round the lake, and at one spot an opening had been made by a deer,
through which Eliza went down to the water. The lake was so clear that, had
not the wind rustled the branches of the trees and the bushes, so that they
moved, they would have appeared as if painted in the depths of the lake; for
every leaf was reflected in the water, whether it stood in the shade or the
sunshine. As soon as Eliza saw her own face, she was quite terrified at
finding it so brown and ugly; but when she wetted her little hand, and
rubbed her eyes and forehead, the white skin gleamed forth once more; and,
after she had undressed, and dipped herself in the fresh water, a more
beautiful king’s daughter could not be found in the wide world. As soon as
she had dressed herself again, and braided her long hair, she went to the
bubbling spring, and drank some water out of the hollow of her hand. Then
she wandered far into the forest, not knowing whither she went. She thought
of her brothers, and felt sure that God would not forsake her. It is God who
makes the wild apples grow in the wood, to satisfy the hungry, and He now
led her to one of these trees, which was so loaded with fruit, that the boughs
bent beneath the weight. Here she held her noonday repast, placed props
under the boughs, and then went into the gloomiest depths of the forest. It
was so still that she could hear the sound of her own footsteps, as well as
the rustling of every withered leaf which she crushed under her feet. Not a
bird was to be seen, not a sunbeam could penetrate through the large, dark
boughs of the trees. Their lofty trunks stood so close together, that, when
she looked before her, it seemed as if she were enclosed within trellis-work.
Such solitude she had never known before. The night was very dark. Not a
single glow-worm glittered in the moss.
Sorrowfully she laid herself down to sleep; and, after a while, it seemed
to her as if the branches of the trees parted over her head, and that the mild
eyes of angels looked down upon her from heaven. When she awoke in the
morning, she knew not whether she had dreamt this, or if it had really been
so. Then she continued her wandering; but she had not gone many steps
forward, when she met an old woman with berries in her basket, and she
