Stranica 230 [230]
OCR
wa ANN WAZ: 7 474 ANI (2 Bo EE LONG time ago, perhaps as much as two thousand years, there was a rich man, and he had a beautiful and pious wife, and they loved each other very much, and they had no children, though they wished greatly for some, and the wife prayed for one day and night. Now, in the courtyard in front of their house stood an almond tree; and one day in winter the wife was standing beneath it, and paring an apple, and as she pared it she cut her finger, and the blood fell upon the snow. c Ah,” said the woman, sighing deeply, and looking down at the blood, “if only I could have a child as red as blood, and as white as snow !” And as she said these words, her heart suddenly grew light, and she felt sure she should have her wish. So she went was gone; in two months everything was green; in three the trees were in full leaf, and the branches were thickly entwined ; the little birds began to sing, so that the woods echoed, and the blossoms fell from the trees ; when the fifth it smelt so sweet that her heart leaped within her, and she fell on her knees for joy ; and when the sixth month had gone, the seventh month she gathered the almonds, and ate them eagerly, and was sick and sorrowful; and when the eighth
