Page:Hans Andersen's fairy tales (Robinson).djvu/272

HANS ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES he read the Holy Scriptures aloud. All the children loved her, but when she heard them talk about dress and finery, and about being as beautiful as a queen, she would sorrowfully shake her head.

Again Sunday came, all the pastor's household went to



church, and they asked her if she would not go too, but she sighed and looked with tears in her eyes upon her crutches. When they were all gone, she went into her own little, lowly chamber it was but just large enough to contain a bed and chair and there she sat down with her psalm-book in her hand, and whilst she was meekly and devoutly reading in it, the wind wafted the tones of the organ from the church into 226