Hans Christian Andersen

“ Ah!' he sighed, quite plaintively, and gazed at the chirping birds, as they sprang merrily from bough to bough, 'they are much better off than I. Flying is a noble art. Happy he who is born with wings. Yes, if I could change myself into anything, it should be into a lark.'
In a moment his coat-tails and sleeves grew together and formed wings; his clothes became feathers, and his goloshes claws. ”

“ Thus the watchman's soul understood the language of the people in the moon very well. They disputed about this earth, and doubted if it could be inhabited; the air, they asserted, must be too thick for a sensible moon-man to live there. They considered that the moon alone was peopled; for that, they said, was the real body in which the old- world people dwelt. They also talked of politics.
But let us go down to the East Street, and see how it fared with the body of the watchman. ”

“ H'm!' said the copying clerk, and he sat down upon a bench: his thoughts were so living, his heart so soft. Involuntarily he grasped one of the nearest flowers; it was a common little daisy. What the botanists require several lectures to explain to us, this flower told in a minute. It told the story of its birth; it told of the strength of the sunlight, which spread out the delicate leaves and made them give out fragrance. Then he thought of the battles of life, which likewise awaken feelings in our breasts. Air and light are the lovers of the flower, but light is the favoured one. ”

“ The goloshes, like every one who wishes to do any business thoroughly, could only do one thing at a time. He wished to be a poet, and he became one. Then he wished to be a little bird, and, in changing thus, the former peculiarity was lost.
'That is very funny!' he said. 'In the daytime I sit in the police office among the driest of law papers; at night I can dream that I am flying about, as a lark in the Fredericksberg Garden. ”

“ Laughter is the sign of the highest mental development. Look if a dog or a horse can laugh! No: they can cry; but laughter—that is given to men alone. Ho! ho! ho!' screamed Polly, and finished the jest with 'Let us be men now.'
'You little grey Danish bird,' said the canary; ' so you have also become a prisoner. It is certainly cold in your woods, but still liberty is there. Fly out! they have forgotten to close your cage; the upper window is open. Fly! fly!'
Instinctively the copying clerk obeyed, and flew forth from his prison. ”

“ As he uttered the wish, the goloshes he had put on produced their effect, and the watchman was transported into the body and being of the lieutenant. Then he stood up in the room, and held a little pink paper in his fingers, on which was a poem, a poem written by the lieutenant himself. For who is there who has not once in his life had a poetic moment? and at such a moment, if one writes down one's thoughts, there is poetry.
Yes, people write poetry when they are in love; but a prudent man does not print such poems. ”

“ That flies nineteen million times quicker than the best racer, and yet electricity is still quicker. Death is an electric shock we receive in our hearts, and on the wings of electricity the liberated soul flies away. ”

“ The copying clerk, or, as the lady called him, the field bird, was placed in a little cage close to the canary, and not far from the parrot. The only human words which Polly could say, and which often sounded very comically, were, 'Come, let's be men now!' Everything else that he screamed out was just as unintelligible as the song of the canary bird, except for the copying clerk, who was now also a bird, and who understood his comrades very well. ”

“ We already notice that he has become a poet. It was certainly not an obvious change, for it is a foolish fancy to imagine a poet different from other people, for among the latter there may be natures more poetical than those of many an acknowledged poet. The difference is only that the poet has a better spiritual memory: he can hold fast the feeling and the idea until they are embodied clearly and firmly in words; and the others cannot do that. But the transition from an every-day nature to that of a poet is always a transition, and as such it must be noticed in the copying clerk. ”

“ I should like to look at those things a little nearer, especially the moon, for that won't vanish under one's hands. The student for whom my wife washes says that when we die we fly from one star to another. That 's not true, but it would be very nice. If I could only make a little spring up there, then my body might lie here on the stairs for all I care.'
Now there are certain things we should be very cautious of uttering in this world, but doubly careful when we have goloshes of Fortune on our feet. ”

“ But we may console ourselves with the idea that the soul is most clever when it acts upon its own account; it is the body that makes it stupid.
As we have said, the watchman's body was taken to the hospital, and brought into the washing-room; and naturally enough the first thing they did there was to pull off the goloshes; and then the soul had to come back. It took its way directly towards the body, and in a few seconds there was life in the man. ”

“ That was the word of command for the goloshes. The volunteer shrivelled up, and began to take a very remarkable journey through the hearts of the first row of spectators. The first heart through which he passed was that of a lady: but he immediately fancied himself in the Orthopaedic Institute, in the room where the plaster casts of deformed limbs are kept hanging against the walls; the only difference was, that these casts were formed in the institute when the patients came in, but here in the heart they were formed and preserved after the good persons had gone away. ”

