The Junior Classics, Volume 1: Fairy and wonder tales
General
The Junior Classics, Volume 1: Fairy and wonder tales
Children's literature
And there came such a violent wind that it blew Conrad’s hat far away
across country, and he was forced to run after it. When he came back
she had finished combing her hair and was putting it up again, and he
could not get any of it. Then Conrad was angry, and would not speak to
her, and thus they watered the geese until the evening, and then they
went home.
Next day when they were driving the geese out through the dark gateway,
the maiden said:
“Alas, Falada, hanging there
Falada answered:
“Alas, young Queen, how ill you fare!
If this your tender mother knew,
Her heart would surely break in two.”
And she sat down again in the field and began to comb out her hair, and
Conrad ran and tried to clutch it, so she said in haste:
“Blow, blow, thou gentle wind, I say,
Blow Conrad’s little hat away,
And make him chase it here and there,
Until I have braided all my hair,
And bound it up again.
Then the wind blew, and blew his little hat off his head and far away,
and Conrad was forced to run after it, and when he came back, her hair
had been put up a long time, and he could get none of it, and so they
looked after their geese till evening came.
But in the evening after they had got home, Conrad went to the old
King, and said: “I won’t tend the geese with that girl any longer!”
“Why not?” inquired the aged King. “Oh, because she vexes me the whole
day long.” Then the aged King commanded him to relate what it was that
she did to him. And Conrad said: “In the morning when we pass beneath
the dark gateway with the flock, there is a sorry horse’s head on the
wall and she says to it:
“Alas, Falada, hanging there!”
And the head replies:
“Alas, young Queen, how ill you fare!
If this your tender mother knew,
Her heart would surely break in two.”
And Conrad went on to relate what happened on the goose pasture, and
how when there he had to chase his hat.
The aged King commanded him to drive his flock out again next day, and
as soon as morning came, he placed himself behind the dark gateway, and
heard how the maiden spoke to the head of Falada, and then he too went
into the country, and hid himself in the thicket in the meadow. There
he soon saw with his own eyes the goose-girl and the goose-boy bringing
their flock, and how after a while she sat down and unplaited her hair,
which shone with radiance. And soon she said:
“Blow, blow, thou gentle wind, I say,
Blow Conrad’s little hat away,
And make him chase it here and there,
Until I have braided all my hair,
And bound it up again.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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