I know who I am, and I shall remain what I am."
One day something lay close beside her that glittered splendidly; then
the Darning-needle believed that it was a diamond; but it was a bit
of broken bottle; and because it shone the Darning-needle spoke to it,
introducing herself as a breastpin.
"I suppose you are a diamond?" she observed.
"Why, yes, something of that kind."
And then each believed the other to be a very valuable thing; and they
began speaking about the world, and how very conceited it was.
"I have been in a lady's box," said the Darning-needle, "and this
lady was a cook. She had five fingers on each hand, and I never saw
anything so conceited as those five fingers. And yet they were only
there that they might take me out of the box and put me back into it."
"Were they of good birth?" asked the Bit of Bottle.
"No, indeed," replied the Darning-needle: "but very haughty. There
were five brothers, all of the finger family. They kept very proudly
together though they were of different lengths: the outermost, the
thumbling, was short and fat; he walked out in front of the ranks, and
only had one joint in his back, and could only make a single bow; but
he said that if he were hacked off a man, that man was useless for
service in war.
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