 Chapter 1 of The Wise Woman. This is LibriVox Recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information on the volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Nathan at antipodeanwriter.wordpress.com. The Wise Woman by George MacDonald. Chapter 1. There was a certain country where things used to go rather oddly. For instance, you could never tell whether it was going to rain or hail, or whether or not the milk was going to turn sour. It was impossible to say whether the next baby would be a boy or a girl or even, after he was a week old, whether he would wake sweet-tempered or cross. In strict accordance with the peculiar nature of this country of uncertainties, it came to pass one day that in the midst of a shower of rain that might well be called golden, seeing the sun shining as it fell, turned all its drops into molten topazes, and every drop was good for a grain of golden corn or a yellow cow's rib but a cup, or a dandelion at least. While this splendid rain was falling, I say, with a musical patter upon the great leaves of the horse chestnuts, which hung like van dyke collars about the necks of the creamy red spot of blossoms and on the leaves of the sycamores, looking as if they had blood in their veins and on a multitude of flowers of which some stood up and boldly held out their cups to catch their share, while others cowered down, laughing, under the soft patting blows of the heavy warm drops. All this lovely rain was washing all the air clean from the motes and the bad odours and the poison seeds that had escaped from their prisons during the long drought. While it fell, splashing and sparkling with a hum and a rush and a soft clashing, but stop, I'm stealing, I find, and not that only, but with clumsy hands spoiling what I steal. O rain, with your dull twofold sound, the clash hard by and the murmur all round. There, take it, Mr. Coleridge. While, as I was saying, the lovely little rivers whose fountains are the clouds and which cut their own channels through the air and make sweet noises rubbing against their banks as they hurry down and down until at length, they are pulled up on a settlement with a musical plash in the very heart of an odourous flower that first gasps and then sighs up a blissful scent or on the bald head of a stone that never says thank you. While the very sheep felt at blessing them, they could never reach their skins through the depth of their long wool and the various hedgehog, I mean the one with the longest spikes, came and spiked himself out to impile as many of the drops as he could. While the rain was thus falling in the leaves and the flowers and the sheep and the cattle and the hedgehog were all busily receiving the golden rain, something happened. It was not a great battle, nor an earthquake, nor a coronation, but something more important than all those put together. A baby girl was born and her father was a king and her mother was a queen and her uncles and aunts were princes and princesses and her first cousins were dukes and duchesses and not one of her second cousins was less than a Marquis or Marchioness and of their third cousins less than an Earl or Countess and below a Countess they did not care to count. So the little girl was somebody and yet for all that strange to say the first thing she did was to cry. I told you it was a strange country. As she grew up everybody about her did his best to convince her that she was somebody and the girl herself was so easily persuaded of it that she quite forgot that anybody had ever told her so and took it for a fundamental innate primary first-born self-evident, necessary and incontrovertible idea and principle that she was somebody and far be it from me to deny it I'll even go so far as to assert that in this odd country there was a huge number of somebodies. Indeed, it was one of its oddities that every boy and girl in it was rather too ready to think he or she was somebody and the worst of it was that the princess never thought of there being more than one somebody and that was herself. Far away to the north in the same country on the side of a bleak hill where a horse chestnut or a sycamore was never seen where were no meadows rich with buttercups only steep rough breezy slopes covered with dry prickly furs and its flowers of red gold or moisture soft broom with its flowers of yellow gold and great sweeps of purple heather mixed with billberries and crowberries no, I'm all wrong. There was nothing out yet but a few furs blossoms the rest were all waiting behind their doors till they were called and no full slow gliding river with meadow sweet along its oozy banks only a little brook here and there that dashed past without a moment to say how do you do? there would you believe it while the same cloud that was dropping down gold and rain all about the queen's new baby was dashing huge fierce hand falls of hail upon the hills with such force but they flew spinning off the rocks and stones went burrowing in the sheep's wool stung the cheeks and chin of the shepherd with their sharp spiteful little blows and made his dog wink and whine as they bounded off his hard wise head and long sagacious nose only when they dropped plump down the little chimney and fell hissing in the little fire they caught it then for the clever little fire soon sent them up the chimney again a good deal swollen and harmless enough for a while there, what do you think? among the hail stones and the heather and the cold mountain air a mother little girl was born whom the shepherd her father and the shepherdess her mother and a good many of her kindred too thought somebody she had not an uncle or an aunt that was less than a shepherd or dairymaid not a cousin that was less than a farm labourer not a cousin that was less than a grocer and they did not count further and yet, would you believe it she too cried for the very first thing it was an odd country and, what is still more surprising the shepherd and shepherdess and the dairymaids and the labourers were not a bit wiser than the king and the queen and the dukes and the marquises and the earls for they too, one and all so constantly taught the little woman that she was somebody who forgot that there were a great many more somebodies besides herself in the world it was indeed a peculiar country very different from ours so different that my reader must not be too much surprised when I add the amazing fact that most of its inhabitants instead of enjoying the things they had were always wanting the things they had not often even the things it was least likely they ever could have the grown men and women being like this the reason to be further astonished that the princess Rosamond the name her parents gave her because it means rose of the world should grow up like them wanting everything she could and everything she couldn't have the things she could have were a great many too many for her foolish parents always gave her what they could but still there remained a few things they couldn't give her for they were only a common king and queen they could and did and managed by much care that she should not burn her fingers or set her frock on fire but when she cried for the moon that they could not give her they did the worst thing possible instead however for they pretended to do what they could not they got her a thin disk of brilliantly polished silver as near the size of the moon as they could agree upon and for a time she was delighted but unfortunately one evening she made the discovery that her moon was a little peculiar in as much as she could not shine in the dark her nurse happened to snuff out the candles as she was playing with it and instantly came a shriek of rage for her moon had vanished presently through the opening of the curtains she caught sight of the real moon far away in the sky and shining quite calmly as if she had been there all the time and her rage increased to such a degree that if it had not passed off in a fit I do not know what might have come of it but she grew up it was still the same with this difference that not only must she have everything but she got tired of everything almost as soon as she had it there was an accumulation of things in her nursery and school room and bedroom that was perfectly appalling mother's wardrobes were almost useless to her so packed with a with things of which she never took any notice when she was five years old they gave her a splendid gold repeater so close set with diamonds and rubies that the back was just one crust of gems in one of her little tempers as they called her hideously ugly rages she dashed it against the back of the chimney after which it never gave a single tick and some of the diamonds went to the ash pit as she grew older still she became fond of animals not in a way that brought them much pleasure or herself much satisfaction when angry she would beat them and try to pull them to pieces and as soon she became a little used to them would neglect them all together then if they could they would run away and she was furious some white mice which she had ceased feeding all together did so and soon the palace was swarming with white mice their red eyes might be seen glowing and their white skins gleaming in every dark corner but when it came to the king's finding a nest of them in his second best crown he was angry and ordered them to be drowned the princess heard it however and raised such a clamour that there they were left until they should run away of themselves and the poor king had to wear his best crown every day till then nothing that was the princess's property whether she cared for it or not was to be meddled with of course as she grew she grew worse for she never tried to grow better she became more and more peevish and fretful every day to satisfied not only with what she had but with all that was around her and constantly wishing in general to be different she found fault with everything and everybody and all that happened and grew more and more disagreeable to everyone who had to do with her at last when she had nearly killed her nurse and had all that succeeded in hanging herself and was miserable from morning to night her parents thought it time to do something a long way from the palace in the heart of the deep wood of pine trees lived a wise woman in some countries she would have been called a witch that would have been a mistake for she never did anything wicked and had more power than any witch could have as her fame was spread through all the country the king heard of her and thinking she might perhaps be able to suggest something sent for her in the dead of the night lest the princess should know it the king's messenger brought her into the palace a tall woman muffled from the head fought in a cloak of black cloth in the presence of both their majesties the king to do her honour requested but she declined and stood waiting to hear what they had to say nor had she to wait long for almost instantly they began to tell her the dreadful trouble they were in with their only child first the king talking then the queen interposing with some yet more dreadful fact and at times both letting out a torrent of words together so anxious were they to show the wise woman that their perplexity was real and their daughter a very terrible one for a long while there appeared a line of approaching pause but the wise woman stood patiently folded in her black cloak and listened without word or motion at length silence fell for they had talked to themselves tired and could not think of anything more to add to the list of their child's enormities after a while the wise woman unfolded her arms and her cloak dropping open in front disclosed a garment made of a strange stuff which an old poet who knew her well as thus described all lily white without in spot or pride that seemed like silk and silver woven near but neither silk nor silver therein did appear how very badly you have treated her said the wise woman poor child treated her badly gassed the king she is a very wicked child said the queen and both glared with indignation yes indeed returned to the wise woman she is very naughty indeed she must be made to feel but it is half your fault too what? stammered the king haven't we given her every mortal thing she wanted surely said the wise woman what else could have all but killed her you should have given her a few things of the other sort but you are far too dull to understand me you are very polite remarked the king with royal sarcasm on his thin straight lips the wise woman made no answer she found a deep sigh and the king and queen sat silent also in their anger glaring at the wise woman the silence lasted again for a minute and then the wise woman folded her cloak around her and her shining garment vanished like the moon when a great cloud comes over her yet another minute passed and the silence endured for the smoldering wrath of the king and queen choked the channels of their speech then the wise woman turned her back on them the rage of the king broke forth and he cried to the queen stammering in his fierceness how should such an old hag as that teach Rosamond good manners she knows nothing of them herself look how she stands actually with her back to us at the word the wise woman walked from the room the great folding doors fell too behind her and the same moment the king and queen were quarrelling like apes as to which of them was to blame for her departure before their altercation was over for it lasted till the early morning in rushed Rosamond clutching in her hand a poor little white rabbit of which she was very fond and from which only because it would not come to her when she called it she was pulling handfuls of fur in the attempt to tear the squealing pink-eared red-eyed thing to pieces Rosa Rosamond cried the queen whereupon Rosamond threw the rabbit in her mother's face the king started up in a fury and ran to see her she darted shrieking from the room the king rushed after her but to his amazement she