{"id":1916,"date":"2012-03-21T15:07:40","date_gmt":"2012-03-21T14:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/?page_id=1916"},"modified":"2013-09-25T10:11:35","modified_gmt":"2013-09-25T08:11:35","slug":"the-pea-blossom","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/?page_id=1916","title":{"rendered":"The Pea Blossom"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pea Blossom –\u00a0\u00a0Illustration<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Hans Christian Andersen (1855)<\/strong><\/p>\n

There were once five peas in one shell, they were green, the shell was green, and so they believed that the whole world must be green also, which was a very natural conclusion. The shell grew, and the peas grew, they accommodated themselves to their position, and sat all in a row. The sun shone without and warmed the shell, and the rain made it clear and transparent; it was mild and agreeable in broad daylight, and dark at night, as it generally is; and the peas as they sat there grew bigger and bigger, and more thoughtful as they mused, for they felt there must be something else for them to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre we to sit here forever?\u201d asked one; \u201cshall we not become hard by sitting so long? It seems to me there must be something outside, and I feel sure of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And as weeks passed by, the peas became yellow, and the shell became yellow.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the world is turning yellow, I suppose,\u201d said they,\u2014and perhaps they were right.<\/p>\n

Suddenly they felt a pull at the shell; it was torn off, and held in human hands, then slipped into the pocket of a jacket in company with other full pods.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we shall soon be opened,\u201d said one,\u2014just what they all wanted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should like to know which of us will travel furthest,\u201d said the smallest of the five; \u201cwe shall soon see now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is to happen will happen,\u201d said the largest pea.<\/p>\n

\u201cCrack\u201d went the shell as it burst, and the five peas rolled out into the bright sunshine. There they lay in a child\u2019s hand. A little boy was holding them tightly, and said they were fine peas for his pea-shooter. And immediately he put one in and shot it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I am flying out into the wide world,\u201d said he; \u201ccatch me if you can;\u201d and he was gone in a moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI,\u201d said the second, \u201cintend to fly straight to the sun, that is a shell that lets itself be seen, and it will suit me exactly;\u201d and away he went.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will go to sleep wherever we find ourselves,\u201d said the two next, \u201cwe shall still be rolling onwards;\u201d and they did certainly fall on the floor, and roll about before they got into the pea-shooter; but they were put in for all that. \u201cWe shall go farther than the others,\u201d said they.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is to happen will happen,\u201d exclaimed the last, as he was shot out of the pea-shooter; and as he spoke he flew up against an old board under a garret-window, and fell into a little crevice, which was almost filled up with moss and soft earth. The moss closed itself round him, and there he lay, a captive indeed, but not unnoticed by God.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is to happen will happen,\u201d said he to himself.<\/p>\n

Within the little garret lived a poor woman, who went out to clean stoves, chop wood into small pieces and perform such-like hard work, for she was strong and industrious. Yet she remained always poor, and at home in the garret lay her only daughter, not quite grown up, and very delicate and weak. For a whole year she had kept her bed, and it seemed as if she could neither live nor die.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is going to her little sister,\u201d said the woman; \u201cI had but the two children, and it was not an easy thing to support both of them; but the good God helped me in my work, and took one of them to Himself and provided for her. Now I would gladly keep the other that was left to me, but I suppose they are not to be separated, and my sick girl will very soon go to her sister above.\u201d But the sick girl still remained where she was, quietly and patiently she lay all the day long, while her mother was away from home at her work.<\/p>\n

Spring came, and one morning early the sun shone brightly through the little window, and threw its rays over the floor of the room. just as the mother was going to her work, the sick girl fixed her gaze on the lowest pane of the window\u2014\u201cMother,\u201d she exclaimed, \u201cwhat can that little green thing be that peeps in at the window? It is moving in the wind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mother stepped to the window and half opened it. \u201cOh!\u201d she said, \u201cthere is actually a little pea which has taken root and is putting out its green leaves. How could it have got into this crack? Well now, here is a little garden for you to amuse yourself with.\u201d So the bed of the sick girl was drawn nearer to the window, that she might see the budding plant; and the mother went out to her work.<\/p>\n

\u201cMother, I believe I shall get well,\u201d said the sick child in the evening, \u201cthe sun has shone in here so brightly and warmly to-day, and the little pea is thriving so well: I shall get on better, too, and go out into the warm sunshine again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGod grant it!\u201d said the mother, but she did not believe it would be so. But she propped up with the little stick the green plant which had given her child such pleasant hopes of life, so that it might not be broken by the winds; she tied the piece of string to the window-sill and to the upper part of the frame, so that the pea-tendrils might twine round it when it shot up. And it did shoot up, indeed it might almost be seen to grow from day to day.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow really here is a flower coming,\u201d said the old woman one morning, and now at last she began to encourage the hope that her sick daughter might really recover. She remembered that for some time the child had spoken more cheerfully, and during the last few days had raised herself in bed in the morning to look with sparkling eyes at her little garden which contained only a single pea-plant. A week after, the invalid sat up for the first time a whole hour, feeling quite happy by the open window in the warm sunshine, while outside grew the little plant, and on it a pink pea-blossom in full bloom. The little maiden bent down and gently kissed the delicate leaves. This day was to her like a festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur heavenly Father Himself has planted that pea, and made it grow and flourish, to bring joy to you and hope to me, my blessed child,\u201d said the happy mother, and she smiled at the flower, as if it had been an angel from God.<\/p>\n

But what became of the other peas? Why the one who flew out into the wide world, and said, \u201cCatch me if you can,\u201d fell into a gutter on the roof of a house, and ended his travels in the crop of a pigeon. The two lazy ones were carried quite as far, for they also were eaten by pigeons, so they were at least of some use; but the fourth, who wanted to reach the sun, fell into a sink and lay there in the dirty water for days and weeks, till he had swelled to a great size.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am getting beautifully fat,\u201d said the pea, \u201cI expect I shall burst at last; no pea could do more that that, I think; I am the most remarkable of all the five which were in the shell.\u201d And the sink confirmed the opinion.<\/p>\n

But the young maiden stood at the open garret window, with sparkling eyes and the rosy hue of health on her cheeks, she folded her thin hands over the pea-blossom, and thanked God for what He had done.<\/p>\n

\u201cI,\u201d said the sink, \u201cshall stand up for my pea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeks over H.C. Andersens eventyr \u2014\u00a0Index of Hans Christian Andersen Fairy tales<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pea Blossom –\u00a0\u00a0Illustration By Hans Christian Andersen (1855) There were once five peas in one shell, they were green, the shell was green, and so they believed that the whole world must be green also, which was a very natural conclusion. The shell grew, and the peas grew, they accommodated themselves to their position, … L\u00e6s mere The Pea Blossom<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-1916","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1916"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53361,"href":"https:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1916\/revisions\/53361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hcandersen-homepage.dk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}