Public Domain Tales: The Girl With The Upturned Nose

Public Domain Tales: The Girl With The Upturned Nose is the eightieth book in the Public Domain Tales series.
==SLEEPING BY THE RIVER==
IN THAT little white house, — far away, lives a sad old woman, over seventy years old. Poor thing! She's at the end of her life, and she's shivering and catatonic, without a single tooth in her mouth — downcast and melancholy... Everyone pities her: — How sad to live alone in the middle of the woods...
Well, they're wrong. The old woman lives happily and contentedly, thanks to a little granddaughter, orphaned by her father and mother, who has lived there since she was born. She's a dark-haired girl with eyes as black as two jabuticabas grapes — and as playful as you can imagine! Her name is Lucia, but nobody calls her that. She has a nickname. Yayá? Nenê? Maricota? Not at all. Her name is "Narizinho Rebitado" (Little Turned Up Nose) — no need to say why. In addition to Lucia, there is Aunt Anastacia, an excellent black woman adored by everyone, and the Excellent Mrs. Emilia, a rag doll, made by the black woman and very ugly, the poor thing, with her eyes of black retrós sewing lines and her eyebrows so high that you can see a witch's face.
But despite this, Narizinho loves Mrs. Emilia very much. She talks to her all the time and never goes to bed without first tucking her into a hammock set up between two chair legs. Apart from this witch in a pannier, Narizinho's other interest is a stream that runs through the back of the orchard, with water so clear that you can see the rocks at the bottom and all the small fish.
Not a day goes by without Lucia sitting by the water's edge, at the root of an old ingázeiro tree, staying there for hours, listening to the sound of the current and feeding the fish. And they know her! As soon as the girl arrives, they all come running from afar, their heads held high, hungry beyond belief. First come the piquiras, the pot-bellied dusky millions fish with their eyes popping out; then come the risky red-tailed wrasses; and finally one or two suspicious parapitinga. And the little girl stays in this amusement until Aunt Anastacia appears at the gate of the orchard and shouts in her soothing voice: — Narizinho! Grandma's calling!
And so those three creatures lived, deep in the hollow of the ground, very content with life, with no worries or annoyances.
Once, when the little girl was by the river with her doll, she felt heavy-eyed and felt a great ache in her body. She stretched out on the grass and soon fell asleep, lulled by the murmur of the stream. She was already dreaming a beautiful dream when she felt an itch on her face. She opened her eyes and, with great amazement, saw a little fish standing on the tip of her little nose. Dressed, yes! It was wearing a red coat, a top hat and a flower on its chest: it was beautiful! The little animal looked at her face with the air of someone who doesn't understand anything.
The girl was so amazed by the marvelous scene that she held her breath for fear of frightening the curious creature, and remained that way for some time until the buzz of an insect distracted her. It was a beetle that was flying over her head and, after a few turns, landed on her forehead. Narizinho, shivering, was about to swat it away with a good blow, when she noticed that it too was dressed like a person, with a coat, glasses and a cane. She stopped herself and stood still to see what would happen. The beetle, noticing Mr. Fish's presence, put his hand up to his hat and greeted him kindly:
— Hello, Master Scaly! How's your health?
— Something like this, my friend Thick Skin. I chipped three scales off my back yesterday and the doctor prescribed me some country air. I came to take the treatment, but here I found this hill that I don't recognize, and I'm wondering what the hell this white, smooth earth is. Is it marble?" he said, tapping Narizinho on the nose with the umbrella's toe. The beetle, who knows a lot about dirt because he's always digging holes, crouched down, put his glasses in his beak and, after examining the "dirt", said:
— It's not marble. It's more like rubber or cheese!...
— What about these leafless plants?" asked Scaly, showing his eyebrows.
— They must be wicker rods or fins, don't you see how flexible they are? I'm going to take a bundle of them to my friend the Cricket so that he can make me a sewing rack.
— And I'll take another for Mrs. Spider, the seamstress, to put in the corsets.
And the two of them set about pulling strands out of Narizinho's eyebrows. Each "fin" they pulled out was a sharp little pain, and the "land" felt like sweeping them away with a slap, but it endured everything, without the slightest grimace, so interesting was it finding this singular adventure. And she remained motionless, spying on the antics of the curious little animals engaged in harvesting the fin sticks, thinking to herself:
— That's a good one! I feel like I've become a whale!
