‘I am only vexed,’ said the turf-basket. ‘I am vexed from my inmost soul that such things are thought of at all. Is it a becoming way of spending the evening? Would it not be much more rational to reform the whole house, and establish a totally new order of things, rather more according to nature? Then every one would get into his right place, and I would undertake to direct the revolution. What say you to it? That would be something worth the doing!’
‘Oh yes, we will make a grand commotion!’ cried they all. Just then the door opened—it was the servant-maid. They all stood perfectly still, not one dared stir, yet there was not a single kitchen utensil among them all but was thinking about the great things he could have done, and how great was his superiority over the others.
‘Ah, if I had chosen it,’ thought each of them, ‘what a merry evening we might have had!’
The maid took the matches and struck a light—oh, how they sputtered and blazed up!
‘Now every one may see,’ thought they, ‘that we are of highest rank; what a splendid, dazzling light we give, how glorious!’—and in another moment they were burnt out.
‘That is a capital story,’ said the Queen; ‘I quite felt myself transported into the kitchen;—yes, thou shalt have our daughter!’
‘With all my heart,’ said the King; ‘on Monday thou shalt marry our daughter.’ They said ‘thou’ to him now, since he was so soon to become one of the family.
The wedding was a settled thing; and on the evening preceding, the whole city was illuminated; cakes, buns, and sugar-plums were thrown out among the people; all the little boys in the streets stood upon tiptoes, shouting ‘Hurrah!’ and whistling through their fingers—it was famous!
THEIR SLIPPERS FLEW ABOUT THEIR EARS