TRUYỆN CỔ ANDERSEN - Trang 955

in a thick leafy bower which flew with them through the air; it was beautiful
beyond all description. The little elder-tree mother had suddenly become a
charming young girl, but her dress was still of the same green material,
covered with white blossoms, as the elder-tree mother had worn; she had a
real elder blossom on her bosom, and a wreath of the same flowers was
wound round her curly golden hair; her eyes were so large and so blue that
it was wonderful to look at them. She and the boy kissed each other, and
then they were of the same age and felt the same joys. They walked hand in
hand out of the bower, and now stood at home in a beautiful flower garden.
Near the green lawn the father’s walking-stick was tied to a post. There was
life in this stick for the little ones, for as soon as they seated themselves
upon it the polished knob turned into a neighing horse’s head, a long black
mane was fluttering in the wind, and four strong slender legs grew out. The
animal was fiery and spirited; they galloped round the lawn. “Hooray! now
we shall ride far away, many miles!” said the boy; “we shall ride to the
nobleman’s estate where we were last year.” And they rode round the lawn
again, and the little girl, who, as we know, was no other than the little elder-
tree mother, continually cried, “Now we are in the country! Do you see the
farmhouse there, with the large baking stove, which projects like a gigantic
egg out of the wall into the road? The elder-tree spreads its branches over it,
and the cock struts about and scratches for the hens. Look how proud he is!
Now we are near the church; it stands on a high hill, under the spreading
oak trees; one of them is half dead! Now we are at the smithy, where the
fire roars and the half-naked men beat with their hammers so that the sparks
fly far and wide. Let’s be off to the beautiful farm!” And they passed by
everything the little girl, who was sitting behind on the stick, described, and
the boy saw it, and yet they only went round the lawn. Then they played in
a side-walk, and marked out a little garden on the ground; she took elder-
blossoms out of her hair and planted them, and they grew exactly like those
the old people planted when they were children, as we have heard before.
They walked about hand in hand, just as the old couple had done when they
were little, but they did not go to the round tower nor to the Fredericksburg
garden. No; the little girl seized the boy round the waist, and then they flew