The Four Gifts
:
Breton Legends
If I had an income of three hundred crowns, I would go and dwell
at Quimper; the finest church in Cornouaille is to be found there,
and all the houses have weather-vanes upon their roofs. If I had two
hundred crowns a year, I would live at Carhaix, for the sake of its
heath-fed sheep and its game. But if I had only one hundred, I would
set up housekeeping at Pontaven, for there is the greatest abundance
of every thing.
At Pontaven they sell butter at the price of milk,
chickens for that of eggs, and linen at the same rate as you can buy
green flax. So that there are plenty of good farms there, where they
dish up salt pork at least three times a week, and where the very
shepherds eat as much rye-bread as they desire.
In such a farm lived Barbaik Bourhis, a spirited woman, who had
maintained her household like a man, and who had fields and stacks
enough to have kept two sons at college.
But Barbaik had only a niece, whose earnings far outweighed her keep,
so that every day she laid by as much as she could save.
But savings too easily acquired have always their bad side. If you
hoard up wheat, you attract rats into your barns; and if you lay by
crowns, you will engender avarice in your heart.
Old Mother Bourhis had come at last to care for nothing but the
increase of her hoards, and think nothing of any one who did not
happen to pay heavy sums each month to the tax-gatherers. So she
was angry when she saw Denes, the labourer of Plover, chatting with
her niece behind the gable. One morning, after thus surprising them,
she cried to Tephany in step-mother tones,
"Are not you ashamed to be always chattering thus with a young man
who has nothing, when there are so many others who would gladly buy
for you the silver ring?"
"Denes is a good workman and a thorough Christian," replied the
damsel. "Some day he will be able to rent a farm where he may rear
a family."
"And so you would like to marry him?" interrupted the old woman. "God
save us! I would sooner see you drowned in the well than married to
that vagabond. No, no, it shall never be said that I brought up my
own sister's child to be the wife of a man who can carry his whole
fortune in his tobacco-pouch."
"What matters fortune when we have good health, and can ask the
Blessed Virgin to look down on our intentions?" replied Tephany gently.
"What matters fortune!" replied the fermiere, scandalised. "What! have
you come to such a length as to despise the wealth that God has given
us? May all the saints take pity on us! Since this is the case, you
bold-faced thing, I forbid you ever to speak again to Denes; and if
I catch him at this farm again, it will be the worse for you both;
and meanwhile go you down to the washing-place, and wash the linen,
and spread it out to dry upon the hawthorn; for since you've had one
ear turned towards the wind from Plover, every thing stands still at
home, and your two arms are worth no more than the five fingers of
a one-armed man."
Tephany would have answered, but in vain. Mother Bourhis imperiously
pointed out to her the bucket, the soap, and the beetle, and ordered
her to set off that very instant.
The girl obeyed, but her heart swelled with grief and resentment.
"Old age is harder than the farm-door steps," thought she to herself;
"yes, one hundred times harder, for the rain by frequent falling
wears away the stones; but tears have no power to soften the will of
old people. God knows that talking with Denes was the only pleasure I
had. If I am to see him no more, I might as well leave the world at
once; and our good angel was always with us. Denes has done nothing
but teach me pretty songs, and talk about what we shall do when we
are married, in a farm, he looking after the fields, and I managing
the cattle."
Thus talking to herself, Tephany had reached the douez. Whilst setting
down her tub of linen upon one of the white lavatory stones, she
became aware of an old woman, a stranger, sitting there, leaning her
head upon a little scorched thorn-stick. Notwithstanding her vexation,
Tephany saluted her.
"Is my aunt taking the air under the alders?" said she, moving
her load farther off.
"One must rest where one can, when one has the roof of heaven for a
shelter," answered the old woman, in a trembling voice.
"Are you, then, so desolate?" asked Tephany compassionately; "is
there no relation left who can offer you a refuge at his fireside?"
"Every one is long since dead," replied the stranger; "and I have no
other family than all kind hearts."
The maiden took the piece of rye-bread rubbed with dripping which
Barbaik had given her in a bit of linen with her beetle.
"Take this, poor aunt," said she, offering it to the beggar. "To-day,
at least, you shall dine like a Christian on our good God's bread;
only remember in your prayers my parents, who are dead."
The old woman took the bread, then looked at Tephany.
