Stranica 100 [100]
HERE once lived a man and his wife,
who had long wished for a child, but in
vain. Now there was at the back of
their house a little window which over¬
looked a beautiful garden full of the
finest vegetables and flowers ; but there
was a high wall all round it, and no
one ventured into it, for it belonged
to a witch of great might, and of whom
all the world was afraid. One day that the wife was standing
at the window, and looking into the garden, she saw a bed
filled with the finest rampion; and it looked so fresh and
green that she began to wish for some; and at length she
longed for it greatly. ‘This went on for days, and as she knew
she could not get the rampion, she pined away, and grew
pale and miserable. Then the man was uneasy, and asked,
“ What is the matter, dear wife?”
6 Oh,” answered she, “I shall die unless I can have some
of that rampion to eat that grows in the garden at the back of
our house.” ‘The man, who loved her very much, thought to
himself,
“Rather than lose my wife I will get some rampion, cost
what it will.”
So in the twilight he climbed over the wall into the
witch’s garden, plucked hastily a handful of rampion and
brought it to his wife. She madea salad of it at once, and
ate of it to her heart’s content. But she liked it so much,
and it tasted so good, that the next day she longed for it