said the fingers, as they seizedher round the body.
  "See, I am coming with a train," said the darning-needle,drawing a long thread after her; but there was no knot in the thread.
  The fingers then placed the point of the needle against the cook'sslipper. There was a crack in the upper leather, which had to besewn together.
  "What coarse work!" said the darning-needle, "I shall never getthrough. I shall break!- I am breaking!" and sure enough she broke."Did I not say so?" said the darning-needle, "I know I am too fine forsuch work as that."
  "This needle is quite useless for sewing now," said the fingers;but they still held it fast, and the cook dropped some sealing-waxon the needle, and fastened her handkerchief with it in front.
  "So now I am a breast-pin," said the darning-needle; "I knewvery well I should come to honor some day: merit is sure to rise;" andshe laughed, quietly to herself, for of course no one ever saw adarning-needle laugh. And there she sat as proudly as if she were in astate coach, and looked all around her. "May I be allowed to ask ifyou are made of gold?" she inquired of her neighbor, a pin; "youhave a very pretty appearance, and a curious head, although you arerather small. You must take pains to grow, for it is not every one whohas sealing-wax dropped upon him;" and as she spoke, thedarning-needle drew herself up so proudly that she fell out of thehandkerchief right into the sink, which the cook was cleaning. "NowI am going on a journey," said the needle, as she floated away withthe dirty water, "I do hope I shall not be lost." But she really waslost in a gutter. "I am too fine for this world," said thedarning-needle, as she lay in the gutter; "but I know who I am, andthat is always some comfort." So the darning-needle kept up herproud behavior, and did not lose her good humor. Then there floatedover her all sorts of things,- chips and straws, and pieces of oldnewspaper. "See how they sail," said the darning-needle; "they donot know what is under them. I am here, and here I shall stick. See,there goes a chip, thinking of nothing in the world but himself-only a chip. There's a straw going by now; how he turns and twistsabout! Don't be thinking too much of yourself, or you may chance torun against a stone. There swims a piece of newspaper; what is writtenupon it has been forgotten long ago, and yet it gives itself airs. Isit here patiently and quietly. I know who I am, so I shall not move."
  One day something lying close to the darning-needle glittered sosplendidly that she thought it was a diamond; yet it was only apiece of broken bottle. The darning-needle spoke to it, because itsparkled, and represented herself as a breast-pin. "I suppose youare really a diamond?" she said.
  "Why yes, something of the kind," he replied; and so each believedthe other to be very valuable, and then they began to talk about theworld, and the conceited people in it.
  "I have been in a lady's work-box," said the darning-needle,"and this lady was the cook. She had on each hand five fingers, andanything so conceited as these five fingers I have never seen; and yetthey were only employed to take me out of the box and to put me backagain."
  "Were they not high-born?"
  "High-born!" said the darning-needle, "no indeed, but sohaughty. They were five brothers, all born fingers; they kept veryproudly together, though they were of different lengths. The one whostood first in the rank was named the thumb, he was short and thick,and had only one joint in his back, and could therefore make but onebow; but he said that if he were cut off from a man's hand, that manwould be unfit for a soldier. Sweet-tooth, his neighbor, dippedhimself into sweet or sour, pointed to the sun and moon, and formedthe letters when the fingers wrote. Longman, the middle finger, lookedover the heads of all the others. Gold-band, the next finger, wore agolden circle round his waist. And little Playman did nothing atall, and seemed proud of it. They were boasters, and boasters theywill remain; and therefore I left them."
  "And now we sit here and glitter," said the piece of brokenbottle.
  At the same moment more water streamed into the gutter, so that itoverflowed, and the piece of bottle was carried away.
  "So he is promoted," said the darning-needle, "while I remainhere; I am too fine, but that is my pride, and what do I care?"