第202章
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he sprang with a little crooked jump just into the lap ofthe Princess, who sat on a low golden stool.
Then the King said, "The highest leap was taken by him whojumped up to my daughter; for therein lies the point; but itrequires head to achieve that, and the Skipjack has shown that hehas a head."
And so he had the Princess.
"I jumped highest, after all," said the Flea. "But it's all thesame. Let her have the goose-bone with its lump of wax and bit ofstick. I jumped to the highest; but in this world a body is requiredif one wishes to be seen."
And the Flea went into foreign military service, where it issaid he was killed.
The Grasshopper seated himself out in the ditch, and thought andconsidered how things happened in the world. And he too said, "Body isrequired! body is required!" And then he sang his own melancholy song,and from that we have gathered this story, which they say is not true,though it's in print.
THE END.
1872
FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
THE LAST DREAM OF THE OLD OAK
by Hans Christian Andersen
IN the forest, high up on the steep shore, and not far from theopen seacoast, stood a very old oak-tree. It was just three hundredand sixty-five years old, but that long time was to the tree as thesame number of days might be to us; we wake by day and sleep by night,and then we have our dreams. It is different with the tree; it isobliged to keep awake through three seasons of the year, and doesnot get any sleep till winter comes. Winter is its time for rest;its night after the long day of spring, summer, and autumn. On manya warm summer, the Ephemera, the flies that exist for only a day,had fluttered about the old oak, enjoyed life and felt happy and if,for a moment, one of the tiny creatures rested on one of his largefresh leaves, the tree would always say, "Poor little creature! yourwhole life consists only of a single day. How very short. It must bequite melancholy."
"Melancholy! what do you mean?" the little creature would alwaysreply. "Everything around me is so wonderfully bright and warm, andbeautiful, that it makes me joyous."
"But only for one day, and then it is all over."
"Over!" repeated the fly; "what is the meaning of all over? Areyou all over too?"
"No; I shall very likely live for thousands of your days, and myday is whole seasons long; indeed it is so long that you could neverreckon it out."
"No? then I don't understand you. You may have thousands of mydays, but I have thousands of moments in which I can be merry andhappy. Does all the beauty of the world cease when you die?"
"No," replied the tree; "it will certainly last much longer,-infinitely longer than I can even think of. "Well, then," said thelittle fly, "we have the same time to live; only we reckondifferently." And the little creature danced and floated in the air,rejoicing in her delicate wings of gauze and velvet, rejoicing inthe balmy breezes, laden with the fragrance of clover-fields andwild roses, elder-blossoms and honeysuckle, from the garden hedges,wild thyme, primroses, and mint, and the scent of all these was sostrong that the perfume almost intoxicated the little fly. The longand beautiful day had been so full of joy and sweet delights, thatwhen the sun sank low it felt tired of all its happiness andenjoyment. Its wings could sustain it no longer, and gently and slowlyit glided down upon the soft waving blades of grass, nodded its littlehead as well as it could nod, and slept peacefully and sweetly. Thefly was dead.
"Poor little Ephemera!"