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Craik, Dinah Maria Mulock, 1826-1887

"The Fairy Book The Best Popular Stories Selected and Rendered Anew"


The king took the beautiful maiden on his own horse and conducted her
to his castle, where the marriage was celebrated with great pomp. She
was now queen, and they lived a long time very happily together; while
the roe was petted and taken care of, and played all day about the
palace-garden.
But the wicked stepmother, on whose account these children had been
driven into the wide world, thought nothing less than that the little
sister had been torn to pieces by wild beasts in the forest, and that
the brother, in the shape of a roe, had been killed by the hunters.
When she now heard they were so happy, and that everything went well
with them, envy and spite raged in her heart and gave her no rest, and
her only thought was how she could do some mischief to them both. Her
own daughter, who was as ugly as the night and had only one eye, was
continually reproaching her, and saying, "It is I who ought to have
been made queen."
"Never mind," said the old witch to console her; "when the time comes
I will manage it."
By and by the queen gave birth to a beautiful little boy; and the king
being away at the hunt, the old witch took upon herself the form of
the lady-in-waiting, entered the room where the queen lay, and said to
her, "Come, the bath is ready, which will do you good and give you new
strength; make haste before it gets cold.


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