And soshe sat there in her pride, and had many such thoughts as these,- "Icould almost fancy that I came from a sunbeam, I am so fine. Itseems as if the sunbeams were always looking for me under the water.Ah! I am so fine that even my mother cannot find me. Had I still myold eye, which was broken off, I believe I should weep; but no, Iwould not do that, it is not genteel to cry."
  One day a couple of street boys were paddling in the gutter, forthey sometimes found old nails, farthings, and other treasures. It wasdirty work, but they took great pleasure in it. "Hallo!" cried one, ashe pricked himself with the darning-needle, "here's a fellow for you."
  "I am not a fellow, I am a young lady," said the darning-needle;but no one heard her.
  The sealing-wax had come off, and she was quite black; but blackmakes a person look slender, so she thought herself even finer thanbefore.
  "Here comes an egg-shell sailing along," said one of the boys;so they stuck the darning-needle into the egg-shell.
  "White walls, and I am black myself," said the darning-needle,"that looks well; now I can be seen, but I hope I shall not besea-sick, or I shall break again." She was not sea-sick, and she didnot break. "It is a good thing against sea-sickness to have a steelstomach, and not to forget one's own importance. Now my sea-sicknesshas past: delicate people can bear a great deal."
  Crack went the egg-shell, as a waggon passed over it. "Goodheavens, how it crushes!" said the darning-needle. "I shall be sicknow. I am breaking!" but she did not break, though the waggon wentover her as she lay at full length; and there let her lie.
  THE END.
  1872
  FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
  THE DROP OF WATER
  by Hans Christian Andersen
  OF course you know what is meant by a magnifying glass- one ofthose round spectacle-glasses that make everything look a hundredtimes bigger than it is? When any one takes one of these and holdsit to his eye, and looks at a drop of water from the pond yonder, hesees above a thousand wonderful creatures that are otherwise neverdiscerned in the water. But there they are, and it is no delusion.It almost looks like a great plateful of spiders jumping about in acrowd. And how fierce they are! They tear off each other's legs. andarms and bodies, before and behind; and yet they are merry andjoyful in their way.
  Now, there once was an old man whom all the people calledKribble-Krabble, for that was his name. He always wanted the best ofeverything, and when he could not manage it otherwise, he did it bymagic.
  There he sat one day, and held his magnifying-glass to his eye,and looked at a drop of water that had been taken out of a puddle bythe ditch. But what a kribbling and krabbling was there! All thethousands of little creatures hopped and sprang and tugged at oneanother, and ate each other up.
  "That is horrible!" said old Kribble-Krabble. "Can one notpersuade them to live in peace and quietness, so that each one maymind his own business?"
  And he thought it over and over, but it would not do, and so hehad recourse to magic.
  "I must give them color, that they may be seen more plainly," saidhe; and he poured something like a little drop of red wine into thedrop of water, but it was witches' blood from the lobes of the ear,the finest kind, at ninepence a drop. And now the wonderful littlecreatures were pink all over. It looked like a whole town of nakedwild men.
  "What have you there?" asked another old magician, who had noname- and that was the best thing about him.
  "Yes, if you can guess what it is," said Kribble-Krabble, "I'llmake you a present of it."
  But it is not so easy to find out if one does not know.
  And the magician who had no name looked through themagnifying-glass.
  It looked really like a great town reflected there, in which allthe people were running about without clothes. It was terrible!