was nowhere to be seen the huge hall was empty just outside the door close to the threshold with her back to it set the figure of the wise woman muffled in her dark cloak with her hood bowed over her knees as the king stood looking at her she rose slowly crossed the hall and walked away down the marble staircase the king called to her but she never turned her head or gave the least sign that she heard him so quietly did she pass down the wide marble stair that the king was all but persuaded he had seen only a shadow gliding across the white steps for the princess she was nowhere to be found the queen went into hysterics and the rabbit ran away the king sent out messengers in every direction but in vain in a short time the palace was quiet as quiet as it used to be the princess was born the king and queen cried a little now and then for the hearts of parents were in that country strangely fashioned and yet I'm afraid the first movement of those very hearts would have been a jump of terror if the ears above them had heard the voice of Rosamond in one of the corridors as for the rest of the household they could not have made up a single tear amongst them they thought whatever it might be for the princess it was for everyone else the best thing that could have happened and as to what had become of her as their heads were puzzled their hearts took no interest in the question the Lord Chancellor alone had an idea about it but he was far too wise to utter it End of Chapter 1 Recording by Nathan at www.antipidianwriter.wordpress.com Chapter 2 of The Wise Woman This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit www.vox.org Recording by Nathan at www.antipidianwriter.wordpress.com The Wise Woman by George MacDonald Chapter 2 The fact, as his plane was that the princess had disappeared in the folds of The Wise Woman's cloak When she rushed from the room the wise woman quartered to her bosom and flung the black garment around her The princess struggled wildly with fierce terror and screamed as loud as choking fright would permit her but her father standing in the door and looking down upon the wise woman saw never a movement of the cloak so tight was she held by her captor he was indeed aware of a most angry crying which reminded him of his daughter but it sounded to him so far away that he took it for the passion of some child in the street outside the palace gates hence unchallenged the wise woman the princess down the marble stairs out at the palace door down a great flight of steps outside across a paved court through the brazen gates along half roused streets where people were opening their shops through the huge gates of the city and out into the wide road vanishing northwards the princess struggling and screaming all the time and the wise woman holding her tight when at length she was too tired her cloak and set her down and the princess saw the light and opened her swollen eyelids there was nothing in sight that she had ever seen before city and palace had disappeared they were upon a wide road going straight on with a ditch on each side of it that behind them widened into the great moat surrounding the city she cast a terrified look into the wise woman's face that gazed down upon her gravely and kindly now the princess did not in the least understand kindness she always took it for a sign either of partiality or fear so when the wise woman looked kindly upon her she rushed at her butting with her head like a ram the folds of the cloak had closed around the wise woman and when the princess ran against it she found it hard as the cloak of a bronze statue and fell back upon the road with a great bruise on her head the wise woman lifted her again and put her once more under the cloak and where she woke in only to find that she was still being carried on and on when at length the wise woman again stopped and set her down she saw around her a bright moonlit night on a wide heath solitary and houseless here she felt more frightened than before nor was her terror assaged when looking up she saw a stern immovable countenance with cold eyes fixedly regarding her all she knew being derived from nursery tales she concluded that the wise woman was an ogreess carrying her home to eat her I have already said that the princess was at this time of her life such a low minded creature that severity had greater influence over her than kindness she understood terror and better far than tenderness when the wise woman looked at her thus she fell on her knees and held up her hands to her crying oh don't eat me don't eat me now this being the best she could do it was a sign she was a low creature think of it to kick out kindness and kneel from terror but the sternness on the face of the wise woman came from the same heart and the same feeling as the kindness that had chugged from it before the only thing that could save the princess from her hatefulness was that she should be made to mind somebody else then her own miserable somebody without saying a word the wise woman reached down her hand took one of Rosamonds and lifting her to her feet led her along through the moonlight every now and then a gush of obstinacy would well up in the heart of the princess and she would give a great ill tempered tug and pull her hand away then the wise woman would gaze down upon her with such a look that she instantly sought again the hand she had rejected in pure terror lest she should be eaten upon the spot and so they would walk on again and when the wind blew the folds of the cloak against the princess she found them soft as her mother's camel hair shawl after a while while the wise woman began to sing to her and the princess could not help listening the soft wind against the low dry bushes of the heath the rustle of their own steps and the trailing of the wise woman's cloak were the only sounds beside and this is the song she sang out in the cold with a thin well and a fold of withered gold around her rolled hangs in the air the weary moon she is old old old and her bones all cold and her tails all told and her things all sold and she has no breath to crew me like a castaway clout she is quite shut out she might call and shout but no one about would ever call back who's there there is never a hut she is all alone like a dog-picked bone the poor old crone she faint would groan but she cannot find the breath she once had a fire but she built it no higher and only sat nigh until she saw it expire and now she is as cold as death she never will smile for the lonesome while oh the mile after mile and never a style and never a tree or a stone no care her heart is as dry as a bone no one to come near her no one to cheer her no one to cheer her no one to hear her not a thing to lift and hold she is always awake but her heart will not break she can only quake, shiver and shake the old woman is very cold the strangest the song was the crooning wailing tune that the wise woman sung at the first note almost and so indeed she did for when people will be naughty they have to be frightened and they are not expected to like it the princess grew angry, pulled her hand away and cried, you are the ugly old woman I hate you therewith she stood still expecting the wise woman to stop also perhaps coax her to go on if she did she was determined not to move a step but the wise woman never even looked about she kept walking on steadily in the same space as before little obstinate thought for certain she would turn for she regarded herself as much too precious to be left behind but on and on the wise woman went until she had vanished away in the dim moonlight then all at once the princess perceived that she was left alone with the moon looking down on her from the height of her loneliness she was horribly frightened and began to run after the wise woman calling aloud and just heard came back to the sound of her own running feet all all alone like a dog-picked bone and again she might call and shout and no one about who would ever call back who's there and she screamed as she ran how she wished she knew the old woman's name that she might call it after her through the moonlight but the wise woman had in truth heard the first sound of her running feet and stopped and turned waiting what with running and crying however and a fall or two as she ran the princess never saw her until she fell right into her arms and the same moment into a fresh rage for as soon as any trouble was over the princess was always ready to begin another the wise woman therefore pushed her away and walked on while the princess ran scolding and storming after her she had to run till from very fatigue her rudeness ceased her heart gave way she burst into tears and ran on silently weeping a minute more and the wise woman stooped and lifting her in her arms folded her cloak around her instantly she fell asleep and slept as soft and as soundly as if she had been in her own bed she slept till the moon went down she slept till the sun rose up she slept till he climbed the topmost sky she slept till he went down again and the poor old moon came peaking and peering out once more and all that time the wise woman was walking on and on very fast and now they had reached a spot where a few fir trees came to meet them through the moonlight at the same time the princess await and popping her head out between the folds of the wise woman's cloak very ugly little owl that she looked saw that they were entering the wood now there is something awful about every wood especially in the moonlight and perhaps a fir wood is more awful than other woods for one thing it lets a little more light through rendering the darkness a little more visible as it were and then the trees go stretching away up towards the moon and look as if they cared nothing about the creatures below them not like the broad trees with soft wide leaves that in the darkness even look sheltering so the princess is not to be blamed that she was very much frightened she is hardly to be blamed either that assured the wise woman was an ogre scaring her to her castle to eat her up she began again to kick and scream violently as those of my readers who are of the same sort as herself will consider the right and natural thing to do the wrong in her was this that she had led such a bad life that she did not know a good woman when she saw her took her for one like herself even after she had slept in her arms immediately the wise woman set her down and walking on within a few paces vanished among the trees and the cries of the princess rent the air but the fur trees never heeded her not one of their hard little needles gave her single shiver for all the noise she made but there were creatures in the forest who were soon quite as much interested in her cries as the fur trees were indifferent to them they began to harken and howl and snuff about and run hither and thither and grin with their white teeth and light up the green lamps in their eyes in a minute or two a whole army of wolves and hyenas were rushing their quarters through the pillar like stems of the fur trees to the place where she stood calling them without knowing it the noise she made herself however prevented her from hearing either their howls or the soft pattering of their many trampling feet as they bounded over the fallen fur needles and cones one huge old wolf had outspent the rest not that he could run faster but that from experience he could more exactly judge when the cries came and as he shot the wolf he caught sight at last of his lamping eyes coming swiftly nearer and nearer terror silenced her she stood with her mouth open as if she were going to eat the wolf but she had no breath to scream with and her tongue curled up in her mouth like a withered and frozen leaf she could do nothing but stare at the coming monster and now he was taking a few shorter bounds measuring the distance for the one final leap that should bring him upon her when out stepped she had set the princess down caught the wolf by the throat halfway in his last spring shook him once and threw him from her dead then she turned towards the princess who flung herself into her arms and was instantly lapped in the folds of her cloak but now the huge army of wolves and hyenas had rushed like a sea around them whose waves leaped with horse roar and hollow yell up against the wise woman but she like a strong stately vessel moved unhurt through the midst of them ever as they leaped against her cloak they dropped and slunk away back through the crowd others ever succeeded and ever in their turn fell and drew back confounded for some time she walked on attended and assailed on all sides by the howling pack suddenly they turned and swept away vanishing in the depths of the forest she neither slackened nor hastened her step that went walking on as before in a little while she unfolded her cloak and let the princess look out the furs had ceased and they were on a lofty height of moorland stony and bare and dry with tufts of heather and a few small plants here and there about the heath on every side lay the forest looking in the moonlight like a cloud and above the forest like the shaven crown of a monk rose the bare moor over which they were walking presently a little way in front of them the princess aspired a whitewashed cottage gleaming in the moon as they came nearer she saw that the roof was covered with patch over which the moss had grown green it was a very simple humble place not in the least terrible to look at and yet as soon as she saw it her fear again awoke and always as soon as her fear awoke the trust of the princess fell into a deep sleep foolish and useless as she might by this time had known it she once more began kicking and screaming where upon yet once more the wise woman set her down on the heath a few yards from the back of the cottage and saying only no one ever gets into my house who does not knock at the door and ask to come in disappeared round the corner of the cottage leaving the princess alone with the moon two white