Children's Literature: A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training ClassesCurry, Charles Madison
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Children's Literature: A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes
Curry, Charles Madison
Children -- Books and reading; Children's literature -- Study and teaching
The King rejoiced beyond measure at the sight, but still he had not
gold enough; and he had the miller's daughter taken into a still larger
room full of straw, and said, "You must spin this, too, in the course of
this night; but if you succeed, you shall be my wife." "Even if she be a
miller's daughter," thought he, "I could not find a richer wife in the
whole world."
When the girl was alone the manikin came again for the third time, and
said, "What will you give me if I spin the straw for you this time
also?"
"I have nothing left that I could give," answered the girl.
"Then promise me, if you should become Queen, your first child."
"Who knows whether that will ever happen?" thought the miller's
daughter; and, not knowing how else to help herself in this strait, she
promised the manikin what he wanted, and for that he once more spun the
straw into gold.
And when the King came in the morning, and found all as he had wished,
he took her in marriage, and the pretty miller's daughter became a
Queen.
A year after, she had a beautiful child, and she never gave a thought to
the manikin. But suddenly he came into her room, and said, "Now give me
what you promised."
The Queen was horror-struck, and offered the manikin all the riches of
the kingdom if he would leave her the child. But the manikin said, "No,
something that is living is dearer to me than all the treasures in the
world."
Then the Queen began to weep and cry, so that the manikin pitied her. "I
will give you three days' time," said he; "if by that time you find out
my name, then shall you keep your child."
So the Queen thought the whole night of all the names that she had ever
heard, and she sent a messenger over the country to inquire, far and
wide, for any other names that there might be. When the manikin came the
next day, she began with Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar, and said all the
names she knew, one after another; but to every one the little man said,
"That is not my name." On the second day she had inquiries made in the
neighborhood as to the names of the people there, and she repeated to
the manikin the most uncommon and curious. "Perhaps your name is
Shortribs, or Sheepshanks, or Laceleg?" but he always answered, "That is
not my name."
On the third day the messenger came back again, and said, "I have not
been able to find a single new name, but as I came to a high mountain at
the end of the forest, where the fox and the hare bid each other
good-night, there I saw a little house, and before the house a fire was
burning, and round about the fire quite a ridiculous little man was
jumping; he hopped upon one leg, and shouted:
"To-day I bake, to-morrow brew,
The next I'll have the young Queen's child.
Ha! glad am I that no one knew
That Rumpelstiltskin I am styled.'"
You may think how glad the Queen was when she heard the name! And when
soon afterwards the little man came in, and asked, "Now, Mistress Queen,
what is my name?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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