Page:Select Popular Tales from the German of Musaeus.djvu/55

Rh of the house took immediately another form; the new mistress behaved proudly and imperiously to the servants; she loved splendour and extravagance; and there was no end to the feasts and banquets which she gave. The house was soon peopled with numerous descendants of the new stock; and the daughters by the first marriage were no longer thought of. When the elder daughters grew up, the stepmother sought to rid herself of them, and sent them to board in a convent, at Dünkelsbühl; the little Matilda was placed under the care of a nurse, and was transferred to a little remote chamber, where she was out of sight of the vain lady, who did not meddle much with the cares of the family. Her extravagant expenditure increased also; so that the profits of the fist and club rights, though the knight did not slacken his former activity, were no longer sufficient; and she often saw herself compelled to make use of the property left by her predecessor, or to borrow gold from the Jews. Once she found herself in a particularly distressing position. She sought through drawers and chests for something valuable, and at last discovered a secret compartment, and a concealed press, in which, to her great joy, she found the Lady Matilda’s jewel-case. The sparkling jewels, diamond rings, earrings, bracelets, girdles, and other trinkets, delighted her charmed eyes. She examined all accurately, counted piece by piece, and calculated in her mind what profit this splendid discovery would bring her. Among these valuables the wooden musk-apple met her eyes. For a long time she did not know what to make of it; she tried to unscrew it, but it was swollen by the damp. She shook it in her hand, and found it as light as an empty nut; so she took it for an empty ring-case, and supposing it contained nothing valuable, she threw it at once out of the window. At this moment, the little Matilda was sitting in her narrow garden, playing with her doll. When she saw the wooden ball roll down on the ground, she threw the doll out of her hand, seized her new plaything with childish eagerness, and was as much delighted with her discovery as her mamma with hers. She amused herself many days with this toy, and would not let it out of her hands. One beautiful summer’s day, the nurse desired to enjoy, with her foster daughter, the fresh breeze by the rock spring; at evening-tide the child asked for her honey-roll, which her nurse had forgotten to bring. She did not wish to go back again; and to keep the child in good humour she went into the thicket to pluck for her a handful of raspberries. The child, in the meantime, played with the musk-apple, threw it here and there, like a catch-ball, till, in one of the throws, the child’s plaything fell into the spring. Immediately there stood before her a young lady, as beautiful as an angel, and as mild as one of the Graces. The child, alarmed at the sudden appearance, thought she saw her stepmother before her, who always thrust her rudely about, and beat her whenever she came