Miscellanea eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 215 pages of information about Miscellanea.

Miscellanea eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 215 pages of information about Miscellanea.

“A year has passed since you wished to be a knight.  If you have another wish, speak, and it shall be granted; but observe, what you wished before will then be at an end.”

To these last words Walter paid no attention.  The raven had no sooner said that he might have another wish than he interrupted it, exclaiming:  “Then I wish Gertrude to be a grown-up princess!”

But even as he spoke he himself became a child again, and his horse a hobby-horse, just as they had been a year ago.  But when he looked up to the battlements, there stood by the queen a wonderfully beautiful princess, tall and slim and stately; and this was—­his Gertrude!  Then the boy, taking his hobby-horse, went back up to the castle steps, and wept bitterly.  But the queen was sorry for him, took him in, and tried to comfort him.

And now there was another trouble.  Dearly as the Princess Gertrude and the boy Walter loved each other, they were not so happy as they should have been.  If Walter said to her, “Come, Gertrude, and we’ll run races, and jump over the ditches,” she would answer, “Oh! that would never do for a princess; what would people say?”

If Walter said, “Come and play hide-and-seek,” Gertrude would answer again, “Oh! but that would never do for a princess; I should leave my train hanging on the thorns, and my coronet would be tumbling off my head.”

Then if Gertrude asked Walter to bring in some venison for the table, the boy would bring her a mouse instead; and if a bull or a mad dog came after them, Gertrude must snatch Walter up in her arms, and run off with him, for she was so much bigger than he, and could run a great deal quicker.  Meanwhile he remained in the castle, and the boy became very dear to the old queen.

Another year passed by, and one morning Gertrude sat under a tree in the garden with her embroidery, whilst Walter played at her feet.  Then, as before, a voice called out of the tree, “Walter!  Walter!” And when the boy looked up, the raven was sitting on a branch, who said:  “Now once more you may wish, and it shall be granted; but this is the last time, therefore think it well over.”

But Walter did not think long before he answered:  “Ah! let us both be children all our lives long.”

And as he wished so it happened.  They both became children as before, played together more happily than ever, and were of one heart and of one soul.

But when another year had passed by, and the children sat plucking flowers and singing together in the garden, an angel flew down from heaven, who took them both in his arms and carried them away—­away to the celestial gardens of Paradise, where they are yet together, gathering the flowers that never fade, and singing songs so wondrously beautiful, that even the blessed angels hear with joy.

WAR AND THE DEAD.

A DRAMATIC DIALOGUE.

(From the French of Jean Mace.)

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Miscellanea from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.