faces in the cone of the night end of chapter 2 recording by Nathan at antipodeanwriter.wordpress.com chapter 3 of the wise woman this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Nathan at antipodeanwriter.wordpress.com the wise woman by George McDonald chapter 3 the moon stared at the princess and the princess stared at the moon but the moon had the best of it and the princess began to cry and now the question was between the moon and the cottage the princess thought she knew the worst of the moon and she knew nothing at all about the cottage therefore she would have to stay with the moon strange was it not that she should have been so long with the wise woman and yet know nothing about that cottage as for the moon she did not by any means know the worst of her or even that if she were to fall asleep where she could not find her the old witch would certainly do her best to twist her face but she had scarcely sat a moment longer before she was assailed by all sorts of fresh fears first of all the soft wind blowing gently through the dry stalks of the heather and its thousands of little bells raised a sweet rustling which the princess took for the hissing of serpents for you know she had been naughty for so long that she could not in a great many years of that then nobody could deny that they're all around about the heath like a ring of darkness lay the gloomy fur would and the princess knew what it was full of and every now and then she thought she heard of the howling of its wolves and hyenas and who could tell but some of them might break from their covert and sweep like a shadow across the heath indeed it was not once nor twice that for a moment she was fully persuaded she saw a great beast come leaping and bounding through the moonlight to have her all to himself she did not know that not a single evil creature dared set foot on that heath all that if one should do so it would that instant wither up and cease if an army of them had rushed to invade it it would have melted away on the edge of it and ceased like a dying wave she even imagined that the moon was slowly coming nearer and nearer down the sky to take her and freeze her arms wise woman too she felt sure although her cottage looked asleep was watching her at some little window in this however she would have been quite right if she had only imagined enough namely that the wise woman was watching over her from the little window but after all somehow the thought of the wise woman was less frightful than that of any of her other terrors and at length she began to wonder whether it might turn out that she was no ogre's but only a rude bullbred tyrannical yet on the whole not altogether ill-meaning person hardly had the possibility arisen in her mind before she was on her feet if the woman was anything short of an ogre's her cottage must be better than that horrible loneliness with nothing in all the world but a stare and even an ogre's had at least the shape and look of a human being she darted round the end of the cottage to find the front but to her surprise she came only to no door was to be seen she tried the further end but still no door she must have passed it as she ran but no neither in gable nor inside was any to be found a cottage without a door she rushed at it in a rage and kicked at the wall with her feet but the wall was hard as iron and hurt her sadly through her gay silken slippers she threw herself on the heath which came up to the walls of the cottage on every side and roared and screamed with rage however she remembered how her screaming had brought the horde of wolves and hyenas about her in the forest and ceasing at once they still gazing yet again at the moon and then came the thought of her parents in the palace at home in her mind's eye she saw her mother sitting at her embroidery with the tears dropping upon it and her father staring into the fire as if he were looking for her in its glowing caverns it is true that if they had both been in tears by her side because of her tears she would not have cared a straw but now her own forlorn condition somehow helped her to understand their grief at having lost her not only a great longing to be back in her comfortable home but a feeble flutter of genuine love for her parents awoke in her heart as well and she burst into real tears soft mournful tears very different from those of rage and disappointment to which she was so much used and another very remarkable thing was that the moment she began to love her distant mother she began to wish to see the wise woman again the idea of her being an ogre vanished utterly and she thought of her only as one to take her in from the moon and the loneliness and the terrors of the forest haunted heath and hide her in a cottage with not even a door for the horrid wolves to howl against but the old woman as the princess called her not knowing that her real name was the wise woman had told her that she must knock at the door how was she to do that when there but again she bethought herself that if she could not do all she was told she could at least do a part of it if she could not knock at the door she could at least knock say on the wall for there was nothing else to knock upon and perhaps the old woman would hear her and lift her in by some window there upon she rose at once to her feet and picking up a stone began to knock on the wall with it a loud noise was the result and she found she was knocking on the very door itself for a moment she feared the old woman would be offended but the next came a voice saying who is there the princess answered please old woman I did not mean to knock so loud to this there came no reply then the princess knocked again this time with her knuckles and the voice came again saying who is there and the princess answered rosamond then a second time there was silence but the princess soon ventured to knock a third time what do you want said the voice I'll please let the in said the princess the moon will keep staring at me I hear the wolves in the wood then the door opened and the princess entered she looked all around but saw nothing of the wise woman it was a single bare little room with a white deal table and a few old wooden chairs a fire of fur wood on the half a smoke of which smelt sweet and a patch of thick growing heath in one corner poor as it was compared to the grand place rosamond had left she felt no little satisfaction as she shut the door and looked around her and what with the sufferings and terrors outside the new kind of tears she had shed the love she had begun to feel for her parents and the trust she had begun to place in the wise woman it seemed to her as if her soul had grown larger of a sudden and she had left the days of her childishness and naughtiness far behind her people are so ready to think themselves changed when it is only their mood that is changed those who are good tempered because it is a fine day will be ill-tempered when it rains their selves are just the same both days the fine weather has got into them in the other the rainy rosamond as she sat warming herself by the glow of the peat fire turning over in her mind all that had passed and feeling how pleasant the change in her feelings was began by degrees to think how very good she had grown and how very good she was to have grown good and how extremely good she must have always have been that she was able to grow so very good as she now felt she had grown and she became so absorbed in her self-admiration as never to notice either that the fire was dying or that a heap of fur cones lay in a corner near it suddenly a great wind came roaring down the chimney and scattered the ashes about the floor a tremendous rain followed and fell hissing on the embers the moon was swallowed up and there was darkness all around her then a flash of lightning followed by a peel of thunder so terrified the princess that she cried aloud of the old woman but there came no answer to her cry then in her terror the princess grew angry to herself she must be somewhere in the place else who was there to open the door to me began to shout and yell and call the wise woman all the bad names she had been in the habit of throwing at her nurses but there came not a single sound in reply strange to say the princess never thought of telling herself now how naughty she was though that would surely have been reasonable on the contrary she thought she had a perfect right to be angry but was she not most desperately ill used and a princess too but the wind held on and the rain kept pouring down the chimney every now and then the lightning burst out and the thunder rushed after it as if the great lumbering sound could ever think to catch up with the swift light at length the princess had again grown so angry frightened and miserable altogether that she jumped up and hurried about the cottage with outstretched arms trying to find the wise woman but being in a bad temper always makes people stupid and presently she struck her forehead such a blow against something she thought herself it felt like the old woman's cloak that she fell back not on the floor though but on the patch of heather which felt as soft and pleasant as any bed in the palace there worn out with weeping and rage she soon fell fast asleep she dreamed that she was the old cold woman up in the sky with no home and no friends and no nothing at all not even a pocket wandering, wandering forever over a desert of blue sand never to get to anywhere and never to lie down or die it was no use stopping to look about her for what had she to do but forever look about her she went on and on and on never seeing anything and never expecting to see anything the only shadow of a hope she had was that she might by slow degrees grow thinner and thinner until at last she wore away to nothing at all only alas she could not detect the least sign that she had yet begun to grow thinner the hopelessness grew at length so unendurable that she woke her start seeing the face of the wise woman bending over her she threw her arms around her neck and held up her mouth to be kissed and the kiss of the wise woman was like the rose gardens of Damascus Recording by Nathan at antipodeanwriter.wordpress.com The Wise Woman by George MacDonald Chapter 4 The wise woman lifted her tenderly and washed and dressed her far more carefully than even her nurse then she set her down by the fire and prepared her breakfast the princess was very hungry and the bread and milk as good as it could be so that she thought she had never in her life eaten anything nicer she said to herself I see how it is the old woman wants to fatten me that is why she gives me such nice creamy milk she doesn't kill me now because she's going to kill me then she IS an ogreess after all thereupon she laid down her spoon and would not eat another mouthful only followed the basin with longing looks as the wise woman carried it away when she stopped eating her hostess knew exactly what she was thinking but it was one thing to understand the princess and quite another to make the princess understand her that would require time for the present she took no notice but went about the affairs of the house sweeping the floor, brushing down the cobwebs cleaning the hearth, dusting the table and chairs and watering the bed to keep it fresh and alive for she never had more than one guest at a time and never would allow that guest to go to sleep upon anything that had no life in it all the time she was thus visit she spoke not a word to the princess to affirm her notion of her purposes but whatever she might have said would have been only perverted by the princess into yet stronger proof of her evil designs for a fancy in her own head would outweigh any multitude of facts in another's she kept staring at the fire and never looked round to see what the wise woman might be doing by and by she came close up to the back of her chair and said, we'll rose a moment but the princess had fallen into one of her sulky moods and shut herself up with her own ugly somebody so she never looked round or even answered the wise woman, rose a moment she repeated, I am going out if you are a good girl and that is if you do as I tell you I will carry you back to your father and mother the moment I return the princess did not take the least notice look at me rose a moment said the wise woman but rose a moment never moved never even shrugged her shoulders perhaps because they were already up to her ears and could go no further I want to help you to do what I tell you look at me still rose a moment was motionless and silent saying only to herself I know what she's after she wants to show me her horrid teeth but I won't look, I'm not going to be frightened out of my senses to please her you had better look rose a moment have you forgotten how you kissed me this morning but rose a moment now regarded that little throb of affection as a momentary weakness into which the deceitful ogres had betrayed her and almost despised herself for it now those who the more they are coaxed are the more disagreeable for such the wise woman had an awful punishment but she remembered that the princess had been very ill brought up and therefore wished to try her with all gentleness first she stood silent for a moment to see what effect her words might have but rose a moment only said to herself she wants to fatten and eat me and it was such a little while since she had looked into the wise woman's loving eyes throwing her arms around her neck and kissed her well said the wise woman gently after pausing as long as it seemed possible she might be think herself I must tell you then without only whoever listens with her back turned listens but half and gets but half the help she wants to fatten me said the princess you must keep the cottage tidy while I am out when I come back I must see the fire bright the hearth swept and the kettle boiling no dust on the table or chairs the windows clear the floor clean and the heather embossing the glass comes