Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales from Burns to Buchan (Penguin Classics) by Gordon Jarvie Read Free Book Online Page A

snibbit.’
    The Princess went home, and gave this extraordinary message to her stepmother, wondering to herself meanwhile what it meant.
    press , pantry, walk-in cupboard.     snibbit , bolted.
    But if she did not understand the henwife’s words, the Queen understood them only too well. For from them she gathered that the Princess had in some way prevented the old witch’s spell doing what she intended it to do.
    So next morning, when she sent her stepdaughter once more on the same errand, she accompanied her to the door of the castle herself, so that the poor girl had no chance of paying a visit to the pantry. But as she went along the road that led to the cottage, she felt so hungry that, when she passed a party of country-folk picking peas by the roadside, she asked them to give her a handful.
    They did so, and she ate the peas; and so it came about that the same thing happened that had happened yesterday.
    The henwife sent her to look for the eggs; but she could work no spell upon her, because she had broken her fast. So the old woman bade her go home again and give the same message to the Queen.
    The Queen was very angry when she heard it, for she felt that she was being outwitted by this slip of a girl, and she determined that, although she was not fond of getting up early, she would accompany her next day herself, and make sure that she had nothing to eat as she went.
    So next morning she walked with the Princess to the henwife’s cottage, and, as had happened twice before, the old woman sent the royal maiden to lift the lid off the pot in the corner in order to get the eggs.
    And the moment that the Princess did so off jumped her own pretty head, and on jumped that of a sheep.
    Then the wicked Queen thanked the cruel old witch for the service that she had rendered to her, and went home quite delighted with the success of her scheme; while the poor Princess picked up her own head and put it into her basket along with the eggs, and went home crying, keeping behind the hedge all the way, for she felt so ashamed of her sheep’s head that she was afraid that anyone saw her.
    Now, as I told you, the Princess’s stepsister Katherine loved her dearly, and when she saw what a cruel deed had been wrought on her she was so angry that she declared that she would notremain another hour in the castle. ‘For,’ said she, ‘if my mother can order one such deed to be done, who can hinder her ordering another? I think it’s better for us both to be where she cannot reach us.’
    So she wrapped a fine silk shawl round her poor stepsister’s head, so that none could tell what it was like, and, putting the real head in the basket, she took her by the hand, and the two set out to seek their fortunes.
    They walked and they walked, till they reached a splendid palace, and when they came to it Katherine made as though she would go boldly up and knock at the door.
    ‘I may perchance find work here,’ she explained, ‘and earn enough money to keep us both in comfort.’
    But the poor Princess would fain have pulled her back. ‘They will have nothing to do with you,’ she whispered, ‘when they see that you have a sister with a sheep’s head.’
    ‘And who is to know that you have a sheep’s head?’ asked Katherine. ‘Just hold your tongue, and keep the shawl well around your face, and leave the rest to me.’
    So up she went and knocked at the kitchen door, and when the housekeeper came to answer it she asked her if there was any work that she could give her to do. ‘For,’ said she, ‘I have a sick sister, who is sore troubled with the migraine in her head, and I would fain find a quiet lodging for her where she could rest for the night.’
    ‘Do you know how to nurse a sickness?’ asked the housekeeper, who was greatly struck by Katherine’s soft voice and gentle ways.
    ‘Ay, I do,’ replied Katherine, ‘for when one’s sister is troubled with the migraine, one has to learn to look after her, and to go about