found it beautiful.

'I saw the Turkish god himself,' said one. 'He had eyes like
glittering stars, and a beard like foaming water.'

'He flew away in a cloak of fire,' said another. They were
splendid things that he heard, and the next day was to be his
wedding day.

Then he went back into the wood to sit in his trunk; but what had
become of it? The trunk had been burnt. A spark of the
fireworks had set it alight, and the trunk was in ashes. He
could no longer fly, and could never reach his bride.

She stood the whole day long on the roof and waited; perhaps she
is waiting there still.

But he wandered through the world and told stories; though they
are not so merry as the one he told about the matches.





The Snow-man
Translated from the German of Hans Andersen.



'How astonishingly cold it is! My body is cracking all over!'