Stranica 101 [101]
Pe CAST DESOR LTFE
and transparent as the sky. Graceful looked about him;
he was alone—alone with the remains of his two companions,
which the waves had washed on the shore. Exhausted with
suffering and excitement, he dragged himself to the brook
and bent over the water to refresh his parched lips, when
he shrank back with affright. It was not his face that he
saw in the water, but that of an old man with silvery locks
who strongly resembled him. He turned round; there was
no one behind him. He again drew near the fountain;
he saw the old man, or rather, doubtless, the old man was
himself. "Great fairies,” he cried. "I understand you.
If it is my life that you wish in exchange for that of
my grandmother, I joyfully accept the sacrifice.” And
without troubling himself further about his old age and
wrinkles, he plunged his head into the water and drank
eagerly.
On rising, he was astonished to see himself again as he
was when he left home, only more beautiful, with blacker
hair and brighter eyes than ever. He picked up his hat,
which had fallen near the spring, and which a drop of water
had touched by chance, when what was his surprise to see
the butterfly that he had pinned to it fluttering its wings
and seeking to fly. He gave it its liberty, and ran to the
beach for Fido and Pensive, then plunged them both into,
the blessed fountain. Pensive flew upward with a joyful
cry and disappeared amid the turrets of the castle. Fido,
ré