安徒生童话英文版

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 FROM my father I received the best inheritance, namely a "good

temper." "And who was my father?" That has nothing to do with the good

temper; but I will say he was lively, good-looking round, and fat;

he was both in appearance and character a complete contradiction to

his profession. "And pray what was his profession and his standing

in respectable society?" Well, perhaps, if in the beginning of a

book these were written and printed, many, when they read it, would

lay the book down and say, "It seems to me a very miserable title, I

don't like things of this sort." And yet my father was not a

skin-dresser nor an executioner; on the contrary, his employment

placed him at the head of the grandest people of the town, and it

was his place by right. He had to precede the bishop, and even the

princes of the blood; he always went first,- he was a hearse driver!

There, now, the truth is out. And I will own, that when people saw

my father perched up in front of the omnibus of death, dressed in

his long, wide, black cloak, and his black-edged, three-cornered hat

on his head, and then glanced at his round, jocund face, round as

the sun, they could not think much of sorrow or the grave. That face

said, "It is nothing, it will all end better than people think." So

I have inherited from him, not only my good temper, but a habit of

going often to the churchyard, which is good, when done in a proper

humor; and then also I take in the Intelligencer, just as he used to

do.

    I am not very young, I have neither wife nor children, nor a

library, but, as I said, I read the Intelligencer, which is enough for

me; it is to me a delightful paper, and so it was to my father. It

is of great use, for it contains all that a man requires to know;

the names of the preachers at the church, and the new books which

are published; where houses, servants, clothes, and provisions may

be obtained. And then what a number of subscriptions to charities, and

what innocent verses! Persons seeking interviews and engagements,

all so plainly and naturally stated. Certainly, a man who takes in the

Intelligencer may live merrily and be buried contentedly, and by the

end of his life will have such a capital stock of paper that he can

lie on a soft bed of it, unless he prefers wood shavings for his

resting-place. The newspaper and the churchyard were always exciting

objects to me. My walks to the latter were like bathing-places to my

good humor. Every one can read the newspaper for himself, but come

with me to the churchyard while the sun shines and the trees are

green, and let us wander among the graves. Each of them is like a

closed book, with the back uppermost, on which we can read the title

of what the book contains, but nothing more. I had a great deal of

information from my father, and I have noticed a great deal myself.

I keep it in my diary, in which I write for my own use and pleasure

a history of all who lie here, and a few more beside.

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