The Orange Fairy Book (12 page)

'You poor little things,' said the girl, stroking them. 'Why do you
sit there and get wet? Go and fly home to your nest, it will be much
warmer than this; but first eat this bread, which I saved from my
dinner, and perhaps you will feel happier. It is my father's axe you
are sitting on, and I must take it back as fast as I can, or I shall
get a terrible scolding from my stepmother.' She then crumbled the
bread on the ground, and was pleased to see the doves flutter quite
cheerfully towards it.

'Good-bye,' she said, picking up the axe, and went her way homewards.

By the time they had finished all the crumbs the doves felt must
better, and were able to fly back to their nest in the top of a tree.

'That is a good girl,' said one; 'I really was too weak to stretch out
a wing before she came. I should like to do something to show how
grateful I am.'

'Well, let us give her a wreath of flowers that will never fade as long
as she wears it,' cried another.

'And let the tiniest singing birds in the world sit amongst the
flowers,' rejoined the third.

'Yes, that will do beautifully,' said the first. And when the girl
stepped into her cottage a wreath of rosebuds was on her head, and a
crowd of little birds were singing unseen.

The father, who was sitting by the fire, thought that, in spite of her
muddy clothes, he had never seen his daughter looking so lovely; but
the stepmother and the other girl grew wild with envy.

'How absurd to walk about on such a pouring night, dressed up like
that,' she remarked crossly, and roughly pulled off the wreath as she
spoke, to place it on her own daughter. As she did so the roses became
withered and brown, and the birds flew out of the window.

'See what a trumpery thing it is!' cried the stepmother; 'and now take
your supper and go to bed, for it is near upon midnight.'

But though she pretended to despise the wreath, she longed none the
less for her daughter to have one like it.

Now it happened that the next evening the father, who had been alone in
the forest, came back a second time without his axe. The stepmother's
heart was glad when she saw this, and she said quite mildly:

'Why, you have forgotten your axe again, you careless man! But now
your daughter shall stay at home, and mine shall go and bring it back';
and throwing a cloak over the girl's shoulders, she bade her hasten to
the forest.

With a very ill grace the damsel set forth, grumbling to herself as she
went; for though she wished for the wreath, she did not at all want the
trouble of getting it.

By the time she reached the spot where her stepfather had been cutting
the wood the girl was in a very bad temper indeed, and when she caught
sight of the axe, there were the three little doves, with drooping
heads and soiled, bedraggled feathers, sitting on the handle.

'You dirty creatures,' cried she, 'get away at once, or I will throw
stones at you! And the doves spread their wings in a fright and flew
up to the very top of a tree, their bodies shaking with anger.

'What shall we do to revenge ourselves on her?' asked the smallest of
the doves, 'we were never treated like that before.'

'Never,' said the biggest dove. 'We must find some way of paying her
back in her own coin!'

'I know,' answered the middle dove; 'she shall never be able to say
anything but "dirty creatures" to the end of her life.'

'Oh, how clever of you! That will do beautifully,' exclaimed the other
two. And they flapped their wings and clucked so loud with delight,
and made such a noise, that they woke up all the birds in the trees
close by.

'What in the world is the matter?' asked the birds sleepily.

'That is our secret,' said the doves.

Meanwhile the girl had reached home crosser than ever; but as soon as
her mother heard her lift the latch of the door she ran out to hear her
adventures. 'Well, did you get the wreath?' cried she.

'Dirty creatures!' answered her daughter.

'Don't speak to me like that! What do you mean?' asked the mother
again.

'Dirty creatures!' repeated the daughter, and nothing else could she
say.

Then the woman saw that something evil had befallen her, and turned in
her rage to her stepdaughter.

'You are at the bottom of this, I know,' she cried; and as the father
was out of the way she took a stick and beat the girl till she screamed
with pain and went to bed sobbing.

