orange fairy book

Chapter 16 The Enchanted Garland (1)

Once upon a time, beside the forest, there lived a couple and two girls. One girl was the daughter of the husband and his ex-wife, and the other was the daughter of the wife and her ex-husband.The husband's daughter is kind and beautiful, and the wife's daughter is violent and ugly, but the wife does not realize this, and thinks her daughter is the most charming girl in the world.

One day, the husband called his daughter and told her to go with him to the forest to cut trees.They came to the forest and worked hard all day.While working, it was raining heavily, and they were shivering with cold while working.When they got home, they were drenched.The husband suddenly found that he had left the ax in the forest. He knew that if the ax was soaked in the mud for a day, it would rust and it would be useless.So he said to his wife, "I left the ax in the forest. Tell your daughter to fetch it. My daughter has worked all day and is soaked and tired."

But his wife replied: "Anyway, your daughter is soaked, wouldn't it be better for her to get the axe? Besides, she is in good health, a little rain is nothing to her, but if my daughter goes She's going to catch a bad cold." The husband, knowing it was useless to talk any further, sighed, and sent his poor daughter to the forest to get the axe.

It was dark in the forest, and she walked for a long time, and her shoes got stuck in the mud from time to time, but she was very brave, and she would not want to go back because of the potholes on the road or the bad environment.Her skirt was accidentally hung by thorns, and her face was scratched by branches. Finally, she came to the place where she and her father cut the tree in the morning and found the axe.Then, to her surprise, there were three little pigeons sitting on the handle of the axe, looking very sad.

"Poor little things!" said the girl, stroking them gently. "Why do you get caught in the rain here? Fly back to your nests, it's much warmer there. Eat this bread first, and the I saved it for dinner so you might be happier after eating it. You're sitting on top of my dad's ax and I have to get it back ASAP or I'll be yelled at by my stepmother It’s a meal.” Then, she tore up the bread and threw it on the ground, happily watching the pigeons flapping their wings and flying down to eat the bread crumbs.

"Good-bye!" she said, and picking up the axe, she started on her way home.

After eating all the crumbs, the pigeon felt much better and had the strength to fly back to its nest in the top of the tree.

"She is such a good girl," said one of the pigeons. "I had no strength to spread my wings before she came! I will do something to thank her."

"Then let's give her a wreath that never fades," said another pigeon.

"And let the smallest singing bird in the world sit among the flowers," said the third dove.

"That's a great idea, let's do it!" said the first pigeon.

Then, a garland of rosebuds appeared on the girl's head, and there were invisible birds singing in the garland. The girl liked it so much that she walked home wearing it.

When she came home, the father was sitting by the fire, and seeing his daughter, he thought she had never been so lovely, though with mud on her clothes, but her stepmother and her stepmother's daughter were very jealous.

"It's absurd to go out dressed like this in such a pouring rain and at night!" said the stepmother deliberately, as she roughly tore off her wreath and put it on her daughter's head.But then the flowers began to wither and turn yellow, the birds flew out of the window, and a new wreath appeared on the girl's head.

"Hmph, this thing is so ostentatious!" cried the stepmother. "Go and eat your supper, and go to bed after eating. It's nearly midnight."

Although the stepmother pretended to despise the wreath, she still wished her daughter had one.

The next evening, when my father came back from working alone in the forest, he forgot to bring the ax back.When the stepmother saw it, she was delighted in her heart, and said softly, "What's the matter, you forgot to take your ax again, you are so careless! This time your daughter can stay at home, let my daughter go and get it back." Then, she gave His own daughter put on a cloak, and bid her go at once to the forest.

The little girl went very reluctantly, murmuring and whining as she went.She wanted a wreath, but she didn't want to go to such a trouble to get it.

By the time she got to the place where her father cut the tree, she was already in a bad mood.She saw the ax on the ground, and on the ax sat three pigeons with drooping heads and dirty wings.

"You filthy creatures," she cried, "go away at once, or I'll throw stones at you!" Immediately the pigeons spread their wings in panic, and flew up to the tops of the trees, trembling with rage.

"How can we take revenge on her?" asked a pigeon. "We have never been treated like this before."

"Never!" said another pigeon. "We must find a way to repay her."

"I can do it," replied the third pigeon, "so that she will only say the word 'dirty' all her life."

"Hey, you're so smart! That's a great idea, let's do it!" cried the other two pigeons.They flapped their wings and cooed happily, waking up all the birds in the surrounding woods.

"What happened?" the birds asked sleepily.

"This is our secret," said the pigeons.

The daughter of the stepmother came home, very irritable.As soon as her mother heard the sound of her unlocking the door, she ran out and asked her, "Have you got the garland?"

"Dirty stuff!" replied her daughter.

"Don't talk to me like that! What do you mean?" her mother asked again.

"Dirty stuff!" repeated her daughter, who could say nothing else.

At this time, her mother realized that her daughter must be unlucky, and she took all her anger on her husband's daughter.

"You're the culprit, all of you!" she cried.She beat her with a stick until she screamed in pain and went back to her room crying.Her husband can't make the decision, and he can't stop her.

If the life of this poor girl was painful before, now she is living ten times more painfully than before. Her father ignores her, and her stepmother and sister bully and torture her from morning to night. Their anger was intensified when they saw the birds flying to the wreath on her head.

Several weeks passed in this way, and one day, as the King's son was riding through the forest, he heard strange birds singing, such sweet and melodious songs as he had never heard before.He tied his horse to a tree, followed the sound to a place, and was amazed to see before him a beautiful girl chopping a tree, with a wreath of pink rosebuds on her head, from which came the singing.The prince stood in the shade of the tree and watched her for a long time, then went up to her and talked to her, hat in hand.

"Beautiful girl, who are you, and who gave you this singing wreath?" he asked, because the birds in the wreath were too small to be seen unless one looked closely.

"I live in a hut on the edge of the forest," she replied, blushing, for she had never spoken to a strange man.

"As for the garland, I don't know where it came from. It may have been a gift from the pigeons! I used to feed them when they were dying of hunger." The prince was very happy when he heard her words , I thought, how kind-hearted she is.The prince was deeply attracted by her beauty. He begged the girl to go back to the palace with him and be his bride. The girl agreed and returned to the palace with him.

The old king was very disappointed with the wife chosen by his son, because he hoped that his son would marry the princess of a neighboring country, but the prince had always done his own way since he was born, and this time he prepared the wedding banquet without saying anything.

On the first day after the wedding, the bride sent someone to bring some beautiful gifts to her father, telling him that she was lucky.It can be imagined that when the stepmother and her daughter knew all this, they were extremely jealous and very uncomfortable, but they had no choice but to go to bed sullenly.Then the stepmother came up with a plan to take revenge on the kind girl.Her plan is this: In her natal town, there is an old witch, she plans to find this witch, and beg her to make a mask with the same appearance as her husband's daughter.She told her daughter about the plan.Although her daughter would only say "dirty stuff," she nodded and smiled in agreement.

Everything came true just as the woman hoped.With the help of the magic mirror, the old witch saw the new princess in a green silk dress walking in the garden.A few minutes later, the witch conjured up a mask that looked very similar to the princess. Almost no one could tell the difference between the mask and the real person.

But the witch warned the stepmother that when her daughter first wore the mask (which, of course, was exactly what she wanted her daughter to do), she had better pretend to have a toothache, and to cover her head with a lace veil.The stepmother thanked the witch and gave her a lot of money, then hid the mask under her cloak and went back to the cottage.

(End of this chapter)