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He
had a plan, but it lay on him with much fear. He had heard from one of the
forge apprentices who lived in the nearby town of Cruahawn the tales of a
wicked but powerful witch, evil beyond measure, who was reputed to live in
the country by. Without
telling his wife the purpose of his journey he bade farewell and he
travelled ever in the neighbouring county to find the witch. At last in a
wood of braying wolves and with the leaves a-dance in the moonlight above,
she appeared to him.
She
was dressed in red scarlet gossamer which floated down from her slim body
and her outstretched arms. To either side of her were tiny women, of whom
each only had one eye. The floated above her, wearing the same loose red
swathes of silk crepe. The blacksmith was transfixed with fear.
The
beautiful witch began to speak. "I understand, blacksmith, why you
are here. Now listen hard: I shall agree to your request upon this one
condition: When you hear a clock strike the hour you will say aloud, ‘Oh
‘tis true, ‘tis true like my heart.!’ After every stroke. If you do
not do this your wife will surely turn to stone. Do you accept this
condition?"
"If
I agree to it, you will make my wife with child?"
"Surely."
"I agree."
"Then it is done."
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As
soon as the apparition had vanished the blacksmith became so fearful of
what he had seen he sped home as fast as his legs would carry him and
resolved to tell no one, not even his wife, of his meeting.
One
year later the blacksmith’s wife gave birth to a red-eyed daughter,
which they called Rapoza. She was a sickly child and often in bad spirits,
but apart from her humours her mother and father were happy.
Now
the blacksmith had not told his wife of his bargain with the witch in case
it should frighten her, but as a caution against the witch’s trickery he
had removed all the clocks from the house and buried them. To replace them
he erected a sundial in the yard. His wife found this new arrangement
irksome and very impractical.
Seven
years had gone by without event when one afternoon the wife heard the
knocking of a hand on the outside door. It was a tradesman whose horse had
lost a shoe on his way to Cruahawn. While the blacksmith led the horse
away to be shod, the wife eyed with glee the trader’s furniture on his
cart. Rapoza took a fancy to a large brown clock and also her mother too.
She wound it, set it and placed it on the mantel, and all three stood back
to admire it. At that moment the smith returned and when he saw the clock
he became sick with fear and insisted the trader remove it hastily and go. |