Page:Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar.djvu/20

4 "mamma has locked up all the light, and our work is not half done! As for going to Madam Witch, I shan't; I daresay I can manage to go on working by the gleam of my knitting-needles."

"I shan't go either, I shall be able to finish this bit of lace by the light of my pins," said the other.

"Vaselesa must go!"

And they pushed the poor girl out of the room, and locked the door after her. Vaselesa went straight to her own room, and told her doll what her sisters wanted her to do.

"Don't be afraid, my darling," answered the doll, "but go wheresoever you are sent, and fear nothing. As long as you carry me about with you, you are safe."

Vaselesa put the doll in her pocket, and ran out of the house into the forest, singing as she went. Suddenly a white horseman rode past her on a white horse, and as he rode everything around him became white. Vaselesa was greatly astonished at this, and began wondering what he could be, when another horseman rode past, clad in red, sitting on a red horse, and as he rode along everything became red; but he, too, soon disappeared. After she had walked a little farther, she met another horseman, dressed in black, on a black horse, and immediately all became quite dark round about her.

Vaselesa had now not far to go, but very soon arrived at the little hut where Madam Witch lived This hut and its surroundings were most peculiar as well as alarming; in the first place, the hut itself stood on chickens' legs, and round it was a high wall