A Double Story | Page 8

and ask to come in," disappeared round the corner of the

cottage, leaving the princess alone with the moon--two white faces in
the cone of the night.

III.

The moon stared at the princess, and the princess stared at the moon;
but the moon had the best of it, and the princess began to cry. And now
the question was between the moon and the cottage. The princess
thought she knew the worst of the moon, and she knew nothing at all
about the cottage, therefore she would stay with the moon. Strange, was
it not, that she should have been so long with the wise woman, and yet
know NOTHING about that cottage? As for the moon, she did not by
any means know the worst of her, or even, that, if she were to fall
asleep where she could find her, the old witch would certainly do her
best to twist her face.
But she had scarcely sat a moment longer before she was assailed by all
sorts of fresh fears. First of all, the soft wind blowing gently through
the dry stalks of the heather and its thousands of little bells raised a
sweet rustling, which the princess took for the hissing of serpents, for
you know she had been naughty for so long that she could not in a great
many things tell the good from the bad. Then nobody could deny that
there, all round about the heath, like a ring of darkness, lay the gloomy
fir-wood, and the princess knew what it was full of, and every now and
then she thought she heard the howling of its wolves and hyenas. And
who could tell but some of them might break from their covert and
sweep like a shadow across the heath? Indeed, it was not once nor
twice that for a moment she was fully persuaded she saw a great beast
coming leaping and bounding through the moonlight to have her all to
himself. She did not know that not a single evil creature dared set foot
on that heath, or that, if one should do so, it would that instant wither
up and cease. If an army of them had rushed to invade it, it would have
melted away on the edge of it, and ceased like a dying wave.--She even
imagined that the moon was slowly coming nearer and nearer down the
sky to take her and freeze her to death in her arms. The wise woman,

too, she felt sure, although her cottage looked asleep, was watching her
at some little window. In this, however, she would have been quite
right, if she had only imagined enough--namely, that the wise woman
was watching OVER her from the little window. But after all,
somehow, the thought of the wise woman was less frightful than that of
any of her other terrors, and at length she began to wonder whether it
the moonlight to have her all to himself. She did not know that not a
single evil creature dared set foot on that heath, or that, if one should do
so, it would that instant wither up and cease. If an army of them had
rushed to invade it, it would have melted away on the edge of it, and
ceased like a dying wave.--She even imagined that the moon was
slowly coming nearer and nearer down the sky to take her and freeze
her to death in her arms. The wise woman, too, she felt sure, although
her cottage looked asleep, was watching her at some little window. In
this, however, she would have been quite right, if she had only
imagined enough--namely, that the wise woman was watching OVER
her from the little window. But after all, somehow, the thought of the
wise woman was less frightful than that of any of her other terrors, and
at length she began to wonder whether it her sadly through her gay
silken slippers. She threw herself on the heath, which came up to the
walls of the cottage on every side, and roared and screamed with rage.
Suddenly, however, she remembered how her screaming had brought
the horde of wolves and hyenas about her in the forest, and, ceasing at
once, lay still, gazing yet again at the moon. And then came the thought
of her parents in the palace at home. In her mind's eye she saw her
mother sitting at her embroidery with the tears dropping upon it, and
her father staring into the fire as if he were looking for her in its
glowing caverns. It is true that if they had both been in tears by her side
because of her naughtiness, she would not have cared a straw; but now
her own forlorn condition somehow helped