Stranica 290 [290]
234 GRIMM’S FAIRY TALES.
coyed, and the old woman was obliged to go back in the even¬
ing disappointed. ‘Then the maiden and her dear Roland
took again their natural shapes, and travelled on the whole
night through until daybreak. Then the maiden changed
herself into a beautiful flower, standing in the middle of a
hedge of thorns, and her dear Roland into a fiddle-player. It
was not long before the witch came striding up, and she said
to the musician,
“Dear musician, will you be so kind as to reach that
pretty flower for me?”
“Oh yes,” said he, "I will strike up a tune to it.”
Then as she crept quickly up to the hedge to break off the
flower, for she knew well who it was, he began to play, and
whether she liked it or not, she was obliged to dance, for there
was magic in the tune. The faster he played the higher she
had to jump, and the thorns tore her clothes, and scratched
and wounded her, and he did not cease playing until she was
spent, and lay dead.
So now they were saved, and Roland said,
“I will go to my father and prepare for the wedding.”
“And I will stay here, said the maiden, “and wait for
you, and so that no one should know me, I will change myself
into a red milestone.” So away went Roland, and the maiden
in the likeness of a stone waited in the field for her beloved.
But when Roland went home he fell into the snares of
another maiden, who wrought so, that he forgot his first love.
And the poor girl waited a long time, but at last, seeing
that he did not come, she was filled with despair, and changed
herself into a flower, thinking “ Perhaps some one in passing
will put his foot upon me and crush me.”
But it happened that a shepherd, tending his flock, saw
the flower, and as it was so beautiful, he gathered it, took it
home with him, and put it in his chest. From that time
everything went wonderfully well in the shepherd’s house.
When he got up in the morning, all the work was already
done ; the room was swept, the tables and benches rubbed,
fire kindled on the hearth, and water ready drawn ; and when
he came home in the middle of the day, the table was laid,
and a good meal spread upon it. He could not understand
how it was done, for he never saw anybody in his house, and