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Craik, Dinah Maria Mulock, 1826-1887

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

The fifth month
passed, and she stood under the Juniper-tree, and it smelt so
beautiful, and her heart leaped with joy. She fell upon her knees,
but could not speak. When the sixth month was gone, the fruit was
large and ripe, and she was very quiet; the seventh month, she took
the juniper berries, ate them eagerly, and was sick and sorrowful; and
the eighth month went by, and she called to her husband, and cried and
said, "If I die, bury me under the Juniper-tree."
After this she was quite comforted and happy, till the next month was
passed, and then she had a child as white as snow and as red as blood.
When she beheld it, she was so glad, that she died.
Her husband buried her under the Juniper-tree, and began to mourn very
much; but after a little time, he became calmer, and when he had wept
a little more, he left off weeping entirely, and soon afterwards he
took another wife.
The second wife brought him a daughter, but the child of the first
wife was a little son, and was as red as blood, and as white as snow.
When the wife looked at her daughter, she loved her; but when she
looked at the little boy, she hated him, and it seemed as if he were
always in her way, and she was always thinking how she could get all
the property for her daughter. The Evil One possessed her so, that she
was quite angry with the little boy, and pushed him about from one
corner to another, and cuffed him here and pinched him there, until
the poor child was always in fear.


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