of sprinkling it with water three times a day when you are hungry put your hand into that hole in the wall and you will find a meal she wants to fatten me said the princess but on no account leave the house till I come back continue the wise woman or you will grievously repent it remember what you have already gone through to reach it dangers lie all about this cottage of mine but inside it is the safest place in fact the only quite safe place in all the country means to eat me said the princess and therefore wants to frighten me from running away she heard the voice no more then suddenly startled at the thought of being alone she looked tasteily over her shoulder the cottage was indeed empty of all visible life it was soundless too there was not even a ticking clock or a flapping flame the fire burned still and smoldering wise but it was all the company she had and she turned again to stare into it soon she began to grow weary of having nothing to do then she remembered that the old woman as she called her had told her to keep the house tidy the miserable little pigsty she said what's the use of keeping such a hovel clean but in truth she would have been glad of the employment only just because she had been told to do it as she was unwilling for there are people however unlikely it may seem who object to doing a thing for no other reason than that it is required of them I am a princess she said and it is very improper to ask me to do such a thing she might have judged it quite as suitable for a princess to sweep away the dust as to sit at the centre of a world of dirt but just because she ought she wouldn't perhaps she feared that if she gave into doing her duty once she might have to do it always which was true enough for that was the very thing for which she had been specially born unable however to feel quite comfortable in the resolve to neglect it she said to herself I am sure there is time enough for such a nasty job as that and sat on watching the fire as it burned away the glowing red casting off white flakes and sinking lower and lower by and by feeling if for want of something to do she would see what the old woman had left for her in the hole of the wall but when she put in her hand she found nothing there except the dust which she ought by this time to have wiped away never reflecting that the wise woman had told her she would find food there when she was hungry she flew into one of her furies calling her a cheat and a thief and a liar and an ugly old witch and an ogreess and I do not know how many wicked names besides she raged until she was quite exhausted and then fell fast asleep on her chair when she awoke the fire was out by this time she was hungry but without looking in the hole she began again to storm at the wise woman in which labor she would no doubt have once more exhausted herself had not something white caught her eye it was the corner of a napkin hanging from the hole in the wall she bounded to it and there was a dinner for her of something strangely good one of her favorite dishes only better than she had ever tasted before this might surely have at least changed her mood towards the wise woman but she only grumbled to herself that it was as it ought to be ate up the food and lay down on the bed never thinking of fire or dust or water for the heather the wind began to moan about the cottage and grew louder and louder till a great gust came down the chimney and again scattered the white ashes all over the place but the princess was by this time fast asleep and never woke till the wind had sunk to silence one of the consequences however of sleeping when one awed to be awake is waking when one awed to be asleep and the princess awoke in the black midnight and found enough to keep her awake for although the wind had fallen there was a far more terrible howling than that of the wildest wind all about the cottage nor was the howling all the air was full of strange cries and everywhere she heard the noise of claws scratching against the house which seemed all doors and windows so crowded with the sounds and from so many directions all the night long she lay half swooning yet listening to the hideous noises but with the first glimmer of morning they ceased then she said to herself how fortunate it was that I woke they would have eaten me up if I had been asleep the miserable little wretch actually talked as if she had kept them out if she had done her work in the day she would have slept through the terrors of the darkness whereas now she had in the storehouse of her heart a whole harvest of agonies reached from the Dunn fields at the night there were neither wolves nor hyenas which had caused her such dismay but creatures of the air more frightful still which as soon as the smoke of the burning fur would cease to spread itself abroad and the sun was a sufficient distance down the sky and the lone cold woman was out came flying and howling about the cottage trying to get in at every door and window down the chimney they would have got but that at the heart of the fire there always lay a certain furcone which looked like solid gold red hot and which although it might easily be covered up with ashes so as to be quite invisible was continually in a glow fit to kindle all the furcones in the world this it was which had kept the horrible birds some say they have a claw at the tip of every wing feather from tearing the poor naughty princess to pieces and gobbling her up when she rose and looked about her to see what a state the cottage was in the fire was out and the windows were all dim with the wings and claws of the dirty birds while the bed from which she had just risen was brown and withered and half its purple bells had fallen but she consoled herself that she could set all to rights in a few minutes only she must breakfast first and sure enough there was a basin of the delicious bread and milk ready for her in the hole of the wall after she had eaten it she felt comfortable and sat for a long time building castles in the air till she was actually hungry again without having done an atom of work she ate again and was idle again and ate again then it grew dark and she went trembling to bed for now she remembered the horrors of the last night this time she never slept at all but spent the long hours and grievous terror for the noises were worse than before she vowed she would not pass another night in such a hateful haunted old shed for all the ugly women witches and ogresses in the wide world in the morning however she fell asleep breakfast was of course her first thought after which she could not avoid that of work it made her very miserable but she feared the consequences of being found with it undone a few minutes before noon she actually got up took her pinafore for a duster and proceeded to dust the table but the wood ashes flew about so that it seemed useless to attempt getting rid of them and she sat down again to think what was to be done there is very little indeed to be done when we will not do that which we have to do her first thought now was to run away at once while the sun was high and get through the forest before night came on she fancied she could easily go back the way she had come and get home to her father's palace but not the most experienced traveller in the world can ever go back the way the wise woman has brought him she got up and went to the door it was locked what could the old woman have meant by telling her not to leave the cottage she was indignant wise woman had meant to make it difficult but not impossible before the princess however could find the way out she heard a hand at the door and darted in terror behind it the wise woman opened it and leaving it open walked straight to the heart Rosamond immediately stood out ran a little way and then laid herself down in the long heather end of chapter 4 recording by Nathan at antipodeanwriter.wordpress.com chapter 5 of the wise woman this is a liberal ox recording all liberal ox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liberalox.org recording by Nathan at antipodeanwriter.wordpress.com the wise woman by George McDonald chapter 5 the wise woman walked straight up to the hearth looked at the fire looked at the bed glanced round the room and went up to the table when she saw the one streak in the thick dust which the princess had left there a smile half sad half pleased by the sun peeping through a cloud on a rainy day in spring gleamed over her face she went at once to the door and called in a loud voice Rosamond come to me all the wolves and hyenas fast asleep in the wood heard her voice and shivered in their dreams no wonder then that the princess trembled and found herself compelled she could not understand how to obey the summons she rose like the guilty thing she felt for sook of herself the hiding place she had chosen and walked slowly back to the cottage she had left full of the signs of her shame when she ended she saw the wise woman on her knees building up the fire with her cones already the flame was climbing through the heap in all directions crackling gently and sending a sweet aromatic odor through the dusty cottage that is my part of the work she said rising now you do yours but first let me remind you that if you had not put it off you would have found it not only far easier but buy and buy quite pleasant work much more pleasant than you can imagine now nor would you have found the time go wearily you would neither have slept in the day and let the fire out nor waked at night and heard the howling of the burst birds more than all you would have been glad to see me when I came back and would have leaped into my arms instead of standing there looking so foolish as she spoke suddenly she held up before the princess a tiny mirror so clear that nobody looking into it could tell what it was made of or even see it at all only the thing reflected in it Rosamond saw a child with dirty fat cheeks greedy mouth cowardly eyes which not daring to look forward seemed trying to hide behind an impertinent nose stooping shoulders tangled hair tattered clothes and smears that was what she had made herself and to tell the truth she was shocked at the sight and immediately began in her dirty heart to lay the blame on the wise woman because she had taken her away from her nurses and her fine clothes all the time she knew well enough that close by the heather bed was the loveliest little well just big enough to wash in the water of which was always springing fresh from the ground and running away through the wall beside it lay the whitest of linen with a cone made of mother of pearl and a brush of fur needles any one of which she had been far too lazy to use she dashed the glass out of the wise woman's hand and there it lay broken into a thousand pieces without a word the wise woman stooped and gathered the fragments did not leave searching until she had gathered the last atom and she laid them all carefully one by one in the fire now blazing high on the half then she stood up and looked at the princess when watching her sulkling Rosamond, she said with accountants awful in its sterness until you have cleansed this room she calls it a room sneered the princess to herself you shall have no morsel to eat you may drink of the well but nothing else you shall have when the work I said she was done you will find food in the same place as before I'm going from home again and again I warn you not to leave the house she calls it a house it's a good thing she's going out of it anyhow so the princess turning her back for mere rudeness for she was one who even if she liked a thing before would dislike at the moment any person in authority over her desired her to do it when she looked again the wise woman had vanished there upon the princess ran at once to the door and tried to open it but open it would not she searched on all sides but could discover no way of getting out the windows would not open at least she could not open them and the only outlet seemed to the chimney which she was afraid to try because of the fire which looked angry she thought and shot out green flames when she went near it so she sat down to consider one may well wonder what room for consideration there was with all her work lying undone behind her she sat thus however considering as she called it until hunger began to sting her when she jumped up and put her hand as usual in the hole of the wall there was nothing there she was afraid into one of her stupid rages but neither her hunger nor the hole in the wall heeded her rage then in a burst of self pity she fell a weeping but neither the hunger nor the hole cared for her tears the darkness began to come on and her hunger grew and grew and the terror of the wild noises of the last night invaded her then she began to feel cold and saw that the fire was dying she darted to the heap of cones and fed it it blazed up cheerily and she was comforted a little by herself it would surely be better to give in so far and do a little work than die of hunger so catching up a duster she began upon the table the dust flew about and nearly choked her she ran to the well to drink and was refreshed and encouraged perceiving now that it was a tedious plan to wipe the dust from the table onto the floor once it would have all to be swept up again she got a wooden platter wiped the dust into that carried it to the fire and threw it in but all the time she was getting more and more hungry and although she tried the hole again and again it was only to become more and more certain that work she must if she would eat at length all the furniture was dusted and she began to sweep the floor which happily she thought of sprinkling with water as from the window she had seen them do it to the Marble Court of the Palace that swept she rushed again to the hole but still no food she was on the verge of another rage when the thought came that she might have forgotten something to her dismay she found that table everything was again covered with