There's nobody in the whole world who knows so many stories as Ole Luk-Oie. He can tell capital histories.

Well on in the evening, when the children still sit nicely at table, or upon their stools, Ole Luk-Oie comes. He comes up the stairs quite softly, for he walks in his socks; he opens the door noiselessly, and whisk! he squirts sweet milk in the children's eyes, a small, small stream, but enough to prevent them from keeping their eyes open; and thus they cannot see him. He creeps just among them, and blows softly upon their necks, and this makes their heads heavy. Yes, but it doesn't hurt them, for Ole Luk-Oie is very fond of the children; he only wants them to be quiet, and that they are not until they are taken to bed; they are to be quiet that he may tell them stories.

When the children sleep, Ole Luk-Oie sits down upon their bed. He is well dressed: his coat is of silk, but it is impossible to say of what colour,for it shines red, green, and blue, according as he turns. Under each arm he carries an umbrella; the one with pictures on it he spreads overthegood children, and then theydreamall nightthemostglorious stories; but on his other umbrella nothing at all is painted; this he spreads over the naughty children, and these sleep in a dull way, and when they awake in the morning they have not dreamed of anything.

Now we shall hear how Ole Luk-Oie, every evening through one whole week, came to a little boy named Hjalmar, and what he told him. There are seven stories, for there are seven days in the week.

MONDAY

"Listen," said Ole Luk-Oie in the evening, when he had put Hjalmar to bed; "now I'll decorate." And all the flowers in the flower-pots became great trees, stretching out their long branches under the ceiling of the room and along the walls, so that the whole room looked like a beauteous bower; and all the twigs were covered with flowers, and each flower was more beautiful than a rose, and smelt so sweet that one wanted to eat it--it was sweeter than jam. The fruit gleamed like gold, and there were cakes bursting with raisins. It was incomparably beautiful. But at the same time a terrible wail sounded from the table drawer, where Hjalmar's school-book lay.

"Whatever can that be?" said Ole Luk-Oie; and he went to the table, and opened the drawer. It was the slate which was suffering from convulsions, for a wrong number had got into the sum, so that it was nearly falling in pieces; the slate pencil tugged and jumped at its string, as if it had been a little dog who wanted to help the sum; but he could not. And thus there was a great lamentation in Hjalmar's copy-book; it was quite terrible to hear. On each page the great letters stood in a row, one underneath the other, and each with a little one at its side; that was the copy; and next to these were a few more letters which thought they looked just like the first; and these Hjalmar had written; but they lay down just as if they had tumbled over the pencil lines on which they were to stand.

"See, this is how you should hold yourselves," said the Copy. "Look, sloping in this way, with a powerful swing!"

"Oh, we should be very glad to do that,"

replied Hjalmar's Letters, "but we cannot; we are too weakly."

"Then you must take medicine," said Ole Luk-Oie.

"Oh, no," cried they; and they immediately stood up so gracefully that it was beautiful to behold.

"Yes, now we cannot tell any stories," said Ole Luk-Oie; "now I must exercise them. One, two! one, two!" and thus he exercised the Letters; and they stood quite slender, and as beautiful as any copy can be. But when Ole Luk-Oie went away, and Hjalmar looked at them next morning, they were as weak and miserable as ever.

（To be continued）

世界上再沒有人比奧列·路卻埃知道的故事多了，他會講許多很好聽的故事。

晚上，當孩子們還規(guī)規(guī)距距地坐在桌邊，或者坐在凳子上的時候，奧列·路卻埃就來了。他上樓時腳步很輕，因為他是穿著襪子走的。他輕手輕腳地打開門，“撲!”他噴了一點甜牛奶在孩子們的眼里，只是一小點兒，但也足以讓他們睜不開眼睛。這樣一來，孩子們就看不見他了。他悄悄地走在孩子們中間，輕輕地吹他們的脖子，讓他們腦袋發(fā)脹。是的，這傷不著他們，因為奧列·路卻埃是很喜歡小孩子的。他只是想讓他們靜下來，而只有上床后他們才能做到這一點。他們必須安靜下來，他才能給他們講故事。

孩子們?nèi)胨院?，奧列·路卻埃就坐到了他們的床上。他穿得很漂亮，上衣是絲的，但說不清是什么顏色，因為隨著他的轉(zhuǎn)動，衣服一會兒閃著紅光，一會兒閃著綠光，一會兒又閃光藍光。他的雙腋下各夾著一把傘。繪有圖案的那把傘，他支在好孩子頭上，這樣他們就可以整夜夢見美妙的故事了；另一把傘上面什么也沒畫，他把這把傘支在淘氣的孩子頭上，這樣他們的睡眠一點意思也沒有，當他們早晨醒來的時候，什么也沒有夢見。

現(xiàn)在我們來聽聽，一星期里的每個晚上，奧列·路卻埃是如何來到一個名叫哈爾馬的孩子身邊，又給他講了什么故事?？偣彩瞧邆€故事，因為一星期有七天呀。

星期一

“聽著，”晚上，奧列·路卻埃把哈爾馬哄上床后，說，“現(xiàn)在我要開始裝點了。”花盆里所有的花兒都成了大樹，長長的樹枝一直伸到屋頂下和墻邊，整個房間看起來就像個美麗的花亭。所有的枝條上都開滿了花兒，每朵花兒都比玫瑰還要美，發(fā)出濃濃的香氣，真讓人想嘗嘗——比果醬還要香哪!果實都像金子般閃爍，還有露著葡萄干的蛋糕呢。真是美得無可比擬。但同時，放著哈爾馬課本的桌子抽屜里，發(fā)出了可怕的哭聲。

“這是怎么回事?”奧列·路卻埃說。他來到桌子邊，打開了抽屜。原來是一塊寫字板在抽筋，因為數(shù)字的總和算錯了，差點讓寫字板散了架。拴著線的粉筆在上面跳來跳去，好像一個小狗一樣。它想幫助總和，但又辦不到。這時，哈爾馬的抄寫本里又發(fā)出一聲哀鳴，聲音聽起來真是怕人。在每一頁里，大大的字母都排成隊，一個摞著一個，每個旁邊都有一個小小的字母。這是抄寫本。在這些字母旁邊，還有幾個字母，這些字母是哈爾馬抄寫的，它們以為自己跟前面的字母都一樣呢。但它們歪歪扭扭的，都出了自己該呆的鉛筆格兒。

“瞧，你們應(yīng)該這樣站好，”抄寫本說，“看，朝這邊斜一點兒，用力一劃!”

“啊，我們很樂意這樣做，”哈爾馬的字母答道，“但我們做不到啊，我們太軟弱了?！?/p>

“那你們得吃點藥，”奧列·路卻埃說。

“啊，不行，”它們叫道。它們馬上優(yōu)雅地站好了，煞是好看。

“好吧，現(xiàn)在我不能講故事了，”奧列·路卻埃說，“我要訓練訓練你們。一，二!一，二！”他就這樣訓練那些字母。它們很苗條地站著，像范本上的一樣漂亮。奧列·路卻埃走了以后，哈爾馬第二天早晨一看，它們還是老樣子，又虛弱，又難看。

（待續(xù)）