if one rub a pane of glass with a nail: I have just such a
feeling on hearing you say _thou_ to me; I feel myself as if pressed
to the earth in my first situation with you. You see that it is a
feeling; that it is not pride: I cannot allow you to say _thou_ to me,
but I will willingly say _thou_ to you, so it is half done!"

So the shadow said _thou_ to its former master.

"This is rather too bad," thought he, that I must say _you_ and he say
"thou," but he was now obliged to put up with it.

So they came to a watering-place where there were many strangers, and
amongst them was a princess, who was troubled with seeing too well;
and that was so alarming!

She directly observed that the stranger who had just come was quite a
different sort of person to all the others;--"He has come here in
order to get his beard to grow, they say, but I see the real cause, he
cannot cast a shadow."

She had become inquisitive; and so she entered into conversation
directly with the strange gentleman, on their promenades. As the
daughter of a king, she needed not to stand upon trifles, so she said,
"Your complaint is, that you cannot cast a shadow?"

"Your Royal Highness must be improving considerably," said the
shadow,--"I know your complaint is, that you see too clearly, but it
has decreased, you are cured. I just happen to have a very unusual
shadow! Do you not see that person who always goes with me? Other
persons have a common shadow, but I do not like what is common to all.
We give our servants finer cloth for their livery than we ourselves
use, and so I had my shadow trimmed up into a man: yes, you see I have
even given him a shadow. It is somewhat expensive, but I like to have
something for myself!"

"What!" thought the princess, "should I really be cured! These baths
are the first in the world! In our time water has wonderful powers.
But I shall not leave the place, for it now begins to be amusing here.
I am extremely fond of that stranger: would that his beard should not
grow! for in that case he will leave us."

In the evening, the princess and the shadow danced together in the
large ball-room. She was light, but he was still lighter; she had
never had such a partner in the dance. She told him from what land she
came, and he knew that land; he had been there, but then she was not
at home; he had peeped in at the window, above and below--he had seen
both the one and the other, and so he could answer the princess, and
mak