A BEGINNING

    IN
        a house in Copenhagen,
           not far
               from the king's new market,
         a very large party
            had assembled,
           the host
               and his family expecting,
         no doubt,
           to receive invitations in return.

    One half of the company
        were already
              seated at the card-tables,
           the other half seemed
              to be waiting
                 the result
                       of their hostess's question,
         "Well,
               how shall we amuse ourselves?"

    Conversation followed,
           which,
         after a while,
           began to prove very entertaining.

    Among other subjects,
           it turned
               upon the events
                   of the middle ages,
         which some persons maintained
            were more full of interest
                   than our own times.

    Counsellor Knapp
          defended this opinion so warmly
         that the lady
               of the house immediately
            went over to his side,
           and both
              exclaimed against Oersted's Essays
                   on Ancient and Modern Times,
         in which the preference
            is given to our own.

    The counsellor
          considered the times
               of the Danish king,
           Hans,
         as the noblest and happiest.

    The conversation on this topic
        was only
              interrupted for a moment
                   by the arrival
                       of a newspaper,
           which did not,
         however,
           contain much worth reading,
         and while it is
             still going on
               we will
                  pay a visit
                       to the ante-room,
           in which cloaks,
         sticks,
           and goloshes were carefully placed.

    Here sat two maidens,
           one young,
         and the other old,
           as if
             they had come
                and were waiting
                      to accompany their mistresses home;
        but on looking
               at them more closely,
           it could easily be seen
             that they
                were no common servants.

    Their shapes were too graceful,
           their complexions too delicate,
         and the cut
               of their dresses
                   much too elegant.

    They were two fairies.

    The younger
        was not Fortune herself,
           but the chambermaid
               of one
             of Fortune's attendants,
         who carries about her more
              trifling gifts.

    The elder one,
           who was named Care,
         looked rather gloomy;
        she always
            goes about
                  to perform her own business
                       in person;
        for then
             she knows it
                is properly done.

    They were telling each other
         where they
            had been during the day.

    The messenger of Fortune
        had only
              transacted a few unimportant matters;
        for instance,
           she had
              preserved a new bonnet
                   from a shower of rain,
         and obtained
               for an honest man
                   a bow
               from a titled nobody,
           and so on;
        but she
            had something extraordinary to relate,
           after all.

    "I must tell you,"
          said she,
               "that to-day is my birthday;
            and in honor of it
                 I have been intrusted
                       with a pair of goloshes,
               to introduce amongst mankind.

    These goloshes
          have the property of making
               every one
         who puts them on
              imagine himself in any place
             he wishes,
           or that
             he exists at any period.

    Every wish
        is fulfilled
               at the moment it
            is expressed,
           so that for once mankind
              have the chance of
                being happy."

    No,"
          replied Care;
            "you may depend upon it
                 that whoever
                    puts on those goloshes
                       will be very unhappy,
               and bless the moment
                 in which
                  he can get rid
                        of them."
    "What are you thinking of?"

    replied the other.

    "Now see;
        I will
              place them by the door;
        some one
            will take them
                  instead of his own,
           and he
            will be the happy man."

    This was the end
           of their conversation.

    COUNSELLOR
         WHAT HAPPENED TO THE COUNSELLOR

    IT
        was late when Counsellor Knapp,
           lost in thought
               about the times
                   of King Hans,
         desired to return home;
        and fate so ordered it
             that he put on
                   the goloshes of Fortune
                      instead of his own,