red fairy book

Chapter 20 The Magical Birch Tree
A long time ago, there was a couple who had only one daughter.One day, their sheep was lost, and they split up to find the sheep in the woods.The wife met a witch and said to her, "Either you spit on my scabbard, or you crawl between my legs, or I will turn you into a black goat."

Without spitting or crawling between her legs, the woman becomes a black goat.And then the witch turned herself into this woman and called that good man? "Oh, come here, I found the sheep."

The good man really thought it was his wife, not knowing that his wife had become a sheep, and went home with her, happy to have found the sheep.

When they got home, the woman said, "Old man, we've got to kill this sheep before it runs away again."

The good man has a very gentle personality. He didn't object, but just said: "Okay, that's it."

The daughter heard their conversation, ran to the sheep and said sadly: "Oh, dear mother, they are going to kill you."

"If they kill me, don't eat the meat or drink the soup. Gather up the bones and bury them beside the ground."

After a while, they took the black goat out of the flock and killed it.The witch made pea soup out of mutton and put it in front of her daughter.Remembering her mother's words, the daughter didn't drink the soup, and took the bone to the edge of the field to bury it. After a while, a beautiful white birch tree grew there.

After a while, who knows how long?When the witch gave birth to her own child, she began to treat her badly and tried her best to torture her.

It just so happened that the king was going to hold a grand ball and invited all the people to attend.He proclaimed: "Come, all of you! Poor, poor people, come! Even if you are blind and disabled, come on your horses, or come by boat."

So people came to the king's banquet, the vagabond, the disabled, the lame, the blind, all came.

The good man's family is also preparing to attend the banquet.The witch said to him: "You take our little daughter first.

I give the older daughter a little work so she won't be bored at home by herself. "

The good man set off with the child.The Witch lit a fire in the hearth, and threw a pot of barley into the ashes, and said, "If you don't pick the wheat out and put it back in your basket before evening, I will eat you."

After speaking, she left.The poor girl stayed home and cried.She tried to sort out the grains, but soon found it was useless.So she went to the birch tree and wept because her mother was lying on the ground and could not help her anymore.After a while, she heard her mother's voice from underground, saying, "Why are you crying, daughter."

"The witch scattered the wheat in the hearth, and told me to pick it from the ashes," said the girl. "Dear mother, I weep for that."

"Don't cry," Mom said, "Pick a branch off and slap the hearth twice, that's all."

The girl did it.Oh!The grains of wheat flew into the pot, and the hearth was clean.

She went back to the birch tree and put the branches on the grave.Then her mother told her to bathe on one side of the trunk, dry off on the other side, and get dressed on the other side.

The girl followed suit one by one, and she became so lovely that no one in the world can compare.She wore the most splendid clothes, and had the most beautiful horses, and her hair was part gold, part silver, and part more splendid colors.

The girl jumped on the horse and ran towards the palace like an arrow.When she went into the courtyard, the king's son came out and saw her, tied her horse, and led her into the palace.

They passed from room to room, and he didn't take a step away from her.Everyone was looking at her, wondering who she was and where she was from, but no one knew her.The prince invited her to sit beside him at the ball, and the witch's daughter was crumbling under the table, and the prince didn't look at her, thinking there was a dog there, and kicked it, which broke her arm .Don't you feel sorry for the girl?It wasn't her fault that mother was a witch.

In the evening, when the girl thought it was time to go home, the ring caught in the latch as she left, because the Prince had tarred it.She didn't have time to pull it off, so she let go of the horse in a hurry and galloped away like an arrow.

When she got home, she took off her clothes with birch branches and went back to her place behind the stove.

After a while, everyone came back.The witch said to the girl, "Ah! poor thing, here you are! You don't know how happy we are in the palace. The prince took my daughter around, but the poor girl fell down and broke her arm."

The girl knew this was not the case, but pretended not to know, and kept silent behind the stove.

The next day, the king invited everyone to a banquet again.

"Ha, put on your clothes, and we're off to dinner, and the baby. I'll give this one something to do, so she won't have nothing to do."

She lit a fire, threw a pot of cannabis seeds into the hearth, and said to the girl, "Pack up and put the seeds back in the pot, or I'll kill you!"

