is he going to propose to me?" said the scissors, and shebecame so angry that she cut too sharply into the shirt collar, and itwas obliged to be thrown by as useless.
  "I shall be obliged to propose to the hair-brush," thought theshirt collar; so he remarked one day, "It is wonderful whatbeautiful hair you have, my little lady. Have you never thought ofbeing engaged?"
  "You might know I should think of it," answered the hair brush; "Iam engaged to the boot-jack."
  "Engaged!" cried the shirt collar, "now there is no one left topropose to;" and then he pretended to despise all love-making.
  A long time passed, and the shirt collar was taken in a bag to thepaper-mill. Here was a large company of rags, the fine ones lying bythemselves, separated from the coarser, as it ought to be. They hadall many things to relate, especially the shirt collar, who was aterrible boaster. "I have had an immense number of love affairs," saidthe shirt collar, "no one left me any peace. It is true I was a veryfine gentleman; quite stuck up. I had a boot-jack and a brush that Inever used. You should have seen me then, when I was turned down. Ishall never forget my first love; she was a girdle, so charming, andfine, and soft, and she threw herself into a washing tub for mysake. There was a widow too, who was warmly in love with me, but Ileft her alone, and she became quite black. The next was afirst-rate dancer; she gave me the wound from which I still suffer,she was so passionate. Even my own hair-brush was in love with me, andlost all her hair through neglected love. Yes, I have had greatexperience of this kind, but my greatest grief was for the garter- thegirdle I meant to say- that jumped into the wash-tub. I have a greatdeal on my conscience, and it is really time I should be turned intowhite paper."
  And the shirt collar came to this at last. All the rags weremade into white paper, and the shirt collar became the veryidentical piece of paper which we now see, and on which this storyis printed. It happened as a punishment to him, for having boastedso shockingly of things which were not true. And this is a warningto us, to be careful how we act, for we may some day find ourselves inthe rag-bag, to be turned into white paper, on which our whole historymay be written, even its most secret actions. And it would not bepleasant to have to run about the world in the form of a piece ofpaper, telling everything we have done, like the boasting shirtcollar.
  THE END.
  1872
  FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
  THE SILVER SHILLING
  by Hans Christian Andersen
  THERE was once a shilling, which came forth from the mintspringing and shouting, "Hurrah! now I am going out into the wideworld." And truly it did go out into the wide world. The children heldit with warm hands, the miser with a cold and convulsive grasp, andthe old people turned it about, goodness knows how many times, whilethe young people soon allowed it to roll away from them. Theshilling was made of silver, it contained very little copper, andconsidered itself quite out in the world when it had been circulatedfor a year in the country in which it had been coined. One day, itreally did go out into the world, for it belonged to a gentleman whowas about to travel in foreign lands. This gentleman was not awarethat the shilling lay at the bottom of his purse when he started, tillhe one day found it between his fingers. "Why," cried he, "here is ashilling from home; well, it must go on its travels with me now!"