tears she had never yet beenable to weep rushed to her eyes. It seemed impossible that the gatesof mercy could ever be opened to her; but while she acknowledgedthis in deep penitence, a beam of radiant light shot suddenly into thedepths upon her. More powerful than the sunbeam that dissolves the manof snow which the children have raised, more quickly than thesnowflake melts and becomes a drop of water on the warm lips of achild, was the stony form of Inge changed, and as a little bird shesoared, with the speed of lightning, upward to the world of mortals. Abird that felt timid and shy to all things around it, that seemed toshrink with shame from meeting any living creature, and hurriedlysought to conceal itself in a dark corner of an old ruined wall; thereit sat cowering and unable to utter a sound, for it was voiceless. Yethow quickly the little bird discovered the beauty of everything aroundit. The sweet, fresh air; the soft radiance of the moon, as itslight spread over the earth; the fragrance which exhaled from bush andtree, made it feel happy as it sat there clothed in its fresh,bright plumage. All creation seemed to speak of beneficence andlove. The bird wanted to give utterance to thoughts that stirred inhis breast, as the cuckoo and the nightingale in the spring, but itcould not. Yet in heaven can be heard the song of praise, even froma worm; and the notes trembling in the breast of the bird were asaudible to Heaven even as the psalms of David before they hadfashioned themselves into words and song.

　　Christmas-time drew near, and a peasant who dwelt close by the oldwall stuck up a pole with some ears of corn fastened to the top,that the birds of heaven might have feast, and rejoice in the happy,blessed time. And on Christmas morning the sun arose and shone uponthe ears of corn, which were quickly surrounded by a number oftwittering birds. Then, from a hole in the wall, gushed forth insong the swelling thoughts of the bird as he issued from his hidingplace to perform his first good deed on earth,- and in heaven it waswell known who that bird was.

　　The winter was very hard; the ponds were covered with ice, andthere was very little food for either the beasts of the field or thebirds of the air. Our little bird flew away into the public roads, andfound here and there, in the ruts of the sledges, a grain of corn, andat the halting places some crumbs. Of these he ate only a few, buthe called around him the other birds and the hungry sparrows, thatthey too might have food. He flew into the towns, and looked about,and wherever a kind hand had strewed bread on the window-sill forthe birds, he only ate a single crumb himself, and gave all the restto the rest of the other birds. In the course of the winter the birdhad in this way collected many crumbs and given them to other birds,till they equalled the weight of the loaf on which Inge had trod tokeep her shoes clean; and when the last bread-crumb had been found andgiven, the gray wings of the bird became white, and spreadthemselves out for flight.

　　"See, yonder is a sea-gull!"