Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 2Sylvester, Charles Herbert
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Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 2
Sylvester, Charles Herbert
Children's literature; Literature -- Collections
And the Darning-Needle drew herself up so proudly that she fell out of
the handkerchief right into the sink, which the cook was rinsing out.
"Now we're going on a journey," said the Darning-Needle. "If I only
don't get lost!"
But she really was lost.
"I'm too fine for this world," she observed, as she lay in the gutter.
"But I know who I am, and there's always something in that."
So the Darning-Needle kept her proud behavior, and did not lose her good
humor. And things of many kinds swam over her--chips and straws and
pieces of old newspapers.
"Only look how they sail!" said the Darning-Needle. "They don't know
what is under them! I'm here; I remain firmly here. See, there goes a
chip thinking of nothing in the world but himself--of a chip! There's a
straw going by now. How he turns? How he twirls about! Don't think only
of yourself; you might easily run up against a stone. There swims a bit
of newspaper. What's written upon it has long been forgotten, and yet it
gives itself airs. I sit quietly and patiently here. I know who I am,
and I shall remain what I am."
One day something lay close beside her that glittered splendidly; then
the Darning-Needle believed that it was a diamond; but it was a Bit of
broken Bottle; and because it shone, the Darning-Needle spoke to it,
introducing herself as a breastpin.
"I suppose you are a diamond?" she observed.
"Why, yes, something of that kind."
And then each believed the other to be a very valuable thing; and they
began speaking about the world, and how very conceited it was.
"I have been in a lady's box," said the Darning-Needle, "and this lady
was a cook. She had five fingers on each hand, and I never saw anything
so conceited as those five fingers. And yet they were only there that
they might take me out of the box, and put me back into it."
"Were they of good birth?" asked the Bit of Bottle.
"No, indeed," replied the Darning-Needle, "but very haughty. There were
five brothers, all of the Finger family. They kept very proudly
together, though they were of different lengths. The outermost, the
Thumbling, was short and fat; he walked out in front of the ranks, and
had only one joint in his back, and could only make a single bow; but he
said if he were hacked off from a man, that man was useless for service
in war. Dainty-Mouth, the second finger, thrust himself into sweet and
sour, pointed to the sun and moon, and gave the impression when they
wrote. Longman, the third, looked at all the others over his shoulder.
Goldborder, the fourth, went about with a golden belt round his waist;
and little Playman did nothing at all, and was proud of it. There was
nothing but bragging among them, and therefore I went away."
"And now we sit here and glitter!" said the Bit of Bottle.
At that moment more water came into the gutter, so that it overflowed,
and the Bit of Bottle was carried away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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