Hans Christian Andersen

“ Next spring, there was a knock one day at the door of our Ib's old mother, and behold, the boatman and Christine stepped into the room. She had come on a visit to spend a day: a carriage had to come from the Herning Inn to the next village, and she had taken the opportunity to see her friends once again. She looked as handsome as a real lady, and she had a pretty gown on, which had been well sewn, and made expressly for her. There she stood, in grand array, and Ib was in his working clothes. ”

“ But that is no reason why we should suspect the gipsy woman of wanting to steal the children. In the wild wood-path they met the forest bailiff, who knew Ib; and by his help, Ib and Christine both arrived at home, where their friends had been very anxious about them. They were pardoned and forgiven, although they had indeed both deserved to get into trouble; firstly, because they had let the sucking-pig fall into the water, and secondly, because they had run away.
Christine was taken back to her father on the heath, and Ib remained in the farm-house by the wood. ”

“ He had no one who could take care of little Christine, who was a year younger than lb, and therefore the child was almost always with him in his boat, or in the forest among the heath plants and barberry bushes. When he had to go as far as Banders, he would bring little Christine to stay at the Jeppe-Jenses'.
Ib and Christine agreed very well in every particular: they dug in the ground together for treasures, and they ran and crept, and one day they ventured together up the high ridge, and a long way into the forest; they found a few snipe's eggs there, and that was a great event for them. ”

“ Ib sat in the pretty neat house, for he was a prosperous man, while the mother of the little girl rested in the churchyard at Copenhagen, where she had died in poverty.
Ib had money, and was said to have provided for the future. He had won gold out of the black earth, and he had a Christine for his own, after all. ”

“ Indeed, they could have managed to save enough to keep two horses; but, like the other peasants of the neighbourhood, they said, 'The horse eats itself up'—that is to say, it eats as much as it earns. ”

“ He placed it carefully between the door and the door-frame, and then shut the door so as to break the nut; but there was not much kernel in it. The nut looked as if it were filled with snuff or black rich earth; it was what we call hollow, or worm-eaten.
'Yes, that's exactly what I thought,' said Ib. 'How could the very best thing be contained in this little nut? And Christine will get just as little out of her two nuts, and will have neither fine clothes nor golden carriage.'
And winter came on, and the new year began ”