If the poor girl's life had been miserable before, it was ten times
worse now, for the moment her father's back was turned the others
teased and tormented her from morning till night; and their fury was
increased by the sight of her wreath, which the doves had placed again
on her head.

Things went on like this for some weeks, when, one day, as the king's
son was riding through the forest, he heard some strange birds singing
more sweetly than birds had ever sung before. He tied his horse to a
tree, and followed where the sound led him, and, to his surprise, he
saw before him a beautiful girl chopping wood, with a wreath of pink
rose-buds, out of which the singing came. Standing in the shelter of a
tree, he watched her a long while, and then, hat in hand, he went up
and spoke to her.

'Fair maiden, who are you, and who gave you that wreath of singing
roses?' asked he, for the birds were so tiny that till you looked
closely you never saw them.

'I live in a hut on the edge of the forest,' she answered, blushing,
for she had never spoken to a prince before. 'As to the wreath, I know
not how it came there, unless it may be the gift of some doves whom I
fed when they were starving! The prince was delighted with this
answer, which showed the goodness of the girl's heart, and besides he
had fallen in love with her beauty, and would not be content till she
promised to return with him to the palace, and become his bride. The
old king was naturally disappointed at his son's choice of a wife, as
he wished him to marry a neighbouring princess; but as from his birth
the prince had always done exactly as he like, nothing was said and a
splendid wedding feast was got ready.

The day after her marriage the bride sent a messenger, bearing handsome
presents to her father, and telling him of the good fortune which had
befallen her. As may be imagined, the stepmother and her daughter were
so filled with envy that they grew quite ill, and had to take to their
beds, and nobody would have been sorry it they had never got up again;
but that did not happen. At length, however, they began to feel
better, for the mother invented a plan by which she could be revenged
on the girl who had never done her any harm.

Her plan was this. In the town where she had lived before she was
married there was an old witch, who had more skill in magic that any
other witch she knew. To this witch she would go and beg her to make
her a mask with the face of her stepdaughter, and when she had the mask
the rest would be easy. She told her daughter what she meant to do,
and although the daughter could only say 'dirty creatures,' in answer,
she nodded and smiled and looked well pleased.

Everything fell out exactly as the woman had hoped. By the aid of her
magic mirror the witch beheld the new princess walking in her gardens
in a dress of green silk, and in a few minutes had produced a mask so
like her, that very few people could have told the difference.
However, she counselled the woman that when her daughter first wore
it— for that, of course, was what she intended her to do—she had
better pretend that she had a toothache, and cover her head with a lace
veil. The woman thanked her and paid her well, and returned to her
hut, carrying the mask under her cloak.

In a few days she heard that a great hunt was planned, and the prince
would leave the palace very early in the morning, so that his wife
would be alone all day. This was a chance not to be missed, and taking
her daughter with her she went up to the palace, where she had never
been before. The princess was too happy in her new home to remember
all that she had suffered in the old one, and she welcomed them both
gladly, and gave them quantities of beautiful things to take back with
them. At last she took them down to the shore to see a pleasure boat
which her husband had had made for her; and here, the woman seizing her
opportunity, stole softly behind the girl and pushed her off the rock
on which she was standing, into the deep water, where she instantly
sank to the bottom. Then she fastened the mask on her daughter, flung
over her shoulders a velvet cloak, which the princess had let fall, and
finally arranged a lace veil over her head.

'Rest your cheek on your hand, as if you were in pain, when the prince
returns,' said the mother; 'and be careful not to speak, whatever you
do. I will go back to the witch and see if she cannot take off the
spell laid on you by those horrible birds. Ah! why did I not think of
it before!'

No sooner had the prince entered the palace than he hastened to the
princess's apartments, where he found her lying on the sofa apparently
in great pain.

'My dearest wife, what is the matter with you?' he cried, kneeling down
beside her, and trying to take her hand; but she snatched it away, and
pointing to her cheek murmured something he could not catch.

