The Violet Fairy Book | Page 9

she got up, the lady placed a gold seal ring on her
finger, strung a little golden box on a ribbon, and placed it round her
neck; then she called the old man, and, forcing back her tears, took
leave of Elsa. The girl tried to speak, but before she could sob out her
thanks the old man had touched her softly on the head three times with
his silver staff. In an instant Elsa knew that she was turning into a bird:
wings sprang from beneath her arms; her feet were the feet of eagles,
with long claws; her nose curved itself into a sharp beak, and feathers
covered her body. Then she soared high in the air, and floated up
towards the clouds, as if she had really been hatched an eagle.
For several days she flew steadily south, resting from time to time
when her wings grew tired, for hunger she never felt. And so it
happened that one day she was flying over a dense forest, and below
hounds were barking fiercely, because, not having wings themselves,
she was out of their reach. Suddenly a sharp pain quivered through her
body, and she fell to the ground, pierced by an arrow.
When Elsa recovered her senses, she found herself lying under a bush
in her own proper form. What had befallen her, and how she got there,
lay behind her like a bad dream.
As she was wondering what she should do next the king's son came
riding by, and, seeing Elsa, sprang from his horse, and took her by the
hand, sawing, 'Ah! it was a happy chance that brought me here this
morning. Every night, for half a year, have I dreamed, dear lady, that I
should one day find you in this wood. And although I have passed
through it hundreds of times in vain, I have never given up hope.
To-day I was going in search of a large eagle that I had shot, and
instead of the eagle I have found--you.' Then he took Elsa on his horse,
and rode with her to the town, where the old king received her
graciously.
A few days later the wedding took place, and as Elsa was arranging the
veil upon her hair fifty carts arrived laden with beautiful things which

the lady of the Tontlawald had sent to Elsa. And after the king's death
Elsa became queen, and when she was old she told this story. But that
was the last that was ever heard of the Tontlawald.
[From Ehstnische Marchen.]
THE FINEST LIAR IN THE WORLD
At the edge of a wood there lived an old man who had only one son,
and one day he called the boy to him and said he wanted some corn
ground, but the youth must be sure never to enter any mill where the
miller was beardless.
The boy took the corn and set out, and before he had gone very far he
saw a large mill in front of him, with a beardless man standing in the
doorway.
'Good greeting, beardless one!' cried he.
'Good greeting, sonny,' replied the man.
'Could I grind something here?'
'Yes, certainly! I will finish what I am doing and then you can grind as
long as you like.'
But suddenly the boy remembered what his father had told him, and
bade farewell to the man, and went further down the river, till he came
to another mill, not knowing that as soon as his back was turned the
beardless man had picked up a bag of corn and run hastily to the same
mill before him. When the boy reached the second mill, and saw a
second beardless man sitting there, he did not stop, and walked on till
he came to a third mill. But this time also the beardless man had been
too clever for him, and had arrived first by another road. When it
happened a fourth time the boy grew cross, and said to himself, 'It is no
good going on; there seems to be a beardless man in every mill'; and he
took his sack from his back, and made up his mind to grind his corn
where he was.

The beardless man finished grinding his own corn, and when he had
done he said to the boy, who was beginning to grind his, 'Suppose,
sonny, we make a cake of what you have there.'
Now the boy had been rather uneasy when he recollected his father's
words, but he thought to himself, 'What is done cannot be undone,' and
answered, 'Very well, so let it be.'
Then the beardless one got up, threw the flour into the tub, and made a
hole in the middle, telling the boy to fetch some water from the