rdly, of course, for one can never see when a Darning-needle laughs.
There she sat now, quite at her ease, and as proud as if she sat in a
state carriage and gazed upon all about her.

"May I take the liberty to ask if you are made of gold?" she asked of
the pin, her neighbor. "You have a splendid appearance and quite a
remarkable head, though it is so little. You should do what you can to
grow--of course it is not every one that can have sealing wax dropped
upon her."

And the Darning-needle drew herself up so proudly that she fell out of
the neckerchief into the sink, which the cook was at that moment
rinsing.

"Now I'm going to travel," said the Darning-needle, "if only I don't get
lost."

But that was just what happened to her.

"I'm too delicate for this world," she said, as she found herself in the
gutter. "But I know who I am, and there is always some little pleasure
in that!" It was thus that the Darning-needle kept up her proud bearing
and lost none of her good humor. And now all sorts of things swam over
her--chips and straws and scraps of old newspapers.

"Only see how they sail along," said the Darning-needle to herself.
"They little know what is under them, though it is I, and I sit firmly
here. See! there goes a chip! It thinks of nothing in the world but
itself--of nothing in the world but a chip! There floats a straw; see
how it turns and twirls about. Do think of something besides yourself or
you may easily run against a stone. There swims a bit of a newspaper.
What's written upon it is forgotten long ago, yet how it spreads itself
out and gives itself airs! I sit patiently and quietly here! I know what
I am, and I shall remain the same--always."

One day there lay something beside her that glittered splendidly. She
thought it must be a diamond, but it was really only a bit of broken
glass from a bottle. As it shone so brightly the Darning-needle spoke to
it, introducing herself as a breastpin.

"You are a diamond, I suppose," she said.

"Why, yes, something of the sort."

So each believed the other to be some rare and costly trinket; and they
began to converse together upon the world, saying how very conceited it
was.

"Yes," said the Darning-needle, "I have lived in a young lady's box; and
the young lady happened to be a cook. She had five fingers upon each of
her hands, and anything more conceited and arrogant than those five
fingers, I never saw. And yet they were only there that they