“‘Yes, if we had chosen,’ they each thought, ‘we might have spent a very
pleasant evening.’
“The maid took the matches and lighted them; dear me, how they
sputtered and blazed up!
“‘Now then,’ they thought, ‘every one will see that we are the first. How
we shine; what a light we give!’ Even while they spoke their light went out.
“What a capital story,” said the queen, “I feel as if I were really in the
kitchen, and could see the matches; yes, you shall marry our daughter.”
“Certainly,” said the king, “thou shalt have our daughter.” The king said
thou to him because he was going to be one of the family. The wedding-day
was fixed, and, on the evening before, the whole city was illuminated.
Cakes and sweetmeats were thrown among the people. The street boys
stood on tiptoe and shouted “hurrah,” and whistled between their fingers;
altogether it was a very splendid affair.
“I will give them another treat,” said the merchant’s son. So he went and
bought rockets and crackers, and all sorts of fire-works that could be
thought of, packed them in his trunk, and flew up with it into the air. What a
whizzing and popping they made as they went off! The Turks, when they
saw such a sight in the air, jumped so high that their slippers flew about
their ears. It was easy to believe after this that the princess was really going
to marry a Turkish angel.
