(_From the English_)
THERE was once a poor laborer who had so many children that he was
hardly able to buy food and clothing for them. For this reason, as soon
as they grew old enough, they went out into the world to shift for
themselves. One after another they left their home, until at last only
the youngest one, Cherry by name, was left. She was the prettiest of
all the children. Her hair was as black as jet, her cheeks as red as
roses, and her eyes so merry and sparkling that it made one smile even
to look at her.
Every few weeks one or another of the children who were out at service
came back to visit their parents, and they looked so much better fed,
and so much better clothed than they ever had looked while they were
at home that Cherry began to long to go out in the world to seek her
fortune, too.
"Just see," she said to her mother; "all my sisters have new dresses
and bright ribbons, while I have nothing but the old patched frocks
they have outgrown. Let me go out to service to earn something for
myself."
"No, no," answered her mother. "You are our youngest, and your father
would never be willing to have you go, and you would find it very
different out there in the world from here, where everyone loves you
and cares for you."
However, Cherry's heart was set upon going out to seek her fortune,
and when she found her parents would never give their consent, she
determined to go without it. She tied up the few clothes she had in a
big handkerchief, put on the shoes that had in them the fewest holes,
and off she stole one fine morning without saying good-by to anyone but
the old cat that was asleep upon the step.
As long as she was within sight of the house she hurried as fast as she
could, for she was afraid her father or mother might see her and call
her back, but when the road dipped down over a hill she walked more
slowly, and took time to catch her breath and shift her bundle from one
hand to the other.
At first the way she followed was well known to her, but after she
had traveled on for several hours she found herself in a part of the
country she had never seen before. It was bleak and desolate with great
rocks, and not a house in sight, and Cherry began to feel very lonely.
She longed to see her dear home again, with the smoke rising from the
chimney and her mother's face at the window, and at last she grew so
homesick that she sat down on a rock and began to sob aloud.
[Illustration: HE WAS RICHLY DRESSED AND LOOKED LIKE A FOREIGNER]
She had been sitting there and weeping for some time when she felt
a hand upon her shoulder. She looked up and saw a tall and handsome
gentleman standing beside her. He was richly dressed and looked like
a foreigner, and there were many rings upon his fingers. It seemed so
strange to see him standing there close to her, when a little time
before there had been no one in sight, that Cherry forgot to sob while
she stared at him. He was smiling at her in a friendly way, and his
eyes sparkled and twinkled so brightly that there never was anything
like it.
"What are you doing in such a lonely place as this, my child?" said
he. "And why are you weeping so bitterly?"
"I am here because I started out to take service with someone,"
answered Cherry; "and I am weeping because it is so lonely, and I wish
I were at home again;" and she began to sob.
"Listen, Cherry," said the gentleman, once more laying his hand on her
shoulder. "I am looking for a kind, bright girl to take charge of my
little boy. The wages are good, and if you like, you shall come with me
and be his nurse."
This seemed a great piece of good luck to Cherry, for she was sure from
the gentleman's looks that he must be very rich as well as kind. She
quickly wiped her eyes and told him she was more than willing to go
with him.
As soon as the stranger heard this he smiled again, and bidding her
follow him he turned aside into a little path among the rocks that
Cherry had not noticed before. At first this path was both rough and
thorny, but the further they went the broader and smoother it grew, and
always it led down hill. After a while instead of thorns, flowering
bushes bordered the path, and later still, trees loaded with such fruit
as Cherry had never seen before. It shone like jewels, and smelled so
delicious that she longed to stop and taste it, but that her master
would not allow. There was no sunlight now, but neither were any clouds
to be seen overhead. A soft, pale light shone over everything, making
the landscape seem like something seen in a dream.
The gentleman hurried her along, and when he saw she was growing tired
he took her hand in his and immediately all her weariness disappeared,
and her feet felt so light it seemed as though she could run to the
ends of the earth.
After they had gone a long, long way they came to a gate overhung with
an arch of flowering vines. The garden within was filled with fruit
trees even more wonderful than those along the road, and through them
she could see a beautiful house that shone like silver.
The gentleman opened the gate, and immediately a little boy came
running down the path toward them. The child was very small, but his
face looked so strange and wise and old that Cherry was almost afraid
of him.
