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<h2> The White Wolf </h2>
<p>Once upon a time there was a king who had three daughters; they were all
beautiful, but the youngest was the fairest of the three. Now it happened
that one day their father had to set out for a tour in a distant part of
his kingdom. Before he left, his youngest daughter made him promise to
bring her back a wreath of wild flowers. When the king was ready to return
to his palace, he bethought himself that he would like to take home
presents to each of his three daughters; so he went into a jeweller's shop
and bought a beautiful necklace for the eldest princess; then he went to a
rich merchant's and bought a dress embroidered in gold and silver thread
for the second princess, but in none of the flower shops nor in the market
could he find the wreath of wild flowers that his youngest daughter had
set her heart on. So he had to set out on his homeward way without it. Now
his journey led him through a thick forest. While he was still about four
miles distant from his palace, he noticed a white wolf squatting on the
roadside, and, behold! on the head of the wolf, there was a wreath of wild
flowers.</p>
<p>Then the king called to the coachman, and ordered him to get down from his
seat and fetch him the wreath from the wolf's head. But the wolf heard the
order and said: 'My lord and king, I will let you have the wreath, but I
must have something in return.'</p>
<p>'What do you want?' answered the king. 'I will gladly give you rich
treasure in exchange for it.'</p>
<p>'I do not want rich treasure,' replied the wolf. 'Only promise to give me
the first thing that meets you on your way to your castle. In three days I
shall come and fetch it.'</p>
<p>And the king thought to himself: 'I am still a good long way from home, I
am sure to meet a wild animal or a bird on the road, it will be quite safe
to promise.' So he consented, and carried the wreath away with him. But
all along the road he met no living creature till he turned into the
palace gates, where his youngest daughter was waiting to welcome him home.</p>
<p>That evening the king was very sad, remembering his promise; and when he
told the queen what had happened, she too shed bitter tears. And the
youngest princess asked them why they both looked so sad, and why they
wept. Then her father told her what a price he would have to pay for the
wreath of wild flowers he had brought home to her, for in three days a
white wolf would come and claim her and carry her away, and they would
never see her again. But the queen thought and thought, and at last she
hit upon a plan.</p>
<p>There was in the palace a servant maid the same age and the same height as
the princess, and the queen dressed her up in a beautiful dress belonging
to her daughter, and determined to give her to the white wolf, who would
never know the difference.</p>
<p>On the third day the wolf strode into the palace yard and up the great
stairs, to the room where the king and queen were seated.</p>
<p>'I have come to claim your promise,' he said. 'Give me your youngest
daughter.'</p>
<p>Then they led the servant maid up to him, and he said to her: 'You must
mount on my back, and I will take you to my castle.' And with these words
he swung her on to his back and left the palace.</p>
<p>When they reached the place where he had met the king and given him the
wreath of wild flowers, he stopped, and told her to dismount that they
might rest a little.</p>
<p>So they sat down by the roadside.</p>
<p>'I wonder,' said the wolf, 'what your father would do if this forest
belonged to him?'</p>
<p>And the girl answered: 'My father is a poor man, so he would cut down the
trees, and saw them into planks, and he would sell the planks, and we
should never be poor again; but would always have enough to eat.'</p>
<p>Then the wolf knew that he had not got the real princess, and he swung the
servant-maid on to his back and carried her to the castle. And he strode
angrily into the king's chamber, and spoke.</p>
<p>'Give me the real princess at once. If you deceive me again I will cause
such a storm to burst over your palace that the walls will fall in, and
you will all be buried in the ruins.'</p>
<p>Then the king and the queen wept, but they saw there was no escape. So
they sent for their youngest daughter, and the king said to her: 'Dearest
child, you must go with the white wolf, for I promised you to him, and I
must keep my word.'</p>
<p>So the princess got ready to leave her home; but first she went to her
room to fetch her wreath of wild flowers, which she took with her. Then
the white wolf swung her on his back and bore her away. But when they came
to the place where he had rested with the servant-maid, he told her to
dismount that they might rest for a little at the roadside. Then he turned
to her and said: 'I wonder what your father would do if this forest
belonged to him?'</p>
<p>And the princess answered: 'My father would cut down the trees and turn it
into a beautiful park and gardens, and he and his courtiers would come and
wander among the glades in the summer time.'</p>
<p>'This is the real princess,' said the wolf to himself. But aloud he said:
'Mount once more on my back, and I will bear you to my castle.'</p>
<p>And when she was seated on his back he set out through the woods, and he
ran, and ran, and ran, till at last he stopped in front of a stately
courtyard, with massive gates.</p>
<p>'This is a beautiful castle,' said the princess, as the gates swung back
and she stepped inside. 'If only I were not so far away from my father and
my mother!'</p>
<p>But the wolf answered: 'At the end of a year we will pay a visit to your
father and mother.'</p>
<p>And at these words the white furry skin slipped from his back, and the
princess saw that he was not a wolf at all, but a beautiful youth, tall
and stately; and he gave her his hand, and led her up the castle stairs.</p>
<p>One day, at the end of half a year, he came into her room and said: 'My
dear one, you must get ready for a wedding. Your eldest sister is going to
be married, and I will take you to your father's palace. When the wedding
is over, I shall come and fetch you home. I will whistle outside the gate,
and when you hear me, pay no heed to what your father or mother say, leave
your dancing and feasting, and come to me at once; for if I have to leave
without you, you will never find your way back alone through the forests.'</p>
<p>When the princess was ready to start, she found that he had put on his
white fur skin, and was changed back into the wolf; and he swung her on to
his back, and set out with her to her father's palace, where he left her,
while he himself returned home alone. But, in the evening, he went back to
fetch her, and, standing outside the palace gate, he gave a long, loud
whistle. In the midst of her dancing the princess heard the sound, and at
once she went to him, and he swung her on his back and bore her away to
his castle.</p>
<p>Again, at the end of half a year, the prince came into her room, as the
white wolf, and said: 'Dear heart, you must prepare for the wedding of
your second sister. I will take you to your father's palace to-day, and we
will remain there together till to-morrow morning.'</p>
<p>So they went together to the wedding. In the evening, when the two were
alone together, he dropped his fur skin, and, ceasing to be a wolf, became
a prince again. Now they did not know that the princess's mother was
hidden in the room. When she saw the white skin lying on the floor, she
crept out of the room, and sent a servant to fetch the skin and to burn it
in the kitchen fire. The moment the flames touched the skin there was a
fearful clap of thunder heard, and the prince disappeared out of the
palace gate in a whirlwind, and returned to his palace alone.</p>
<p>But the princess was heart-broken, and spent the night weeping bitterly.
