Three small tales
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i.
I thought I dreamed and beheld a thousand mirrors, and in each mirror my own face I saw; but in each eye, which was itself a mirror, another reflection of my eyeless face shone before me.
A thousand mirrors, two thousand eyes, and never the faces smiled.
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ii.
I met a man who had lost his family to a great fire. He sat by the street, his ragged clothes all filth and dust, and poked a stick into a tiny blaze. 'They are gone, all gone away!' he cried, 'and I've forgotten how to follow!'
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iii.
Once I did hear of three sisters, all lovely, and each in beauty increased until the youngest had a face like the rising sun. A nobleman could not miss this beauteous dawn, and gave her a golden ring, the right of the eldest.
'O sister, let us walk by the river this morning, and see the boats and tall ships sailing there.' Two sisters walked in the sun's fading light by the river, and in a moment- ah! one sister walked, and laughed, while the younger sank beneath the water.
'O sister!' she cried, but the girl held her ears, and closed her eyes, and pictured her wedding as her sister drowned.
(But this, too, have I heard - that one sister drowned, and one for her murder was hanged, and the handsome nobleman was wed in a week to the middle sister, who bore three sons and never gave one a gift she gave not the others.)
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i.
I thought I dreamed and beheld a thousand mirrors, and in each mirror my own face I saw; but in each eye, which was itself a mirror, another reflection of my eyeless face shone before me.
A thousand mirrors, two thousand eyes, and never the faces smiled.
-
ii.
I met a man who had lost his family to a great fire. He sat by the street, his ragged clothes all filth and dust, and poked a stick into a tiny blaze. 'They are gone, all gone away!' he cried, 'and I've forgotten how to follow!'
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iii.
Once I did hear of three sisters, all lovely, and each in beauty increased until the youngest had a face like the rising sun. A nobleman could not miss this beauteous dawn, and gave her a golden ring, the right of the eldest.
'O sister, let us walk by the river this morning, and see the boats and tall ships sailing there.' Two sisters walked in the sun's fading light by the river, and in a moment- ah! one sister walked, and laughed, while the younger sank beneath the water.
'O sister!' she cried, but the girl held her ears, and closed her eyes, and pictured her wedding as her sister drowned.
(But this, too, have I heard - that one sister drowned, and one for her murder was hanged, and the handsome nobleman was wed in a week to the middle sister, who bore three sons and never gave one a gift she gave not the others.)
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