"Those who help others deserve help themselves," said she. "Your
eyes are red, because Barbaik has forbidden you to speak to the lad
from Plover; but he is a worthy youth, whose intentions are good,
and I will give you the means of seeing him once every day."
"You!" cried the girl, astonished that the beggar was so well informed.
"Take this long copper-pin," replied the crone; "and every time you
stick it in your dress, Mother Bourhis will be forced to leave the
farm, and go to count her cabbages. All the time this pin remains
where you stick it, you will be at liberty; and your aunt will not
return until the pin is put back into this etui."
With these words the beggar rose, nodded a farewell, and disappeared.
Tephany was lost in astonishment. Evidently the old woman was no
beggar, but a saint, or a singer of truth.
At any rate, the young girl treasured the pin carefully, well
determined to try its power the next day. Towards the time, then,
at which Denes was accustomed to make his appearance, she set it in
her collar. Barbaik instantly put on her wooden shoes, and walked
off into the garden, where she set herself to count her cabbages;
from the garden she went to the orchard, and from the orchard to the
field, so that Tephany could talk with Denes at her ease.
It was the same the next day, and the next, through many weeks. As
soon as the pin made its appearance from the etui, the good woman
was off amongst her cabbages, always beginning to count once more
how many little or big, embossed or curly cabbages she had.
Denes at first appeared enchanted at this freedom, but by degrees he
grew less eager to avail himself of it. He had taught Tephany all his
songs; he had told her all his plans; now he was forced to consider
what he could talk to her about, and make it up beforehand, like a
preacher preparing his sermon. And more than that, he came later,
and went earlier away; sometimes even, pretending cartage, weeding,
or errands to the town detained him, he came not to the farm at all;
and Tephany had to console herself with her pin.
She understood that the love of her betrothed was cooling, and became
more sorrowful than before.
One day, after vainly waiting for the youth, she took her pitcher, and
went all solitary to the fountain, her heart swelling with displeasure.
When she reached it, she perceived the same old woman who had given
her the magic pin. There she sat, near the spring; and watching
Tephany as she advanced, she began with a little chuckling laugh,
"Ah, ah! then the pretty girl is no longer satisfied to chatter with
her humble servant any hour of the day."
"Alas, to chat, I must be with him," replied Tephany mournfully;
"and custom has made my company less agreeable to him. Oh, aunt,
since you have given me the means of seeing him every day, you might
give me at the same time wit enough to keep my hold upon him."
"Is that what my daughter wants?" said the old woman. "In that case,
here is a feather; let her but put it in her hair, and no one can
resist her, for she will be as clever and as cunning as Master John
himself."
Tephany, reddening with delight, carried off the feather; and just
before Denes' visit on the following day, she stuck it under her
blue rozares. That very instant it appeared to her as if the
sun rose in her mind; she found herself acquainted with what students
spend ten years in learning, and much that even the very wisest know
nothing of; for with the science of a man, she still preserved the
malice of a woman. Denes was of course astonished at her words; she
talked in rhyme like the bazvalanes of Cornouaille, she knew
more songs than the mendicants from Scaer, and could tell all the
stories current at the forges and the mills throughout the country.
The young man came day after day, and Tephany found always something
new to tell him. Denes had never met man or woman with so much wit;
but after enjoying it for a time, he began to be scared by it. Tephany
had not been able to resist putting in her feather for others than him;
her songs, her sayings, were repeated every where, and people said,
"She is a mischievous creature; he who marries her is sure to be led
like a bridled horse."
The Plover lad repeated in his own mind the same predictions; and as
he had always thought that he would rather hold than wear the bridle,
he began to laugh with more constraint at Tephany's jests.
One day, when he wanted to be off to a dance in a new threshing-floor,
the maiden used her utmost efforts to retain him; but Denes, who did
not choose to be led, would not listen to her reasons, and repulsed
her entreaties.
"Ah, I see why you are so anxious to go to the new barn," said Tephany,
with irritation; "you are going to see Azilicz of Penenru there."
Azilicz was the handsomest girl in the whole canton; and, if her good
friends told truth, she was the greatest flirt.
"To tell the truth, Azilicz will be there," said Denes, who delighted
in piquing the jealousy of his dearly-beloved; "and to see her any
one would go a long round."
