50 Fairy Stories Page 4

  Wyland, the monk, listened and his eyes glittered. There came into his head the idea of enriching the monastery. He saw his chance to win a bride for himself, and acted on it it at once. He could make money by solving the secret for a troubled soul.

  “Prince Benlli,” said he, “if you will bestow upon the monks of the White Minster, one tenth of all the flocks that feed within your domain, and one tenth of all that flows into the vaults of your palace, and hand over the maiden of the Green Forest to me, I shall warrant that your soul will be at peace and your troubles end.”

  To all this, Prince Benlli agreed, making solemn promise. Then the monk Wyland took his book, leather bound, and kept shut by means of metal clasps, and hid himself in the cranny of a rock near the Giant’s Cave, from which there was an entrance down into Fairyland.

  He had not long to wait, for soon, with a crown on her head, a lady, royally dressed, passed by out of the silvery moonlight into the dark cave. It was none other than the maiden of the Green Forest.

  He moved forward to the mouth of the cave. Then summoning into his presence the spirits of the air and the cave, he informed them as to Benlli’s vow to enrich the monastery, and to deliver the Green Forest Maiden to himself. Then, calling aloud, he said:

  “Let her forever be, as she now appears, and never leave my side. Bring her, before the break of day, to the cross near the town of the White Minster, and there will I wed her, and swear to make her my own.”

  Then, by the power of his magic, he made it impossible for any person or power to recall or hinder the operation of these words. Leaving the cave’s mouth, in order to be at the cross, before day should dawn, the first thing he met there was a hideous woman, grinning and rolling her bleared red eyes at him.

  On her head seemed what was more like moss, than hair. She stretched out a long bony finger at him. On it flashed the splendid diamond, which Benlli had given his bride, the beautiful maiden of the Green Forest.

  “Take me then, monk Wyland,” she shrieked, laughing hideously and showing what looked like green snags in her mouth. “For I am the wife you are sworn to wed. Thirty years ago, I was Benlli’s blooming bride and first wife. When my beauty left me, his love flew away but I won it back by my magic. Now I am a foul ogress, but magic makes me young again every seventh night. I promised that my beauty should last until the tall reeds and the long green rushes grow in his hall.”

  Amazed at her story, Wyland drew in his breath.

  “And this promise, I have kept. It is already fulfilled. Your spell and mine are both completed. Yours brought to him the peace of the dead. Mine made the river floods rush in. Now, waters lap to and fro among the reeds and rushes that grow in the banqueting hall, which is now sunk deep below the earth. With the clash of our spells, no charm can redress our fate.

  “Come then and take me as thy bride, for oath and spell have both decreed it as thy reward. As Benlli’s promise to you is fulfilled, for the waters flow in the palace vaults, the pike and the dace feed there.”

  So, caught in his own dark, sordid plot, the monk, who played conjurer, had become the victim of his own craft.

  They say that Wyland’s Cross still recalls the monk, while fishermen on the Welsh border, can, on nights with smooth water, see towers and chimneys far below, sunk deep beneath the waves.

  The Prince with the Nose

  By Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

  READING TIME: 12 MINUTES

  There was once a king who was passionately in love with a beautiful princess, but she could not be married because a magician had enchanted her. The king went to a good fairy to inquire what he should do. Said the fairy, after receiving him graciously:

  “Sir, I will tell you a secret. The princess has a great cat whom she loves so well that she cares for nothing and nobody else; but she will be obliged to marry any person who is adroit enough to walk upon the cat’s tail.”

  “That will not be very difficult,” thought the king to himself, and departed, resolving to trample the cat’s tail to pieces rather than not succeed in walking upon it. He went immediately to the palace of his fair mistress and the cat; the animal came in front of him, arching its back in anger as it was wont to do. The king lifted up his foot, thinking nothing would be so easy as to tread on the tail, but he found himself mistaken. Minon – that was the creature’s name – twisted itself round so sharply that the king only hurt his own foot by stamping on the floor. For eight days did he pursue the cat everywhere: up and down the palace he was after it from morning till night, but with no better success; the tail seemed made of quicksilver, so very lively was it. At last the king had the good fortune to catch Minon sleeping, when – tramp, tramp – he trod on the tail with all his force.

