Page:Christmas Fireside Stories.djvu/242

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East of the Sun and West of the Moon.


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