Page:Fairy tales from Hans Christian Andersen (Walker).djvu/124

92 "Pray don't be too long-winded," said the mother of the winds. "So at last you got to Behring Island!"

"It's perfectly splendid! There you have a floor to dance upon, as flat as a pancake, half-thawed snow, with moss; there were bones of whales and polar bears lying about; they looked like the legs and arms of giants covered with green mould. One would think that the sun had never shone on them. I gave a little puff to the fog so that one could see the shed. It was a house built of wreckage and covered with the skins of whales; the flesh side was turned outward; it was all red and green; a living polar bear sat on the roof growling. I went to the shore and looked at the birds' nests, looked at the unfledged young ones screaming and gaping; then I blew down thousands of their throats and they learnt to shut their mouths. Lower down the walruses were rolling about like monster maggots with pigs' heads and teeth a yard long!"

"You're a good story-teller, my boy!" said his mother. "It makes my mouth water to hear you!"

"Then there was a hunt! The harpoons were plunged into the walruses' breasts and the steaming blood spurted out of them, like fountains, over the ice. Then I remembered my part of the game! I blew up and made my ships, the mountain-high icebergs, nip the boats; whew! how they whistled and how they screamed, but I whistled louder. They were obliged to throw the dead walruses, chests, and ropes out upon the ice! I shook the snowflakes over them and let them drift southward to taste the salt water. They will never come back to Behring Island!"

"Then you've been doing evil!" said the mother of the winds.

"What good I did, the others may tell you," said he. "But here we have my brother from the west; I like him best of all, he smells of the sea and brings a splendid cool breeze with him!"

"Is that the little Zephyr?" asked the Prince.