Whatever the elf put the tongue on could speak!

“The elf first put the tongue on the tub.”

. . . the elf stole away the grocer’s wife’s tongue, for she did not want it while she slept. And now whatever he put it upon was able to speak just as well as the lady herself. It was a good thing the tongue could be in only one place at a time, or what a noise there would have been!

The elf first put the tongue on the tub . . .

From the story “The Elf at the Grocer’s.”

Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales.

By William Woodburn.

Illustrated by Gordon Robinson.

W. & R. Chambers, Limited: London & Edinburgh. 1917.