` If only I had enjoyed myself whilst I could . Now all is over and gone . ' And a servant came and cut the tree into small pieces , there was quite a bundle of them ; they flickered brightly under the great copper in the brew-house ; the tree sighed deeply , and each sigh was like a pistol-shot ; so the children who were playing there ran up , and sat in front of the fire , gazing at it , and crying , ` Piff ! puff ! bang ! ' But for each report , which was really a sigh , the tree was thinking of a summer 's day in the wood , or of a winter 's night out there , when the stars were shining ; it thought of Christmas Eve , and of Humpty Dumpty , which was the only story it had heard , or could tell , and then the tree had burnt away . The children played on in the garden , and the youngest had the golden star on his breast , which the tree had worn on the happiest evening of its life ; and now that was past -- and the tree had passed away -- and the story too , all ended and done with . And that 's the way with all stories ! Here our Danish author ends . This is what people call sentiment , and I hope you enjoy it ! Hans , the Mermaid 's Son Translated from the Danish . In a village there once lived a smith called Basmus , who was in a very poor way . He was still a young man , and a strong handsome fellow to boot , but he had many little children and there was little to be earned by his trade . He was , however , a diligent and hard-working man , and when he had no work in the smithy he was out at sea fishing , or gathering wreckage on the shore . It happened one time that he had gone out to fish in good weather , all alone in a little boat , but he did not come home that day , nor the following one , so that all believed he had perished out at sea . On the third day , however , Basmus came to shore again and had his boat full of fish , so big and fat that no one had ever seen their like . There was nothing the matter with him , and he complained neither of hunger or thirst . He had got into a fog , he said , and could not find land again . What he did not tell , however , was where he had been all the time ; that only came out six years later , when people got to know that he had been caught by a mermaid out on the deep sea , and had been her guest during the three days that he was missing . From that time forth he went out no more to fish ; nor , indeed , did he require to do so , for whenever he went down to the shore it never failed that some wreckage was washed up , and in it all kinds of valuable things .
In those days everyone took what they found and got leave to keep it , so that the smith grew more prosperous day XXXXX day .
From On by for in into over to under whilst