dinner, and to sit in my place and have a little sensible conversation with
my neighbors. All of us, excepting the water-bucket, which is sometimes
taken into the courtyard, live here together within these four walls. We get
our news from the market-basket, but he sometimes tells us very unpleasant
things about the people and the government. Yes, and one day an old pot
was so alarmed, that he fell down and was broken to pieces. He was a
liberal, I can tell you.’
“‘You are talking too much,’ said the tinder-box, and the steel struck
against the flint till some sparks flew out, crying, ‘We want a merry
evening, don’t we?’
“‘Yes, of course,’ said the matches, ‘let us talk about those who are the
highest born.’
“‘No, I don’t like to be always talking of what we are,’ remarked the
saucepan; ‘let us think of some other amusement; I will begin. We will tell
something that has happened to ourselves; that will be very easy, and
interesting as well. On the Baltic Sea, near the Danish shore’-
“‘What a pretty commencement!’ said the plates; ‘we shall all like that
story, I am sure.’
“‘Yes; well in my youth, I lived in a quiet family, where the furniture was
polished, the floors scoured, and clean curtains put up every fortnight,’
“‘What an interesting way you have of relating a story,’ said the carpet-
broom; ‘it is easy to perceive that you have been a great deal in women’s
society, there is something so pure runs through what you say.’
“‘That is quite true,’ said the water-bucket; and he made a spring with
joy, and splashed some water on the floor.
“Then the saucepan went on with his story, and the end was as good as
the beginning.
“The plates rattled with pleasure, and the carpet-broom brought some
green parsley out of the dust-hole and crowned the saucepan, for he knew it
