Page:Fairy tales from Hans Christian Andersen (Walker).djvu/214

176 door has told me that he is going to bring us a little brother or sister to-night, and I am watching to see them come.'

'"The stork won't bring one,' said the boy; 'our neighbour told me the same thing, but she laughed when she said it, and I asked if she dared swear by the name of God, and she dared not, so I know very well that all that nonsense about the stork is just something they make up for us children!'

"'Where will the little baby come from, then?' asked the girl.

"'Our Lord will bring it,' said the boy. 'God has it under His mantle; but nobody can see God, and so we shall not see Him bring it.'

"Just then a gust of wind rustled through the leaves of the elder-bush, and the children clasped their hands and looked at each other. It must be God sending the baby! They took hold of each other's hands. The cottage door opened, and a woman appeared. 'Come in now,' she said; 'come in and see what the stork has brought; it is a little brother!'

"The children nodded; they knew well enough he had come."

FIFTEENTH EVENING

"I was passing over Limborg heath," said the moon, "and I saw a lonely hut by the wayside. Some leafless trees grew round it, on one of which a nightingale was singing; it had lost its way. I knew that it must die of the cold, and that it was its swan-song I heard. At daybreak a caravan came along, of emigrant peasants, on their way to Bremen or Hamburg to take ship for America, where good fortune, the fortune of their dreams, was awaiting them. The women were carrying the babies and the bigger children skipped along beside them. A wretched horse drew a van on which were a few miserable articles of furniture. A cold wind blew and a little girl clung closer to her mother, who looked up at my waning disc, and thought what bitter need they had endured