Then the little fish, with the bundle of fins under his arm, climbed down and began to examine the girl's lips and cheeks attentively. Before her nose, it stopped and, pointing at her nostrils, said:
— Well, here's a very nice burrow for a couple of beetles. Two rooms, one for the husband, one for the lady beetle. Great!...
— It's a good place, said the beetle, but I hope some damned scorpion doesn't live here!...
— I don't think so, replied the little fish. The scorpions have moved to the other side of the river, where there are lots of old termites.
— Nevertheless, added the beetle, "the word on the street is that one of them is here, ravaging these parts. And it may well be that he's hiding in this very cave.
— I don't think so, said the little fish. I have a good police force that informs me of the slightest steps of these monsters.
— In any case, let's see," said the beetle prudently, shaking his cane inside the "burrow":
— Hu! Hu! Get out, you devil!
But it happened that the cane tickled the girl's nostrils and she couldn't stop herself from sneezing: "Atchin!"
The two tiny creatures, taken by surprise, turned upside down and fell to the ground.
— Didn't I tell you?" exclaimed the beetle, standing up and wiping his dirt-smeared hat with his sleeve. Didn't I say there was "something" in there? It's the Black Scorpion's lair, there's no doubt about that, and I don't want any stories about poisonous stinging breeds! See you later, my friend Scaly, have a good day and be very happy. Goodbye!
And off he went through the air, buzzing like an airplane...
The little fish, however, was a brave dusky millions fish who was never afraid of cucas, and so he remained there, increasingly interested in deciphering the riddle. He thought for a long time, with his hands on his chin, and suddenly, seeing the doll next to the girl, he slapped his forehead in great joy:
— And this! Well, isn't that Narizinho Rebitado, our little friend who always shows up? What a nice meeting! I'm going to invite her to visit the Clear Waters Kingdom. He stood up straight, fixed his tie and shouted in her ear:
— Anyone at home!?
— Who is this? replied Narizinho, pretending not to know anything.
— It's me, Prince Scaly, silver dusky millions fish at your service.
— And what do you want, little fish?
— I would like to invite you to my domains in the city of Round Stones, in the Clear Waters Kingdom.
Narizinho, who wanted nothing more, clapped his hands with joy and exclaimed:
— With pleasure! I'm at your service, kind Silver Scamy Prince.
Saying this, he stood up, gave her his arm, and followed by Emilia, who, very teary, was following the girl like a maid, the two of them set off, like a pair of sweethearts, in the direction of Clear Waters Kingdom.
After a long walk, they came to a large quarry at a bend in the stream.
— The entrance to my kingdom is this way, said Scaly, pointing to a hole between the rocks and giving the girl his hand to help her up. They entered. But the darkness was worse than a starless night, and Narizinho stopped, full of fear. The little fish smiled and said:
— The children of humankind can only see when there is light, but the children of the waters are like owls: they can see as well in the light as in the dark. And he pulled out of his pocket a bright-eyed firefly, hanging from a little wire. The cave lit up in the light of the lantern, and Narizinho could see that she was in a long corridor, like a tunnel, with a closed door at the end. Leaning against this door was a striped toad, with a sword at his waist, a helmet on his head and a spear in his hand. He was the palace guard. But he was sleeping soundly, happily!
— This is it! exclaimed the prince, furious. I pay Master "Grab - and - Don't - Let - Go" five hundred flies a day to watch this door for me and as soon as I leave, the thief falls asleep! But this time he'll pay me! he said, preparing to wake him up with a kick.
— No! No! intervened Narizinho. Let's play a good trick on him instead. We'll take away the sleeper's weapons and dress him in Emilia's clothes. Imagine his astonishment when he wakes up!
Scaly thought it was a great idea and, both of them jumping for joy, they undressed the frog very slowly: then they tied Emilia's red dotted petticoat around his waist, put the doll's cap on his head and, in place of the spear, an umbrella. The poor frog was so funny that the little girl couldn't stop laughing.
— Let's wake him up now," said Scaly, giving him a formidable kick in the stomach.
— Hum! moaned the frog, his eyes widening and his mouth dropping open, astonished to see the prince in the company of an unknown girl and a doll lady who was very embarrassed to find herself in diapers. Scaly, very tense, he thickened his voice and grunted:
— What a beauty, Master Grab. Dressed as a woman, you, the palace guard!
— Dressed as a woman? Me? said the astonished frog.
— Look in this mirror, said the prince.
