THE TALE ABOUT HOW ALL THESE TALES CAME TO LIGHT
N our times, but not in this country, there lived a little girl, with a pair of brown eyes that shone like two big radiant stars. Every time that she looked with those eyes on her father or her mother, and a sweet smile beamed on her countenance, the father's and mother's souls brightened, and it seemed to them as if music, which nobody heard except themselves, resounded in their hearts.
Very often on such occasions the father took his beloved girl on his lap, kissed her tenderly, and asked what she would like.
'I should like you to tell me a fairy tale,' invariably answered the little girl, pressing her rosy face to her father's breast.
'That is in our hands. We can afford that,' answered her father.
Then he tried to recall what he had ever read or heard from his grandmother or other old folk, and related some story, while the little girl listened attentively. Her big eyes became still larger; they beamed like a pair of evening stars, and she now and then slightly and slowly nodded, taking to heart everything that happened in the story. If her father told of some evil, unjust person, she exclaimed: 'I do not like him!' But if the story ran about some one kind-hearted and good, she was very glad of it, and said: 'That is good!'
And again it was as if beautiful music resounded in her father's soul. He saw that his little one was grieved with other people's grievances and rejoiced in other people's happiness. He saw how she pondered over what he said, and he thought of the time when they, the father and mother, will grow old, while their little one will become a grown-up girl. They will live together, as to-day, in mutual love and thorough friendship. Yet then it will be she, their sweet daughter, that will take care of them and feed them, as they now take care of her and feed her. And the father again pressed his lips on his beloved pet's head.
As for the mother, she was never weary of caressing her child and doing everything for her. But as she had to take care also of the father and of our girl's baby-sister, who had a pair of eyes like two little suns, she very often was quite exhausted towards the close of the day. Therefore when the little girl with starlike eyes went to bed, and, clasping her mother by the neck with both her hands, asked her to tell some fairy tale, her mother could not recall any.... Still the little girl repeated her request again and again....