Short Fiction, Fyodor Sologub [most popular novels of all time .txt] 📗

When the tradesman’s daughter said that she was growing wings, the young lady’s face flushed and she looked quite vexed. “That’s not for you to do,” she said. “It is only real ladies who can grow wings.”

And she went on home, and when she got indoors she filled a tub with milk and bathed herself in it, and then went into her garden and stood in the sun and waited for her wings to come out.

Presently a princess passed by the garden, and when she saw the young lady standing there she sent a servant to inquire what she was doing. The servant came back and told her that as the young lady had wanted to be able to fly she had bathed herself in milk and was waiting for her wings to grow.

The princess laughed scornfully and exclaimed, “What a foolish girl! She’s giving herself trouble for nothing. No one who is not a princess can ever grow wings.”

The princess turned the matter over in her mind, and when she arrived at her father’s palace she went into her chamber, anointed herself with sweet-smelling perfumes, and then went down into the palace garden to wait for her wings to come.

Very soon all the young girls in the country round about went out into their gardens and stood among the vegetables so that they might get wings.

The Fairy of the Wings heard about this strange happening and she flew down to earth, and, looking at the waiting girls, she said, “If I give you all wings and let you all go flying in the sky, who will want to stay at home to cook the porridge and look after the children? I had better only give wings to one of you, namely to her who wanted them first of all.”

So wings grew from the little peasant girl’s shoulders, and she was able to fly up into the sky and sing.

A little peasant girl lay ill in her bed. And in heaven God called an angel to His side and bade her go down to earth and dance before the little girl and amuse her. But the angel thought it unbecoming to her dignity to dance before the people of the earth.

And God knew the proud thoughts of the angel and ordained a punishment for her. She was born into the world of men and became a little child there⁠—a princess in a royal house⁠—and she forgot all that she had known of heaven and her former life, forgot even her own name.

Now the angel had been called by a name of purity and fragrance, and the people of the earth know no such names as these. So when she became an earthly princess she had only a human name, and was called the Princess Margaret.

When the little princess grew up she often felt as if she wanted to remember something she had once known, but she could not think what it might be, and she became unhappy because she could not remember.

One day she asked her father:

“How is it we cannot hear the sunshine?”

The king smiled at the question, but he could not answer it, and the little princess looked very grieved.

Another day she said to her mother:

“The roses smell very sweet; how is it I cannot see their scent?”

And when her mother laughed at the strange question the princess felt sadder than ever.

Some time afterwards she came to her nurse and said:

“How is it that names are not sweet-scented?”

The old nurse laughed at her, and again the princess was grieved that no one could answer any of her questions. Then a rumour went about the land that the king’s daughter was different from other people, and that her mind was weak. And everybody tried to think of some means to cure her and make her well.

She was a quiet and melancholy child, and was always asking strange and unusual questions. She was thin and pale, and no one thought her beautiful. But she grew older, and at last the time came for her to marry. Many young princes came to her father’s court to woo her, but when she began to talk to them no one wanted to have her as a wife. At last a prince named Maximilian arrived, and when the princess saw him she said to him:

“With us human beings everything seems quite separate from other things⁠—I can only hear words, I cannot smell them; and though I can see flowers and smell their scent, yet I cannot hear them. It makes life dull and uninteresting, don’t you think?”

“What would make life more beautiful for you?” said Maximilian.

The princess was silent for some time, but at last she said, “I should so much like to have a sweet-smelling name.”

“Yes, fair princess,” said he, “the name Margaret is not nearly good enough for you. You ought to have a name of sweet fragrance, but there are no such names known upon the earth.” Then the poor little princess wept sad tears, and Maximilian felt very sorry for her, and he loved her more than anyone else in the whole world. He tried to comfort her by saying, “Do not weep, dear princess. I will try and find out if there are such names, and come and tell you of them.”

The princess smiled through her tears and said, “If you can find for me a name which gives forth a sweet odour when it is spoken, then I will kiss your stirrup-leather.” And she blushed as she said this, for she was a princess and very proud.

Hearing this, Maximilian grew bolder and said, “And will you then be my wife?” And the princess answered that she would.

So Maximilian departed to search throughout all the world until he found a name which would give forth a sweet fragrance and perfume the air when it was spoken. He travelled into far lands and made inquiries of rich and poor, learned and ignorant;