Only then did the frog realize what a mockery he had been the victim of. He looked at the prince, the girl and the mirror, without understanding anything about the whole affair.
— Now, as a punishment," said the prince, "instead of the five hundred flies in our deal, you're going to swallow five hundred round pebbles today.
The frog had an extremely sad expression and went to hide in a corner, very unhappy with his life, while Narizinho laughed until she was tired.
Then Scaly opened the door and, taking the girl's hand, led her into a large room where there was a throne.
— This is the hall of government, where I give audiences to my subjects and dispense justice, punishing the bad and rewarding the good.
He sat on the throne and struck a bronze gong with a silver mallet: pom! pom! pom! Immediately a detachment of uniformed crickets appeared under the command of Captain Grasshopper. They all stood as still as if they were made of wood.
— Get up! ordered the prince. The captain stood up and came to stand in front of the throne.
— Just what news is there in the kingdom?
— Not much, Your Majesty. There's been a crime at the Black Burrow. The green frog got drunk and entered the house of a family of cockroaches, killed the mother cockroach, seriously injured the father cockroach and ate all the daughter cockroaches.
— Have the criminal hanged from a large hawthorn branch. What else?
— There's news that the Black Scorpion is prowling around the kingdom, on the side of White Stone.
— Bad news! exclaimed the prince, frowning. The Scorpion is our worst enemy. We need to reinforce the border walls. What else?
— Two yellow catfish were found unconscious, floating in the small pond. I've taken them to the infirmary and they're being cared for by Doctor Snail, who has prescribed a purgative and swabs.
— That's it. What else?
— Your Majesty will know that's all.
— Perfectly, said the prince. It is now necessary for the kingdom to know of the presence among us of this beautiful princess with the black eyes, so that the people and the nobility can pay her every homage. I want a big party like never before. Notify the court and give the necessary orders, but firstly, send for the royal coach. The captain saluted militarily and left accompanied by his guards.
It wasn't long before a carriage pulled up at the door, drawn by three pairs of wrasses.
The coachman was a handsome red-footed shrimp, who was very sore at the top of his tail. As soon as the prince and the girl got into the carriage, Master Shrimp cracked his whip and the wrasses took off like lightning.
==THE INFIRMARY==
AS the carriage sped along the bottom of the stream, Narizinho admired the beautiful panoramas through the windows, the avenues of white sand, the round stones and the fish that stopped respectfully to watch them pass. At a certain point, the carriage changed direction, took a turn and stopped at the hospital gates. It was a large room, full of beds and tables with medicine bottles. Doctor Snail, the kingdom's famous expert, was there, along with some cockroaches nurses dressed as sisters of charity. The prince called the doctor and asked for news on the patients. The two yellow-bellied catfish were in one of the beds, wrapped in three blankets, very pale and sweating profusely. Scaly took their pulse and saw that they had a high fever.
— God forbid they should die!" he said to Narizinho. "Doctor Snail is a great doctor, but all his patients die... He has no luck at all...
Further on, in another bed, the cockroach father moaned, mortally wounded by the green frog.
— How is this patient?" asked the prince.
— Very badly, replied Snail. He's broken five legs, torn a wing and is all broken up inside. I gave him Master Scarab's pills, but I have no hope of saving him.
— Has he been to the confessional yet, the prince asked?
— He went to confession just now and is going to take communion right now. Here comes Friar Mantis with the sacraments.
No sooner had the doctor said these words than Friar Mantis entered, accompanied by a little choir mosquito. The scene was so sad that Narizinho felt like crying. The friar cheered the patient up, spoke of the beauty of heaven and offered him the sacred host: a small fish scale. The poor man couldn't even sit up in bed. The nursing sisters had to lift him up by the shoulders and stay there to support him. The dying cockroach swallowed the host, grimaced, choked, coughed and died.
— Better that way, said the doctor. If he healed, what a sad life he would have, alone in the world, without his wife or his children...
Everyone agreed, wiping away their tears. The prince, after ordering the burial, asked Master Snail:
— What about the other patients, Doctor?
— The others... the others are dead," he replied a little sheepishly.
Scaly winked at the girl as if to say: "See? No one escapes his hands..." and invited her to leave. Before leaving, however, Narizinho peeked out of the window and saw the killer frog hanging by its neck from a hawthorn branch. She felt pity, but remembering the dying cockroach father, she said to herself: — Well deserved!
