Page:Danish fairy and folk tales.djvu/231



N his table in a poorly furnished room a little tailor was sitting. He sewed busily, while the flies buzzed about the window-panes, and the beautiful sunshine gleamed bright and pleasant on the blooming elder-bushes and the rosy-red, shining cherries outside the house. Under the eaves numerous sparrows were twittering cheerily.

The door was opened, and in came our tailor's friend, the blacksmith, dressed in his best coat, and with a knotty stick in his hand. "Do you sit there yet?" asked he. "Do you not intend to visit the fair, like other good Christians?"

"I don't care to go," returned the tailor, in his faint, shrill voice.

"How about your wife?" asked the blacksmith, again.

"She went away more than two hours ago," answered he.

"Come, come, that beats all!" cried his friend. "Do you care so little for your clever little wife that you let her trudge to the fair alone on such a