Page:Fairy tales and stories (Andersen, Tegner).djvu/331

Rh projected from the house into the yard were covered with so much foUage that it looked hke a garden, but it was only a balcony. Old flower-pots with faces and asses' ears stood round about, and the flowers grew just as they pleased. In one pot with carnations the sprouts were hanging all over the sides, and seemed plainly to say : "The breeze has patted us, the sun has kissed us and promised us a little flower on Sunday — a little flower on Sunday." And so the little boy came into a room where the walls were covered with pigskin on which flowers were stamped in gold.

said the walls. Round the room stood chairs with high backs and arms on both sides, all beautifully carved. "Sit down, sit down!" they said. "Ugh, how I am creaking! I suppose I shall get rheumatism, just like the old cup- board. Rheumatism in the back, ugh!" And then the little boy came into the parlor with the bow- window, where the old man was sitting. "Thank you for the tin soldier, my little friend," said the old man. "And thanks for coming over to see me." "Thanks, thanks!" or "Creak, creak!" groaned all the furniture; there was so much ot it that the various pieces got into each other's way in trying to see the little boy. And in the middle of the wall hung a picture of a beautiful lady, quite young and cheerful in appearance, but dressed like people in the olden times with powdered hair and stiff" clothes. She said neither "Thanks" nor "Creak," but looked with her mild eyes at the little boy, who at once asked the old man, "Where have you got her from?" "From the old-furniture dealer round the corner," said the old man. " Many pictures are hanging there which no one knows or cares anything about, because the persons are all buried, but many years ago I knew this lady; she has now been dead and gone half a century." And below the picture, under glass, hung a bouquet of withered flowers; they also seemed to be half a century old, so old did they look. And the pendulum of the big clock went to and fro, and the hand went round, and everything in the room began to look still older, but they did not seem to notice it. "They say at home," said the little boy, "that you are so terribly lonely." "Well," was the answer, "old memories, and what they can carry with them, come and visit me, and now you have also come! I am very comfortable." And then he took from the shelf a book with pictures; there were