==IN THE ROYAL PALACE==
Back at the royal palace, the girl had the chance to visit numerous rooms, beautifully decorated with evergreens, ferns and mosses of all colors. She also saw the library, full of books in which the wise men had written down the entire history of the kingdom. She was still there, leafing through them one by one, when a menseger cricket came to call her for dinner. She went and sat down at the table next to the prince, and admired the good taste with which everything was arranged.
— It's the art of the leaf-cutters, said Scaly. They're the ones who pick the flowers from the field and decorate these vases.
The plates were beautiful pink shells, and the tureens were brightly enameled sea snails. Green crickets served as servants and brought from the kitchen the plates on which a fat crab in a white apron and cap was putting the finishing touches. A delicious shrimp beard soup came, followed by seafood loin, cicada fillet, mother-of-pearl ribs and mullet egg omelette. For dessert, they brought jitai honey in magnolia petals, and a thousand other delicacies.
While they dined, an excellent orchestra of cicadas and mosquitoes performed beautiful music composed by the maestro Chalk-browed mockingbird. Then the blue manakin dancers came and danced graceful dances.
Next came a royal parrot who had a reputation as an orator. He climbed up to the rostrum from a golden perch and gave a beautiful speech on the art of speaking. In this speech he proved that men had learned to speak from parrots, and not parrots from men, as the latter's science says. A shower of applause welcomed his words.
The same didn't happen, however, with the poetess Tropidurus, who began to recite a long poem and choked in the middle, ending the recitative in a cry and a whimper. To destroy this bad impression, three magical fireflies came and performed various magic tricks, with the illusion of eating fire being very popular.
Narizinho, delighted, clapped her hands at every novelty and laughed a lot at the jokes the court jester made. This was the beetle Carlito Pirulito, a little hunchback inside a corn kernel, created by the prince to amuse the court. During dinner he sat next to Narizinho and didn't stop playing pranks the whole time. And so the happy meal went, leaving unforgettable memories in the girl's mind.
As soon as she left the table, Narizinho went back to her room to prepare for the evening dance. To serve her, she met Mrs. Spider, the best seamstress in the kingdom, as well as several ant maids. Mrs. Spider stood up and said respectfully:
— Would you like to see our collection of ball gowns?
— With pleasure," replied Narizinho, delighted.
The ants immediately opened their closets and took out a number of luxurious dresses, each one more beautiful. One was made of a blue sky decorated with little stars. Another was made of rose petals with forget-me-nots in between. What enchanted Narizinho the most, however, was a dress with a tail, made of spider's web and decorated with little diamonds of dew.
There couldn't have been anything more beautiful and Narizinho clapped her hands with joy, leaving the spider full of herself, because this dress was all her own work; she had made the thread, woven the gauze and sewn it herself.
- I see you have very good taste," said the flattered spider. And, beautiful as you are, if you go with him to the party, you'll certainly be the queen of the evening.
Mrs. Spider dressed her in front of a silver mirror. She combed her hair in the fashion of the kingdom, put beautiful gold pumps on her feet and gloves made of peach skin on her hands. She then gave her a wonderful fan embroidered with sunbeams on mother-of-pearl wings.
Narizinho couldn't get enough of it and, looking at herself in the mirror, she doubted her own eyes:
— Could I be a fairy from One Thousand and One Nights?
When she thought she was ready, the Spider came with several coffers full of diadems, necklaces, rings and bracelets that would make the most opulent princesses in the world envious.
Narizinho chose the most beautiful ones and so, covered in gold and glitter, she sparkled like the sun.
— You're "almost" ready, said the Spider.
— Almost? said Narizinho, smiling. Is there anything left?
The spider replied by sending over some dust from the wings of the rarest butterflies and sprinkling it all over with blue steal-color. What a marvel! The mirror itself even opened its mouth, amazed at such beauty.
Suddenly the door opened and the prince appeared.
— Madam," he said, "the court gathered in the great hall is eagerly awaiting the queen of the party. Come with me!
And, taking her hand, he led her with great ceremony to the ball.
As soon as Narizinho entered, there was a murmur of admiration in the royal hall, which was quite understandable, given that such a dazzling creature had never appeared in Clear Waters before. And they began to whisper that it was surely the Fairy of the Rivers herself who had incarnated herself in the girl. Some ladies even bit their lips in envy as Narizinho passed in front of them, on the prince's arm, towards the throne. And an ugly peeled cockroach, yellow with envy, whispered in the ear of a stumpy-legged beetle, wrinkling its nose:
— She's not even worth that much!
