ty years it stood up in the loft; and it might have
remained there longer, but that the house was to be rebuilt. The roof
was taken off, and then the bottle was noticed, and they spoke about
it, but it did not understand their language; for one cannot learn a
language by being shut up in a loft, even if one stays there for
twenty years.

"If I had been down in the room," thought the Bottle, "I might have
learned it."

It was now washed and rinsed, and indeed this was requisite. It felt
quite transparent and fresh, and as if its youth had been renewed in
this its old age; but the paper it had carried so faithfully had been
destroyed in the washing.

The bottle was filled with seeds, though it scarcely knew what they
were. It was corked, and well wrapped up. No light nor lantern was it
vouchsafed to behold, much less the sun or the moon; and yet, it
thought, when one goes on a journey one ought to see something; but
though it saw nothing, it did what was most important--it travelled to
the place of its destination, and was there unpacked.

"What trouble they have taken over yonder with that bottle!" it heard
people say; "and yet it is most likely broken." But it was not broken.

The bottle understood every word that was now said; this was the
language it had heard at the furnace, and at the wine merchant's, and
in the forest, and in the ship, the only good old language it
understood: it had come back home, and the language was as a
salutation of welcome to it. For very joy it felt ready to jump out of
people's hands; hardly did it notice that its cork had been drawn,
and that it had been emptied and carried into the cellar, to be placed
there and forgotten. There's no place like home, even if it's in a
cellar! It never occurred to the bottle to think how long it would lie
there, for it felt comfortable, and accordingly lay there for years.
At last people came down into the cellar to carry off all the bottles,
and ours among the rest.

Out in the garden there was a great festival. Flaming lamps hung like
garlands, and paper lanterns shone transparent, like great tulips. The
evening was lovely, the weather still and clear, the stars twinkled;
it was the time of the new moon, but in reality the whole moon could
be seen as a bluish grey disc with a golden rim round half its
surface, which was a very beautiful sight for those who had good eyes.

The illumination extended even to the most retired of the garden
walks; a