dust so badly as before however again she set to work driven by hunger and drawn by the hope of eating and yet again after a second careful wiping sought the hole but no nothing was there for her what could it mean her asking this question was a sign of progress it showed that she expected the wise woman to keep her word then she thought her that she had forgotten the household utensils and the dishes and plates some of which wanted to be washed as well as dusted faint with hunger she set to work yet again one thing made her think of another until at length she had cleaned everything she could think of now surely she must find some food in the hole when this time also there was nothing she began once more to abuse the wise woman as false and treacherous but ah there was the bed unwatered that was soon amended still no supper ah there was the hearth unswept and the fire wanted making up still no supper what else could there be she was at her wit's end and in very weariness not laziness this time sat down and gazed into the fire there as she gazed she spied something brilliant shining even in the midst of the fire it was the little mirror all whole again but little she knew that the dust which she had thrown into the fire had helped to heal it she drew it out carefully and looking into it saw not indeed the ugly creature she had seen there before but still a very dirty little animal were upon she hurried to the well took off her clothes plunged into it and washed herself clean then she brushed and combed her hair made her clothes as tidy as might be and ran to the hole in the wall there was a huge basin of bread and milk never had she eaten anything with half the relish alas however when she had finished she did not wash the basin but left it as it was revealing how entirely all the rest had been done only from hunger then she threw herself on the heather and was fast asleep in a moment never an evil bird came near her all that night nor had she so much as one troubled dream in the morning as she lay awake before getting up she spied what seemed a door behind the tall eight day clock that stood silent in the corner ah she thought that must be the way out and got up instantly the first thing she did however was to go to the hole in the wall nothing was there well I'm hardly used to that right aloud all that cleaning for the cross old woman yesterday and this for my trouble nothing for breakfast not even a crust of bread does mistress ogre's fancier princess will bear that the poor foolish creatures seem to think that the work of one day ought to serve for the next day too that is nowhere the way in the whole universe how could there be a universe in that case and even she never dreamed of applying the same rule to her breakfast how good I am yesterday she said and how hungry and ill used I am today but she would not be a slave and do over again today what she had done only last night she didn't care about her breakfast she might have it no doubt if she dusted all the wretched place again but she was not going to do that at least without seeing first what lay behind the clock off she darted and putting a hand behind the clock found the latch of a door it lifted and the door opened a little way but she managed to get behind the clock and so through the door but how she stared when instead of the open heath she found herself on the marble floor of a large and stately room lighted only from above its walls were strengthened by plasters and in every space between was a large picture from cornice to floor she did not know what to make of it surely she had run all round the cottage and certainly had seen nothing of this size near it she forgot that she had also run around what she took for a haymow a pit stack and several other things which looked of no consequence in the moonlight so then she cried the old woman is a cheat I believe she's an ogreess after all and lives in a palace though she pretends it's only a cottage to keep people from suspecting that she eats good little children like me had the princess been tolerably tractable she would by this time had known a great deal about the wise woman's beautiful house whereas she had never till now got farther than the porch neither was she at all in its innermost places now but king's daughter as she was she was not a little daunted when stepping forward from the recess of the door she saw what a great lordly hall it was she dared hardly look to the other end it seemed so far off so she began to gaze at the things near her and the pictures first of all for she had a great liking for pictures one in particular attracted her attention she came back to it several times and at length stood absorbed in it a blue summer sky with white fleecy clouds floating beneath it hung over a hill greened the very top and alive with streams darting its down its sides towards the valley below on the face of the hill strayed a flock of sheep feeding attended by a shepherd and two dogs a little way apart a girl stood with bare feet in a brook building across it a bridge of rough stones it was blowing her hair back from her rosy face a lamb was feeding close beside her and a sheep dog was trying to reach her hand to lick it oh how I wish I were that little girl said the princess allowed I wonder how it is that some people are made to be so much happier than others if I were that little girl no one would ever call me naughty she gazed and gazed at the picture at length she said to herself I do not believe it is a picture it is the real country with a real hill and a real little girl upon it I shall soon see whether this isn't another of the old witch's cheats she went up close to the picture left at her foot and stepped over the frame I am free I am free she exclaimed and she felt the wind upon her cheek the sound of a closing door struck on her ear she turned and there was a blank wall without door or window behind her the hill with the sheep was before her and she set out at once to reach it if I am asked how this could be I can only answer that it was a result of the interaction of things outside and things inside of the wise woman's skill and the silly child's folly if this does not satisfy my questioner I can only add that the wise woman was able to do far more wonderful things than this end of chapter 5 recording by Nathan at antipodeanwriter.wordpress.com chapter 6 in time the wise woman was busy as she always was and her business now was with the child of the shepherd and shepherdess away in the north her name was Agnes and her name was Agnes her father and mother were poor and could not give her many things Rosamond would have utterly despised the rude simple play things she had yet in one respect they were of more value far than hers the king bought Rosamond's with his money Agnes's father made hers with his hands and while Agnes had but a few things not seeing many things about her and not even knowing that there were many things anywhere she did not wish for many things and was therefore neither covetous nor avaricious she played with the toys her father made her and thought them the most wonderful things in the world windmills and little crooks and water wheels and sometimes lambs made all a wall and dolls made out of the leg bones of sheep which her mother addressed for her and of such play things she was never tired sometimes however she preferred playing with stones which were plentiful and flowers which were few all the brooks that ran down the hill of which although they were many she could only play with one at a time and that indeed troubled her a little all live lambs that were not all wool all the sheep dogs which were very friendly with her and the best of playfellows as she thought for she had no human ones to compare them with neither was she greedy after nice things but content as well she might be with the homely food provided for her nor was she by nature particularly self-willed or disobedient she generally did what her father and mother wished and believed what they told her but by degrees they had spoiled her and this was the way they were so proud of her that they always repeated everything she said and told everything she did even when she was present and so full of admiration of their child were they that they wondered and laughed at and praised in her which in another child would never have struck them as the least remarkable and some things even which would in another have disgusted them all together and pertinent and rude things done by their child they thought so clever laughing at them as something quite marvellous her commonplace speeches were said over again as if they had been the finest poetry and the pretty ways which every moderately good child has were extolled as if the result of her excellent taste and the choice of her judgment and will they would even say sometimes that she ought not to hear her own praises for fear should make her vain and then whisper them behind their hands and say aloud that she could not fail to hear every word the consequence was that she soon came to believe so soon that she could not recall the time when she did not believe as the most absolute fact in the universe that she was somebody that is she became most immoderately conceited now as the least adamant conceit is a thing to be ashamed of you may fancy what she was like with such a quantity of it inside her at first it did not show itself in any very active form but the wise woman had been to the cottage and had seen her sitting alone with such a smile of self satisfaction upon her faces would have been quite startling to her if she had ever been startled at anything for through that smile she could see lying at the root of it the worm that made it for some smiles are like the ruddyness of certain apples which is owing to a centipede or other creeping thing coiled up at the heart of them only her worm had a face and shape and she looked so simpering and morkish and self-conscious and silly that she made the wise woman feel rather sick not that the child was a fool had she been the wise woman would have only pitted and loved her instead of feeling sick when she looked at her she had very fair abilities but were she once but made humble would be capable not only of doing a great deal in time but of beginning at once to grow to no end but if she were not made humble to a mass of distorted shapes all huddled together so that although the body she now showed might grow up straight and well-shaped and calmly to behold the new body that was growing inside of it and would come out of it when she died would be ugly and crooked this way and that like an aged Hawthorne that has lived hundreds of years exposed upon all sides to sulk sea winds. As time went on this disease of self-conceit went on too gradually devouring the good that was in her fault that does not bring its brothers and sisters and cousins to live with it by degrees from thinking herself so clever she came to fancy that whatever seemed to her must of course be the correct judgment and whatever she wished the right thing and grew so obstinate that at length her parents feared to thwart her in anything knowing well that she would never give in there are victories far worse than defeats to overcome an angel too gentle to put out all his strength and right away and triumph on the back of the devil is one of the poorest so long as she was left to take her own way and do as she would she gave her parents little trouble she would play about by herself in the little garden with its few hardy flowers or amongst the heather where the bees were busy or she would wander away amongst the hills and be nobody new where sometimes from morning to night nor did her parents venture to find fault with her she never went into rages like the princess and would have thought Rosamond oh so ugly and vile if she had seen her in one of her passions but she was no better all that and was quite as ugly in the eyes of the wise woman who could not only see but read her face what is there to choose between a face distorted to hideousness by anger and one distorted to silliness by self complacency true there is more hope of helping the angry child out of her form of selfishness than the conceded child out of hers but on the other hand the conceded child was not so terrible or dangerous as the wrathful one the conceded one however was sometimes very angry and then her anger was more spiteful than the others and again the wrathful one was often very conceded too so that on the all of the two very unpleasant creatures I would not say that the king's daughter would have been the worse had not the shepherds been quite as bad but as I have said the wise woman had her eye upon her she saw that something special must be done else she would be one of those who kneel to their own shadows till feet grow on their knees then go down on their hands till their hands grow into feet then lay their faces on the ground till they grow into snouts when at last they are a hideous sort of lizards each of which believes himself the best wisest and loveliest being in the world yay the very centre of the universe and so they run about forever looking for their own shadows that they may worship them and miserable because they cannot find them being themselves too near the ground to have any shadows and what becomes of them at last there is but one who knows the wise woman therefore one day walked up to the door of the shepherd's cottage and asked for a drink of water the shepherd's wife looked at her, liked her and bought her a cup of milk the wise woman took it for she made it a rule to accept every kindness that was offered her Agnes was not by nature a greedy girl as I have said but self-conceit will go far to generate every other vice under the sun Vanity which is a form of self-conceit has repeatedly shown itself as the deepest feeling in the heart of a horrible murderous that morning at breakfast her mother had stented her in milk just a little that she might have enough to make