RAPUNZEL’S GOLDEN LADDER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2382, 24 December 1908, Page 9 (Supplement)

RAPUNZEL’S GOLDEN LADDER.

A young Prince was hunting one day in a forest in Germany, when he heard a girl singing sweetly .and sadly to herself. He followed the sound, and came to a tower in which there was no door or stairs. As he stood among the trees, wondering where the entrance was, a Witch hobbled up and sang: “Ttapunzel! Rapunzel! Tret down your hair.” A lovely maiden at once came to the window at the top of the tower, and unbound her golden tresses, and they were so long that they touched the ground, and the Witch slowly climbed up them. “Ah,” said the Prince, “I will use that golden ladder!” When the Witch departed, he also sang: •‘Rapunzel! Rapunzel! Let down your hair.” Rapunzel did so. and he ascended. But oh. how startled she was when he appeared. She had never seen - a man before. The Witch had taken her from her parents when she was a baby, and put her in the tower., and there she had grown up all alone. The Prince talked to her so lovingly that her heart, was soon won, and she promised to marry him. “Now, dearest,” said the Prince, when it grew dark, “I must- find a silken ladder for you to escape by. I will bring it to-morrow when" the Witch has gone away.” L nhappily, Rapunzel was very sim-ple-minued. W hen the Witch came and climbed up her'liair, she said: “How long you take, granny! The Prince climbs up in an instant.” “What!” said the Witch, raging with anger. “After all the trouble I have taken to keep you separate from the world, you let down your hair for a man to’climb up! You must die!” Seizing a pair of scissors, she cut off Rapunzel's hair, and bed her into a desert, and left her there to perish. The Witch then returned to the tower, and climbed up by means of the golden tresses., which she had tied round the window-bar. “Rapunzel! Rapunzel! Let down your hair,” sang the Prince, as he came through the forest, carrying a silken ladder. Then, seeing the tresses, he gaily climbed up, and entered the room. “Ah, ah!” shrieked the Witch, as she saw him looking around for Rapunzel. “The pretty girl bird isn’t in the nest. The eat has killed it, and the cat is going to scratch vour eves out.” She pushed the Prince, and he tumbled out of the window, and fell on a bush, and the thorns pierced his eyes. After wandering blindly about the forest, he came up to the desert, and heard Rapunzel singing sweetlv and softly to.herself. He followed the sound, and she saw him and ran up and fell upon his neck weeping, and two of her tears vetted his eyes, and he recovered his sight. The bad old Witch, who had been watching from the top of the tower, saw the lovers meet, and she was so angry at their happiness that her rage choked her, and she died. i • r.{ ru . lc e at once led Rapunzel to Ins father s kingdom, and there they dour 3 ° yfu y married in great splen-