Stranica 50 [50]
: THE RAVEN:
HERE was once a Oueen and she had
a little daughter, who was as yet a babe
in arms; and once the child was so
restless that the mother could get no
peace, do what she would; so she lost
patience, and seeing a flight of ravens
passing over the castle, she opened the
window and said to her child,
“Oh, that thou wert a raven and
couldst fly away, that I might be at peace.”
No. sooner had she uttered the words, than the child was
indeed changed into a raven, and fluttered from her arms out
of the window. And she flew into a dark wood and stayed
there a long time, and her parents knew nothing of her. Once
a man was passing through the wood, and he heard the raven
cry, and he followed the voice; and when he came near it
sald,
‘T was born a King’s daughter, and have been bewitched,
but thou canst set me free.”
‘What shall I do?” asked the man. |
‘‘Go deeper into the wood,” said she, "and thou shalt
find a house and an old woman sitting in it: she will offer
thee meat and drink, but thou must take none; if thou eatest
or drinkest thou fallest into a deep sleep, and canst not set me
free at all. In the garden behind the house is a big heap of
tan, stand upon that and wait forme, ‘Three days, at about
the middle of the day, shall I come to thee in a car drawn by
four white horses the first time, by four red ones the second