Page:The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen (c1899).djvu/166

 but the flies did not fly away, for they could not : their wings had been pulled off, and they had become creeping things. That was a torture, as well as the hunger ; and at last it seemed to her as if her inside was feeding upon itself, and she became entirely empty, so horribly empty !

"If this lasts long I shall not be able to endure it !" she said ; but she was obliged to endure it, and it went on and on.

And then there fell a burning tear on her head ; it rolled over her face and bosom straight down to the loaf: and then another tear fell, and many more. Who was weeping over little Inger? Had she not a mother up on the earth? Tears of grief, such as a mother weeps over her child, always reach it ; but they do not set it free : they burn, and only cause greater torture. And now that intolerable hunger, and not to be able to reach the loaf which she had trodden on with her foot ! She had now at length a feeling as if everything within her must have eaten itself up, she was like a slender, hollow reed that drew every sound into itself; she plainly heard everything that related to her which was said on the earth, and what she heard was evil and harsh. Her mother wept, certainly, and was deeply distressed, but she said : "Pride goes before a fall ! It was thy misfortune, Inger ; but how thou hast grieved thy mother ! "

Her mother and every one up there knew of her sin, that she had trodden on the loaf, and had sunk through and disappeared ; the cowherd had related it, for he had seen it from the hill-side.

"How hast thou grieved thy mother, Inger!" said the mother; "yes, I thought as much !"

"Would that I had never been born ! " Inger; "it would have been much for me. But it can't be helped, now ries." r master and mistress THEY TOLD HER STORY TO THE CHILDREN, AND THE LITTLE ONES CALLED HEK " THE WICKED INGER." thought better that my mothi She heard — the worthy fo. to her — spoke : " said ; " she did no but trod them un grace will be narrt " They should 1 thought Inger; " thrv fancies out of me, 'f i She heard that V.-.%f written about her : " 1 . '%*'; on the loaf lest she si' and it was sung all roi ., " That one should hi and suffer so much for tl lad been like parents '. a sinful child," they the gifts of Heaven, feet. The door of er to enter at." rained me better!" i have beaten the tire ballad was d girl who trod il her shoes " ; country. " certainly the others ough )^^^ uch for that ! ' ,^5; ought Inger ; ■% for their faults ! Yes, indeed, then there would be many to punish I Oh, how . ar.-, And her temper became even harder than her body. ' " Down here in this society one can't become better ! And I don't wish to bi how they stare ! " And she felt angry and ill-disposed against everybody. " Now they have something to tell up there ! Oh, how I am tormented ! " And she heard that they told her story to the children, and the little ones caL wicked Inger." " She was so loathsome ! " they said, " so hideous ! it was quite right f tortured ! " There were always hard words against her in the children's mouths. But one day, as resentment and hunger fretted within her hollow form, and she name mentioned and her story told before an innocent child, a little girl, she perceivec little one burst out crying at the story of the proud, vain Inger. " But will she never come up again ? " asked the little girl. And the answer was : " She will never come up again." anished ited ! " See er