Carl Ewald

“ It’s not good, in the long run, for a woman to live alone. It makes her queer and sour. If you only knew how delightful it is to see one’s dear little young and feed them and educate them!”
“Stuff!” said the spider.
“It’s the provision of nature,” said the mouse. “And I will do what I can for you, no matter what you say. I see a heap of spiders daily on my way along the hedge. They are certainly much smaller than you, but nice fellows, for all that. Perhaps I may meet a big one, too. Then I shall tell him that there’s a charming young lady over here, longing for a sweetheart.” ”

“ Oh, wherever can I lay my eggs?” cried the dragon-fly and flew buzzing from leaf to leaf, laying one here and one there, and at last sat down, tired and exhausted, on a leaf.
“Well?” said the water-lily.
“Oh, I was much better off then,” sighed the dragon-fly. “The sunshine is glorious and it is a great delight [193] to fly over the water, but I never have time to enjoy it. I tell you, I’m awfully busy. In the old days, I had nothing to think of. And now I have to fly about all day long to lay these silly eggs. I haven’t a moment to myself and have hardly time to eat.” ”

“ The mouse made off, for safety’s sake, but the twigs on the stubs cried with one breath that a nice fat spider had just come and had spun her web in the night.
“I can see none,” said the starling and flew away.
But the spider, quick as lightning, had let herself down to the ground by a long thread and lay there as still as if she were dead. Now she crept up again and sat in the middle of her web with all her eight legs outstretched.
“That was a near thing,” she said. “Now my turn’s coming.”
[22] Up came a smart little fly, who didn’t see the web but flew in and got caught, poor fellow. ”

“ They stood in thick bevies round the roots of the beech and bashfully bowed their round heads to the ground.
“Look up freely,” said Dame Spring, “and rejoice in heaven’s bright sun. Your lives are but short, so you must enjoy them while they last.”
The anemones did as she told them. They stretched themselves and spread their white petals to every side and drank as much sunshine as they could. They knocked their heads [86] against one another and wound their stalks together and laughed and were constantly happy.
“Now I can wait no longer,” said the beech and came into leaf. ”

“ I should like to know what use a husband is to one, when all’s said. He’s nothing but a nuisance and a worry. If ever I take another, he sha’n’t live with me, whatever happens.”
“How you talk!” said the mouse. “I can’t think of anything more dismal than if my husband were to live away from me. And I should like to know how I should manage with the children, if he didn’t help me, the dear soul!”
“Children!” replied the spider. “Fiddle-de-dee! [10] I don’t see the use of all that coddling. Lay your eggs in a sensible place and then leave them alone.” ”

“ I tell you, no one looks upon them as worth a straw. It’s long been understood among us that it’s only the women that are good for anything.”
“Well, I’m going,” said the mouse. “I shall find the right man yet. And I feel sure that you’ll be much more amiable when you’re in love.”
“Run away, Mousie,” said the spider. “The man who can please me isn’t born yet. But you have nothing in your head but love and nonsense.”
She killed a fly, spun a web round him and hung him up and then hid under the leaf. ”

“ When the sun came out, she crept under her leaf and then the mouse came back and peeped up:
“Is she asleep?” she asked.
“I think so,” said the parsley. “And you had better not wake her with your chattering.”
“She’s our bird, once and for all,” said the goat’s-foot. “Though she may behave differently from other birds, she has done us the honour and shown us the confidence to build in us and therefore we ask that she may be respected.”
[28] “A nice sort of bird!” said the twigs, with a sneer.
“In any case, she’s better than nothing,” said the parsley. ”

“ One fine day, they flew out. Pretty little animals they were, with light, bright wings, like their parents.
“Hurrah!” they cried. “Now it’s only a question of finding a caterpillar for our young. Each for himself and the devil take the hindmost: such is nature’s law. We are nature’s police: we see to it that things keep their balance. It would be a hideous world indeed, if it were full of caterpillars!”
“Or of ichneumon-flies!” piped the swallow and gulped down a mouthful of them as he spoke. ”

“ But the unfortunate suitor went round the hedge telling the other [35] spiders about the charming and remarkable lady whose web hung between the parsley and the goat’s-foot.
“She is so big,” he said, spreading his legs as wide as he could. “I have never seen any one so pretty in my life. But she’s as proud as a peacock. I shall certainly die of grief at her refusal. In any case, one thing is sure, that I shall never marry.”
They listened to him wide-eyed and made him tell them again. It was not long before the story of the proud and beautiful spider-princess went the round of the hedge. ”

“ Buzzing and humming, they stretched their legs and tried their wings. They swarmed forth everywhere, crawled up and down the hive, flew off to the flowers and shrubs and walked about on the ground.
There were many hundred bees.
The queen came last. She was bigger than the others and it was she that reigned in the hive.
“Stop that nonsense now, children,” she said, “and begin to do something. A decent bee does not idle, but turns to, in a capable way, and makes good use of her time.” ”

