Сказки / Fairy Tales

’

And he said to her,

‘No, I was cruel to my mother, and this evil is a punishment. I must go and wander through the world till I find her. I hope she will give me her forgiveness.’

So he ran away into the forest and called out to his mother to come to him, but there was no answer. All day long he called to her, and, when the sun set he lay down to sleep on a bed of leaves. The birds and the animals fled from him. They remembered his cruelty. He was alone save for the toad and the adder that watched him.

In the morning he rose up, and plucked some bitter berries from the trees and ate them. After that he went through the wood and wept sorely. And he wanted to know if anybody saw his mother.

He said to the Mole,

‘You can go beneath the earth. Tell me, is my mother there?’

And the Mole answered,

‘You blinded my eyes. How can I know?’

He said to the Linnet,

‘You can fly over the tops of the tall trees.

And the Linnet answered,

‘You hurt my wings for your pleasure. How can I fly?’

And to the little Squirrel who lived in the fir-tree, and was lonely, he said,

‘Where is my mother?’

And the Squirrel answered,

‘You killed my children. Do you want to kill her, too?’

And the Star-Child wept and bowed his head, and prayed forgiveness of God’s creatures. He went on through the forest, he looked for the beggar-woman.

When he passed through the villages the children mocked him, and threw stones at him. The farmers did not let him sleep even in the byres, because he was very foul. The workers drove him away, and there was none who had pity on him. Nor could he hear anywhere of the beggar-woman who was his mother.

During three years he wandered over the world, and often saw beggars on the road. But he met his mother nowhere.

He wandered over the world, and in the world there was neither love nor kindness nor charity for him. It was such a world as he made for himself in the days of his great pride.

One evening he came to the gate of a city that stood by a river. He was weary and footsore and tried to enter.