英语童话故事THE BELL故事

　　THE BELL故事

　　IN the narrow streets of a large town people often heard

　　in the evening, when the sun was setting, and his last rays

　　gave a golden tint to the chimney-pots, a strange noise which

　　resembled the sound of a church bell; it only lasted an

　　instant, for it was lost in the continual roar of traffic and

　　hum of voices which rose from the town. "The evening bell is

　　ringing," people used to say; "the sun is setting!" Those who

　　walked outside the town, where the houses were less crowded

　　and interspersed by gardens and little fields, saw the evening

　　sky much better, and heard the sound of the bell much more

　　clearly. It seemed as though the sound came from a church,

　　deep in the calm, fragrant wood, and thither people looked

　　with devout feelings.

　　A considerable time elapsed: one said to the other, "I

　　really wonder if there is a church out in the wood. The bell

　　has indeed a strange sweet sound! Shall we go there and see

　　what the cause of it is?" The rich drove, the poor walked, but

　　the way seemed to them extraordinarily long, and when they

　　arrived at a number of willow trees on the border of the wood

　　they sat down, looked up into the great branches and thought

　　they were now really in the wood. A confectioner from the town

　　also came out and put up a stall there; then came another

　　confectioner who hung a bell over his stall, which was covered

　　with pitch to protect it from the rain, but the clapper was

　　wanting.

　　When people came home they used to say that it had been

　　very romantic, and that really means something else than

　　merely taking tea. Three persons declared that they had gone

　　as far as the end of the wood; they had always heard the

　　strange sound, but there it seemed to them as if it came from

　　the town. One of them wrote verses about the bell, and said

　　that it was like the voice of a mother speaking to an

　　intelligent and beloved child; no tune, he said, was sweeter

　　than the sound of the bell.

　　The emperor of the country heard of it, and declared that

　　he who would really find out where the sound came from should

　　receive the title of "Bellringer to the World," even if there

　　was no bell at all.

　　Now many went out into the wood for the sake of this

　　splendid berth; but only one of them came back with some sort

　　of explanation. None of them had gone far enough, nor had he,

　　and yet he said that the sound of the bell came from a large

　　owl in a hollow tree. It was a wisdom owl, which continually

　　knocked its head against the tree, but he was unable to say

　　with certainty whether its head or the hollow trunk of the

　　tree was the cause of the noise.

　　He was appointed "Bellringer to the World," and wrote

　　every year a short dissertation on the owl, but by this means

　　people did not become any wiser than they had been before.

　　It was just confirmation-day. The clergyman had delivered

　　a beautiful and touching sermon, the candidates were deeply

　　moved by it; it was indeed a very important day for them; they

　　were all at once transformed from mere children to grown-up

　　people; the childish soul was to fly over, as it were, into a

　　more reasonable being.

　　The sun shone most brightly; and the sound of the great

　　unknown bell was heard more distinctly than ever. They had a

　　mind to go thither, all except three. One of them wished to go

　　home and try on her ball dress, for this very dress and the

　　ball were the cause of her being confirmed this time,

　　otherwise she would not have been allowed to go. The second, a

　　poor boy, had borrowed a coat and a pair of boots from the son

　　of his landlord to be confirmed in, and he had to return them

　　at a certain time. The third said that he n

　　ever went into

　　strange places if his parents were not with him; he had always

　　been a good child, and wished to remain so, even after being

　　confirmed, and they ought not to tease him for this; they,

　　however, did it all the same. These three, therefore did not

　　go; the others went on. The sun was shining, the birds were

　　singing, and the confirmed children sang too, holding each

　　other by the hand, for they had no position yet, and they were

　　all equal in the eyes of God. Two of the smallest soon became

　　tired and returned to the town; two little girls sat down and

　　made garlands of flowers, they, therefore, did not go on. When

　　the others arrived at the willow trees, where the confectioner

　　had put up his stall, they said: "Now we are out here; the

　　bell does not in reality exist- it is only something that

　　people imagine!"

　　Then suddenly the sound of the bell was heard so

　　beautifully and solemnly from the wood that four or five made

　　up their minds to go still further on. The wood was very

　　thickly grown. It was difficult to advance: wood lilies and

　　anemones grew almost too high; flowering convolvuli and

　　brambles were hanging like garlands from tree to tree; while

　　the nightingales were singing and the sunbeams played. That

　　was very beautiful! But the way was unfit for the girls; they

　　would have torn their dresses. Large rocks, covered with moss

　　of various hues, were lying about; the fresh spring water

　　rippled forth with a peculiar sound. "I don't think that can

　　be the bell," said one of the confirmed children, and then he

　　lay down and listened. "We must try to find out if it is!" And

　　there he remained, and let the others walk on.