“ I must go and lay more eggs.”
But, just as she was about to fly away, the starling came:
“I say, I say, what a dear little dragon-fly!” he said. “Just a nice little mouthful for my youngsters!”
[194] And with a whizz! he snapped up the dragon-fly in his beak and flew away with her.
“There they go!” cried the water-lily, shaking her leaves with anger. “Those animals, those animals! What extraordinary creatures they are. I must say I prefer my own quiet life. I hurt nobody and no one injures me. I am so hap....” ”

“ He rolled round on the cabbage-leaf in despair and turned and twisted and screamed for help.
“Rather eat me up altogether while you’re about it!” he cried. “Rather let me die at once: I can’t endure this life!”
“Tut, tut!” said the young ones inside him and cackled with laughter. “It’s not so easy as that. You’ll be eaten right enough, when the time comes, never fear! But, for the present, all you have to do is to hold your tongue and eat.”
4
Every day, the young ones grew bigger and wanted more food. ”

“ Bend them decently, as you see us do. How will you manage when a regular storm comes? Take it from me, the wind shakes the tree-tops finely! He has many a time come whistling through my old branches; and how do you think that you’ll come off, with that meagre display which you stick up in the air?”
“Every one grows in his own manner and we in ours,” replied the young beeches. “This is the way it’s done where we come from; and we dare say we are just as good as you.”
“That’s not a very polite remark to make to an old tree with moss on his branches,” said the oak. ”

“ For we are all poor mortals, as the gardener says. But [137] that bit about the butterfly is positively nothing but imagination. I am sorry for you, goodness knows I am, but I can’t help you. You must bear your lot with patience.”
“I can’t bear it!” cried the caterpillar. “It is killing me. Think of the butterflies: are they not beautiful? Don’t you like looking at them? Help me, do you hear! If I die, a butterfly dies. Only think, if one day there were no butterflies!”
“Well,” said the ant, “as for that, the world would go on, even if you are right. ”

“ The water-lily shook her wise white head:
“Let those foolish thoughts be,” she [187] said, “and learn to be contented with your lot. You can now live in peace and quiet among my leaves and creep up and down my stalk as much as ever you like. You have plenty of food and no cares nor worries: what more can you want?”
“You have an inferior nature,” answered the grub, “and therefore you have no sense of higher things. ”

“ If you have a scrap of honour in your composition, then have the kindness to move your leaves a little to one side. Last year, there were hardly any buds on my lower branches, all through your standing in my light.”
“We can’t quite see what that has to do with us,” replied the beeches. “Every one has enough to do to look after himself. If he is industrious and successful, then things go well with him. If not, he must be content to go to the wall. Such is the way of the world.”
And the oak’s lower branches died and he began to be terribly frightened. ”

“ I want to become a dragon-fly!”
And then she crept down to the bottom to catch lots of little insects and eat herself fatter than ever.
The water-lily lay quietly on the water and reflected:
“I can’t understand animals!” she said to herself. “They do nothing but dance about from morn till night, hunt and eat one another and know no moment’s peace. We flowers are [188] more sensible. We grow up calmly and placidly, side by side, drink sunshine and rain and take everything as it comes. ”

“ Starling had heard the first notes, she flapped her wings and pecked at him with her beak:
“Will you be quiet at once!” she screamed, angrily. “That sounds so dismal that it makes one quite melancholy. You’d better see to it that the anemones come out. I think it’s high time. And, besides, one always feels warmer when there are others shivering too.”
Now, as soon as the anemones had heard the starling’s first whistle, they carefully stuck their heads out of the ground. But they were still so tightly tucked up in their green wraps that one could hardly see them. ”

“ Soon after, the grub was full-grown [119] and stepped out of her room, looking as large and beautiful as the bees could possibly wish. And she did know how to command and no mistake!
“Away with you!” she said. “We want more honey for winter use and you others must sweat more wax. I mean to build a wing to the hive. The new princesses will live in it next year; it is much too unpleasant for them to be so near the common grubs.”
“What next!” cried the bees to one another. “One would really think that she had been queen from the time when she lay in the egg!” ”

“ If there were not so many of you, I would kill you.”
“The stupid beast!” sang the nightingale [124] who sat in the syringa-bush. “He does not care about flowers or music and singing. Nothing but eat, eat, eat!”
“The stupid beast!” piped the swallow who swept over the kitchen-garden on his long, pointed wings. “He has not the smallest taste for poetry: never thinks of sunshine and summer air. There is not the least go in him. Nothing but eat, eat, eat! And then, into the bargain, he is so full of loathsome poisonous hairs that one can’t eat him one’s self.” ”

“ That’s what a good mother always does.”
Then she went to the edge of the rock and looked out.
The eider-duck were disporting themselves gloriously. She could distinctly see her husband and her aunt diving and amusing themselves as though life were a sheer enjoyment. And all the others were doing the same: not one of them thought that there was a man up above emptying all the nests of their precious down.
“Come up here and pluck your breast!” she screamed. “Now is the time to keep some of your promises. Your eggs are lying bare and cold, while you are enjoying yourself down there, you wretch!” ”