some milk porridge for their dinner Agnes did not mind it at the time but when she saw the milk now given to a beggar as she called the wise woman though surely one might ask a draught of water and accept a draught of milk without being a beggar in any such sense as Agnes's contemptuous use of the word implied a cloud came upon her forehead and a double vertical wrinkle settled over her nose the wise woman saw it her business was with Agnes though she little knew it and rising went and offered the cup to the child where she sat with her knitting in a corner Agnes looked at it, did not want it was implied to refuse it from a beggar but thinking it would show her consequence to assert her rights took it and drank it up for whoever is possessed by a devil judges with the mind of that devil and hence Agnes was guilty of such a meanness as many who are themselves capable of something just as bad will consider incredible the wise woman waited till she had finished it then looking into the empty cup said you might have given me back as much as you had no claim upon Agnes turned away and made no answer far less from shame than indignation the wise woman looked at the mother you should not have offered it to her if you did not mean her to have it said the mother siding with the devil in her child against the wise woman and her child too some foolish people think they take another's part when they take the part he takes the wise woman said nothing but fixed her eyes upon her and soon the mother hit her face in her apron weeping then she turned again to Agnes who had never looked round but sat with her back to both and suddenly lapped her in the folds of her cloak when the mother again lifted her eyes she had vanished ever supposing she had carried away her child but uncomfortable because of what she had said to the poor woman the mother went to the door and called after her as she toiled slowly up the hill she turned her head and the mother went back into her cottage the wise woman walked close past the shepherd and his dogs and through the midst of his flock of sheep the shepherd wondered where she could be going right up the hill there was something strange about her too he thought and he followed her with his eyes as she went up and up it was near sunset and as the sun went down a grey cloud settled on the top of the mountain which his last rays turned into a rosy gold straight into this cloud the shepherd sawed the woman hold her face and in it she vanished he little imagined that his child was under her cloak he went home as usual in the evening that Agnes had not come in they were accustomed to such an absence now and then and were not at first frightened but when it grew dark and she did not appear the husband set out with his dogs in one direction and the wife in another to seek their child morning came and they had not found her then the whole countryside arose to search for the missing Agnes but day after day and night after night passed and nothing was discovered of or concerning her until at length all gave up the search and despair except the mother although she was nearly convinced now that the poor woman had carried her off. One day she had wandered some distance from her cottage thinking she might come upon the remains of her daughter at the foot of some cliff when she came suddenly instead upon a disconciled looking creature sitting on a stone by the side of a stream her hair hung in tangles from her head her clothes were tattered and through the wrents her skin showed in many places her cheeks were white and worn thin with hunger the hollows were dark under her eyes and they stood out scared and wild when she caught sight of the shepherdess she jumped to her feet and would have run away but fell down in a faint at first sight the mother had taken her for her own child but now she saw with a pang of disappointment that she had mistaken full of compassion nevertheless she said to herself if she is not my Agnes she is as much in need of help as if she were if I cannot be good to my own I will be as good as I can to some other women and though I should scorn to be consoled for the loss of one by the presence of another I yet may find some gladness in rescuing one child from the death which was taken the other perhaps her words were not just like these but her thoughts were she took up the child and carried her home and this is how Rosamond came to occupy the place of the little girl whom she had envied in the picture End of Chapter 6 Recording by Nathan at antipodeanwriter.wordpress.com Chapter 7 of The Wise Woman This is a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Nathan at antipodeanwriter.wordpress.com The Wise Woman by George McDonald Chapter 7 Outwithstanding the differences between the two girls indeed so many that most people would have said they were not in the least alike they were the same in this that each cared more for her own fancies and desires than for anything else in the world but I will tell you another difference the princess was like several children in one such was the variety of her moods and in one mood she had no recollectional care about anything whatever belonging to a previous mood not even if it had left her but a moment before and had been so violent as to make her ready to put her hand in the fire to get what she wanted plainly she was a mere puppet of her moods and more than that any cunning nurse who knew her well enough could call or send away those moods almost as she pleased like a showman pulling strings behind a show Agnes on the contrary seldom changed her mood but kept that of calm assured self satisfaction father nor mother had ever by wise punishment helped her to gain a victory over herself and do what she did not like or choose and their folly in reasoning with one unreasonable had fixed her in her conceit she would actually not her head to herself in complacent pride that she had stood out against them this however was not so difficult as to justify even the pride of having conquered seeing she loved them so little and paid so little attention to the arguments and persuasions they used neither when she found herself wrapped in the dark folds of the wise woman's cloak did she behave in the least like the princess as she was not afraid she'll soon set me down she said too self important to suppose that anyone would dare do her an injury whether it be a good thing or a bad not to be afraid depends on what the fearlessness is founded upon some have no fear because they have no knowledge of the danger there's nothing fine in that some are too stupid to be afraid there's nothing fine in that some who are not easily frightened would yet turn their backs and run the moment they were frightened such never had more courage than fear but the man who will do his work in spite of his fear is a man of true courage that fearlessness of Agnes was only ignorance she did not know what it was to be heard she had never read a single story of giant or hogress or wolf and her mother had never carried out one of her threats of punishment the wise woman had but pinched her she would have shown herself an abject little coward trembling with fear at every change of motion so long as she carried her nothing such however was in the wise woman's plan for the curing danger on and on she carried her without a word she knew that if she set her down she would never run after her like the princess at least not before the evil thing was already upon her on and on she went never holding never letting the light look in or Agnes look out she walked very fast and got home to her cottage very soon after the princess had gone from it but she did not set Agnes down either in the cottage or in the great hall she had other places none of them alike the place she had chosen for Agnes was a strange one such a one as is to be found nowhere else in the wide world it was a great hollow sphere made of a substance similar to that of the mirror which Rosamond had broken but differently compounded that substance no one could see by itself it had neither door no window nor any opening to break its perfect roundness the wise woman carried Agnes into a dark room there undressed her took from her hand her knitting needles and put her naked as she was born into the hollow sphere what sort of a place it was she could not tell she could see nothing but a faint cold bluish light all about her she could not feel that anything supported her yet she did not sink she stood for a while perfectly calm then sat down nothing bad could happen to her she was so important and indeed it was but this she had cared only for somebody and now she was going to have only somebody her own choice was going to be carried a good deal farther for her and she would have knowingly carried it further herself after sitting a while she wished she had something to do but nothing came a little longer and it grew worrisome she would see whether she could not walk out of the strange luminous dusk that surrounded her walk she found she could well enough but walk out she could not on and on she went keeping as much in a straight line as she might but after walking until she was thoroughly tired she found herself no nearer out of her prison than before she had not indeed advanced a single step in whatever direction she tried to go the sphere turned round and round answering her feet accordingly like a squirrel in his cage she kept but placing another spot of the cunningly suspended sphere under her feet and she would have been still only at its lowest point after walking for ages at length she tried aloud but there was no answer it grew dreary and dreary in her that is outside there was no change nothing was overhead nothing under foot nothing on either hand but the same pale faint blueish glimmer she wept at last then grew very angry and then sullen but nobody heeded whether she cried or laughed it was all the same to the cold unmoving twilight that rounded her on and on went the dreary arrows well did they go at all no change no pause no hope on and on till she felt she was forgotten and then she grew strangely still and fell asleep the moment she was asleep the wise woman came lifted her out and laid her in her bosom fed her with a wonderful milk which she received without knowing it nursed her all the night long and just as she woke laid her back in the blue sphere again when first she came to herself she thought the horrors of the preceding day had been all a dream of the night they soon asserted themselves as facts for here they were nothing to see but a cold blue light and nothing to do but see it oh how slowly the hours went by she lost all notion of time if she had been told that she had been there 20 years she would have believed it or 20 minutes it would have been all the same except for weariness time was for her no more another night came and another stool during both of which the wise woman nursed and fed her but she knew nothing of that and the same one dreary day seemed ever brooding over her all at once on the third day she was aware that a naked child was seated beside her there was something about the child that made her shudder she never looked at Agnes but sat with her chin sunk on her chest by staring at her own toes she was the colour of pale earth with a pinched nose and a mere slit in her face from mouth how ugly she is thought Agnes what business has she beside me it was so lonely that she would have been glad to play with a serpent and put out her hand to touch her she touched nothing the child also put out her hand but in the direction away from Agnes and that was well for if she had touched Agnes it would have killed her then Agnes said who are you I am Agnes said Agnes and the little girl said I am Agnes and Agnes thought she was mocking her and said you are ugly and the little girl said you are ugly then Agnes lost her temper and put out her hands to seize the little girl but lo the little girl was gone and she found herself tugging at her own hair she let go and there was the little girl again Agnes was furious now and flew at her to bite her but she found her teeth in her own arm and the little girl was gone and only to return again and each time she came back she was tenfold uglier than before and now Agnes hated her with her whole heart the moment she hated her it flashed upon her with a sickening disgust that the child was not another but her own self her somebody and that she was now shoved up with her forever and ever no more for one moment ever to be left alone in her agony of despair sleep descended and she slept when she woke there was the little girl who was ugly miserable staring at her own toes once the creature began to smile but with such an odious self satisfied expression that Agnes felt ashamed of seeing her and she began to pat her own cheeks to stroke her own body and examine her finger ends nodding her head with satisfaction Agnes felt that there could not be such another hateful ape like creature and at the same time was perfectly aware that she was only doing outside of her what she herself had been doing as long as she could remember inside of her she turned sick at herself and would gladly have been put out of existence but for three days the odious companionship went on by the third day Agnes was not merely sick but ashamed of the life she had hitherto led was despicable in her own eyes and astonished that she had never seen the truth concerning herself before the next morning she woke in the arms of the wise woman the horror had vanished from her sight and two heavenly eyes were gazing upon her she wept and the more she clung to her the more tenderly did the great strong arms close around her when she had lain thus for a while the wise woman carried her into her cottage and washed her in the little well and dressed her in clean garments and gave her milk and bread when she had eaten it she called her to her and said very solemnly Agnes you must not imagine you are cured that you are ashamed of yourself