The Red Fairy Book - Andrew Lang (best novels for beginners TXT) 📗

all she had for a bed, and they gave her a very little bit

of black bread to eat. In this miserable plight Graciosa did indeed

regret the fairy palace, and she would have called Percinet to her

aid, only she felt sure he was still vexed with her for leaving him,

and thought that she could not expect him to come.

 

Meanwhile the Queen had sent for an old Fairy, as malicious as

herself, and said to her:

 

`You must find me some task for this fine Princess which she

cannot possibly do, for I mean to punish her, and if she does not do

what I order, she will not be able to say that I am unjust.’ So the

old Fairy said she would think it over, and come again the next

day. When she returned she brought with her a skein of thread,

three times as big as herself; it was so fine that a breath of air would

break it, and so tangled that it was impossible to see the beginning

or the end of it.

 

The Queen sent for Graciosa, and said to her:

 

`Do you see this skein? Set your clumsy fingers to work upon

it, for I must have it disentangled by sunset, and if you break a

single thread it will be the worse for you.’ So saying she left her,

locking the door behind her with three keys.

 

The Princess stood dismayed at the sight of the terrible skein.

If she did but turn it over to see where to begin, she broke a

thousand threads, and not one could she disentangle. At last she

threw it into the middle of the floor, crying:

 

`Oh, Percinet! this fatal skein will be the death of me if you

will not forgive me and help me once more.’

 

And immediately in came Percinet as easily as if he had all the

keys in his own possession.

 

`Here I am, Princess, as much as ever at your service,’ said he,

`though really you are not very kind to me.’

 

Then he just stroked the skein with his wand, and all the broken

threads joined themselves together, and the whole skein wound

itself smoothly off in the most surprising manner, and the Prince,

turning to Graciosa, asked if there was nothing else that she wished

him to do for her, and if the time would never come when she would

wish for him for his own sake.

 

`Don’t be vexed with me, Percinet,’ she said. `I am unhappy

enough without that.’

 

`But why should you be unhappy, my Princess?’ cried he. `Only

come with me and we shall be as happy as the day is long together.’

 

`But suppose you get tired of me?’ said Graciosa.

 

The Prince was so grieved at this want of confidence that he left

her without another word.

 

The wicked Queen was in such a hurry to punish Graciosa that

she thought the sun would never set; and indeed it was before the

appointed time that she came with her four Fairies, and as she fitted

the three keys into the locks she said:

 

`I’ll venture to say that the idle minx has not done anything at

all—she prefers to sit with her hands before her to keep them

white.’

 

But, as soon as she entered, Graciosa presented her with the

ball of thread in perfect order, so that she had no fault to find, and

could only pretend to discover that it was soiled, for which

imaginary fault she gave Graciosa a blow on each cheek, that made

her white and pink skin turn green and yellow. And then she

sent her back to be locked into the garret once more.

 

Then the Queen sent for the Fairy again and scolded her

furiously. `Don’t make such a mistake again; find me something

that it will be quite impossible for her to do,’ she said.

 

So the next day the Fairy appeared with a huge barrel full of the

feathers of all sorts of birds. There were nightingales, canaries,

goldfinches, linnets, tomtits, parrots, owls, sparrows, doves,

ostriches, bustards, peacocks, larks, partridges, and everything else

that you can think of. These feathers were all mixed up in such

confusion that the birds themselves could not have chosen out their

own. `Here,’ said the Fairy, `is a little task which it will take all

your prisoner’s skill and patience to accomplish. Tell her to pick

out and lay in a separate heap the feathers of each bird. She

would need to be a fairy to do it.’

 

The Queen was more than delighted at the thought of the

despair this task would cause the Princess. She sent for her, and

with the same threats as before locked her up with the three keys,

ordering that all the feathers should be sorted by sunset. Graciosa

set to work at once, but before she had taken out a dozen feathers

she found that it was perfectly impossible to know one from another.

 

`Ah! well,’ she sighed, `the Queen wishes to kill me, and if I

must die I must. I cannot ask Percinet to help me again, for if

he really loved me he would not wait till I called him, he would

come without that.’

 

`I am here, my Graciosa,’ cried Percinet, springing out of the

barrel where he had been hiding. `How can you still doubt that I

love you with all my heart?’

 

Then he gave three strokes of his wand upon the barrel, and all

the feathers flew out in a cloud and settled down in neat little

separate heaps all round the room.

