You can sit on myback, and fasten yourself on with your sash. Then we can fly away fromthe ugly mole and his gloomy rooms,- far away, over the mountains,into warmer countries, where the sun shines more brightly- thanhere; where it is always summer, and the flowers bloom in greaterbeauty. Fly now with me, dear little Tiny; you saved my life when Ilay frozen in that dark passage."
  "Yes, I will go with you," said Tiny; and she seated herself onthe bird's back, with her feet on his outstretched wings, and tied hergirdle to one of his strongest feathers.
  Then the swallow rose in the air, and flew over forest and oversea, high above the highest mountains, covered with eternal snow. Tinywould have been frozen in the cold air, but she crept under the bird'swarm feathers, keeping her little head uncovered, so that she mightadmire the beautiful lands over which they passed. At length theyreached the warm countries, where the sun shines brightly, and the skyseems so much higher above the earth. Here, on the hedges, and bythe wayside, grew purple, green, and white grapes; lemons andoranges hung from trees in the woods; and the air was fragrant withmyrtles and orange blossoms. Beautiful children ran along thecountry lanes, playing with large gay butterflies; and as theswallow flew farther and farther, every place appeared still morelovely.
  At last they came to a blue lake, and by the side of it, shaded bytrees of the deepest green, stood a palace of dazzling white marble,built in the olden times. Vines clustered round its lofty pillars, andat the top were many swallows' nests, and one of these was the home ofthe swallow who carried Tiny.
  "This is my house," said the swallow; "but it would not do for youto live there- you would not be comfortable. You must choose foryourself one of those lovely flowers, and I will put you down upon it,and then you shall have everything that you can wish to make youhappy."
  "That will be delightful," she said, and clapped her littlehands for joy.
  A large marble pillar lay on the ground, which, in falling, hadbeen broken into three pieces. Between these pieces grew the mostbeautiful large white flowers; so the swallow flew down with Tiny, andplaced her on one of the broad leaves. But how surprised she was tosee in the middle of the flower, a tiny little man, as white andtransparent as if he had been made of crystal! He had a gold crownon his head, and delicate wings at his shoulders, and was not muchlarger than Tiny herself. He was the angel of the flower; for a tinyman and a tiny woman dwell in every flower; and this was the king ofthem all.
  "Oh, how beautiful he is!" whispered Tiny to the swallow.
  The little prince was at first quite frightened at the bird, whowas like a giant, compared to such a delicate little creature ashimself; but when he saw Tiny, he was delighted, and thought her theprettiest little maiden he had ever seen. He took the gold crownfrom his head, and placed it on hers, and asked her name, and if shewould be his wife, and queen over all the flowers.
  This certainly was a very different sort of husband to the sonof a toad, or the mole, with my black velvet and fur; so she said,"Yes," to the handsome prince. Then all the flowers opened, and out ofeach came a little lady or a tiny lord, all so pretty it was quite apleasure to look at them. Each of them brought Tiny a present; but thebest gift was a pair of beautiful wings, which had belonged to a largewhite fly and they fastened them to Tiny's shoulders, so that shemight fly from flower to flower. Then there was much rejoicing, andthe little swallow who sat above them, in his nest, was asked tosing a wedding song, which he did as well as he could; but in hisheart he felt sad for he was very fond of Tiny, and would have likednever to part from her again.
  "You must not be called Tiny any more," said the spirit of theflowers to her. "It is an ugly name, and you are so very pretty. Wewill call you Maia."
  "Farewell, farewell," said the swallow, with a heavy heart as heleft the warm countries to fly back into Denmark. There he had anest over the window of a house in which dwelt the writer of fairytales. The swallow sang, "Tweet, tweet," and from his song came thewhole story.
  THE END.
  1872
  FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
  LITTLE TUK
  by Hans Christian Andersen
  YES, they called him Little Tuk, but it was not his real name;he had called himself so before he could speak plainly, and he meantit for Charles. It was all very well for those who knew him, but notfor strangers.
  Little Tuk was left at home to take care of his little sister,Gustava, who was much younger than himself, and he had to learn hislessons at the same time, and the two things could not very well beperformed together. The poor boy sat there with his sister on his lap,and sung to her all the songs he knew, and now and then he looked intohis geography lesson that lay open before him. By the next morninghe had to learn by heart all the towns in Zealand, and all thatcould be described of them.
  His mother came home at last, and took little Gustava in her arms.Then Tuk ran to the window, and read so eagerly that he nearly readhis eyes out; for it had become darker and darker every minute, andhis mother had no money to buy a light.
  "There goes the old washerwoman up the lane," said the mother,as she looked out of the window; "the poor woman can hardly dragherself along, and now she had to drag a pail of water from thewell. Be a good boy, Tuk, and run across and help the old woman, won'tyou?"