orange fairy book

Chapter 7 Two Boxes (2)

The hostess was stunned when she saw the yarn, which had never been done before.At last she asked the girl which magician had done this for her, but the girl did not tell, for she was afraid of giving trouble to her little friends.

In the next few weeks, the hostess did not go out, and the girl worked as usual. She hoped that the hostess would stop asking her to do difficult tasks, but her hope was in vain.One day, the hostess came to the kitchen suddenly and said to her: "I will test you again. If you can do well this time, then you can leave here safely. This is the yarn you washed last time." , take them and weave them into cloth, and the web shall be as smooth as a king's robe, and it must be finished before the sun goes down."

"This is the simplest thing she told me." The girl thought to herself, because she was very good at weaving.But when she started to weave, she found that the yarns were all tangled together and broke from time to time.

"My God, I'll never be able to weave again!" she cried, leaning on the loom.Just then, the door opened, and the kittens walked in one by one.

"What happened, fair lady?" they asked.The girl replied, "My mistress gave me this yarn and asked me to weave a piece of cloth. I must finish it before the sun goes down. The thread will break when I touch it. I haven't started weaving yet."

"That's it, wipe away your tears," said the kittens, "We'll do it for you." Saying that, they jumped onto the loom, and weaved the cloth quickly and skillfully. It was woven, and as smooth as a king's robe.The girl was so happy when she saw it that she kissed each cat on the forehead.The kittens left the room one by one as they had come.

The hostess looked at the cloth she wove, put her hands on the cloth and touched it back and forth two or three times, but found no roughness, so she asked, "Who taught you how to do it?" But the girl just smiled and didn't answer.

A few weeks later, the hostess called the little girl and told her that her one-year labor period was over and she was free now to go home, but the girl served her well and she hoped that the girl would stay in the beside her.But the girl shook her head and replied politely: "Ma'am, I am very happy here, I am very grateful to you for being so kind to me, but I also have a stepmother and a half-sister at home, I think Live with them again."

The hostess looked at her for a while, and then said: "Well, it's up to you. You work hard and responsibly. I want to give you a reward. You go to the attic of the storage room. There are many boxes there. You choose one Your favorite, remember not to open it, put it where you think it is appropriate before opening it."

So the girl left the room and went up to the attic.As soon as she went up to the attic, she found that all the cats were waiting for her. Like last time, they lined up and followed the girl into the attic.There are large and small boxes everywhere in the attic, some are very ordinary, some are very delicate.She picked up one to look at, then put it down, and picked up another, more beautiful box to look at, which should she choose, yellow or blue, red or green, gold or silver?After hesitating for a long time, she took one, put it down and picked up the other, when the kittens yelled, "Take the black one! Take the black one!"

After hearing what the cat said, she looked around for the black box, but she didn't find the black box, but the kittens kept meowing.So, she searched in several corners that had been overlooked just now, and finally found a small black box, which was very small and very black in color, and she would not have noticed it if she didn't pay attention.

The girl took the box into the house and said to the hostess: "Master, this is my favorite box." The hostess smiled and nodded, telling her to go on the road, so the girl went to talk to the cow, the kitten and the sparrow. Saying goodbye one by one, they all cried sadly.After saying goodbye, she hit the road.

She walked and walked until she reached the lawn full of flowers.Suddenly, without knowing what happened, she sat on the fence in her yard, stood up, and went into the house.

The stepmother and her own daughter were stunned to see her.After a while, the stepmother finally came back to her senses, gasped and said, "You're still alive! Oh, I'm so unlucky! So where have you been this year?" She was told about the work in the world, and that, besides her wages, she had brought back a little box, which she wanted to keep in her room.

"Give me the money, and take that ugly little box to your own room," cried the stepmother angrily.When the girl heard that she was angry, she was very frightened, and hurried away holding the precious box.

The outer room where the girl lived had not been entered since the girl had fallen into the well, and it was now very dirty, and she had cleaned it all over again, and put the little box on a little shelf in the corner.

"Now I can open it," thought the girl.She picked up the key hanging on the handle of the box, unlocked it, and lifted the lid to look. Suddenly, there was a bright light in the box, which made her eyes uncomfortable. She stepped back instinctively, no one would think , There are so many beautiful things in this little black box!Inside there are rings, crowns, belts, necklaces, all made of precious stones!The light from these things attracted not only the stepmother and her daughter, but all the people in the neighborhood, who thought the house was on fire!The stepmother, of course, was very jealous and jealous when she saw all this, and the neighbors were very happy for her because they loved the girl very much.