But a gentle green cricket in the back heard the envious roach's outburst and punished her by taking a terrible bite out of her scrawny leg. The cockroach groaned in pain but took the lesson in its stride and kept quiet for the rest of the night.
The room was like an open sky. Instead of light bulbs, there were beautiful bouquets of morning sunbeams on the ceiling, on the walls and in the vases. Flowers galore, beautiful field flowers, arranged in festoons by the bee ladies. Around the room, seated in mother-of-pearl armchairs, the nobility of the court, in gala attire, awaited the prince's orders.
There was everything. Serious beetles with glasses and black coats. Cockroaches in mantillas, with forget-me-nots in their hair. Very thin golden bees with ribbons on their wings. Blue flies; frogs of all colors; beautiful water-mothers with slender bodies as light as ballerinas; mice with white collars and buckled shoes; butterflies with gauze headdresses; moths, bumblebees... There were also fish of all shapes, big crabs that only walk sideways; shrimps that got in the way with so many legs; shellfish with open shells like books; snails that carry the house on their backs and feel their way with their trunks. There was even an old Austro-South American side-neck turtle with little black eyes and a re-varnished shell.
The orchestra was made up of cicadas and small birds: canaries, siskin, seadeaters, house wren, tyrants. At its head was a chalk-browed mockingbird, a famous conductor. This orchestra performed the most beautiful music in the world, nightingale fados, plumbeous seedeater songs, kingfisher barcaroles. It was beautiful!
At last the prince gave the order for the quadrille. The orchestra broke into a composition by the conductor Double-collared seedeater and the gentlemen began to choose the ladies to dance. The marker was a lively blue manakin, a famous master in the courtroom. Narizinho, sitting on the throne, was itching to dance. But the quadrille passed and no one came to take her away. Soon afterwards, however, the orchestra broke into the Royal Waltz and the prince stood up and said to the girl:
— Our turn has come. Would you do me the honor of this waltz?
Narizinho, who wanted nothing more, climbed down from the throne and, in the prince's arms, spun around the room so fast that she looked like a living spinning top. When the South American side-neck turtle saw this, he whispered to the snail: "If that lively little fellow took you out to dance, what would become of you, buddy?"
Replied the snail:
— Maybe I'd do better than a thick shell like you! And they each laughed inside at the sad picture the other would make of them, because in the animal kingdom, as well as among men, nobody knows each other.
— Maybe I'd do better than a thick shell like you! And they each laughed inside at the sad picture the other would make of them, because in the animal kingdom, as well as among men, nobody knows each other.
When the waltz was over, Narizinho returned to the throne and watched a polka danced by a crab and a giant red silkworm moth, very fat, with a large gorgon sash around its waist.
Despite the respect due to the prince, the court laughed its ass off, and Narizinho even lost her breath. Because there was nothing more comical than Mr. Crab skipping polka steps in the arms of Mrs. Giant Silkworm Moth, who was sweating profusely. When the music stopped, she was so tired, that the lady couldn't even stand up, and they had to carry her in their arms and hand her over to Doctor Snail. After this comical incident, dragonfly dancers appeared in the room. A blue one, a red one and an emerald green one, all very light and nervous, began to dance, their beautiful transparent wings trembling. Their movements were so lively and fast that it was more like a ballet of brightly colored rays of light.
It was dazzling. And everyone was in awe, suspended in the air in admiration, when a rush was heard in front of the palace.
It was the crickets of the guard who came in breathless and pale with terror.
— The black scorpion! they announced, their eyes wide.
— The scorpion!" the guests repeated in terror.
It was like announcing the plague. Nervous ladies fell backwards, fainting; others climbed onto their chairs, screaming with terror. The giant silkworm moth, in a fit of nerves, fell unconscious into Crab's arms. The South American side-neck turtle closed itself inside its shell. The snails shrank into their shells. And there weren't any winged bugs left that didn't fly to the ceiling.
The time had come. The hideous Black Scorpion loomed at the palace door with its sting outstretched. It stopped. He snorted in anger and cast a challenging glance around the room.
— Who is this little human girl who dares to enter the realm of animals?" he said, cracking his fangs.
Then, seeing Narizinho standing on the back of the throne, pale with astonishment and fumbling with her tailed dress, he grinned fiercely, marked her well and charged at her.
