The Violet Fairy Book | Page 8

grown so big,
you cannot play with me any more.'
Nine years slipped away in this manner, when one day the lady called
Elsa into her room. Elsa was surprised at the summons, for it was
unusual, and her heart sank, for she feared some evil threatened her. As
she crossed the threshold, she saw that the lady's cheeks were flushed,
and her eyes full of tears, which she dried hastily, as if she would
conceal them from the girl. 'Dearest child,' she began, 'the time has
come when we must part.'
'Part?' cried Elsa, burying her head in the lady's lap. 'No, dear lady, that
can never be till death parts us. You once opened your arms to me; you
cannot thrust me away now.'
'Ah, be quiet, child,' replied the lady; 'you do not know what I would do
to make you happy. Now you are a woman, and I have no right to keep
you here. You must return to the world of men, where joy awaits you.'
'Dear lady,' entreated Elsa again. 'Do not, I beseech you, send me from
you. I want no other happiness but to live and die beside you. Make me
your waiting maid, or set me to any work you choose, but do not cast
me forth into the world. It would have been better if you had left me
with my stepmother, than first to have brought me to heaven and then
send me back to a worse place.'
'Do not talk like that, dear child,' replied the lady; 'you do not know all
that must be done to secure your happiness, however much it costs me.
But it has to be. You are only a common mortal, who will have to die
one day, and you cannot stay here any longer. Though we have the
bodies of men, we are not men at all, though it is not easy for you to
understand why. Some day or other you will find a husband who has

been made expressly for you, and will live happily with him till death
separates you. It will be very hard for me to part from you, but it has to
be, and you must make up your mind to it.' Then she drew her golden
comb gently through Elsa's hair, and bade her go to bed; but little sleep
had the poor girl! Life seemed to stretch before her like a dark starless
night.
Now let us look back a moment, and see what had been going on in
Elsa's native village all these years, and how her double had fared. It is
a well-known fact that a bad woman seldom becomes better as she
grows older, and Elsa's stepmother was no exception to the rule; but as
the figure that had taken the girl's place could feel no pain, the blows
that were showered on her night and day made no difference. If the
father ever tried to come to his daughter's help, his wife turned upon
him, and things were rather worse than before.
One day the stepmother had given the girl a frightful beating, and then
threatened to kill her outright. Mad with rage, she seized the figure by
the throat with both hands, when out came a black snake from her
mouth and stung the woman's tongue, and she fell dead without a sound.
At night, when the husband came home, he found his wife lying dead
upon the ground, her body all swollen and disfigured, but the girl was
nowhere to be seen. His screams brought the neighbours from their
cottages, but they were unable to explain how it had all come about. It
was true, they said, that about mid-day they had heard a great noise, but
as that was a matter of daily occurrence they did not think much of it.
The rest of the day all was still, but no one had seen anything of the
daughter. The body of the dead woman was then prepared for burial,
and her tired husband went to bed, rejoicing in his heart that he had
been delivered from the firebrand who had made his home unpleasant.
On the table he saw a slice of bread lying, and, being hungry, he ate it
before going to sleep.
In the morning he too was found dead, and as swollen as his wife, for
the bread had been placed in the body of the figure by the old man who
made it. A few days later he was placed in the grave beside his wife,
but nothing more was ever heard of their daughter.

All night long after her talk with the lady Elsa had wept and wailed her
hard fate in being cast out from her home which she loved.
Next morning, when