"Go, then, where your heart draws you," said the wounded damsel.
And she returned to the farm without hearing a word more he had to say.
But seating herself, overwhelmed with sadness, on the broad
hearth-stone, she gave herself up to earnest thought; and then flinging
the wondrous feather from her, she exclaimed,
"Of what use is wit and cleverness for maidens, since men rush towards
beauty as the flies to sunshine! Ah, what I want, old aunt, is not
to be the wisest, but the fairest on the earth."
"Be thou also, then, the fairest," uttered an unexpected voice.
Tephany turned round astonished, and saw at the door the old woman
with her thorn-stick, who thus spoke:
"Take this necklace, and so long as you shall wear it round your neck,
you shall appear amongst all other women as the queen of the meadow
amidst wild flowers."
Tephany could not repress a cry of joy. She hastened to put on the
necklace, rushed to her little mirror, and there stood dumb with
admiration. Never had any girl been at once so fair and so rosy,
so lovely to look upon.
Anxious to judge instantly of the effect which her appearance would
produce on Denes, she decked herself out in her finest dress, her
worsted stockings, and her buckled shoes, and took her way towards
the new barn.
But just as she reached the cross-road, she met a young lord in his
coach, who, the instant he caught sight of her, desired the coachman
to stop.
"By my life," cried he, in admiration, "I had no idea there was such
a beautiful creature as this in the country; and if it were to cost
me my life, she must bear my name."
But Tephany replied, "Go on, good sir, go on your way; I am but a
poor peasant-girl, accustomed to winnow, milk, and mow."
"But I will make a noble lady of you," cried the young lord; and
taking her hand, he tried to lead her to his coach.
The maiden drew back.
"I will only be the bride of Denes, the Plover labourer," said she,
with resolution.
The lord still insisted; but when he found that she went towards
the ditch to fly away across the meadows, he desired his footmen to
seize her, and put her by force into the coach, which then set off
at full gallop.
In about an hour's time they reached the castle, which was built of
carved stone, and was covered with slate, like all noble mansions. The
young lord ordered them to go and fetch a priest to perform the
marriage ceremony; and as meanwhile Tephany would not hear a word he
had to say, and kept trying to run away, he made them shut her up
in a great hall closed by three doors well bolted, and desired his
servants to guard her well. But by means of her pin Tephany sent them
all into the garden to count cabbages; by her feather she discovered
a fourth door concealed in the panneling, whereby she escaped; and
then fervently committing herself to Providence, she scampered away
through the woods like a hare who hears the dogs behind her.
As long as she had any strength left, on she went, until the night
began to close around her. Then, perceiving the turret of a convent,
she went up to the little grated door, and ringing the bell, begged
for a night's shelter; but on seeing her the portress shook her head.
"Go away, go away," said she; "there is no place here for young girls
so beautiful as you, who wander all alone at this hour of night along
the roads."
And closing the wicket, she went away without listening to another
word.
Forced to go further on, Tephany stopped at a farm-door, where there
were several young men and women talking together, and made the same
request as at the convent.
The mistress of the house hesitated what answer to make; but all the
young men, dazzled by Tephany's beauty, cried out each one that he
would take her to his father's house, and every one endeavoured to
outbid his neighbour in their offers. One said that he would take her
in a wagon and three horses, lest she should be tired; another promised
her the best bed; and a third declared that she should sit down at
table with the family. At last, from promises they came to quarrelling,
and from quarrelling to blows; until the women, frightened, began to
abuse Tephany, telling her it was an infamous shame to come with her
charms to put dissensions amongst men in that way. The poor girl,
quite beside herself, tried to run away; but all the young men set
off after her. Just then she all at once remembered her necklace,
and taking it from her neck slipped it round that of a sow who was
cropping the buttercups. In an instant the charm that drew the youths
towards her died away, and they began to pursue the beast instead,
which fled away in terror.
Tephany still went on in spite of her fatigue, and came at last to her
aunt's farm, worn out with weariness, but still more with grief. Her
wishes had brought her so little satisfaction, that she passed many
days without making another. However, Denes' visits grew more and
more uncertain; he had undertaken to clear a warren, and there he
toiled from morning until night.
When the young girl regretted seeing so little of him, he had always
to reply that his labour was their sole resource; and that if people
want to spend their time in talking together, they must needs have
legacies or dowries.