The gentleman stooped and kissed him and said, "This is my son," and
then they all three went up the path together.
When they came near the house the door opened and a little, strange
looking old woman looked out. She was gnarled and withered and gray,
and looked as though she might be a hundred.
"Aunt Prudence, this is the nurse I have brought home to look after the
boy for us," said the gentleman.
The old woman scowled, and her eyes seemed to bore into Cherry like
gimlets. "She'll peep and pry, and see what shouldn't be seen. Why
couldn't you have been satisfied with one like ourselves for a nurse?"
grumbled the old woman.
"It's best as it is," answered the gentleman in a low voice. "Many a
one has sent her child to rest in a cradle there above, and they've
been all the better for it."
Cherry did not know what he was talking about, but if she had been
afraid of the child she was even more afraid of the old woman.
And indeed in the next few days Aunt Prudence made the girl's life very
unhappy. The gentleman gave Cherry full charge of the child, and seemed
very contented with her, but the old woman grumbled and scolded, and
found fault with everything she did.
It was Cherry's duty to bathe the child every morning, and after she
had washed him she was obliged to anoint his eyes with a certain
ointment that was kept in a silver box. "And be very careful," said her
master, sternly, "that you never touch the least particle of it to your
own eyes, for if you do, misfortune will certainly come upon you."
Cherry promised that she would not, but she felt very curious
about this ointment. She was sure it must have some very wonderful
properties, for always after she had rubbed the child's eyes with it
they looked stranger and brighter than ever, and she was sure he saw
things that she could not see. Sometimes he would seem to join in
games invisible to her, and sometimes he would suddenly leave her and
run down a path to meet someone, though as far as she could see not a
living soul was there. But if Cherry asked him any questions he would
become quite silent, and look at her sideways in a strange way.
There were doors in the house that Cherry was forbidden to open, and
she used to wonder and wonder what was behind them. Once she saw her
master come out from one of the rooms beyond, but he shut the door
quickly behind him, and she caught no glimpse of what was within.
However, she was very comfortable there--well-fed, well-clothed and
well-paid, and she would have been quite happy if it had not been for
Aunt Prudence. Instead of growing kinder to her as time went on, the
old woman grew crosser and crosser. She was always scolding, and her
tongue was so sharp that she often made Cherry weep bitterly, and
wish she was at home again, or any place but there. Once when she was
sobbing to herself in the garden, her master came to her. "Cherry,"
he said, "I see that you and Aunt Prudence can never live in peace
together, and I am going to send her away for a while, but if I do, you
must promise to do nothing that might displease me."
Cherry promised, and after that the old woman disappeared, and the girl
did not know what had become of her.
Cherry was now very happy. Her master was never cross with her, and
the child was very obedient, and if he did not ever laugh, neither did
he ever weep. She helped her master in the garden very often, and when
she had done very well he would sometimes kiss her and call her a good
child and then she was happier than ever.
But one time he went away for a few days, and Cherry seemed quite alone
in the house except for the child, for the other servants she had never
seen. The little boy went out to play in the garden, and suddenly
Cherry began to feel so curious as to what was back of the forbidden
doors that it seemed as though she would die if she did not look. She
tried to think of other things, and to remember how displeased her
master would be if she opened the doors, but at last she could bear it
no longer. She would just see what was behind one of them, and then she
would look no further. But first she made sure that the little boy was
still at play in the garden. He was sitting on the edge of a fountain,
looking down into it, and suddenly he waved his hand and called out as
though to something in the water.
Then Cherry opened the door and slipped through.
She found herself in a long hall entirely of marble. The floor, the
ceilings and walls all were of blocks of marble, black and white, and
ranged up and down it were many marble statues. Some were the figures
of beautiful women, some were of princes with crowns upon their heads
or of young men magnificently dressed. She went slowly down the hall,
staring and wondering, and at the very end she came upon Aunt Prudence,
but it was an Aunt Prudence turned into marble, and scowling at her
with marble, unseeing eyes. When she saw that, Cherry knew that she was
in fairyland, and that her master had by his magic powers turned the
old woman into this shape to quiet her scolding tongue.
