San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1893-05-18
THE THREE GIFTS.

lCls IlCl IlSOAAANL lLCiN NAN" " AN' N"s 4
before the babe was born, so that she
was alone in the world and quite desc,
late. All her love, therefore, centered
upon this child, and clad as she was in
widows weeds she clasped it fondly in
her arms.
On the third day after its birth three
fairies, who greatly cOmmiserated her,
came to visit her, and seeing how beau
tiful the infant was and how much the
mother loved it they promised it three
good gifts.
The first fairy, touching it with her
golden wand, said, THE day that she is
- years old a rose shall fall from her
mouth every time she laughs"
The second fairy then touched it with
her golden wand. The day that she is
70 years old" she said, "every time she
weeps pearls shall fall from her eyes"
And lastly the third fairy, with golden
wand, also touched her, saying, Before
your 18th year has passed a prince shall
marry you, and you shall become a prin-
cess"
The mother listened to all these pro-
misses, and her heart rejoiced exceeding
ly. She was very, very poor, but she
brought up her daughter as well as she
could until she was - years of age.
The evening of the day on which she
had completed her 18th year, the girl
laughed right out with joy at something
which her mother had said, and imme-
diately the first rose fell from her lips,
and when the mother saw 1t she remem-
bered all that the fairies had promised.
and her motherly heart rejoiced, for she
said, IF one promise be fulfilled, the
others will surely follow in their turn"
The girl was graceful. beautiful and
blithe, and the roses fell from her mouth
like rain. The mother, without having
the trouble to gather roses, put them all
into a basket and took them to the
town and sold them. With the money
thus obtained she and her daughter
lived-frugally certainly, but neverthe-
less more comfortably than heretofore.
So time went on.
1t was winter, and the queen was 60
ing TO give a great ball at the palace.
She had a beautiful gown, and it was
rose color, so she wanted to have real
roses on her head and at her breast to
wear with it. She therefore ordered the
royal gardener to bring her some, but he
said that so much snow had fallen that
all the roses were spoiled, and that he
could not find even one. The queen was
very angry at this and told him straight
way that she did not believe him, but
that he preferred to leave them to
perish in the royal garden, adding that
she should go and seek for herself anOth-
er gardener and dismiss him forthwith.
The poor gardener sighed upon hear
ing this and went to look at every gar
den far and near to see if he could pos
sibly find any roses, but he found none.
In the curse of his wanderings he hap
pened to pass by the cottage in which
dwelt the poor woman and her daughter.
The gardener was so bewildered by his
anxiety that he did not look to see where
he was going, and not observing a
stone that was lying before the cottage
he stumbled Over it and fell down.
There was something comicalin the way
in which he fell, for he did not hurt HIM
self, but his fez rolled off his head into
the mud and got dirtied.
The girl, who was looking out of the
window, could not help laughing when
she saw the gardener fall, and down
dropped a rose from her mouth and fell
into the road right in front of the gar
dener. When she saw what had oc.
CURED she felt a little bit ashamed and
drew back to hide herself, but the gar
dener. as soon as he saw it. never stayed
to pick up his fez, but RAJ quickly to
seize the rose. He could not believe his
own eyes. How did it come there? Per
haps it was done by magic. Anyhow it
vas a real and beautiful rose and
smelled better than those of April. But
one rose was Of no use to the queen. He
must have 10, and where could he find
the others:
Since, however. il had fallen just in
front of that house, the people who lived
there might know something about it.
Anyhow I'll knock" he said to him
self.
So without any more ado he knocked
at the door, which the mother immedi-
ately opened. We'll, my good man
what do you WANT" she asked.
And then he told her all about the
queen and the ball, and how he had sud,
denly found a rose outside her house
when he was almost in a state of despair.
After the mother heard all this, she said,
Take this n then and go to the queen
and tell her that there is only one rose
tree which is able to produce such roses
and that on the day of the ball l will
cut some and take her as many as shf