The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang (interesting novels to read .txt) 📕

and only water to drink. On the second morning, water to wash in

and water to drink was standing for the man’s daughter as well.

And on the third morning, water to wash in and water to drink was

standing for the man’s daughter, and milk to wash in and wine to

drink for the woman’s daughter; and so it continued ever after. The

woman hated her stepdaughter from the bottom of her heart, and

did all she could to make her life miserable. She was as jealous as

she could possibly be, because the girl was so beautiful and charming,

while her own daughter was both ugly and repulsive.

One winter’s day when there was a hard frost, and mountain

and valley were covered with snow, the woman made a dress of

paper, and calling the girl to her said:

`There, put on this dress and go out into the wood and fetch me

a basket of strawberries!’

`Now Heaven help us,’ replied her stepdaughter; `strawberries

don’t grow in winter; the earth is all frozen and the snow has

covered up everything; and why send me in a paper dress? it is so

cold outside that one’s very breath freezes; the wind will whistle

through my dress, and the brambles tear it from my body.’

`How dare you contradict me!’ said her stepmother; `be off with

you at once, and don’t show your face again till you have filled the

basket with strawberries.’

Then she gave her a hard crust of bread, saying:

`That will be enough for you to-day,’ and she thought to herself:

`The girl will certainly perish of hunger and cold outside, and I

shan’t be bothered with her any more.’

The girl was so obedient that she put on the paper dress and set

out with her little basket. There was nothing but snow far and

near, and not a green blade of grass to be seen anywhere. When

she came to the wood she saw a little house, and out of it peeped

three little dwarfs. She wished them good-day, and knocked

modestly at the door. They called out to her to enter, so she stepped

in and sat down on a seat by the fire, wishing to warm herself and

eat her breakfast. The Dwarfs said at once: `Give us some of your

food!’

`Gladly,’ she said, and breaking her crust in two, she gave them

the half.

Then they asked her what she was doing in the depths of winter

in her thin dress.

`Oh,’ she answered, `I have been sent to get a basketful of

strawberries, and I daren’t show my face again at home till I bring

them with me.’

When she had finished her bread they gave her a broom and

told her to sweep away the snow from the back door. As soon as

she left the room to do so, the three little men consulted what they

should give her as a reward for being so sweet and good, and for

sharing her last crust with them.

The first said: `Every day she shall grow prettier.’

The second: `Every time she opens her mouth a piece of gold

shall fall out.’

And the third: `A King shall come and marry her.’

The girl in the meantime was doing as the Dwarfs had bidden

her, and was sweeping the snow away from the back door, and what

do you think she found there?—heaps of fine ripe strawberries that

showed out dark red against the white snow. She joyfully picked

enough to fill her basket, thanked the little men for their kindness,

shook hands with them, and ran home to bring her stepmother what

she had asked for. When she walked in and said; Good evening,’ a

piece of gold fell out of her mouth. Then she told what had happened to her in the wood, and at every word pieces of gold dropped

from her mouth, so that the room was soon covered with them.

`She’s surely more money than wit to throw gold about like

that,’ said her stepsister, but in her secret heart she was very jealous,

and determined that she too would go to the wood and look for

strawberries. But her mother refused to let her go, saying:

`My dear child, it is far too cold; you might freeze to death.’

The girl however left her no peace, so she was forced at last to

give in, but she insisted on her putting on a beautiful fur cloak, and

she gave her bread and butter and cakes to eat on the way.

The girl went straight to the little house in the wood, and as

before the three little men were looking out of the window. She

took no notice of them, and without as much as `By your leave,’ or

`With your leave,’ she flounced into the room, sat herself down at

the fire, and began to eat her bread and butter and cakes.

`Give us some,’ cried the Dwarfs.

But she answered: `No, I won’t, it’s hardly enough for myself;

so catch me giving you any.’

When she had finished eating they said:

`There’s a broom for you, go and clear up our back door.’

`I’ll see myself further,’ she answered rudely. `Do it yourselves;

I’m not your servant.’

When she saw that they did not mean to give her anything, she

left the house in no amiable frame of mind. Then the three little

men consulted what they should do to her, because she was so bad

and had such an evil, covetous heart, that she grudged everybody

their good fortune.

The first said: `She shall grow uglier every day.’

The second: `Every time she speaks a toad shall jump out of

her mouth.’

