(Adapted from Hans Andersen)

To show that it all depends upon how we look at things.

Once there was a wicked sprite; indeed, he was one of the worst sprites you ever knew. He was always in mischief. One day he was in a fine humor; he had just made a mirror that had the power of changing every lovely thing that looked into it into something hideous, and when anything ugly looked into it, it became ten times worse than it really was.

A beautiful landscape looked like boiled spinach. It made a person appear to stand on his head and sometimes appear as if he had no body at all. The face of a girl looked for all the world like an old potato, and if she had a mole or a freckle it seemed to spread all over her nose and mouth.

This sprite kept a school—a school for sprites, of course—and he showed all the other sprites the mirror and said to them:

“Now you can see what the world and the people really look like.” The sprites took the mirror around and had everybody look in it, and said:

“That is the very way you look! What do you think of yourself?”

At last there was not a land nor any people who had not seen the mirror. And you may be sure that everybody who looked in the mirror had a very poor opinion of himself.

And now the sprites thought of a good joke. They flew with the mirror high up into the sky. The mirror grinned as it went up, and kept on grinning until it became so slippery the sprites could hardly hold it. Up they flew until they came near reaching the stars. The joke they had in view was so good that the mirror grinned until it wriggled out of their hands and fell and fell and fell, until it struck the ground. It was broken into a million pieces and the wind scattered them everywhere, until you would have thought that was the end of the mirror.

But not so fast! Each tiny bit was now as bad as the whole mirror itself. Some bits were like dust and flew into people’s eyes. Then their eyes saw everything crooked, or looked evil at all the good things. They would say of such a one: “He has a bad eye, do not trust him.”

Some bits flew into people’s hearts and it made them shudder for their hearts became hard and cold like lumps of ice. They did not love anybody at all, not even their own children. Some bits flew into people’s minds, and then they thought evil thoughts and planned wicked things. They oppressed the poor and even had designs on the mayor and councilmen.

At all this the sprites laughed as if it were a good joke. But I tell you it was very wicked of them, for some bits of the mirror are floating about yet and we must look out not to have them come near us.