A Double Story Read online

  V.

  The wise woman walked straight up to the hearth, looked at the fire,looked at the bed, glanced round the room, and went up to the table.When she saw the one streak in the thick dust which the princess hadleft there, a smile, half sad, half pleased, like the sun peepingthrough a cloud on a rainy day in spring, gleamed over her face. Shewent at once to the door, and called in a loud voice,

  "Rosamond, come to me."

  All the wolves and hyenas, fast asleep in the wood, heard her voice,and shivered in their dreams. No wonder then that the princesstrembled, and found herself compelled, she could not understand how, toobey the summons. She rose, like the guilty thing she felt, forsook ofherself the hiding-place she had chosen, and walked slowly back to thecottage she had left full of the signs of her shame. When she entered,she saw the wise woman on her knees, building up the fire withfir-cones. Already the flame was climbing through the heap in alldirections, crackling gently, and sending a sweet aromatic odor throughthe dusty cottage.

  "That is my part of the work," she said, rising. "Now you do yours. Butfirst let me remind you that if you had not put it off, you would havefound it not only far easier, but by and by quite pleasant work, muchmore pleasant than you can imagine now; nor would you have found thetime go wearily: you would neither have slept in the day and let thefire out, nor waked at night and heard the howling of the beast-birds.More than all, you would have been glad to see me when I came back; andwould have leaped into my arms instead of standing there, looking sougly and foolish."

  As she spoke, suddenly she held up before the princess a tiny mirror,so clear that nobody looking into it could tell what it was made of, oreven see it at all--only the thing reflected in it. Rosamond saw achild with dirty fat cheeks, greedy mouth, cowardly eyes--which, notdaring to look forward, seemed trying to hide behind an impertinentnose--stooping shoulders, tangled hair, tattered clothes, and smearsand stains everywhere. That was what she had made herself. And to tellthe truth, she was shocked at the sight, and immediately began, in herdirty heart, to lay the blame on the wise woman, because she had takenher away from her nurses and her fine clothes; while all the time sheknew well enough that, close by the heather-bed, was the loveliestlittle well, just big enough to wash in, the water of which was alwaysspringing fresh from the ground, and running away through the wall.Beside it lay the whitest of linen towels, with a comb made ofmother-of-pearl, and a brush of fir-needles, any one of which she hadbeen far too lazy to use. She dashed the glass out of the wise woman'shand, and there it lay, broken into a thousand pieces!

  Without a word, the wise woman stooped, and gathered the fragments--didnot leave searching until she had gathered the last atom, and she laidthem all carefully, one by one, in the fire, now blazing high on thehearth. Then she stood up and looked at the princess, who had beenwatching her sulkily.

  "Rosamond," she said, with a countenance awful in its sternness, "untilyou have cleansed this room--"

  "She calls it a room!" sneered the princess to herself.

  "You shall have no morsel to eat. You may drink of the well, butnothing else you shall have. When the work I set you is done, you willfind food in the same place as before. I am going from home again; andagain I warn you not to leave the house."

  "She calls it a house!--It's a good thing she's going out of itanyhow!" said the princess, turning her back for mere rudeness, for shewas one who, even if she liked a thing before, would dislike it themoment any person in authority over her desired her to do it.

  When she looked again, the wise woman had vanished.

  Thereupon the princess ran at once to the door, and tried to open it;but open it would not. She searched on all sides, but could discover noway of getting out. The windows would not open--at least she could notopen them; and the only outlet seemed the chimney, which she was afraidto try because of the fire, which looked angry, she thought, and shotout green flames when she went near it. So she sat down to consider.One may well wonder what room for consideration there was--with all herwork lying undone behind her. She sat thus, however, considering, asshe called it, until hunger began to sting her, when she jumped up andput her hand as usual in the hole of the wall: there was nothing there.She fell straight into one of her stupid rages; but neither her hungernor the hole in the wall heeded her rage. Then, in a burst ofself-pity, she fell a-weeping, but neither the hunger nor the holecared for her tears. The darkness began to come on, and her hunger grewand grew, and the terror of the wild noises of the last night invadedher. Then she began to feel cold, and saw that the fire was dying. Shedarted to the heap of cones, and fed it. It blazed up cheerily, and shewas comforted a little. Then she thought with herself it would surelybe better to give in so far, and do a little work, than die of hunger.So catching up a duster, she began upon the table. The dust flew aboutand nearly choked her. She ran to the well to drink, and was refreshedand encouraged. Perceiving now that it was a tedious plan to wipe thedust from the table on to the floor, whence it would have all to beswept up again, she got a wooden platter, wiped the dust into that,carried it to the fire, and threw it in. But all the time she wasgetting more and more hungry and, although she tried the hole again andagain, it was only to become more and more certain that work she mustif she would eat.

  At length all the furniture was dusted, and she began to sweep thefloor, which happily, she thought of sprinkling with water, as from thewindow she had seen them do to the marble court of the palace. Thatswept, she rushed again to the hole--but still no food! She was on theverge of another rage, when the thought came that she might haveforgotten something. To her dismay she found that table and chairs andevery thing was again covered with dust--not so badly as before,however. Again she set to work, driven by hunger, and drawn by the hopeof eating, and yet again, after a second careful wiping, sought thehole. But no! nothing was there for her! What could it mean?

