第333章
《安徒生童话英文版 全TXT版》章节:第333章,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
As a little boy he had seenall these fine doings in their greatest pomp. The oldest of thepolicemen used to make a speech from the platform on which theshield was hung up, and the speech was in verse, as if it had beenmade by a poet, as, indeed it had; for three people had concocted ittogether, and they had first drunk a good bowl of punch, so that thespeech might turn out well.
And the people gave a cheer for the speech, but they shoutedmuch louder for the Harlequin, when he appeared in front of theplatform, and made a grimace at them.
The fools played the fool most admirably, and drank mead out ofspirit-glasses, which they then flung among the crowd, by whom theywere caught up. Grandfather was the possessor of one of these glasses,which had been given him by a working mason, who had managed tocatch it. Such a scene was really very pleasant; and the shield on thenew court-house was hung with flowers and green wreaths.
"One never forgets a feast like that, however old one may grow,"said grandfather. Nor did he forget it, though he saw many other grandspectacles in his time, and could tell about them too; but it was mostpleasant of all to hear him tell about the shield that was broughtin the town from the old to the new court-house.
Once, when he was a little boy, grandpapa had gone with hisparents to see this festivity. He had never yet been in the metropolisof the country. There were so many people in the streets, that hethought that the shield was being carried. There were many shieldsto be seen; a hundred rooms might have been filled with pictures, ifthey had been hung up inside and outside. At the tailor's werepictures of all kinds of clothing, to show that he could stitch uppeople from the coarsest to the finest; at the tobaccomanufacturer's were pictures of the most charming little boys, smokingcigars, just as they do in reality; there were signs with paintedbutter, and herring, clerical collars, and coffins, and inscriptionsand announcements into the bargain. A person could walk up and downfor a whole day through the streets, and tire himself out with lookingat the pictures; and then he would know all about what people lived inthe houses, for they had hung out their shields or signs; and, asgrandfather said, it was a very instructive thing, in a great town, toknow at once who the inhabitants were.
And this is what happened with these shields, when grandpapacame to the town. He told it me himself, and he hadn't "a rogue on hisback," as mother used to tell me he had when he wanted to make mebelieve something outrageous, for now he looked quite trustworthy.
The first night after he came to the town had been signalized bythe most terrible gale ever recorded in the newspapers- a gale such asnone of the inhabitants had ever before experienced. The air wasdark with flying tiles; old wood-work crashed and fell; and awheelbarrow ran up the streets all alone, only to get out of theway. There was a groaning in the air, and a howling and a shrieking,and altogether it was a terrible storm. The water in the canal roseover the banks, for it did not know where to run. The storm swept overthe town, carrying plenty of chimneys with it, and more than one proudweathercock on a church tower had to bow, and has never got over itfrom that time.
There was a kind of sentry-house, where dwelt the venerable oldsuperintendent of the fire brigade, who always arrived with the lastengine. The storm would not leave this little sentry-house alone,but must needs tear it from its fastenings, and roll it down thestreet; and, wonderfully enough, it stopped opposite to the door ofthe dirty journeyman plasterer, who had saved three lives at thelast fire, but the sentry-house thought nothing of that.
The barber's shield, the great brazen dish, was carried away,and hurled straight into the embrasure of the councillor of justice;and the whole neighborhood said this looked almost like malice,inasmuch as they, and nearly all the friends of the councillor's wife,used to call that lady "the Razor" for she was so sharp that sheknew more about other people's business than they knew about itthemselves.
A shield with a dried salt fish painted on it flew exactly infront of the door of a house where dwelt a man who wrote anewspaper. That was a very poor joke perpetrated by the gale, whichseemed to have forgotten that a man who writes in a paper is not thekind of person to understand any liberty taken with him; for he is aking in his own newspaper, and likewise in his own opinion.
The weathercock flew to the opposite house, where he perched,looking the picture of malice- so the neighbors said.
The cooper's tub stuck itself up under the head of "ladies'costumes."
The eating-house keeper's bill of fare, which had hung at his doorin a heavy frame, was posted by the storm over the entrance to thetheatre, where nobody went. "It was a ridiculous list- horse-radish,soup, and stuffed cabbage." And now people came in plenty.
The fox's skin, the honorable sign of the furrier, was foundfastened to the bell-pull of a young man who always went to earlylecture, and looked like a furled umbrella. He said he was strivingafter truth, and was considered by his aunt "a model and an example."
The inscription "Institution for Superior Education" was foundnear the billiard club, which place of resort was further adorned withthe words, "Children brought up by hand." Now, this was not at allwitty; but, you see, the storm had done it, and no one has any controlover that.
It was a terrible night, and in the morning- only think!