英语故事:The Princess and the Mouse

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Once upon a time there lived the daughter of a king. Her name was Safia. Her father and mother loved her very much, and would deny her nothing in the world.

One day, a magician came to the palace and asked for sanctuaryby his enemies and had nowhere to write an important book.

"Good professor," said the King, "you shall have a room placed at your disposal and everything that you desire, in order that you may finish your great work."

So the magician went on with his spells and magic formulas, pretending to be engrossedin scholarly matters. Every Friday, which was the day of rest in that far land, the magician paid his respects to the King and his court, but secretly he desired to take away the King's throne.

One day he disguised himself as an old woman and walked under the trees in the palace gardens till he met Safia.

"Princess," he said, "let me be your laundress, for I can wash linensand silks as finely as anyone in the world, and I would do it for almost nothing if I could serve Your Highness."

"Good woman," said the Princess Safia, "I can see that you are a poor creature and grieve for your condition. Come to my private quarters and I shall give you some of my linento wash."

So the disguised magician followed the princess into the palace, and before the girl could see what was happening he bundled her into a laundry bag and ran away as fast as his legs would carry him. He took the Princess into his private room. Muttering a magic spell, he made her as small as a doll, and put her in a cupboard.

The next Friday he went to the court as usual, and found the whole palace in an uproaris nearly out of his mind. All the soothsayers have tried to find out through their magical powers where she can be, but none of them have managed it," said the Grand Vizier.

The wicked magician smiled, for he knew that his spell was so strong it would defy all the soothsayers in the land until the day of his death.

The next day passed, and the Queen was weeping in her bowerwhen the magician entered, disguised as a washer-woman. He put her into a laundry bag and took her into his private room. She was turned into a doll no bigger than his thumb.

"Ha-hah!" laughed the magician, "I will now go and capture the King, and will rule the country myself."

So, next day, he waited until the King had gone to rest, tired out with worrying about the Queen's disappearanceoff.

Inside a large tree which had seen many winters there lived an old Wise Woman, and the mouse went to her, saying, "Mother, tell me what I should do to help the King's daughter who has been turned into a doll by the magician. She hopes to escape through a hole I shall nibblein a cupboard door. I have discovered that our missing King and Queen are also in the same cupboard, turned into wooden dolls no bigger than your thumb."

"Tell the King's daughter that she must come here when the moon is up and I will help her," said the Wise Woman.

The mouse went back when it was night and nibbledthe wood away until it was possible for Safia to get through the hole. As she was so small, it was easy for the Princess to run with the mouse out of the palace without being seen by the guards. When the moon rose and the garden was flooded with light, the tiny Princess went to a cavity in the tree which the mouse had showed her, and peeped in.

"Enter, King's daughter," said the Wise Woman. "I have found out by looking in my magic books the answer to your problem." The mouse waited nearby to see that no one was coming, and Safia sat on a footstool as the old woman read from a large book of magic.

"You must go on until you reach the crossroads, and in a field near by you will see an orange-colored horse, already saddled and bridledfor a journey. Jump on his back, after giving him a magic grass-seed to eat."

"Where shall I get the magic grass-seed?" asked the Princess.

"I will give it to you," said the Wise Woman, looking into a drawer.

"What am I to do next, after I have caught the horse?" asked Safia.

"King's daughter, you must whisper into his ear, 孴ake me, Orange Horse, to where the sacred pear tree grows, so that I may bring away a pear from its topmost branch'," said the old woman, putting her book back on the shelf.

"And then shall I regainmy proper size?" asked the Princess.

"When the wicked magician is dead and not before shall you turn back into your normal size," said the Wise Woman. "You must mount the orange horse's back once more and ride until you reach the Well of the Green Ogre. Whisper into the horse's right ear and you will arrive there before you know it. Drop the pear right into the depths of the well, for the wicked magician's soul is hidden in that pear, and if it falls into the ogre's denit will be devouredby the ogre, and the magician will die."

"What will happen then?" the Princess wanted to know.

"After that, all the creatures turned into other shapes by the magician will return to their own forms, and all will be as it was before." And the Wise Woman put a grass-seed into her hand.

So the tiny Princess thanked the Wise Woman, said good-bye to the mouse, and ran on in the moonlight until she reached the crossroads.

She saw, just as the old woman had said, a horse which was the color of an orange, with a beautiful golden mane and tail, standingin the field, ready saddled and bridled.

"Orange horse! Orange horse!" called Safia in a low voice. "Here is a magic grass-seed. Take me to the tree where the sacred pears grow, so that I may pick the topmost pear from its branches."

So the orange-colored horse put its head down close to Safia, and she held out the seed, which he swallowed. Then he put his head down again so that she could climb on to his neck, clinging to the golden mane. Soon she was hanging on to the saddle for all she was worth. The horse neighed twice, then, tossing his head, gallopedaway like the wind.

In less time than it takes to tell, Safia found herself in a beautiful orchardwhere there were cherry trees, plum trees, and trees with mulberries upon them, but only one pear tree.

"Here it is," said the horse; and standing on the saddle Safia stretched up into the branches. She picked a pear from the topmost branch and put it carefully into the saddlebag.

"Take me to the Well of the Green Ogre," she whispered in the horse's right ear. The orange-colored horse nodded and was off like the wind, his hooves moving so fast they seemed never to touch the ground. There, beside three palm trees, was a well. In the moonlight Safia saw that just inside the well there was an ogre's head as big as a pumpkinupon you, dear Princess," said he, "for I was the mouse, a victim of enchantmenttree," ex-plained the young man, "and now that she wishes to be elsewhere the tree has been uprootedand taken there without leaving a sign behind."

"Come with me to my father so that he can thank you," cried Safia.

So the young man went with her, and when they knelt before the King he explained that he was a prince who had been turned into a mouse by the magician.

"You shall stay here and marry my daughter," promised the King, "and rule the kingdom after me, as I have no son."

And so it came to happen, and the wedding feast was celebratedfor seven days and seven nights, and Safia and her husband lived happily ever after.

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