Page:Fairy tales and stories (Andersen, Tegner).djvu/274

242 was polished and the floors washed, and clean curtains were put up every fortnight.' "'What an interesting way you have of telling stories!' said the broom. 'One can hear at once it is a lady who is telling stories, there is something so true about it all.'

"'Yes, one can feel that,' said the water-pail; and in his joy he made a jump and the water splashed all over the floor.

"And the pot went on with her story and the end was as good as the beginning.

"All the plates rattled with delight, and the broom took green parsley from the sand-hole and crowned the pot with it, for he knew it would amuse the others, and 'If I crown her to-day,' he thought, 'she will crown me to-morrow.'

"'I want to have a dance,' said the fire-tongs, and began dancing. Good heavens! How the tongs kicked high in the air! The old chair- cover over in the corner split at the sight. 'Ought I not to be crowned too?' said the fire-tongs, and so this was done.

"'They are a common lot, after all!' thought the matches.

"The tea-urn was now going to sing, but she had a cold, she said, and could not sing except when she was at boiling-point; but it vas only affectation. She would not sing unless she was standing on the table in the parlor. "Over in the window lay an old quill pen which the servant-girl used to write with; there was nothing remarkable about him except that he had been dipped too far into the inkstand, but of this he was very proud. 'If the tea-urn won't sing,' he said, 'she may leave it alone! Outside in a cage hangs a nightingale who can sing; he has not learned much, but we won't say anything disparaging about that this evening.' "'I think it most improper,' said the tea-kettle, who was singer to the kitchen utensils and half-sister to the tea-urn, 'that a foreign bird should be allowed to sing. Is it patriotic? I shall let the market-basket decide the point."

"'I am very much annoyed,' said the market-basket; 'I am more annoyed than any one can imagine. Is this the proper way to spend an evening? Would it not be more sensible to put the house in order? Every one should then be in his proper place, and I would manage the whole affair. Then things would be quite different.'

"'Yes, let us make a disturbance,' they all cried. Just at that moment the door opened. It was the servant-girl, and so they all became silent; no one muttered a sound. But there was not a pot among them who did not know what he could have done and how grand he was. 'If I had had my way,' they all thought, 'we should have had a really merry evening.'

"The servant-girl took the matches and lighted the fire with them. Gracious me! How they sputtered and blazed up!