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I have lived to see much of that sort of thing; but I am ex-
tremely sorry for the garter I mean the girdle that went
into the water-tub. I have much on my conscience, I want to
become white paper!
And it became so, all the rags were turned into white pa-
per; but the collar came to be just this very piece of white
paper we here see, and on which the story is printed; and
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street chairs and tables were brought forth and candles
THE SHADOW
burnt yes, above a thousand lights were burning and
the one talked and the other sung; and people walked and
church-bells rang, and asses went along with a dingle-din-
gle-dong! for they too had bells on. The street boys were
t is in the hot lands that the sun burns, sure enough! there screaming and hooting, and shouting and shooting, with
Ithe people become quite a mahogany brown, ay, and in devils and detonating balls and there came corpse bear-
the HOTTEST lands they are burnt to Negroes. But now ers and hood wearers for there were funerals with psalm
it was only to the HOT lands that a learned man had come and hymn and then the din of carriages driving and com-
from the cold; there he thought that he could run about just pany arriving: yes, it was, in truth, lively enough down in
as when at home, but he soon found out his mistake. the street. Only in that single house, which stood opposite
He, and all sensible folks, were obliged to stay within that in which the learned foreigner lived, it was quite still;
doors the window-shutters and doors were closed the and yet some one lived there, for there stood flowers in the
whole day; it looked as if the whole house slept, or there was balcony they grew so well in the sun s heat! and that they
no one at home. could not do unless they were watered and some one must
The narrow street with the high houses, was built so that water them there must be somebody there. The door op-
the sunshine must fall there from morning till evening it posite was also opened late in the evening, but it was dark
was really not to be borne. within, at least in the front room; further in there was heard
The learned man from the cold lands he was a young the sound of music. The learned foreigner thought it quite
man, and seemed to be a clever man sat in a glowing oven; marvellous, but now it might be that he only imagined it
it took effect on him, he became quite meagre even his for he found everything marvellous out there, in the warm
shadow shrunk in, for the sun had also an effect on it. It was lands, if there had only been no sun. The stranger s landlord
first towards evening when the sun was down, that they be- said that he didn t know who had taken the house opposite,
gan to freshen up again. one saw no person about, and as to the music, it appeared
In the warm lands every window has a balcony, and to him to be extremely tiresome.  It is as if some one sat
the people came out on all the balconies in the street for there, and practised a piece that he could not master al-
one must have air, even if one be accustomed to be ma- ways the same piece.  I shall master it! says he; but yet he
hogany!* It was lively both up and down the street. Tailors, cannot master it, however long he plays.
and shoemakers, and all the folks, moved out into the * The word mahogany can be understood, in Danish,
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as having two meanings. In general, it means the reddish- natural that his shadow should fall on his opposite neigh-
brown wood itself; but in jest, it signifies  excessively fine, bor s wall. Yes! there it sat, directly opposite, between the
which arose from an anecdote of Nyboder, in Copenhagen, flowers on the balcony; and when the stranger moved, the
(the seamen s quarter.) A sailor s wife, who was always proud shadow also moved: for that it always does.
and fine, in her way, came to her neighbor, and complained  I think my shadow is the only living thing one sees over
that she had got a splinter in her finger.  What of? asked the there, said the learned man.  See, how nicely it sits between
neighbor s wife.  It is a mahogany splinter, said the other. the flowers. The door stands half-open: now the shadow
 Mahogany! It cannot be less with you! exclaimed the wom- should be cunning, and go into the room, look about, and
an-and thence the proverb,  It is so mahogany! -(that is, so then come and tell me what it had seen. Come, now! Be use-
excessively fine) is derived. ful, and do me a service, said he, in jest.  Have the kindness
One night the stranger awoke he slept with the doors to step in. Now! Art thou going? and then he nodded to the
of the balcony open the curtain before it was raised by the shadow, and the shadow nodded again.  Well then, go! But
wind, and he thought that a strange lustre came from the don t stay away.
opposite neighbor s house; all the flowers shone like flames, The stranger rose, and his shadow on the opposite neigh-
in the most beautiful colors, and in the midst of the flow- bor s balcony rose also; the stranger turned round and the
ers stood a slender, graceful maiden it was as if she also shadow also turned round. Yes! if anyone had paid particu-
shone; the light really hurt his eyes. He now opened them lar attention to it, they would have seen, quite distinctly, that
quite wide yes, he was quite awake; with one spring he the shadow went in through the half-open balcony-door of
was on the floor; he crept gently behind the curtain, but the their opposite neighbor, just as the stranger went into his
maiden was gone; the flowers shone no longer, but there own room, and let the long curtain fall down after him.
they stood, fresh and blooming as ever; the door was ajar, Next morning, the learned man went out to drink coffee
and, far within, the music sounded so soft and delightful, and read the newspapers.
one could really melt away in sweet thoughts from it. Yet  What is that? said he, as he came out into the sunshine.
it was like a piece of enchantment. And who lived there?  I have no shadow! So then, it has actually gone last night,
Where was the actual entrance? The whole of the ground- and not come again. It is really tiresome!
floor was a row of shops, and there people could not always This annoyed him: not so much because the shadow was
be running through. gone, but because he knew there was a story about a man
One evening the stranger sat out on the balcony. The without a shadow.* It was known to everybody at home, in
light burnt in the room behind him; and thus it was quite the cold lands; and if the learned man now came there and
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