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 XXXXX all , and was the more proud .
against as at from in near of on outside over