LITTLE TUK

                                  1872

                 FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

                               LITTLE TUK

                       by Hans Christian Andersen



YES, they called him Little Tuk, but it was not his real name;

he had called himself so before he could speak plainly, and he meant

it for Charles. It was all very well for those who knew him, but not

for strangers.

Little Tuk was left at home to take care of his little sister,

Gustava, who was much younger than himself, and he had to learn his

lessons at the same time, and the two things could not very well be

performed together. The poor boy sat there with his sister on his lap,

and sung to her all the songs he knew, and now and then he looked into

his geography lesson that lay open before him. By the next morning

he had to learn by heart all the towns in Zealand, and all that

could be described of them.

His mother came home at last, and took little Gustava in her arms.

Then Tuk ran to the window, and read so eagerly that he nearly read

his eyes out; for it had become darker and darker every minute, and

his mother had no money to buy a light.

"There goes the old washerwoman up the lane," said the mother,

as she looked out of the window; "the poor woman can hardly drag

herself along, and now she had to drag a pail of water from the

well. Be a good boy, Tuk, and run across and help the old woman, won't

you?"

So Tuk ran across quickly, and helped her, but when he came back

into the room it was quite dark, and there was not a word said about a

light, so he was obliged to go to bed on his little truckle

bedstead, and there he lay and thought of his geography lesson, and of

Zealand, and of all the master had told him. He ought really to have

read it over again, but he could not for want of light. So he put

the geography book under his pillow, for he had heard that this was

a great help towards learning a lesson, but not always to be

depended upon. He still lay thinking and thinking, when all at once it

seemed as if some one kissed him on his eyes and mouth. He slept and

yet he did not sleep; and it appeared as if the old washerwoman looked

at him with kind eyes and said, "It would be a great pity if you did

not know your lesson to-morrow morning; you helped me, and now I

will help you, and Providence will always keep those who help

themselves;" and at the same time the book under Tuk's pillow began to

move about. "Cluck, cluck, cluck," cried a hen as she crept towards

him. "I am a hen from Kjoge," and then she told him how many

inhabitants the town contained, and about a battle that had been

fought there, which really was not worth speaking of.

"Crack, crack," down fell something. It was a wooden bird, the

parrot which is used as a target as Prastoe. He said there were as

many inhabitants in that town as he had nails in his body. He was very

proud, and said, "Thorwalsden lived close to me, and here I am now,

quite comfortable."

But now little Tuk was no longer in bed; all in a moment he

found himself on horseback. Gallop, gallop, away he went, seated in

front of a richly-attired knight, with a waving plume, who held him on

the saddle, and so they rode through the wood by the old town of

Wordingburg, which was very large and busy. The king's castle was

surrounded by lofty towers, and radiant light streamed from all the

windows. Within there were songs and dancing; King Waldemar and the

young gayly-dressed ladies of the court were dancing together. Morning

dawned, and as the sun rose, the whole city and the king's castle sank

suddenly down together. One tower after another fell, till at last

only one remained standing on the hill where the castle had formerly

been.

The town now appeared small and poor, and the school-boys read

in their books, which they carried under their arms, that it contained

two thousand inhabitants; but this was a mere boast, for it did not

contain so many.

And again little Tuk lay in his bed, scarcely knowing whether he

was dreaming or not, for some one stood by him.

"Tuk! little Tuk!" said a voice. It was a very little person who

spoke. He was dressed as a sailor, and looked small enough to be a

middy, but he was not one. "I bring you many greetings from Corsor. It

is a rising town, full of life. It has steamships and mail-coaches. In

times past they used to call it ugly, but that is no longer true. I

lie on the sea-shore," said Corsor; "I have high-roads and

pleasure-gardens; I have given birth to a poet who was witty and

entertaining, which they are not all. I once wanted to fit out a

ship to sail round the world, but I did not accomplish it, though most

likely I might have done so. But I am fragrant with perfume, for close

to my gates most lovely roses bloom."

Then before the eyes of little Tuk appeared a confusion of colors,

red and green; but it cleared off, and he could distinguish a cliff

close to the bay, the slopes of which were quite overgrown with

verdure, and on its summit stood a fine old church with pointed

towers. Springs of water flowed out of the cliff in thick waterspouts,

so that there was a continual splashing. Close by sat an old king with

a golden crown on his white head. This was King Hroar of the Springs

and near the springs stood the town of Roeskilde, as it is called.

Then all the kings and queens of Denmark went up the ascent to the old

church, hand in hand, with golden crowns on their heads, while the

organ played and the fountains sent forth jets of water.

Little Tuk saw and heard it all. "Don't forget the names of

these towns," said King Hroar.

All at once everything vanished; but where! It seemed to him

like turning over the leaves of a book. And now there stood before him

an old peasant woman, who had come from Soroe where the grass grows in

the market-place. She had a green linen apron thrown over her head and

shoulders, and it was quite wet, as if it had been raining heavily.

"Yes, that it has," said she, and then, just as she was going to

tell him a great many pretty stories from Holberg's comedies, and

about Waldemar and Absalom, she suddenly shrunk up together, and

wagged her head as if she were a frog about to spring. "Croak," she

cried; "it is always wet, and as quiet as death in Soroe." Then little

Tuk saw she was changed into a frog. "Croak," and again she was an old

woman. "One must dress according to the weather," said she. "It is

wet, and my town is just like a bottle. By the cork we must go in, and

by the cork we must come out again. In olden times I had beautiful

fish, and now I have fresh, rosy-cheeked boys in the bottom of the

bottle, and they learn wisdom, Hebrew and Greek."

"Croak." How it sounded like the cry of the frogs on the moor,

or like the creaking of great boots when some one is marching,- always

the same tone, so monotonous and wearing, that little Tuk at length

fell fast asleep, and then the sound could not annoy him. But even

in this sleep came a dream or something like it. His little sister

Gustava, with her blue eyes, and fair curly hair, had grown up a

beautiful maiden all at once, and without having wings she could

fly. And they flew together over Zealand, over green forests and

blue lakes.

"Hark, so you hear the cock crow, little Tuk. 'Cock-a-doodle-doo.'

The fowls are flying out of Kjoge. You shall have a large farm-yard.

You shall never suffer hunger or want. The bird of good omen shall

be yours, and you shall become a rich and happy man; your house

shall rise up like King Waldemar's towers, and shall be richly adorned

with marble statues, like those at Prastoe. Understand me well; your

name shall travel with fame round the world like the ship that was

to sail from Corsor, and at Roeskilde,- Don't forget the names of

the towns, as King Hroar said,- you shall speak well and clearly

little Tuk, and when at last you lie in your grave you shall sleep

peacefully, as-"

"As if I lay in Soroe," said little Tuk awaking. It was bright

daylight, and he could not remember his dream, but that was not

necessary, for we are not to know what will happen to us in the

future. Then he sprang out of bed quickly, and read over his lesson in

the book, and knew it all at once quite correctly. The old washerwoman

put her head in at the door, and nodded to him quite kindly, and said,

"Many thanks, you good child, for your help yesterday. I hope all your

beautiful dreams will come true."

Little Tuk did not at all know what he had dreamt, but One above

did.

                        THE END

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