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Index
Fox and His Cousin
Fox and Cat
Pink
Clever Grel
Old Man and His Grandson
Water-Nix
Death of Little Hen
Bror Lustig
Gambling Hansel
Hans in Luck
Hans Married
Gold-Children
Fox and Geese
Poor Man and Rich Man
Singing, Springing Lark
Goose-Girl
Young Giant
Gnome
King of Golden Mountain
Raven
Peasant's Clever Daughter
Old Hildebrand
Three Little Birds
Water of Life
Dr. Know-All
Spirit in Bottle
Devil's Sooty Bror
Bearskin
Willow-Wren and Bear
Sweet Porridge
Wise Folks
Stories about Snakes
Poor Miller's Boy and Cat
Two Travellers
Hans Hedgehog
Shroud
More
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Fairy Tale Index Page |
THERE was once a mother who had a little boy of seven years old, who was so handsome and
lovable that no one could look at him without liking him, and she herself worshipped him above
everything in the world. Now it so happened that he suddenly became ill, and God took him to
himself; and for this the mother could not be comforted, and wept both day and night. But soon
afterwards, when the child had been buried, it appeared by night in the places where it had sat and
played during its life, and if the mother wept, it wept also, and when morning came it disappeared.
As, however, the mother would not stop crying, it came one night, in the little white shroud in which
it had been laid in its coffin, and with its wreath of flowers round its head, and stood on the bed at
her feet, and said, "Oh, mother, do stop crying, or I shall never fall asleep in my coffin, for my
shroud
will not dry because of all thy tears, which fall upon it." The mother was afraid when she heard that,
and wept no more. The next night the child came again, and held a little light in its hand, and said,
"Look, mother, my shroud is nearly dry, and I can rest in my grave." Then the mother gave her
sorrow into God's keeping, and bore it quietly and patiently, and the child came no more, but slept
in its little bed beneath the earth.
Margaret Hunt (London, 1884) |
