Farewell, Farewell," Said The Swallow, With A

It Is Out Of Reality That The Most Peculiar Tale Of All Is Born ... Some Call Me The Elder Granny, Others - The Dryad, But My Real Name Is Memory. It Is I Who Sits On A Tree That Keeps On Growing, And Growing, It Is I Who Reminisces And Tells Stories.

Then He Rustled His Feathers, Curved His Slender Neck, And Cried Joyfully, From The Depths Of His Heart, 'i Never Dreamed Of Such Happiness As This, While I Was An Ugly Duckling.

He Found Whole Figures Which Represented A Written Word; But He Never Could Manage To Represent Just The Word He Wanted - That Word Was 'eternity', And The Snow Queen Had Said, "if You Can Discover That Figure, You Shall Be Your Own Master, And I Will Make You A Present Of The Whole World And A Pair Of New Skates." But He Could Not Find It Out.

Far Away, Where The Swallows Take Refuge In Winter, Lived A King Who Had Eleven Sons And One Daughter, Elise. The Eleven Brothers--they Were All Princes--used To Go To School With Stars On Their Breasts And Swords At Their Sides. They Wrote Upon Golden Slates With Diamond Pencils, And Could Read Just As Well Without A Book As With One, So There Was No Mistake About Their Being Princes. Their Sister Elise Sat Upon A Little Footstool Of Looking-glass, And She Has A Picture-book Which Had Cost The Half Of A Kingdom. Oh, These Children Were Very Happy; But It Was Not To Last Thus Forever.

I Never Dreamed Of So Much Happiness When I Was The Ugly Duckling!