The Tinder-Box Page #2

The Tinder-Box is a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a soldier who encounters an old witch. The witch promises him wealth if he retrieves a magical tinderbox for her from a hollow tree. Inside the tree, the soldier encounters three doors guarded by monstrous dogs. Using the tinderbox, he discovers the power to control the dogs and acquire wealth and power. The story unfolds as he uses his newfound abilities to win the love of a princess and ensure a prosperous life.

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as he spent and gave away a great deal daily, and received none, he
found himself at last with only two shillings left. So he was
obliged to leave his elegant rooms, and live in a little garret
under the roof, where he had to clean his own boots, and even mend
them with a large needle. None of his friends came to see him, there
were too many stairs to mount up. One dark evening, he had not even
a penny to buy a candle; then all at once he remembered that there was
a piece of candle stuck in the tinder-box, which he had brought from
the old tree, into which the witch had helped him.

He found the tinder-box, but no sooner had he struck a few
sparks from the flint and steel, than the door flew open and the dog
with eyes as big as teacups, whom he had seen while down in the
tree, stood before him, and said, "What orders, master?"

"Hallo," said the soldier; "well this is a pleasant tinderbox,
if it brings me all I wish for."

"Bring me some money," said he to the dog.

He was gone in a moment, and presently returned, carrying a
large bag of coppers in his month. The soldier very soon discovered
after this the value of the tinder-box. If he struck the flint once,
the dog who sat on the chest of copper money made his appearance; if
twice, the dog came from the chest of silver; and if three times,
the dog with eyes like towers, who watched over the gold. The
soldier had now plenty of money; he returned to his elegant rooms, and
reappeared in his fine clothes, so that his friends knew him again
directly, and made as much of him as before.

After a while he began to think it was very strange that no one
could get a look at the princess. "Every one says she is very
beautiful," thought he to himself; "but what is the use of that if she
is to be shut up in a copper castle surrounded by so many towers.
Can I by any means get to see her. Stop! where is my tinder-box?" Then
he struck a light, and in a moment the dog, with eyes as big as
teacups, stood before him.

"It is midnight," said the soldier, "yet I should very much like
to see the princess, if only for a moment."

The dog disappeared instantly, and before the soldier could even
look round, he returned with the princess. She was lying on the
dog's back asleep, and looked so lovely, that every one who saw her
would know she was a real princess. The soldier could not help kissing
her, true soldier as he was. Then the dog ran back with the
princess; but in the morning, while at breakfast with the king and
queen, she told them what a singular dream she had had during the
night, of a dog and a soldier, that she had ridden on the dog's
back, and been kissed by the soldier.

"That is a very pretty story, indeed," said the queen. So the next
night one of the old ladies of the court was set to watch by the
princess's bed, to discover whether it really was a dream, or what
else it might be.

The soldier longed very much to see the princess once more, so
he sent for the dog again in the night to fetch her, and to run with
her as fast as ever he could. But the old lady put on water boots, and
ran after him as quickly as he did, and found that he carried the
princess into a large house. She thought it would help her to remember
the place if she made a large cross on the door with a piece of chalk.
Then she went home to bed, and the dog presently returned with the
princess. But when he saw that a cross had been made on the door of
the house, where the soldier lived, he took another piece of chalk and
made crosses on all the doors in the town, so that the lady-in-waiting
might not be able to find out the right door.

Early the next morning the king and queen accompanied the lady and
all the officers of the household, to see where the princess had been.

"Here it is," said the king, when they came to the first door with
a cross on it.

"No, my dear husband, it must be that one," said the queen, pointing
to a second door having a cross also.

"And here is one, and there is another!" they all exclaimed; for
there were crosses on all the doors in every direction.

So they felt it would be useless to search any farther. But the
queen was a very clever woman; she could do a great deal more than
merely ride in a carriage. She took her large gold scissors, cut a
piece of silk into squares, and made a neat little bag. This bag she
filled with buckwheat flour, and tied it round the princess's neck;
and then she cut a small hole in the bag, so that the flour might be
scattered on the ground as the princess went along. During the
night, the dog came again and carried the princess on his back, and
ran with her to the soldier, who loved her very much, and wished
that he had been a prince, so that he might have her for a wife. The
dog did not observe how the flour ran out of the bag all the way
from the castle wall to the soldier's house, and even up to the
window, where he had climbed with the princess. Therefore in the
morning the king and queen found out where their daughter had been,
and the soldier was taken up and put in prison. Oh, how dark and
disagreeable it was as he sat there, and the people said to him,
"To-morrow you will be hanged." It was not very pleasant news, and
besides, he had left the tinder-box at the inn. In the morning he
could see through the iron grating of the little window how the people
were hastening out of the town to see him hanged; he heard the drums
beating, and saw the soldiers marching. Every one ran out to look at
them, and a shoemaker's boy, with a leather apron and slippers on,
galloped by so fast, that one of his slippers flew off and struck
against the wall where the soldier sat looking through the iron
grating. "Hallo, you shoemaker's boy, you need not be in such a
hurry," cried the soldier to him. "There will be nothing to see till I
come; but if you will run to the house where I have been living, and
bring me my tinder-box, you shall have four shillings, but you must
put your best foot foremost."

The shoemaker's boy liked the idea of getting the four
shillings, so he ran very fast and fetched the tinder-box, and gave it
to the soldier. And now we shall see what happened. Outside the town a
large gibbet had been erected, round which stood the soldiers and
several thousands of people. The king and the queen sat on splendid
thrones opposite to the judges and the whole council. The soldier
already stood on the ladder; but as they were about to place the
rope around his neck, he said that an innocent request was often
granted to a poor criminal before he suffered death. He wished very
much to smoke a pipe, as it would be the last pipe he should ever
smoke in the world. The king could not refuse this request, so the
soldier took his tinder-box, and struck fire, once, twice, thrice,--and
there in a moment stood all the dogs;--the one with eyes as big as
teacups, the one with eyes as large as mill-wheels, and the third,
whose eyes were like towers. "Help me now, that I may not be
hanged," cried the soldier.

And the dogs fell upon the judges and all the councillors;
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