Year: 1873

By HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.


There was once an aronaut with whom
things went badly. The balloon burst,
tumbled the man out, and broke iuto
bits. His boy he had two minutes be-
fore sent down with parachute-that
was the boys luck he was unhurt, and
went about with knowledge enough to
make BIN an eronaut too but he had
no balloon, and no means of acquiring
one.


But live he must, and SO he applied
himself to the art of legerdemain and to
talking in his stomach in fact he be-
came ventriloquist, as they say. He
was young, good-looking, and when he
got mustache, and had his best clothes
on, he couid be taken for nobleman's
son. The ladies seemed to think well
of him; one young lady even was SO
taken with his charms and bis great
dexterity that she went off with him to
foreign parts. There he called himself
professor-he could scarcely do less.


His constant thought was how to get
himself balloon, and go up into the
air with his little wife, but as yet they
had no means.


They'll come yet, said he.


If only they would" said she.


"We are young folks" said he, "and
now 1 am professor. She helped him
faithfully, sat at the door and sold
tickets to the exhibition, and it was
chilly sort of pleasure in winter time.
She also helped him in the line of
his art He put his wife into
large table-drawer; then she crawled
into the back part of the drawer, and
30 was not in the front part-quite an
optical illusion to the audience. But
one evening when he drew the drawer
out she was also out of sight to him
she was not in the front drawer, nor in
the back one either, not in the house
itself-nowhere to be seen or heard
that was her feat of legerdemain, her
entertainment. She never came back
again she was tired of it all, and he
grew tired of it, lost all his good humor,
could not laugh or make jokes, and SO
the people stopped coming, his earnings
became scanty, his clothes gave out :;
and finally he owned great flea, which
his wife had left him, and so he thought
highly of it. And he dressed the flea
and taught it to perform, to present
arms, and to fire cannon but it was
little cannon.


The professor was proud of tine flea,
and the flea was proud of himself he
had learned something, and had human
blood, and had been besides to the
largest cities, had been seen by princes
and princesscs, had received their high
praise, and it was printed in newspapers
and on placards. Plainly, it was very
famous flea, and could support profes-
sor and his entire family.


The flea was proud and famous, and
yet when he and the professor travelled
they took fourth-class carriages on the
hallway; they went just as quickly as
the first-class. They were betrothed to
each other it was private engagement
that would never come out they never
would marry, the flea would remain q
bachelor, and the professor a wldower.
That made it balance.


Where one has the best luck" said
the professor, " there one ought to go
twice. He was a good judge of char
acter, and that is also science of itself.
At last he had travelled over all coun-
tries except the wild ones, and 30 he
wanted to go there. They eat Christian
men there, to be sure, the professor
knev, but then he was not properly
christian, and the flea was not properly
man, SO he thought they might ven
iure to travel there and have good
success.


They travelled by steamship and by
.esng vessel !; the flea performed his
1'cks, and 80 they got free passage on