deliver the more trifling gifts of Fortune. The older one looked quite grave.
She was Dame Care, who always goes in her own sublime person to see to
her errands herself, for then she knows that they are well done.
They were telling each other about where they had been that day. The
assistant of Fortune had only attended to a few minor affairs, she said, such
as saving a new bonnet from the rain, getting a civil greeting for an honest
man from an exalted nincompoop, and such like matters. But her remaining
errand was an extraordinary one.
“I must also tell you,” she said, “that today is my birthday, and in honor
of this I have been entrusted to bring a pair of galoshes to mankind. These
galoshes have this peculiarity, that whoever puts them on will immediately
find himself in whatever time, place, and condition of life that he prefers.
His every wish in regard to time and place will instantly be granted, so for
once a man can find perfect happiness here below.”
“Take my word for it.” said Dame Care, “he will be most unhappy, and
will bless the moment when he can rid himself of those galoshes.”
“ How can you say such a thing?” the other woman exclaimed. “I shall
leave them here beside the door, where someone will put them on by
mistake and immediately be the happy one.”
That ended their conversation.
II. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE COUNCILOR OF JUSTICE
It was getting late when Councilor Knap decided to go home. Lost in
thought about the good old days of King Hans, as fate would have it, he put
on the galoshes of Fortune instead of his own, and wore them out into East
Street. But the power that lay in the galoshes took him back into the reign of
King Hans, and as the streets were not paved in those days his feet sank
deep into the mud and the mire.
“Why, how deplorable!” the Councilor of Justice said. “The whole
sidewalk is gone and all the street lights are out.”
