Page:Fairy tales and stories (Andersen, Tegner).djvu/220

188 red and yellow, and knocked a brass nail into the middle of it ; the top looked quite splendid as it was spinning round.

"Look at me!" he said to the ball. "What do you say now? Shall we not be sweethearts ? We should suit one another so well ; you could jump and I dance. No one could be happier than we two!"

" Do you think si).?" said the ball; "you know, I suppose, that my father and mother were morocco slippers and I have a cork in my body?"

"Yes, but I am made of mahogany," said the top, "ami the sheriff himself turned me; he has a lathe of his own, and he took great pleasure in making me."

"But can I depend on that?" said the ball.

"May I never be whipped again if I tell a lie!" answered the top.

"You speak very well for yourself!" said the ball, "but I cannot accept you; I am as good as engaged to a swallow. Every time I fly up in the air he puts his head out of his nest and says: 'Will you? Will your' And in my heart I have already answered, 'Yes,' so that it is as good as a betrothal ; but I will promise you that I shall never forget you!"

"Well, there is n't much comfort in that!" said the top; and so they did not speak to each other again.

Next day the ball was taken out; the top could see her ri ing high up in the air like a bird, till at last he could not see her at all. Each time she came back, but as she touched the ground she always made a high bound; that was done either because she longed to jump again or because she had a cork in her body. The ninth time the ball disappeared and did not return ; the boy looked and searched for her, but she was gone.

"I know where she is," sighed the top; "she is in the swallow's nest, and has married the swallow."

The more the top thought about her the more he became infatuated with her; just because he could not get her his love increased — that she should have chosen another made it only the more annoying. So the top whirled round and hummed, but was always thinking of the ball, who in his imagination became more and more beautiful. Thus several years passed by, and so it was now an old love.

And the top was no longer young. But one day he was gilded all over; never before had he looked so splendid — he was now a golden top, and whirled about till you could hear him humming far off. Yes, it was a grand sight ! liut suddenly he bounded too high and — he was gone I

They looked and searched everywhere, even down in the cellar, but the top could not be found.

Where could he be?