moted!' said the Darning-needle. 'I remain here;
I am too fine. But that is my pride, which is a sign of respectability!'
And she sat there very proudly, thinking lofty thoughts.

'I really believe I must have been born a sunbeam, I am so fine! It
seems to me as if the sunbeams were always looking under the water for
me. Ah, I am so fine that my own mother cannot find me! If I had my old
eye which broke off, I believe I could weep; but I can't--it is not fine
to weep!'

One day two street-urchins were playing and wading in the gutter,
picking up old nails, pennies, and such things. It was rather dirty
work, but it was a great delight to them.

'Oh, oh!' cried out one, as he pricked himself with the Darning-needle;
'he is a fine fellow though!'

'I am not a fellow; I am a young lady!' said the Darning-needle; but no
one heard. The sealing-wax had gone, and she had become quite black; but
black makes one look very slim, and so she thought she was even finer
than before.

'Here comes an egg-shell sailing along!' said the boys, and they stuck
the Darning-needle into the egg-shell.

'The walls white and I black--what a pretty contrast it makes!' said
the Darning-needle. 'Now I can be seen to advantage! If only I am not
sea-sick! I should give myself up for lost!'

But she was not sea-sick, and did not give herself up.

'It is a good thing to be steeled against sea-sickness; here one has
indeed an advantage over man! Now my qualms are over. The finer one is
the more one can beat.'

'Crack!' said the egg-shell as a wagon-wheel went over it.

'Oh! how it presses!' said the Darning-needle. 'I shall indeed be
sea-sick now. I am breaking!' But she did not break, although the
wagon-wheel went over her; she lay there at full length, and there she
may lie.

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