Page:Stories from Hans Andersen with illustrations by Edmund Dulac.djvu/15

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

THE SNOW QUEEN


A TALE IN SEVEN STORIES


FIRST STORY

WHICH DEALS WITH A MIRROR AND ITS FRAGMENTS


NOW we are about to begin, and you must attend; and when we get to the end of the story, you will know more than you do now about a very wicked hobgoblin. He was one of the worst kind; in fact he was a real demon. One day he was in a high state of delight because he had invented a mirror with this peculiarity, that every good and pretty thing reflected in it shrank away to almost nothing. On the other hand, every bad and good-for-nothing thing stood out and looked its worst. The most beautiful landscapes reflected in it looked like boiled spinach, and the best people became hideous, or else they were upside down and had no bodies. Their faces were distorted beyond recognition, and if they had even one freckle it

1