w sat an old quill pen, with which the maid generally
wrote. There was nothing remarkable about the pen, except that it had
been dipped too deeply in the ink; but it was proud of that.

"'If the tea urn won't sing,' said the pen, 'she needn't. There's a
nightingale in a cage outside, that can sing. She has not been taught
much, certainly, but we need not say anything this evening about that.'

"'I think it highly improper,' said the teakettle, who was kitchen
singer and half brother to the tea urn, 'that a rich foreign bird should
be listened to here. Is it patriotic? Let the market basket decide what
is right.'

"'I certainly am vexed,' said the basket, 'inwardly vexed, more than any
one can imagine. Are we spending the evening properly? Would it not be
more sensible to put the house in order? If each were in his own place,
I would lead a game. This would be quite another thing.'

"'Let us act a play,' said they all. At the same moment the door opened
and the maid came in. Then not one stirred; they remained quite still,
although there was not a single pot among them that had not a high
opinion of himself and of what he could do if he chose.

"'Yes, if we had chosen,' each of them thought, 'we might have spent a
very pleasant evening.'

"The maid took the matches and lighted them, and dear me, how they
spluttered and blazed up!

"'Now then,' they thought, 'every one will see that we are the first.
How we shine! What a light we give!' But even while they spoke their
lights went out."

"What a capital story!" said the queen. "I feel as if I were really in
the kitchen and could see the matches. Yes, you shall marry our
daughter."

"Certainly," said the king, "thou shalt have our daughter." The king
said "thou" to him because he was going to be one of the family. The
wedding day was fixed, and on the evening before, the whole city was
illuminated. Cakes and sweetmeats were thrown among the people. The
street boys stood on tiptoe and shouted "Hurrah," and whistled between
their fingers. Altogether it was a very splendid affair.

"I will give them another treat," said the merchant's son. So he went
and bought rockets and crackers and every kind of fireworks that could
be thought of, packed them in his trunk, and flew up with it into the
air. What a whizzing and popping they made as they went off! The Turks,
when they saw the sight, jumped so high that their slippers flew about
their ears. It was easy to believe a