The Travelling Companion Page #2

The Travelling Companion is a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a young man named John who, after his father's death, travels the world with a mysterious stranger who saves him from bandits, helps win the heart of a princess, and eventually revealed as his father's spirit sent to look after him. It touches upon themes of kindness, gratitude, and the enduring nature of parental love.

• Children

								

without. When he awoke, it was still night; but the storm had
ceased, and the moon shone in upon him through the windows. Then he
saw an open coffin standing in the centre of the church, which
contained a dead man, waiting for burial. John was not at all timid;
he had a good conscience, and he knew also that the dead can never
injure any one. It is living wicked men who do harm to others. Two
such wicked persons stood now by the dead man, who had been brought to
the church to be buried. Their evil intentions were to throw the
poor dead body outside the church door, and not leave him to rest in
his coffin.

"Why do you do this?" asked John, when he saw what they were going
to do; "it is very wicked. Leave him to rest in peace, in Christ's
name."

"Nonsense," replied the two dreadful men. "He has cheated us; he
owed us money which he could not pay, and now he is dead we shall
not get a penny; so we mean to have our revenge, and let him lie
like a dog outside the church door."

"I have only fifty dollars," said John, "it is all I possess in
the world, but I will give it to you if you will promise me faithfully
to leave the dead man in peace. I shall be able to get on without
the money; I have strong and healthy limbs, and God will always help
me."

"Why, of course," said the horrid men, "if you will pay his debt
we will both promise not to touch him. You may depend upon that;"
and then they took the money he offered them, laughed at him for his
good nature, and went their way.

Then he laid the dead body back in the coffin, folded the hands,
and took leave of it; and went away contentedly through the great
forest. All around him he could see the prettiest little elves dancing
in the moonlight, which shone through the trees. They were not
disturbed by his appearance, for they knew he was good and harmless
among men. They are wicked people only who can never obtain a
glimpse of fairies. Some of them were not taller than the breadth of a
finger, and they wore golden combs in their long, yellow hair. They
were rocking themselves two together on the large dew-drops with which
the leaves and the high grass were sprinkled. Sometimes the
dew-drops would roll away, and then they fell down between the stems
of the long grass, and caused a great deal of laughing and noise among
the other little people. It was quite charming to watch them at
play. Then they sang songs, and John remembered that he had learnt
those pretty songs when he was a little boy. Large speckled spiders,
with silver crowns on their heads, were employed to spin suspension
bridges and palaces from one hedge to another, and when the tiny drops
fell upon them, they glittered in the moonlight like shining glass.
This continued till sunrise. Then the little elves crept into the
flower-buds, and the wind seized the bridges and palaces, and
fluttered them in the air like cobwebs.

As John left the wood, a strong man's voice called after him,
"Hallo, comrade, where are you travelling?"

"Into the wide world," he replied; "I am only a poor lad, I have
neither father nor mother, but God will help me."

"I am going into the wide world also," replied the stranger;
"shall we keep each other company?"

"With all my heart," he said, and so they went on together. Soon
they began to like each other very much, for they were both good;
but John found out that the stranger was much more clever than
himself. He had travelled all over the world, and could describe
almost everything. The sun was high in the heavens when they seated
themselves under a large tree to eat their breakfast, and at the
same moment an old woman came towards them. She was very old and
almost bent double. She leaned upon a stick and carried on her back
a bundle of firewood, which she had collected in the forest; her apron
was tied round it, and John saw three great stems of fern and some
willow twigs peeping out. Just as she came close up to them, her
foot slipped and she fell to the ground screaming loudly; poor old
woman, she had broken her leg! John proposed directly that they should
carry the old woman home to her cottage; but the stranger opened his
knapsack and took out a box, in which he said he had a salve that
would quickly make her leg well and strong again, so that she would be
able to walk home herself, as if her leg had never been broken. And
all that he would ask in return was the three fern stems which she
carried in her apron.

"That is rather too high a price," said the old woman, nodding her
head quite strangely. She did not seem at all inclined to part with
the fern stems. However, it was not very agreeable to lie there with a
broken leg, so she gave them to him; and such was the power of the
ointment, that no sooner had he rubbed her leg with it than the old
mother rose up and walked even better than she had done before. But
then this wonderful ointment could not be bought at a chemist's.

"What can you want with those three fern rods?" asked John of
his fellow-traveller.

"Oh, they will make capital brooms," said he; "and I like them
because I have strange whims sometimes." Then they walked on
together for a long distance.

"How dark the sky is becoming," said John; "and look at those
thick, heavy clouds."

"Those are not clouds," replied his fellow-traveller; "they are
mountains--large lofty mountains--on the tops of which we should be
above the clouds, in the pure, free air. Believe me, it is
delightful to ascend so high, tomorrow we shall be there." But the
mountains were not so near as they appeared; they had to travel a
whole day before they reached them, and pass through black forests and
piles of rock as large as a town. The journey had been so fatiguing
that John and his fellow-traveller stopped to rest at a roadside
inn, so that they might gain strength for their journey on the morrow.
In the large public room of the inn a great many persons were
assembled to see a comedy performed by dolls. The showman had just
erected his little theatre, and the people were sitting round the room
to witness the performance. Right in front, in the very best place,
sat a stout butcher, with a great bull-dog by his side who seemed very
much inclined to bite. He sat staring with all his eyes, and so indeed
did every one else in the room. And then the play began. It was a
pretty piece, with a king and a queen in it, who sat on a beautiful
throne, and had gold crowns on their heads. The trains to their
dresses were very long, according to the fashion; while the
prettiest of wooden dolls, with glass eyes and large mustaches,
stood at the doors, and opened and shut them, that the fresh air might
come into the room. It was a very pleasant play, not at all
mournful; but just as the queen stood up and walked across the
stage, the great bull-dog, who should have been held back by his
master, made a spring forward, and caught the queen in the teeth by
the slender wrist, so that it snapped in two. This was a very dreadful
disaster. The poor man, who was exhibiting the dolls, was much
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