Page:Hans Andersen's fairy tales (Robinson).djvu/320

HANS ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES into the room. Everything was quite still; they peeped out: alas! on the ground lay the old Chinese mandarin. In attempting to follow the runaways, he had fallen down off the table and had broken into three pieces; his head lay shaking in a corner; 'the crooked-legged Field-marshal-Major-General-Corporal-Sergeant' stood where he had always stood, thinking over what had happened.

'Oh, how shocking!' exclaimed the little shepherdess; 'old grandfather is broken in pieces, and we are the cause! I shall never survive it!' and she wrung her delicate hands.

'He can be put together again,' replied the chimney-sweeper. 'He can very easily be put together; only be not so impatient! If they glue his back together, and put a strong rivet in his neck, then he will be as good as new again, and will be able to say plenty of unpleasant things to us.'

'Do you really think so?' asked she. And then they climbed up the table to the place where they had stood before.

'See how far we have been!' observed the chimney-sweeper, 'we might have spared ourselves all the trouble.'

'If we could but have old grandfather put together!' said the shepherdess. 'Will it cost very much?'

And he was put together; the family had his back glued and his neck riveted; he was as good as new, but could no longer nod his head.

'You have certainly grown very proud since you broke in pieces!' remarked the crooked-legged Field-marshal-Major-General-Corporal-Sergeant, 'but I must say, for my part, I do not see that there is anything to be proud of. Am I to have her or am I not? Just answer me that!'

And the chimney-sweeper and the little shepherdess looked imploringly at the old mandarin; they were so afraid lest he should nod his head. But nod he could not, and it was 268