Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1884-03-05
A TRUE FAIRY STORY.

TTiste, as you know, means sad afflicted,
and this Triste was named for her condition.
She had once had prettier name-Rosabel, In
| fact,-but everybody now called her Triste the
Sad. She stayed in q small room, without
windows, at the very top of the castle, as far
away as she could possibly get from the sing-
ing and laughing, and music and all the good
| tunes that were continually going on in the
gardens and rooms below, where her sisters
lived. Here in this little dark room, when it
was morning, poor Trlste would always say,
tWould God it were EVENING" and when it
was evening she would always say, 'Would
God it were morningp and these two re-
marks were all the remarks she ever made.
Once an Evil Eye had looked hard upon
TIlste and made her ugly and deformed. She
had punches and swelhngs, she was Gmpy and
trembling, aud her face-well, If you looked at
it once you did not care to look again. AS for
| the aches andpains that darted and criscrossed
and Z1gzaged through her, one would not sup
pose that little thin body like hers could
make room for SO many.
So 1riste stayed in her dark room, and made
her morning and her evening remark day after
day, while Mary Maud and Maud Marian went
to the balls and the tournaments and the
feasts. Whenever the sounds of mirth and
music from below were loud enough to reach
Triste's room ut the top of the castle, she
would throw her face into her hands and weep,
and the weeping and the making her two re-
marks were all the amusements she had.
But after a while something wonderful hap
pened. One morning as Trlste was sitting In
her room wishing it was evening, she heard
a new sound. 1t was not the mirth and music,
it was not the CLUMSY footed servant bringing
up the dreadful gruels, it was something COM
ing up the winding stairs with rap tapping
noise. Tue taps came on, and finally Trlste's
door opened and little, old, beDt-over woman
with walking stick came in. The little old
womans face was white and wrinkled, her hair
was white as snow, but eyes were black and 80
very bright that they lit up space around her
like couple of candles and made Triste's dark
room quite light, The little old woman tapped
three tunes oD the floor with her walKlng-stick
and looked around the room. IT am your god
mother" she said, when she saw Trlste up in
the corner, 'you don't remember me, but 1 re-
member you; / didn't forget you. my poor
cnlld"
'Oh, would to God it were EVENING" said
Triste, trying to be sociable, and meaning, per-
haps, GOOD morning" or "How do you do?" or
something like that.
''Hark We, goddt lighter" said the godmoth-
er, do you want to go to the tournament with
your sisters? Do YOU want to sit down at the
feasts? Do you want to have the brave young
knights aud princes, with their snow-whlte
plumes and their coal-black chargers, come nd
ing to WOO you as they come to WOO your sis
ters? Do you want to sing? Do you want to
laugh? Do you want to dancer"
Then Trlste put her head into her hands and
Stop your CRYING, goddaughter," said the
godmother, tapping her three taps on the floor
again, and as Iriste raised her head she shOne
upon her with her beautiful eyes and dried up
the tears, and while her eyes were shining she
went on talking:
g was your godmother when you were
christened. Rosabel. When the Evil Eye
struck you aud cursed you, and you were
turned into Triste the Sad, l did not desert
you like the others. have been wandering
over the world ever since to find the Fairy that
could take off the curse Of that Evil Eye. l
have wondered, wandered-oh, how l have
wandered! was handsome. and straight as a
poplar tree; am ole and crooked, but / do
not care-I have found the Fairy. 1t ran from
me, it flew, 1t hid. it went up and down, it was
never there when put my hand on it, but l
got it at last" And the godmotber tapped her
three taps, and laughed three merry laughs
that ran round the wrinkles III her face like
streaks of quicksilver. '' l found it, put it
into bottle and corked it down tight; l have
brought IL to you"
el-tattered cloak bottle, in which was a white
Fairy, dlmpling and sparkling, and making
funny little fairy bows and GESTURES. The SoC-
mother laughed her three merry, quicksilver
laughs again as she held 1t up and looked at it.
I" It is meek and quiet enough now," she said.
"When Fairy is once caught it gives up. 1t
will perform its mission. Do as it bids you
and 1t will take off the curse of that Evil Eye"
The godmother pressed the Fairy into
Trlstes hand, and before Trlste had got over
being perfectly dazed at the gift, the god
mother was tapping down the winding stair
with her walklng-stick. and Triste WIS left
alone with the bottled Fairy.
How long it took her to get over being daZed;
how soon she released the Fairy from the bot
tie; what it said and what it did, FIRST, second,
and last, we can all put into fairy history for
ourselves. However and whatever the ways
and means, it is certain that those frolicsome
aches and pains, which had made of Triste
their exercise grounds ard camping places,
we're routed out, hip and thigh, little and big.
She stopped making her two remarks and
learned some new ones. And she began to
tire of her room without windows; and she got
30 brave and strong that she would sometimes
at night, when the garden was sill and dark,
wrap herself all round and steal down the
wlnding-stair, to walk under the trees, and TO
look at the stars and the moon.
From looking at the stars and the moon she
wanted to look at the sun. And one glad day,
right IN the very brightest sunshine, Iriste
walked boldly into the garden. The birds
were singing, the flowers were blooming, the
lakes, the trees, the fountains was
glorious and wonderful. She walked on with
a strange brightness and easiness, and SO hap
Ply she did not know whether it was the binds
she heard singing, or some kind Of music with
in herself. She stopped beside a fountain,
and, as she glanced i'll, the silver water smiled
back to her with fresh, happy tace-such
fresh, happy face, so free from those old de-
formities and marks of the Evil Eye, that
Thistle cried out for joy: and yet such won
derful change it was, she did not half believe
it was her own reflection she saw in the water.
She did not half believe it until the old god
mother came from behind some shrubbery,
laughing her quicksilver laughs fast and loud,
and saying, III ! ho! no! Rosabel! Rosabel!'
whenever she got chance between the laughs.
And Mary Maud and Maud Marian, who hap
pened to be walking ia the garden, heard the
laughing and came to the fountain, and when
they saw and understood they pressed Triste
in their arms, crying for Joy over her, and
calling her their beautiful Rosa.
And so it was ever afterwards, Mary Maud,
Maud Marian and Rosabel were the three sis
tiers that lived in the castle. Triste the Sad
was never more heard from. The little room
at the top of the castle was locked up, and the
key lost forever. When Rosabel went up to
take last look at her old room she found that
the dear little Fairy had departed, but on the
deserted bottle had left its name-Dr. r. V.
Pierce's Golden Medical Discovery.
The above is perfectly true in all but the thin
vsrnish Of its setting-forth, and, indeed, the
truth IN it has considerably cracked and
rubbed off even that thin coating. Do we not
all know sad. afflicted ones, to whom life is
curSa on accOunt of DaiDfu1 and determine