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Page 23
"'Have done, my child,' the old dame said. 'Thou shalt wear a court robe
of the finest. Years have I toiled to give it thee, but that is naught.
I loved thee as my own.'
"Then the old dame went into an inner room and pricked herself with her
spindle until a great red drop of her heart's blood fell into her
trembling hand. With witchery of words she blew upon it, and rolled it
in her palm, and muttering, turned and turned and turned it. And as the
spell was laid upon it, it shrivelled it into a tiny round ball like a
seed, and she strung it on to a thread where were many others like it.
Seventy times seven was the number of beads on this strange rosary.
Then she laid it away until the time when it should be needed.
"When the night of the first ball rolled around, Olga combed her long
golden hair and twined it with a wreath of snowy water-lilies, and then
she stood before the old dame in her dress of tow. To her wonderment and
grief she saw the old flax-spinner had no silken robe in waiting, only a
string of beads which she clasped around Olga's white throat. Each bead
in the necklace looked like a little shrivelled seed, and Olga's eyes
were filled with tears of disappointment.
"'Obey me and all will be well,' said the old dame. 'When thou reachest
the castle gate clasp one bead in thy fingers and say:
"'"For love's sweet sake, in my hour of need,
Blossom and deck me, little seed."
"'Straightway, right royally shalt thou be clad. Thou hast been a good
daughter to me, and thus I reward thee. But remember carefully the
charm. Only to the magic words, "For love's sweet sake," will the
necklace give up its treasures. If thou shouldst forget, then must thou
be doomed alway to bear thy gown of tow.'
"So Olga sped on her moon-lighted way through the forest until she came
to the castle gate. There she paused, and grasping a bead of the strange
necklace between her fingers, repeated the old dame's charm:
"'For love's sweet sake, in my hour of need,
Blossom and deck me, little seed.'
"Immediately the bead burst with a little puff, as if a seed pod had
snapped asunder. A faint perfume surrounded her, rare and subtle as if
it had been blown across from some flower of Eden. Olga looked down and
found herself enveloped in a robe of such delicate texture that it
seemed soft as a rose leaf, and as airy as the pink clouds that
sometimes float across the sunset. The water-lilies in her hair had
become a coronal of opals.
"When she entered the great ballroom, the prince of the castle started
up from his throne in amazement. Never before had he seen such a vision
of loveliness. 'Surely,' said he, 'some rose of Paradise hath found a
soul and drifted earthward to blossom here.' And all that night he had
eyes for none but her.
"The next night Olga started again to the castle in her dress of tow,
and at the gate she grasped the second bead in her fingers, repeating
the charm. This time the pale yellow of the daffodils seemed to have
woven itself into a cloth of gold for her adorning. It was like a
shimmer of moonbeams, and her hair held the diamond flashings of a
hundred tiny stars.
"That night the prince paid her so many compliments and singled her out
so often to bestow his favours, that Olga's head was turned. She tossed
it proudly, and quite scorned the thought of the humble cottage which
had given her shelter so long. The next day, when she had returned to
her gown of tow, and was no longer a haughty court lady, but only Olga,
the flax-spinner's maiden, she repined at her lot. Frowning she carried
the water from the spring. Frowning she gathered the cresses and plucked
the woodland fruit. And then she sat all day by the spring, refusing to
spread the linen on the grass to bleach.
"She was discontented with the old life of toil, and pouted crossly
because duties called her when she wanted to do nothing but sit idly
dreaming of the gay court scenes in which she had taken a bright, brief
part. The old flax-spinner's fingers trembled as she spun, when she saw
the frowns, for she had given of her heart's blood to buy happiness for
the maiden she loved, and well she knew there can be no happiness where
frowns abide. She felt that her years of sacrifice had been in vain.
"That night outside the castle gate Olga paused. She had forgotten the
charm. The day's discontent had darkened her memory as storm clouds
darken the sky. But she grasped her necklace imperiously.
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