now is no sign that the cause for such shame has ceased in you circumstances actually after you have done well for a while you will be in danger of thinking just as much of yourself as before so beware of yourself I am going from home and leave you in charge of the house do just as I tell you till my return she then gave her the same directions she had formally given Rosamond with this difference that she told her to go into the picture hall when she pleased showing her the entrance against which the clock no longer stood and went away closing the door behind her End of Chapter 7 Recording by Nathan at antipodeanwriter.wordpress.com Chapter 8 of The Wise Woman This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Nathan at antipodeanwriter.wordpress.com The Wise Woman by George MacDonald Chapter 8 As soon as she was left to learn she was sent to work tidying and dusting the cottage, made up the fire watered the bed and cleaned the inside of the windows the wise woman herself always kept the outside of them clean when she had done she found her dinner of the same sort she was used to at home but better in the hole of the wall when she had eaten it she went to look at the pictures by this time her old disposition had begun to rouse again she had been doing her duty and had in consequence begun again to think herself somebody however strange it may seem to do one's duty will make anyone conceded who only does it sometimes those who do it always would as soon think of being conceded of eating their dinner as of doing their duty what honest boy would pride himself on not picking pockets a thief who was trying to reform would to be conceded of doing one's duty is then a sign of how little one does it and how little one sees what a contemptible being it is not to do it could any better low creature be conceded or until our duty becomes to as common as breathing we are poor creatures so Agnes began to stroke herself once more forgetting her late self-stroking companion and never reflecting that she was now doing what she had then afford and in this mood she went into the picture gallery the first picture she saw represented a square in a great city one side of which was occupied by a splendid marble palace with great flights of broad steps leading up to the door there was a marble paved court with gates of brass at which stood centuries in gorgeous uniforms and to which was affixed the following proclamation and letters of gold large enough for Agnes to read by the will of the king from this time until further notice every stray child found in the realm shall be brought without a moment's delay to the palace however shall be found having done otherwise shall straight away lose his head by the hand of the public executioner as heart beat loud and her face flashed can there be such a city in the world she said to herself if I only knew where it was I should set out for it at once there would be the place for a clever girl like me her eyes fell on the picture which had so enticed Rosamond it was the very country where her father fed his flocks just round the shoulder of the hill was the cottage where her parents lived where she was born and when she had been carried by the bigger woman ah she said they didn't know me there they little thought what I could be if I had the chance if I were but in this good kind loving generous king's palace I should soon be such a great lady as they never saw then they would understand what a good little girl I had always been and I shouldn't forget my poor parents like some I have read of I would be generous I should never be selfish and proud like girls in story books as she said this back with disdain upon the picture of her home and setting herself before the picture of the palace stared at it with wide ambitious eyes in a heart whose every beat was a throb of arrogant self-esteem the shepherd child was now worse than ever the poor princess had been the wise woman had given her a terrible lesson one of which the princess was not capable and she had known what it meant it here she was as bad as ever therefore worse than before the ugly creature whose presence had made us indeed crept out of sight and mine too but where was she? nestling in her very heart where most of all she had her company and least of all could see her the wise woman had called her out that Agnes might see what sort of creature she was herself but now she was snug in her soul's bed again and so she did not even expect she was there after gazing a while of the palace picture during which her ambitious pride rose and rose she turned yet again in condescending mood the home picture with one stairmore what a poor miserable spot it is compared with this lordly palace she said but presently she spied something in it she had not seen before and drew nearer it was the form of a little girl building a bridge of stones over one of the hill books there I am myself she said that is just how I used to do no she resumed it is not me that snub-nosed little fright could never be meant for me it was the frock that made me think so it is a picture of the place I declare I can see the smoke of cottage rising from behind the hill what a dull dirty insignificant spot it is and what a life to lead there she turned once more to the city picture and now a strange thing took place in proportion as the other to the eyes of her mind receded into the background this to her present bodily eyes appeared to come forward in a simulity at last after it had been in this way growing upon her for some time I have a cry of conviction and said aloud I do believe it is real that frame is only a trick of the woman to make me fancy yet a picture lest I should go and make my fortune she is a witch the ugly old creature it would serve her right to tell the king and have her punished for not taking me to the palace one of his poor lost children he is so fond of I should like to see her ugly old head cut off anyhow I will try my luck without asking her leave how she has ill used me but at that moment she heard the voice of the wise woman calling Agnes and smoothing her face she tried to look as good as she could and walked back into the cottage there stood the wise woman looking all round the place and examining her work she fixed her eyes upon Agnes in a way that confused her and made her cast hers down for she felt as if she were reading her thoughts the wise woman however asked no questions but began to talk about her work approving of some of it which filled her with arrogance and showing how some of it might have been done better which filled her with resentment but the wise woman seemed to take no care of what she might be thinking and went straight on with her lesson by the time it was over the power of reading thoughts would not have been necessary to a knowledge of what was in the mind of Agnes for it had all come to the surface that is up into her face which is the surface of the mind here it had time to sink down again the wise woman caught up the little mirror and held it before her Agnes saw her somebody to meet an ugly ill temper she gave such a scream of horror that the wise woman pitied her and laying aside the mirror took her upon her knees and talked to her most kindly and solemnly in particular about the necessity of destroying the ugly things that come out of the heart so ugly that they make the very face over them ugly also and what was Agnes doing all the time the wise woman was talking to her would you believe it instead of thinking how to kill the ugly things in her heart she was with all her might to be more careful of her face that is to keep down the things in her heart so that they should not show in her face she was resolving to be a hypocrite as well as a self worshiper her heart was wormy and the worms were eating very fast at it now then the wise woman laid her gently down upon the heather bed and she fell fast asleep and had an awful dream about her somebody when she woke in the morning instead of getting up to do the work of the house she lay thinking to evil purpose in place of taking her dream as a warning thinking over what the wise woman had said the night before she communed with herself in this fashion if I stay here longer I shall be miserable it is nothing better than slavery the old witch shows me horrible things in the day to set me dreaming horrible things in the night if I don't run away that frightful blue prison and the disgusting girl will come back and I shall go out of my mind how I do wish I could find the way to the good king's palace I shall go and look at the picture again if it be a picture as soon as I've got my clothes on the work can wait it's not my work it's the old witches and she ought to do it herself she jumped out of bed and hurried on her clothes there was no wise woman to be seen and she hastened into the hall there was the picture with the marble palace and the proclamation shining in letters of gold upon its gates of brass she stood before it and gazed and all the time it kept growing upon her in some strange way at last she was fully persuaded that it was no picture but a real city square and marble palace seen through a framed opening in the wall she ran up to the frame, stepped over it felt the wind blow upon her cheek heard the sound of a closing door behind her and was free, free was she with that creature inside her the same moment a terrible storm of thunder and lightning wind and rain came on the uproar was appalling Agnes threw herself upon the ground with her hands in their lay until it was over as soon as she felt the sun shining on her she rose there was the city far away on horizon that once turning to take a farewell look at the place she was leaving she set off as fast as her feet would carry her in the direction of the city so eager was she that again and again she fell but only to get up and run on faster than before End of Chapter 8 Recording by Nathan Chapter 9 of The Wise Woman This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Nathan at antipodeanwriter.wordpress.com The Wise Woman by George Macdonald Chapter 9 The Shepardess carried Rosamond home gave her a warm bath and the tub in which she washed her linen after she had eaten it put her to bed in Agnes's crib where she slept all the rest of that day and all the following night when at last she opened her eyes it was to see around her a far poorer cottage than the one she had left very bare and uncomfortable indeed she might well thought but she had come through such troubles of late in the way of hunger and weariness and cold and fear that she was not altogether in her ordinary mood of fault finding thought that at length she was safe and going to be fed and kept warm the idea of doing anything in return for shelter and food and clothes did not however even cross her mind but the Shepardess was one of that plentiful number who can be wiser concerning other women's children than concerning their own such will often give you very tolerable hints as to how you ought to manage your children and will find fault neatly enough with the system you are trying to carry out but all their wisdom goes off in talking and there is none left for doing what they have themselves said there is one road talk never finds and that is the way into the talk is own hands and feet and such never seem to know themselves not even when they are reading about themselves in print still not being specially blinded in any direction but their own they can sometimes even act with a little sense towards children who are not theirs they are affected with a sort of blindness like that which renders some people incapable of seeing except sideways she came up to the bed and looked at the princess and saw that she was better but she did not like her much there was no mark of a princess about her and never had been since she began to run alone true hunger had brought down her fat cheeks but had not turned down her impudent nose or driven the sullenness and greed from her mouth nothing but the wise woman could do that and not even she without the aid of the princess herself so the Shepardess thought what a poor substitute she had got for her own lovely Agnes who was in fact equally repulsive only in a way to which she had got used for the selfishness and her love had blinded her to the thin pinched nose and the mean self-satisfied mouth it was well for the princess though sad as it is to say that the Shepardess did not take to her but then she would most likely have only done her harm instead of good now my girl she said you must get up and do something we can't keep idle folk here I'm not a folk said Resmond I'm a princess a pretty princess with a nose like that and all in rags too if you tell such stories I shall soon let you know what I think of you Rosamond then understood that the mere calling herself a princess without having anything to show for it was of no use she obeyed and rose for she was hungry but she had to sweep the floor as she had anything to eat the Shepard came into breakfast and was kinder than his wife he took her up in his arms and would have kissed her but she took it as an insult from a man and kicked and screamed with rage poor man finding he had made a mistake set her down at once but to look at the two one might well have judged it condescension rather than rudeness in such a man to kiss such a child he was tall and almost stately with a thoughtful forehead bright eyes eagle nose and gentle mouth while the princess was such as I have described her not content with being set down and let alone she continued to storm and scold at the Shepard crying she was a princess and would like to know what right he had to touch her but he only looked down upon her from the height of his tall person with an enignant smile regarding her as a spoiled little ape whose mother had flattered her by calling her a princess turn her out of doors the ungrateful hussy cried his wife with your bread and your milk and sighed her ugly body this is what she gives