Fairy tales and stories (Andersen, Tegner)/The Sweethearts

by Hans Christian Andersen

For other English-language translations of this work, see The Sweethearts.

THE SWEETHEARTS

THE TOP COULD SEE THE BALL FLYING HIGH UP IN THE AIR LIKE A BIRD.

THE SWEETHEARTS

A TOP and a hall were lying together in a drawer among some other toys, and the top said to the ball: "Shall we not be sweethearts, since we are together in the same drawer?" But the ball, which was made of morocco, and thought just as much of herself as any fine lady, would not give any answer to such a proposal.

Next day the little boy who owned the toys came and painted the top red and yellow, and knocked a brass nail into the middle of it ; the top looked quite splendid as it was spinning round.

"Look at me!" he said to the ball. "What do you say now? Shall we not be sweethearts ? We should suit one another so well ; you could jump and I dance. No one could be happier than we two!"

" Do you think si).?" said the ball; "you know, I suppose, that my father and mother were morocco slippers and I have a cork in my body?"

"Yes, but I am made of mahogany," said the top, "ami the sheriff himself turned me; he has a lathe of his own, and he took great pleasure in making me."

"But can I depend on that?" said the ball.

"May I never be whipped again if I tell a lie!" answered the top.

"You speak very well for yourself!" said the ball, "but I cannot accept you; I am as good as engaged to a swallow. Every time I fly up in the air he puts his head out of his nest and says: 'Will you? Will your' And in my heart I have already answered, 'Yes,' so that it is as good as a betrothal ; but I will promise you that I shall never forget you!"

"Well, there is n't much comfort in that!" said the top; and so they did not speak to each other again.

Next day the ball was taken out; the top could see her ri ing high up in the air like a bird, till at last he could not see her at all. Each time she came back, but as she touched the ground she always made a high bound; that was done either because she longed to jump again or because she had a cork in her body. The ninth time the ball disappeared and did not return ; the boy looked and searched for her, but she was gone.

"I know where she is," sighed the top; "she is in the swallow's nest, and has married the swallow."

The more the top thought about her the more he became infatuated with her; just because he could not get her his love increased — that she should have chosen another made it only the more annoying. So the top whirled round and hummed, but was always thinking of the ball, who in his imagination became more and more beautiful. Thus several years passed by, and so it was now an old love.

And the top was no longer young. But one day he was gilded all over; never before had he looked so splendid — he was now a golden top, and whirled about till you could hear him humming far off. Yes, it was a grand sight ! liut suddenly he bounded too high and — he was gone I

They looked and searched everywhere, even down in the cellar, but the top could not be found.

Where could he be?

He had jumped into the dust-bin, where there were all sorts of rubbish—cabbage-stalks, sweepings, and gravel that had been washed down through the gutter.

"Well, I seem to have got into a nice place! My gilding will soon come off here. But what wretched creatures have I fallen amongst?" he said, looking askance at a long cabbage-stalk which had been plucked of all its green, and a curious round thing which looked like an old apple. But it was not an apple; it was an old ball which had been lying for many years up in the gutter under the roof, and through which the water had been oozing.

"Thank Heaven, here is one of one's own class, whom one can speak to!" said the ball, looking at the gilt top. "I am, strictly speaking, of morocco, sewed by maidenly hands, and have a cork in my body, but no one would think it, to look at me. I was very near getting married to a swallow, but then I fell into the gutter, and there I have been lying for five years with the water oozing through me. It is a long time, believe me, for a maiden!"

But the top did not say anything. He was thinking of his old sweetheart, and the more he heard, the clearer it became to him that it was she.

Just then the servant girl came to empty the dust-bin: "Hullo! there's the gilt top!" she exclaimed.

And the top was again brought into the house and became an object of esteem and appreciation. But nothing more was heard of the ball, and the top never spoke of his old love; love soon dies when one's sweetheart has been lying for five years in a gutter with the water oozing through her; in fact, one would never know her again when one met her in the dust-bin.