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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FIVE OUT OF ONE POD                    481
1 She is going to her little sister,' the woman said. ■ I had only the two children, and it was nol^n easy thing to provide for both, but the good God provided for one of them by taking her home to Himself ; now I should be glad to keep the other that was left me ; but I suppose they are not to remain separated, and she will go to her sister in heaven.'
But the sick girl remained where she was. She lay quiet and patient all day long while her mother went to earn money out of doors. It was spring, and early in the morning, just as the mother was about to go out to work, the sun shone mildly and pleasantly through the little window, and threw its rays across the floor ; and the sick girl fixed her eyes on the lowest pane in the window.
' What may that green thing be that looks in at the window ? It is moving in the wind.'
And the mother stepped to the window, and half opened it. ' Oh ! ' said she, ' on my word, it is a little pea which has taken root here, and is putting out its little leaves. How can it have got here into the crack ? There you have a little garden to look at.'
And the sick girl's bed was moved nearer to the window, so that she could always see the growing pea ; and the mother went forth to her work.
1 Mother, I think I shall get well,' said the sick child in the evening. ' The sun shone in upon me to day delight­fully warm. The little pea is thriving famously, and I shall thrive too, and get up, and go out into the warm sunshine.'
' God grant it ! ' said the mother, but she did not believe it would be so ; but she took care to prop with a little stick the green plant which had given her daughter the pleasant thoughts of life, so that it might not be broken by the wind ; she tied a piece of string to the window-sill and to the upper part of the frame, so that the pea might have something round which it could twine, when it shot up : and it did shoot up indeed—one could see how it grew every day.
' Really, here is a flower coming ! ' said the woman one day ; and now she began to cherish the hope that her sick daughter would recover. She remembered that lately the child had spoken much more cheerfully than before, that in the last few days she had risen up in bed of her own accord, and had sat upright, looking with delighted eyes
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