Next morning she set out to find her way back to the castle, but she
wandered through the woods and forests, and she could find no path or
track to guide her. For fourteen days she roamed in the forest, sleeping
under the trees, and living upon wild berries and roots, and at last she
reached a little house. She opened the door and went in, and found the
wind seated in the room all by himself, and she spoke to the wind and
said: 'Wind, have you seen the white wolf?'</p>
<p>And the wind answered: 'All day and all night I have been blowing round
the world, and I have only just come home; but I have not seen him.'</p>
<p>But he gave her a pair of shoes, in which, he told her, she would be able
to walk a hundred miles with every step. Then she walked through the air
till she reached a star, and she said: 'Tell me, star, have you seen the
white wolf?'</p>
<p>And the star answered: 'I have been shining all night, and I have not seen
him.'</p>
<p>But the star gave her a pair of shoes, and told her that if she put them
on she would be able to walk two hundred miles at a stride. So she drew
them on, and she walked to the moon, and she said: 'Dear moon, have you
not seen the white wolf?'</p>
<p>But the moon answered, 'All night long I have been sailing through the
heavens, and I have only just come home; but I did not see him.'</p>
<p>But he gave her a pair of shoes, in which she would be able to cover four
hundred miles with every stride. So she went to the sun, and said: 'Dear
sun, have you seen the white wolf?'</p>
<p>And the sun answered, 'Yes, I have seen him, and he has chosen another
bride, for he thought you had left him, and would never return, and he is
preparing for the wedding. But I will help you. Here are a pair of shoes.
If you put these on you will be able to walk on glass or ice, and to climb
the steepest places. And here is a spinning-wheel, with which you will be
able to spin moss into silk. When you leave me you will reach a glass
mountain. Put on the shoes that I have given you and with them you will be
able to climb it quite easily. At the summit you will find the palace of
the white wolf.'</p>
<p>Then the princess set out, and before long she reached the glass mountain,
and at the summit she found the white wolf's palace, as the sun had said.</p>
<p>But no one recognised her, as she had disguised herself as an old woman,
and had wound a shawl round her head. Great preparations were going on in
the palace for the wedding, which was to take place next day. Then the
princess, still disguised as an old woman, took out her spinning-wheel,
and began to spin moss into silk. And as she spun the new bride passed by,
and seeing the moss turn into silk, she said to the old woman: 'Little
mother, I wish you would give me that spinning-wheel.'</p>
<p>And the princess answered, 'I will give it to you if you will allow me to
sleep to-night on the mat outside the prince's door.'</p>
<p>And the bride replied, 'Yes, you may sleep on the mat outside the door.'</p>
<p>So the princess gave her the spinning-wheel. And that night, winding the
shawl all round her, so that no one could recognise her, she lay down on
the mat outside the white wolf's door. And when everyone in the palace was
asleep she began to tell the whole of her story. She told how she had been
one of three sisters, and that she had been the youngest and the fairest
of the three, and that her father had betrothed her to a white wolf. And
she told how she had gone first to the wedding of one sister, and then
with her husband to the wedding of the other sister, and how her mother
had ordered the servant to throw the white fur skin into the kitchen fire.
And then she told of her wanderings through the forest; and of how she had
sought the white wolf weeping; and how the wind and star and moon and sun
had befriended her, and had helped her to reach his palace. And when the
white wolf heard all the story, he knew that it was his first wife, who
had sought him, and had found him, after such great dangers and
difficulties.</p>
<p>But he said nothing, for he waited till the next day, when many guests—kings
and princes from far countries—were coming to his wedding. Then,
when all the guests were assembled in the banqueting hall, he spoke to
them and said: 'Hearken to me, ye kings and princes, for I have something
to tell you. I had lost the key of my treasure casket, so I ordered a new
one to be made; but I have since found the old one. Now, which of these
keys is the better?'</p>
<p>Then all the kings and royal guests answered: 'Certainly the old key is
better than the new one.'</p>
<p>'Then,' said the wolf, 'if that is so, my former bride is better than my
new one.'</p>
<p>And he sent for the new bride, and he gave her in marriage to one of the
princes who was present, and then he turned to his guests, and said: 'And
here is my former bride'—and the beautiful princess was led into the
room and seated beside him on his throne. 'I thought she had forgotten me,
and that she would never return. But she has sought me everywhere, and now
we are together once more we shall never part again.'</p>
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