  Minon woke up, mewed horribly, and immediately changed from a cat into a large, fierce-looking man, who regarded the king with flashing eyes.

  “You must marry the princess,” cried he, “because you have broken the enchantment in which I held her, but I will be revenged on you. You shall have a son with a nose as long as this,” – he made in the air a curve of half a foot – “yet he shall believe it is just like all other noses, and shall be always unfortunate till he has found out it is not. And if you ever tell anybody of this threat, you shall die on the spot.” So saying, the magician disappeared.

  The king, who was at first much terrified, soon began to laugh at this adventure. ‘My son might have a worse misfortune than too long a nose,’ thought he. ‘At least it will hinder him neither in seeing nor hearing. I will go and find the princess, and marry her at once.’

  He did so, but he only lived a few months after, and died before his little son was born, so that nobody knew anything about the secret of the nose.

  The little prince was so much wished for that when he came into the world they agreed to call him Prince Wish. He had beautiful blue eyes, and a sweet little mouth, but his nose was so big that it covered half his face. The queen, his mother, was inconsolable, but her ladies tried to satisfy her by telling her that the nose was not so large as it seemed, that it would grow smaller as the prince grew bigger, and that if it did not, a large nose was indispensable to a hero. All great soldiers, they said, had great noses, as everybody knew. The queen was so very fond of her son that she listened eagerly to all this comfort. She grew so used to the prince’s nose that it did not seem to her any larger than ordinary noses of the court, where, in process of time, everybody with a long nose was very much admired, and the unfortunate people who had only snubs were taken little notice of.

  Great care was observed in the education of the prince, and as soon as he could speak they told him all sorts of amusing tales, in which all the bad people had short noses, and all the good people had long ones. When he was old enough his tutor taught him history, and whenever any great king or lovely princess was referred to, the tutor always took care to mention that he or she had a long nose. All the royal apartments were filled with pictures and portraits having this peculiarity, so that at last Prince Wish began to regard the length of his nose as his greatest perfection.

  When he was twenty years old his mother and his people wished him to marry. They procured for him the portraits of many princesses, but the one he preferred was Princess Darling, daughter of a powerful monarch and heiress to several kingdoms. Alas! With all her beauty, this princess had one great misfortune, a little turned-up nose, which, everyone else said, made her only the more bewitching. But here, in the kingdom of Prince Wish, the courtiers were thrown by it into the utmost perplexity. They were in the habit of laughing at all small noses, but how dared they make fun of the nose of Princess Darling?

  They would have found themselves in constant difficulties, had not one clever person struck out a bright idea. He said that though it was necessary for a man to have a great nose, women were different, and that a learned man had discovered in a very old manuscript that the celebrated Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, the beauty of the ancient world, had a turned-up nose. At this information Pr
ince Wish was so delighted that he immediately sent off ambassadors to demand Princess Darling in marriage.

  She accepted his offer at once, and returned with the ambassadors. He made all haste to meet and welcome her, but when she was only three leagues distant from his capital, before he had time even to kiss her hand, the magician who had once assumed the shape of his mother’s cat, Minon, appeared in the air and carried her off before the lover’s very eyes.

  Prince Wish, almost beside himself with grief, declared that nothing should induce him to return to his throne and kingdom till he had found Princess Darling. He mounted a good horse, laid the reins on the animal’s neck, and let him take him wherever he would.

  The horse entered a wide, extended plain, and trotted on steadily the whole day without finding a single house. Master and beast began almost to faint with hunger, and Prince Wish might have wished himself safe at home again, had he not discovered, just at dusk, a cavern, where sat beside a bright lantern, a little woman who might have been more than a hundred years old.

