GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES - online book

130 Fairy Stories Adapted & Arranged for young people

Share page

	i56                           MAY BLOSSOM.
	The horse rose and shook himself, the dog sprung up and barked, the pigeons drew out their heads from behind their wings, plumed their feathers, and flew to the field; even the fire aroused itself, and its flickering flame soon burned into a steady blaze, to roast the dinner; and more than all this, the thorn hedge round the castle sunk down and disappeared. ; The king and queen, who now remembered the wicked fairy's prophecy, and how it had been limited to a sleep of a hundred years instead of death, were overjoyed, and so thankful to the prince for disenchanting them, that they readily consented when he asked that the beautiful May Blossom should be his wife. But when those around came to visit the restored and awakened household, they were much amused and surprised at the strange dresses worn by the awakened sleepers. They were equally astonished at the dress of the visitors, and no wonder, for in this hundred years the fashions had changed. The prince, however, did not care for this, he loved the princess for herself and not for her dress, and the marriage was celebrated in a very short time, with great splendour.
	A forester went out one day shooting; he had not gone far into the wood, when he heard, as he thought, the cry of a child. He turned his steps instantly towards the sound, and at length came to a high tree, on one of the branches of which sat a little child. A mother, some short time before, had seated herself under the tree with the child in her lap, and fallen asleep. A bird of prey, seeing the child, seized it in its beak and carried it away; but hearing fhe sound of the sportsman's gun, the bird let the child fall, its clothes caught in the branches of a high tree, and there it hung, crying till the forester came by. The mother, on awaking and missing her child, rushed away in great agony to find it. So that the poor little thing would have been left alone in the world to die had not the sportsman made his appearance. "Poor little creature !" he said to himself as he climbed up the