“And now one last thing,” she cried, “and that is, that I will make
you a cup that has a spell in it, and it shall be a present for you
to remember me by. It will be very plain, and there will be no gay
colours in it, but when you give it to your true love to drink from,
if once you have drunk from it yourself, you will have all her heart,
but beware that she doesn’t take a second draught. For though the first
draught that she drinks will be drunk to love, the second draught will
be drunk to hate, and though she have loved you more than all else on
earth, all her love will turn to hate when she drinks again. And as you
are so ignorant how to make bowls and cups, you will not know how to
fashion one so as to win back her love again.”
The potter stared in silence, while the gipsy took another bit of
clay and placed it upon the wheel, and then she bent her head, which
glittered with beads and coins, low over it, and placing her rosy lips
close to the mouth of the cup, sang some words into it, while she
moulded it with her hands, and turned the wheel with her foot. It was
in some strange language that the potter had never heard before.
“Good-bye,” she said presently. “Now, there, that is for you, and be
sure you do not sell the little brown cup, but keep it and give it to
your true love to drink out of; but only one draught, for if there
are two maybe you will need the gipsy’s help again.” Then she laughed,
and nodding her head over her shoulder, tripped lightly away in the
moonlight while the potter stared after her.
At first he thought he had been asleep, but there around him stood the
little rows of jugs and pots which the gipsy had made, and truly they
were beautifully done. He took them up, and turned them over in his
hand, and wondered at their shape and workmanship.
“To-morrow,” he said, “I will put them into the kiln, and see how they
come out. She certainly was a clever wench, and knew her work; but as
for her talk about having coloured them, that was all nonsense, and as
for breathing spells and charms into the cups, why it is like baby’s
talk.”
But next day when the pots were baked, the potter was even more
surprised, for they had the most wonderful colours that he had ever
seen: silver, blue, grey and yellow, in all sorts of patterns, all save
the little brown cup, which was the last the gipsy had made. But when
he looked at it the potter felt a little uncomfortable, and began to
wonder if it really did contain the charm as she had declared.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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