Page:Fairy tales and stories (Andersen, Tegner).djvu/381



"Shall I have any stories to-night?" said little Hjalmar, as soon as Daddy Dustman had got him into bed.

"We have no time for that to-night," said Daddy, and opened the pretty umbrella over him; "look at these Chinamen." And the whole umbrella looked like a great Chinese bowl with blue trees and pointed bridges, with tiny Chinamen on them, who stood nodding their heads. "We must have the whole world brightened up by to-morrow," said Daddy, "for it is a holy day, it is Sunday. I have to go over to the church tower to see if the little brownies are polishing the bells, so that they may sound all the more beautiful. I have to go into the fields to see if the wind has blown the dust off the grass and the flowers, and then there is the biggest job of all—I have to take down all the stars and polish them. I put them all in my apron; but they must first be numbered, as well as the holes into which they fit, so that they can be put 349