Stranica 48 [48]
LABOULAYE:S PARRY BOK
milk her cow. Finette approached her and, making a
low courtesy, begged a shelter for the night.
The old woman looked at the stranger from head to foot.
With her buskins trimmed with fur, her full red petticoat,
her blue jacket edged with jet, and her diadem, Finette
looked more like an Egyptian princess than a Christian.
The old woman frowned and, shaking her fist in the face
of the poor forsaken girl, “Begone, witch!” she cried;
" there is no room for you in this honest house."
"My good mother,” said Finette, "give me only a corner
of the stable."
“Oh,” said the old woman, laughing and showing the
only tooth she had left, which projected from her mouth
like a bear’s tusk, "so you want a corner of the stable, do
you! Well, you shall have it if you will fill my milk-pail
with gold."
"It is a bargain,” said Finette, quietly. She opened a
leather purse which she wore at her belt, took from it a
golden bullet, and threw it into the milk-pail, saying,
“Golden bullet, precious treasure,
Save me, if it be thy pleasure.”
And behold! the pieces of gold began to dance about in the
pail; they rose higher and higher, flapping about like fish in
a net, while the old woman, on her knees, gazed with wonder
at the sight.
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