A scream of horror filled the room, and all eyes closed to avoid seeing the catastrophe. The Black Scorpion advanced, his body swinging. He's already a meter away from the girl. One more step and it will reach her with its venomous sting.
Narizinho, distraught, looked at the prince, begging for help. He was her last hope.
Scaly didn't hesitate for a moment: he pulled out his sword and threw himself at the monster. A fearsome duel ensues. The beast launches successive stinging shots, but the prince parries them with his sword and, after many blows, manages to hit his enemy in the head. The Scorpion lets out a cry of pain and charges with redoubled fury.
Everyone trembles for the prince, who is in serious danger because his strength is unequal to that of a monster of that size. But the prince defends himself heroically, throwing blow after blow at the Scorpion's head, even though he was already feeling tired. The fight would have ended tragically if an astonishing event hadn't changed the situation. And it was at the height of the battle that a rag-witch unexpectedly appeared from the kitchen, armed with a spit for roasting pork loin.
— Emilia!... shouted Narizinho, who had completely forgotten about her beloved doll since the incident with the frog on the day of her arrival.
Emilia, in her underwear, advanced towards Scorpio and hit him! Strike here! She pierced both his eyes in a flash. The monster roared so loudly that the palace shook, and then rolled over on the floor, foaming with cholera and pain. Hurrah! The battle was won, thanks to the spear of the strange, practically naked creature.
— Who is it? Who is it? the little animals asked from all sides, very curious to know who the exotic heroine was. Narizinho jumped down from the throne and came towards her with open arms.
— Forgive me, good Emilia, for forgetting you! But don't worry, I'll ask the prince to make you a countess of this court - and she embraced her, crying. Then he went to the prince and kissed his hands in thanks for risking his precious life for her love. It was a moving scene. But, despite the seriousness of the moment, the jealous cockroach peeked out to see if the cricket was nearby and said in the beetle's ear:
— You'll see that this ends in marriage...
And sighed. Poor thing! It was jealousy. Despite being old and ugly, this spinster cockroach had never given up hope of marrying the prince. The old woman couldn't see her own self...
The party ended at that point, even if it was before the hour. The guests went back to their homes, still frightened, while five hundred powerful hives dragged the Scorpion away. He struggled, but ended up in a stone jail, with an iron chain around his neck...
— Play the bully now, thief! said a Cricket from the guard, giving him a brave kick in the snout.
— Halt! shouted the Captain. It's cowardly to hit enemies who can't defend themselves. And he ordered the entrance to the prison to be closed with a heavy stone to prevent the people from lynching the prisoner.
==AFTER THE PARTY==
The next day, Narizinho and Emilia got up late and had lunch in bed, served by bee maids, who looked very pretty in their stocking caps. They were still nervous from the big scare the day before. Doctor Snail prescribed Biotonico and recommended walks in the countryside. Narizinho, after taking the medicine, went out with Mrs. Spider and strolled around the palace gardens for a good hour, while the attas were trying on Emilia's dresses. The girl asked for news of the prince. She was told that he had left for the frontiers to organize the defense against the invasion of other monsters. Narizinho sighed with longing and said:
— I'm going to confess my big secret to you, my spider friend. Ever since yesterday, I've been in love with the prince... She said and blushed. The spider smiled and replied:
— And he very much deserves your love, because there isn't a prince in the whole world worth more than him. My wish is that you two get married, because otherwise the prince might fall in love with a cockroach and the kingdom would suffer the shame of being ruled by a queen who loses her shell now and then...
And so, chatting, the two of them walked along the very clean and tidy avenues of the garden. Every morning, the ants ran all over the park, picking up all the little spikes, trimming the lawns and making everything look top-notch. There was a pond at the edge of which they stopped, gazing into the liquid mirror. They were both deep in thought: Narizinho missing her prince and Spider missing her sixty daughters eaten by Master Frog. Then they heard a moan some distance away. They approached. It was Master Grab, who was moaning with a huge belly full of pebbles.
— Alas, he cried, I can't even walk! Little girl with the golden hair, take pity on this poor frog and ask the prince to forgive me!...
Narizinho had a good heart and, sympathizing with the unfortunate animal's misery, she promised to intervene on his behalf.
— Look, she said to Spider, this poor fellow is paying for the crime of being a sleeper. He was punished just because he couldn't resist falling asleep at work...
— It's well deserved," replied the spider. Who told him to eat my sixty daughters?
