Page:Fairy tales and stories (Andersen, Tegner).djvu/50

18 He had been taken straight from the fields and put into a house of cards, three storeys high, all made with court-cards, with the colored side turned in; there were both doors and windows, all cut out in the waist of the Queen of Hearts. "I sing so well," he said," that, on hearing me, sixteen native crickets, that had been chirping since they were born, but never had a house of cards, fretted themselves even thinner than they were!"

Both the flea and the grasshopper were thus able to give a good account of themselves, and saw no reason why they should not marry a princess.

The spring-goose did not say anything; people said of him that he thought all the more, and as the palace-dog only sniffed at him, it was a guarantee that the spring-goose was of good family. The old alderman, who had got three orders for holding his tongue, assured them that he knew the spring-goose possessed the gift of prophesying; one could tell by his back, whether the winter would be mild or severe, and that was more than you could see by the back of the man who writes the almanacs.

"Well, I sha'n't say anything!" said the old king; "but I generally go about and have my own opinion of things."

Everything now depended upon the jumping. The flea jumped so high that no one could see him, so they said he had not jumped at all, which was rather mean.

The grasshopper jumped only half as high, but he jumped right onto the king's face, which, the king declared, was most disagreeable.

The spring-goose stood still a long time, thinking to himself; the people at last began to believe that he could not jump at all.

"I only hope he isn't ill!" said the palace-dog, and sniffed at him again, when — wh'st! with a jump, a little sideways, he sprang right into the lap of the princess, who was sitting on a low, golden footstool.

Then the king said; "The highest jump is to jump at my daughter, for that's just the clever part of it. It requires brains to get an idea like that, and the spring-goose has shown that he has brains. He has a mind of his own!"

And so he got the princess.