Hans Christian Andersen

“ But not a pot among them which didn't know its capabilities, or how distinguished it was, 'If I had chosen, we might have had a merry evening, and no mistake,' they all thought.
"The servant took the matches and struck a light; preserve us! how they spluttered and blazed up.
"'Now every one can see,' they thought, 'that we are the first. How brilliantly we shine! What a light we shed around!'—And then they were burnt out."
"That was a splendid story," said the Queen; "I quite felt that I was in the kitchen with the matches. Yes, indeed, you shall marry our daughter." ”

“ The head of the tribe got a place as mainmast on a splendid ship, which could sail round the world if it chose; the other branches were scattered in different directions, and it is now our task to give light to the common herd; that is how such aristocratic people as ourselves have got into this kitchen.'
"'Now my lot has been different!' said the iron pot, beside which the matches lay. 'Ever since I came into the world I have passed the time in being scoured and boiled, over and over again! Everything solid comes to me, and in fact I am the most important person in the house. ”

“ There was once a bundle of matches, and they were frightfully proud because of their high origin. Their family tree, that is to say the great pine tree of which they were each a little splinter, had been the giant of the forest. The matches now lay on a shelf between a tinderbox and an old iron pot, and they told the whole story of their youth to these two. 'Ah, when we were a living tree,' said they, 'we were indeed a green branch! Every morning and every evening we had diamond-tea, that was the dew-drops. In the day we had the sunshine, and all the little birds to tell us stories. ”