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LABOULAYE’S FAIRY BOOK "1 know what brings you here, but I can do nothing for you. Go to my sister; perhaps she will give you what you desire. She is Life—I am Death." Carlino did not wait for a second bidding. He rushed onward, too happy to escape this scene of horror. The landscape soon changed. Carlino found himself in a fertile valley. On every side were harvests, blossoming fields, vines loaded with grapes, and olive-trees full of fruit. In the thick shade of a fig-tree, by a running spring, sat a blind woman unrolling the last gold and silver thread from a spindle. Around her lay several distaffs, full of different kinds of materials ready for spinning—flax, hemp, wool, silk, and others. When she had finished her task the fairy stretched out her trembling hand at random, took the first distaff that came, and began to spin. Carlino bowed respectfully to the lady, and began with emotion to tell her the story of his pilgrimage, when the fairy stopped him at the first word. “My child,” said she, “I can do nothing for you. I am only a poor blind woman that does not even know herself what she 1s doing. This distaff, which I have taken at random, decides the fate of all who are born while I am spinning it. Riches or poverty, happiness or misfortune, are attached to this thread that I cannot see. The slave of destiny, I can create nothing. Go to my other sister; 1 0) oO
