STORY-TELLING 



5572 



STORY-TELLING 



O !" And it continued to say that when it was 

 put into the loom, and till it became a large, 

 beautiful piece of linen. All the Flax, to the last 

 stalk, was used in making one piece. 



"But this is quite remarkable ! I should never 

 have believed it ! How favorable fortune is to 

 me! The Hedge-stake is well informed, truly, 

 with its 



'Snip-snap-snurre, 

 Bassellurre !' 



The song is not done by any means. Now it's 

 beginning in earnest. That's quite remarkable ! 

 If I've suffered something, I've been made into 

 something ! I'm the happiest of all ! How strong 

 and fine I am, how white and long ! That's 

 something different from being a mere plant: 

 even if one bears flowers, one is not attended to, 

 and only gets watered when it rains. Now I'm 

 attended to and cherished ; the maid turns me 

 over every morning, and I get a shower bath 

 from the watering pot every evening. Yes, the 

 clergyman's wife has even made a speech about 

 me, and says I'm the best piece in the whole 

 parish. I cannot possibly be happier !" 



Now the Linen was taken into the house, and 

 put under the scissors : how they cut and tore 

 it, and then pricked it with needles ! That was 

 not pleasant ; but twelve pieces of body linen of 

 a kind not often mentioned by name, but indis- 

 pensable to all people, were made of it a whole 

 dozen ! 



"Just look ! Now something has really been 

 made of me ! So ; that was my destiny. That's 

 a real blessing. Now I shall be of some use in 

 the world, and that's right, that's a true pleas- 

 ure ! We've been made into twelve things, but 

 yet we're all one and the same ; we're just a 

 dozen : how charming that is !" 



Years rolled on, and now they would hold to- 

 gether no longer. 



"It must be over one day," said each piece. 

 "I would gladly have held together a little 

 longer, but one must not expect impossibilities." 



They were now torn into pieces and frag- 

 ments. They thought it was all over now, for 

 they were hacked to shreds, and softened, and 

 boiled ; yes, they themselves did not know all 

 that was done to them ; and then they became 

 beautiful white paper. 



"Now, that is a surprise, and a glorious sur- 

 prise !" said the Paper. "Now I'm finer than 

 before, and I shall be written on : that is re- 

 markable good fortune." 



And really the most beautiful stories and 

 verses were written upon it, and only once there 

 came a blot ; that was certainly remarkable good 

 fortune. And the people heard what was upon 

 it ; it was sensible and good, and made people 

 much more sensible and better; there was a 

 great blessing in the words that were on this 

 Paper. 



"That is more than I ever imagined when I 

 was a little blue flower in the fields. How could 

 I fancy that I should ever spread joy and knowl- 

 edge among men? I can't yet understand it my- 

 self, but it really is so. I have done nothing 

 myself but what I was obliged, with my weak 

 powers, to do for my own preservation, and yet 

 I have been promoted from one joy and honor to 



another. Each time when I think 'the song is 

 done,' it begins again in a higher and better 

 way. Now I shall certainly be sent about to 

 journey through the world, so that all people 

 may read me. That cannot be otherwise ; it's the 

 only probable thing. I haVe splendid thoughts, 

 as many as I had pretty flowers in the old time. 

 I'm the happiest of beings." 



But the Paper was not sent on its travels 

 it was sent to the printer, and everything that 

 was written upon it was set up in type for a 

 book, or rather for many hundreds of books, for 

 in this way a very far greater number could 

 derive pleasure and profit from the book than if 

 the one paper on which it was written had run 

 about the world, to be worn out before it had 

 got half way. 



"Yes, that is certainly the wisest way," 

 thought the Written Paper. "I really did not 

 think of that. I shall stay at home, and be 

 held in honor, just like an old grandfather ; and 

 I am really the grandfather of all these books. 

 Now something can be effected ; I could not have 

 wandered about thus. He who wrote all this 

 looked at me ; every word flowed from his pen 

 right into me. I am the happiest of all." 



Then the Paper was tied together in a bundle, 

 and thrown into a tub that stood in the wash- 

 house. 



"It's good resting after work," said the Paper. 

 "It's very right that one should collect one's 

 thoughts. Now I'm able for the first time to 

 think of what is in me, and to know one's self 

 is true progress. What will be done with me 

 now? At any rate I shall go forward again: I'm 

 always going forward ; I've found that out." 



Now, one day all the Paper was taken out and 

 laid by on the hearth ; it was to be burned, for it 

 might not be sold to hucksters to be used for 

 covering for butter and sugar, they said. And 

 all the children in the house stood round about, 

 for they wanted to see the Paper burn, that 

 flamed so prettily, and afterwards one could see 

 many red sparks among the ashes, careering 

 here and there. One after another faded out as 

 quick as the wind, and that they called "seeing 

 the children come out of school," and the last 

 spark was the old schoolmaster : one of them 

 thought he had already gone, but the next mo- 

 ment there came another spark. "There goes 

 the schoolmaster !" they said. Yes, they knew 

 all about it ; they should have known who it was 

 who went there : we shall get to know it, but 

 they did not. All the old Paper, the whole bun- 

 dle, was laid upon the fire, and it was soon 

 alight. "Ugh !" it said, and burst out into 

 bright flame. Ugh ! that was not very agreeable, 

 but when the whole was wrapped in bright flames, 

 these mounted up higher than the Flax had ever 

 been able to lift its little blue flowers, and glit- 

 tered as the white Linen had never been able to 

 glitter. All the written letters turned for a mo- 

 ment quite red, and all the words and thoughts 

 turned to flame. 



"Now I'm mounting straight up to the sun," 

 said a voice in the flame ; and it was as if a 

 thousand voices said this in unison ; and the 

 flames mounted up through the chimney and out 

 at the top, and more delicate than the flames, 

 invisible to human eyes, little tiny beings floated 