She was terrified, for she was afraid that, as her master was a fairy,
he would know that she had disobeyed him, and she went out quickly and
closed the door behind her. However, when the gentleman came home that
evening he was as kind and pleasant as ever, so she made sure that he
knew nothing of what she had done.
But there was one thing Cherry was even more curious about than she
had been about the doors, and that was about the ointment she rubbed
upon the child's eyes. Every day, more and more, she longed to rub her
own eyes with it and try whether she, too, would not see invisible
things. But beside her fear of disobeying her master the child's eyes
were always upon her while she had the box open, and as soon as she had
rubbed his eyes and closed it she was obliged to give it to him, and
she never could tell what he did with it or where he put it.
One morning, however, just after she had rubbed his eyes, and before
she had washed her hands, she made out she had dropped the box by
accident, and when she stooped to pick it up she managed to rub one eye
with a finger that had a little ointment upon it. The child did not see
what she had done, but when Cherry looked about her what a wonderful
change had come over the garden. Where all had seemed lonely and silent
before, were crowds of little people playing around or going seriously
about their business. They swung in the flower bells, they climbed the
blades of grass. They spun ropes of cobweb, or sat in groups among the
roots of trees, talking together and nodding their wise little heads.
But when she looked down into the fountain she saw the strangest sight
of all, for there was her master, dressed just as he had been when he
said good-by to her that morning, but now he was no longer than her
hand, and riding a fish that he drove round and round in the water with
a tiny whip. Cherry looked and looked, but her master never looked up
nor noticed her. He played round with the fishes for quite a while and
then suddenly disappeared. A moment after, the gate clicked, and when
Cherry looked up there he was coming in, as tall as ever, and with not
a hair of him wet.
He was often away after this and on one of these times Cherry
determined to look into the marble room again.
She made sure that the child was outside and playing around with the
other fairies, and then she stole to the forbidden door and softly
opened it a crack. As soon as she did this, she heard a sound of
pleasant music. She peeped in and what a wonderful sight she saw! The
stone ladies and gentlemen had all come to life, and were dancing there
to the music. They moved and smiled and bowed to each other, and at the
head of the dance was her master with the loveliest lady of them all as
his partner. While Cherry looked, the dance came to an end and he led
the lady to a seat, but before she sat down he kissed her.
When Cherry saw that, she closed the door and ran away to her room, and
there she began to sob and cry; she was so jealous over what she had
seen that it seemed as though her heart would burst.
That afternoon her master came again as kind and smiling as ever, but
Cherry would hardly look at him or answer anything he said. Presently
he asked her to come out into the garden and help him with the
flowers, and this she did, though she was still very moody.
They worked there for quite a while, and then when they had finished
everything there was to be done, her master said, "You are a good
child, Cherry," and kissed her.
Cherry pushed him away and began to sob again. "Why do you kiss me?"
she cried. "You don't care for anybody but your beautiful lady. If you
want to kiss anybody, go kiss her."
When her master heard that, his face changed, and he looked at her
so angrily that Cherry was frightened. "So you have been prying!" he
cried, "and Aunt Prudence was right when she warned me not to trust
you. Now that you have seen what you have seen, you can stay here no
longer."
"Oh, do not send me away," Cherry begged of him. "Let me stay and I
promise that I will never disobey you again."
"I am sorry, Cherry," her master answered, and he no longer looked
angry, "but after this, they would not let me keep you." With that he
raised his hand and gave her a sharp box on the ears, and she lost all
consciousness.
When she came to herself she was sitting on the doorstep of her own
home and her mother was shaking her by the shoulder and calling her.
Cherry started up and looked about her. "Where--where is he?" she
cried. "How did I come here, and what has become of my master?"
Her mother did not know what she was talking about, and when after a
little, Cherry began and told her all her story, she thought the child
was dreaming or had lost her wits. But when later on she found that the
girl's pockets were full of fairy gold, enough to make them rich for
years, she was obliged to believe that the story was true, wonderful
as it was.
But for a long time after she came home, Cherry used to trudge away to
the lonely heath every now and then, and sit there hoping her master
would come for her. But he never did, and never again did she find a
place where the wages were in gold and paid as freely as they had been
in fairyland.