Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales. Hans Christian Andersen

to return. And they came exactly on that day which was most filled with joy and mirth. There was a grand wedding, and little Helga was the bride arrayed in silk and jewels; the bridegroom was the young prince from the land of Arabia; and the two sat highest at the table between the mother and grandfather. But she did not look at the bridegroom's brown, manly cheek, where his black beard curled; she did not look at his dark, fiery eyes, which were fastened upon her; she looked outwards and upwards towards the twinkling, sparkling stars, which beamed down from heaven.

      Then there was a rustling sound of strong wing-strokes outside in the air—the storks had returned; and the old couple, however tired they might be with the journey, and however much they needed rest, still flew on to the railing of the verandah immediately they were aware whose festivity it was. They had already heard, at the frontier of the country, that little Helga had allowed them to be painted on the wall because they belonged to her history.

      'That is very nicely borne in mind,' said father-stork.

      'It is very little!' said the stork-mother; 'she could not have done less.'

      And when Helga saw them, she got up and went out into the verandah to them to pat them on the back. The old storks curtsied with their necks, and the youngest of their young ones looked on, and felt themselves honoured.

      ​And Helga looked up to the bright stars which shone clearer and clearer; and between them and her a form seemed to move still purer than the air, and seen through it, that hovered quite near her—it was the dead Christian priest; so he came on the day of her festivity, came from the Kingdom of Heaven.

      'The splendour and glory which are there surpass everything that earth knows!' he said.

      And little Helga prayed gently and from her heart, as she had never prayed before, that she only for one single minute might dare to look within, might only cast one single glance into the Kingdom of Heaven, to the Father of all.

      And he raised her into the splendour and glory, in one current of sounds and thoughts; it was not only round about her that it shone and sounded, but within her. No words are able to describe it.

      'Now we must return; you are wanted!' he said.

      'Only one glance more!' she entreated; 'only one short minute!'

      'We must go back to the earth; all the guests have gone away.'

      'Only one glance! the last—

      *⁠*⁠*⁠*⁠*⁠*

      And little Helga stood outside in the verandah; but all the torches outside were extinguished, all the lights in the wedding chamber were gone, the storks were gone, no guests to be seen, no bridegroom; everything seemed to be blown away in three short minutes.

      Then Helga was filled with terror, and she went through the great, empty hall, into the next room. Strange soldiers were sleeping there. She opened a side door that led into her apartment, and when she expected to stand there, she found ​herself outside in the garden; but it was not like this before—the heaven was red and shining, it was towards daybreak.

      Only three minutes in Heaven, and a whole night had passed on the earth!

      *⁠*⁠*⁠*⁠*⁠*

      Then she saw the storks; she cried to them, speaking their language, and father-stork turned his head, listened, and drew near her.

      'You are speaking our language!' said he; 'what do you want? Why do you come here, you strange woman?'

      'It is I! it is Helga! Don't you know me? Three minutes ago we were talking together, yonder in the verandah.'

      'That is a mistake!' said the stork; 'you must have dreamt it!'

      'No, no!' she said, and reminded him of the Viking's stronghold and the moor, and of the journey hither!

      Then father-stork blinked his eyes: 'That is a very old story; I have heard it from my great-great-great-grandmother's time! Yes, certainly, there was such a princess in Egypt from the land of Denmark, but she disappeared on the night of her wedding many hundreds of years ago, and never came back again. That you may read for yourself on the monument in the garden; there are sculptured both swans and storks, and at the top you yourself stand in white marble.'

      It was indeed so. Little Helga saw it, understood it, and fell on her knees.

      The sun broke forth, and as in former times at the touch of its beams the toad form disappeared and the beautiful shape was seen, so she raised herself now at the baptism of light in a form of brighter beauty, purer than the air, a ray of light—to the Father of all.

      ​Her body sank in dust; there lay a faded lotus-flower where she had stood.

      *⁠*⁠*⁠*⁠*⁠*

      'Then that was a new ending to the story!' said the father-stork. 'I had not at all expected it! but I rather like it!'

      'I wonder what my young ones will say about it!' said the mother-stork.

      'Yes, that is certainly the principal thing!' answered the father.