had said ; her mother wanted to speak with her alone in her
chamber. But she recoliected what the bear had told her, and
would not go with her.
" What wc have got to talk about, wc can
do at some other time," she said. But somehow or other her
mother talked her round at last, and so she had to tell her every
thing. She told her how a man came into her room every night
as soon as she had put out the light, and how she never saw him,
for he was always gone before the day dawned. She was sorrowful
at this, for she thought she would so like to see him ; and in the
day time she walked about there all alone and felt very lonely
and sad.
" Oh,dear me!"saidher mother, "itmaybeatroll for allwe
know ! But I will tell you how you can get a sight of him. You
shall have a piece of a candle from me, and this you must take with
you home in your bosom. When he is asleep, light that candle,
but take care not to drop any of the tallow on him." —Yes, she took
the candle and hid it in her bosom, and in the evening the white
bear came and fetched her.
When they had gone some distance of the way the bear asked
her if everything hådn't happened as he had said. Yes, she
couldn't deny that. — " Well, if you have listened to your mother's
advice you will make us both unhappy, and all will be over between
us," said the bear. — No, that she hadn't !
When she came home and had gone to bed, the same thing
occurred as beforeo Some one came into the room and sat in the
arnvchair by her bedside, but in the middle of the night when she
heard that he was asleep, she got up and struck a light, lit the
candle, and let the light fall on him. She then saw that he was the
loveliest prince any one could wish to see, and she fell at once in
love with him ; she thought that if she could not kiss him there and
then she would not be able to live. And so she did, but she
dropped three hot drops of tallow on him, and he woke up.
" What have you done ? " he said, " you have now made us both
unhappy for ever, for if you had only held out one year I should
have been saved. T have a stepmother who has bewitched me,
andIamnowawhitebearbydayandaman bynight. Butnow
Page:Christmas Fireside Stories.djvu/242
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230
East of the Sun and West of the Moon.