Read Online Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino - Free Book Online

“I’m a sea captain, and I’m leaving on a voyage,” he said. “If you’ve spun all this hemp by the time I return, I’ll marry you.”
    The room also contained exquisite clothes and jewels, for the captain happened to be very rich. “When you become my wife,” he explained, “these things will all be yours.” Then he left her.
    The girl spent her days trying on dresses and jewels and admiring herself in the mirror. She also devoted much time to planning meals, which the household servants prepared for her. None of the hemp was spun yet, and in one more day the captain would be back. The girl gave up all hope of ever marrying him and burst into tears. She was still crying when through the window flew a bundle of rags and came to rest on its feet: it was an old woman with long eyelashes. “Don’t be afraid,” she told the girl. “I’ve come to help you. I’ll spin while you make the skein.” You never saw anyone spin with the speed of that old woman. In just a quarter of an hour she had spun every bit of hemp. And the more she spun, the longer her lashes became; longer than her nose, longer than her chin, they came down more than a foot; and her eyelids also grew much longer.
    When the work was finished, the girl said, “How can I repay you, my good lady?”
    â€œI don’t want to be repaid. Just invite me to your wedding banquet when you marry the captain.”
    â€œHow do I go about inviting you?”
    â€œJust call ‘Columbina’ and I’ll come. But heaven help you if you forget my name. It would be as though I’d never helped you, and you’d be undone.”
    The next day the captain arrived and found the hemp all spun. “Excellent!” he said. “I believe you’re just the bride I was seeking. Here are the clothes and jewels I bought for you. But now I have to go on another voyage. Let’s have a second test. Here’s twice the amount of hemp I gave you before. If you spin it all by the time I return, I’ll marry you.”
    As she had done before, the girl spent her time trying on gowns and jewels, eating soup and lasagna, and got to the last day with all the hemp still waiting to be spun. She was weeping over it when, lo and behold, something dropped down the chimney, and into the room rolled a bundle of rags. It came to rest on its feet, and there stood an old woman with sagging lips. This one too promised to help, began spinning, and worked even faster than the other old woman. The more she spun, the more her lips sagged. When the hemp was all spun in a half-hour, the old woman asked only to be invited to the wedding banquet. “Just call ‘Columbara.’ But don’t forget my name, or my help will have been in vain and you will suffer.”
    The captain returned and asked before he even got into the house, “Did you spin it all?”
    â€œI just now finished!”
    â€œTake these clothes and jewels. Now, if I come back from my third voyage and find you’ve spun this third load of hemp, which is much bigger than the other two, I promise we’ll get married at once.”
    As usual, the girl waited until the last day without touching the hemp. Down from the roof’s gutter fell a bundle of rags, and out came an old woman with buckteeth. She began spinning, spinning ever faster, and the more she spun, the longer grew her teeth.
    â€œTo invite me to your wedding banquet,” said the old woman, “you must call ‘Columbun.’ But if you forget my name, it would be better if you’d never seen me.”
    When the captain came home and found the hemp all spun, he was completely satisfied. “Fine,” he said, “now you will be my wife.” He ordered preparations made for the wedding, to which he invited all the nobility in town.
    Caught up in the preparations, the bride thought no more of the old women. On the morning of the