Page:Hans Andersen's fairy tales (Robinson).djvu/317

SHEPHERDESS AND THE CHIMNEY-SWEEPER the old cabinet creaks, your nuptials shall be celebrated, as sure as I am a Chinese mandarin!'

Whereupon he nodded his head and fell asleep.

But the little sheperdess wept, and turned to the beloved of her heart, the porcelain chimney-sweep.

'I believe I must ask you,' said she, 'to go out with me into the wide world, for here we cannot stay.'

'I will do everything you wish,' replied the little chimney-sweeper; 'let us go at once. I think I can support you by my profession.'

'If you could but get off the table!' sighed she; 'I shall never be happy till we are away, out in the wide world.'

And he comforted her, and showed her how to set her little foot on the carved edges and gilded foliage twining round the leg of the table, till at last they reached the floor. But turning to look at the old cabinet, they saw everything in a grand commotion, all the carved stags putting their little heads farther out, raising their antlers, and moving their throats, whilst 'the crooked-legged Field-marshal-Major-General-Corporal-Sergeant' sprang up, and shouted out to the old Chinese mandarin, l Look, they are eloping! they are eloping!' They were not a little frightened, and quickly jumped into an open drawer for protection.

In this drawer there were three or four incomplete packs of cards, and also a little puppet-theatre; a play was being performed, and all the queens, whether of diamonds, hearts, clubs, or spades, sat in the front row fanning themselves with the flowers they held in their hands; behind them stood the knaves, showing that they had each two heads, one above and one below, as most cards have. The play was about two persons who were crossed in love, and the shepherdess wept over it, for it was just like her own history. 265