you for it troth unpaid for carrying home such an ill-bred tramp in my arms my own poor angel Agnes as if that ill-tempered toad one hair like her these words drove the princess beside herself for those who are most given to abuse can least endure it with fists and feet and teeth as was her want she rushed at the Shepardess whose hand was already raised to deal her a sound box on the ear when a better appointed minister of vengeance suddenly showed himself bounding in at the cottage door came one of the sheep dogs who was called Prince and whom I shall not refer to with a witch because a very superior animal indeed even for a sheep dog which is the most intelligent of dogs he flew at the princess knocked her down and commenced shaking her so violently as to tear her miserable clothes to pieces used however to mouthing little lands he took care not to hurt her much though for her good he left her a blue nip or two by way of letting her imagine what biting might be his master knowing he would not injure her thought it better not to call him off and in half a minute he let her of his own sword and casting a glance of indignant rebuke behind him as he went walked slowly to the hearth where he laid himself down with his tail to ward her she rose terrified almost to death and would have crept again into Agnes' crib for refuge but the Shepardess cried come come princess I'll have no skulking to bed in the good daylight go and clean your master's Sunday boots there I will not screamed the princess and ran from the house Prince and up jumped the dog and looked her in the face wagging his bushy tail fetch her back she said pointing to the door with two or three bounds Prince caught the princess again through her down and taking her by her clothes dragged her back into the cottage and dropped her at his mistress' feet where she lay like a bundle of rags get up said the Shepardess Rosamond got up as pale as death go and clean the boots I don't know how go and try there are the brushes and yonder is the blacking pot instructing her how to black boots it came into the thought of the Shepardess what a fine thing it would be if she could teach this miserable little wretch so forsaken and ill-bred to be a good well-behaved respectable child she was hardly the woman to do it but everything well meant is a help and she had the wisdom to beg her husband to place Prince under her orders for a while and not take him to the hill as usual that he might help her in getting the princess into order when the husband was gone and his boots and her own finishing touches had last quite respectably brushed the Shepardess told the princess that she might go and play for a while only she must not go out of sight at the cottage door the princess went right gladly with the firm intention however of getting out of sight by slow degrees and then at once taking to her heels but no sooner was she over the threshold then the Shepardess said to the dog watch her and out shot Prince the moment she saw him Rosamond threw herself on her face to foot but the dog had no quarrel with her and of the violence against which he always felt bound to protest in dog fashion there was no sign in the prostrate's shape before him so he poked his nose under her turned her over and began licking her face and hands when she saw that he meant to be friendly her love for animals which had had no indulgence for a long time now came wide awake and in a little while they were romping and rushing about the best friends in the world she began to resume her former plan and crept cunningly farther and farther at length she came to a little hollow and instantly rolled down into it finding then that she was out of sight of the cottage she ran off at full speed but she had not gone more than a dozen paces when she heard a growling rush behind her and the next instant was on the ground with the dog standing over her showing his teeth and flaming at her with his eyes she threw her arms around his neck and immediately he licked her face and let her get up at the moment she would have moved a step farther from the cottage there he was in front of her growling and showing his teeth she saw it was of no use and went back with him thus was the princess provided with a dog for a private tutor just the right sort for her presently the shepherdess appeared at the door and called her she would have disregarded the summons but princed it his best to let her know that until she could obey herself she must obey him she went into the cottage and there the shepherdess ordered her to peel the potatoes for dinner she sulked and refused here prince could do nothing to help his mistress but she had not to go far to find another ally very well miss princess she said we shall soon see how you like to go without when dinner time comes now the princess had very little foresight and the idea of future hunger would have moved her little but happily from her game of romps with prince she had begun to be hungry already so the threat had force she took the knife and began to peel the potatoes by slow degrees the princess improved a little a few more outbreaks of passion and a few more savage attacks from prince and she had learned to try to restrain herself when she felt the passion coming on while a few dinnerless afternoons entirely opened her eyes to the necessity of working in order to eat prince was her first and hunger her second dog counsellor but the still better thing was that she soon grew very fond of prince towards the gaining of her affections he had three advantages first his nature was inferior to hers next he was a beast and last she was afraid of him for so spoiled was she that she could more easily love what was below than what was above her and a beast then one of her own kind and indeed could hardly have ever come to love anything much that she had not first learned to fear and the white teeth and flaming eyes of the angry prince were more terrible to her than anything except those of the wolf which he had now forgotten then again he was such a delightful playfellow but so long as she neither lost her temper nor went against orders she might do almost anything she pleased with him in fact such was his influence upon her that she who had scoffed at the wisest woman in the whole world and derided the wishes of her own father and mother came at length to regard this dog as a superior being and to look up to him as well as love him and this was best of all the improvement upon her in the course of a month was plain she had quite ceased to go into passions and had actually began to take a little interest in her work and try to do it well still the change was mostly an outside one I do not mean that she was pretending indeed she had never been given to pretence of any sort but the change was not in her only in her mood a second change of circumstances would have soon brought a second change of behaviour and so long as that was possible she continued to be the same sort of person she had always been but if she had not gained much a trifle had been gained for her a little quietness and order of mind and hence a somewhat greater possibility of the first idea of riot arising in it whereupon she would begin to see what a wretched creature she was and must continue until she herself was right meanwhile the wise woman had been watching her when she least fancied it and taking no to the change that was passing upon her out of the large eyes of a gentle sheep she had been watching her a sheep that puzzled the shepherd for every now and then she would appear in his flock and he would catch sight of her two or three times in a day sometimes for days together he never saw her when he looked for her and never when he counted the flock into the fold at night he knew she was not one of his but where could she come from and where could she go to for there was no other flock within many miles and he never could get near enough to her to see whether or not she was marked nor was Prince at least used to him for the unraveling of the mystery for although as often as he told him to fetch the strange sheep he went bounding to her at once it was only to lie down at her feet at length however the wise woman had made up her mind and after that the strange sheep no longer troubled the shepherd as Rosamond improved the shepherdess grew kinder she gave her all Agnes's clothes and began to treat her much more like a daughter hence she had a great deal of liberty after the quiet of her was over and would often spend hours at a time with the shepherd watching the sheep and the dogs and learning a little from seeing how Prince and the others as well managed their charge how they never touched the sheep that did as they were told and turned when they were bid but jumped on the disobedient flock and ran along their backs biting and barking and half choking themselves with mouthfuls of their wool and also she would play with the brooks and learn their songs and build bridges over them and sometimes she would be such delight of heart that she would spread out her arms to the wind and go rushing up the hill till her breath left her when she would tumble down in the heather and lie there till it came back again a noticeable change had by this time passed also on her countenance of course shapeless mouth had begun to show a glimmer of lines and curves about it and the fat had not returned with the roses to her cheeks so that her eyes looked larger than before while more noteworthy still the bridge of her nose had grown higher so that it was less of the impudent insignificant thing inherited from a certain great great great grandmother who had little else to leave her. For a long time it had fitted her very well for it was just like her but now there was ground for alteration and already the granny who gave it would not have recognised it it was growing a little like a princess and princess was a long perceptive sagacious nose one that was seldom mistaken. One day about noon while the sheep were mostly lying down the shepherd having left them to the care of the dogs as himself stretched under the shade of a rock a little way apart and the princess sat knitting with Prince at her feet lying in wait for a snap at a great fly or even he had his follies. Rosamond saw a poor woman come toiling up the hill but took little notice of her until she was passing a few yards off when she heard her utter the dog's name in a low voice. Immediately on the summons Prince started up and followed her with hanging head but gently wagging tail. At first the princess thought he was merely taking observations and consulting with his nose whether she was respectable or not but she soon saw that he was following her in meek submission and she sprung to her feet and cried Prince, Prince but Prince only turned his head and gave her an odd look as if he were trying to smile and could not then the princess grew angry and ran after him shouting Prince come here directly again Prince turned his head but this time to growl and show his teeth the princess flew into one of her forgotten rages and picking up a stone flung it at the woman Prince turned and darted at her with fury in his eyes and his white teeth gleaming at the awful sight the princess turned also and would have fled but he was upon her in a moment and threw her to the ground and there she lay. It was evening when she came to herself a cool twilight wind that somehow seemed to come all the way from the stars was blowing upon her. The poor woman and Prince the shepherd and his sheep were all gone and she was left alone with the wind upon the heather. She felt sad weak and perhaps for the first time in her life a little ashamed. The violence of which she had been guilty had vanished from her spirit and now lay in her memory with the calm mourning behind it while in front the quiet dusky night was now closing in the loud shame betwixt a double piece between the two her passion looked ugly it pained her to remember she felt it was hateful and hers but alas Prince was gone that horrid woman had taken him away the fury rose again in her heart and raged until it came to her mind how her dear Prince would have flown at her throat if he had seen her in such a passion the memory calmed her and she rose and went home there perhaps she would find Prince for surely he could never have been such a silly dog as to go all together away with a strange woman she opened the door and went in dogs were asleep all about the cottage it seemed to her but nowhere was Prince she crept away to her little bed and cried herself to sleep. In the morning the shepherd and shepherd s were indeed glad to find she had come home for they thought she had run away whereas Prince she cried the moment she waked his mistress has taken him answered the shepherd was that woman his mistress a fancy so he followed her as if he had known her all his life I'm very sorry to lose him though the poor woman had gone close past the rock where the shepherd lay he saw her coming and thought of the strange sheep which had been feeding beside him when he lay down who can she be he said to himself but when he noted how Prince followed her without even looking up at him as he passed he remembered how Prince had come to him and this was how as he lay in bed one fierce winter morning just about to rise he heard the voice of a woman call to him through the storm shepherd I have brought you a dog be good to him I will come again and fetch him away he dressed as quickly as he could and went to the door it was half snowed up but on the top of the white mound before it stood Prince and now he had gone as mysteriously as he had come and he felt sad Rosamond was very sorry too and hence when she saw the looks of the shepherd and shepherdess she was better able to understand them and she tried for a while to behave better to them because of their sorrow so the loss of the dog brought them all nearer to each other end of chapter 9 recording by Nathan at antipodeanwriter.wordpress.com