cabbage stalks, sweepings, and gravel that had fallen down from
the roof.

"Here's a nice place to lie in! The gilding will soon leave me here. And
what a rabble I've come amongst!"

And then he looked askance at a long cabbage stalk that was much too
near him, and at a curious round thing like an old apple; but it was not
an apple--it was an old Ball, which had lain for years in the
roof-gutter and was soaked through with water.

"Thank goodness, here comes one of us, with whom one can talk!" said the
little Ball, and looked at the gilt Top. "I am really morocco, sewn by a
girl's hands, and have a cork inside me; but no one would think it to
look at me. I was very near marrying a swallow, but I fell into the
gutter on the roof, and have laid there full five years, and am quite
soaked through. That's a long time, you may believe me, for a
young girl."

But the Top said nothing. He thought of his old love; and the more he
heard, the clearer it became to him that this was she. Then came the
servant-girl, and wanted to empty the dust-box. "Aha, there's a gilt
top!" she cried. And so the Top was brought again to notice and honor,
but nothing was heard of the Ball. And the Top spoke no more of his old
love: for that dies away when the beloved has lain for five years in a
gutter and got soaked through; yes, one does not know her again when one
meets her in the dust-box.