Page:Segnius Irritant or Eight Primitive Folk-lore Stories.pdf/51

 And so he again turned his steps homeward, overjoyed. He neither ate nor drank, nor saw nor heard, for very rapture. Not until the third day did his interior begin to assert its claims. He was so hungry that he would even have had recourse to the leaden dumplings if his pocket had not been empty. There he was with empty pockets, in a plain as bare as the palm of your hand! So he drew out of his pocket a citron and cut it in half; but what did not happen? Out of the citron sprang a beautiful girl, naked as your finger, bowed herself before him, and exclaimed: “What hast thou prepared me to eat? What hast thou prepared me to drink? What fine clothes hast thou prepared for me?” “I have not, oh! beautiful creature, anything to give thee to eat, nor to drink, nor to array thyself in,” said the prince, remorsefully; and the beautiful girl clapped three times with her white hands before him, bowed, and vanished.

“Aha! now I know then what sort of citrons they are! Stay, now I will not cut them open on such slight pretexts,” said the prince. From the one he had cut in half he ate and drank his fill, and thus refreshed, marched forward. But on the third day a hunger three times worse than the previous hunger overpowered him, “Praise and glory to the Lord God!” he thought to himself, “there is still one left; I will divide it.” And here he drew out the second citron, cut it in half, and lo! a still more beautiful girl than the previous one stood before him, just as God had created her. “What hast thou prepared me to eat? What hast thou prepared me to drink? What fine raiment hast thou prepared for me?” “Nothing have I prepared, fair darling! nothing,” and the beautiful girl clapped with her hands three times before him, bowed herself, and vanished.

Now he had only one citron left. He takes it in his hand and thus addresses it: “I will not cut thee in two, save in the house of my father!” And with this he hastened home. On the third day he saw again, after a long time, his native city. He himself did not the least know how he got there, save that all at once he found himself in the fortress castle of his father. Tears of joy filled his aged father’s eyes. “Welcome, my son, welcome, a hundred times!” he exclaimed, and fell about his neck. The prince related how he had fared on the journey; and those at home, how yearningly they had awaited his return.

The following day a grand feast was prepared; the nobility was invited from all sides, the tables were loaded with the choicest wines