Chapter Chapter 138 · The Beam

. The Beam

There was once an enchanter who was standing in the midst of a great

crowd of people performing his wonders. He had a cock brought in, which

lifted a heavy beam and carried it as if it were as light as a feather.

But a girl was present who had just found a bit of four-leaved clover,

and had thus become so wise that no deception could stand out against

her, and she saw that the beam was nothing but a straw. So she cried,

“You people, do you not see that it is a straw that the cock is

carrying, and no beam?” Immediately the enchantment vanished, and the

people saw what it was, and drove the magician away in shame and

disgrace. He, however, full of inward anger, said, “I will soon revenge

myself.”

After some time the girl’s wedding-day came, and she was decked out,

and went in a great procession over the fields to the place where the

church was. All at once she came to a stream which was very much

swollen, and there was no bridge and no plank to cross it. Then the

bride nimbly took her clothes up, and wanted to wade through it. And

just as she was thus standing in the water, a man, and it was the

enchanter, cried mockingly close beside her, “Aha! Where are thine eyes

that thou takest that for water?” Then her eyes were opened, and she

saw that she was standing with her clothes lifted up in the middle of a

field that was blue with the flowers of blue flax. Then all the people

saw it likewise, and chased her away with ridicule and laughter.