— So, said Narizinho, here in this kingdom, one attacking another is like that, and you can kill and swallow?
— That's right, my child, just like among men, who are vultures eating the flesh of corpses.
Narizinho was very surprised at the way the animals saw humanity and wanted to refute the spider. But she couldn't because the spider interrupted her by saying:
- Yes, they are vultures, and they eat animal carcasses. I used to have my web in a butcher's shop in the city and every night I would see a wagon full of skinned oxen, sheep and pigs arrive, which a man called a butcher, all smeared with blood, would sell to the maids, who would take their baskets.
Narizinho didn't answer back, because she knew it was true...
Then drums and clarions sounded in the distance. It was the prince returning, leading a guard of crickets. Narizinho's heart beat fast.
— Hail! said the prince as soon as he saw the girl. Hail to the lady of my heart!
— If I am the lady of your heart, she replied, I want to ask you for a grace...
— Command and it will be obeyed, said the prince.
— I want Master Grab's forgiveness," said Narizinho, "who is groaning with the five hundred stones in his belly."
The prince granted her request and ordered that Doctor Snail be called to extract the stones. The doctor came with his surgeon's bag. He examined the overstuffed frog, palpated it, raised his glasses to his forehead and said:
— I need to open his stomach.
— So open it, ordered the prince.
Doctor Snail rolled up his sleeves, put on his apron and, helped by several ants, began the operation. The frog was placed on its back, with its belly in the air, and the ants, with their sharp stings, opened a hole in it. Then they entered through the opening and took out the five hundred pebbles of punishment one by one. When the last one came out, Master Grab let out a great sigh of relief. Once the stones had been gathered and the inside cleaned, the doctor set about sewing up the cut. To do this, he joined the edges of the belly and had the ants sting them there, so that each sting was a stitch. And so he made three stitches, leaving three ants clinging to the frog's belly. Then the doctor took a pair of scissors and guillotined the ants so that only the heads of the poor things remained in the frog's skin.
aster Grab thanked the doctor for his service and, in order not to waste any time, went on to eat the bodies of the three beheaded ants that lay on the ground in dispair. Master Grab never missed his chance!
Once this curious operation was over, Narizinho continued her walk with Mrs. Spider, and later went home very pleased with herself for having saved the life of a poor creature of God who had been condemned to a painful ordeal for the simple fact of being a sleeper.
— Friend Spider," she said, "the prince has forgiven the poor frog. Do you forgive him too?
— Never! replied the spider. I can't ever forget my children...
== THE VENETIAN PARTY ==
THAT night there was a small evening party in the palace gardens. The avenues of white sand were lined with motionless fireflies, wide-eyed like torches serving as lamps. In the pond, little serenading frogs coaxed the "Moonlight Nocturne", accompanied by the cries of thousands of little crickets. The prince walked around the garden in the company of the little girl and then invited her for a gondola ride. Off they went in a gondola made of mother-of-pearl, rowed by twelve seahorses.
They sailed over the water, lulled by the beautiful verses that a poet dragonfly recited to the sound of a tiny harp played by Master Mantis.
On the way back from this beautiful walk, the prince invited her to fly.
— There are even airplanes around here? asked the girl, amazed.
— They're safer than men's planes, you'll see," replied the prince.
Despite her fear, the little girl took courage and accepted the invitation.
Straight away, an aircricket came. It was a green cricket, carrying on its back a little wicker boat on the head of two insects, a beetle and a firefly. The firefly, with its large phosphorescent eyes, served as the plane's spotlight and the beetle was there to buzz, pretending to be the noise of the propeller. Narizinho found the ingenious invention very funny and got into the little boat without fear. The beetle buzzed and the airplane shot off into the sky like a bolt of lightning. They went up, up, up so high that the earth from there looked like an orange. They flew through clouds and came very close to the moon, which the little girl had the pleasure of touching with the tip of her finger. And they only came down when the sun was rising.
== THE PLOT ==
ON THE night of that day, Narizinho was in the best part of her dream when she woke up to a knock on the window.
— Knock!... Knock!...
— Who is it?" she said, jumping out of bed, trembling with fear.
— Good evening, beautiful princess," replied a familiar voice. I have a secret to tell you.
It was the frog. Narizinho took a relieved breath and, opening the window, asked him what he wanted.
