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Сказки -
ЛЕГЕНДЫ |
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The Progress of Civilization continued
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Оглавление |
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LITTLE Ilsee understood what had been said, and seemed to have already more confidence in man. She pressed against the outer door, and letting a few drops trickle through the planks, she stealthily glanced at the house situated beneath her. She saw a newly-made mill-wheel just at her feet. The miller's son, a beautiful child with curly hair, was standing on the little bridge, and cried out gaily, "Yes, only look below, Princess Ilsee; they will open the door for you in a moment, and then the dance will begin, and you can rush merrily round the wheel." — " Am I to be put on the wheel?" asked Ilsee; and her little heart beat violently, as she gazed on the huge machine. But lo! all at once the planks of the wheel began to crack all over, and said softly to her, "Do you not recollect us, Ilsee? we are made from the wood of your dear trees; fear nothing, we will not harm you." So when the miller cams forward and prepared to open the sluice, he cried out in a cheerful tone, "Now then, little Ilsee, you have rested long enough in the reservoir, it is time to descend; come along, exert yourself, and help us to work." The little Princess, without much ado, ran off to the wheel, raised her robe, placed her delicate little foot carefully but unhesitatingly, first on one, spoke, then on another, and when the wheel began to move under the pressure of her light weight, she leaped more boldly from step to step, letting her veil float in the breeze, and keeping her little cap of foam upon her head. The wheel continued to turn, the mill beat time, and little strings of silvery pearls, escaping from the dripping locks of the Princess, were showered on all around her, Little Ilsee had now become a labourer in the service of man. A streamlet bearing life and prosperity to the valley and its inhabitants, she laboured with the workmen in the flour-mills, and also in the forge, where she made the acquaintance of the much-dreaded element "fire." She was not long in discovering that their antipathy was mutual; that is to say, the fire was quite as much afraid of her as she was of it. They therefore never met, save when at work, and even then, they each withdrew to their own side as soon as possible, liking one another best at a distance. The Princess Ilsee visited the women and children at their houses, carried thither in pretty pails; she ‘even helped them in their housework, in the, kitchen, the wash-house, the dairy. She bathed the children, watered the flowers and vegetables in the garden, and was not ashamed of doing anything, however humble it might be, that was of service to others. And in truth, she had no occasion to be ashamed, for the Princess, in her acts of kindness and charity to the children of men, did nothing derogatory to her dignity. The End. | | ||||||||
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