The Shirt-Collar
(continued)
| A long time passed, and the shirt collar was
taken in a bag to the paper-mill. Here was a large company of
rags, the fine ones lying by themselves, separated from the
coarser, as it ought to be. They had all many things to relate,
especially the shirt collar, who was a terrible boaster. “I have
had an immense number of love affairs,” said the shirt collar, “no
one left me any peace. It is true I was a very fine gentleman;
quite stuck up. I had a boot-jack and a brush that I never used.
You should have seen me then, when I was turned down. I shall
never forget my first love; she was a girdle, so charming, and
fine, and soft, and she threw herself into a washing tub for my
sake.
There was a widow too, who was warmly in love with me, but I left her alone, and she became quite black. The next was a first-rate dancer; she gave me the wound from which I still suffer, she was so passionate. Even my own hair-brush was in love with me, and lost all her hair through neglected love. Yes, I have had great experience of this kind, but my greatest grief was for the garter—the girdle I meant to say—that jumped into the wash-tub. I have a great deal on my conscience, and it is really time I should be turned into white paper.” And the shirt collar came to this at last. All the rags were made into white paper, and the shirt collar became the very identical piece of paper which we now see, and on which this story is printed. It happened as a punishment to him, for having boasted so shockingly of things which were not true. And this is a warning to us, to be careful how we act, for we may some day find ourselves in the rag-bag, to be turned into white paper, on which our whole history may be written, even its most secret actions. And it would not be pleasant to have to run about the world in the form of a piece of paper, telling everything we have done, like the boasting shirt collar. |
...Click here to go back to Classics
Check out all the toys in the toy store, click here