And the third: `She shall die a most miserable death.’

The girl searched for strawberries, but she found none, and

returned home in a very bad temper. When she opened her mouth

to tell her mother what had befallen her in the wood, a toad jumped

out, so that everyone was quite disgusted with her.

Then the stepmother was more furious than ever, and did

nothing but plot mischief against the man’s daughter, who was daily

growing more and more beautiful. At last, one day the wicked

woman took a large pot, put it on the fire and boiled some yarn in

it. When it was well scalded she hung it round the poor girl’s

shoulder, and giving her an axe, she bade her break a hole in the

frozen river, and rinse the yarn in it. Her stepdaughter obeyed

as usual, and went and broke a hole in the ice. When she was in

the act of wringing out the yarn a magnificent carriage passed, and

the King sat inside. The carriage stood still, and the King asked her:

`My child, who are you, and what in the wide world are you

doing here?’

`I am only a poor girl,’ she answered, `and am rinsing out my

yarn in the river.’ Then the King was sorry for her, and when he

saw how beautiful she was he said:

`Will you come away with me?’

`Most gladly,’ she replied, for she knew how willingly she would

leave her stepmother and sister, and how glad they would be to

be rid of her.

So she stepped into the carriage and drove away with the King,

and when they reached his palace the wedding was celebrated with

much splendour. So all turned out just as the three little Dwarfs

had said. After a year the Queen gave birth to a little son. When

her stepmother heard of her good fortune she came to the palace with

her daughter by way of paying a call, and took up her abode there.

Now one day, when the King was out and nobody else near, the

bad woman took the Queen by her head, and the daughter took her

by her heels, and they dragged her from her bed, and flung her out

of the window into the stream which flowed beneath it. Then the

stepmother laid her ugly daughter in the Queen’s place, and covered

her up with the clothes, so that nothing of her was seen. When the

King came home and wished to speak to his wife the woman called out:

`Quietly, quietly I this will never do; your wife is very ill, you

must let her rest all to-day.’ The King suspected no evil, and didn’t

come again till next morning. When he spoke to his wife and she

answered him, instead of the usual piece of gold a toad jumped out

of her mouth. Then he asked what it meant, and the old woman

told him it was nothing but weakness, and that she would soon be

all right again.

But that same evening the scullion noticed a duck swimming

up the gutter, saying as it passed:

`What does the King, I pray you tell,

Is he awake or sleeps he well?’

and receiving no reply, it continued:

`And all my guests, are they asleep?’

and the Scullion answered:

`Yes, one and all they slumber deep.’

Then the Duck went on:

`And what about my baby dear?’

and he answered:

`Oh, it sleeps soundly, never fear.’

Then the Duck assumed the Queen’s shape, went up to the child’s

room, tucked him up comfortably in his cradle, and then swam back

down the gutter again, in the likeness of a Duck. This was repeated

for two nights, and on the third the Duck said to the Scullion:

`Go and tell the King to swing his sword three times over me

on the threshold.’

The Scullion did as the creature bade him, and the King came

with his sword and swung it three times over the bird, and lo and

behold! his wife stood before him once more, alive, and as blooming

as ever.

The King rejoiced greatly, but he kept the Queen in hiding till

the Sunday on which the child was to be christened. After the

christening he said:

`What punishment does that person deserve who drags another

out of bed, and throws him or her, as the case may be, into the

water?’

Then the wicked old stepmother answered:

`No better fate than to be put into a barrel lined with sharp

nails, and to be rolled in it down the hill into the water.’

`You have pronounced your own doom,’ said the King; and he

ordered a barrel to be made lined with sharp nails, and in it he put

the bad old woman and her daughter. Then it was fastened down

securely, and the barrel was rolled down the hill till it fell into the

river.[19]

[19] Grimm.

THERE was once upon a time a couple of rich folks who had twelve

sons, and when the youngest was grown up he would not stay

at home any longer, but would go out into the world and seek his

fortune. His father and mother said that they thought he was very

well off at home, and that he was welcome to stay with them; but

ho could not rest, and said that he must and would go, so at last

they had to give him leave. When he had walked a long way, he

came to a King’s palace. There he asked for a place and got it.

Now the daughter of the King of that country had been carried

off into the mountains by a Troll, and the King had no other children,

and for this cause both he and all his people were