 

`What should I do without you, Percinet?’ said Graciosa

gratefully. But still she could not quite make up her mind to go

with him and leave her father’s kingdom for ever; so she begged

him to give her more time to think of it, and he had to go away

disappointed once more.

 

When the wicked Queen came at sunset she was amazed and

infuriated to find the task done. However, she complained that

the heaps of feathers were badly arranged, and for that the

Princess was beaten and sent back to her garret. Then the

Queen sent for the Fairy once more, and scolded her until she was

fairly terrified, and promised to go home and think of another task

for Graciosa, worse than either of the others.

 

At the end of three days she came again, bringing with her a

box.

 

`Tell your slave,’ said he, `to carry this wherever you please,

but on no account to open it. She will not be able to help doing

so, and then you will be quite satisfied with the result.’ So the

Queen came to Graciosa, and said:

 

`Carry this box to my castle, and place it upon the table in my

own room. But I forbid you on pain of death to look at what it

contains.’

 

Graciosa set out, wearing her little cap and wooden shoes and

the old cotton frock, but even in this disguise she was so beautiful

that all the passers-by wondered who she could be. She had not

gone far before the heat of the sun and the weight of the box

tired her so much that she sat down to rest in the shade of a little

wood which lay on one side of a green meadow. She was carefully

holding the box upon her lap when she suddenly felt the greatest

desire to open it,

 

`What could possibly happen if I did?’ she said to herself.

`I should not take anything out. I should only just see what was

there.’

 

And without farther hesitation she lifted the cover.

 

Instantly out came swarms of little men and women, no taller

than her finger, and scattered themselves all over the meadow,

singing and dancing, and playing the merriest games, so that at

first Graciosa was delighted and watched them with much amusement.

But presently, when she was rested and wished to go on

her way, she found that, do what she would, she could not get them

back into their box. If she chased them in the meadow they fled

into the wood, and if she pursued them into the wood they dodged

round trees and behind sprigs of moss, and with peals of elfin

laughter scampered back again into the meadow.

 

At last, weary and terrified, she sat down and cried.

 

`It is my own fault,’ she said sadly. `Percinet, if you can still

care for such an imprudent Princess, do come and help me once more.’

 

Immediately Percinet stood before her.

 

`Ah, Princess!’ he said, `but for the wicked Queen I fear you

would never think of me at all.’

 

`Indeed I should,’ said Graciosa; `I am not so ungrateful as

you think. Only wait a little and I believe I shall love you quite

dearly.’

 

Percinet was pleased at this, and with one stroke of his wand

compelled all the wilful little people to come back to their places

in the box, and then rendering the Princess invisible he took her

with him in his chariot to the castle.

 

When the Princess presented herself at the door, and said that

the Queen had ordered her to place the box in her own room, the

governor laughed heartily at the idea.

 

`No, no, my little shepherdess,’ said he, `that is not the place

for you. No wooden shoes have ever been over that floor yet.’

 

Then Graciosa begged him to give her a written message telling

the Queen that he had refused to admit her. This he did, and she

went back to Percinet, who was waiting for her, and they set out

together for the palace. You may imagine that they did not go

the shortest way, but the Princess did not find it too long, and

before they parted she had promised that if the Queen was still

cruel to her, and tried again to play her any spiteful trick, she

would leave her and come to Percinet for ever.

 

When the Queen saw her returning she fell upon the Fairy,

whom she had kept with her, and pulled her hair, and scratched

her face, and would really have killed her if a Fairy could be

killed. And when the Princess presented the letter and the box

she threw them both upon the fire without opening them, and

looked very much as if she would like to throw the Princess after

them. However, what she really did do was to have a great hole

as deep as a well dug in her garden, and the top of it covered with

a flat stone. Then she went and walked near it, and said to

Graciosa and all her ladies who were with her:

 

`I am told that a great treasure lies under that stone; let us see

if we can lift it.’

 

So they all began to push and pull at it, and Graciosa among

the others, which was just what the Queen wanted; for as soon as

the stone was lifted high enough, she gave the Princess a push

which sent her down to the bottom of the well, and then the stone

was let fall again, and there she was a prisoner. Graciosa felt

that now indeed she was hopelessly lost, surely not even Percinet

could find her in the heart of the earth.

 

`This is like being buried alive,’ she said with a shudder. `Oh,

Percinet! if you only knew how I am suffering for my want of

trust in you! But how could I be sure that you would not be like

other men and tire of me