The most solemn of all the days of our life is the day we die. It is judgment day, the great sacred day of transfiguration. Have you really seriously given a fleeting thought to that grave and mighty last hour we shall spend on earth?
Continue reading →Fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen
The neighbouring families
One would have thought that something important was going on in the duck-pond, but it was nothing after all. All the ducks lying quietly on the water or standing on their heads in it– for they could do that– at once swarm to the sides; the traces of their feet were seen in the wet earth, and their cackling was heard far and wide.
Continue reading →The sweathearts (Top and Ball)
A whipping top and a little ball lay together in a box, among other toys, and the top said to the ball, “Shall we be married, as we live in the same box?”
Continue reading →The little mermaid
Far out in the ocean, where the water is as blue as the prettiest cornflower, and as clear as crystal, it is very, very deep; so deep, indeed, that no cable could fathom it: many church steeples, piled one upon another, would not reach from the ground beneath to the surface of the water above.
Continue reading →The gate key
Every key has a history, and there are many kinds of keys – a chamberlain’s key, a watch key, Saint Peter’s key. We could tell you about all the keys; but now we will only tell about the councilor’s gate key.
Continue reading →The dryad
We are travelling to Paris to the Exhibition.
Continue reading →The windmill
A windmill stood upon the hill, proud to look at, and it was proud too.
Continue reading →In the duck yard
A duck arrived from Portugal. Some people said she came from Spain, but that doesn’t really matter. She was called the Portuguese; she laid eggs, and was killed and dressed and cooked; that’s the story of her life. But all the ducklings that were hatched from her eggs were also called Portuguese, and there’s some distinction in that. At last there was only one left of her whole family in the duck yard – a yard to which the hens also had access, and where the cock strutted about with endless arrogance.
Continue reading →Ole the tower-keeper
“In the world it’s always going up and down; and now I can’t go up any higher!” So said Ole the tower-keeper. “Most people have to try both the ups and the downs; and, rightly considered, we all get to be watchmen at last, and look down upon life from a height.”
Continue reading →Ib and little Christina
In the forest that extends from the banks of the Gudenau, in North Jutland, a long way into the country, and not far from the clear stream, rises a great ridge of land, which stretches through the wood like a wall.
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