— You saved my life," replied the frog, "and I want to save yours. Listen to me. After the pebbles had been removed from my stomach, I left the garden and went to hide in a dark corner to heal the cut, looking for a stone burrow. I found one that I liked, and I was dozing there when, at midnight, I heard the sound of voices next door. Since I'm very curious, I put my ear to a crack and started listening. That crack led to the Black Scorpion's prison. At first it seemed to me that the blind monster was talking to himself. But it wasn't like that. The monster was talking to the captain of the guard, whose voice I know very well. They were plotting against the prince, and they spent a long time agreeing on the plans for a revolt to kill the prince and hang all the nobles in the kingdom. They also agreed that the blind Scorpion would ascend the throne, and you would be forced to marry him.
As soon as the girl heard that, she became ill, and Master Grab went to great lengths to wake her up with sprays of cold water. When Narizinho woke up, the frog said:
— Come on, girl! Don't be weak. We must warn the prince while there's still time.
Narizinho, with tears in her eyes, thanked the frog for his warning and ran off towards the prince's chambers. There, she banged on the door furiously. The prince, startled, jumped out of bed sword in hand and, seeing Narizinho in her nightgown, was even more astonished.
— Hurry, Prince! They're plotting against our lives!" she said. And she unraveled the whole story told by the frog. The prince listened in silence, his face tight. Then, after a few moments' meditation, he said very calmly:
— I'm used to fighting and I know how to defend myself. Go back to your room and sleep soundly. I'll punish the criminals tonight.
== THE PUNISHMENT ==
AS soon as dawn broke, Narizinho jumped out of bed, anxious to know what had happened. The prince, as soon as the girl had gone to bed, took his weapons and went to the guardroom, step by step. And through the keyhole he discovered the captain in conference with two traitorous crickets.
— You two, he said, go to the palace now, climb through the window, enter the prince's room and tie him to the bed, while I go and arrange the rest of the party with Scorpio. Let's go! We can't be too careful!..
The prince hadn't even heard this and was already running back to his room. He opened the window through which the traitors would enter and put a trapdoor cage underneath, so that whoever jumped in would fall prisoner. And he waited. A moment later, he heard muffled voices outside and then three heads peering in at the window, very suspicious. The conspirators stood listening for a moment. Then, certain that the prince was sound asleep, they jumped inside and... they fell into the cage!
The prince immediately grabbed a padlock and locked the cage door tight. The crickets, so astonished, had their mouths hanging open and couldn't speak. The prince said nothing. He left the room and went to wake up a faithful cricket, telling him:
— Go and find the captain of the guard and tell him quietly in his ear: — "The three emissaries have sent you to say that the "deal" is done, but they need you to be present in the prince's room". Say it quietly and get out!
The messenger cricket went in search of the captain and found him prowling around the monster's prison. He approached him and repeated the message in his ear. The captain wanted to ask more questions, but by the time he opened his mouth, the messenger had gone.
— Good! He exclaimed. The tyrant is now dead! I'll go there now and tear his liver out with my own nails. And rubbing his hands together, he ran into the palace. He saw the prince's bedroom window open and went up the stairs that the others had left. When he reached the last step, he jumped into the room. But before he reached the floor, he felt a pain in his chest. Ouch! Ouch! He shouted. It was the prince who had struck him in the air with his terrible sword.
— Wretch! Here, for the just punishment of your disloyalty!" said the prince, cutting off his head with another stroke of his sword. The captain's body convulsed on the carpet for a few moments, next to his head, whose eyes were etched with astonishment at the unforeseen outcome of the conspiracy.
The prince, sheathing his sword, summoned some loyal soldiers to bring out the cage with the three traitors.
— Put the Scorpion inside with these traitors, tie a large stone on top of the cage and throw it into the lake.
The guards did so and the monster, instead of marrying Narizinho and ascending to a throne, went into a watery grave...
— Well done! Said the girl when she heard about the punishment. So may the whole race of traitors die! And she ran to congratulate the victorious prince, who hugged her and kissed her on the forehead, moved.
— You saved my kingdom. As a reward, you will receive the crown of princess and sit on the throne beside me as the most adored of wives," he said, putting the bridal ring on her finger.
Narizinho felt immense joy and, all agitated, was about to reply, when a familiar voice woke her up:
— Narizinho, Grandma's calling!
The little girl sat down on the grass, rubbed her eyes, saw the stream flowing as usual and her old aunt at the gate with her scarf tied around her head.
What a shame! It had all been a beautiful dream...
Category:Books