TRUYỆN CỔ ANDERSEN - Trang 1078

she pierced a hole through the leaf, and looked through it at the sun, and it
was as if she saw her brothers’ clear eyes, and when the warm sun shone on
her cheeks, she thought of all the kisses they had given her. One day passed
just like another; sometimes the winds rustled through the leaves of the
rose-bush, and would whisper to the roses, “Who can be more beautiful
than you!” But the roses would shake their heads, and say, “Eliza is.” And
when the old woman sat at the cottage door on Sunday, and read her hymn-
book, the wind would flutter the leaves, and say to the book, “Who can be
more pious than you?” and then the hymn-book would answer “Eliza.” And
the roses and the hymn-book told the real truth. At fifteen she returned
home, but when the queen saw how beautiful she was, she became full of
spite and hatred towards her. Willingly would she have turned her into a
swan, like her brothers, but she did not dare to do so yet, because the king
wished to see his daughter. Early one morning the queen went into the bath-
room; it was built of marble, and had soft cushions, trimmed with the most
beautiful tapestry. She took three toads with her, and kissed them, and said
to one, “When Eliza comes to the bath, seat yourself upon her head, that she
may become as stupid as you are.” Then she said to another, “Place yourself
on her forehead, that she may become as ugly as you are, and that her father
may not know her.” “Rest on her heart,” she whispered to the third, “then
she will have evil inclinations, and suffer in consequence.” So she put the
toads into the clear water, and they turned green immediately. She next
called Eliza, and helped her to undress and get into the bath. As Eliza
dipped her head under the water, one of the toads sat on her hair, a second
on her forehead, and a third on her breast, but she did not seem to notice
them, and when she rose out of the water, there were three red poppies
floating upon it. Had not the creatures been venomous or been kissed by the
witch, they would have been changed into red roses. At all events they
became flowers, because they had rested on Eliza’s head, and on her heart.
She was too good and too innocent for witchcraft to have any power over
her. When the wicked queen saw this, she rubbed her face with walnut-
juice, so that she was quite brown; then she tangled her beautiful hair and