Hans Christian Andersen

“ It was an old Ball that must have lain for years in the gutter, and been soaked through and through with water.
"Thank goodness ! at last I see an equal; one of my own sort, with whom I can talk," said the Ball, looking earnestly at the gilded Top. "I am myself made of real morocco, sewed together by a young lady's hands, and within my body is a Spanish cork ; though no one would think it now. I was very near marrying the swallow, when by a sad chance I fell into the gutter on the roof. ”

“ What do you say to me now; why should we not make a match of it, and become man and wife? We suit each other so well! -- you can jump and I can dance. There would not be a happier pair in the whole world ! "
"Do you think so ?" said the Ball. "Perhaps you do not know that my father and mother were morocco slippers, and that I have a Spanish cork in my body !" ”

“ I am as good as engaged to a swallow. As often as I fly up into the air, he puts his head out of his nest, and says, 'Will you?' In my heart I have said Yes to him, and that is almost the same as an engagement ”