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 into 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. "One is proof against seasickness if one has a steel stomach and does not forget that one is a little more than an ordinary person! The finer one is, the more one can bear."
"Crack!" went the eggshell, for a hand-barrow went over her.
"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 hand-barrow had run over her; she lay there at full length, and there she may lie.
THE POTATO
By Thomas Moore
I'm a careless potato, and care not a pin
How into existence I came;
If they planted me drill-wise, or dibbled me in,
To me 'tis exactly the same.
The bean and the pea may more loftily tower,
But I care not a button for them;
Defiance I nod with my beautiful flower
When the earth is hoed up to my stem.