It was
dirty work, but they took great delight in it.
"Oh!" cried one, who had pricked himself with the Darning-needle,
"there's a fellow for you!"
"I'm not a fellow; I'm a young lady!" said the Darning-needle.
But nobody listened to her. The sealing-wax had come off, and she
had turned black; but black makes one look slender, and she thought
herself finer even than before.
"Here comes an eggshell sailing along!" said the boys; and they stuck
the Darning-needle fast in the eggshell.
"White walls, and black myself! that looks well," remarked the
Darning-needle. "Now one can see me. I only hope I shall not be
seasick!" But she was not seasick at all. "It is good against
seasickness, if one has a steel stomach, and does not forget that one
is a little more than an ordinary person! Now my seasickness is over.
The finer one is, the more one can bear."
"Crack!" went the eggshell, for a wagon went over her.
"Good Heavens, how it crushes one!" said the Darning-needle. "I'm
getting seasick now--I'm quite sick."
But she was not really sick, though the wagon went over her; she lay
there at full length, and there she may lie.
* * * * *
THUMBELINA
BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
She had a little house of her own, a little garden too, this woman of
whom I am going to tell you, but for all that she was not quite happy.
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