Page:Fairy tales and stories (Andersen, Tegner).djvu/99

Rh am going out of my mind! Oh, that I were free again! I should then be all right."

That is what he should have said sooner, for the very next moment after he had expressed the wish, his head was free, and he rushed back quite dazed with the fright the galoshes of fortune had given him.

We must not imagine that this was the end of the matter, no—there were worse things still to come.

The night passed and the following day as well, but no messenger came for the galoshes.

In the evening an entertainment was to be given in the little theater in Kannike lane. The house was crammed; among the recitations was a new poem, which we will listen to. The title was:—

GRANNY'S SPECTACLES My Granny's wisdom's known to great and small:

In olden days, I have no doubt at all.

They would have burned her for a witch. For she

Knows everything that happens; she can see

Right into next year—aye, and farther, too:

But, tell you all she knows—no, that she will not do.

I wonder what will happen here next year!

The great events I'd like to see—to hear

All that's in store for me, for Art, for King,

And Country; but, alas! one cannot bring

My Granny to disclose such things as these.

Yet one day I did plague her so, and tease.

That she relented, after I had got

A scolding (for she loves me!) which was rather hot!

"For once your wish I 'll gratify," said she. And handed me her spectacles. "Now see!

You must find out a place—no matter where—

A place where many people go, and there

Stand where you best can overlook the throng.

Put on my glasses; then you'll see ere long

The people like a pack of cards laid out.

From them you may foretell the future without doubt."

I thanked my Granny, and ran off to see

If I could find where that strange place could be.

"Where many people go?" The Promenade?

'T is chilly there! The High Street's quite as bad.

And muddy too! The Theater, then? Why, this Is just the thing for me—an evening's bliss! Well, here I am! I first salute all here. Permit me through my Granny's "specs" to peer.

That I may see—no, do not run away!—

It like a pack of cards you look. I may