Ashputtle or The Mothers Ghost -2
American Ghosts and Old World Wonders 作者：安吉拉·卡特 投票推荐 加入书签 留言反馈
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Came the time for that curious fair they used to hold in that try, when all the resident virgio dan front of the kings son so that he could pick out the girl he wao marry.The turtle dove was mad for that, for her daughter to marry the prince. You might have thought her own experienarriage might have taught her to be wary, but no, needs must, what else is a girl to do? The turtle dove was mad for her daughter to marry so she flew in and picked up the new silk dress with her beak, dragged it to the open window, threw it down to Ashputtle. She did the same with the string of pearls. Ashputtle had a good wash uhe pump in the yard, put oolen finery and crept out the back way, secretly, to the dang grounds, but the stepsisters had to stay home and sulk because they had nothing to wear.
The turtle dove stayed close to Ashputtle, peg her ears to make her dance vivaciously, so that the prince would see her, so that the prince would love her, so that he would follow her and find the clue of the fallen slipper, for the story is not plete without the ritual humiliation of the other woman and the mutilation of her daughters.
The search for the foot that fits the slipper is essential to the enat of this ritual humiliation.
The other woman wants that young man desperately. She would do anything to catch him. Not losing a daughter, but gaining a son. She wants a son so badly she is prepared to cripple her daughters. She takes up a carving knife and chops off her elder daughters big toe, so that her foot will fit the little shoe.
Imagine.
Brandishing the carving khe woman bears down on her child, who is as distraught as if she had not been a girl but a boy and the old<tt></tt> woman was after a more essential portion than a toe. "No!" she screams. "Mother! No! Not the knife! No!" But off it es, all the same, and she throws it in the fire, among the ashes, where Ashputtle finds it, wonders at it, and feels both awe and fear at the phenomenon of mother love.
Mother love, which winds about these daughters like a shroud.
The prince saw nothing familiar in the face of the tearful young woman, one shoe off, one shoe on, displayed to him in triumph by her mother, but he said: "I promised I would marry whoever the shoe fitted so I will marry you," and they rode off together.
The turtle dove came flying round and did not or coo to the bridal pair but sang a horrid song: "Look! Look! Theres blood in the shoe!"
The priurhe ersatz ex-fia once, angry at the trick, but the stepmother hastily lopped off her other daughters heel and pushed that poor foot into the bloody shoe as soon as it was vat so, nothing for it, a man of his word, the prince helped up the new girl and once again he rode away.
Back came the na<cite>??</cite>gging turtle dove: "Look!" And, sure enough, the shoe was full of blood again.
"Let Ashputtle try," said the eager turtle dove.
So nouttle must put her foot into the hideous receptacle, this open wound, still slid warm as it is, for nothing in any of the mas of this tale suggests the prince washed the shoe out betweetings. It was an ordeal in itself to put a naked foot into the bloody shoe, but her mother, the turtle dove, urged her to do so in a soft, g that could not be denied.
If she does not pluhout revulsion into this open wound, she wo to marry. That is the song of the turtle dove, while the other mad mother stood impotently by.
Ashputtles foot, the size of the bound foot of a ese woman, a stump. Almost an amputee already, she put her tiny foot in it.
"Look! Look!" cried the turtle dove in triumph, even while the bird betrayed its ghostly nature by being progressively more and more immaterial as Ashputtle stood up in the shoe and eo walk around. Squelch, went the stump of the foot in the shoe. Squelch. "Look!" sang out the turtle dove. "Her foot fits the shoe like a corpse fits the coffin!
"See how well I look after you, my darling!"
2 THE BURNED CHILD
A burned child lived in the ashes. No, not really burned -- more charred, a little bit charred, like a stick half-burned and picked off the fire. She looked like charcoal and ashes because she lived in the ashes since her mother died and the hot ashes burned her so she was scabbed and scarred. The burned child lived on the hearth, covered in ashes, as if she were still m.
After her mother died and was buried, her father fot the mother and fot the child and married the woman who used to rake the ashes, and that was why the child lived in the unraked ashes, and there was nobody to brush her hair, so it stuck out like a mat, nor to wipe the dirt off her scabbed face, a<tt>?t>nd she had to do it for herself, but she raked the ashes and slept beside the little cat and got the burned bits from the bottom of the pot to eat, scraping them out, squatting on the floor, by herself in front of the fire, not as if she were human, because she was still m.
Her mother was dead and buried, but felt perfect exquisite pain of love when she looked up through the earth and saw the burned child covered in ashes.
"Milk the cow, burned child, and bring back all the milk," said the stepmother, who used to rake the ashes and milk the cow, once upon a time, but the burned child did all that, now.
The ghost of the mother went into the cow.
"Drink milk, grow fat," said the mhost.
The burned child pulled on the udder and drank enough milk before she took the bucket bad nobody saw, and time passed, she drank milk every day, she grew fat, she grew breasts, she grew up.
There was a maepmother wanted and she asked him into the kit to get his dinner, but she made the burned child cook it, although the stepmother did all the cooking before. After the burned child cooked the dihe stepmother sent her off to milk the cow.
"I want that man for myself," said the burned child to the cow.
The cow let down more milk, and more, and more, enough for the girl to have a drink and wash her fad wash her hands. When she washed her face, she washed the scabs off and now she was not bur all, but the cow was empty.
"Give your own milk, ime," said the ghost of the mother ihe cow. "Youve milked me dry."
The little cat came by. The ghost of the mother went into the cat.
"Your hair wants doing," said the cat. "Lie down."
The little cat unpicked her raggy lugs with its clever paws until the burned childs h>.</a>air hung down nicely, but it had been so snagged and tahat the cats claws were all pulled out before it was finished.
"b your own hair, ime," said the cat. "Youve maimed me."
The burned child was and bed, but stark naked.
There was a bird sittin<bdo>99lｉｂ?</bdo>g in the apple tree. The ghost of the mother left the cat a into the bird. The bird struck its ow with its beak. Blood poured down on to the burned child uhe tree. It ran over her shoulders and covered her front and covered her back. When the bird had no more blood, the burned child got a red silk dress.
"Make your own dress, ime," said the bird. "I"m through with that bloody business."
The burned child went into the kit to show herself to the man. She was not burned any more, but lovely. The ma off looking at the stepmother and looked at the girl.
"e home with me a your stepmother stay and rake the ashes," he said to her and off they went. He gave her a house and money. She did all right.
"Now I go to sleep," said the ghost of the mother. "Now everything is all right."
3 TRAVELLING CLOTHES
The stepmother took the red-hot poker and burhe orphans face with it because she had not raked the ashes. The girl went to her mrave. In the earth her mother said: "It must be raining. Or else it is snowing. Uhere is a heavy dew tonight."
"It isnt raining, it isnt snowing, its too early for the dew. My tears are falling on yrave, mother."
The dead woman waited until night came. Then she climbed out ao the house. The stepmother slept on a feather bed, but the burned child slept on the hearth among the ashes. When the dead woman kissed her, the scar vahe girl woke up. The dead woman gave her a red dress.
"I had it when I was ye."
The girl put the red dress on. The dead woman took worms from her eyesockets; they turned into jewels. The girl put on a diam.
"I had it when I was ye."
They went together to the grave.
"Step into my coffin."
"No," said the girl. She shuddered.
"I stepped into my mothers coffin when I was ye."
The girl stepped into the coffin although she thought it would be the death of her. It turned into a coad horses. The horses stamped, eager to be gone.
"Go and seek your fortune, darling."
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