THE DARNING-NEEDLE故事

英语自学网

　　　　THE DARNING-NEEDLE故事
　　    THERE was once a darning-needle who thought herself so
　　    fine that she fancied she must be fit for embroidery. "Hold me
　　    tight," she would say to the fingers, when they took her up,
　　    "don't let me fall; if you do I shall never be found again, I
　　    am so very fine."
　　    "That is your opinion, is it?" said the fingers, as they
　　    seized her round the body.
　　    "See, I am coming with a train," said the darning-needle,
　　    drawing a long thread after her; but there was no knot in the
　　    thread.
　　    The fingers then placed the point of the needle against
　　    the cook's slipper. There was a crack in the upper leather,
　　    which had to be sewn together.
　　    "What coarse work!" said the darning-needle, "I shall
　　    never get through. I shall break!- I am breaking!" and sure
　　    enough she broke. "Did I not say so?" said the darning-needle,
　　    "I know I am too fine for such work as that."
　　    "This needle is quite useless for sewing now," said the
　　    fingers; but they still held it fast, and the cook dropped
　　    some sealing-wax on the needle, and fastened her handkerchief
　　    with it in front.
　　    "So now I am a breast-pin," said the darning-needle; "I
　　    knew very well I should come to honor some day: merit is sure
　　    to rise;" and she laughed, quietly to herself, for of course
　　    no one ever saw a darning-needle laugh. And there she sat as
　　    proudly as if she were in a state coach, and looked all around
　　    her. "May I be allowed to ask if you are made of gold?" she
　　    inquired of her neighbor, a pin; "you have a very pretty
　　    appearance, and a curious head, although you are rather small.
　　    You must take pains to grow, for it is not every one who has
　　    sealing-wax dropped upon him;" and as she spoke, the
　　    darning-needle drew herself up so proudly that she fell out of
　　    the handkerchief right into the sink, which the cook was
　　    cleaning. "Now I am going on a journey," said the needle, as
            
            

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　　    she floated away with the dirty water, "I do hope I shall not
　　    be lost." But she really was lost in a gutter. "I am too fine
　　    for this world," said the darning-needle, as she lay in the
　　    gutter; "but I know who I am, and that is always some
　　    comfort." So the darning-needle kept up her proud behavior,
　　    and did not lose her good humor. Then there floated over her
　　    all sorts of things,- chips and straws, and pieces of old
　　    newspaper. "See how they sail," said the darning-needle; "they
　　    do not know what is under them. I am here, and here I shall
　　    stick. See, there goes a chip, thinking of nothing in the
　　    world but himself- only a chip. There's a straw going by now;
　　    how he turns and twists about! Don't be thinking too much of
　　    yourself, or you may chance to run against a stone. There
　　    swims a piece of newspaper; what is written upon it has been
　　    forgotten long ago, and yet it gives itself airs. I sit here
　　    patiently and quietly. I know who I am, so I shall not move."
　　    One day something lying close to the darning-needle
　　    glittered so splendidly that she thought it was a diamond; yet
　　    it was only a piece of broken bottle. The darning-needle spoke
　　    to it, because it sparkled, and represented herself as a
　　    breast-pin. "I suppose you are really a diamond?" she said.
　　    "Why yes, something of the kind," he replied; and so each
　　    believed the other to be very valuable, and then they began to
　　    talk about the world, and the conceited people in it.
　　    "I have been in a lady's work-box," said the
　　    darning-needle, "and this lady was the cook. She had on each
　　    hand five fingers, and anything so conceited as these five
　　    fingers I have never seen; and yet they were only employed to
　　    take me out of the box and to put me back again."
　　    "Were they not high-born?"
　　    "High-born!" said
　　the darning-needle, "no indeed, but so
　　    haughty. They were five brothers, all born fingers; they kept
　　    very proudly together, though they were of different lengths.
            
            

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　　    The one who stood first in the rank was named the thumb, he
　　    was short and thick, and had only one joint in his back, and
　　    could therefore make but one bow; but he said that if he were
　　    cut off from a man's hand, that man would be unfit for a
　　    soldier. Sweet-tooth, his neighbor, dipped himself into sweet
　　    or sour, pointed to the sun and moon, and formed the letters
　　    when the fingers wrote. Longman, the middle finger, looked
　　    over the heads of all the others. Gold-band, the next finger,
　　    wore a golden circle round his waist. And little Playman did
　　    nothing at all, and seemed proud of it. They were boasters,
　　    and boasters they will remain; and therefore I left them."
　　    "And now we sit here and glitter," said the piece of
　　    broken bottle.
　　    At the same moment more water streamed into the gutter, so
　　    that it overflowed, and the piece of bottle was carried away.
　　    "So he is promoted," said the darning-needle, "while I
　　    remain here; I am too fine, but that is my pride, and what do
　　    I care?" And so she sat there in her pride, and had many such
　　    thoughts as these,- "I could almost fancy that I came from a
　　    sunbeam, I am so fine. It seems as if the sunbeams were always
　　    looking for me under the water. Ah! I am so fine that even my
　　    mother cannot find me. Had I still my old eye, which was
　　    broken off, I believe I should weep; but no, I would not do
　　    that, it is not genteel to cry."
　　    One day a couple of street boys were paddling in the
　　    gutter, for they sometimes found old nails, farthings, and
　　    other treasures. It was dirty work, but they took great
　　    pleasure in it. "Hallo!" cried one, as he pricked himself with
　　    the darning-needle, "here's a fellow for you."
　　    "I am not a fellow, I am a young lady," said the
　　    darning-needle; but no one heard her.
　　    The sealing-wax had come off, and she was quite black; but
　　    black makes a person look slender, so she thought herself even
　　    finer than before.
　　    "Here comes an egg-shell sailing along," said one of the
            
            

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　　    boys; so they stuck the darning-needle into the egg-shell.
　　    "White walls, and I am black myself," said the
　　    darning-needle, "that looks well; now I can be seen, but I
　　    hope I shall not be sea-sick, or I shall break again." She was
　　    not sea-sick, and she did not break. "It is a good thing
　　    against sea-sickness to have a steel stomach, and not to
　　    forget one's own importance. Now my sea-sickness has past:
　　    delicate people can bear a great deal."
　　    Crack went the egg-shell, as a waggon passed over it.
　　    "Good heavens, how it crushes!" said the darning-needle. "I
　　    shall be sick now. I am breaking!" but she did not break,
　　    though the waggon went over her as she lay at full length; and
　　    there let her lie.
　　    THE END