Page:The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen (c1899).djvu/58

 and then they gave a leap that ruffled the surface of the water, while birds both red and blue, great and small, flew behind in two long rows. The gnats kept dancing, and the cockchafers saying: “Buzz! buzz!” They all wanted to follow Hjalmar, and they each had a story to tell.

What a pleasant sail he had! Sometimes the woods were quite thick and dark, at other times they were laid out like the most enchanting garden, full of flowers and sunshine; then there were castles built of glass or of marble, and on the balconies stood princesses, all of whom wore the familiar faces of the little girls Hjalmar knew and had played with. Each held out her hand to offer him the prettiest sugar heart that ever confectioner sold; and Hjalmar caught hold of one side of the sugar heart, as he sailed past, and the princess kept firm hold of the other, so that each had a piece, the smallest falling to her share and the largest to Hjalmar’s. At each castle little princes stood upon guard as sentinels; they presented arms with tiny golden swords, and made it rain plums and tin soldiers, so that one saw at once they were real princes.

Hjalmar went on sailing, now through forests, now through vast halls, now through the middle of some city; and he passed through the town where lived the nurse who had carried him in her arms when he was quite a little boy, and had been so kind to him. And she nodded and smiled, and sang the pretty little stanza that she had herself composed and sent to Hjalmar:—

And all the birds joined in the song, the flowers danced on their stems, and the old trees nodded, just as if Olé Luk-Oie were telling them stories.

OW it did rain, to be sure! Hjalmar could hear it in his sleep; and when Olé Luk-Oie opened the window, the water stood as high as the window-seat. There was a complete lake outside, but the prettiest ship in the world stood close to the house.

“Will you sail with me, little Hjalmar?” asked Olé Luk-Oie; “if so, you can reach foreign lands to-night and yet be back by morning.”

And Hjalmar found himself suddenly standing, in his holiday clothes, on the beautiful ship, when the weather immediately grew fine, and they sailed through the streets, rounded the church, and then emerged into the open sea. They sailed till they lost sight of land, when they saw a flock of storks who were likewise leaving their home to go to a warmer climate; one stork flew behind the other, and they had already flown a long, long way. One of them was so tired that his wings could scarcely carry him any further; he was the last in the row, and was a good bit behind the others. At last he kept sinking, with outspread wings, lower and lower still; then he flapped his wings twice more, but to no purpose; his feet now touched the rigging of the vessel, then he glided down from the sails, and, plump! there he stood on the deck.

A sailor-boy now took him and put him into the hen-house, amongst ducks, hens and guinea-fowls. The poor stork remained quite confounded in the midst of them.

“Look at that chap!” said the hens.

And the guinea-fowl puffed himself out to look as big as he could, and inquired who he might be, while the ducks walked backwards, cackling, “Quack! quack!”

And the stork told all about warm Africa and the Pyramids, and the ostriches that run through the desert like wild horses. But the ducks could not understand what he said, and they