  Her asking this question was a sign of progress: it showed that sheexpected the wise woman to keep her word. Then she bethought her thatshe had forgotten the household utensils, and the dishes and plates,some of which wanted to be washed as well as dusted.

  Faint with hunger, she set to work yet again. One thing made her thinkof another, until at length she had cleaned every thing she could thinkof. Now surely she must find some food in the hole!

  When this time also there was nothing, she began once more to abuse thewise woman as false and treacherous;--but ah! there was the bedunwatered! That was soon amended.--Still no supper! Ah! there was thehearth unswept, and the fire wanted making up!--Still no supper! Whatelse could there be? She was at her wits' end, and in very weariness,not laziness this time, sat down and gazed into the fire. There, as shegazed, she spied something brilliant,--shining even, in the midst ofthe fire: it was the little mirror all whole again; but little she knewthat the dust which she had thrown into the fire had helped to heal it.She drew it out carefully, and, looking into it, saw, not indeed theugly creature she had seen there before, but still a very dirty littleanimal; whereupon she hurried to the well, took off her clothes,plunged into it, and washed herself clean. Then she brushed and combedher hair, made her clothes as tidy as might be, and ran to the hole inthe wall: there was a huge basin of bread and milk!

  Never had she eaten any thing with half the relish! Alas! however, whenshe had finished, she did not wash the basin, but left it as it was,revealing how entirely all the rest had been done only from hunger.Then she threw herself on the heather, and was fast asleep in a moment.Never an evil bird came near her all that night, nor had she so much asone troubled dream.

  In the morning as she lay awake before getting up, she spied whatseemed a door behind the tall eight-day clock that stood silent in thecorner.

  "Ah!" she thought, "that must be the way out!" and got up instantly.The first thing she did, however, was to go to the hole in the wall.Nothing was there.

  "Well, I am hardly used!" she cried aloud. "All that cleaning for thecross old woman yesterday, and this for my trouble,--nothing for
breakfast! Not even a crust of bread! Does Mistress Ogress fancy aprincess will bear that?"

  The poor foolish creature seemed to think that the work of one dayought to serve for the next day too! But that is nowhere the way in thewhole universe. How could there be a universe in that case? And evenshe never dreamed of applying the same rule to her breakfast.

  "How good I was all yesterday!" she said, "and how hungry and ill usedI am to-day!"

  But she would NOT be a slave, and do over again to-day what she haddone only last night! SHE didn't care about her breakfast! She mighthave it no doubt if she dusted all the wretched place again, but shewas not going to do that--at least, without seeing first what laybehind the clock!

  Off she darted, and putting her hand behind the clock found the latchof a door. It lifted, and the door opened a little way. By squeezinghard, she managed to get behind the clock, and so through the door. Buthow she stared, when instead of the open heath, she found herself onthe marble floor of a large and stately room, lighted only from above.Its walls were strengthened by pilasters, and in every space betweenwas a large picture, from cornice to floor. She did not know what tomake of it. Surely she had run all round the cottage, and certainly hadseen nothing of this size near it! She forgot that she had also runround what she took for a hay-mow, a peat-stack, and several otherthings which looked of no consequence in the moonlight.

  "So, then," she cried, "the old woman IS a cheat! I believe she's anogress, after all, and lives in a palace--though she pretends it's onlya cottage, to keep people from suspecting that she eats good littlechildren like me!"

  Had the princess been tolerably tractable, she would, by this time,have known a good deal about the wise woman's beautiful house, whereasshe had never till now got farther than the porch. Neither was she atall in its innermost places now.

  But, king's daughter as she was, she was not a little daunted when,stepping forward from the recess of the door, she saw what a greatlordly hall it was. She dared hardly look to the other end, it seemedso far off: so she began to gaze at the things near her, and thepictures first of all, for she had a great liking for pictures. One inparticular attracted her attention. She came back to it several times,and at length stood absorbed in it.

  A blue summer sky, with white fleecy clouds floating beneath it, hungover a hill green to the very top, and alive with streams darting downits sides toward the valley below. On the face of the hill strayed aflock of sheep feeding, attended by a shepherd and two dogs. A littleway apart, a girl stood with bare feet in a brook, building across it abridge of rough stones. The wind was blowing her hair back from herrosy face. A lamb was feeding close beside her; and a sheepdog wastrying to reach her hand to lick it.

  "Oh, how I wish I were that little girl!" said the princess aloud. "Iwonder how it is that some people are made to be so much happier thanothers! If I were that little girl, no one would ever call me naughty."

  She gazed and gazed at the picture. At length she said to herself,

  "I do not believe it is a picture. It is the real country, with a realhill, and a real little girl upon it. I shall soon see whether thisisn't another of the old witch's cheats!"

  She went close up to the picture, lifted her foot, and stepped over theframe.

  "I am free, I am free!" she exclaimed; and she felt the wind upon hercheek.

  The sound of a closing door struck on her ear. She turned--and therewas a blank wall, without door or window, behind her. The hill with thesheep was before her, and she set out at once to reach it.

  Now, if I am asked how this could be, I can only answer, that it was aresult of the interaction of things outside and things inside, of thewise woman's skill, and the silly child's folly. If this does notsatisfy my questioner, I can only add, that the wise woman was able todo far more wonderful things than this.