Page:The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen (c1899).djvu/32

 going forward in the room. All was quiet; so they peeped out—and behold! there lay the old Chinese sprawling in the middle of the floor. He had fallen down from the table, when he attempted to pursue them, and lay broken into three pieces: his whole back had come off in one lump, and his head had rolled into a corner. The General-and-Lieutenant-General-Goat-Bandylegs-Field-Sergeant stood where he always had done, and was wrapped in thought.

“This is shocking!” said the little shepherdess; “my old grandfather is broken in pieces, and by our fault! I shall not be able to survive such a mishap!” And so saying, she wrung her little hands.

“He can be rivetted!” said the chimney-sweeper—“he can be rivetted. Do not take on so! If they cement his back, and put a proper rivet through his neck, he will be just as good as new, and will be able to say as many disagreeable things to us as ever.”

“Do you think so?” said she. And then they crept up to the table, where they formerly stood.

“Since we have got no farther than this,” said the chimney-sweeper, “we might have saved ourselves a deal of trouble.”

“I wish grandfather was rivetted,” said the shepherdess; “I wonder if it costs much?”

And rivetted sure enough he was. The family had his back cemented, and an efficient rivet run through his neck. He was as good as new, except that he could no longer nod.

“You have become proud since you were broken to shivers,” observed General-and-Lieutenant-General-Goat-Bandylegs-Field Sergeant. “Methinks there is no reason why you should be so captious. Am I to have her or not?”

And the chimney-sweeper and the little shepherdess looked most touchingly at the old Chinese. They were afraid he would nod. But he could not; and it would have been derogatory to have confessed to a stranger that he had a rivet in his neck. And so the china couple remained together, and blessed the grandfather's rivet, and loved each other till they were broken to pieces.