[Dedication to Charles Dickens.]
l am back again in my quiet Danish room, but every day my thoughts art in dear England, where a few months ago my friends there transformed reality for me into a beautiful fairy tale.
During my occupation with a larger work, there sprouted forth, as flowers come up in the wood, five little tales. I feel a desire, a need, to present in England as a Christmas greeting the first shoots of my poet's garden, and I present them to you, whom I had already come to love in your works and who, after we have met, have grown forever fixed in my heart, my dear, noble Charles Dickens. You gave me the last handshake on the shores of England, you called the last farewell to me from them, it is, then, only natural that I should send back to you from Denmark my first greeting as fervent as an affectionate heart can offer it.
Hans Christian Andersen
Copenhagen the 6th December 1847.
