The Lark And The Toad

: OURSON
: Old French Fairy Tales

There was once a pretty woman named Agnella, who cultivated a farm. She

lived alone with a young servant named Passerose. The farm was small but

beautiful and in fine order. She had a most charming cow, which gave a

quantity of milk, a cat to destroy the mice and an ass to carry her

fruit, butter, vegetables, eggs, and cheese to markets every Wednesday.



No one knew up to that time how Agnella and Passerose had arrived
at

this unknown farm which received in the county the name of the Woodland

Farm.



One evening Passerose was busy milking the pretty white cow while

Agnella prepared the supper. At the moment she was placing some good

soup and a plate of cream upon the table, she saw an enormous toad

devouring with avidity some cherries which had been put on the ground in

a vine-leaf.



"Ugly toad!" exclaimed Agnella, "I will teach you how to eat my

cherries!" At the same moment she lifted the leaves which contained the

cherries, and gave the toad a kick which dashed it off about ten steps.

She was about to throw it from the door, when the toad uttered a sharp

whistle and raised itself upon its hind legs; its great eyes were

flashing, and its enormous mouth opening and shutting with rage, its

whole ugly body was trembling and from its quivering throat was heard a

terrible bellowing.



Agnella paused in amazement; she recoiled, indeed, to avoid the venom of

the monstrous and enraged toad. She looked around for a broom to eject

this hideous monster, when the toad advanced towards her, made with its

fore paws a gesture of authority, and said in a voice trembling with

rage:--



"You have dared to touch me with your foot! You have prevented me from

satisfying my appetite with the cherries which you had placed within my

reach! You have tried to expel me from your house! My vengeance shall

reach you and will fall upon that which you hold most dear! You shall

know and feel that the fairy Furious is not to be insulted with

impunity. You shall have a son, covered with coarse hair like a bear's

cub and----"



"Stop, sister," interrupted a small voice, sweet and flute-like, which

seemed to come from above. Agnella raised her head and saw a lark

perched on the top of the front door. "You revenge yourself too cruelly

for an injury inflicted, not upon you in your character of a fairy but

upon the ugly and disgusting form in which it has pleased you to

disguise yourself. By my power, which is superior to yours, I forbid you

to exaggerate the evil which you have already done in your blind rage

and which, alas! it is not in my power to undo. And you, poor mother,"

she continued, turning to Agnella, "do not utterly despair; there is a

possible remedy for the deformity of your child. I will accord to him

the power of changing his skin with any one whom he may, by his goodness

and service rendered, inspire with sufficient gratitude and affection to

consent to the change. He will then resume the handsome form which would

have been his if my sister, the fairy Furious, had not given you this

terrible proof of her malice and cruelty."



"Alas! madam Lark," replied Agnella, "all this goodness cannot prevent

my poor, unhappy son from being disgusting and like a wild beast. His

very playmates will shun him as a monster."



"That is true," replied the fairy Drolette; "and the more so as it is

forbidden to yourself or to Passerose to change skins with him. But I

will neither abandon you nor your son. You will name him Ourson until

the day when he can assume a name worthy of his birth and beauty. He

must then be called the prince Marvellous."



Saying these words, the fairy flew lightly through the air and

disappeared from sight.



The fairy Furious withdrew, filled with rage, walking slowly and turning

every instant to gaze at Agnella with a menacing air. As she moved

slowly along, she spat her venom from side to side and the grass, the

plants and the bushes perished along her course. This was a venom so

subtle that nothing could ever flourish on the spot again and the path

is called to this day the Road of the Fairy Furious.



When Agnella found herself alone, she began to sob. Passerose, who had

finished her work and saw the hour of supper approaching, entered the

dining-room and with great surprise saw her mistress in tears.



"Dear queen, what is the matter? Who can have caused you this great

grief? I have seen no one enter the house."



"No one has entered, my dear, except those who enter everywhere. A

wicked fairy under the form of a toad and a good fairy under the

appearance of a lark."



"And what have these fairies said to you, my queen, to make you weep so

piteously? Has not the good fairy interfered to prevent the misfortunes

which the wicked fairy wished to bring about?"



"No, my dear friend. She has somewhat lightened them but it was not in

her power to set them aside altogether."






Agnella then recounted all that had taken place and that she would have

a son with a skin like a bear. At this narrative Passerose wept as

bitterly as her mistress.



"What a misfortune!" she exclaimed. "What degradation and shame, that

the heir of a great kingdom should be a bear! What will King Ferocious,

your husband, say if he should ever discover us?"



"And how will he ever find us, Passerose? You know that after our flight

we were swept away by a whirlwind and dashed from cloud to cloud for

twelve hours with such astonishing rapidity that we found ourselves more

than three thousand leagues from the kingdom of Ferocious. Besides, you

know his wickedness. You know how bitterly he hates me since I prevented

him from killing his brother Indolent and his sister Nonchalante. You

know that I fled because he wished to kill me also. I have no reason to

fear that he will pursue me for I am sure that he will wish never to see

me again."



Passerose, after having wept and sobbed some time with the Queen Aimee,

for that was her true name, now entreated her mistress to be seated at

the table.



"If we wept all night, dear queen, we could not prevent your son from

being shaggy but we will endeavor to educate him so well, to make him so

good, that he will not be a long time in finding some good and grateful

soul who will exchange a white skin for this hairy one which the evil

fairy Furious has put upon him. A beautiful present indeed! She would

have done well to reserve it for herself."



The poor queen, whom we will continue to call Agnella for fear of giving

information to King Ferocious, rose slowly, dried her eyes and succeeded

in somewhat overcoming her sadness. Little by little the gay and

cheering conversation of Passerose dissipated her forebodings. Before

the close of the evening, Passerose had convinced her that Ourson would

not remain a long time a bear; that he would soon resume a form worthy

of a noble prince. That she would herself indeed be most happy to

exchange with him, if the fairy would permit it.



Agnella and Passerose now retired to their chambers and slept

peacefully.



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