  She put on her spectacles the better to look at the stranger, and he noticed that her nose was so small that the spectacles would hardly stay on. Then the prince and the fairy – for it was a fairy – burst into a mutual fit of laughter.

  “What a funny nose!” cried the one.

  “Not so funny as yours, madam,” returned the other. “But pray let us leave our noses alone, and be good enough to give me something to eat, for I am dying with hunger, and so is my poor horse.”

  “With all my heart,” answered the fairy. “Although your nose is ridiculously long, you are no less the son of one of my best friends. I loved your father like a brother. He had a very handsome nose.”

  “What is wanting to my nose?” asked Wish, rather savagely.

  “Oh! Nothing at all. On the contrary, there is a great deal too much of it, but never mind, one may be a very honest man, and yet have too big a nose.

  “I will give you some supper directly, and while you eat it I will tell you my history in six words, for I hate much talking. A long tongue is as insupportable as a long nose; and I remember when I was young how much I used to be admired because I was not a talker, indeed, my mother, for poor as you see me now, I am the daughter of a great king, who always—”

  ‘Hang the king your father!’ Prince Wish was about to exclaim, but he stopped himself, and only observed that however the pleasure of her conversation might make him forget his hunger, it could not have the same effect upon his horse, who was really starving.

  The fairy, pleased at his civility, called her servants and bade them supply him at once with all he needed. “And,” added she, “I must say you are very polite and very good-tempered, in spite of your nose.”

  “What has the old woman to do with my nose?” thought the prince. “If I were not so very hungry I would soon show her what she is – a regular old gossip and chatterbox. She fancies she talks little, indeed! One must be very foolish not to know one’s own defects. This comes of being born a princess. Flatterers have spoiled her, and persuaded her that she talks little.”

  While the prince thus meditated, the servants were laying the table, the fairy asking them a hundred unnecessary questions, simply for the pleasure of hearing herself talk. ‘Well,’ thought Wish, ‘I am delighted that I came hither, if only to learn how wise I have been in never listening to flatterers, who hide from us our faults, or make us believe they are perfections. But they could never deceive me. I know all my own weak points, I trust.’ And truly he believed he did.

  So he went on eating contentedly, nor stopped till the old fairy began to address him.

  “Prince,” said she, “will you be kind enough to turn a little? Your nose casts such a shadow that I cannot see what is on my plate. And, as I was saying, your father admired me and always made me welcome at court. What is the court etiquette there now? Do the ladies still go to assemblies, promenades, balls? I beg your pardon for laughing, but how very long your nose is.”

  “I wish you would cease to speak of my nose,” said the prince, becoming annoyed. “It is what it is, and I do not desire it any shorter.”

  “Oh! I see that I have vexed you,” returned the fairy. “Nevertheless, I am one of your best friends, and so I shall take the liberty of always—”

  She would doubtless have gone on talking till midnight, but the prince, unable to bear it any longer, here interrupted her, thanked her for her hospitality, bade her a hasty adieu, and rode away.

  He travelled for a long time, half over the world, but he heard no news of Princess Darling. However, in each place he went to, he heard one remarkable fact – the great length of his own nose. The little boys in the streets jeered at him, the peasants stared at him, and the more polite ladies and gentlemen whom he met in society used to try in vain to keep from laughing, and to get out of his way as soon as they could. So the poor prince became gradually quite forlorn and solitary. He thought all the world was mad, but still he never thought of there being anything queer about his own nose.

  At last the old fairy, who, though she was a chatterbox, was very good-natured, saw that he was almost breaking his heart. She felt sorry for him, and wished to help, for she knew the enchantment, which hid from him the Princess Darling, could not be broken till he discovered his own defect. So she went in search of the princess, and being more powerful than the magician, she took her away from him, and shut her up in a palace of crystal, which she placed on the road which Prince Wish had to pass.

