The Complete Fairy Tales & Other Stories
By Hans Christian Andersen - online book

Oxford Complete Illustrated Edition all his stories written between 1835 and 1872.

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	168                      THE FLYING TRUNK
	a nightingale in a cage, and he can sing. He hasn't had any education, but this evening we'll say nothing about that." *  " I think it very wrong," said the Tea Kettle—he was the kitchen singer, and half-brother to the Tea Urn— " that that rich and foreign bird should be listened to ! Is that patriotic ? Let the Market Basket decide." *  " I am vexed," said the Market Basket. " No one can imagine how much I am secretly vexed. Is that a proper way of spending the evening ? Would it not be more sensible to put the house in order ? Let each one go to his own place, and I would arrange the whole game. That would be quite another thing." ' " Yes, let us make a disturbance," cried they all. Then the door opened, and the maid came in, and they all stood still; not one stirred. But there was not one pot among them who did not know what he could do, and how grand he was. " Yes, if I had liked," each one thought, " it might have been a very merry evening." ' The servant girl took the Matches and lighted the fire with them. Mercy ! how they sputtered and burst out into flame 1 " Now every one can see," thought they, " that we are the first. How we shine ! what a light ! "— and they burned out.' ' That was a capital story,' said the Sultana. * I feel myself quite carried away to the kitchen, to the Matches. Yes, now thou shalt marry our daughter.' 1 Yes, certainly,' said the Sultan, ' thou shalt marry our daughter on Monday.' And they called him thou, because he was to belong to the family. The wedding was decided on, and on the evening before it the whole city was illuminated. Biscuits and cakes were thrown among the people, the street boys stood on their toes, called out ' Hurrah ! ' and whistled on their fingers. It was uncommonly splendid. : Yes, I shall have to give something as a treat,' thought the merchant's son. So he bought rockets and crackers, and every imaginable sort of firework, put them all into his trunk, and flew up into the air. ' Crack ! ' how they went, and how they went off ! All