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The church-bells rang, and the children
recognised the high towers, and the large town; it was that in which they
dwelt. They entered and hastened up to their grandmother's room, where
everything was standing as formerly. The clock said "tick! tack!" and the
finger moved round; but as they entered, they remarked that they were now
grown up. The roses on the leads hung blooming in at the open window; there
stood the little children's chairs, and Kay and Gerda sat down on them,
holding each other by the hand; they both had forgotten the cold empty
splendor of the Snow Queen, as though it had been a dream. The grandmother sat
in the bright sunshine, and read aloud from the Bible: "Unless ye become as
little children, ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven."

And Kay and Gerda looked in each other's eyes, and all at once they understood
the old hymn:

"The rose in the valley is blooming so sweet,
And angels descend there the children to greet."

There sat the two grown-up persons; grown-up, and yet children; children at
least in heart; and it was summer-time; summer, glorious summer!



THE LEAP-FROG

A Flea, a Grasshopper, and a Leap-frog once wanted to see which could jump
highest; and they invited the whole world, and everybody else besides who
chose to come to see the festival. Three famous jumpers were they, as
everyone would say, when they all met together in the room.

"I will give my daughter to him who jumps highest," exclaimed the King; "for
it is not so amusing where there is no prize to jump for."

The Flea was the first to step forward. He had exquisite manners, and bowed to
the company on all sides; for he had noble blood, and was, moreover,
accustomed to the society of man alone; and that makes a great difference.

Then came the Grasshopper. He was considerably heavier, but he was
well-mannered, and wore a green uniform, which he had by right of birth; he
said, moreover, that he belonged to a very ancient Egyptian family, and that
in the house where he then was, he was thought much of. The fact was, he had
been just brought out of the fields, and put in a pasteboard house, three
stories high, all made of court-cards, with the colored side inwards; and
doors and windows cut out of the body of the Queen of Hearts. "I sing so
well," said he, "that sixteen native grasshoppers who have chirped from
infancy, and yet got no house built of cards to live in, grew thinner than
they were before for sheer vexation when they heard me."

It was thus that the Flea and the Grasshopper gave an account of themselves,
and thought they were quite good enough to marry a Princess.

The Leap-frog said nothing; but people gave it as their opinion, that he
therefore thought the more; and when the housedog snuffed at him with his
nose, he confessed the Leap-frog was of good family. The old councillor, who
had had three orders given him to make him hold his tongue, asserted that the
Leap-frog was a prophet; for that one could see on his back, if there would be

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