  He was riding along, very melancholy, when he saw the palace, and at its entrance was a room made of glass, in which sat his beloved princess, smiling and beautiful as ever. He leaped from his horse, and ran towards her. She held out her hand for him to kiss, but he could not get at it for the glass. Transported with eagerness and delight, he dashed his sword through the crystal, and succeeded in breaking a small opening, to which she put up her beautiful rosy mouth. But it was in vain, Prince Wish could not approach it. He twisted his neck about, and turned his head on all sides, till at length, putting up his hand to his face, he discovered the impediment.

  “It must be confessed,” exclaimed he, “that my nose is too long.”

  That moment the glass walls all split asunder, and the old fairy appeared, leading Princess Darling.

  “Admit, prince,” said she, “that you are very much obliged to me, for now the enchantment is ended. You may marry the object of your choice. But,” added she, smiling, “I fear I might have talked to you forever on the subject of your nose, and you would not have believed me in its length, till it became an obstacle to your own inclinations. Now behold it!” and she held up a crystal mirror. Are you satisfied to be no different from other people?”

  “Perfectly,” said Prince Wish, who found his nose had shrunk to an ordinary length. And, taking the Princess Darling by the hand, he kissed her, courteously, affectionately, and satisfactorily. Then they departed to their own country, and lived very happy all their days.

  The Man who would not Scold

  By Norman Hinsdale Pitman

  READING TIME: 12 MINUTES

  Old Wang lived in a village near Nanking. He cared for nothing in the world but to eat good food and plenty of it. His greatest pleasure was to eat at someone else’s table when he knew that the food would cost him nothing, and you may be sure that at such times he always licked his chopsticks clean. But when he was spending his own money, he tightened his belt and drank a great deal of water, eating very little but scraps such as his friends would have thrown to the dogs.

  One day while Wang was lying half asleep on the bank of a stream that flowed near his house he saw a flock of ducks swimming in the river. He knew that they belonged to a rich man named Lin who lived in the village. They were fat ducks, so plump and tempting that it made him hungry to look at them. ‘Oh, for a boiled duck!, he said to himself with a sigh. ‘Why is it that the gods have not given me a taste of duck during the past year? What have I done to be thus denied?,<
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  Then the thought flashed into his mind: ‘Here am I asking why the gods have not given me ducks to eat. Who knows but that they have sent this flock thinking I would have sense enough to grab one? Friend Lin, many thanks for your kindness. I think I shall accept your offer and take one of these fowls for my dinner.’ Of course Mr Lin was nowhere near to hear old Wang thanking him.

  By this time the flock had come to shore. The miser picked himself up lazily from the ground, and, after tiring himself out, he at last managed to pick one of the ducks up, too. Once in his own yard, he lost no time in killing and preparing it for dinner. He ate it, laughing to himself all the time at his own slyness, and wondering what his friend Lin would think if he chanced to count his ducks that night. ‘No doubt he will believe it was a hawk that carried off that bird. I think I will repeat the dose tomorrow. It would be a pity to leave the first one to pine away in lonely grief. I could never be so cruel.’

  So old Wang went to bed happy. For several hours he snored away noisily. At midnight, however, he was wakened from his sleep by an unpleasant itching. His whole body seemed to be on fire, and the pain was more than he could bear. He got up and paced the floor. At early dawn he stepped outside his shanty. Lo, and behold, he found little red spots all over his body. Before his very eyes he saw tiny duck feathers sprouting from these spots. As the morning went by, the feathers grew larger and larger, until his whole body was covered with them from head to foot. Only his face and hands were free of the strange growth.

  With a cry of horror, Wang began to pull the feathers out by handfuls, flinging them in the dirt and stamping on them. “The gods have fooled me!” he yelled. “They made me take the duck and eat it, and now they are punishing me for stealing.” But the faster he jerked the feathers out, the faster they grew in again, longer and more glossy than before. Then, too, the pain was so great that he could scarcely keep from rolling on the ground. At last, completely worn out by his useless labour, and moaning with despair, he took to his bed. He tossed about on his bed but he could not sleep. His heart was sick with fear. Finally he fell into a troubled sleep, and, sleeping, had a dream.