to sleep. I want some o' that nettle tea when I wake, y'hear?"
"You'll not go off and leave me alone with them, will you, Goose Girl?" asked the Prince in a much lower voice.
"I'faith, I will," I said coldly.
"I beg pardon for calling you a Night Hag," he said humbly, but I was gone, trailing my golden tresses behind me.
CHAPTER EIGHT
In Which I Remain Fied by the Hair
F AST BIND, FAST FIND.
âJ OHN H EYWOOD,
P ROVERBS
"O my Geese," I called out over the valley as loudly as I dared. "Come to me now in my need."
Naught stirred below or above me. I had toiled up to the top of this hill overlooking the cottage, hoping to see something of my birds. I could easily trace my own steps for these past many hours; the long yellow band of my hair zigzagged back and forth betwixt hill and fen, cottage and creek, like a golden road between the trees. But I saw no living thing else that moved.
"Tis I, Alexandria Aurora Fortunato, who summons thee," I added.
Not so much as a glimmer of white feathers.
"For the sake of the love we bear one another and for the sake of my dear dead mother who harbored and succored thee and spared thy lives each and every Christmastide, e'en when we were faint with hunger and a hot Goose dinner
would have been very Heaven itself, I command thee to come to me at once," I shouted.
Naught but a still, hot blue sky hanging over silent woods.
"O Hades," said I, and kicked a tree full hard with my glass slipper. 'Twas remarkably painful. Under my breath I mumbled, "Useless, featherbrained, asinine, half-witted..."
'Twas energy thrown away, and I had no more time. I must get back to the cottage and prepare the evening meal before the Ogresses awoke and ate the Prince for want of aught else.
"I am leaving," I shouted. "I am going away, most likely to my death. So I shall not see thee again." I gulped a trifle and my voice cracked as I cried, "Fare thee well, my Geese, and may thy wings carry thee to a place of safety and bountiful grasses and, andâ" I broke off, unable to go on. I turned and stumbled down the hill, tears flowing freely down my face. Diamonds tinkled and clinked on the rocks and stones in my path all the way down the slope to the cottage.
I could not enter the cottage at once, but must first retread my path through the valley, unweaving my hair from the countryside. This wearisome task completed, I paused ere I reached the cottage and packed half of my day's gleanings in the Prince's saddlebags, which I had found with the rest of the horse's fittings.
The saddlebags already contained a number of useful things, such as a lovely little bow and quiverful of arrows, a
silver cup, a cooking pot, a tinderbox, and two fine blankets. Yet one more item was there, an object which I in my quiet life had never before laid eyes upon, yet which I recognized at first glance. 'Twas a book.
Verily, I shuddered with almost superstitious dread when I drew it forth, for there is a strange force in the written word. They who command it command great power.
My mother almost never spoke about her past life before she came to our cottage in the wood, howe'er I might tease or plead. Yet once she let slip the fact that in former times she had owned not one, but many, many of these precious objects, mayhap even so many as five. Thus did I discover, more truly than had she boasted of jewels and silver and gold, that I came from greatness. When the village children threw stones and called me a dirty Goose Girl, I remembered my mother's great store of knowledge and laughed them to scorn.
Indeed, my mother had most kindly begun to teach me my letters, even though I was but a Goose Girl with no need for book learning, when she saw that I wished it. I grieve to say that she died ere I could advance any further in my education than this. I am therefore in a position to tell you that the writing on the outside of the book contained one
A,
two B's, two E's, and a number of other letters with which I am not
"You'll not go off and leave me alone with them, will you, Goose Girl?" asked the Prince in a much lower voice.
"I'faith, I will," I said coldly.
"I beg pardon for calling you a Night Hag," he said humbly, but I was gone, trailing my golden tresses behind me.
CHAPTER EIGHT
In Which I Remain Fied by the Hair
F AST BIND, FAST FIND.
âJ OHN H EYWOOD,
P ROVERBS
"O my Geese," I called out over the valley as loudly as I dared. "Come to me now in my need."
Naught stirred below or above me. I had toiled up to the top of this hill overlooking the cottage, hoping to see something of my birds. I could easily trace my own steps for these past many hours; the long yellow band of my hair zigzagged back and forth betwixt hill and fen, cottage and creek, like a golden road between the trees. But I saw no living thing else that moved.
"Tis I, Alexandria Aurora Fortunato, who summons thee," I added.
Not so much as a glimmer of white feathers.
"For the sake of the love we bear one another and for the sake of my dear dead mother who harbored and succored thee and spared thy lives each and every Christmastide, e'en when we were faint with hunger and a hot Goose dinner
would have been very Heaven itself, I command thee to come to me at once," I shouted.
Naught but a still, hot blue sky hanging over silent woods.
"O Hades," said I, and kicked a tree full hard with my glass slipper. 'Twas remarkably painful. Under my breath I mumbled, "Useless, featherbrained, asinine, half-witted..."
'Twas energy thrown away, and I had no more time. I must get back to the cottage and prepare the evening meal before the Ogresses awoke and ate the Prince for want of aught else.
"I am leaving," I shouted. "I am going away, most likely to my death. So I shall not see thee again." I gulped a trifle and my voice cracked as I cried, "Fare thee well, my Geese, and may thy wings carry thee to a place of safety and bountiful grasses and, andâ" I broke off, unable to go on. I turned and stumbled down the hill, tears flowing freely down my face. Diamonds tinkled and clinked on the rocks and stones in my path all the way down the slope to the cottage.
I could not enter the cottage at once, but must first retread my path through the valley, unweaving my hair from the countryside. This wearisome task completed, I paused ere I reached the cottage and packed half of my day's gleanings in the Prince's saddlebags, which I had found with the rest of the horse's fittings.
The saddlebags already contained a number of useful things, such as a lovely little bow and quiverful of arrows, a
silver cup, a cooking pot, a tinderbox, and two fine blankets. Yet one more item was there, an object which I in my quiet life had never before laid eyes upon, yet which I recognized at first glance. 'Twas a book.
Verily, I shuddered with almost superstitious dread when I drew it forth, for there is a strange force in the written word. They who command it command great power.
My mother almost never spoke about her past life before she came to our cottage in the wood, howe'er I might tease or plead. Yet once she let slip the fact that in former times she had owned not one, but many, many of these precious objects, mayhap even so many as five. Thus did I discover, more truly than had she boasted of jewels and silver and gold, that I came from greatness. When the village children threw stones and called me a dirty Goose Girl, I remembered my mother's great store of knowledge and laughed them to scorn.
Indeed, my mother had most kindly begun to teach me my letters, even though I was but a Goose Girl with no need for book learning, when she saw that I wished it. I grieve to say that she died ere I could advance any further in my education than this. I am therefore in a position to tell you that the writing on the outside of the book contained one
A,
two B's, two E's, and a number of other letters with which I am not
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