'What is it? tell me! Is the pain bad? When did it begin? Shall I
send for your ladies to bath the place?' asked the prince, pouring out
these and a dozen other questions, to which the girl only shook her
head.

'But I can't leave you like this,' he continued, starting up, 'I must
summon all the court physicians to apply soothing balsams to the sore
place! And as he spoke he sprang to his feet to go in search of them.
This so frightened the pretended wife, who knew that if the physicians
once came near her the trick would at once be discovered, that she
forgot her mother's counsel not to speak, and forgot even the spell
that had been laid upon her, and catching hold of the prince's tunic,
she cried in tones of entreaty: 'Dirty creatures!'

The young man stopped, not able to believe his ears, but supposed that
pain had made the princess cross, as it sometimes does. However, he
guessed somehow that she wised to be left alone, so he only said:

'Well, I dare say a little sleep will do you good, if you can manage to
get it, and that you will wake up better to-morrow.'

Now, that night happened to be very hot and airless, and the prince,
after vainly trying to rest, at length got up and went to the window.
Suddenly he beheld in the moonlight a form with a wreath of roses on
her head rise out of the sea below him and step on to the sands,
holding out her arms as she did so towards the palace.

'That maiden is strangely like my wife,' thought he; 'I must see her
closer! And he hastened down to the water. But when he got there,
the princess, for she indeed it was, had disappeared completely, and he
began to wonder if his eyes had deceived him.

The next morning he went to the false bride's room, but her ladies told
him she would neither speak nor get up, though she ate everything they
set before her. The prince was sorely perplexed as to what could be
the matter with her, for naturally he could not guess that she was
expecting her mother to return every moment, and to remove the spell
the doves had laid upon her, and meanwhile was afraid to speak lest she
should betray herself. At length he made up his mind to summon all the
court physicians; he did not tell her what he was going to do, lest it
should make her worse, but he went himself and begged the four learned
leeches attached to the king's person to follow him to the princess's
apartments. Unfortunately, as they entered, the princess was so
enraged at the sight of them that she forgot all about the doves, and
shrieked out: 'Dirty creatures! dirty creatures!' which so offended the
physicians that they left the room at once, and nothing that the prince
could say would prevail on them to remain. He then tried to persuade
his wife to send them a message that she was sorry for her rudeness,
but not a word would she say.

Late that evening, when he had performed all the tiresome duties which
fall to the lot of every prince, the young man was leaning out of his
window, refreshing himself with the cool breezes that blew off the sea.
His thoughts went back to the scene of the morning, and he wondered
if, after all, he had not made a great mistake in marrying a low-born
wife, however beautiful she might be. How could he have imagined that
the quiet, gentle girl who had been so charming a companion to him
during the first days of their marriage, could have become in a day the
rude, sulky woman, who could not control her temper even to benefit
herself. One thing was clear, if she did not change her conduct very
shortly he would have to send her away from court.

He was thinking these thoughts, when his eyes fell on the sea beneath
him, and there, as before, was the figure that so closely resembled his
wife, standing with her feet in the water, holding out her arms to him.

'Wait for me! Wait for me! Wait for me!' he cried; not even knowing
he was speaking. But when he reached the shore there was nothing to be
seen but the shadows cast by the moonlight.

A state ceremonial in a city some distance off caused the prince to
ride away at daybreak, and he left without seeing his wife again.

'Perhaps she may have come to her senses by to-morrow,' said he to
himself; 'and, anyhow, if I am going to send her back to her father, it
might be better if we did not meet in the meantime! Then he put the
matter from his mind, and kept his thoughts on the duty that lay before
him.

It was nearly midnight before he returned to the palace, but, instead
of entering, he went down to the shore and hid behind a rock. He had
scarcely done so when the girl came out of the sea, and stretched out
her arms towards his window. In an instant the prince had seized her
hand, and though she made a frightened struggle to reach the water—for
she in her turn had had a spell laid upon her—he held her fast.