　　They came to a hut built of the bark of trees and

　　branches; a large crab-apple tree spread its branches over it,

　　as if it intended to pour all its fruit on the roof, upon

　　which roses were blooming; the long boughs covered the gable,

　　where a little bell was hanging. Was this the one they had

　　heard? All agreed that it must be so, except one who said that

　　the bell was too small and too thin to be heard at such a

　　distance, and that it had quite a different sound to that

　　which had so touched men's hearts.

　　He who spoke was a king's son, and therefore the others

　　said that such a one always wishes to be cleverer than other

　　people.

　　Therefore they let him go alone; and as he walked on, the

　　solitude of the wood produced a feeling of reverence in his

　　breast; but still he heard the little bell about which the

　　others rejoiced, and sometimes, when the wind blew in that

　　direction, he could hear the sounds from the confectioner's

　　stall, where the others were singing at tea. But the deep

　　sounds of the bell were much stronger; soon it seemed to him

　　as if an organ played an accompaniment- the sound came from

　　the left, from the side where the heart is. Now something

　　rustled among the bushes, and a little boy stood before the

　　king's son, in wooden shoes and such a short jacket that the

　　sleeves did not reach to his wrists. They knew each other: the

　　boy was the one who had not been able to go with them because

　　he had to take the coat and boots back to his landlord's son.

　　That he had done, and had started again in his wooden shoes

　　and old clothes, for the sound of the bell was too enticing-

　　he felt he must go on.

　　"We might go together," said the king's son. But the poor

　　boy with the wooden shoes was quite ashamed; he pulled at the

　　short sleeves of his jacket, and said that he was afraid he

　　could not walk so fast; besides, he was of opinion that the

　　bell ought to be sought at the right, for there was all that

　　was grand and magnificent.

　　"Then we shall not meet," said the king's son, nodding to

　　the poor boy, who went into the deepest part of the wood,

　　where the thorns tore his shabby clothes and scratched his

　　hands, face, and feet until they bled. The king's son also

　　received several good scratches, but the sun was shining on

　　his way, and it is he whom we will now follow, for he was a

　　quick fellow. "I will and must find the bell," he said, "if I

　　have to go to the end of the world."

　　Ugly monkeys sat high in the branches and clenched their

　　teeth. "Shall we beat him?" they said. "Shall we thrash him?

　　He is a king's son!"

　　But he walked on undaunted, deeper and deeper into the

　　wood, where the most wonderful flowers were growing; there

　　were standing white star lilies with blood-red stamens,

　　sky-blue tulips shining when the wind moved them; apple-trees

　　covered with apples like large glittering soap bubbles: only

　　think how resplendent these trees were in the sunshine! All

　　around were beautiful green meadows, where hart and hind

　　played in the grass. There grew magnificent oaks and

　　beech-trees; and if the bark was split of any of them, long

　　blades of grass grew out of the clefts; there were also large

　　smooth lakes in the wood, on which the swans were swimming

　　about and flapping their wings. The king's son often stood

　　still and listened; sometimes he thought that the sound of the

　　bell rose up to him out of one of these deep lakes, but soon

　　he found that this was a mistake, and that the bell was

　　ringing still farther in the wood. Then the sun set, the

　　clouds were as red as fire; it became quiet in the wood; he

　　sank down on his knees, sang an evening hymn and said: "I

　　shall never find what I am looking for! Now the sun is

　　setting, and the night, the dark night, is approaching. Yet I

　　may perhaps see the round sun once more before he disappears

　　beneath the horizon. I will climb up these rocks, they are as

　　high as the highest trees!" And then, taking hold of the

　　creepers and roots, he climbed up on the wet stones, where

　　water-snakes were wriggling and the toads, as it were, barked

　　at him: he reached the top before the sun, seen from such a

　　height, had quite set. "Oh, what a splendour!" The sea, the

　　great majestic sea, which was rolling its long waves against

　　the shore, stretched out before him, and the sun was standing

　　like a large bright altar and there where sea and heaven met-

　　all melted together in the most glowing colours; the wood was

　　singing, and his heart too. The whole of nature was one large

　　holy church, in which the trees and hovering clouds formed the

　　pillars, the flowers and grass the woven velvet carpet, and

　　heaven itself was the great cupola; up there the flame colour

　　vanished as soon as the sun disappeared, but millions of stars

　　were lighted; diamond lamps were shining, and the king's son

　　stretched his arms out towards heaven, towards the sea, and

　　towards the wood. Then suddenly the poor boy with the

　　short-sleeved jacket and the wooden shoes appeared; he had

　　arrived just as quickly on the road he had chosen. And they

　　ran towards each other and took one another's hand, in the

　　great cathedral of nature and poesy, and above them sounded

　　the invisible holy bell; happy spirits surrounded them,

　　singing hallelujahs and rejoicing.

　　THE END