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1、TheCanaryPrince金丝雀王子The Canary PrinceThere was a king who had a daughter Her mother was dead, and the stepmother was jealous of the girl and always spoke badly of her to the king The maiden defended herself as best as she could, but the stepmother was so contrary and insistent that the king, though
2、he loved his daughter, finally gave in He told the queen to send the girl away, but to some place where she would be comfortable, for he would never allow her to be mistreated Have no fear of that, said the stepmother, who then had the girl shut up in a castle in the heart of the forest To keep her
3、company, the queen selected a group of ladies-in-waiting, ordering them never to let the girl go out of the house or even to look out the windows Naturally they received a salary worthy of a royal household The girl was given a beautiful room and all she wanted to eat and drink The only thing she co
4、uldnt do was go outdoors But the ladies, enjoying so much leisure time and money, thought only of themselves and paid no attention to herEvery now and then the king would ask his wife, And how is our daughter? What is she doing with herself these days? To prove that she did take an interest in the g
5、irl, the queen called on her The minute she stepped from her carriage, the ladies-in-waiting all rushed out and told her not to worry, the girl was well and happy The queen went up to the girls room for a moment So youre comfortable, are you? You need nothing, do you? Youre looking well, I see; the
6、country air is doing you good Stay happy, now Bye-bye, dear! And off she went She informed the king she had never seen his daughter so contentOn the contrary, alwasy alone in the room, with ladies-in-waiting who didnt so much as look at her, the princess spent her days wistfully at the window She sa
7、t there leaning on the windowsill, and had she not thought to put a pillow under them, she would have got calluses on her elbows The window looked out on the forest, and all day long the princess saw nothing but treetops, clouds and, down below, the hunters trail Over that trail one day came the son
8、 of a king in pursuit of a wild boar Nearing the castle known to have been unoccupied for no telling how many years, he was amazed to see washing spread out on the battlements, smoke rising from the chimneys, and open casements As he looked about him, he noticed a beautiful maiden at one of the uppe
9、r windows and smiled at her The maiden saw the prince too, dressed in yellow, with hunters leggings and gun, and smiling at her, so she smiled back at him For a whole hour, they smiled, bowed, and curtsied, being too far apart to communicate in any other wayThe next day, under the pretext of going h
10、unting, the kings son returned, dressed in yellow, and they stared at each other this time for two hours; in addition to smiles, bows, and curtsies, they put a hand over their hearts and waved handkerchiefs at great length The third day the prince stopped for three hours, and they blew each other ki
11、sses The fourth day he was there as usual, when from behind a tree a witch peeped and began to guffaw: Ho, ho, ho, ho!Who are you? Whats so funny? snapped the princeWhats so funny? Two lovers silly enought to stay so far apart!Would you know how to get any closer to her, ninny? asked the princeI lik
12、e you both, said the witch, and Ill help youShe knocked at the door and handed the ladies-in-waiting a big old book with yellow, smudgy pages, saying it was a gift to the princess so the young lady could pass the time reading The ladies took it to the girl, who opened it at once and read: This is a
13、magic book Turn the pages forward, and the man becomes a bird; turn them back, and the bird becomes a man once moreThe girl ran to the window, placed the book on the sill, and turned the pages in great haste while watching the youth in yellow standing in the path Moving his arms, he was soon flappin
14、g wings and changed into a canary, dressed in yellow as he was Up he soared above the treetops and headed straight for the window, coming to rest on the cushioned sill The princess couldnt resist picking up the beautiful canary and kissing him; then remembering he was a young man, she blushed But on
15、 second thought she wasnt ashamed at all and made haste to turn him back into a youth She picked up the book and thumbed backward through it; the canary ruffled his yellow feathers, flapped his wings, then moved arms and was once more the youth dressed in yellow with the hunters leggings, who knelt
16、before her, declaring, I love you!By the time they finished confessing all their love for one another, it was evening Slowly, the princess leafed through the book Looking into her eyes the youth turned back into a canary, perched on the windowsill, then on the eaves, then trusting to the wind, flew down in wide arcs, lighting on the lower limb of a tree At that, she turned the pages back in the book and the canary was a prince once m