“ Now here he thought wrong, for these were the goloshes of Fortune; but why should not the police be sometimes mistaken? He put them on, thrust some papers into his pocket, and put a few manuscripts under his arm, for they were to be read at home, and abstracts to be made from them. But now it was Sunday morning, and the weather was fine. 'A walk to Fredericksberg would do me good,' said he; and he went out accordingly.
There could not be a quieter, steadier person than this young man. We grant him his little walk with all our hearts; it will certainly do him good after so much sitting. ”

“ THE GOLOSHES OF FORTUNE
I
A Beginning
It was in Copenhagen, in East Street, and in one of the houses not far from the King's New Market, that a large company had assembled, for one must occasionally give a party, in order to be invited in return. Half of the company already sat at the card -tables, the other half awaited the result of the hostess's question, 'What shall we do now?' They had progressed so far, and the conversation went as best it could. Among other subjects the conversation turned upon the Middle Ages. ”

“ The canary fluttered in its cage, the parrot flapped its wings, and cried, 'Let us be men now.' The copying clerk felt mortally afraid, and flew through the window, away over the houses and streets; at last he was obliged to rest a little.
The house opposite had a homelike look: one of the windows stood open, and he flew in. It was his own room: he perched upon the table.
'Let us be men now,' he broke out, involuntarily imitating the parrot; and in the same moment he was restored to the form of the copying clerk ”

“ In a few seconds the watchman had traversed the distance of two hundred and sixty thousand miles to the moon, which body, as we know, consists of a much lighter material than that of our earth, and is, as we should say, soft as new-fallen snow. ”

“ Every one who belongs to Copenhagen knows the look of the entrance to the Frederick's Hospital in Copenhagen; but as, perhaps, a few will read this story who do not belong to Copenhagen, it becomes necessary to give a short description of it.
The hospital is separated from the street by a tolerably high railing, in which the thick iron rails stand so far apart, that certain very thin inmates are said to have squeezed between them, and thus paid their little visits outside the premises. The part of the body most difficult to get through was the head ”

“ At first he only walked without thinking of anything, so the goloshes had no opportunity of displaying their magic power.
In the avenue he met an acquaintance, a young poet, who told him that he was going to start, next day, on a summer trip.
'Are you going away again already?' asked the copying clerk. 'What a happy, free man you are! You can fly wherever you like; we others have a chain to our foot.'
'But it is fastened to the bread tree!' replied the poet. 'You need not be anxious for the morrow ”

“ The poor horses looked miserable, the flies tormented them wofully, and it only mended the matter for a moment when the coachman dismounted and scraped them clean from the insects that sat upon them in great swarms. ”

“ These bought the bird for threepence; and so the copying clerk was carried back to Copenhagen.
'It's a good thing that I am dreaming,' he said, 'or I should become really angry. First I was a poet, and now I'm a lark! Yes, it must have been the poetic nature which transformed me into that little creature. It is a miserable state of things, especially when one falls into the hands of boys. ”

“ It seemed to him that some immense substance was cast over him; it was a great cap, which a boy threw over the bird. A hand came in and seized the copying clerk by the back and wings in a way that made him chirp. In his first terror he cried aloud, 'You impudent rascal! I am copying clerk at the police office!' But that sounded to the boy only like 'piep! piep!' and he tapped the bird on the beak and wandered on with him.
In the alley the boy met with two other boys, who belonged to the educated classes, socially speaking ”

“ He took them away; but as neither the lieutenant nor any one in the street would own them, they were taken to the police office.
'They look exactly like my own goloshes,' said one of the copying gentlemen, as he looked at the unowned articles and put them beside his own. 'More than a shoe-maker's eye is required to distinguish them from one another.'
'Mr. Copying Clerk,' said a servant, coming in with some papers.
The copying clerk turned and spoke to the man: when he had done this, he turned to look at the goloshes again ”

“ He thought of the terror and anxiety he had undergone, and praised from his heart the happy present, our own time, which, with all its shortcomings, was far better than the period in which he had been placed a short time before.
III
The Watchman's Adventures
'On my word, yonder lies a pair o' goloshes!' said the watchman. 'They must certainly belong to the lieutenant who lives upstairs. They are lying close to the door.'
The honest man would gladly have rung the bell and delivered them, for upstairs there was a light still burning ”

“ The supper was served. It consisted of a watery soup, seasoned with pepper and rancid oil. This last dainty played a chief part in the salad; musty eggs and roasted cocks'-combs were the best dishes. Even the wine had a strange taste—it was a dreadful mixture.
At night the boxes were placed against the doors. One of the travellers kept watch while the rest slept. The theologian was the sentry. ”