THE LITTLE LADY
Source
There was once a man and a woman who married together. They had a beautiful daughter, as beautiful as the day. This girl grew up, and she was always praying to God and giving alms to the poor. Also, when she went out, the poor people came to meet her and said:
“Here is the Little Lady."
The Little Lady's mother died, and her father remarried. But the stepmother could not see the Little Lady, and she did everything in the world to have her thrown out.
“See,” she said to her father, “this little thing gives all the bread to the poor. Just now I saw her fill her full apron."
The father called the Little Lady to see what she was carrying in her apron. But it turned out that, by a miracle from God, the apron was full of flowers.
So the stepmother couldn't see the Little Miss. Twenty times a day she beat her. But the Little Lady always prayed to God and was always compassionate and charitable to the poor.
The Little Lady's father and stepmother had a daughter. What did the stepmother do? She killed her daughter, and went to tell her man:
“Your daughter killed my daughter. You know what you have to do."
What did the father do? He cut the Little Lady's wrist, put the dead child in her apron, and threw her out.
The Little Lady went far, far, far away: she found a small fountain. At the small fountain, she washed her mutilated arm. Immediately, her hand returned to her more beautiful than before. Then she bathed the dead child there, and the child came back to life.
The Little Lady and the child went far, far, far away. They found a group of shepherds. The Little Lady asked them to give her a little milk, to keep the child alive. The shepherds gave her milk, and they both left.
They went far, far, far away. Finally, they arrived in Jerusalem and retired to an honest house.
But since the Little Lady had left her parish, all the crops had failed. The fields bore only thistles and brambles. Then people understood that it was because the Little Lady had left. They said she must be found, dead or alive, and set out to look for her.
These people went far, far, far away. They met a group of shepherds.
“Shepherds, have you not seen a little one-armed lady pass by, with a dead child in her apron?"
"No, we didn’t see her."
The people of the parish set out again. Finally, they arrived in Jerusalem and went to knock on the door of the honest house where the Little Lady had lodged.
“Brave girl, couldn’t you accommodate us for this night?”
“Yes,” replied the Little Lady.
"Brave girl, did not a young one-armed girl arrive in Jerusalem with a dead child in her apron?"
"I haven't heard of it."
The strangers went to bed. The next day, at dawn, the Little Lady got up to comb some flax. And the flax cried:
“Ouch! Ouch!"
"Suffer, flax, suffer," said the Little Lady. "I suffered a lot. They cut my wrist, they put a dead child in my apron. And yet I am here."
Then the strangers who heard it said:
“You are indeed the Little Lady."
"No, I'm not. You can see that I'm not one-armed. You see clearly that the child I have with me is not dead."
"Little Lady, you must come with us."
"No, I don't want to go."
But the foreigners took the Little Lady by force, with the child, and they took them back to their country. As they approached the village, the bells rang out of their own accord. And from that moment on, the harvests again became as beautiful as in the other parishes.
Source: La Petite Demoiselle, from the French book Contes populaires de la Gascogne, tome 2, published in 1886
Previous Tale: Belle Madeleine
Next Tale: The Ship Walking on Land
Hello, my name is Vincent Celier.
I am writing translations of folk tales that I found in public domain French books, so that people who do not understand French may enjoy them too.
This tale is shorter than most of the others that I have posted so far.
There is a similitude with the tale of Belle Madeleine. Initially, the Little Lady does not want to be recognized, but she is recognized because she replies to the talking flax she is working with.
Oliver, the younger grandson of Kati, was very much afraid of me the last time we were in Calgary. This is no longer the case.
Yesterday, we went to a playground with the two kids. In this picture, you can see them rotating me in this equipment after I did it for them.
-- Vincent Celier