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WHITE AND BLACK. |
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to her. One day her brother said to her, " Dear sister, I love you so much that I mean to have your likeness taken, and then I shall have your face always before my eyes."
"Very well," she replied; "but pray do not let any one else see the picture."
So he had her picture painted, and hung up in his room at the king's castle where he lived, for he was coachman to the king.
Every day he felt thankful that his dear sister had gained these precious gifts from the fairy. Not long before this time the queen had died, and the king was full of grief, for she had been so beautiful that none like her could be found anywhere.
One day a servant of the castle peeped into the coachman's room, and saw him standing before a beautiful picture which hung on the wall. He watched him again and again, and saw that not a day passed without his standing before the picture and seeming to admire it, so he told the other servants, and they being envious informed the king.
Upon this the king desired the picture to be brought to him, and he saw with surprise that it was the picture of a maiden who exactly resembled his dead wife, only still more beautiful, and he at once fell desperately in love with the picture. He sent for his coachman, and when he appeared asked him whose likeness it was. The coachman replied that it was his sister. Upon hearing this, the king resolved that no other woman should be his wife.
So Rudy was ordered to take a royal carriage and horses, and beautiful clothes embroidered with gold, and go at once for his sister, and bring her back to the castle to be the king's bride. When Rudy arrived in all this grandeur to fetch his sistet, and she heard the message and saw the clothes, she was full of joy.
But her black sister was overpowered with jealousy at this good fortune, and vexed herself beyond measure, and said to her mother, " What is the use of all your cleverness if you can't get me such luck as this ?"
" Be quiet," said the old woman ; " I will manage it all for you." And through the power of her witchcraft she dimmed the eyes of the coachman so that he could hardly see, and deadened the sound in the ears of his sister till she became almost deaf.
Then they all got into the carriage—the tair maiden in her |
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