hem! Here I am sticking fast! There goes a
shaving thinking of nothing in the world but of itself, a mere chip!
There goes a straw--well, how it does twist and twirl, to be sure!
Don't think so much about yourself, or you will be knocked against a
stone. There floats a bit of newspaper. What is written on it is long
ago forgotten, and yet how proud it is! I am sitting patient and
quiet. I know who I am, and that is enough for me!'

One day something thick lay near her which glittered so brightly that
the Darning-needle thought it must be a diamond. But it was a bit of
bottle-glass, and because it sparkled the Darning-needle spoke to it,
and gave herself out as a breast-pin.

'No doubt you are a diamond?'

'Yes, something of that kind!' And each believed that the other was
something very costly; and they both said how very proud the world
must be of them.

'I have come from a lady's work-box,' said Darning-needle, 'and this
lady was a cook; she had five fingers on each hand; anything so proud
as these fingers I have never seen! And yet they were only there to
take me out of the work-box and to put me back again!'

'Were they of noble birth, then?' asked the bit of bottle-glass.

'Of noble birth!' said the Darning-needle; 'no indeed, but proud! They
were five brothers, all called "Fingers." They held themselves proudly
one against the other, although they were of different sizes. The
outside one, the Thumb, was short and fat; he was outside the rank,
and had only one bend in his back, and could only make one bow; but he
said that if he were cut off from a man that he was no longer any use
as a soldier. Dip-into-everything, the second finger, dipped into
sweet things as well as sour things, pointed to the sun and the moon,
and guided the pen when they wrote. Longman, the third, looked at the
others over his shoulder. Goldband, the fourth, had a gold sash round
his waist; and little Playman did nothing at all, and was the more
proud. There was too much ostentation, and so I came away.'

'And now we are sitting and shining here!' said the bit of
bottle-glass.

At that moment more water came into the gutter; it streamed over the
edges and washed the bit of bottle-glass away.

'Ah! now he has been promoted!' said the Darning-needle. 'I remain
here; I am too fine. But that is my pride, which is a sign of
respectability!' And she sat there very proudly, thinking lofty
thoughts.

'I really believe I must have been bo