《安徒生童话英文版》第60章

　　so they assembled together inthe water, round the green stalk which held the leaf on which thelittle maiden stood, and gnawed it away at the root with theirteeth. Then the leaf floated down the stream, carrying Tiny far awayout of reach of land.

　　Tiny sailed past many towns, and the little birds in the bushessaw her, and sang, "What a lovely little creature;" so the leaf swamaway with her farther and farther, till it brought her to other lands.A graceful little white butterfly constantly fluttered round her,and at last alighted on the leaf. Tiny pleased him, and she was gladof it, for now the toad could not possibly reach her, and thecountry through which she sailed was beautiful, and the sun shone uponthe water, till it glittered like liquid gold. She took off her girdleand tied one end of it round the butterfly, and the other end of theribbon she fastened to the leaf, which now glided on much fasterthan ever, taking little Tiny with it as she stood. Presently alarge cockchafer flew by; the moment he caught sight of her, he seizedher round her delicate waist with his claws, and flew with her intoa tree. The green leaf floated away on the brook, and the butterflyflew with it, for he was fastened to it, and could not get away.

　　Oh, how frightened little Tiny felt when the cockchafer flewwith her to the tree! But especially was she sorry for the beautifulwhite butterfly which she had fastened to the leaf, for if he couldnot free himself he would die of hunger. But the cockchafer did nottrouble himself at all about the matter. He seated himself by her sideon a large green leaf, gave her some honey from the flowers to eat,and told her she was very pretty, though not in the least like acockchafer. After a time, all the cockchafers turned up their feelers,and said, "She has only two legs! how ugly that looks." "She has nofeelers," said another. "Her waist is quite slim. Pooh! she is likea human being."

　　"Oh! she is ugly," said all the lady cockchafers, although Tinywas very pretty. Then the cockchafer who had run away with her,believed all the others when they said she was ugly, and would havenothing more to say to her, and told her she might go where she liked.Then he flew down with her from the tree, and placed her on a daisy,and she wept at the thought that she was so ugly that even thecockchafers would have nothing to say to her. And all the while shewas really the loveliest creature that one could imagine, and astender and delicate as a beautiful rose-leaf. During the wholesummer poor little Tiny lived quite alone in the wide forest. She woveherself a bed with blades of grass, and hung it up under a broad leaf,to protect herself from the rain. She sucked the honey from theflowers for food, and drank the dew from their leaves every morning.So passed away the summer and the autumn, and then came the winter,-the long, cold winter. All the birds who had sung to her so sweetlywere flown away, and the trees and the flowers had withered. The largeclover leaf under the shelter of which she had lived, was now rolledtogether and shrivelled up, nothing remained but a yellow witheredstalk. She felt dreadfully cold, for her clothes were torn, and shewas herself so frail and delicate, that poor little Tiny was nearlyfrozen to death. It began to snow too; and the snow-flakes, as theyfell upon her, were like a whole shovelful falling upon one of us, forwe are tall, but she was only an inch high. Then she wrapped herselfup in a dry leaf, but it cracked in the middle and could not keepher warm, and she shivered with cold. Near the wood in which she hadbeen living lay a corn-field, but the corn had been cut a long time;nothing remained but the bare dry stubble standing up out of thefrozen ground. It was to her like struggling through a large wood. Oh!