Weeping sadly, the girl went to the birch tree, bathed on one side of the tree, and dried off on the other.This time, she had more beautiful clothes and a very beautiful war horse.She broke off a branch and slapped it on the hearth, and the seeds flew back into the pot, and then flew off to the castle.

The Prince came out to meet her, tied her horse, and led her to the dance.The girl sat beside her as she had the night before.The witch's daughter was still sitting under the table gnashing her teeth, and the prince, not noticing that she was crawling under the feet of the people, kicked her carelessly, and broke her leg again.Unlucky for her!

Again the girl ran home early, and the prince tarred the door, and the girl's gold ring was glued to it.She had no time to get it, but jumped on her horse and ran back to the birch tree, where she left her clothes and horse, and said to her mother, "I left the gold ring at the castle, and the door is tarred and stuck."

"It doesn't matter if you lose two, I will give you better ones." Her mother said.

The girl hurried home, and when her father came home she remained behind the stove, in her old place.The witch said to her, "You poor thing! How can this place compare with the palace? The prince showed my daughter from room to room, and my daughter broke her leg."

The girl remained silent, busy by the stove.

At dawn the witch woke her husband up: "Get up, old man! We are going to the feast!"

The man got up, and the witch said: "Take the child, I will tell this girl to do things, she is bored at home alone."

This time she poured the milk into the ashes, and said, "Put the milk back in the dish before I come back, or woe to you!"

Now she really scared the girl!
She ran to the birch tree, finished her work again by magic, and then ran to the palace again.The Prince was waiting for her when she entered the courtyard, and led her onto the dance floor.The witch's daughter was still gnashing her teeth under the table and got kicked in the eye as she crawled through the crowd, poor thing!
No one knew the girl or where she came from.This time the prince tarred the threshold, and one of her golden shoes was stuck.She went back to the birch tree, put her clothes away, and said, "My dear mother, I have lost a shoe!"

"Throw it away." Her mother said, "If you want it, I'll give you a better one."

As soon as she hurried back, her father entered the door.Immediately the witch began to laugh at her: "Ah, poor thing, you can't see anything here. We saw so many good things in the palace! The prince took my daughter again, and the poor daughter was out of luck. Another fall and hurt your eye. You idiot, what do you know?"

"Yes, what can I know?" replied the girl. "I have cleaned the hearth."

The prince kept all the things the girl had left, and he wanted to find out who owned them.For this a great feast was held on the fourth day, and all were invited to the feast.The witch bound a piece of wood around her child's leg, and another piece at her arm, and put a piece of earth in the empty eye-socket, and went to the castle.When everyone arrived at the castle, the prince stepped forward and said, "Which girl can wear this ring on her finger, this gold ring on her head, and this shoe on her foot, that is my bride."

Everyone squeezed over and tried it!However, no one is suitable.

"The little girl who burns the coal is not here," said the Prince. "Call her here and try."

The girl came, and the prince handed her something, but the witch tugged her behind her back and said, "Don't give it to her. The soot has made everything dirty. Give it to my daughter."

So the prince gave the ring to the witch's daughter.The witch filed and chipped at her daughter's fingers until the ring fitted; and the collar and shoes too.A witch would not give these things to a girl who burns coal.

She tossed and tossed, and finally got her daughter to put everything in.

What now?The prince must marry the witch's daughter.He took the witch's daughter to her father's house, he was ashamed to marry such a strange girl in such a place as a palace.

After a few days, he was going to take the bride back to the palace, and when he was about to leave, the coal-burning girl jumped out from where she lived, and said to the prince in a low voice as she passed by the yard on the pretext that she wanted to go to the cowshed to get something. Oh, prince, don't take all my gold and silver!"

In this way, the prince recognized the coal-burning girl and brought her back to the palace.They didn't walk for a while, when they passed a river bank, the prince threw the bride on the river as a bridge, and crossed the river with the coal-burning girl.

The witch's daughter lay there like a bridge, unable to move, full of grief, until at last she cried bitterly, "If only I had poisonous thorns growing in me! Maybe my mother would recognize me if she saw it. "

As soon as she spoke, the poisonous thorns grew out.

