MAGIC MIRRORS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 928, 22 March 1930, Page 29

MAGIC MIRRORS

A Witch and a Cake of Soap

Many hundred years ago Gnometown was a very small town. The streets that now are full of shops and houses had not been made, and the thick green bush wu growing where they now stand. One day a Gnome named Kerry came riding in from the mountains. He went to the King and said:

“Your majesty, give me a hundred acres of this bush country and 1 will turn it into good farming land.” “You shall have it,” said the King “it is

yours even now, for you look to me like a hard-working Gnome."

After many months of work by Kerry and his three sons, their sharp axes had chopped down the bush, a roaring fire had sent it skyward in smoke and flames, and the seed that had been sown on the ashes had

sprung to life with the first rain. Green grass covered the hills and valle; where such a short time ago the big trees had stood.

Kerry was very proud of his new farm and when he had put fences on it and bought sheep and cattle for it. he said to the king: “Your Majesty, I would like to have a big picnic on my farm and ask all Gnomes to come to it and have a happy day.” “That would be a good thing to do.” said the King. “I will come myself and bring Prince Normolf, who has just come in from Far-away Hills to stay with me. As he lives a lonely life at his distant home, I hope that he will find a wife among the many beautiful Gnome girls who will be there.”

At this time there were living in Gnometown two sisters. Bellon, tue elder one, was a cruel and spiteful girl, but the younger one. Tansy, was sweet ana kind, and everyone loved her. Sometimes the Gnomes wondered why Bellon was so cruel to her younger sister, and some of them said:—

“Bellon is ugly and bad tempered and Tansy is the prettiest girl in the town and is kind and loving to everyone. Bellon is jealous of the good looks and the loving ways of her sister and that is why she makes her always stay at home and wear old clothes and makes her do all the housework.”

When the sisters heard of the picnic and that Prince Normolf would be there, Bellon said: “If I could make myself beautiful, the Prince might marry me, and Tansy said, “My sister will never allow me to go to the picnic, so I shall not see the beautiful dresses the girls are wearing; nor shall I see the King and the Prince.” Bellon thought: so much of the coming picnic that she could not sleep. She knew* where the Witches’ Wood was and she left her bed and went there in the moonlight. She followed a little path that took her to the biggest tree she had ever seen. “I wonder if it is a Witch’s home?’ she said. “It is,” said a voice from inside; “It. is the home of Horsetooth.” “Then let me enter,” said Bellon “for I would speak to Horsetooth.” At once a door opened in the trunk of the tree, and she stepped through it. She was now in a small room ancl as there were no windows, and she could not see any door, although she; had just stepped through the doorway, she wondered how she would get out if the Witch tried to lock her up. Horsetooth rose from her stool and said: “Fair lady, lovely Gnome. Why have you left your home'.”’ “Oh\ do you think I am lovely ” asked Bellon. The Witch did not speak, but gave Bellon a mirror. The Gnome girl looked in it and saw a face of wonderful beauty; sparkling eyes, apple-red cheeks, smiling lips and long tresses of fair hair. “Oh. how lovely I am,” she cried. “The Prince will surely want to marry me! But,” she said sadly, “even now I am not as beautiful as Tansy.” Then Horsetooth looked at Bellon and said: “Take you the mirror home and every day More beauty round your lovely head will play.” i Then Bellon took the mirror and i said to the Witch: “Horsetooth, I came in the moonlight to ask you to make me beautiful and you have already done so. Will you help me to make my young sister so ugly that no man will even look at her?” The Witch went to a little cupboard and took from it a little cake of soap, and gave it to Bellon and sail: “Whoever washes with this soap on Sunday Will be the ugliest person on the Monday.” Now was Bellon very glad. She had beauty herself, for did not the mirror tell her so; and she had a cuke of soap to make her sister ugly. She looked in the mirror again, and again she saw a very beautiful face. The Witch opened the door for her ! and she ran back home, happier than she had been for many weeks. She did j not know that Horsetooth had given ! her a mirror that never told the truth. She did not know that the beautiful

face she saw. when she. looked in ii. w.t> not her face. The great picnic was to be on Mo:, day and. three days before. Bellon s.. to Tansy. “I have a wonderful cake of soap for you. If you wash with on Sunday you will be more beaut, ful than ever on Monday." Tansy took ti e soap to her da. % little bedroom. She did not know tha. Bellon had lied to her and that the soap would change her beauty Into ugliness. She said to herself: l do not wish to be more beautif.: but I would like Bellon to become so beautiful that the Prince would mari y her. Then I might keep house for th • and be happier than lam now. If this soap will make a person heautifu . then I would like Bellon to use it.” Tansy took some berries from a tree in the garden and crushed the Juice out of them. She put the soap into this juice, and by next morning .t had changed its colour from cream to revi “Now.” said Tansy, “I have a cake of red soap that will give beauty to anyone who uses it.” She rap to her sis ter and said: “Bellon, I am very thankful for the soap you gave me. and I have here a cake of red soap for you. This will make you very beautiful, too, but do not ask me where l got it. for that is a secret.” On Sunday night Bellon looked Into the mirror that Horsetooth had given her. “How beautiful I am,” she aaiu “Perhaps if I use the soap Tansy ha given me, I shall be more beautiful still, and then the Prince will surely marry me.” So she washed her iac« with the soap and went to bed full v happy thoughts. Monday morning came, the morning of the picnic. Bellon looked in thin irror. “How beautiful I am,” she said. “People will talk if Tansy is no at tho picnic, so I shall allow he* t go and help in the kitchen tent wl* the servants.” She said to her sistc-r:

“Put on your oldest dress, for you will be working in the kitchen at th* picnic. Did you use the soap I gave you?”

“I have none of it left,” answered Tansy.

At midday the picnic was a ga \ scene and the pretty girls were all wondering if the Prince would notice them. Again Bellon looked in her mirror, and again she saw a beautiful face. Then Kerry spoke to the pnopl* and said:

“I have with me Thrumbo, a wizard who is going to change this little you have been dancing by into a big mirror.”

The wizard clapped his hands and tho clear water rose up and stood lik* a sheet of the brightest glass in ;« frame of graceful trees, and nil th'* Gnomes ran to look at themselves in the mirror of water. “I shall be th~ most beautiful,” said Bellon. as she ran over.

A scream broke from her that made all the Gnomes look In wonder. She saw herself uglier than she had ever been, for the little cake of soap that Horsetooth had given her had at that minute changed her face so that no one would even wish to look at her again. She screamed once more, then ran across the green paddocks an 1 into the dark bush, and the Gnomes say now that she was turned into a wicked witch. No one has seen her since .the picnic day, but when on cold stormy nights the wind howls dismally through the tree-tops or the bush, the old Gnomes say “That is wicked Bellon crying. She was a bad Gnome.”

When Bellon looked in the mirror of water and screamed, the servants in the kitchen tent all ran out to see what had happened. Then the Prince saw Tansy for the first time. He looked at her in wonder, for she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. “J cannot go back to Far-away Hills,” h * thought, “unless this sweet gir goes with me.” Tansy looked at the Prince and loved him at first sight. Every Gnome in the town was glad when it was known that the Prince and the beautiful Tansy were lovers, and it was not many weeks before they were married. A beautiful castle was built for them in the country where the Prince had always lived. And when they drove out of Gnometown among the cheer ing ranks of people they were the happiest couple in all the Gnome Country.