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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636
THE RACERS
out my will. At each distribution I have started from a fixed principle. I always went to the first prize from the beginning of the alphabet, and to the second from the end. And if you will now take notice, when one starts from the beginning, the eighth letter from A is H, and there we have the Hare, and so I awarded him the first prize ; the eighth letter from the end of the alphabet is S, and therefore the Snail received the second prize. Next time, I will have its turn for the first prize, and R for the second : there must be due order in everything ! One must have a certain starting-point ! '
' I should certainly have voted for myself, if I had not been among the judges,' said the Mule, who had been one of the committee. * One must not only consider the rapidity of advance, but every other quality also that is found— as, for example, how much a candidate is able to draw; but I would not have put that prominently forward this time, nor the sagacity of the Hare in his flight, or the cunning with which he suddenly takes a leap to one side to bring people on a false track, so that they may not know where he has hidden himself. No ! there is something else on which many lay great stress, and which one may not leave out of the calculation. I mean what is called the beautiful. On the beautiful I particularly fixed my eyes ; I looked at the beautiful well-grown ears of the Hare : it's quite a pleasure to see how long they are ; it almost seemed to me as if I saw myself in the days of my child­hood. And so I voted for the Hare.'
' But,' said the Fly, ' I 'm not going to talk, I'm only going to say something. I know that I have overtaken more than one hare. Quite lately I crushed the hind legs of one. I was sitting on the engine in front of a railway train—I often do that, for thus one can best notice one's own swiftness. A young hare ran for a long time in front of the engine ; he had no idea that I was present; but at last he was obliged to give in and spring aside—and then the engine crushed his hind legs, for I was upon it. The hare lay there, but I rode on. That certainly was conquering him ! But I don't count upon getting the prize ! '
1 It certainly appears to me,' thought the Wild Rose— but she did not say it, for it is not her nature to give her