安徒生童话：A Picture Book Without Pictures 没有画的画册FOURTH EVENING

"Last evening I saw a German play acted，"said theMoon．
"It was in a little town．A stable had been turnedinto a theatre；that is to say，the stalls had been leftstanding，and had been turned into private boxes，and allthe timber－work had been covered with coloured paper．Alittle iron chandelier hung beneath the ceiling，and that itmight be made to disappear into the ceiling，as it does ingreat theatres，when the ting—ting of the prompter'sbell is heard，a great inverted tub had been placed justabove it．
"' Ting－ting！'And the little iron chandelier sud-denly rose at least half a yard and disappeared in the tub；and that was the sign that the play was going to begin．Ayoung nobleman and his lady，who happened to be pass－ing through the little town，were present at the perfor－mance，and consequently the house was crowded．But un-der the chandelier was a vacant space like a little crater：not a single soul sat there，for the tallow was dropping，drip，drip！I saw everythiing，for it was so warm in therethat every loophole had been opened．The male and fe-male servants stood outside，peeping through the chinks，although the policeman was inside，threatening them witha stick．Close by the orchestra could be seen the nobleyoung couple in two old arm-chairs，which were usuallyoccupied by his worship the mayor and his lady；but theselatter were today obliged to content themselves with wood－en forms，just as if they had been ordinary citizens；andthe lady observed quietly to herself，'One sees，now，that there is rank above rank；'and this incident gave anair of extra festivity to the whole proceedings．The chan－delier gave little leaps，the crowd got their knucklesrapped，and I，the Moon，was present at the performancefrom beginning to end．"