There were once a man and a woman who had long in vain wished for a child. At length the woman hoped that God was about to grant her desire. These people had a little window at the back of their house from which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the most beautiful flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to go into it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded by all the world. One day the woman was standing by this window and looking down into the garden, when she saw a bed which was planted with the most beautiful rampion (rapunzel), and it looked so fresh and green that she longed for it, she quite pined away, and began to look pale and miserable. Then her husband was alarmed, and asked: What ails you, dear wife? Ah, she replied, if I cant eat some of the rampion, which is in the garden behind our house, I shall die. The man, who loved her, thought: Sooner than let your wife die, bring her some of the rampion yourself, let it cost what it will.
Sleeping Beauty and Other Classic Stories
