|
The Darning-Needle
The Darning-Needle
[See The Darning-Needle: The fingers pointed the needle just at the cook`s
slipper.]
There was once a darning-needle, who thought herself so fine, she
imagined she was an embroidering-needle.
"Take care, and mind you hold me tight!" she said to the Fingers that
took her out. "Don`t let me fall! If I fall on the ground I shall certainly
never be found again, for I am so fine!"
"That`s as it may be," said the Fingers; and they grasped her round the
body.
"See, I`m coming with a train!" said the Darning-needle, and she drew a
long thread after her, but there was no knot in the thread.
The Fingers pointed the needle just at the cook`s slipper, in which the
upper leather had burst, and was to be sewn together.
"That`s vulgar work," said the Darning-needle. "I shall never get
through. I`m breaking! I`m breaking!" And she really broke. "Did I not say
so?" said the Darning-needle; "I`m too fine!"
"Now it`s quite useless," said the Fingers; but they were obliged to hold
her fast, all the same; for the cook dropped some sealing-wax upon the
needle, and pinned her handkerchief together with it in front.
"So, now I`m a breast-pin!" said the Darning-needle. "I knew very
well that I should come to honor: when one is something, one comes to
something!"
And she laughed quietly to herself - and one can never see when a darning
- needle laughs. There she sat, as proud as if she was in a state coach, and
looked all about her.
"May I be permitted to ask if you are of gold?" she inquired of the pin,
her neighbor. "You have a very pretty appearance, and a peculiar head, but it
is only little. You must take pains to grow, for it`s not every one that has
sealing-wax dropped upon him."
And the Darning-needle drew herself up so proudly that she fell out of
the handkerchief right into the sink, which the cook was rinsing out.
"Now we`re going on a journey," said the Darning-needle. "If I only
don`t get lost!"
But she really was lost.
"I`m too fine for this world," she observed, as she lay in the gutter.
"But I know who I am, and there`s always something in that!"
So the Darning-needle kept her proud behavior, and did not lose her
good humor. And things of many kinds swam over her, chips and straws and
pieces of old newspapers.
"Only look how they sail!" said the Darning-needle. "They don`t know
what is under them! I`m here, I remain firmly here. See, there goes a chip
thinking of nothing in the world but of himself - of a chip! There`s a straw
going by now. How he turns! how he twirls about! Don`t think only of yourself,
you might easily run up against a stone. There swims a bit of newspaper.
What`s written upon it has long been forgotten, and yet it gives itself airs.
I sit quietly and patiently here. 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 breast-pin.
"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. Daintymount, the second
finger, thrust himself into sweet and sour, pointed to sun and moon, and gave
the impression when they wrote. Longman, the third, looked at all the others
over his shoulder. Goldborder, the fourth, went about with a golden belt round
his waist; and little Playman did nothing at all, and was proud of it. There
was nothing but bragging among them, and therefore I went away."
"And now we sit here and glitter!" said the Bit of Bottle.
At that moment more water came into the gutter, so that it overflowed,
and the Bit of Bottle was carried away.
"So he is disposed of," observed the Darning-needle. "I remain here, I
am too fine. But that`s my pride, and my pride is honorable." And proudly she
sat there, and had many great thoughts. "I could almost believe I had been
born of a sunbeam, I`m so fine! It really appears as if the sunbeams were
always seeking for me under the water. Ah! I`m so fine that my mother cannot
find me. If I had my old eye, which broke off, I think I should cry; but, no,
I should not do that; it`s not genteel to cry."
One day a couple of street boys lay grubbing in the gutter, where they
sometimes found old nails, farthings, and similar treasures. It was dirty
work, but they took great delight in it.
"O!" 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 egg-shell sailing along!" said the boys; and they stuck
the Darning-needle fast in the egg-shell.
"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 egg-shell, 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.
|