Then Tephany began to complain and to desire.
"God pardon me," said she, in a low voice; "but what I ought to ask
for is not liberty to see Denes every day, for he soon gets tired
of it; nor wit, for it scares him; nor beauty, for it brings upon me
trouble and mistrust; but rather wealth, for then one can be master
of oneself and others. Ah, if I dared to make yet one petition more
of the old aunt, I would be wiser than I was before."
"Be satisfied," said the voice of the old beggar, though Tephany
perceived her not. "Feel in your right pocket, and you will find a
little box; rub your eyes with the ointment it contains, and you will
have a treasure in yourself."
The young girl hastily felt in her pocket, found the box, opened
it, and began to rub her eyes as she had been desired, when Barbaik
Bourhis entered.
She who, in spite of herself, had now for some time past consumed
whole days in cabbage-counting, and who saw all the farm-work fallen
into arrears, was only waiting an occasion for visiting her wrath upon
somebody. Seeing her niece sitting down doing nothing, she clasped
her hands and cried,
"That's the way, then, that the work goes on whilst I am in the
fields. Ah, I am surprised no longer that we are all going to ruin. Are
you not ashamed, you wretch, to plunder food in this way from your
kith and kin?"
Tephany would have excused herself; but Barbaik's rage was like
milk heating on a turf-fire--let but the first bubble rise, and all
mounts upwards and boils over; from reproaches she came to threats,
and from threats to a box on the ear.
Tephany, who had borne every thing patiently till then, could no
longer restrain her tears; but guess her astonishment when she
perceived that every tear was a beautiful and shining fair round pearl.
Mother Bourhis, who made the same discovery, uttered loud cries of
admiration, and set herself to pick them up.
Denes, who came in at that instant, was no less surprised.
"Pearls! real pearls!" he exclaimed, catching them.
"It will make our fortune," said Barbaik, continuing to pick them
up. "Ah, what fairy has bestowed this gift upon her? We must take
good care lest it gets noised abroad, Denes; I will give you a share,
but only you. Go on, my girl, go on; you also shall be benefited by
this opportunity."
She held her apron, and Denes his hat; the pearls were all he thought
of, forgetful they were tears.
Tephany, choking with emotion, would have escaped; but the old
woman stopped her, reproaching her with wishing to defraud them,
and saying all she could to make her cry the more. The young girl
compelled herself with violent effort to control her sorrow, and to
wipe her eyes.
"It's all over already," cried Barbaik. "Ah, Blessed Virgin, can
one be so weak-minded! If I had such a gift as that, I would no more
think of stopping than the great fountain on the Green Road. Hadn't
we better beat her a little, and try again?"
"No," interrupted Denes, "for fear we should exhaust her the first
time. I will set forth this moment for the town, and there find out
how much each pearl is worth."
Barbaik and he went out together, reckoning the value as nearly
as they could, and deciding beforehand how they should divide it,
forgetting Tephany completely in the matter.
As for her, she clasped her two hands upon her heart, and raised her
eyes towards heaven; but her look was intercepted by the aged beggar,
who, leaning on her staff in the duskiest corner of the hearth, was
watching her with mocking eye. The maiden trembled; and seizing the
pin, the feather, and the box of ointment given her by the crone,
"Take back, take back," she cried, "your fatal gifts. Woe to all
those who cannot be content with what they have received from God! He
had gifted me according to His own wise appointment, and I madly
was dissatisfied with my portion. Give others liberty, wit, beauty,
and wealth. For me, I neither am, nor will be, other than the simple
girl of former days, loving and serving her neighbours to the utmost
of her power."
"Well said, Tephany," cried the old woman. "Thou hast come out from
the trial; but let it do thee good. The Almighty has sent me to
bestow this lesson on thee; I am thy guardian angel. Now that thou
hast learned this truth, thou wilt live more happily; for God has
promised peace to hearts of good will."
With these words the beggar changed into an angel glittering with
light; and shedding through the farm a scent of violets and of incense,
vanished like a flash of lightning.
Tephany forgave Denes his willingness to make merchandise of her
tears. Become now more reasonable, she accepted happiness as we find
it on this earth; and she was married to the lad of Plover, who proved
through all his life a good husband and a first-rate workman.