The Beam
There was once a sorcerer who was standing in
the midst of a great crowd of people performing his wonders. He had a cock brought in,
which lifted a heavy beam and carried it as if it were light as a feather. But a girl was
present who had just found a four-leaved clover, and had thus become so wise that no
deception could stand out against her, and she saw that the beam was nothing but a straw.
So she cried, you people, do you not see that it is a straw that the cock is carrying, and
no beam. Immediately the enchantment vanished, and the people saw what it was, and drove
the magician away in shame and disgrace. He, however, full of inward anger, said, I will
soon revenge myself. After some time the girl's wedding-day came, and she was decked out,
and went in a great procession over the fields to the place where the church was. All at
once she came to a stream which was very much swollen, and there was no bridge and no
plank to cross it. Then the bride nimbly took her clothes up, and wanted to wade through
it. And just as she was thus standing in the water, a man, and it was the sorcerer, cried
mockingly close beside her, aha. Where are your eyes that you take that for water. Then
her eyes were opened, and she saw that she was standing with her clothes lifted up in the
middle of a field that was blue with the flowers of blue flax. Then all the people saw it
likewise, and chased her away with ridicule and laughter.
--The End-- |
