Page:The Pentamerone, or The Story of Stories.djvu/152

126 the wicked daughters into a ditch, and the good daughter to the top of the wheel of fortune.

was one time a woman who had three daughters, two of whom were so unlucky that nothing ever succeeded with them; all their projects went wrong, all their hopes were turned to chaff. But the youngest, who was named Nella, was born to good luck, and I verily believe that at her birth all things conspired to bestow on her the best and choicest gifts in their power: the Sky gave her the perfection of its light, Venus a matchless beauty of form, Love the first dart of his power, Nature the flower of manners. She never set about any work, that it did not go off to a nicety; she never took anything in hand, that it did not succeed to a hair; she never stood up to dance, that she did not sit down with applause. On which account she was envied by her jealous sisters, and yet not so much as she was loved and wished well to by all others; and greatly as her sisters desired to put her underground, still much more did other folks carry her on the palms of their hands.

Now there was in that country an enchanted prince, who sailed along the sea of her beauty, and flung out the hook of amorous servitude to this beautiful