The stepmother also wanted such a box, so she ordered her daughter to sit by the well, and pushed her daughter into the well just like pushing the girl last time.

Then, as happened before, her daughter came to the lawn of flowers at the bottom of the well.

Then she walked forward step by step on the road her sister had walked before, and saw exactly the same things.But when the fence begged her not to hurt it, she laughed wantonly, destroyed a few stumps, and stepped over the fence with ease; and when the oven gave her bread to eat, she threw it on the ground and Her feet stomped; she had milked the milk, and when she had had her fill, she scattered the rest on the grass, and kicked the pail to pieces.She didn't hear the fence, the oven, the cow saying behind her, "You'll get your way!"

Towards evening she came to the old woman.The old woman was leaning against the doorpost, but she passed her by without saying hello.

"Isn't the people in your country impolite?" asked the old woman.

"I don't have time to stop and talk. I'm on my way," she replied. "It's getting dark, and I must find a place to work."

"You comb my hair first," said the old woman, "and then I'll find you a place to work."

"Help you comb your hair? God, I don't do that kind of job!" Then she slammed the door shut in front of the old woman and walked away.She didn't hear the old woman's words behind her: "You will have retribution!"

Soon she was on the farm, and like her sister, joined in tending the cows and sifting corn, but she only worked when someone was watching her, and when no one was around she did nothing.The cowshed was very dirty, and the cows were malnourished, and they were often beaten by her, so the cows would kick over the barrels and hit her.Everyone said they had never seen such skinny cows and such bad milk.As for the cats, she chased them away and mistreated them so that they couldn't catch mice, so now the mice are very rampant.When the sparrows came and begged her for some corn, they did not fare any better than the cows and cats, and she threw her shoe at the sparrows, who fled in terror into the woods, and took refuge in trees.

After several months like this, one day, the hostess called the girl.

"You messed up all the things I told you to do," she said, "but I'll give you another chance. You can't look after the cows, you can't thresh the corn, but maybe there's something else you'd do well One point. Now take this sieve to the well, and fill it with water, and bring it back without leaking a drop."

The girl then went to the well with the sieve like her sister, but no bird came to help her, and after dipping the sieve two or three times in the water, she came back with an empty sieve.

"I expect too much from you," said the hostess angrily. "You can't even do this well, let alone other things!"

The hostess thought that the girl should have learned her lesson this time, but if she thought so, she would be wrong.Soon after, the hostess called the girl again and asked her to take the black and white yarn to the river for washing, but no one told her the secret of the black thread turning white and the white thread turning black, so she kept the thread intact. He took it back without moving.This time the hostess just looked at her coldly, but the girl didn't take it seriously, and didn't care what others thought of her.

A few weeks later, her third test came when, like her sister, the mistress asked her to spin.

This time, too, no kittens marched into the room to weave the thread into a good cloth, and when the sun went down, all she took back to the mistress was a dirty, untidy pile of wool.

"It seems you can't do anything," said the hostess coldly, leaving her there alone.

A year passed quickly, and the girl told her master that she wanted to go home.

"I don't want to keep you either," replied the hostess, "you haven't done any of the things you were supposed to do. But I'll give you something. Now go to the attic and pick a box there, but remember , you have to put it where you think it's appropriate before you can open it."

Isn't this exactly what the girl has been looking forward to?She was very happy, and without thanking the hostess, she rushed straight to the attic.There were boxes in the attic, blue, red, green, yellow, gold, and silver, and a little black box in a corner, just like the one her sister had brought home.

"There are so many treasures in that little black box, so there must be twice as many treasures in this big red box," she thought to herself.So she picked up the red box and set off on her way home, never thinking of saying goodbye to her mistress.

She returned home with the box in her arms and shouted, "Mom, look, what I brought back!"

"Ah! What you brought back is very different from that little black box!" Her mother said happily, and the mother and daughter were busy looking for a place to put the box.

"It seems best to put it here, no, it's better to put it here." The girl first put it on a cabinet, and then moved it to another place, "No, it's better not to put it in the kitchen, we put it Put it in the living room."

The stepmother and daughter proudly carried it upstairs, where it stood on a shelf above the fireplace.They took the key from the handle, and opened the case, and as before, the lid flew open, and a great light shone directly from within, but this time it was not the light of jewels, but a blazing fire.The flames quickly spread along the wall, destroying the house and everything inside, including the mother and daughter.

Neighbors rushed to see what had happened, but it was too late and the house was burned to the ground.The kind girl was safe and sound because her stepmother drove her to live in a house outside. From then on, the girl lived happily with her treasure.

(End of this chapter)