By the second wife he had a daughter, but the first wife’s child was a
little son, and he was as red as blood and as white as snow. When the
woman looked at her daughter she loved her very much, but then she
looked at the little boy and it seemed to cut her to the heart, for the
thought came into her mind that he would always stand in her way, and
she was for ever thinking how she could get all the fortune for her
daughter, and the Evil One filled her mind with this till she was quite
wroth with the little boy, and slapped him here and cuffed him there,
until the unhappy child was in continual terror, for when he came out
of school he had no peace in any place.
One day the woman had gone upstairs to her room, and her little
daughter went up too, and said, “Mother, give me an apple.” “Yes, my
child,” said the woman, and gave her a fine apple out of the chest, but
the chest had a great heavy lid with a great sharp iron lock. “Mother,”
said the little daughter, “is brother not to have one too?” This made
the woman angry, but she said, “Yes, when he comes out of school.” And
when she saw from the window that he was coming, it was just as if the
Devil entered into her, and she snatched at the apple and took it away
again from her daughter, and said, “Thou shalt not have one before thy
brother.” Then she threw the apple into the chest, and shut it. Then
the little boy came in at the door, and the Devil made her say to him
kindly, “My son, wilt thou have an apple?” and she looked wickedly at
him. “Mother,” said the little boy, “how dreadful you look! Yes, give
me an apple.” Then it seemed to her as if she were forced to say to
him, “Come with me,” and she opened the lid of the chest and said,
“Take out an apple for thyself,” and while the little boy was stooping
inside, the Devil prompted her, and crash! she shut the lid down, and
his head flew off and fell among the red apples. Then she was
overwhelmed with terror, and thought, “If I could but make them think
that it was not done by me!” So she went upstairs to her room to her
chest of drawers, and took a white handkerchief out of the top drawer,
and set the head on the neck again, and folded the handkerchief so that
nothing could be seen, and she set him on a chair in front of the door,
and put the apple in his hand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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