第64章 The White Doe(10)

The parrot did not need to be told twice.Seizing the crown, she sprang on to the window, crying: 'Monkey, come to me!' And to a monkey, the climb down the tree into the courtyard did not take half a minute.When she had reached the ground she said again: 'Ant, come to me!' And a little ant at once began to crawl over the high wall.How glad the ant was to be out of the giant's castle, holding fast the crown which had shrunk into almost nothing, as she herself had done, but grew quite big again when the ant exclaimed:

'Deer, come to me!'

Surely no deer ever ran so swiftly as that one! On and on she went, bounding over rivers and crashing through tangles till she reached the sea.Here she cried for the last time:

'Fish, come to me!' And, plunging in, she swam along the bottom as far as the palace, where the queen and all the fishes gathered together awaiting her.

The hours since she had left had gone very slowly--as they always do to people that are waiting--and many of them had quite given up hope.

'I am tired of staying here,' grumbled a beautiful little creature, whose colours changed with every movement of her body, 'I want to see what is going on in the upper world.It must be months since that fish went away.'

'It was a very difficult task, and the giant must certainly have killed her or she would have been back long ago,' remarked another.

'The young flies will be coming out now,' murmured a third, 'and they will all be eaten up by the river fish! It is really too bad!' When, suddenly, a voice was heard from behind: 'Look! look! what is that bright thing that is moving so swiftly towards us?' And the queen started up, and stood on her tail, so excited was she.

A silence fell on all the crowd, and even the grumblers held their peace and gazed like the rest.On and on came the fish, holding the crown tightly in her mouth, and the others moved back to let her pass.

On she went right up to the queen, who bent and, taking the crown, placed it on her own head.Then a wonderful thing happened.Her tail dropped away or, rather, it divided and grew into two legs and a pair of the prettiest feet in the world, while her maidens, who were grouped around her, shed their scales and became girls again.They all turned and looked at each other first, and next at the little fish who had regained her own shape and was more beautiful than any of them.

'It is you who have given us back our life; you, you!' they cried; and fell to weeping from very joy.

So they all went back to earth and the queen's palace, and quite forgot the one that lay under the sea.But they had been so long away that they found many changes.The prince, the queen's husband, had died some years since, and in his place was her son, who had grown up and was king! Even in his joy at seeing his mother again an air of sadness clung to him, and at last the queen could bear it no longer, and begged him to walk with her in the garden.Seated together in a bower of jessamine--where she had passed long hours as a bride--she took her son's hand and entreated him to tell her the cause of his sorrow.

'For,' said she, 'if I can give you happiness you shall have it.'

'It is no use,' answered the prince; 'nobody can help me.I must bear it alone.'

'But at least let me share your grief,' urged the queen.

'No one can do that,' said he.'I have fallen in love with what I can never marry, and I must get on as best I can.'

'It may not be as impossible as you think,' answered the queen.'At any rate, tell me.'

There was silence between them for a moment, then, turning away his head, the prince answered gently:

'I have fallen in love with a beautiful deer!'

'Ah, if that is all,' exclaimed the queen joyfully.And she told him in broken words that, as he had guessed, it was no deer but an enchanted maiden who had won back the crown and brought her home to her own people.

'She is here, in my palace,' added the queen.'I will take you to her.'

But when the prince stood before the girl, who was so much more beautiful than anything he had ever dreamed of, he lost all his courage, and stood with bent head before her.

Then the maiden drew near, and her eyes, as she looked at him, were the eyes of the deer that day in the forest.She whispered softly:

'By your favour let me go, and do not kill me.'

And the prince remembered her words, and his heart was filled with happiness.And the queen, his mother, watched them and smiled.

[From Cuentos Populars Catalans, por lo Dr.D.Francisco de S.

Maspons y Labros.]