Now the prince got rid of the witch's daughter and took the coal-burning girl back as his bride.They walked together to the birch tree, and got all kinds of jewels, three bags of gold, three bags of silver, and a war horse.The horses carried them back to the palace.

There they lived together for a long time.The young wife bore the prince a son.The news was at once brought to the witch, that her daughter had borne a son, for it was supposed that the witch was the queen's mother.

"Well, well," said the witch to herself, "I must go and give the boy something."

So she went, and when she walked across the river, she saw a beautiful poisonous thorn growing in the middle of the bridge. She cut off the poisonous thorn and wanted to bring it to her grandson.Suddenly, she heard moans! "Oh, mother, why did you hurt me like this!"

"Are you here?" asked the witch.

"Yes, mother dear," answered her daughter, "they left me here as a bridge, and went across the river."

The witch shook the bridge to pieces, and hastened to the palace, to the queen's bed, and began to try her witchcraft, saying, "Spit on my knife, you poor fellow, my knife has Magic, or I'll turn you into a deer in the woods."

"You've come to trouble me again?" said the young Queen.

She did not spit on the knife, and the witch turned her into a stag, and brought her own daughter into the palace to replace her.But the child kept crying, missing his mother, so they took the child to the yard to try to calm him down, but the child was still crying.

"Why is the child so fussy?" the young king asked a wise widow.

"Ah, your wife is not at home," said the widow. "She is a deer in the woods. Your present wife is the daughter of a witch, and the witch is a stepmother."

"How can I get my wife back?" asked the king.

"Give me the child," said the widow, "to-morrow I will graze the cows in the woods and rattle the leaves of the birch trees, and perhaps the child will be quiet when he hears the sound."

"Very well! Take the boy and make him quiet," said the king.He brought the widow into the palace.

"You're taking the child into the woods?" asked the witch suspiciously, trying to stop it.

But the king insisted on his order, saying, "Take the boy, and perhaps he will be quiet for a while."

The widow took the child into the woods, and when she got to the edge of the swamp, she saw a deer, and she began to sing:
Bright-eyed, red-haired villain, come and feed your own babies!
Cruel monster, man-eating goblin, unwilling to take care of him.

She threatens, intimidates, all she wants.

The child doesn't want her, she scares the child.

The deer came over immediately, fed the child, and took care of the child all day, but at night it followed the deer and said to the widow, "Bring the child tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow. After that, I will come with the deer." went elsewhere."

The next morning the widow went to the castle to fetch the child, but of course the witch stopped her, but the king said, "Take it, and go into the fresh air. The child was much quieter last night, and it is good for him to be in the woods."

The widow carried the child away, went to the swamp again, and began to sing:
Bright-eyed, red-haired villain, come and feed your own babies!
Cruel monster, man-eating goblin, unwilling to take care of him.

She threatens, intimidates, all she wants.

The child doesn't want her, she scares the child.

The deer immediately left the herd and took care of the baby as it had done the day before.The child has grown up.

The king thought for a long time, and asked the widow, "Is there any way to turn the deer back into a human?"

"I don't know," she said. "Come with me to the woods. If she takes off the buckskin and becomes a man, I'll comb her hair, and you'll burn the buckskin."

In this way, the two of them went to the woods together.No sooner had they arrived than the deer appeared, feeding the babies.The widow said to the deer: "You will leave tomorrow, and I will never see you again. May I help you comb your hair again? It's just a memory."

"Okay." The deer took off the deerskin and asked the widow to comb her hair.The king secretly threw the buckskin into the fire and burned it.

"What is burnt?" asked the Queen.She looked around and saw her husband: "Oh, you burned my skin off! Why did you do that?"

"In order to restore you to human form."

"Oh, I have nothing to cover my body now! How poor I am!" cried the Queen.She was transformed first into a coiling rod, then into a pole, then into a spindle, and into all kinds of things imaginable, but each time the king went to destroy it until she was again Humanoid.

"Oh, take me home," said the Queen, "the witch will surely eat me."

"She won't eat you," replied her husband.Then they went home with the baby.

Seeing her coming back, the witch took her daughter and ran away. She ran and ran without stopping.From then on, the king and queen, and their children, lived happily together.

(End of this chapter)